Search results
65 results found.
12 Gift Ideas for Rock Climbers
Has anyone thought about Christmas shopping yet? It’s coming! My favourite time of the year! Thought I’d put together a little wishlist for myself or those who have rock climbing friends and have no idea what to get them for Christmas.
1. Hand Grip Strength donut — Although it may not look like much, it comes in handy especially when it comes to healing finger injuries or wanting to improve your strength. With 3 resistances to choose from, your climber friend will thank you for this small, yet thoughtful gift. I have the 30lb resistance, then do reps of 10 squeezes until failure. Oh the burn!
2. Rock climbing mugs — Who doesn’t want to practice their crimp strength while chugging their morning cuppa joe? You know I had a nickname once: Crimper Queen.
3. Carabiner necklace — LOVE! A mini carabiner that is functional in the way that it locks and opens? Way too cool. Clearly not for climbing. But it’s sweet.
4. Crash Pad — Anyone who heads out to get a bouldering session in, most likely would require a crash pad to cushion a fall. And guess what? After 19 years of climbing and bouldering, I still don’t have one! Many companies make them now besides the bigger brands, and what is neat is that they can now be completely branded and customized to your own style.
5. Figure 8 bracelet — Back in High School this was all I wore on my wrists.
6. Chalk bags — What else are you going to put your chalk in?
7. Climbing tee’s — You know, to keep you warm before you start climbing.
8. Sculptures — Self explanatory, a little artwork on your walls?
9. Climbing Shoes — La Sportiva is a trusted brand of mine. The lace-up (now men’s) miura’s create a snug fit for a narrow foot, especially in the heel cup area. I’ve retired those and bought La Sportiva women’s velcro Katana’s. Not as aggressive, but still can do a mean heel hook and not slip off. Their rubber is impeccable too.
10. Harness — I’m due for a harness upgrade. Thinking keeping with my theme and going for the always reliable Arc’teryx.
11.Chalk — Check out Friction Labs, especially the Unicorn Dust. You don’t have to chalk up as often, take that from me. I’ve been using it since the summer.
12. Mini rope keychain — Adorable, another must have. I’m’ eventually going to buy this for myself.
It’s all those carrots I ate
This weekend we checked out the little town of Saratoga. We brought Alfie along with us to do a bit of window shopping in the charming European-feel town, have a stroll through the park, and to our surprise a free concert at Wildwood.
Heading back to our car we saw this insane luxury car. I’m not huge into cars, but this one was unreal. It ended up being a McLaren — to which that peeked The Guy’s interested in looking up the base price of what it goes for. Ohh, you know — 1.3 million. I don’t think I’ll ever make that much money in my entire life. If I had a car that expensive, I’d be afraid to take it for a drive for fear of it getting scratched. Or bird pooped on!
American Eagle puffy vest, Etsy necklace & scarf, Anthropologie cardigan
Urban Outfitters tank top, Forever 21 jeans, J Crew flats, GlassesShop glasses
So, I bet you’re wondering why I’m wearing eyeglasses, no?
FortSmith Rectangle Tortoise – Tortoise
My eyesight has always been “better than perfect vision” says the Optometrist. I crack jokes whenever I get my eyes checked every few years, saying it’s all those carrots I’ve been eating making my eyesight abnormally good. I have always wanted to rock a pair of eyeglasses. Everyone in my family now needs them, but me! Well, ha! I figured out that you can buy non-prescription glasses. I mean, I guess I knew that a while ago but never really thought anything of it, until I was contacted by the GlassesShop. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted the FortSmith Rectangle Tortoise (the one’s I’m wearing in this post) or the quirky Sonoma Rectangle glasses in white. I’m never the type to dwell on which item I should get but I was completely stumped. Go out of my comfort zone and get a bold white set of frames? Or stick to a smart brown tortoise shell set? Why not both! Worst thing they could say was no. To my surprise, they agreed on the two. Woo buddy! Score on that one.
They arrived from China in a timely matter. I googled reviews and it wasn’t good. Shipping took ages, or their prescriptions were incorrect upon arrival. After mine arrived I took a ton of selfies to see if I was confident enough to wear them out in public, mainly the white ones. Boy, they’re somethin’ else. Instagram folks gave me the two thumbs up, so that was a bit of an ego boost. The Guy has been wearing glasses for a long time, so he thinks it’s a little odd that I’m voluntarily wearing them since technically, I don’t have to. Well sir, I think it adds a bit of fashion to my otherwise boring outfits/face. Not that I have a boring face. I mean, it spices it up with accessorizing my face. Get it? What do you think of them?
If you’re interested in buying a pair prescriptions or not, Glasses Shop has offered you guys a 20% off code: use NancyX20 before checking out.
What did you do this weekend?
When is the last time you explored your city?
Thinking Out Loud Thursday #7
I apologize in the amount of reviews that went up this week. I don’t like doing that on the regular, so I hope you guys didn’t mind. It doesn’t always happen. It’s been a while since I sat down and discussed what’s going on in my life. So let’s have a chat, shall we?
I’m thinking of incorporating those weekly workouts into blog posts again, many people seemed to like those — do you? I’d insert a poll, but I don’t know how.
Speaking of working out. I had one of the two bouldering areas at the climbing gym, all to myself one afternoon. It was pretty cool for a few climbs, but then I got lonely and walked over to the front of the gym to have a bit of social interaction even though no one really talks to one another. I swear it’s like a fun house at that climbing gym. SO many “rooms” to choose from to climb and boulder in.
I’ve been giving the chalk called Unicorn Dust by Friction Labs a go since I got back to pulling on plastic after my finger healed. It’s not 100% healed, I do have to tape up my ring finger like a poser, but it really does help. I want someone to take snazzy cool bouldering pictures of me outside. I mean I guess I could go to the crag myself and set up a tripod after I’ve done some boulder problems but I think that might be a little much. Side note, I bought the athletic tape at the dollar store I recently discovered in Campbell. Biggest dollar tree I have seen in my life. I love browsing through the dollar store for hidden gems. I swear I’m like a little old lady nodding my head to the seniors, strollin’ through the store looking for the best deals.
My friend and I hung out earlier in the week – I mentioned we went to eat at University Cafe in Palo Alto. But I didn’t mention that I stopped to take endless photos of ALL THE PALM TREES.
My new friend was wondering if I liked all trees. I never really thought about it in that sense, and no — I have never stopped to look and admire a tree before, until my husband and I moved to California. It’s that Palm Trees have some secret special place in my heart that makes me so unbelievably happy. So when I spotted Palm Drive in Palo Alto, I had a skip in my step – take that literally, because I actually skipped ran and jumped when I saw it.
I think it’s a good thing to be excited over possibly mundane things. I hope that I never get used to Palm Trees and drive past them like they are a regular occurrence. Which, I mean – they are in California. But you know what I mean.
My husband’s birthday is coming up so yesterday morning after he went to work, I got busy putting things together for his special day. I don’t want to reveal too much, because I know he reads my site from time to time. But fret not (I’m sure you’re so EAGER to hear about it all…right?) I’ll blog about the whole thing. I think this will be his most memorable birthday yet.
I popped into West Elm a few days ago and swooned over the gold place settings. Something I’ve had my eye on for a long time. I looked at the back and noticed it was gold plated, and not gold filled. I find gold plated will get scratched with time, and gold filled will stand up with time. Not that gold filled would be any more expensive either, because my Etsy necklace is gold filled and was twenty bucks on Etsy, and I haven’t taken it off since I bought it over 4 months ago. 
A few nights ago The Guy and I finally set up the Nintendo Wii U that I won at BlogHer. Of course, since it’s mine I got the first go at it. Setting up our Mii’s had me in tears laughing. The things you can do to make them not look human had me in stitches. When that was finalized, we played Mario World and took turns. I forgot how fun Nintendo games are, and how much they cramp up my thumbs because I’m one of those game players who tenses up if I can’t jump out of the way in time. I was made fun of by The Guy because when I’m going to get eaten or fall off the cliff in the game, I mash the console in my hands, subconsciously praying that I’m hitting some correct button to save my life. He had a good kick out of that. He’s more logical, of course and is always telling me which buttons to hit when I’m playing. Kinda like a back seat driver ;) I’m used to it, so I tone him out. Hah!
Give SONGZA a listen. Pick a mood. Pick a playlist. I love oldies. I love blasting music and cleaning house. Or not cleaning the house and sitting down scrolling through Facebook, IG, and Twitter. You know how it is.
Wow. This post was all over the place, a lot longer than expected. But isn’t that the fun of it?
Tell me something random.
What made you happy this week?
Have you ever had a Nintendo system? I had a GameBoy that my Dad and I used to play together, trying to beat one another’s scores on Tetris, and Mario World.