My bedroom has seen some serious improvement since the day we got the place.

My raised Jenny Lind bed: A year later

A year ago, I wrote about finding an antique Jenny Lind bed and raising the headboard to a more standard headboard height of about 52 inches. The bed has been finished and in my house for over nine months.. I think it's about time to post a few pictures!

The bed turned out great and has held up exceedingly well. I am currently using it in my guest room, which is not quite decorated at the moment, but definitely serves its purpose.  

Exercise lately

Okay so my last workout post was about an "11 week" workout plan... which I really just made to get myself on track with working out. I've been keeping a decent schedule with exercising, and recently started running with some neighbors a few times per week. One of my neighbors is training for a half marathon, and she asked if I wanted to join in the training. She's doing a half marathon in September, that I can't go to unfortunately due to a wedding, but I thought it would be "fun" to try to keep up with her training.

So far,  things are going pretty good! I don't really have a plan for training (I think she is loosely following a Hal Higdon novice plan), but I try to do 2-3 three-mile runs during the week, and a longer run on the weekend. I planed to start at 4 miles and increase mileage by .5-1 mile per week for the long runs.  Eventually I would like to increase my weekday mileage at least one day per week as well.

May 5-11: 

Monday - Ultimate Conditioning class for an hour (tabata)

Tuesday - Early a.m. run. 2.02 miles @ 9:48 pace before work. Ran with the crazy dog

Wednesday - Early a.m. run. 3.3 miles @ 10:30 pace before work. No dog {thank god! shes crazy}

Thursday -  Nada

Friday - After work 2.14 miles @ 10:57 easy pace. Ran with the dog! She got pretty tired...

("I'll just sleep here forever, thanks")

Saturday - Rest

Sunday - 4.31 miles @ 11:46 pace. This run killed me. Not sure exactly why seeing as it was so slow, but I was useless. I'm glad I got the run done at least?

May 12-18: 

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Skipped U/C class. Had a work meeting and then work family event. Specifically, I got to take my awesome nephew and sister to a mini putt/arcade place. Loved it

Wednesday- Early a.m. run w/ neighbors. 3.44 miles @ 11:50 pace.

Thursday- Rest

Friday - Rest... I actually was probably not resting any of those rest days. I had a crazy week at work and its Sunday night right now and I'm still trying to crank out a bunch of work!

Saturday - 2.77 miles @ 10:49 pace w/ Gracie.

Sunday - Lurie's Children 5k in Chicago with my friend. We stayed out kind of late in Chicago and questioned our ability to run this thing, but we ended up doing well! We started out slowly but definitely picked up the pace at the end. We thought we were sprinting the last .1 but they were tricky and the race was actually 3.17. Sneaky sneaky.

My friend and I took a picture at the end of the race. Nbd, my eyes are closed and I'm looking extra fabulous ;) 

Check out the shoes? I got those so long ago. Time for a new pair?! (Rhetorical question).

I didn't have a chance to do my long run this weekend so I will hopefully make up for it on Monday or Tuesday. On the down side, my knee is bothering me and I am really hoping the pain will go away after some quality foam rolling. Its the inside of my knee so I don't think IT band. Not really sure!

On the up side, I went to Whole Foods today for maybe the second time in my entire life. I'm obviously living under a rock. It was awesome there and now I see why people get kind of obsessed. I bought a bunch of food from their deli section that they put in containers and I can bring into work this week. I couldn't wait though and I dug into this Kale + tomato + dried cranberry salad today while doing some work. 

Looking forward to another week and some more miles!

Knobs and ends

My Ikea Hemnes furniture came with plain and standard knobs. I don't hate them but I also was not crazy about them.

So, I picked up some crystal knobs on sale at Anthropologie and swapped them out. They are on the bigger side and I am still trying to see if I like them. 

I also got some colorful knobs from Anthropologie to add to the armoire in my entryway and I really like how it looks.

I set my Lulie Wallace prints on top and it seemed to give the space some life! (P.S. I am obsessed with her art. Loveeee it).

It is nice having a few rooms in the downstairs almost done so I can just work on styling and decorating as time permits.

There are still two rooms upstairs that need complete gut jobs... and the kitchen isn't looking too hot either. Hope to get a move on with those soon!

Dressed up walls

I finally made the trip to Ikea to get some curtains and curtain rods. (Side note: NEVER go to Ikea on a Saturday if you can avoid it. Seriously. Ugh.) Anyway, I purchased the Ritva curtains at 118" length. They were $34 per pair, very reasonable! I have nine foot ceilings and wanted to be able to hang my curtains high, so the 98" ones ($24) would be just a few inches too short. I will have to eventually hem these down a bit.  

 I am very happy with the curtains and I think they really bring your eye up. I did not install them yet on the bay window because my dad and I will have to finagle some special way to hang those rods. That will hopefully happen soon, though. 

I got these baskets at Ikea (here) and really like them! I also got the Rens fur rug. Not exactly sure what I will do with it yet but for now it's hanging out in the basket. 

 I am really liking how the dining room is coming together... but it seems a little too "50 shades of grey" for me at the moment. I need a little color in the room and I want to make it a little less formal.

I also got the curtains up in the living room. The furniture in this room sits really low so I am particularly happy to have the curtains to bring your eye up to the ceiling. I feel like my house just got a pretty dress :)

I also have plans for these curtains. I want to do some sort of trim like the ones here:

(source)

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Bed time

Bed update! This is turning out to be the week of beds. My Jenny Lind is almost done and ready for me to pick it up (from my mom's house, where it is being raised and painted). 

I took a picture after the first coat of black paint. Please take note of my mom's Dexter laboratory plastic-walled painting booth. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but she runs a business refinishing furniture. Its rather convenient having her in the family :)

I also received a special huge delivery in the mail!

I ordered this headboard from Overstock to use in my bedroom. Don't worry, it only took me about 5 months to decide what kind of headboard I wanted for my bed...shape size color...so many choices. In the end, I just made last minute decision based on a great sale and the general shape/color that I had been thinking of.  I haven't quite been able to carry the headboard up the stairs (ughh). I hate admitting how weak I am but it is just super heavy and I'm somewhat pint sized. Hope to get it upstairs and set up soon!

Updates to come!

11 Week Workout Plan: Week 1 Review

Last week was the first week of my "11 week workout plan." No specific rhyme or reason to having 11 weeks... I just wanted to lay out a plan for myself to get active. Here's the schedule for week 1.

Monday - I did 60 minutes of my Ultimate conditioning class which is a mix of cardio/lifting

Tuesday  - off

Wednesday - Had to work all night! Wasn't able to exercise

Thursday - 2 miles on treadmill @ 10:15 pace; and then 20 minute Tabata workout from Hillary at Nutrition Nut on the Run.

(source)

Friday - 5:30 am Ultimate conditioning class and 1 mile on the TM

Sat & Sunday - Nothing!

Three days working out is better than zero! Feeling pretty good. Goal for next week is 4 days + healthier eating :)