One to Nothin'

What I Wore

July 19, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com 6 Comments

Dress: F21, Shoes: Guess, Ring: F21 // Dress: Lauren Conrad, Shoes: Target // Dress: Mudd, Shoes: Lauren Conrad, Bracelet: Charlotte Rousse

This week I set some sort of personal record for dressing up. This may or may not have everything to do with starting my new job, but either way I’m pretty proud of the effort that went into the whole process. I also managed to take some pretty sweet sweaty self-portraits and, more importantly, got commended by Foursquare for hitting the gym for three weeks in a row. Thank you, thank you.

If you really want to know where these shirts came from, I’ll tell you all about it. 😉

Boots: Steve Madden // Dress: H&M // Bangles: Dillard’s // Necklace: INPink and Gift

Just some fun leftovers from last Wednesday

Shirt & Shoes: Lauren Conrad (I’m obsessed, apparently) // Pants: Mudd

Don’t worry, guys, I saved the sexiest for last:

Hahaha I got a MACBOOK PRO!!! Oh em gee! I’m in love. You’re probably going to be seeing a lot more nightmare-inducing photos like the one above from now on. You’re welcome.

Linking up with: The Pleated Poppy, Rae Gun Ramblings, Transatlantic Blonde and Rolled Up Pretty

Music Monday

July 16, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com 7 Comments

Dress: Lauren Conrad // Shoes: Target // Earrings: Betsy Johnson // Necklace: INPink

I started my new job today, and I bought this dress for the occasion!

It was a great day, and I’m really excited about it.

And since I feel like good things are coming, I think it’s time for a good times playlist.

Yes?

Yes.

Enjoy.

InstaFriday / Friday’s Letters

July 13, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com 4 Comments

Dear Hair, Thanks for growing quickly! Keep up the good work. I’m ready to be able to do a super stylish top knot bun. Dear Beach, I really like you, and I would love to spend more quality time in and around you very soon. Let’s make that happen. Dear Sweet Boy, Thanks for the pretty flowers. You make me smile.

Dear Bod, The break’s over. It’s time to get down to business. I let you slack off for too long. Running is our way of life now. Dear Weather, Although your mood swings are pretty funny, they are not good for my new way of life. How am I supposed to jam out to the tunes on my phone when chances are you’re just gonna start pouring on me halfway through my run? Dear Essie Nail Polish, You are the shiz. Dear Probiotic Granola, I didn’t even know you existed until two days ago, but you are flippin’ delicious. I’m hooked.

Dear Friends, I have good news. I start my very first journalism job on Monday! I will be writing for a real-life magazine and I am beyond excited. Maybe I can even put my press hat and Brenda Starr Girl Reporter book to use! I officially have two jobs. Look at me go! I’m hoping that my new-found busyness will lead to extra productivity and that I’ll have lots of fun things to blog about. (I’m also hoping my hair will return to this length… soon.)

Love,

MacKensie G. Girl Reporter

A Recipe & A Plan

July 12, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com 3 Comments

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted any recipes on here! As an easy segue back into the cooking world, I went with Thai red curry with tofu. I’ve decided to give the whole vegetarian/almost vegan thing another try. I don’t want to be held accountable, but on the other hand, I don’t want to eat meat or dairy for health reasons as well as ethical ones. Basically my eating (and exercising) habits need to change drastically if I hope to feel better physically and mentally any time soon. I’ll get to more on that later but for now the recipe. Curry is one of my favorite dishes and it’s super delicious with tofu so I make it often, but generally follow different recipes each time as I acquire better ingredients and find different suggestions online.

This time I was lucky enough to be able to incorporate green and red peppers that were grown in my mom’s garden! That was pretty exciting. Besides that I followed this recipe and I used snow peas, an onion, extra firm tofu, bamboo shoots, sprouts, coconut milk, red curry paste, salt, Asian fish sauce, garlic, vegetable oil and Boil-in-a-bag brown rice. It wasn’t the best curry I’ve ever made, but it was definitely tasty and super easy to make. Definitely worth it.

So in addition to eating far less meat and dairy (which I already rarely eat because I’m lactose intolerant), I am also trying to lower my sugar (and alcohol!) intake and amp up my workouts a lot. You would think after training and completing a half-marathon I’d feel like I was in better shape, but I think all my crazy eating habits lately have gotten in the way. I don’t have a certain weight loss goal or anything, but I just need to feel comfortable in my body again. This doesn’t feel like me. Generally I am pretty cautious of writing anything that hints at insecurities especially weight-wise, but the point is to be real, right? And even though I don’t consider myself “fat” by any means, I feel that it’s important to feel comfortable and confident, and to be able to talk about it when I don’t feel this way.

I recently read a post by a very health-conscious running blogger about this issue and it definitely resonated with me. If you’re interested, please check it out here. The point is, everyone has insecurities, and this is my plan to get back to where I’d like to be. So hopefully there will start to be many more posts on here documenting my workouts and healthy cooking conquests. Who knows, perhaps there will even be a full marathon in my future.

Happy Thursday!

What I Wore

July 11, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com 10 Comments

Dress: H&M // Boots: Steven Madden // Bracelets: Dillard’s & Gifts // Necklace: INPink & Gift

My 7-year-old nephew took my photos for me today. How flippin’ cool is that? He even picked out the spots in the yard that he thought would make the best backdrops. Love that kid.

I think this song describes the feel of my hippie/country outfit today. Enjoy.

Linking up with: The Pleated Poppy, Rae Gun Ramblings and Rolled Up Pretty

The Last of Seattle

July 10, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com 7 Comments

As much as I hate to do it.. I suppose I’ll finish up my Seattle recap today. I just want to pretend like I’m still there. Since I didn’t really show you guys any sort of chronological order or anything, I just sort of rounded up the fun photos I haven’t shared yet and stuck them in collages. You know how I do. (In case you missed out earlier, here’s a little bit about my experiences with Seattle travels, music, clothes, food and marathon)

Clockwise // Top left: This was the view of the monorail tracks just a couple blocks from our hotel. // An adorable restaurant we ate at in downtown Seattle. // The view of the Space Needle from our hotel. The top was painted orange for the 50th anniversary celebration of its debut at the World Fair in 1962! // The Green Room theater, unfortunately we missed The Temper Trap 🙁

Top left // Goofin’ it up as usual at the Seattle Aquarium // Hanging out at the top of the Space Needle with my very appropriate umbrella and wet-dog-look. // We stumbled upon the AWESOME and very impressive 2012 Seattle Gay Pride Parade! We had SO much fun cheering and waving a rainbow flag. It was incredibly encouraging to see so much love and acceptance all in one place.

Top left // A sweet carousel at a super fun arcade near Pike Place Market // Grossing myself out at the epic gum wall. How sweet is that Adventure Time gum drawing? There was also a giant stream of gum spelling out “PROM?” it was kind of adorable and gross at the same time. // The Chihuly Garden and Glass museum was amaaaaazing. There were all kinds of beautiful blown glass sculptures and the gift shop even has t-shirts made from recycled bottles. They were soooo soft and expensive. Otherwise I would’ve gotten one.

I had such an amazing time. I am so ready to follow the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon around the rest of the country. Who’s with me?!

Happy Tuesday, friends!!

Weekend Wedding

July 9, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com 2 Comments

This weekend my cousin Michelle got married! The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and of course Michelle looked amazing. It was so much fun spending time with my family. We may have gotten a little wild. In fact, I probably would have posted this yesterday except I had a hangover of epic proportions. It was bad. I didn’t get many good photos of the actual wedding or reception, so I had to steal a couple from my sister, my mom and this beautiful one from the mother of the bride (Thanks, Aunt Bonnie!).

Here are a few snapshots of the awesome hotel and beach in Tampa, FL that we stayed at.

On the top left, yea, that would be me, my cousin and my dad after taking full advantage of the open bar: Bubbles, guns and salutes. Top right, I have pretty sisters. Bottom left, that’s my cutie nephew, Wyatt. My grandma (on the bottom right) was the flower girl and it was awesome.

I had so much fun. We danced our butts off and drank like fishies. It was a wonderful celebration. I’m so happy for you, Michelle and Tom!

On an unrelated note, I strongly suggest you all check out the new Motion City Soundtrack album “Go.” It’s fabulous just like all their other albums and they’re going on tour soon. You best believe I’m hitting that up. Let me know if you’re in the Florida area and would like to see them live in Orlando with me!

And lastly, my blog has hit 200 followers!!!! I’m so excited and I must find a way to celebrate immediately! I want to thank every single one of you. If you’re a regular reader/commenter or just click it every once in a while or are only reading this because you Googled “epic hangover” or secretly read it while locked in your room and would never want me to know, I appreciate it all so, so very much. I love you all.

Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon

July 6, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com 5 Comments

The Thursday after arriving in Seattle, my sister and I ventured into the city to find the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon health and fitness expo. A monorail and taxi ride later, we made it, and it was epic. There were SO many vendors giving away free stuff (you can see my race swag roundup in that bottom pic). I didn’t realize just how humongous this race was actually going to be. Brooks shoes had some really cool circus-esque booths where you could win all kinds of gear including brand new shoes. We didn’t win any shoes, unfortunately, but we did both get cool Brooks t-shirts.

This is where I got my race bib, watched a fast-forward video of the course and got super extra stoked about the race.

Saturday morning I woke up at 5 am because I could barely sleep anyway, got dressed in my new running gear (the idea of running in shorts in rainy 50-degree-weather wasn’t sitting too well with me) and chowed down on bananas and that gross GU stuff at the encouragement of my sister. While hanging out in corral 17 (of who knows how many, there were like 26,000 people there!) at the Seattle Center, I chugged a big ole bottle of water and was too excited to use the port-o-potty.. Naturally this caught up with me around mile 3 where I struggled to remove and replace stretchy, sweaty pants. There was plenty of classic rock blasting at the starting line and a different band at every mile jamming out while we panted past, sometimes mustering the strength to give them a ‘WOO HOO!’ I especially liked the supporters with hilarious signs like “This is the worst parade I’ve ever been to” and Ryan Gosling saying “Hey girl, I’m waiting for you at the finish line.” Then there were the adorable dance teams with tons of girls made up like Kiss band members (each of which I high-fived, by the way).

Then I came to the first hill. And when I say hill, I mean mountain. It was a 3-tiered mountain of pain. I think this was around mile six or seven, and it was so flippin’ steep that I was averaging a 12-minute mile on the way down because we were all scared we were going to tumble down Jack-and-Jill-style. We made it through, however, and I thought ‘oh well, it can’t get any worse than that, right?’
But then I got to mile 13. Yes, the last mile of the half marathon and the last .30 was straight uphill. It wasn’t as steep as the mountain of pain, but after running for 12 plus miles, it felt like I was running in slow motion. It was a pretty cruel design on the part of the race planners, but finally it was over. According to my Garmin watch I finished in 2:05, which I was happy with considering all the crazy-like hills and because I finished the Disney Wine & Dine last October in 2:08.
After the race, I chowed down on some Chinese food, chugged Gatorade, got my free beer and rocked out like a champ in the front row for the Gym Class Heroes concert.

For those of you interested, here’s the breakdown of my mile times:
Mile 1: 9:14
Mile 2: 8:42
Mile 3: 9:06
Mile 4: 8:49
Mile 5: 9:07
Mile 6: 10:00
Mile 7: 9:17
Mile 8: 9:47
Mile 9: 9:46
Mile 10: 9:40
Mile 11: 10:25
Mile 12. 10:19
Mile 13: 9:10
Plus: 2:23

It was an amazing race and I love, love, loved running through Seattle. We got to see the water, historical buildings, run through tunnels and highways. It was truly unlike any other race I’ve ever done and definitely makes me want to travel the country doing all sorts of races in the future.

Seattle Eats

July 5, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com Leave a Comment

First of all, check out this awesome Fourth of July-ness.

All right, now that I’ve gotten that immaturity out of my system (like that could ever happen), I want to show off some of the awesome food we ate in Seattle. Be prepared to drool all over your keyboard.

These oysters, summer salad and meat/cheese plate came from the Tilikum Place Cafe. It was an adorable little place that we first read about on 4square (once again, thank you social media!). We got there 15 minutes before it even opened, so we got to know the server and tried out some of their house wines. I was so excited to find out that the meat and cheese plate contained goat and sheep’s milk (which doesn’t have lactose! Yippeeee!).

For our entrees, I got the beef medallions (on the left) and my sister got the pork chop on top of a grit cake. I kid you not, everything about this meal was amazing. Even those weird lookin’ plant things (what are those?!) were amazing. For dessert I got watermelon mojito sorbet and my sister got espresso chocolate something or other with raspberry sauce. Nom.

These beauties came from the Icon Grille. I got the turkey and avocado wrap on the top left and my sister got the beautiful shrimp and mango salad on the bottom right. I devoured the entire wrap in no time and went on to sip on this herbal martini — it had all sorts of green bits in it. The decor in the place was just as beautiful as the food with blown glass draped in netting hanging from the ceiling. I wish I had taken a photo, it was amahzzing.

This was our token sushi dinner. I pretty much feel the need to try sushi no matter where I am. This was a little place called Mio Sushi. It was pretty cool because they have a “Happy Hour” for sushi. If you arrive early enough there are crazy discounts on certain rolls and entrees. We started out with green tea-salted calamari (bottom left) which was awesome. Britni got a sashimi salad (bottom right) which may have been prettier than it was tasty, and we got two sushi rolls each. They were decent, but nothing too spectacular.

At the top of the Space Needle we ate some ‘Seattle Dogs’ at the little cafe. They came with cream cheese (which I went without) and onion jam. I have never seen such a combo on a hot dog, but it was awesome. The view wasn’t bad either. And yes, that is a cheesey-touristy-souvenir-cup-slash-penny-bank. Win.

Overall, The Tilikum Place Cafe was definitely our favorite spot to eat. We even considered going back again just to try everything else on the menu, but alas, we ran out of time. There were plenty of other meals in between, but generally if I forgot to take a picture of it, I was so hungry that I devoured it before I got a chance.

Basically, Seattle food rocks. Now I just need to run, like, five more half marathons to burn off all the calories. Oy.

What I Wore – USA

July 4, 2012 by mackensieg@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Shirt: Old Navy / Jeans: AE / Boots: Steve Madden / Sweatshirt: Billabong

Blouse: Target / Lip stain: Revlon Just Bitten / Wine: Chardonnay 😉

For the past 5 days, I’ve worn work clothes and pajamas only.. So this What I Wore Wednesday edition is Seattle-tastic with a little splash of American independence. As far as clothes in Washington go, I wasn’t really prepared. I went from 90-degree-weather-as-soon-as-the-sun-comes-up Florida to rain-clouds-even-when-it’s-not-raining-50-degrees-all-day Washington. It was awesome, but not really conducive to my cute outfits I packed that mainly revolved around short dresses. Woops. Hence the jeans-and-boots combo worn every day. Don’t judge.