Let me just say that the J Crew crew are merchandising geniuses. An innocent walk past their store on my way to a lunch meeting led to an unplanned (and unbudgeted) shopping spree.
I LOVE to find trendy clothing that is office-acceptable and over-40 acceptable.
I love my new J Crew jackets in particular. Updated but classic enough for "big girl" meetings and travel. And they don't "bind" my arms the way suit jackets sometimes do.
Cardigans are my favorite fall wardrobe item, but I am having second thoughts on the "Burnished Olive" cardigan. It was a beautiful gold in the store and I was just smitten. Now I'm not sure, it looks a bit dull.
My favorite purchase was (as usual) the least practical one -- the gold flower pin. Can't wait to put it on a black cardigan over a funky t-shirt.
Shape magazine has an online story up now about the hair styles at Fashion Week.
Ilove the braids that are popular right now, but this "mess it up" trend just confuses me. When my hair is a mess, I am embarrassed to go anywhere. Why would I put effort into messing it up?
If you're going out with messy hair, shouldn't the benefit be that you had to do absolutely nothing?
These classes look wonderful! Wouldn't you love to learn Illustrator and Party Planning in the same weekend? Salt Lake a bit far to go right now. Maybe you'll come to Kansas City, Nicole?
Apples are at their peak, and it will soon be time for my favorite: honeycrisps.
When the weather turns cold and you are craving that sweet, baked yummy {insert here: cookie, cinnamon roll, pie}, here's an alternative...
Get an apple slicer and cut your apple into wedges. It'll be one apple per serving so make as many as you like. Line a muffin pan with aluminum foil (this step is only necessary if you hate cleaning pans like I do) Place the sliced, cored apple wedges in one of the muffin "holes" Stir up a quick mix of chopped walnuts, oatmeal, a tiny bit of Agave sweetner and a tablespoon of water. Cinnamon, nutmeg and all apple pie spices are nice additions. Put a couple tablespoons of the mixture on top of each sliced apple. Bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes. Less for crisper apples, more for softer.
Serve. Ice cream will kill the healthy part of this recipe, but it's better than ice cream with pie. :)
The small-mindedness of Fashion Week usually turns me off (which doesn't sync with my shopping habits or Vogue-reading), but Melisa is always funny and does a great job sharing photos and real-woman insight.
I love the Divine Twine in this give-away post.
What does it mean when I want some of the same things that the youngster bloggers do? Am I young-at-heart? Or do I just need to grow up? :)
Absolutely no tummy aches, or other horrible stuff you sometimes hear about a "cleanse." As I mentioned though, it was more of a Juice Fast.
And kudos to Blue Print -- these juices were delicious.
Specifically here's what I drank on Wednesday:
9:30 am Green Juice (kale, romaine, spinach, lemon, parsley, cucumber, green apple)
11:30 am PAM - pineapple, apple, mint
1:45 pm Another green juice
around 4 Spicy Lemonade (lemon, cayenne pepper, agave sweetner)
around 6 CAM - Carrot, apple, beet. This was my favorite.
around 8:30 Cashew Milk. (filtered water, cashews, cinnamon, vanilla) This one was tough to get down. Tasted ok, but I'm not a milk drinker and, more significantly, I was FULL.
Amazing how the Blue Print one-day plan makes you stop craving stuff you shouldn't be eating. The next day, I thought FREEDOM! I can eat!
But I really didn't want to. Got a green tea. Around 10am ate a pear. Around 2:00 some canteloupe. And I wasn't hungry.
The only "con" of Blue Print is the price tag. By the time I paid shipping to fed ex the stuff to me, it was $90. The investment, however, is what saved me. It provided the ultimate accountability.
At 7:00 am on my way home from yoga, it was raining and I wanted to drive thru Starbucks SO BAD. But there were $90 worth of juice in the refridgerator. And if it'd been $30 spent on juice, I may have failed.
When Sam first recommended it, I blushed. "Can I wear that back to the office?" I'm not the kind of gal that can afford two+ hours in a salon chair, so I wasn't sure. And I'd only had one haircut from Sam.
But I've been getting compliments all week. And this morning (four days later) I got up, brushed my hair. Was done. Shiny and smooth. I love it.
Today I am doing a juice fast. I was actually nervous last night.
I'm doing the shortest (one day), wimpiest version offered by Blue Print.
I got up at 4:45 and made it to yoga at 5:45. After class it was raining and I wanted to drive thru Starbucks SO BAD. It was only 7am and I wanted to drink something warm and milky and CHEW something.
My first bottle was green juice, made from Kale, Romaine, Spinach, Parsley, Green Apple and Lemon. Was pretty good.
Just finished bottle two, called PAM - pineapple, apple, mint.
No horrific tummy aches or any of that. This cleanse is just juice and not one of those intense "cleansing" processes.
Fingers crossed, but I think I might make it through the day.
Today I'm doing a juice fast. I was actually nervous last night.
I woke up at 4:45 and made it to yoga at 5:45. I never eat breakfast on Wed until at least 10:00, and yet, at 7:00 am I was just dieing to chew something.
I'm doing one day of juices. The shortest, wimpiest program offered by Blue Print.
The first one was green. Kale, romaine, parsley, lemon, green apple, spinach. Was pretty good.
The second one was called PAM - pineapple, apple and mint. I don't do well with acid-y foods so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully no nasty canker sores.
Not hungry. And no tummy aches or other nonsense. Fingers crossed that I'll make it through the day.
On my way home from yoga it was raining and I wanted to drive thru Starbucks SO BAD. Other than that, I haven't had too tough a time avoiding real food.
I'm doing this as part of my health commitment in 2010. I've seen a Naturopath, gotten a series of acccupuncture, got a weekly massage for two months, have been walking 12 miles a week and exercising at least four days a week.
The crazy knots I get in my upper back muscles are sometimes excruciating. Many family members have fibromyalgia and I am doing every thing I can to prevent it!
(I was actually diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2002 and got a prescription for steriods. Threw them away. Denial isn't always a bad thing.)
This has been all around the web, and is still worth posting. I read it this morning to get me out of a slump and it worked.
Read the full text here of the Stanford Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
But I especially love the first of his three stories about his birth mother's request for him to have a college education...
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
I've always been intrigued by aerial yoga. I think a backbend would feel fabulous with this kind of assistance. Here's a class in NYC and Sumya offers something like it in Kansas City.
Shape magazine has an interesting story online "7 Wacky New Yoga Styles" showing this and other styles of yoga.
My new iPad has been wonderful for overcoming my biggest obstacle to getting in longer cardio workouts (that obstacle is my mind).
I hit the treadmill and watched The September Issue, listened to a few tunes, checked my work email and then listened to more (faster) tunes. 90 minutes later, I am sweaty, happy and feel like I conquered the world (or at least the treadmill).
My cousin's daughter Jessica is SO CLEVER! She started this Noodle Shop out of her apartment in Detroit. Jessica moved to Detroit just recently to help solve their food issues (apparently folks in mid-town don't have access to grocery stores and often rely on 7-11 for food). She's just the gal to do it.
A traveling woman's best friend: 3floz.com carries high end brands in TSA approved sizes. Carry it all on! BTW, I've heard Dr. Hauschka is wonderful. Anybody know?
I recently shared my excitement over the gorgeous wallpaper I ordered from Ballard Designs. This week I found a desk at Tar-jay.com and a couple other things for my soon-to-be-INSPIRING office.
But I'm thinking of scrapping the whole project and setting up an office like this.
My baby girl (who is now 2, and much to my dislike, less and less a baby) wanted to "jump" on Monday after I got home from work.
Her aunt Kelley gave her a mini-trampoline for her birthday. After my initial "oh no, she'll get hurt" I let her give it a try. She's been jumping ever since.
It was over 100 degrees Monday and I wasn't going outside to walk. I wanted to spend some quality time with baby girl, so I decided we would "jump" and "dance."
Today is Wed, 48 hours after our 45-minute jump and dance session. I am so sore I can't get up from my desk without groaning.
We played this "Fat Burning Dance Party" DVD from Crunch while we jumped and danced. My girl could actually do the salsa arms while keeping up with the mini-tramp.
Here's how my workout went: 1) Jump on mini-tramp while counting to 10 aloud with baby girl (hey, it's educational now too!) 2) Do lunges while baby girl jumped. Cut her off at 60 seconds. 3) Do another exercise (push-ups, squats, standing leg lifts) while baby girl said "almost" a dozen times. Then she jumps off and proclaims "mama turn" and I would repeat the whole sequence.
We also played Tracy Andersons first Dance Cardio dvd. When I first watched this a couple years ago, I was more than a little critical of her teaching skills. Or lack of them.
Not to mention the pathetic sexy looks she gives the camera (I have a feeling men buy this DVD? maybe not for exercise????) More on this later...
Anyway, I'm liking it more and more, and the coolest thing about this DVD is the MUSIC is awesome! And she doesn't cue at all in the final workout, so you can just jam to the tunes.
Fast forward 48 hours and my legs and butt are SORE. And baby girl exclaims "Danzzz Mama Danzzz!" everytime she sees me.
Ladies, you can be a working Mom and exercise too, you just have to be willing to look like a complete fool.
Thank you Greedy Girl, for making me want to spend $400 on purple boots.
Seriously, isn't the Eggplant gorgeous? I can't imagine over-the-knee boots at my office. Mostly because that would mean I was also wearing a really short skirt (no) or leggings and a tunic (another no at work).
I especially laughed at this thought: The message about exercise in the US: It’s hard, but we still do it. Or even, we do it because it’s hard.
This doesn’t fly in France, where the motto is more like: “If it’s hard (not to mention unflattering), why do it?” Why not just go for a drink instead?
My inbox had several emails about raising a kid sugar-free after the 2nd birthday party.
Planning the party was easy. My fun started when I found red pom pom fringe trim at MJ Trim (a wonderful store I discovered on a NYC trip; bought the trim online). Then I found the fabric (I know, this is backwards) at Joann's - a darling gingham in M's fave color, "Lellow."
On a different NYC trip, I literally stumbled into the FABULOUS Fishs Eddy and bought my new favorite dishes, these bowls in red.
Add balloons from Etsy (thanks Joanna) and flowers from Dad, and you have a beautiful table.
That was the fun part.
Stocking it with sugar-free goodies a la Amy Atlas was going to be more challenging.
Here's what I included: grapes rasberries, blueberries and blackberries as toppings for sugar-free ice cream pretzels in a glass jar with a red ribbon small boxes of raisins goldfish dried banana chips yogurt-covered pretzels popcorn boxes from Target with "Happy Birthday Mirabella" labels (and popcorn!)
The kids seemed to like it. So far my girl doesn't miss sugar because she doesn't know it exists. Her fave foods are watermelon, grapes and yogurt.
We do have to mix plain yogurt with fresh fruit, since most yogurts have an outrageous amount of sugar (read the labels!) and others have Splenda or sugar-alcohols. (NO!)
We've managed to pull off birthday parties, Halloween and Easter baskets without it. We'll see how long it lasts!
I'm inspired by Kimberly Wilson's (aka Hip Tranquil Chick) blog posts where she lists her monthly goals. She even has the guts to go review the month and admit what she has and hadn't accomplished. Talk about accountability.
So I'm giving it a try this month.
August Goals, Hopes and Dreams
Get a physical with new family physician.
Perhaps buy a new iPad.
Enjoy bachelorette time while hubby is in Colorado.
Reorganize my closet.
Get the new carpeting put down in the basement.
Paint the basement ceiling so the new carpeting can be put down.
Complete the outline for Mission-Centered Marketing book. Yep, I'm writing a book.
Complete work projects: re-write advocacy communications and webpages, promote annual meeting, develop a new concept for site for international medical students and outline a list of resources for a website for community FM preceptors. Whew.
Attend meetings for Family Medicine Working Party and CAFM. Just call them really smart docs.
Start studying for CMP and CAE exams in Dec/Jan.
Stay consistent with exercise. Walk 12 miles per week. Get in one yoga class per week.
Enroll Mirabella in fall classes for French, gymnastics and music.
What I find most interesting: nearly all exercise science study subjects are men. Very exciting that a researcher has noticed and is going to find out more.
This interesting study found that men who ingested estrogen had almost "entirely different metabolisms." Hmmm.
A lovely time at "Four Stars for Lauren" last night. Christopher Elbow and many of our fave restaurants were there.
And how about M, rockin' the orange dress? :)
Lauren's daughters are all grown up and GORGEOUS: Maren on far left and Brenna on far right. And the handsome guy is Dylan, son of the super-Phit chick Kelly S. (remember her 50K race -- yes, 31 miles).
But if I had that headboard and bed (and I do wish I did) I would NEVER allow a dog on the bed. I'm not anti-animals, but that is a pricey and gorgeous bed.
Melissa at "Lil Bee" does these fabulous posts of her baby girl imitating high fashion. I love this one on Color Blocking. And I may have to buy that gingham dress for M.
Updated my website today with my favorite new photo of M & I.
I find that more and more professionals are being transparent about their personal lives. Many are even successfully incorporating it into their branding.
I would even pack up the toddler, all the bags, the stroller, the car seat, the car seat attachment so I can roll her thru the airport, the diaper bag, the dvd player, the books, the food, the soy milk again and pack it through security twice if I could go back to the Ritz at Laguna Beach.
Mr Right scored major points and took me to see Sex and the City 2 on Friday night of the holiday weekend. After delicious mussels and chardonnay at the Bristol.
Like many Moms, my favorite scene was the Mom confessions of Charlotte and Miranda. Funny and refreshing to hear their honesty, and the shared fears and frustrations from two women with completely different lifestyles. Ebert would not give the movie a thumbs up. Not exactly an award-winning script, but as I expected (and enjoyed) it was a like a curling up with a talking magazine -- amazing fashion, fantasy vacation, friends and humor.
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