R's Pink & Gold First Birthday Party

On August 6th we celebrated Miss R turning one! As I mentioned in a previous post, I did not originally have a theme planned. I walked around Hobby Lobby grabbing things I thought were cute, and when I came home I realized it was mainly pink and gold stuff. I searched Pinterest for "pink and gold first birthday" and realized that is a theme! I did Pinterest before Pinterest was cool, y'all.

My mom, brother, and sister-in-law came up a day early and helped me set up for the party, and I absolutely love how it turned out! I borrowed some decorations from a friend, made some stuff myself, and used things I already had around the house, so in total I spent maybe $40 on party decorations, which is pretty good!

First, I will share my inspiration from my one-year birthday Pinterest board, and then I'll share some pictures of how my inspiration came to life at the party!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

I love how it all turned out. I feel like everything came to life just how I envisioned it, and it was cute and fun but not involved enough that I felt like there were a crazy amount of decorations to set up. I'm excited to share more about R's party, including cake eating pictures and maybe a video soon! If you have any questions about how I put anything together, feel free to let me know in the comments or shoot me an email. 

Pin to Present: Mounted Basket Storage

Left image via / Right image is my guest bathroom

I really don't consider myself that great of a decorator, and I'm definitely not one of those people who can find an old table on Craigslist and refinish it and make it look distressed and cool. I also usually don't end up doing any of the DYI projects I see on Pinterest, so I am really excited to share this easy bathroom storage hack! (Linking up with Anne for Pin to Present.)

Neither of the bathrooms in our house had any kind of cabinet over the toilet. I don't know if that's normal for bathrooms or not when you buy a house, but it caught me off guard. For one thing, the wall looked empty. For another, I didn't have any kind of storage for towels or toilet paper or anything that might need storage except for under the sink.

We were planning on buying and mounting a regular wooden cabinet from somewhere like Lowe's or Home Dept, but depending on what type of cabinet you get, we were looking at $100 easy. Then I saw this fun basket storage idea on Pinterest and instantly knew I wanted to do that in my bathroom.

I've been looking for the right basket for a while now, and I felt like Goldilocks or something. This basket was too big, this basket was too small... I liked the wire baskets in the original pin but was having terrible luck finding anything like that. I even Googled "wire basket" and didn't come up with anything.

Then I was wandering around Hobby Lobby, as one does, and found the perfect baskets AND they were 50% off! At only $10 each, I snatched them up. I also saw this bathroom sign (below) that was 50% off and grabbed it.

For a total of $27, I have this awesome setup on the bathroom wall! It's functional and cheap and (I think) looks fun compared to a regular over-the-toilet mounted cabinet. Granted, it doesn't hold as much stuff, but it will stay clean and won't become just another place to toss random items.

Yay! Shoutout to Jordan, who helped me hang the baskets. And to my mom (because I can't write a blog post and not mention her) who affirmed my design placement and helped me figure out how high to hang them.

Now I just have to figure out what to do in the master bathroom, because we don't have anything over the toilet there either. Maybe something like this?

What do you think? Have you ever considered using baskets for wall storage like this? 
What should I do over the toilet in the other bathroom?

Pinterest Favorites: 358 Repins

At some point in the previous couple of months, my pinterest page exploded. I started getting followers all over the place, and I had no idea why. I'm up past 1,000 now and would like to keep that train moving.

This is exactly the kind of thing I keep hoping will happen on my blog, but so far no such luck.

The thing with Pinterest is that it doesn't have to be overwhelming. It's better when you just pin things you actually like or will do. I don't get people who make random boards full of pictures of celebrities. That seems completely unhelpful. I use Pinterest as a resource to find fun new recipes, clothing styles, and fitness tips, and I don't get all stressed out about it.

I thought it would be fun to share are a few things that are getting pinned and repinned like madness. You should get on the bandwagon and do some pinning yourself.

First, follow me on pinterest. Everyone's doing it.

1. Teardrop necklace DIY -- 44 repins

I saw this necklace tutorial on my blogger friend Ashley's blog. 

I haven't tried it yet, but I will. Promise.

Get the pin here.

Tutorial here.

2. Skinny Sour Cream Enchiladas -- 29 repins

I haven't tried these either, so apparently I lie about trying the things I pin. 

But I WILL make these. Promise x2. 

Pin here.

Recipe here.

3. Crispy Glazed Snack Mix -- 12 repins

Yum! Yes. 

Pin here.

Recipe here.

4. 100 Running Songs -- 358 repins

This blog has a HUGE list of running songs, and people are going crazy repinning this one.

It's what I like to call pintastic.

From my fitness board here.

Running songs here.

5. 10-Minute Ab Video -- 116 repins

This workout is TOUGH. But awesome. 

Everyone is obsessed with planking right now. 

Pin here.

Video here.

My fitness board is getting the most love. 

I am having a lot of fun pinning workouts, videos, and exercise articles. 

There are also recipes for homemade protein bars, marathon training tips, and cute workout gear!

I used to say I didn't like Pinterest, but that's because I didn't know what I was talking about.

It's kind of like when I said I didn't like pistachios. 

Seriously, who doesn't like pistachios? They are SO GOOD. 

Jordan and I are obsessed. 

Anyway, if you have a pinterest, follow me. 

And if you don't have a pinterest, get one and then follow me.

And then pin something about pistachios. 

Run 5 Miles in 50 Minutes with this Treadmill Workout

I've been running on the treadmill a lot lately. It's just been too cold to run outside the past few months. (Oklahoma got snow, so I'm not complaining.) Plus, I switched jobs last year, and now I get home much later than I used to. That's why I'm so glad my apartment has a gym, where I can go running and work out in the mornings before work. Believe it or not, a 5:15 wakeup actually does get easier. 

Having an accessible treadmill is pretty much the best perk about having an apartment other than not having to mow our yard. 

There are differing opinions about treadmills. Some say it's bad to run on a treadmill; others say it's fine. I fall somewhere in the middle. I think a treadmill can be a valuable tool if you use it right. Following are a few tips I've learned from my hours on the treadmill, and at the end of this post I've put a 50-minute treadmill workout that I created based on this Pinterest pin. I used the original workout as a base and tested it until I found the right speeds to get to a 10-minute/mile average for 5 miles total in 50 minutes. (The original pin was a bit slower than I wanted to do.)

1. Up the grade

I always always always set my treadmill to at least a 1.0 incline, but it's usually more like 1.5 or 2.0. There are two main reasons for this: 1) Setting an incline will help to simulate outdoor running. When you run through a neighborhood there will be natural hills, and you want to try to train your legs for that as best you can. The outside ground is not as flat as a treadmill at 0.0. 2) Increasing the grade is a great way to bring up your heart rate even if you're going slower. If you aren't able to run at a 6.0 pace, slow it down but increase the incline as you do so. It will also help tone your calves, which is always a plus in my book.

2. Increase the speed

I like a treadmill because it forces me to run at a certain speed. Sometimes I feel like I'm working harder to stay at a certain pace on a treadmill than I would be to keep that same pace outside, and then when I run outside I feel like I'm flying!

Don't be afraid to increase the speed and see what happens. You've got the timer right there. I like to tell myself, "You can do anything for 40 seconds." And it's true. Certainly you can sprint for 40 seconds, so use the treadmill to force you to run at a pace you might not think you could otherwise, just for 30 seconds to a minute at a time.

3. Find something fun to watch on TV

For me, "something fun" is sports. The Australian Open is on right now, and when I got to the gym yesterday, the first thing I did was turn on ESPN. The time flew by (relatively speaking) because I got interested in the match and stopped watching the clock every 30 seconds. 

Now, I know professional tennis isn't everyone's box of crayons, but take advantage of the fact that you have a TV available and find something to watch! Sometimes I just turn it to CMT and watch country music videos. It really does make it more fun, especially when you find something you can really get into. Plus, it's nice for me because we don't have cable, so I get to watch channels I wouldn't normally be able to.

4. Run Outside When you Can

At the end of the day, there is no substitute for a good outdoor run. You need to train in the elements--whether it be wind, humidity, heat, cold, or rain--and it's not like you can pay someone to stand in front of you and pelt you with water like rain. Okay, you could pay someone to do that, but that would be a ridiculous waste of money.

One thing I will add is that when I finally do go for an outside run after doing treadmill duty for a few weeks, my knees start hurting around mile 3 or 4. I think the treadmill is easier on your knees than the pavement is. That's probably why you're not supposed to only run on treadmills. 

I will admit that running on a treadmill gets boring, and I wish I could get outside more. But right now it's just not possible, and I have realized that the treadmill doesn't have to be terrible. 

The best thing I've found to make running on a treadmill interesting is to find different workout plans, like the one I have here. It really does make the time go so much faster, because instead of thinking about time in terms of 50 minutes, you think about it 3 minutes at a time.

This particular plan is a type of fartlek run that involves jogging, running, and sprinting with a few different inclines mixed in. I just ran this yesterday to make sure I did the math right, and I ran 5 miles in almost exactly 50 minutes (49:50). Check it out and let me know what you think!

Do you run on a treadmill?

*Find me on Pinterest and see what other fitness tips I've been pinning!