Fancy Footwear

SHOES!!! I said goodbye to my Jack Rogers for the season. I was sad to pack them away until a sunnier day and even sadder to see my sorry collection of well worn fall footwear come out of storage. I. Need. New. Shoes. It's not even a "want." It's a "need." Yup, that's how I'll justify it.

Miu Miu  Embroidered Velvet Slippers

And just look at the gem covered heel! They come in ruby red too... magic slippers! Navy, red, black. I'll take them all!

Bandolino Cazadora

So very practical - black and brown tall boots. One pair that matches everything!

Grey Suede Rag and Bone Booties

I'm usually not a fan of the trendy bootie seen everywhere this season. But, well, everything looks good on Gwynnie including these Rag and Bone Newbury boots. I'd probably need a blazer like hers to complete the look. And while I'm making my wishlist, I'd love long legs too.

London Charity Event

I'll leave you with this image of what would be the perfect, cozy, peaceful spot to settle in with a big stack of magazines and a glass of wine on a rainy or snowy evening. (White wine, not red. I'd probably spill red.)

Happy weekend!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Dolce & Gabbana

Gone Bananas for Barre

I took my first barre class on Saturday, and yup, it's worth the hype. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I was a little apprehensive about going because,well, I have bad memories of taking ballet and tap when I was four. In my one recital, we hopped along in white tutus and bunny ears. I spent the entire five minutes on stage fighting with my bunny ears, which kept falling off. So, dance was never really my thing.

But barre class isn't anything like dance class. Health.com's Rozalynn Frazier summarizes it well: "You’ll do a lot of reps of small, pulsing movements (we’re talking lifting and lowering limbs a mere inch or two), targeting the muscles in your core and lower body (many classes also hit your top half), with big emphasis on form and alignment. They sometimes throw in a bevy of other props, too, like yoga straps, exercise balls and hand weights."

via Self

We're talking serious burn but fun (in the sense of satisfaction from working out hard...that kind of fun). The only workout that I've ever done that results in pain compared to barre is the P90x plyometrics (knicknamed "the beast"). That was much, much worse. And not fun.

Run, squat, jump, 180 turn.

After barre, I stayed for hot yoga. Needless to say, I was wiped out and hungry like a bear afterward. So, I spent the afternoon resting/nesting, making mini banana bran-flax muffins and butternut squash soup.

As you can tell from the photo, which is exceptionally bad, I didn't have a mini-muffin pan, and the mini-muffin liners just don't fit in the regular muffin tins. They taste a lot better than they look! And I've convinced myself that they're healthy, despite the stick of butter and cup of sugar.

Banana Bran- Flaxseed Mini Muffins

2 eggs

3 bananas

1 cup flour

1/4 c bran

1/4 c flaxseed flour

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c sugar

1 tsp milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 stick of butter

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the butter, brown sugar and white sugar together until creamy.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, bran, flax, baking powder, cinnamon.

In another small bowl, mix the eggs and milk, and mush the bananas. 

Add the dry ingredients to the sugar and butter mixture.

Then, add the eggs, milk and bananas.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Branch Out at the Treehouse Workshop

The Sailor and I spent last weekend doing yard work. The joys of home ownership. We're lucky to have some tall, mature old pine and oak trees on the property, and we're equally as lucky that the work went quickly. Raking and hauling leaves isn't exactly fun, but the Sailor was happy because he got to drive the tractor.

Product: "Proof in a Bottle"

On my last trip to the salon, the stylist (not the one I regularly go to) hawked products, as expected. They always get you at your most vulnerable-- your hair never looked better, so you think it had to be the stuff they used.

Getting Some Ink

No, not that kind of ink. I'm not getting a tat...until I have my mid-life crisis. I'm talking about ink handblock printing.

Long before we moved into our new house, I fell in love with these pillow shams from Rickshaw Design

 "Handblocked printed textiles for your bohemian life"...

Bohemian life- Don't I wish!