Knock it Off!

I love knocking stuff off.  I'm sure there's something wrong with that.  But I love it.  I always have.  I have boxes of beads and shells from making hemp jewelry when I was in middle school and early high school.  I didn't want to pay $10 (which was a lot to a 12 year old back then) for a necklace I could make for about $3.  Plus I got the satisfaction of knowing that I made it.  I think I've always been very analytical.  I can look at stuff and figure out what went into making it.  I've always been good at spatial things, like geometry.  I think that was one of my favorite classes in high school and I did really well in physics in college.  I just like figuring stuff out.  And it's awesome when all of that combines into something more useful than what time two trains will collide. 

All that being said.  I found this dress at Belk a few weeks ago.

Source: belk.com via Evan on Pinterest



(Yes, I succumbed to Pinterest, I feel like a sell out)

But I did find this dress in real life at Belk.  There were just a few problems.  1) It was in the junior's department.  Some things I can get away with in the junior's dept. like T-shirts.  Not dresses.  2) Coming from the junior's dept. it was very short and see through.  People complain about what hoochie mama's today's teenagers are becoming.  Part of the problem is that mamas are buying the hoochie mama clothes for their teenagers.  OK, getting off the soap box now.  3) The print is all wrong for me.  Petite girls should wear petite prints.  Not giant butterflies gracing their naughty bits. 

So I studied the dress in the store while the Clinique lady wondered what I was doing to the poor hanging half mannequin thing and remembered it for the day I found the perfect fabric.  Little did I know it wouldn't be long before I found it. 

I found this wonderful cotton knit at Hancock for $3 a yard!  $3!  And I used less than 2 yards.  So that's a new dress for less than $6.  It kind of has an Indian feel to the print.  But it's in dominantly berry color.  I love berry color.  And I got some practice matching stripes.  I'm wearing a long sleeve T-shirt under it because it was cold that day and I couldn't wait to wear my  new dress, but the little white panel in front is sewn in so I won't have to wear a cami underneath in the summer.  And the fabric is such better quality than what's in the stores. 

I'm in love.

So my next knock off project is in the works.  Because I think it's senseless to pay $200 on sale for a bag just because it says Michael Kors.  Did he sign it?  Sew it together himself?  Guaratee it free of defects in workmanship?  Write you a personal thank you note for shopping his brand?  Even if he did, there's no sense in spending that kind of money for a bag that will go out of style next season.  Just sayin'. 

Supporting the March of Dimes!

Hey everyone!  This is going to be a short-ish post with a lot of horn blowing advertising.  BUT...it's for a good cause.  I have a friend from church who has an adorable baby named Ruthie.  Ruthie was born at only 24 weeks and spent her first 3.5 months in the NICU.  Ruthieis doing much better now, but sadly, Jay, Gina and Ruthie aren't the first family that has had to go through this and they won't be the last. 

The March of Dimes aims to help more babies be born healthy and full term.  Gina will be walking in and Ruthie stroller riding in a Greenville March of Dimes event in October.  I'm helping her to raise money with this little cutie:

This is the Ruthie Bag.  Made with colors and prints that Ruthie loves.  It's small, but very versatile and sells for $15 in Evan Becky's Gift Shop.  Good news is, that $10 of that will go to Gina's efforts to raise money for her walk.

So go check it out!  You'd be getting a cute bag and helping babies! 

1st Day to 5K

I honestly can't recall if I've ever said anything about my excercise habits on my blog.  I know I've mentioned a few things about losing some weight, but not much more than that.  So here goes.

I've struggled with my weight since I was in middle school when I started drinking Diet Dr. Pepper.  I started getting chunky and just never lost it.  I loved eating too much.  I would try one thing after another and nothing really worked for me being a teenager with self esteem issues and no will power.  I got up to 135 lbs. by the middle of my junior year of high school.  You're probably laughing now because that's probably a healthy weight for a lot of people.  I'm 5'1".  If I gain 2.5 lbs, I look like I've gained 5.  So I finally decided to get the weight off by eating lots of small meals and dairy products.  It didn't help that I was running around like a wild thing between band practices.  I finally got down to 110 by my senior year.

I gained some in college, lost some elsewhere, gained a lot after getting married, lost some more working 2nd shift then gained some more after starting my new job.  My weight rarely stays steady.  I know that's not exactly good, but I'm trying my best to keep it in the healthy range. 

Although I look healthy enough though, I rarely exercise.  I hate it.  I cannot understand someone who loves to exercise (like Hubs).  There is nothing fun about working yourself until you are sick, and then hurting for the next 4 days because of it.  I get no self satisfaction out of it.  More than exercising, I hate running.  I was always the kid who ended the game of tag because I couldn't run for long enough to make the game interesting.  I was the girl who was judged unfairly in PE because I couldn't run constantly for 20 minutes whereas my peers on the championship Cross Country team could run for the whole hour and a half if they wanted to.  I still feel like I'm mocked when I say that I can't run a whole, or maybe even half a lap around the 1/4 mile track at the high school. Especially when my friends are always posting on Facebook how they just had a great 3 mile run.  I would love to be able to run, but I can't.

I have a bad taste in my mouth about running.

And considering my record with running, I wasn't about to go and spend money on a "Couch Potato to 5K" program.  Especially since I've noticed that "Couch Potato to 5K" probably means "Someone who already can run at least a mile non stop to someone who wants to win a 5K."

Then I started reading about interval training.  If you know nothing of interval training like I did, it's basically when you walk/jog at a slow speed for a period of time, then jog/run at a faster speed for a period of time and just alternate between those speeds.  At first I thought I'd bombed it again.  I found a program that the slow speed was faster than I could run anyway, so I knew I couldn't keep that pace.  But while trying and failing at that attempt, I did find a song in my arsenal that was comfortable to walk to.  So I put my phone on repeat and kept the beat.  Being a marching band dork, this pleased me, a lot.  So after that, I went in search of songs with similar beats per minute (bpm).  I was fully prepared to buy some new music just so I could keep myself entertained, but I found this:

      Podrunner Intervals 1st Day to 5K

It's a free 9 week series of music downloads that follows the 1st Day to 5K plan.  Just download the music to your music device, hit play and keep up with the beats per minute (each beat = 1 step).  It's not music from the latest top 20.  It's actually not music that many people have even heard.  Kind of techno-y, tribal-y, funky-y.  But the important thing is that it makes me exercise.  And I can do it.  I actually just speed walk the whole time.  I'm so short and my steps are so quick I can walk fast and not have to run.  I actually cover more ground walking fast that trying to jog at that pace, and I can't stand to see someone "jogging" when I can walk faster, then hearing them say "What a great run!"  Isn't the purpose of running to get somewhere faster than if you are walking?  Ok, sorry for that caveat.  It just had to be said.

Anyway.  I've been at it for two weeks now, and I feel so much better.  I'm not sore because I'm walking, something I do all the time, and I don't feel like I'm dying from the invisible knife that stabs me in the side when I try to run.  Yet I'm still getting the cardio exercise that our bodies need.  And I'm gradually covering more ground in less time.  I probably won't be ready to enter a 5K race at the end of the program since I'm walking.  That would be quite embarassing to step off the line power walking.  But I'm one step closer to having better cardio endurance.  And I get to spend some time with Hubs walking the 1/8 mile track at our local fire dept. 

And maybe I've given someone else the motivation to start doing something healthy by writing this post.