YOGA: WHAT YOU NEED

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if you plan on making a commitment to your mat (and yourself) this year it might require a little investing in some good yoga basics. and by commitment i mean you get on your mat a few times a week and really sweat it out!

first things first: GET YOUR OWN MAT. most studios will provide you with a loaner mat, but lets be real, how many people have dripped their body content of sweat on it before you did? just get your own! if your new to yoga and a manduka mat is a little over your budget, target sells great mats too (my first mat was from target!)

second: what you wear to the studio is total up to you. there's a lot of lululemon out there, but don't feel like you have to wear lulu to do yoga! 

personally two of my go-to items at the moment are from MPGsport.com: the Trek Jacket and the Pegasus Leggings are the most comfortable yoga items i currently own. 

lastly: two accessories that go with me everywhere are the take me with you tote and the vinyasa scarf -->even outside of yoga the bag has become a travel staple and the scarf an everyday go to when i leave the house. 

food for thought when you are on your mat:

-listen to your body. just because the yogi next to you is in some crazy inversion doesn't mean you need to hurt yourself to get into the same pose. 

-every day is different on the mat. one day you might have the best balance, the next day standing in tree post might seem like the most difficult pose ever. 

-if you've been going to yoga for a while, try to tune into the verbal cues the teacher is giving the class. alignment is very important! 

-relax and enjoy your time on the mat. remember that time if for you!!

oh and always remember to breath!!

CERTIFIED

a few days ago, i posted that i was only a short few days away from being a certified yoga instructor... well as of yesterday evening it's official! I AM A CERTIFIED YOGA TEACHER! the past six months have been amazing. i went through training with some amazing ladies, even made friends for life. i enjoyed learning something i was truly interested in, oh and a little sanskrit on the side! my personal practice grew so much, i have enjoyed pushing myself and finding my new edge and passion in my personal practice. 

thank you to our amazing instructor, yoga guru and friend, the inspirational and beautiful susie caicedo! you helped each of us grown into our personal practice and find a voice for teaching what we truly love! (and you kicked my yoga butt five times a week for the past six months and it was worth every inch of pain and drop of sweat!)

toasting to the occasion with laughter, smiles and of course a little champagne and mala-beads!

he's to each and every one of you- it's been a life changing experience! 

see you on the mat soon. 

Namaste. 

SHARING A SUNSET

on the daily SP and i share pictures from our day with each other... a few days ago he sent me this one and i said: i know how much you like sunset pictures, so i took this one for you!

he's right, i do love me a good sunset. its a few moments of the day where God gets to paint a masterpiece and share it with us all!

happy weekend to you- hope you get to enjoy a masterpiece this weekend!

NATIONALLY CELEBRATED

if you didn't know, and i didn't until i saw a friends tweet, today is 'national peanut butter day'!

in the link, you will see it states that most american's consume an average of six pounds of peanut butter every year// i'm pretty sure i consume six pounds of the yummy goodness every two months:) 
apples and peanut butter is one of my all-time favorite snacks- i would say i have it at least every-other day...i am actually eating this very snack while i type this post! 
its a true addiction, i know! 

SO CLOSE

[back porch yoga at the ranch]

it has been a long and intense past 6 months... and in a few short days it will all be worth it!

as of sunday... (insert drum roll here) i will have completed my 200HR Yoga Teacher Training and will be a certified instructor! 

setting personal goals was part of what kept me motivated for the past 6months. one was to make it to the studio 5 times a week for my personal practice on my mat-- with a few exceptions (holidays and travels) i can say this actually happened! my second goal was to get into poses i thought would take me years to reach... i made several of them, but am still working on a few other! there is always more to learn and ways to grow, which is one of the reasons i love yoga and the personal practice of yoga so much!

ANTLERS AGAIN

as you know.. i have an affinity for all things antlers! 

when i came across this necklace on pinterest, i knew someone needed to wear it! so i gave one to a dear friend of mine for christmas... she loved it! when i saw it around her neck a few weeks later, i got antler envy and had to order one for myself! now i wear it all the time! 
do you have a favorite antler find?!

BEST OF THE WEST

Welcome to Fort Worth, Texas y'all! 
Little known fact about my family... some of them help run the Singleton Ranches, several thousand acres of it out in New Mexico. For many years now they have been invited as one of the top 8 ranches in the nation to compete in the 

'Best of the West' Ranch Rodeo at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. 
So of course the family loaded up to spend the day in Ft. Worth to (drink, eat and laugh) then cheer on the team!

ORANGE

oranges... they are like a round ball of summer in the middle of the winter!

i could eat 10 a day -- temporarily they are better than ice-cream. but i said only temporarily;)

now, if you'll excuse me, i'm off to peel another orange! 

but happy friday and weekend to all of you- and have an orange while your at it!

FRIENDS AND SEQUINS

its a fact: i have the best friends in the world. 

for one, they love me even when i send out birthday invitations at the age of 'late 20s' to my own birthday dinner!

 DIY invitations:  envelopes // sequins // notecards 

super simple idea and easy to execute... write your own invitations - keep it simple. 

helpful hint: address the envelopes before you fill them with the note card and sequins.

seal, stamp and send!

these are two of my favorite pictures from the night.. (sb- how did you not make the pic?!)

 through the great, good, bad and ugly - i love these girls more then they will ever know!

thank you for making my birthday so very special, and being the best friends in the world!

STOP AND ENJOY

sometimes God paints a beautiful picture that is worth pulling over for. 
a few weeks ago on the way to my mans birthday dinner it was one of those times. we were driving down a backroad in oklahoma to enjoy the scenery before heading to his favorite steakhouse for dinner and the sunset was unreal...  
i still can't believe i took these pictures on my iphone and without any kind of filter! 
needless to say, the skies were amazing and so was the  birthday dinner that night - surrounded by good friends and good food! 

**sp: heres to many more birthdays and sunsets together!

SHE SAID YES.. in italy!

since i have known my sweet friend sb, she has said 'i will grow up when i turn 25'.  

little did she know, she would get engaged and married at 25! i could not be happier for these two, they are the perfect match for one another! 

over the christmas holidays her family and at the time boyfriend headed to italy to visit family for the holidays (insert jealousy!!). there, on the streets of a small town in italy, 'kar' had planned a very romantic engagement ... street covered in petals, candles, the works... 

and of course she said yes!

to top it all off (only to make us all a little more envious) they had their engagement pictures taken while in venice...

{source}

STANDING OUT

i know, i know... i posted mustang pictures yesterday already, but i just had to share one more with you today! 

normally i like sharing pictures from the ranch in their raw beauty (no filter, like the ones in yesterdays post) but this picture turned out better  then i thought it would... and it was an unplanned iphone picture at that! 

 it just so happened, that one white mustang stopped to give me the stare down for feed while surrounded buy black and brown mustangs... it's like he was waiting for a photo op!

and i love that you can see the snow flakes falling up against the dark background of the horses...  yes, there's a filter on this picture, but i still love everything about it! 

SNOW AND STANGS

over new years i packed up for a week at the ranch. no computers, no work and a lot of time with my man, sp! i took a ton of pics and wanted to share a few of my favorites with you! we got lucky with fog snow flurries on new years eve, which made for great pics while we were out feeding wild mustangs!

we cooked dinner and enjoyed NYE with good friends. just before midnight while looking for enough glasses for us all to toast with champagne, guess what i found?! new years hats! yes, we all wore one and made the best of what we had to work with! 

thank goodness for an old school camera with a self timer.. we took several pictures to capture the moment and memorie, but this one cracks me up:) 

my christmas gift from my man was a really cool camo/hunting coat. so we had to put it to good use! we loaded up for an evening/sunset hunt and watched more than 20 deer walk past our blind (hence the 'blind date'!) and a beautiful sunset behind us on the hill. 

no kills this time around, but watching the deer come back to the same spot year after year and seeing how much they grow and mature is really cool!

i hope your new year is off to a good start.

here's to keeping the resolutions you set for yourself and loving/living life to its fullest every day!

LOCALLY JUICED

HAPPY NEW YEAR! and welcome back to the blog... i took a few days off from life, work and obviously the blog but im back to reality today. monday- ugh. 
with the new year upon us, many of us have set a few (hopefully attainable) resolutions! if one of yours is to shed a few pounds, why not kick start your new meal plan with a juice cleanse?! start the new year and new you off with a clean system is a good idea!
i did the 3-day juice challenge by ROOTS JUICES to start off my new year and wanted to share with you how it works and what you can expect! bottoms up!


so here's the skinny (pun intended!) on drinking juices for three days:
1- start gettin' it on your mind a few days before.. it takes a lot to wrap your head around no solid foods for 3 days 
2- know that each time you juice your body may react differently. 
(i've never had flu-like-symptoms before, but i did this time around)
3- and finally, it's easier to have a friend to do this with at the same time. encouraging one another will make it go by much faster!

the cleanse i did the past 3 days was from Roots Juices,  a cool local juicing company in dallas . i chose to do the the 6-pack cleanse that includes a protein pack once a day. (due to the fact that i was in yoga teacher training during the first two days of the cleanse, i wanted to be sure i was getting enough protein with all the excising). 
there are 8 juices/waters to get your through the day, and to be completely honest, i never got really hungry. i got snaky, but that was most likely due to that fact that i was missing the feeling of chewing instead of drinking a meal. the liquids keep you full. 

now here's the real skinny: i would do without the Chlorophyll H2P next time around,but the Healthy Nut Almond Milk is my absolute favorite.. its' literally like 'candy milk'! 

the great thing about Roots Juices is you can customize your cleanse with any of the juices you like best- so when you place your order be sure to get the juices you want!