As I said, a lot has happened in the past year, including a big life change for us: Matt and I closed on the purchase of our first home! It was a tedious process, and it took a while for us to find the right place and then have an offer accepted, but we’ve been living in the new digs for a few weeks and absolutely LOVING it. It’s such a different feeling to live in a space that you own rather than rent, and we’re finding ourselves taking a lot more care in maintaining, decorating, organizing, and settling in than we previously have.

It’s been a MINUTE since I’ve been inspired/able/focused enough to crank out a blog post. So much has happened in the past year (seriously? it’s almost been that long?!) but I haven’t been able to sit down and synthesize it into words, so we’ll start with something simple. Back in November, I found a new favorite foundation. It was a product I’d seen around but had never given it a try, and after one application I was hooked.

Ok yes, a wordy and bold title, but Nippies have literally changed my life. First, we’ll acknowledge that I have very little going on in the chest department. It’s a blessing and a curse, but it is what it is. Recently I started embracing my shape and choosing unlined bras and bralettes rather than the hefty push-ups I favored throughout my teens and early twenties, but I couldn’t take the plunge and go completely braless.

My relationship with running has always run hot and cold, but this time I’m committing. My husband is the kind of runner who can do nothing for months and then decide to go out and run 5k without blinking an eye. I require a little more training. I registered for the Cambridge Half Marathon in November along with my husband, my brother, and a few other friends. So far I’ve been training for a little over a week and can run just under 6 kilometers in half an hour.

Conveniently, my dad is a photographer. My best friend is getting married next month(!), so he made a trip up to Boston to do a pre-wedding/post engagement shoot for them. Matt and I tagged along since we never actually had proper engagement photos taken and a few good couple portraits are always nice to have. Our first anniversary was back in March, so we’ll call this an anniversary shoot 🙂 We posed in Beacon Hill, borrowing a few of the more picturesque doorways and stoops, and then headed to the public garden.

There’s no denying that it’s starting to feel like spring in the northeast. Especially with the time change, everyone is starting to feel that springtime bug. I downsized my wardrobe back in the winter and have mostly stuck to a smaller collection of things that I love since then (with the exception of buying all of the activewear to avoid all of the laundry!) Lately, I’ve been starting to add in a few key pieces to update my wardrobe for spring.

When I lived in NYC, there was a joke about the first warm day of the year and all of the New Yorkers baring their pasty white legs for the first time since the previous summer. Today it’s about 70 degrees in Boston, and in an effort to prevent being one of those jokes, I broke out the self-tan. I’ve done a post on my favorite formulas before, but like most women, when it comes to cosmetics and body and skincare I’m always on the lookout for something better.

I talk a lot about my superficial side interests here. After all, this is a beauty blog! But most of my day, whether it’s surprising to you or not, is spent working as a software engineer. I got into software and programming and computer science relatively late in the game. I didn’t even consider it as an option and I wouldn’t have studied it at all if I didn’t need to complete an introductory CS course to complete my math major in college.

I’ve made a few lifestyle changes over the past couple of weeks and I’ve had unexpected results. I made the decision at the end of December to get in shape. I set some goals and figured out a way to achieve them the old fashioned way: exercise and nutrition. What I didn’t expect was that it would have a profound effect on my skin. Seriously, my face has never been so even or clear and I think it’s a direct result of my healthier lifestyle.

The theme for this month’s Play! box is: No Appointment Necessary. The idea is that with these products, you can achieve “salon” results at home. I actually love trips to the salon. A little time to myself to get pampered, relax, and leave looking and feeling my best is always welcome, but at the same time, my schedule and budget doesn’t always allow for frequent facials or blowouts, so an at-home, DIY option is a great alternative.