Life Lately

What’s up guys? I just figured I’d take a break from being the worst blogger ever and post a little life update since it’s been almost a month since my last post.

House Stuff
If you follow me on Instagram, then you know we’ve been looking at backsplash options, since our kitchen walls have looked like this for 11 months now:

OK not exactly like this. We did move the crowbar to the garage.

(Click here if you’re wondering why we removed perfectly good tile backsplash.)

After looking at all of the wall tile in all of the land, we finally narrowed it down to four options:

I decided the top left option is my number one pick – the little silver pieces are stainless steel, which I think will look awesome with our stainless appliances. I was really excited because it’s on sale, only I found out later that it’s on sale because it’s been discontinued. CRISIS. Luckily, the contractor we hired said he just did a job last week with similar tile, and said he’ll go over to their house and ask where they got it. And just like that, he became my new favorite person. He also may have convinced us to replace our kitchen counters as well. We want to go with dark countertops and paint our cabinets white, sort of like this:

Source

I kind of want to replace our sink with an undermount model, but I also kind of want to continue being able to afford groceries, so we’ll see if that happens.

Work
I mentioned a while ago that I started writing part-time for a beauty/fashion/lifestyle blog – I’ve been doing that on top of working full-time at my marketing job, and I’ve also been doing some consulting work for a really cool wearable tech company (you’ll hear more about that soon!). On one hand, I’ve become really busy and have neglected this space a bit. On the other hand, the extra income is allowing us to make some fun home improvements and start a travel fund. Ireland/Scotland 2015!

Fitness
Confession: I’m kind of burnt out on running, and I haven’t run more than 2 miles since my 10-miler in April.

Oh Ann, you beautiful spinster.

For the last month or so, I’ve been lifting weights and getting my cardio in the form of treadmill sprints/elliptical machine. I really enjoy the variety of working a bunch of different muscle groups, as opposed to just … running for hours at a time. I’ve also noticed that while distance running helps me manage my weight (and offset my beer consumption), it doesn’t do much for overall toning/firming. Which, let’s just say, has become more of a necessity the closer I get to 30. (T-33 days, BUT WHO’S COUNTING.)

My favorite strength routines right now are on FitnessBlender. Give these a try if you’re looking to get into weights but don’t know where to start! And don’t be afraid to use heavy weights – if you’re not juicing up, you’re probably not going to wind up looking like She-Hulk:

Butt & Thigh Workout

Total Body Strength + Cardio Intervals

Upper Body + Core

So that’s pretty much it. I will try to post a bit more often here, but if you’re really missing daily pictures of beer/my cat/cheese products, feel free to follow me on Instagram.