What's Your Workout Routine?

I just got back from working out with Anonymous and I think I'm going to be feeling it in the morning. (A.'s always disappointed when he doesn't wake up sore the following day. Is that masochistic?) Anon.'s lucky enough to have a park across the street with a track and a gym inside her apartment building. How convenient is that?! Apparently too convenient because the woman hardly uses either. Well tonight I:

- Ran a mile around the track and speedwalked another half mile.
- Did 30 sit-ups and 90 crunches.
- Pushed through five push-ups (Man, do I hate those.)
- And an assortment of squats, lunges, bicep curls, and stretches.

It was really nice to have a workout buddy there with me because even though we didn't keep the same pace during our run, we joked and chatted during all the other bits and time flew by. We even taught each other some new routines and made plans to do it all again together next Tuesday. I want to keep doing crunches on my own and also have a Groupon for a month-long membership to the YMCA that I really need to activate soon before it expires.

What are your favorite workout routines? I know it's good to mix things up, but I still prefer to just run around until I get tired. It's so nice to let the mind wander and just let my legs do their thing.

Image: motivationtohabit.tumblr.com

Monday Inspiration: Alt Summit Roundups

Since I didn't attend Alt Summit a couple weeks ago, I've been going around reading the attendees' highlights and tips they gathered from the design/blog conference. Here are a few of my favorites in the hopes that you'll glean something new from them, too:

Chronicle Book's "From Blog to Book" panel discussion.
Quotable summit speakers.
An Alt Summit roundup on Pinterest.
A very mini Alt recap (and motivation).
Summit highlights from Design Love Fest.
A Twitter recap of the "Growing Your Readership" panel.
Danni's awesome Alt Summit Extravaganza.
Top tips from Alt Summit.

Image: notyouraverageordinary.com

Souvenir Foto School

Just earlier this week, I went out for a walk around midtown with A., our Canon Rebel, and all the intentions of taking some every day shots of the city. But every time I took the lens cap off to shoot something, anything, I just wasn't inspired enough to click open the shutter. "I really need a photo project," I sighed. Perhaps focusing on some goal would get the creative photo gears moving, make me pay more attention, and feel more comfortable running around with this relatively new piece of equipment.

Well on Wednesday I read Ez's post about Miss B's Souvenir Foto School and I immediately wanted in (and lucky me, I got the last scholarship spot that was awarded)! Using prompts that begin with each letter of the alphabet, we're going to challenge ourselves and shoot a photo a day for 30 days. The goal is to gain confidence, ask questions, participate in this creative community, get inspired, and improve your techniques along the way. If Miss B's daily photo editing Project MMXII is any proof, I think we're in very good hands.

Class starts February 1st and I'll be posting my photos here each day. Here's hoping they turn out all right because I'd love nothing more than to rely a little less on other people's beautiful photos and just use my own around here.

Image: besottedblog.com

Minimalist Blog Templates by Blog Milk Shop

If your blog needs an update or a complete overhaul for the new year and you don't want to spend days Googling around for code tweaks and fixes (like I painstakingly did last year), then pop on over to Blog Milk Shop. Designers Ana Degenaar of Blog Milk, Danni Hong of Oh, Hello Friend, and Jennifer Hagler of A Merry Mishap have teamed up to create a pretty collection of blog templates. And no worries about every other site having the same design you do: only 15 issues of each theme are sold and there's optional custom installation available.

Images: blogmilkshop.com