I Am Weak

 

 

See those? Those are the Kendal Knot Wedge by American Eagle at Payless. Those are not my usual shoe. I’m a ballet flats, Toms, running shoe kind of girl. I’m klutzy and have a hard enough time walking in a straight line barefoot.

So why am I showing these to you? Because I love them. I first saw them on a fashion board I visit – they were posted by someone as an option similar to Kate Middleton’s wedges she was wearing the day after the Royal Wedding. For some reason I fell in love with Kate’s shoes – and my wallet fell for this (much) cheaper option. But I resisted. Clearly I could tell that these shoes were not for me. I mean just looking at that wedge makes me feel wobbly. So I tried to push them out of my head.

But it didn’t work. I didn’t run right out to Payless – mainly because I almost never go to the mall. But they were still in my head. So yesterday after Doug had gone to work and I was heading out to the grocery store I decided to stop by the mall and try these on – fully thinking that I’d try them on and realize it just wasn’t a match made in heaven.

So I stopped. And then I hunted for a shoe that would fit. Apparently I’m losing most of my weight in my feet – this is the second time I’ve had to try on a smaller size. It’s so strange! Anyway I hunted through the racks and at first it looked like I wasn’t even going to be able to try these on. But then there they were – in an 8 1/2 – which is apparently my new size. I put them on and –huzzah! – they were perfect. The were comfortable, they made me feel tall, they looked awesome – crap.

I walked around in them longer than you’re probably really supposed to, just waiting for my feel to start to hurt – they didn’t. Then the salesgirl mentioned how cute they are – thanks, hadn’t noticed. So then I tried my standard test – asking myself if I would regret leaving them in the store – I realized I would. Then I tried to figure out where I’d wear them – work and anywhere slightly dressy this summer since I don’t really have any dressy summer shoes any more. Oh and did I mention they were on sale? Sigh.

So…. I spent yesterday afternoon walking around my house trying to make sure that I won’t fall and break my neck wearing these to work. And I’m amazed to say that they feel great and I seem to be ok in them. It’s been a long time since I’ve worn heels or wedges. High school actually I think. These feel like grown up shoes to me, much more mature than the skater shows I’ve been wearing. So much for my willpower.

Photo source

Blogs for Dogs

So I think that Brie from Brie Fit is an inspiration when it comes to healthy living. But today I think she’s an inspiration as an all around good person.

As a fellow Midwestern girl I share Brie’s pain when hearing about the devastation in Joplin. And as a fellow pet lover I share a love of animals and a feeling of sadness when I think about all the animals impacted by the storms. Personally one of my first concerns when the weather turns is Grux – is he home alone? is he freaking out? is his leash handy? And I know that I would want to know he was taken care of if anything were to happen if I wasn’t around.

And that’s why I think it is so awesome that Brie has put together Blogs for Dogs. She’s set up an Amazon wish list for the Joplin Humane Society. It is so easy – just click here, look at the wish list, pick an item, pay for it and Amazon will send it right to the Humane Society. It takes no time at all! And the items on the list have been requested directly so you know they’ll be used. There are multiple price points on the list so there’s something for everyone.

And even  if you can’t afford to buy something you can help out by spreading the word. Tell your blog readers, your Twitter followers, and your Facebook friends. The animals of Joplin deserve it!

This is the link to share -

http://tinyurl.com/blogs4dogs

Rapture Day

 

Lesson Learned

You know what stinks? When you’ve just spent the last hour and a half photographing your best friend’s son’s birthday party and you know you have some good pictures and then when you go to pull them onto your computer – poof – they’re gone.

Yeah. That sucked. My SD card totally corrupted. I tried a couple of photo recovery programs and they couldn’t find anything. The camera said the card wasn’t formatted to the camera and when I finally gave up and tried to format it (knowing the photos were already gone) the camera wouldn’t do it. So I guess my card is totally dead.

So I have a new rule – only use name brand cards. I was unknowingly using a no-name brand card. Never again. I’ll gladly pay more – even if the only thing that does is buy me a little peace of mind.

Why

Why don’t we wear awesome hats like this here in the States? I would totally have rocked this look at Easter!

Umm, yeah, maybe not.

Source

Earth Day 2011–Tips

So I meant to have this up yesterday (you know, on Earth Day) but we’ve been hit my severe storms multiple days this week (it’s actually pouring and thundering right now) so I’ve been forced away from the computer a lot (and into the hallway under a blaring tornado siren at one point). But better late than never, right?

I’m not going to do a long post that goes deep into details and statistics – I know a lot of blogs covered all of that in great detail yesterday. Instead I thought I’d just list some of the things we’ve done to work toward a green lifestyle. Like I’ve said before, we have a long way to go until we’re as green as I would like, but every little bit helps. And if you have any tips please share them!

*Use reusable bags – This is the first change I made. I started with one bag from CVS and now have a nice little collection of a wide array of bags. I have everything from that first cloth bag to an insulated Trader Joes bag to a foldable Envirosax. You don’t have to spend a lot or really search much for these – just take a look near the checkouts next time you’re at the store. The first time I used reusable bags for my big grocery trip I was amazed – what would normally have been probably close to 10 plastic bags full of groceries fit into 3 reusable bags.

*Use reusable water bottles – This is another easy change that’s great for the environment and your wallet. Buying bottled water adds up – both on your grocery bill and in the amount of waste you have. But buying a reusable bottle and filling it up yourself is so easy, cost effective, and cuts down drastically on waste. And you can find bottles almost anywhere in a wide array of prices.

*Hang your clothes out to dry – The clothes line in our backyard is one of my favorite thing about our house. I use it a lot in the summer to dry towels, blankets and random other things (no underwear though, I’m not that green). I really cannot wait for it to warm up enough to start using the line again. It’s so great to be able to bypass using the dryer.

*When you have to dry get some dryer balls – Dryer balls are one of my newest purchases. I think they are great and really do work – I’ve noticed that our towels dry a lot faster now than what they did before – which means less energy being used – yay! I got mine at CVS but you can find them in a lot of places, and you can get the wool ones on Etsy.

*Recycle – You knew this already I’m sure. Our town has been slow to embrace recycling but there are now bins just down the street from us. Although life would be so much easier if we had curbside pick up here. Maybe some day. But Doug did build me an awesome cart to sort my recycling. I’ll blog it soon.

*Grow a garden – I plan to blog this more when we get our garden up and going but what’s more green than local food? And what’s more local than your own back yard? Plus there’s no packaging from garden-grown food which means no waste!

*Plan your errands – We don’t have public transportation here and riding a bike isn’t an option, so I try to plan my errands so that I’m not running all over town and instead can group all my errands by location. This is an even more enticing plan now that gas prices are rising!

*Use green cleaners – This is one area where I definitely have a lot to learn still but I have been trying to use vinegar more to clean. I also have started using green cleaners from the store – such as dish soap – but I still have really limited options here. I can find some Seventh Generation items in one store and our CVS has some store brand green cleaners (I use their disposable wipes to clean my desk at work). I really want to do some more research into this topic though.

So those are my main tips and tricks that I can think of right now. But since trying to be more eco-minded isn’t just something that I think about on Earth Day I’ll probably have more posts about my efforts to go green in the future.

Earth Day 2011–Books

 

In honor of Earth Day I thought I’d share some of my favorite eco-related books. I definitely recommend Sara Snow’s book, it is really helpful. You can click on the books to see the Goodreads page for each one. And remember: the most green option when it comes to books is to check them out from the library!