Halloween!!!

Jenna from the Fairmont Hotel in California invited me to virtually participate in her San Francisco hotel's Halloween party! I am a little late to the party, which is pretty much my M.O. lately... But hey, better late than never!
My media is a bit dark (my photographer just learned how to use a smartphone this month...) but I think you can get an idea of the awesome that is Scarlet Overkill and her Minions! Unfortunately, my wig didn't arrive in time, BUT I have plenty of hair, and I think I worked it out pretty well!
This is the real Scarlet Overkill:

This is me:

This is a real Minion:

And these are my short kids doing their best minion impersonations:

It was so much fun to get all decked out with the pugs for Halloween this year! I can't wait to see some photos from the actual party!

Did you dress up for Halloween this year? Dress up the fur kids? Or actual kids? Tell me about your Halloween in the comments!

Thursday's Threads!

It's Outfit Day! My favorite! It's weirdly spring-like outside today, so I didn't have to wear socks. That makes me pretty happy. I wish I wasn't stuck inside at work all day though! Here's what I picked for this gorgeous fall day:

I'm so into all the plaid this season. I love that it's popping up in all different styles from dresses to button downs, to leggings... You name it, it's available in plaid!

Dress: Mimi Chica

This dress is almost gauze-y, it's so light weight. This awkward angle makes it look like it's tight across my chest, but it's not, promise! (That would be a shocker, nothing is ever tight on this chest!) I found this adorable dress in the juniors section at Marshalls and had to have it immediately. At 19.99, I couldn't tell me no.

Leggings: No brand

These are just your run-of-the-mill fleece lined leggings. I got them from some online discount site. They came in a pack of 8, all different colors. Super comfy! I firmly believe that for this type of item, you don't need to spend a lot on a name brand. Leggings are mostly leggings, as long as the material is decent.

Shoes: Charles Albert

I found these adorable flats on Zulilly right after I bought the dress. It was a no brainer that they were meant to be together. They're very comfortable, and were super inexpensive. I love the studs on the toes!

Arm Party!
Lefty:

Nothing new on lefty today. First is my KEEP Collective bracelet I got not too long ago, next is a stretch bracelet with a cute tassel from Express, and last is my trusty timepiece!

Righty:

Righty is rocking the gift bracelets today! The first one I did buy myself. It says my name, and I got it on Etsy a few years ago. It's SUPER delicate, so I don't wear it a lot. I want it to last! Next up is a rhinestone bangle from my mom. It's by Michael Kors if I remember correctly. And last is the leather and brass bracelet from my sister-in-law that you've seen a few times. It's one of my favorites, so you'll be seeing it again I'm certain! That one is by Rebecca Minkoff.

So that's what I'm wearing today! No riding outfit because I was rained out last night. Hopefully next week!
Do you have a favorite item from this week's look? What are you wearing? How's the weather?

What's Up Wednesday

Phew! These busy Wednesdays are really interfering with my blogging.... Sorry for the delay once again. I should change the title to What's up Wednesday Night!
This past week was fairly quiet. No parties, no races, no horse shows. It was actually kind of nice to have a semi-free weekend.
Saturday morning I went to my trainer's farm to get one last ride on Cara before they head south for the winter. (I'm so sad they're leaving me! Ok... maybe it's jealous...) I had a great ride on her, and even jumped 3'6"-3'9" fences! It's been a long while since I've jumped higher than 3'3" so I was pretty excited.

Cara post-ride. Too busy snacking for photos.

As an added surprise, I also got to ride the stallion, Charlie. He's my FAVORITE! And I haven't ridden him since last year when I was visiting in Florida. This time I got to jump him too. I even did some of the bigger (for me) verticals with him. I wish I had media to share, because I had so much fun! Trainer was all, "just jump around, the jumps are all so small, you'll be fine." And I was all, 3'9" is not small to me.... But she was right, we were just fine. Problem is that now I want to jump more big jumps! Not on Jamp though... It's his spooky season.
Speaking of that, this is what our rides look like now after work:

It's awesome the first few days, but it gets old pretty quickly. Especially when your horse is scared of the dark. And shadows. Jampy is terribly confused about having two shadows. (I have two big spot lights, hence two shadows.) Poor guy. He's pretty traumatized every evening.
In other horsey news, my little Duck is moving to Wisconsin. He's going to my stepmom's sister and her daughter. Hopefully he'll be a good boy out there. I'm having a terrible time finding him a ride though. All of the commercial shippers around me are busy shipping to the National Horse Show in KY and down to FL. No one seems to be going west. Ugh. Wish me luck on that venture.
Jampy and Rio took selfies with me the other night, so I'll just drop those here for your viewing pleasure:

The short kids are already working on hibernating for the winter. I would like to do that also.

That's pretty much all that's up here this week. What's up with you this Wednesday? Run any races this weekend? Go to any horse shows? Have anything coming up? Tell me about it in the comments!

Truthful Tuesday

Ugh. They finally opened the rest stop between work and my house. This is actually great news because I can get gas on my way to and/or from work now. BIG time saver. But it also means when I'm in a huge hurry at lunchtime, there's a McDonald's RIGHT THERE. I love McDonald's. I know it's terrible for you. Please spare me the lecture. But those fries! And now they have breakfast all day. HASH BROWNS anytime you want?! Oh the horror.
My confession today is that I had a happy meal for lunch last Friday.... And yesterday too.
I have the Halloween Minion buckets out to remind me of my poor behavior.

Do you have any bad eating habits you'd like to talk about? Or anything else you need to confess? Tell me all about it in the comments!

Nicole's Creations: October

I'm totally behind on sharing my Nicole's Creations pieces for October. But believe me, it's worth the wait. Before I reveal them though... For those who don't know, Nicole's Creations offers a monthly subscription service that delivers handmade jewelry to your door each month. There are two options, $10 a month or $20. I went with the less expensive option, and I have to tell you, I'm MORE than getting my money's worth! Nicole goes out of her way to read this little blog to get an idea of my style. And she completely delivers each month with a piece (or pieces) that I've totally loved!
Let's see what I got this month!

These bracelets are GORGEOUS! I'm really loving the wide bracelets Nicole has been making. This one has an extra special Halloween surprise... It glows in the dark! How cool is that?! You would never know just by looking at it in the daylight. So neat!

Seriously, this bracelet is amazing. It's so tightly woven and perfect. And as is always the case with Nicole's jewels, it fits me PERFECTLY!

As if this bracelet wasn't enough, it came with this adorable little braided guy to keep it company:

It's simple and cute all on its own, but it's even better with the wider bracelet:

I really can't believe the value you get with this subscription. I hope Nicole loves making these pieces as much as I love receiving them!

I say it every month (literally), but I'm really impressed with the personal feel to this subscription. Nicole does a great job of designing pieces that she knows I'll love. Not only that, but she's excellent at her craft. Everything is so well made and fits perfectly. PERFECTLY!

What do you think of my new pieces from Nicole? If you'd like to try out the subscription, or even just browse the online shop, click here to head over to Nicole's Creations and see what she's all about! 

My long awaited running post!

I not only ran 2 5K's last weekend, but I also completed a couple of virtual runs. I used my two treadmill runs I mentioned a couple weeks ago, plus a 1 mile walk with the puggers to complete the Beat The Blerch Virtual 10K. This was supposed to be done in September... but you know, better late than never! I signed up for this one because I love stuff. And look at all the stuff you got!

Stickers, a t-shirt, a sweatband, a stressball, some mints! So much swag! Oh and don't forget the medal!
Virtual run number two was the Virtual Pug Run! This year the medal was a Puggerfly. Last year the medal was the Mystical Pugicorn. You can read about that one here. Last year I set aside a day to take my time and run the 10K all in one shot. But this year with the two 5K's scheduled, I just decided to use those two for my Pug Run. Check out this medal!

 Yes it has sparkles! I hope they keep having these every year. The Pug medals are my FAVORITE! And they benefit the Illinois Pug Rescue, so it's a great cause.

Enough about the virtual races though, let's chat about the real 5K's! Saturday was the Ivoryton Library's Run Local Read Local 5K. I've done this one every year since its inception. And not to brag... but every year I've won a costume award. The first few years were with groups, then I had a couple best female awards. Last year was a bit of a stretch, I won best purple costume... And this year I won best costume... I pretty much was the only one who dressed up. Whatever. I still won!

I went as french fries. We all know I run for food after-all! This race is pretty challenging as the middle mile is on a narrow, mostly uphill trail. I'm no trail runner, so that's tricky for me! The first mile is mostly downhill, which is lovely. Except that means you go up all the way to the finish. Why do races love to do that to us? I was super happy to finish with a not at all embarrassing time considering my lack of training and fitness.

I was raising the roof apparently at the end?

10:12 average! Not bad at all. And I ran the whole thing! No walk breaks! Good job self. Did I mention how cold it was:

Yeah. Dear weather, it's October, not November! Settle down. Sheesh. Here's my loot for winning best costume:

Sunday morning I awoke bright and early to get to 5K number 2 of the weekend. This one was the Run for the Cove 5K. This race benefits The Cove which is a support program for children who have lost a parent. My younger brother lost his mom when he was a teen, and this group was wonderful for him. My business is a major sponsor of the race, and I try to run every year. We are very grateful for the program.

I had thought Saturday was cold... right up until Sunday happened.

That's practically freezing! And I had no french fries to keep me warm. Sad face. I wore my pug pants though, since I knew I'd be finishing my Pug Run. 

The Cove race is held at a local state park which happens to be pretty close to where I live. The Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot is held at the same venue. The best part about this park? No it's not the beach. It's that it is FLAT! Of course being out of shape and frozen means that didn't translate to fast for me.... But I did manage to run the entire race with no walk breaks. And I was just a touch slower than the day before.

10:28 average! Really not bad! And I wasn't even sore until Tuesday... Not sure how the delay worked on that. Bodies are weird.

So that's my running post you've been awaiting. In true lazy runner fashion, I didn't run this week. But I'm hoping to get some miles logged this weekend. We'll see how it goes.

Have you run any race lately? Have anything on the calendar? Tell me some running stories in the comments!