Dead Flower Arrangements

For my birthday/housewarming a couple months ago, my sister gifted me a beautiful amaryllis flower that has been blooming and blooming and stems are still shooting out from this little pot. I don't know how many more are hiding beneath the soil, but I've been enjoying all the color it's brought into our kitchen. Unfortunately, it's also brought in a bunch of gnats and A. wants me to get rid of the source of the problem, but I'm hoping that now that the buggies have died down a bit, we can keep our leafy pet.

As the flowers bloom and dry, I've been collecting them into a little arrangement of sorts. It might not look so fresh, but after seeing the pile of dried petals on the table, I just couldn't bear to throw them away.

Love the Pain As Much As the Glory

A few weeks ago I read an interesting article about the pain it takes to reach success. Essentially it said that while it's easy to say, "I want to be rich/fit/happy," it's the pain it takes to attain those goals that you should focus on. Everyone wants the rewards, but can you handle the hard work and pain it takes to achieve them?

Try and try as I do to make some fitness routine stick, eventually I fall off track and run in the opposite direction. Oh I'd love to have toned arms like Michelle Obama and tighter abs, but I've never been one to crave working out except for the occasional jog to clear my mind. It doesn't help that I've never needed to hit the gym because I've always been petite (sorry, please don't hate me), but I'm fearful of the Gain Weight Once You Move In With Your Boyfriend Syndrome. It's only been three months and I've already gained four and a half pounds. Now it's not that I don't want to gain weight - in fact, I need to - but I've been trying to gain six pounds since 2009 with no luck and now…four and a half in three months.

I tell myself it's because I'm calmer. Now that I'm not schlepping back and forth, commuting between A.'s place and mine, the food has a chance to stick. Hell, I have more time to eat all day because I'm stationary. And that's where the danger comes in: working from home, sitting at my desk, and making constant trips into the pantry for snacks is really not going to do any wonders for my expanding thighs. So last week A. and I started a new fitness routine in the hopes of motivating each other to work out regularly.

Mornings are for yoga. We wake up early and head on over to our mats, which seem to have become a permanent part of the decor since they just remain on the living room floor. I'd joined the DoYouYoga.com 30-Day Yoga Challenge last month and so my inbox is filled with their daily videos of 10-15 minute routines. It's a great way to shake off the sleep, wake those muscles up and feel ready to tackle the day. For a longer, more intense workout, we use my Pocket Yoga app, which is good for weekend mornings when we have more time for a deeper workout.

Evenings are for P90X, the intense strength-building regimen that manages to kick my ass even though I can't even do half the things these super fit workout junkies can do. We've gone from working out zero times a day to twice a day and after working on our legs this weekend, I'm so feeling the burn and I like it. It means I did the work and improvements will eventually come. My goal is to stick with it so that the weight I do gain is converted into muscle rather than fat and to build upper body strength. The yoga will serve me well with flexibility, core strength and muscle tone. And I guess it would be kind of cool to get into pretzel position without breaking my neck in the process.

What fitnessy things have you been doing lately? A. and I have been tracking our progress on this free printable goal chart I downloaded from Creature Comforts and color in each day depending on whether we worked out or not. Our reward if March is mostly blue at the end of the month: Urban S'mores from Max Brenner and I cannot wait for that delicious victory treat.

So What's Really Good with Scandal?

After years of being nudged by everyone to jump on the Scandal bandwagon, I finally gave the show a chance this weekend (and dragged A. along for the ride). While the first season was pretty interesting with its twists, fast-paced timing, and "What the hell with happen next??", now that we're in season 2, we're rather...meh. The writing isn't exactly astounding and, frankly, Grey's Anatomy (writer Shonda Rhimes' first show) had more depth than this. I'll still watch because I'd love to get explanations at some point, but I just don't get what all this hype is about. Kerry Washington is still a rock star in my book, but her character Olivia Pope loses a few points with me when all she has to do is call up her Presidential Boyfriend to step in when her ass is on the wire. With everything so "high-stakes," it's a little mind-boggling and unbelievable that everything manages to wrap itself up neatly by each episode's end.

Do you watch Scandal? Why do you love it? And don't you dare spoil anything for me!

Image: hollywoodreporter.com

Windy City Bound

First off, hi! Hello! I'm here! February started up and I just got a stream of Porcupine Hugs orders to package and ship away in time for Valentine's Day. And then…well, then I don't even know what happened to the rest of the month. I've been hacking away at work, hanging out with friends, making homemade marshmallows, getting back into calligraphy and using my Wacom, and planning out new designs and products to release on the shop this year. So while things may have been a bit quiet on the blog front, trust that I've been doing lots behind the scenes. (Just take a peek at my Instagram feed.)

I've also starting planning a trip to Chicago with A. He's heading there for a one-day business conference and I'll be tagging along to explore the Windy City for the first time with him. I'm excited because it was supposed to be a stop on our road trip back in 2012, but in the end the group decided that hauling an RV into the city would not be a good idea.

I've already fielded some suggestions from friends and followers via social media:

- Burlesque show at the Wiggle Room
- Dinner at The Girl and the Goat and Scoozi
- An architecture boat tour (but unfortunately we're visiting right before the season reopens)
- Deep dish pizza at Giordano's
- The Shedd Aquarium
- Shopping along the Magnificent Mile and strolling through Millennium Park
- A drink at the top of the John Hancock Center
- Munch on the Chicago Mix (caramel + cheddar cheese) at Garrett Popcorn

The fact that it's still snowing around these parts makes me wonder just how frigid it'll be in Chicago when we arrive. We love to walk everywhere, but it might be uncomfortable if the wind is cutting up our face the whole time. Perhaps we'll spend our time hopping from one eatery to the next?

Have you ever been to Chicago? If so, I'd love to hear your recommendations on places to see and things to do!

Image: flickr.com

Wall Décor for the Home

Now that we're all settled in and the major pieces of furniture have been bought, I've started thinking about what to hang on our bare walls. Aside from photos from our travels and our families, we want to have some fun art on display that add some needed color to our rooms and serve as conversation starters. I didn't grow up in an artsy household so I never really bought into the whole art collecting thing - until A. and I walked by a SoHo gallery in December and were immediately mesmerized by Peter Lik's The Sentinel hanging on the storefront. We could have stared at it for hours and wanted so much to take it home, but alas, $9,000 is way more than we can afford.

Below are a few prints and wall décor that have been collecting in my bookmarks folder over the last month and are much much more gentle on my wallet. I just discovered The EveryGirl's prints and I'm kinda obsessed! And I'm really hoping that Congo Studio restocks her shop soon, because I was so disappointed to see that the "Some Things Take Time" print had been sold. As for Emily McDowell, the woman has been on absolute fire lately, getting tons of buzz left and right, and am excited to attend her meet and greet at Pink Olive this Saturday!

1. Anek Plums print | 2. Felicita Sala Maple Apple Cake Illustrated Recipe | 3. Anek Wine Anatomy | 4. Cute Stencils Geometric Triangle Wall Stencils | 5. My Igloo Shop "In My Kitchen" | 6. Red Raven Studios Porcelain Envelope

7. My Little Pixels Beach Set | 8. Alicia Bock "Floating on a Cloud" | 9. Paperchat Shoppe Treat Yo Self | 10. My Little Pixels Nautical Set

11. Jessica Illustration World Map for Dennis | 12. Teacup Piranha Carpe Diem | 13. Famille Summerbelle New York Papercut | 14. Maybe Sparrow "Balloons over New York City"

15. Emily McDowell "Peter Pan" Waiting for Me | 16. Emily McDowell Strangers on the Internet | 17. Emily McDowell Though She Be But Little | 18. Congo Studio Some Things Take Time | 19. The EveryGirl Success Is Not Easy