New favorite thing

Last year it was all about Carrera hexagon tiles, but now I am all about the herringbone...

How gorgeous are these tiles? We need to re-tile the hearth in front of our fireplace. Love it!

I would like to use a natural stone. I love the Carrera, but that is so 2010!

The Nero marble in the first image might be the future!

Anyone say kitchen remodel?

Love love love!!!

watching weight

So a few weeks ago I realized- seriously bro- these extra 15 pounds I've been trying to lose all summer are not budging. (This includes the 8 magical pounds I gained the second I turned 30. Um. Not cool.)* All the running and boot camp classes in the world were not making my butt smaller.

I was eating very healthy foods before, mostly organic, mostly vegetarian. Looking back, I realize the portions were just too big.

So I joined Weight Watchers. And I lost about 4-5 pounds in the last 2 weeks! Without exercise. Even going on a couple of business trips. Even with only a small choice of crap food in the airport a few of those days.


I even convinced John to join.


It's really working!

*edited because the period and parenthesis were in the wrong order - and driving my mother insane apparently.

Photo credit

Faux

A category of electronics (does a telephone count as an electronic?) I've been eyeballing for a while.
I'm calling it Faux Vintage...
Clockwise from top left...
- Vintage Rotary Phone, Anthropologie
- Diana Lomography Camera, Urban Outfitters
- Roberts Revival Radio, Anthropologie
(would you look at that thing? It's like the Mad Men dream-version of a radio)
- Crosley Turntable, Urban Outfitters
- Moonbeam Clock, L.L.Bean

Watching Bethenny

So I happened to catch a marathon of Bethenny Getting Married? a couple of weeks ago. What can I say? I'm totally obsessed with this show. She had a huge last-minute wedding and finished editing her latest book on the same day. Then she went on her honeymoon, and had a baby weeks later. Awesome. And I viewed it all in one sitting. Even better.

She wrote a couple of books on healthy eating. It turns out this stressed-out, fast talking, New York, A-type is a natural food chef and obsessed with yoga. So my speed!! I'm picking up this book this week.

photo credit: bethenny.com

Run, run, run

Kauai, August 2009

I turned 30 this year. So I decided I would lose 10 lbs and get in shape.

Instead I gained 7.

What? seriously?

I didn't change anything I ate or did or didn't do. In fact, even when I wasn't active in an exercise-y way, I considered myself pretty physical. I spent most of my winter running up and down ladders, painting, lifting, moving all my crap around the house. And more recently, I've spent a lot of time outside, mowing the lawn, weeding.

One recent Saturday I spent about 3 hours out in the backyard, hauling big pieces of flagstone from one side of the yard to the other, using only my own brute strength! If you could have seen me! You would have thought "that girl can lift some rocks!" I proceeded to build an entire step out of said rocks. I was landscaping!

I started jogging in the mornings! I ate nothing but fruit and vegetables some days! Amy's Vegetarian dinners! Never had dessert (ok, maybe a little something once a week?). Salad everyday! No pasta! No rice or carbs! I already don't eat meat and there's nothing else I can possibly cut out of my diet. I must have lost a few pounds by now?

No.

I recently stepped it up a bit and twice this week went to the track.

I've been clocking in at 11-12 minute miles. This may seem slow (it is). But it is a crazy miracle that:
1) I choose to spend time running
2) I do get some sort of enjoyment from it. If I can get into a groove, it feels like I can run forever. But more recently the humidity has made this hard to achieve.
3) (and this one goes out to anyone who might remember me from gym class) that I can run a mile in under 16 minutes. I was the girl who was walk-running with a stitch in my side the whole way. I was a tortured soul, who dreaded running "the mile" (required by school rules to be run twice a year). I learned in the last years of high school how to rearrange my entire year's class schedule to have to only run it once instead of twice. Yes, this was what I cared about back then.

So I do consider it a minor victory to run a couple of miles, even if no weight has been lost.

But seriously - can a girl lose a pound?

Hair and GOOOOAAAAALL

me

Just got a sweet haircut last night. I know it's still looking kind of large, but that is my hair after all, and I'm trying to embrace the crazy waves.

He actually cut off like 4-5 inches! And layered everything that was left. Then he gave me this awesome goo:
It's called Hair Resort by Kevin Murphy. And it makes your hair look, smell and feel like you just spent the day at the beach.

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So sorry for the lack of house updates. We have so much to do, but every weekend we're working the barbeque circuit, as my friend Kim always says. The warm weather will do that!

But maybe if I start keeping track of my goals it will start nudging me in the right direction...
My goals for the next 6 months:
1) Lots of painting/mini construction projects coming up: finish the bathroom door, finish touching-up trim in the guest room and painting the vestibule and stairwell area, to name a few.
2) Lighting: I just counted the number of electrical fixtures that need to be replaced: 4 ceiling fans, 5 wall sconces, 1 dining room chandelier, 1 hallway light, yikes! Hope to have at least a few of these done soon.
3) Backyard clean-up. Still haven't touched a huge portion of the yard.
4) Window treatments: Everything in place right now is a temporary fix. Got to get it going!
5) Furniture. I need a bed, dining room table/chairs and a coffee table in the worst way. Also have huge plans to neaten up the desk area in our office/sunroom.
6) Bathroom sink! Hello?? We're still brushing our teeth in the bathtub!

Pretty

As you might imagine I've been so bad at updating the blog due to long, long, long hours in the office these past couple of weeks.

But it hasnt been all that bad! My coworker bought these cute little plants at Kmart , of all places. She put them on the windowsill of our large picture window. (And to think this used to be a storage room!)

Aren't they the cutest?

Quatrefoil

Every once in a while I get stuck on something. For the past year I've been absolutely obsessed with this shape - introducing the lovely quatrefoil:

Sweet "tini" table from OomphOnline

Lovely floor lamp from Suzanne Kasler at Circa Lighting



Mirror from Decorati



"Basil" flush mount light from Circa Online.
This light was featured in Domino magazine, about 5 years ago. It was so stuck in my head that years and years later I nearly tore apart my apartment looking for the page I swore I had. Still haven't found it - but more importantly found the image online!


I could die for this Alexandra chair also from Suzanne Kasler (must be as obsessed as me!)


Spot the quatrefoil chair :)
I could look at this dreamy picture all day.