An award!

Many thanks to Daffodil's for sending me this little Stylish Blogger Award last week!

Once hit with the award, you are supposed to share seven things about yourself, a la old school chain letters or the "25 things you never knew about me and maybe still hope that you don't" on Facebook. But this seems like more fun:)

1. I am a very lucky daughter, friend and girlfriend. I know some of the very best people in the world!

2. I love sweets & baking more than just about anything.

3. Purple is my favorite color. In the past month alone, I think I've bought 3 purple cardigans. 3!

4. I love my job. I won't say here exactly what I do, but it is always interesting, a constant learning experience and in my opinion a pretty important job in the grand scheme of things. Again, I am lucky.

5. I love rainy weather, but don't like getting wet.

6. I adore vacations. My friend Sarah says that she lives for vacation, and I think that's pretty accurate for me too. On the list for this year (maybe): Disney World, London, beaches. Sigh.
7. I love going to weddings. I am so excited to be going to at least 2 this year! And of course, I'm hosting a Royal Wedding Party. Did I mention, I love weddings?

And the next award goes to my lovely friends:
At Home with the Pooles
The Love You Take is Equal to the Love You Make

Warm weather, food and sale shopping galore

I hate to open up a blog post by talking about the weather, but frankly, that was the best part of my weekend. It was 70 degrees in Atlanta on Saturday and Sunday. 70! In January! It made my day, especially because I've been feeling more dreary about the weather this winter than normal. Perhaps it was the 4 days stuck inside my house because there was an inch of ice on everything? Yeah, probably so. But alas, it was a gorgeous sunny spring weekend. Hopefully it'll be enough to get me through to March, because its supposed to be in the low 40s again by Friday. Sigh.

Not much else to report on. The weekend was full of errands and sale shopping and eating. If any of you are reading in ATL, the Borders on Peachtree is closing and everything is on sale! Its only 30% off right now, but they still have plenty of books left and hopefully the percent off will increase soon. John and I did some goodwill-ing and treked up to the Sears Outlet to get a new fridge for him since his died. By the way--also if you're in the Atlanta area, the Sears scratch and dent outlet is phenomenal. John bought a brand new LG fridge with a tiny scratch on one of the doors for literally hundreds of dollars less than Home Depot. Its worth the trip! And to round out the sale shopping, I hit up my absolute favorite Nordstrom Rack in Buckhead and got lots of goodies. Included: a Trina Turk blouse ($24), a pewter colored satin cocktail dress ($23!) and a couple of the cutest little girl's clothes for J's neice (all were at least 60% off, if not more). I think it was a pretty successful day....even though no-shop January obviously didn't happen. Maybe I'll start tomorrow for February?

My eating wasn't great this weekend, though. I went out for Mexican food twice (my biggest weakness), although I was surprised by how few WW points are actually in a Mexican food meal. I was preparing for much worse. I also went wild at Baskin Robbins yesterday (see above about it being 70 degrees outside). Even though it was the majority of my points for the day, still not terrible. And as of Friday I am down another pound! About 5.5 total from what I can tell on my non-digital scale.

I hope you all had fabulous weekends!

Updates

In the past week I have:

-Taken a trip to Raleigh. Saw two of my loves, and celebrated Daddy's birthday at the Angus Barn (yum).
-Over-ate. See above Angus Barn comment. Daddy also made biscuits. With lard. What was he thinking? I have to admit, they were delicious! I've also eaten out lunch everyday this week because i'm not in the office. We went to a soul food place two days in a row, but I tried to make the best choices that I could. One day grilled chicken, the next a veggie plate. Swimming in grease? Yeah. Better than stuff my face with fried chicken and pie? Yeah.
-Went on a cleaning binge. Not sure if its because I will (hopefully) be moving soon, but I've been feeling the need to purge a lot of stuff. Last night I hit the pantry and threw out anything outdated or open and stale. Tonight, maybe the closet for round two?
-Started doing some ab exercises and arm weights. These are easy things I can do in my apartment to help tone up.
-Lost 1 more pound last Friday at my official weigh-in. Hopefully one more by this Friday!

Goals:
-Be better about tracking WW points online. Even the days I know I'm eating well, I have still been bad about remembering to post my foods online. I'm paying for the program for a reason...I need to use it!
-Get a massage. Does one ever really need a reason for this?
-Do major grocery shopping this weekend for lots of fresh foods and new recipe ideas for dinners next week. I'm itching to use my crock-pot.
-Maaaaybe do some cardio. We'll see how motivated I feel.
-Hang out with a friend. Gotta keep up my social life goals too!

xoxo

Progress

I'm happy to report on the variety of progress I've made this week:

1. I made it out of the house! If you are not currently in Atlanta, you probably don't understand how major this is. We have been covered in about 3-4 inches of snow and 1 think inch of ice all week. ALL the roads were terrible (the city apparently owns 10 plows...no lie). Thank goodness for my coworker Erica who lives across the street, or else I wouldn't have had any human contact. I finally made it back into the office yesterday (YAY), although there aren't many people here. I'm just happy not to be staring at the same 4 walls of my apartment.
2. As mentioned above, I socialized. Ok, ok...Erica and I were basically forced to socialize, but it was great! And I'm excited to have a Miss America slumber party with my friend Sarah on Saturday night! Go me for doing at least one social thing per week and seeing friends more regularly. I think I'll spend some time today researching some fun weight watchers recipes and snacks for tomorrow night.
3. Declutter. I didn't actually do much of this, but I did go through all my socks and unmentionables to get rid of anything I just never wear. Everything is being cleaned out slowly in anticipation for my upcoming move.
4. Eat well. I did okay this week. Being snowed in for 3 days with not much food on hand was not good. And I had 2 unplanned restaurant meals. But all in all, I lost another pound (3 total since new year's eve)! I'm happy with my progress and think that I will do even better with a fully stocked fridge and more normal working schedule next week. I also need to stop weighing throughout the week and ONLY do Friday, which is my dedicated WW day. I'll put that on the list for next week.
5. Spending less. I've kind of been forced into that one. I didn't do any shopping last weekend, and certainly not this week. Although....I am thinking of going to the mall tomorrow (mostly for human contact, I promise!). But the LOFT is having 40% your entire purchase. This might not be good for me. Sigh. I'll probably end up there anyway, but maybe I just won't spend. We'll see.

I hope y'all had an awesome week, with or without the snow. Happy (long) weekend! xoxo

Cabin Fever

I am definitely suffering from cabin fever...big time. Its the third day in a row that Atlanta has been crippled by a snowy/icy storm that came on Sunday night. No one can drive anywhere because apparently all the roads are one big ice skating rink. I almost fell down multiple times walking across the street to meet a friend at one of our neighborhood restaurants. Thank GOD for having places to walk to! I may have run out of food by now otherwise.

Erica and I are planning to venture out for lunch again today--we both decided we would definitely go insane if we didn't. We may even try to drive to a restaurant! Oh, the excitement.

Other than that, I have almost exhausted all the work I'm able to do at home, so I'll be spending my time talking to other bored co-workers online and watching Sex and the City 2 on dvd. I hope you all are enjoying the snow if you've got it. And I never thought I'd say this, but I've got fingers crossed to go back into work tomorrow!

xoxo

2011 with a bang!

So many good things have already happened in these first 11 days of 2011. Here's a quick recap:

-I PASSED MY EXAM! This is a major big deal for me at work, and I cannot even tell you how relieved I am to get this out of the way. And the bonus I get couldn't come at a better time with the townhouse purchase just around the corner! I'm still trying to decide how much of it I want to blow on something fun for myself though :)
-I saw 3 friends last week! Being more social is going to make my life so much more fun.
-I lost 2 pounds on Weight Watchers. Even though I haven't been eating as well as I could, I did really well for being at home and in study mode all last week. I've become much more conscious of what I eat and how much I eat. I've also done a lot more cooking (turkey burgers, fresh fish). I'm enjoying myself. Now I just need to get the exercising part down...and I know my eating will be even better once I'm back in the office.
-And speaking of not being in the office--we've had a massive snow/ice storm in Atlanta. So not only did I work from home last week, it looks like this week will be a lot of the same. Yesterday and today I've been operating from my couch and watching Sex and the City reruns on E! as I work on my laptop.
-I've gotten over the first hurdle of the short sale for my home-to-be. Here's to hoping that the 2nd part goes as smoothly/quickly as this first part did. I want to MOVE!

Perhaps today I'll get off my butt and walk around or at least finally play with my Just Dance 2 that I got for Christmas. Enjoy the snow day friends!

Sparkles

Things that make me happy: sparkle clothes! And finding them on sale for more than 50% off at the mall.

Things that don't make me happy: studying. That's why I've been at the mall all night. Oops. Major study time tomorrow...

Starting 2011

I think I've gotten off to a really good start so far! I....

-Went to the doctor for a physical. Its always good to know where you stand at the beginning of weight loss (and I'm just bad about going to the doctor in general). I got all checked out and finally got my flu shot too (and they talked me into a tetanus shot because I couldn't remember the last time I had one--it hurt!). According to the doctor scale, I've lost 1 pound too :)
-Had lunch with my friend Lauren who I hadn't seen in a couple of months
-Have been eating better and cooking for fresh foods
-Have been studying my behind off to get ready for my exam!
-Browsed at the mall before meeting Lauren for lunch, and didn't buy a single thing. Honestly, I wasn't impressed with anything the mall had to offer, so I think no-shop January should be easy!

xoxo

2011 Goals (because I don't make "resolutions")

1. Health
-join Weight Watchers (done!) and lose a total of 15-20 lbs, doing so 5 lbs. per month. losing slowly means i'll keep it off (hopefully!)
-eat 10 meal salads per month...at least
-learn appropriate portion sizes
-exercise 100 minutes per week
-cook more

2. Money
-no shop January (this worked well for me back in the summer, and i'm hoping to do it at least 3 times this year)
-increase my amount going into savings every month
-take lunch/breakfast to work at least twice per week
-organize coupons better/buy more Sunday papers to help save more on essentials

3. Personal
-try 2 new recipes per month
-take either a cooking ot knitting class
-see at least one friend during the week
-cook dinner at least 3 times per week
-try one new restaurant per month

4. Travel: Cities I'd like to visit (hopefully at least a few of these!)
-New York City
-Amelia Island, FL (a given for Lydia's wedding in Feb!)
-Disney World/Orlando
-Beach...anywhere!
-Altoona, PA (Sarina promised me a VIP tour)
-Boston to see Emily
-London
-Raleigh (is a given)
-Winston-Salem (also a given for homecoming)

Feel free to share your own goals--or tell me if I've left out any good ones for myself!