4 Easy Workouts

| The Bee Life

Since I have been having a hard time staying motivated and getting a workout in, I wanted to share some easy workouts that allow you to start small, are manageable AND able to be fit in during convenient times to make them work during your busy schedule.

You're only one work out awayfrom a good

  1. Small sets before you shower: If you’re already ‘stinky’ or in need for a freshen up, why not try and squeeze some easy but impactful workouts in just before?
    50 squats | 30 crunches | 25 side plank leg extenders (each side) | 20 push-ups
  2. 10-minutes of stretches before bed: You’ll be amazed at how much this will help you and relieve the day’s stresses. Be sure to take deep breathes in and out throughout and don’t rush to the next position.
    Suggestions: Tree pose for 30-seconds on each side | Simple side stretches alternating legs and arms | Lay on your back and hug your knees, rocking gently (one of my favorites)
  3. Lunch break walks: Take 30-minutes of your lunch break to get some extra steps in, find some stairs near by and take some laps, the quicker you start to continually exercise, the easier it’ll become to keep it up.
  4. Get back into running: Whether your more experienced or trying to start – pick any mileage range between 1 to 3 miles and just go for it. Don’t worry about your pace or if you have to stop and walk.  Getting a good sweat on is the mission. Pick a few days a week for your run and even try to increase your distance!

How do you fit workouts into your busy schedule?

Balancing Life

| The Bee Life

Work: “activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.”

Life(style): “the way in which a person or group lives.”

Balance: “an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.”

Work - Life
With no major vacation this year, I am having some serious struggles with my work-life balance, not to mention my workout routine has been nonexistent, and I hate it.

Being able to workout and maintain a healthy lifestyle is something that is important to me, although it mostly annoys me that cost and work get in the way of a large portion of things that make me happy and used to be a huge aspect of my day-to-day routine. Knowing that I am essentially gym-less and on my own to get some motivation (and have to work) I decided to put together a list of items to be more cognizant of starting ASAP at home and at work (because complaining gets you nowhere).

Life

  • Morning workouts & weekend runs: Waking up an hour earlier to do a set of exercises for 30-40 minutes in the morning is more than I am currently doing – taking advantage of free time on the weekends will balance out anything missed during the week
  • Breakfast & Coffee at home: Waking up earlier will allow time to prep a breakfast and make coffee, so that I won’t be tempted by Starbucks which is in the lobby of my office building
  • Walks with Moz: A quick walk at the end of the day allows for the extra motivation and fresh air – maybe even a quick walk in the morning
  • Yoga before bed: I have a 10-minute yoga routine I do occasionally before bed, it needs to happen more often
  • Weekly scrap-booking: It’s something I love to do and don’t do enough up, I have a lot of catching up to do!  Even if it’s 30-minutes a week

Work

  • Afternoon fresh air: A quick walk around the block to break up the afternoon and recharge will take 5-10minutes out of the day but have a lasting effect
  • Packing a lunch & snacks: Will allow for me to save money and not be tempted by a quick sub or the leftovers in the cafe
  • Stay above the crap: It’s so easy to get sucked in or be the hitting board for someone’s bad day – remembering to stay above that and not sweating the small stuff
  • Drinking more water: No explanation needed

I want to start with little items that can be accomplished in order to stay focused and not get overwhelmed, creating good habits is half the battle – so starting small makes sense.  How do you maintain a good balance between life and work?

Local Love

| The Bee Life

One of the things I love about my city is that we have so many awesome local companies and the best part is that they’re strictly that, local companies. Here are a few of my favorite locals;

CLE Clothing Co.
Local clothing with unique designs specializing in all things CLE, especially our amazing sports teams.  What makes these tees so great is how soft they are, it’s absolutely incredible. My favorite t-shirts are from CLE Clothing Co., and their instagram account is the go to place to get updates and stay current on the latest releases and sales.

Cleveland Vegan
Although I have only tried their chocolate chip cookies and some other sweet treats, I would recommend this place to anyone.  They sell variety of their bakery items at other local grocery stores, their brick and mortar store is always packed – and serve a wide offering of vegan options.  We’ll be taking a trip in the near future.

Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream
Thanks to Mitchell’s I am officially an ice cream snob.  Mitchell’s uses locally sourced ingredients and has seasonal flavors like; Strawberry Rhubarb and Fresh Peach. Not to mention year-round flavors include Carmel Sea Salt, Toasted Pistachio, and Cookie Dough.  I also love that they offer vegan and low-dairy/yogurt options – which is great for dietary restrictions, plus sprinkles are free!

Dawg Pound 5k
Last year this was the Bernie Kosar Shuffle (5k) – not many 5k’s have amazing swag or a kick ass metal, but here in Brown’s town we do.  A sea of orange and brown; regardless of the weather will be running the downtown streets at this year’s Dawg Pound fun run.  A group of coworkers and friends are all signed up for this October, it’s going to be a blast!

Foundry Woodprints
Brings vintage images to life by his unique technique of ‘printing’ on wood – this amazing collection of century old photography is incredible and brings this city back to an era of it’s true roots. We have a few of these pieces around the house and absolutely love them.

What are some of your local loves?

Wood Crafts

| The Bee Life

With our recent attic project (see here) we have a lot of old wood that we’ve replaced, meaning we have a lot of old wood sitting in our garage waiting for something amazing to happen to it! So I have a few projects brewing in my head that I hope to start working on for the upcoming holiday seasons for some nice holiday decor. I also have a few projects/presents in mind for family and friends. Here is just a few sneak peaks of a few of my ideas…

I might even brainstorm and create a few ideas of my own for more holiday-esq door signs and decor.  That is one thing I love having year round, and with the front door about to be painted within the next month – yes a color has been chosen, (you have to wait to be surprised) we will be able to showcase some of those new ornaments.

Hope you have a crafty, inspiring weekend!

#weekendhangover

| The Bee Life

What a weekend! It was so busy, and so much fun – so many awesome things happened.

The big focal point around the weekend, was celebrating my aunts’ wedding – yes you read that correctly aunts, plural.  They decided to get married last month, just 2-weeks after the big Supreme Court decision.  So finally on Saturday we got to celebrate their marriage with family and friends.  Family started pouring in for the weekend Friday night with festivities starting early Saturday!

I was the designated photographer for my aunts, so I was busy popping around to all 170 guests making sure everyone was photographed, not to mention the group shots and cake cutting!  The cake cutting was about the only ‘wedding reception-esq’ thing that happened, besides an open bar with endless drinks.

The night ended over at our house, with some more drinks and a smaller crowd of the family – I was happy to host everyone around our dining room table.

Saturday also was a big day for B’s family, his brother and sister-in-law welcomed their first little girl, Avery into the world. She is the first grandchild, so it was a big deal!  We went to the hospital Sunday afternoon to meet her and see the new mom and dad!

The weekend was full of close family, good friends, lots of laughs and more memories to add to the books.  Moz even got to meet her new cousin, Findley (my aunt’s new puppy).  It was a nonstop weekend full of fun. I definitely have a weekend hangover to start this Monday off.

Front Door Dilemma

| The Bee Life

Ever since I realized I was able to paint our beautiful original front door … I say realize because the inside is still original but for whatever reason the previous homeowners decided to paint the outside facing 100-year old door! And because of that, I now have had the ongoing dilemma on what color to paint this door.  We have a neutral colored house (tan with off white trim), so I feel like we have a pretty wide range of options… which also makes the decision much harder.

So beyond going on Pinterest for inspiration, I used the Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap app to look at a range of colors that I’ve been gravitating too. Finding the right shade of whatever color we end up choosing is important, and ColorSnap allows an ease of browsing along with saving the color swatch right on my phone!

The Color

I have looked at a few fun colors too, like a bright orange, or even a deep purple.  But I think going with something more practical.  But just when I think I am leaning towards one color over the other I change my mind.  I think I am just going to have to go for it!

Help! Any suggestions? Advice?

Thanks in advance,

House Hunters – Attic Retreat

| The Bee Life

One of the things that we loved about our house was the attic.  Especially after we had seen a dozen or so homes with not so great attics and just as bad basements.  In our city, 100 year old homes are the standard, no cookie cutter houses here, but with that when you find a gem you have to move quickly… unless pure fate is on your side. So when we saw our bright open, massive attic space we instantly had dreams of making it our master… our own retreat.

Beyond just the furniture which we have some loose ideas around, as seen in my previous post House Hunters – Bedroom Retreat.  One of our larger projects was to raise the roof! Not literally but we wanted to raise the ceiling.  Having a 6’6″ boyfriend with a 6’7″ clearance… doesn’t leave a lot of head room. hehe. So this past week and weekend, we have been removing the ceiling and all of the insulation to see what was up there.  We were able to gain 6-inches of clearance, which is better than having B’s hair brush against the ceiling. Some electrical needs to be reworked and we need to figure out insulation. From there it’ll be drywall and finishing touches.

I can’t wait until it gets finished, I’m so excited for my walk-in closet (which I am sure I’ll end up sharing with B, because I’m too nice). The second thing I am most exited about it is getting a king sized bed. Surprisingly (or not) we don’t even have a queen size for as tall as B is. Beyond those things; the ideas are endless with finishing touches and organizational ways to fit within the attic space. Here are some ideas we’re hoping to replicate:

Banister for an open look: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/an-eclectic-and-cool-south-aus-138993#_
More storage options for sloped ceilings: http://www.andreagary.com/photo-gallery.html
Optimal Closet Space: http://designingmainstreet.com/tag/sloped-ceiling/
Hidden Storage: http://thehousediaries.com/blog/2015/1/7/jan-7-big-bedroom
Awesome ceiling detail: http://www.decoist.com/2014-07-08/slanted-ceilings-design-ideas/

Can’t wait to show off the finished photos, although I’m thinking this is going to take some time! I know our goal is to get most of this complete by the winter!

Ten Things

| The Bee Life

Here are ten senseless distractions; and a quick read to get to know a little more about me!  I saw this idea in another blog I like to read; Centsational Girl and loved this idea and thought it would be the perfect distraction for my afternoon. It was hard just picking one answer for each, but I tried my best.

1. If money was no object, what’s something you’d buy right now.  My own personal gym.

2. Spring vs. Fall ? Fall – clam bakes, sweaters, pumpkins, coffee, jeans, scarfs, cool runs… shall I continue?
3. What’s on your nightstand?  Pictures of me and B and my glasses.

4. What’s your favorite room in your house?  Our sunroom! 5. If you could have lunch with anyone in the world, who would it be?  Too many choices…. it’s a toss up between Derek Jeter and Katy Perry

6. Name one thing on your bucket list.  Sky dive with B

7. What’s the best vacation you’ve taken?  Jackson Hole w/ B and my parents! The company makes all the difference.
8. Congratulations, you just won an all expenses paid trip to Ireland and Germany!

9. Backyard BBQ or Formal Dinner?  Formal dinner – I love getting dressed up, and sitting around the table sharing stories, good laughs and a bottle of wine.
10. What advice would you give your teen self?   There is a much bigger world out there; explore it as much as possible, and even if you break away – there is still a bigger world beyond that.

Transformation Tuesday no. 8

| The Bee Life

This past week, B and I did a quick and easy DIY makeover – this has been in the works for a few years now.  B had these sort of hideous black shiny dressers with golden knobs.  Although not that pretty, super functional and great to have. So we finally refinished and painted them!  The knobs got updated too, the cheapest route – because if any of you know knobs/light covers, etc. are the most expensive items that add up quickly!  If we wanted to replace all of the knobs it could cost almost $200 (on the high-end)… not the point of an easy, inexpensive DIY.

We grabbed some spray paint and started sanding to get as much of the shine off as possible.  The sanding was probably the hardest part – B tackled this like a champ.  I was the go-to spray painter – after two coats they were good to go! Not only are they more our style, but they open up our room so much more, we no longer have these glaring shiney black pieces staring at us! I bought a table runner to place on top so that our TV and items won’t mess up the new paint.

It was such an easy, and relatively inexpensive update, we are both so happy with the way it turned out.