Category Archives: consignment shopping

Relaxing, Pinterest and the Broncos!

Ahhhh…. nice relaxing weekend.  The weather was quite nice as well.  I was able to get outside and walk 5.5 miles outside over the 2 days!

Saturday was my football winning meal and one of my indulgent meals this week.  We went to East End Eatery and I had a salad:

And a wheat pizza wrap with hot peppers.

I love getting the wrap because I eat the whole thing (no sharing!!)  and don’t feel overly full like I do when we get split a calzone.

John said he didn’t mind going shopping at the consignment store after lunch, so I got to browse.  Of course, he went to the book store next to the consignment store LOL!  I found a pair of Dockers Curvy Fit pants, which were almost the same as the Fit and Flare I wore for the photo shoot – and they were $9.60!  Plus this top, which was $8.  A very nice ensemble for less than $20.  I would say that is a complete score!

I have not mastered the art of taking my picture in the dressing room mirror.  :mrgreen:

I am changing out my wardrobe to try to be a little more stylish this year.  Not that it matters that much as I work at home, but I do feel really good when I dress a bit nicer.  So, there will be some bargain shopping this year.  I should do a fashion Friday thing or something.

It was also football weekend!  I love the Saints (just behind the Broncos) and I was so happy they won.

I also played on Pinterest.  I avoided this site for a long time.  Then I decided to join and got put on a wait list.  Oh the irony…  But then I got the invite.

I even found this cartoon on Pintrest LOL.  

I did find this recipe for flourless chocolate chip cookies on there.  I made them on Sunday.

These are unfreaking believable.   😯  Absolutely amazing and super duper chocolatey.  I had 1 and both John and I are going to have to maintain control to not eat them all at once.  I halved the recipe so we got 11 cookies.  Thank goodness.  I’ll post a tutorial on them later this week.

The Broncos?  See this?

It knocked me over!

BTW – the #80 on my jersey is for Rod Smith – my favorite Bronco player, now retired, although my last name is on the back of this jersey (custom order).

My throat hurts from yelling at the TV on the first play of overtime!

A very good weekend indeed!  Plus my eating was in good control.  Of course, I still have to get through the rest of the night!

What’s blooming and dress find!

It’s Friday, so you know what that means!  Time to show off the garden again.  But first, must get the other important things out of the way.

Had a preworkout protein drink:

and biked to the gym.  I changed up the workout a little today in that I didn’t do any chin ups.  I just didn’t feel like doing any, so I left them out.  That’s when I could use a personal trainer, eh?

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff leg Deadlifts 3 sets of 8 with 75# bar Lower body
Wide grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 12 at 50# Upper body
Standing leg press 3 sets of 8 with just machine weight Lower body
Nosebreakers 3 sets of 10 with 25# bar Triceps
Captain’s Chair 3 sets of 10 Abs
Push ups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Upright row 3 sets of 10 with 25# bar Shoulders

Today was a run day, and I decided that I would just hop on the treadmill and do it then instead of going back outside later. I did 3 miles and was soaked! Even though there was AC on, it makes such a difference to actually have the breeze from running outside on you.

Then I biked home.  That’s a lot of exercise!  I burned 600 calories and I was hangry for brekkie!

I cooked up some banana oats and topped with peanut butter and raspberry fruit spread.

I actually had some PB off the spoon, too.  Told you I was hungry!  I did make myself eat slowly, though.

Then I read blogs for a while before I even showered.  I told John I felt like I was being lazy and he reminded me that I had just done that workout.  LOL!

Spent the morning making almond butter, baking some bread, roasting coffee and puttering around outside.  This day is a picture perfect summer day.  The garden is just busting out all over with the schedule of rain and sun we have had:

Black-eyed Susans are starting:

Veronica (speedwell):

Clematis (Snow Queen) – and I thought this one was lost to frost.  Turns out only the old growth died.

My scentimental rose bush is bursting!

This smells absolutely heavenly, too.   Love it.

Daylilies are still going as well.

Can you believe how tall these are? They have to be about 4 feet tall.  Flowers and gardening just make me so happy.  I wish I could find year round work in this regard.

Back in for lunch.  But first, I got the bread ready for the oven:

This was made from the Healthy Artisan Bread in 5 minutes book and is the Milk and Honey loaf (with raisins).

While that was baking, I had lunch:

A redux of my curry chicken salad.  Just a couple ounces of chicken, chopped apple, light mayo, and curry powder.  Quick and good!

The bread finished baking and was a success!

Letting this cool was really hard.  I am a sucker for warm bread (or any bread, really).  I made a piece with some real buttah and blackberry fruit spread to have with my latte.

So good.  I can envision french toast with this bread, oh yes I can….

After snacking, I headed out to one of my favorite consignment shops and scored!  I got a work out top, plus the cutest little dress:

This mirror was tilted back, I wish I looked this thin LOL!  Now I need to get a cute pair of sandals.  The best part?  It was only $4.80 !!!  I loves me a bargain.

I was all kinds of happy when I got home and whipped up some pan fried shrimp with brussels and a pear:

All in all a good day 😀  I am thinking about some frozen yogurt tonight, maybe.  I do need to stay out of that bread LOL!

Question:  What is your favorite type of bread?

Pre-race eve

No formal workout today since my last 5K of the season is tomorrow.  Forecast is 30 degrees, which is 15 degrees warmer than last year!  Plus I am not sick.

Stacked up some protein pancakes with blueberries for breakfast.  Yay for superfoods!

brekkie1204

Made myself productive today with some cleaning and organizing before I get to relax for my weekend.  It’s gloriously beautiful outside!  Birdfeeders filled up and waiting.

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Driveway resurfacing is on the agenda for next year……

Had a quick lunch before going out:

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The juiciest pear ever.  Are they in season now?  I never know half the time what is in season and what isn’t if it is available year round.

Off to the consignment shop, where I got a couple turtlenecks, a sweater and a pair of pants.  I wasn’t going to buy pants, but I can never pass up petite lengths because they are so hard to find.  Being a shorty, most of my pants have to be rolled up unless I buy petites.  Size 8P!  And $5.80.  After doing some more browsing downtown, I stopped at the cafe for some of this:

latte1204

I had my laptop, so I put on some headphones with Christmas tunes and did some online shopping.  Now that is the life!  I am just about done shopping.  I also hit K-mart and scored more pumpkin!  I think I am set now for the season :mrgreen:

Ornament of the day:

orn1204

This is one of the ones I started working on this year.  I can see why these are expensive to purchase – time consuming, and I think I am blind now.   😯  I love the sparkle and how pretty it is, though!  I’ve done several in other colors, too.  Once I got the technique down, it’s much easier.

Dinner was a chicken, cheddar and cranberry wrap.  Jeez, I am in a rut with that flavor combo!

din1204

Now we are settled in to watch a movie – Miller’s Crossing by the Cohen Brothers.  I enjoy their movies a lot.  My favorites:  Fargo, The Man Who Wasn’t There,  and O Brother Where art Thou

Have a great night blog friends!  I’ll post a race recap tomorrow.

Question:  Do you have a favorite Cohen Brothers movie?

Mammogram, caffeine and a pleasant surprise!

Okay, here is proof that caffeine is not to blame for my sleeping troubles.  3 days without, and last night was one of my worst sleeping nights in a while.  Couldn’t get to sleep and couldn’t stay asleep.  Finally got out of bed at 6:30 and went for a 2 mile walk.  May as well exercise, right?  It was good 9/11 reflection time, too.

It was so hard to not grab a prewalk snack – I was starving!  I somehow made it to the test without eating.  My blood draw was at 8:30:

arm

Nice thing about blood draws versus donating blood is the size of the needle.  Much smaller for the draw and easy peasy!

Off to brekkie and I couldn’t wait!  John biked and met me. Samantha’s is just a couple blocks from the hospital.

saman

I love the atmosphere here.  Very eclectic and made for sitting and chatting.

saman2

I had the fruit bowl and muffin, which included watermelon, blueberries, grapes, honeydew, strawberries.  Delicious!

fruit

I love that they served this in a vintage bowl!  Perfect for pictures 😀

Mixed berry muffin, which actually wasn’t at big as it looks here.

muffin

Very good and tasty since I was so hungry.  Not pictured is  the decaf I drank with this.  It was so nice to lounge for breakfast, and I love going out with my hubby.

After breakfast was a stop at the library to browse, which is one of my favorite things to do (inner geek shining through!).

Then a stop at one of my favorite consignment stores.  This place is jam packed with stuff, although it is a bit hard to find things since I think they need a better categorizing system.  If you ever need a formal dress – this is the place to go.  Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff!

consign

I can spend forever in here.  Oddly enough, I didn’t find anything here that I wanted to get.  Then it was time to walk back over to the hospital for the mammogram.  You hear a lot of horror stories about how it hurts or pinches or is really uncomfortable, so I was a squidge nervous.

Meet the machine:

mam2

Can you believe I took a picture? I’m such a dweeb. LOL!  I did it while the curtain was closed when I was supposed to be putting the gown on. 😀  The tech was very nice.  She explained everything and then I had the mammo done.  *squish* They did 2 views, and honestly it didn’t bother me at all.  There was some pressure, but it didn’t hurt at all.  I just rolled my breasts back up and put them in my bra 😉

I would choose a mammo a thousand times over a Pap, I’ll tell you!  She let me view the images afterwards and noted that there was a lot of pectoral muscle in the image, which meant I must work out!  Yay NROLW!

Then it was sprint time for a latte!

My beloved caffeine, how I have missed you!  Plus some “on the go” lunch of a chai Luna bar:

luna

Off to a different consignment store, and I fell in love with a new place!  The deals were great and some awesome clothes.  Not nearly the selection of formals like the other place, but really – I don’t buy that much formal wear LOL!  This place also has a lot of other things like jewelry, shoes, books, CDs, etc.  I could spend forever here, too.  Anyway, I found a pair of pants that were an 8P on the hang tag, which is good, being a shorty and all.  I tried them on and they were a little snug, but the length was perfect.  I decided to get them, as losing 3 more pounds should get them to fit quite well (per my September challenge).  Not to mention that they were $4.80!!!

Here is my loot:

loot

1 top, 1 pants, 1 silk jammie set (which was new), a workout jacket, and a CD of celtic guitar music for a grand total of $22.83!!  Who loves a bargain???

The big surprise was this: I decided to take a picture of the inner tag, just to show the size and this is what I saw:

6

😮

No wonder they were snug, but I can’t believe I even got them on!  I had bought a pair of 6 shorts this summer, but I figured it was a total fluke of sizes, but I am almost a size 6!  If the hang tag had said 6, I wouldn’t even have bothered to try them on.  I had to laugh because when I showed them to John, he said you could see my muscular thighs in them.  Them’s biker thighs, baby!

Dang this has been a good day so far!

Nutella and bargains

It is really gorgeous here!  I have to say that I like WordPress a lot for blogging, so I will likely be posting more than once a day (you lucky readers 😀  )

Started off the day at the Y with a little brick workout.  I swam  650 yards (26 laps) then rode the stationary bike for 30 minutes, covering about 6 miles.  Somewhat of an easier workout today.  My legs feel a bit stiff from jogging yesterday.  Plus I think they still might feel something from the hills on Saturday.

Came back to a great bowl of oats:

nutella

Cooked with a banana and cocoa powder and topped with a bit of peanut butter and Nutella!  This was sooooo good.

I am a big bargain shopper  (right Mom??) and last Friday I hit my favorite consignment store and got a brand new shirt for $1 !! Here it is!

shirt

It’s actually pretty flattering, I think.  It’s almost a little big, but that’s okay.  Very comfortable.  It feels like moleskin, but it isn’t.  I normally don’t wear button up shirts, but you can’t pass up something that costs $1 and fits, right??  My thighs are looking chubby, though, better lay off that Nutella!

New coat and staying on plan.

I found a coat at my favorite consignment shop today. I needed something that was warmer than my leather, but not as thick as my winter coat – and I found the perfect one. At first, I passed the coat by, because the size said “S”, and I thought there was no way it would even come close to fitting. That ended up being the only coat I really liked, and after looking at it again, I thought it looked like a very generous small, and it was. It fits perfectly! And only $20.

So, John is going out of town for a few days starting tomorrow. Since he is taking the only car, that leaves me with the scooter. So, I should be on plan, although the weather is supposed to be around 60 for a few days, so the scooter is definitely an option if I want to go out. I either eat really well or really poorly when he is out of town, and I am going to really, really try to eat well. I still show some scale ‘uppage’ from the chinese food, so that is motivation to behave.

I also joined Twitter, just to see what it’s all about. You can follow me on the left if you like, probably pretty boring LOL!

Run, new workouts, Chinese food

Well, last night we went out to a Chinese buffet for dinner. We have not eaten at a buffet in probably at least a year. I can’t believe it has been that long. I had kind of been wanting to go Chinese for a month or so, so when John suggested it, I was game.

This buffet was quite good, and there were a lot of healthy selections. I did eat some fried things, but only had one crab rangoon – which are usually my big downfall. Ate mostly unfried meat with some noodles, and a couple interesting breaded seafood things. Avoided the rice and picked some broccoli out of one of the dishes to make sure I got some veggies. Then I had a bit of ice cream for dessert. Not a horrible amount of food, but really much more than I am accustomed to eating. The scale showed the dreaded sodium effect this morning, though LOL! Probably take me all week to get rid of it.

It was really a nice day here, cold but sunny – so a perfect day to get out for a run. I went 4 miles today at a steady pace with one sprint section in there after the 3rd mile. I am still waffling about doing a 1/2 marathon. That’s a long time to be running. I’ll probably try a 10K to see what happens. I officially signed up for a Turkey Trot on Tday morning, so I am committed weather bad or not! Could be pretty cold at 8:30 am.

Tomorrow starts my new lifting program. I am kind of excited, I really love the weights. I need to get some more for myself, so I need to check one of those used sports equipment stores and see what’s available.

On a good note, I did stop at a consignment shop yesterday. Got 3 pairs of pants to try on, 2 size 8 and 1 size 10. The 10s were way too big (yay!!), one size 8 was too small, and the other size 8 was just right. And they were only $4.50. Gotta love a bargain!

Rest day

I did it. I actually took a rest day from exercise! I wasn’t sure I would be able to. I really push myself hard, with the jogging and biking, and thought today would be a good day to relax. Days off are really hard!!

Did do a bit of walking at the mall, but that was not really aerobic LOL! I did avoid the pretzels at the mall, but found myself snacking a bit at home. Funny how you can still find things to nosh on even when your house has just good stuff in it!

I went consignment clothes shopping yesterday at a new store. Really neat stuff and what a bargain! I bought all size 12s, but actually could get on size 10!! I was pretty excited. Anyway, I bought a pair of shorts, a pair of jeans and a top, those items totalled $14.50 – can you believe it!

Have a Good Will shop scheduled in for Friday. We need to pick up bottles for our business, and Good Will is pretty much on the way there. So John is dropping me off to shop while he picks up the inventory. Good thing, because I need time when I am there!