Beach Walks, New Shirts + Workouts of the Week

Howwww the heck has your weekend been so far? I hope you've all had plenty of relaxation and productivity, or whatever blend of that makes you feel like your weekend has been successful. I've been crossing some things off my list (if you follow along regularly, you might know that I try to make a to-do list every weekend), taking walks, and buying the occasional "thing" for myself. Because.

My weekend kicked off well with the Friday afternoon news (via mail) that I won't owe anything additional for my 2013 taxes after all! Big "phew" for that one. This was my first year earning contractor income, so it was a bit of mystery for me how those taxes would play out. I'm also happy to report that not only will I not owe any more money, I'll actually still be receiving a nice refund! #HEYOOOO! High fives all around to everyone else who gets some money back this spring. Go shoppin'. Or save that shit. Your choice. (I'll probably do a bit of both.)

Anyway, what else have I been up to the last few days? I took a couple of walks... this one along the beach on Thursday was particularly nice:

And on Friday night David and I finished off our evening with a sunset beach walk:

I walked downtown a couple times and picked up some new shirts, because my closet isn't full enough yet. (Full disclosure: That was sarcasm.) Seriously though, I had it on good authority that Victoria's Secret was having a sale on their popular v-neck t-shirts, and I a) needed a cute white v-neck that didn't suck, and b) wanted to see what all the hoopla was about with these tees. They definitely ARE cute and have a really flattering fit, so I grabbed two (since the sale was 2 for $34) - a white one and an orchid colored one:

So far I absolutely love them both, and the girl at the counter told me that she owns a few of them too, and that they stand up well to washes.

I also grabbed something that I've been looking for FOREVER: a light-colored chambray button up. You might think that a top like that is completely ubiquitous and not at all difficult to find, but it's been really hard for me to find one that fit me right and didn't have any wacky rogue details like spikes on the collar or weird cowgirl-esque embroidery on it. I got this one from Old Navy after seeing it on a mannequin in one of their window displays. Bonus - it was on sale for $20 (marked down from $39!)

So basically now that I have one of those, things are really going to start happening for me. I CAN FEEL IT!

Yesterday it was raining alllllll day long, so the walk I took downtown yesterday was a wet 'n chilly one.  I originally went into the city looking to get myself a haircut, but the salon I went to was booked up for the day so I made an appointment for Thursday instead. I will take some before and after pictures at the appointment because my hair is loooooong right now, and there's no telling WHAT could happen to it on Thursday!

Today is looking like a GORGEOUS day so far. The sky (from what I can see from my living room window) is completely blue and the sun is shining. Practically bikini season already!!! Just kidding, we're not quite there yet. But David has started wearing his Keens, which means warmer weather is on its way! (His Keens are a bit like Punxsutawney Phil, in that respect.)

Alright, so enough blabbering. On to my workouts from the past week!

3/17 (cardio)

15 mins elliptical

15 mins biking

3/18 (lower body and core)

10 mins rowing

2x:

   - 40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

   - 30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 30 diamond clamshells on each leg

   - 30 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric push off, each side

   - 30 Brazilian crunches

   - 60 bridges

   - 1:00 plank

10 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

3/19 (upper body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:

   - 12 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 12 tricep extensions on exercise ball, 5 lbs each hand

15 squats, holding 10 lbs

15 squats, holding 15 lbs

15 squats, holding 20 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 60 lbs

3/21 (lower body)

5 mins elliptical (1/2 mile)

2x:

   - 30 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

   - 12 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

   - 5 single leg squats on bench, each leg (I'm practicing this one - not strong enough yet!)

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric pushoff on each side

   - 30 diamond clamshells each leg

15 squats, holding 15 lbs

15 squats, holding 20 lbs

15 squats, holding 25 lbs

I plan to get to the gym today as well, but not before enjoying this sunshine! 

Did you do any random shopping this weekend? 

Has spring begun to sprung where you are?

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Draw By Night March: Draw Your Dream Home

The latest Draw By Night meet up in Vancouver went down on Wednesday March 12 at the Vancouver Film School downtown. The theme for the evening was "home sweet home," and we were encouraged to imagine our dream homes - whatever that meant to us.

For those of you not familiar, Draw By Night is a free bi-monthly meet up where people come together to draw, doodle, and create the occasional masterpiece in the company of others. You can bring your own drawing utensils, or use the ones provided at the meet up. The skill levels of those who attend are incredibly varied. I myself am just a doodler, but some of the other people are enormously talented!

Normally I go around the room and snap pictures after completing my own drawing, but this time I only remembered to take photos of mine. Oops! Fortunately, there's a whole Flickr album dedicated to the evening, so if you're interested you can browse some of the talented artists' drawings here.

At first I didn't know what to draw, so I started drawing a shamrock, which turned into this ombre rainbow chain of tiny circles...

The chain eventually turned into a tree, as many of my drawings tend to do...

Inspired by all of the moss that grows in the nooks and crannies of the trees around Vancouver, I added more tiny green circles as moss on my tree... and gave my branch a house swing!

The mountains in the background are inspired by Vancouver too...

I mean, a house swing isn't my "dream home" but it did seem like a fun house...

And jumping from your house swing into a pond below sounds like even more fun, right?

Thanks for checking out my doodles! If you're in the Vancouver area and want to join our little drawing party, follow along with Draw By Night's Facebook page to find out when the next event will be. And if you'd like, you can browse past blogs about Draw By Night events here.

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Nails Inspired By... A Rug??

Yupppp, today's nails are inspired by an Instagram photo from DesignLoveFest of a polka dot rug!

Not just the rug itself, but the colors of her shoes and jeans against the black and white polka dot rug... It made me wanna do this:

Here's the original Instagram post by DesignLoveFest, in case you lazily didn't click the link at the beginning of this blog!

For polishes I used (left to right):

• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Fuchsia Power
• Orly - Preamp
• Ruby Kisses - Blue Pearl
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Blue It
• Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
• Revlon - Stiletto

I did tons of swatching to decide which colors to use for the blue and pink in these nails. In the end, I ended up layering two different polishes for each.

I bought the Fuchsia Power polish recently, thinking (foolishly) that it would be the perfect pink color for this mani. It was definitely not. The better choice to make would definitely have been Sally Hansen's Insta Dri in the color Flashy Fuschia, but for some reason I decided not to buy that one, so here we are - mixing 'n matching polishes like we're some kind of effing Bob Ross.  Perhaps you saw my swatch-a-thon on Instagram.

What I decided upon for the pink nail was a coat of Fuchsia Power followed by a coat of Preamp. (I did a whole post about Preamp here.) For the blue nail, I did a coat of Blue It topped by a coat of Blue Pearl.

Look how sparkly Preamp is when I use the flash:

.  whoooooa  .

Nothing fancy planned for me this weekend. If I can manage to get a haircut, it'll be a solid victory. I'm soooo overdue! It would also be nice to go for a hike - I haven't been into the mountains in a month or two.

What are you rocking on your nails today?
Have you picked up any new polishes yet?
Let me know what your weekend plans are!

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{Linking up with Friday's Fab Favorites, Beauty Buzz, and The Nail Files}

A Few Good Things

The weather is warming and people are out in Vancouver, doin' they thannnng!

Every once in awhile, a small bird will land on my balcony, but it's rare that I have my camera beside me and can snap a picture:

After reading this blog about the "Japanese Dollar Store" last week, I was thrilled to find that there's a Daiso located one town over from me! I made a trip there on Sunday...

... And picked up three very awesome but very inexpensive boxes to store 

my nail polish and nail supplies:

.  top to bottom:  $2.00, $3.00, $3.50  . 

.  left to right: colored polishes, neutrals/glitters/top coats, nail tools  .

This funny idea for a meme popped into my head the other day, so I had to create it immediately. 
I tweeted it to Nelly on St. Patrick's Day. So far he hasn't responded.

(If you didn't get that meme, you need to refresh your memory of this little gem.)

I finally stopped into The Kings Head restaurant/pub to try out their breakfast... It's right near my apartment but I'd never been there before!

.  breakfast. ain't nothing wrong with that  .

The moss on the trees around here is really beautiful...

And I never get sick of these city and mountain views!

If you couldn't already tell, the grainier photos are from my Instagram account. Are you following me there yet? I'm still sort of new to Instagram and looking to follow some eye-catching accounts, so leave me a comment with your username!

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50 Shades of Green

Well alright, maybe not fifty of them... but several.

Happy St. Patrick's Day errrrr'body! Did you get schwasted-face this weekend? I didn't, but I did get a nice buzz off of all the compliments I received on Friday about my St. Paddy's Day nails. Thanks to everyone who showered me with flattery - you sure know how to make a girl feel like she can use a makeup sponge to apply nail polish! #HighFivesAllAround.

Since today is typically celebrated with lots of green, and since I didn't go a traditional green route for my nails on Friday, I'm giving myself permission to jump into the sea of green that you'll no doubt be noticing on blogs across zee 'net today. It doesn't hurt that green is one of my favorite colors - from mints to kellys to sages to emeralds!

I hope you'll enjoy browsing my random green picks in this Boutique widget - you can click on any of the images to browse/shop directly:

What are some green thaaaangs you're loving on today?
Do you wear green on St. Patrick's Day, or do you shy away from it?
What's your favorite hue of green? Mine is probably sage or mint!

p.s. If you can't see the widget above, click on the little grey shield icon in your address bar and choose to "load" the script!

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Workouts of the Week + Digging Into Netflix

We finally finished watching Breaking Bad last week, so this weekend was one for digging deeper into the bowels of Netflix to see what else we could discover in there. This resulted in us watching Lost In Translation (Friday night), The Peacemaker (Saturday afternoon), and even a little bit of The Emperor's New Groove (Saturday night in bed).

I didn't care for Lost In Translation at all - it was terribly boring for me. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, nothing happened in the entire movie. To boot, Scarlett Johansson's character's voice was ultra-annoying - she gave a meek-yet-breathless delivery of all of her lines, which kind of made me want to punch her in the stomach. Hard.

The Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman was decent - in a timely "Isn't Russia terrifying?" type of way. I like action movies, so this was more my speed than the movie we'd watched the night before.

We watched about a half hour of The Emperor's New Groove in bed last night. I've been trying to make Dave watch this movie forever.  I liked it so much when it came out originally (back in 2000) that I went and saw it in the theaters twice at the time! It's terribly hard to get Dave to ever watch a Disney movie, so having him agree to watching even 30 minutes of it was a win for me ;)

.  saturday morning breakfast instagram  .

In addition to watching movies this weekend, we also took a beach walk in the pouring rain yesterday afternoon near Dave's UBC campus. It was nice to take a walk on a beach we hadn't been on before, and we even got to see a bunch of seals playing in the water! I wanted to bring my camera so badly, but I knew that the pouring rain was just not going to be conducive to taking pictures.

In other news, I was pretty much killin' it at the gym this week. My shoulders are soooo sore right now! Hopefully I didn't pull something... Here's an outline of my workouts from the past week:

3/9 (lower body and core)

10 mins rowing machine

2x:

   - 12 squats, holding 25 lbs

   - 20 Russian get ups holding 8 lbs

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists holding 15 lbs

   - 60 bridges

   - 50 Brazilian crunches

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric pushoff (each side)

3/10 (upper body and core)

5 mins biking 

3x:

   - 12 chest press on exercise ball, 15 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted crunches on exercise ball, 15 lbs

   - 12 bent over rows each arm, 15 lbs

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 12 Arnold press, 10 lbs each hand

   - 30 reverse crunch + leg raise

12 squats, holding 10 lbs

12 squats holding 15 lbs

12 squats holding 20 lbs

3/11 (cardio)

10 mins rowing machine

25 mins bicycle

3/13 (lower body and core)

5 mins elliptical

2x:

   - 30 alternating side step squats, holding 15 lbs

   - 30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 30 plank knee to elbow

   - 30 diamond clamshells on each leg

   -  30 reverse crunch + leg raise

   - 15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

   - 30 cobras

12 squats, holding 15 lbs

12 squats, holding 20 lbs

12 squats, holding 25 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

3/14 (upper body and core)

5 mins biking

4x:

   - 12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists, holding 12.5 lbs

   - 12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 20 alternating weighted side bends, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 12 tricep kickbacks each arm, 5 lbs

   - 20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

   - 24 alternating medicine ball flys with 8 lb medicine ball

   - 30 cobras

12 squats, holding 15 lbs

12 squats, holding 20 lbs

12 squats, holding 25 lbs

That last arm workout was a doozie... I don't normally do 4 sets of exercises! Stopping after 3 sets was the original plan but then I thought that I could handle another round. That's probably why I'm so sore today!

It's another rainy, grey day today, so there might be some more Netflix movies in my future. Do you have any random movie recommendations?

Have a great Sunday!

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St. Patrick's Day Rainbow & Pot o' Gold Nails

Rather than going a standard "green nails" route for some St. Patrick's Day themed nails, I thought I'd take things in a more rainbow/pot of gold direction. HOPE THAT'S COOL WITH YOU!

Colors used:
Snow Me White - Sinful Colors (white)
Ruby Ruby - Sinful Colors (red)
Fuzzy Navel - Ruby Kisses (orange)
Lightening - Sally Hansen Insta Dri (yellow)
Envy - Sinful Colors (green)
Midnight Blue - Sinful Colors (blue)
Amethyst - Sinful Colors (purple)
Stiletto - Revlon (black)
Big Spender - Nina Ultra Pro (gold)
Crystal Gold - Love & Beauty (gold)
#077 - Color Club (gold)

I started off with a coat of Snow Me White on all my nails, and followed that up by taping all of my fingers the same way you may have seen me do in this nail tutorial. That step isn't totally necessary, but it most definitely cuts down on clean-up time later.

Next I grabbed a makeup sponge and painted a stripe of each color of the rainbow onto the sponge before quickly dabbing the sponge on my nails. I reapplied the rainbow colors to the sponge between each nail. For the thumb I painted the bottom half of the nail black and then used mixed coats of all 3 gold polishes to cover the top half of the nail. Update tip: I find it's a good idea to twist all of your nail polish bottles open (while still leaving the cap on) and line them up, ready to swipe onto the makeup sponge. It's a pain in the butt to have to twist them each open right before you swipe them onto the sponge, especially because you don't want the polishes to dry on the sponge before it gets to your nail!

 To finish off, I gave the rainbow nails a top coat to help smooth the colors together better.

Are you going to do anything crazy this weekend for St. Patrick's Day? I actually don't even know if Canadians celebrate this holiday... I'll have to find out. Anyway - whatever you're doing this weekend - keep it real and have funnnnn!

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{Linking with Beauty Buzz, The Nail Files, Friday's Fab Favorites 

and What I'm Loving Fridays}