Lauren from Texas

I thought I’d do something a little different this week, so here are 5 questions: 1. What’s your favorite yoga DVD? I can’t currently afford a membership to the local yoga studio (which is such a bummer, because it’s awesome), but the yoga classes at the student rec center suck. So DIY yoga it is. Looking for a good DVD that won’t bore me to death. I bought this one a couple of years ago and every time I turn it on, I feel like taking a nap on my yoga mat. I’ve heard good things about Bob Harper’s and also some others; I wanted to see if anyone else had any input before I made an Amazon purchase. 2. [...]

{Lucy and Chelsea’s son, Jansen} One of my dearest friends, Chelsea, experienced the death of a close friend last week. Lucy, who I had met a couple of times, passed away after a very brief battle with cancer. You can read the whole story here. Last Thursday night, I looked down at my phone and saw a text that said simply, “Lucy died today.” Immediately, it felt like my stomach dropped out of my body. Just three weeks earlier, Lucy had been diagnosed with cancer. We had all been praying that she would make a full recovery. She was young, in shape, and very healthy. Everyone was hopeful. Except, for reasons we will probably never be able to understand, she [...]

My relationship with fitness has been sporadic at best. Mostly because, before the age of 21, I never even had to think about staying thin. I ate whatever I wanted (including entire pizzas) and never gained a pound. I’m not saying, by any means, that I struggle with weight now. But let’s just say that I can’t eat entire pizzas anymore, and that I had a moment last spring where I weighed myself and the number was roughly 20 pounds more than it was in 2009. Before I got married, I did not exercise. I was one of those brides. I was happy with my body and wasn’t worried about perfectly toned arms. Right after I got married, I started running [...]

{downtown Houston, NYE} Michael and I rung in the new year with my sister, her husband, and our friends Dusty and Heather. Dinner, dancing, and lots of laughs were involved. I hope I always remember the magic moments between 2011 and 2012, wrapped in my husband’s arms and screaming “HAPPY NEW YEAR!”  with my sister. I knew I wanted to do a year in review post, but I also knew I wouldn’t get it done before 2012 had arrived. And I was okay with that. Look at me go! Even though something isn’t perfect I’m moving on with my life! With only a few feelings of disappointment in myself! In all seriousness, though, here’s my review. 2011 was crazy, in [...]

  Last year (and even in 2010), my hair experienced a metamorphosis. In 2011, the changes occurred in 6 distinct stages. In 2012, I am determined to get my hair back to healthy and semi-natural. (Oops, maybe I should have added that to my resolutions.) Contained in this post are the many variations of my hair in 2011. If you scroll through the post really quickly, you see a crazy person! That also happens if you scroll through at a normal rate. Stage 1: Red I went red in December of 2010, and kept it up for several months. I had gone from white-blonde to brunette that October, then couldn’t stop dreaming of red, so I made it happen. Stage 2: Strawberry I decided springtime was the perfect season [...]

{photo from the wedding of our friends Dusty + Heather: 11-6-11} I am the queen of creating horrifically long, detailed, unachievable lists of resolutions. Goals. Whatever the kids are calling them these days. I start small, and before I know it I’m going from someone who never works out to a resolution of “Work out 5 times per week! Lift weights! Exercise all the things!” So I do ALL THE THINGS for about a week, get burned out, and crash. Lather, rinse, repeat. Story of my life. It’s so easy to make these lists and then feel overwhelmed, like someone is forcing us to do them. Um, pretty sure there’s no List of Insane Resolutions Police. If there were, I’d be locked up [...]

1. Yesterday I put a little work into the sidebar of my blog. Let me know if you see anything that’s not working. Since I have no background whatsoever in design, I was pretty proud of myself for the Twitter and Pinterest buttons. Also, I now have a button for LfT, if you care to add it to your blog. Exciting! 2. Last night, I was craving cake. Specifically, chocolate cake. I almost made cake in a mug, but then Michael said that if I made the cream cheese frosting I used for the Red Velvet cake I made for Christmas, he would join me in the baking goodness. So I found a recipe for chocolate cupcakes (it’s actually the [...]

My relationship with paper planners has been an on-again, off-again entanglement. In high school and college, I used them exclusively (probably because I didn’t have a smart phone). After I got a Mac and an iPhone, I cast aside my planners and instead used iCal for a couple of years, syncing work and personal calendars between computer and phone. Last year, I decided I really wanted to start things up with paper again, and Kapachino sent me a great Franklin Covey planner with a pink faux snakeskin cover. I loved that thing to pieces, quite literally. That planner got me through my first (harrowing) semester of grad school. It was there for me. I realized then and there I was hooked on paper [...]

{a gorgeous holiday arrangement sent to us by friends} “What’s a Christmas gram? I want one!” (If you don’t know what movie that’s from, I truly feel sorry for you.) Below are some Christmas snapshots. Row 1: husband + wife; a beautifully personalized painting from my sister Row 2: “Pink” Velvet Cake batter; I have the prettiest sister Row 3: My gorgeous mom; my parents’ dog Chuy (he is so cute!) Row 4: I love my dad; Christmas present from Michael Row 5: Chuy again (I’m slightly obsessed); gift card from my brother I’ve pretty much stopped carrying a camera. There’s lots of higher quality photography out there, but for this non-photographer, iPhonetography is right up my alley. Did you blog [...]

{2011 Christmas cards + a few older favorites; see anyone you know?} Every year, on December 26th, I am ready to clear my home of any and all holiday-themed items. In doing so, I say goodbye to Christmas (at least until July when the retailers introduce it to us far too early again) and prepare for the New Year. Even though I don’t have a lot of Christmas decor, especially this year, there’s something incredibly cathartic about clearing out the old to make room for the new. Usually, I trim holiday borders from the Christmas photos I’ve received and repurpose them as fridge art, tacking the photos to the fridge with decorative magnets. This year, I decided to do something a little different. I [...]