New Fave Finds

I usually don't really change up my beauty routine.  I'm a Clean and Clear girl when it comes to my face wash and I've been using it for as long as I can remember.  I've never been a big face routine type of person but as I have rounded into my mid-to-late 20's (eek!) I thought maybe I would try to outrun mother nature and look at an anti-wrinkle type lotion.  There are a million and one different products out there of course but figured that I would give this one a try.

I have really liked the few Philosophy products that I have tried in the past and this one had rave reviews...and let me say they are well worth it!  It's a super easy to use system which consists of 3 parts.  Retinoid solution that is used at night, a moisturizing lotion to be used morning and night and eye cream to be used morning and night.  

Within the first week I will say that I have 100% seen my skin become smoother and more moisturized.  I haven't been using the moisturizer day and night mainly because I tend to get a little oily but the eye cream for sure is an AM/PM for me.  I would highly suggest this to anyone!

My next new find that I love is Baby Lips by Maybelline! 

It's a clinical strength moisturizing lip glass in clear or colored options.  Perfect for the winter weather and come on how cute is the packaging?!

How fun are these?

How fun are these? Rene read about them on a little Disney blog on Friday of last week, so clearly I needed to buy them!

The Steelers one is clearly the cuter of the two!  I can't wait for them to arrive.

Yoga does wonders!

I know that people say all of the time that yoga is good for your body and mind.  While I love yoga I've never actually done weeks at a time consecutively...I can honestly say now as I come to the end of the first week of the APY60 program that I really am a believer!!

I feel so much more relaxed after an awful day, I feel like I am getting stronger, breathing deeper and letting things go much easier than normal.  That's not to say that I don't get stressed--yesterday was a crazy day!  But doing the yoga when I got home last night really helped me reflex and clear my mind.

Add to that I feel like drinking 100oz of water or at least 75oz a day my skin looks brighter and I just feel healthier.  I can't wait to start week number 2 of the program!  I've become a true believer in just one week of what daily yoga practice can do!  Maybe I should add becoming a certified yoga instructor to my bucket list...just kidding!

APY60 Day1

Last week my APY60 finally arrived. Today I started the program...60 day to a healthier me! 

Each day starts out with about 10 minutes of stretching and warming up your muscles to get you started for the day.  After which I had a veggies & eggs for breakfast.  The program doesn't give you a full meal plan but does give you some ideas and changes out and challenges you to eliminate things from your diet. 

I am really looking forward to how it works!

Here are the key things that I was to do today!

• Eat breakfast 1 hour after waking up
• No eating 3 hours before bed
• Daily morning stretches
• Clean out the pantry (get rid of the processed stuff! ) - we didn't have any of the "no" foods! Yay for us!
• Today's elimination challenge: Refined sugar - super easy since we don't eat it really anyhow.
• The goal is to drink 100 oz of water- I'm at at 30 right now at 2pm...I've got a bit more to drink before the end of the day.
• Blue Dots
• Daily Yoga

The program also came with some little blue stickers that you are to put around your home and office.  These are to remind you to breathe deep, and soon the goal is to associate blue with breathing deep, simple enough right?

And of course this evening (after Rene finishes watching the Pats game) I have a 60 minute power yoga video to work through. 

I also plan on keeping up at least 30 minutes of additional cardio each day.

Let's see how things shape up over the next 30 days!

I also got a new little gaget today - called the Fitbit!

 It's about the size of a flash drive and it keeps track of how far you walk, time of inactivity, stairs climbed, and the main reason I got it - it tracks your sleep!  I feel like 9 out of 10 days I wake up a million and one times so I plan to use this to figure out when I sleep the best (ie no TV 1 hour before bed) and when I sleep worst (ie after we've been drinking). 

Here's to a healthy 2012! And knocking one of my goals off the new years list --1 day down 59 to go!

In LOVE with One Day

Last week (Thursday to be exact) I started reading One Day by David Nicholls--If you haven't read this you need to buy it right away!  I kept seeing things about this book pop up on other people's blogs, or the advertisements that it was coming out in the theaters August 2011 (Featuring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess)...I wasn't sure exactly what the book was about but as I looked for something new to read (book #40 of the year) I figured why not!

It's amazing!  I am about 80% of the way through and it was so hard to put it down last night before bed.  A quick overview:

Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have just met in 1988 and after their one day together they can't stop thinking about each other and what could have been.  The build a friendship along the years that each wonders if it could be something more.   The book follows them over the next 20 years and gives you little peeks into their relationship each day on the same day of their first meeting July 15th.  The book takes place in England and follows the two through fights, laughs and much more....I can't spoil the ending just yet because I haven't made it there....but I would highly suggest picking this one up!

Grapefest

As I mentioned earlier today, this past Saturday Rene and I went to Grapevine, TX to attend Grapefest. It's a nice relaxing day of walking around and the largest people's choice wine tasting in Texas so that means lots of fun! It was nice to enjoy a little wine and relax away from work and school stuff to say the least. We're getting much better at this whole self photo thing aren't we?

My favorite part of Grapefest (aside from the wine of course) is that you get pick up lots of fun wine themed decorations for the house! We added this one in place of some wall decals by the sink that had started to peel.
My favorite item of the day though I must say is this little piece of art work....

Does this make us one of "those" dog people? I sure hope not-plus who doesn't love an Aussie with a glass of wine right? I mean it looked too much like Stitch to pass up!

Coming Soon

This weekend was a busy one! And that means lots of posts to catch you up to speed! I'll admit though that I haven't had a chance to get the details all posted up quite yet but here's a little sneak preview of what's to come!

A trip to Grapefest this past Saturday for lots of Texas Wines

Some cute new wine inspired decor for the apartment

Cooking up a nice easy white bean and ham stew to stash in the freezer.

A delish fall inspired meal from Food Network magazine

Tasty no-cook Oreo dessert - yum!

*can you tell that I was busy cooking after not being able to all week since Rene was out of town?*

Stay tuned!

Husband of the Year!

I've got to brag a bit! Rene is A-MAZE-ING!

He ventured out to Target for me while out of town for work and hit a gold mine of untouched Missoni x Target goodies compared to what we have in Dallas!! He pulled pretty much every medium (hopefully they aren't too big, I was afraid small would be too small) and sent me pictures that I got to say "yes" or "no" to I am super excited for Friday!!

What will I be trying on from the personal shopper?


Clockwise from top: Sweater and Dress , Ballet flats, black pumps, retro dress and polo style dress (not pictured)--Love it all!

Total damage...a little more than $300 (whoops) but come on Ebay re-sell value is way more than that! LOL - Like I told Rene I'll only keep the ones I like in person...he suggested I keep them all?! Clearly he doesn't help my spending habits!

Big time brownie points for this Rene!!

I must have it!

etsy!
I'll just let the picture speak for itself!

Pinterest Problem?

I must admit that as we get into the fall months I have started thinking about decorating the apartment for Halloween and Christmas-I know they are months away but I like to think about these things early to make sure I am ready!

Well due to the fact that I spend about 10 hours of my day in front of a computer at work, I read blogs and also of course as mentioned yesterday check out Pinterest to see what others are "pinning"....these are just some of the favorites that I have found...aren't they cute?

Date Night

I love date night! Especially when it means a delicious dinner and finding a super cute dress marked down from $195 to $30 on clearance!!

Got to love Nordstrom's Rack for amazing finds like this! The dress even had a cute little train off the back, super fun and I can hopefully wear it into the fall season too!

Hope that you are having a wonderful weekend too!

Budget Buy!

With e-readers being something that you see almost everyone carrying around it's no surprise that Borders is going out of business. They were a little later to the game when it came to bringing out their own e-reader and Amazon and Barnes and Nobel along with the iPad have the majority of the market share.

So as we say goodbye to Borders what you should really be saying is Good Buy!

The store around the corner from our apartment hasn't marked down the inventory that much yet (around 30% off) but it's still a pretty good price of $5-$8 for a book. So I picked up a few teenie bopper books as Rene likes to call them....

The Texas temperatures of 100 degrees and above make it hard for my Kindle to work outside and it occasionally freezes because of the extreme heat so I tend to keep at least one paperback book to read by the pool or at the gym. So these will keep me busy for a while at least. We’ll call it my guilty pleasure of CW/ABC Family books….

Volumes 1-4 of the Vampire Diaries (each book has 2 volumes) and the first 3 books in the series Pretty Little Liars. Yes the characters may be set in high school but doesn’t everyone need a little escape every now and then??

The retail for the books were between $9.99-$16.99 and I walked out with all 5 for a total of $40.00 so around $8 each and saved about $20….not too shabby. I’ll be keeping a close eye out to see how low the prices go and hopefully will be able to get a couple of really good deals before the store closes its doors for good.

I would highly suggest that you check it out, even if you do like your wireless e-reader it’s always nice to have a back up book in case your battery dies or you don’t want to take your reader along to a specific place. Be sure to double check that your local store is still open though before heading out, there’s nothing worse than thinking you’re going out to find a deal and arriving to a dark empty location.

Also it's a great time to buy gifts for those people in your family that love to read or enjoy travel or coffee table books without spending a ton of money. Not only that but by the time the holidays roll around you'll forget you got such a great deal and will feel like you have even more $$ to spend!

My 2 Newest Obsessions!

This week had been one heck of a week between school and work! However these 2 beauties landed in my email, and mailbox today and I will admit I have a handbag/shoe buying problem....and I absolutely L-O-V-E them both! I'll just have to decide which one is more of a "must have"!


Bond small east/west tote by Tory Burch $650



Brown & White Too Cool for School Bag Henri Bendel $328

every girl needs a back to school bag though right? Especially when pursuing her MBA :)

Yonana!

A few weeks ago Rene and I were at Target when I remembered the YoNana frozen fruit/fro-yo maker that I had mentioned previously!
I decided to check it out and make the purchase!


So a few nights ago we had our first YoNana -- bananas and strawberries!


It was delish!! and the reviews that I read were completely right! Same consistency as soft serve and way healthier!

My next purchase!

I think that I have found the coolest kitchen item ever!

While I would love to have a Vitamix blender--I can't really swallow th $500+ price tag. However a Yonanas Machine might just be the next best thing for tasty frozen treats!

This was featured in the FoodNetwork Magazine this month and then I did some extra research and decided I want one ASAP! Frozen fruit with nothing added instantly made into a soft serve like dessert? Sign me up! Target will start selling them next week!

Must Read!

If you haven't heard about the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins trilogy you need to immediately stop reading this blog and go buy a copy or download it on your iPad, Nook, Kindle ect.

I just finished the 3rd book tonight (while Rene watched the basketball game) and completely lost track of what was going on around me, and didn't even notice him yelling at the screen!

The books are absolutely amazing!! While I was hesitant at first when I started reading book 1, I couldn't wait to start books 2 (Catching Fire) and 3 (Mockingjay).

Needless to say I am very excited (and hopefully that they don't ruin it) when the books come to the big screen next year!

New Shoes to LOVE!

We were running errands yesterday and I started thinking that maybe picking up a few cardigans might be a good idea before the trip so we stopped at TJMaxx.....I never made it into the sweater section though, because I found a must buy pair of shoes instead!

I found these beauties in the shoe section and knew I had to have them!
House of Harlow 1960 Snake Trim Heel not only where they my size but over 50% off! It was a small splurge for the day! I love finding deals like this when I least expect to!

Feeling the Pain Today (in my legs)

Wow is all that I can say today...I think that this is the first time since I started sitting on my exercise/yoga ball that I am regretting it. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy the way that my back feels compared to sitting in the normal office chair and it does give me a lot more room in my cubical....but my legs are killing me! Killing me in a good way of course since that's what a legs exercise is supposed to do for you but nonetheless it's still a bit hard to stand up in heels from the ball over and over :( You may remember when I got really excited after finding out that our OnDemand also offered Exercise TV one of my fave finds, well I decided that after my little plan to try to run failed that I needed to start focusing on not only the cardio aspects of my work out but work some circuit training in there with some toning exercises too. Last night was a core and lower body work out and it was killer! A little under an hour worth of work in the comfort of my living room with a series called 10lb Slimdown. I was able to go online and pull up a fitness plan for 30 days. I am not necessarily looking for a 10 pound weight loss since it seems like I can't lose anything after I lost around 20 pounds after we moved from Virginia but I could for certain tone up. We'll have to see what happens. Today's workout includes the "total body sculpt" I have a feeling that tomorrow I am going to be much more sore all over....but as Rene says "No pain, no gain".

Caviar Taste

Allow me to introduce one of my newest blogs that I follow. The blogger is a college friend and sorority sister that now lives in NYC (recently became a Mrs) and loves fashion and shopping....but also loves a good deal!

INTRODUCING...

Caviar Taste

Be sure to follow her to keep up with the latest and greatest deals that she finds!

Money Savers!

I love finding a deal...sometimes too much and it leads me to purchase things well...just because the sale/discount is so good! (Case in point my Tory Burch Boots). But I know that everyone loves a good buy so I wanted to share a few of my faves in terms of "Private Sale Websites" Enjoy and Happy Spending!

HauteLook on sale today for example French Connection! Rue La La today's designers include Lilly Pulitzer Ideeli lots of good finds!