Let's try this again...

After Christmas , well, even the couple months before, I've been trying to get back on the get healthy wagon but haven't had much luck yet =(.
I thought I was eating healthier, and I for sure was working my ass off at the gym 5x a day.. but I guess it's just not enough for me.
So after christmas, I decided to start eating even MORE healthy and continue working my ass off at the gym & to see how that goes. It's been about a week since I've been REALLY watching what Im eating. It's a lil hard.. but I feel better about what I'm putting into my mouth.
I also want to get back into running. I usually do alternating fast/slow on the elliptical at the gym but it gets boring day in day out & have been wanting to change it up. Ive been trying out other cardio equipment.. stairs.. yea, fail. My knees are no good at it and I get so sweaty I feel like I have no grip in my hands and am afraid I'm just going to fall off one day. Stationary bike.. boring. I guess if I were to do a spin class it'd be effective, but yea.. I work out at diff times, so it wouldnt work out. Plus the seat hurts my butt.
I recently saw a program called the "couch to 5k" and thought I'd try it out. Its designed to slowly get you back into running, by doing intervals of running & walking that way it eases you in. You build endurance & speed & all that stuff. I used to run but then when I started working in SF, I had no time for it and when living in SF, I was lazy. =(
So today was my first day. I guess it consists of 9 weeks, 3x a week.. and today was the 1x. I was afraid at first. I kept thinking about my knees & how sometimes even walking up stairs they give out. I kept envisioning myself getting on the treadmill & flying off of it because of too much speed. I kept wondering if I was even going to be able to run/walk the whole 30minutes.
Yea, well, I did it.

 It was MUCH easier than I thought itd be. I almost felt it was a lil too easy. Run 30 seconds, walk 90 & repeat for 20minutes. I felt like I should have been running more than 30 seconds, and I did at first, but decided to just stick with the program. I didnt want to push myself into running on my own program & then finding out the next day or even later that my knees were killing me or I did something wrong. So yea.. it actually consisted of 28minutes, but I walked until I reached 2miles, which ended up being like 32 minutes. Even after that though, I still didnt feel like I worked out much, so I jumped on the elliptical & did my fast/slow intervals for another 30minutes and then weight lifted for 45minutes. Hopefully I'll stick the the c25k thing. It'd be nice to be able to run for a good about of time without stopping. Maybe changing up the cardio will do me some good.
I swear, if my new eating habits & cardio do not do anything for me then I am doomed & my life sucks. lol. I am doing a complete 180 with eating and pushing myself harder when exercising so I DESERVE some change in my freakin weight. argh! We'll see....

Christmas 2010

This year like usual, Darin & I started our Christmas eve by dropping by my Aunt Mary's house in Livermore to have dinner with my parents & my dads side of the family. Usually we kinda dread this get together as:
1) Crazy Aunt Michele... she's the aunt nobody really enjoys being around. She's the one whos usually the most opinionated and usually the drunk of the night.
2) the lame ornament exchange in which we bring an ornament to give to someone but no one ever puts effort into picking one out to gift & usually the ornament we get is super shitty and the one we give is never appreciated.
3) The Scott side is usually very opinionated & they like to gossip & Darin & I sometimes feel like we just dont fit in
and this year...
4) My super gringo side of the family decided on having a "mexican" themed dinner. So you can kinda guess how that goes when not one of the family members is even the slight bit of mexican.

So yea.. crazy aunt michele was her usual self. I didnt really speak much to her, and havent since she made a big stink about her invitation to my wedding which didnt include her boys & divorced husband & blew it waaaay out of proportion & harassed my family about it day in & day out (by the way, i never wanted to invite her.. my dad made me).
The mexican dinner was lame & not so great. Gringos making cultural food.. not a good idea, i think. I mean common, I can go to taco bell any day of the year but how often am I going to have a turkey/ham/cauliflower/etc feast??? Luckily, there was a margarita machine in the garage so pretty much all the cousins hung out there & drank ourselves to comfort.=)
Ornament exchange.. was actually alright this year. Beforehand I had sent a long email to my aunt suggesting that next year we quit the exchange because as I mentioned, no one ever puts any effort into their ornaments except for my aunt mary & my dad (who always makes intricate ones out of wood). Anyways, this year we drew names out of a hat and whoever's name we drew, we gave our ornament to them. So fortunately, I drew my aunt mary's name & got a cute lil snowman ornament & then my dad drew my name which was a relief since I knew for sure my ornament would go appreciated. This year I decided to make my ornament on the scroll saw my dad gave me and boy, that was time consuming. Here's the lil bad boy I made (its wood):

Soon after the ornament exchange Darin & I cut out. Next stop was his portuguese family get together in San Jose.
These get togethers usually aren't the best either, but a little more tolerable than mine. I can tell though, that it's kinda starting to die off. Everyone used to come bringing tons of appetizers & desserts and we'd all stuff ourselves, but its getting pretty effortless now. I think once Darin's grandmother passes, the get togethers will cease. No one really seems like they want to be there for family.. more like forced to be there for grandma. =( Sad. Oh well. I kept myself occupied by working on a buzz with the past margaritas & now wine. =) Nothing too action packed happened at this get together.

My outfit of the night:

Christmas day was pretty nice. Darin & I slept in & when we woke up, gathered around the tree & opened presents. This year's gift exchange between eachother was a bit on the light side since we made our big move & cuz my ass is unemployed. But.. of course, Darin always brightens things up.. and even though I wasn't really expecting much from him, he got me a cute top, some weightlifting gloves (yes!) and a vintage fur stole that I had been wanting for years. =) I got him a couple different shirts.

Darin showing off one of this shirts I got him

A gift tag on one of the gifts Darin gave me... yea, we have the nicest pet names for eachother. lol

Spooky waiting to see if Santa was coming to bring more gifts because apparently Oscar got more gifts that he did =( (we bought him something better the next day)

Darin & Oscar

Santa brought Oscar a stuffed toy "meal" that consisted of toy Turkey, corncob, muffin, baked potato & veggie rope

Later that evening we headed over to my parents house & had dinner with them & my Mom's side of the family. My mom's side is Peruvian, so there is always a lil peruvian influence to some of the foods. But yummy. We gave each of my parents an individual gift & then we also gave them an album of pictures from our wedding. A couple months earlier when I received my wedding album, I took it over to show my parents & they loved it, but my mom thought it was a copy for them.. unfortunately it wasnt & I felt bad. After inquiring about another album from our photorapher, the price was waaaay out of my range and fortunately my sister in law told me about snapfish.com & I was able to upload my pictures on the website & make an album & have it sent to me. It came out pretty well. Looked professional with the leather covers and images were great and for a mere fraction of the cost!

After dinner with my parents, we went to visit Darin's parents & brother who was up from L.A and stuck around for a bit. Darin ate a 2nd dinner with them but I was not about to stuff myself. I just dont understand over stuffing yourself with food when it comes to the holidays.
All in all, I guess this year was alright. Not as bad as I thought it would end up. =)



Darin & I on Christmas day, 2010

A slow work in progress...

Darin has had this ugly old leather couch set with coffee tables that his friend had given him when he moved into his first apartment.. but since we've moved into our own house now, we've been wanting to *try* and decorate with a mid century theme...
A couple months ago we found a neat green (I'm thinking) 1960s couch but kept it in our garage until we could score more pieces of furniture to make a somewhat complete living room rather than mix & match with our old cruddy stuff. Last weekend we found a 1950s Kroehler side chair on craigslist .. not in the best shape.. but it was a steal & I figured if the upholstery was horrible I could always make a slip cover for it til I could scrounge up some money to either reupholster it or find something to replace it. We also found an atomic looking side table off of craigslist as well and yet again for a pretty good price.
Since we now have a couch, a  chair & a small table, we figured with the christmas tree in the house our living room would be somewhat filled so we decided to move all the furniture in and out with the old ..or uh new?

The table is a bit small to remain a main coffee table.. but it'll do for now. Our Kroehler chair.. who I've named Hobart.. yes, I like to name my inanimate objects ok.. it gives them personality!... seems to be winking at the camera as he is missing a button ;(.
I eventually would like to get 2 side chairs that match & some atomic side tables.. but hey, the chair & table were pretty freakin cheap, so for the time being, why not? =)
I also scored a pretty neat chrome & teal bread box from the woman who sold me the Kroehler chair... I saw it sitting right on top of her garbage can & asked if she were getting rid of it and she was just like 'yea, you want it'.. uh yea.. of course! So I got it for freeeee. I'm thinking of stripping the teal paint & repainting it red or black to match our kitchen theme.

We also picked up some neat black with white snowflakes pyrex dishes from an antique store.. thought they were cool as I've never seen all black ones before. Found some cute chrome & black salt & pepper shakers on etsy too that look like our kitchen canisters.

Darin & I were hoping to make it to the monthly Alameda Antique fair today.. but opted not to as it looked like rain was in the near future and plus.. after buying 8 freakin boxes of christmas lights to decorate the outside of our house.. plus other decorations... it was probably best NOT going and spending more $$$ this weekend. I guess we'll just have to wait til next month.. next year.. to go to the next one. Maybe, hopefully, I'll get some christmas money to spend on some more nic nacs & furnishings for our home.

It's a slow work in progress...

eff you blogger

Dear blogger blogspot.. I hate you for letting me write out a whole damn post about my newly found furniture and then upon me clicking submit you erased the whole damn post.
Ugh!
i'll just have to write about this stuff all over again later cuz I really dont feel like sitting here with my cold numb fingers and typing out this shit right now.
Til then....

I can have a starburst mirror too you know...

So Darin & I have been keepin our eyes out for a neat starburst mirror or clock to hang over our mantle...
we came across one once that we really liked at the Alameda antique fair.. but it turned out to cost over $200 AND it was missing spokes & had a few rusty bits on it.. and Im not about to shell out that kinda money for a damn mirror.
As I was browsing the net the other day I came across a tutorial for a starburst mirror & figured what the hell... I'll try & make my own damn starburst mirror.. and I have to say.. it came out pretty darn cool.
A couple wooden dowels, some various sized mirrors from the craft store, silver paint & a ton of glue sticks and voila!....

Starburst mirror!


We're quite pleased with it and hey.. it only cost us about $30 to make!

I'm thinking now that I have a scroll saw that my dad had given me.. I might just make some miniature wooden starbursts of some sort to hang up on the sides of the wall. It's about time we start decorating this house...

=)

Halloween Weekend!

It was actually neat to have Halloween on Sunday cuz that meant a whole weekend dedicated to the day.. and this one was actually pretty fun for me.
On Friday, Darin & I went to my friend Ysel's house to carve pumpkins & drink alcohol. =)

Our pumpkins of the night:

Ysel's friend carved the pumpkin on the left.. it's a monster holding a trick or treat back. Darin & my pumpkin is the spider in the middle, and Ysel's is the tombstone with hands coming out of the ground on the left.

Saturday night Darin & I decided to go to the Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge with Ysel & her bf Jay..

it was 80's costume night... so of course we dressed up...

Jay, Ysel & I

Ysel had to take a pic with the bartender.. she loved his high waisted acid wash jeans

Jay was MC Hammer.. this is the best pic I had of his gold jacket.. it was complete with parachute pants. lol

Ysel & I found Cheech & Chong =)

What was 80's night without Freddy Kreuger? Darin had me do his makeup & used last years Freddy costume for this night

Ysel & I as your typical 80's girl



Darin & I

As for Sunday.. this was Darin & my BIG day... we went all out for these costumes...

Now Presenting....

Beetlejuice & Miss Argentina (of Beetlejuice)

Unfortunately I ran out of time and had to just draw on my cuts rather than get detailed & textured with them as I had wanted =(

Our friend Adil as the Devil

Adil & I

We had quite a few people asking to take pictures with us. I love that.. it tells me that I did a good job with our costumes =)

I had to take a picture with this costume... Old Spice man!

And of course.. my lil Oscar had a costume too! Oscar the Devil dog! =)

We ended up going to Polk St. in San Francisco to bar hop.. but oddly it wasnt as busy as we thought it'd be. I guess it had to do with Halloween falling on a Sunday.. but still, how can you NOT celebrate halloween on the actual halloween day?! It's like celebrating Christmas on some other day than the 24th or 25th. wtf? Whatever. We still had fun.

As for all the people we saw at the bars not dressed up.. alls I have to say is if you're from the U.S. and you DONT celebrate & dress up for halloween... you are LAME and you SUCK. =)

Can't wait for next year.. gotta start thinking of costumes. =)

A blog giveaway

Miss Dollie Deville of The Rockabilly Socialite is hosting a giveaway which consists of a "Rockabilly Socialite's kit" from Besame Cosmetics...
sounds like some fun goodies to me! Check it out over here: Giveaway