cute owls

i love owls. are these not just adorowlble??!! all of these are from the beloved etsy.

yoga and spring

yesterday i attended my first yoga class in two weeks. TWO WEEKS!!! man, i really have been in a slump. it felt great to get back into the swing of things. i am hoping that this will help get me back into the routine of exercising most days of the week. before yoga class i walked each of our two dogs a half mile. they were happy to get out of the house and walking in the warm evening and i'll admit it, so was i.

i have been in a rut recently. i think my thyroid is acting up again. i have no energy, have been a little depressed, tired, cranky, and just want to go to bed as soon as i get home from work. i am SO ready to get back into exercising and watching what i eat. beach season is right around the corner!!

on a side note, spring is beginning to show it's beautiful colors around morgantown. every where i turn there is a tree in bloom or at least budding. spring is so amazing. it's like a wonderful present after such a long, cold winter. here are some pics i took yesterday as i was waiting for my boyfriend to get off of work.

earth hour

my boyfriend and i made sure that all lights (and electronics) were out (and off) during earth hour on saturday. we had gone grocery shopping for that nights dinner just prior to that. we were able to get home, cook and with almost perfect timing, sit down at the table to eat at 8:30pm.

lights out!! we enjoyed a lovely candle-lit dinner. (which reminds me, gotta buy some candles without scents so it doesn't mingle with dinner). we had a lovely pasta dish: linguine with alfredo sauce, baby portabella mushrooms and steak. would have taken a pic but might not have shown up so good in the candle light.

after dinner, we cleaned up (as best we could in the candle light). then we went to bed to lay and cuddle for the rest of the hour. that was of course until dooty decided he needed some snuggling too. (he always lays in between us lol). needless to say, we made up after our rough patch from earlier in the day.

what did you guys do to celebrate earth hour?

here's an update. check out this website, click on the pics to see the difference before and during earth hour. pretty amazing.

5k - fail

i wish i was blogging about how i did the 5k on saturday, unfortunately, this is not the case. here's a little back story: my friend and i were supposed to do the 5k together. considering that both of us aren't exactly in running condition we were going to walk/jog it together. key word being together.

she has been having some medical problems that would eventually prevent her from doing the 5k all together. so i knew, i would be doing it by myself. i had no problem with this, in fact, i was looking forward to completing my first ever 5k by myself. i asked my boyfriend if he wanted to do it with us back when i first found out about it. he said that he wouldn't be ready to run a 5k by then but he would do the one with me april 18th. when he found out my friend wouldn't be doing it with me after all he asked me if i wanted him to join me. i told him, no, that's ok, i'll be fine. i should have told him, no, i want to do this by myself. but, i didn't.

fast forward to the day of the race. my boyfriend says to me, will you be mad if i do the race with you. reluctant thoughts in my head, i went ahead and said no. (i mean it's a public 5k race, i can't stop him from doing it!!) i asked if he was going to run it. he said, yeah, it'll give me a time to beat at the april 5k. immediately, my eyes start feeling up with tears. the thoughts running through my head "great, he's gonna do this when he had no interest up until NOW and he's going to run it so he's going to show me up." yes these thoughts were selfish but this is how my head interpreted it all. it bothered me that this is something i wanted to do on my own, then he was gonna come in and take my glory. i understand i'm being silly but i wanted this one to be done all on my own.

so, i shut down. i thought, i won't say anything, we'll just go and get this 5k over with, we'll come home and everything will be fine. to avoid confrontation, i am quiet. he knows that when i'm quiet something is probably wrong. he kept asking me, what's wrong, what's wrong. i kept answering, nothing, nothing. of course he gets mad at me because i'm not telling him what's wrong. so in the car on the way there, i finally blurt out, tears flowing, that i thought it was pretty convenient that he showed no interest until today and because his friends told him that they bet him he couldn't do it in under 27 mins that now he is suddenly interested, that he was going to run it and i was going to be left behind. well, of course, he gets completely defensive and we end up fighting about it. i was sobbing by then. so much so that i told him to turn around, i couldn't do the 5k, not now.

everything is fine now. we talked it out after we fought about it a little more. so, long story made short, 5k - didn't happen. 5k - april 18th - look out!! :)

sorry i was so long winded. i wanted to explain why i didn't do the 5k on saturday and i wanted to tell the truth behind why.

nose piercing and dooty the cat turns 10

two weeks ago i found the courage to get my nose pierced. i have thrown around the idea for years. after reading that yogadiva had done it, i was inspired to do it myself, once and for all. when i look at myself in the mirror i feel like it has always been there. it is a part of me now and i love it!! thank you yogadiva for helping me find the courage to go through with it!

my loving, sweet, and adorable cat dooty just turned 10!! he has been there for me through so much. i have gone through hurricanes, moving around a lot, a messy divorce, several boyfriends after the divorce, and finally moving in with my current boyfriend who had a cat and a dog of his own already. (between the two of us we have a small petting zoo, but that is another post entirely).

dooty is the true love of my life. no matter what happens, he is by my side. no matter what i look like, what i wear, how much weight i've gained over the years, he still loves me the same. he is pure therapy for me. he soothes me on the soul level. (in the pics below he looks like he isn't exactly thrilled to be having his picture taken).





and some older pics:




photos by ryan

lovely lotus

i find lotus flowers to be very inspirational, beautiful and very calming.

red bedroom

we have been talking about redecorating. we have thrown around some ideas of what colors in what room. for years now i have always wanted a red bedroom. so we have decided to redecorate the bedroom. something like the above picture would be welcome. something deep and dark red. any paint recommendations would be great. thanks

i'll still love you ny!!

i wanted to share a little of my nyc trip with all of my lovely readers. ryan and i had so much fun. i'll give you a little recap of the highlights.



we stayed in the latham hotel which was located on 28th street between 5th and madison. although it was a budget hotel it was in a wonderful location. only 5 blocks from the empire state building and the flatiron building.


friday after we checked in the hotel we headed uptown to go to the guggenheim. that was until we saw the line around the block to get in. we weren't excited about the prospects of waiting in line forever just to get in so we walked down to the metropolitan museum of art instead. (this is us in the japanese garden). we spent a couple of hours there. then we grabbed some coffee at starbucks and looked through our ny times. we decided to go watch the watchmen in imax. (my boyfriend is a comic book nut). i have to admit, the watchmen was really good. i enjoyed it very much.



both saturday and sunday morning we ate breakfast at one of my favorite places, zabars on the upper west side. absolutely love their nova bagel. i could start every morning in that place, and usually when i'm in ny, i do!


saturday after breakfast at zabars, we hopped on the subway and went to times square. we watched hedda gabler at the american airlines theatre. and let me just say, mary louise-parker was fantastic!!


after watching hedda gabler, we went back to the hotel room, changed clothes and headed downtown to find something to eat. we were wondering along and came across sushi ariyoshi in union square. both being huge fans of sushi, we looked at each other and we knew we'd found the place we wanted to have dinner. it was a lovely place and had amazing food. i got a green garden roll ( striped bass, kaiware & crunch wrapped w/ avocado) and a red dawn roll ( salmon roe wrapped w/ king salmon & tobiko). see pic below for mouth-watering goodness.


after dinner, we went to teany. we are both fans of tea, especially me. it's rare that a day goes by without me having some tea. i love them all! teany really was just that - teany. i had a wonderful time sitting there with my boyfriend, sharing a piece of red velvet cake, each with our own pot of tea (of course).



after teany we went to the sex in the city made famous magnolia bakery on bleaker street. we got a few cupcakes to take back with us. they were good, but i have to admit not as much as i was hoping for. there were definitely beautiful though.


we had such a fabulous weekend. i only wish that we could have spend more time there. and just to round everything out, i have ryan adams new york, new york for your listening pleasure.

thank you for taking the time to comment. i love reading your thoughts!

photos by little ol' me

acupuncture

thursday evening i had my first ever acupuncture experience. let me just say it was great. you can read about all the details on my morgantown musings.

can't wait to go back for more!

new york bound

new york here i come!! i am so excited! my boyfriend and i are leaving early tomorrow morning to go to nyc. i really do HEART ny!!

the main reason we are going to ny is to see hedda gabler. and yes, the lovely mary louise-parker is playing hedda!! now, how exciting is that??!!

this trip will be from friday through around noonish sunday so we will have some running around time as well. i definitely plan on hitting up teany because we are both major tea lovers and besides, who doesn't love moby?! possibly hitting up the guggenheim as well. would love to check out kandinsky gallery as well as everything else.

the possibilities are endless in ny. and that is one of the major reasons why it's my favorite city. of course once i return i will share my pics and my experience with all of you. have a great weekend!!

ode to one of my role models

i wanted to take a step back in time and share with you about my experience meeting kimberly wilson at flow yoga in leesburg, va. on saturday, march 7th.

background: i have been interested in yoga for 10+ years. i have been practicing yoga on and off for approximately 6-7 years. i have been practicing yoga on a regular basis for about 3 years now. my ultimate goal is to have a daily yoga practice (which i am currently working towards).

in the beginning when blogs first started surfacing, i wasn't that interested. [i tend to fight everything that goes mainstream such as facebook and twitter (which i am on both now lol)]. now, of course, i have not one but two blogs. this one (that you are obviously reading) and my morgantown musings (one for the things that happen in my hometown). both are under construction so bare with me :)

now, tie in these two things together - my love of yoga and growing interest in blogs. i started scouring the net for....*dramatic pause* ... yoga blogs. this is how i came across kimberly wilson's fantastic blog and instantly fell in love.

she's a phenomenal woman and SUCH an adorable sweetheart in person!! i had an amazing 3 hours with her in a get your yoga on workshop. it was absolutely worth the 3 hours drive there and 3 hours back. i just wish i lived closer to d.c. so i could call tranquil space my yoga studio.

photo credit

Clean Well

with all these germs floating around this year i am trying to keep from getting sick, yet again. it seems to be worse this year for some reason. i'm not a huge fan of purell for many reasons but i knew it did the job. a friend recommended i try clean well, a green hand sanitizer. i am a changed woman. i love this stuff! it's an all-natural hand sanitizer made with ingenium. it's alcohol free, cruelty free, with no harsh or toxic chemicals. 'nuff said!

you can check them out at http://www.cleanwelltoday.com/, i can't wait to try all their products. i heart green products!!

let me know if you've tried clean well and if so what your thougths are and any other favorite green products you currently use or want to try.

let's gussy up the tuttle together

welcome. thanks for stopping by my little blog. i've been a reader of blogs for a long time. i figured it was time to start my own. this will be a place i capture my thoughts, what i find interesting or amusing, and the pics i take. i hope you enjoy my little blog.