Five on Friday {2.12.16}

February 12, 2016February 12, 201610 Comments

Good morning! TGIF 🙂 Have you guys had a good week? Mine has been great- between teaching and a get together with my girlfriends it’s flown right by. Let’s get to some of my favorite things right now.

Five on Friday

1. GALentine’s Book Club Night- Our friend Amy hosted book club this time and in true Amy fashion when it comes to anything holiday/party related, she knocked it out of the park with her decorations and overall festive feel. She and her roommate cooked up a terrific dinner of chicken parm and we had a blast talking about the book (and other random topics) over wine. AND Amy made us all hand-made valentines consisting of a card and a “De-Stress Coconut Oil Body Lotion” which she described as “this tranquil blend of chamomile, lavender and frankincense can help relieve discomforts associated with stress and anxiety”… anyone want to place an order for some? 😉

2. Cuckoo’s Calling– Speaking of book club, this was the book we read this past time and while it took me a bit to get into it, I ended up really getting hooked. I read the last 150 or so pages in just a few hours! We are reading her sequel next: Silkworm- I can’t wait! We are also reading 5 Love Languages since we’ve got a little extra time until the next meeting. Have any of you read either of these?

3. Wine Expo– RM and I were trying to decide what to do for V-Day and when my friend mentioned the Wine Expo, I thought that was a great idea. I searched through some old emails and found a promo code which took $10 off the admission price, which was just icing on the cake (VALDAY16 is the code if you’re interested- there is still availability for Sunday). I’ve been to the seminars a few times, but never the full expo so I can’t wait!
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Five on Friday {1.8.16}

January 8, 2016January 7, 20162 Comments

Well hello there! It’s been a hot minute since my last “Five on Friday” post, huh? I guess I just figured well all had better things to do on Christmas and New Years and visit B2B, right? 😉 Before we get into the post, can we just stop for a second and think about the fact that the holidays have officially come and gone and that most of us have nearly completed our first full week of work since likely way before the holidays? Yikes. Time flies when you’re having fun I guess, right?

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the weekend! Any fun plans? We have my company’s holiday party tonight and then Saturday we plan on doing some shopping/holiday returns (maybe some wedding registry stuff??) and meeting up with another couple for drinks. Sunday will likely consist of a coffee visit with my cousin who is in town and then hopefully some relaxing, because SUNDAY.

Here are my Five on Friday items for the week- enjoy!

1. Me Before You and After You (both by JoJo Moyes)- Have you guys read either or both of these books? If not, stop what you’re doing and go to the library or order them off of Amazon. They were both such good, good books. So good that I barely put them down and was able to finish them each one in less than 3 days. We just talked about them at book club and it was awesome to get to hold onto the goodness of them for a bit longer. For those of you who have read them- what was your first thoughts on the title “Me Before You”? I’ll share mine in a reply to your comments! Also, per usual, book club at Jessi’s was awesome. I totally over-ate (which I rarely do), but only regretted it for how uncomfortable and sick I felt after… I did not regret all of the food I ate because it was delicious!

2. The Resolution Recap/Photos– It was such an honor to participate in the Resolution by PMC fundraiser ride at The Club by George Foremann III last weekend. And, thanks to so many gracious people donating, I raised over $100 more than my goal- whoop! I had to share some awesome/funny/intense photos that the photographer captured of me. I guess he wasn’t joking when he tracked me down after to tell me that I was “really intense”, haha!

Team “Just Keep Spinning”! and the fabulous Turnstyle Cycle instructors.

(all PMC pictures were taken from here and were shot by 13Photography)

3. Champagne is always a good idea- I mean, need I say anymore? This wall hanging is amazing- it’s almost like they made it for me (but, no, unfortunately I did not buy it for myself 😦 )

4. New hat- I got some really great gifts for Christmas, but I have to say that this hat from RM is probably one of my most favorite gifts! I use any excuse I can to wear it… literally!

5. #2015bestnine- I loved seeing everyone’s #2015bestnine photo collages all over social media at the end of 2015 and I have to say, mine pretty much summed up all of my best memories from the year for sure! Wedding, wedding, more wedding… oh, and working out 😉 What was your best memory(ies) from 2015?

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Catch y’all next week!

Weekending: Getting Into the Christmas Spirit

December 21, 2015December 20, 20154 Comments

Good morning- happy Monday! Did you guys have a good weekend? Ours was relatively low-key, but that was perfect since I was pretty dead most of Friday because of getting home at 2:30 in the morning after 11 hours of traveling! Work was luckily quiet so I was able to catch up on some stuff without being interrupted. Let’s recap!

Friday

I was supposed to get together with my friend Liz and then go to a little party with my sister, but I ended up canceling on both because I was just too tired and knew I had to teach on Saturday and wanted to be rested. RM ended up coming home early from work so it was nice getting to hang with him before he went out with some of his friends that night. He offered to pick me up Whole Foods hot bar for me for dinner, which pretty much made my night. That, and being able to watch a sappy Hallmark Christmas movie and finish our latest book club book.

Have you guys read this? If not, YOU MUST! This was such a fantastic book and I can’t wait to read the sequel. I may or may not have balled my eyes out as I finished the last couple of pages. Ugh. So good!

Saturday

I woke up feeling great thanks to 9+ hours of sleep! I was so excited to teach my cardio kickboxing class for 2 reasons:

It was my last class before Christmas and I couldn’t wait to use my Christmas playlist. It’s always a big hit and I love seeing everyone smiling and singing along.
I had some awesome new lululemon pants to wear- you can never have too much mesh, right?! The best part? They were an outlet deal- $29!

Class was awesome! Everyone brought their serious A game and it was so fun to get in a good sweat sesh before the day’s activities.

After, I met up with my friend Jessi and her twin sister to talk wedding hair. I’m in the process of selecting someone to do my hair and Jessi’s sister pretty much specializes in wedding hair so hopefully it will work out! I was pumped to get to wear my new Stitch Fix sweater (a full review of my latest fix to come!)- it’s so soft!

After hanging with the girls, I met RM at the Assembly Row shops and we grabbed a very late lunch/snack at Fuji. While the sushi was good, the rolls were very small and we were shocked that Roberto’s beer was $12 (!!!). Womp.

Once we finally started to get hungry for dinner, I whipped up some roasted buffalo cauliflower and some baked butternut squash and RM cooked some spicy broccolini. We also shared some leftovers to round out the meal. It totally hit the spot.

Sunday

Sunday started out the best way: with healthy pancakes! Historically, RM has always made them but lately I’ve taken that role and I have to say, I’ve been doing a pretty good job! I do not measure anything but here’s the ingredients I used yesterday: 2 eggs, 1/2 banana, coconut flour, almond meal, vanilla, flax seed, little bit of honey and some water.

After breakfast, I headed out to do some errands. I wore my new Athleta sweater that I got for a SUPER deal during a recent Schoola promotion. I am in love with how comfy it is and I can’t believe I got it for $42 when it’s originally a $128 sweater. Yes, please.

I also treated myself to a chai tea latte at Starbucks thanks to a very sweet member who gave me a gift card before class on Saturday!

It was a pretty busy shopping experience, but I was totally immersed in the holiday spirit so it was fun! I was able to finish up most of my shopping, which will make this week easier 🙂

I love the looks of a Christmas tree filled with presents underneath it. My mom always wanted to wait to bring presents down on Christmas morning (or late Christmas Eve), but my dad would always try to sneak the presents down earlier than that. I remember one year the back and forth of my dad bringing them down and my mom bringing them back up . I have to say, I like the presents under the tree before Christmas!

Late Sunday afternoon we went to RM’s mother’s house to celebrate his birthday, which is on Wednesday. We had a delicious escarole soup, croquettes and a fantastic coffee cake. The rest of the night was spent hanging on the couch, relaxing before a busy week- I love our couch time!

And that wraps it up! I have to go into the office today, but it’s a fun day because we are having our group Christmas party at Kings in Lynnfield. I also made my favorite Funfetti cookies, which basically make anything better 😉

Have a great Monday, friends!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? What was the best part of it? Have you finished your Christmas shopping? Are you working this week? What’s your favorite holiday treat?

Scenes from the Weekend

July 27, 2015July 26, 20154 Comments

Good morning and Happy Monday 🙂 Did you guys have a good weekend? I sure did! It kind of started on Thursday night when I hosted book club, continued on to Friday night when RM and I tried a new place in East Boston and then to Saturday/Sunday when my sister and I tried out a class at the new Handlebar Indoor Cycling Studio in Harvard Square and then headed up to Vermont for a quick one night getaway with our parents. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking- enjoy!

Great book! We all highly suggest it. Rose was delicious too 😉

I grilled pizzas- they were fantastic!

Love my SMC girls.

We found a new place on Maverick Street in East Boston- it’s a market/café called Maverick Market and it has a small menu and beer and wine. We had some ginger BBQ chicken sliders and a spicy shrimp and veggie stir fry. We were so impressed with everything!

Because sweaty/post spin pictures are always necessary…

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Weekending & Life Lately Catch-Up

June 22, 2015June 22, 20152 Comments

Good morning! I hope you all had a great weekend 🙂 Mine was really pretty great and I actually took pictures so I thought I’d spend today sharing those with you! But, before I get to that, let’s catch up over the past couple of weeks. I can’t believe we’ve been back from Italy for over 3 weeks- seems like just yesterday we were packing up to go there.

I’ve been working out outside a lot- whether in the form of running or bootcamp style workouts. With the nicer weather upon us, I just want to be outside as much as possible!

But, I’m also loving being back in the gym with weights and strength training! Feels so good to leave the gym with jello-feeling everything 🙂

I’m participating in Neghar Fonooni’s Bikini Rebellion challenge this month and am more than obsessed with it. If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve probably seen some very personal, “leave it all on the table” types of posts, which has been hard, but also really refreshing.
We’ve been loving healthy, light meals. In the heat, it’s awesome to throw something together quickly!

My curly hair is back… BIG and back! I was afraid my curls were going away over the winter, but fear not… it was just the dry weather that made my hair less curly than usual!