Sunday & Sunshine

I've been living the hermit life lately as I've been studying for my first psych test so I was thrilled to find out that the wonderful Jacquelyn had nominated me for the Sunshine Award! Being a newer blogger, this is the first award I've been given so I'm feeling very grateful and giddy.

The idea of the award is to nominate 10 bloggers whose posts brighten your day.

The Rules

1. Include the award logo in your post. [check]

2. Link to the person who nominated you - JustJacq! [check]

3. Answer 10 questions about yourself. [check]

4. Nominate 10 bloggers to receive the award. Link the nominees to your post and notify them! [check]

Questions for me:

1. What’s your current workout pump it up song?

I've got a playlist I've been listening to on repeat all summer, but at the top of that list is Roar by Katy Perry and Brave by Sara Bareilles.

  
What can I say? I love a good anthem!

2. Who is your favorite Big Bang Theory character?
Penny, no question. We're both Sagittarius (Sagittari? Sagittaruses?), we say a ton of ditzy things, and we love wine.  Pretty sure we would be best friends.

via

3. If you could have any super power what would it be?
Either flying or reading minds. I'm pretty nosy but I also hate, hate, hate sitting in traffic which it is pretty much impossible to avoid when you live in Houston.  Maybe I would rather be able to teleport then instead of fly?


4. Are you guilty of ever asking a/s/l?
I don't know even what that means. And I could look it up (like I do for a lot of hashtags), but I'm too tired.

5. Most of the clothes in your closet can be found from what three stores?
Target
LOFT
Banana Republic (usually the outlet)

6. Are you pro or anti vampires (answer carefully… this could affect our friendship)?
Anti, especially if we're talking the Twilight stuff.  I've never seen Date with a Vampire and B keeps telling me it's a classic. However, if I've fallen asleep every time it has been on TV then I suggest maybe it isn't that good.


7. If you could live anywhere in the world with everything you need/want there, where would you live?
Anywhere? On a big fancy Jay-Z-and-Beyonce-style yacht so I could travel where ever I'd like while still having the comforts of home. A very fancy, water-based home.

8. What’s your guilty pleasure food?
Anything fried. If it is served at a hole-in-the-wall bar, I love it.

9. I love this Q from Jenn so I’m stealing it… What are 3 positive words to describe you?
grateful, determined, hustler

10. How stoked are you that I nominated you?
I'm on cloud nine!

Questions for my nominees:

1. What is the first thing you do when you wake up?
2. What is the 3rd picture on your phone? Share it!
3. What TV show are you most excited about returning this fall?
4. What is something really popular that you secretly (or not so secretly) loathe?
5. Do you have any pets? Tell us about them! Bonus points for pictures.
6. If you could put together one outfit that represents you perfectly, what would it be?
7. What is your favorite adult beverage?
8. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
9. What are 3 positive words to describe you?
10. How excited are you to be nominated?

My nominees:

 Sam @ Sam ispa Loquitur

Lauren @ Method to my Madness

Nadine @ Back East Blonde

Jacqueline @ According to Jax

Christin @ The Southern Wife

Sarah @ Sweet Happenings

Meg @ Nerky

Roxy @ grrfeisty

Justine @ Sleepy Single Girl

Bri @ Back to Bliss

If you aren't already reading these blogs, what are you waiting for?? Some of them have a pretty big following already and some are a bit smaller but they are all great.  I tried to avoid bloggers who just got nominated for this award but sorry if I somehow missed it!

Hope everyone has a great start to the week. Wish me luck on my test tomorrow! And be sure to check in on how the half marathon training is going with (Half) Marathon Mondays.  Eeeek!

xoxo,

Cait

5 on Friday with a little something extra!

Happy Friday!

Before I get into 5 on Friday, I have some potentially exciting things going on right now and I would greatly appreciate it if you could send some good vibes my way! I can't share any of it just yet, but if it all works out then I will let you know.

Thank you and on to the good stuff!

[1]

B has been back at work for 2 weeks now and it is glorious! Gone are the summer days where I had to drag myself out of bed to go to school/study/clinical while he slept/hung out at the pool/drank beer.  Now we're both on school schedules and I am loving it!

[2]

I joined the Neon Fresh DietBet in the middle of August - lose 4% of your weight in 4 weeks.  The final weigh in is September 16th and I haven't lost anything.  Actually, that's no true.  I've lost the 4 lbs I gained during the first week. (How is that possible, you ask? I blame the period from hell.)  But the thing is, I've been working out and eating right.  Not 100% clean eating, but healthy. Soooo it looks like that's $30 down the toilet and I'm a little pissed. We'll see if I can lose the 5.6 lbs I need to by then but I'm not holding my breath.

[3]

Notre Dame plays Michigan this weekend and I'm praying we pull out a win.  There are a lot of teams out there that I don't like (USC, Ohio State, UT) but I think that Michigan tops the list.

Aside from winning, I hope it's a good game to watch. And it should be since we're ranked #14 and they're ranked #17.

GO IRISH!

[4]

Tomorrow marks the first "long run" of my half marathon training.  I say that in quotes because it is only 4 miles, but I've never run that far so I'm a little nervous. Be sure to check back for (Half) Marathon Monday to see how it all goes down. Or if you can't wait that long, follow me on instagram!

[5]

My cute, little pregnant friend somehow convinced me to do 2 Pure Barre classes back-to-back this morning.  My legs feel like jello.  Hopefully that is not the case while I'm running tomorrow!

Pretty sure I'll be feeling both tomorrow!

What are you all up to this weekend? Any workout plans? Watching any of the games?

xoxo,

Cait

PS - If you somehow haven't seen this yet, take a 37-second break from whatever you're doing.

 

You're welcome!

easy wedding DIY

Full disclosure: I started this post Tuesday night with the intent to post Wednesday. I had a great HUMP DAAAAAY intro. Then, I fell asleep early and spent the whole day in the psych ward for clinical.  #bloggerFAIL

Today I have an easy DIY to share that I'll be using for decor at our wedding reception, but you could easily replicate it for your house!  A few months ago, I purchased a lot of paper mache letters with some grand ideas. I've use some of them for various projects but knew that I really wanted large, free-standing initials. I envision these going on the cake table, which will probably also double as guest book and card drop off.

To recreate this project, you will need:

1) paper mache letters (JoAnn)
2) Elmer's Craft Bond Spray Adhesive
3) black ampersand (UPDATE: found similar one on Etsy)
4) black spray pain
5) foam brushes (Walmart)
6) Recollections Extra Fine Glitter in Champagne (Michael's)
7) Mod Podge (Walmart) 
8) aquarium gravel (Walmart)

Instructions: The letters are hollow and can easily tip over, so start by making little holes in the back of each one and putting in the aquarium gravel.  I just kept putting it in until they seemed sturdy enough that they wouldn't fall over with a small jiggle.  The black ampersand is already filled with some gravel so it doesn't need this step.

Make a hole with the scissors, then expand the hole using a flathead screwdriver. Make sure you do this on the BACK of the letters!

Cover the holes you made with tape (I used blue painter's tape) and spray paint your letters black. I chose black because it would match the ampersand and it would create a dark background to make the sparkles pop!

The "B" has two holes because I started in the middle and then realized that the lower sides of the letter had a support that prevented the gravel from getting to the base. Then I made a hole near the bottom to put gravel in the base.

Next, add the glitter to the front of the letters. I tried this a few ways and I'll spare you the failures.  The easiest way is to use the spray adhesive directly on the front face of the letters, then flip the letter over (holding onto the sides) and put it face down in a tray of glitter.  This prevents glitter from getting on the sides of the letters, if some spray glue got there.

I covered two cookie trays in wax paper to prevent the glue or glitter from sticking. This made for easy clean up! And I used two bottles of glitter so I could have a thick layer in the tray, but then was able to save most of it for future projects. The actual amount of glitter used on the letters was less than half of one container.

The final step was to coat the front of the letters in Mod Podge to prevent the glitter from getting everywhere. If you've ever used glitter, then you know that it seems to shake off and into everything around you. Using the Mod Podge should make it so that we don't have a trail of glitter around these babies!  You have to do this step once everything is dry, so you may wait a day or two.  While you're waiting, you can always fill in any sparce areas you notice as the glitter and glue begins to dry.

The 2 photos on the left are BEFORE adding the mod podge. You can see a few areas that look patchy so we filled those in.  On the right, you can see when we added the mod podge. It looks like thick, white glue so don't be alarmed! It will dry clear!

Once the mod podge dried, we had the final result:

This picture isn't as clear (it was taken with my mom's phone) but they looks great in person! Hopefully I can snap some nicer quality pics the next time I'm in Austin.

Have you done any DIY projects for your wedding or otherwise? How did they go? Would you recreate this project?

xoxo,

Cait

Don't forget to visit other posts in the link up!

bathroom update!

Hope everyone had a fantastic and restful Labor Day weekend!

We finally got the downstairs bathroom update [mostly] complete. I say mostly because there are still a few things I'd like to add but they aren't critical so I'll do them gradually. Meaning, when I can spend $5-10 here and there without feeling it.

 As a refresher, here are some before shots (and a video!) of the bathroom:

 

Yup, glossy forest green paint in a space that is at most 5' x 5' and has no windows.  Don't know what design idiot picked that out.

I was inspired to do the update by this pin.

From the pin you can read the entire post on 320 Sycamore, but their bathroom has shower and actual cabinets. Obviously our bathroom isn't that big - it's just a toilet and a pedestal sink. But I love the open shelving and it would solve some storage issues for us. I started the update when I got back from Austin during my week off between semesters and I was hoping to keep it under $100. Spoiler alert: I failed.

The primer went on pretty patchy at first....

... and I may have though about quitting.

Plus, my painting partner was no help. At all.

I learned the hard way that I should have taped everything up before even opening the primer. But getting paint on the light bulbs led to new, clear white light bulbs and that ended up being a small but great change!

After battling the primer and the plastic wrap/tape combo, it would be an understatement to say that I was excited to crack open the paint. The excitement soon waned though. Painting in a tiny bathroom with the door closed to keep the dogs out is a hot, sweaty, pain-in-the-ass job.

Paint is on the wall! Woohoo!

The dirty truth: home updates are messy! And I have to draw things out to understand them. Hence, the notebook sketches, tape markers, and 2 levels.

Hanging these damn shelves took no less than 9 holes and 2 studfinders. We STILL couldn't find those studs and ended up using wall anchors instead.

Shelf brackets are up! Only thing left to do is put the shelves on and...

...decorate!

I'll do another post later that breaks down the budget and gives links to what we used.  And despite finishing this a few hours ago, I've already rearranged those shelves at least 5 times. My money is on another 10 times before I get it right.

Things I hope to add/change about this space:

mirror

framed print on the easel

printed towels

glass canisters with bathroom supplies

flowers

hanging art (on wall across from toilet)

new towel holder

glass shelf between mirror and sink

updated lighting

Have you been inspired by Pinterest to do any updates?  How have they gone for you?

xoxo,

Cait 

(Half) Marathon Monday #1

If you missed the big announcement this weekend.... I'M RUNNING A HALF MARATHON!

Even if I look like this, I'll be crossing that damn finish line.  Best believe that! [via]

The lovely JustJacq had me guest post on Saturday so you can read about my decision to run here.  And as promised, I'm going to do a weekly update on my trainings called (half) Marathon Mondays!

I'm following the Hal Higdon Novice 1 training plan which expects the runner to have built up to 3 miles. I've been running that distance pretty regularly the last few weeks to build up my endurance but that doesn't mean that it's been easy.  This 100 degree weather is no joke.

My first training run was yesterday and I went 3 miles around Rice.

People - If you live in Houston, you need to run here! It's gorgeous and shaded and there are the right amount of people - not so many that the trail is crowded and you spend the whole time dodging strollers and dogs, but not so few that you feel like a murderer would jump out of the bushes and it could be a few days until someone found your body Law and Order: SVU style.  You feel me?

Anyways, on to the run.
I went before my Pure Barre class so I my legs were fresh and it was early enough to not be sweltering hot. I walked about 1/4 mile during the second mile and had to stop for water around the start of the 3rd mile. 
Time: 38:02
Average Pace:11:52

I ate 2 Cliff Shot Bloks before the run, then refueled with an Rehydrate Gel before Pure Barre and drank a Spark during Pure Barre.

Strawberry Shot Bloks, Lemon Rehydrate, Pink Lemonade Spark

Anyone else training for a big race? Any tips or suggestions?

xoxo,
Cait

PS - Come join me in the #SEPTx22 Challenge at Social Workout! Search for Cait R. and look for this pic:

Nov. 2011, birthday dinner. I thought that dress successfully camouflaged my weight gain. Yikes!