Vida

Do you remember when Thursday nights were Thirsty Thursday? I most certainly do.  We would always go to a bar on Lincoln that had $1 bottles.  I can't remember the name of it, but it was amazing. A few weeks ago I came to the solid conclusion my days of Thirsty Thursday are so long ago (for one reason because they actually are) when I spent my Thursday evening dropping a ton of money at Crate & Barrel ... weddings ... le sigh.  Well this week Karen & I brought it back at Goose Island's free new beer release party.   We did have to convince each other to go as both our days were very long.  (Turns out being the project manager on multiple projects at the same time is difficult to juggle.)  But we went. And we were tired. :) But I did go to yoga this morning and I was not disappointed (I never am with Margo), but she left us with a quote about sometimes you need to be a mess because it is often when you are able to have the most growth.  You learn a lot

I decided to make myself a hand stamped necklace, based on this tutorial .  And in the end decided to give Karen one for part of her birthday gift too. Only after I had all my supplies ready to go did I realize I was supposed to buy the letters to stamp the jewelry.  I was against the wire with time & didn't really want to invest in the letters so I was pretty bummed. Me:  You're gift isn't going to be good.  I don't have something I need. Karen:  Lisa, do you remember that stuffed animal you made me in middle school?  (Home Ec, 6th grade.)  You sewed the head on backwards and I still have it. This is true, made me laugh, & brainstorm how I would approach the project.  (Note:  she was also trying to convince me to go get ice cream with her...so she did have motives too.) So I mostly followed their notes, but I made my letters with a nail and hammer, instead of the stamping letters they suggest.  I just kept tapping the letters as I moved the nail alon

If you happen to be going through your closet to get ready for fall and you have some jeans that may have passed their best days, consider recycling them! Look into Blue Jeans Go Green . Founded in 2006, Blue Jeans Go Green got its start working on projects in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. They sent denim insulation to Habitat for Humanity projects in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Mississippi. Fast forward to today and they continue to work with Habitat for Humanity affiliates around the U.S. to bring denim insulation to areas that need it most. It takes approximately 500 to 1,000 pairs of jeans to create enough insulation for one average U.S.-sized home (approximately 2,300 square feet). There are several options to donate! You can drop them off at a couple stores like J Crew and Madewell .  (They'll even give you a discount if you buy a new pair.) Some malls are accepting jeans. Or you can use the good ol' mail box . Give those jeans another life!  They'

My big sister turned 30 yesterday !  And she had quite a celebration! After she kept telling me all her (to me, outrageous) plans, I informed her it was over the top & too much.  She pretty much exactly said:  I like my birthday so suck it up. It was a valid point.  And that's exactly what I tried to do. Friday involved decorating her place while she was at work: Yes, it's a Jewel cake, but she has a cake coming from my Grandma & let's be real:  nothing can beat Grandma's cakes.  Also, my sister's friend, Katie, who stayed with her Friday night, & Karen both raved about it and said it was delicious.  So point for Jewel.  (Yes, maybe the fact that they had pieces at 2 am may have had something to do with it, but they both swore it didn't.) She made her way around Lakeview with her friend Katie from St. Louis Friday night and they had a great time.  Karen is even the one comfortable walking around now & warning people to wear their wa

Today, my big sister, Karen is 30! Happy Birthday, Karen! I'm so lucky to have you as my sister.  Yes, you drive me crazy, but you're so caring! You come over when I'm on what feels like my deathbed and force medicine down my throat while you do dances in my bedroom.   Then you come back hours later to check on me and yell at me for leaving my door unlocked.  I respond whining, "I can't move." We always fight about everything, including a comfortable temperature, and forget/laugh about it 5 minutes later. You understand that I'm the messy one & only sometimes call me out on it.   Last weekend: Me:  My place is a disaster, don't come over.  I'm living in squalor. You:  rather softly It's always a bit messy. Whereas, you never have a dirty dish in the sink and it makes you anxious to have anything out of place or random papers on a surface. We used to draw lines across our floor when we shared a room so the other person

I was in Nashville this week, working another conference, but it was at the Opryland Resort (so basically not Nashville).  I only got off the property twice during the week, which is a bit disappointing, but considering I was working and a cab ride to get downtown is $35.   $35 I did not take a cab downtown once. We went to the famous Hattie B's for lunch Monday and another exhibitor we knew at the conference drove us in his rental car. Then Wednesday night I went downtown to meet up with some other exhibitors I knew and luckily before I hopped in a cab, I thought of Uber.  Good thing I did!  The Uber ride was less than $20.  That's a big difference! I feel like in Chicago it's always high demand (higher prices) when I want one (or I'm on my bike and don't need one).  So it was nice to have the normal, affordable Uber prices in Nashville and the drivers I had all super nice.  I swear, if I lived in Nashville I would have given my number to one of them.

And I sort-of hate my IT Band. At least it's mutual? I dunno. What I do know is I was feeling pretty great on my 17 miler Saturday, until about mile 11 when my knee started locking up.  I kept stopping and trying to massage out the IT band and got 15 miles in before I had to stop.   Then Sunday I got back out and it took one mile for it to lock up. I was completely freaked out and worried (and angry). So I got home and did a bunch of research before hopping on my flight for Nashville.  And basically I should not have run today because my IT Band was inflamed.  I did not realize that.  In fact, I thought I just needed to roll it out and everything would be ok.  Nope. So allow me to help all of you so you don't make the same mistake I did.  First, use that foam roller and don't forget.   Rather than rolling up and down where it hurts, try to roll up and down the center.of your thigh.  You are just loosening up the surrounding muscles.  If you roll on your IT B

This was one of those weeks that seemed to last forever.  Maybe it is the multiple projects I'm juggling at work?  Maybe it was the changing weather (it felt like fall this week)?  Regardless, I felt tired. This week: *I dropped so much money at crate & barrel for a wedding.  Le sigh. *Picnic at the lake with Janie Rubes! *2 lunch dates, which always make me happy! Karen was downtown for an appointment so she had lunch with me. Then today we had a buddy lunch!  Usually when you start at my company you get a buddy and you have lunch together.  Maggie just started Monday and my boss thought it would be fun for her to have 3 buddies:  Justine, Toni (my buddy), and I.  Well...Maggie canceled on us, but non of us brought our lunches so we went out the three of us.  We killed it :)  (Hannah's Bretzel) we went back by the office to eat *Phone catch-up with a couple lovely friends.   I got to catch-up with Hilary (my friend from my old job) and things are still ba

I can definitely tell you one thing about Charleston, SC:  it is a bachelor/bachelorette destination!   There was another bachelorette & a bachelor on our plane ride there.  And it seemed anytime we went somewhere downtown we saw at least one group.  Saturday brunch: 1 bachelor, 2 other bachelorettes.  Saturday dinner:  1 bachelor, 1 other bachelorette.  Going out Saturday night was literally countless.  They were everywhere! With that said, they definitely cater to these groups.  Without any level of contempt servers would almost state, "Separate checks?"  Sort-of phrasing it as a question, just for confirmation.  It was pretty great, not going to lie. So here are some photos: Four of us flew out of Chicago and made use of our drink tickets :)  We sat across from each other and there was a lady sitting next to Sarah & I who I immediately explained we were on a bachelorette party and she warmed right up to us as we giggled the plane

At last December's Chicago Renegade Fair I could not pass up purchasing a kid's T for my nephew and onesie for my coming niece from Earth Cadets , a Chicago based screen printer.  To be fair, I raided the sales bins, but scored some adorable pieces. To be clear, I know next to nothing about baby clothes.  I picked them out solely because they are cute.  My sister-in-law, Greta, on the other hand, knows a lot about baby clothes.  She cannot stop raving about this specific purchase. Tractor Ride, complete with Mickey Mouse work gloves. -Greta Charlie's sporting his T & Cards hat, of course Charlie fit right in the T and Greta always talks about how much she loves it because it's cute soooo soft.  She always loves giving Charlie hugs, but she says she holds him a little bit longer when he's wearing that specific T. Charlie can have a bit sensitive skin and this T causes zero problems. Charlie's T even kills it on the beach! Recently

Like a serious girls weekend! A bachelorette destination weekend. With nine girls converging on Charleston, SC from all over the eastern half of the US.  Crazy some might say.... Honestly, I wasn't super excited about it myself, until I hung out with the bride to be last week and the excitement was contagious so I'm pretty confident it's going to be great!? I don't think I've...ever...hung out with this many girls for this amount of time... So I'm taking a three day weekend.  From what I understand there will be pool time, beach time, downtown Charleston time, concert time (Hootie and the Blowfish), party time, girl time! What are you up to this weekend? I prepped by getting manis with a few co-workers Tuesday for our lunch breaks.  (It was just a coincidence.)  (I honestly do not remember the last time I got a manicure...3 years? 4?)  It was fun though and we got a discount with my co-worker's blog set-up with PrettyQuick . Roarrrange Man

The Red Sox vs Cards series is perfectly timed, yet terrible at the same time. I miss Kelly and Craig so much. I am having issues accepting the new guys we got in the trade.  Like serious issues.  Please just don't even ask me, for your sake, because I can go on.  Karen's friend, Jason, asked me about it Saturday and he got way more than he anticipated and I got all angry.  Le sigh. Here is one story today about Kelly at last night's game.  Note: he received a standing ovation a couple times. Well done Cardinal fans! P.S. Craig is currently on the DL, but received some applause as he walked out the line-up card.  I think he didn't receive more because people are still filtering in the stadium and maybe they didn't realize it was him.  It's always a bit difficult to tell who takes out the line-up card.

Yesterday after work I biked straight to Ukrainian Village to meet up with a friend for dinner at Bite Cafe, which was delcious, but what I really want to talk about was how damn fine biking on Milwaukee was; it's probably the finest road I've ever biked on! First of all it was packed.  Bike to work:  represent!  We were literally biking in pairs (and there was room to while still feeling safe!).  That bike lane was NO JOKE! Yes, my friends, Milwaukee has the little lights especially for bikers that I raved about in Austria! The ride was smooth!  I didn't miss you for one second, potholes. I even got to Bite Cafe way earlier than I expected!  Win! And not only was the ride lovely, the weather was absolutely perfect.   Note:  I biked from it's start at Kinzie to Augustus.

Finally 8 months later I completed a project I decided I'd do during my little jaunt in Europe last December. Ever visit somewhere and consistently hear a specific word that you are not used to hearing in your everyday life? In England and Scotland, I heard Cheers all the time .  It was almost like saying thank you in the U.S.  It seemed to end all conversations.  So I got an idea.  Make block letters of Cheers and fill in those letters with pictures from the trip.  Of course, it didn't turn out exactly as I imagined it, it turned out a bit more abstract, but after looking at it put together (without glue) for a couple weeks and deciding whether I wanted to start over with a new approach or glue it down for my gallery wall....I decided I liked it! I love taking a photo or photos from trips to make something that mean something to me, but other people will probably look at it and have zero idea what it is.  The pictures on this project are small and some of them are ha

About me: This Buzzfeed article: 29 Freeing Truths Of Being A Low-Maintenance Girl  pretty much explains me. Example 1:  I put on very light lipstick Wednesday before work (just because) and the first co-worker I saw says (practically yells) "Lisa, are you wearing lipstick?"  Five heads popped over their cube walls to look.   No joke. Example 2:   Madewell is my jam.  I have a couple dresses from there that I wear ALL THE TIME! Correction:  pretty much all my go to outfits that some may say I wear too much are from Madewell. They just came out with new jean news yesterday! Someday...after my saving spree is over (when will the weddings end?) I will maybe allow myself to purchase a pair. My current favorite pair of jeans is from Target a couple years ago and they are starting to show their wear :(   Boo. This week I created an exercise where I put everything I want in my online shopping cart and then closed the window.  It was empowering...sort-of.  Also a bit