Time Off - Plotting and Planning

I am so excited to be starting a mini-vacation. I am off work until the 30th! Hopefully I can get caught up on so many of my projects that I have let fall to the wayside. If not those, I'm sure I'll manage to come up with some more. I'm also thinking that I may feel more like myself when it comes to exercise because I won't be exhausted from working all day, then trying to force myself into a workout. I am hoping I'll be much more relaxed all the way around. I'm sure my husband is hoping for the same!

I'll have plenty of chores to catch up on, but will actually have time to get them done for a change. I am really hoping to get to visit with a dear friend of mine as well. We so rarely get time to catch up, and I miss her dearly.

I am also hoping to get the chance to try several new recipes. I have so many that I have been wanting to make and try but not the time. Speaking of recipes, after perusing an issue of Food and Wine, I think I have decided that the side dish for Christmas dinner with my husband will be Kale with Currants, Lemon and Olives. We'll make sauteed green beans, red bell pepper, and almonds for dinner with my dad (now moved to Sunday).

After work I fought the crowds in pursuit of red charger plates. Seriously - it's Christmas, no red plates? Um, apparently not. I did, however, find some red and gold place mats from Pier 1 as well as matching linen napkins and funky napkin rings. So, battling the traffic, rain, people, and skipping the gym paid off. Yes folks, I allowed an unscheduled, but very necessary rest day for myself (huge gasp, checking pulse, doing fine). I had planned on going to spin, but I am listening to my body for a change and am not going today. Hopefully I'll feel more rejuvenated tomorrow and will hit the noon class then work legs. I know I can't make a habit of missing workouts, but I think there is a difference in missing because I'm just feeling a little blah versus missing because it would do me no good to go.

Anyhoo, I hope to have a pretty table for Christmas Day and a lot more energy. Of course, I have it all planned out in my head how it'll look. Somehow that never pans out quite the same way. Hopefully it'll be even better than expected though! If nothing else, it'll be good food and even better company.

Let's Have Coffee

If you're a regular blog reader, I'm sure you've seen similar posts, scenarios if you will, about what we might chat about or what I might say if we sat down and had coffee together. I think these can be fun. Maybe fun isn't the right word choice exactly. But maybe it is? They're transparent, showing who the blogger really is ... if they're being honest of course. It's not often you truly get to sit down with the person behind the blog. Banana Nut Biscotti with Banana Glaze If we were to have coffee together ... I would first let you know that I'm not a super fan of coffee. I drink mine with hot cocoa and it's mostly out of habit rather than the need for caffeine. I could forgo it on the weekends entirely. Since we're talking coffee, I would also let you know that I've never ordered coffee from Starbucks and only once from a true coffee shop. I've only been into 2 Starbucks shops - the original in Seattle and one in town wher...

KIND Bar Review + Apple Raisin Wheat Berry Salad

Weights & Step As much as I wanted to run today, I knew there was no getting up early enough to do so. Monday's are hard enough without getting up at 5 am to run. Yawn ... So, today I did my weights at lunch then cardio after work. Weights were pull muscles (biceps and back). I did 3 sets of 8 reps of the following: Biceps : Alternating curls Cross-body curls Zottoman curls Back: Single-arm horizontal row Underhand DB rows Double arm rows It was a pretty good workout. I felt pretty strong today for some reason. Love it when that happens. My legs were pretty sore from yesterday's workout, so I opted for a lower intensity cardio: Cathe's Low Impact Circuit - Cardio Only Premix plus abs. It was a great workout and helped to loosen up my legs. KIND Review I have been very remiss with my review of the KIND bars that I won from Jill @ My So Called Health LIfe . I won the Nut Delight. I don't know why, but I expected it to be a tad softer...

Jewelry and Overcoming the Fear of Failure

I guess I can blame this little hobby on Pinterest - jewelry making. More specifically, metal-stamped jewelry. Wasting time, skimming through Pinterest or seeing people posting pics of metal-stamped bracelets or necklaces, I thought, "hey, surely I can do that." So I started pinning ideas, looking up how-to videos, ordering the tools. Boxes of tools, gadgets and goods started arriving on the daily. I know my husband was really excited. Yep, I was going to do this! I felt like the child set free in a toy store. I didn't even know where to begin exactly. But I had some ideas. Lots and lots of ideas. I'm an idea girl as you'll soon learn. I set out my tools of the trade, all neat and tidy on my kitchen table ready to begin. Luckily, my husband who sits back and watches stepped in with some ideas on ways I could practice the stamping without using the more expensive washers and bars I'd so eagerly purchased. Smart man. What I didn't take into considerati...

Where's the Beach?

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