Merry Christmas!

Fashion!

I'm no fashion icon. I would describe my style as "safe" with a side of "mostly put together if occasionally un-tailored." Case in point in the photo below you can clearly see I am wearing a white button down (safe!), that's not ironed (mostly put together!) and a mustard yellow cardigan (safely daring!).

So imagine my delight when Corporette featured not one, but TWO items of clothing in the TPS Report aka "The Personal Shopper" that I once owned but chose to return for things that are better! Bonus because both came from Nordstrom which is of course fancy!

 The TPS report for Friday, November 18 featured this knit pencil skirt from Nordstrom's Halogen line.

To be fair, the blogger hasn't necessarily wear tested each item, the purpose of the column is more to highlight good deals or beautiful (usually work appropriate) pieces avaialble.  That's where the comments come in. I would say that 50% of the value of Corporette comes from the writer starting the conversation and the other 50% comes from readers chiming in with their thoughts in the comments section.

So I chimed right in with this comment:

 

My mom had purchased this for me for me birthday in September, but it wasn't quite right. If I had a need or a place to wear skirts out on the weekend with fun shoes, this might have been useful, but as far as office attire, it was too casual, too tight and not nearly safe enough for button down shirts!

There was general consensus in the comments agreeing with my statements and loving on the seamed pencil skirt I exchanged it for, so obviously then I was feeling REALLY stylish.  Did I mention I got the seamed skirt in "yellow raisin"? That's right, whose playing safe now?! Gettin' wild!

This morning's TPS report featured the very sweater my mom bought me to go with the returned skirt. Too funny. I also returned the sweater because it was cut seven kinds of wrong for me. I felt a little bad about returning all the things my mom picked out for me (she knows, I told her, and this is theonly miss she's had in buying me clothes since I was mmm, 12? It just happened to be a double miss), so I felt stylish AND less bad when several commentors agreed that the sweater was not good for the tall, long or chesty and would probably be better for someone who is short or at least petite.

Phew, I'm not picky, I just have fashion sense.

True Story

Today I wore my camisole inside out AND backwards! Not that anyone could tell other than me, but it gave me a nice chuckle and I thought it might amuse you as well.

 

It's good to be reminded that we all put our pants on one leg at a time...or our shirts on backwards or whatever.

Advice for a Sick McV

Hallelujah, I made it through high sinus infection season (for me) with out even a tiny little bit of sickness. This is a major achievement for me as this is the first year in several where I didn't even have a hint of a sinus infection.

However, I am sick with a sore a throat now, and while I'm a PRO, like basically a board licensed MD, when it come to sinus infections, I have no idea what to do with a sore throat. My nose is a little runny, my throat is a little scratchy, I feel ok, but not the best. I tried to drink some wine last night and couldn't taste a thing.

I'm drinking green tea and orange juice, but am unsure how else to combat this. I can't even think of what over the counter medications might help.

So help me out! What are your go-to remedies when you feel under the weather?

This Post Is Not About Facebook

So I was looking for my post about how I quit Facebook because uh, I unquit Facebook recently, and I couldn't find it.  BUT I did find this post about Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies, which reminded me that I did actually test out this recipe.

Here is the photographic evidence. 

Exhibit A. Cookie inside of a cookie.

Exhibit B. In case you missed it the first time/wanted a closer look.

They were about 50% delicious and 50% just novel.  Certainly worth making when the occasion calls for this sort of over the top decadence.  Actually I could see this being a good party favor since it's both novel and an excessive amount of sugar.  Can you see it in a cellophane bag with a pretty bow? I can. I can see it.

I will caution you though, a single batch of cookie dough is only enough to wrap about a half dozen Oreos. So you are going to end up with Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies, PLUS like a whole package of Oreos you will have to eat.  You've been warned.

Blog Housekeeping

Well I brought my own lemon pledge last week and decided to spruce some things up here on this blog.

I got Photoshop Elements from [Husband] for Christmas last year and haven't made much headway in learning it, but I found some online tutorials written by other bloggers about making Blogger headers and voila, what you see before you is my first creation. It was relatively easy to put together and unlike my last header, which I made in Gimp, it actually fits in the headers space and seems to be centered.

I would list out the tutorials I used, but honestly, I had to cobble together directions using about four different sets of instructions because either things will left out or I had a different version of Photoshop than the writer did, so the directions weren't quite right. I guess I'll have to write my own set of directions sometime.

Besides the picture, my favorite elements are the font, "Riesling," which I downloaded here for free (found via Pinterest), and the brush tool in Photoshop which let me sweep those fun purple leaves all over the header. It's so fancy!

I'm also slowly tweaking the fonts and colors on the sites (suggestions/comments welcome, I could tweak fonts until the end of time...). I like neutrals and I'm very into plummy shades of purple right now if you couldn't tell.  I bought napkins from World Market for Thanksgiving in a shade called "Crushed Violet." I love it. I want to live in a crushed violet world. And now, at least on my blog, I can.



(If you get the reference in the first line, leave me a comment. You deserve some extra awesome points.)

Staying Motivated After the Marathon

I ran my first marathon in the fall of 2008 and my attitude afterward was, "I just ran a marathon! I never have to exercise ever again! And I didn't.

Until 2009 when I ran my second marathon and then got married two weeks later. I deserved to not workout anymore, right?

In 2010 I spent hundreds (yikes, that's embarrassing) on entry fees for races I did not run because I was injured.  I think you know what I wasn't doing in my spare time (ok, to be fair I did do a lot of biking that year...)

On Christmas Eve 2010, I decided I was going to run a spring marathon and 2011 would be the year I REALLY, like FOR REALS YALL made exercising a habit, not just part of a training plan.

I ran two marathons this year, and while I took a break (ie, I focused on 10k and 5k races for about 8 weeks in the summer), I never really exited training mode.

After the Richmond marathon, I was really happy about my time, I was really confident I could probably train for a spring race and go sub-four, but my heart wasn't in it. I didn't feel any excitement about signing up for another race. I felt content with what I learned in 2011, my race performance, and what my potential to get faster, and I felt good about moving on to other things.*

One of those "other things" is exercising with no goals in mind. It's really freeing now to go to the gym and literally be able to do WHATEVER I WANT because I don't have the voice in the back of my head saying, "don't lift too much, you don't want those squats making you sore for you 18 miler" or "you should really be out running 8 miles at tempo, not here doing ab work."  Over the last couple weeks I've been enjoying short runs of 3-6 miles, lifting as heavy a weight as my little muscles desire and feeling good about a work out even if it was only a speedy 20 minute circuit sesh.

I've managed to be pretty consistent, doing something or moving for at least 20-30 minutes every other day. But I've still been searching for something, a mantra or a little workout fairy dust to keep the momentum going.  And I think I finally hit on it: "Choose to be a runner today."

I have long loved (since I discovered it six months ago anyway) the Bart Yasso quote, "I often hear someone say I'm not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner," We are all runners. Anyone can be a runner. I am a runner, and it's something I take a lot of pride in and gives me a lot of confidence. 


So lately I've been telling myself, "Choose to be a runner today."  And asking, "What will you do to be a runner today?"


It's very much along the lines of Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point's "Healthy Intentions." I don't need to worry about tomorrow, I don't need to worry about last week or last night. I'm not staring down a 16 week training plan, I just need to choose today what I will do. 


Someday it's a 60 minute run, sometimes it's choosing to drink extra water. Other days it's a really ambitious treadmill interval workout with circuit training mixed in or just an extra lap around the block with the dog.


I don't know if exercising will ever become the kind of habit I wish it would be -- I don't think it's ever going to be something that's such a habit, I don't even notice it like, uh, breathing...oh well-- but the right choices aren't always the easy ones, right?  But I think this perspective, how did I choose to be a runner, really just to be myself and be good to myself today, helps make it easier.


*Not to say I won't run another marathon, I will just probably not in 2012.