If you're happy and you know it...

I read a few blogs regularly (clearly much more regularly than I actually write in this blog).  While I visit some fashion blogs and obsess over some food blogs, I especially love lifestyle blogs that are a little of everything.  I don't know if I'm just really nosy or creepy or something, but I love reading about people's lives.  I love when they crack themselves open and write about something more personal.  There's something nice about reading a blog that feels real.  For example, I like seeing someone who's not a professional fashionista post about her budget-friendly take on a look she loves, or someone who's not a chef post her own healthy home-made version of a meal she loves.  I guess my main point is that I like reading blogs that are relatable?  If I even have a point?  Who knows?

Blogs are the main way I find out about new trends that I totally keep up with because I am super stylish that pretty much fall into three categories for me:  love, will never wear, wish I had the balls to wear.  Here are some examples...

Love:  Pink lipstick, party nails, and all things high-waisted.  High-waisted skirts are heaven sent.  While I also love the look of high waisted shorts/pants, for now those are still filed under "wish I had the balls to wear".

Will never wear:  Spiky bracelets and shoes.  I see myself a) poking my own eye out, b) poking another person's eye out, or c) getting a run in my tights.  They just scare me!

Wish I had the balls to wear:  Rompers and Croptops.  Maybe someday. 


Anyways, this has been a lot of really unnecessary build up for me to just rant about one of my blog pet peeves.  (What's that?  I never update my blog so I have no right to an opinion?  Fair enough.)  My biggest bloggy pet peeve is that I feel like it's no longer cool to smile in pictures.  At the risk of sounding like a 7 year old writing a letter to her future self that goes viral on the internet, THERE IS SO MUCH TO SMILE ABOUT!  It drives me nuts when people try to do a Tyra smize or, even worse, some pained half smile.  Come on guys!  You're posing in your new favorite Spring outfit, but your eyes are saying "Help me, I am being held at gunpoint to take these pictures for my blog!"  You're instagramming some amazing latte art you were just #blessed with, but you're gazing blankly in the opposite direction.  WHY.

Listen, I am mature enough to admit that maybe I am just being a curmudgeon and missing the point of artsy instagrams, but SO BE IT.  I love reading your blogs, and if you aren't making a weird or funny face on purpose, then I want to see those pearly whites.  Let's stop taking ourselves so seriously!

love and big smiles (okay I'm just rubbing it in now),
AB

seasonal mix-up

I just want to take a moment to personally apologize for the unseasonable chill today.  Yesterday I went a little crazy and pinned approximately 30 pumpkin and apple related recipes.  I then looked at my pinboard, sighed, and thought to myself "I can't wait for Fall."  Then, I sat straight up in my chair and tried to take it back, but I think the damage was already done. 

When I woke up this morning and saw that it was 63 degrees outside, I knew it was my fault.  I hope this is a one day fluke and that we can still have a nice warm August, with at least a few more days at the pool.  Then, and only then, I will welcome Fall weather and all things pumpkin with open arms.

Love and August weather,
AB

Buttermilk Biscuit Babies

I always think that I enjoy cooking, until I’m actually in the kitchen managing three pans of food while trying to scroll through the recipes on my phone.  Somewhere in that chaos, I remember that I hate cooking.  It stresses me out!  I can’t handle the pressure of cooking.  I can sou-chef it all day, just tell me what to chop and give me one thing to watch.  I’m a great assistant.  

What I genuinely do enjoy in the kitchen is BAKING!  Baking is relaxing to me.  I guess maybe the biggest difference is that I only have to focus on one thing, so maybe what I’m saying here is that I have ADD am more dedicated to one thing at a time.  

The biggest reasons that I don’t bake more often are

1. I don’t trust myself around large quantities of baked goods.
2. Our kitchen is relatively small.
3. I don’t have any fancy baking gear, so I’m easily intimidated when recipes use phrases like “set mixer to high” or “cut in butter”.... Although I am a former ice cream scooper, my forearms are just not what they used to be.

But, when the favor from my friend’s bridal shower was homemade strawberry jam, I knew that I had to try this jam with some homemade biscuits my boyfriend threatened to leave if I didn't make homemade biscuits.  So I went to my favorite food blog, Pursuit of Sweetness, written by one of my favorite people. We've traveled what feels like half the world together, and you just won't find a more reliable, quirky, and hilarious friend. Although I was briefly sidetracked by her homemade s'mores (Seriously? I want this to be my desktop background), I eventually found the BEST recipe for buttermilk biscuits!

Here's the recipe from her blog: Better Buttermilk Biscuits ...you should just read her post about it so you can read all of her tips and advice. Like I said in Reason 3, I get really intimidated by the phrase "cut in butter" but she had this amazing tip to just grate the butter with a cheese grater right into the flour. It was so easy and worked perfectly! I halved her recipe, because as you already know from Reason 1, I don't trust myself around large quantities of baked goods.

Here are my beautiful baby biskeez! And the delicious homemade jam!

love and self-rising flour,

AB

hot hot hot

It's iced coffee season people!  It's restaurant patio season!  It's ice cream season finally not weird to eat an ice cream cone everyday!  It was a long winter, and a LOTR extended edition too-cold spring, but summer is finally here!  No more checking the weather to see how many fleeces to pile on, no more hibernating in my apartment because I'm constantly frozen!  Wait, will I miss hibernating in my apartment?  Oh well.

Here's to the best season!  And here's to hoping I still feel this way come mid July when I can't walk two blocks without needing more deodorant!

love and summer sun,
AB

need this baby

My kitchen and my heart both really really need this sweet owl cookie jar from Anthropologie.  I'll even start buying cookies to keep in it - twist my arm.  Name ideas: Hootie, Hedwig, Young Errol.

hoo & hoo*,
AB


*owl for love & cookies

How I did it, Step 1: Get Real

 I want to start by saying that I cannot express how awkward I feel writing this.  I know that having a blog would lead you to believe that I can't wait to share my opinions and insight, but I actually get nervous about a more personal or prescriptive post.  But in the past few months, and especially the past few weeks, I've had a few people ask me how I lost the weight.  I normally just say (a little uncomfortably) "Diet and exercise! It sucks!" just to avoid diving into the really thrilling topic of calorie counting and body image.  I was a little nervous to blog about this because I don't want to come across as all holier-than-thou skinnybetch, but I figured my blog was a good place to really map it out, if anyone is interested, and share my story of how I lost 35 pounds. 

So, how did I do it?

I wish this was a quick answer, but it's really dozens of small changes that got me here. I am DEFINITELY not an expert in nutrition, fitness, or anything related.  I just made small adjustments over the course of the year until I had completely different habits, and a whole new approach to my health.  This is definitely not a to-do list for anyone looking to lose weight, more like some loose guidelines to help get you on the right track.  I'm going to blog in pieces about the changes I made, and hopefully you can adjust them to fit your daily life and start seeing the change you're looking for.

Before I get into step one, I also want to say that "How I did it" might be misleading.  This is an ongoing process for sure.  These changes are lifestyle changes, and I'm still growing and adapting.  I'm not still trying to lose weight, but I am trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  So maybe this whole series should be called "How I did it and am still doing it every day" but that's kind of a mouthful and I like to keep things catchy around here.

Step 1: Get Real
The first, and probably the most important step, of my weight loss journey (that phrase seriously cracks me up - I can barely take this seriously anymore), was a reality check.  In my mind I had been trying to lose the extra 40ish pounds I put on in college for two years.  In reality, I had just been worrying about my extra weight while doing absolutely nothing about it.  I wanted to lose weight, but I refused to change.  I was not ready to put in the effort, so I made excuses.

And then one day I looked in the mirror, and I had to realtalk it with myself.  I was detagging half of my facebook pictures because of how I looked.  I was too embarrassed to work out at a gym because I could barely run a mile without walking.  I was unhappy, and I had finally had enough.  I wish I could tell you what came over me, or what changed in me, but all of a sudden, I was ready.  I wanted to feel better and I was ready to work for it.  I got online, calculated my BMI, cried, and set my goals. 

What I want anyone reading this to take away from Step 1, is that this has to come from you.  You have want this.  Any attempts you make will be halfhearted until you are ready to change.  Get real with yourself.  Set goals.  And know that you will accomplish them. 

I'll blog with Step 2 soon!  If I tried to cram this all into one post it would be insanely long.  This Step 1 post alone was really long.  If you read this whole thing you MUST be serious about losing weight....or just like insanely bored.

love and realtalk,
AB

for all the new years resolution haters

Last year, my New Years resolution was to lose weight.  I broke it down into smaller, more manageable goals, and for the first time in my life actually stuck with a resolution and saw amazing results.  So nothing irritates me more than being in the locker room this time of year and hearing all these gym regulars complain about how crowded the gym is with New Years resolution go-ers.  All I hear is "UGH, where were these people a month ago?" and (my favorite) "Don't worry, they'll be gone in February."

To the locker room betches who think they are god's gift to fitness:  You probably were not always in great shape.  Maybe you were, and that's awesome for you.  But there was probably a time when you walked into the gym, unable to do more than jog a mile and lay on the ground pretending to do crunches (wait, was that just me?).  So if there's someone new at your gym, and all they can do right now is walk on a treadmill, you should admire them for being brave enough to come out and do that while impatient people like you tap their feet in the background.  I'm assuming that you are also the person who posts obnoxious articles on Facebook about obesity in America and whatever weird fad diets you're trying, so let me remind you that if you are so concerned with our nation's health, you should probably be celebrating this many new people at the gym instead of hoping they'll be gone in February.  Michelle Obama is disappointed in you.

To the New Years Resolution-ers:  You can do it.  It's difficult, and it really will take all year, if not longer, but you can and will do it.  If all you can do at first is walk on the treadmill, then walk an extra five minutes just to make those betches wait.  Eventually you'll be running, biking, whatever you want to do, and you'll be great at it.  You'll be in shape, and you will surprise even yourself with what you can do.  You might even wish you could work out on days you can't, because eventually working out will feel GOOD.  You will feel like a different person. 

And this time next year, you'll be in the locker room noticing all the New Years Resolution-ers, and you'll be telling them that they can do it, too.

love and haterade,
AB

how many times can I say the word fluff?

I know it's been WAY too long since I last updated the bloggy.  I think I discovered the root of the problem.... sometimes I just can't decide what to blog about.  I know that sounds like a stupid problem, so let me explain a little bit more (and maybe it will sound more stupid?).  It's a classic battle between oversharing and fluff.

Sometimes I'll have something on my mind, and I'll think about what a great blog post that would be.  And then I get nervous because it's a little personal.  I don't want to freak people out with an overshare. I don't know exactly what direction I want the blog to go in, so I'm wary of taking it into overly personal waters and accidentally turning this into a public diary.  When I start to get a little bit of overshare anxiety, my natural overreaction is to want to blog something really fluffy.  I love fluff. But I I don't want the blog to be a string of shallow one liners and instagrams.

So all of this internal blog struggle added up to me looking a little frazzled seriously insane while I typed out sentences and then backspaced them letter by letter.  Which led to, you know, no blog posts for a really long time.

But I'm back!  With a new blog-strategy in my back pocket called "balance"...and also better time management.  It's really time consuming to delete paragraphs letter by letter.

So, working on the assumption that anyone still reads my blog (hello?  hello?  hello? ), get ready for the ultimate balance of lighthearted and real-talk.

love and moderate fluff,
AB

long day?

It's possible that I've gone insane.  Someone named Erica just called me at work and I answered the phone by saying, "This is Erica, how can I help you?" ..... After a fairly smooth recovery from that awkward beginning, I ended the conversation by saying "Well, goodnight!" ....It's 3pm. 

Considering grabbing an afternoon coffee...

love and "that 2:30 feeling,"
AB

it's almost friday...

I heard this song on the promo for TLC's new show "Breaking Amish" (obviously have the season set to record), and I LOVE IT!  Hope it helps you carry on until Friday.

love and fun,
AB

photographic evidence

I owe you an apology.  Because I do some really cool things in my free time, and then as soon as they're over I'm like "BLOODY HELL!  I DIDN'T TAKE A PICTURE (THAT MOVES!)!!"  Oh I didn't tell you guys that I'm a British teenage wizard?  I'll update my about me. 

I just get caught up in what I'm actually doing and forget to take a picture (wait, is this really a problem?).  Sorry for being too in the moment?  I just want to provide myself and my blog some nice picture reminders of my mini-adventures!

For now, I'll leave you with some close ups of some art projects I'm working on.  Maybe later there will be evidence that I have friends that are not shirts or canvases.

love and instagrams,
AB

10k training

The only way that I can motivate myself to stay in shape is to register myself for races so far in advance that they don't seem intimidating.  It's like this horrible prank that I keep playing on myself, but it's really effective.  Once I'm registered I know that I have to train, and I don't mind working out (as much) because I'm preparing for a goal.  Normally I just register for 5k races, but after finishing my last 5k in July, I realized I had more in the tank.  So before I could think too much about it, I registered myself for a 10k in September.  And now it's September.  I wanted to blog about my training a little bit!  If you are an avid runner you should probably avert your eyes.  Honestly I wouldn't blame anyone for skipping these posts because they're more for accountability, and how entertaining can I really make exercise? Like I said before, I basically have to trick myself into working out.

I've been running 6 miles when I feel motivated enough, but normally I hover around 3 or 4 a few times a week.  When I don't run, I use the elliptical for about an hour, and I try to mix things up with fitness classes like kickboxing (thank you Groupon). 

I have about 3 weeks left until my 10k so I'm trying to get a little more serious about my training schedule. Here's a general idea of what it's going to look like until race day:

Mondays: cross training for 45 minutes
Tuesdays: 5-7 mile runs
Wednesdays: cross training and weights
Thursdays: 3-5 mile runs
Fridays: cross training for 45-60 minutes
Saturdays: 5-7 mile runs
Sundays: rest

Sometimes things might get switched up depending on my schedule, but I think any kind of post about this will keep me a little more accountable to my training.  My goal is to run the 10k in less than an hour, so I definitely have some work to do!  If you don't hear from me again it's because I slipped off a treadmill and was flung into that awkward open/close leg weight machine.

love and shin splints (just kidding...hopefully)
AB

five dollar footlong

I just went to my office bathroom, and a woman was carrying her half unwrapped sub into the stall with her while talking on her cell phone.

Seriously trying to not picture the logistics in there...

love and multitasking (I regret writing that),
AB

smart shopper

Maybe this post's title is a little misleading...because if you read this post, I really shouldn't be shopping at all.  But part of the paring-it-down process is learning to be a smarter shopper when I do spend my money.  No more buying a cheap dress for every event.  I need to buy things purposefully, things that I really love and can wear to work and to play, for as many seasons as possible.  I need to invest in really good basics that I can wear well, so I can avoid my current situation:  a closet overflowing with things I never wear.

If you skipped that paragraph, it was basically just me desperately trying to justify the clothes I just bought.

But I am really proud of myself!  I bought a few really nice basics that I can wear to work and on weekends.  More importantly, I have been coveting (read: creating an online shopping bag, staring at it longingly all day, reluctantly closing the tab) them for weeks so I know this love is real. 

I'm definitely most excited about this colorblocked beauty:

Should we name her? 

love and anthropomorphism,
AB

end of summer to-do list

This morning was on the chilly side for August, and the glimmer of 60s weather got me so excited for Fall!  But rather than get caught up in looking forward to Fall, I'm going to try to embrace the end of my would-be favorite season (read about my love/hate relationship with summer in my last post).  There are a few things I really hope I get the chance to do before Summer is gone:

1.  Kayaking!  Any of my friends can tell you how frequently obnoxiously I've brought this up lately
2.  Visit a DC tourist spot that I've never been to, like the Botanical Gardens
3.  Go to at least one more Nationals game
4.  Enjoy an outdoor/rooftop marg before it's too chilly
5.  Watch planes at Gravelly Point


I don't want to be too ambitious here with only a few good weekends left!  But I want to get the most out of my beloved warm weather so I can embrace the Fall guilt free.  Trying not to let my mind wander to colorful tights and pumpkin flavored everything just yet...

love and frozen bevs,
AB

great escape

Being technically considered an adult (out of school, real job, blah blah) has major perks.  Paychecks, no homework, and trading parents for the freedom of distant landlords.  There are also some pitfalls.  Like knocking on wood as I blindly choose my company's cheapest health benefits every year.  Or when that seemingly awesome paycheck disappears every first of the month (and I'm rethinking the whole parents vs distant landlords thing). 

But worse than all the copays and car inspections, is the fact that there is no summer break.  NO SUMMER BREAK!  PTO does not count.  If anything, accruing those few measly hours of PTO is just salt in the grown-up wound.  Summer used to be my favorite season, but now that I work in DC, summer just means that I'm drenched in sweat by the time I get to my windowless office (be thankful that I didn't take this imagery any further). 

Before we all think too hard about my pit stains or the summer-vacation-less lives that lie ahead of us and sink into a deep depression, let's talk about the bright side.  Trust me, there is a big one.

I do not subscribe to the "too much of a good thing is a bad thing" philosophy.  If there's a good thing out there I want as much as I can have.  But honestly, when I had three months off every year, I rarely did anything that great with it.  I slept.  I ate a lot of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  I got a few good sunburns that mostly turned into tans. But now that vacations are so few and far between, I really savor them.  A beautiful three day weekend at the beach with my best friends is a gold nugget in this monotonous muggy DC summer.  And that's exactly where I'm headed....

love and SPF (hey, maybe I am kind of an adult),
AB

practice what you pin: baked chicken fajitas

Paring It Down update: closet cleaning is (very) slowly but surely coming along.  Not even close to blog-worthy after pictures, but still stepping in the right direction, without stepping over as many piles of my clothes. 

One thing I'm really excited to do with this blog is actually DO things that I pin on Pinterest, and then blog about them here.  I'm especially excited to do this with recipes, because I am not the best cook can barely make frozen pizza, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to make really easy recipes but feel like a fancy accomplished Chopped champion when I share them.  Seriously, if you are a good cook, save yourself the most painful few paragraphs of your life and stop reading now.  Seriously.  You're embarrassing me.

So last night I made Baked Chicken Fajitas from Six Sisters' Stuff.  If I could only pick three words to describe this meal they would be:  easy, delicious, and guilt-free.  We really only made a few modifications, like serving it over lettuce, corn, and black beans instead of tortillas. Here's the basic idea of what we did:

for the baked fajita mix:

• about 1 pound of chicken cut into strips (I would use more chicken next time)
• 2 green peppers cut into strips
• 2 red peppers cut into strips
• 1 diced jalapeno

So mix all that together in a bowl with a little bit of olive oil and whatever spices you like.  I used cayenne, a little cumin powder, salt, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder.  I think using half a pack of premade taco seasoning would be good too.  Put everything into a greased 13x9 baking dish and bake it for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees.

While that is baking, make your corn and black beans.  We normally just microwave our canned corn, but my boyfriend always makes our black beans so delicious by adding his not-so-secret-anymore spices (garlic, cumin, salt, and cayenne) to regular canned beans.

Once everything was done we piled it (pretty high) onto lettuce, and put salsa and hot sauce on top.  SO GOOD!  It would also be good on rice or in tortillas (like the Six Sisters suggest).  It was super easy and we'll definitely be making it again.  Let me know if you try this out and what you like or changed!

love and red pepper flakes,
AB

paring it down

Listen. I have a lot of shit.  Honestly.  I'm two Chipotle receipts and one neglected pet away from being the first google image result for the word "Hoarder."  (Do yourself a favor and do NOT google image the word hoarder)

I hope that gives you an idea of what we're dealing with here.  My biggest problem is clothing.  I know there are definitely people out there who have far more extensive wardrobes than I do...but they at least probably wear most of their clothes.  I have racks of neatly hung (okay fine, piles on the floor) of clothes that I never wear.

The reason I'm giving you all these pack-ratty details that you didn't ask for is because of a few blogs that have inspired me.  First is Chez Larsson, where everything is fresh, crisp, white, clean, and organized.  Speaking of organization, I also love the organized closets on IHeart Organization. These have really given me hope that a clutter-free life is possible for me.  And I'm thinking that maybe if I post about it, there will be some level of accountability.  I know all six of you readers will be nagging me constantly for updates on the state of my messy closet.

I'm not giving you a before picture because my boyfriend would keel over dead, or break up with me, which are both horrible and you're sick for still wanting a before picture when I have clearly explained the potential repercussions.  But maybe if I have a beautiful closet someday I'll post a picture to satisfy you.

My mission starts TONIGHT as I begin the long and hopefully-not-too-painful process of paring down my insane closet (that spills into the rest of the apartment).

love and why-do-i-still-have-these-field-hockey-socks-from-high-school?
AB

welcoming myself to the blogosphere

I've wanted to create a blog for what feels like forever, but I have been stuck on two aspects.

My first hurdle: Awesome blog name.  I love blog names that are cute plays on words with the blogger's name...but my name is Alex.  The only thing that rhymes with Alex is hallux, the scientific word for the big toe.  And seriously if someone out there is reading this and is like "What?! Is she serious? I just thought of the cutest blog name using 'Alex'" PLEASE don't even tell me because a) it will embarrass me after my weepy months spent on rhymezone.com and b) I already love ab(kinda)fab so back off.  So now that I have this awesome name and url reserved, there's only one more problem, which brings me to...

My second hurdle: Content.  I'm still working on this one.  We'll get through it together.

love and writers block,
AB