30 Day Challenge Done!

If you are reading this post it means I survived the 30 Day Pure Barre Challenge. Today was my final day and the only day I had to double up on classes. I went at 6 am this morning and 6 pm tonight. I had to volunteer for the Junior League yesterday after work which was smack dab in the middle of both evening classes and the 6 am at the other location was all full. I have gone out with a bang today!

I feel a lot stronger and know I am getting better. It is still hard. I gave my teacher Kari a dirty look this AM when we did one of my least favorite moves. I am thissss (insert mental image of me putting fingers very close together) close to being able to do the splits. I will do the splits.

A lot of people have said what now? What are you going to do now that the challenge is over. My answer, just keep going. I told myself at the beginning of the year that I wanted to do 60 days of fitness. Now, 3/4ths of this fitness will be Pure Barre but I have some trips to Houston coming up so I will do something different on those days. After the 60 days, I will probably continue along with the same. I won't double up if there are other plans that don't allow me to make a class one day, but for the most part I am going to try my best to continue to be there every day. It has helped me take some much needed Taylor time and it's been helpful for the budget. I have been eating most of my meals at home during the week and that's nice on the pocketbook.

Can you find me in the picture? Just pick one of the brunettes and say it's me. It's pretty much the same thing.

One of my best budget decisions

One of the best budget decisions I made in the new year was unsubscribing from emails. No more emails from Gilt Groupe or Rue La La or other websites like that. No more temptation to get something I don't really need on a great sale and deal. I loved these sites and always got great things but for the moment, I don't need them in my life! Until me meet again super sale sites!

New Likes

I worked roll out last night at J crew and we have some new cute things in store for the spring. Here's a little heads up on items I am liking

The Orbit Necklace It doesn't look very impressive in this picture

I can admit but we had it in another color hanging on a mannequin and I really liked the look of it. Perfect addition to my necklaces I have been loving lately.

The Bubble Necklace Me and everyone else in the blog world love this necklace. It's awesome so I get it. I want it but don't want to pay the price for it. Decisions, decisions.

Neon Sperry's Size 9 in neon azalea please!

I wore my sperrys a ton last year and don't see it being any different this year.

Our scarves in store are pretty amazing. Rich colors and they looks great. They aren't online but another of my faves is. Please meet the leopard print scarf.

I still want it.

And because I can't get enough of a striped shirt

and this beaut with a zipper!

Lot's of fab stuff in the store and with weather how it has been, I have a feeling we might be breaking out spring items before we know it!

The 3 F's

The Year of Taylor is based around what I shall refer to as the 3 F's.

Food

Fitness

Finance

Food: I am trying to eat better. My Fitness Pal has been rocking my world. Have you been to this website or used the app? It's so easy. I am wrapping up my first week using it but I have nothing but love for it at the moment. I also have love for Clementines. A long time lover of oranges, I could never peel them. Enter the clementine. Small, portable, and easy to peel. Also, in my food category is cooking more. Nothing too crazy here, just a meal a week. Last week was roasting broccoli. It was delicious and I shall be roasting it again on Sunday. I have also "invented" a pretty stellar cucumber salad that is rocking my world.

Fitness: I am do a 30 day Pure Barre Fitness challenge. They are doing 30 days and I made the personal challenge for myself to be 40 days. On top of that I want to do 60 days of fitness. Most of those days will be spent at Pure Barre but I have some traveling to Houston in February so that is how the 60 days of fitness was born. I will complete day 24 today. I have loved my Pure Barre experience. They know my name, say hi, I have people in class I am friendly with. Overall, I have found something I enjoy going to which hasn't happened in a very long time.

Finance: Month 2 of my very serious budget is coming to an end. Doesn't mean the budget is coming to an end, just that we are moving into month 3. Budgets suck and aren't fun, I don't know if you were aware of that. I am trying my best to be debt free by the end of the year. Some major things will have to happen for that to be possible but I will try my best to make it happen!

Those are the 3 F's. Sometimes they make me say What the F, but they pretty much outline my 2012 Goals/Resolutions/Life.

Love Hate Relationship

I have a love hate relationship with naps. I love them, because I love to sleep, nap, etc. I hate them because they eat up your whole day. Yesterday, I was especially tired. It had been a long weekend and I had to pull myself out of bed at 8:50 to get my Pure Barre day 21 fitness on. Post fitness I had a brunch to attend at the always delicious Jack Allen's. Seriously, if you have not been there, you must go. It's so yummy. Not just brunch, everything. Everything I have ever had there is yummy. I will be writing a nice Yelp about them in a hot second. Post brunch I was tired and full. I came home and napped. From 2:30-5:30 aka the whole day. I had girls supper club at 6 and that was the only thing that got me out of bed. The sleep felt amazing but I also didn't get anything accomplished yesterday. So yeah, naps, I love you, but I hate you!

Open Letter

Dear Tory Burch,

Please stop emailing me to let

me know that there are new sale items

or new cute stuff in general.

I know these are personal emails from you to me, which is

sweet and all but I can't be tempted at the moment.

I am going strong with my budget and you best back away from my email inbox. One day we can be friends again but until then I can't look at all these pretty things.

xoxo,

Taylor

More pimp shoes in animal prints

aka a double whammy in LEG world! I still love them.

These Zebra like anthro ones

would be a perfect replacement to my giraffe print shoes I finally got rid of that I had for prob. 6 years. They are the same sort of color scheme but the price is going to need to drop by at least 100ish bucks for me to consider them. I also found some Cole Haan ones that are pretty cute too. I can't decide if they are house shoes or not, which is a bit of a problem. I know they would be super comfortable like all of my other Cole Haans are. Price point on these pretties is also step. Why do I have suck expensive taste??

Drawing the line

I have to draw the line somewhere. I am drawing it here.

I love you anchors but this takes it too far. Unless I have another Knotty Nautical party. Then this is worth purchasing.

For the love of Beyonce

Beyonce's birthing suite is bigger than my apartment. Bitch.

Giving credit where credit is due

I am not a fan of Miley Cyrus except for the select catchy songs of hers. As a person, human being, that I have never met, I don't like her. Just something about her. Can't put my finger on it, but ugh! She usually looks terrible and makes bad outfit choices so I am going to give homegirl some kudos on the outfit she wore to The People's Choice Awards. I like it. Her hair looks nice, her make up is tasteful. The dress is pretty with a classy touch of edge. If she hired a stylist then Bravo to them! Keep up the good work Miley!

And keep the boyfriend around too, he's so good looking, can't wait to see you with your shirt off in The Hunger Games!

Pippa

I feel like I have waited an ample amount of time to comment on Pippa Middleton.She is the new hot thing because her sister married Prince William. She is being applauded for her style and how hot she is. Her style is classic and she dresses herself well, but there isn't anything new in her look.

Now we move on the main focus of my post. Her hotness. I get that she is pretty but I am going to say something the pretty much only girls would notice, she isn't aging well.

She is a year younger than me but looks to be, in my opinion, in her mid 30's. Maybe she just needs some better sunscreen but her face is just not aging well. Negative blog rant done.

2012 is the year of Taylor

I am pretty sure 2011 was The Year of Taylor but I feel like I didn't make the best of it so I am bringing it back for another go around.

What is The Year of Taylor? Well it's pretty much just focusing on me and becoming the best Taylor I can be. Sounds hippy dippy and slightly lame but it's what I shall be doing. I spend a lot of time doing things for others, which I love, and not enough spending time on me. I am doing more of that this year. Doesn't mean I don't love my friends but I need to have a little bit more me time. I need to learn to cook more. I know how to cook, just chose not to do it. I need to cook more. I also need to clean more. I have a terrible habit is just letting my clothes go wherever, which means a closet explosion across the apartment. Just 2 of the things I will be working on in The Year of Taylor. My friends WB and SB have offer to have a cooking lesson of easy meals I can make for myself next time I am in San Antonio. I am for sure going to take them up on this offer.

Anyone have any great recipes that take under 20 mins to make? I, like senior citizens, prefer to eat during the early bird special time of 6 pm!

A resolution

I have made a few resolutions for the year. One of them is to cook once a week. I know how to cook but lots of time am too busy to do it. I am going to make my best effort to cook something every week. Maybe if I get real crazy I will cook twice but we will see. This Sunday seemed like a great day to start the resolution. I read this recipe for a tomato soup on Iowa Girl Eats the other day and thought it was a great first cooking choice. It was super easy and very tasty as well. I will for sure make this again and it made plenty so looks like I have dinner taken care of for a few days. I didn't use canellini beans because HEB didn't have any. Seriously, none. I looked 3 different times. I will use them next time and maybe use more broth as well and perhaps add some additional veggies to it like zucchini or something. Two thumbs up!

Pardon the crappy camera phone photo. Much better pictures on Iowa Girl Eats!

It's a Brad Brad World and I want to be a part of it

I was starting to doubt my Bravo love after the not greatness of Chef Roble

but then Brad went and got his own show. You know him as Rachel Zoe's former assistant. When we last saw Brad he was leaving Rachel to start out on his own. Something happened between them and now they are no longer speaking. That kind of made me sad but then I got over it. I like Brad and find this show to be pretty awesome. He is funny and I also like his boyfriend. I think it will shape up to be a new favorite show. Thanks for this new classic Andy Cohen!

9 Year Old Taylor

I couldn't help but think that 9 year old Taylor would have been very sad with one of my Christmas requests this year. I asked for Claritin. Santa provided with a 6 month supply in my stocking. That stuff isn't cheap so it seemed like a solid request but 9 year old me would have been asking where the Barbie or American Girl doll was. Sorry to let you down 9 year old me. When you get old your requests aren't that fun anymore and more on the practical side. That and cedar fever is terrible this year!

Ugh

I had a whole other post to put up today but home girl teen mom got herself knocked up again. Geez. Kids these days.

67

That is the number of books I read last year. I was trying to get to 70 but holidays got in the way and I couldn't wrap up the books I had been working on.

One of my fave books I read

last year was The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin.

See Amazon for a detailed description.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin was also a life changing book that I will most likely re-read this year. The LA Candy Series by Lauren Conrad was my guilty pleasure series. Not going to change your life or anything but will provide you with some solid light entertainment. I also really liked Is Everyone Hanging out Without Meand Bossypants, like the rest of the world.

I am taking recommendations for books to read in 2012, so comment away with them. Anyone know of a good book on Margaret Thatcher? I saw a preview for The Iron Lady movie about her and now want to learn more about her.

Happy New Year

Happy 2012 my readers. It was a pretty good 2011 and here's to hoping 2012 is even better. Resolutions coming up soon but until then I shall be lounging on the couch. So glad we get Monday off!

Hope your New Year's Eve was as good as this guy's