What's new at HOUSE 54...

I've been a busy little bee over the last few weeks.  The first thing you may notice is the packaging re-design that I promised (again).  There's a lot of trial and error involved in launching a product line, and I'd say that my labels and packaging were the things with the most amount of trials.  Thank you to those of you who have stuck with me while I confuse the crap out of you by changing the "look" of my products so often.  But it was all a process that led to this new look, and I couldn't be more happy with it.

You may also notice a few new products in that line-up.  The Green Mountain Gardeners' Balm is my new favorite thing.  It's not even gardening season yet, and I can't help but slather this stuff on my Winter-bitten fingers, and marvel every time about the results.

I've been working for a while now on a new collection of perfume, and I seriously can't help myself around these 3 new ones.  I can never decide which one I want to wear more, so I end up wearing all 3 in different places on my arms, and weirdo-sniffing myself all day.  So I made a sample set of the 3 in the collection, called SOUL SURFER, in case no one else can decide either.

I also made a Yoga Mat Spray/Linen Refresher.  Basically, this stuff takes the husband-yuck off our shared yoga mat, and it turns out that it makes pretty much every single other yucky smell in our house disappear also. 

 

So that's what's new and exciting this week.  Trials are still out for the new face cream.  So hopefully that'll turn out well, and be joining the line soon.  Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by,

-Lindsey

  

Boy loves Dog, Dog loves Boy...

Thanks for stopping by,

-Lindsey

Fashion lust: It happens to the best of us every now and then...

I have no words to describe how amazing I think this dress is.  You know how sometimes, despite your best efforts to keep it simple, and not be drawn towards the corrupt, material world of consumerism, you just can't help but have a little longing for a completely impractical piece?   Maybe it's because it's white, and my baby's very into puking up sweet potatoes right now, or that it's SALE price tag is more than my monthly mortgage payment, but this dress is my impractical yearning at this very second.  Tomorrow it'll probably be a new pair of running shoes, but today, this dress earns every ounce of my lust...


BALMAIN
Mirror-embellished shift dress


Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey

Workout Wednesday: Portion control...

Dear Food,
I love you.

I don't "diet."  No, let's put it this way... I WON'T "diet."  I will use portion control as a tool to help me eat a little less of what I love, but I won't do the following:

~Any diet that says that I can't have cookies, bacon, cheesecake, bread, butter, pasta, or General Tso's Chicken.  I'm like a toddler when it comes to my food.  If you tell me I can't have it, that's the thing I'm going to want more than anything.  But if you tell me, sure, no problem, have a brownie, then it's not going to seem like such a big deal, and I won't be so inclined to freak out at some point, and eat the entire pan of them in one sitting.  I'm not saying that a breakfast of cookies and bacon is the way to go for a healthy body (although that would be fantastic).  What I'm saying is that if you deprive yourself of the things you love, then you're going to end up resenting your diet, and relapse into your old habits in no time.

~Any kind of juice cleanse that promises that I'll drop 15 pounds in a week.  First of all, that's not a healthy amount of weight to loose in that period of time.  You're going to shock the beejezus out of your internal organs, your skin, and your brain by doing that.  Second... Do you remember back when celebrities started doing interviews and telling the general public all about their cleanses?  Well, I do, and it was awful.  Seriously, I used to think the Demi Moore was about the hottest thing EVER to grace the face of our great planet.  Now, all I can think of when I see that scene in Charlie's Angels where she's walking out of the water with her surf board in hand, and a totally epic bod is, "I hope her Kindle was charged up for all the time she spent on the toilet before that scene was shot."  Not cool.  Please, everyone, if you want me to continue thinking you're super hot, don't, for the love of God, make me picture you on a toilet.

Basically, I eat what I like, but don't eat giant portions of it.  And it also helps to, whenever possible, eat the homemade version.  The less processed garbage that's in your food, the better you'll feel.  But if you want chips, eat chips, but eat 5, not the whole Super-Bowl-Party-sized bag.  Then you've satisfied your craving for Doritos, but don't have to go run for 7 straight hours to burn off the calories you just consumed.

PS:  I think the no-carb diet is terrible for you. Good carbs give you energy.  No carbs makes you skinny, but lethargic and weak.  Skinny is the end goal that some people have.  But "skinny" is totally different than "healthy" if your skinny self has no energy, and doesn't have the upper body strength to lift your car keys.


Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey

Shop Progress: Signage...

Holy ol' slacking on the photos, Batman...

So for those of you who are not facebook followers, here are the photos of the new sign/shop-front of HOUSE 54.

And, because I can't say it enough... A GIANT Thank You to Torrey of New Duds for my awesome logo, and to Hendrick at Glaeser Signs for getting it all together for me in a fantastic finished product.  

Thanks for stopping by,

-Lindsey

Workout Wednesdays: Mama Fit: No more excuses...

Let's try a new series, shall we?  No promises.  But I'd like to try out a weekly post on fitness.  How many of you just stopped reading right there?

OK, so for those of you that are left, let's start with the factor that was holding me back for so long.  The excuses.  I'm being brutally honest here, because this was the major factor in why I didn't get super serious about my fitness goals a long time ago, and maybe why you haven't either...  I made excuses.  Finding time to do ANYTHING for myself is nearly impossible... Nearly, but not completely.  I have found lately, that cutting the crap, and not giving any excuses for why can't work out has freed up a ton of opportunities for me to add some extra fitness into my schedule.  For instance, I no longer accept the following excuses as valid for not working out:
~I just ate
~I haven't eaten yet
~I just showered
~I just drank coffee and my heart may explode
~My sports bra is in the laundry
~The baby is sure to wake up before I finish my workout
~It's too cold out
~It's too wet out
~It's too hot out
~It's too dry out
~The ipod isn't charged

Here's the deal.  That's all bullshit.  For the last few weeks I've been trying something different.  Every morning when The Baby goes down for his morning nap I work out.  First.  before I sit down at the computer.  Before I do dishes (OK, who are we kidding here?  I do everything before the dishes).  And so far, only once has The Baby woken up from nap before I had time to finish the whole workout.  But I got all but the last 4 minutes of it done, and that's 36 minutes longer than I would have if I didn't try at all.

Love this photo from FitPregnancy.

I had 6 different workout DVD's sitting in my tv cabinet collecting dust.  Not to mention the plethora of material available online via YouTube, Pinterest, and various fitness magazines' websites.  So all of my workouts could be done indoors, within ear-shot of The baby's room.  No more excuses about weather.  And as far as all of the other excuses about why it would be uncomfortable to workout on a full or empty stomach, my sports bra being in the laundry, or if the timing was off, and I was going to have to take another shower...blah, blah, blah.  When is it EVER comfortable to do push-ups?  I can do a low-impact workout, like Yoga, and not have to worry if my body-armor-like bra is nowhere to be found.  And, please don't hate me for sounding wasteful here, but I don't feel like it's a "waste" of water to, occasionally, add a 2nd shower to my day.  I'm a Mom.  Therefore, I am sometimes yucky, and go more than a day without a shower (more times than I care to admit).  So I feel like if I get to take 2 in one day, it's just making up for the times I didn't get one at all the day before.  

This is the way it's been going for a little while now, and so far, I don't miss the time that I'm "giving up" to be working out.  I feel better than I did when I was only doing it maybe once a week, and my stress level has gone down considerably.  So there's my first "Workout Wednesday" advice:  Stop the excuses, find time, feel better.


Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey     

I want...

Just found these really incredible bags on Etsy.  I think I just "favorited" every single item in this guy's shop.

From peace4you.  Check them out (and perhaps pick one up for my belated birthday present?).


Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey