Friday Mishmash - Picture Edition!

I love this time of year - summer fruit is so abundant and cheap! Currently in my fridge I have cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and grapes...and a couple of bananas on my counter. It's hard to resist when everything is so good right now! A few years ago you would be lucky to find an apple in my fridge - but plenty of junk food would be available. Times have changed and I love it!

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Left: Asics 2150; Right: Asics 2140

I used some of my birthday money and bought a new pair of workout shoes - they are so pretty and clean! Tell me, am I the only person who gets the tops of their workout shoes dirty? I know it's from kicking the bag during cardio...just hope I can hold off on doing that (you listening, Linda?) for a few weeks so I can enjoy the newness of my shoes! I will save my old shoes in case I ever decide to do a mud run...I hear you can actually lose them during one of those races!

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Showing off Ricky Bobby, my new Garmin!

In today's Keeping it Real segment, I bring you this picture as proof that yes, there is flab on my arms. I knew it was there, but unless I hold my arm a certain way, I don't see it. FYI, this is definitely the way to show the extra skin and flab. I will say that I am wearing sleeveless shirts now (as evidenced in the picture) - I feel much better about my arms than I did a year ago, and they are more toned and a tiny bit sculpted, thanks to all of the weight-room work that I've been doing. Also, in re-reading that linked post, I was just fitting into size 12 pants and size large tops - and now, I'm in size 8 (with an occasional size 6, thank you Target) pants and size medium and sometimes small tops - wow, I didn't think I'd changed that much in a year. And this is the reason why I started my blog - so I could look back and see how far I've come, and remember how hard I've worked.

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I had one of those good hair days last Friday - I absolutely LOVED how my hair turned out. Do you think I have been able to duplicate it since? Of course not! I've come close, but no cigar. Really, it's a crap shoot every morning as to what it decides to do. Anyway, I was feeling full of sass when I took this picture - hence the pose. So I'll start Fashion Friday off with it:

Liz Claiborne navy Bermudas (TJ Maxx), top from Ross, bronze flip flops are by Oka Bee bought two years ago (I think). They are cute and are supposed to be comfortable, but that is not the case with me, and I only wear them when I won't be doing a lot of walking. Here's a close up of the shoes:

See how nice and new they look? That's because they rarely get worn - too heavy and they just feel funny. Sad, really.

I thought that was going to be it for Fashion Friday, because I just could not come up with anything good to wear to work on Thursday (which is usually when I do my FF outfit). I kept trying on different options Wednesday evening and nothing was working. I was layering solid-colored t-shirts with jackets, cardigans and belts and I hated everything. I finally realized that what I was hating was my belly - it really shows in light solid colors. Prints? I'm happy. I should (wo)man up and take some pictures of me in those yucky outfits so you can see what I'm talking about...maybe next week when I've recovered from the ugh-i-ness of it all. (Tell me you can relate!) Anyway, on Thursday morning I put on this dress, which I bought over a year ago - another Kick-Ass Kohl's dress (™ Kristen). Thanks to the stretchy fabric, it still fits - very few things that I bought a year ago do, as my size has gotten smaller. I wore it last week to that event, and I remember the knot in the tie bothering me when I leaned back against my chair. I had the sudden inspiration to wrap it back around to the front and tie it there, and wow, did I love the look! I felt positively tiny! Which was a wonderful change from the blobby feeling of the night before - amazing how clothes can make or break you.

Close up so you can sort-of see the tie wrap detailDress with the tie in the back - see how I lose my waist?Side view - tied in back, no waistSide view - tied in front, waist defined!

And now the shoes question - which ones would you have worn?

New Impo sandals - bought last weekend at Macys for the bargain price of $10!Close up - see the cute cork wedge heel? And I loved the silver detail on the black!Dana Buchmann turquoise sandals - bought last year at Kohls (of course!)Rampage wedges(!) bought at Macy's - on sale for $27!

Obviously I felt like I had some cute choices, thanks to my recent shopping spree. You know I went with the black strappy wedges, right? I loved my outfit - felt very tall (for me) and slim. I am very please with how the dress changed, simply by tying the tie differently. I feel like I got a new outfit - for free!