5k Results :)

So my goals for the 5k were to complete the entire thing in under 35 minutes. I did it in 33:18. And to do the entire thing without stopping. Check.

Pretty proud of my time and ability to meet my goals. It was pretty hard because about 75% of the course was on a steady incline which I was not prepared for.

The course

My bff Jen (left) and I (right)

Start of the race

Somehow I managed to smile

BFF's hubby (left) and my man (right) showing their support

After the race

Victory beer!

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Give-Away Winner!

Thanks to all those who participated in my give-away for my jewelry line: Coconut Grove Jewelry.

With the help of random.org a winner has been selected!

The winning number belonged to Jess at This Beach Town Family. Congrats Jess! I will be in touch with you to discuss what piece you would like :)

And again, thank you to everyone who participated. Use coupon code "BloggerHookUp" during the month of April and save 25%!  

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Give-Away!

Hello my friends! I wanted to offer you all a chance to win acustomized piece from my jewelry line, Coconut Grove. Here's how you can win:

Do any of the following and your name will be entered. For everything thing listed below that you do, you could find yourself with some pretty good odds of winning :)

 * If you go to my etsy shop and "Favorite" my shop:http://www.etsy.com/shop/coconutgrovejewelry, you'll earn one entry

 *  If go to Coconut Grove's facebook page (find it here) and "Like" it, you'll get another entry.

 *  Leave me a comment on Coconut Grove's facebook page and that will give you another entry.

 *  For every friend you get to "Like" my CG page or "Favorite" my etsy shop, you'll get another entry. (Just let me know who your friend is so I can be sure to count them on your behalf) And since a friend of yours is friend of mine, I'll enter their name in the drawing as well. :)

 ****If you mention my etsy shop in one of your blog postings with a link to my etsy shop, you'll get 3 entries!!!! (be sure to send me the link)****


  *  And last but not least, if you buy one of the pieces currently listed (excluding pearl ring), you'll get another piece of your choice for free :) You will get to choose which one and I can do some customization so the piece is special for you.

I'll be keeping track, but please leave me a comment below to give me a heads up if you do any of the above, so I can make sure your name is entered for each thing you do.
The contest will end on March 31st 2011, at midnight - that's Cali time :). Thanks for your support! Looking forward to seeing who the winner is and making a custom piece just for you! :)

Rachelle xx

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My Jewelry Line: Coconut Grove is now Open for Business!

My jewelry line is now open on Etsy. Please check it out and spread the news. I have more pieces coming soon, so check back :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/coconutgrovejewelry

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Over the past month...

Wow, have I really not posted in over a month? Well, to sum it up - I've been crazy busy. Got promoted to Marketing Coordinator and my job, so I am pretty excited about that as you can imagine.

Went up to the Bay Area this past weekend to see my family and some of my friends. I had an amazing time and am so sad how quickly it went.

The weekend prior headed to Long Beach for the first time since I was an infant. Matt and I met up with my bff Jess and her gorgeous family...I stole these photos from her blog (forgive me Jess, but you take such awesome photos!)

Still working towards my 5k on April 3rd....doing well so far. And looking forward to Vegas in 49 days...not that anyone is counting ;)

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Recent Discoveries

5. The Zodiac has changed. I tried telling one stupidly Zodiac-dependent (ex) friend back during our Freshman year of college that the Zodiac was scientifically inaccurate these days because of the Earth's "wobble" overtime. She didn't want to believe me then – how I would have loved to have seen her face when this hit the news recently.


4. Loves. Click to listen to Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me."





3. Black Swan - Amazing Movie. And seriously, how gorgeous is Mila Kunis!?




2. Coolest thing ever –> Hurley's 'LOST' Numbers Win Fans Mega Millions Lottery Money

1. Verizon welcomes the iPhone next month. THIS is what I have been waiting for!

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Recent Discoveries

10. Tyler Conti. Check this guy out. He is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

9. Nick Vesky: Incredible artist who's photography is actually xrays. Breathtaking!

via

8. The Seabreacher X:

"The Seabreacher X can sustain high speed dives and then breach the surface, launching the entire vessel clear out of the water. The new fully vectored thrust system mimic the tail articulation of real aquatic animals like sharks and dolphins." Check out their website.

And...check out this video of it in action.

7. I am on a massive health kick and have recently discovered the "Green Monster" Movement. I have one of these everyday for breakfast and they not only make me feel really good, but they are (surprisingly) DELISH!

6. Keith Urban. I don't know why, but I suddenly find myself absolutely taken by the guy. Maybe it's the Aussie roots ;)

5. Starbucks is changing their logo to be only the icon of the siren. Interesting....

4. Dragonfruit. Had my very first one the other day. Probably the prettiest fruit I have ever eaten.

3. Jersey Shore is back tonight....hating that I don't have MTV right now :/

2. I just bought this super cute bag from Bare Escentuals.
I love it!

1. Britney has a new single coming out on Tuesday. Who's excited? THIS GIRL!

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Day 20: Picture of Yourself

Doing what I love

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Day 19: Nicknames

People don't seem to have too many nicknames for me. I get called Rach by some, Rachelley by family and Baba by my man....other than that, I guess my name isn't really one for nicknames.

On the other hand, I have RANDOM nicknames for some people:

Mom = "Marm"

Dad = "Little Dad"  "My friend"  "Penible"

Ryan (brother) = "Toots"

Matt (my man) = "Baba"
Any female friend I refer to as "SISTER!"

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Should I cut my hair again?

Hey everyone,

Need your opinion...my hair is very long right now and I like it. However,  I have very fine hair so it's thin and there is a lot of breakage...thinking of cutting it short again. Let me know what you think! :D

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New Years Resolutions: Twenty-Eleven

Ah, yes...it's that time of year again. What goal am I going to set for myself that I will inevitably end up forgetting about by Lent.

Actually, to give myself some credit, I didn't do too poorly last year sticking to my resolutions. At least I did better than I had previous years.

This year is simple: I want to focus on my health. My weight has been like a yo-yo all my life and, mark my words, this year, 2011, that stops. And I mean it. My boyfriend and I have decided to focus on our health together and hopefully we can support each other in reaching our individual goals. Tonight I am rejoining weight watchers as it has done wonders for me in the past. I lost over 55 lbs before and have managed to keep most of that off.

One goal I have set for myself is to run in a 10k by the end of the year. I have already registered for a 5k on April 3rd and I'm pretty excited about having something to work towards. I used to run a few times a week last year and a 5k would have been no worries....but that habit has fallen by the way side and I want to get back into it.

Next year I'd like to run in a half marathon....but right now I am focusing on my 5k in April and a 10k by the end of the year...baby steps.

I've also made a very hard decision that I think might be the best for me at the moment. I've been a vegetarian for 2 years now. I've loved it and it's been surprisingly easy. However, I have found that since my change of diet, I have been eating much more pasta and many more carbs (things that DO NOT agree with my body and weight loss goals). It's been especially hard living with my boyfriend (who loves meat) and coming up with things that we can both eat .... enter pasta. He's been such a good sport about eating my 'fake meat' (think sloppy joes with fake meat, chili with fake meat, chicken sandwiches with fake chicken) but it's definitely been hard. I'd like to focus more on eating "whole" foods. Say like veggies with grilled chicken. And I obviously can't do that sort of a thing if I'm not eating chicken. I know I could eat beans, or tofu to get protein, but I can't cook tofu for the life of me and I'm not a huge bean fan. I've tried using substitutes but I keep finding myself eating pasta....

So, with that being said, as of 1.1.11 this girl will no longer be a vegetarian. Trust me, I am a bit sad about this. I don't like the thought of eating animals and it's certainly going to be a bit of an adjustment. But I think this might help me achieve my goals and I can always go back to vegetarianism in the future. To be honest, I'm a bit nervous how my body might react-it's been two years and I'm afraid I might get sick or something.

What are your New Years Resolutions?

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Look What I Just Did...

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Day 18: Something you miss

Australia. So Much.

I wrote a post about it awhile ago....check it out.

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Day 17: Something you regret

I don't know that there is much that I would say I regret in my lifetime. There have been points where I thought I regretted something, but down the road found that it was only because it had happened that something else was able to happen into my life.

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason and that it all makes sense in the end.

If anything, I regret not doing things. I regret not taking vacations I have thought about, or trying something new. But all I can do is try to live my life to the fullest and take everyday as it comes.

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I'm still here....promise. Just been crazy busy lately. Quite a lot has gone down actually....

Matt and I spent Thanksgiving up in Valencia with his family and had a really good time. (Photos here) I learned how to play poker, and I took all the winnings. No joke. Watch out Vegas.

Proof, in case you didn't believe me.

We will be heading up to The Bay for Christmas and I can't wait! I miss my family and friends and am absolutely ecstatic about spending the holiday with them.

Matt and I went down to the Hotel Del Coronado recently to partake in some holiday festivities. They have The Del all lit up in white holiday lights and during the holiday season they have an outdoor ice skating rink that overlooks the ocean. That's right, oceanside ice skating. This is why I love San Diego. The night we went they also had Santa there with his elves, an awesome fireworks show over the beach and THE BEST (complimentary) hot chocolate I have ever had in my entire life! I am serious-so thick and creamy...it couldn't have been good for me ;) More pics here.

Speaking of the holidays, Matt and I just competed in a bake-off for his work. One of my bffs made these SUPER CUTE cake pops for her son's birthday from Bakerella and I decided to give it my best shot. We made the reindeer cake pops and while it was fairly difficult, they were a HUGE hit and we only lost the cake-off by ONE VOTE and it was to an awesome hazelnut pavlova. (pics here of cake pops)

But probably one of the most interesting things that has most recently happened is work related. I've been working 30 hours a week at my HR firm. Someone just resigned (very sad about this) BUT that means that yours truly just got bumped up to full time and tons of extra responsibility. My boss and I are discussing all the details this Friday. I am SO EXCITED for this opportunity to prove what I am capable of and grow within the company. It's so funny how many things have finally fallen into place since I have moved to San Diego. I truly believe this was all meant to be.

Well, that about wraps it up. It's 3:30am and I can't sleep....my mind is too busy. Thank goodness for coffee :)

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Day 16: Something you're looking forward to

Christmas at home with the family! I haven't seen my family since October when they were down here for my birthday and I miss them alot. For the past 8 years, aside from the year I lived in Australia, they were never further than half an hour from me. It's been a bit of a change now that a 8/9 hour car ride separates us.

VERY much looking forward to spending the holiday with them.

Christmas last year

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Day 15: Favorite Quote

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass,... it's about learning to dance in the rain"

"If you had one day left to live what would you do? Climb a mountain? Kiss the guy/girl of your dreams? Tell someone how you really feel? Now if you had your whole life to live, would you lose that drive, or would your list just keep getting longer?"
-The Buried Life
"Dream like you'll live forever, and live like you'll die today."

"Why do we fall? So we learn how to pick ourselves back up."

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
-Dr. Seuss
"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
-Dr. Seuss

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, you can start now and make a new ending"

"Without risk, there is no closeness."

"It's not about how many breaths you take
It's about the moments that take your breath away."

"To deny our impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human."
"I've never been anywhere but the hood and around the corner" -ANTM

Life is a series of choices, some big some small. We may not always like the choices that we are given, but they are still choices. For every choice there is a consequence, some big some small. Not all consequences are immediate.

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Day 14: A picture you love

Nick Veasey is amazing. Check out his work here.

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Day 13: Goals

Some goals I have for myself:

• Finally reach my goal weight by next summer.

• Eventually get my HR certification.

• Take an awesome vacation next year to somewhere I have never been before.

• Start cooking from scratch more.

• Get back to focusing on my photography.

• Ideally, I'd like to take (another) photography class in the spring, and maybe guitar too.

Let's do this! :)

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Halloween Pics!

Check them out HERE!

Here's a teaser for ya....

Can you guess who we are?

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