The white balance on my phone is acting nutty, so no more selfies from the phone until I can figure it out.
Sorry for the poor quality photo.
I am bringing to you the colours of my teenage bedroom: Grey, White and Red. I wasn't allowed to have black because it was too dark and too depressing, so I went with grey. I love this colour combination.
The shoes are the best, no? They aren't the most comfortable because my feet stick to the inside and they're really tight. I have discovered that not all shoes are sized the same and sometimes I'm not a nine.
I'm going to try baby powder next, because I really love these shoes and I never wear them because they're so hard to wear.
They're a little CFM, but I like that in a shoe sometimes
DH and I, Not the best photo of the sweater, but it'll do
A long time ago I had a white cardigan that I had bought from Fred Meyer. It was really soft and cozy and I wore it all the time. When buttoned up, it had a v-neck so I used to wear it on its’ own.
For Mother’s day that year, my husband bought me a white cable-knit cardigan that he got from Costco. I was a little disappointed. Why did he buy me a white cardigan? I already had a white cardigan that I wore all the time!
Well, this new cardigan became my new favourite. It was a lot more classy than my old white cardigan. It was also more sturdy, so it went with more things and covered more seasons. I ended up getting rid of the old white cardigan because the new one was so much better.
Six years later, we were travelling a lot between central Utah and home because DH’s dad had passed away and we were taking care of the house that he left behind. During this time, we discovered that Huey got carsick. One time he was complaining that he was cold and DH wouldn’t turn on the heat in the car, so I gave him my beloved cardigan. Next thing we heard was an announcement that he was going to throw up, followed by the sounds of throwing up. All. Over. My. BELOVED. Cardigan.
The cardigan was put in a plastic bag to be cleaned after we got home. The bag had somehow ended up in the garage. It ended up covered in mold and was subsequently thrown directly into the garbage.
Interestingly enough, Huey quit getting carsick after this blessed event. He must have grown out of it.
Aye me! My sweater! I loved that sweater! IT. WENT. WITH. EVERYTHING!
I bought a cotton cardigan for work, but it was totally not right.
Five years later, I decided I was going to try to replace it and went to Land’s End and bought what I thought was its’ twin. Problem was that it was wool, so much too warm to go through all four seasons, and it was ivory and not white.
Six years later, earlier this spring in fact, I was walking to the checkout in Costco, and there were a pile of off-white cardigans and I scooped one up because it was perfect!
See, at the time of the original white cardigan, I was looking for a crocheted cardigan similar to one that Andie wore in “Pretty in Pink”. This new cardigan was the perfect combination of the original favourite and the one I was seeking.
Huey will is not allowed anywhere near this new cardigan!
Yesterday I weighed in at 159.6 and today was 159.4. I am completely wowed.
Here's what I've been doing:
Last week I vowed to stay away from fast food. Since last Friday, I have had no fast food.
I am on vacation, and therefore am not making my daily 7-11 run for 34 oz of soda.
Dewey has had me jumping with him on the trampoline.
I have not been sitting at a desk all day, but running up and down the stairs cleaning various areas, doing laundry and ironing.
My period is ending.
I have been eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner thus not bingeing on a burger in the middle of the day and then feeling so gross about myself that I don't eat anything for dinner. I have also been eating at home, so I'm sure that my sodium intake is at least half of what it normally is.
It's summer, it's so hot. I normally lose weight in the summer because it's so hot all I want to do is drink water and eat fruit and vegetables, which is what I've been doing the last few days.
Here is my Canadian tuxedo. I've also heard it called a Texas tuxedo, but I'm Canadian, so I'm going with that. A Canadian tuxedo is denim with denim. Normally, I abhor such behaviour, but I thought I could get away with it by wearing different types of denim - like the above white jeans with a jean jacket. Not so, according to canadiantuxedo.com, but whatever. You will not catch me DEAD wearing blue jeans with a blue jean jacket or denim shirt.
Stone Necklace
This necklace was bought for me by my DH and my son Huey at the Pioneer Day weekend in Emery, UT. I very much like it, it's kind of rock star, yet I will wear it with a blouse in place of pearls. It's another one of my favourite accessories.
I have had my hair uber short three times in my life:
When I was in Grade Eight I had a tail. Over the summer, I decided to have the back shaved in steps and keep the tail. The front was long and bleached out from the sun, and my mum had let me use some of the leftover bleach from her “Frost ‘n’ Tips” to bleach out my tail.
The summer going into Grade Nine was the first time I had super short hair. I remember my mum telling me “your dad’s gonna hate it”. She was right. He wanted me to “look more feminine”. I didn’t care. It was the first time my hair ever looked edgy and cool.
In 1995, after my mission, but before I got married, I had a horrible self-inflicted experience with hair dye. I may or may not have blogged about it recently. A haircut actually fixed the dye issue, but once the re-growth had become long enough, I decided on a little-boy haircut and had it all cut off. What freedom! It took me less than 10 minutes to get ready for work in the morning (from jammies to shutting the front door). I loved it.
I met my husband via email shortly after cutting my hair all off. Because we met through writing, when we were planning on meeting face-to-face, we had to describe ourselves to each other. This is what I said in regards to my hair: “I have short hair, like, REALLY short. Like a missionary hair-cut – the Elder kind.” *the boy missionaries that have really short conservative haircuts are called Elder Lastname or referred to as “the Elders”. The girl missionaries are Sister Lastname, or “the Sisters”.
Now just recently, I have cut my hair all off. The reasons being 1) too look more edgy and cool, and 2) to cut off my old colour.
Each time I have had short hair I have love, love, loved it, but I always end up growing it back out. The fun of growing your hair out from a short cut is that you get to have a new and different hairstyle every two months. While I am looking forward to that adventure, I am actually thinking that I might keep it short short for a while as everyone in my family HATES it.
Still the same. No change. Not surprising as I have continued to do nothing to encourage my weight loss with the exception of ridding myself of my hair.
Having seen a teeny tiny result in giving up fast food for Lent, I have vowed to give up fast food for the summer. Hopefully with having it be a longer period of time, I will see more results.
I still haven’t walked the treadmill while I watch TV. “Dancing with the Stars” is done; “The Good Wife” and “The New Girl” is on hiatus; I have to pay attention during “Mad Men”, so I can’t walk the treadmill with that show on; and “Pretty Little Liars” and “Parenthood” haven’t started yet. Can I moan “there’s nothing goooooood onnnnnnn!” Please?
I could walk the dog, you know. He would be SO thankful.
I am going to be on vacation next week and I’m not going anywhere. (sigh, I had planned on a trip to Vancouver, but I’m not going – unless I decide to run away tonight, it's still up in the air)
I am going to use the time off to regroup, clean the house, read something, watch a movie, walk the dog, focus on my goals, and maybe paint a bathroom or two.
We’ll see, the last two times I was on vacation, I had all these delusions of grandeur and by the time my vacation was over I felt like all I had done was dishes and laundry, and that’s all I get done on a regular day. I also had the added lovely bonus of breaking my husband’s hand on my last vacation. Good, good times.
Here's a song to listen to while reading this post:
As you are all aware, I have a super excellent awesome fantastic hairdresser. We've been together for so long (ten years) and she's a good friend.
I had been growing my hair long so I could have beachy hair for our Kauai trip. I know my hair and I know its limitations. I also know how well it behaves in humidity. I am also a surfer girl at heart. My hair has natural wave and when long and layered it makes the perfect beach hair. I didn't even take my blow dryer with me on the trip because I knew it would be futile to try and tame my hair in the ocean air. I love my hair like that, but, alas, I don't live anywhere near the ocean, so it takes lots of time and arm strength to maintain my hair.
After we came home, I was desperate to cut my hair off. It was so heavy, such a chore to style, and was sapping my energy.
Even though she totally gets me, when I make a drastic change, I always bring in a picture.
The top right photo is me hugging a coconut tree in Kauai
In January, I had it cut into a shag and kept the copper colour. In April, I had it cut even shorter and coloured darker and put in cherry highlights.
I have been wanting to cut it all off for a long long time. I was waiting to lose weight because I was hating my jowls and feeling my face was too big to have super duper short hair. I didn't want my big face all exposed like that.
I realized that my face was puffy because of a combination of my fast food (molto sodium), and Dr. Pepper addictions causing me to retain water and my hypo thyroid.
I gave up fast food for Lent, so went six weeks without fast food, cut down on Dr. Pepper, and got my thyroid under control. Since Easter, I have picked up fast food, but have cut back to once or twice a week instead of every day. You can see the change in my face from the top left photo taken in January, to the bottom left photo taken on May 1st.
Huey asked me if I could stop dying my hair because he wanted to see what my natural colour looked like. I vowed to go without colouring for the summer.
With hoops, without glasses
Without hoops, with glasses
Since I already wanted to chop my hair amundo, and I really really hate long regrowth, I thought I would cut it all off.
The last time I had my hair this short was sixteen years ago when I was dating my husband.
The time before that, I was in Grade Nine and had steps shaved in the back and a tail.
I love it. It takes me less than five minutes to do, it's not hot, and it's super cute. I'm not afraid of having my face all exposed, although I am in desperate need of a wax because you really can see my face more.
I'm still playing with how to display my pictures, can you tell?
Disclaimer:
1)I live in Salt Lake CityUT, so no fabulous night clubs after work.
2)I’m a mother, so no fabulous night clubs after work.
3)Sometimes we go out for pizza in the middle of the week so I have a more casual approach to the night after day look.
4)Also, I don’t go straight from work, I am able to go home and change.
A grey pencil skirt and t-shirt turn into black jeans, boots and short sleeved zip up hoodie sweater.
The plumeria (my favourite Hawaiian flower) necklace was purchased in Maui in 2007 for my 10th wedding anniversary. It is one of my favourite necklaces. I think it cost $10.00.
The grey nailpolish is Essie "Chinchilla" and is one of my new favourite colours. It's a great spring neutral.
I decided to add a pop of colour and wear my Yellow patent and steel stilettos and match it with a scarf from the Gap.
Our church has a women’s organization called Relief Society. Once a month we get together in the evening and do fun stuff.
This month, we were to bring one of our favourite things to share with someone. It had to be under $5.00. At first I was stumped as to what to bring to the point that I was just going to skip it and stay home.
My brain being the energizer bunny that it is would not let it rest. At first I couldn’t think of any of my favourite things that I would be willing to share with someone else. I am a first born child, I’m not so good with sharing.
Then I thought I would just bring some brownies or chocolate chip cookies, two of my favourite treats, but I thought that was kind of lame and unimaginative. One of my favourite things about myself is that I am imaginative and unique thinking.
I couldn’t think of anything that was my favourite that I would be willing to share that was $5.00 or less until –bing- I thought of nail polish. People-pleaser that I am, I worried about what colour to choose. Then I realized that one of my favourite things about having painted nails is the top coat. The top coat MAKES the manicure. It can make a .99 cent bottle of nail polish look like a twenty dollar manicure.
So I took a bottle of top coat.
I decided to follow the favourite things theme and wore some of my favourite things. These are my favourite jeans of the moment as I can’t fit into my favourite jeans. The shirt is my favourite spring/summer shirt. It’s cute, it goes with many things; I can wear it to work or with shorts or to church and it has red flowers. Red is my favourite colour. The hoops are my favourites from the past. The necklace is Turquoise, which is my birthstone. The ring is my Nana's that she gave to me.
