Blissful Musings

Lately I’ve been picking up flowers from the farmer’s market each week.  Something about fresh flowers in the house just adds a welcoming touch.

Here are a few recent bunches we’ve had…

What is your favorite type of flower to have in your home?

Sometimes we just need to play dress-up and have fun.  Fancy shoes and balloons just make it better.

Happy Friday!

Isn’t this little girl adorable? Check out the sweetest mother-daugher shoot by Amelia Lyon.

Any fun weekend plans?

Remember this post about feeling out of shape?

To be perfectly honest my progress has not gone that well.  It’s hard to make a lifestyle change or change habits.  We have a small gym for our apartment community, but I really don’t use it.  Other than doing cardio on the elliptical machine, I tend to wander aimlessly between the other machines.  There is a tempting lap pool, but my Southern California temperature gauge hasn’t gotten up the courage to swim outside in San Francisco fog and cold.  I would probably do better in an organized class, but really don’t want to pay the money for a gym membership.

The other day we were watching TV and came across the Pilates Power Gym on Home Shopping Network.  Long story short, after some thought and reasoning we bought the machine.  Some of our thoughts…

• We could work out at home anytime we wanted
• The machine has the potential to do so many types of exercises that work out the entire body and hopefully I won’t get bored with all the variety
• Somewhat compact for a 1 bedroom apartment where space is priceless
• It came with instructional videos to get me motivated and into a routine
• Obviously the gym near us wasn’t helping motivation, we needed to change it up
• Like the idea of pilates and it’s strength building without being overly strenuous
• Simply buying the machine was going to motivate me to work out

Our machine arrived this week and I’ve already used it several times.  It was easy to set up, quiet and I could get started right away.  I didn’t feel that I had to master everything before I was effective.  Now there are a few exercises that I need to improve on where the motion is more advanced, but overall I could jump right into a workout.  I’ll give a more in depth review once I’m able to use it with more regularity.

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I’m also trying to adjust diet.  Right now my main focus is smaller portions, more vegetables, less meat and resisting the temptation of things that are just straight up not good for me.  It’s hard though.  I need to be more disciplined.  Extra motivation come from recently watching Food Inc. I am trying to be conscious about food not only for diet, but also being aware of what is going in my body and what process that food went through to get on my plate.

So that is where I’m at with the whole getting in shape and losing some extra weight.  I’ll keep you updated on my progress with Pilates Power Gym and give a more detailed review once I am able to get used to it and pure excitement from a new machine has worn off.

Do you workout at home?  What is your routine?  What kind of diet have you found works best for you?

I’m going to the San Francisco Renegade Craft Fair this weekend and am SO looking forward to it.  I’ve heard about the craft fair many times but have never been able to make it myself.  Lots of amazing handmade pieces, crafty treasures and basically a live Etsy shop. Can’t wait.

Hoping to find:

Throw Pillows

Necklace to match a blue dress I bought recently

Prints/Posters

Hair Accessories

Candle Holders

Candles

Fun Home Decor Finds

Have you been to a Renegade Craft Fair?  What were your best finds?

When we were registering there was a great debate about the bedding.  Mark didn’t want anything that had floral or was too loud of a bedding as he prefers neutrals.  Oh and it couldn’t be over the top expensive.  I wanted some sort of pattern and color.  This seems like a simple request, but in reality there wasn’t much that fit our criteria at the stores we registered at.

Eventually we finally found a pattern and color we agreed upon. It was the Cole Stripes from Pottery Barn.

While we both like the look of this bedding and have been happy, the biggest downfall is that lovely DRY CLEAN ONLY silk.  Oops.  In our excitement of finally finding a bedding we agreed upon, we didn’t think through the whole cleaning thing.  Which is now a pretty penny.

Now as we contemplate getting some new machine washable bedding I am again debating do  you go pattern or plain?  Color or neutral?  And now I’m not so sure I am on one side of the debate.  I decide to randomly go through my google reader and look at all the various bedrooms I’ve saved and “starred.”  It’s kind of all over the place.

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Maybe the secret is neutral and plain with pops of color and pattern in the pillows?  Or the bedding is the focal point and everything compliments that.  But then what kind of pattern?  I just don’t know.  As you can tell I feel very indecisive on the whole topic.

So what do you say?  Do you prefer pattern or plain?  Bright colors or neutral?

Recently a good friend had her first baby.  A couple of us threw her a shower and I searched Etsy for that special gift.  I was so excited I thought I had to share with you all.

As her first “baby” was a French Bulldog I thought this was the perfect gift.  Fresh Blooms on Etsy makes all sorts of adorable things and I found a super cute onesie for my gift.  It was a must have.

And of course had to be practical and get the matching burp cloth.

We don’t have any kids yet and while we really want them one day, we are waiting a few years.  However, in the meantime I love all the fun baby showers, nursery ideas and little kid gadgets I see online.  Let’s just say I’ll have a few ideas when we reach that stage.

However, I got to put a few of those ideas to use for the shower we put together.  I’ll share some inspiration and the real results, including my first dessert bar in and upcoming post.

Do you have fun shopping for baby things?  Are you shopping for your own kiddos or friends’ babies?

Do you use StumbleUpon?  I had heard of it a long time ago, but recently started stumbling again.  Basically it’s a way to discover new blogs and websites that match your interests.  You can follow certain stumblers or based off your designated interests, you click “stumble” and you will be brought to a new potentially interesting blog post or website.  It’s a really fun way to discover new things and you can get sucked in.  Also once your blog or blog post has been “liked” be a Stumbler you will likely get lots of new traffic and visitors.

Want to see what I have stumbled upon lately?  Search for “beingmichelle” or you can go to my StumbleUpon page.

Are you a Stumbler?  Leave your name so I can follow you!

Want me to visit your page and add it to my StumbleUpon list?  Add a recent post from your blog, or one that is a favorite.  I’ll add you to my stumble upon list.

I’m a dog person through and through.  I love dogs and will stop anytime to say hello to a new dog (especially a lab).  While I love life in San Francisco, I can’t help but miss my dogs.   My parents have a yellow and black lab that I grew up with and still remain with them in San Diego.  They are the sweetest dogs and I often looked forward to our trips down to San Diego just so I could spend time with our dogs.

Meet Callie.  Kind of a ditsy blond, but the sweetest thing you could imagine.

Meet Tucker.  The epitome of a gentle giant.  He is the biggest baby in the world.

Whenever Mark asks what I want for a birthday, Christmas etc. I usually respond with, “A puppy.”  I’m half joking and half serious.  We came really close to getting a dog at the beginning of the year, but then reconsidered once we realized we could be moving.  Dog plans are on hold for now, but that doesn’t stop me from missing the presence of a dog in our house.

Now back to the topic of the post.  We get to pretend we are pet owners the next few days as we dog-sit for some friends!  Our friends are having their first baby and while they stay in the hospital we get to take care of the dog baby.

The next few days we will be taking care of this little character!  Meet Denali.

Pretty excited to have a dog around.  Maybe it will convince us to take the plunge and get a dog.  Or leave us satisfied with our house plants for now. 

Do you have a dog or another pet?

Now don’t get me wrong, I love accessories just as much as the next girl.  But, somehow I can never bring myself to buy them.  Necklaces, earrings, head bands, bracelets, purses and the like never make their way into my shopping bag.

Why?  I think I just get cheap and figure I don’t need to spend the extra dollars or I’d rather be able to buy a new shirt that would seem to be more usable.  See my shopping habits have drastically decreased in recent years due to budget and a combined income.  For some reason I feel more self-conscious about my spending and tend to skimp, feeling like I should use the money elsewhere or save for something we both can benefit from.  Not that I’m controlled by my wonderful husband, he usually encourages me to splurge on something when we are out together.  I’d just say fashion unfortunately hasn’t been as much of a focus as of late.  Something I always regret when getting ready to go out.

Anyways all of this has led to a lack of accessories.  And guess what?  I’m always wishing that I had more of something to add the final touch to an outfit when I’m going out.   I need to add a few fun things to my collection.

Here are some accessories that I’ve been admiring.  (Many are from the shops created by my favorite blogs)

Puffy Neon Owls Skinny Headband from Dead Flowers

Purple Frosting Headband from How Joyful

Carnival Night Plaid Fabric Pin from Silver Pencils

The BLUSH Flower and Ruffle Headband by Redheaded Actress

Dainty Initial Hearts from The Vintage Pearl

Seafoam Print Laptop Bag by Gussy

Are you an “accessories person?”  What are the must have accessories?

Do you ever hesitate to spend on yourself?

We are still adjusting to life and work in the city.  One of those adjustments is the dinner dilemma.   We get home much later than before and since we work together, we arrive home at the same time.  What’s that mean?  Well, previously I usually got home 20-30 minutes before Mark and could start dinner and be eating not too long after he got home.

Now?  We both get home at the same time.  Who cooks?  What to cook?  How long will it take?  These are the questions that plague us.  And all too often we end up going out or resorting to the frozen Trader Joe food that is supposed to be our emergency supply.  Oops.  Thus, the dinner dilemma.

It’s not that we don’t enjoy cooking.  We do.  It’s just hard during the week and after a long day of work.  I need a few more quick easy no think recipes.  Maybe we should each have our day or 2 days that dinner is your responsibility?  We do cooking date nights, but that is usually a more elaborate meal and not meant for during the week.  50/50 split with 1 day eating out?

One of my favorite food blogs is Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen blog.  There is even a category I found devoted to fast recipes.  I’m doing some research.  Her food photography will make you drool and bookmark the recipe every time.  This one is making me hungry…

Asian Pork Burgers with Kimchi

We need to figure it out.  It’s been on my mind.  But currently I get lazy when I get home and somehow never get to cooking a nice, quick and healthy dinner.

How do you dinner at night?  Do you prepare in advance?  Do you cook? Or does someone else?  Do you cook together?