Guest Blog: Introducing Julia

Hello dear readers, here is our first guest blog post as promised, written by our friend Julia. We had some technical issues here at HQ and so if there are any editing errors, we promise it is all our fault and not hers.

Hi everyone, my name is Julia and just to set the record straight, I am no longer wearing the 1980s shell-pink Sally Jesse Raphael glasses.

Don't try to act like those glasses weren't awesome at the time - I was so on top of my fashion people!

Anyways, recently I was having this deep philosophical conversation with my friend Laura about our collective feelings of self-dissatisfaction. Despite our otherwise happy homes (jobs we like, supportive families, two fantastic husbands, one great cat) we were both feeling kind of blah and disorganized. Laura was lamenting how much she hates putting away the laundry; I admitted I could barely recall the last time I had a haircut. Despite sporadic attempts at fitness, neither one of us has yet to achieve a "nautalis body" (although Laura is far further along on this goal, having run two half-marathons).

Further, neither one of us has whipped up a fantastic dinner party since back when Britney Spears was still a virgin (or so she claimed). We are smart girls - and avid women's magazine readers! - and are therefore well aware of exactly what we should be doing to be healthy, organized, confident girls-about-town. We read the articles: "Declutter your life!" "10 steps to easy weight loss" "Make it yourself ... for less" "Put yourself back on your to-do list." We know we should take our vitamins, wear sunscreen, eat walnuts (the omega-3s!) wash the dishes before bed, exercise three times a week, bake cakes (the cake I should be making) host cocktail parties and take the aforementioned fantastic husbands out on creative (and sexy) date nights at least once a week.

So why, we wondered, do we routinely find ourselves coming home exhausted, eating cereal, glancing sideways at our mounting piles of laundry and our scraggly hair and crashing in front of the TV? Neither one of us has kids, so why weren't we spending our child-free years pouring time and attention into ourselves? Here we are, young, minxy and carefree and we're blowing it! Why?

While I could delve into all the many layers of biology and social programming and Family Circle cartoons that might answer this questions for us, I have decided that, for me, the reason is sheer laziness. In January, Oprah admitted at length all the ways in which she had failed to put herself on her own to-do list.


I realize that I have done the same. In the last year and a half, I have done a lot of things: I took the California bar exam, got married, moved and started my own business. While this may be all in a days work for some of you (I'm looking at you, Martha Stewart!), this was a lot for me. I think somewhere in the mix, I lost my focus - I almost totally forgot that I like to have my toes painted! When I saw Tammy last week, I was telling her how I needed to get it together. I suggested that she have me do a guest-post on her blog as motivation for me to do something that was creative and productive. And so now, here I am - freshly motivated out of my fear of public failure. So, in my little guest posts, I am going to venture to do all those things that Oprah and Real Simple remind me I should be doing. To make my closet look more like this:

and less like this:

(While I don't exactly have a pig in my closet, I have often lost my cat in there)

To dress up like this:

(I could use a little more Grace in my life)

And throw parties that look like this:

Instead of settling for this:



Next post, I will focus on fitness. I will give you my tips on how to start running when you a) hate running, b) are out of shape, and c) ran a blistering 12.5-minute mile in high school! Luckily I live right next to my high school P.E. teacher,who is full of hot running tips! (Editor's note: for my QHS readers, Julia lives next to Mr. Powell, not Mrs. Bissell, in case you were wondering.) Stay tuned ...

Check back next weekend for our next guest blogger, my sister Marina! And don't forget to let us know if you'd like to try your hand at it, too!