US meets UK

so far in the Smartphone vs Dog competition I’ve lost a total of 10 pounds and have kept it off.  I’ve gone back and forth with 3 pounds for over two weeks, and honestly this week of visitors and festivities has me hoping to just hold out and maintain till after the holiday.

I purchased a Groupon to a gym that has locations very close to my apartment and to my office – I even went for a run there this afternoon on my lunch break. I’ve been loving the gym since it’s a bit of a hybrid dance studio and gym. Which means it has all the typical gym things, but local dance companies use the space for rehearsals and part of that is teaching studio quality classes. So I dig.

Post Thanksgiving I’d like to lose about 5lbs before Christmas. Let’s see how I do, eh?

Are you losing, maintaining or gaining this holiday season?

This Thanksgiving there are so many things to be thankful for, including friends from England that are visiting. Visiting friends though, means less time to blog. So, as a thank you to you for sticking around I’ll be having a fun make up filled giveaway the week after Thanksgiving!

If you’ve been wanting to try a bold lipcolor such as hot pink(featured in jcrew) you’re in luck!

(via cup of jo)

I always have a difficult time with lip colors, because as much as I like to try different things… I don’t want to shell out $8-$20 on a lip color I may not even like.  So I was stoked to receive a brilliant Revlon bag at work, and scored one for you guys as well. I even surprised myself by loving hot pink! Stay tuned after the weekend to see what else I have in store for you!

Thanks to Nick for sending College Humor’s IKEA instructions my way.

too bad.. I’m not!

Today Eversave is having a deal on Paper Culture. I’d never seen Paper Culture before.. but I’m quickly falling in love with them! They have some of the BEST designs for holiday cards I’ve seen so far and they make an attempt at sustainable practices!

My faves?

Cheers!

Oh Joy!

more Cheer!

Naughty/Nice

Holiday Dots

and, I was psyched to spy this card out of their samples. I’ve looked at hundreds of cards and card companies. Most of their samples include heterosexual couples or children (and a few cards with two women on them) . But, paper culture has a card with two men on it, which I haven’t seen before. So, it might be a small thing, but I’m happy to see the card. Maybe they are a couple, or maybe Ethan and Christian are co-owners of a horse farm. Who knows? I’m going with couple.

So.. hooray holiday card deals!

ETA: I was going to make a comment about carbon neutrality and how you have to check out the projects…but then I saw that Paper Culture is Carbonfree partner with  Carbonfund.org. Since I used to work for CarbonFund.org – I can safely say that I fully support their goals.

Go check out Lisa (aka Mrs. Bunny) for a shot of loveliness straight out of Vegas.  The possibility of seeing my face isn’t  enough for you?  Mrs. Cowboy Boot and Mrs. Sprinkle are also in the street with me, so go over there already!

The lovely Mrs. Bunny…. via the auto setting on my camera.

What I wouldn’t give to be back in the desert right now!

I’ve been looking for a slipper chair to add to our living room. Currently, when we have extra people over we can fit three on the sofa, two on dining chairs and one on Nick’s desk chair. Plus, we have folding chairs we keep under our bed.

That said, adding a single slipper chair in the corner would do wonders for our seating. If we have one couple over then we don’t have to move chairs and I feel that this additional chair would complete our space. For an idea of the colors in our apartment, our walls are Benjamin Moore Bunny Gray, we have this Macy’s sofa in cream, our kitchen is a deep purple and we have the yellow letters below (from our shoot with Muriel Silva).

So… I’m not too sure what our color palette is.. gray,  yellow and… purple in the corner? I could lose the letters, or spray them another color, but I haven’t mustered up the energy for it yet.

My first chair pick was the Polly Chair in Aegean… which is now out of stock.

The remaining contenders?

Plain and cheap pewter:

Neutral but patterned rings chair:

(available for less as well!)

Polly Chair in Dove:

Or a more modern West Elm pick (which… I worry doesn’t match our sofa’s style).

The same issue I fear with this cute little chair.

Which would you pick?

So.. back to these holiday cards for the 893759678th time. Many couples send out cards from  the XXXX Family. Let’s call them the Smiths. So, there is George Smith, and Martha Smith and they are the Smiths. For the sake of fun, let’ s say they are in the Kelly Hildebrant situation.

But see, since I lost at Rock , Paper, Scissors; instead of being the MyLast HisLasts we are Christiana MyLast HisLast and Nick HisLast. I use my full double barreled last name at work, on facebook,  and in other public situations. I am always hopeful when I receive a letter it will be to my actual name… but it usually isn’t.

I wanted to do both names, because I like the idea of being “the Smiths” but with respect and honor to each of us and who we are – hence the MyLast HisLasts.  There are people in our lives who don’t care for us to be the MyLast HisLasts and don’t understand the reasoning.

So, we are the Christiana MyLast HisLast and Nick HisLast – but what does that make our holiday card? The MyLast HisLast HisLast Family? The MyLast-HisLast Family (though I don’t hyphenate)? The MyLast and HisLast Family? The MyLast HisLast family? Would the last one give the impression that he too is a MyLast HisLast, or would it look like we put both our names on the card?

The easy (evasive and slightly cowardly way) would be to forgo the whole XXXX Family sign off, and just say Nick and Christiana.

Anyone in a similar conundrum? What would you do?

This update is shocking. Despite two boozy weekends, and a few incidents with Halloween candy… I’m doing alright!

Total loss so far? 10.4 lbs!

I’ve also started the Whole 30 challenge (though let’s be honest here, pumpkin pie will be had on Thanksgiving). My friend Holly is super into paleo/primal eating and crossfit. I make no dinero, so I can’t join a crossfit gym – but I can try eating primal.