Category: Fashion

Five on Friday {4.1.16}

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Good morning! And happy April and Happy Birthday month to my fellow April birthday friends 🙂 I could’ve gotten you guys so bad with an April Fools joke (quitting the blog, canceling the wedding, being pregnant, etc.), but I’ll spare you that and just get right to the Five on Friday topics for today!

  • Mary’s Gone Crackers– We are always on the hunt for healthier chip/cracker varietals, so when I saw these on sale at Whole Foods, I had to try them out. The verdict? I am a big fan! RM likes them, but still prefers the Almond Thins we usually have on hand. I like the Mary’s crackers because they are full of seeds and the ingredient list is pretty clean.

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  • Signs of Spring- There may be snow in the weekend forecast, but for now I’m focusing on little signs of spring around our apartment, including these pretty flowers!
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  • Wedding Registry Gifts- With the wedding shower in just about a month, the gifts have started coming in and it’s so exciting. I joked that every day is like Christmas these days! I know we technically know and picked out everything we’ve been getting, but it’s still exciting to see and feel the gifts. I was especially excited to get 2 sets of the “fancy” place settings I registered for since I had only seen them on line. I love them even more in person!!

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  • Book Club- Tuesday night was book club night, which is always a fun time. Our friend Lauren hosted it in her absolutely adorable Charlestown apartment and the theme was “all the dips”, meaning everyone brought a different “dip” to enjoy. Since most people brought appetizer dips, I offered to bring a dessert dip, which was a big hit- we joked it was like we were eating grown up Dunkeroo’s (remember those things?!). I found it here, and chose it because it was SO easy… and because it was called “Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake” dip and that sounded heavenly. I highly suggest throwing a dip party at some point in your life!

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  • Dresses for Wedding Festivities- I hit up Assembly for some shopping before book club because between my shower, bachelorette party and rehearsal dinner, I am in need of some dresses. I found one at the Express Outlet that I liked, but then when I went to Off Saks, I ended up finding this baby that I liked even more. Best part? It was priced at $220, but I got it for $48! What do you think?

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And that does it! This weekend should be much more relaxed than the past handful of weekends. I’m teaching tomorrow and then hopefully going to a deadlift/hinge mini group training at Foster Fitness and that’s it for set plans. I hope to knock out a bunch more of the Box FIIT Certification, have a date night, meal prep and go to church- whatever you have on the agenda for the weekend I hope you enjoy yourselves!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite snack chip/cracker? What’s your favorite dip? Do you have any suggestions for where I can find a white romper or two piece outfit for my bachelorette party? What’s on the agenda this weekend? Get any good sweats in this week?

 

 

 

Five on Friday {2.26.16}

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Happy Friday, friends! Have you had a good week? Mine has been pretty good- nothing really out of the ordinary, which isn’t a bad thing! It was funny- when I saw my mom last weekend she goes “did you do your ‘Five on Friday’ post this week? I love that!”, which was so sweet. I told her that I had nothing special to share with you guys last week so I just saved it for this week. Here we go!

Recycle Studio’s new South End location– I was able to snag a saddle in their second class at their new location earlier this week. Unfortunately about half of the people didn’t show up for the class (that’s what happens when it’s a free class) so I felt bad for the instructor- it’s so much harder to teach a half full class than it is a fully packed class! She did a great job, though- loved getting to check it out!

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Straight Up Strength- Even fitness instructors get bored with their own workouts, right? Lucky for me, my girl Lauren over at The Fueled Physique created a workout program so I jumped at the chance to sign up for it. I did one of the lower body exercises on Monday and the upper body one on Tuesday and I was SO SORE from them. If you’re looking for something new to spice up your workouts, I’d suggest signing up for her program (check out her site and shoot her an inquiry!).

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Gapfit Line– When I was shopping with my mom and sister last Friday, we popped into Gap Body on a mission for underwear (TMI?) and although I didn’t walk out with any, I did walk out with this amazingly cute top. I can see myself wearing this all the time to and from the gym and even out and about on the weekend. I was lucky I only left with this because as we looked around, I was seriously impressed with their entire athletic line. I definitely plan on going back and getting more stuff.

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Boston Housing Market- RM sent me this article the other day and it absolutely baffled me. It’s amazing how much the housing market in Boston has increased over the past couple of years, but I have to agree with the author that it’s interesting- and frustrating- that they are only tailoring to the wealthy with the “luxury condos”. What about the average people who just want a nice, affordable place to live?

Kittens- You guys. I want a kitten SO BADLY! We’ve been talking about getting one for months and months, but just recently I’ve really been itching for one. I’ve called a few shelters but none of them have any so I thought I’d ask you guys- do you know of any shelters with kittens or anyone who has any? We really want a female. Any help would be appreciated!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Ours is pretty low-key- hoping to go out for sushi tonight and then I’m teaching Saturday morning. Other than that there are some other plans up in the air, but I hope to have lots of time to work on my Box Fiit certification! Whatever you have planned I hope you  have a great time!

 

 

 

What I Wore: Engagement Photos

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Good morning! Skipping the full weekend recap because I didn’t take many pictures, but here’s the summary: Made pizza and drank bubbly with RM on Friday night. Hit up the gym Saturday morning for an awesome workout, had lunch with friends at Regina’s in Medford, Datenight with RM at The Local in West Newton. Had brunch with friends at The Cottage on Sunday, shopped at Wegmans (still a Whole Foods fan), did a lot of meal prep and LOTs of reading and the two of us had some Super Bowl snacks.

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Now, let’s talk about the fun stuff: Fashion 🙂 I am by no means a fashionista. Not even close, actually, but I do like to play around with clothes and outfits and I always love to scroll through fashion blogger posts. So today is my attempt at being a fashion blogger… bear with me 😉

Going into the shoot- and really going into the wedding planning all together- I wanted neutral tones. When I think of neutral, I think of timeless and classy, which is something I’ve always loved when looking at photos of events like a wedding. I set out to go shopping with my sister before the shoot and here’s what I ended up wearing:

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Outfit Details

  • Boots- I got these when I was visiting my sister in Athens, Greece a number of years ago. They were SUPER expensive, but they’ve held up so well they were worth it. It’s funny, I hadn’t worn these boots all season before the shoot!
  • Jeans- Lucky Outlet at Assembly. They were last year’s version of the same style so I got them for $50
  • Sweater- Loft, on sale for $20
  • Necklace- Borrowed this from my friend Amy, but it’s a Lilly necklace.
  • Watch- Michael Kors

Since we were shooting outside, I knew I needed some nice jackets. Enter: Wilson’s Leather! I’ve share the details before, but I’ll share them again- the white jacket was on sale for $39 from $250 and the blue one was on sale for $44 from $450. I’m totally obsessed with both and love how they looked in the photos. Enjoy!

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Five on Friday {2.5.16}

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Good morning! TGIF! What a week it’s been- phew! I am so ready for a relaxing weekend… I feel like I’ve been on the go since last Friday. I ended up teaching 4 classes in 3 days, which is something I haven’t done in MONTHS, so it definitely was a shock to my system! They were all great classes, though, so I can’t really complain 🙂 Last night was my first sweat-KICK class at Foster Fitness and it was a total blast. I think there were about 22 fitties who showed up, which was more than I thought there would be! Everyone was pretty new to my style of cardio kickboxing, but they gave it their all and totally killed it. I was one happy/proud instructor 🙂

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Even though that was my highlight of the week, let’s talk about some other high points!

1 & 2: New Coats & Engagement Photos– I know I talked about both of these things in my weekend recap, but I felt as though they were worthy of a spot in my Five on Friday posts, too. I just can’t get over the fact that the blue jacket is a $450 Calvin Klein jacket that I got for $44!! I’m always slacking in the jacket department, so getting these was a step in the right direction for me. I’m in search of a new long down jacket- anyone have any good recommendations for where I could find one? Also, isn’t Janelle fantastic? We are totally loving the photos she look during our engagement photo session- I’ll have a full recap of that including outfit details next week!

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3. Stripping While Sleeping– Ok, not really stripping per say, but I thought it was hilarious as I reached under the blankets at the foot of our bed and found 3 pairs of socks… my feet and hands are always cold so I go to bed with socks on most night. However, I tend to kick them off at some point throughout the night since I am a HOT BOX when I sleep. I wake up sweating more than I’d like to admit, which you’d think would make me go to bed in less clothes, but I’m always freezing when I go to bed so I bundle up and strip later. Weird, right?

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4. Running Outside in 60* February Weather-With today’s weather, it seems like this was years ago! I’m happy I was able to soak up some of the unseasonably warm weather earlier this week during a 4 miler lunch break run.

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5. Dressing Like Spring… in February- Ok, I guess there’s a theme for this post: outfits/fashion and unseasonably warm weather 😉 When I woke up yesterday and saw that it was 55* at 6:30am I took a double take. I’m totally loving this thin sweater from Loft that I picked up last week- paired with my new Lucky skinny jeans, favorite booties and light jacket made for a comfy outfit!

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I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend! Thankfully ours is much more lowkey than last weekend. I have to basically read a 400 page book for book club on Tuesday so that’s definitely what I’ll be doing 😉

Questions for you: What do you have going on this weekend? Were you able to take advantage of the warmer weather this week? Have you found any good shopping deals this week? Do you have any weird habits or things you do when you sleep?

Weekending: Playing Hookie, Engagement Photos, Birthday Party & Enjoying the Weather!

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Good morning! I know everyone is talking about the weather, but I mean, common- is it really this warm in FEBRUARY?! I’ll take it, though. If there isn’t going to be snow I don’t really want frigid cold temps.

Did you guys have a good weekend? Although I was feeling a little anxious going into it because of how many plans we had, it ended up being such a great one! My sister and I decided to “play hookie” on Friday afternoon so we met up at Assembly to go shopping. RM and I were having our engagement photos on Saturday afternoon and I hadn’t been able to go shopping prior to, so it was nice to have some extra time on Friday to shop without being rushed. It was also nice to get to hang out and catch up with my sister- lunch, shopping and drinks on a Friday afternoon- can you get much better than that?

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I was on a mission for just a few necessary things for our photoshoot: white jacket, new jeans and new black booties, all of which were found- and most on crazy sale! My friend suggested going to Wilson’s Leather for jackets and I’m so happy she did because I got both of these for $84! I don’t think I would’ve gone in there on my own… I mean, I didn’t even think this store still existed!

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After our shopping I went to my friend Jessi’s apartment for some vino, apps and girl talk before making my way back to Newton Corner. I didn’t want to leave, but I knew I wanted/needed to be rested for Saturday. I grabbed a pizza from Bertucci’s on the way home, we watched an episode of Breaking Bad and hit the hay by 10:30. It was fantastic.

Saturday started with an incredible cardio kickboxing class- 60 members came and gave it their all. It makes what I do so rewarding!

After class I cleaned up quickly and went to Queen Bee Nails to get a much-needed manicure followed by heading to Waltham to get a hair cut and blow out. I always try to plan my hair cuts around when I have something going on at night because it makes my “getting ready” time much easier and faster!

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I ended up wearing this for the photos:

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Later that afternoon, we headed over to East Boston to meet up with Janelle at KO Pies since it seemed only fitting to kick off our engagement photos where it all started! Janelle and I worked together a few months back when she did my fitness photos, so I’m so excited to be working with her again! The owner of KO Pies was so happy that we were doing our photos there that he asked if he could take a picture and share it with our story- the photo isn’t great, but it was so cute of him to be so excited for us!

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Janelle’s photos, though? She shared a sneak peek and I love it so much. I can’t wait to see the rest!!

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After the photos, RM and I headed back home quickly before parting our separate ways for the night. I was going into the city for my friend Sheila’s surprise party at Stoddards and he was going to meet up with some guys on Moody Street in Waltham. Even though I was exhausted and so tempted to stay home, I’m glad I went because nights out in the city with these ladies just don’t happen as much these days!

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In typical grandma fashion, I was home by 11:30 😉

We ran out of eggs on Saturday so we decided to go out to breakfast on Sunday, something we rarely (if ever) do! We went to the Delux Town Diner and it was fantastic. Veggie Hash & eggs for him, breakfast sando for me and their unbelievable sweet potato pancakes to share. I forgot how good diner breakfasts are!!

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After breakfast and food shopping, we went into the city so RM could take some photos for his new website. I wanted to go for a walk anyway so this was a great way to do both things. The weather was just too nice to be inside!

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We swung by his mother’s for dinner after and then when we got home I did some food prep, including this incredible looking spaghetti squash which has sautéed onions, garlic, red pepper, zucchini, summer squash, spinach and ground pork. Topped with a little cheese and you’ve got your self a super tasty and healthy meal!

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I’m gearing up for a busy week between subbing for Lauren’s Build & Burn classes tomorrow night (if you’re a YMCA member, come!), teaching my class on Wednesday and then teaching the kickoff sweat-KICK class at Foster Fitness on Thursday, so I’m happy to have a dish that will be quick and easy to re-heat for dinners!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Have you ever played hookie? Did you get any good workouts in? Did you try any new recipes or restaurants? What’s going on this week?