2012-12-17 Sunny Sideup Monday: Get up Early

I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of waking up early, and especially not in the winter time when I know I've got to bundle up in order to go running.  Plus, the last few weeks- month-ish I've not been motivated to workout with the cold weather and busy schedule and I can feel the effect it's having on my energy levels and my added body cushion.  So this week I'll be setting creating a workout schedule so I know when I need to get out of bed and either go for a run or hit the elliptical and when I need to wake up for a weight training session.  

My goal is to keep it simple, and fun so I'll be setting a time to walk my dog at least 2 times this week with 1 run and 2 weight training sessions and I challenge you to find the right start to getting back on track this week.  We don't need to wait until January 1 to start fresh...tomorrow is a new day & you can do this so get started!

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Do what you need to do in order to wake yourself up even just 30 minutes early this week so you can fit in either a HIIT, Cardio or weight training workout before you head out for work.  And that means putting together your schedule and write a note to motivate you on your alarm so you have to read it before you can turn it off or try adding a wake up app to your phone that will help motivate you out of your cozy covers.

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Here is another helpful like related to Motivation Monday

State College Weekend

On December 1st I headed to state College with a friend of mine for the Glenn Crytzer Workshop/Dance, however, it wasn't as interactive as we had expected so we skipped the second half of the training and headed out shopping.  Here are a few of the finds I saw that I really wanted, but just couldn't justify spending the cash.  

We first headed to a local dance shop where my friend bought a new pair of dance shoes, and I purchased a pair of Jazz Pants.  I tried on a few pair of their  pants and after seeing how these fit I ignored the $35 price tag and crossed my fingers that I would love them more then spending that much on dancing pants.  After spending the last month dancing in them I can tell you that I absolutely love them and don't regret buying them.  

This purse from urban outfitters is classy, fun, vintage, pretty mint color and a good size, however, the price tag of $42 made it a bit much for my ideal price.

If I hadn't purchased the Pins and Needles Pinwheel Gloves for $20.00 grey gloves I would have taken this crazy awesome 3-d necklase home but at a whopping $20 it was a bit much, especially after spending $20 on the gloves.

We met up with my friends friend for dinner after our several hour visit to the Salvation Army, where I have to wow, I've never seen so many good looking guys at a thrift store before.  We headed to our hosts home and proceeded to get ready for the vintage inspired dance.  It was great to catch up with some friends of mine up in State College and get my dance on to some pretty amazing music from Glenn Crytzer.   

My friend Philip and I dancing that evening { Mcfreebird Photography} and the Jazz pants I bought.

Happy Hosts Tree

We stayed with another friend and her parents and this is their Christmas Tree.  Pretty amazing isn't it.  They have one this size every year.  I was glad we stayed with them, as I enjoyed getting to know them and enjoyed having dinner with them Sunday before we headed back home.  They were extremely welcoming and humorous. 

I liked the color of the face wash so I took a photo so I could remember to purchase it the next time I needed face wash.  I've been using their moisturizer for a while and have no plans of changing to another brand, because it works so well with my skin.

Today I Vow

These last two weeks have been a bit rough for me since I didn't complete my whole30 challenge and caved in just before week 4.  It really just started with small things...oh I can eat this muffin, or I can have this small amount and it just didn't end well and since then I've been feeling very blah-mind clouded, and just down on myself since I was feeling so fantastic doing the challenge and I really want to get back to feeling fantastic again.  

So I vow to do the following to keep in a healthy mindset and not cave into eating foods that don't make me feel fantastic and don't fuel my body.  

    To love myself
    To respect my body
    To allow myself to be happy
    To Eat Well
    To Exercise
    To meal plan biweekly
    To cook meals biweekly
    To think about encouraging words

Kitchen State of Mind

I had planned to stop by the grocer after I returned from my trip to State College this weekend, however, after grabbing a quick bit to eat I found myself beginning a new space planning project downstairs.

It first started with the sofa / sectional. I was just really tired of it taking up so much space, which then spiraled into me finding a new home for my IKEA Billy Bookcase, 9 cubby bookshelf, swapping my living room end tables and taking down my faux dining table.

As you can see below in my kitchen photos what a difference the change did. I apologize ahead of time for the low resolution before photos.  I'm not very good at remembering to take photos so these are one's I found on my hard drive.

Before

As you can see the bookcase was bit much for the space, and we were actually missing two shelves that would have been nice to have to make it a little more functional.  The bottom of the shelf has doors to hid but without the added shelf it really didn't hold much.  I kept my vita-mix and pyrex storage containers down there, but now my pryex are in a more functional location.  I'm still working on a good home for my vita-mix as I don't use it as much as the bullet.   My IKEA SLIPID knives (next to the bread box) I'm sad to say got put in a base cabinet since I don't have a home yet for them, but I hope to have them out to display soon since they are fun and functional.   Our HENNY RAND IKEA curtains are wonderful, because they allow so much light in, but also keep people from seeing inside.  

Here is a view of my funky wall, which makes it very difficult to make that space functional.  It's hard in general to find items to work in the space with windows flanking the bookcase and the funky wall.   The bookcase below is nice and I like the vintage feel that the faux finish gives, but in general it wasn't functional for the space.  The  Formica tabletop (below right) with sawhorses holding it up I will be posting on craigslist this week.

After

though still in progress

It's nice to finally see some art on my wall and of images I love.  The tree art I purchased from TJ MAXX at least 5 years ago and I still love it to this day so I'm glad it finally has a good home.  The Arm & Hammer sign I purchased for $5 a few weeks back when I went to the Toll House Indoor Flea Market in  Colombia.  The frame is IKEA Ribba with some fabric I found at JoAnns that included the blue wall color and allowed me to use to pull other colors from.   I originally purchased the clock for my office a few months back, but it clashed with the Lemon Twist wall paint from Benjamin Moore.  It fits much better in the kitchen and it's easy to read.

I love having all my fruit spread out on top.  As you can see we eat a lot of it.  We always like to have apples and bananas on hand and then whatever fruit maybe on sale.   On the top shelf I have my vintage bread box that I found at a Vintage Attic shop near Pottstown.  My fruit bowl on the right doesn't really fit into my vintage decor, but I love it.  It was originally purchased at a  Marshall's in Colorado about 4 years back.  The banana & napkin holder are some of my favorite items on this shelf.  I love the funky angle of the banana holder that gives it a vintage feel and at only $.99.  The napkin holder I found the other week at Antique Row in Colombia for just under $5.  It's also nice having my food processor and crock pot (shown in picture below) so accessible as I use them often.    The owl on the second shelf was a unique find from TJ MAXX for only $7.  I think he's meant to be a vase, but I don't really like vases since they get gunky on the bottom to easily.  Though I would love to find some fake flowers / greenery to put in them.   The pear canisters I got a set of 5 for under $10 at our local second hand store and these two store my teas and tassimo cups. 

The funny thing was I had this cubby bookshelf in this same location in my kitchen before, but just didn't like how it looked and it ended up not being very practical. It's really all in what you put on it and how often you use it and with the accessories chosen I will be using this far more often.

Below is my new temporary table for the kitchen.  It's an IKEA table top that I bought for $10 and a free vintage metal cabinet that is on my DIY list.  I've used two treatments on it to clean up some of the rust, but there is still much towards the bottom that needs to be removed before I can spray paint it.  The table top size is a better fit for the room yet still large enough that I can eat my meal at the table.  My last faux table was a 30 x 50 Formica table top being held up by sawhorses since we didn't have legs for it.  I made sure to snap photos of the table top before breaking it down so I can post it on craigslist.  I was thinking I would use it as a workbench, but it's to wide for that and the bottom partial board is peeling-something I really don't want to mess with.  

I love my vintage ceramic dish that I found at a second hand store.  It's serviced a few different purposes since I bought it 1) holds my packaged vitamins, pen/marker storage, fruit bowl and now my cell phone holder when I'm in the kitchen.  The crochet pear really doesn't have a purpose yet, but it's neat and I like how it looks on the table.     

This is my oddball wall.  The blue and green wall are at two different depths and their is actually another jog to the right of the green wall leading to my dining room (you can see this better in the before photos above).  I originally pained my wall blue, from Behr, but have since been wanting to repaint it.  I feel it has more of a California Surfer feel then a mid-century vibe so I've been on the hunt for a green that pops out to me.  I found this green paint online and was enticed by a kitchen re-due that use it.  It's parakeet from Sherman Williams.  I didn't want to just paint a swatch so I painted the whole wall section so I could get a better feel for the color, but I don't like it either.  First, I think I need to prime the wall first to tone down the surfer blue so that whatever color I paint over wont reflect any of the blue it it's color tone.  For now the walls will stay mismatched and clash with the peanut butter by Behr I have in my living and dining room until I find another color that I feel daring enough to try.

I really like how my vintage mirrors and coffee print looks in my Wall Frame IKEA Ribba against the parakeet wall color and create a nice view from that wall. 

design change out & new name

I hope you like the new webdesign and name, I feel that this is totally me all the way around and I'm really excited about it.  In the past I've tried my best with my novice know how about html and css to create a design that I'm happy with, however, by the time I finish I'm tired of the design and want to change it up again, so this time I decided to scour the web to find a pre-made template that say's "hey you, this is your design" I also figured it would be more effective to have a pre-made since what you see is what you get and there isn't much in trying to determine how I want it to look.  Life is just way to busy and I have far more crap stuff to sort through, so when I found this design I was super excited.  The price was at a comfortable level and it had my name written all over it.

I've been mulling over my blog name for sometime, I'm very indecisive and get bored easily so I have a tendency to make new blogs up every few months and then change the name.  It wasn't until recently that with blogger you can change your blog name and web address and still keep the same blog you were working with.   This is a great feature for me, though I don't really want to keep changing the address since that's the main way people will find me.  I liked nourishing choices, but after a while it seemed boring and just not what I really wanted for my blog name, so I decided to review some of my favorite blogs and jot down words and phrases that stuck me.  I had about 5 pages of scribble and spent about a week working on a name that I would like and said exactly what I wanted. 

It wasn't until the last day that it hit me...I love mid century design, art deco, danish, mod, retro (but not kitchys retro) and bauhous designs.  I had been looking up art deco, retro, vintage, and other food names, but it wasn't until I was reading about bauhous that I loved how hous was spelled.  It was unique, yet simple in it's meaning and for some reason my middle name pop out at me and that how RaeHous came about.  I love how the name reflects a part of my own name and one of my favorite styles, but it doesn't box me in to just being a health or DIY or food blog it allows me to broaden and write about what makes me smile, or some new recipe I tried and loved, or a new DIY project I'm thinking about working on.  It's RaeHous all things about me and my house.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new design and name.

hello my beautiful mid century dresser

I'm so excited!  Last night two guy friends came over to help me transport my new to me dresser from my SUV to my bedroom (on the second floor), though luckily it's the first room right up the stairs so they didn't have to do far.  I thought that it would be heavier since the two men in their late 40s / 50s who loaded it had quite a bit of trouble.  However, they decided not to remove the drawers, which then caused some damage to my perfectly good condition mid-century dresser that I'm none to thrilled with. 

I love that I found this dresser and I scored it for 20 bucks.  I was actually going for this 1950s dresser that once reviewing it in person decided to pass on it.  The cool thing was that it was located in a indoor flee market so there were multiple vendors that I was able to browse through.  By passing on that it gave me room for the dresser, which I almost missed since it was buried under accessories that the vendor was displaying on top.  When I go to any type of second hand store I always browse through the store at least twice, sometimes I'll go through a third time, but it depends on how quickly I browsed the first two times and how big the store is.  There was so much to check out along with some furniture hidden in the basement.  Though not much that I really wanted to take home as most of it was either country decor, way to much TLC required, or just nothing that I needed.  I did see a pretty vintage tree skirt and stockings, but they wanted over $50 just for the skirt so I passed.

Here is the current version of my dressing area.  It's still a work in progress, so please pardon my non-awesome photo and the lack of wall wow.  I still have to find a art deco mirror and some deco-fied art for the wall above.  I also need to figure out how to store my blow dryer.  It's currently in the top left drawer {you can see the cord out of the side of the drawer} but it wont shut all the way, but I also don't want to plug and unplug it everyday.   It's all about baby steps, especially with my indecisiveness and very little extra to spend on decor.

NEW MID CENTURY JEWELRY BOX                    MAKE UP STATION

I did end up buying a $5 kitchy 50s sign that promotes baking soda and a $1 white tea light owl.  I don't like candles, but the owl was so adorable and had the mid-century flair that I love so much.  I try not to buy to many owls, but sometimes I have to make an exception.  At this point I need to find ways to better display my collection.

Here is what my make-shift vanity table looked like before.  Though this was actually version 2, maybe 3.  I change things up to often and soon after I changed it last & I don't always remember to document.

 

MAKE SHIFT VANITY AREA BEFORE - COFFEE TABLE WITH MDF SHELF

Paleo Delights + Whole30 Thanksgiving Meal

* Strawberry Lemon Muffins

   I have to say I'm pretty proud at how the photos of these muffins came out, considering I only used my droid incredible.  I hope to have a SLR in the future, but my budget doesn't allow for that expense right now so I've been playing with the lighting settings.  You can really tell the difference between the outcome of these muffins versus the food shots below.  It's not the end all, but it's at least progress in learning to know how to use what I have and coming out with better visual results.  

My version made 12, but didn't cook well and the bottoms were pretty mushy even after 40 minutes in the oven {10 of that outside of the muffin pan}.  I had used Canola Oil for the Coconut Oil, mainly because I had more of that on hand and thought I would try it.  Then I used frozen versus fresh strawberries.

* 4 Egg Veggie Omelet {serves 2}    

      Saute mushrooms and tomatoes (or veggies of choice) 4-5 minutes.
      Remove from pan and plate.
     Add 4 Eggs, scrambled, with Crushed Red Peppers mixed in {optional}
     Let sit until Cooked though.
     Add Sauteed mushrooms and tomatoes on top of eggs and flip half over.
     Cook for a few extra minutes.
     Cut in half and save the other half for breakfast tomorrow.
     Serve with a side of fruit.

Very delicious and so easy to make ahead of time.  I made batch and then dished them in lunch box containers so I could grab and go in the morning.  I either had a banana or two mandarin  oranges with it.  

* Soft Egg with Avocado and Tomatoes

This was okay.  I had to much cilantro on mine or maybe I just didn't chop it fine enough. I most likely wont make this again.

* Happy Thanksgiving Meal

* Quick Pan Seared Turkey Chickn Cutlets
   This was really super easy, and very delicious.  I had to sub the Turkey for Chicken, because I couldn't find Turkey Cutlets.  

* Roasted Mushroom Melody 
   Yummy.  can't go wrong with roasted mushrooms.

* Grilled Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad with Honey Lime Dressing 
   This was absolutely my favorite part of my thanksgiving meal.  It was super delicious and pretty easy to make.  Though I didn't use corn on the cobb I used a canned mexican corn mixture I had in a can that I wanted to use up.  Next time I make this I'll use corn on the Cobb.

* Pumpkin Pie  {gluten free, dairy free, soy free}
   In general I'm not a pumpkin, but I thought it was good.  We did finish the pie, but some needed ice cream since the pie wasn't very sweet.