Outfit of the day: California Winter

Header-Cali-Winter-LookEver since getting back to California after spending over two weeks in Canada, I have never appreciated California winter’s more. A light sweat shirt, that’s all I need right now! Not that I’m an expert at being here during the winter time, but we did arrive 11 months ago. If only I could get on this easy in Canada with such little layers. To be honest I didn’t even need the hat, it was warm outside. My logic behind it was that I bought it on eBay for < $4 and I couldn’t not wear it this season. For my Canadian friends, and everywhere else in the world who goes by Celcius temp’s, it was 15°C (59°F I had to google the conversion. I’ll never get used to fahrenheit).

Seems to be the hot topic between friends and I, in a joking way.

My dog-walkin’ neighbour friend and I always talk about how cold/warm it is outside and I’m all “yeah it feels like it’s at least 18 degrees“. She gives me a confused look because we both don’t know how to convert it into fahrenheit so I ball park it with… it’s in the sixites? Close enough. Now we go by “it’s t-shirt weather!” or “man where are my mittens? My fingers are cold.”

So here we go, an outfit I wore on Saturday during this balmy California ‘winter’. I’m way overdressed. California-Winter-look

California-Winter-side-view

Cali-Winter-look-head

Winter-side

My outfit:

eBay hat, eBay scarf, Forever 21 tee
Uniqlo down jacket, Alo Sport leggings, eBay rain boots

… and because outtakes are always fun. The Guy takes forever to take a picture. Waiting for me to make a face at him, then snap… picture taken. This is the outcome:

Angry-face

I have a pretty nice schedule going on this week with a few different friend-dates that I’m excited about. I’ll be driving to San Francisco tomorrow to meet Megan, lunch with Lauren, and dinner with my Canadian friend! What’s on your agenda for the week?

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Tibb’s Eve Brunch

Yesterday was definitely a character building kind of day. With a stiff lip, I let myself mull over the situation for an hour or two, then go about my evening. The Guy came home early, and decided to take me out to get some Subway and check out the festive Christmas lights around Santana Row. He sure knows how to cheer me up! With that being said, thanks for all your comments regarding yesterday evening’s post. I do need to thank WestJet for their impeccable customer service.

This morning I got up and made us a brunch, and shortly after I finish proof-reading through my post, I’m heading over to Jessica’s house to make some cookies with her!

Brunch-headerI can hear you asking yourself what the heck does Tibb’s Eve mean. It’s a celebration to kick off the Christmas Season as you do in Newfoundland (where we’re from). Tibb’s Eve is the Eve before Christmas Eve and can often be referred as Tipsy Eve if ya catch my drift.

To start our mid-morning Tibb’s Eve, I made us a huge breakfast as we can finally sit back and relax with the two of us and Alfie. We had three sets of visitors throughout December, my parents in law, my sister in law and my husbands best bud all came down for a visit. It was great! I love entertaining, and showing people all the sights and sounds that California has. I will never tire of the Golden Gate Bridge, let me tell you that much!

I’ve been lucky that Walmart Delivery is taking a liking to my food posts, this is the third instalment of me working with them. Once again, all the food shown in the post (ok minus the grapes, they were gross anyway) were from Walmart and delivered right to my doorstep. The delivery guys and I are getting to know each other pretty well. Alfie still doesn’t like them — wouldn’t blame him really, they’re strangers.

I do have to say, I’m getting bolder in the kitchen and expanding my cooking skills to making a ton of things at once, instead of baking muffins and some scrambled eggs. I’m doing it all. Fryin up the bacon, making blueberry muffins, egg bagels with tomato and cheese, fresh fruit with whip cream, and having a side of apple juice, hot chocolate and then peppermint tea! Whoowee.big-brunch

Brunch-and-decor

bowl-of-apples

Christmas-decorations

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Tibbs-Eve-Brunch

peppermint-tea-santa-mugI stocked up on the Celestial peppermint tea and now have a couple of boxes, there’s nothin’ better than peppermint flavoured treats at Christmas. After breakfast or even before bed, I like to sit in my chair and have a little chit chat with The Guy about our day ahead, or unwinding after a long day. My Santa mug has a few cracks in it, I think it can’t handle the heat of my extra hot drinks. Hopefully it’ll last a few more seasons!

So, it’s two days until Santa Claus arrives on his sleigh, and for those that celebrate the Misters visit, I sure hope you’re all ready. Are you? I have to admit, I need to wrap a couple of more gifts and I am set. We have a modest amount of presents under the miniature Ikea tree this year, but I’m really excited to celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple. This year has been so different for us, and believe it or not (I probably keep repeating myself) I’m the happiest I have been in my life. I’m content with where I am in my/our life right now. With that being said, I will be taking the next week or two off blogging to spend time with my new little family. See you in 2015, stay safe and Happy Holidays!

But before I head off until the New Year, here’s $15 toward your first order with #WalmartToGo, an online grocery pickup and delivery service and if you spend over $50 delivery is free.

Disclaimer: Walmart-to-go provided me with a gift card to use their delivery service.

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Meet FitBit

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Fitbit through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Fitbit, all opinions are my own.

By now you have probably seen me wearing a Fitbit on my arm if you’ve scrolled through my photos on the blog, or follow me on Instagram.Wearing-FitbitFitbit logoI have been wearing the Fitbit Flex for a solid three weeks and have only taken it off twice to charge it when I knew I’d be sedentary, sitting at my computer. It’s even safe to wear in the shower! While it doesn’t stand out on your arm nor is it an eyesore, it’s still a piece of rubber on your arm. You’d be pleased to know one of my favourite designers Tory Burch has teamed up with Fitbit, creating gorgeous metal bracelets and pendant necklaces for sleeker ways to track your fitness.

Lifting-AlfieYou know that I’m not a person who likes to go to a gym and do weights or run on the treadmill. I prefer taking it outside and go rock climbing or do yoga. I’ve recommended a ton of stuff to you guys in the past. I’m always honest and truthful with you, if I got the product for free to review, and I always tell you the pros and cons about a product. While I’m a bit disappointed that it doesn’t track my yoga (since I’m barely moving) nor does it seem to significantly track my bouldering or top roping sessions, it does track me going for runs outside, and taking Alfie for long extend-o walks, think of it as a fancy pedometer basically. You can use the Fitbit as a motivator to get your daily steps in, but please remember in order to get your daily exercise in, you need to get your heart rate up. Walking around a mall for 4+ hours to get your ten thousand steps in shouldn’t count as your cardio for the day. With that being said, I did burn a heck of a lot of calories sweeping our front porch and not many during a yoga class. So keep that part in mind.

On-the-trailsHowever, Fitbit flex can be a great little motivator for those who need the extra push to get moving. When I tap my wrist to see how highly active (or lazy) I’ve been that day, it keeps me accountable for my health and well-being. Because I know darn well I can easily sit at the computer all day long with only grabbing a bite to eat and taking Alfie out every now and then. I don’t want to slowly watch my weight pile on!

I’d like it to fit more snug on my wrists so I swapped out the one that is in the box for the smaller one that came in the starter kit I received. I’m happy to report they kept in mind the people with smaller wrists, a rare treat! If you don’t want to wear the rubber bracelet on your arm, or are worried about it falling off (even though it’s clasped in really well and is almost a bit difficult to remove) you can take the tracking chip off the wristband and put it in a zippered pocket if you’re out on a run. The Fitbit has pre-set a 10,000 step distance for you to keep track of and sync with your computer online.

Fitbit-Sleep-trackerEach morning I check it to see how much sleep I got that night, how restless I was (and let me tell you guys, I’m pretty efficient when it comes to sleep. I can sleep in a room crowded full of people with music blasting and I’ll still get 98%+ sleep efficiency, so I wasn’t surprised at how well I slept.) But I was curious to see how much I tossed and turned, because each movement of the arm during the night reflects “restlessness” according to Fitbit.

Once I’ve been wearing it for 6+ weeks I plan on handing over the Fitbit to my husband. I’d be interested to see how much The Guy and I differ between our sleep and workouts, seeing as he gets terrible rest, and a ton more running and biking in than I would ever think imaginable. Dude goes non-stop.

Overall it gives me a pretty good idea on how my fitness is (or isn’t) during the run of a day. I’m obsessed with the sleep tracker, and especially the silent alarm. If I’m waking up earlier than The Guy I try not to disturb him and the BlackBerry alarms are still pretty loud in the mornings, this one has a silent alarm that vibrates to wake you.

While the $100 price tag won’t break the bank, I am still debating whether or not I’d spend the money on it myself if I didn’t get it to review. Though my Fitbit does motivate me to get up, out and around – I’m not sure it’s suitable to the workout regime I do. I do have to say, since this thing has been on my wrist, it’s definitely kept me accountable for not grabbing a pizza right after my bouldering session (it happens at least twice a month) — and whoopsie totally happened yesterday. With that said, I know my husband is dying to try it out since he runs and bike’s on a daily basis. So I’ll keep you guys in the loop if you wanted to hear more about his thoughts on it.

How do you #findyourfit? How many days a week do you exercise?

What’s your favourite way to workout?

Think you’d benefit from a fitness tracker like Fitbit?

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