Agnes, go stuff yourself.

 

Sometimes, when it's almost midnight, and you still have twelve more hand sewn felted birds to make, dark little niggling thoughts can creep into your brain. Thoughts like,

"are these birds really and truly cute? are people just trying to humour me? will placing these birds in our twig and flower centrepieces be way over-the-top...are my little feathered friends...TACKY?"

So it was very fortunate when, after adjusting the umpteenth tiny pink wing, I scrolled down on the Offbeat Bride to read this article.

Conclusion?

My wedding is SO TACKY. And your wedding, sweetheart? It's completely tacky too!

 

The author (Ariel, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong) makes this brilliant point - you can never ever please everyone "because you see, “tacky” is in the eye of the beholder and there is always, always going to be someone who sees things differently than you."

That right there, folks, is the single most useful piece of advice for planning a wedding that I have EVER heard. Now that you have the power, please pass it on! :D

 

What "tacky" things are you doing/including in your wedding?

a birthday rip-rap-er-roo

(to the tune of "the fresh prince of bel-air" theme song)

 

Now, this is the story all about how
My life got flipped, turned upside down
And Id like to take a minute, don't go too far

I'll tell you allllll about how a prince stole my hear ---t...

 

All a-cross b-columbia, born and raised

in thirteen schools, where I di-vided my days

geeking out, studying, trying to be cool

and playing with my barbies outside of school

and when I "grew up" I tried to forget

about the one special guy I hadn't met quite yet

so I dated around, and I wasn't too smart

...I decided to give up, give my life a restart.

 

*insert rapping noises here*

 

I - put- my nose to the books, and when I looked up

I noticed some-one had refilled life's cup

if anything now my cup was overflowing

and my feelings? oh yeah, they were showing!

 

So I debated a while, and twenty seconds later

I decided you'd be mine, and without a translator

I could tell you were it, I could tell you apart

and with-out hesitation I gave you my heart. :)


Happy 25th Birthday, Mr. Shortcake!

 

 

 

 

 

  

(ps. how excited am I to have children with this man? If they look anything like baby him, I'll be dying of cutenesss :D )

Multivitamin Q & A at weddingbee.com

A few months ago I did a question and answer segment on one of the web's most popular wedding planning sites, www.weddingbee.com. My fiancé is a blogger there, and as per her request, I answered some questions the "bees" had about premarital health and fitness. The answers were targeted at brides, but are easily applicable to people of all genders. Because there were so many different questions, I chose to begin at the beginning - with the body’s building blocks - VITAMINS!

(reproduced from here)

jfs asks:

I’m trying to be more proactive about my vitamin supplements. I take the one a day plus prenatal and I thought I was doing fine until I read an article on Hillary Swank and she takes 45 plus vitamins a day! Call me crazy but is that a little excessive? Here is the link.Anyway- are brainwave, flax, aloe c ect worth looking into? Some of these supplements cost a fortune and I’m wondering if they are worth it. Thanks so much!

 

 

Patty asks:
I’ve been thinking lately of taking vitamin supplements. I know fruits and vegetables are instead the best way to get your nutrients, but let’s be honest I just don’t get 5/day. My skin is also prone to breaking out and I read somewhere that some vitamins can help clear it up. What you recommend a female age 27 who’s never taken vitamins before start with?

Well, you first have to understand that there are more ingredients that are important to our health in food (gasp) than any multivitamin or supplement could ever hope to contain! So unless you have numerous allergies or anything that requires you to limit your food intake (crash diets don’t count), food always comes first - don’t replace food with pills!

 

 

(homemade pizza has lots of vitamins. And cheese.)

 

Having said that, I do recommend that all bees should take a comprehensive multi-vitamin/multi-mineral complex - regardless of whether or not you are planning to get preggers any time soon. Make sure that the multi-vitamin you choose has at least 1 milligram (1000 micrograms) of folic acid to help prevent neural tube defects.
The best route is actually to find a really good prenatal multi-vitamin - then you get the added benefits of super shiny hair (this is according to Miss Shortcake, who does not have any degrees in anything food related, but does have way too many hair products)!

 

theODDBOD's GUIDE TO SUPERSHINY HAIR/BUYING A MULTI-VITAMIN:

1 - Buy capsules, they are easier to take and might be better absorbed than some of the larger tablets

2 - Take a look at the non-medicinal ingredients - if the list of additives is longer than the list of vitamins and minerals ( ex. titanium dioxide -a possible carcinogen, red and yellow dyes, etc) DONT BUY THEM!

 This usually happens in generic and no-name brands of multi-vitamins. Why would you want to add all of that extra junk to your body? Kind of defeats the purpose of trying to improve your health… hmmmm? (my miss would like to add that she bought a generic prenatal multi once and it listed SHELLAC as the coating! WTF!)

 3 - Beware of multis that claim to be superior because of their added herbs, phytochemicals, CoQ10 or amino acids. While these ingredients may be good on their own, in a multi they are in such small doses that you get minimal benefits from the extra ingredients and maximum wallet drainage!

 

OTHER SUPPLEMENTS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR BODY WRITE YOU A LOVE SONNET:
OMEGA 3:

If it smells fishy and tastes bad, it’s probably omega 3, and that EPA and DHA is liquid marine love for your body. These supplements help with inflammation, improve heart health, and have many other benefits that I do not have room for here, but you can read about here. If you are pregnant, breast feeding, or thinking about getting pregnant, make sure you are taking extra DHA to help with the baby’s brain development so that you’re more likely to produce a young Einstein!

Make sure that your supplement is made by a high quality company that does ‘third party testing’ so that you are sure to get a pure product free of mercury or dioxins. Make sure that they are from wild fish as well. Liquid or pills, it’s really your preference.

 

CALCIUM, MAGNESIUM, VITAMIN D:
If you find that you are consuming too few calories or do not drink dairy due to allergies, make sure you are taking an extra Calcium, magnesium and vitamin D supplement (they are usually all together), liquid forms are easiest to take, don’t take more than 500mg of calcium in one serving or you will be peeing out the rest!

( take your vitamins like theoddbod and then you too can provide structural support to crumbling ruins in a pinch!)
 
 

 

What vitamins and supplements do you take?

 

Deadlifting

 

q: What is the most intense weight lifting technique? Which exercise, that is a must in your routine, makes you go into each workout dreading those grueling several sets almost enough to make you not go to the gym in the first place?

 

For myself it is the deadlift. The straight up and down deadlift. The most neanderthal-like lift of them all! All you have to do is bend over and pick up the heaviest weight that you can muster for a few measly reps! And if you are doing them properly you are most likely going to end up with bloody shins at the end of the workout.

If you use straps you are missing out on some great forearm development, but the load that your legs and back can tolerate is going to overpower your forearms everytime. Chalk helps, but it is not always available in many gyms; especially those lousy classy ones with carpet on the floor! Plus, if the knurling is any good on the bar it will probably tear the skin right off of your hands as the reps accumulate and the poundages increase. If you choose to use a belt make sure that you are not using it all the time as it may turn into a crutch.

 

 

So yes the lift is mindless, it doesn't make you pretty and your significant other will probably complain about your massive calluses, but that's not why you do deadlifts...

 

You do them because they are the most ancient on all lifts, it was the first lift ever to be done and it is the most basic and functionally useful lift of them all. They might not make your biceps peak, chest explode or get you more noticed at the beach. But if you put in the time and effort into this lift, grind away week after week, you will no doubt see marked improvements in all of your lower and upper body exercises as well as your overall explosive power!

I have experimented with various rep schemes doing deadlifts; all the way from several sets of singles all the way up to 20 plus reps, lately I have found that you can get just as much done with 5 reps than with any amount of reps higher than that. I find that five is a nice efficient round number and very easy to get psyched up for. Pyramid up in weight for about 5 or 6 sets always sticking with 5 reps, this is great for both strength and bodybuilding. But hey, if your feeling up to it, be like Ronnie and pull a double or single on your last set to really build up your strength, along with your ego!

I won't bore you with the technique details, because there are tonnes of websites and books detailing the technique in plenty of detail. The best things to remember is to keep that bar along your body throught the entire lift, arms straight, lift with your legs and control the rep on the way down so that you don't bounce the weight off of the ground between reps. This should help keep the lift as safe as possible

The reps may come grudgingly and painfully slow at times, but don't quit your sets until you get your 5 reps, so pick your weight carefully and keep the form tight with your lower back arched through all of your reps.

Here is how not to do the lift:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1LpXMV2V_0&feature=related

In the end you may have a love-hate relationship with this lift, so learn to love the pain and make it the cornerstone of your routine!

What is the most intense part of your routine?