Friday, July 16, 2010

Friday Mishmash - and Sof Sole Winner!

First things first...the winner of the Sof Sole Training Package is:


Congratulations! Email me your mailing address AND shoe size, and I'll pass the info on to Whitney at Sof Sole. Hope you enjoy everything!

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Speaking of running (oh, were we?), I did get up early this morning and went for a quick redemption run - I wanted to do a fast (for me) one mile run just to make sure I really could run at a decent pace, after Wednesday's incredibly slow run. Plus I need to get in the habit of running on Fridays, even though I have to work. Anyway, I did a mile in 11:16 - could I do five miles at that pace? No. But at least I know I still have a little speed in me! Plus I exercised before work - a first for me - woohoo!

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OK, so if you read about my mental vacation that I took in the last post, you will remember that I mentioned looking up an old childhood friend on Facebook. Well I did, and we have reconnected! It's been nearly 30 years since we last saw each other...Matt was my buddy in our sailing club - our family joined when I was 8 years old, and as there were very few girls in the club, and we were the same age, we palled around together for years. Our families, along with many others, camped a lot together - Easter was spent at New Brighton beach, Thanksgiving at Pismo Beach, weeks in the summer were at Pinecrest - we went all over. It was a great way to grow up, and we had a lot of freedom to roam around and swim and sail (many times doing both at once!) and fish and just be kids. Matt is the nicest guy - he's been married for almost as long as I have, has five cute kids and a beautiful wife. We've been emailing like no time has passed (although email wasn't even invented last time I saw him, haha) and have spent the last few days catching up on everything. I've had a big grin on my face all week - what a joy this has been. And the best part? We plan on meeting up sometime next week while I'm in California! We all go way back - my best friend Barbara, whom I will be visiting, used to come sailing with us and knew Matt as well. I'll be sure and get a picture of us and post it alongside one from when we were kids...I'm sure nothing has changed - ha!

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My grocery store finally has some of the new Laughing Cow flavors in stock...sadly, not the bleu cheese, as I've been wanting to try that, but they did have Queso Fresco and Chipotle, so I bought it and took an arty picture:
Ooh, look at that food styling!

My verdict? Too tame (as my Grandmother would say) - not enough kick for me. It was good, but I kept thinking about sprinkling it with some Louisiana Hot Sauce. I didn't - that would have entailed getting up, and as I was eating this for lunch after Wednesday's workout, sitting down was working just fine for me!

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So my flight for California doesn't leave (well, the one with me on it, anyway) until Tuesday, but I've been throwing things into my suitcase all week. Excited? Why yes I am! And apparently the weather is cool out there - imagine that! I'm not packing sweatshirts or anything, though. Why? Because, for the first time in the history of our friendship, Barbara and I are the same size!!! I can borrow her clothes - how amazing is that?!? Plus, I need to leave room in my suitcase in case for when I buy some new clothes. And running gear - they have running stores out there, yo! And bras - of course we will be doing our annual bra shop. This will be so much fun - I can't wait!

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I am by no means a good photographer, and half the time when I get my camera to do something that I want it to, I can't duplicate it. But I did manage to get a neat shot of the flowers that are currently blooming on our Texas Mountain Laurel shrubs:
Look - it's clear in the foreground and soft-focused in the background...almost like I meant to do that! This was the only one of about ten shots that came out that way - naturally, the one I like the best is the most elusive to take!

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And now, it's another exciting installment of Fashion Friday! All I can say is that's it's a good thing I will be doing some shopping soon, because repeats would be on the schedule otherwise. I wanted to wear my Merona Fit skirt to work on Thursday (ok, mainly so I could wear my super cute cork wedge sandals - I love these shoes!), but I've been challenged to come up with tops that work with it. Most of my stuff is a little long and loose, as that hides my strange stomach blob. They don't work with the skirt, and tucking anything in doesn't do my stomach any favors.
I know brown is a little dark for summer, but it's all I have. I threw on the pink and orange necklace (it belonged to my Grandmother and I used to play dress up with it) and then tried on my old orange cardigan.
Way too big - it's a large - one of the first pieces I bought from a "regular" store after I had lost enough weight to shop outside of Lane Bryant. What to do, what to do. It's made of silk, cotton, nyon and spandex - label says to wash on delicate and air dry. Since it's unusable to me at this point, I tossed in the washer on "hot" and then into the dryer. Et voila - it shrunk enough for me to wear!
Granted, it's still too big, but it worked for this outfit. I do love the color so will have to hunt down another orange cardigan one of these days.

Eagle eyes may notice the discrepancy in my hair between the two sweater pictures - I tested out this outfit Wednesday night (good thing, since I was able to remedy the too-big cardigan). Like my non-styled hair? It's my lazy hippie look for the summer...yeah, I'm definitely relaxing my style when I don't have to work.

Have a good weekend!

30 comments:

  1. Love the outfit and the shoes ........... want them, want them, want them.

    Seems to me you are going to have a great time in California! Be kind to yourself and buy yourself as much new (running) clothes as you can afford, you deserve it!

    And so cool you found Matt and you renewed your friendship.

    Have fun next week my dear friend.

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  2. Whoa! You look so good in that outfit! We just see each other in our workout clothes!

    So, what do you eat the laughing cow with? By itself or with a cracker or veggie? I've been trying to figure that one out... trying to stay away from the crackers though.

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  3. Ooohhh... so MUCH to comment on today! Where to begin? Gotta type fast.

    Awesome pace for your one-miler! Love that. I couldn't keep that up for multiples either. HEART ATTACK waiting to happen. Ugh. A goal, though.... right?

    FB? Didn't know you were there! Would love to be friends. Sounds so junior high, but you know what I mean. That's super cool, finding an old friend. Wow! Isn't it funny how we can identify life experiences by technology? Weird. But true.

    Time for CA?? Yay! Plenty excited for you!!

    Oh, and Laughing Cow has all those good flavors now? Heading to my grocery store today to make sure they order them PRONTO. Love Chipotle flavor... yummy!

    Closing here. To Do list is relentless today.

    HUGS++ to you, friend! I'm thinking I need to race in Texas one of these days! :-)

    p.s. I like brown year-round...can be jazzed up w/ turquoise, orange, light blue... love it! Classy.

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  4. BEST OUTFIT YET! OMG! You look so great. Where do I start. Love the strappy shoes. I love it with or without the sweater. Seriously Shelley. You do look fab.

    How nice that you get to reconnect with your friend. You are going to have such a great time.

    I like the hair.

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  5. You look great in that outfit. I like it the best without the sweater, but hey - shrinking it was an awesome idea!

    Sadly, I don't buy cheese anymore at all. I WANT. Maybe I'll make Cowgirl buy some and then just eat one piece and then leave the premises.

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  6. I think this is my favorite look of all your Fashion Fridays! Very Cute! And Good thinking on shrinking the sweater.

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  7. You look awesome and I love your style...Most days I feel like I just have no clue when it comes to fashion but you really look great.

    Long distance running is really a mental challenge...I tell myself all the time...your body can do this, you just have to be mentally strong enough to tough it out...I have had times during 10 mile runs that I think periods have gone by that I'm in such a "zone" I barely remember getting to the end, and yet other days every step seems like the hardest thing in the world to do!

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  8. Super cute, lookin' good and I LOVE those sandals.

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  9. I like that outfit a lot. The sweater really does look better after being shrunk in the dryer.

    Keep looking for the blue cheese LC flavor. It is tasty! I had some last night, spread on the bun of my turkey burger.

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  10. I love the top outfit. I love the outfit with the orange sweater sleeves pulled up. I think the middle one looks too frumpy even though they are the same outfit. Though I notice your hair is fixed a bit differently in the 2nd photo than the other two. Interesting. BTW, you can borrow any of my clothing too. hahaha
    The flower photo is lovely.
    I felt showered with relief that I did not win the Sof Sole package. There is a God.
    See you soon. Hopefully.

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  11. I love your outfit brown or not. Don't you know brown is the new black? Ha ha. Your shoes are FAB! Plus, what's wrong with tucking in? Try it. You might be surprised. You look awesome and I think it's great you've reconnected with your old friend. I've had the same surreal experience on facebook. It's fun

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  12. I love your outfit, and it looks great on you! ...can't wait until I can wear such this as well as you do. I'm new to blogging, and I'm loving it and learning so much!

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  13. You look just amazing. And such a smarty-pants for thinking of shrinking! (Hey that's a helluva blog name) Great job on the mile. You are going to have such a great time in CA with all your meet-ups! Pinch Janell for me ;-)

    Love the shoes! It is hard to believe that the woman in the June 2008 bike photo is you? Did you really have a clue when you began this journey that THIS PLACE OF AWESOME would be where you ended up?

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  14. Pretty pictures! I love the flower pictures.....

    That outfit is classy. I actually like it without the sweater better.

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  15. SERIOUS... Laughing Cow has a Chipotle flavor? I lot peppers and heat. And cheese, yep, i like cheese! You found it tame though huh? Well, if I find I will try too. Looking good inyour fashions!

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  16. Love the outfit AND the hair! Nothing wrong with brown in summer, but then, you never want to take fashion advice from me.

    So glad you reconnected with your friend. That's the beauty of FB. Have you been "hunted" down by people you don't WANT to see again, though?

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  17. Man, Shelley, you look S-L-I-M!!!

    I love the flower pic, that you can see water droplets on it.

    And yeah! Me and my BF go bra shopping together too! I thought we were the only ones who did that.

    Can hardly wait to meet you--have we chosen a froyo place yet??

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  18. you should have added Tabasco to the cheese!

    It's weird how many people I've found (or they have found me) on Facebook. One really weird thing I've noticed? I am 42 and I can tell you about 90% of the people I've reconnected with have LITTLE kids - like infants and three year olds!

    They were all shocked I have a daughter old enough to be in college!

    Great idea on shrinking the sweater - I do like the color combo, and I think I told you before, but I like those sandles too!

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  19. I love the shoes too! Very cute!

    It has been pretty warm here today. When you get here it will probably be in the 80s inland and low 70s at the coast.

    P.S. Loved all the local mentions. One of my fave places is New Brighton.

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  20. The outfit is GREAT and you look mahvelous!

    My Trader Joe's has the LC blue cheese flavor...it's good, but like your assessment of the one you tried, it's a little tame. I'm a wimp for hot stuff, so it was fine for me but you'd probably find it not worthy! I haven't seen any of the other new flavors yet. Funny how these new products seem to have regional releases.

    So cool aobut reconnecting with a childhood buddy. I just have with a girl I was best friends with in elem. through high school. It's surreal. Your trip sounds great.

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  21. Great outfits. I love that you shrunk your orange sweater. I did that (not on purpose) to one of my go-to good big size blouses. I couldn't face putting it in the thrift shop bin. Just tried it on recently and it fits!

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  22. Wow..looking sexy in that outfit! like it better without the sweater. Ok, so skip this cheese..thanks for the headsup :)

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  23. I'm thinking that your belt works really well with that outfit - it makes a nice link between the top and the skirt and echoes the style of the sandals a little. Cool!

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  24. I'm thinking that your belt works really well with that outfit - it makes a nice link between the top and the skirt and echoes the style of the sandals a little. Cool!

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  25. Now it's hot here in Cali...sorry to break the news to you but we've had three or four really warm days. Where in CA will you be?
    Cute orange cardigan, I have one too. I just love orange :) !

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  26. You're right about the green pants, it is too big. Bought it when I was a size heavier. The black capri's I bought this year and those are getting too big too. Most of my clothes are too big now but I have so many of them, buying them all new is way to expensive :lol: So I'll still wear them even though they are a bit too big and buy new clothes every now and then.

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  27. I've only been seeing the lite garlic and herb at our stores...looking forward to something else to try.

    11:16 is a great pace! you'd be passing me most likely.

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  28. So much to comment on!

    1. I love finding long-lost friends on FB. Seeing all those faces, still the same even if rounder and more wrinkly LOL, makes me smile every day.

    2. Oooooh, Laughing Cow comes in new flavors? I wouldn't have tried the "spicy" one anyway, but I am intrigued by the bleu cheese! I will keep an eye out for it.

    3. Eeee, shopping trips with friends are the best. Heck, maybe you should bring an extra duffel bag for the return trip!

    4. Pretty flower, and great use of the macro feature! (That's what makes the front clear and the background blurry.)

    5. Saving the best for last. OH. MY. GOD. Shelley, you look AMAZING. I really liked the first outfit without any sweater at all (the necklace really stands out and all the colors are great together), but then the shrunken sweater knocked it all out of the park! Dang. And your hair is gorgeous, full and loose and curly. You look stunning.

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  29. I can't wait to hang out next week. Has it really been 30 years? Looks like it has been 15. Oh and I love the fashion Fridays. You look great.

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