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Five on Friday: Working from home and cute specs!

May 1, 2015 by Susan 4 Comments

I’ve kept it no secret that I work from home. Some days I love it. Some days I dread it. The division of home life and work life is really tough with your home life is your work life. A lot of days I am totally jealous of my friends who clock out at the office to head home, relax and sip some wine without having work stare you in the face the rest of the evening. Then there are times when I’m in the middle of a conference call with top business executives and I’m painting my nails, in my yoga pants with unbrushed hair and I think - that working from the office concept is totally nutso!

So to all my friends who are pondering a life change - from the office to the home office - I wanted to share five things that help me survive working from home:

1 // You need yoga pants. Because let’s be real - even if you have to skype or facetime with people who are far, far away - unless your meeting includes a dance sesh, they probably won’t be seeing your pants. Ergo, anything with buttons, zippers, pleats, belt loops or even denim should not be worn. Staying comfy is key. Opt for the yoga pants.

2 // While having a desk is great, having a lap is even better. Especially when you work from home because you are not bound to your desk… My lap and office can be anywhere I want. Yes, the option is always there to sit at my desk. But so it my option to sit at the kitchen table, on the couch or even in my camper.

3 // Now that you are comfortable with your yoga pants, and you’re productively lounging with the laptop… you better be rocking your cute glasses. My eyes get so dry when I stare at my computer screen while wearing contacts all day. Firmoo.com reached out to me again, asking if I would share another cute pair of specs with y’all! I ended up with this super fun pair of pink and black glasses. Just because I’m working from home in comfy clothes doesn’t mean I can’t have fashionable and fun accessories!

4 // Co-Workers are a must for anyone who works from home. Yes, the can be remote. But you need to chat with people daily. Sometimes I feel like I am stuck on my own little island. After years of working from home, it hit me that I was going days without talking. Because who was I supposed to talk to?! And then I realized that my co-workers aren’t traditional co-workers. Instead of checking in on the guy in the cubicle next to me, I will pop in on my neighbor for a quick hello and a 5-minute work-break. You may think I’m crazy, but I also see my furbabes as co-workers some days! You know… those crazy co-workers who expect you to share your lunch break with them, every.single.day.

5 // Lastly, I’m slowly realizing that moving-breaks are crucial to surviving my work days. I recently got a fitness tracker watch, only to realize that I barely walk anywhere! (Apparently walking from my bed to my desk and then back to bed at the end of the day isn’t super healthy!) I have the perk of wearing yoga pants and making my own schedule - why in the world don’t I walk around the house a bit more! So in my very near future - walking, push-ups and lunges will be done every 30-ish minutes or so. I mean, my “co-workers” would love a quick jog around the block, I’m sure!

Many thanks to Firmoo.com for sending me my new awesome specs! If you haven’t had time to check out Firmoo yet, you really should! I will never buy glasses from a traditional store ever again. This is my second pair from Firmoo.com and I’m absolutely hooked. Their glasses are all very reasonably priced and the quality has been great. I love that my new specs are inexpensive enough that I can buy several pairs and use them as daily accessories, even if I am working from home!

2 cats & chloe: firmoo.com glasses review

Do you work from home? Is there anything that you recommend when it comes to surviving? Am I a crazy person for considering my pets to be my co-workers?

Today I’m linking up here!

Thanks again to Firmoo.com for giving me these new glasses. While they did give me new specs, the review of their company and this product was all my own.

So I really needed to WOW Rockie…

March 11, 2015 by Susan 2 Comments

As most of you know, a few months ago I should’ve changed the name of my blog despite it’s current level of amazing alliteration. While my blog title is still “2 cats & chloe” the G-fam isn’t officially “2 cats & chloe” anymore. We are now “1 cat & 2 border collies, a husband and wife” — but that really just doesn’t have the same ring to it!

Since we adopted Olivia Benson (yes, the pup is named after Law & Order: SVU) Rockie has really been in a funk. The poor cat has been forced out of his nightly cuddle time, chased every time he makes a move and has to bring his A-Game if he wants to eat! (Olivia has really loved sneaking over the baby gate to eat his cat food!) He rarely leaves his perch on my desk in fear of the pooch lurking beneath him!

When Fancy Feast reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in WOW-ing my cat - I immediately said YES! Rockie needed some TLC!

So last week I kicked the dogs out of the house and spent a little quality time being a cat-lady. Once the dogs were gone, Rockie came right out! He was purring and rolling on his back, waiting for some attention. Much to his surprise, there was a delicious treat waiting for him: Fancy Feast Broths.

While he isn’t a picky eater, I am. I want to make sure that my fur babes are getting as many quality and natural ingredients as possible. As a clean eater myself, I was happy to hear that real, recognizable ingredients are at the heart of these Fancy Feast Broths. The varieties feature either a classic silky or creamy broth, and are crafted without by-products or fillers.

Personally, I loved how easy this food was. These broths made serving cat food especially easy as it comes in perfectly portioned, read-to-pour pouches! Each pouch contains a variety of lickable tastes and textures and now includes the high-quality chicken that Rockie (and all cats) love!

I find it so easy to spoil my k9s on a daily basis. I love that Fancy Feast Broths has now made it possible for me to WOW my cat too!

If you want to WOW your own cat, Fancy Feast is giving away free pouches of Fancy Feast Broth (while supplies last!) So head over to www.wowserveddaily.com to learn more and grab a sample for your kitty cat!

You can also follow their #WaysToWOW campaign via social media:

Tumblr // Facebook // Pinterest // Twitter

**This post was brought to you by the makers of Fancy Feast. I received compsation to write this post through the Fancy Feast Broths with Chicken program. All opinions are expressed are my own.**

My Love of Aqua + New Home Decor!

February 13, 2015 by Susan 12 Comments

We made it to the end of the week! Hooray! Since I spent last weekend on an “almost-stay-cation” it made this week was a weird one. You know, coming back to your normal routine after there was a wrench in it is always rough. Even if it was a fun wrench.

The house has officially been listed for ten days now. We had two calls and two agent appointments set, yet neither of them showed up! What nerve! Lucky for them we were out of town… If I had rounded up the pets and spent all of last Saturday waiting for them to show up, I really wouldn’t have been a happy camper. The frustrating part of this process (other than forcing the husband and the dogs to keep the house clean 24/7) is that we cannot start building our new, custom home until our current home sells. Unfortunately this waiting period hasn’t stopped me from shopping and dreaming about how I will be decorating our new place! What really fueled this fire (and my pinboards) was when I discovered Minted.

Gals, Minted offers so many beautiful pieces of art AND unique framing options, I don’t know what I’m going to do! Oh, and let’s not forget that they also offer other amazing things like party decor, photo art and even colorful fabrics by the yard! Hellooooo new home decor! So today, for my “5 on Friday” post, I decided to pull my top 5 items from Minted that are totes magotes on my New Home Wishlist.

1 // I’m beyond obsessed with this print!

2 // We are going to have to tell our friends that we moved! I love these announcements. Or these… not sure which I like more!

3 // I can picture this in my beach-y bathroom… Love!

4 // We are totally going to have a housewarming party! How awesome are these party props?!

5 // I LOVE this fabric and can definitely envision it as chair covers or curtains for our dining room!

Quite frankly, if you can’t tell what color I’m currently digging for my new Southern-Inspired Home… you need to get your eyes checked. Is anyone else obsessed with this mint/aqua color for their home to the extent that I am?

Oh - and I definitely need to give a shout out to all my clients and brides out there… if you haven’t checked out Minted’s wedding stationary yet, you should definitely give it a gander! They have everything from Save the Dates to Shower Invites, in addition to their gorgeous wedding invites! At first look I see stationary that would appeal to all of my 2015 brides… everything from rustic and simple to elegant and glam!

Ah, I just love “window shopping” from my computer… Tell me, which piece of Minted art would you like for your home?

Today I’m linking up with these gals!

Full Disclosure: Items in this post were either gifted to me in exchange for this post or I was compensated by said company for my time. However, everything that I shared were my own thoughts, feelings and reviews.

SWS Christmas Traditions

December 20, 2014 by Susan 5 Comments

Don’t you just love this time of year? The hustle, the bustle, the boxes and bows, the Christmas cards and the twinkle lights? I do. But to be quite real with you, I have been struggling to get into a festive holly jolly mood this year. Work and life have been kicking my butt, which makes me feel like I have been wearing a “Holiday PR Face” for the last couple of weeks. Just going through the motions and the routines… trying to enjoy traditions and not just run right through them! Does anyone else ever feel this way? Is it a sign of my old-er age?

To help me get into the holiday mood, I have asked the 2 cats sponsors what their favorite Christmas traditions are… and boy do they have some awesome ones!

Meet these bloggers: Liz from I Heart Vegetables // J from A Hot Southern Mess // Samantha from It’s All In The Details

So my goal is to get the house in order and my work caught up before Christmas Eve so that I can sit back, relax and enjoy this time of year! However, in the midst of all my work these past couple of weeks, I have really tried to trickle in a few of my favorite Christmas traditions. In case you missed my post early this week, my family did try to pick our “progressive dinner” tradition back up, but with a twist. It was so fun eating a lot and exchanging gifts.

On Tuesday I decided to clock out at 5PM to meet my family for my all-time favorite movie {year round, not just in December} Christmas Vacation! Despite the fact that it was released in the 80s and it was definitely not created in HD, it was playing on the big screen at the fancy-shmancy Cinebistro! I was giddy over having the chance to hang out with the Griswolds on the big screen. I purposefully sat next to my dad so that I could run lines with him. {Yes, practically I have the entire thing memorized… sad right?} I was even rocking my Christmas Vacation t-shirt too!

While we have so many fun family traditions - watching Christmas Vacation {and then spending a month referencing all of the hilarious lines from the movies} has to be, by far, one of my all time favorite things. With that being said, I think I am going to pop a lactose pill and drink a glass of Spiked Egg Nog in my Official Christmas Vacation Moose Mug. Don’t believe me? Be jealous of my uber fandom.

What are your favorite holiday traditions? Are you spending this weekend getting ready for Christmas or are you already partying it up?

As always, thanks to everyone who loves and supports this blog! Go check out the awesome bloggers of this SWS post! Say hello - they are wonderful ladies! Cheers, y’all!

Liz from I Heart Vegetables // J from A Hot Southern Mess // Samantha from It’s All In The Details

Glasses as a Fashion Accessory!

October 15, 2014 by Susan 30 Comments

I am a nerd at heart. I work from home, most of the time, rocking my glasses and my dorky sweaters. I have spent this past week in Washington DC doing five days of meetings and work functions, for my during-the-week contracting job. Believe it or not, I have been rocking dresses and heels {Gasp! Yes, my knees have been holding up! Dare I say they are on the mend?!} But today is day four of no yoga pants and I am beyond exhausted… so how about a mini post while sporting jeans and sweater with my new glasses from firmoo.com.

Firmoo.com recently reached out to me, asking if I wanted to try a pair of their glasses. Of course I jumped at this opportunity because not only do I like to wear my prescription glasses when I cannot handle my contacts anymore… but I love having multiple pairs of glasses to use as cute, functional accessory pieces. Yes, these glasses are for seeing. No, I don’t just wear them for fun… although, you totally could! Unless you are my sister, because no one would ever be able to tell us apart.

I picked these fun frames for a couple of reasons. Yes, they are similar to frames I already have, but that’s what I liked about them! I knew they were frames that would fit my face. But if you are not sure what style you need, the Firmoo site has a “digital mirror” you can use to try glasses on your own picture!

I also loved these glasses for the simple the fact that they were multiple colors! {Hint, I like to mix things up as much as possible!} I went with the Purple/Brown option of the #F037 style.

Even Chloe gave them a shot!

I was shocked to see that along with my $35 glasses, they included a cleaning cloth and a tiny glasses screwdriver! Thanks firmoo!

This was my first time ordering glasses online. I am used to paying high dollar amounts for glasses from my eye doctor. While I will say, my older, traditionally purchased, glasses seem to be a bit more “sturdy” my new firmoo.com glasses are definitely a steal! It seems that the average cost of glasses from firmoo.com is around $35 {some including prescription lenses!} Yes, these are just a hard plastic frame, but they are so stinkin’ cute and do exactly what my other frames do: allow me to see!!

I highly recommend that you give firmoo.com a shot! Firmoo.com is offering any 2 cats readers, who has not purchased with them before, FREE FRAMES! With glasses this cheap, I will definitely be buying a few more pairs to wear as cute fashion accessories rather than just functional glasses. But first… lemme take a selfie: