Santa Monica Pretty House- 8

The pretty house featured below was actually taken on yesterday's walk around Santa Monica. Today was such a busy day, taking a walk around Santa Monica just wasn't in the cards. I had a kick-ass workout with Britt, followed by a drive to Beverly Hills for pizza, then off to The Huntington Library, Art Collection & Botanical Gardens. It was a gorgeous day in Southern California and we had another fun-filled day with my mom in town.

Yesterday's walk around Santa Monica brought me to this house. A house I've walked by hundreds of times and never noticed before. This one caught the eye of Me Mum and Twin as well:

4th Street
Favorite Part: The windows built into the roof and the perfect flower boxes.

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Santa Monica Pretty House- 7

For years I've admired this house. I walk by it a couple times a week and anytime there's a new visitor in town, I point this out to them- I make them ooh and ahhh at the amazing landscaping. Everytime I show it off, I say, "Look. It's what I call the Secret Garden house."

There is, in fact, a garden growing out of this house. There are plants and flowers all over it, making it nearly impossible to tell where the plants end and the house begins. There's a tree house across the street and I swear if only I could get into that, I'd be able to finally capture a shot that really does this house justice. But until that happens, I'm just going to have to settle for the view I currently have access to!

See for yourself:

Palisades Drive
Favorite Part: Besides the unbelievable landscaping on the house, I love the huge window.

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Santa Monica Pretty House- 6

Today was a jam packed day (3 mile run at the gym by 715am, quick visit to the groomer, car wash, Goodwill drop off, airport pick-up, lunch, Sex and the City 2, dinner and now finally home) which really didn't leave me with any extra time to take a stroll admiring the beautiful houses of Santa Monica.

So instead, you get a picture of a house that I passed by on yesterday's late morning stroll. (For the record, I have nearly 75 pictures of houses I've taken since Monday!)


10th Street
Favorite Part: The unique mustardy, celery color of the house.

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Santa Monica Pretty House- 5

I only walked along two blocks today: 9th and 10th streets between Montana & San Vicente and I had a really hard time just choosing one house that I liked the best. But when I walked by this house, I just knew. In fact, I gasped when I saw it and was happy that there weren't a lot of cars in front of the house so I could capture a good shot.

I had to do a little editing with the photo so you could see the red door a little better, but check out today's pretty house:

9th Street
Favorite parts: circle windows, half circle windows and the archway over the red door!

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Santa Monica Pretty House- 4

Clancy and I woke up and heard the sound of helicopters flying right around our neighborhood. So we chose to head out in that direction and grabbed the camera. I knew we'd wind up going through some of the fancy neighborhoods, but wanted to see what all the commotion was. Turns out there was an accident in the wee hours of the morning from a probable DUI that caused some pipe to burst and all hell broke loose.

Within the first four blocks of our walk, we were greeted by people who were (literally) singing "Hello!" to us and smiling as they walked by. One woman stopped to gush about how adorable Clancy was and marvel at how much puppy was in his 7-year old body (this happens a lot). I'm all for saying hi and being friendly, just ask anyone who knows me, but it was so weird it made me look around wondering if I had wandered onto the set of that Jim Carrey movie where it turns out his life was a movie (what was the name of that?).

Anyway, Clancy and I couldn't really see any of the action, apart from the three helicopters and the resulting traffic backing up on the PCH and all over Santa Monica, so we merrily went on our way to capture more pictures of the fancy houses.

This morning's walk (with a little bit of running) took us along Ocean Avenue and up Adelaide. The house we went with today is one we walked by yesterday, but I had a better shot of the house heading east on Adelaide (as opposed to west, where I was coming from yesterday). See for yourself:

Adelaide
Favorite Part: I'm a sucker for green! Plus it's very "New Englandy".

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Santa Monica Pretty House- 3

After a nearly vomit inducing workout at the gym this morning (for reals), I was looking forward to a walk this evening with my friend Carrie, and Clancy, of course, to help wind down the work day.

Our walk took us along Adelaide, one of the prettiest streets in Santa Monica if you ask me. There's a gorgeous view of the ocean and the Santa Monica canyon and there are two sets of absolutely insane stairs that provide an intense workout for those who dare (that would be me). On top of that, each house seems to be more gorgeous than the other and the flowers and different types of plants that line the street and lawns are so visually appealing. The bougenvilla alone is unbelievable once it starts blooming.

Finding just one house along this street was a challenge. So I am certain I'll be featuring another house before this assignment is up. But the house I chose sits in between the concrete and wooden sets. And although it's not totally my style, it is a very cool looking house. Check it out for yourself:

Adelaide
Favorite Part: It looks like a castle!

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Santa Monica Pretty House- 2

Today's walk brought us up Montana Avenue to stop at Peets for Katie's morning caffeine fix. So we continued to meander through Santa Monica neighborhoods I don't usually walk through.

It was hard to choose just one house, especially because I made sure to snap a lot of pictures, but, here's today's pretty house from this morning's walk:


14th Street
Favorite part: The insane amounts of plush, green cactus and plants.

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Santa Monica Pretty House 1

My friend Gail started a remarkable blog documenting life in her small town of Westfield, New Jersey. She chronicles the happenings around town, the good places to eat and shares some great history that makes you want to pick up your life and make it your home too. One of my favorite aspects of her blog is every Friday she posts pictures of that week's pretty houses. The houses are stunning. I've provided a link for my favorite understated house so far- the first one. Green, of course.

I've been inspired by Gail's blog and living in Santa Monica (which is where Gail and her husband were living when I first met them) I'm surrounded by these unbelievable houses that I feel compelled to share with people. I walk along the palm-tree lined streets and drool at the houses dreaming that someone has to have a guest house they want me and my husband and our adorable dog to live in.

This idea to really capture some of these houses came to me on a walk Clancy and I went on this morning before starting work. A very good friend reminded me on Friday that I was trying to work normal hours and noticed that I'd started to get on at weird early hours and was stopping work well after a normal quitting time. It was a good reminder that when I find myself working long days, I just don't take care of myself the way I need to.

On Friday I shut my work computer off, removed access to work email from my iPhone and gave myself the weekend to try and just chill out. And while I was still a little on edge this morning, I vowed to make it a good day. I knew I would automatically feel better if only because of starting up a two-week mini round of the game.

By 830am, I had already gone for a walk/run with Clancy (exercise for the day- check), taken care of my bad habit (leaving my room sloppy and the bed unmade before starting my day) and good habit (writing at least one letter a day) and made a trip to the grocery store for game friendly food. I didn't get on my work computer until 9am and it felt great to just ease into the day and the work week.

While I was out on my walk, I decided a good way to motivate me to keep up with my exercise would be to start posting a picture of these houses in Santa Monica that catch my eye. I'll admit the idea didn't come to me until I was at the end, so while this isn't necessarily one of my favorite houses, it fulfilled the duty of capturing a pretty house on my walk.

So not only will I get to show off how pretty some of these houses are in Santa Monica, but my hope is that in the next two weeks, it'll help me get outside and walk around more and take better care of myself.

Here's the first house:


Alta
Favorite part: the red door!

PS- Thanks Gail for the inspiration!

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Wisdom: I never got anywhere faster by being harder on myself

"I never got anywhere faster by being harder on myself."

This is my favorite line from Mandy Ingber's Yogalosophy DVD- which I highly recommend. I'm pretty sure I've talked about and recommended the DVD before (what are you waiting for? Go out and get a copy!). But as I continue down this path of body acceptance, loving myself just as I am and focusing on a healthy and balanced life, I keep coming back to this statement Mandy makes while effortlessly guiding you through a gentle ass kicking workout.

I'm in this place where I'm really trying to focus on this more than I ever have. I've definitely gotten nowhere in the past by being hard on myself by talking trash or having unrealistic expectations.

I've lost nearly 40 lbs with the game. And I think that's amazing. But I'm recognizing that I'm in a space where I want to be past that. I have a significant amount of weight that I still want to lose. When people ask me how it's going and if I'm still playing the game, I typically say "Yes. I'm hovering between 35-40lbs down. Which is great, but I really want to lose more." The old Molly would say things like that and would be impatient. So I'm just trying to focus on how truly amazing it is that I've held steady with this much weight loss and continue all the good work I'm doing.

I knew this would be a long process and I just need to keep at it. And while I do that, I need to remember that I too never got anywhere faster by being harder on myself. So I'm going to do the opposite and just celebrate my accomplishments and put a lot of love out there in the universe for this path I've taken and will continue to take until I'm at the end of it.

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CSA California- Sign me up!

In order to write this blog entry, I needed to look up the definition of CSA. It means Community Supported Agriculture. Or for me, it means I don't have to go to the Farmer's Market to go shopping for fresh fruits and veggies. I just have to pull behind a raw foods restaurant here in Santa Monica (that I'll likely never eat at) on Sunday evenings and pick up a bag of delicious and nutritious food.

I was inspired by my good friend Tif who does this all the way on the other side of the country in North Carolina. She's talked about it for a couple of years, and I've always scoffed at it, reminding myself that I'm too damn picky to just go with a box of random fruits and veggies that someone else picks out for me. But, like a lot of things since playing the game, that's all changed. And I may go as far as saying I'm determined to at least try everything that comes my way. However, I hate beets, for example, I think they absolutely taste like dirt, so I'm not sure I'll really be able to live up to that since it came in this week's grab bag.

Here's a look inside this week's bag:


I am excited to try this out for the next four weeks though. I am sure I'll be eating a variety of things I've never had before and branching out even more.

PS- I already tried a tangelo and I have to say, it was delish!

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