30. The LizTheresa

Greetings readers!

As you all know, I'm freelancing for my good friend, Liz Theresa! I met Liz in graduate school and had to admit that I was so jealous of her! She exudes the upmost confidence, has a killer fashion sense, exceptionally wise beyond her years, and loves helping people. If you ever have a problem, Liz is your girl. She started her own Internet Marketing Strategy business in January 2011. Liz' knowledge of the Internets and all of its glory is astounding.

In fact, Liz is hosting a *FREE* telecall this Thursday at 8:00pm EST about how to increase your Google rank.

Read More...

For any Entrepreneur, Coach, the like, etc., make sure you check it out. Nothing like a free telecall to boost your web rank, right?! Amazing!! 

To find out more about Liz' business click here, and to read more regarding the telecall click here.



Also, loads of exciting things coming tomorrow, so make sure you check back!

Disclaimer: Please note that all opinions and editorials are my own.

24. The Minimalist Hair and The Snowball/Sandy

Greetings readers!

What a great Wednesday, I had! Today was filled of collaboration efforts with Liz Theresa (as a reminder, I do freelance work for her), a wonderful phone interview (I'll expand at a later date if something comes of it), going to go see puppies (!!!!!!), watching the Bruins (!!!!!), followed by watching Nashville (!!!!!). Like I said, a very exciting day!

I was supposed to go to the gym today and work on my running, but my gym buddy called and said she wanted to go look at a puppy she may purchase. Passing up a 1lb., 3 week old puppy?? I think not!

The Pinspirablers Puppy Venture (Left to right: all of the puppies playing and feeding; my friend holding Snowball/Sandy

Seriously, can they be any cuter?! The one my friend is holding is the girl she wants to adopt, currently named "Snowball," but she's going to name her "Sandy." Tonight she's supposed to discuss with her beau if they are going to adopt, so hopefully I'll have news for you all tomorrow about that!

Today, I bring you a quick and easy hairstyle, which I had done for the gym. Especially on the elliptical and/or treadmill, I need to have my hair completely out of my face or else it will get plain, old, ugly!

The Inspiration.

The Pinspirable (Left to right: The side and partial back view; the entire back view)

Very easy to do! And I have to say, I'm very proud of myself because normally my side braids start by my ear lobe, but I actually got it close to my forehead. Woohoo! Brownie points! 

Helpful Tip: My recommendation for doing this hairstyle would be to simply bobby pin your side braid(s), gather all of of your hair to make the pony, and remove the bobby pin at the same time. In order to achieve this look, I used 1 elastic and 1 bobby pin! Talk about a miracle, eh? Normally, I have 3 elastics and like 10 bobby pins. It felt very comfortable to have so little in my hair, especially for having 2 braids.

What's your go-to gym hairstyle?

Till next time,

Bells

P.S. We are supposed to get 2 feet of snow on Friday night. Does anyone have any good ideas for what to do when snowbound???

Also, my friend texted me quickly today saying she ordered 2 of the pairs of sunglasses I posted yesterday. Maybe she'll let us know? ;)

20. The Workouts and The Tacos

Greetings readers!

Hope you had a marvelous Monday and kicked off your week on the right foot.

I'm trying to be as positive as possible. Being laid off definitely has weakened my self-confidence and self-esteem, so attempting to look on the bright side is very important. My great friend, Liz Theresa, whom I went to grad school with, has taken me on as a "Research and Creative Officer" doing a lot of marketing/sales things for her entrepreneurship. Today, she thanked me several times and complimented me on my skills. It really brightened my day and assured me that I do have talent, buried, but nevertheless there, so thank-you Liz! Did you have any positive comments today? Or give anyone any? In grammar school, my teachers would always stress "Hold a door open for someone, you never know what a little thing like that could mean to someone" and going through a time period in my life like I am now, I fully and wholeheartedly believe in that piece of advice. You really never know when someone is down and needs that little reminder.

After helping Liz with some things, it was onto working out. Today's workout was not as intense as yesterday's, due to soreness. Tomorrow, I'm going to double up again. And another reason today was an easier day was because I was doing a million and a half things this morning. Since when am I completely busy being laid off?! News to me!

My morning in a nut shell:

•  Edited about 5-6 emails for KiKi
•  Freelanced/marketed for Liz
•  Set up appointments for this weekend (dress measurements and much need pedicures for a friend and myself: I need it for relaxation, but most importantly it is for my friend who is going through a very rough time and sometimes a girl just needs some Hot Stone Pedicure Pampering!)
•  Emailed all of the bridal party a 2 page email (yes, I type all of my emails in Word first)
•  Called the local Nissan dealership to see if the part was in for my car (head desk: enough said)
•  Called the Bride's Mom to run everything by her
•  Compiled all of the ideas in a Word document and folders for the Bridal Shower
•  Hunted again for Bridal Shower invitations
•  Caught up on other necessary phone conversations for bills and such
•  Job hunted

Can you now see why I worked out late in the day and cut it short?! Haha Busy Bee today!

Anyways... the workouts:

The Pinspirablers Workout (part 1).

The Pinspirablers Workout (part 2).

A wise note for all of you, when starting off this cycle (and once again, this was the order I did them), stretch a lot first because 150 Jumping Jacks kills your calfs fast! I didn't stretch like I normally do and I was paying for it BIG time, so after the jumping jacks, I then stretched. Oops! And no, I didn't do the entire "Ten Week Workout Plan," just Monday's routine. Tomorrow I'm going to start with Tuesday's and then add on some other things. Are you going to join in tomorrow and do Tuesday's routine?

Oh, and once again, for the "Do It Daily," I took out the "15 seconds side plank (each)" [sic]**, and instead added in 60 crunches. **Fun Fact: [sic] is used when a word is either missing, misspelled, or breaking a grammatical rule. It's to let the readers know that the author quoting didn't make the mistake, but the original source did. Did I mention I was an English major in college and received my Masters in English, too? ;)**

After these two workout routines, I then did a bunch of standard weight exercises using 5lb weights. I use lighter weights, so I can do more repetitions. My repetitions, depending on the exercise, end up being a total of 25 or 50.

Also, the other day I found this great calendar on Pinterest for an ab routine and although it says June, why not try it in February?

The Pinspirables Workout (part 3).

Who is up for the "June/February" Mean Abs Challenge?

After the workouts, it was on to shoveling. Why snow, WHY?! Can you please, please, PLEASE go away now?! I didn't even take a picture of today's outfit because it was thoughtless. I was not very happy about having to shovel after my shower. Shoveling with wet hair = grumpy Bells.

Upon shoveling, I ran inside to dry my hair, and get ready for Taco Night and to watch the Bruins! My friends and I switched up the 10 cent wing night for $1.00 tacos! Splurging left and right ;)

The Pinspirable.

I told you today's outfit didn't have any inspiration behind it, but here's a better picture of the sock bun! I did it for Taco Night and all of my friends loved it, especially with adding in a headband. I love the glitz and glam of the headband. Definitely needed a little pizz-azz today after shoveling!

Items:
Blue sweatshirt - very old from American Eagle, circa 2004
Headband - Forever 21, circa Spring 2012
Black and gold bow cuff - Christmas 2012 
Silver ring - Christmas 2012 gift 

Till next time,
Bells

18. The Fifty Shades of Pink to Tie Up With The Rope Braid

Greetings readers!

Yesterday was off to a late start, for I was doing some marketing for my friend, Liz Theresa. Plus, the thought of going outside in "4 degrees weather, but having it feel like -15 degrees," was not appealing to me, nor was it high on my list; however, I did have plans to go visit my cousin outside of Boston.

When getting ready, I was trying to find an Inspiration photo for wintry weather, but it wasn't happening! So I said, "Forget it, I'm going to dress how I want, since no other blogs really cater to feels like -15 degrees weather." *Fun Fact: I ended up, unconsciously, pairing an outfit together that matched an Inspiration photo I found earlier this week. It doesn't matter that I realized it now, right? Ha!*

The Inspiration

Can we say, gorgeous?! I absolutely love this look.

The Pinspirable (part 1).

So, not quite 50 shades of pink, but bright for winter nonetheless. It was refreshing to be nice and toasty warm with the gray cashmere open-faced sweater, uggs, but add some lovely pops of color.

The Pinspirable (part 2).

All of the pinks in a closer view: a hot pink belt, a fuschia top, and a darker fuschia scarf. The only pink items not seen here were my fuschia earrings from JoJo Loves You, and my Coach hair scarf.

As of yesterday, when I was gathering ideas for the blog, I came across this wonderful hairstyle via Pinterest, but it's originally from The Beauty Department.

The Inspiration.

If you look at the "braids" closely, you'll notice that they are indeed 2-stranded, not 3. The 2-stranded braid is known as "The Rope Braid." It's a very easy technique: essentially, you just split your hair in two and rotate over one another, like you would a normal 3-stranded braid.

This hairstyle was not coming out quite the way it appears in the picture, so I changed it up.

The Pinspirable (part 1).

The Pinspirable (part 2).

How To Achieve This Look:

1. Put your hair in a ponytail.

2. Divide the ponytail in half, so you now have two sections. 

3. Rope braid each section (so now you have 2 rope braids from one ponytail).

4. Rope braid together both of the 2 smaller rope braids.

5. Wrap the now 1 giant rope braid around to form a bun.

6. Secure this "bun" with an elastic.

7. Apply a scarf, flowered pin, etc.

Have you found any hairstyles that you liked and made them into your own?

Items:

Gray cashmere open-faced cardigan: $45 TJ Maxx, circa Fall 2011

Black skinny jeans - $80 Kenneth Cole outlet, circa 2009

Black Uggs: $70 TJ Maxx, circa 2005

Fuschia scarf: Christmas 2012 gift

Hot pink skinny belt: $7 Marshall's, circa Spring 2012

Pink shirt: $8 Old Navy, circa Spring 2008

Fuschia earrings: $30 JoJo Loves You

White layering "wife-beater" tank: $5 Old Navy, circa Spring 2008

Coach hair scarf: circa 2005

Till next time,

Bells

**Please note that the original source for today's clothing Inspiration photo is unknown. I saw it on Rue La La's Facebook page earlier this week. Someone said they reposted it from, Social Bliss.**