big intentions!

After Megan's comment on my past post, I wanted to write a piece about how even though the idea of feminine beauty changes throughout time, there always seems to be one ideal that the masses struggle to conform to. I wish this was a society where more people felt ok in being the best they can be, as opposed to trying to make themselves fit into a mold, whether that refers to the physical look, their personality or their idea of normal...

But I didn't get around to doing that...

I also had big plans of getting to the gym to work hard. That didn't happen.

Then there was the plan of getting all my laundry done - 0 for 3.

But what I did do, was attend the baby shower of a fabulous friend. I'm so excited that she & her husband will be welcoming their daughter Charlie into the world in a month, give or take a few days.They will be such loving and encouraging parents!

And I did get my Dad into gear and got his company's year-end into the accountant today. He's usually so on top of those kinds of things, but he's been moving slowly since recovering from heart surgery this past summer/autumn. I can see that it bugs him that he's not as motivated as he once was, and while I love seeing him enjoy and embrace life, he needs a kick in the pants to get moving every so often. And I'll be there to do that for him for many, many more years.

And now I will do some laundry while watching the Grammys, understanding that while I didn't get everything on my list taken care of, it does me no good to beat myself up. I will tackle one of my missed tasks now and do my best to get the rest done as I can. And in doing this, I will remember to try to balance myself between the following two sayings:

"He who fails to plan, plans to fail."

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” ~ Woody Allen

beauty is in the eye of the beholder

And so is art...

A colleague lent me a book to browse through today: The Worst Album Covers Ever, by Nick DiFonzo. A number of them had made the rounds in the office yesterday on a email list. However this gem was missing.

Now the kicker is, I think this is a great album cover. If I were to see this at Lyle's Place or The Turntable I'd grab it for display purposes. Not, "ha ha - that's so bad it's funny" but rather "I'm both a sucker for puns and pin-up style photos/art."

Does this mean I have bad taste? Heck no! Taste that can be different from a number of my friends at time? Yes. And that's just another reason I'm special!

ouch!

I think I may have been a little adventurous by having two training sessions, pumping through Hit to Fit and going aqua jogging in a 50 hour time period. My body is a little sore and more than a little stiff this afternoon. How come my apartment doesn't have a hot tub?? sheesh!

At aquajogging last night, our insturctor (John) told us that you burn more calories running in the water than on land, and the calorie burn for the aquajogging is 15 calories a minute. Not too shabby!

Ok - tomorrow's goal: get to the Urban Warrior Workout at Base Lounge afterwork with Gillian. (I heart my wandering yogi pass - so many new options!) Their website says "this high energy, calorie burning, body sculpting class will kick your ass! Connect to your inner Urban Warrior with this fun workout fusion of Capoeira, Kickboxing, Kempo Karate, Dance, meditation in motion and basic Yoga. Sweat the stress of your week away and leave feeling renewed and empowered!"


We'll see just how empowered I really feel after that! I reckon I'll be a little more on the fatigued side than the renewed side...

hump day?

Nothing makes you forget that it's hump day like a killer morning workout with awesome friends. You know, the kind that wake up early and come and pick you up to go to the industrial part of town to find a boxing club.

Central City Boxing - it's on the wandering yogi card AND they have a coupon it the current Monday Magazine offering a free week of Hit to Fit sessions.

If they were downtown and more conveniently located, I could see signing up and and attending multiple classes each week. As it stands, I'm still going to look into punch cards or drop-in rates.

Hit to Fit is a 1/2 hour serious cardio circuit. There are 13 stations. You spend 2 minutes at each station, where your exercises are broken into 30 second sets. Some stations have only 1 exercise, like skipping, so you'll skip for 2 minutes straight. Others have 2 exercises, so you do tricep dips for 30 seconds, kettleball swings for 30 seconds, and repeat = 2 minutes. In between each 2 minute session you get a 20 second break.

I don't think we were 10 minutes into it when I began to pour sweat. Drops were all around me, especially when looking at the floor like you would when doing lat pulls while in plank position. But there were two awesome ladies there (Sandra and Sandy) and one was following us around with cleaning solution and a cloth to take care of the icky drips. They were also really good at keeping us motivated and cheering us on - that's a HUGE bonus.

I loved the boxing element of the whole session too... the warm-up was boxing themed, we did some stuff in the ring, and finished off on the heavy bags.

I don't think I have to words to explain how good I felt afterward. I was tempted to suggest another go, but we had to get going so we (well, just me really) could get to work. Lex has the day off so was heading home to sleep, and Alyx is a smart cookie who is self employed, so who's to say she couldn't start late!

Check out Hit to Fit classes if you have the time and tell me what you think!

a little light reading

Sunday was a miserable, wet, windy day. Ideal for snuggling under a blanket and reading some chick lit.

If you've ready the original (Nanny Diaries) or seen the movie based on that book, then you can head out to the library or book store and pick up the sequel, Nanny Returns.

I was actually impressed by the tone - it seemed a bit more serious, and dealt with some darker issue around child neglect and spoilt rich kids. This isn't a review - you'll find plenty of those out there. But rather, a suggestion in case you are in need of some new reading materials.

If you enjoyed the Twilight series, or never miss an episode of Vampire Diaries, then the Vampire Academy series should be on your radar.

It's four books, however I've only read the first three books so can't tell you if the story wraps up, or there is room for future tales. It follows the students of St. Vladimir's Academy. Some are vampires with magical powers, some are Dhampir's (half human, half vampire, super strong bodyguards of vampires). Lissa is the last of her family, a royal princess. Rose, her guardian in training is set on protecting Lissa from danger, including that of the Strigoi - evil vampires.

Yea - most bookss plots seem kinda silly when you lay it out plainly. But I've been enjoying these ones and am just waiting for the fourth book to be available at the library for me.

Any new reads on your bedside table? I'm always looking for good book recommendations!

this dress makes me melt a little...

First off - I adore Anna Paquin. Born in Winnipeg, raised in New Zealand, she's got two great countries to fall back on (I biased could be biased). She started acting at a young age, won an Oscar when she was 11, side-stepped the child actor pitfalls and now stars in on of my favorite series, True Blood. Not to mention she's got the front tooth gap - that makes me feel a little bit of a kinship with her.

The Screen Actor Guild awards were on Saturday, and I think she was the best dressed lady there. The dress is Alexander McQueen and I'm head over heels for the vibrant print. I know some might think it's over the top, but I'm all for crazy colours and patterns, especially in a somewhat simply cut dress, on a young actress like this.

Head to toe shot - I also adore big hair, so bonus points have been awarded.

She sometimes gets the deer in the headlights look, but this picture captures her spirit

 

With her fiance Stephen Moyer, also her co-star, vampire Bill, on True Blood

 

pictures from Getty Images

So, is this a hit or a miss in your books? Who's looking the best at the plethora of award shows we're seeing these days?

oooh!

I stumbled across these treasures today while visiting a blog I enjoy (Debutante Clothing) and instantly fell in love. Bouquets created entirely out of vintage brooches!!

 

images: vintage brooch bouquets by fantasy floral designs, photography by alice hu

I think these are such a fabulous idea! I am tempted to start shopping for brooches just so I can get enough together for when I meet the man of my dreams and we decide to tie the knot! I bet it would end up being quite a heavy bouquet, but unique factor outweights the practicality factor for me. And it will last forever too, or until you decide to dismantle it to wear the jewels.

bad habits...

They're harder to shake than a crazed interweb stalker!

I'm staying on track this week with all my planned fitness activities. That included a lunch time swim at the pool today. I don't think I've tried swimming laps since I was a child and in swimming lessons. My mom would take my brother and I to Oak Bay Rec every weekend for years. We finally stopped when both of us reached the "maroon" level. If it was the same as what I'm finding online now, that would have been "for children who can swim 25 yards unassisted and have mastered the skills in the White group. They will learn: intermediate stroke mechanics of freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke, standing dive, basic dolphin kick, and butterfly arms."

(My lil' cousin Brooke at her swimming lesson, January 2009)

I'm sure I was 10 or younger when we stopped, so that means I've been out of the pool for longer than I was in it. I still swim - love being in the lake in the summer - but it's very different from doing laps, back and forth. I think it took me about half and hour to swim 600m, so that gives you an idea of my speed - slow.

But back to the bad habit... as soon as I sat back down at my desk, the thought went through my head "now you've earned a few pints and a pub food dinner at the Beagle tonight". Wha??? Did I seriously just tell myself that because I just finished an exercise that likely burned 350 calories, I could indulge and consume 1000 cal or more at the pub? Those don't cancel each other out! And the whole point of working out (for me at least) isn't to be able to reward myself with crap food - it's to get rid of the damage that crap food has done to me in the past.

But at least I caught myself before I believed it. While I am still planning on meeting my friends at the pub, it's not an excuse to eat a deep-fried dinner. I'm sure there will be some great salad or meat & veggie dinners on the menu that I can have. I'm not "owed" a reward for doing something healthy. Food like this actually appeals to me.

  It's not like it's a hardship to eat yummy fresh veggies and lean cuts of meat!

We do a lot of damage to ourselves in our minds... it's nice when we can realize what's happening, and work to change our patterns. It's the first step it making good habits that enforce a new life style.

am I waddling?

It sure feels like it. This week has had two tough sessions with my trainer, and my legs (and glutes, and arms, and shoulders - I can keep going...) are in that stage of, not "ow!" sore, but "fatigued" sore. I think this is making me walk a little funny, almost a waddle - ha!

We messed around with my routine this morning. Not too much, don't want to get confused when I go to do it alone this weekend. But enough to challenge me. I love working on the Bosu (acronym for "Both Sides Up") so Claire tries to incorporate it a couple time in the routine. This morning I got introduced to the dead bug.

This is not how I look when I attempt it. I mean, it certainly looks easy enough, but looks can be deceiving. I kept having to grab my knees and she had to keep reminding me to keep my legs at the 90 degree angle (kept letting them drop)... must work on my core! This will be one that I try at home again tonight, and every other night until I see her next.

What your favourite ab exercise?

something old, something new

Last fall I got bit by the vintage bug, and it's still got me in its grips. I'm not complaining, I welcomed this as a new adventure for me.

The first time the bug had tried to bite me was when I was travelling in Napier, NZ with my friend Meagen. Napier is a town on the North Island that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931. Napier rebuilt itself pretty much completely in the style of the time - art deco. They take a lot of pride in this, and focus a large portion of their tourism at this aspect. The city hosts an annual event where people dress the part and there are festivities like lawn bowling and vintage car shows. There were a number of vintage clothing stores around town and Meag & I spent a morning there cruising the racks. I was originally looking for something from the 1970s to wear to an upcoming wedding, but a 1930s dress caught my eye and it became one of my souvenirs. This was in January 2009 and nothing else vintage entered my clothes for a couple seasons.

The last fall I visited a local vintage fair and came home with a cute Gloria Swanson dress (of "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" fame) which was likely from a high-production run in the 1950s. It's a cute green and white gingham print complete with original matching belt.

After that, I had to take my new-found addiction online. Victoria's a great city, but it's small and there's not huge options here for vintage shopping. I turned to my trusty old friend, eBay.

One of the things I love most about shopping for vintage clothing on eBay is that the size labels can't be trusted as sizing has changed a lot over the last century. I know that I wear anywhere from 2 - 4 sizes larger in vintage than I do in today's sizing (and that doesn't really account for the difference in sizing between designers). The reason I love this, is that most reputable sellers will instead provide measurements; shoulders, bust, waist, hip and length are the common ones. The trick is to find a dress in your closet that fits you well and measure that (not your body). This limits the amount of clothes that don't fit once you've received them, which is great as there's no returning vintage wear bought online unless they described it wrong or hide a major flaw.

So here's a few piece's I've bought this last season, and the sellers I bought them from - they are eBay sellers with great reputations and I'd buy from them again without hesitation.

This robin-egg plaid vintage 1950’s plaid shirtwaist dress with adorable poin pleats accenting the bodice came to me from Forever Lovely Vintage. Love it - I feel like I should be greeting the Beav with milk and cookies when he's home from school.

 

This 1950s cocktail dress detailed with the a floral lace covering the decolage, a deep-v back with a velvet bow and a swishy skirt came from Rose's Vintage 'Vantage.

And lastly, this 1940s red, white and blue cutie (complete with original sales tag - NWT) from Mill Street Vintage - they have gorgeous pieces every week!

These are just a few of the pieces I now own, and I do try to wear them. I don't want high-volume wear as it will shorten the life span of the already long-lived pieces, but they deserve more than being tucked away in my closet.

Is anyone else a vintage lover? What decades or styles do you adore? Which ones do you want to wear, but just can't? (For me it's the 70s - they didn't love the curves in the 70s)

spring is in the air

Which is a reason I treated myself to this super fun bumble bee inspired enamel ring, which is made out of two vintage flowers!

I was on etsy yesterday and not even looking for myself (3 lucky friends have had their birthday presents purchased early!) when I came across Spiderella Studio's treasures. This is going to be a welcome everyday piece for my collection!

Anyone else have a cute etsy find to share?

keep moving, but add in an extra splash of fun

Tuesday & Thursdays are my hard core workout days with Claire, and then I try to get to the gym on Saturday on my own to do it again. This gives me three days in a week where I get a gym workout in.

I'm still sore after each of these visits, so it can be hard to get my butt moving on the in-between days. That's why I look for other activities that will get me moving and bump up my heart-rate but still seem like fun.

Wednesday nights I visit the trusty Y and attend an aqua-jogging class (also known as water running or H2O fitness). Seriously - this class is a blast and had the bonus of being an amazing workout. We put on special belts that give us some extra flotation in the water, and attach bungee cords at the back so we can tether ourselves to the lane markers in the pool. Then our super energized (but not peppy) instructor leads us through 45 minutes of activities, alternating every minute between running and other movements like cross-country skiing, jumping jacks, flutter kicks or dolphin kicks, to name just a few. My heart rate gets up in the first 5 minutes and stays there. It's a low-impact workout, so perfect if you are recovering from and injury, or your joints need a break.

I thought the class would be really old, but on my first visit last fall I was surprised to discover that it was a great mix of ages, from 20s - 70s. Mainly woman, though - I think the most men I've seen there have been 3 (aside from the instructor). And if anyone is feeling like they are embarrassed to be out in a swimsuit - note that they close to pool down so the only people who might be around are those lazing in the warm wading pool - usually parents with a young tot or two.

So this is where I'll be tonight - running my heart out underwater. Wearing one of these super nifty belts:

Up next - the activity that lets you accessorize with bangles and bells!

another fanciful resolution

I so enjoy reading other people's blogs. They are always full of humour and somehow they make the regular, mundane things in life entertaining. Can I do that? Well, I guess this will be my attempt!

There is a lot of change in my life right now. First off, things are somewhat up in the air at work. But as I've said, I read other people's blogs. I think one of the most important things I've learned by doing this, is that you should never talk about work on your blog if your blog is public and your true identity is available. So we'll put work away and focus on my personal changes.

I don't really like the idea of New Year's resolutions. I think people make them because they are supposed to, but they are so easy to loose track of. And why not - most people around you are letting their N.Y resolutions lapse, and you can always make them again next year! So this resolution isn't related to the new year, it's for an improved me: get healthy, and stay healthy!

So far, this means that I want to be doing something active everyday. Sounds like the way everyone lives their life, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. I've fallen in a rut and seem to have stayed there for a year or more. In December I decided to end that. For the first time ever, I received a Christmas bonus. I'd never gotten one before. I've been spoiled at work in the past, and received Christmas gifts of spa days or jewellry (much loved and appreciated) but never cash. As soon as I got it, ideas began running through my head: a new dress for new year's; a spa day; a cashmere sweater; new makeup brushes; more Christmas gifts for my family. But it only took a minute of fanciful thinking before knew where I needed to invest the $ - in me.

I was already a member of the downtown Y - just wasn't putting my pass to much use. I paid them a visit, and spoke with a super nice woman at the counter who pointed me in the direct of where I was going to spend the $ - a personal trainer. Now I'm not a stranger to working with a personal trainer. Many years ago after a nasty breakup I turned to one who got me in the best shape of my life - and boy did I feel great. But as can happen, life got in the way and I stopped seeing her. But having had that experience, I knew that a trainer is what I need right now. A trainer is great if you a) have trouble just getting yourself to the gym, and b) walk in and feel overwhelmed - where do I start, what should I do?

I met Claire the week after Christmas - we talked about what I wanted, why I was coming to see her, what kinds of exercised appeal... I felt very comfortable with her from the get go. We decided to work together for 4 sessions, so I could see how she works and if there was potential before making a larger commitment. And I'm happy to say - it's working out super well :) I find myself not even complaining when I get up at 5:45am on Tuesdays and Thursdays to meet Claire at the Y at 6:30. I get a great workout in before work, and still end up getting to work early.

A trainer isn't cheap - but sometimes you need to invest in yourself. If you have the ability to do so, you will thank yourself. One of the committments that I made to myself as part of a making goals with Claire was that I'd stop buying take out food after work (horrible habit I had). Just going that has saved me a lot of $. Now I cook my dinner every week night which often has the added bonus to having leftovers for lunch - boo yah! Saves even more $ there.

Ok - some not the most concise first blog entry, and maybe a bit tangent-y, but it will do. Up next - what I'm doing in my days off from the gym to make sure that I'm staying active