Thankful Things Thursday

I'm one honors night and a short meeting away from summer vacation! I can't even believe it's almost here again. I thought it was never going to come. In honor of summer, here are a few things I'm thankful for today!
1. School being out! I like my job, but during these summer months I really love my job. I am so thankful to have time to re-energize and rejuvenate. I'm going to have to make a summer bucket list to ensure I get all kinds of things done. I just love that flexibility!

2. Getting back to the gym. After a week off for my Vegas Vacation, it felt good to get back and tick off some treadmill running and a BodyPump class. Working out makes me feel oh so good, so I felt out of sorts with my only working out being out on the town at night in Vegas. Ha!
3. Cute dresses

I love the current grouping of BCBGeneration dresses at different websites right now. This one I got to wear to a wedding when it was on sale at Macy's last week. My wardrobe needs some serious spicing up, and dresses at less than $75 a pop will set me well on the way to get there. Not to mention the ones from Express and F21 that I've gotten for much less than that! Bring on summer! I'm ready...
4. Fresh FruitI love summer for all the fresh fruit that comes with it. Thank you sale on grapes, in-season peaches, bright red strawberries, and heavy delicious watermelon! I could eat fruit as my only sustenance for days on end. There is such simple pleasure in summer fruits.
5. Gratitude App!

Like many other people I've read in the blogging world, I need to keep my life in perspective. I think the late 20's period of time is so funky as far as figuring out where you belong. We're too old to act like kids (says society), but we're too young to be full-blown adults (say the same people). And sometimes I think this time makes it difficult to remember all the wonderful things we have going on. I love that this app has you write down 5 things everyday that make you happy. Kristin told me about it, I've done it for the past three days, and I love looking back and remembering what makes me happy each day instead of lingering on things that don't. Try it out and see.
 6. My trip to Chicago next Thursday-Sunday for a wedding!

I was there August 2011 to visit my friend Laura, and I'm excited to head back. I'm hoping to get to see Laura again (she was in Vegas) as well as meetup with Meghan for a SoulCycle class that she raves about. Tim and his friend Josh have already planned out all kinds of activities they would like for us to do, so I'm kind of along for the ride on this one. Since I've been a number of times, I'll let him take the reigns on this one. 
7. My mom coming in town Sunday

from our engagement party in December

She and I are going to get a bunch of wedding stuff done, do my hair and makeup trial, do a dress fitting, meet with the florist, and I'm sure she'll drum up some other stuff. She also helps me get my butt in gear with organizing. Lord knows I'll have a spotless house by the time she leaves because she hates just sitting around.

8. July 21st...

It's coming! It's coming! My wedding! Ah! Which means my honeymoon is coming!! We picked! I'll tell you soon!

9. New Goals!

Our monthly linkup will be up tomorrow! Wrap up May goals and create June goals! Linkup tomorrow. Grab a button on the left!

My Las Vegas Bachelorette Weekend!

My bachelorette weekend was beyond words amazing. There's absolutely nothing that I would have changed. One of my college girlfriends, and bridesmaids, Kim planned a lot of it, and she did an amazing job!
I flew out Thursday evening with a girlfriend from Tampa, Jen. We had a connecting flight, and it was such a long evening. When we landed, though, I had my first surprise of the weekend! Tim (and Jen's husband Josh) had gotten us a limo to take from the airport to the hotel!

And then after a quick pit stop...I'm sure you have no idea where...we arrived at The Cosmopolitan! It is such an absolutely amazing hotel! Bri, another college girlfriend, had decorated the room. It was another surprise (of many more to come). And even though it was late, we still headed out on the town! Ghostbar and Moon at The Palms.

And Tim and Josh had sent us another surprise!
I won't go into details on the rest of the weekend, but I'll overload you with pictures. Suffice it to say that it was beyond words amazing, and I'm so thankful to have such special friends. They arrived throughout the day on Friday, and when I got up to the room on Friday after a pool day, they had set up wine glasses Kim had made, my bachelorette sash, feather boas for everyone, and glittery itineraries!
And along the way I received a wonderful basket from another bridesmaid, Blair, who couldn't come because she is in Hawaii celebrating medical school graduation. My friend Wendy sent us two bottles of champagne at dinner on Friday night. It was so so so special.

And for the rundown of the rest of the weekend:

I will never ever forget it. Dancing, eating, playing with girlfriends. I am so blessed and lucky to have so many people who care so much about me. 
And we had a ball! I put up the pictures that I was sure people wouldn't mind me sharing. I can't wait to help plan and go on these girls' parties! They sure set the bar high! I didn't want it to end...Good thing I have the wedding to look forward to!

StitchFix Review

I'm back from my bachelorette weekend in Las Vegas! And what a weekend it was. I'm going to filter through some pictures and do a recap. But first, and quickly, I wanted to post about the box I received from StitchFix as well as my thoughts since I posted about it last week.
In case you didn't read last week's post, StitckFix is a company that charges $20 to send you 5 items of clothing that suit your tastes. You can keep 0-5 of the pieces, and whatever you don't like you send back in a prepaid envelope that you can put back in your mailbox. If you keep something, you get $20 off for the styling fee you paid, but if you don't keep anything you don't get the styling fee back.
Here are the items that I received. I'm posting them all so you can see them. Some fit better than others, and my thoughts of each piece are under each photo.

Here is how they arrived, packaged neatly and nicely, with each item specially tagged with outfit ideas.

These earrings I really wasn't impressed with. They were charging $28 for them, so they're definitely going back.

This BCBGeneration dress was okay. It fit kind of funny. I probably wouldn't have posted a picture online had I not wanted to share the whole box with you, as it's a bit tight in the bottom half. I do have a newfound love for BCBGeneration I'm going to have to post about, though. I love it! This dress was $68.

I just loved this top when I pulled it out of the box. It fit well enough, and the back was so cute; the problem was that it was super see through, and any tank top underneath would have taken away from the cute straps. I wanted to love it, but at $77 it's going back. It was from Aryn K.

Interestingly enough, this dress I didn't like at all coming out of the box. I didn't like it that much once on, but I was fairly surprised that I liked it more than I thought I would. It was Toi et Moi, and it's $143. Not a keeper.

This top is also Aryn K, and it was the only piece I debated keeping. It didn't photograph well, but it was fairly cute and 100% silk. It's $75, and I've actually decided to send it back now.
Overall I was really pleased with the whole service. It came quickly, had very quality brands and items, and has nice ease of shipment. I would hate to have to take it somewhere to drop it off, but since I don't I'll definitely try another box again soon.
I love that it gets me out of my comfort zone of trying things, and I'm guessing I'll keep a thing or two in the next shipment. They did well picking out a variety of items as well as keeping the pricepoints where I asked. The shirts were a bit high, but I was pleased with the dresses. I will absolutely order another box from them. They did a great job with sizing, but I definitely don't think any one person would have perfectly fit all 5 of these items. There was some variation by brand.
I hope you enjoyed the review, and if you want to try it out, would you consider doing so through my link? I get a referral credit if you order a box to try it! If you do, let me know what you think of it. I love the idea and wish I'd thought of it!!

Wish I'd thought of that...

I'm constantly thinking of ideas that I would love to turn into a business, and while some of them seem plausible, there hasn't been one yet that I've been ready to put forth the kind of effort necessary to succeed. I used to sell Stella & Dot, and I enjoyed the experience but wanted to really be able to work for myself fully. I'm still coming up with something, and I'm sure one day I'll be able to say that I have a side business of my own.

In the mean time, there are so many people and companies coming up with the best concepts that I'm always wishing I'd thought of. Don't you hate looking at something and wondering why you weren't the one to put the wheels in motion? Things like Groupon, BaubleBar, ShoeMint/JewelMint, BirchBox. Why didn't I come up with this idea of a deal site or a monthly subscription service.

The one I've just hear about more recently that I just couldn't wait to share with you is a company called StitchFix. The basic concept is that you sign up to receive a delivery of 5 pieces of clothing or accessories, and you from that can then keep what you like and send back what you don't. It's not monthly in the sense that you have to remember to cancel it; you can simply schedule it to occur when you want to receive a new "fix" as they call it.

You fill in all the information about your size, your style preferences, color favorites, and more. Then, when you want, they'll charge you $20 and ship you a box of goodies. I've signed up to receive my first one and can't wait! I found out about it from Hayley while I was perusing her blog, and I instantly signed up. I'm constantly wishing I had new things in my closet, but I always look at the same old same old when I go shopping and looking online.

This seems like exactly what I need to mix things up a bit. If you keep something, the $20 is credited to the item(s) that you keep. 

Go to Style Fix's website to sign up. They're in beta right now so will add you to a wait list, but it took me about a day to get off of it. They're not sponsoring this post, but if you sign up through my link I think it might get you off the waiting list faster (along with getting me referral credit).

week in review

Most of the time I and other people do weekends in review since we usually blog through the week. I, since I've been absent lately and am trying to start blogging again, thought I'd do a week in review!
What have I been up to this week?
...I've been working out, like usual, and focusing a lot on running faster instead of farther (although I'll talk more on that in a few seconds). I started with the Tone It Up HIIT workouts from SELF Magazine, and since then I've been running at a faster pace. I will always remember the saying, "You have to run fast to run fast." I broke 25 minutes on a treadmill 3.1 on Wednesday and didn't stop there. I ended up running 4 miles at an 8:07 pace.

...Tim and I went to see The Avengers. Have you seen it yet? I really liked it! I'm not really an action movie type of girl, but I actually thought this one was interesting and easy to follow, and it kept me hooked. 

...We mailed out most of our wedding invitations and have already gotten some responses! It's so much fun to check the mail every day to find out who is coming! It's one of the things I look forward to most each day. I'm going to keep them all to remember. We got the invitations from Minted, and I just love them so so much.
...I ordered two new working out tank tops that I am obsessed with from Firedaughter Clothing on etsy.  But don't tell Tim. He said I don't need anymore workout gear. Tell me you don't love these things.

I got the run far run fast in that purple color, but I got the nothing will stop me in black with neon yellow ink. I love that she'll customize them to your request.

I can't wait for them to come!

...Today at school was field day. During the day there was an hour where we could volunteer to run different fun sessions to fill time. I volunteered to do friendship bracelets. Here's the one that I chose to make during the time. The kids had a great time! The tutorial is on the blog Honestly...WTF.

And tomorrow I'm running the Miles for Moffitt 5 miler to raise money for cancer research. My goal is to run faster than an 8:30 pace overall. It's a lofty goal, but I think with the training I've been putting in to speed it's doable. 

Other than that it's a weekend of chores, errands, and just relaxing. I had such a wonderful day today that I'm in a great mood!

Go for the Goal! April/May

It's been a while. Things are going just fine; I just needed a break from blogging.
That, and my life has been completely and utterly taken over by trying to make extra money, plan a wedding, and get into wedding shape all at the same time. It's actually all been working well, though.
But for the monthly goal linkup with Lori and Meghan...I'm very late. I apologize immensely. 
Here is my follow up for my April goals:

1. Save $400. It's a lot less this month for me because I have a lot of stuff I'm paying for trip-wise. I hope I can even accomplish this much to be honest. (SUCCESS! Did it!)

2. Starting today, track my eating in MyFitnessPal every day. I'm getting in shape, but I'm not losing weight. (SUCCESS for part of the month...but MAJOR success in that I lost 5.5 pounds this month!)

3. Use my Aveda hair growth spray twice every day and take Biotin daily. (SUCCESS on the Biotin...sort of success on the spray).

4. Do 3 HIIT workouts per week along with my normal working out. (SUCCESS!)

5. Organize my closet and go through clothing to keep/giveaway. (FAIL.)

6. Run at least 10 miles at least twice. (FAIL. But I have worked out like a machine...just not in distance running.)

7. Cook dinner at least 3 nights per week all month. (SUCCCESS! They haven't been huge meals, but I've don it!)

And my May goals:1. PR in the 5 miler I'm running next weekend.2. Follow through with the Tone It Up Plan until my dress fitting June 6th.3. Lose AT LEAST 5 more pounds.4. Save $500.5. Post on my blog at least 3 times a week.6. Continue working out 5-6 times per week for at least an hour.