End-of-weekend recap.

March 3, 2014March 2, 2014 | cheriarmour

Hey folks! I hope you’re having an amazing weekend, my weekend has been nothing short of insanely busy, and my life shows no signs off slowing down for the next few weeks. But I can’t complain, I think my problem is one of the most beautiful to have, and I’d rather a little too much to do, than too little.

That said, when I finally get my house painted/get my car cleaned/get my wedding save-the-dates sent out/get bills paid, I might be a little more relaxed than I am now.

Now onto the weekend recap!

I worked at Fleet Feet North Raleigh on Saturday, which was pretty amazing. I actually don’t dread ever going to work there – and it’s really always nice to be around like-minded, good fitness people, who you don’t really get as much of when you’re working in an office, like I do during the week. Sometimes, it’s a little tiresome being the freak in the office when you brings salads for a lunch. At Fleet Feet, you’d sometimes WISH someone would bring a damned Lean Cuisine up in that piece cause the little fridge would be stuffed with people’s healthy lunches!

So Sunday, I had to head home with a friend for a memorial service, so I put Coco’s Thundershirt on her, packed her in the car, and headed home.

She was a really good sport, and endured the trip pretty well, which is good because we’re going to the beach next weekend, and she’s gonna have to hold up for a few hours. But we’ll stop for lots of coffee and bathroom breaks for her, and we’ll get her a little more used to the car.

I walked into my parents’ home, and looky what was sitting on my dad’s bar! So I promptly took it to read while I was running my 5 on his treadmill. I still love Bieber, and I know he’s gonna pull through this rough time.

And now, here I sit, blogging to you all from the relative comfort of a McDonald’s dining room, because the WiFi at my parents’ house needs life support. Is it a law that that WiFi at all old peoples’ house has to be horridly spotty at best? It really doesn’t seem to bother them!

So the plan tomorrow before I pack it in and head back is to wake up semi-early, run, spend some time with my Moms, and head out to Raleigh with the dog before we get more snow. This blasted snow is going to cause me to kick a hole in a wall, I swear it.

How was your weekend, beautiful folks?

Headbands of Hope Photoshoot – official photos!

February 26, 2014February 25, 2014 | cheriarmour

So I told you all about Jess, the CEO of Headbands of Hope on Saturday.

But if you forgot, here is the lowdown. I’ve know Jess since we were like kids in college. Insert throwback Thursday (Wednesday, sorry!) photo here:

This was when we worked at NC State Department of Campus Recreation (now URec), back in like 2010. How cute were we, right? Anyhoo, while the rest of us were being young and wild and not knowing what we were doing in life, Jess started HOH, an organization that, for every headband purchased, donates $1 to St. Baldrick’s Foundation, and donates a headband to a little girl with cancer. Cool, right?

So with the help of Peachy Keen to style and outfit us, and Amanda English, our wonderful photographer, we embarked on a fantastic photoshoot to showcase the headbands in gorgeous, 75-degree weather in Raleigh. Here are the actual photos (not just the bootlegs I took of us 🙂 ).

So if you’re interested in HOH, click here to find out more, and purchase some headbands!

Love any of our clothes? (My personal fave is that pantsuit that the model to my right is wearing!), hit Peachy Keen of Cary up here – not only do they have super unique pieces, but they also have some gorgeous jewelry, including some vintage pieces I got to see on Saturday.

If you’re interested in Amanda English photography in the Raleigh/Apex/Cary area, hit up her website/blog here, or her Facebook here – she specializes in a bunch of stuff, but if you check out her site, she’s done some really, really awesome stuff with babies, kids, and families.

If you think I’m pretty, sorry I am off the market! Tough luck.

Just kidding! Which one is your favorite photo?

Weekend recap! (Best weekend evahhh)

February 25, 2014February 24, 2014 | cheriarmour

So, after the photoshoot on Saturday, I ran, and hopped in the car to head to Charlotte because I got me and Deb some tickets to see Demi Lovato. So first things first, after a 10-miler at my parents’ I met up with Deb and some of her work friends at a place called Georges Brasserie in the Southpark neighborhood of Charlotte.

The place was super nice, and turned out to be a French place, which means the menu was baller.

Bottomless Mimosas were $12. Yes please!

Cheers!

We started off with an order of beignets for the table….

And literally, almost every single girl at the table ordered the French Toast which was AH-maze. Go to Georges, and tell them I said hey!

So next up, the Demi Lovato concert!

If you guys know anything about you, you need to understand that I am ride or die for Demi.

Me and Deb found giant Demi before the show, where the median age was like 15. Seriously, besides moms, we were like the oldest people there. But I knew every word so suck on that tweens!
Deb and I found the Tampax (weird) photobooth and took some really really cute pics. I’m gonna hang onto these for a while.

The hot one from One Direction? Zayn? His lady-friend is in this group. They were really cute, and played a bunch of adorable covers from the 90s, including a TLC cover of ‘No Scrubs’. No one but us and the moms knew this one.

And finally!!!!

Demi! And the seats were really good!

She was amazing. Seriously amazing. She seemed really happy, and sang strong for the entire time. It wasn’t super overproduced, and the show really boiled down to her and the music. Demi played the new stuff, the old stuff, and played the drums, the piano, and the guitar.

The coolest thing? The Neon Lights app that you could download before the show. During Neon Lights, the app created this really cool effect on everyone’s smartphone blinked to the beat of the song. Such good energy!

So overall, that concert was amazing, and I actually found myself boo-hooing during her incredible rendition of ‘Let it Go’ from Frozen and ‘Nightingale,’ where she threw in this amazing key change at the last chorus.

So a photoshoot, a long run in beautiful weather, time with my sister, time with my parents, mimosas, and a Demi Lovato concert? I’m now exhausted, but what a fantastic weekend.

What was the coolest thing you did this weekend?

It’s a beautiful day for a photoshoot!

February 23, 2014February 23, 2014 | cheriarmour

So I had an amazing Saturday. The weather was amazingly beautiful, and I was amazingly busy. But one thing in particular, totally rocked my world. The founder and CEO of Headbands of Hope, Jessica Ekstrom, invited me and a few other wonderful girls to participate in a photoshoot for Headbands of Hope.

So a little bit on HOH. Jessica started HOH when she was 19 years old. Yes, you read that correctly, Jess was 19 when she started HOH, and the premise is incredible, yet simple at the same time. For every headband purchased through HOH, which you can view here, $1 is donated to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to fund research, and one headband is given to a girl with cancer. The headbands are really, really, really cute, so it was a no-brainer when Jess reached out to invite us to participate in her photoshoot.

So, heads up, these photos are a sneak peek at the real deal, and the real post on our shoot will come in about a week-and-a-half or so, so I will totally fill you guys in on our awesome photographer and our awesome stylists who outfitted us for the shoot. These are just a few shot from my vantage point!

So we actually hiked out to the location – and if you thought I was exaggerating about how beautiful the weather was, I totally wasn’t. It was like 75 degrees, and we did the shoot in Historic Yates Mill Park in Raleigh, a few minutes away from NC State.

After we made it out to the location, we gathered around, finally all dressed and styled, while folks started arriving.

A few gorgeous shots in a field…

And even CEO Jess jumped in to take a few shots of her own with her camera. I was able to sneak a peek at Jess’ camera to figure out what she shoots with because I’m really wanting to get a new camera for the blog soon. Everyone is saying that this investment is definitely a good one for the blog, in order to get good, attractive shots.

My turn in the field!

The shoot wouldn’t be any fun without laughter!

My mom loved this one when I showed it to her. I’m excited to see how it came out in the shoot!

And finally, the shoot ended up with us getting to try on a ton of Jess’ cool designs. This one is one of my favorites because it’s super duper bridal!

It was such a fun day, and I can’t wait to show you guys the photos from the shoot, and introduce you to our photog and stylist, both incredibly talented ladies!

I hope your Saturday was as busy and awesome as mine was.

What is your feeling on a nicer camera? Worth the investment to grow your blog?

My favorite scar.

February 19, 2014February 18, 2014 | cheriarmour

I talk like Hilary Banks, and I’ve been asked many, many a time, if I’m from California. I can’t help it. But that leads most people to believe I’m too la la la foufy to actually do anything or actually get hurt doing stuff, you’ve not spent enough time with me. So I bring you this – my favorite scar.

So see that line on my thumb? The story behind that scar is so weird.

When I was in 6th grade, after a particularly riveting CCD sesh (points for anyone who knows what that was), I was making a can of Chef Boyardee to eat for a late dinner.

Side note: Despite how hard my parents worked to keep me in church (CCD, etc), I am still a heathen, as well evidenced by my “Jesus Shaves” mug.

Holla!

Anyhoo, so my scar. Back in the day, when I was eating Boyardee, the way you opened the cans was just like a regular thing. There were none of those easy like pop top cans like they have now. So I used one of those old-school can openers, and got to work trying to open that can! I shoved it open with my thumb and it started to open, then got stuck halfway. And that’s when all hell broke loose. The momentum from the shove kept my finger going, and before I knew it, I’d sliced my thumb wide open on this can.

I knew it was bad, so I close my eyes and started wailing. With a kitchen towel sopping up the blood, my mom took me to the hospital where my brother’d been born, and once we got there, they stitched that sucker up. I think a bunch of stitches on the inside, and some more on the outside to seal it up.

Evidently, when I sliced my finger, I got it pretty deep because I have nerve damage in the finger. Even now, if I push on the thumb, I get this horrible sensation like I’ve hit my funny bone, so I just avoid it, and I’ve learned to type so I don’t hit that part in my finger.

And that, my dear friends, is the story of my favorite scar.

So tell me friends, what’s your favorite scar! I want a good story!

That time I ran into Miley Cyrus’ brother.

February 15, 2014 | cheriarmour

So the big Lake Street Dive post is coming, but not til tomorrow. Suffice it to say the show was awesome and I got to meet all the band members and tell them how awesome their show was. !!! So pumped about it! But here’s a little taste.

Anyhoo, so back to the story at hand.

So a few years ago, I was at a show at this same venue with my friend Alexa, the one who got married last spring. She is amazing, ps, and has been really helpful with wedding stuff. Anyhoo, so we went to this show, where Breathe Carolina was the headline.

Well Miley Cyrus’ brother was performing with his new band there, and after they performed I really had to go to the ladies room to powder my nose.

Well Trace was standing by the bathrooms, and covered in tattoos and no shirt, we bumped into one another and kind of blinked for a second. Me because of all his tats, and him probably because I was very rudely staring. So finally, he gave me a big hug, and we chatted about his show for a while before I continued to do my bidness, and he went along to do whatever. And that is the time I met Miley Cyrus’ very scary-looking, very nice brother.

What famous people have you met?

And as a side note, that same night, the cutie from the Ready Set hit me in the face with his water bottle when he threw it. I think I might have saved it for a while.

Snow day!

February 13, 2014February 13, 2014 | cheriarmour

I think I was gonna post on something else today, but Raleigh, NC shut down today. Thankfully, yesterday was slated as an off day from marathon training, so I wasn’t really worried about how I was gonna get my run in – that said I am not sure how or where I’m gonna get today’s 8 in because everything is shut down.

I woke up yesterday morning, and it was just straight-up cold. But the school system closed school for the day, so it had to be serious, right?

I drove into work anyway, and worked for a short time before it occurred to me that I didn’t want to be stuck, so I headed home, and immediately set about to taking a nap. When I fell asleep it was cold and dry. And when I woke up, I saw this.

I’m not sure how over 3 inches of snow accumulated in the amount of time it took for me to doze off, but it did.

I stumbled out of my sleep, not realizing how much it snowed, and if you peek in the bottom of that picture, you can see that I wore my nude flats, because I honestly didn’t realize how much it had snowed. Poor Coco didn’t really know what to make of the snow, and during her bathroom break, she actually ran underneath the building so she could find a dry spot to “powder her nose”.

At any rate, the snow day was nice because I actually had time during the day to write and to work on my blog, which, is quickly rocketing to my Top 5 of things I like to do with my time. Can I just go full-time with the blog yet? And it was all fun and games until Austin called and told me he was stuck, and that Raleigh had turned into a version of Atlanta 2.0.

This, my friends, is how the South does winter. Let me tell you what, the South does many things correctly. Biscuits, musicians, and summer nights. All very well done by the South. But winter, winter is not our strong suit. This is literally a few blocks over form my house, and yes, in case you were wondering, that is a car on fire down the hill. Talk about a bad day, right?

So I went into stress mode, thinking about Austin stuck. I thought about hopping into my Lancer and saving him, like a knight(ess) in shining armor, but that quickly was pushed aside, and I kind of just wrung my hands until he was home safe.

As night fell, a really nice ice crust formed over the ice…

And my fur-baby was having absolutely none of it. (How cute are her little footprints, PS)?

How is the weather where you are? How do I navigate my run tomorrow?

10 miles felt like home.

February 3, 2014February 3, 2014 | cheriarmour

Yesterday, Super Bowl Sunday (WOOO WHAT A HALFTIME SHOW, but that’s another post,) I’d cleaned, and was laying on the couch watching the first season of Girls…

Side note: I’m not sure how I feel about Girls yet because there are just so, so so, many uncomfortable scenes. Lena Dunham is naked the entire first season, there is a crack incident, and the entire incident where Jessa is kind of getting involved with the Dad she’s babysitting for completely made me so uncomfortable. More on them later.

Okay, so finally, with a ton of episodes of Girls finished, I had a choice. I could either take a nap, or venture out and do my 10 miles in yesterday’s beautiful weather.

To be honest, I think I was a little scared to run 10. I hadn’t run 10 since my marathon flop in October (where I barfed 18 miles into the race), and I was really concerned that my stomach might start hurting again, and I’d begin to lose motivation for the race. But I suited up, filled up my water bottle, and off I went.

It was a beautiful day, and this was one of the first sights I encountered in the 60-degree weather.

It was really freaky. Last week, we got a good bit of snow and ice, and despite the fact that most everything was melted by the time we hit 60 yesterday, there were still areas that hadn’t been touched by light, and this little stream, House Creek was frozen to this milky white color. It was so weird, I had to stop, just a few miles in.

I suffer from gastritis, and one of my fears is that it may flare up in the same way it had in October. But I was careful with my tummy, only eating a PowerBar fruit smoothie pouch before, and avoiding alcohol and caffeine in the hours and days before, and my stomach thanked me kindly. But the nicest part, after I got over the initial, paralyzing fear that I might get sick mid-run again, was that 10 miles felt just like home. Was it easy as pie, no way. But it was almost as if my body had retained some memory of having run that distance before, and it was so much easier than the first time I ever ran 10. It actually felt good, and I’m starting to believe and trust in my training a little more. Next week is 15, and here’s to 15 feeling like home as well 🙂

How did your run/workout go this weekend?

The first time I ever had my heart broken.

January 10, 2014 | cheriarmour

This isn’t exactly what you think.

But here’s why I had it on my mind.

Wednesday night, it was still too cold to run outside, and I got the bright idea to head to the Y, where they had a track where I could try a track workout that I’d been eyeing from the girls at ToneitUp.

Oh.

Just kill me. 15 times around was a mile? I started with a few time around to warm up, about 5 minutes, and then launched into my interval workout.

The fun part of the interval, was that part of the way through, this guy decided he wanted to try to keep up with me. I totally kick his butt. It’s fun to do that, I’m sorry to admit. In total, I spent about an hour on a track that took 15 times around to make a mile. And I’m feeling it! I am so so sore.

But was I was making my way around this teeny tiny track, I started to think about track, and the first time I ever had my heart broken.

When I was in 7th or 8th grade at Crestdale Middle School, I decided I wanted to join the track team. My dear dad woke up early with me every morning, and took me out to a freezing cold outdoor track around the corner from the house at the Siskey Y, and trained me. At tryouts, which lasted for 2 or 3 days, I had my events, and I was spanking the sprints. But the coaches decided to try me at the 800 (two laps around the Olympic track), and that’s when things fell apart.

This is so embarrassing, and I can honestly say I’ve never told this story out loud to this day.

I knew nothing of endurance, or conserving energy for the second lap, so I shot out front like a cannonball when the gun went off. But as we rounded the curve for the second lap, I was exhausted, and went from scorching the rest of the team to coming in dead last, gasping in the freezing cold. It was mortifying, and I’m sure the coaches laughed themselves home.

The next day, I was cut from the team. I was heartbroken. But it was a great lesson cause I’ve been rejected from like a million other things in life, and it really won’t kill you, as bad as it feels at the time.

But suck it suckas cause I run marathons now. And that’s really all I have to say about that.

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