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Running With Cake Hiatus: see Bistro Chic

January 3, 2012 by

If you haven’t noticed by now, Jennifer hasn’t been updating her Running With Cake blog.

Please Don’t Worry- Jennifer is still actively running and often seen with cake.

If you miss her fresh fitness perspective, Jennifer still actively updates her original site: BistroChic.net.

In her words, Bistro Chic is a petit collection of musings related to world travel and culture and how we can make small lifestyle changes to bring more  joie de vivre (joy of living) into our everyday lives.

So if you enjoyed Running With Cake, I’m sure you’d love Bistro Chic!

À bientôt

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Adventures in Apple Picking…

September 12, 2010 by

Today was our annual trip to the apple orchard with the whole family – 6 adults and 5 children. Enjoy this petit photo tour of what I saw around the orchard…

Thanksgiving anyone?

It’s not time for the Great Pumpkin yet, but it will be very soon!

I will definitely be getting one of these blue/grey gourds – so cool! And now for the grand finale – the apples we took home….

Now it’s time for homemade:

  • Apple pie
  • Apple crisp
  • Apple cobbler
  • Apple sauce

See ya soon!

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The Power of Fairies

August 22, 2010 by

Hey all! What a morning – and what a day for that matter! My day started with a fast 10K run – 6.2 miles at a pace of 8 min 20 seconds. I love when I have a good run, it puts me in such a good mood. The run was followed by a very relaxing breakfast outside – Mighty Leaf Organic Breakfast, a huge bowl of watermelon, and vanilla Greek yogurt with strawberries and walnuts. How did those Italian lemon wafer cookies get on my plate? 🙂 Ahh, Sunday breakfasts in the summer – I will miss you come December!

After breakfast, we headed out for the Bristol Renaissance Faire – or as the kids call it – the place where they see the “kings and queens”. We thought it was going to be a cool day – a high of 75. But it turned out to be HOT, especially in the sun.

We were sweating like crazy so we hopped onto the DaVinci flyers ride just to cool off a bit. The DaVinci ride, and all of the other rides, are completely man-powered, as if they were rides back in Medieval times. Very cool. Then, it was time for the fairies!

Mr. C and Ms. M were captivated by the forest fairy. She didn’t say a word but would take sticks, rocks, and leaves that the children gave her and carefully add them to her special artwork pile. It was actually quite relaxing watching the fairy at work – it’s amazing how she remained silent and kept the kids quiet as well. Seriously, who needs a nanny when you’ve got a fairy. Oh the power of fairies!

Now, it’s time for dinner – a spicy sausage, bell pepper (from my own garden!), and leek dish with pasta!

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A Little Light Reading…

August 21, 2010 by

Hey all!

I have been so busy the last few weeks that my many magazine subscriptions have been piling up. I haven’t even started to read Real Simple or Cooking Light – both of which I usually tear into as soon as they arrive.

So, can you guess what I’m going to do now until bedtime? That’s right – time for a little light reading 🙂

BTW – I’m going on a surprise outing tomorrow – check back tomorrow evening to find out where I went!

See you all tomorrow!

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A Visit From The UPS Man…

August 11, 2010 by

Only one more day of work until the Healthy Living Summit! Yeah! I took the afternoon off from work to run some errands and to get some last minute sun by the pool – he he! It was so relaxing laying by the pool and following everyone’s HLS comments on Twitter – HLS bloggers are awesome!

While laying by the pool, I heard a familiar noise at the front of the house – the screeching/halting of large tires and the grrrr of a large engine. Who could it be but the UPS man! I’ve never been so happy to see Brown! And what did my Santa in brown shorts bring me? My Anthropologie top for Saturday’s dinner at Mercadito (can’t wait to meet Rhodeygirltests and Fervent Foodie!) and my RWC t-shirt.

I was so excited to receive the packages that I ripped them open like a child on Christmas morning. Unfortunately, my RWC tee did not turn out exactly how I had ordered. Thankfully, Cafe Press addressed the issue and is sending me another one – directly to my hotel on Friday – free of charge! Now that’s service! As of now, this (or a similar one) is the shirt I will be wearing to the sessions on Saturday – hopefully, you can pick me out from the crowd!

And on the subject of clothes, here’s what I will be wearing…

  • Friday Frito Lay Tour – yoga pants and t-shirt
  • Friday night OpenSky reception – cocktail dress
  • Saturday sessions – capri yoga pants and RWC t-shirt
  • Saturday Arnold Tour, Mercadito Dinner, Drinks/Dancing – Capris and a fun Anthropologie top
  • Sunday run and breakfast – Lucy running skirt and fitted running shirt

All outfits are subject to change based on weather, mood, and if I spill the odd drink on myself! Ok ladies, must get packing, then it’s off to bed to rest up for my 6-mile run in the AM. Safe travels Dawn, Pickley Pear and everyone else attending HLS!

Night all 🙂

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Healthy Living Summit Countdown!

August 9, 2010 by

Well ladies, we are just three days away from the Healthy Living Summit! By the looks of all the tweets, I can see you are all just as excited as I am! HLS is going to be a jam-packed weekend of learning, networking, and fun – plus loads of girl chatter (sorry Learn Fitness!)

HLS Swag (aka Presents!)

It’s also going to be a weekend full of swag – oooh, and who doesn’t love swag! I’m also bringing a few presents of my own – he he! I’ll be giving away 50 little goodies to my fellow HLS bloggies. Wait until you see what’s inside! Please stop and see me for one while you’re there. Don’t be shy either – I love talking to new people and I honestly want to talk to everyone! I think conferences are more fun that way, don’t you?

HLS To-Do’s

For the rest of the week, I am on a mission to:

  • Buy a cute HLS dress
  • Do laundry for HLS
  • Pack for HLS
  • Get my hair cut for HLS
  • Buy wine for HLS (BTW, anyone interested in a Friday night preparty before the OpenSky event?)
  • Get some sleep before HLS, because Lord knows I won’t be sleeping much with all of fun we are having!

So as you can see, the conference hasn’t even started yet I’m devoting most of my time to a blogging conference – oh how times have changed since I was in college!

In order to check off one thing from my HLS to-do list, I headed out to the local sporting goods store to pick up a pair of Merrell Mary Jane slides – so cute and just what I need for the Frito Lay tour! As I was paying, who did I run into? My BOSS!!! He’s on vacation all week and just happened to be in the exact same store at the exact same time. How ironic and awkward at the same time. Luckily, I had Scott and the kids there as a buffer.

Time to head to bed…so much to do, so little time – but now, I must sleep..zzz…zz…z

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Healthy Living Summit Goodies!

August 8, 2010 by

Morning everyone! I just came back from my awesome 5.5 mile run! We’ve finally had a reprieve from the heat so it’s been much cooler in the mornings, which makes for much easier running.

This cooler weather reminds me that summer is quickly coming to an end, sniff…But that also means that Autumn will be here very soon. For those of you who have been following me all the while, you know that Fall is my favorite time of year. Aside from the cooler weather, I love all of the Fall activities – apple picking, pumpkin picking, hay rides, corn mazes, etc. I’m trying not to wish for Fall too hard, because it also means that my BIG business meeting will be here soon, and I’m so NOT ready for that.

Healthy Living Summit Update

  • Business Cards – I mentioned last week that I had ordered business cards for the Healthy Living Summit – well, they arrived yesterday, 4 days early! I am extremely happy with the service and the results – they turned out perfect! If you haven’t already ordered business cards for your blog, I highly recommend ordering them from Moo Cards. They are a British company (which I love!) that specializes in design-your-own paper products, like business cards, holiday cards, etc. The Moo Card system is very easy to use and you can either choose from one of their many designs or you can upload your own images to put on the cards. I decided to go with one of the premade designs and add my own graphic on one side. I can’t wait to show them off at HLS!
  • HLS Giveaway – Also, for all of you bloggers going to HLS, I will be bringing a few goodies to give away! I will only have about 50, so find me early and you may be one of the lucky ones who gets a giveaway! I’m going to try posting a picture of it later so stay tuned!
  • Cocktail Dress Search – I’ve been out shopping twice this weekend to find a cute cocktail dress and I’ve had NO luck! I waited too long as usual so all of the cute summer dresses are picked over or gone completely. Blah! I hate when I procrastinate buying clothes that I need. It puts me in a desperate situation where I’ll end up buying things I don’t really like for too much money.
  • Frito Lay Tour – I’m also a little unsure about what I’m going to wear on the Frito Lay Tour. We are not permitted to wear shorts, jeans, or open-toed shoes. However, long capris are fine. I’m just not sure how capris look with close-toed shoes??? Some of you have mentioned wearing yoga pants, which I may decide to do – thank goodness Lucy always has cute yoga pants in stock!

Gotta run, my in-laws are coming over and I’ve got to get crackin’ on the cleaning 🙂

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Photo Breakfast

July 13, 2010 by

Fresh off of my 5.5 mile morning run, I decided to have a little fun and take a few pics of myself before work. I’m not really in to taking pictures of myself because I don’t think I’m very photogenic. Then again, we are our own worst critics. All of the photos were taken on my back deck overlooking our many gardens. The photos were also taken sans shampoo, as I don’t like to shampoo my hair everyday. My hair is dry enough and shampooing it everyday just makes it worse!

I am trying very hard not to wear black in the summer, but it just seems like when I do wear black or dark blue/brown, that’s when I take the best photos. I wonder if there’s such a thing as “summer black”, like summer white?

Before breakfast, I took a walk around the veggie garden to see if any critters had stolen more of the goods – no sign of activity, all of the peppers are there, safe and sound. And so I made a lovely bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch (1/2 cup) and plopped about 1 cup worth of strawberries and raspberries right on top. Perfect for a warm summer morning!

I just love how the red berries just pop out of the picture!

And yes, here is me in my natural habitat – eating. Damn – I wish I would have put our fancy chair cushions out, it would have look so much nicer – blah!

Notice how the light just happens to shine right on my cleavage. My husband obviously took this photo and apparently he had an agenda.

I’m off to work – have a great day everyone!

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Vacation Dreaming…

July 12, 2010 by

I am back at work after 10 days of vacation. And, what am I doing? I am sitting at my desk thinking about when I’ll be able to take my next vacation!

On the first day of my vacation, I mentioned that there were several things I wanted to do, including:

  1. Spending time in our pool with a frozen drink – I did spend a LOT of time by the pool which was extremely refreshing. And, I did have one or two frozen drinks, but who’s really counting?
  2. Shop at my own leisurely pace – I did shop at my own pace, which is just heavenly when I’m used to carting around 2 impatient kids
  3. Trying a new restaurant sans kids – Scott and I did meet for lunch one day, although it was at Wildfire, a restaurant we’ve been to several times.
  4. Attending my first Hot Yoga class – Didn’t make it to hot yoga, but I did attend a fantastic hatha yoga class on Saturday!
  5. Going to Great America with the kids – We did do this and it was so much fun! Makes me want to go back to Disney, hence the vacation dreaming….
  6. Eating tart frozen yogurt – I’m bummed I didn’t get to do this. It’s on my list for this weekend though!
  7. See Letters to Juliet before it leaves the theatre – I didn’t get to the movies at all. Letters to Juliet has been out for a while so it was very hard to find an accommodating show time that was near my house. Ugh – guess I’ll wait for the video!

Now, I am really looking forward to the Healthy Living Summit – it’s just a few weeks away!

OK, back to work for me…

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Vegetable Garden Conundrum

July 11, 2010 by

Today is the last day of my vacation – ugh! I have been away from work for 10 days (including weekends) and it felt sooo nice to be away from work! To celebrate my last day of vacation, I went for an awesome 6-mile run and then hopped in the pool with the kids!

After lunch, I enjoyed a little Conundrum wine with Scott and his parents on our deck. The white wine is a mix between Pinto Grigio and Chardonnay (I think!) – very nice on a summer afternoon. And how appropro, considering it says right on the bottle that the wine is perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon by the pool…

I really needed the wine to help me with what was in store later in the day. Before dinner, I headed back into our vegetable garden to set up a new fencing system. We’ve already had two of our baby green peppers “stolen” by bandit critters. No one takes my vegetables with out a fight! I set up a wrap-around flower bed fence and then added screening wire to keep out the pests. Hope this works – otherwise the guy at Home Depot said to try deer and rabbit repellant – that just doesn’t sound good.

One thing is for sure – whatever is eating our green bell peppers is staying away from our jalapeno peppers – if it’s too hot for you, stay out of my garden! At least they did not eat my first cucumber…

Yeah for fresh veggies picked straight from the garden! See you all tomorrow 🙂

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