Another Lovely Mail Day

Hey guys! I'm still playing catch up on these, so be prepared for lots of pictures with little commentary... ha, ha. ; )  I'm mostly behind on incoming, so I'll focus on those for this post.




Mail Art from a swap-bot swap




A festive envie from another swap




Pretty bookmark enclosed




And a homemade card! : )




Cute Wonderland postcard I received from Jasmine for Gracie's "A Special Postcard" swap from forever ago




The lovely quote she included : )




A pretty owl ATC I received in a swap




The awesome "Under the Sea" Mail Art envie I received. Loved it!




The back of it




A pretty postcard I got... can't remember if it was from swap-bot or postcrossing. Sorry! (I'm horrible)




Pretty stamp




I'm pretty sure this was a Postcrossing PC...




Loved this little kid doctor stamp : )




This cutie came from my girl Sarah : )




A lovely card included in a swap-bot swap. I believe she said it was a copy of a painting her brother did.


And I guess that's enough for now. Just a few more posts, and I'll be all caught up! Ha, ha...

30 Day Shred

A couple weeks ago Matt and I were on the phone (while both at work) discussing our lunch plans, and we started talking about how he wasn't going to be here for my birthday. He's going out of town for work that week, and he's scheduled to get back home the night of our anniversary (which is exactly one week after my birthday...).

Per our normal routine of late, Matt came to my office so we could have a nice, nutritional lunch together, but he brought me a present... Cruise tickets! : )  He said it was to make up for missing my birthday, but mostly it's for our anniversary. This will be the first trip we've taken where it's just the two of us in quite a while, so I'm really excited! Plus, we went on a cruise for our honeymoon, so it'll be nice to kind of "relive" that happy time. : )

We're taking a 5-day cruise to the Bahamas, so you know what that means... Bathing suits!!!! Talk about a motivation to work out! I decided to take my Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD and put it to the test.

My plan is to follow the workouts on this DVD for 30 straight days and see how much weight I lose. I'm also tracking my food intake with the MyFitnessPal app on my phone. I love this app! They also have a website that you can check out here. Here's a scan code for the app on Android phones:

So, last Monday I took my weight and all my measurements, and this morning I weighed again, and... I lost 5.1 pounds! Yay! I didn't have time to take all my measurements this morning, but I'll be sure and do that tonight.

It's only a 20-minute workout, but it's fairly intense. You do 3 rounds of 3-minute strength, 2-minute cardio, and 1-minute abs, plus a 1-minute warm up and 1-minute cool down. Since Day 1, my strength has gotten a little better, but my cardio and abs have gotten much better. I can't wait to see how far I am after the full 30 days! : )

I'm going to weigh-in once a week and keep up with my progress on here, so y'all be sure to hold me accountable! ; )  Have any of you done the 30 Day Shred before?

# of Days: 7

Weight Loss: 5.1 lbs

Monthly Goals: March 2012

February Goals:

• Finish unpacking the office
• Hang at least 3 things on the walls
• Lose 8 pounds (a healthy 2 pounds a week)    I lost 5, so I'm still happy! : )
• Drink more water  I have been drinking more, but not as much as I'd like...
• Catch up on my penpal replies

Sooo... I only accomplished one of my goals. I hung exactly 3 things up on the wall in the living room. Well, Matt did but that still counts. I almost reached my weight loss goal, so I'm pretty happy about that. And while I did drink more water, I didn't drink as much as I would have liked... So maybe next time I should be more specific about what "more" constitutes. 1 out of 5 totally sucks, but now it's time to focus on this months goals. ; )

March Goals:

• Lose 8 pounds
• Drink 8 cups of water a day
• Catch up on my penpal replies
• Unpack the office
• Hang up 3 more things in the house

Yeah, so I'm keeping the same goals apparently. It's late, and I couldn't think of anything else... ha, ha.

So what are you goals for this month? If you link up over at My So-Called Chaos by 3/7, you'll be entered into a drawing she'll have at the beginning of next year. Each month you link up, you'll be entered again... So go check it out!



Another Lovely Mail Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Matt surprised me this morning with the cutest white owl figures. I'll save a pic for my Week in Photos post this weekend. ; )  He came to my office for lunch, and we're going to a banquet tonight for dinner. Lots of yummy seafood! Can't wait! : )

But now on to some mail. I'm still really behind on these, so don't be surprised to see things from several months ago... (I know, I suck!)

I think I'm farthest behind on incoming goodies, so I'll just post those today. Enjoy!

Some cute stickers from a Swap-bot swap



Love the Hershey Kiss stamp!




I think this was doodled on an envelope and I just thought it was adorable :)




A pretty handmade bookmark I received in a swap




Love the polka dots and stamps on this one!




From a Mail Art swap. Can't go wrong with a chocolate bunny theme! ; )




Another Mail Art envie... I loved this one! In case it's too tiny to read, around the lady it says, "Officer? I'm calling to report ugly mail art. She's wreaked havoc on the zip code..."  Ha, ha!




The back of that one (I didn't think it was ugly at all! I loved it!!)




A Halloween Mail Art swap (See, I told you they were old!)




Cute owl stickers on a card I received



Pretty elephant stamp from Thailand



Cool vintage stamps. Gotta love James Dean!




Pretty Postcrossing Postcard



Another swap-bot letter



Pretty card inside : )



A lovely package I received from the wonderful Gracie




Beautiful Australian stamp



One of the lovely postcards Gracie sent me. I had mentioned to her how much I adored these on one of her blog posts... She's the sweetest! : ) (It came from this Etsy shop)

And I think I'll leave it there for now. Sorry this was so picture heavy... I still have quite a few posts to catch up on my mail, so please be patient with me! : )

And I hope you have an extremely lovely Valentine's Day, whether you celebrate it or not. Any day that celebrates LOVE is alright by me!

101 in 1001: Number 56

56. Buy a pair of Toms shoes

Yay, another goal met on my 101 in 1001 list! : )  I have been hearing how awesome and comfortable TOMS shoes are for several months now, so I decided back when I was making my list that I wanted to own a pair. And when I saw these on Gracie's blog, I knew I must have them!!!




TOMS


So adorable, right!? Well, only one store in Montgomery sells TOMS, and when I checked they said they didn't have that style but were getting a big shipment at the beginning of February... So I mustered all my inner strength and waited to see if they got them in. (This was around Jan. 31, which I realize is only 1 or 2 days away, but trust me... it took a LOT of inner strength to not order them online right there on the spot!) The biggest "reason" I gave myself to wait was because I wasn't sure what size I'd need. I usually range between a 9.5 and 10 (yes, I know I have big feet but I am 6 feet tall... if they were tiny I'd probably tip over!)  ; )   And so I waited until the next day and headed to Kinnucan's.

Unfortunately, they did not receive my cute little heart TOMS. I figured I'd try on a pair (or 5) anyway to see what size I'd need, and I ended up really liking another pair. Since my inner strength was so burnt out from the workout it received the previous day, I ended up purchasing these:

On another note, how do you take a cute picture of your foot? Ha, ha... Anyway, I love them! They are definitely very comfortable. I figured they wouldn't be at first while I was breaking them in, but I haven't had any problems with them at all (as far as blisters or anything like that). It almost feels like you don't even have shoes on, which I love! : )

I still plan on getting the cute hearts pair, but as of today Kinnucan's hasn't gotten that design in... so it looks like I'll just have to order them online. No big deal though. I love getting mail, after all!

Are any of you TOMS fans? They are just a tad on the pricey side, but not that bad really... especially when you consider that when you buy a pair, the company donates a pair of new shoes to a child in need. How awesome is that!? So definitely worth the price, in my opinion. : )

Hope you're having a great week!