Baller

One fateful Thanksgiving Day, I couldn't find anything interesting to watch on TV.  I eventually gave up and left the National Dog Show on in the background while cooking and getting ready for dinner.  A short while later, I heard the announcer welcome the "non-sporting" group.  I scoffed, rolled my eyes and braced for lots of fluff and yap.

But instead, I spotted it.  A roly-poly ball of cuteness in the form of a French Bulldog.  The announcer explained that the breed originated in Europe in the 1800s, and that they were bred as a companion dog for lacemakers.  He also said they were known for being "clowns" and having huge personalities.  I had always wanted a dog, and thought it was the right time.  So I spent the next six months researching the breed and finding out everything I could about them.  I even made a few trips to the local dog park to watch (stalk?) the DMV French Bulldog group.

After learning that adoptions weren't going to work (I wasn't qualified since I lived in an apartment and I'm not home during the day), I finally got a reference for a breeder who was expecting a summer litter and could put me first on the list of interested "parents."  I told the breeder that I wanted a cream male with lots of personality, but I mostly wanted a healthy puppy.  So I waited anxiously, and on June 15th, I heard great news.  There was a perfect little cream male bulldog and he was MINE!  The next nine weeks of waiting were torture, but I got plenty of email updates from the breeder.  She warned me that my puppy (originally named Fighter... no comment) was very very "spunky" and would probably give me quite a run for my money.  I was so excited when August rolled around it was finally time for my puppy (renamed Cooper) to come home.

Fast forward to 18 months later.  What a journey.  The term "clown" barely scratches the surface.  Cooper is a 24/7 source of entertainment and his personality gets bigger by the day.  He also demands constant attention, and his recent obsession is playing fetch.  For hours on hours, seriously he never tires.

This past Sunday, I sprawled out on the living room floor to do some reading for grad school.  Within seconds, Cooper was at my side, licking my face and walking all over my papers.  I needed to get my work done, so I petted him and told him to go lie down.  AS IF!  A minute later, Cooper was back at my side, with his favorite red ball in tow.  He just dropped it and gave me the "play with me please" look that I can't resist.  So instead of doing my work, we played fetch.  And I grabbed the camera, because he was cracking me up with all of his antics.

In case you think I'm exaggerating...

No more?  Ok...

Canine Commandments

Cooper is my first dog.  I never really understood why dogs were so great until I got one, but now I know they really are the most loyal and loving creatures on earth (even if they chew your favorite pair of stilettos).

This warms and breaks my heart at the same time:

I'm heading home now and snuggling the pup to pieces.  If you have a dog, give them some extra loving today.

Perfection

Remember a few months back when I blogged about my new found obsession with all things stationary?  Particularly with personalized stationary?  Well a few weeks later I was having brunch with the fabulous Mrs. Foot, and she surprised me with...

The best stationary gift EVER!

I finally had a chance to write a couple of notes this past weekend, and using my personalized Cooper inspired stationary made my day.  They are perfection!  So a big thank you to Mrs. Foot for the fabulous gift, and for being such a thoughtful friend.  Love you to pieces!

Retail Therapy

Ever have one of those days when retail therapy seems to be just what the doctor ordered?  Saturday was one of those days! 

It started when I headed down to Fredericksburg for a hair appointment.  I met up with Sarah at the salon (we've been to the same stylist since college), and I left with new shampoo and conditioner:

Each bottle was 50% off and they last for months, so it's all good.  Purology products are great -- they use menthol which makes your scalp feel tingly.  And the company doesn't test on animals, hooray.

Afterward leaving the salon, we headed over to the new Village at Spotsylvania Towne Center to look for makeup for Sarah's upcoming nuptials.  We stopped at Sephora which is daaaangerous for me.  I did my best to be a good friend and focus on makeup for Sarah, but I couldn't help finding a few items I liked as well.  Thank goodness Sarah is understanding of my condition :)

I've always liked Stila's line of makeup, but never really tried any of their products because of the price tag.  Man, I've been missing out.  I splurged a bit...

Stila's Starlight Eye Shadow.  So pretty, and it definitely brightens my eyes and is still appropriate for work. 

Stila's Onyx Convertible Eye Color.  I really just bought this do-da for the eye pencil.  It's nice having the built in eye shadow but the pencil goes on really smoothly and is the easiest to use of any I've tried.  It's definitely a good starter eye pencil for newbies :)

Stila's Melon Mint Plumbing Lip Glaze.  Pretty!

And last but not least, Coconut Frosting bubble bath.  I love having a tub again...not sure how I went without one for the last year.  This stuff is great, if you like coconut.

I spent the rest of the day hangin' out with my main squeeze:

Cooper's been spending lots of time in his crate lately, so he was happy to get out and romp around. He is such a goofball.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

xoxo,
Olivia

Number One Spot

As impossible as it is to believe, Cooper is one year old today!  Time flies :) 

It seems like just yesterday I was hopping on that last-minute flight to Tulsa, Oklahoma to meet the breeder and pickup my new 8 week old bundle of joy.  That was my first day as "that crazy dog owner."  It's been a quite a journey.  Here's a trip down memory lane...

Cooper at just a few weeks old.  Nom-nom!

At the airport in Tulsa, waiting to board our flight home.  This was his first time away from his litter mates and he was traumatized to say the least.  Time for sleepies. 

After almost 6 hours of flying and a connection in Atlanta, we finally made it home.  Cooper took a quick romp around the yard and then it was time for more sleepies.  He was all about sleeping for the first few days :)

For comparison purposes, here's how that doggy bed is filled out today!  What a chunk.

Just a couple more of my puppy favorites:

And who can forget the time I left Cooper in the bathroom while I ran a quick errand...

And we've had a couple other fatalities along the way...

But that's OK... at the end of the day, look who's happiest kicking back and relaxing.

Love you Coop!  Here's to ten thousand more sunsets <3

xoxo,

Olivia

WALL-E

Today was a rough day, but posting this cheered me up :-)

Cooper's not a fan of the new harness I bought him last week.  Matter of fact, he'll pretty much do anything to get it off, including rubbing up against every wall he comes across.  No joke.  Here he is in action.  What a spazz monkey!

And you guys think I'm kidding when I say he gives me the stink eye!  He's perfected it :-)

xoxo,

Olivia

Shutter Bugged

It's been a hot weekend here in D.C.  We've had 90-degree weather both days -- and it's barely May! Hopefully this doesn't mean we're in for a rough summer.

So, I'm officially obsessed with my new camera.  I'm fairly sure my neighbors are tired of my creeperish behavior outside... I've been roaming around taking pictures of random things like cracks in sidewalks, signs, and flowers.  People think I'm crazy.  But nobody's more tired of my paparazzi behavior than Cooper.  He's had enough of me telling him to "sit pretty" for the camera.  Poor kid. 

Here's are some of the shots I've taken thus far:

This one turned out pretty well!  Typical Cooper face.

Focused in on the bush instead of the flowers, but I still like all the colors in this one.

Not really sure why I took a picture of this sign, but I got the focus right!

Way too saturated, but I still like it.

As you can tell, I'm still trying to figure all the camera settings out, and learning what lighting works best, and how to focus in on different things and get that "blurry" background (don't you love how technical I sound?).

I decided to take a quick photography workshop offered by Arlington County, which will start in a couple weeks.  Hopefully that will help me fine tune my skills! 

More to come :)

xoxo,
Olivia

What's The Story, Morning Glory

Last month I posted a recipe for breakfast protein bars.  They turned out pretty well, but just a bit heavier than I like in the morning.  Boo...

Since then, I've been searching for another breakfast option.  Enter Morning Glory Muffins.  I'm a carboholic, so I was pretty sure muffins would be a good option and something I'd actually want to eat in the morning. 

I changed the original recipe slightly -- added in flax seed for fiber (since I couldn't find wheat germ), and used applesauce instead of apple butter, to cut down on the calories.  I also changed some of the flour proportions, based on what reviewers said worked best, and used 1 teaspoon almond butter to thicken the batter.

Disclaimer:  this is an easy recipe, but there are a ton of ingredients.  Don't be intimidated, most of them are affordable and easy to find!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups grated carrots

1 apple - peeled, cored and chopped

1 cup raisins

1 egg

2 egg whites

1 cup applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

2 tablespoons ground flax seed

1 teaspoon almond butter

Reason #4235 I shouldn't be a food blogger... I pretty much forgot to take pictures while making this recipe!

Directions:

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.

Step 2 - In a medium bow, whist together eggs, egg whites, applesauce, oil and vanilla extract.

Step 3 - In a large bowl, stir together flours, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ground flax seed, and salt.  Stir in carrots, apples and raisins.  I also added the walnuts directly to the batter, versus using them just on the muffin tops, like the original recipe directed.  Stir in liquid contents from step 2  until moistened. 

It should look something like this:

Step 4 - Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them about 3/4  of the way full.  I only had a 12 muffin cup pan, so I baked the remaining muffins in a second round. 

Step 5 - Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes (15 minutes was plenty for mine), or until the tops are golden brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for a couple minutes before removing from muffin pan. 

Taaa-daaa!  The roomie and I both tried one of the muffins, and liked them a lot!  They taste a bit like a cinnamon apple muffin, without much of a hint of the flax and carrot (yay).  I'm planning to take a few to work for breakfast this week, and freeze the rest for a later.  If you like something bready for breaky, I think you'll be satisfied :)

I hope everyone had a great weekend, despite the less than ideal weather here in DC.  I was looking through the Cooper pictures on my computer, and realized I have so many good ones to share... here's another flashback from when he was around 12 weeks old (courtesy of DawgDad):

Aww <3

xoxo,
Olivia

Busy Bee

I'm baaack! I've been slacking on the blogging front... this past week was bananas.

Last week was a short week at work -- I took Thursday and Friday off to head to North Carolina to visit Jill and her family. Cooper joined me for the trip, and had a blast. Jill has two young boys, Max and Ben, who are adorable and kept me on my toes playing soccer and other fun games. We did some shopping while I was down there, and I found a super cute (and affordable) Michael Kors dress that will be perfect for summer events.  It looks black in this picture, but it's actually navy blue and white:

I'm not normally a pattern type of gal, but I'm trying to branch out in the wardrobe department. I also picked up a couple pairs of shoes for work, and some summer tops. I love outlet shopping! I left North Carolina around 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night, and got back to Arlington around 1:00 a.m. on Sunday. I know driving at night isn't very safe, but I beat the Sunday traffic and it ended up being a breeze.

Sunday morning the roomie and I had breakfast at IHOP (I'm going to miss that tradition!) and then I headed to IKEA with Jenn to look at some furniture for her apartment. IKEA is like crack to OCD design freaks like myself. There is a ton of awesome stuff and great organizational ideas. I was good and refrained from buying more stuff that I don't need, but Jenn found a cute desk and a small coffee table. Success!

After IKEA I headed into DC to pick up Benji, Ashley and Drew's schnoodle puppy.  Ashley and Drew are in Mexico this week (seriously jealous right now), so I'm taking care of the little one. Cooper and Benji get along pretty well, and spend most of their time play fighting.  Here are the two little trouble makers, taking a brief reprieve:

Yesterday was a Monday of epic proportions. (Rewind... while in North Carolina, I chipped one of my molars. Well... really it just crumbled when I was chewing gum. Gross.) My dentist squeezed me in for a last minute appointment, so between a ton of meetings and catching up on everything I missed while I was out, I also had to leave in the middle of the day to get the tooth squared away.  I thought he would look at it and then make me schedule a time to come back to have it fixed, but before I knew it, I was being given local anesthesia and they were filling in the tooth.  He managed to fix everything up (with some minor antics from me over the needle) and give me a cleaning in an hour and half.  My dentist rocks!  After that, I rallied and went to class at Georgetown, despite having  a numb mouth and lip. I got home around 10:00 p.m. and literally took the dogs out then passed out stone cold. Longest.Monday.Ever. Sorry to be a Debbie downer, but it was just one of  those days!!

Tonight was really the first time I had a chance to slow down. I took advantage of having some time on my hands and made delicious Makhani Chicken (Indian Butter Chicken) for dinner. A year ago I wouldn't have touched Indian food, but now I can't get enough of it.  Taste buds change! 

On the fitness front, I haven't been to the gym in over week. It's going to be interesting getting back into the swing of things. Another few days and I should be clear to start running again. I'm sure there will be some upcoming "I stuck at running" posts.  Oy vey.

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that it's almost May? 

xoxo,
Olivia

Heart Smarts

I tried out the Polar F6 heart rate monitor during last night's gym session.  I'm still trying to figure out all of the settings, but I was able to get the basic functions to work.  Quite a feat since I can't even figure out the stopwatch function on my Timex!

Here's what I think of it, in case anyone is considering getting one for themselves:

Originally, I was concerned about the comfort of the coded transmitter chest strap. They look painful and I was convinced that it would be too small and I would suffocate and die. As it turns out, the strap is super adjustable and elastic, so my sizing paranoia went away. Plus, you can't even feel the transmitter once you put it on (it fits comfortable under a sports bra). The watch itself is only slightly larger than a regular one, so that didn't bother me at all.

Since I was in a partial Thai food coma from dinner, I decided to only do an hour of cardio so that I could test this little do-da out. I hopped on my favorite elliptical (located right under the A/C vent, score) and set it to manual since I wasn't going to use the machine to track my heart rate. After a few minutes, I realized that the elliptical machine was somehow reading my heart rate without me using the heart rate grasps. It must have been able to pickup on what the Polar transmitter was reading. Kinda creepy. Any who, I did a bit over an hour of cardio, and here's how I did (apologies for the shoddy pics):

I'm really happy that I managed to burn 50% from fat, and I purposely slowed down when the watch beeped to tell me I was moving up to a higher zone. So in this respect, I think the watch/hrm should help improve my fitness smarts. One thing that is a bit annoying -- the elliptical machine, which as I mentioned was also tracking my heart rate, said that I burned closer to 940 calories. I'm not all that concerned about the numbers, but still, that's more than a slight discrepancy! Makes me wonder which one is more accurate. 

In other news, look who gave me the stink eye this morning when it was time to get up:

Notice how he's stretched out smack in middle of bed? I usually wake up practically falling off the side because I've been scooted over all night. Divo. 

Other than that, I'm super excited that today is Friday, and that we have nice weekend ahead :) Tomorrow I'm off to Great Falls for a hike, and on Sunday I'm hosting my very first brunch!  I'm already planning a couple of fun recipes to try. Can't wait!

Have a fabulous weekend!

xoxo,
Olivia