How I wake up early and go to the gym

Somehow, although I don't even recognize myself, I have become the kind of person who goes to an hour-long barre class before work almost every day. Before that, I wasn't a total sloth, but I didn't really ever work out for the sake of working out, except for a 6 month-1 year stint of Core Power Yoga a couple years back which hurt my knees. When I started this class in the spring, they have you fill out a little intro with how often you exercise and at that point all I was doing was the odd weekend hike, bike ride, or xc ski, and in the warmer months biking around the city a couple times a week. I have been going pretty religiously for about 9 months now. For awhile now I've been going only to the 7 am classes on weekdays. Not going to lie, it's rough getting up, especially after daylight savings as it gets darker and colder every morning. Here's how I am doing it:

1. Find a workout that is tough enough that you can brag about it a little, but not so tough that you won't go. This is the secret, I think. If it's spin classes or P90x or something called Sweat, I'm scared and disgusted and won't go, but I also want to feel like I pushed myself and got more fit. Bonus points for being able to see myself look more fit, and have other people see it too. If I don't have some trouble walking down the stairs afterwards, it's like, what was the point. Also, find a place with some kind of rewards program since getting fit is nice and everything but saving money is much more motivating. My friend said she used to go to a lunch-hour class where the instructor was particularly attractive as an added motivation.

2. Prepare everything the night before. I have the world's longest before-bed routine. I pick out my clothes and earrings and put them in my gigantic purse, along with any products I'll need the next morning to get ready. I grind my coffee beans and set my timer coffee maker with milk already in the cup and put it by my bed so I can grab it right after waking up. I prep whatever breakfast and lunch (leftovers) I'm lucky enough to be taking with me the next day. I have workout clothes already hanging up to put on. I hang them over a floor heat vent, so if I'm lucky they are warm when I put them on. I do my skincare routine at night and I don't even splash water on my face in the morning. This way, in the morning, I lie in bed, drinking coffee, looking at my phone, and cuddling my cat and husband for 30 minutes, then I throw on my workout clothes, brush teeth, put in contacts, and leave in 10 minutes.

3. Soften the blow of getting up in the cold and dark. I recently put a star-shaped lantern in the living room and put it on a light timer so as soon as I open the bedroom door to let the cat in, I can see it's nice soft glow. Hanging star lanterns were popular in Iceland in January when we visited, and I think they are big in Scandinavian winter/Christmas decor because they really help with the long dark winters. I also surround the bed with soft plush things like a faux sheepskin rug and my slippers so exiting the warm bed is slightly less painful. The next step is to get a gradual light alarm clock!

4. Minimal morning routine. After my class, I always shower. Quite frankly I am confused and disgusted by the girls who don't, which is 90% of them. Who are you, non-sweating people? Anyway I really only have 15 minutes from end of class to when I should head out to the train. So I don't wash my hair, I just leave it up, sometimes I wash my hairline/scalp around the bun which, you know, don't knock it until you try it. I've been using DIY deodorant; it's been an adventure. I used to use this spray moisturizer, or the regular lotion version which is provided by the locker room, but usually this step takes too long. If I'm in a hurry I do makeup on the train, but usually I do it there. I mix some SPF lotion with BB cream, or just do the SPF lotion if my skin is even. Sometimes I use some concealer, and/or mascara. Boom, done, out. The endorphin boost from the workout helps me to feel like I look great even if my hair is a mess or I didn't put on as much makeup as carefully as I would for a special event or night out.

5. Second cup of coffee. Eat breakfast once at work. Congratulate self.

*terrible phone picture is from my office window around 4:45 pm, to illustrate early sunsets and late sunrises.

Still Winter

I am trying hard to live in the moment and place where I am. All of my professional training leads me to believe this is a wise course, as well as Annie Dillard who says in Teaching a Stone to Talk that she wants to live by "choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will."

And what I'm given is more chilly gray days in Chicago, and loads of work to do. So ok, so be it, it is still winter. I make myself look at catalogues of winter clothes. I almost tripped when I saw three daffodils in an other-wise familiarly dead bed. I can still see my breath in huge humid clouds. I'm no longer fighting it. I've retreated to muted earthy colors for the most part, simple outfits and sensible, cold- and water-proof shoes. And it works-- I went to a party where I knew only one person and was complimented on "all those earth tones." This very complimentary person told me that I have beautiful skin that would be ruined if I moved to L.A. as I've been threatening to do. Perhaps they're right, maybe I do belong here, quietly hoping for spring and turning more and more translucent. Maybe redheads, even fake ones, really are better off in climates such as mine, and I should embrace my Scandinavian roots!

These beautiful wintery photos are by Swedish photographer Anna Ådén. Check out her blog, too! Unfortunately I can't remember exactly what blog led me to her, but I'm guessing it was Design is Mine.

Cross-Country Skiing in the Park

This afternoon, since it was a SNOW DAY, I got out my cross-country skiis and went to the park, via the middle of the unplowed roads! In the park the snow was fresh except for some snowshoe and rabbit tracks, but near the south end of the park I found that other xc skiiers had been there as well! There are not many xc skiiers in the city, as you can imagine, and I got a lot of comments and grins from the neighbors. I told my roommate that it was "so fun" but he doesn't believe it, and it seems he's not alone in this opinion. It's true that xc is very tiring, but once you get moving and you're nice and warm and the snow is blowing and it's quiet and you're alone in the snowy world, there's nothing better.
Maybe you have to be at least a tiny bit Scandinavian to really enjoy it. Plus you get to be sore in places you forgot had muscles.

Tonight

A few images that caught my eye tonight. Seriously, my blogroll is out of control. If I ignore it even for a day it's unmanageable. I like this mostly for the shape of the door behind her, and the reflection of the sky. It reminds me a little of Gaudi. It's by Nicole Bentley for Vogue Australia September 2010, and it's taken at Sheraton on the Park in Sydney, wherever that is. Via dustjacket attic.
This is from the Day fall/winter lookbook, a Danish clothing company, shot by Ditta Isager, via Seesaw Designs. From a brief look at Day's site, they've got some good-looking clothes, almost Edwardian winter shirts and super-Euro dresses. Ditta says her style is "simple Nordic" and I really like the way she's set up this and other photo shoots on her website: a big surreal, a bit bleak and cold, artsy like Anthropologie but cleaner-looking.
From Facehunter. Look at those legs! A Latvian, it seems. Scandinavian enough for me.
More Ditta Isager, this time for Blommingdals. Aw, I love Scandinavians! They even spell Bloomingdales in an adorable way!

Red Hair!

So I like red hair. I started this post in April and was compiling images of pretty redheads long before that, drooling over their hair. When I was little and read Anne of Green Gables, I decided that I wanted to have blond, red, or black hair. I guess I didn't quite realize that only left out brown hair, which is beautiful too. I was born with black hair, then it turned super blond (really freakishly--I still suspect I was somehow switched out with another baby around 12 months), and the blond slowly darkened until recently when it's become a kind of light brown, sometimes blond. Sometimes it looks red in pictures or in the sun, which always pleases me a lot, so I thought I'd take the plunge and dye it.

Oh yeah, I found the cookbook image I think first through frolic, and it looks like it's published in Australia only but you can buy it here. I like how her red hair manages to look all rustic and laid-back.

A banner from Ruche, an online store with vintage-inspired and often eco-friendly good deals that impresses me a lot and I've blogged about before. I like her strawberry-blonde.
This is actress Piper Laurie, best known for her role in Twin Peaks, a show that I like in theory but fall asleep during every time I actually try to watch it.
This is from an old Toast catalogue, whose images were SO GORGEOUS that I ordered it from the UK and brought it with me for airplane reading on a trip. I was actually looking at it last night too. Some people think its weird to re-read catalogues, but I really don't get bored looking at the good ones.
It looks like I found this on daydream lily but I think it may be from some street style blog? Also, I love her bangs. LOVE THEM.

This is the super-beautiful Alison from the band A Fine Frenzy. I first saw her in this awesome video called Lost Things. I suggest you take a look. She's so pretty it makes me kinda sick.
Oops, there she is again. If you'll forgive me, I kinda tend to obsess. The photo is by Angela Kohler who made the video I linked to above, which is cool and dream-like fantastical magical and stop-motion and you should watch now if you didn't before, ok?
This is some model, shot by Gabor Jurina and found on Dustjacket Attic.

Ok! So it comes as a shock to no one that there are a lot of beautiful redheads out there. Since Jessica Rabbit (and probably before), red hair has been a blaring sign that says SEXY. I've never really been one for blaring signs, but I feel like a change and think I might be able to make it work for me. My grandpa had red hair, and I've got the ridiculously pale Scandinavian skin, so I decided to finally try.

I'm always super-wary of chemical dyes and like to be all eco-friendly and stuff, so I looked into a lot of natural dyes before deciding to use henna. Using websites like this and this, and asking Claire who has used henna on her dark hair before (but didn't want to right before her wedding, although that would probably be the proper Uzbek thing to do), I decided to buy some at an Indian imports store. I lucked out and got a ride to Devon Ave (where all the Indian/Pakistani stores and restaurants are in this city and is super far from my house) but wasn't prepared to choose a brand, and ended up grabbing a packet of "instant henna" which later research revealed to be not real henna and probably suspect. So, I pestered everyone I knew with a car until I got another ride up there and bought some Jamila brand henna (I also got weird herbal Emirati toothpaste and a huge cheap box of tea). It's not the "body art quality" that the henna enthusiasts say is necessary/preferred, but it's also not a "henna hair dye" that promises a color other than red (which means: suspicious unnamed chemicals--ugh, I hate it when people harbor a blanket suspicion of "chemicals:" chemicals are in everything! but some hair dye chemicals really are quite harsh and can dry out your hair and give you a rash). So last night, following the recommended recipes from the internet, I mixed it up with some lemon juice, and today I'm going to add some other stuff (tea, paprika, something to make it not smell like hay) and put it in after work (it takes hours for the dye to "release," and then it has to sit in your hair for hours. T says it sounds like I'm cooking up some crack.) I got Princess Mononoke from the library so I guess we can watch that while I let it do it's thing.

I've almost never changed my appearance in a major way, and when I do (cutting bangs, ear piercing, shorter haircut) it usually takes me months to decide and obsess over, so thanks, friends, for listening to all my self-centered ramblings on this hair topic.

Banner I Made + That of a Swede

Sometime last year, when I was made aware of the trendy-trend of bunting/banners/pennants, I decided to make some for myself. I was working at a library at the time, and we tied up the books that were starting to fall apart with cotton cord that was much like seam binding. It was either white or sortof red, and when we took it off a book, most people threw it away. Of course, I found that unacceptable and started squirrelling away pieces of the red, and a few of the white. So anyway I had amassed quite a bit, and used it to make my bunting. For the paper, I used a piece of pink construction paper, a grocery list on green lined paper, the yellow wrapper from some soap my boyfriend bought in Chinatown, and the blue wrapper from a candle I was given for Christmas. Hooray for recycling!

I hung it in my bathroom in my old apartment, and put it up also in my new one in the weird space under the stairs. It's so hard to take pictures of the bathroom: no natural light, and it's so small that I was up against the wall just to get in this narrow angle. You can also see my orange mini suitcase I bought at my grandma's thrift store (she actually volunteers at a fantastic thrift store run by her church: it runs in the family, you see), and a picture frame with three photos of my family all mashed together.
And, tacked on to the end, this much-better-lit picture from Sandra at Niotillfem. She has a lovely blog full of her own pictures of her life in Sweden. I love blogs that are all original content, and hers is great because Sweden in the summer seems like such a wonderful time, all kinds of boating and parties and drinking in parks, and she and her friends are so retro and stylish, and that Sebastian is a hottie (I think he's married, though). It's in Swedish and google translate is charmingly off, but Swedish is so close to English you can really hit the high points anyway.

But my point was, I like her room! The bunting and suitcase are cute; the rug is especially great; the dress hanging on the wall is something I will be doing more of next year without a closet (I see it in a lot of "styled" photographs but I think it would be a nice way to actually store my nicest dress or two); and the shelf above the bed with photos, art, and books is something I'd like to do in my new space-challenged room.