Lulu

I consider myself a pretty fit lady, with experiences running a half marathon and doing tons of all types of yoga, but I never really could bite the bullet of spending the money on Lululemon clothing for my workouts. Probably because they never go on sale and anyone who knows me, knows I NEVER buy anything for full price!

The Lululemon Warehouse Sale was this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I didn't think anything of it until a few friends of mine went on Saturday and got some amazing deals....I'm talking up to 80% off! Let's just say I set my alarm for Sunday and made sure I didn't have a lick of an adult beverage on Saturday night. I bought three pairs of crops for the price of one at full price, a scuba hoodie, a water bottle, and a few other accessories. Score!! And what they say about your backside looking like a 10? True that.

TOTAL RETAIL PRICE: $465+
TOTAL WAREHOUSE PRICE: $164




Some things that I've rejuvenated my workouts with...

1. a new gym membership at the West Loop Athletic Club
2. anticipation to run the Shamrock Shuffle with a few girlfriends
3. a renewed my love for running via some motivation from some great friends of mine

BONUS POINT: Buying new workout gear was just the cherry on top =)

Sprouts & Terrariums

Sprout Home is one of my favorite hobby stores in the city. For Christmas, I bought Sean a terrarium building class, well not really bought, because the class was free but read on.

Sprout Home, located in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago and Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, is a full service garden center and also offers a wide selection of home products, garden design and installation, floral design and delivery. Bottom line-if you're into plants, this is your Disneyland, for sure.

One of their specialties is Terrariums, which is essentially a mini ecosystem that contains a variety of plants, and for Sprout Home, mini living works of art. Sprout Home holds free terrarium building classes (amongst other types of classes), where your only costs incurred are the materials that you purchase at the store. The instructors are the owners and landscape designers and are just filled with so much information about how to make the best terrarium-they asked questions like "what kind of sunlight does your house get?", "how frequently do you want to water your plants?", "what kind of look are you aiming for". Just great people. As for the gift of the class I'm kind of over buying watches and sporting event tickets, so I thought it would be fun activity for Sean and me to do together. I mean I thought it would be fun for Sean to have this as his Christmas gift =)

Wu Hoo

all photos via www.target.com

The blogosphere has been buzzing like crazy about Jason Wu's Target collaboration, anticipated to hit stores and the web on February 5th. The photos are from target.com and also features little Milu the cat, Jason Wu's muse for the collab project. So freaking cute!

I'm in love with the flirty girly-ness of Wu's designs and am excited to buy some goods from the lower cost collab collection, ranging from $19.99 to $49.99, at midnight...in hopes that the target.com website doesn't crash this time around =)

I wonder if Michelle Obama will receive a huge box from Target?

Birthday Boy

I love celebrating birthdays, especially mine. Hey, I'm an only child, what can I say? Unfortunately Sean doesn't share my spoiled ways and didn't want any part in a huge birthday celebration this year. This could have also been a result of my failed attempts to get us a reservation at the highly coveted Schwa (yeah attempts, I called literally every other day for a month), but who needs a nine course BYOB meal at an exclusive restaurant that everybody has a hard time getting reservations to.......

Over. Rated. Anyway.

Instead, my darling Sean requested that we hang out at home and cook ourselves an uber delicious steak dinner from Fox & Obel, one of our favorite little local gourmet grocery stores. Fox & Obel is just the most warm, inviting and cozy spot....which sounds weird when describing a grocery store....but I am just in love with this place. Here's what they have to say about themselves:
"Our inspiration is drawn from old-world markets of Paris, Milan or Lisbon to the stores of New York and San Francisco.
We carry the best of everything. Just-caught fish, well-hung meat, mighty coffee, sinful cakes, fine artisan foods of every kind, the freshest of fruit and vegetables.
When you walk into Fox & Obel Market, you step into something special and no matter where in the culinary landscape your interests lie, the ingredients you need are here. If you live for food, your life is not complete until Fox & Obel becomes part of it."
And talk about good timing, Groupon offered a $50 for $100 coupon a few days before the actual day. So I used the extra monies for a half dozen cupcakes from Sprinkles. Back to dinner-we bought the 21 Day Dry Aged Prime Bone-In Rib Eye Steak, totaling $73 (thank you Groupon), and cooked up the recipe from David Chang's Momofuku cookbook. Can I say amaaaaaaaze?! Two cast iron skillets, one stick of butter, a few cloves of garlic, a few springs of thyme and some elbow grease is all you need for a gourmet meal. Who's Schwa?

All I have to say is that if you like to eat, you better like to cook, and if you like to cook, you better buy the best stuff!









Happy Birthday Sean!

Back

For the sake of sticking to the topic of "In Love with Chicago", I really need to bring these posts back to my beloved city!

Last weekend a girlfriend and I made a date for after after Christmas shopping on Michigan Ave and it was wildy successful. I have five weddings to attend this year so my main goal was to find quality dresses at good prices, but also boots for winter, work clothes and anything else that can act (I say act because I sure am good at making excuses to buy things) as staples in my closet. To say we spent three hours in Bloomies is a tid embarassing, but it is what it is. 50% off most women's already reduced items, plus using the 10% coupon I get each time I shop at Bloomies for having an out of state license....equals, you know it....alot of stuff. We also stopped off at H&M, where, to my surprise, we saw some left over Versace for H&M. I snagged a dress for sure!

I'm pretty sure the sale is still going, so what are you waiting for?!

Christmas Season: Part Two

With the amount of travel that I do for work, I am graciously rewarded by the Hilton Honors rewards program with copious amounts of hotel points. No, I am not getting paid to say this, I am just that loyal of a customer. When you get so many services for free, how can you not be? I mean so far I have booked a free night in Beverly Hills, two free nights in Park City at a ski resort and one night at Hilton Waterfront Beach hotel in Huntington Beach....and I will probably get a week in Hawaii later this year for free with tons more points to spare. So back to the point. No pun intended.

Me and my mom spent such a fun, girly girl, day in Beverly Hills over "winter break". Snacking on crepes, shopping er window shopping on Rodeo Drive and simply relaxing in over sized fuzzy robes in our hotel room. We met up with my dearest friend from college at Robata Jinya for some ridiculously delicious and authentic Japanese tapas. Robata Jinya is located in the Mid City West area of LA, not too far east of Beverly Hills, and is actually an extention of a Robata Jinya, a restaurant opened 40 years ago in Japan. Now it's expanded to 2 shops in Japan, one in Hong Kong and a ramen shop in LA. The concept is izakaya: Japanese tapas, but unlike so many unsuccesful restauranteurs that attempt to bring the concept to life, Robata Jinya, truly IS a Japanese izakaya. The photo below is of a homemade tofu that solidified before our eyes. Simply magical.

Friends. Travel. Food. Pretty things. My favorites <3

Christmas Season: Part One

I had the most. wonderful. holiday season. Minus the fact that I traveled through almost ten airports and thousands of miles, the change of scenery made for a very diverse Christmas. I may have picked up tons of germs during my travels, but I came away unscathed. Chicago is making me so tough =) I had a week-long meeting in NJ during mid December, so I spent a little time in NYC, then it was off to Wisconsin for gift exchange and dinner with Sean's parents, a little bit of Chicago Nutcracker action, a week in San Diego for the actual holiday, Beverly Hills for a quick get away with the mother and then NYE in NYC.

It's sad to say that I have officially become a tourist when I visit San Diego, but it will always feel like home when I see all of my friends and family and pick up right where we left off.

I did get to try a few new spots...SD Chicken Pie Shop, Analog, The Shores in La Jolla and my favorite new spot: my dear friends' new home that they just purchased.

More to come on my December travels!