jamie ann

For the past month, I’ve drastically changed my diet. I no longer eat any form of grain, dairy or sugar – I’ve gone Paleo. Well, to be honest, I’m working on the sugar. Pop is my weakness, but I’m going cold turkey July 1 when I start CrossFit. This diet, or rather, lifestyle change has done wonders for me. I’ve dropped a bunch of weight this month alone and feel amazing. I’m no longer exhausted ALL THE FREAKING TIME. I’ll expand more on that in another post, but for now I thought I’d share my breakfast “recipe”.

This is my breakfast most days – mixed frozen berries, a handful of spinach from the farmers market and the actual most delicious strawberries every from the market. This past Sunday was the last week they will have them and it broke my heart. You can obviously mix and match with your veggies and fruits, but I tend to go with what I have on hand.

Anyway, add a little  unsweetened coconut milk (you can also use almond milk, but I prefer coconut) when you throw it all in the blender and puree the hell out of it. If you’re feeling a little naughty, throw in a spoonful of almond butter, too. It’s so good!

And there you have it – a delicious smoothie for my commute to work, that doesn’t cost me $4 or some other ridiculous amount of money. It’s healthy and gets my greens in first thing in the morning. It’s definitely more sugar than I should be having, but I’ll take natural sugars from fruit over artificial any day.

More on Paleo soon. Promise.

Two days ago, I took an intro class at CrossFit Chicago. Now if you know anything about CrossFit, you know it’s a bit intense. Needless to say, I was pretty freaking scared to walk into the place. Then I walked in and saw a work out in process and almost walked back out.

Then someone basically took me by the hand and said, you are totally in the wrong room and she lead me to a quieter room with only two others and a way less intense vibe. My fellow CrossFit intro-ers and I learned a bit about the gym and what CrossFit is and all that good stuff.

Our coach for the evening, Sara, then ran us through a baseline workout. This consisted of 500 meters on a rowing machine, 40 squats, 30 sit ups, 20 push ups and 10 pull ups. And we had to do it as fast as we could.

I was the only girl (and a very out of shape girl at that) with a group of four pretty in shape guys and I definitely finished last by a couple minutes. Those guys though? They cheered me on and were right there with me until I finished.

My baseline work out time was 8 minutes and 15 seconds. I felt like I was going to die after that – a not even ten minute work out.

The past two days I have been sore as hell. It hurts to sit down, it hurts to go up and down stairs, it hurts to raise my arms. Everything hurts.

But I’m going back, because even though it hurts – I feel fucking awesome.

So during July, you’ll probably find me in the box at CrossFit Chicago working hard at getting fit and strong and sweating my ass off. This post right here will hold me accountable – I’ll check in at the end of the month with my progress.

With the busy lives we now lead in our modern society the line between chaos and effective simplicity is easily blurred. I doubt any of us is a stranger to the “oh, I’ll sort this heap out later” trick. Though all of us, to a certain degree, hate mess, when we lead such hectic lives how can we be expected to keep our homes in order? The trick I’ve found is to have a home for everything. Furniture with interesting storage devices are your friend when it comes to organising your home with minimum effort put in. However, many people struggle with the issue of creating a comfortable, homey living space that is clutter free, yet not clinical.

The best way to tackle this I feel is to adopt clean colours that will urge you to keep them clean. Off whites, light beiges and blues can create a light, airy and spacious environment that will lean towards a new clutter-free existence (hopefully). By teaming this with rough naked wooden pieces the effect is not clinical, but more ‘beachy’ and relaxed.

A favourite of mine is this stunning Marina bench with backrest from Fashion for Home. I love it! Not only is it beautifully simple with its clean lines and criss-cross detailing, it also acts as a fantastic piece for storage with the fir wood drawers bringing a more homey, country cottage feel.

However, don’t think this means there’s no space for your nick-nacks within this new sleeker existence. More often than not it’s everyday rubbish that creates clutter and not your furniture pieces or objects of sentimental value. So, perhaps I should be advising purchasing more bins or a more ruthless attitude when it comes to throwing things away.

This is a sponsored guest post on behalf of Fashion for Home. I have been compensated, but I really do think the site is pretty rad and has some great furniture. You guys know what a design nerd I am.

I don’t know about you, but summer has always been a bit of a pain for me. My favorite season is fall – I love layers and boots and scarves. Summer with its tanks, shorts and, most of all, SWIMWEAR, isn’t really my thing.

It’s so hard for me to find a swimsuit – I have to make sure there’s coverage where their needs to be, but most of all I need to feel comfortable in it. It seems the key to that is options. I like a nice variety to choose from. Do I feel like a halter top this season or maybe a tankini? What’s going to be the most flattering? Do they have it in a color I like?

SO MANY THINGS!

Luckily, Old Navy has some pretty cute options this season. I’m feeling this adorable blue number at the moment. It doesn’t seem like something I feel like I would fall out of and the ruching will be super flattering as well.

Also, I’m hoping to squeeze a couple weekend getaways into my summer. We’re thinking about a camping trip and then maybe another small trip, just a couple days away and a short drive from Chicago. (any suggestions?) And then there’s that bigger vacay that boyfriend and I were just talking about. That will will definitely include a beautiful beach and delicious ice cold drinks. Hopefully that will happen because we freaking deserve it.

Now that I type that out – summer plans make swimsuit shopping way more fun!

Thank you again to Old Navy for sponsoring my post. I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

I’ve been living in my “new” place since November. Not so new though considering it’s June! I’ve been very slow about decorating, because I’m very picky about things. I’d rather live in a half empty apartment over an apartment full of random things just because I need them. For this reason, I went a good 3 months without a kitchen table and chairs – I don’t even think I had my coffee table either yet.  But my couch was stylish, even if not the most comfortable. I had an awesome modern book case and plenty of prints that I have been collecting throughout the years.

Lately, it’s been:

• ridiculously long naps on the weekend
• Game of Thrones
• the books Game of Thrones were based on
• green smoothies
• the Logan Square Farmers Market
• glitter accent nails
• Uncharted Books being down the street from my house and their adorable shop pup, Ramona
• The Wire
• more naps
• Edie, duh.

It’s been awhile.

Time to dust this baby off.

Hi.

Hello, oh-so-lovely readers of Miss Jamie’s blog. This is Doni (of doniree.com and Nomadic Foodie), and I’m happy to be guest-posting here on Jamie’s blog with a special holiday offer and giveaway especially for you. Exciting, yes? Yes!

I love holiday traditions. I love Christmas lights, I love Christmas music, Christmas cookies, silly gift exchanges and Ugly Sweater Parties. One of my all-time favorite holiday traditions, however, is the fact that every single year I update my address book and write out 30 or so Christmas cards, and every single year I forget to mail all but maybe four of them.

Maybe it’s because I dislike the post office (especially this time of year), but maybe it’s just because things get a little frantic during the holidays.

Either way, I’ve decided that despite my tendency to forget about Christmas cards even after I’ve already written and addressed them, I’m going to try again this year. However, and this might be the game-changer, this year I’ve discovered a website called Overnight Prints (more widely known for their business card printing), and not only do they offer cute and customizable holiday cards (with photos!), but they provide a shipping service as well. Once your card is created, you can upload a mailing list, pay for postage with your order, and have Overnight Prints take care of mailing your cards for you.

Want to check this out? They’re provided one lucky reader of Jamie’s blog with a $25.00 gift card code so that you can check them out for yourselves. You can order your own holiday cards, new business cards, post cards, address labels, or a myriad of other customizable office supplies.

Enter the Giveaway…

Simple! Just leave a comment here letting us know what your favorite holiday tradition is, and you’ll be entered to win. The winner will be chosen at random at the end of next week (Friday, December 9 at 11:59 PT) and will be notified via email.

… or save 10-60% with a special promo code!

If don’t have the patience for entering contests and just want to get on with a killer discount already, we’ve got a promo code for you as well. Simply do your shopping, then enter the code DONIREE at checkout, and save upwards of 60% off your order (depends on what you’re buying, but the discount varies between 10-60%). Surely you’re in the market for some of these things, right? Right.

Happy Christmas Card-Sending! Or business card designing! Or address label printing!

[Photo credit]

The fine print: big, big thanks to the folks at OvernightPrints who’ve provided the gift card for one lucky reader here, as well as for Jamie and myself so we could check out their goodness as well. Stationary for everyone!

A new post, finally! But it’s not from me because I barely have time to think about dinner let alone write. BUT! I bring you something better — a guest post about pretty things from the always lovely, Doni! And everyone knows how much I love pretty things and Doni so this is guaranteed to be the raddest guest post on the block. Or internet. Whatever.

Take it away, Doni!

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For those of you who’ve read Jamie’s blog for any length of time know a few things:

• she’s super into Etsy
• she’s from Chicago
• she’s got excellent taste

Me, on the other hand… I’ve always been a little home decor impaired. Meaning, I have a handful of great pictures and framed goodies that deserve a special place on a wall somewhere, but I can never quite figure out how to make it work. Nothing I’ve acquired really has a theme, and I think that’s what makes it so tough to figure out where to put things.

Over the past few months, I’ve acquired two pieces that I especially love – and they’re both reminiscent of my hometown of Minneapolis, MN. As I started paying attention to the things that catch my eye, I’ve noticed that artwork that visually reflects and/or represents a geographical area always gets my attention.

I received this one as a birthday present this year (thanks, Nicole!):

And I found this one from from lindenleaf on Etsy:

There are all kinds of ways of using a place you love to decorate your apartment, especially places known for a lot of landmarks. I’d advocate decorating with your own photos of your favorite landmarks, places, and scenery, but when that’s not an option, these Etsy shops fill in quite nicely:

Transit systems:

[Chicago | NYC]

Landmarks:

Portland, Oregon is nicknamed Bridgetown because there are SO many bridges here. The city sits right on the Willamette (rhymes with “dammit”) River, and is divided in the middle into an east and west side. The bridges are a big part of this city, and they’re gorgeous. I love this print that celebrates all of them:

[Etsy shop]

Vinyls/Decals:

Decals are a great way to add character to your walls and space without putting holes in the walls. Check out this Chicago skyline from urbandecal:

What’s your favorite city, and does your home decor reflect that at all? 

Doniree Walker is a freelance writer/blogger based in Portland, Oregon. Her clients include UMoveFree, a service helping renters find Trophy Club, TX apartments. She spends her free time frequenting Portland’s farmers’ markets, training for her first 5K, and daydreaming about the places she plans to travel. She blogs at doniree.com and nomadicfoodie.com, and you can follow her on Twitter @doniree.

I’ve been at my new job for almost a month now and things are going great. Well, I think so at least. Hopefully my boss thinks so too!

Anyway having this new steady income is awesome, but it also means I’m playing catch up right now with my finances. Trying to get things in order, slowly start adding new clothes into my wardrobe, existing bills, new bills, getting a budget together, finding ways to save money on insurance and helping out my family. Lots of responsibility and not much of it is fun.

(When did we grow up and how do we make it fucking stop?)

But after my most recent pay day, I decided I needed to treat myself to some fun stuff because I DESERVE IT GOD DAMN IT. And it’s all awesome so I’m going to be braggy for a sec.

Those of you who follow me on twitter probably have seen me obsess about this new site called Fab. You know Gilt and Rue La La and all their pretty designer stuff that I love because of the super sales? Well, Fab is similar with its killer sales, but everything they feature all has one thing in common– great design. There hasn’t be one sale so far that I haven’t wanted to get something. I’m super in love and seriously can not get it enough. Last week, they had a year’s subscription to Dwell for $12 and I was probably too excited about it.

Today’s sale was Out of Print tees. These tees are all printed with iconic book covers. I’ve had their site bookmarked for the longest, but when I saw them pop up on Fab today, I HAD to get some. It also helped that I had some credits from being a “founding member”. I ended up getting two and I’m in love. I got The Great Gatsby and 1984 tees.

There is also Pride and Prejudice, Nancy Drew, Atlas Shrugged, Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451 and more available in this weekend’s sale. They are also only $18 a pop and the sale is for another 2.5 days. Don’t miss out! Here’s an invite if you need it: CLICK CLICK.

Next up was something I’ve been wanting since I saw this Marauders shirt that Kim shared on Facebook. I immediately wanted it (and still do), but I saw the Death Eater version and I couldn’t resist. Bellatrix is one of my favorite Harry Potter characters because she is HBIC so I knew I had to represent. Yeah, I nerd the hell out over Harry Potter. SO WHAT.

I lovelovelove it and can’t wait until it gets here. The design is similar to one I already have, but all the names are of fashion designers. Here’s a photo of that one. No, I’m not purposely looking away from the camera or some ridiculous shit. There were 532 people there that night so I was looking over at someone who was talking or something. Whatever, that shirt is rad.

I also treated myself to a manicure and pedicure (OPI’s Boris and Natasha!) and got some new makeup since my sister taught me how to stop looking like a hot mess and do my makeup correctly. I mean, I’m 27. It’s about time I get my shit together and learn how to put on makeup, right? I was in desperate need for some primer so I got Smashbox Photo Finish, a new foundation brush and some Benetint lip stain. The lip stain is perfection by the way. A hint of color, but not too much because I can’t pull off a very red lip. Highly recommend it!

And that, my friends, is what you call retail therapy.