What I Wore {post 76}

Happy Friday!  Summer weekends are the best.  Although, this weekend isn't technically Summer, and my kids aren't on Summer vacation yet ... but it's still a Summer weekend!  I hope you have some great plans lined up.  The kids and I will have lots of fun. I promised them an exploratory hike along the creek.  

This will be the last normal "What I Wore" for a little while.  I've decided to do a Style Challenge in June!  More on that below.  But first, here are a few recent outfits.

Coral Dress & Cayenne Sash

If not already obvious, I love me a bargain.  This dress was $15 a few years ago at Old Navy.  It's a really pretty, delicate, easy dress.  It also wrinkles like crazy, but that can't be helped.  I usually wear a belt with it, because otherwise the waist looks a little boring.  Today I wore a very old "cayenne" colored sash from j.crew.  

Navy Tunic & Tan Pants

This was one of those oddly cool days in May.  I love these tan pants - they're from the Ann Taylor outlet a few years ago.  The navy tunic was a buy from Loft at one of the big sales a few months ago.  It's a navy linen.  I wore it with a long necklace from j.crew factory.  

Tee, White Denim Jacket, Boyfriend Jeans & Booties

Another date night outfit here.  This was a casual night out, so I didn't need to get too dressed up.  I wore this fun new tee that I got at TJ Maxx for $10.  I'm always looking for tees that are cute enough to wear out.  The jeans are boyfriend-style jeans from the Gap.  Jamie and I each got a pair of these at the Gap outlet. I wore my leather booties (since it was a cooler night) and my white denim jacket.  My jacket, I confess, is from Wal-Mart.  A few years ago I needed a sweater or jacket for a party and was already out, so I stopped quickly into Wal-Mart just to find something - anything - and found this jacket.  I wear it *all the time* and love it.  

And now for the Style Challenge! I've decided to do one just like I did last year.  Only, I couldn't find a challenge for this June, or even last June, so I am using the Style Me July challenge from Dean Street Society.    And to make it more fun, my friend Toya is doing it too!  We had to tweak some of the days a little given my work schedule, but we are mostly following the below.  I'm only doing weekdays.   

I'll post the first week's outfits next Friday and keep doing weekly recaps until the end of June.  This will be fun!  

Stay tuned! And have a great weekend.

Playroom Furniture: Finally Painted!

Hello hello!  It's been on my home to do list forever but I finally did it:  I finally painted the two pieces of furniture in the kids' playroom that I've been meaning to paint forever.  I don't mind painting furniture, but getting started is always a daunting task.  You need the right supplies, you need a well-ventilated space and most of all, you need time to paint and time for the paint to cure.

In this case, I decided to paint one piece white, which, if you know me, you know is not a surprise.  I decided to paint the sofa table the same pale greenish-blue that I used on my little chest in my bedroom.  I thought that color would look really good.  Here are the pieces before I got started:

I had two pieces to paint: (1) the dresser for the TV and (2) the sofa table.  The dresser was my son's when he was smaller.  While the dresser is now too small to hold his ever-growing clothes (no! stop growing!), it's perfect for a TV chest.  And the sofa table was a freebie from my parents - they didn't need it anymore, and I did.  My mom used it to hold her plants, so the top had a little water damage.  Nothing that a can of paint can't fix!!

The process that I always follow for painting furniture is as follows:

• protect:  lay out a huge drop cloth and move your pieces to it so there is enough room for you to move around;
• prepare:  clean off all furniture pieces and make sure they are completely dry before you begin painting;
• prime:  I use Zinsser oil based primer.  I also buy throw away brushes (very cheap ones) and use those and rollers to apply the primer.  I do not have the patience or the inclination to try to salvage the brushes after I've used the oil based primer.  I also wear throw away rubber gloves when I prime.  Depending on the color that I'm covering, I either do one or two coats of primer.  In this case, I went with two coats because I was going light over dark. Primer is a mess, but trust me that it is worth doing two coats of primer in many cases.  You will save yourself a few coats of paint on top!
• paint:  once the primer dries, I then apply my paint.  I swear by Sherwin Williams Pro Classic for furniture.  I painted the chest in Dover White in a semi-gloss finish (three coats) and the sofa table Rainwashed by Sherwin Williams (two coats).  As for brushes, I use a nicer brush for furniture and rollers.  
• poly:  once the paint fully dries, I use water-based Polycrilic to seal the finish.  I do two very light coats of poly and then let it cure for 48 hours.  

And here are the pieces now!

The dresser is my favorite transformation.  I swapped out the old knobs for ones that I had in my stash.  I love how it looks, though I want the pulls to be more gold than bronze.  I think I'll either spray paint them or use a little gold rub n' buff on them. 

I am in the home stretch of the playroom.  I also finally hung pictures and decorated the TV area (which you can kind of see in the "after" pictures above).  I'll be sure to share that soon.  Now there are just a few little things left to do!  

Sweat: May 2015 Workout Recap

Happy Monday!  Bah. While I'm not training for any races in particular right now, I am still swim-bike-running a lot, and I am still logging my workouts onto Training Peaks.  I figure this Summer I can do monthly recaps of what I've been up to, hopefully including some new adventures, consistent with my thoughts in the Rainbow Connection post.  So far, so good on that front!

Here's what I have been up to:

May 2015:

Swam: 4100 yards

Biked: 44.34 miles 

Ran:  65.94 miles

Yeah!  My loose plan for this Summer is to swim and bike at least once a week (and hopefully do both outside, either in the 50 meter pool or open water or bike on the trail), to run "longish" (i.e., between 6-10 miles) one day a week and then pepper in some easy runs or easy trainer bikes the rest of the week, with 1-2 rest days. So far that is working well.  I am also planning to try new things: trail running (I have my eye on a couple of places), long walks (done this month!), hiking, kayaking, stand up paddle-boarding, and maybe taking myself to the range, dusting off the drivers and trying to hit a few.  

I've been running a little with my friend Tina this month.  We met last Fall when I emailed my running club about a race bib that my friend was selling.  Tina snatched it up, and we realized we were both training for Steamtown.  We really hit it off and have been friends ever since.  We are heading up to Lake Placid in July to volunteer at Ironman, to swim/bike/run the course and for her to sign up for IMLP 2016.  I will not sign up for IMLP 2016.  2015 and 2016 will be all about Boston training for me.  

Here are Tina and I after the NJ State Marathon. Our happy! zomg! smiling faces! belie the reality that we both had tough races that day.  

May 3 was the NJ Devilman race, which I raced in 2013 and again in 2014.  I was signed up to race it this year, but it was a week after the NJ State Marathon, and I was not in any place - mental or physical - to take on a triathlon.  So I went and cheered on Amy, who placed third in her age group!  A few friends from Ironman Lake Placid camp were racing as well. And Ryan Not Bryan, my Ironman Patronus, was there spectating as well.  We hung out the whole race and were both psyched to be watching and not competing.  Here are some pictures of Amy.

May was also all about new running gear.  I went back to my favorite ruby red Sauconys.  The blue Sauconys were OK, but they just didn't fit as well as my red ones.  

I also snagged two new running shirts (for $6 each!) at a booth at the NJ State Marathon expo.  They were freaking adorable.  One says "Lucky" with a simple shamrock.  The other, "O'Runner Girl" -- how perfect for me!?! 

I blogged about taking a nice long contemplative walk and literally being able to stop and smell the roses.  I wore my new trail runners and liked them a lot, even if I was walking and not running \.

The Friday before Memorial Day, I ran 6 miles at Peace Valley Park, which is one of my favorite places - ever - to run.  The run itself was great.  But I was more excited about my discovery after the run, when I stopped at the nearby 7/11 to grab a drink and realized that Gatorade was bringing back retired flavors from long ago, including my absolute favorite flavor ever: Lemon Ice.  !!!!!!  I need to go buy more.  

I biked on the trail - 25 miles.  And the highlight of that ride was my flat.  I got a flat on my front tire with about 2 miles left to go.  I stopped and changed that bad boy on my own.  And then, like a totally normal adult, I raised the tire over my head and shouted, "Look what I have done!!!!" 

I've done a bunch of open water swims, which always does my soul good.  The first one I did, I got a little nervous, just like last year, but thankfully at this point, I am no longer freaked at all about open water swimming.  I just swam and had no issues.  Yay.  I really love swimming in the open water.  I seek it out every chance I get.  

Finally, since it's apparently Summer in May, I have done a bunch of longish runs this month, including a 7 miler yesterday at 8:57 pace.  That makes me very happy.  Even if I have sweaty mean-face.  

Enjoy your week! Hopefully in my next monthly recap of workouts, I'll have a brand new experience to share.  

What I Wore {post 75}

Happy Friday!  Happy almost June!  It has been crazy hot this week (actually, it's been crazy hot for weeks), so looking at some of these earlier Spring outfits makes me a sweat a little.  

I'm thinking of doing another style challenge, like I did last May.  That was a lot of fun and would force me to use clothes from my closet in a new way.  I'll see if there is one available (last time I did the challenge posed by Dean Street Society ... my friend Toya told me about it).  In any event, here are today's outfits:

Chambray Blouse, White Pants & Pearls

This was a pretty fun outfit and comprised of a bunch of new pieces.  Let's start from the bottom up.  The shoes are new.  You can't see them very well, but I have been wanting/needing a pair of medium brown leather pumps and found these, the Sophia pump by Ivanka Trump, at Nordstrom.  They're great shoes, but run a little on the big side.  I need to get some sort of shoe insert so that my heels don't slip (there's no way a half size down would fit me ...).  The pants are old and from the Gap.  Belt is also old - I think it was from the NY & Co. outlet.  The top is from Banana Republic, which I got on sale and paid for with rewards.  I liked the wash of the denim.  The necklace was a buy from the j.crew factory.  I really liked all the strands of pearls.  

Black and White Dress, Belt & Black Cardigan

If not already obvious, dresses are my wardrobe stable.  When I am feeling uninspired or lazy, I just grab a dress and either wear it solo or pair it with a cardigan.  Done.  It is the easiest way to appear pulled together when short on time.  This dress is a great buy from a few years ago from TJ Maxx.  It is sleeveless, so I can wear it in all seasons. The cardigan is from Forever 21.  It's a very delicate looking knit and looks much more expensive than it was. The belt was a buy from Anthropologie (on sale 100 years ago).  

Blushy-Nude Dress

I've been wanting a dress this color forever.  I finally found exactly what I was looking for at Ann Taylor.  They were having a great sale, and I picked this up for about 50% off its normal price.  The color is perfect - not too pink, not too brown and just "nude" enough.  It's a nice sturdy knit, so the dress has a beautiful shape.  It made me feel good.  I wore my nude patent pumps with it.  Easy.  

Have a terrific weekend!

More progress in the dining room - recovering the chairs!

Whoa lookie here!  A house post!  I've done a ton of projects around the house, but have been very lazy in sharing.  And I just realized that my new computer doesn't recognize my old camera ... so until I figure that out, I'm going to have to rely on old photos and the iPhone (using various filters to make the photos a little better).

Do you know how happy I am about my dining room?  The answer is very.  Super mega very.  And today's project pushes it into super crazy mega very territory.  Something as simple as recovering the seat cushions on the chairs made a huge difference.  Here's a shot of the space:

I bought these 6 cane back chairs from my friend Heather years ago.  They were/are exactly the look that I wanted in my dining room.  When I first got them, I recovered 5 of them in a pretty light sage fabric that I had from Ballard Designs.  It worked well.  The last chair (because I didn't have enough of the sage fabric) got covered in a cream fabric with grey coral print.  See - here they are in a four year old photo:

But as my living room/dining room has evolved, the sage wasn't working.  I knew the easiest way to fix that was to simply change up the fabric.  I went with different, but complementary, fabric on the arm chairs and side chairs.

Arm Chairs

I went with a light taupe solid fabric for the arm chairs, because I keep them away from the table, so they need to work with the rest of the room.  The fabric is very neutral and works well.  I bought a new pillow that works really well with the space (and ties into the art above the dining room table).  For the other chair, I moved my pretty geometric printed pillow, which now reads a bit more gold than yellow.

Side Chairs

As for the side chairs, I chose a neutral floral fabric.  I love it.  And it's not too white to render it impractical for the dining room.  

Love love loving this room!  There is but one thing left to get - a rug for under the table!  Once that's done, so is this space.  I may want to touch up the paint on the dining chairs, but that's not really worthy of a blog post.  

What about you? Do anything similarly small but with a big impact?