Pictures, shows, and apologies - edited

Oh, Nobody....how I have neglected you. I am really sorry. To be honest life has been difficult. Obviously I am getting through it with the help of my loving boyfriend. Well, him and my diet. I live for myfitnesspal at this point. I have also gotten my sister, my boyfriend and soon one of my friends to join as well. On top of that I have started to be the go to person for diet and exercise advice! Much different from "what's a good type of cake?" sort of stuff...(by the way the answer would be red velvet with a light cream cheese icing....hehehe) However, I am guessing that you will be wanting some updates. Well the good news is I have some pictures (taken today) the bad news is that the physical numbers won't be up until tomorrow night (hopefully).

So, how about we do the pictures...I go to bed and we talk again tomorrow hmm?

 So? What do you think? Looking better? I think so! I'm pretty happy...weighed myself last week and I have lost at LEAST 25lbs since I started this journey, I also have some toning done. Yup - I am getting there!

You know what? I can talk for a bit longer? How about you? How have you been? Watch any good shows lately? I have! Even though I haven't watched much new stuff for some shows in the past few days, but I have definately found lots of stuff. My boyfriend and I discovered Game of Thrones - why wasn't I watching this sooner?! We burned through Season one and caught up on season two in TWO DAYS! Is that considered addiction? Yes, I believe that it is. Oh well.

 We have also been watching Justified and another Timothy Olyphant show (can't remember the name, all that I know is that he is a god (and I hate westerns haha). I also got into watching Once Upon a Time, I'm behind on this though :( I love the storyline, but some episodes I find are very dry...

Now, finally I have also been watching SMASH. I was a little scared to begin this show, I wasn't sure what I thought of it, however I have been listening to the soundtrack religiously and want nothing more than for that musical to be real (and to be a part of it lol) If you Marilyn fans haven't seen it, honestly give it a try. If only for all of the songs based on her life. I have a few favourites right now:

Mr and Mrs Smith - a love song between Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio (obviously before they divorced lol) - but honestly I want this song in my life and on my phone forever!
Lexington and 52nd Street: Marilyn fans should know that address. I'll give you a minute to think about it...got it yet? Well, if you don't you should know that is the corner where the infamous subway breeze (white dress) scene was filmed for Some Like It Hot. It is basically another side to DiMaggio's story regarding Marilyn's panty showing scene (in a non-going-to-go-beat-my-wife sort of way, but instead more of a "that's it, I've been defeated, I give up" sort of way.) It's really touching.
Finally (for now)  Let Me Be Your Star - is this song not self-explanatory? This is Marilyn's song. Every word of it screams her. Even the beginning: Fade in on a girl/With a hunger for fame/and a face/and a name to remember/the past fades away/because as of this day/Norma Jeane's gone/ She's moving on. *Sighs*

So...I may start doing movie reviews or something...been watching so many lately. Some of them over and over again *cough*TrueRomance*cough*

However, it is 1:30 am and I have a doctors appointment in roughly twelve hours. It's time for this little bird to go to bed.

Goodnight, Nobody. I will try to not neglect you so much.

xoxo
Dinah

*EDIT!! Seriously, no one called me on the movie name? The movie wasn't actually Some Like it Hot, it was a scene from The Seven Year Itch. Pfft, way to call me on my mistakes people!!

W

Week 2 - results!

Good Evening!

As promised, this is my Sunday post! Hopefully I can start doing more random updates, however I feel like it I did that I would start using this blog for just ranting, and I do not want to do that. This blog is about a goal, a lifestyle and a love for all things classic and beautiful. That is what it is and that is what it will remain!

So! First thing is first. I love my boyfriend, he and I decided to spend our day off (and my day off of working out as well) with a nice drive to a flea market and an antique store. With lots of issues with his GPS (I swear, gas companies create these things, they had us going in circles for an hour). We finally got there though, with about 2 hours to look around. We bought our typical fare of comic books and browsed through the many different and interesting items they had, then I looked up on the walls to the many posters and paintings and saw a huge poster of our wonderful Miss Monroe, at first this was what caught my eye, however as I walked closer I saw a smaller poster about two spots over from it. At this time I will admit that I let out a girlish squeal of delight, there on the wall was an advertisement for 'How to Marry a Millionaire' (a movie starring Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable and of course Marilyn Monroe) I have been trying to find the movie for months now, with no luck at all, but I never thought that I would find something like this. It was a reprint, yes, from 1998. Still. How cool is that!? Of course I was trying to hmm and haw over whether or not I could buy it, especially with rent and bills due soon. I didn't have time to decide though, my boyfriend saw me looking at it and simply plucked it off of the wall and took it to the cash. So I am now a proud owner of my very own 'How to Marry a Millionaire' poster. It's not full size, simple and printed on cardstock, but I love it. I can't wait to put it up on the wall some where!

Held by my boyfriend :)

Don't worry, my boyfriend got something too, an actual advertisement for Pepsi Cola, I do not know what year it is from, but by the clothes in the picture I would say 50s-60s. It boasts about how "Modern living calls for Light refreshment" I love it, very classy. Nothing like those advertisements from the 90's with Spice Girls and Brittany Spears flashing their mid-drifts. (Don't get me wrong, I was a child in the 90's and loved all of those commercials.) Now however, I have a deep appreciation for the old advertisements, before a brand could flat out call out another brand, where your advertisements were pictures of people and places where I just go "I wish I could have been there". I am sure that is different for everyone though. I guess it is because those are from a time period in which I would have be overjoyed to live in.

So... How's everybody doing? Okay. Honestly, I have had my boyfriend take pictures for my "before" with my blackberry (still no camera but I wasn't going to delay it again) and I not only hate how it looks, I don't even want to post them. However the more that I think about it the more that I realize that I will need something to drive me to continue my good work (if I do say so myself) - and if anything is going to do it, it is going to be that I do not want to look like that anymore! So...I guess that I have to do this huh, I mean. I did say that I would, and I don't want to be deemed a liar after only three posts. So, I shall remind the people (or person or what have you) reading this, that lude or cruel comments are not wanted or tolerated here. This is something that I am trying to do properly and I do not need someone saying "you should starve yourself, fatty" - or anything like that. Remember what mommy always said children, if you don't have anything nice to say then shut your traps. Okay, maybe mommy didn't say it quite like that, but it gets the message across just as well.

Alright, now that all of that mess is done. My measurements are done for this week. I will list the original in red, my goal in green and my present in yellow (think like stop light, yellow isn't quite as good as green, but at least it is not a red!)

So without further ado, here it is:
Bust A: (chest)44 1/2inch. n/a 43 3/4
Bust B: (band)37 inch 38.17 inch. 37 3/4 inch. 
Waist: 34 3/4 inch. 24.05 inch. 34 inch.
Hips:  42 inch. 37.97 inch. 41 1/4 
 
Now, you may be wondering how the heck I managed to increase my band size, and I wondered the same thing...until my boyfriend pointed out that I took the measurement myself last week and may have taken in somewhere different, or moved before I saw it, so I will not worry about it. Especially since it looks like I lost a whole 3/4 of an inch off of everything in just ONE WEEK! Go me! At this rate, I might actually be somewhere near my goal before my birthday. That would be a great birthday present to myself. In fact, I hope that happens, I would have to find a classically cut dress for my birthday and go for a night on the town, don't you think? So even if I am bummed about the pictures, I have to admit that seeing the number go lower made me smile a big dopey smile.

So on with what else I did to make myself better this week, something else classic? Hmm. Well I have been getting the urge to bake a lot - which is okay because I never really crave eating what I bake, just making it is enough for me. So tonight I went over to my mums and made dinner for she, my sister, my boyfriend and I. I also made her a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and cleaned her microwave (I'm a good daughter...*insert head pats here*) Then I helped her shape her eyebrows which was fun, and funny since I kept having to tell her not to frown when it hurt, which would make her laugh a bit and I would have to tell her not to smile. All in all it's been a good day. Of course it's not over. It's already 1030 and I still have dishes to do and I promised my boyfriend I would bake him some cookies as well, which is alright because I think he deserves them for being amazing with me! 

I am normally pretty good about keeping my emotions in check, but this week I have been a big ball of emotions. So last night I made yet another rule for myself every week. One night a week, whichever one signifies the end of my week. I will grab a book, some music and have a nice long bubble bath. No boyfriend, no cats, just me, my music and the characters from one of my books. Right now I am re-reading (for the four-thousandth time) Nora Roberts Sisters Trilogy. I won't try to explain them because I never do them justice, but honestly pick one up. If you like powerful woman, the paranormal, romance, fate and justice (and perhaps some tasteful smut :P) you will love these books. This first is always my favourite, I think that it is because I relate to the main character so much. She is a timid blonde woman who has run away from a terrible marriage and is trying to make something out of herself that her husband cannot taint. Ironically this "something" is that she runs a cafe and bakes a mean cookie! Totally like me! Alright, maybe not completely. I can relate to elements that her character went through, but I don't think anyone has had to go to the lengths that she did to get out of them.

Alright, I just wrote a huge paragraph about my past and erased it. As cliche as it may sound, I want to forget my past and just live for today. I won't forget where I came from, but I don't need to shout it out. That's all I am going to say on that.

What else can I share...OH! I finally had some time to kill and got to fiddle with my hair and makeup a bit. This is something that I love doing, but I rarely find the time, but when I do I go all out! So I went out and bought a bunch of hair stuff with some christmas money I had left over (setting solution, perming rods and a styling brush among other things). Well this weekend was our annual "January birthdays party" (there's a lot within a week of eachother so we do one big bash) Want to see what I did? Do ya?! Well even if you do not, I am still going to show you so nyah! (That's me sticking out my tongue haha)

Not bad if I do say so myself!

I was going for the Lauren Bacall in "To Have and Have Not" - That's right. I was pulling a Slim! Well, at least the hair. The makeup is almost always Marilyn with a twist haha.

Well I am running out of things to say, I guess I should say that I am happy that I am seeing some results and can't wait to see what happens with this week. Especially since I have begun to drink a LOT of green tea (I think that I am up to 4 cups a day?) I no longer put milk or sugar in any type of tea, and I tried to have a chocolate the other night and after one bite felt sick to my stomach. Guess that will make it easier to not eat it! Also I have been able to run more consistently on the treadmill with fewer walking breaks, so maybe this week I can am it up and start running for a longer time (right now I do half an hour). In fact I am saying that now. This week, I will do 40 minutes. I will still break it up between walking and running, but who knows an extra ten minutes today, maybe one day I'll be amping it up to an hour! One can dream.

Well, as always here is the Marilyn inspiration of the day! I love this picture, it has been my background on and off for nearly 5 years. With this I shall shuffle off to the kitchen to do my chores and bake my cookies!

Good night!