Back in Action

Boating weather is knocking on my door, so you know what that means….the dreaded swimsuit. We are just weeks away from potential pool/boat weather which means I really need to kick my booty into gear, literally. I need to get back on track; I’ve been doing ok but haven’t really been keeping track of calories or working out….at all. I need to get my behind to the gym. The sheer fact that I’m paying for it should be enough motivation, but it’s not. I always have an excuse…I’m tired, I just worked 13 hours, I’m too hungry, I’d rather be laying in bed with my puppy. But no more! I think I’ve come up with a schedule that is not only reasonable but completely doable. Each week J and I each get 1 day off, a day to sleep in and a day to leave early, I need to use these days to my advantage. AND, on Friday (the day J and I work open to close together) he has agreed to let me take a little break part way through the day to squeeze in a workout. The gym is literally one block away, so I can easily skip out for an hour and get a quick run in. I also need to make sure my little one is getting some exercise and I have that 500 mile goal looming—so I figure at an absolute minimum I can run a mile and walk a mile with Bailey every day. On days I can’t get to the gym because of work, I’ll walk the pooch. There's 230 days (including today) left in 2010 and I have 367.95 miles to go, which means I need to do AT LEAST 11.15 miles a week to make my goal, so 1.59 a day! So, to keep me in check, here’s the schedule:

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
Gym 12-1	Trainer	Gym 10-11	Day Off	Gym 12-1
Walk Bailey after work	Walk Bailey	Walk Bailey after work	Walk Bailey after work	Walk Bailey after work

*Weekends will depend on my work schedule and social plans…come on, I need some fun in my life!

On a somewhat related note, one of our regular customers is a nutritionist who has been working hard to create a meal replacement bar. Recently, she passed her inspection and got all her licenses and the okay to make her bars, they’re called “Wellie’s.” The point of the bar to replace a meal, not supplement it like say a Clif Bar. She brought us a bunch of samples and they’re pretty good, definitely filling! I really hope they take off, so I thought I’d show you the side by side comparison between a Wellie Bar and a Clif Bar. Might as well use another chart…

	WELLIE (3.5oz)	CLIF (2.4oz)
Calories	360	250
Calories from Fat	140	60
Total Fat	25% (16g)	9% (6g)
Saturated Fat	2.5 g	1g
Trans Fat	0g	0g
Cholesterol	25mg	0mg
Sodium	180mg	230mg
Potassium	440mg	270mg
Total Carb.	40g	42g
Dietary Fiber	8g	5g
Sugars	18g	20g
Protein	21g	11g
Vitamin A	4%	30%
Vitamin C	0%	100%
Calcium	15%	25%
Iron	15%	25%
Vitamin E	15%	100%
Magnesium	30%	25%
Zinc	10%	20%
Selenium	15%	20%
Copper	20%	15%
Manganese	90%	35%

There’s definitely advantages to both, however, eating a Clif Bar as a complete meal is unlikely…that would never fill you up. The Wellie uses organic, humane and pasture based ingredients AND when you read the ingredients you actually know what they are, instead of just a bunch of scientifically produced taste profiles. I highly recommend these Wellie Bars and once I know where they’re being sold, I’ll let you know. Until then, check out the website: www.eatwellies.com

Perfectly Produce

Alright, I’m off! Wish me look and stay tuned for Weigh In Wednesdays!

Lights. Chandelier. Action.

During Project Coffee Buzz, I had the daunting task of picking out all of the interiors before construction even started. That's right folks, I had to pick out the floor, paint colors, fireplace, counter-tops, lighting, everything before this little shop even had walls! Although it wasn't easy, it was loads of fun. The part that I was really dreading was picking out  lighting. In my mind there was nothing less exciting than different styles of track lights, that is until I found these bad boys:

My beloved wall sconces! These little puppies were the inspiration for the rest of the design elements in Coffee Buzz. I was (a hem, am) so utterly in love with them that the day they were hung I started to cry! I found them in the very, very early stages in a Thomasville Lighting catalog, I knew I had to have them. My mom and I went to Southern Lights in Burnsville and to my surprise....THERE THEY WERE! My mom and I spent the better half of the afternoon in that store and I have been back three times since, who knew lighting could be so much fun?

So now everywhere I go I am checking out the lighting! I have become obsessed, especially with chandeliers! And now I spend a substantial amount of time shopping for chandeliers I can't afford for the house I don't have. But when I do get that dream house and do have the money to spend on pimping it out with lighting I'll be ready! Here are some of my favorites:

Chandelier Lighting Experts

 I LOVE this one for a bar area! They're little martini glasses! It is so cute and so original! It would look great over a bar-height table or a bar itself!

Chandelier Lighting Experts

This one would be perfect for over the pool table I will undoubtedly have (right J?) It's hard to see from this picture, but there are mini pool balls in the center! So cute! 

Chandelier Lighting Experts

This one I would LOVE for a bathroom! I love the pattern on the shades! You could do all kinds of cool paint colors and towels with this pattern and I love the metal swirls! 

ababy.com

Even though this is quite a ways off, I have always wanted to do a chandelier in a little baby girl's nursery! I am absolutely in love with this one! It would go beautifully with any color scheme and it's so elegant yet whimsical. I love, love, love it!

Chandelier Lighting Experts

While we're on the topic of kids, how amazing would this colorful chandelier be in a kid's playroom? I have this vision of a room full of primary colors with tons of crafts and toys and this amazingly massive chandelier right in the middle!

Chandelier Lighting Experts

I love this one for a master bedroom or an entry way, depending on it's size. It's classic, elegant and unstated. 

Chandelier Lighting Experts

I have no idea where I would put this but I absolutely love it! And, it's only $116! I'm tempted to buy it now just to have for the future! 

Chandelier Lighting Experts

This one I would use to bring out my inner Carrie Bradshaw and put it in a walk in closet! Don't those lights just scream Sex & the City? I love it! 

And now the Mack Daddy of them all........

Thomasville

 This bad boy is from the same Thomasville Midnight Walz collection as my precious sconces. When I saw this in person I tried to hug it. I am so in love with this chandelier! If I don't have this in my dining room someday I might just die. 

 

My Pops

Today is my dad’s Birthday! So, in honor of his day of birth I want to share a childhood story of mine.

When we were growing up my dad lived downtown Minneapolis in the Marquette Place apartment building. Every other weekend my brother and I would load up the trunk of my dad’s blue Grand AM (which we affectionately called “The Chitty” short for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) with our pillows, sleeping bags, stuffed animals and anything else we couldn’t live two days without and head to the city. The weekends always consisted of the same things…

*A swim in the Marquette Place pool. It was an indoor pool with a glass roof, which leaked in the winter so freezing cold snow water would leak into the pool making it nearly unbearable. We would also spend significant time in the hot tub where my brother would use the bubbles to make a beard and look like Santa Clause. We often played a pool game we called “it” where I would cover my face with my wet hair and chase my dad and brother around the pool…basically Marco Polo but without the hints, why I did this I have no idea. Our pool time always ended with a trip to the vending machines, where I had a notorious wet feet plus tile floor spill right on my ass.

*Our weekend meals ALWAYS included one Salisbury steak TV dinner, one pint (each) of Haagen-Dazs Cookie Dough ice cream, Jimmy Dean sausage sandwiches and a trip to either Eduardo’s Pizza across the street or the old LeAnn Chin in the Foshay Tower. Sunday morning we always ate at Georgia’s on the Green and our favorite waiter, Blaine always served us. Blaine loved us. He always made sure we have a paper tablecloth so Nate and I could color, and we’d always draw the same things—the Minneapolis skyline. Blaine even let Nate and I go back and check out the kitchen once.

*We always followed breakfast at Georgia’s with an intense game of Skyway Ball. Now, if you’ve ever been downtown to the Minneapolis Convention Center than you have seen the maroon skyway that crosses over Marquette Avenue and comes to a slant….that was center stage for Skyway Ball. We would grab our handy run-of-the-mill bouncy ball and with my dad at one end of the skyway and Nate and me at the other, we would play. The goal was to bounce the bouncy ball past the opposing defender and hit the door behind them. This may sound simple, but trust me, when you are dodging other skyway patrons, handicap buttons and my 6 foot 6 inch father….this game is anything but simple. We played this game every Sunday morning and had some epic battles, that is, until the mysterious voice came over the intercom and asked us sternly to no longer play our game.

*Now, this last story may seem silly but believe me it is very, very serious. Every weekend that we spent downtown Minneapolis, whether we were in the pool, walking the skyways, or grilling on the deck we were always being watched and followed by the one and only Colonial Blockhead. That’s right! Colonial Blockhead was always trying to find us and always trying to get us causing us to have to run and hide in the most interesting places. We still to this day believe that is was the Colonial’s mysterious voice that stopped us from playing our beloved Skyway Ball.

Now, I’ll leave you with my favorite pictures of me and my pops! Happy Birthday Dad! See you at Champps tonight, I’ll have an MGD waiting for you!

Bailey May

Last night, J showed me this heartbreaking story about a 2-year-old puggle named Bailey (talk about pulling at my heartstrings) who died after the groomer put her in a drying cage. Apparently, there are cages that dry dog’s fur after baths…news to me, use a towel! Short haired dogs, such as puggles, should never be put in one of these hell dryers and especially a short snouted dog who is notorious for breathing problems. The owners of Bailey started a blog and a website to raise awareness and put a stop to these unsafe drying cages! Take a look here.... http://badgroomer.com/Welcome.html (if you can handle it).

As J was telling me this story and my eyes were filling with tears, I laid there looking at my perfect little angel of a puppy sleeping in my lap and began to think of how I don’t even remember what life was like not having her. And thus, I felt the need to share the life story of my Bailey.

Two summers ago, J and I decided that we’d take a big leap and move in together that upcoming fall. Shortly before that I was overcome with an insane need to have a dog. I never liked dogs growing up, but during my senior year of high school my mom and brother decided they needed a dog to fill the void of me moving away to college, little did they know I’d make it two weeks in the dorms and be moving back home. Nonetheless, Koli, our black lab came into our lives and from that point on I was 100% completely a “dog person” and beyond. Not seeing Koli every day really created a hole in my daily life and I desperately needed to fill it, and so began the constant dog researching/begging/wishing/whining. This was a very pleasant time in J’s life, I’m sure of it. I knew I wanted a smaller breed of a dog, since whatever place we’d be moving in to probably wouldn’t be ideal for a large dog. So I’d research different breeds and look at pictures of puppies all day long. Then one day, I was having lunch by Lake Calhoun with my friend Christina and this absolutely adorable little puppy walked by! I remember so clearly, he was wearing a blue harness and his name was Miles, he was 12 weeks old and he was a puggle! What in the hell is a puggle? I had no idea but I didn’t care…this was going to be my dog. (Puggles are a mix of Pug and Beagle, if you didn’t know either.) From that point on, dog research turned into PUGGLE research. I bought the one, yes only one, puggle book in existence and read every possible puggle website there was. I even found two puggle breeders in Minnesota and one in Iowa. Amidst the puggle obsession, J and I found our townhouse and I was beyond thrilled that it was dog friendly! We were planning the big move for the end of November, perfect timing! We would move, get all situated, then in the early spring get our puppy so we could have her nice and potty trained by the time winter rolled around again! Now I just had to wait….

On November 10th 2008, J and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We were exchanging gifts and mine was a piece of paper that had a picture of an ipod touch on it. YES! An ipod! What an awesome gift! Then on the back it said “Just kidding! You can get your baby.” I was so confused, then J handed me this picture:

 The second one in from the right, with the one white paw! 

WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS? And then massive amounts of tears. J told me there was a litter from the breeder in Iowa that was born on October 9th and that tomorrow we would be driving 6 hours to the breeder’s to pick out our baby, and on December 5th we could bring her home. I stared at that picture the entire night. I said, “That one is mine. The one with one white paw.” The next day we hopped in the car and off we went, then we met Bailey, the one with one white paw.

 Bailey and I about 1 second after we decided she was the one!

 I was madly in love with her instantly!

The next month was psycho. We moved into our townhouse on November 29th, which gave me four full days to unpack, get organized and puppy proof our new place. It was a lot of work but the pure excitement and nervousness fueled me. Then on Friday, December 5th 2008 J and I drove through a snow storm to bring home our baby.

Our first family picture, at the breeder's, ready to taker her home

She was a complete angel and slept the whole LONG ride home

  Right after we brought her home, she was soooo tiny!

I cannot imagine my life without her. She is my child. She is so sweet and so smart and I love her more than anything. I cannot imagine what love for a human baby must feel like because I cannot imagine loving or caring for or worrying about anything more. She is my little angel and my little best friend. It is so amazing that no matter how stressed or cranky or sad I might be she can always cheer me up. She always knows when I need her and she is always there.

 Me and my baby

My favorite picture of all time. The loves my life. 

Home Sick

Normally, Tuesday is my day off to get everything non-Coffee Buzz related accomplished. Today, however, this Tuesday is about trying to keep water down. That’s right kids, I’m sick. I’m home and spending my day off confined to my bed--that is when I’m not running downstairs to toss my cookies, because of course our upstairs toilet is on the fritz. As if that’s not bad enough, all I want is to rent “It’s Complicated” off of OnDemand and of course Comcast hates me and for whatever reason OnDemand isn’t working. Thankfully, HBO is playing “Bride Wars.” I forgot how much I love this movie, I mean come on…Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, New York City and weddings? This movie was made for me!And thankfully I have a friendly little puggle who doesn't mind laying in bed and snuggling ALL DAY.

So on this gloomy, rainy, sick day I thought I’d share some stuff I am dying to have…

This Demy digital recipe reader! It's so cool! You can upload all your recipes from a website, it has measurement converters! It takes up as much counter space as a 5x7 picture and has a splash resistant exterior! I must have one!

I would really, really like to have a trip here...FIJI! I am dying to go and stay in one of the glass bottom bungalows! A trip here is definitely on my bucket list. 

I am in LOVE (no pun intended) with this necklace from Tiffany & Co. designed by Paloma Picasso! It's so cute and whimsical and definitely a classic every day jewelry piece. J--if you're reading, take note! :o)

I apologize for the uninspired post, but that is about as much effort as I can put into it right now. You know I'm sick when I can't even online shop and talk about all the material things I would love to have! Good news though, "Big" one of my all time favorite movies just came on after "Bride Wars," so I'm set for a couple more hours. Maybe by the time this movie is done I will either be able to 1. Get stupid Comcast to let me order "It's Complicated" or 2. Be able to eat something solid without it coming back up.

The only good thing about being sick today is that it's better than being sick on a day I have to be at the Buzz and Tuesday is without a doubt the best TV night, so if I can get through the day with my movies I will be all set this evening with my favorite shows...

I hope you are all having a wonderful Tuesday! And be sure to wash those hands so you don't end up sick like me!