January Product Review

all that talk of shopping and no discussion on the results? well no, that wouldn't be quite fair...so here goes :)
Ole Henriksen Fresh Start Eye Cream: Love it. $38 at Sephora, Nordstrom, ShopIntuition, etc. I now house my eye cream in the refrigerator so that after I've showered and scrubbed the sleepiness off my face, I can get a jumpstart on the eye de-puffing process. It's light enough that I can wear it during the day, and still very moisturizing too. (My night eye cream is a little too thick to wear makeup over) Overall, I think I've found a keeper.
Smith's Rosebud Salve: $6 at Sephora, drugstore.com, etc. This is supposed to be an all purpose skin product. It smells like, well, roses. Its consistency is somewhat of a mix between vaseline and chapstick. It's extremely portable since it comes in a nice little metal tin, and it's great for moisturizing a dry spot (elbow, ankle, heel, etc.) that is bugging you during the day. Also, I'm still wondering how I feel about the "greasiness" it causes until it soaks in. Pretty much anything I touch within the first 40 minutes of application is gonna be shiiiiiiiiiiney. So, is it my new moisturizer solution? no. Does it even come close to comparing to my old favorite Kiehl's Ultimate Strength Hand Salve? Absolutely not. Does it work as a portable quick fix for dry hands during the winter? you betcha. It's a keeper but not sure I'll be compelled to buy it again.
L'Occitane Hand Cream with A.O.C. Lavender oil: got this as a present. Was super excited to try it because a. i've never tried L'Occitane lotion (despite all the raves i've somehow missed the opportunity thus far) and b. lavender scent is my favorite (right now) for hand creams. Does it work? sorta, it's like putting a thick milk on your hands that just soaks in after a few minutes. It's almost watery like my facial Kiehl's moisturizer. Not enough umpf for the hands if you ask me. I'm not so sure about its staying power or real moisturizing ability. Smells great but doesn't really take the cracked feeling out of my winter hands. Buy it again? probably not, just not enough real moisture for me.
Philosophy The Oxygen Peel...review coming soon, I hope it doesn't bleach my eyebrows like they warn against.

Cool Find: yelp.com

soooooooo cool. no really, this site is so cool (and useful) that i must share it and highly recommend it.
while searching high and low for local salons, bars, restaurants, etc. to try out i came across this website. also helps that it was mentioned on one of the message boards i hangout at. anyway, great "real" reviews on anything local you can think of. just enter your zip code and voila!
try it out: http://www.yelp.com/

back to personal training...?

if you know me well enough, you know that i like to invest my energy into a new flavor of the month/year/etc. last year it was probably the wedding (though it probably should have been school, haha) and the year before it was how do i leave my job for something better (hence the personal training certification and grad school application process).
so here i am, walking into my final semester of school (forever maybe!) and i decide that after 16 hours of personal training coursework that i want to get back into it. you say what?!? ya, i know. i've learned a lot during my past two years of personal training/not-training, haha. the gym setting is not so much my thing. working as an independent consultant at a gym, well maybe. buuuuuuuuuut, my new friend becky (i met her in class this weekend) runs a pt business out of her 700 sq ft apt! if she can, so can i! :)
you know where this is going...
so now i've done my research on the business permit, taxes, etc. and i think it might really happen. maybe i should sleep on it, but that's not what the genetic erg in me has trained me to do.
i could train early mornings, evenings, and weekends...hmmm, tasty!
i just can't not be gym obsessed and maybe this is a good compromise. so before i press checkout on my 3-online gym fitness websites, i'm going to go to bed (early class tomorrow) and "sleep on it". ayyy, but really...i'd only be investing a big louie or so to get started, whatcha think?

Friday night = date night! :)

After a long dedicated day at work today, and in protest of the 16 hours of personal training continuing education credits (CECs) that I'll be taking ALL weekend, I'm enforcing Friday night = date night.
We're headed to a really cool fusion/tapas-style Indian food place...and guess what?--it's only 4 blocks or so away. Despite the short distance, have no fear, it's still windchill 24...so I will be sporting my snazzy Pink Burberry earmuffs. yay! I'm so looking forward to my tasty naan, samosas, and mmmm Indian beer! GET IN MAH BELLY!
So here I am, waiting for the mr. to pick up the doggy from daycare (Fridays are his day to be mr.doggydad) and fight for Friday night parking in the hood (I'm killing time writing this in the office before I head back to the city) .
I have to report to training by 8:30 tomorrow morning!--umpf! Calling it an early night already, peace!

annoying phone calls!

i keep getting these calls from area code 425. and while i thought, oh great which drunk sister gave out my phone number (hehe, just kidding) i really got annoyed tonight. so i googled this stupid number. have you ever been to whocalled.us? coolest thing ever! you can look up a number that perhaps was in your caller id and see what other people have reported on it, or where it's geographically tied to, and other neat-o facts about it.
arg, apparently this number is some stupid mba online program trying to survey people. blaaaaaaaaaaaah! how annoying. especially at 11:32pm, is this for real? anyway, cool website...you know it'll come in handy ;)

(almost) 6 months later and the wedding pictures are up :)

yay for amazing pictures. now i just have a stack of 200+ or so favorites to get through for my scrapbook :P yay to finally getting to fill in the blank pages on the awesome album c got me.

one of the coolest pitchers ever!

thanks cami :) super cool pitcher, looooooooooooove it!

new stuffs!

shopping overload!!! woah, i have so many exciting things to share. i'll update this post when i get home tonight especially with a picture of our new (custom--but so awesome looking it's not cheesy custom--made) mcg's pitcher!

yesterday, summy and i fought through traffic for a stop at sephora to get some of the best beauty buys recommended by Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets.

#1 Ole Henriksen Fresh Start Eye Cream , #2 Philosophy's Oxygen Peel, and some #3 Smith's Rosebud Salve






then late at night, i was bored b/c jeremy didn't finish his memo until the very last minute (it was due at midnight) so i ventured over to makeupalley and found a must buy. after all, mom went out and bought some blush and that's one thing on my last that i really actually need. so here's what i got, at qvc :::gasp::: nonetheless.

these blushes received rave reviews, i hope i can figure out how to use the gel/stick thing on my face.
and last but not least, last week i order some shoes (steve madden's) on major clearance from piperlime. ups should be leaving them at my door today :) i'll post those pictures tonight too! yay for a self-imposed shopping ban after all this.

summy is so preeeeetty

had to share a cute picture of my summy-sum. in the background you can see my full-length mirror (waiting to be hung by mr. ahem jdogg).

and for those of you who've been to visit in the last 5 months, you know that me acquiring a full length mirror is a very big accomplishment. yes, go me!

well see how this blog thing fares this semester

so why the blog?
well, i always was tempted to do a blog but being a not-so-graceful ummm author, i was pretty embarassed at the thought. anyway, i got tired of the message boards, myspaces, mystylediary, etc.s and all they made me want to do was shop or party anyway. here's an attempt to keep family and close friends up to date on the going-on's. plus i like this being able to post a picture feature (and you don't even need to compress it, woohoo!). since i like taking pictures to tell my life-stories, i really like this. we'll see how well i am at keeping this up....school starts manana. only 112 days until i'm done with schoooooool, and 116 days until graduation.

so this sparkpeople thing...

i had heard about sparkpeople here and there and mostly on the nest message boards that keep me entertained when school/work don't. anyway, i finally jumped on the bandwagon and joined, also started a family team to compete against other families :P
my goal is to lose 14 lbs (if that's possible) in the next 6 months---hey, if Kirstie Alley and everyone else can shed some, so can i! anyway, tomorrow marks my 7th day and first full week on the program (nothing really new except I'm now tracking every thing I eat and i'm starting to be conscious of how much i --don't--work out). we'll see how the "weigh-in" goes. i wouldn't expect to much seeing as how this weekend was full of food and drink that doesn't do a body good.

first snow of 2007!

We had our first snow today! (well Sunday) On the left is the backyard that Ms. Summy wasn't having.

Still, I was so excited that I dragged myself out in my purple polka-dot pj's, slipped on my Burberry wellies, ski gloves, and grabbed that shovel to show our entranceway exactly who's boss. Here are some pictures showing off my hard work :)

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