5 on Friday

1.  Beautiful Running Weather

The weather Saturday morning was gorgeous!  I ran 2.21 miles with a pace of 14:42 pace.  

I have really enjoyed running with some coworkers in Maumelle's Women Can Run clinic.  We're in the Beginner Runner B group.  This week we were running 2 minutes, walking 3.  

2.  Hair Gets a Makeover

Saturday afternoon I finally had a much-needed hair appointment.  I last had my hair trimmed in November, and we haven't touched up the color since June.  My ends were flipping out everywhere and the color was very brassy-looking.  Does anyone else have problems with their color fading? 

Jean, my hair stylist for the past 3 years, will be celebrating 50 years of cutting hair this March! Jean is amazing, and I think she does such a great job with my hair.  I trust her completely!  She trimmed 1" off the ends and foiled a reddish brown in my hair.  It's very similar to my natural color, just with more red.  Even though she foiled it in, she said I could easily do this color all over, which I just might do in the future.....

Crazy as it may seem, I continue to use the same stylist even after I moved to Maumelle.   It's an hour drive, so I usually just make a whole day of it and catch up with some friends and places that I miss in Russellville.  After our hair appointments, Adam and I met up with my brother Andrew and sis-in-law Norma.  Norma took a few pictures of Adam and me for our 2-year anniversary.  Although the trees were still brown and bare, I think we got some good shots.  I'll be sharing some of those in a future post : )

After pictures, Adam and I returned to a favorite Russellville restaurant:  Stoby's.  We had many of our first dates here!  They still have the best cheese-dip and possum pie around!

3.  Recent Beauty Splurges

Naked Urban Decay Basics.  Ordered mine from Sephora.

They're Real! by Benefit.  Also ordered from Sephora.

I'm loving my new eye makeup!  The first day I wore this mascara, my principal seriously did ask me if my eyelashes were real!  This stuff is the bees knees!  

4.  My Go-to Necklace

This has been my favorite piece of jewelry for years.  I get so many compliments on this necklace (probably not because it's pretty, but because it's definitely unique.) I've been stopped in airports by complete strangers wanting to know where I got it/how I made it....they even ask to take a picture of it, so they can try to make their own!
About 4 years ago, a friend was helping me sew some aprons for Christmas gifts.  I hadn't bought buttons yet, so she offered this necklace up--she kept it in her sewing box for spare buttons!  I exclaimed it was too cute to cut buttons off, so she gave it to me.  Someone had crocheted this for her 20+ years ago, and she just didn't think it looked good with any of her outfits.  I wear it with just about anything : )     

5.  Blu-ray Finds

After our Stoby's date in Russellville, Adam and I went to Hastings to look at movies, books, etc.  It just so happened they were having a buy 2 get 1 sale on all used blu-rays and dvds.  I scored these three movies for just $13!  I was pretty proud of that : )

5 on Friday

1. The Main Cheese

Thursday night I met up with two of my best girlfriends for dinner and painting.  We had a casual dinner at The Main Cheese, a new restaurant in Little Rock that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches, all of which are named after local landmarks.  I had "The Pinnacle"--Grilled chicken breast, Cheddar, Swiss, "Pinnacle Sauce," and roasted cashews on sourdough.  It was delicious!

"The Pinnacle," Gourmet Grilled Cheese 

2. Painting with a Twist

I'm so glad Emily saw this painting on the studio calendar.  It looked really intimidating at first, but it turned out to be one of my favorite paintings I've done--2nd only to the Eiffel Tower I did last Spring.  It felt a little rushed at the end of class.  We spent a lot of time on the backgrounds and outline and not enough time on the intricate detailed patterns.  I was worried mine wouldn't look completed, but once I put my brush down and stepped back, I liked it.  Loved it, actually.

March 6, 2014 @ Painting with a Twist

Spring 2013 @ Painting with a Twist

I couldn't resist taking this picture with Bob Ross.  How goofy do I look?!

Nellena, Emily, and me

3. Serenades

On days when the weather is nice, such as today, my junior high choir kiddos will inevitably ask to have class outside. Every time.  Today I made a deal with them:  "give me 30 minutes of your undivided attention, and we'll go outside to sing our final song of rehearsal."  They accepted the deal, of course.  They packed their bags, we went out to the commons area, made a huge circle, and sang a song we're working up for the spring concert.  We sang Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Over the Rainbow," accompanied on guitar by one of my precious 7th grade girls.

They sounded fantastic!  Having them in a circle was like turning on the surround sound--much better than the acoustics in my classroom!

4. Women Can Run

Our first night of the Women Can Run Clinic in Maumelle was unfortunately postponed because of the ice storm.  And I missed the 2nd "first" night because I opted to paint and eat grilled cheese instead of run.....I still think I made the better choice!  Despite not making it to the first week of training, I have been running on my own and am planning a run for tomorrow morning.  I'm excited about getting back into running! I've really enjoyed my runs around the lake lately.

5. Versace Eros

Until I tried Versace Eros, I had never been very interested in perfumes.  Perfumes usually went unused and forgotten because I would grow tired of them after a short while.  Not this one!  I got a sample of this from Sephora in January and couldn't wait until my next paycheck to order my own bottle.  A month later, I still love it!  I ordered mine from Sephora.

Happy Friday, ya'll!