Memorial Day Weekend Wrap Up: Kick Off Your Sunday Shoes Edition

This was a light work-out weekend, which was nice. I didn't have to run on Saturday, so I went to my beloved Iyengar yoga class. Afterwards, Lana & I drove to Anderson Road Beach for an open water swim. My first triathlon is in two weeks & it's open water, so I need the practice. That water was COLD.

Women be shopping. I had birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, so I bought the duvet I've had my eye on for oh, 5 years now. In addition to the birthday money, I had some Target gift cards, so I went with the Threshold duvet instead of the West Elm one. I also treated myself to fancy new Rifle Paper Co. thank you cards & my favorite candle from Anthropologie (thanks, Mom!).

John & I are in the midst of a heavy Thai Kitchen phase. We've always eaten there, but here lately, we're there at least once a week. This is our classic order: crispy thai basil chicken with a fried egg. I could eat it every day, & I almost am.

Caroline met me on the Trace Sunday to help me with shifting & descending. Usually when I ride on the Trace, I ride out for 45 minutes, turn around & ride back for 45 minutes. But Sunday, we rode the same 4-mile loop 4 times. It was constant climbing & descending. Good practice, but sweet Yeezus, my quads.

So good news, bad news. The good news is, I'm not terrible at riding my bike. The bad news is, my body & my bike don't match, which anyone who's seen me on my bike, already knows. My seat is too low, my knees are at the wrong angle & my handlebars are too far away from my body, possibly explaining the perma-claw my left hand has been in for 2 weeks. Next step: professional bike fitting.

After my 90-minute ride & 2-mile run, I rewarded myself with a mini Veronica Mars marathon (I'm in the middle of Season Two). After a few hours, my muscles started to atrophy, so I got up & put my new duvet on the bed. There are few things in life as taxing as shoving a down comforter into a duvet. But alas, I am not a quitter. Also? The duvet had ties in the corners to hold the comforter in place.

I like it! Our bedroom is the least finished room in our house & it makes me crazy. This is a huge first step. Now I just need to frame all the art I've bought for that room & decide on curtains. Ooh, & maybe replace those bedside lamps.

When I rode with my coach on Sunday, she complimented me on having good balance. We talked about how I've been practicing yoga since 2001 & that's probably why, etc. She said to feel free to add more yoga into my training schedule & that there's all kinds of free yoga on YouTube & OnDemand if I can't find time for a legit class.

Yesterday I performed a very scientific search for a video by Googling "yoga for runners" & doing the first video that came up. Shockingly, I liked the video & felt totally normal doing it at home. This is the video I did. It had a lot of hip openers & IT band stretches. I may look for a longer video, but this one did the trick.

I was real proud of myself for the yoga, especially on a rest day & ESPECIALLY on a holiday, so I made cookies. Of course I did. I made my usual chocolate chunk cookies courtesy of Crepes of Wrath. They're my standard chocolate chip cookies. I love them.

Because I'm a terrible person, I didn't go to the two Memorial Day pool party/cook-outs that I was invited to. Instead, I took off my pants (too many cookies), crawled into bed & watched Footloose & Grease, back to back. If you haven't re-watched Footloose as an adult, I highly recommend it. I was 8 years old when Footloose came out & it was one of the hallmark movies of my childhood. I had the soundtrack, which I'm probably going to buy on iTunes later today & listen to incessantly while daydreaming about 1984 Kevin Bacon.

I leave you with this, my favorite dance sequence from the movie. Stick with it, the real magic happens around 2:02. See you in my dreams, Ren McCormack.

Weekend Wrap Up: S'ghetti Edition

My Saturday started like it usually does, with yoga & strength training.  And yes, I did more dragon flags.  Back at home, it turned out to be a good mail day.  The ASOS dress I ordered came in, along with a bunch of stuff I ordered from Birchbox.  The dress isn't super flattering because it's a smock shape, but I like it.  The Birchbox stuff I got totally for free because I had so many Birchbox points.  Women be online shopping.

And P.S. - that bottle of Handmade lotion is TEENY.  It's about the size of a travel shampoo.  Not cool, Birchbox.  Not cool.

It was so nice outside on Saturday that I had a hard time staying at home.  I ran all of my usual Nashville West errands.  Saw Mike & Chrissi at Target & got to spend some time holding the world's biggest baby.  Still not ready to go home, I drove out to McKay.  I didn't find anything for me, but I got these ridiculous books for John.  Click through to Flickr to see the insanity that is The Book Of Survival.

The Oak Barrel half marathon is two weeks away, so yesterday was our last long, training run.  We met at Percy Warmer & ran the 11.2.  This was my second time running it & I had definitely built it up to be harder than it actually was.  Not a great finish time, but we walked some of the hills.  My knees buckled a little at the end, coming back downhill, so I stopped short.  I really wanted my watch to hit 11.2, but my knees were screaming, so I stopped.

I spent basically the rest of the day styling & restyling these Ikea shelves in our kitchen/dining room.  It all started with that basket.  I bought it last week at Southern Thrift for $3.99 & I needed to find it a home.  I'm kind of obsessed with knick knack styling.  I even have a Pinterest board for it.  Four hours & a lot of Pin-spiration later, this is the finished product.  I like it!

John & I eat at home almost every night & spend a lot of time finding & trying new recipes, but every now & then, you just need something old school.  Also, John's more likely to help me make it if it involves meat.  Voila, Sunday night s'ghetti!

Weekend Wrap Up: Bell Buckle Edition

Once a year, all of Tennessee & the top half of Alabama descend upon Bell Buckle, TN for the Bell Buckle Arts & Crafts Festival.  This festival has been going on for thirty years & according to the website, is known as one of the top 20 events in the south.  I don't know what that means, but it sounds important.

*I'm wearing this lipstick in Beso.

My mom has gone every year for as long as I can remember, but this year my sister & I went with her.  I had no idea what to expect, but it was 100x better than I anticipated.  First of all, it's HUGE.  We were there for 4+ hours & still didn't see it all.  It's obviously primarily arts & crafts, but there are also lots of antiques & thrift store type finds.

The weather was perfect.  It was overcast, cool & felt like fall.  Apparently most years it's still pretty hot outside (because Tennessee doesn't have a fall anymore!).  But this year it was perfect.  I felt like I bought a lot of stuff, but I only bought these 3 things.  That giant K is from an old theater in Kentucky.  I've wanted one of these giant letters for awhile now & while this one isn't exactly what I had in mind, it was just $20, so I bought it.  YOLO.

On Saturday afternoon, my friend Alexis came over to help me finish my gallery wall.  A week into it, I am literally unable to finish it.  Alexis did what everyone told me to do - cut out the shapes of everything & tape them up onto the wall.  What I assumed would take 2 hours, took 10 minutes.  So yeah, I totally should have done this a week ago.

*P.S. That's Alexis in the picture, so while I appreciate your compliments on my cute derriere, alas, it is not mine.

And here it is!  I think we did this in an hour.  Well, one week & one hour.  Thank you, Alexis!  I love it!  And John likes it, which I did not expect.  It really livens up our living room, which is what I wanted.  Hooray!

There are a million pictures of both Bell Buckle & my living room on Flickr.  Knock yourself out.

Weekend Wrap Up: Sub-30 Edition

John was out of town this weekend, so I decided to make use of my time by attempting a gallery wall.  Best laid plans... yada, yada, yada.  I took down all the pictures in our house & laid them on the floor downstairs where I could see everything in one place & start moving stuff into groups.  This is basically where the process stopped as I immediately became overwhelmed & unmotivated.  I had a lot of stuff to frame, so I distracted myself by going to Michael's.

Wandering around Micheal's, I remembered I bought a picture at Goodwill a year ago that I meant to stencil over, a la Young House Love, but never did because... I'm REALLY BAD AT CRAFTS.  Seven dollars in stencil supplies later, I decided to go for it.  Why not?

This project is on-going as this painting was professionally framed, which I didn't realize until I had to get the painting out & then I 1) sliced my finger off; 2) accidentally completely disassembled the frame & backing & have no idea how to put it back together.  So it's kind of finished?

I don't run a lot of 5K's anymore, but I always run the Germantown 5K Bier Run, which was this past Saturday.  It's funny, turns out you run faster when you lose 20 lbs.  Who knew?  I don't keep track of my 5K times, so I don't know what my fastest one is, but I've never been anywhere near a 30 minute finish time.  I'm usually a 12-minute mile & finish somewhere around 38 minutes (my first 5K finish time was 45 minutes).  I've been running a little faster lately, and not dying, so I figured I'd try to run a 10-minute mile & finish at 30 minutes, which would be a PR.  And I not only did it, I did it in under 30 minutes!  I mean, by 5 seconds, but whatever!  Baby's first sub-30!

Heidi set her Gamin to keep us at a 10:00 pace, but I averaged a 9:38 pace.  I still have no idea how I did it.  Well, aside from not talking.  Oh!  And my pants fell down & I unknowingly ran the first quarter mile with half of my butt showing.  So maybe the lack of butt fabric sped me up?  Who knows.  Yay, sub-30!

L to R:  Heidi, me, Sarah, Alicia, Melanie, Lana

The best part about this race is the free beer afterwards.  Thanks, Yazoo!  I had a million beers, got super sunburned & walked around the street festival with Lana & Jaime for a few hours, then went home & got back to work on my gallery wall.

Full Oktoberfest photostream here.  Click through for Elvis pugs (!!).

I desperately needed a second set of eyes, so Jaime came over to help me.  She helped me figure out what to put in the living room vs all the other rooms.  After she left, I hung the kitchen stuff & this awesome gold/brass ship I found at Goodwill for $4.99.

After a much needed disco nap, I rallied to meet my friend Shanna for a Predators home game.  I haven't been to a Preds game in forever & had a blast!  Shanna has season tickets & needed a seat partner for Saturday night's game.  I willingly obliged.  And the Preds won!  It was so much fun.

On Sunday, my little ladies running group met for brunch at The Southern & then I meandered to Green Hills to cash in a Cosmetic Market coupon.  Hello, Pumpkin Pie body wash from Philosophy!

My debit card was smoking, so I reined it in & went back home to Linda.  Speaking of, I was trying to take a picture of her laying in the yard to send to John & she took off running towards me right when I snapped it.  Action Linda!  Heh!

In conclusion:  my gallery wall is still not done, John is still out of town, Linda is inconsolable, & my hips still hurt from going HAM on Saturday.

Weekend Wrap Up: I'm Still Shopping Edition

This weekend was low-key.  On Friday night, I stayed in & finished my library book, Inferno by Dan Brown.  I don't even remember requesting this book, but apparently I did.  At first, I thought, I'm not going to read this, why did I even request this, but then I started reading it & got sucked in.  It's not amazing, but if you're into Dan Brown, you won't be disappointed.

On Saturday, I had good intentions of getting up & going to yoga, but then someone emailed me a 50% off Old Navy coupon, so I went shopping instead.  Namaste.  I recently cleaned out my closets & officially own basically nothing anymore.  None of my clothes fit.  Over the past few years, I've tried to cut back on how much I buy at Target & Old Navy because the quality is SO BAD, but I need stuff that fits now & that I won't mind getting rid of later if I get smaller.  So I applied my 50% off coupon towards a pair of skinny army pants & a graphic tee to wear with my Madewell pleated skirt & leather jacket, a la this.

Back at home, where I can't buy anything, I unpacked the Halloween box John got out of the attic for me & commenced Halloween-ing up the place.  I still need to Halloween up the front porch, but this weekend's weather wasn't conducive to gardening, so the mums & pumpkins will come later.

In every marriage, there are instances where you don't see eye to eye.  Our top two are vegetarian meals & holiday decor.  John doesn't understand why either exist.  Having spent the day covering every surface in our house with pumpkins & skulls, I was operating at a surplus in the marital ledger of power.  John decided to balance things out by taking us to see a movie about space.  In 3D, which I can't see.  I don't do Opry Mills on a Saturday night, so we went to our favorite secret Bellevue theater & saw Gravity in "real D", whatever that means.  The movie was fun-ish; balance was restored; the Baldwins live to fight another holiday.

P.S. If you've seen Gravity, you have to read Neil deGrasee Tyson's #Gravity tweets.

My morning run got rained out yesterday, so I caught up on the important business of magazine reading & DVR watching.  Then I made two soups - one for us & one for my friend Katie who just had a baby.  After delivering the soup & running some errands, we settled in at home with bowls of chili & Derek on Netflix.  We started watching it last weekend & finished it last night.  I cried at the end of the series, which kind of surprised me.  That damn Coldplay song got me.  Anyway, it's a really good show & with only seven 24-minute episodes, it's not a huge time commitment.  I recommend it.

Weekend Wrap Up: Baldwin Family Bike Ride Edition

 

On Friday night, I went to a birthday dinner for my friend Dawn.  Dawn & I met in Seventh Grade & were best friends & roommates until I moved to NYC & she moved to Japan in 2000.  We eventually fell out of touch with each other, but became reunited last year & now live down the street from each other.  Of course we do.

On Saturday, I did my first two-a-day with Heidi.  We ran 3 miles, then swam for 30 minutes, which was apparently enough to reawaken the sugar devil.  I made these chocolate chunk cookies from my favorite food blog, Crepes of Wrath, & they were delicious!

If you follow me on Instagram, then you already know about this new $10 Pulaski chair.  While the cookies were baking, I re-worked the furniture in our living room.  I took the orange chair out & put the $10 chair in.  I'm worried the chevron chair & red ottoman don't go with the bar cart & $10 chair, but I don't have anywhere else to put them.  And I like them.

The living room has become a catch-all for all of my favorite finds, but is that a bad thing?  Also, this picture reminds me that I need to replace the Ikea rug & coffee table we bought 4 years ago as temporary pieces & never replaced.  Oy.

While I was Donna Reed-ing it up at home, John went to Grimey's to celebrate Record Store Day.  This has been a very good year for John Baldwin Mastering.  While the big project he's been working on all year isn't out yet, everything else is & was for sale on Saturday.  He had a blast.

Yesterday was the first time in the 9 year history of Kim & John that we exercised together.  Now that I have my own bike, John has his back, so we can ride together.  We met our friends Katie & Rollum at Wave Country to ride to the Percy Priest dam & back.  I padded up like I was going to ride the Tour de France, but John just went in his every day clothes, including the BLAZER he brought in case he needed it.  Ya'll.

I didn't think to bring two bottles of water, so halfway through the ride, we stopped at Target for John to get something to drink.  Naturally, he got a Coke.  And yes, he put it in his water bottle cage & rode with it.  But seriously, he did great.  For someone who hasn't worked out, possible ever, he rode over 16 miles yesterday, IN JEANS.  Respect.

Oh, & P.S. - my new bike is awesome!  OMG, it's such a huge difference riding a road bike after riding John's 100 lb mountain bike all last year.  And I can shift it!  I love my bike!

Weekend Wrap Up: Fox Pup Edition

On Friday, I went wedding dress shopping with Mary Katherine.  Not only did every dress fit her, they all looked good on her!  I explained that this is not everyone's experience.  I couldn't even get in most wedding dresses & the sales associates would hold the dress up in front of me & tell me to imagine what I would look like in it.  True story.  Mary Katherine however, has a body made for wedding dresses & is going to be a GORGEOUS bride!

On Saturday, my Oak Barrel training group ran our last training run before the half marathon this Saturday.  No more runs, whoo hoo!  We ran a short, flat, 60 minute run & then re-fueled at Bread & Co. before parting ways for Easter weekend.

For dinner, we met our pals Keith & Nicole at Thai Phooket.  We tried to eat at The Pharmacy, but they don't take reservations & were on a 90 minute wait.  A little much for a restaurant John swears is no better than Sonic.

Yesterday was the first Sunday since November that I didn't have to wake up & run a long run.  In honor of this, I gave myself the day off of MyFitnessPal, too.  We had leftover buttermilk from last week's hot chicken, so I decided to make buttermilk pancakes.  Um, yeah, I did!  They were delicious.  I used this recipe.  Also, the app I'm using to put font on my pictures is called Over.  More here.

Sometimes I get irrationally mad at inanimate objects in our house.  The most recent victim of my wrath is our shower curtain.  A friend talked me into this shower curtain years ago when it was on sale at Urban.  I've never liked it.  We got a $50 Target gift card for Easter, so I bought a new shower curtain (& rug).  I maybe need to iron it & I definitely need to re-paint the bathroom, but my shower curtain wrath has subsided for now.  In related news, if anyone wants an Orla Kiely knock-off shower curtain from Urban Outfitters, it's yours.

When I said I took yesterday off, I mean I TOOK YESTERDAY OFF.  I watched two movies (The Imposter & Argo), drank a milkshake & then John & I drove around looking at houses we can't afford.  While we were driving around, we came upon two cars stopped in the middle of a street, looked & there were 4 fox pups playing on the side of the road.  They were soaking wet & covered in mud, but they were having a fox blast.

When we drove back by, they were climbing in & out of this drain pipe.  John rolled down his window & howled at them.  They were climbing all over each other to watch him & then they started making these cute, little fox noises back at him.  Foxes!  We also saw two groundhogs, but they weren't as photogenic.

John's been itching to make carnitas, like the real way, with lard.  I told him he could do it yesterday on my day off.  They were delicious!

Re-Styled Entry Way Table

Months ago I found this mirror at a thrift store.  I thought it would be a nice way to tie into the bar cart in our living room.

This is what the entry way looked like pre-mirror.  Well, actually this is what it looked like way before. I apparently don't have any recent pictures.  Whatever.

Over the weekend, John hung the mirror for me, but everything I had on the table below it needed to be re-worked.  Yeah, not good.  Good thing I collect knick knacks.  Let the re-styling commence!

Here's the after!  I'm pretty pleased with it, especially since I was able to walk around the house & find everything I needed.  I guess sometimes being a chotsky hoarder comes in handy.

Here's a close-up of the table & a breakdown of the items used:

Mirror:  thrifted
Silhouette print:  thrifted
Books:  Decoded & The American President
Votive candle holder:  Target
Enchanted buck measuring cups:  Anthropologie
Gold peacock:  thrifted
White Queen Victoria silhouette:  thrifted
White vase:  thrifted
Owl vase:  Z Gallerie

Weekend Wrap Up: The Shins Edition

I met my friend Lana on Saturday morning for a bike ride.  Because I'm new to riding, I don't have cycling clothes yet, & in fact, am still riding in a borrowed pair of tri shorts.  It was 46 degrees outside on Saturday morning.  I covered up & layered as much as I could, but I still rode 14 miles in 46 degrees in shorts.  I warmed up a little at Barista, but it was short-lived.

Back at home, & still freezing, I jumped into bed to warm up.  I was playing on my iPad when John came stomping upstairs with a box that looked like it had been to hell & back.  It was my purse!  This purse, nay satchel, is the most stressful, frustrating purchase I've ever made, but it's here, it's beautiful & I love it.

On Saturday night, we went to dinner with Katie, Dave & Alexis, & Keith & Nicole.  We tried for Lockeland Table, but didn't get in & went to Eastland Cafe instead.  And you all know the best part of eating at Eastland Cafe - going across the street to Jeni's afterwards for dessert!  Pumpkin 5-Spice, you complete me.

Yesterday John helped me snazz up our front porch a little.  I usually plant a bunch of mums & put them on our front stairs, but last year they all blew over & my pots broke.  So this year, I just planted a bunch in one big planter up by the front door.  Take that, wind!

I bought this mirror months ago at the Goodwill in Lawrenceburg for $10.  My friend Jaime has the exact same mirror, but she paid $80.  Score!  It's super heavy, but John rigged up the back with some heavy duty wire & hung it for me.  You can't see the bar cart, but it's in the same room & they really go well together.  I need to style that table, but I like it!

Rounding out the 2012 Jaime & Kim Concert Series, we went to see The Shins last night at Ryman Auditorium.  To avoid getting held hostage again, they held a Hatch print for me.  I love it!

I saw The Shins at the Ryman during their last tour & we saw part of their show at Bonnaroo this year, but last night blew everything else out of the water.  I love The Shins & they put on a great show last night.  Granted, it's hard to put on a bad show at the Ryman, but well done, Shins!