• Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?

    Halston*, We Have A Problem.

    We moved into this house in December of 2000 and one of the things I wanted to renovate as soon as possible was the double-length closet in our master bedroom. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, really. It was a standard his-and-hers closet with a rod for the hangers and a shelf above it for boxes or other items. I had, however, a dream. I had a dream of a beautiful closet with a place for everything and everything in its place. Hoping to make that dream come true sooner rather than later, I had been stalking custom closet organization products; not the expensive, richly-finished, installed-for-you kind, but the kind…

  • Blessings,  Pretty Pictures,  Travels

    Tap Tap Tap…Is This Thing Still On?

    Oh, hi! Nice to see you again. Did I mention how busy May would be for me? BUSIEST EVER. It’s a blogger’s dream, really, to have all kinds of super fun things going on because blog fodder is like gold around these here parts. It’s a blogger’s nightmare to have no time to write about it while it’s happening. OR IS IT? I guess “living life” really does need to take precedence over social media sometimes. I’ve learned a lot about that in the past couple of weeks and I can’t wait to tell you about it. My return to “normalcy” (or my own version of it), at least for…

  • Blessings,  Confessions

    Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number

    Today I turn 45. Forty-five. I must admit, I am having some trouble with that number. It doesn’t have anything to do with “feeling old” because truth be told, I feel younger than I did fifteen years ago. It’s just…the number. I don’t like thinking about it, and I don’t like saying it. When I was a kid I did the math to figure out that in the year 2000, I would be thirty-two. I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s really old! I can’t even IMAGINE being that old!” And here I am, thirteen years older than that. I’m thrilled that I have the type of outgoing personality and active lifestyle…

  • My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Random Thoughts

    Odds and Ends

    I just have a bunch of bits and pieces (odds and ends, whatever) that I wanted to get out there because I’ve been all over the place this week, so I decided to post a “Brain Dump” (as my sistuh-from-anuthuh-mutha calls it) today. This could also technically be a Friday Fragments post (as Mrs. 4444 has done for years every Friday), but I’m not linking up over there because I don’t have the time to go read the posts by all of the other participants and I don’t want to be unfair. (But YOU could! Go! Do it!) So anyway, here we go. Yesterday’s post, a note to the Zumba…

  • Fun in Chicago,  Review

    Bamboo Harmonizer Massage At Chicago’s The Peninsula Spa: Ahh-mazing!

    I have been writing articles about the nuts and bolts of running a salon (marketing, customer service, employee issues, etc.) for NAILPRO, a salon industry trade magazine, on a regular basis–eight to ten features a year!–since 2006. (See?) I have interviewed lots of people in the beauty industry over the years as a part of my research, from nail technicians who work out of their home or in rented strip mall booths to managers of mid-sized salons to high profile people like Katie Cazorla and Tabatha Coffey. The similarities and differences of successful salons and spas fascinate me. Recently I was asked by the folks at The Peninsula Spa (located…

  • Confessions

    After The Conference That Shall Not Be Named

    I couldn’t believe it this morning when I checked the date on my last post and realized it’s been nine days since I’ve blogged. I’ve never been “away” that long. (Remember when I used to post almost daily? hahahaha!) I plan to write a recap, like so many others, of my experience at “the conference that shall not be named”, but I need a little more time to gather thoughts and pictures for that. Right now I’m in the thick of my work–though you would think I would be back at normal levels of work because the conference is over, I’m actually just getting started. A big part of my…

  • Confessions

    When Television Collides With Real Life

    When “That 70’s Show” was on television originally, friends told me it was really good and I sometimes thought, “I should watch that!” but it ended up staying in my peripheral vision and then landed in my rear view mirror when it went off the air after eight seasons, seven years ago. Thanks the miracle of Netflix and our ability to stream television classics, J and I have been watching the show together (in episode order) for the last couple of months. We LOVE it. I really wish I had watched it the first time around because it would have been a really good “water cooler show”, but alas, I…

  • Review,  The Dailey Method,  Working On My Fitness

    Doing It (Almost) Dailey At The Dailey Method

    This is the second of three posts I am writing about my month-long trial of The Dailey Method. (Read the first one HERE.) I am so excited to be able to share my experience with you! Addicted. That’s me. Not one to ever take an opportunity for granted, I am taking my “Unlimited Month of Classes” at The Dailey Method very seriously: In the past fifteen days I have enjoyed ten classes, and have already made reservations for eleven classes for the next fifteen days. Though I lost five pounds in the first week, a couple of those came back. I’m not stressing about the number though, to be honest.…

  • Review,  The Dailey Method,  Working On My Fitness

    The Dailey Method To My Madness

    This is the first of three posts I am writing about my month-long trial of The Dailey Method. I am so excited to be able to share my experience with you! I love working out. I’m not an exercise addict by any means, but I really love it. Many people (especially those who don’t make exercise a regular part of their routine) think I’m a weirdo. I’m not. It’s just that over the years I have found activities that I enjoy, and because I enjoy them I have a higher level of motivation to exercise. If you’re a regular reader, you already know that Zumba is my most recent love.…

  • I'm Apparently Old.,  Too Funny To Ignore

    Old.

    I had an appointment at the doctor today, just for a normal exam and a follow-up on my high blood pressure. (Who knew I would be the type of person to have high blood pressure, right?) I was not very excited about this appointment due to the blood pressure thing and the getting weighed thing and the probably waiting on the doctor thing. I had no idea. I got there at 10:50 for an 11:00 appointment and checked in. It did not get past me that there were six women already seated in the waiting room, and they had ALL checked off my doctor’s name on the sign-in sheet. I…