Wednesday Reminders.

| The Bee Life

Life seems to be one big race to the next vacation, the next meeting, the next holiday, the next weekend… shall I go on?  It’s little reminders like this; that help put life in perspective, let you take a step back, breathe in a deep breath, and realize all in good time.  I know more great things are headed my way, but it’s hard not to be eager and impatient, our society is all about knowing things… Right. Now.

In light of all that, today marks a big anniversary for B and I, and also marks a new anniversary and the start of our next adventure together… our house! I’m thankful and reflective today of all the great things in my life and all the great things yet to come. #happywednesday

Four Weddings.

| The Bee Life

The wedding season is officially over for 2014. We attended four beautiful weddings over the past seven months, each couple different and each wedding beautiful in its own way. The bride’s were gorgeous and the drinks were a plenty…And no, I am not going to judge these on, dress, venue, food, and overall experience… but I did think about it!

Wedding #1 – 5.23.14
“The Bridal Party“

Location: Silver Lakes Country Club, Stow, OH
Colors: Navy + Grey
Hashtag: #ChechakWedding
Standout: The Steak! YUM

Our first wedding for the season was our dear friends, and B and I were both lucky enough to be in the bridal party! The day was special, and a long time coming for these two high school sweethearts. The night was beautiful and we sent the couple away with a sparkler send off.

Wedding #2 – 8.30.14
“Vermilion Getaway”

Location: The Rose Cafe, Lorain, OH
Colors: Navy + Seersucker
Hashtag: #IdTrappThat
Standout: Campbell’s Popcorn at the end of the night

Next on the tour was B’s coworker and now friend’s wedding. This may have taken place on one of the hottest days of the year, but we were excited for a little getaway in Vermilion, a cute little water town.  With views of the lake at the venue and a DJ crankin’ up the tunes, we helped shut down the reception.

Wedding #3 – 10.18.14
“A Hampel Wedding“

Location: Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, Fairport, NY
Colors: Navy + Grey
Hashtag: #allyouneedisloveSC
Standout: Pumpkin Centerpieces + Homemade Chocolate Covered Apples

This was my cousins wedding… and my Hampel family weddings are always a crazy good time. And this wedding did not disappoint.  The ceremony was heartfelt and tear-jerking and the reception was full of drinks and dancing, it was an awesome time (not to mention my whole family was there and they are pretty fun!)… we definitely paid for it the next day.

Wedding #4 – 11.1.14
“East Side Wedding”

Location: Nighttown, Cleveland, OH
Colors: Navy
Hastag: #TheyDidntHaveAHashtag *frown face*
Standout: Carmel Apple Cupcakes

My brother’s best friend from high school and also best man tied the knot this past weekend.  He was also a second brother to me growing up, and ironically we both moved out to Cleveland the same year for school.  This wedding was not your traditional wedding, but was effortlessly sweet with touches of fall throughout.  It was nice seeing old friends, plus my brother and sister-in-law for the weekend!

Wedding season is always a fun and busy time, but I am happy to have the 2014 wrapped-up, with the next wedding season already in sight.  My best friend since freshman year in high school got engaged last week and asked me to be her Maid of Honor this weekend! I am so excited and happy to be able to be by her side on such a special day, like we’ve both been for each other, for over a decade now. It will be a bit of a long distance, but that just means more weekend trips in to see her and help plan her big day!

House Hunters – Bedroom Retreat

| The Bee Life

T-minus one week and 2-days until we get our house keys! Our dining room is slowly coming to life… the rug and chairs have arrived, plus we are having a custom table built that will end up being 8’x4′ – I can’t wait to see the finished product.

One of the other rooms that I have high hopes for…thanks to pinterest…. is our master bedroom.  We plan to turn our attic into our master retreat, which will have some logistical set backs (ie: heating and cooling) but the space is monstrous and has so many possibilities! Not to mention… two walk-in closets. I really want to go with a classic look with lots of neutrals and pops of color, the navy and white/grey color scheme is really catching my eye, it’s so timeless.

We will also have room for a seating area, that means fun chairs are a must! I love the chair below (04), plus they’re available in other colors. The pops of color will come into play with pillows, because let’s face it you can never have too many pillows, and other decorative accents throughout.  I also like the idea of having an upholstered headboard, it just gives a homey feeling… below is just a mess of ideas I’ve pulled together, definitely still a work in progress!

01 / 02 / 03 / 04 / 05

Happy decorating!

Motivation Needed.

| The Bee Life

You would think that after 24 years of being on this earth, it wouldn’t be so hard to adjust to the time or weather changes… but it is! And it’s even harder when you have a head cold and your apartment heat doesn’t turn on unless it’s below 50… or so they say… ok… ok… gripe session over!

I have to admit that since the cancellation of our half marathon, which would’ve happened this past October 11th – I have not been working out or running. The most physical activity I’ve done lately is all the dancing I did at the wedding I attended this past weekend!! But I do know that I’ll have to run in 9 days because I signed up for the Bernie Kosar 5k Shuffle!

Who is Bernie Kosar? Well… from what I can tell he played football for the Cleveland Browns, and Clevelanders seem to like him.  But since that is WAY before my time, I picked this race based on the race metal, distance, and pure fact that it just looks like fun. Plus I knew I would need some motivation, and any 5k that you can get a metal at, is totally worth it in my book. I have also been desperately trying to get my coworkers to partake in a short “fun run” with me… I was half successful. I tapped in to a few different coworkers (from other departments) who will be participating, with their significant others.  It will be a fun time! Not to mention this race is officially SOLD OUT – so I don’t have to worry about it getting cancelled!

“The Essence of Health is an Inner Kind of Balance.” – Dr. Andrew Weil

Since I haven’t been as active, as I’d like to be or need to be – I’ve made sure I am more conscious of my food intake. Smaller portions, little snacks, veggies, fruits and protein plus the occasional sweet treat! In addition, B and I plan to start doing the “FastDiet” aka the 5:2 diet. This diet consists of five days of normal eating, and any of the other two are fasting. Meaning 500 calories (for women) or 600 calories (for men)… although this depends on your activeness and size/height ratio. My aunts have been doing this for a few weeks now and have already seen gradual weight loss. I just ordered The FastDiet Cookbook and The FastDiet to get started! I like the idea of this diet, because it isn’t a radical lifestyle change, you don’t have to food prep for 7-days a week and you’re able to enjoy a night out… or three! It seems like a good balance.

How do you stay motivated during these darker and colder days?

#BestofCle

| The Bee Life

Friday night was Cleveland Magazine’s annual Best of Cleveland Party, and for the second year was hosted at the Public Auditorium. This year’s theme was graffiti – and it was well represented, attendee’s could get faux tattoo’s, custom graffiti bags and hats (donations benefiting the Breakthrough Schools of Cleveland), and furniture and table tops were free for artistic expression. Photo booth’s allowed party goers to graffiti their own photo – or pick one of the custom backdrops (see ours below!).  BOC winners filled the hall offering up favorite treats and special promos.

The standouts:
Names link to BOC winner’s websites

Jack Flaps – served a fried pancake ball with cinnamon glaze – yum! Not to mention their menu is amazing.

Harness Cycle – first time BOC winner! Great to see them represented, plus they were handing out promo codes for a free class – you can never have enough spin in your life.

Brewnuts – their brewnuts tasted even better than they look … I follow their mouthwatering Instagram account, I was so happy to try these in person, definitely worth a visit.

Wine Bar Rocky River – they served beats and goat cheese on bread, not to mention handed out complementary tickets for a glass of wine during your next restaurant visit – always  a good spot for a date night.

Sheiban Jewelers (VIP Lounge) – only because they let me try on zillion dollar diamond rings (one ring was $460,000… the other was $93,000… a girl can dream right?)

Trentina (VIP Lounge) – the gentlemen did a great job at selling this place, B and I will be booking a reservation. The dining experience sounds like no other – 6 or 12 course meals!

CLE Clothing Co. (VIP Lounge Goodie Bags) – thee softest shirt ever + the drive, the return = love

The night ended with DJ EV on the turntable with some fun throwbacks. The Best of Cleveland is one of my favorite parties, and truly brings the best of Cleveland together under one roof, for one big party! If you have not been, I highly suggest it – mark your calendars for next October!

House Hunters – Dining Room Design

| The Bee Life

Well it has been nearly 3-months since we began our house hunt, and we are happy to report that we got a house!  We probably also have the most lucky and unique story when it comes to our house. To give you the cliff notes version; we saw this house our second day looking at houses, B loved it – I was stuck on a house we lost. The house had an offer placed on the house, so we went back to look at the house and ended up placing an offer – we freaked out and pulled our offer. The house was gone – contingent with the other offer. A week or two later, the house was back on the market. Two weeks after that we went and looked at it again. Two weeks after that, we went back again with my contractor uncle and did a more technical walk-through (so in case your counting, we saw the same house 4x).  After that, we made a real offer, and after a bit of negotiations our offer was accepted!!

Now the fun part begins -decorating! Here are our plans for the dining room; I want a mix of patterns, modern and a classic look to tie into the bones of the house, (which will be 100 years in 2015)!  I am obsessed with the floral chairs (05) – I think these would look good  for the heads of the table. We are also looking into having our table made, so that is it a little more affordable – more details to come on that.

Dining Room Design
01 / 02 / 03 / 04 / 05

While we wait to close on the house I have been doing plenty of on-line shopping and deal hunting – any suggestions for hidden online (or places) treasure troves for a great deal? I am always game for a good DIY project!

#emnbtoJH

| The Bee Life

Hello!

I was on a bit of a hiatus, I was vacationing all last week in fabulous Jackson Hole, Wyoming… I know not your typical vacation spot, but it’s mine!  As I was traveling out to JH, I realized it had been 5-years since I had last been, compared to going every summer during high school.  It felt like such a long time since I had been there, even though not much had changed. The Grand Tetons were still gorgeous as ever.

I was beyond thrilled to share this special place, that has been near and dear to my heart for almost a decade with B.  He is used to beach vacations, so this trip was completely different for him.  You can’t truly appreciate the experience or the beauty until you have been there, the pictures don’t give the mountainous scape justice. Here is a quick recap of our week!

Trip Highlights:

Horse back riding, hiking up Mt. Rendezvous, our happy hour night, and the various wildlife spotting: multiple moose, elk and buffalo.

Yellowstone National Park
Moose
The Grand Tetons
Horse back riding
Selfie!
In town
Happy Hour on the Deck
Mt. Rendevzous Hike
“Top of the World”
We did it!
Morning Coffee View
Million Dollar Cowboy Bar
Jenny Lake Lodge

The memories that I’ve made and the experiences I’ve had going to JH every summer are ones that I will never forget, and that is why I will always keep going back and also why I wanted to share it with Bentley.  It was a great trip, and I am glad B and I got a chance to take this vacation along with my parents!  It is the first of many trips for us, and I love exploring the world and all the different places. Time to start planning our next adventure!

Race Cancelled.

| The Bee Life

Today I received an email from the Rock n’ Roll Marathon series informing me that they are cancelling the upcoming race that is nearly a month away!  I am so disappointed. Also, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of a race, especially of this stature being cancelled so late in the game! They said it was cancelled due to “low levels of participation and local support.”

http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/cleveland

I had originally planned for this to be my last half marathon, but now I feel like I still need to run one more. I really enjoyed the Rock n’ Roll Marathon series, when it was in Cleveland last year, plus it was the Inaugural race in Cleveland, so it’s really a shame they they couldn’t keep it going for a second year.  The energy of the race and atmosphere was amazing! So I would like to try and find another RnR series… just now in a different city.  I am going to try and continue on with training (not that I have been doing a very good job) but also work to get more cross training into the mix.

Before I received the news of the race being cancelled, I had drafted this…

I made double digits this past week in training!!  But that is just an excuse I still missed out on 6 miles… I need to keep working up to more miles each week.

Week 6 Training – Recap

Monday – 4 miles

Tuesday – 2 miles or cross

Wednesday – 4 miles + strength
Complete – 36:28

Thursday – Easy Run

Friday – Rest

Saturday – 6 miles
Complete – 54:55

Sunday – Strength

Week Total Miles: 10 miles

Also, I got new running sneakers (thanks mom!), because I get black toe nails/loss my toe nails (sorry – TMI!) every half-marathon and training.  My aunt who is an avid, long-distance runner wears a size larger to help avoid that… which surprisingly for as long as I have run and as many races as I have completed, I haven’t heard that!  How many of you runners out there run with a size bigger to avoid black toe nails? Any other tips or tricks?

Happy Running!

 

Week 6 Training – Halfway Point

| The Bee Life

The end of this training week will mark the halfway point, exactly 6 more weeks until the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon! The last few weeks have unfortunately been very sparse with the training aspect, so time for a harsh reality check.

Week 3 – I literally did nothing

Week 4 – I got a short 2.65 mile run and my long 5 miles in – for a grand total of 7.65 miles

Week 5 – One 4-mile run

Week 6 – Still in progress

I have 4 days left in week 6 to get some additional miles in. I really hate writing and publishing this for the world to see, but I have been severely lacking motivation…. major runners block.

Tough love 

How do you push through your long days to get those miles in?