february aka the month of handstands

You guys, 2016 has been fabulous so far.  2016, the year of making shit happen, has been happening all the fuck over the place.  And thus, February: A Summary. I LOVE beer school.  I have learned so much, I have met so many people and networked with them and gossiped with them about the industry and I know so much SCIENCE.  My actual brewing is on a whole different level than it was even just last year.  I was never much of a science/chemistry/biology person before, but I am soaking this up and it’s fascinating.

• I put beer in my barrel for the first time!  My lil’ eggnog porter child is soaking in those delicious charred bourbon flavors & coming along very nicely.  This weekend I’m going to give it another little boost of vanilla, and hopefully by April we can bottle.

• I went, on a total whim, to a sour beer blending seminar in Westland on Valentine’s Day, sponsored by Fermenta (more on this later).  I was on my own because fuck it, I’m an independent adult and I can do things that interest me without needing someone to tag along, and I ended up seeing someone else who was alone and deciding we were going to be instant best friends AND THEN WE WERE, and by the end of the day we had drank all the Belgian beers, watched all the hockey, and then gone to another new-to-us brewery in Dearborn.  I’ve never in my life had a local, female friend as into beer (and hockey!) as I am, and I am over the moon about it.  We instantly decided that we were going to become immediately more active within Fermenta (okay, fine – Fermenta is a nonprofit Michigan-based society, basically, committed to camaraderie, networking, and education of women within the craft beer industry and it’s FABULOUS and full of so many awesome people & opportunities), which led to being involved in 2 brew days for the upcoming International Women’s Collaboration Day – so within the next week I’m going to have 2x actual large scale brewhouse experience (one of which we even got to be involved in planning the recipe for, and guys it sounds brilliant). Making shit happen!

Pretending like I didn't blend/drink two flights like this...

HI NEW BEST FRIEND.

• Also beer(ish) related – in lieu of Winter Beer Festival, said friend and I went on a mini beer tour (Griffin Claw, M-Brew, Michigan Growler Company, & then duck legs at The Bird & The Bread) which also included a stop at Valentine Vodka!  I’m much more of a beer girl, but first of all that place is amazing inside and second of all bourbon/brown sugar/cherry. And gin. All the gin.  Plus a complimentary tour and a little bit of knowledge about distilling?? Yes.

This weird yet badass thing at M-Brew.....okay sure??

Valentine Distillery old school looking bar.

The ambiance of this place was just fantastic.

Learning some distilling ;)

Gin/basil/cucumber + bourbon/brown sugar/cherry.

Nightcap Pine Drops IPA.

•  In the gym, I’ve still been doing boot camp 3-4x a week and yoga 2x, which is phenomenal and I can actually feel myself getting stronger, using heavier weights, feeling better during workouts, nailing balancing postures better.  I did a one on one session with my boot camp trainer to get more comfortable with barbells (not the movements themselves so much, but more so how to structure a workout, how to check my form, when to go heavier and how much), and now I’ve added in 2x a week sessions with the bar, and I can’t even begin to explain how good it feels to have a barbell on my back. (My super tight hip flexors tend to disagree, though).  I have a couple new lifting buddies, and our boot camp group has really started to coalesce into the fit fam I’ve been craving so much that I don’t even mind how insanely expensive it is on top of my (already expensive) membership.

Bootcamp Fit Fam <3

What a good shot I am!

• I also decided February was the month of handstands.  I’ve been wanting to do them for AGES now, and when I finally started being able to get them on a total fluke in late January, I instantly decided I was going to practice EVERY DAY in February in hopes of getting some more consistency.  I still struggle with pushing up into them without having momentum behind me, and it’s still a toss up as to how long I can hold them, but it’s progressing. I’ve even started trying without a wall behind me – but that hasn’t been so pretty.  It’s coming!

• I’ve mentioned before but my mother is a CPA, so during the heavy tax season months I cook two meals a week for my parents so that they don’t starve – and this year’s have been SPECTACULAR as seen below: (Grilled Cuban wraps & curry cauliflower, honey sriracha IPA & lime ginger wings, some badass superbowl pizzas [shrimp/onion/bacon/garlic & chorizo/spinach/mushroom], chicken thigh & chickpea tagine cinnamon roasted carrots, Thai turkey/chorizo meatballs with peanut butter sauce over sautéed kale & brussels with coconut aminos, Mongolian beef with cauli rice mushrooms & broccoli, smoked paprika shrimp & andouille sausage kebabs with grilled baby bok choy, and tomatillo pork chili verde so far. I’ve never cooked this many things so consecutively delicious & I’m dying.

So that’s it! February, you were badass.  March, bring it on – heavy back squats, heavy deadlifts, handstand pushups, a trip to NYC & ALL the brewing experience <3

some stuff i forgot...

I literally type this post two weekends ago and......never posted it. Please, explain how I survive daily.

ANYWAY I have things to talk about like school and malthouses & brewery tours but if I let this post never see the light of day I don't get to show off my barrel, SO.

--

After two straight holiday weeks and two straight 4-day holiday weekends, only having two days off last week was an incredibly cruel jolt back in to the reality of the 5-day work week.  Also for the first time in a while I didn’t have much in the way of actual plans, which meant almost the whole weekend was devoted to working out and brewing beer…….could be worse.

Friday night was the annual Men of Zumba event at CC+ - when I first started really hitting the gym hard about 5 years ago, after I made the switch from my small local gym with not much more than a smattering of cardio machines & a weight room to the grand (and pricey) wonderland of Life Time, it was dance cardio classes that really hooked me.  I still enjoy them (I’ve migrated from straight up ‘zumba’ style classes to more hip hop type classes, which if you would have told me I’d be doing about 10 years ago I would have laughed in your face), even though I’ve mostly moved on, but a lot of my favorite instructors participate in this every year, so it’s fun to support.  Unfortunately the more I get out of the scene, the less familiar I am with the local instructors, and the more time I spent desperately trying to catch on to their routines while only being able to see about 50% of what was going on on the stage…but it was still a good, sweaty time.  Props to CC+ for managing the insane amount of people, too – at one point I turned around and the place was packed to the gills, all the way back on to the carpet behind the dance floor!

I also got a surprise delivery from my friend Kirsten in Minnesota – fresh, pesticide-free black spruce tips to add to my next brew, and (almost even more exciting), some Caribou beans!

Saturday I crawled out of bed, hit a boot camp class at my gym, came home to shower & headed back out almost immediately to White Lotus Yoga Studio for their new location’s grand opening.  I was really hoping to check out an aerial yoga class, but unfortunately they were all full, so I popped in to a vinyasa flow since I was already there, & signed up to do some flying next Sunday.  I’d been to the studio for Friday community classes at the old location, but the new one is soooooooo nice and bright and airy!  Solid job, ladies.

Next up: barrel curing!  Back in November a friend picked up a discarded Journeyman Distillery whiskey barrel for me from his homebrew shop (after doing a little investigating – it used to house Silver Cross whiskey, which sounds delightful).  I’ve been scheming a brew to put in it for quite a while now, and finally settled on an eggnog porter that I’ll be brewing next weekend, but it’s been sitting empty for so long that I wanted to go through the curing/sanitizing process even though it’s only held liquor so far.  Luckily my parents’ house, with its much larger laundry room and unused bathtub, was on the way home.

My darling <3

Curing away in a strange environment...

I can’t believe how much char came out of this thing – or how good EVERYTHING smelled. Damn, son.  A week of curing + some sanitizing and she’ll be ready to go!

Prepping for a new batch meant I also had to move along some of my current fermentation projects, so Sunday was a beer transfer day – I have two batches going right now, a Belgian golden strong that I racked over a slurry of almond extract & brandy-soaked dried fruits (blueberries, apricots & golden raisins) to try and conjure up a stollen bread flavor (fruitcake beer is SO last Christmas!), and a standard American IPA that I wanted to pull off a couple gallons to play with (I ended up adding a juniper berry tea).  Both of them came along nicely throughout primary fermentation – the Belgian has a perfect yeasty golden ale flavor and it hit all my projected numbers almost perfectly.  I was shooting for an 8.4% ABV, nailed my original gravity, and after primary it was sitting around 8.9% - bonus!

Beer ingredients looking pretty vile.

Amidst all the transferring I also took down all my Christmas decorations and got in a little extra fitness aka, “I bet you I can totally squat this tree.” (Spoiler alert: it was actually really light and I was kind of disappointed by how easily the whole thing went down).  Apparently the fitness theme of the day was “cold,” though – I tried to meet some bootcamp friends for a nice hour of hot vinyasa in the morning, but the heat at the gym was busted so it was a little more like slightly chilly vinyasa. Still managed to work up a sweat by the end, but hooooooly wow was it hard to find some zen for those first few minutes.

Disappointingly easy, but don't ask me how the attempts at pistols went.

Luckily I warmed up with some Paleomg spaghetti squash pizza casserole once all was said and done – an extra big batch with heaps of ground beef, spinach and mushrooms.  It might only look pretty when it’s fresh out of the oven, but damn is it good (and thank god for that, because with this big of a batch I’m going to be eating it all week long).

7 month check in??

I had this idea to do a mid-year check in on all the goals I set at the beginning of the year (and the other day I listened to a podcast with Chalene Johnson on push goals and how to be successful at setting and maintaining goals that reminded me again), but now it’s August, so it’s kind of less a mid-year check in and more….a mid-year plus a little more check in.  The good news is I’ve been doing productive sorts of things in the meantime!  Mostly!  But anyway!

• Practice yoga more regularly – I started the year off REALLY strong with this, going 2-3 times a week and just loving it.  I still love yoga (especially a really awesome juicy hot vinyasa class with enormously loud music where I can just lose myself in my body), but…..it’s summer, and being in a 100 degree room full of other sweaty bodies is just harder to find the motivation for right now.  BUT I’ve still been going around once a week, and putting in a lot of work on the “flashier” aspects – after months of trying, I finally nailed getting up into & holding bound headstand without any sort of wall! (Actually my first successful bound handstand with no wall happened on a precarious cliff edge at Mesa Verde in Colorado….

• Incorporate more strength training – YES!!  I’ve been going to barbell-based group fitness classes two days a week, which have been fabulous, even though they use simple iron grip equipment & not full size bars – I’ve definitely seen large strength improvements. My squats, chest & back have gone up exponentially and I’m slowly dragging my biceps along as well.  I just started a new boot camp program and let me tell you what, outdoor tire flips & prowler pushes ALL DAY make you feel pretty bad ass.  My new goal is to get into my gym’s Alpha Training (similar to Crossfit, with Olympic lifting & WOD-style workouts) by the end of the year!

• Read 50 books – I’m at 36! Definitely on track to finish 50+ by the end of the year.  Reading is something I haven’t done that much of in the past couple years, and it has felt REALLY good to get back into it.  I’ve been carving out an hour or so at night to do nothing but read from the comfort of my bed (I’ve even in the past week been starting to leave my phone OUTSIDE the bedroom charging through the night, which I never thought I’d be able to do…) and it’s such a nice way to wind down at the end of the day.

• Get more done – I’d say this is about 75/25.  I HAVE been doing much better at planning out my days to make the  most of my time, and I’ve gotten a lot of things done that I’ve been wanting to/planning on and at forcing myself to just get up and accomplish a task, but there are still those 5-10 minute jobs that I just can’t find it in my not to procrastinate on…

• Write more – PFFT. Moving on.  

• Run at least 6 races – I’ve done 3 so far (The Color Vibe, Hightail to Ale, & Insane Inflatable 5K) and have another one scheduled tonight (Glow in the Park!), so I’m almost there J  Looking at a Halloween race as well as maybe something closer to winter (Hot Chocolate 5k in Columbus is a possibility). I actually really like running when it’s colder out!

• Brew one batch a month – I’ve kept CLOSE to this. I’ve also gotten a lot more scientific in my brewing & started doing a much better job monitoring the process & my efficiencies, which I think has made a pretty substantial difference in overall quantity.  I’ve made a few really quality brews this year, and I’m pretty excited about this barleywine that I’ve got fermenting away right now, as well as the watermelon gose that’s currently in the works!  The second half of this goal was to seriously look in to an apprenticeship or volunteering at a brewery, which I have NOT put time and effort into yet, but I have one lead (a friend is head brewer at a brewery that is expanding) and one potential lead (a brewery run by a guy in my homebrew club is slated to open in a couple months), so the possibilities are out there….  

Bon bon bons & beers beers beers <3

•  Go camping for the first time ever! – YES!!  This happened and it was fabulous!  I went out to Colorado over my birthday and was treated to some glorious company, incredible beer, mountains to die for and also an army of Scottie dogs (no, really).  Despite the fact that it happened over a month ago, I still want to write about the experience so maybe someday…

Overall I think I’ve made some pretty decent progress – obviously there’s some things I’ve skimped out on, but 2015 has been MUCH more good than bad when it comes to personal improvement, and there’s still 5 months left!

month-end check in!

This will be my first post since my resolution post, so I think we can see what resolution in particular I've been slacking on.  However, I've actually made some good progress in some other areas and it's been about a month, so to check in...

• Practice yoga more regularly: I've been practicing about 3 times a week! Yesterday I went a funk/soul hot vinyasa class followed by an hour and fifteen minute long yin class with massage, and all I wanted to do afterward was melt into my mat forever.  I've been making good progress with my tripod headstand & bird of paradise, and starting to work on bound headstand, so I'm feeling pretty good about this one!

•  Incorporate more strength training as well: Also doing well with this one! Making it to barbell strength class 1-2 times a week (missed a class for work last week & for a Red Wings game the night before...one more worth it than the other), and at least one barre class as well. Cutting back on cardio has actually had a good result - I've lost 7 lbs since New Years & hopefully gained some muscle, too.

Pre-barbell this morning, rocking my new hopped & bothered tank ;)

• Read 50 books: I'm on my 3rd book of the year, so I'm about on schedule - but lately I've been on a big movie watching kick (which started off with "well I think I'll watched just the first bit of this and then go to bed" and then I watched the entirety of The Imitation Game because it was positively incredible).  Gotta get back to evening reading!

• Get more done: Loving my new planner - iPhones are great, but there's something that holds me more accountable once I've put the effort in to penciling in a workout or a date, or just "get groceries tonight".  

• Write more: Weeeeell, they can't all be positive, right?  Still working on this one...

•  Run at least 6 races: The NHL All Star game is in Columbus this year (this weekend, to be exact), and despite how close that is to me, I wasn't very concerned until I saw this morning that there had been a 5k complete with NHL All Star medals!  I did, however, basically commit to the Moonlight Bootlegger 5K, so that'll be one down!

• Brew one batch a month: I started off January with a nice Belgian Quad - my biggest grain bill ever (20 lbs!), and some added currant/raisin puree just for a little bit of extra flavor.  I think I'm getting better at getting my ABV up, because I had a blow out during fermentation....high hopes for this one!  (Plus my buddy gave it the badass name, "Jean-Quad Van DAMN," so...)

Off Sides Brew Co. Glamour Shot featuring some bomb ass hop pants.

And of course, the post-brew dinner of citrus macadamia cod, lemon romano asparagus, & rosemary garlic butte roasted beets/carrots.

• Go camping for the first time ever: Plans are in the works - hoping to finalize the details during my Colorado trip that's only TWO WEEKS AWAY!!!

Overall I'd say it's not a bad start...but it's only been three weeks & there's a whole lot of 2015 left.  My mother's a CPA, so she's extra busy this time of year, and has hired me to cook a couple meals a week for her and my dad, so expect lots (more) food photos soon...

hello 2015!!

Good morning & welcome to 2015!!

The 1st of the year is always the perfect time to revisit what you've accomplished the year before.  I've never been a big resolution person, but I always try to set some new goals to keep me going through the new year - which, in the long run, are pretty similar things, but "goals" sounds so much more positive than "resolutions"! 

• Practice yoga more regularly - at least twice a week classes at Lifetime & hopefully some practice on my own as well.  I want to be able to do a legit handstand by 2016!  And besides that, I really like the mindfulness the practice brings to my life, and how it really forces me to focus on every sensation my body is experiencing at any exact moment. 

• Incorporate more strength training as well - again, barbell & barre at least once a week each.  I really want to focus on increasing my strength this year - numbers on the bars going up instead of numbers on the scale going down!  I'd also really like to keep trying NEW methods of strength training & hopefully find something new that really resonates with me.

• Read 50 books - I set this as my challenge for 2014 and I barely made it halfway - which is sad, considering I used to probably read upwards of 100 in a year!  I spent December doing a whole lot of reading while all the TV shows I watch were on holiday hiatus, and it felt awesome. Spending the last bit of the evening winding down with a book in bed has done wonders for my mental health.

• Procrastinate less - or maybe better worded, just get more done. I've actually already started this the past couple months, but I want to make better use of my time & spend more of it doing things that make my life better, even when all I really want to do is come home and collapse on my couch.  I have a lot of home and life improvements I want to get rolling on this year & I can't afford to put them off!  So many times I put off doing something that will only take me 5-10 minutes, and I want to stop doing that and just push through it, regardless of how bombed out I feel after a day of work and a workout.  I ordered myself a gorgeous (and hella pricey) Erin Condren planner, and I'm looking forward to using it to get not only more organized, but more priority & goal-oriented.

• Write more - whether it's blog posts or fiction, I've gotten SO far away from writing since graduating college, and I miss it! I want to set a goal to blog at least twice a week & hopefully go from there.

• Run at least 6 races - I got away from 5ks last year after running about a million the year before, & it's another thing I'd like to get back into. Along with this I want to try and run more period, hopefully starting with this morning.

• Brew one batch a month & keep branching out trying new things, but also try to brew some old recipes over again and gain some consistency.  I also want to seriously look into some sort of apprenticeship or volunteering at a brewery to start to learn the business on a larger scale.

• Go camping for the first time ever!!  Luckily my Colorado beer buddy has already promised to take me - just have to figure out the whens and where.

I already have so much to look forward to in the coming year - a trip to Colorado in late February, the Toast of Hockeytown with my best friend, a planned trip out to Montreal/Ottawa/Toronto in October with my OTHER best friend...about to get this party started!

Now I'm about to ring in this January 1st with a quick run to try out my new headphones, a barre class with my favorite instructor, and then a home cooked meal of cauliflower chorizo curry soup & pork loin stuffed with spinach, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes & mushrooms. Yes, please!

cardio blast & my weekly workouts

I admit:  I'm a cardio junkie.  When I first started working out & switching over to a healthy lifestyle, it was all cardio all the time - and it did wonders for me, too.  I know there are a lot of people who knock it, but I've always enjoyed cardio 400% more than any other kind of workout (except running - ohhhhh do I hate running).

All winter long I subjected myself to strength & resistance training - and I'm not going to say I didn't get anything out of it, because I love love love my back/shoulder muscles, toned arms, & the way I am finally able to look in a mirror and appreciate that my ass isn't COMPLETELY flat - but as soon as the weather starts getting warmer, all I want to do is jump around and sweat...which is exactly what I did all week long:

Selfies on the beautiful CTC campus.

Monday - I spent the work day at the Chrysler Tech Center, which has a beautiful campus, so I took advantage of my longer than average lunch break between classes (after scarfing down an amazing free salad) to do a few laps of the property, which was blissful.  After my seminar was over, I had a couple hours to kill, so I changed, headed out to Mae Stecker park to do some more walking (now that it's beautiful outside, I can't stop!) and then shot down to Lifetime to take a Zumba class with my friend Emily & one of my favorite instructors. Monday/Wednesday the class I take is super dance-oriented, so I feel like it not only works my body, but also my brain - I was never a dancer as a child so I can only hope to look even remotely as good as the instructor!!

Tuesday - After a looooooooong day at my actual job, I took a hot vinyasa yoga class with my favorite yoga instructor.  She strays from the typical Lifetime Yoga format of sun salutation A, Sun Salutation B, a longer flow, and then some stretching & a cooldown & instead adds a lot more longer, more challenging flows, complete with oodles of balancing work (which is one of my favorite things about yoga!) and a horrible (but awesome) core section in the middle. I never knew boat pose variations could hurt so good.  Then I came home and did a nice few laps around my condo complex while listening to a couple podcasts (the newest episodes of Barbell Shrugged & Strange Brews)!

Wednesday - Met my friend for another Zumba class with the same instructor as Monday.

Thursday - Normally every Thursday I take a Dance Jams class with my all time favorite instructor, but she was having a sub I don't care for as much this week, so instead I swapped Lifetimes & tried a new instructor at the Shelby gym, and he was WONDERFUL!  A friend of mine who had gotten there early graciously swapped spots with me so I could get close to the stage & actually see what moves I was supposed to be imititating which was sooooooo helpful.  The guy who was teaching had lost 100+ lbs doing Zumba, which is what made him want to be a teacher, and he was GREAT. The class was hot hot hot, everybody was yelling and dancing and interacting, which made it a million times more fun than the usual Zumba class - plus he was super interactive with the crowd & got up in your face a lot, which isn't something everyone likes, but it's something I LOVE.  Considering I passed up free beer to go, I'm glad it was so perfect!!

Friday - This morning I got up and went to yet ANOTHER Dance Jams class - I had the day off because of the holiday, and a friend of mine teaches only morning classes, so I never get to go, and therefore I justified yet another bout of cardio ;)  Later I plan on biking over to my parents' house to do some pre-brew shopping & then hit up a homebrewer meeting!!

Saturday - The instructor I normally take on Thursday nights is going to be back, so yes.....I'll be doing Dance Jams yet again.  The more I type, the more I'm starting to feel ridiculous...  (On a sidenote - I forgot my FitBit this morning & I got so upset that none of my steps were going to count.....and then, like a genius, I read the help forums and found that you could manually update your steps in!!  I guess that might just tempt some people to cheat, but I was sooooooo glad my hour long efforts were recorded after all - when I got home and saw I only had 184 steps, I wanted to cry!)

Sunday - AT LAST! Sunday is my big brew day (we're making two batches in one day - never before attempted!) so I need to be up & at 'em earlier than normal, which means I'm taking a super early morning hot vinyasa yoga class. Hopefully it'll stimulate those creative juices & help me make some tasty beer.

And finally, the holiday Monday - A special 1:15 long Dance Jams + Strength class with my favorite instructor and another who I've never had before - I can't WAIT for this class!!

A little ridiculous on the amped up cardio, I know - but I feel great!!  I'm getting my high-impact endurance back, and I've been really rocking out the past few classes, sweating and getting my jams on.  I'm trying to find a new strength class I enjoy to work into my routine, but in the meantime, I love what I'm doing & I'm seeing results, so I'm not going to let anybody tell me too much cardio is all bad!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do your weekly workouts look like?  Are you a cardio junkie or a strength training buff?  Does the weather impact your workout regime?

fitness away from home

Greetings from Columbus, OH! 

My friend Theresa and I headed down here on Friday night for a quick weekend away because we signed up for the Hot Chocolate 5k that happened this morning. Conveniently, it coincided with a Columbus/Montreal hockey game on Friday night, so we nabbed some really nice tickets and took in a game that played out in what seemed like an endlessly entertaining NHL blooper reel. I also got to meet up with my friend Skye, who I've known since 2004, but rarely get to see, and picked up dinner at Barley's Brewery, where I had a nice, smooth Centennial IPA, their firkin of the night, and a yummy, spicy Christmas Ale. Ohio beer is pretty decent!

Saturday morning I really wanted to get some kind of workout in, since I knew we'd likely be eating out and drinking more beer. I see "hotel room" workouts posted all the time, and my hotel actually had a small fitness room, but I don't enjoy working out alone on machines much - I just don't feel the motivation!! So instead, since I've been really into yoga lately, I sought out a studio near the hotel and ended up finding Yoga on High, which was about a mile up the road from the hotel, and had a slow burn (my favorite!) class in the schedule for 8am. Perfect!

It was a nice walk through downtown Columbus to get there (I love cities!), especially that early in the morning. The studio itself was wonderful - they were very welcoming when I told them I was in from out of town and just wanted somewhere to practice for a weekend - and I have nothing but awesome things to say about my experience. The instructor Michael was lovely - I really love when instructors get right up in your personal space and basically (in a respectful way of course!) manhandle you to get you deeper into poses, or show you just how it should feel and where you should be feeling it (especially because when it comes to yoga I'm still a beginner when it comes to the vast majority of poses!), and push your body's limits in a way you wouldn't necessarily be able to on your own. After that hour and fifteen minute class I felt AWESOME and ready to face a day of shopping. Thanks, Michael and everyone else at Yoga on High!

I felt so good afterward that I walked another mile north up to The Little Donut Shop to bring some goodies back to the hotel room: 

The Little Donut - directly underneath The Big Tavern!

Maple bacon, strawberry shortcake, and cookie dough - I was good and only ate a third of each, but I couldn't choose!!

After we ate these babies we went out for a day of downtown shopping - the highlight of which was finding a shop where you could blend scents and pour your own candles!! Of course since they had a hops scent, I mixed it with a bit of grapefruit and blue spruce and made a nice little IPA candle - it really does smell like a nice cold glass of Huma Lupa!! 

I got a little overexcited about designing a label...

All in all I'd say I got in about 8 good miles of walking between this excursion and shopping on top of the yoga class - not a bad day for exercise on vacation!!  

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you do for exercise while traveling? Have you ever sought out and taken classes in random cities you've visited?