Victoria's Secret Supermodel Miranda Kerr Workout

The last post on VS supermodel workouts was so popular, I thought I should find another one for all you lovely ladies...and because I have been re-motivated to workout after watching the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show last week. I wonder why? Ha-ha. I found Miranda Kerr's weekly workout on Sharieitfitness. It's no cake-walk. She works hard and eats a healthy balanced diet to achieve her slender amazingnessssss. I've also heard that she is a big fan of Yoga!

Here it is:

Miranda usually spends about 90 minutes in the gym, 4 days a week. If you don’t have time for that, try spreading it out over 6 days. She begins with a 15 minute sprint/jog session to get her heart rate up. She'll jog for 2 minutes then sprint for 30 seconds and repeats the process until 15 minutes are up. After her warm-up she'll jump rope -- 5 minutes of regular jumping, followed by 5 minutes of advanced. Advanced jump roping includes double skips, one-legged jumps, and knee tucks.

Then it's onto the resistance component to her routine. Miranda's trainer has her practice snatches, in ladder form. What this means is she’ll lay out 4 dumbbells in increasing weight. She’ll start with the lightest and do 1 rep, then move on to the next heaviest and so on (weights do not exceed 15 lbs. remember the focus is toning the arms, not bulking-up). Once she’s done all four, she'll start back at the lightest weight and do 2 reps etc. She repeats this process until 10 reps for each weight.  Tip: Move fast during the ladder snatch drill to keep your heart rate up and burn more calories.

From here she will spend 20 minutes focusing on lower body toning with a barbell and a few weights. She combines barbell squats, barbell lunges, barbell reverse lunges, and box jumps to make up her lower body routine. She'll do 3 sets of 12 for each kind.

Miranda repeats her jump rope drills for another 10 minutes at this point. The goal of a circuit training routine is to keep the heart rate high. This burns a massive amount of calories and vastly improves cardiovascular capabilities.

From here it’s back onto the treadmill. Although this time it will be with a steeper incline. Miranda will spend 3 minutes sprinting, 6 minutes walking, and 6 minutes walking backwards.

To recap:

15 minutes: Jog/sprint – sprint 30 seconds, jog 2 minutes, repeat.

10 minutes: Jump rope – 5 minutes regular jumping, 5 minutes advanced jumping technique
20 minutes: Ladder snatches – see above for description

20 minutes: Lower body work – BB squats, BB lunges, BB reverse lunges, box jumps

10 minutes: Jump rope – 5 minutes regular jumping, 5 minutes advanced jumping technique

15 minutes: Inclined treadmill (at LEAST 15 degrees) - 3 minutes sprinting, 6 minutes walking, 6 minutes walking backwards

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My Favorite Foundation!

I was in need of a new foundation for quite some time. Last weekend I went to South Coast Plaza and had the Bare Escentuals Boutique find a mineral foundation for my hard-to-match skin color. They found one and I love it! I would even dare to say that it's the best foundation I've ever used. Great coverage and it's better for your skin than an oil based liquid foundation.

My skin is on the lighter side...

I got Golden Fair Original SPF 15 Foundation for $26. 

Pick your shade and give it a try!

What kind of makeup do you use? What are your favorite cosmetic products?

Give me the scoop ladies!

Wedding Hairstyles

What do you prefer for wedding hair, an updo, half-do  a no-do a.k.a. down? Does it depend on the dress? What do you think looks best?

Pictures: Pinterest

Décor inspiration: Tray Chic

How do you display your lovely things -- jewelry, perfume, books, makeup?

The picture above is my own room. I found the vintage mirror tray at Salvation Army for $5.00 and I made my own jewelry hanger out of a converted candle holder that I found at Urban Outfitters. I like looking at my little display...it makes me feel like a fancy lady. Ha-ha.

DIY: Beautiful Little Packages (Free Printables)

I found cute packaging ideas from Oh The Lovely Things. This will come in handy when you need smallish pillow-boxes to put your little gifts in. Here are some free printables!

{MEDIUM SIZE - 1 per page}

Download at Oh The Lovely Things

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{TINY SIZE - 4 per page}

Download at Oh The Lovely Things

Churros con Chocolate

One of my dreams is to temporarily house swap and live in Spain with Danny! Oh how great would that be? Dan was a lucky duck; he grew up in a bilingual family and can switch from English to Spanish like it ain't no thing. Spain could be my chance to finally learn Spanish fluently! Until then, I will continue to practice my Rosetta Stone and make Churros con Chocolate -- a popular breakfast treat among Spaniards. Believe it or not, this recipe is really easy to make. And...it's AMAZING!

Churros are usually served plain with a hot chocolate dipping sauce in various European countries. And check this out...when we were in Costa Rica, they made their version with dulce de leche in the middle! Awww so good! But my all time favorite would be rolled in cinnamon-sugar and dipped in chocolate!

Makes approximately 20 churros (depending on size)
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter (I used salted butter, if you use unsalted add a pinch of salt to the batter)
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup flour
3 eggs
oil for frying

Cinnamon sugar
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon

Chocolate sauce
100g (3.53 ounces) dark chocolate
50ml (1.69 fluid ounces) cream

• Start by making the chocolate sauce and the cinnamon sugar. Melt the chocolate and cream together and set aside. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
• In a saucepan, combine the water, butter, sugar and salt. Allow the butter to melt and stir everything together.
• Combine the saucepan mixture with sifted flour and stir until a ball starts to form.
• Transfer the mixture to your stand-alone mixer or to a separate bowl if you are using a hand-held blender.
• Allow the mixture to cool for 5 minutes.*You don't want the hot dough to currdle the eggs
• Place enough oil into a pot to fry the churros and allow to heat.
• Start beating the dough and add the eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition. The mixture will become slightly sticky and more like a batter, but still thick.
• Place the batter into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
• When the oil is hot, pipe long shapes into the oil and allow to fry until golden brown, flip them over and fry on the other side.
• Continue until all the batter has been used.
• Coat the churros in the cinnamon sugar.
• Serve warm with chocolate sauce.

Adapted from Simply Delicious

Professional Beauty & Makeup Tips

1. "Take a shimmery gloss to the center of your lips, top and bottom - this will attract light to your lips, making them look pouty."-Katrina Barrion, makeup artist for Giella Custom Blend Cosmetics

2. Breakout before a big event? "Take oral cortisone a few days before the event to clear your skin"- Ava Shamban, dermatologist and author of Heal Your Skin.

3. For fuller lips, extend the lip line using a flesh tone lip liner. Be careful not to go overboard!

4. Always use an oil free moisturizer with SPF in the morning.

5. Winter can be especially harsh on your hair leaving it extra dry. Eugene Davis, celebrity hair stylist suggests using an Avocado Hair Mask.

6. "Use your concealer as a base on your eyelids" it will help even out your skin color and keep your liner set for longer.-Melissa Silver, Maybelline makeup artist.

7. When choosing the correct shade of red lipstick keep in mind your skin color. If you have dark to olive skin pick a shade with orange, yellow or golden hues. If you have fair to light skin, pick a shade with a blue base.

8. Drawing thick dark lines all around your eyes will make your eyes look smaller. To avoid this, don't close the lines---line only the outside half of your bottom lid or don't line the bottom lid at all.

9. When using lipstick always be sure to put a tad more product on the middle of your lips. This is the first place where lipstick tends to fade.

10. Brighten eyes with a dot of pale gold cream shadow at the inner corners. “It makes the eyes look wide open and beautiful in the light,” says makeup artist Tom Pecheux.