From Fish to Fab - Bathroom Make-Over

Since it's Friday and I like Fridays to be as fun as possible (and because I didn't run yesterday so I don't have any workout to tell you about), I want to take this time to show you one of my recent projects - redecorating a bathroom!

I came up with the idea to redecorate the "kids' bathroom" at my parents' house as a Christmas present for them.  The bathroom was super 90's, decorated with a lot of fish decor, and very child-like.  Now that we are all adults (legally, at least), I thought it would be good to update.  And it's a small room, so how hard could it be?

Here are the BEFORE photos:

I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and picked out a new shower curtain, towels, garbage can, and Kleenex holder.  After much debate on the paint color, I settled on a tan (which actually came out a little more orange-y) and scheduled a time to paint with my brother when we knew our parents wouldn't be home. Unfortunately, my mom came home earlier than expected that night, so it wasn't as much of a surprise as I had hoped it would be.

Here are the AFTER photos:

We didn't do anything to the existing fixtures because that is a little beyond my skill/knowledge level.  And I wouldn't want to spend all that money on their house without my mom giving some input.

The tan/orange is still bright like the teal was, but I do think it matches the wood better.  Mom made a point though that it doesn't match the gray toilet as much.  But like most home decor/fixtures from the 90's - the gray toilet needs to go soon too!  You can also see the phone jack on the wall in one of the pictures.  We plan to take that out as well.  In the time of phones with cords, you always had to have one close by, which meant right next to the toilet.  Luckily cordless and cell phones solve that problem for us now!

I also spent a good chunk of time completely cleaning out the drawers and cabinets in that bathroom.  They were filled with random toiletries, razors, toothbrushes, etc.  So we bought some drawer liner to put down, cleaned out the clutter, used some handy drawer organizers and now they are like brand new!

And now I'm off to St. Louis for the weekend!  Upon my return, I will have a recap of the month of February for you :)

Have you ever redecorated a room just for a change?

What is your best bathroom organization tip?

Do/Did you have a phone in your bathroom?

Playing With My New Toy

I got a new toy for Christmas.  A running toy.  The Garmin Forerunner 220!!

And obviously, since every little kid wants to play with their new Christmas toys right away, it got me to go run these past few days after Christmas.

I barely ran the past few weeks outside of a few times here and there (including a 5 mile run with Catherine) so I wanted to ease into things again.  There was snow and ice on the sidewalks, but luckily the roads have been cleared.  So on Thursday, I set out for a run on side streets through my neighborhood and another neighborhood.  Then I did the same route on Friday and Saturday.  And since I have the Garmin, I can give you some super detailed results:

 

 

Thursday:

3.42 miles in 27:36 = 8:04 average

Mile splits: 8:29, 7:55, 8:02, 3:08

Cadence = 177

Friday:

3.52 miles in 28:20 = 8:03 average

Mile splits: 7:44, 8:10, 8:17, 4:07

Cadence = 177

Saturday:

3.49 miles in 27:08 = 7:47 average

Mile splits: 7:47, 7:49, 7:51, 3:39

Cadence = 172

I think it's pretty cool that it measures cadence. I'm not sure how it does that exactly, but it's cool.  Back in September, Catherine and I went to a clinic at Fleet Feet and one of the topics was running form and cadence.  Cadence basically means how many steps per minute you take and an optimal cadence is 180.  So I have a bit of work to do.  I don't really know how to go about improving cadence, but I think I will look that up soon and then report back.

As far as those runs, I did the same route each day.  I must have cut some tangents or something to make the total distance be slightly varied over the 3.  It definitely felt harder than 3.5 miles should be for me but I am also proud of myself that each of the runs was completely continuous.  No stops at all.  Well actually there was 1 brief stop in each run to cross the busy street, but that doesn't count.

So far, I love the new Garmin and it definitely helped to get me out and running this week!

Have you ever measured your running cadence?

What new toys did you get for Christmas?

I'm Back! And have an ENERGYbits Giveaway Winner!

So, I fell off the face of the blogging Earth.  And kinda off the face of the real Earth too, if that makes you feel any less neglected.  Life got pretty busy the last few weeks with work and the holidays.  And honestly, I wasn't running or working out much at all so didn't have anything meaningful to talk about except random ramblings.  Sometimes those are fun too though.  Here are a few snapshots of things I have done over the last few weeks:

Twin Day!  I can't pass up a good opportunity to post a twin day picture.  I think when my blog gets super duper popular, I will start posting an outfit that everyone should wear and then you can all send me your twin day pictures.  Or it will just continue to be Grace and I matching from afar.  And on Wednesdays, we wear pink.

And while we're at it, Grace and I had another twin day while she was in town!!  Go Bears!

My cousins Katie and Kelly and I also had a twin night.  We wore our matching footie pajama onesies, decorated Christmas cookies, and watched Elf.

Christmas Eve with the Smiths is probably my favorite day of the year.  We had a lot to chat about now that 2 of the Smith girl cousins are engaged!!

We played a few games.  In this one, two people had one of each of their hands tied together and then had to use the 2 remaining hands to wrap a present and use ribbon to put a bow on it.  Katie and I won in 2 minutes and 9 seconds.  We were all very competitive.  Mom and Dad were a close 2nd.  I think they had an advantage since Mom is a lefty.

And we sang some songs.

And now it's almost a new year, things should be calming down a bit, and I have started to pick up the running again!  But I'll get to the running details in my next post, which I promise will be tomorrow and not in 2.5 weeks.

I FINALLY have a winner for my ENERGYbits giveaway!  I'm sorry it took my so long to announce, it was not an expected blogging hiatus.  I used the Excel random number generator and the winner is.....

Congrats Jackie, I know you will love them!!  Send me an email with your address and you will receive your sample of ENERGYbits in the mail  :)

Have you had a crazy busy holiday season too?

What was the best thing you did over the past few weeks?

December Goals

Before I get into the December goals, I want to say a few words about my run this morning.  But before I do that, I want to say a few words about how the phrase "I want to say a few words" only belongs right before a eulogy at a funeral.

I managed to wake myself up and get out the door this morning for a run and I'm glad I did because it was fairly nice out (in comparison to how it has been/how it could be).  I brought my watch with the intention of running 40 minutes and that's just what I did.  Actually I did 39:40.  I even tried to go a little farther down the block past my apartment building to get in the FULL 40 minutes, but then there was a dog in my way so I just stopped there.

Running/Fitness Goals:

Run 150 miles

Do weight training 3 times a week and planking as much as possible

Go to spinning twice a week - It's free at the gym I belong to and I might try going to some of the spin studios in the area.

Blogging Goals:

30 Posts - This is gonna be a toughy.  That's basically posting every day, but since I plan to run almost every day this month like a good like half marathoner, that shouldn't be too hard.

500 unique visitors

200 Twitter followers

150 Facebook page likes

Life Goals:

Read 2 books (see some books I want to read currently here)

Listen to as much Christmas music as possible

Go to Mass every Sunday of Advent

I'm sure I can come up with a bunch of other general life goals, but I think I'll save those for New Years.


What are your December goals?

(Long) Weekend Photo Bomb - 11/27 - 11/30

It's been a nice long holiday weekend off of work and I've been busy with all sorts or activities.  I did 2 races (a 5k and a half marathon) and will have a full recap of those in the next few days, but in the meantime, here's the long weekend in pictures:

Dinner and gambling at the casino.  Dad hasn't quite figured out that the iPhone can be turned sideways to get everyone in the picture.  Mom and Patrick were the big winners of the night.

Catherine and I ran the Edison Park Turkey Trot 5k (like we do every year) in matching turkey headbands and tiger-print shorts.

My dear little cousin, Elizabeth.  We share a love for bread.  I told her that's called carbo-loading and she helped me carbo-load for Saturday's race  :)  On Friday, we celebrated her new baby brother's Baptism.

Post-half marathon selfie.  Very cold!

All aboard!  The entire Smith family (and "SigOs" - significant others) took a Christmas trolley ride through the city.

A few of the girls, ready to go.

View of the Chicago skyline from Smith trolley stop #1.

 Dad and I at the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights - Smith trolley stop #2.

Things escalated quickly... even had to make a few extra stops for beer/champagne runs (and bathroom runs).

Started the weekend with gambling, why not end it with a little family gambling?   A pizza party after the trolley and a 30+ person game of LCR - Shannon was the big winner.

And another running selfie.  An easy 4 miles Sunday morning in my all purple outfit.  Just kidding, I put another shirt on over that, but thought it looked funny when I was wearing all purple so I had to take a picture.

So there's the long weekend in pictures!  How was your long weekend?  What did you do??

Friday Five - 11/29

Happy Black Friday!!  And a belated Happy Thanksgiving!  Something I've seen on a lot of blogs is a Friday favorite/week round-up post and I decided to join in on the fun!  There's all sorts of ways I've seen it done, but I'm going to try to pick some categories that I most often think about sharing.  And I'll be doing a link-up with Clare's blog (Fitting It All In) - she has been doing these Friday posts forever and are always my favorite posts of the week to read!

Five Tweets: 

There were lots of good tweets this week (especially about the UD basketball games), but here are my favorites!

*Dayton upsets Gonzaga, classic mix-up.  Apparently they know about the annual Dayton 2 Daytona trip!  And even though I didn't stay up late for the game, it was fun to wake up to all the exciting tweets and Facebook posts.

Those clever marketers!

The Little Drummer Boy is my favorite Christmas song!

Just tweeting with Bart Yasso, Chief Running Officer of Runner's World!  He's just as funny in person too.  The snow he was talking about was the whopping 1/2 inch we got earlier this week.

Classic Toy Story.

Five Articles:

New College Running Group Will Offer Prize Money
Be Careful What You Tweet, Fox News Is Watching!  --> And so am I...see above tweets.
Bernard Lagat and Nick Willis Take On Speedgolf  --> Sounds like a fun sport.
It's Thanksgiving So We Asked Some Brits To Label The US States  --> Hilarious.
8 Tips You Need To Know Before You Start Weight Training


Five Books I Want to Read:

The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Restaurant Man


Five Things on my Christmas List (since it's Black Friday):

Garmin Forerunner 220 - It's time I became a real runner and got a Garmin.

Mattress topper - To make my bed even comfier than it already is.  So practical.

Race registration for the Phoenix Half Marathon - I already booked my flight but haven't registered yet.  Races are expensive!

Nike Flyknit Free shoes - They are sweet and so light.  I've never ran in "minimalist" shoes, but I figure the winter on the treadmill would be a great time to give them a try.

Really warm running spandex - I only have one pair of really warm spandex.  The rest I have are a lot thinner.

I have a few other things on the list too...and yes, some non-running related things, but those are all more general.


Have an idea for a Friday Five category?  I'll try to always share 5 tweets and 5 articles, but then I'll probably pick another 1 or 2 random categories each week based on the time of year or what I have to share!

Have you read any of those books?  Thoughts on them?

What is on your Christmas list?