Why Running/Working Out is a Gateway Drug

It all starts with an innocent gym membership. Lifetime fitness is the goal, via your parent’s habits. You use your old tennis shoes, shorts, and t-shirts.

You start working out at the college gym and acquire some yogis from Victoria’s Secret and a couple of bright v-necks because that’s what everyone is wearing to workout.

For Christmas you ask for personal training sessions.

One day, you innocently wander in to LuLuLemon and try a pair of compression capris on. You have no intention of spending $90 on black stretchy pants, so you bargain with your husband that if you meet some extremely attainable goal you have earned the lulu’s.

A couple months later you try trail running with a friend and realize she has some sweet kicks that are super grippy on the rough ground, you pick up a pair with a discount code of backcountry.com.

Your coworker does spin 3 times a week at 5am, you try it, and wonder about buying clip in shoes.

A few months after that, you ride bikes downtown with all your roomies and you can’t keep up on your cruiser so you decide to sell it for a real urban bike. You obviously need some padded shorts (skort) to go with the new bike because no one like a sore hoo hoo. You get a cute under seat bag to stash your phone and money for rides. Then you need a squeazy water bottle because you can’t take time to screw the top off your nalgene while you’re at a stop light.

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You’re husband convinces you to try mountain biking. It’s terrible.  You decide to never ride a bike again. At least you’ve dodged the bullet of having to buy a women’s double suspension bike plus a full face helmet, knee, elbow, and wrist pads.

A trip to the outlet mall includes a stop at Nike and all of a sudden you’re hooked a sports bra that’s is $60, at least it holds the girls down. You buy 2 more.

You try yoga for the first time and buy a yoga mat.

You move and rejoin the gym. You resort to wearing old t-shirts because you’re not impressing anyone at the neighborhood gym you grew up going to.

An old friend loses a bunch of weight and gets super fit doing Insanity, you buy it off Craigslist from someone in a very sketchy deal. Shaun T. tells you that a heart rate monitor is necessary, you find one and geek out on the technology.20130603-224453.jpg

Your sister convinces you to try hot yoga, you buy groupons and utilize first time memberships at 4 different studios before committing to 10 day passes at a couple of them. You buy a hot yoga towel.

For your birthday you get a Brooks reflective yellow jacket for walking/running at dusk.

You join a new gym and try zumba. You resort to not wearing anything zumba branded, that seems too far.

For Christmas you get personal training sessions again and the trainer convinces you to buy some protein powder.

You walk into TJMaxx and forget what you’re there for, you see a neon pink workout tank and thoughtlessly throw it into the basket. You see someone wearing a witty tank on instagram from Etsy and buy one for your friend’s birthday and one for yourself.

In a day drinking blur you agree to run a half marathon. You buy a SPI Belt to hold your phone in a “non dorky” belt bag sort of way. You get fitted for new running shoes and drop $160 at the running store, but earn $15 in credit for your next purchase. On the way home you think about how cute the running skort is and how it would only be $30 with your store credit.

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Pulling into the garage you see the ski gear needs to put officially away for the summer and your husband’s new golf shoes. Guess there’s two people with a bit of a product addiction in this house.

Now….how can I get my hands on another pair of those lulus.

Be active, be well, be wonderful!

xx

-h

Craigslist Finds: Accent Chairs

A good accent chair is the key to pulling any room together.   Here are a couple recent finds off the ol’ Craigslist.

1000 Wonderful Things Craigslist FInds Vintage Cane ChairVintage Cane Back Chair – $45

The upholstery on this already looks pretty good as does the wood, so I would add a bright pillow instead of taking this on as a total project.

1000 Wonderful Things Craigslist Finds Blue Barrel ChairVintage Barrel Chair – $20

I love the blue on this one and same as before, it looks like it’s in pretty good condition.  I would tape off the fabric really well and paint the wood parts glossy white. (Use oil based paint to get super shine.  Just be sure to wear gloves and clothes you don’t care about.  Also, absolutely use a drop cloth.  Oil based paint will not come off anything.)

1000 Wonderful Things Craigslist FInds Mid Century ChairBurnt Orange Mid Century – $165

If you can make this color work, go for it.  I would try to negotiate down if you’re going to reupholster it though.

Happy CL-ing and have a great holiday weekend!

xx

-h

Engagement Present Ideas

If you are anything like us right now, it seems like 2013 is the year of the wedding!  We have lots of friends getting engaged, married, and we’re at the beginning stage of those starting to have babies.  Thought I would share my favorite engagement gift ideas.

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State Love Shadow Box by InvincibleInc – $45

I actually got Rory something similar to this for our first anniversary (paper).  Super cute if they are from two different states.  There are options on Etsy that can be customized with one state and the town name, the couple’s names, or the date they met.

1000WonderfulThings_BetterHalfWeddingsA Smart Bride is an Organized Bride Planning Notebook – $150

Great for a couple of friends to go in on together for the bride.

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Wedding Ring Holder by The Papery Nook – $13

This is a super easy DIY also, you can customize the frame, and background according to the bride’s tastes.

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Customized Ring Dish by Promise Pottery – $20

This ring dish is my favorite go-to engagement prezzie.  It takes a couple weeks for delivery, but it’s simple and sweet.  Plus, it’s a great price point.   I personally don’t take my ring off for fear of losing it, but this dish is great for other trinkets bedside like chapstick, earrings, or hairbands.

Guess my friends will know what they’re getting after saying YES!

xx

-h

P.S. When we moved into our house our fave housewarming presents were this slate cheeseboard and a new return address stamp that we LOVE.

Tuesday Shoesday: Reef Flats

Last week my friend sent me a link to these Reef flats.  She said she tried a pair on at REI and they were super comfortable, complete with arch support.  I was instantly smitten by all the patterns and options including ikat, espadrille, and shoe/sandals like the ones I had back in the day.  We couldn’t decide which ones we liked best.

1000 Wonderful Things ReefReef Tropic – $54

1000 Wonderful Things Reef CreamReef Southern Solstice – $74

S and I were just talking about how I wanted a pair of nude flats for summer and there are def options for a casual pair from Reef.

xx

-h

 

Color Run Weekend dilly dally

Yesterday, S and I ran The Color Run in Seattle. It’s a super fun run that is not timed (check out the video from last year’s race here). When you check in you get a swag bag with t-shirt, sweatband, fake tattoo and a packet full of colored powder. At the end, there is a DJ and every 10 minutes or so there is a big countdown to a color throw. Even though it isn’t timed, I tracked us on my phone and we completed the 5k in 29 minutes!

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Have you guys seen the app #imaunicorn? If not, download it right now. Basically you can add stickers to any photo. Stickers including unicorn horns. When we were in Vegas for C’s bachelorette party a couple months ago we were unicorning every photo. So when S and I saw the Runicorn we were like PICS!

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By the end of the race and the post-race party you are totally COVERED in a rainbow.

Post-run, we showered and hit the Ballard Farmer’s Market to grab flowers for our mom and headed down for dinner with the fam.

Have a wonderful week!

xx

-h