Splendor And Folly

I have been reading a lot lately. Well when I say a lot, I mean reading two books in two months, which  is a huge accomplishment for me.

Usually I can never get through books because I end up reading them a few pages at a time before falling asleep and then I give up halfway through the book. 

When I have long plane rides though, I can breeze through them in a few days. Here are my two most recent reads, I recommend them both!!

And here is the next batch I picked up at the library yesterday…interesting mix! I have heard good things about the first two. The wedding book I just saw and picked up.

I want to remember to focus more on the meaning of our wedding than the style of our wedding. Even though I love planning the visual and style aspects, that is not the part that REALLY matters!

What are you reading??

Remember my goal to workout (in some form or another) everyday? I’m finally starting to achieve it! I’ve switched my schedule around so I can workout in the mornings and although its sometimes hard to get out of bed and get moving, I feel so much better through out the day knowing I already accomplished my goal! Here is the basic breakdown of my morning workouts:

• M – Hit up the gym for 20-30 min of cardio and 10-20 min of strength
• T – Power walk/run with Raleigh (2.5 to 3 miles)
• W – Cardio/Strength at the gym
• Th – Power walk/run with Raleigh
• F – Cardio/Strength at the gym

I like the mix and have been sticking to it so far. I also feel good about giving Raleigh really long walks a few days of the week, especially since I am less likely to go very far with him in the afternoon HEAT.

The treadmill (referred to by some as the DREADmill…) is my go-to cardio machine. I find that when you switch speeds/inclines every minute or so it really makes for a more enjoyable  experience overall. One of my favorite bloggers, Tina from Carrots and Cake has some awesome treadmill workouts. Here is an example of one, but she has several others here.

A (Not Boring) Treadmill Workout:

Total time: 45 minutes 

• Walk at 4.0 at 7.5 incline for 4 minutes
• Jog at 6.5 at 1.0 incline for 5 minutes
• Repeat walk + jog 2 times
• Jog at 6.5 at 2.0 incline for 3 minutes
• Run at 7.0 at 1.0 incline for 3 minutes
• Sprint at 8.0 at 1.0 include for 1 minute
• Jog at 6.0 at 1.0 incline for 1 minute
• Sprint at 8.0 at 1.0 incline for 1 minute
• Run at 7.0 at 1.0 incline for 1 minute
• Jog at 6.5 at 1.0 incline for 3 minutes
• Walk (cool down) for 5 minutes  

Give one a try and you might find the treadmill not all that bad!! She also has tons of awesome resources on her blog: recipes, workouts, healthy living tips, etc…

And because I feel as though this post needs a picture…can I totally go here on my honeymoon??

The Misool Eco Resort in West Papua, Indonesia.

Photo via Desire to Inspire

This is a little color palette I have put together for our wedding. Keep in mind, I won’t be using the actual objects (well maybe some), but they represent the colors that will be used for invites, bouquets, centerpieces, etc. Of course this may change, but for now, I love it!

I promise to talk about stuff besides weddings soon :)

Hey all! Sorry I am becoming only a sometimes blogger, such is life! Even though having this blog was a big goal of mine and I had grand dreams of making it amazing, I’m just not feeling it lately. And I don’t feel like adding something to the pile of things to feel guilty about.

Similarly, I’m trying hard not to feel guilty about not having the most amazing, beautiful, unique, put-together, meaningful, special and cutting edge wedding around. Where would I get this idea that I needed to put together such an event?

Wedding blogs that’s where! Both wonderful and evil at the same time! Wonderful in the sense that they provide beautiful inspriation photos and ideas, evil in the sense that my wedding will never compare. Either way, I’m still going to look, so here are some pics I like via snippet & ink (Can you tell I like green and white?). Other pretty blogs include Once Wed and Style Me Pretty

I wanted to show off pictures of my beautiful engagement ring! At first I couldn’t figure out how to get a good photograph up close, then I discovered the macro setting on my camera, its awesome!

So the story behind the title is that when viewed from the side, the ring resembles a crown. Jake asked me once or twice before actually giving me the ring ‘do you like crowns?’.  I’m sure I responded with ‘uuhhh, I guess soo…’ because at the time I had no idea what he was talking about! But as soon as I saw the ring, it all made sense :)

I love gazing at it and thinking how lucky I am to be loved so much! Of course I don’t need a diamond ring to feel loved, but it is a symbol of a pretty big commitment…

Here is my latest wine review for you! I picked up this bottle at Aldi, the vineyard is called Winking Owl and I just thought the little guy was so cute:

Here he is again on the cork:

OK…enough with the cuteness and onto the review!

price - $2.99

label says – “subtle flavors of black cherry, blackberry and a hint of spice”

my take – I thought this wine was just  OK…you maybe saying to yourself, of course it wasn’t great, you bought it for 3 bucks at Aldi! However, on our recent trip to California, Jake and I did a day tour of Napa. Our awesome tour guide told us lots of fun facts, for instance, did you know that Charles Shaw’s (famously known as ‘two buck chuck’) 2002 Shiraz won a double gold medal at some big wine competition? So remember – low price does not ALWAYS mean low quality wine.

It didn’t bowl me over, but it was not unpleasant either. It went down smoothly, almost to the point of seeming watered down. Its suitable for just having around the house in the event that you need a glass of wine to unwind, but I wouldnt choose it for hosting a dinner party.

cheapskate rating – ♥♥♥ (3 out of 5)

Hey Everyone,

As promised, here is the dress from LuLu’s in real life:

My first reaction when I tried it on was that it was waaay too short. I was set on returning it when I remembered I am headed to Vegas in July which is the only place I can think of where this would not be inappropriate. Thoughts?? Is it too short? Why didn’t it look this short on the model?

I’ll start p0sting more often now (I hope) and will have something new to talk about – wedding planning! I am engaged!!!  Most of you who read this blog already know about it, but I’ll post more about it soon.

Love, Leah

I am not one of those people who hates their birthday, hates getting older, would rather just avoid it all together. I love my birthday! Here is a little something I bought for myself to celebrate :)

You can purchase this and more cute dresses from Lulus.com. Be sure to use promo code xoxo for 15% off!!

When it comes in the mail, I’ll show you what it looks like in real life. I may or may not wear it to a wedding next weekend.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!!

Our baby is all legs…and ears!

So I finally made something yesterday that I have been meaning to try for a while – A Green Monster! This is the term used around the blog world for smoothies containing leafy greens. There is even a website dedicated to them! People that drink Green Monsters claim many benefits, such as higher energy levels and healthy glowing skin, just to name a few. It’s an easy way to get tons of awesome nutrients at once.

So why did it take me so long to try it? I was scared it would be disgusting! But everyone was right, you cannot even taste the spinach! I wanted it to be a little sweeter, but that is probably because I am used to fruit smoothies with added sugar. I would definitely recommend it and I can’t wait to try out some different variations!

Here is how I made mine:

1 cup of almond milk (you can use soy or cow’s milk too)

1 small banana

1 cup of raw spinach leaves (most recipies call for 2-3 cups, so I was being shy!)

2 large chunks of pineapple (This is optional – I had this on hand so I thought I would throw it in for extra sweetness)

A few icecubes

 Blend in a blender until everything is smooth, pour into a glass and ENJOY!!!