Miso Monday

Miso is excited about Fall

{this moment}

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Miso Monday

Tired, stretchy Miso

Miso Monday

Patio table revamp

I recently moved into a huge house, with my boyfriend, Muj, and his roommate, Lisa. Muj has two adorable dogs, and I have my awesome kitty. As with most dogs, when we eat meals, they are very interested in stealing your food. Surprisingly, between the three of us, we didn't have a dining room table. Dining tables are a must when you have sneaky, cute, little dogs that stop at nothing to eat your food. Moving is expensive, and we didn't really have the money to buy a new table. Luckily, my parents had an extra glass top patio table that has been in our family for years (my dad even remembers eating dinners at this table as a teenager) that they were willing to part with.

I wasn't a big fan of the fabric on the chairs, and as you can see, it was in desperate need of a coat of paint. But other than that, I knew it would work perfect as a dining table for us, and it wouldn't cost us anything. So I spent some time looking at Spoonflower and noticed that one of my favorite artists, Valentina Ramos, had a Spoonflower shop. She has so many amazing designs. After much debate, I decided to go with the Reverie fabric. I ordered the heavy cotton twill, so it would be sturdy enough to upholster.

Once the fabric arrived, I picked up some purple spray paint and got to work. I ordered more than enough fabric, so we used more than we needed and many staples from the staple gun to cover the old fabric. (Don't  look at the bottom of the chairs, its not pretty).

After many 6 cans of spray paint, and a sore pointer finger (I had no idea it would take so many!) I finally finished. I'm pretty happy with the results.

Thankfully my parents are okay with having purple grass for a while! Here's a picture of the table right after I finished it.

And here's what the table looks like today in our house. During the move there were some chips in the paint I still need to touch up. I might need to look into something like a top coat to avoid chipping in the future. Do you know of any ideas? 

Miso Monday

I want to try a new feature on my blog--because I am a dork who is obsessed with her cat--called Miso Monday. I love taking pictures of my kitty and it might well be the only thing that I keep up with on this blog... My boyfriend, Muj, is really good at photography, and I want him to teach me how to take pictures with his fancy camera, so hopefully the quality of future pictures will improve. But for now, it will be phone pictures.

This is probably my favorite picture of Miso that I took two days ago. I recently took her to be shaved, because her fur gets matted really easily and she's been hacking up some nasty hairballs lately. I swear I didn't do it for my own entertainment. But it is starting to get colder here in the Pacific NW and so she's been a little on the chilly side, hence the sweater. So I was watching Breaking Bad and working on a puzzle with Miso beside me on the couch. She heard some noise on the other side of the couch and stood up to try to see where it was. I was lucky enough to have my phone nearby to capture this gem. Love that girl.

Happy Monday!

Mission: Michelle Obama Arms

The other day, my dear sister Lyndsay sent me a picture of the bridesmaid dresses we will most likely be wearing for her wedding.


I think the dress is quite lovely, so is the model wearing the dress. One thing I noticed right away is the lack of sleeves and immediately I think of my big, white flabby arms and I feel some renewed motivation to do something to prepare for it so I can look and feel great wearing that dress, or at least attempt to.

They haven't set a date, but I found out yesterday they are thinking of sometime this September. So I have sufficient time to make these arms presentable.

But that still doesn't change the fact that I am me, and have a really hard time pretty much with everything related to living healthfully, but I've narrowed down some key problems I face: motivation, holding myself accountable and sticking to a routine. I also know that if I bite off more than I can chew, I will not stick with anything I plan out. So baby steps is the key for me.

I then tried to look at my problems from the perspective as a teacher and how I would try to assist a student who was having these problems. So I now introduce you to my new and improved fitness corner:


So its not really THAT new and improved, I've had it since we moved here. But I did add a fan and a new fitness notebook. My fitness notebook is what I am hoping to use to hold me accountable.

Inside, I have a sheet a paper for each week (though I only have 2 weeks prepared, because I hope to adjust depending how it goes. Plus I'm moving back to Portland in 2 weeks, so my next weeks goals may be somewhat different because I'm going to be in a different environment), that includes a checklist of my goals that I can check off as I complete them for the week. I chose a checklist because I quite enjoy checking things off, so I think its a useful and motivating tool for me to keep track of whether I'm meeting my goals each week. So far, the only goals I have for this week is the 100 push-up challenge (week 1) and doing No More Trouble Zones (as far as I can get) and 30 Day Shred Level 1. I figure push-up challenge 3 times a week and a Jillian video (because her videos are, in all caps, THE BEST) twice a week is a manageable start.


I'm still debating on at least one nutritional goal, but may wait to add that until next week. For now, I've included notebook paper for me to keep track of what I'm eating.


I'm not sure if I'll try to input that into nutrition tracker like sparkpeople.com, but I have a feeling that's something I wont keep up with. But I do think that it is important that I keep track. When I don't have a solid routine, like right now when I don't have a job or anything to do, I have a tendency to not eat enough during the day and gorging at night. For example, its 4:00PM and on that sheet it says the only thing I've had today was tea, and that's still accurate. I have yet to eat real food today.

Well, that gets me thinking, perhaps that should be my nutritional goal: eat 3 meals a day.

Another nutritional goal I'm thinking about is avoiding sugary drinks. While I haven't drank soda for a while now, I still drink juice or Sobe way more than I should. Once I am working again, one goal will definitely be NO FAST FOOD. Or at least EXTREME MODERATION of fast food. Its not an issue right now because fast food isn't even an option given our current financial situation.

I'm also thinking about doing weekly weigh-in and/or measurements. I really think if I want to stay motivated I have to see what I am doing is making progress, and if it isn't, I should be reflecting on what I am doing that is preventing progress.

So thats the plan so far. But I would love love love to hear any suggestions or thoughts you might have on my new plan. Wish me luck on my goal to Michelle Obama arms :)