Busy, Busy

Hello!! Sorry I haven't been posting as much as I 'd like-I have been a crazy woman. I just got back from a trip to San Francisco for some training (more on that soon!). It was me, my business partner Van, Kevin and the pups. We drove up and it was quite a road trip (6-7 hours each way). I would not suggest such long road trips to people when they are this preggo (35 weeks)-I had not had much swelling this entire pregnancy and after sitting in the car for so long-I was all bloat :( Huge :( Oh well-we had a great trip and I am SOOOOOOOOO EXCITED for what the new year has in store for my business partner and I :) I feel like I am living a dream :)
Now I'm home and in the home stretch. I have 28 days to go unless baby B decides to come earlier than scheduled. It is insane to think that life will be so different in less than a month. I have lots to do (get the carseat installed, wash his clothes and bedding, hang the curtains in his room, set up the monitor, pack our hospital bags, etc.) and am excited to get it all done. We took our first baby class last Thursday night and I loved it!! It was based on "The Happiest Baby on The Block" book-it was so cute and we practiced swaddling (Kevin is a very good swaddler!!). We have one more this week mainly on infant care and a breast feeding class next week. After that I think we are all set! I'm not taking a birthing class bc we are having a scheduled c-section (for medical reasons-its a long story). So good news is no more trips for me until 2011!! I'll be back tomorrow w/ a fantastic conditioner!!

This Feels Soooooo Good!

Bloggers, Im not much of a workout dvd kind of gal. I love classes (barre classes to be specific, and the best barre class is The Dailey Method to be even more specific!), I think I feed of the energy and music in class and just cant recreate that at home. BUT I have to say that this prenatal pilates video is fantastic!! Its called "10 Minute Solution: Prenatal Pilates" and it is great! The instructor, Lizbeth Garcia, is very preggo herself (I'm guessing about 8 months) and she isn't annoying like most video instructors. The video is in 10 minute segments and is great for beginners and more advanced preggos. I like it bc it just feels really good to do it AND when I don't feel like exercising-I can say-"ok I'm just going to do one 10 minute segment" and I normally feel so great after the 1st 10 minutes that I end up doing at couple more segments too! I ordered it on Amazon and it will be a gift I give to my friends when they get preggo(along w/ some books that I really like!). Alright-I'm going to go do it right now!

Operation Eye Cream

Bloggers, the product I get asked the most about is eye cream. I have tried several (probably close to 30) different types/brands/formulations. So it is shocking to me that I don't have an easy answer when someone asks me which eye cream is best. I think the problem is that as I'm getting older (yes 30 is the new 24, but still my eye wrinkles seem to know how old they are) I need more from an eye cream than before. Before, anything that was nice and moisturizing would do they trick. Now I need tightening, plumping, moisturizing, line filling, and the list goes on. So I will make it my personal mission in the next few months to try and review as many eye creams as possible in order to bring you guys my final answer!!! In the meantime, above is a picture of an old favorite of mine. It is great if you are in your 20s and don't need the heavy duty eye cream yet. It is Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado and this is a beauty favorite for a lot of people. It is nice and thick and you actually should rub it between two fingers before you apply it in order to warm it up and thin it out so it goes on nicely. It is moisturizing and feels great. It isn't therapeutic enough for me and these smile lines-but if you are young and don't need the big guns then it is an awesome choice! It is $25 for a little pot-but it lasts a long time bc you don't need much. You can get it where ever the sell Kiehl's (Nordies is easiest for me) and the nice think about Kiehl's is they tend to give samples so you may be able to try this product before you invest in it!

Great Smelling Body Wash and Some Major Water Retention

Good Morning!! I hope you all had a fantastico weekend! We did-we basically were professional eaters ;) What I mean is we had dinner plans every night this weekend and I ate and ate and ate! It was great to catch up with some of our favorite people! This is no joke-Sunday morning I woke up and weighed myself (I do this every morning preggo or not), and I gained 2.5 lbs in ONE DAY!!!! AHHHHH crazy! I'm sure some of that was water weight (fingers crossed!) bc the night before I did eat a lot of savory and salty (and delicious!) food. Bacon wrapped dates stuffed w/ blue cheese? Yep I had a bunch. Bruscetta? Yes ma'am I ate about 10 pieces of it. Baked Bree? The most delicious/moist roasted chicken (that was salted 2 days earlier)? Mashed potatoes? Bread salad? Bread Pudding for desert? Well I guess you get the point. I think I had a food hang over on Sunday...Seriously! So this week I'm going to try my hardest to go low sodium and eat reallllllly healthy. I'll keep you posted :)

As for my product post for the day, this one is affordable and smells divine! Its Softsoap Moisturizing Body Wash in Pomegranate and Mango and I looooove the scent! So does Kevin! It really is just a yummy, fruity wash that smells great and it suds up nicely when used with a shower puff or washcloth. AND did I mention is cheap? I get it at Target and I think its about $3-$4 for a bottle of it. Love it!

I Must Be Nesting....

Happy Friday Bloggers! I am on a humongous cleaning frenzy...I heard that this happens when you are preggo and getting close to your due date. I love it and can't stop! I want to be able to eat of every surface in my house by the time this little one gets here :) Soooooo that leads me to Swiffer Dust & Shine Furniture Spray in Lavender Vanilla. I love it! I use it all the time! It smells so nice and it really does a nice job of repelling dust. Alright-I have to go organize some drawers now :)

A Great Suggestion

"I love looking at your blog! Hahaha..I've had to curb my desire for products cuz I never use them all.... Have you ever tried Cerave lotion? Its amazing. I put it under my make up and its water based and doesn't make foundation all weird."

Bloggers-this was sent to me from a friend on BabyCenter. For those of you who don't know what BabyCenter is, it is my favorite website where I spend and bunch of time and have made some great/supportive friendships :) It is the reason I neglect Facebook :) This was from Sammy-who is expecting her 1st baby next spring-Congrats Sammy!!! AND thank you for the product suggestion!!
I actually have used CeraVe before and was very impressed...back when I was a drug rep-I would call on Dermatologists and they always had samples of CeraVe in their offices (so of course I helped myself!). It is gentle yet moisturizing (think of it as a better formulation of Cetaphil) and it comes in cream or lotion. I like to use a light/gentle moisturizer for my face in the morning(bc I always put sunscreen on after it) and this is the perfect product for that!! I like to use something more heavy duty and therapeutic at night (got to fight these darn wrinkles!) so I probable wouldn't use it as a night cream-but its a great daytime option :)

Check Out My New Ride

Oh Bloggers, I have a confession to make...I am a tad bit stroller obsessed...Always have been and probably always will be. It got really bad when I used to walk along the strand (the "strand" is a walkway that is next to the beach and stretches from Redondo Beach all the way through Manhattan Beach-it is always packed full of healthy families/people walking/running/pushing strollers and walking dogs-great for people watching!). This is the creepy part-I actually used to wear my darkest glasses during my daily walks so I could check out people and their strollers w/out it being super obvious! I know it's sick. BUT it allowed me to find the BEST stroller!!! It is the UPPAbaby 2010 Vista Stroller. I got it in black although it comes in some really great colors if you like colored strollers (the green and the silver were close contenders for me!). It is basically a better/more modern/more hip version of the Bugaboo Cameleon. It is organic and very well made-not too heavy and it folds up super easily. It has a really nice big basket underneath for shopping trips and also comes w/ a bassinet! I LOVE IT and cant stop strolling the pups around in it!! (So yes that officially makes me the crazy woman in the neighborhood who pushes her dogs in a stroller :) When choosing I was looking at the UPPA, the Bugaboo and the Orbit-but after test driving them and having Kevin give it a whirl-there was no comparison!!! Now I just need Baby B to get here so he can share in the fun!!!!

Happy 2 Year Anniversary to My Sweet Hubby!!

I can't believe that it has been 2 years. In some ways it feels like we just got married yesterday, in other ways it feels like we have been married for much longer. All weekend we celebrated with each other and played the game "2 years ago today we were doing _______". Our wedding festivities started on the 2nd of October bc we got married in Mexico and that's when most of our guests (the fun ones anyways!) got down there. It was the best weekend of my life and I wouldn't have changed a thing about it (Ok, maybe I would have had a tad less to drink so the trip home wouldn't have been so rough!). I love you Kevin, you are my best friend and my soul mate. I am so excited that we are starting our family together and can't wait to meet this baby boy. Everyday with you is fun and funny and I am so lucky that I have you. Thank you for all that you are, that you do and for all of the support that you give. We have an exciting year ahead of us (baby, lots of trips and opening my 1st studio) and I couldn't have done any of it with out you. I love you so much! xoxoxoxo

Cute & Cheap!!

I was at H&M today buying some shirts (I'll post about them soon-they are great: non- maternity, comfy and cheap and they are long enough to cover this bump of mine!), and I saw that there were lip glosses by the register. I loooooove me some lip gloss! Most of what I buy isn't great and I never end up using it...Well this stuff is marvelous!!! I got a pinky duo called Forget Me Not and both colors are so cute (very light)!!! What I'm most impressed w/ is the texture-it is creamy and smooth, not too sticky and not at all grainy (which btw is my least favorite thing about most glosses!). AND it was on $2.95!! LOVE that!

Macaroni-Palooza, Random Musings, Pants I love

Well Bloggers, here it is, my strongest pregnancy craving yet: macaroni and cheese...it has come on very strong and its all I can think about (which is frightening bc I basically have to be in very good shape by Feb 1st, just over 2 months post baby, more on that in a future post). Last night I declared to the hubs that I will be making mac and cheese w/ dinner most nights from here on out (or until I get sick of it-which may not ever happen) bc I really want to find the BEST mac and cheese recipe out there. Last night: I made it using a recipe from Ree Drummond's "The Pioneer Woman Cooks". I don't have her cookbook, her recipe was in a magazine. It was a 6.5 out of 10. Kevin liked it (and I had seconds!) but it wasn't my perfect mac...If anyone has any recipes they want to share please hook it up!!

On a just as random note, I'm really sad that the Martha Stewart Show isn't on anymore...I think she may just be on a new channel, but I haven't found her yet and I totally heart Martha. She makes my heart happy w/ all of her arts and crafts and cutest cookware. They put the Nate Berkus show on in her spot and as much as I want to love his show, I don't. I do love him and want him to marry my gay best friend-but his show is boring and predictable :( He is no Martha :(

Lastly, if I weren't a bigger version of myself right now, I would totally get these adorable pants!!!! They are the Legacy leggings by Rich & Skinny. I would wear them w/ the highest/sexiest heals I could find and a loose-ish black sweater...Love the look!!!