Tuck and Tone

Once again there is so much going on that I could write about.
My expanding yoga teaching schedule,
our engagement and the craziness of trying to plan a wedding,
Ben's recovery after getting hit by a car while riding his bicycle,
our recent Easter trip to Florida,
or the festival season that has crept up on me with Wednesdays in the Square and Jazzfest upon us!

But, because I'm feeling stressed, I thought I'd write about something completely lighthearted and maybe interesting to you all (yah I could've said ya'll there): my new workout.

Now, since I am not one for working out in any way you may be surprised to hear that I have decided to try the Pure Barre method to lift, tone, and burn. The DVD says I will see results in just ten sessions and that I should "do the dvd" two to three times (she actually says in the video three to four times) a week to change your shape. I'm not looking to change my shape too much (although I would Love to lift my seat and tone my thighs- they're my weakest areas in terms of strength), I am looking to become a little stronger and change up my normal routine of yoga and sitting on the couch.

Luckily, for me, while I was at the grand opening of Pure Barre New Orleans I put my name down for a free raffle and won the 16th Street 1 & 2 dvd's and the double resistance tube! (I have been winning a lot of contests, raffles, and sweepstakes lately!) The Pure Barre classes are $25 a class making them completely out of my affordable workout budget (which includes $0 a month). Since I have the dvd and tubes I figured I'd try it out.

So what is pure barre? The website says that it is an exercise that "launches a full blown attack on the areas of the body all women struggle with." What will you be doing? Well, it is tiny isometric movements of your legs, arms, and core while using a resistance band. When I say tiny I mean tiny. As in lift your leg one inch and then lower it twenty times. The method also uses a ballet bar (I hold onto a chair) and some yoga asanas (think cat/cow and paschimottanasana) on a mat. Well, while the back of the DVD says that you don't need any equipment I don't know how effective this workout would be without the double tube for resistance. There is no cardio work involved at all and while I'm doing this in a 86F room, I sweat a lot. You probably wouldn't in AC.

I've done the workout on the 16th Street 1 dvd twice, yesterday and today, and found that it is kinda challenging at times. But while I expected to be sore today I am not at all. It's the kind of challenge where I think in a few weeks my body will be used to the movements and I'll have to move up to the 16th Street 2 dvd. But I like it!

I'm going to keep it up for a while and see how I feel. Besides yoga, what other activities or workouts have you been trying lately?

my favorite book

I love to read, and I collect books. I've been selling some recently but there are still hundreds around our apartment. So, I thought I'd share with you my favorite book. That's right, my favorite book.

I was given this book last December as a Christmas present from my cousin Dylan L. He and his siblings (Conman and Katiepie/and their parents!) live in NYC but we will all be meeting up this week in Florida at my Grandparent's other house. Also I should let you know that D was the person who named me Bida when he was two years old, but we don't know why.

So, here goes...hope you love it as much as I do.

you can see Ben helped with this one

Con says "boo-yah!" and his arms are behind his head!!

"and katie laughed."

Amazing, right? When he gave this to me I was running a fever and pretty delirious with the flu. Such a great present and a wonderful book. I have super great cousins.

Engagement Presents

I never thought that when I got engaged to be married I would receive presents. I just hadn't thought of it. I did think that all of my friends and family would be nearby and we could have a dinner and a party to celebrate together. But Ben says we have to wait for summer to get up North. How wonderful then was it when packages started showing up at my front door. My paternal grandmother was the first to send a beautiful card and some money so we could go out and celebrate, which we wouldn't have been able to otherwise. Then a huge box appeared on my doorstep one day last week. Inside was this...

fun bubble wrap- i'm excited already

the prettiest box

with a bow

from Cohasset!!

Inside the gray velvet bag was this beautiful silver tray. Immediately I became obsessed- as we never have anything to serve food on nicely- and just loved it. It is from Ben's Gramme & Grandfather and came with a really cute card. Thanks Gramme and Grandfather, we love it!

And thank you so much to everyone who has sent cards- they're all so sweet and are wonderful to receive. It's lovely to hear from so many people who are happy about our upcoming wedding..and speaking of wedding...i'm trying to do some planning, but it's so hard! So far all I know is I would like it to be in Nola's City Park (maybe?) and I found a dress (online) that I would love to try on <3 

New Yoga Teacher Over Here!

Now that I am, ahem, an official yoga teacher (yayy!) people have been asking for my schedule.

Starting next week I take over the lunch flow class at Life Yoga, from 12-1pm Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays. I will have the lovely Jenny (who is the current instructor) there to take my class and continue inspiring me instructing me on how to improve my teaching (love you Jenny!) for one more week.

You can sign up (saving your mat spot!) for Life's classes here online at the mind/body site: register and buy classes here! and you can even purchase your classes there. Community classes are $5 and right now Life is offering $9 classes for everyone. I did my homework and that is the cheapest yoga class you will find in the greater New Orleans area :)

This week I am subbing a few classes for Abigail who is out until Sunday. I got the opportunity to teach her Sunday 4pm class and everyone was so gracious about my first real paying students teaching experience. I loved it. I will also be covering her Wednesday 4/13 6:15-7:45pm Vinyasa Flow class. Finally, I just got word that I will be teaching a Sunday morning 8am-9am class outside in PJ's courtyard (next to Life)! This class is freeeeee!

Want to book me for a private lesson at Life to get your yoga practice jump-started? A 1-hour private instruction is $70 through Life.

More yoga news is coming soon. I am in talks with some places about other classes, may be expanding Life's schedule with some very fun classes with yours truly, and am so excited for all this to really be happening. Teaching yoga is such a honor and I feel so blessed to be able to do what I love and share yoga with you all.

See you all on the mat!

Vintage giveaway

how cute is this business card!?

Way back in, oh I don't know, maybe February I was looking around Twitter when I came across a tweet by a local fashion blogger who mentioned a giveaway at another fashion blog. I think I just had to retweet the blogger's info and hope that my name was the magic one chosen. I never win anything, so I put it out of my mind and headed over to the blog to see what the fuss was all about.

I had never heard of Odelma Vintage  and was happily surprised at stumbling upon it through a friend's tweet. I found the blog and then a link to an Etsy page. I immediately saw a few pieces of jewelry that I thought were just perfect and at a reasonable price. Then, checking twitter again, I saw that I had won! I won a beautiful gold and rose necklace. Mattie, writer of Odelma Vintage blog, asked for my address and promised to send the necklace my way soon.

Well, I forgot about that promise until my birthday when I received a package from an unknown return address. Inside was this. I love it. Today I wore it paired with my J.Crew elephant necklace.

So thanks, Odelma Vintage! Without your giveaway I might not have found your blog or etsy page..and i'm so glad I did.

bookmaking by bida

Wanna see my new journal? So nice, right? I love this gold and turquoise swirly print. Guess where I got it...

I made it! 

I sometimes get these crazy ideas to try something new. Most of the time it's in the kitchen. Today I went out and bought silver and shiny-white card stock paper, cardboard type stuff, and this pretty covering paper. I talked to owners and staff in different art stores who all said I should not try this on my own but instead I should take a class at a community college or something. Well, I went home and tried it on my own. I sewed together a bunch of pieces of paper- which is called a signature. Then I sewed all of the signatures together. Then I looked at the mess I had made. 

After that, I created a spine and two hard covers. I fashioned this cover on. I made nice gold sheets for the inside. And then I put all of the signatures in there, hoping they didn't stick together or rip out or just look all uneven.

It is definitely not perfect. But I'm pretty pleased with how it came out on my first try. I measured nothing at all and I had no method to my sewing madness. Next time I'll think through the sewing a little better- and i'll clip the papers all together while I sew (it was so hard to hold them in place!) 

Here's some more photos, courtesy of a dark room and my iPhone camera.

glittering white pages

oh jeez my sewing is crazy- it's so much harder than it looks!

it looks grey here but this is a shiny silver

sometimes it has both colors on a spread

I can't wait to come up with a plan for how to make this a little neater and try again. I'm thinking a ruler would help. I wonder what i'll fill this with?

Books By Bida...i like it :)

Lemony Coconut Date Treats

I never follow recipes. I just can't bring myself to do it. Measuring things out and having to make sure everything goes in at the right time is just not for me. I always glance at one to get an idea and then do things my way. So when I saw how easy this lemon treats recipe from Whole Foods was I was excited that I could just throw all the ingredients into a food processor and voila, which is actually following the recipe! 

Now, you may not find a simpler recipe. Just chop some dates. Throw them in a food processor with lemon juice, sesame seeds, walnuts, some lemon zest and bam you're done. Roll them in coconut. Or don't. The sesame seeds in this are soo good, if you like sesame seeds the way I do. 

You can even shape them into hearts! Which I did, with one of my fondant cutters.

I am working on creating a recipe for some kind of energy ball/bar/treat for Ben and the boys. They're so active and sometimes forget to eat properly. I'm thinking peanut butter will have to go in there. The rest is still coming along. For now, these super easy but yummy lemon coconut date treats will have to do.