The Grit Room

As I type this, my feet are throbbing with blisters. Not from these amazing shoes, oh no. They are throbbing after working a ten hour day, then kid-napping Kyle's brother to workout at the YMCA (where I ran/jogged for 45 minutes, hells to the yeah!) and finished the night off with a 45 minute walk with Louie. Know what the best part is? I get to do it all over again tomorrow! I am exhausted, from all of this and from spending ten minutes looking for my lavender scented petroleum jelly. Seriously, it's God's gift to sore feet and I have no idea where it is. Louie probably ate it, he ate a can of alphabet soup once-can and all. He is part goat didn't you know? I guess I'll know for sure if he ate my jelly if his "presents" smell like lavender tomorrow on our walk...

Details
Dress-Thrifted
Belt-Forever 21
Tights-Target
Boots-Modcloth

Song of the day "Senses working overtime" by XTC

Inspiration: Beyonce's music

You maybe a little taken aback by the content of this post as I am a person who despises most pop music, however, I have no right to refer to pop music as "bad" when a lot of people could call (and they have) the music I listen to "boring". I honestly could handle more top 40 songs if I didn't hear them a million times per day (Cough *Adele* Cough) but that is not the way radio stations work. Instead,  either you succumb or you bolt out of the room or just listen to NPR all damn day like me.

Regardless, when I first started really exercising every day and trying to get my butt in gear, I found myself adding a little Beyonce to my workout play-list. Let me tell you, it worked! I would pop in a workout video and end up shaking my booty to her entire album "Bday" almost every time. Even Kyle couldn't resist! On his old mp3 player, he had two albums-one by the Offspring, and Beyonce. The best music to workout to is angry music, or music that makes you feel sexy, hands down.

Beyonce's music isn't just inspiring on it's own, the woman behind it gives it the extra little push. More times than I can count I would be just checking my email or paying a bill online and would find myself looking up one of her music videos. I know she is just a celebrity, but seeing this beautiful, strong, sexy woman smiling at you and dancing around, just made me want to get up and move around. I knew damn well that I would not look as awesome as her, but her music still made me feel like I could be sexy too. Rollerblading down the street while shaking my butt all over probably sent all kinds of wrong signals, but I felt sexy dammit.

It was impossible to narrow it down to just one song, and I didn't want to post ten videos on here that you guys would never watch, but I did pick one. I love this video, I think she looks awesome and of course anything slightly vintage, I am all-over. So say hello to the song of the day!

First Snowfall

 

First off I wanna thank everyone for their kind comments on my last post. I love encouragement and advice, and I love sharing it. I wanna make this blog a scrapbook of things that I think are awesome, because blogging and reading blogs is something that I really enjoy doing. I am excited to do some inspirational posts to create more of a variety around here, although I am still working on taking my own outfit photos. Our tri-pod is too short so it makes the photos look distorted. I have found setting the camera on random things sometimes works, like the back of my car, however its raining out and as much as I would prefer outdoor photos, I don't want my camera to have water damage (I drop that sucker enough as it is!).

Well, as you can see, we had a little snow last weekend. I was soooo excited, I was dreaming big! I wanted to go sledding and build a snow-fort! My dreams were crushed Sunday afternoon when it all melted away. Now it's just cold out. I get it, most people hate snow and winter in general, but what is the point of it being cold without snow?!! There's no fun in a snow-less winter. I might have to just make myself feel better by going ice-skating soon.

Details
Scarf-Hand me down from Kyle's Grandma
Coat-Xmas gift last year
Hat-Target
Boots-Kmart
Plaid dress-Urban Outfitters
Reporter dress-Ruche 
Sweater tights-Five below

Song of the day "Till the end of the time" By DeVotchKa

Motivation Station

You wouldn't recognize the girl in the above photo right away, but yes, that is me. I am not sure exactly when this was taken, but I really want to say sometime around 2005. I was over-weight, (I weighed around 165) and extremely unhappy with almost every aspect of my life. I was working at Mc Donald's, a job I hated and would stress me out so much to the point where I would hide in the bathroom and cry. This photo was taken right after my Grandpa had passed away, and the last time I had seen my Grandpa was that Easter. My dad drove both him and my Grandma up to my work to say hi to me before they went home because I could not get the day off so I worked all day instead of visiting with my family, and it was the last time I saw him. I couldn't quit my job because the only thing I had going for myself was my own apartment with Kyle. No job=no rent money. I hid myself in baggy jeans, I never wore shorts or skirts, and I never, ever went to the beach. I wore black a lot, and since we were broke, I ate most of my meals at work. At home, we ate a lot of mac & cheese and take-out because I didn't know how to cook .

Things turned around a little in 2006-2007. I finally quit Mc Donald's and got a job as a cashier at Best Buy. I also got a YMCA membership with Kyle and managed to lose a little of the weight. I started wearing hoodies form Victoria's secret because they covered me up but still felt "nicer" than the plain black ones. After six months, I got my current job at Vesco Oil. I stayed at 155 or so for a few years, still hiding in my hoodies. In 2008, my work held a wellness program where each member would weigh-in weekly on a scale. Whoever lost the most weight, won money at the end of the program, which lasted about 12 weeks. I had a goal of ten pounds, but I managed to lose twenty, putting me at 135. In 2009 I signed up again and lost another ten pounds. When I graduated from OCC, I weighed 120 pounds, pretty much what I looked like in the pictures below:

How did I do this? I became obsessed. I walked everywhere, I cooked healthy dinners, when I ate alone, it was salads & subway. I would walk a five-mile route 3-4 times a week. I did workout videos when it was too cold or rainy and I would do them before Kyle got home because I hated working out in front of people (still do). I kept it off for awhile, Louie's arrival in our lives helped with that because living in the apartment, I walked him at least twice a day if not more.

So what is my issue now? I have a gym membership, I still have Louie, where is my motivation? I had only two classes back in 2009, I have no school now. Granted, I do have a big house that takes a lot of time to clean, and I do have a blog...my best friend was living out of state so I barely hung-out with anyone, but still. 

I see friends almost every weekend, and it is healthy. However I realize that I need to get back in shape, and in order to do that, I need to get that same, self-driven attitude back. No more going out on Friday nights for awhile (I am super broke anyway), and I need to move every day again. Everything from going crazy cleaning, to walking Louie, to going to the gym. I have been really good at eating healthier-and I do feel a lot better. I did not have a blog to take up 1-2 hours of my night back in early 2009, but I did spend hours online. I looked up everything from healthy & fit celebs, new workout routines, healthy meals and even songs to add to my workout play-list.

I have even thought of quitting outfit photos until I lost the weight, but I don't want to do that. Taking away something that I enjoy feels like punishment, not encouragement. So, I have decided to add some motivation to this blog. I want to do a few posts on things that make me feel good, that push me and make me want to look my best. I am hoping this kicks my butt into gear, and will prevent me from posting nothing but food posts every single week ;) 

Song of the day "Pocket Philosopher" By Mandy Moore

Mitten Eats: Avalon Bakery

One of the reasons Kyle is not allowed to visit me often at work for lunch is because I always end up getting back to work late. Add my lunch tardiness to my average 20 minutes of being late every morning and you have got a fair chance of me not getting my full forty hours a week. Although, I somehow ended up with a half-hour overtime on my last paycheck, either I stayed after longer than I should have, or the time-clock gods had pity on me. Regardless, part of the reason of said tardiness is because half the time I beg Kyle to take me to Avalon Bakery in Detroit. 

As you can see, Avalon is all about the environment and all containers, wrappers, etc can be recycled and they have places to recycle to them in the storefront. They are famous for fresh-baked breads, cookies, muffins, and cakes as well as sandwiches and wraps. Avalon serves both regular goodies and those of the vegan variety and being as though I have sampled both many-a-time, can safely say that both are amazing. 

Kyle, Dan, and I stopped there after the DIA the other week for some coffee and some treats so there are no pics of sandwiches but that vegan carrot cake was so delicious that I wanted to make out with it. Kyle got a peanut-butter brownie and Dan, some cookies. We all gulped down the coffee, which is Michigan made. A few of their cookies are even sold at Whole Foods so I pick them up when I go. The granola cookie is super healthy and filling, so you are full after one and you don't feel so bad for eating a cookie. So you can see how this place is worth  being a little late for on occasion, right?

Song of the day "Big Wheel" by Tori Amos

Eats: Homemade Pizza

A few weeks ago I decided to make one of Kyle's favorite comfort foods: Pizza! This was a bigger challenge than I had originally thought, as I detest cooking meals that take longer than 30minutes to prep & cook. However, I really wanted to make the crust and sauce myself, because apparently I just want everything ;) 

For the crust, I lucked out with Bob's red Mill Gluten-free pizza crust. The package makes one large (12") pizza or two smaller ones. I made half the bag on my initial try and made the rest a week later. The directions are really easy, but the only thing I would change is to wait a little bit to preheat your oven, because the dough has to sit for a bit before you can bake it.

I did make my own sauce with some variation on a few recipes that I looked up.

What you'll need:

-1 or 2 garlic cloves

-1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

-1 can of crushed up tomatoes

-1 can of tomato paste

-1 table spoon brown sugar

-1 teaspoon of dried basil

-1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (I didn't have this, I used paprika, cayenne pepper & garlic)

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 

In a large saucepan, saute garlic in oil until tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until sauce reaches desired thickness. This was enough sauce for both 6inch pizza's I had made, I used half on this night, and half a week later.

Bake the crust for about 10-15 minutes, then take it out and add the sauce and whatever toppings you would like. Put back in oven until the cheese is toasted nice and brown. I was a little paranoid about it being done all the way, so I left this sucker in there for about 25 minutes. You can always cut it up and throw it back in if you feel you need to. Hey, its your pizza!

I used a cookie sheet for this pizza and the crust was thin and crispy. The next week I used a regular pie pan and it came out a fluffy, like a regular pizza. Both were good, but the pie-pan was a little more filling. Just make sure whatever pan you use, you grease that sucker before putting the crust in or it will be a pain in the ass to get out of the pan...or so I've heard..

Autumnal Winter

 

Up until Friday night, winter in the metro-Detroit area resembled what you see in these photos: No snow and highs in the 40's. It felt as if we were on the crust of November or welcoming the lamb of March. I typically don't dress in the expected color palates of the seasons, as I am one to just maximize my wardrobe despite which month it is. However these photos make me crave hot coffee and pumpkin pie. Which, in itself, could just mean that I am partial to my favorite season and as much as I love the snow (yes I am one of those freaks), I don't mind lingering in Autumn a little while longer.

I have also come to a few realizations this month, I tend to favor a certain shape in my garments. A full skirt and a fitted top is the most flattering to my pear shape. I still mostly feel like a mix of the sixties and the nineties for the most part, and I have come to really like the combination of vintage-prep and grunge in my closet. Although now that the snow is piled up outside, you will  probably only see boots on my feet until Spring officially hits.

Details
Sweater & skirt-Thrifted
Shirt-F21
Necklace-Etsy
Shoes-Alloy
Tights-Target

Song of the day "O Valencia!" By the Decemberists

We Didn't Start The Fire

The most adorable thing that has ever been mailed to me in my entire life, came this Christmas with a personalized Christmas card from my friend Stevie. As you can see from the picture above, she is as talented as she as awesome. Please check-out her facebook page to see more of her amazing artwork & become a fan :)

Song of the day "We didn't start the fire" Billy Joel

Little bits: DIA

I already did a post back in September on the DIA, but Kyle had taken a few really cool pictures on Saturday and I thought I would share them. I would be willing to bet that you guys will see some more posts like this in the future, as we have a membership that is good for four people and we have a few friends who want to go and we never get tired of going...especially if there is a trip to Avalon bakery after.

The Woodward Avenue Entrance

This my friends, is exactly happens when you get dressed very quickly, very early in the morning, after a night of drinking with friends. Instinctively, you reach for your comfiest sweater, layering it over your favorite thirfted dress, convincing yourself in those wee hours in the morning that they are not frumpy when paired together by adding a belt. Forgetting that the length of said dress only works with your body-shape when worn with heels, and in your need for comfortable garments, you grab your boots. You figure since your hair is "ombre", it makes it trendy by itself so you forgo curling it or putting it up or even looking for a hat, which would have been brilliant if you had saw one on the way out the door. 

The result? You show up to the DIA looking like this. Luckily everyone is preoccupied with the art so they don't notice your frump-wear. I really do love this dress, however, I think it could use a little hemming-at least to the knee-cap.  Oh and that is not dandruff in my hair, we actually had some snow here on Saturday!...It's gone now.

Details
Dress-Thrifted
Boots-Payless
Belt, tights & cardi-Target
Earrings-F21
Necklace-Grandmother's

Song of the day "Love Today" By Mika

Eats: PB & Apple English Muffins

I love breakfast foods. I would love scrambled eggs & veggies every single morning if I had the time (which seeing how I am no less than 20 minutes late for work every morning, I don't). Instead, some days I opt for mixing cereals and a side of toast, or something delicious on an English muffin. Here we have some peanut butter, agave or honey, cinnamon & apple slices on a toasted muffin, mmmm!! This is probably the simplest breakfast I ever make, and also Kyle's favorite (go figure). I even managed to find some gluten-free, whole-grain muffins at Whole Foods (aka yuppie central) that we have yet to try.

In other news, you can now follow Sideburns & Bangs via Google+ by the new fan-page! Yes, I am all over this internet thing, popping up with random videos, quotes & pics of the day and posting blog posts all up in your face!..if you so choose.

I'm also on Facebook & Twitter if you want even more of me in your life. I talk about food often. Ahem.

Song of the day "Little Bit of Red" By Serena Ryder (I'm pretty sure that I picked this one recently, but it's cute).