Happy Halloween!

Just a Dog

From time to time people tell me, “Lighten up. It’s just a dog.”

or “That’s a lot of money for just a dog.”

 

They don’t understand the distance traveled, time spent or costs involved for “Just a dog”.

Some of my proudest moments have come about with “Just a dog”.

Many hours have passed with my only company being “Just a dog”

and not once have I felt slighted.

Some of my saddest moments were brought about by “just a dog“.

In those days of darkness ,

the gentle touch of “Just a dog“ provided comfort and purpose to overcome the day.

 

 

If you, too, think it’s “Just a dog“, you will probably understand phrases like

“Just a friend” or “just a sunrise” or “Just a promise“.

“Just a dog” brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust,

and pure unbridled joy. “Just a dog” brings out the compassion and patience that make me a better person.

Because of “Just a dog” I will rise early,

take long walks, and look longingly to the future.

 

 

For me and folks like me, it’s not “Just a dog“.

It’s an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future,

the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment.

“Just a dog” brings out what’s good in me and diverts my thoughts

away from myself and the worries of the day.

 

 

I hope that someday people can understand it’s not “Just a dog.”

It’s the thing that gives me humanity and keep me from being

“Just a man ” or “Just a woman”.

So the next time you hear the phrase “Just a dog“,

Smile because they “Just don’t understand“..

-Author unknown.

Weigh In Wednesday

Two posts in one week.... say it isn't so!?! :)

I think every Wednesday I'm going to 'weigh in' so to speak on what I've been doing workout-wise for the past week -- not only to share my workouts (I love borrowing workouts from other bloggers to incorporate in my routine), but to also hold myself accountable.

One day a week I work out with a trainer at Daniel Island Gym. I love her! I started training with her at ESAC before my wedding, and have stayed with her as she's moved to different gyms. She pushes me past my limits so I always get an awesome workout every time. I also try to log my workouts after I meet with her, so I have an entire notebook full of workouts to pull from when I go to the gym by myself.

She also does circuit classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays - Noon to 12:45pm with optional 15 min abs afterwards. For non-members, it's only $20. They are crossfit-like workouts and will kick your butt. I take them randomly when I can. Here is one of her workouts below... we did abs using the TRX.

When the weather is cooler, I will run some outside -- but I am not a runner. I run the Cooper River Bridge Run every year and usually 'train' (not really) right before the race...but I am not a fan of slow and steady distance running. I get boooored and my head plays tricks on me and I get fatigued or feel pain after only a few miles -- it's all mental, but I can't get past it.

But I love running intervals on the treadmill -- my short little legs can sprint like hell for a good minute or so because in my mind I know I'll get a rest or a slower pace soon. There are so many treadmill interval workouts on Pinterest, so I like to try different ones each time to keep myself challenged. Here are two I recently did last week...

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I saved up and bought a nice Precor Elliptical after I graduated college - best investment I ever made. I have used it so much in the past eight years. I put on one of my shows on the TV and steadily increase the resistance and incline. Monday I caught up on Mad Men and got in a good 50 minutes. I  need to start wearing my heart rate monitor because I'm not always sure the calorie count on the machine is accurate.

I followed up my Elliptical session with this ab workout from one of my fave fitness blogs, Blonde Ponytail.

I also like to find workouts from other bloggers and sites on Pinterest, and rework them to fit the equipment I have at hand - whether at the gym or at home.

Here are a few examples of recent workouts I've done...

A modified crossfit workout.

This workout is a slightly modified version of
a workout from the blog pumpsandiron.com. Added some
abs and altered the workout slightly - this workout was killer.

I also slightly modified a boot camp workout from the blog pgfingers.com - I made all the moves a full circuit and added in 10 minutes of elliptical to the beginning of each circuit.

In addition to these workouts, I'm also trying to add in as much Pilates and Ballet as I can. As a former dancer, I miss my regular ballet classes (used to take at DanceFX, but the location and class times...and cost...didn't work out for me), so I try to do my own barre exercises, Ballet workout DVDs and Pilates classes at home. There are so many free full Pilates workout videos online. I did this Ballet/Pilates fusion workout last week and really enjoyed it - I felt so stretched out afterwards.

View class on YouTube.

Well, this post ended up being a lot longer than I expected... going forward I'll try to report only on the workouts I've done for the week and not be so long winded. :)

I'm exhausted just thinking about all of these workouts -- even Willow is worn out...

Hope everyone is having a good week so far. Cheers!

Work Style

Last week I was in Atlanta to speak at a work-related conference. I am always an avid tweeter (not with this blog's twitter account - my professional twitter account is @christyseason) during conferences, and I decided to mix it up and tweet out my daily outfit. Not sure anyone there really understood #ootd, but it was fun nonetheless.

I also randomly ran into Jana from Seashells and Southern Belles -- we're friends on Facebook, but have never met in person. I'm an avid follower of her blog and we have a love for nautical and Charleston in common. Well, she saw my check in at my hotel and messaged me that she was staying in the same hotel!

Before I could reply to her message, we ran into each other at the lobby bar. We had a great chat - me with about four glasses of wine - and hopefully I didn't talk her ear off. We talked about jobs and blogs and how we never seem to have time to blog anymore -- how do you ladies do it?

Anyways, it was great to finally meet her in person! She's so genuine and I hope she'll move to Charleston sometime in the future. :)

On a sad note, thoughts and prayers with victims of Bostom Marathon -- really unbelievable. Especially since we (Charleston crew) all just ran the Cooper River Bridge Run which is a huge 10k race down here in Charleston. I think it's like 40,000 people who run it.

And if you can't tell from all of these photos, I've finally made the leap to an iPhone and have joined instagram. You can follow me, username christypunch.



You will see a lot of this little guy in my instagram feed. :)

How's this for another random post that is randomly posted on a random date? Cheers!

Dog Lover

I'm a bad, no good blogger.

I've been gone for two months.

You see... real life just got in the way.

Here's a quick recap of said last two months....

Birthday celebrations...

Puppy lovin'

Friends!

New nephew Holden!

Clemson football - oh yeah, did you hear we won
Southern Living's best tailgating of the South??

Traveling....

...and more traveling...Viva Las Vegas!

Work travels.



And just enjoying the city that I live in as much as possible when I'm in town.
You would take a break from blogging too if you lived in
the city voted the best in the world by Conde Nast TWO years in a row! :)

 When will I post next? I don't know. Maybe soon. Maybe in two months.

Stay tuned....

Cheers!

Just because...

...random puppy cuteness will brighten any day.

Randomness Round Up

I'm rocking a major cold today - thank you very much ever changing, rainy, pollen infused Charleston weather.

I'm pretty sure my entire work cubicle needs to be disinfected. "Why are you even at work?" you ask.... Good question. I should be home on my couch under a blanket. However, my employer only gives vacation days... not sick days. So, if I want to take a 'sick day', it's actually a vacation day. In other words, we all come to work sick here and share germs... a lovely mental image for you I'm sure.

Anyways...

So with the cold comes medicine that makes it hard to focus on just about anything...so forgive me if this post is so completely random....

I really want to work out today, but my body is saying "No, no, no..." I didn't work out yesterday because I felt blah, and I ate horrible all weekend...so I feel like I have to do something today. I usually take Blast 900 on Tuesdays, but with this cold I wouldn't make it through the first five minutes...so I'm on my own today. I'm thinking I could probably pull off something like this...

Source: pbfingers.com via Christy on Pinterest

But in the back of my mind I am not sure I'm feeling up to it...so I might just do an old faithful and hop on my elliptical and watch a new episode of my newest obsession on my Kindle Fire - Downton Abbey...which until recently I was referring to as Downtown Abbey (who knew?). I'm now a (proud??) Amazon Prime member - so I get free streaming movies, tv shows and book downloads. I'm curious to see how much I use it...but I also get free two day delivery on Amazon purchases, which is pretty cool. It's $79 a year to be a member - we had some credits from our wedding registry, so we decided to put it towards that.

Maybe all of this sneezing is exercise in itself...abs?

{sniff, sniff, sniff} {Ah..choo!}
Excuse me...stupid cold.

So my incredibly baby fine and thin hair has gotten almost to it's max length again. You see, my hair will not grow past my shoulders. "But Christy," you say, "your profile picture shows you with long, beautiful hair.." This is correct. As someone who lives with baby fine, thin hair that doesn't grow, I'm also a big investor in professional hair extensions from time to time -- but that's another post for another day.

So my {real} hair grows just about to my shoulders and then just gets stringy and flat. Usually when this happens, I chop it off and start over...it's a cycle I've had for years. And so now it's time to chop...

I'm super obssessed with Chelsea Staub's hair cut. And so is the rest of Pinterest...but I loves it. I used to have a similar cut a few years ago and I think I want to rock it again. I have to be careful not to go too short (above my chin) because my face is so round, aka chubby cheeks, but my hair always looks thicker and healthier when it's short. And it's so super easy to fix... granted, no more high buns on my head for a while, but that's ok.



Source: officialchelseastaub.com via Christy on Pinterest

Source: officialchelseastaub.com via Teresa on Pinterest

So I have an appointment Friday, and along with these two images, I'm also taking in a picture of fellow blogger Jess from The Kentucky Priss who recently had her hair cut in a simliar style and I love it...I hope she doesn't mind if I copy her, in addition to seriously printing out this picture and giving it to my hairdresser. :)

P.S. If you don't already, follow her blog! She is super sassy and funny - a great read!

Speaking of following blogs, thanks to Pinterest, I've found a few new fashion bloggers to follow - one is Classy Girls Wear Pearls. I love the preppy, New England outfits which remind me of Blair for Gossip Girl.

However, I'm suspicious of this girl - is she real? Is she real in that all of her photos look like staged photo shoots/catalogues. And...she works for Kiel Patrick James. I'm sure she's 'real', but I wonder if she's a model and some marketing team from Kiel Patrick James is ghost blogging as her.

Randomly in her outfits she's wearing Kiel Patrick James...but not excessivlely so. I mean... the photos are amazing and the outfits are great...but it's just a little too cataloguey (word?) and staged to be a real 'look what I wore today' fashion blogger. Thoughts?



Oh look, just me and my impecably dressed bff sitting
oh so pretty on a table while at work.

And speaking of clothes... I gave up buying any clothes for Lent. It's a major sacrafice for me, but a much needed break for my wallet. I went to Target today and had to plan my route so I wouldn't walk by the clothes...and I checked out with a bill under $100. That's got to be a Target trip record for me.

So in place of my shopping, I've been spending a lot of time on Polyvore, creating outfits with pieces I already own... I really should give up the shopping longer than just Lent and just shop my closets...yes, that would be plural... closets... hence my shopping problem.

Black & White stripe w/ Teal by charlestongirlblog

Finally, I leave you with some puppy cuteness. Everyone is posting the brooms standing on end and eggs standing up straight all over Facebook. At first I thought it was some faked thing to get 'breast cancer awareness' or something, but it's really a trick that works that has something to do with the equinox, leap year, planets aligning..blah blah. Google it.

So I posted this photo last night to Facebook...maybe I was just poking fun because I never could get my broom to balance on its own. {names have been hidden to protect the innocent}

Ok...enough from me. I hope you're all having a fabulous Tuesday. Cheers!

Why or why not I may or may not be M.I.A.

1. My wedding is less than 3 months away... AHH!! Ordering invites, programs favors, finalizing menus, organizing song lists, first dress fitting (my dress is Ah-mazing!), got my shoes, hunting for and saving tons of 'wedding hair' potential photos, scheduling final meet ups with vendors, etc. etc. etc. Phew.
2. Football Season - I'm a loyal and devoted Clemson fan and of course a season ticket holder... Labor Day weekend was a trip to Clemson and I'll be back again this weekend for the Auburn game.
3. I'm finally getting serious about weight loss and healthiness - I now have a nutritionist (love!) and a personal trainer...
4. Work. The usual.
5. This past Saturday was me and my fiance's 5 year anniversary.
6. And what's really, really keeping me busy -- WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! {cheers...applause} We got an amazing house for an amazing price in Mt. Pleasant... we went from looking for a house to rent to making an offer and getting a contract on a house...all within about a week's time.

All of these warrant their own (or many) blog posts...so hopefully soon I'll have time to actually share more details with you.

Meanwhile... enjoy this randomly cute puppy photo of Willow to start your week with a smile... :)

Doesn't he look like Uncle Sam? He'll be 1 years old in a month!

P.S. I don't know if I'm using Pinterest correctly.. lol... I do a search for a keyword...say... 'bedroom inspiration' and I don't get very many search results. Is it only showing me the photos pinned by people I follow? Do I have to expand my Pinterest network to get more results??

Monday Musings

Happy Monday! (Is that an oxymoron?)

On Friday I posted the outfit I was wearing out for sushi dinner and drinks with my girlfriends - which turned into a "did we really just close down Suede nightclub in Mt. Pleasant?" night and a next morning of "did I really take all those shots? Bleh!! I am too old for this!". :)

Ignore my humidity-stricken hair!

But I digress...

I got a lot of comments about the hot pink dress I had posted, and I got a lot of compliments on it that night -- I was thrilled because I only paid about $20 for this dress (Forever21) and it's still on the site if you want your own.

Get your own on F21!

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key... yesterday my fiance and I took our puppy Willow to the James Island dog park. It's somewhat of a drive for us from Mt. Pleasant, but it's essentially a little island surrounded by water - and Willow can play so much longer because he stays cool in the water.

Normally Willow just gets in up to his neck and jumps around, but lately we've been trying to teach him to swim...and he's finally got it! He looks so cute paddling because his legs are so long and he splashes a lot -- but he's so proud of himself. We threw the ball for him and he swam out to get it for the longest time. Needless to say he was sooooo tired yesterday when we got him home and was still sleepy and red-eyed this morning.

For some reason all the black labs at the dog park formed their own pack
and started playing together - we couldn't tell who was who. It was so funny and cute!

Willow made friends with this cutie.

Check out Willow's new collar - I found this via another Charleston blogger Megan of Fried Green Pickles - it's from Etsy seller Uncle Barkley. It's so cute!

{via Etsy seller Uncle Barkley}

Upside-down and dog park dirty - oh well. :)

So how is your Monday going? I'm trying to set some mini-goals for myself this week - let's see if I can stick to them:

1. In bed by 10:30 PM - lights out, trying to sleep by 11 PM (I have serious night owl issues)
2. Pack my lunch for work for at least 2 to 3 days this week
3. Exercise every week day this week (hip hop class tonight, gym tomorrow, Body Pump & Body Flow classes Wednesday, ballet class Thursday, run Friday morning)

I also have lots of wedding stuff I need to focus on...we started shopping for wedding rings this past weekend. If you have any jeweler recommendations in Charleston, please send them to me!

My Mom gave me this book, "the Busy Bride's essential wedding checklists". It's 275 pages FULL of checklists....and I started thumbing through it last night, got to page 11 and had to put it down because I was having trouble breathing...lol...as in, overwhelmed! I need a check list for my check lists!!

{via}

Here's to a healthy and productive week! Cheers!