Frame Your Life

 I know in the photography world, there's kind of a grassroots battle to keep film alive. Meaning an abandonment of digital photography and a full embrace of the true origin of this great craft. And certainly, the argument for using film has its wonderful merits.

However. I cannot afford to shoot in film in this juncture of my life. With the amount of shutterbugging (I shy away from the term 'photographer' wholly and fully as I truly believe it is overused by people who own a nice camera and thus, start calling themselves that) I do, I simply cannot imagine spending money to print each and every shot taken. The main problem with film and my picture-taking habits is that I just simply take way too many shots of a lot of mundane details. And I love how cheap, easy and free it is to just instantly delete the ones I don't like!  

My first framing party at the new place.

Speaking of, printing a bunch of pictures and keeping picture frames updated in my house and my craft present in my life is always an ongoing goal of mine. Ideally, I'd like to print pictures about every 4 months but (like most things) that tends to get off track. And everytime I do take time to exhaustively print pictures, I realize the following:

1. I take soooooooooo many photos...
2. Printing photos is expensive and incredibly time-consuming.

However, it feels good to get a few things on the wall in the new place. I love the memories that only your own images can provide:

^Always my fave wall in the house. Remember Reggie the Horse?? I still love him.

^The 'C' was mine as a single lady but now that I live with my non-C named fiance, the 'C' is obviously for my dog!

^Door leading to the back patio. Framed a few pics above which I just love.

^Left to Right: a) The Boy and our Pup b) A picture I took in Siena, Italy (where my brother studied abroad) c) Chandler at happy hour d) The Boy and his Mom at our wedding venue! e) The Boy in Dubai on a business trip

 Doesn't look like much but it basically took FOR-EV-VER to do.

And so for that small feat: I am proud!

April 13-18, 2014: Workout Check-In

 Like I mentioned earlier... fitness has been the name of my game lately. With a looming wedding and my 2012 fat year still scaring me sh*tless, I've slowly made healthy living a hugeeeee priority in my life: I food prep every Sunday (more on that in another post), I workout at LEAST 4-days a week and I take inventory of everything I eat during the work week.

The funny thing about fitness is that once you get into the swing of it (repeatedly going, pushing yourself) the idea of not going or putting in the time is unheard of: It just feels SO good and you can't wait to get there! The problem for me arises if I let it go awhile... once the Couch Potatoitis has kicked-in, it's hard to want to go back after a couple weeks. So I've always tried to motivate myself enough to just keep going as to not get into that lull because I swear that working out 5 days in a row is a lot easier than working out one haphazard day here and there.

So as part of my whole 'document your year!' plan that has me back on this blog :) I decided to also try to post how I worked out last week to kinda track my progress and keep motivated!

Last Week's Exercise:

On the treadmill at my office gym. I hate the treadmill more than life itself  (it's so hard to not just watch the clock) but I figure I can suck it up for 20 minutes as long as I have a good playlist!

Sunday, April 13th: 

• 2.5 Mile Run around the Pearl District 

• 3 sets of stairs on the Broadway Bridge

Monday, April 14th:
-Lunch workout at my office-

• 20 minutes of sprints on the treadmill (1 minute at about 4.8, 1 minute at 8.5+, repeat for 20 minutes)

• 15 lateral raises | 15 20-lb free weights overhead | 30 jumping jacks
  (repeat entire cycle 5 times)
• 15 leg-press | 30 crunchies | 15 back extensions
  (repeat entire cycle 5 times)

Tuesday, April 15th

• 60-minute spinning class at the gym after work

Wednesday, April 16th 
-Lunch workout at my office-

• 20 minutes of sprints on the treadmill (1 minute at about 4.8, 1 minute at 8.5+, repeat for 20 minutes)
• 15 leg press | 15 20-lb free weights overhead | 30 jumping jacks
  (repeat entire cycle 5 times)
• 30 jumping jacks | 8 push-ups | 30 crunchies | 15 back extensions
  (repeat entire cycle 5 times)

Thursday, April 17th
-Lunch workout at my office-

• 20 minutes of sprints on the treadmill (1 minute at about 4.8, 1 minute at 8.5+, repeat for 20 minutes)

• 10 minutes on the Elliptical

• 10 minutes of various free weights

Friday, April 18th
Rest day aka 'I wanted to shop at lunch instead of go to the gym' day
Took the puppy on a long walk!

Such a better workout when I can watch the best show ever to keep my eyes off the clock!

Have a fabulous day!

Weekend Summary.

 Sunday bath time for the cutest shelter puppy that ever was: 

Happy Hour:

Always Order Wine ... the memoirs of a boring person

The cutest puppy face of all time.

My barky best friend.

Time with pals:

Jordan & Caitlin at Bridgeport

Moscow Mules at The Fields

Homemade pizza at Jordan's/by Jordan

The Handsomest

Handsomes:

 Food prep (#caitielady08foodprep on Instagram):

Mid food-prep mess

Meal for the week!Breakfast: Plain Greek Yogurt, strawberries, raspberries, kiwis + hard-boiled eggs | Lunch: Purple Cabbage, Celery, Bell Peppers, peanuts + Chicken & homemade peanut sauce over a bed of kale and spinach | Snacks: Apples + Oranges, Veggie Bags + Hummus, Pretzels | Dinner (not pictured): Korean Tacos with pulled chicken, cabbage, cilantro and kimchi |

 The new Kitchen Island in our teeny downtown kitchen:

The cutest

Well done!!!

 Hope your Monday is not as terrible as it always is :)

The Return.

 October 8, 2013 was the last time I posted on this here blog. Even to me that seems really hard to believe. Hard to believe when I think about how much joy it brought me in the past. I loved my end-of-day routine: Climb into a cozy spot on the couch or nestle into my bed and scribe about my life. So narcissistic and lovely...

But on the flip side, I can easily see WHY it all got off course. Life just got way too crazy and when you have zero time, you have to cut something and unfortunately, I am unable to cut 'chores' or 'work on Fridays'... so the Blog had to take a nice, long nap.

However, I am far more settled than I was back on October 8, 2013 and here's why:

• I got engaged (!!!)
• I got a new job.
• I work downtown now and take the streetcar into work (which I love- working in the suburbs is the pits.).
• I moved apartments and now live in the awesome Pearl District.
• I got a dog (!!)
• I lost over 30 lbs and have become obsessed with fitness and healthy food (and when I say 'obsessed with fitness and healthy food' I mean Monday-Friday, obviously. I still weekend like a champ! Life's too short to not indulge.)

My Son and Me: April 12, 2014

Anyway, a few months ago- my nice camera broke. I felt okay and figured I would buy one in a few months and save some money. But about a month ago, with my growing puppy buried in my lap and my engagement moving full speed ahead, I realized that this was a year I would want to remember forever and it was just passing me by. The memory hoarder in me panicked a little bit (and got a DSLR).

So as a present to myself, I am going to come back and begin again, certainly not every day but I'm shooting for 2 times a week in the beginning to get the juices flowing. And unlike the fragmented posts towards the end of last year: I actually have time and I actually really want to. I'm in quite a different place than I was on October 8, 2013.

So hi Blog. Hello, Blog. I missed you. Giddy-on-up!