Hampton // Lookbook
Bookworm Review: A Place At The Table by Susan Rebecca White
*Disclaimer: I was given this book as compensation for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
A Place at the Table by Susan Rebecca White
March, 2014 Touchstone
Goodreads Synopsis: A Place at the Table tells the story of three richly nuanced characters whose paths converge in a chic Manhattan café: Bobby, a gay Southern boy who has been ostracized by his family; Amelia, a wealthy Connecticut woman whose life is upended when a family secret finally comes to light; and Alice, an African-American chef whose heritage is the basis of a famous cookbook but whose past is a mystery to those who know her.
As it sweeps from a freed-slave settlement in 1920s North Carolina to the Manhattan of the deadly AIDs epidemic of the 1980s to today’s wealthy suburbs, A Place at the Table celebrates the healing power of food and the magic of New York as three seekers come together in the understanding that when you embrace the thing that makes you different, you become whole.
My Thoughts: Love, heartbreak, loss, deception, acceptance and rejection – this book has it all! My favorite quote from this novel and the one I feel sums up the story best is “I think it is fair to say that I have become more interested in observing the world, rather than judging it.”
I loved the stories of the three individuals – Alice, Bobby and Amelia – as well as how they all come together and are connected in a very creative way. I would have liked to see Alice’s character developed a bit more. I felt like the prologue was almost all we got of her life until closer to the end when it explains how they are all connected. I really liked her character and would’ve liked to read more about her.
This book will be available March 4th and is a Target Club pick for the month of March. Be sure to grab your copy soon!
Fitness Friday: Guess Who’s Back
If you follow my on Instagram, you know that on Sunday, I hit my pre-pregnancy weight!!!!!!! One day before Hamp turned 4 months. Talk about cutting it close to my goal! Do you know how excited I was? I did a happy dance All. Day. Long. Just ask my husband who looked at me like I was crazy. It was a very happy day.
I have still been working out and running this week and plan to continue it. I am currently participating in Tone It Up’s 60 by Spring challenge. We are trying to run 60 miles in 30 days before the official day of spring. I’ve clocked in 23.4 miles so far. I’m still working hard to tighten my core back up. It still isn’t quite back to normal but I am getting there. Slowly but surely I will get there.
My diet has been a struggle this week. I gave in to chick fil a. My weakness. As well as some m&ms. My other weakness. I’m hoping to lose about 7 more pounds to get to my absolute ideal weight, so I’m trying not to give in to any more temptations. As long as I stay focused I feel like I can accomplish this goal. My fitness pal app has still really helped me, but it’s so much easier when I just eat healthy- fruits, veggies and protein. I not only lose weight but I seriously feel better and more energized when I eat really well.
If you are part of the TIU community, please find me on Instagram where I check in daily! I’d love to follow along on your journey as well. Good luck with your fitness goals, ladies! You can do it!
Hampton // 4 Months
2014 Book List
This is a list of books I hope to read this year. My list ranges from classics to books coming out this year. What is on your 2014 reading list?
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Home to Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
Happy Wives Club by Fawn Weaver
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
Home Front by Kristin Hannah
The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro
The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler
The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
The One and Only by Emily Giffin (release date: May 20th)
The Dream Trilogy by Nora Roberts
Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
The Supreme Macaroni Company by Adriana Trigiani
Fitness Friday: Almost There
I was really sad to see the Tone It Up Love Your Body series come to an end. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to do it again next year. It helped me lose 13 pounds and several inches. I’m only 2 pounds away from my pre-baby weight and I’m so excited/proud of that.
My ultimate goal is to lose 10 more pounds. I figure if I’ve done this well in 6 weeks, why not keep it going? I’ve been eating a lot healthier and I feel so much better and stronger. I’ve gained a lot of my confidence back which is an awesome feeling. I definitely feel back to myself. Funny thing is, I’m actually starting to enjoy my morning runs. I have always hated running but it is quickly becoming my favorite part of the day. I really want to run my first 5k this year! I would love to do it sooner rather than later but I need to work on my time a little more so I don’t embarrass myself.
I’m looking forward to participating in the Bikini Series coming up in a couple more weeks. Please join me in it and join the Tone it up community! You won’t regret it!
Bookworm Review: Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani
Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani
Random House Publishing Group
July, 2003
Synopsis from Goodreads: Milk Glass Moon, the third book in Adriana Trigiani’s bestselling Big Stone Gap series, continues the life story of Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney as she faces the challenges and changes of motherhood with her trademark humor and honesty. With twists as plentiful as those found on the holler roads of southwest Virginia, this story takes turns that will surprise and enthrall the reader.
Transporting us from Ave Maria’s home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Italian Alps, from New York City to the Tuscan countryside, Milk Glass Moon is the story of a shifting mother-daughter relationship, of a daughter’s first love and a mother’s heartbreak, of an enduring marriage that contains its own ongoing challenges, and of a community faced with seismic change.
All of Trigiani’s beloved characters are back: Jack Mac, Ave Maria’s true love, who is willing to gamble security for the unknown; her best friend and confidant, bandleader Theodore Tip-ton, who begins a new life in New York City; librarian and sexpert Iva Lou Wade Makin, who faces a life-or-death crisis. Meanwhile, surprises emerge in the blossoming of crusty cashier Fleeta Mullins, the maturing of mountain girl turned savvy businesswoman Pearl Grimes, and the return of Pete Rutledge, the handsome stranger who turned Ave Maria’s world upside down in Big Cherry Holler.
In this rollicking hayride of upheaval and change, Ave Maria is led to places she never dreamed she would go, and to people who enter her life and rock its foundation. As Ave Maria reaches into the past to find answers to the present, readers will stay with her every step of the way, rooting for the onetime town spinster who embraced love and made a family. Milk Glass Moon is about the power of love and its abiding truth, and captures Trigiani at her most lyrical and heartfelt.
My Lil’ Valentine
Bookworm Review: The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
Riverhead, 2012
Synopsis from Goodreads: Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.
For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.
Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers, and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them
Baby OOTD // Wake Me Up Designs
Mornings with my little bubby are so priceless to me. It is my favorite time of day. He is so happy and loves to play while I drink my coffee and make out my schedule/lists for the day.
My sweet bloggy friend, Sarah from Whimsical Minutes has recently opened an Etsy shop called Wake Me Up Designs. She sells coffee mugs that can be personalized and has recently started adding other products to her shop. Right now she has this adorable “Mommy’s Coffee Date” tee-shirt and also has a matching mug! When I saw the tee-shirt, this coffee obsessed mommy had to have it for Hamp. She is going to add more shirt designs for babies and toddlers soon. Sarah also made me this personalized tee-pee mug that I absolutely adore! It made our morning a little more special.
Sarah is offering my readers a discount to her shop by using this code: sscblove
Follow Wake Me Up Designs on Instagram @wakemeupdegins and don’t forget to favorite her shop on etsy!
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