Friday Favorites 3/30

Happy Friday!  What are your weekend plans?  I'm traveling to North Carolina for the weekend.  My dad finally gets to meet Lily!  Yay!  Let me know what you are up to in the comments below!

Unicorns - I love them.

Travel

Smores treats!

Engagement photos inspired by The Notebook

These nails are fabulous!

A log garden?!  Genius!

A good life quote

I might makes these.  They look simple, colorful, festive and quite delicious!

I love the bright colors in this room!

I love the cherry blossoms and the pink cake!  Gorgeous especially for a baby shower!

If I have a boy, this is the first thing I'm purchasing!

Be happy!

Be bold!

Can we just sit and ponder how awesome this shirt is?!  Taylor Swift would totally rock it - lets be honest.

These abs are cray!  Britney Spears at her prime did 1,000 crunches a day and even she didn't look like this!

Have a great weekend!

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you like what you read.  Also, my blog was nominated for a Fitness Magazine Fitterati Blogger Award.  Please vote for it here.  Thank you!

I'm Not Really A Waitress...

Photo from here.

Back in college, I took a creative writing course as one of my electives.  One of our assignments was to create a project on something that we thought was creative - outside of the realm of literature.  I decided to do my project on OPI because I love the fun names it comes up with for its polish colors.  While researching, I actually learned some pretty cool things about the company and the polish-naming process.  Check it out below!:

OPI is a family owned business.  It started out as a dental supply company until nail salons began ordering acrylic products originally used to make dentures.  The polishes are currently made in New Jersey because it's illegal to manufacture highly flammable products in California.  Then, they ship the products to San Diego, CA.  After that, the polishes are distributed to almost 80 countries.

OPI has created over 220 different shades of nail polish.  The polishes go on sale for only about 6 months unless they become "classics".  One thing I really liked about the company is that it donates to many charities.  For example, the polish "Red-y to Help" benefits the American Red Cross. 

Photo from here.

Not only is OPI famous for its amazing colors, but it also has some pretty cool polish names.  Here are a few examples:

The Lifeguard Makes Me Blush

Big Apple Red

Blushingham Palace

Boris and Natasha

Catherine the Grape

Dancing in the Isles

Dress to Empress

St. Petersburgundy

You're a Pisa Word

Don't Socra-tease Me!

Not So Bora-Bora-ing Pink

Chocolate Shake-speare

How fun, right?!  I'm not going to lie, whenever I get a manicure or buy polishes I always check the name (it might even be a deciding factor between two similar colors).  Ever wonder how they come up with such neat names?

Photo from here.

First, they pick a geographic location as the theme for their main 12-bottle collection.  (This happens twice a year.)  Just for those 12 bottles, the team usually comes up with about 600 names!  The team does this in a conference room while having a themed party and eating inspiring foods.  For example, while naming the Japanese line, the team ate sushi!  They also study atlases, music, cookbooks and life experiences to help them name the 12 polishes.  For example, OPI's number one seller, "I'm Not Really A Waitress..." was named after a server at a wedding spilled champagne on OPI Executive Vice President, Suzi Weiss-Ficshmann.  The server apologized by saying, "I'm not really a waitress..." ;o)

Photo from here.

Think that's cool?  Here are some other neat facts:

-  Barbara Streisand supposedly had her Ford Expedition painted "Bogota Blackberry". 

-  An entertainment journalist actually ordered 25 gallons of "Kyoto Pearl"to paint her dining room!

-  OPI employees went to a celebrity's pet party and gave "pet-i-cures" with their line of "Paw-lishes"

- A mechanic named Vito wrote a letter to the company thanking them for naming a color after him - "Hey Vito, is my car red-y?".  He bought over 100 bottles to give to customers!

Isn't OPI such an awesome company?  My favorite color would have to be "You Don't Know Jacques!".  It's perfect for the fall/winter.  I really want to buy "Koala Bear-y" for summer from the Australian line.  Let me know what your favorite OPI color is in the comments below!

"You Don't Know Jacques"
Photo from here.

Koala Bear-y
Photo from here.

Information from here and here. (As I mentioned this project was done previous to 2009, so information might have changed a little.) 

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you enjoy what you read.  Also, my blog was nominated for a Fitness Magazine Fitterati Blogger Award.  Please vote for it here.  Thank you!

May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor



Photo from here.

I don't blog too much about it, but I am all about contests!  They are awesome no matter what side of the contest you are on: They're a great way for businesses or individuals to promote products.  And, from the other side, it is always fun to win free stuff, right?!  One thing I've learned from attempting to win contests is to always try.  What's the harm in trying to win?  Some people never do contests because they think they don't have a shot at winning.  I, on the other hand, enter everything that interests me - I either won't win (therefore nothing changes) or I could win something really cool!

Photo from here.

This brings me to a fabulous contest going around the Atlanta area each week.  You've probably heard of the Here to Serve restaurants if you are from here.  They include - Strip, Cantina, Coast, Shout, Twist, Aja, Prime, Goldfish, and Noche.  So far, on that list I've eaten at Cantina, Coast, Shout, Twist, and Goldfish and I've never had a meal that wasn't delicious.  I'm even a little bit obsessed with the food at Coast right now - the side items are to die for (I recommend the Brussels sprouts, mac and cheese, and the jalapeno cheese grits...yum!).

Photo from here.

Anyway, each Wednesday on Twitter the Here to Serve restaurants do a scavenger hunt (this began two weeks ago)!  The prize - anything from play tickets to a free night's stay at an Atlanta hotel - can be hidden at any one of the restaurants I named above.  All you have to do is follow Director of Operations at Here to Serve, David Abes, on Twitter for clues, figure out the restaurant, and go there to pick up your prize before anybody else does!  It's as simple as that!

During the first week, the prize - play tickets and a restaurant gift card - were still chilling at Prime way after lunchtime.  Hello, Atlanta?!  Are you really going to let these prizes slip by?!

Now I live and work at least 20 + minutes from any of the Here to Serve restaurants, but I just could not get over the fact that people were passing on such an awesome prize.  Last Wednesday, I decided that I would take part in the scavenger hunt if the prize was not claimed by my lunch break.  David announced the first clue that morning and I patiently waited until noon.  I took along my friend/co-worker, Brandi, as my scavenger hunt partner-in-crime!  Even though Cantina (the clue included the phrase "south of the border", so I knew it had to be Cantina Taqueria and Tequilla Bar) was located 25 minutes away, I decided to give it a shot since it appeared from Twitter that no one had claimed my...I mean the...prize yet!  Plus, I thought that even if I get down there and the prize is gone, I could at least have a delicious lunch.  It was a win-win situation!

Cantina
Photo from here.

I arrived at Cantina and asked the hostess if anyone had claimed the prize, and to my shock - I won!  The prize was a free night's stay at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta as well as a gift card to Cantina.  I cannot wait to use it!  Then we stayed for a yummy lunch - I definitely recommend the queso, the Trailer Park taco and the Baja taco!

My prize!

The moral of this story is to try.  Brandi told me that she thinks I win things because I am so optimistic.  This might be true...so, get your scavenger hunt on, Atlanta, or I will just have to claim all these awesome Here to Serve prizes myself!  Don't forget to follow David Abes' Twitter for clues.  Last night, he tweeted "1st hint, it will be in Midtown".  More clues should be tweeted soon!

Any may the odds be ever in your favor!

(sorry, I had to throw that last line in there...)

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you enjoy what you read.  Also, my blog was nominated for a Fitness Magazine Fitterati Blogger Award.  Please vote for it here.  Thank you!

 

Running Around The World

So while I was waiting around in my corral during the runDisney Princess Half Marathon, the man's shirt in front of me caught my eye.  It was of people running...on the Great Wall of China!  I was totally blown away by this, so I hurried home and researched more extremely awesome races around the world (although they say "marathon" many of these races include half and 5K races as well.  Unfortunately, I am just now getting around to posting my findings, but check them out (in no particular order):

The Great Wall Marathon

Photo from The Great Wall Marathon Facebook page
How awesome is this photo?!

The Great Tibetan Marathon

Photo from here.

Polar Circle Marathon

Photo from here.

Big Five Marathon

Photo from here.
You get to run right past wild animals...no fences!

Petra Marathon

Photo from here.
Am I the only history nerd?

Antarctic Ice Marathon

Photo from here.
This one seems pretty cool - they fly you in from Chile for the day!

Athens Classic Marathon

Photo from here.
While I couldn't find any great photos of the race, this course takes you past some of the oldest monuments in Athens that were around for the 1st Olympics!

Virgin London Marathon

Photo from here.
You can run past Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the London Eye.

Big Sur Marathon

Photo from here.

Paris Marathon

Photo from here.
A great way to see the sights in Paris!

Run Like A Diva - Hawaii

Photo from here.
This race is no boys allowed, but they did have a ton of awesome races for males and females - I just couldn't decide. I had to go with the one that offered champagne, tiaras, and pink boas at the end!  Sorry, boys!

Have you ever done any of these races?  Are you considering them in the future?  Let me know in the comments below!  What a cool way to travel the world, huh!?  While researching, I came across the Adventure Marathon.  It includes four of the races I mentioned above plus the Solar Eclipse Marathon in Australia.  I wonder what the amazing prize is for completing them all?! 

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you enjoy what you read.  Also, my blog was nominated for a Fitness Magazine Fitterati Award.  Please vote for it here.  Thank you!

FitFluential - Update!

Photo from here. 

As you know from this post, I was selected as a FitFluential Ambassador!  While I have only received the e-mail and have not done anything "official" yet, some really cool things happened last Friday that I would love to share with you:

Photo from here.

First, as also mentioned in this post, I applied for a scholarship to attend the 2012 Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference in Denver, Colorado for a weekend this summer.  I found out that I got the scholarship on Friday!  I can officially start making travel arrangements!  There are so many reasons why I am beyond excited about this experience, so I will list them below:

1.  I have only taken one trip by myself (I roadtripped it to Savannah in 2010 for a weekend), but that trip won't even compare to the greatness that will be Colorado!

2.  I've never been to Colorado in the summer, but I'm sure it will be beautiful...and very green.

3.  I cannot wait to explore the Rockies...without being bundled in winter clothes and without a board strapped to my feet!

4.  I am extremely excited to meet other FitFluential people, as I have yet to meet anyone IRL (in real life) really. 

5.  Refuel with Chocolate Milk is a sponsor...if you know me (or have read my bio) then you know this is super cool!

6.  This is my first conference!

7.  I cannot wait to check out this facility!

8.  We get to eat dinner on the Green Roof!

9.  I can't wait to find out what the research grocery store and the research restaurant are all about!

10.  I'm excited to watch a professional athlete be tested in the fitness center lab! Nerd?  Maybe :o)

As you can see I am a little excited!  I even started contacting other FitFluential bloggers through email to see if they wanted to be roomies only minutes after finding out!  I hope they don't mistake my excitement for craziness ;o)

Now on to my second big announcement...

Photo from here.

Thursday night, I participated in the FitFluential and Dirty Girl Twitter chat.  A Twitter chat is basically just an hour or so where people answer questions through Twitter, discuss a topic/product/brand, and meet other people...on Twitter!  I actually had a really good time talking with other FitFluential ladies (we really need a name for them - FitFliential-ers, maybe?).  And yes, I can say ladies because the Dirty Girl race = no boys allowed!  It is a 3.1 mile muddy obstacle course that takes place around the country.  It is not timed.  Instead, it is all about girl power and completing the obstacles while having fun!  After the Twitter chat, 5 lucky ladies were chosen to win free race entry - and I won!  I am beyond excited because 1) I loved my first muddy obstacle race and 2) I will hopefully be able to meet some of the FitFluential ladies I talked to during the Twitter chat.  No one I know IRL is running, so I will be meeting lots of new people!  A more detailed post on the Dirty Girl Mud Run will be up soon. 

Thanks again FitFluential, Refuel with Chocolate Milk and Dirty Girl Mud Run for these amazing experiences!

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you enjoy what you read. 

In addition, my blog was nominated for a Fitness Magazine Fitterati Blogger Award.  Please vote for it here!  Thank you!

 

 

 

 

Random Rhinestones: Chic of the Week

Oh My Blog!

So as I'm typing up blog posts for the upcoming week, I noticed something simply amazing!  Lauren Conrad named me "Chic of the Week" on her website!  If you read this post, you know I am a huge fan of Lauren and all she has accomplished.  That makes this so much cooler!  I really don't even know what to say right now because I am seriously freaking out and shocked!

I was chosen due to my definition of beauty - I wrote my definition in a comment on this post.  Lauren even made my quote into a gorgeous photo - check it out below.  You best believe I will be pinning it!

Photo from here, but the quote is by yours truly :o)

This is probably one of the coolest things to ever happen to me, so as I spend the rest of this gorgeous Sunday soaking up some sun outside I will also be basking in the awesomeness that is this blog post at LaurenConrad.com and the honor of being named her Chic of the Week!

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you enjoy what you read.  Also, my blog was nominated for a Fitness Magazine Fitterati Blogger Award.  Please vote for it here.  Thank you!

Friday Favorites - The Hunger Games Edition

Happy Friday!  Check out my guest post over at Running with Sass today!  Heather is going on a Disney cruise this morning...super jealy!  The post is all about little things you can do each day to stay fit and healthy...or prepare yourself for the Hunger Games! ;o)

I haven't done a Friday Favorites post in ages!  Since today is also the premiere of The Hunger Games (which you know I love from this post) I decided to do a THG edition of Friday Favorites.  I hope you enjoy!  PS. If none of these make sense it's because you need to hurry up and read these awesome books ASAP! 

And may the odds be ever in your favor...

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you enjoy what you read!  Also, follow me on Pinterest because that is where I find/pin all these photos!  Thanks!