Fabulous Run

We had an event last night for work, a Hall of Fame dinner, that required cocktail attire. No problems there, I have plenty of dresses. However, I am not the best at doing my own hair. I had been thinking about getting my hair cut for weeks, so I called yesterday morning and made an appointement for just after lunch. Being new here, I wasn't sure where to go. So I asked my coworkers where they go. Vanity on San Felipe. It's a nice looking, upscale sort of place. An Aveda salon. Obviously I don't know the stylists, so I made my appointment based solely on time. And I ended up with Shadya. She seemed nice and I explained to her exactly what I wanted - basically a long bob, showing her the pic below - telling her that I was just getting past the stage where my hair flips out at the bottom (I hate that). I know a flat iron will make my hair do what I want, but I'm not a stylist and I usually don't like the way it turns out. My appointment was for 1:15 and I got o...

So here's what. I love Andy Cohen on Bravo TV and watching his show Watch What Happens Live. And every night on his show he does Here's what three things I'm obsessed with tonight. So I think I'll borrow his idea and change it up a bit to a weekly piece. Here's what three things I'm obsessed with this week: I have been eying this shoe on nordstrom.com for ages. I need to just buy them already! Same goes for these holiday cards from Paper Source that are currently featured on goop.com . And since we are now in the holiday season, I think it's finally appropriate for me to be watching my holiday movies (that I watch all year anyway). White Christmas is one of my favorites!

As of this coming weekend I will have lived in Houston for three months. Originally from the Philly area, I have also lived in South Carolina, Colorado, Indianapolis and Stamford, Ct. Houston is different. So different from any of the other cities I have lived in. It's almost December and it was 80 degrees outside today. 80! It's coming up on Christmas time and they are decorating the palm trees at some of the shopping centers. And in the Galleria, the really big mall, they have an ice skating rink. I guess it's true what they say - everything is bigger in Texas. After three months I still only know a handful of people in town - my coworkers and a few others. It makes for sometimes boring weekends, but at least it's easy on my wallet. But it does have anything and everything I can think of. The shopping, the restaurants, the running trails and parks - there's always something for me to do. The thing is, I think the older you get, the harder it is to ...

I first saw a 20 wishes blog over on travel-babbles.com (it's one of my daily reads). It's a list of twenty fun things that you would like to see, do and experience over the next year. You can see her list here: http://www.travel-babbles.com/2012/11/20-wishes.html Some blogger friends of hers came up with the idea because ""Life is short. Life is not guaranteed." So I thought I'd give it a try. Right now, being new in town, all I have are the daily tasks - eat, work, sleep, run. Sometimes its even as fun as pay bills, do laundry, pick up takeout. I need to get out. Do stuff. Meet people. Get. A. Life. So here's my list of 20 things that I want to accomplish in 2013: 1. Get a good camera done 2. Take a solo vacation 3. Keep up with this blog 4. Join a running club 5. Run the Nike Women's half in DC didn't get in 5. Go to a concert 6. Finish decorating my apartment 7. Get another tattoo 8. Make at least four new recipes a month 9....

Holidays are big in my family. HUGE. Last year there were 30(ish) people at my Aunt's house where I had dinner...and that wasn't even all of us. This year, now that I'm in Houston, I wasn't able to go home. It was the first Thanksgiving I have ever missed. (I also ran my first-ever Turkey Trot. One word - blisters.) But lucky for me, my twin sister decided she would come out to visit for a few days. We decided on a menu early on - turkey breast, green beans, twice-baked potato, salad, stuffing - all of which I needed to get before she got here because she wasn't coming until late Weds night. I also added Sprinkles cupcakes, corn bread muffins, white wine and some cookies to the menu. I went a little overboard while shopping for my first turkey day and spent way more than I should have. And we definitely had way more food than was necessary for two people. But Crate and Barrel, Paper Source, Whole Foods and Central Market are my friends. And, truth be told...

I had told my boss after we ran a half marathon at the end of October that, hands down, I was not running the 25km race (that's 15.5 miles!) three weeks later. I took 10 days completely off from running. That was when I found out that another guy in the office had gotten me an entry for the 25k! So I started running again. But not very far. This was also around the time that I started the My Fit Foods 21 Day Challenge. It's a company here in Houston and you eat their food, and only their food, for 21 days. It's three meals and two snacks a day (about 1200 calories for me) and you can only drink water. So race morning comes and I was so nervous. I've never run that far, ever, and I wasn't sure I was going to that day. It was a loop course (three times a five mile loop) and I thought, well maybe I will just run two. I got out to the start line, the gun went off, and off we all went. The first loop was great. For the amount I had been running, I felt very comfort...

Hi new blog! As an avid reader of beautiful blogs with pretty things and inspiring ideas, I thought it was finally time to create my own. A place for my thoughts, photos and favorite things. I hope you enjoy and check back often.