My Hump (Day)

Today was a good day, i think. Well... it had its ups and downs.

The UP's:

- making it to 6:30 vinyasa class! yay moi!!


(photo via Hip Tranquil Chick)

- wearing these sweet nude Colin Stuart wedges to work (elongated my legs like crazy!)



- dining on a delicious bento box and (ridiculously overpriced) green tea @ lunch


(this was not my bento box, but it was tasty/pretty, too!)

- admiring my pretty purple tulips



- carving out some quiet time for afternoon tea + biscuits



- late night trip 2 Tarjay :)



- getting a shoutout from my #1 girl crush Kimberly Wilson (i'm giddy!)




The DOWN's (no pics for these b/c duh, they are the downs!):

- VERY slow @ work, which makes the time drag by... not fun.

- the rapidly multiplying fruit/drain/whatever flies that have infested my apartment (yes it's that disgusting and yes i kind of want to die b/c i'm so grossed out). If my apartment doesn't fix this problem soon, i'm checking into a hotel.


- getting duped into paying $3.50 for the aforementioned cup of green tea, which consisted of hot water + tea bag

- gross flies

- not adhering to my 10 p.m. bedtime (as it's currently 11:38 p.m.)

- did i mention the nasty flies?? ok ok, i'll shut about them... for now


Clearly the UP'S outweight the DOWN'S so i can't complain! Soooo glad we are moving towards the weekend :-) Tomorrow we have a special Associates happy hour starting at 4:30, and then afterwards i think i'm going to hit up a delish tex-mex place downtown with some colleagues.

How was your HUMP DAY?

Going Veggie

One of my goals is to cook more, as doing so will help me eat healthier and save money. I recently made the decision to reduce/eliminate my meat consumption (chicken, beef, pork aka bacon... tear). As such, i've been cruising the web for some delicious vegetarian and seafood (i'm still eating it!) recipes to try. Voila a list of my future conquests:

1. Melissa Clark's Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp



2. Braised Winter Greens with Chickpeas, Onions, and Garlic from Orangette



3. Angel Hair with Asparagus, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pine Nuts from fresh365



4. Chickpea Salad with Lemon and Parmesan from Orangette



5. Spicy Two-Cheese Penne with Garlic Thyme Breadcrumbs from fresh365

P.S. i HATE plugging Starbucks, but i recently purchased this awesome cup from the Starbucks in my building and well... i love it!! It's double-walled so no sweating, the straw can't fall out, and i foresee using it a LOT as Sbux's iced passion fruit tea is one of my summertime faves...

Sleep Don't Weep

I apologize for my lack of blogging this week. I'd like to say that i've been swamped at work or finally decided to sit down and write that book or, ya know, found a cure for cancer, but... no. Mostly, i've just been sleeping. And oh - it's been heavenly.



I woke up at something like 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning completely drenched in sweat and sitting in the middle of sweat-drenched sheets (gross, right?). What was the deal? My entire body was burning up like mad. Note: I. hate. fevers. After ripping the sheets off my bed, changing my shirt, and downing some advil, i attempted (with little success) to go back to sleep. My alarm went off around 7, and i felt like i might die if i had to get out of bed and function. So i called in sick, shut off my phone, and went back to bed.

And i slept.

And slept.

And finally woke up around noon to get some water, more meds, and figure out what the heck was wrong with me. (Note: self-diagnosing is a BAD idea all around. Especially when the only thing on anyone's minds these days is SWINE FLU.) Fast forward to Thursday, another day off work, another day spent sleeping a lot. Honestly today i felt 85%, which was a vast improvement. I had an appetite, i could walk around without immediately wanting to go back to bed, and i even took Lola for a little walk. Whatever bug got me down was on its way out - hooray! But, um, my employers apparently don't want me to risk spreading any kind of SWINE FLU around the office, so I was told to "stay home and get some rest tomorrow." Well, i wasn't going to argue with that.

Soooo... i have tomorrow off! Which is why i'm up so late. (Can't sleep b/c i've been doing so much of it the past 48 hours). I'm hoping i'll feel 100% tomorrow as i have to drive to Dallas to see some friends and play with Momma for Mother's Day. Plans include: fun dinner, lots of girl talk, Saturday morning yoga and Northpark shopping with my dear friend A, afternoon tea @ the Ritz with darling L, and of course more eating and talking with my parents. I'll probably snooze in my mom's ultra luxe king-sized bed on Saturday night, attend Korean church service, eat more of my Mother's delicious food, and then head back to Austin late on Sunday. Since getting home late the night before a full week of work is never a good idea, i'm hoping to get my apartment ready for Monday morning tomorrow. I mean, what else am i going to do? Try not to sleep until noon - that's what!

I borrowed my friend Lauren's genius Mother's Day gift idea and filled up a jar of notes for my Mom. The notes include remember when's, things i love about her, and a lot of thank you for _____'s. It was really fun to make, and i think she'll love it. Plus, it was almost free! Which is good b/c her REAL present is about $500 bucks worth of Pottery Barn bedding. Uh huh. Ridic. But what're you gonna do? The woman birthed me. Sans drugs.

Anyway, here's my pretty jar for Mommy Park! Cute, huh?


As a final touch, i tied a cute ribbon around the jar. Can't wait to see her face when i give it to her!!

I hope y'all have a lovely Mother's Day and a relaxing weekend :-)

May Goals

In the spirit of Melita, i've finally gotten around to making some May Goals. I've never done goals by the month, but i really like it, as it's not as overwhelming as yearly goals. Much more doable, n'est ce pas? Anyway, in case you can't read the above, my May Goals are:

1. get my yoga back on!

2. rediscover artist dates (a Julia Cameron term)

3. make morning smoothies (made one this morning for the first time in months.... holllaaa!)

4. start BAR trip scrapbook

5. document life more with cameras (aka take more pictures, esp. with my new Holga which i have not yet received :-( )

6. drink more tea, less coffee (even bought some green tea this past weekend, not the biggest fan of green tea but working on it as its health benefits are vast)

7. PRAY

What are your goals for May?

Seeing Double

BLOG CRUSH ALERT!

Only this time, it's even better, because today's blog crush features not 1, not 2, not even 3... but 4 bloggers!!! OK i take that back - it's actually 2 blogs of 2 adorable married couples, but 4 sounded better than 2, no?

ANYWAY, i'm featuring these two blogs together b/c: (1) i majorly *heart* both of them, (2) the similarities between them are uncanny, and (3) 2 is better than 1.

With that being said, allow me to introduce...

Chris and Stacey Sargent of Love and Photographs; and




Josh and Naomi Davis of The Rockstar Diaries!



Now, although these are couples blogs, it's mostly the chicas doing the posting, and as adorable as these hubbies are, it's mostly the ladies with whom i've fallen in love. I first found Stacey's blog a few months ago when she won a contest over at Cupcakes and Cashmere. I instantly fell in love with her adorably perky outlook on life, her Anthro-inspired vintage style, and her killer bangs. (I think i even told her that her bangs reminded me of Erin's from The City on MTV.)



One of the things i love best about her? How much she loves her family. Stacey is married to Chris, and it's so obvious these two are head-over-heels in love with each other. And instead of being overly sappy and annoying, it's endearing and sweet. :-) Aren't they cute?



I stumbled upon Naomi's blog just last week (i think was so overwhelmed with work that i took a mandatory 20-minute blog break). Oh *SWOON* wow, is this girl stunning or what? Like Stacey, Naomi's got a vintage style to-die-for and yes, killer bangs!



Naomi is a Juliard graduate (where she was a dancer - how cool is that??), has an insatiable lust for all things Pinkberry and McDonald's (another thing i LOVE about her), and like Stacey, is completely smitten with her hubby.



A few more similarities... (and reasons you should love them, too!)

1. S & N both have great style. The best thing about it, though, is that they manage to come off as beautiful, sweet, sexy thangs without being half-naked. That's a rarity in this day and age, and i fully respect them for that.

2. They're both obsessed with Polaroids.

3. They're both obsessed with FOOD! (me too - can you tell??)

4. They both have doting, adorable hubbies who are fine examples of what hubbies should be.

5. They've both Mormon.

6. They both love taking pictures, and their blogs are full of eye candy.

7. They both have big families and sisters galore (my fave!).

8. They both make you want to be a better person.

9. They both have Etsy shops featuring some fabulous headbands (i would've bought some, but my freakishly large head won't have it).

10. They are both quality BFF material. :-)

And last, but not least... I commented on Stacey's blog after i discovered Naomi's and told her that i found this chick whose life seemed so oddly similar to hers that she had to check it out. Well, guess what?



They already know each other!! Ha, of course they do. They used to dance together way back in the day and have reconnected via the blogosphere. Adorable. Perfect. My two blog crushes are friends! Doesn't get any better than that. Aren't they gorgeous?

P.S. I can't say THANK YOU enough for all the wonderfully supportive, sweet, kind and compassionate comments on the last post. It's people like you that make it easier to be honest and open on my blog, and i'm so SO grateful. Don't you wish we could all have a big bloggerific party and build a giant fort and eat cupcakes and sip champagne??

Tears then a Fort

Quel weekend!

Saturday night i had a bit of a breakdown once i realized i couldn't swing the DC trip in June. A little background info: no doubt you've noticed me blogging about Kimberly Wilson a number of times. I could list all the reasons she's the most incredible woman i've ever met (aside from my dear mother), but for the interest of time (and your attention span), let's just say that she changed my life. Simple as that. These days i'm lucky enough to call her a friend and been fortunate enough to attend two of her retreats - a week in Costa Rica in September 2007 and a weekend in upstate New York in March 2008.

Lately i've noticed my priorities getting out of whack and some unhealthy habits rearing their ugly heads. Wanting to "retreat" in every sense of the word, i considered the Texas Yoga Retreat being held at an ashram right outside of Austin. How perfect, no? A weekend of educational modules, oodles of yoga, healthy vegetarian eating, and ample time for reflection. But once i crunched all the numbers, i realized that my weekend in Austin would cost me more than dashing off to D.C. for Kimberly's Summer Solstice Staycation. Given the choice of spending 2 1/2 days retreating in Texas vs. spending one day with Kimberly in D.C., well, I choose D.C. and Kimberly. So i got all excited, looking up flights, making plans to stay with a dear friend, and was even going to leave Friday after work so i wouldn't have to take any time off (which also meant i'd basically only have Sat/Sun to play). It wasn't until later that evening when i realized what i was trying to do. Spend $400+ for 2 days in DC? 7 hours with my #1 Girl Crush/mentor/inspiration? She's worth every penny, no doubt, but i'm in no position to be so fiscally irresponsible. Reality hit and ow, it hurt. Maybe a year ago i would've spent this money without a second thought, but now that i'm finally financially independent and trying my darnest to save and get out of debt and be an adult, well, i just couldn't justify it.

Naturally after making this very mature/adult-like decision, i broke down in breathless, hiccupy tears just as i used to when i was about 4 years old and didn't get my way. Lola, being the sweet SWEET doll that she is, immediately perked up at the sound of my sobs and insisted on perching next to me in bed, frantically licking my tears away and nuzzling my neck. I decided right then and there to stop feeling sorry for myself and instread, pulled out some comforters and sheets and built myself a fort (easy to do considering i have a canopy bed - making it tres suitable for draping). Inside the fort i brought: Lola, a cup of tea, yummy snacks, my hot pink macbook, my copy of Hip Tranquil Chick, journal, colored pens, and lots of pillows. And that's where i spent the next 15 hours.

And then i woke up Sunday morning (okay, maybe closer to afternoon) in a much better mood. Made myself a cup of iced coffee to celebrate. Spent my Sunday doing laundry, cleaning, catching up on episodes of Gossip Girl (SO good these days, n'est ce pas??), Whole Foods-ing, and cooking a chicken enchilada casserole (stay tuned for recipe and pics).



How was your weekend?

Death Cab: A Mini Review (before i pass out)

Music: Overall incredible, amazing, as good as i remember, love Ben Gibbard, love love him. (P.S. is it me, or has he gotten cuter??)

Atmosphere: Shit-tastic. I wanted to stab several people around me in the neck. Seriously. Screaming at the top of your lungs DURING the concert? Plus there was that one girl standing directly in front of C who refused to move even though she clearly had no seat. Oh and the 12-year old boys with greasy/shaggy hair and really, really bad acne. Gew.

Experience: Good and bad. I managed to zone out and enjoy the sweet, sweet sounds, but once reality crept in, i had to try *really* hard to keep my hands to myself (aka not strangle my fellow concertgoers.)

Wow - am i old or what?

And now, a pictorial journey!


My nails newly painted in Essie's Punchy Pink (you can't tell from the pic but they are NEON pink - looove!)


My Schiap toes and C's badass green boots.


Moi & C before people got super annoying ;-)


I will possess your heart, baby.


Bedtime! Gotta wake up for 9:30 SPIN. Xoxo darlings!!