I Need Your Help!

Hey everyone!

After Spring Break, it's become really real that a) my birthday is in less than two weeks, b) graduation is in approximately 45 or so days (there was some Twitter countdown the other day but I forgot what it was so this is just a rough estimate.... oops), and c) after that? SUMMER. Which means shorts. Every. Day. I am not pleased with my eating, health, and workout habits lately so I'm comitting big time to change. Here's where you guys come in:

Where is your favorite, well priced workout gear from? Old Navy? Target? What are your favorite pieces (brand, style name, etc)? I'm specfically looking for good workout leggings - I don't like the ones I have anymore.

Do you have any favorite healthy foods? 

What are your favorite workout moves or workouts? If you found your fave on Pinterest, send me the link! I hate to say this, but I avoid the weight room at our campus gym because it's always filled with boys that look at you like a crazy person for going in there and none of my friends will go with me...

What are your biggest health secrets? Promise I won't tell...

I really need to jump start this whole weight loss thing! I am feeling less than confident and my clothes are not fitting the same as they used to and it is really getting me down. I know that I need to do something and stop feeling sorry for myself, so I'm going to the gym this afternoon to work out for a couple of hours.

Four Favorites

Linking up with Kristin @ Fancy Things and Ashlyn @ Let It Be Beautiful!  

4/3/13 Favorites by leopard-spot featuring j crew

one / two / three / four

The J.Crew Signature Legging. I loooove these leggings. They are perfectly thick enough, the waistband is wide so it doesn't pinch and cut into your sides, and they are super soft and stretchy. They're perfect for a long day of class and studying! Occasionally I cuff them underneath themselves so they can show off my shoes better too!

Soundcloud, specifically Passon's music selections. Love these remixes! I've been listening to them nonstop for the past couple of days and they have been fueling my studying because I am excited for this weekend - we're having a date party and of course I will have my handsome boyfriend as my date.

My Camelbak and the company's warranty. The bite valve on my collegiate Camelbak broke a couple of weeks ago and I was terrified that I would have to replace it after less than a year! Thankfully, I checked the Camelbak website and found out that they have an awesome warranty on their products. I filled out a form online, submitted it, and had my new lid a week later!

Tarte BB Tinted Treatment 12-Hour Primer Broad Spectrum SPF 30 Sunscreen. I bought this right before spring break and I love it! It's super light and gives good coverage without making me greasy! Look out for a review of this BB cream and some other spring break discoveries coming soon!

Spring Break Recap

Hi Everyone! 

Hope you all had a wonderful week and a Happy Easter :) Sorry for unexpectedly being MIA last week - I planned on getting some posts set up last weekend before I left but I never got around to it in between coming home on Saturday and getting ready to leave on Monday! I'm working a little bit backwards, seeing as how I did the Weekend Shenanigans recap yesterday and now I'm going to give you the recap of my Spring Break! 

Beers at the airport before our flight! 

Monday: My boyfriend drove down to Chicago to meet me and pick up some last minute necessities for the trip. We ate at a couple of my favorite spots (breakfast and then a post shopping/pre-flight snack), did some shopping, and drove around to see some of my hometown. The boyfriend was not exactly thrilled to be shopping but he quickly realized that I knew what I was doing and that if he trusted my judgement we would get done very quickly! After our little shopping adventure he has decided he's never going shopping without me simply because I know "exactly what to look for" (direct quote!).  In the evening we headed to the airport and our flight got into Orlando around 11pm. When we got there the boyfriend had a surprise for me - instead of having one of his family members come pick us up, he had a limo ordered to drive us to the rental house! It was funny because he had planned this a couple of weeks in advance and hinted about a "big surprise" and jokingly I had guessed that he would rent a limo... guess I was right! 

Mickey underwater in the aquarium at Epcot

Tuesday: This whole day was devoted to visiting Epcot! We got to the park around 11am and went on rides in Future World until we had lunch. After lunch we headed to the World Showcase and walked "around the world" for a few hours. Once we finished up there, we hit up more rides until the park closed. I definitely did more rides and activities in Future World than I have in the past, and unfortunately less than I had hoped to in the World Showcase. (More for the next time I go, huh?) This might be stupid, but I had no idea that there was a ride in the Epcot globe! It's one of my boyfriend's favorites and I really liked it - it was all about how technology changed the world and it tied in very nicely with the themes of my Material Culture classes! (#nerdalert) I also loved touring the aquariums and seeing all of the underwater creatures. OH - and the Coca-Cola world flavor taste testing area was so cool! I loved being able to try all of the unique flavors - if only we could get some of them in the U.S.! I couldn't pick a favorite but the watermelon flavor stood out to me the most. Next time I go to Epcot I definitely want to eat a meal in the World Showcase and take my time sampling drinks/snacks and shopping (picking a pearl in Japan was at the top of my list but it was too busy when we were there... next time!). 

Lobster Mac & Cheese at the Coral Reef Restaurant in Epcot - YUM. 

 

Cinderella's Castle during the day and night! (Cue the Kid Cudi song, obvs)

Wednesday: We got an early start on Wednesday so we could cover as much of the Magic Kingdom as possible and hit a couple of sights in Animal Kingdom. Magic Kingdom was actually open until 1am so we had a lot of time to get through the park! We covered more rides than I was used to again (which was a refreshing change from what my family normally does. Both ways are fun but I need a little balance between the two styles for myself) and I'll admit, most of the ones I remember as kind of "scary" or thrilling from seven years ago were not as bad as I remembered. I know a lot of rides have been remodeled (the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and some others) so they seemed a lot more like real life models of films. They were fun (and probably much scarier in some cases for young kids!) and it was interesting to see how my perception of these rides has changed since my last visit. In the early evening we headed over to Animal Kingdom to go on the Safari ride and the Forbidden Journey roller coaster. We cut it very close to the cut-off for the safari ride - much to my boyfriend's panic - and made it juuuust in time! It was really cool to see how a part of Florida had been transformed into a close replica of the animals' natural habitat and that the animals were studied by researchers. The Mount Everest Yeti roller coaster was also super cool - I went on it twice and I hate roller coasters! After Animal Kingdom closed we went back to the Magic Kingdom and went on more rides: Space Mountain, Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid, the Jungle Cruise, It's a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, and a few others. We got a behind the scenes tour on the Jungle Cruise because it was just our little group on the boat. It was very interesting to hear how the ride was almost exactly the same as when it first opened. Once 1am rolled around, we were all exhausted and so glad to be going home! 

The teacups in Fantasyland

Hogwarts!

Thursday: This was the day my boyfriend and I went to Universal Studios to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We had high expectations for the park, and our standards for theme parks had also been set really high from spending the past two days at Disney, so we ended up being disappointed in our visit to Universal. There were huge crowds because of Spring Break and there were tickets being distributed just to enter the Wizarding World - we had no idea and walked almost to the entrance of the Harry Potter part of the park without knowing! We had to retrace our steps and go back, wait in a 45 minute line, get a ticket, and then hike all over the park again to finally enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Once we got in, the crowds were even worse. We headed straight to the back of the park to grab a butterbeer (which was delish! Glorified cream soda, but so yummy frozen) and get in line for the Forbidden Journey through Hogwarts. Once we got in line there, we waited for almost two hours before finally entering the castle. We were tired, we were cranky, I had to pee, and we were not expecting much from the ride. Thankfully, once we entered the castle things changed - the tour of the castle was really cool, complete with appearances from Harry, Ron, and Hermione and magic snow. The ride itself was phenomenal. I'm not going to say it was worth the 2-hour wait on a crowded day, but if you are visiting Universal and the crowds aren't horrible, well then I would say it is definitely one of the best rides ever. Beyond the ride, the park didn't offer much for me. I wasn't very interested in the merchandise but it was cool to walk around Hogsmeade. My boyfriend and I got dinner at the Three Broomsticks and were overall pretty meh about the experience. My boyfriend got the chicken and ribs dinner (he was less than pleased with his food - the chicken was not thoroughly cooked), I got the fish 'n' chips (which were pretty great), and both of us got Hog's Head Brew beers. The beer was darker than I was used to, but not unbearably bitter. Once we finished dinner we stopped at the Hog's Head to get a drink. I was too full to drink anything else but my boyfriend was excited to see what was on tap. He got a Yuengling's beer, which I actually really liked. He was definitely happy to hear that I liked something that was a little different than what I normally drink! Once we left the park, we headed back to the rental house and went to the pool/hot tub to relax for a while. We had a fun rest of our evening and a good end to our vacation! 

Me and my butterbeer (via my Instagram) 

Hogsmeade & Honeydukes! 

Friday: Well, the end of our vacation was bittersweet. We had to get up early in the morning to catch our flight back. We split our time on the flight between napping and watching the Hobbit (which I surprised him with as a gift). Once we got back to Chicago, we went back to my house to hang out and ended up napping until my family came home (no shame in napping... we had a busy few days!). We went out to dinner with my family and recapped our trip for them. After that, my boyfriend headed back up to Wisconsin and I watched a movie with my mom and sister. 

Alright so that's my spring break recap! I can't wait to go back to Disney World - not getting to do everything makes me really excited to go back. It was so much fun to be there with my boyfriend too. I can't wait to go back again as an adult (and without kids) but I am also looking forward to the day when someone in my family has kids and they get to experience the magic of Disney World too. 

Weekend Shenanigans!

Hi everyone! 

Hope your week is off to a good start - I'm trying to get myself back in the swing of things after a waaaaay too short spring break. Today I'm linking up with Sami from Sami's Shenanigans... yes I am a little bit late but hey, better late than never?! 

I spent this weekend breaking in these Minnetonka Moccasins that I got for Christmas and found in my closet while packing for spring break. My feet hate shoes. It took me six months to break in my Sperrys guys. SIX. MONTHS. I can't even tell you the number of times I attempted to break those shoes in while slooooowly walking to class.... halfway there I was hobbling and bleeding. I always packed a pair of flip flops as a precaution. 

Yum - part of the Easter dinner my mom made! Baked beans, corn casserole, and asparagus ricotta tart. Not pictured (fail) but equally delicious: cheesy potato casserole, fruit salad, Hawaiian bread rolls (my fave), ham, turkey, cauliflower. Don't get me started on dessert. I'm still full from that. 

Errrr excuse the poor lighting. I was holed up on the couch drinking a ginormous Dunkin Donuts iced coffee with caramel and skim milk. If you'd care to bring me one in the morning, you'd be my favoritest person ever. Also, I stalked the J.Crew Factory website for any deals I might have missed in stores (uh, 50% off everything? Yeahhhhh I took advantage of that. Goodbye to the next $200 of paychecks). 

Finally, I took my mom's Volkswagon Beetle Convertible out for a quick errand. I wanted to Instagram a picture of it and make a bad Easter egg joke (and by bad I mean that it probably would not have made sense at all) but I refrained. You're welcome. You should also follow me on Instagram if you don't already! My username is leopardspot. Also, look at how cute and springy those flowers are in my mom's car. They are always in the way when I'm driving, unlike in the red beetle that I drive, which has a perfectly sized bouquet of daisies in it. I don't know how my mother does it. 

Okay, well that was a very small peek into my weekend. I can tell you that the outfits I wore are not in any way memorable, although they were warm and comfy. It hasn't quite become "spring" yet in the Midwest. I would settle for high 40's, Mother Nature. Come onnnn. Please? Maybe just for my birthday? You have 13 days to figure it out, girlfriend. 

Spring Break Outfits!

Happy Friday everyone!

My Spring Break starts today (well, mine started yesterday since I don't have classes on Friday) and once I'm done working tomorrow, I'm heading home! This year I get to do something a little bit different and spending a few days in Florida with my boyfriend and his family. He and I will be there for 3 full days and we're going to be going to Disney World and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal. It's going to be much warmer in Florida than it will be in Wisconsin or Illinois so I'm pretty excited. Unfortunately there does seem to be some rain on the forecast but fingers crossed it won't be too bad. Anyways, here's what I'm planning on packing and wearing for all of the days. 

As you can see, I'm carrying on a Vera Bradley duffle and a Longchamp bag. I might throw in a sundress in case we go somewhere nice but I'm not sure I'll need it. A chambray shirt and chino shorts might make their way into my bag as well but I'll keep you posted on that! 

Do you have any favorite spots to visit in Disney World or the Harry Potter theme park? Any must-sees, must-rides, or must-eat-at restaurants? Any favorite souvenirs I should buy? Let me know! 

Edit:

I'm joining up with Lauren of Style Elixir for her weekly Style Sessions! Check out the link up and Lauren's post here.

What I'm Loving Today

These guys! 

Alternative Baking Company Phenomenal Pumpkin Spice Cookie

I might be a little out of season with the pumpkin, but I stopped at a coffee shop recently and snagged one of these cookies. I've had cookies by Alternative Baking Company before when I lived in the dorms (aka eons ago) but I had never tried the pumpkin and let me just say, I was missing out! 

These are vegetarian, dairy free, egg free, and organic! I don't have any dietary restrictions but these are a delicious snack for anyone. Just maybe don't eat the whole thing at once.... they aren't exactly super low-cal. 

What is your favorite snack lately? Any good reccomendations? 

*This is not a sponsored post, I just really love these cookies! 

Denim Recommendations/Help

As Lent draws to a close, I have been looking around online for new jeans. I am in desperate need for new ones! The jean I am looking for is super stretchy, slim fitting to the ankle (so a super skinny cut or jegging), minimal back pocket detailing, and a dark wash or rinse color.

I've heard great things about the Old Navy Rockstar jeans, and I'm going to order them in a tall size to hopefully get something more proportional for my 5' 8" body.

I've also heard good things about J.Crew Factory denim. I'm hoping to get to my local store to try them on over Spring Break. 

What are your favorite jeans? What brand and style are they?