Please Rewind

In a world where consumerism is king, it’s easy to get caught up in all things superficial and believe that buying fancy, expensive things creates happiness, so let’s rewind; remember childhood and how it really didn’t take much to make you happy back in the day? Well, as an exercise, I decided to try a few fun activities that used to put a smile on my face and you know what … they made me really happy!

Here are some random, simple, little things that you can do with your friends or better yet, if you’re a parent, with your child(ren), to bring back those good times and you wont be breaking the bank!

1. Watch The Little Mermaid (my fave) or any other great kid flick (if you’re a parent this doesn’t mean catching glimpses here and there as you pass from the home office to the kitchen! SIT DOWN and watch it!).

2. Build a fort (or a tree-house if you’re feeling ambitious).

3. Make pb&j sandwiches. YUMMY.

4. Make friendship bracelets. Once you start making them, you’ll really be surprised by who asks you for one.

5. Re-arrange and decorate your bedroom. Let’s face it; it’s just as fun now as it was then.

6. Play capture-the-flag. Put your game-face on for some serious fun.

7. Run relay races (avoid hospital trips for stitches if possible).

8. Dress-Up Tea Parties. You can really get crazy with this one!

9. Eat some Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Lucky Charms. You’re an adult now and your parents can’t tell you no.

10. Bake a chocolate cake. Right after you put it in the oven don’t forget to lick the bowl clean, it’s the best part!

-By guest blogger Caroline Stilwell Burckle 

Keep It Pinteresting

If you haven’t already discovered the website Pinterest I highly suggest hopping on the bandwagon ASAP!

I tend to spend a great deal of my free time surfing this site and by free time I mean sitting at home on the couch, in a waiting room, in line for coffee, while returning emails, even sometimes while I’m working out. It’s become a regular craving for me!

WHAT is Pinterest? Here is their explanation: "Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. To get started, request an invite."

WHY am I rambling about this? Well, I recently bought a house here in my hometown of Louisville, KY, and let me tell you that it has been one of the most challenging, liberating, fun, scary, long and artistic projects that I have taken on since being at FIDM. What am I getting at here? Well, almost 99% of my inspiration has come from Pinterest. It is truly an excellent source for anyone decorating a home.

Here’s how it works: You take images from other websites and pin them (save them) to the boards that you create on your Pinterest page. You can also re-pin ideas to your own boards from other people that are on Pinterest. It’s that simple and makes for and easy sharing of ideas and inspiration from all sorts of places you'd never expect!

If you’d like to check out my ideas for decorating, have a look at my Pinterest page and the board titled For the Home.  Lately I’ve been into textures, bold statement pieces and warm colors.

Two other boards well worth looking at are Mane Event (filled with amazing, easy and effortless hairstyles that I often try out) and YUM! You can gauge the latter for yourself but I’ll tell you I’ve made almost half of the goodies on that page and they are tasty!

Here's a link to Amanda's Pinterest page and don't forget to check out my recent 20 Question Tuesday on usaswimming.org. You might like #19! Swim Like A Mom!

-By guest blogger Caroline Stilwell Burckle

Fashion-Five Countdown

From sites with great deals on the latest fashion items to blogs where I find inspiration, here's a list of where I love to spend my free time on the internet:

5 - www.cupcakesandcashmere.com            

This is a very popular blog that might already be familiar to you. It’s written by “Emily” who’s a fashionista at heart but blogs about everything from her favorite recipes (there is an amazing one for cake pops right now!) to ways to re-vamp a home office or living room with cheap and easy improvements. She posts regularly about her outfits and how she pairs certain accessories with different clothing options.

4 - www.shopstyle.com

This is one of my FAVORITE shopping websites and I sometimes wonder if it’s because the site is so organized and easy to shop on (which is very important to the web customer) or if it’s the great deals; regardless, perhaps the best feature of SHOPSTYLE is that it allows you to shop in outfits so you can find deals on everything in your outfit. I think it is safe to say I have spent many, MANY hours clicking through the pages of evening and cocktail red-carpet gowns … hey, a girl can dream! 

3 - www.honestlywtf.com

Taking a different approach than the previous two, this blog has an entire section for DIY arts and crafts for different kinds of fashion pieces. Recently my friend who lives in Nashville and I simultaneously made chevron friendship bracelets from the instructions on Honestly WTF and sent them to each other. You might be thinking it seems childish but it’s the little things like getting a hand made gift from someone close to you that that can make your entire day. (YES, I am 25 and still LOVE my little girl hobby!)

2 - www.self.com

I LOVE this site! If you have ever read the magazine "Self", then you should definitely get your hands on this web-version of the popular women's health, beauty, and fitness go-to monthly read. My favorite part about this website is that it radiates positivity. I love that I can read up on every worry that a woman has about her body or lifestyle and more importantly the solutions to those worries. You can even pick up a few dry-land exercises for those rainy day indoor workouts.

1 - www.wwd.com

When I was studying at FIDM, they introduced us to the Women’s Wear Daily website and we were fortunate to have full access to it to on a regular basis for free. Normally you have to sign up and pay a small monthly fee to get access to all parts of the website. Without a membership, you can still see all the latest fashion news from all over the globe, trends for next year, recent runway shows from Paris, even careers in the fashion world but I highly recommend paying for full access. It’s such an unbelievably powerful website; one I would be absolutely lost without!

-By guest blogger Caroline Stilwell Burckle

Healthy On the Go

Being an athlete can be a full time job and if you’re also a parent, a student, have a second job or all of the above, always remembering to pack a healthy snack can be difficult so try to buy foods that are easy to grab on the go. Any snack that takes time to prepare is a luxury not usually afforded to those with an active lifestyle.

A FEW QUICK SNACKS…

• Two Moms in the Raw Blueberry Nut Bar: you might have read about this one on a previous blog of mine. Clearly I am obsessed!

• A Honeycrisp apple with Justin's Almond Butter (comes in packets for on-the-go)

• Trader Joes' bagged dried fruit (I prefer peaches and apricots)

• A banana or two (can also pair with Justin's Almond Butter)

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip LÄRABAR

• OSTRIM Beef & Ostrich Sports Nutrition Meat Sticks (my best friend got me hooked on these...sounds interesting but they are SO good and 14g Protein!)

• Bagged mini carrots, celery and peppers sliced up (I usually prepare these the night before, throw them in a Ziploc in the fridge to take next morning)

• An avocado (sounds strange, but eating an avocado is so satisfying, not to mention has the healthy oils and fats we need)

• Greens + Chocolate Coated Peanut Butter Protein Bar (you can find these at a health food store---has ALL the greens plus the tasty chocolate coating!)

A FEW QUICK FACTS…

• Being an athlete requires expending a lot of energy on workout days. 

• FUEL = ENERGY

• The most crucial times to snack/eat and quickly fuel the body are before a workout, during a workout (depending on your sport), immediately following a workout and every few hours during the day.

• Most athletes do not snack enough and if they do, not healthily enough.

• Snacking habits are easy to change.

-By guest blogger Caroline Stilwell Burckle

If you have any questions please ask in the comment section below and remember this is only an opinion. When making any changes to your diet you are doing so at your own risk and should have prior approval from your physician!

7 Habits of Highly Effective Athletes

1)  Perfect Practice Makes Perfect - Gregg Troy, my college swim coach from the University of Florida, said "perfect practice makes perfect" what felt like at least a dozen times every single workout. At first, I brushed it off as just another catch phrase from the ole swim coach but at some point I began to read between the lines … if you just go through the motions at practice everyday then you will just go through the motions at the big show. Do everything as perfectly as you can day in and day out and you will be at the top of your game come time to compete. It’s that simple.

2)  Keep it Simple - Don't make things more complicated than they are. Most of what we deal with in life, including sports, is actually fairly simple if you slow down or, better yet, stop and think about it.

3)  Find Balance - Too much of one thing can make anyone go crazy. Finding the right balance between your sport, family, friends, pets, social activities and hobbies is crucial to your sanity and ultimately your success.

4)  Don’t be Afraid to Fail - Yep, that's right, I said it … FAIL. Go ahead, I dare you! If you’ve never failed, until you do, you won't succeed. Hate to say it, but it's the truth … it even makes me cringe to write it! - "Those who have no problems never eventuate to accomplish anything, Those who face the most challenges often create the most value."

5)  Remember You Goals - Write down questions your goals are answers to and post them where you can see them. Having goals is one thing, but forcing yourself to recall them from memory regularly and putting them where you can see them every single day, several times a day, will engrave them in your mind … think of it as mental muscle memory.

6)  Ask Questions - just like in school, in athletics there are no dumb questions. Ask coaches, mentors, role models, older athletes, etc. anything you want to know: knowledge is power.

7)  Have Confidence – Last but not least, what are we without confidence? Not a whole lot. It’s the foundation of everything we are and everything we will become so BELIEVE in yourself and have confidence but don’t go searching for it, it only comes from within.

-By guest blogger Caroline Stilwell Burckle

5 Things I Love on a Lazy Sunday

1)  Influence by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen - Okay, so I've been given many amazing birthday gifts but one I have yet to grow out of is the book Influence. Yes, if you only look at the cover, it can be mistaken for a silly little girl book filled with frou-frou pictures from Mary Kate and Ashley’s childhood but turn a few pages and you’ll realize they’re now an extremely bright minded dynamic twenty-something entrepreneurial duo. The book is an amazing collection of pictures and interviews of people who have inspired them in their design/fashion/personal life, from Diane von Fürstenberg to Alexander McQueen, and proof the girls lead an eclectic life. Mary Kate and Ashley's passions are nothing short of contagious. What I take from it: they never do what is expected. They do and create what they love, stay out of the crazy limelight and don't let what others think dictate who they are and what they love.

2)  houzz.com is a website my Aunt Wendy (an interior design genius) forwarded to me recently. I just bought a house in my hometown of Louisville, KY, and let's just say that this website has seen consecutive hours of usage by lil' ol' me. The site allows you to put together digital idea books from beautiful and amazing homes all over the world (I'm obsessed with Mediterranean style homes) in any way you want; by color, room, theme, location, etc. What I take from it: it's ADDICTING!

3)  weheartit.com is a site filled with fun photography/creative photos for any age ( it caters more to adolescent girls, but hey, to each their own). I often save my favorites and use them for fun backgrounds on my phone, computer, and iPad.

4)  Twilight: Breaking Dawn Soundtrack - Don't knock it till you try it. - ps #TeamJacob.

5)  Two Moms in the Raw make bars you can get from most any health food store (or sold individually at Starbucks now)! They’re healthy, delicious, ADDICTING, and the perfect fiber-filled, good-fat snack to sustain energy that you need throughout your Sunday!

Sunday Quote: "I am who I am, that is that. I am who I am thank God, I am". - Guru Singh

-By guest blogger Caroline Stilwell Burckle

If you have any questions please ask in the comment section below and remember this is only an opinion. When making any changes to your diet you are doing so at your own risk and should have prior approval from your physician!