What Ana Does

We've got a wedding in Florida at the end of February and none of my formal dresses currently fit. So instead of the frustrating, lonely and depressing experience of spending a few hours in the dressing room at Nordstrom or Lord & Taylor, I've been experimenting with online dress shopping. I've been using mainly Amazon and Zappos, because of quick and free shipping. And I found quite a lot of dress options. In fact, I spent WAY TO MUCH time browsing through dresses and imaging how they'd translate from the model's size 1 body to my, er, larger one. In the end, I found there were some advantages and disadvantages to doing this kind of very-targeted shopping .... Pluses:  - Try on is at my house, in my bathroom, with my own shoes and undergarments, etc. I had ALL the space to move around and take each for a test drive. - My house has better, natural lighting and several mirror options. - I could take pictures of myself in the dress to send to my sisters w...

This seems to be the time of year when I buy up all the books. Looking over past year's posts, it's pretty clear that awful February sends me to book stores and removes all my inhibitions about buying books. Other times of the year, I get the Kindle version, wait for the paperback or opt for the library book. But put me in the back-end of winter and I'm clamoring for all the new books.  Also, this is a pretty good season for new books.  And also, reading a book under a blanket while the weather is freezing and horrible is such a joy.  Here's my current NEW stack: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black is set in a similar world to her Folk of the Air series that I just finished. I'm a few chapters short of finishing this one and it's so good.  Why We Can't Sleep by Ada Calhoun is a book I bought after listening to her interviewed on a GOOP podcast (after my sister raved about it). It's all about my generation and how we'...

Now that I've reinstated my working mom status, I'm developing a whole new set of daily routines. I like routines. I like a predictable framework especially in difficult parts of my day. And I especially like my mornings to be efficient and clear of stumbling blocks. (I mean, who doesn't!?) After a few months of feeling around the natural rhythms of my day and considering important daily tasks, here's what I've developed: My internal clock usually rouses me just before 6am, likely because Dave's up and moving by 5:30 to get to a 6 gym class. Instead of snoozing for 30 minutes (which I love to do), I get out of bed and head down to the basement for a 20 minute jog on the treadmill. Getting into an exercise habit is one of my BIG five-year goals and, so far, this is working well. Not only do I get a 1+ mile jog and 10 minutes of stretching at the start of my day, I finally get to catch up on podcasts again. Hooray! Without much of a commute (I swear I...

Yes, it's the middle of winter ... really just the beginning if you consider the three months we still have yet to go!... and I'm daydreaming of patio furniture. I made a proclamation: This spring we will sell off our current smallish patio sets (we have a few) and replace it with exactly what we want and will use. "It Shall Be Done!" Years ago we built a deck (read that post) off our patio door and we love it. It's so useful, especially with the puppy. But I don't think we get a lot of great use out of it the 3-4 months each year we comfortably get to use it. And the main issue is ... it doesn't have the right furniture on it. Let's consider: my favorite thing to do is read outside in the sun; smoothie and dog by my side. However, my seating choices were limited to an iron chair with cushions, legs up on another chair, and propped-up rather uncomfortably. My reading session don't last long. Also consider that metal dining set (which is tw...

If I haven't gotten a paint brush in my hand and totally transformed a space/furniture for a while, I get the shakes. That's just how much I love painting things! Love it. So this weekend, while I'm still trying to re-balance and figure out how I'm going to do all the house projects in the abbreviated time I now have with a full time job, I made all effort to paint something. Anything! And this little dresser, which I see every day on the second floor landing, was just the perfect candidate. The story of this dresser goes waaaay back to California, when we were single and living in a small apartment in the Bay Area. We drove to Ikea near Berkeley and bought a new wood dresser set; this little three-drawer dresser has a taller counterpart. Right around the time Leah was born, we painted it a very dark grey (it quickly chipped and was sticky -- my first lesson in the type of paint to use on furniture). And in this house, it was needed in Alice's room so I bought...