Collier Leeds is Making a Comeback!

In 2007, after a trip to Leeds Castle in England, my mom decided to start her own dog collar business, Collier Leeds. Our family loves our animals and my mom has always had a creative soul so it is very fitting that she found inspiration in her dogs. My mom enjoyed a small-scale, successful business in which our entire family believed, but she decided to take a break from the business in 2011. 

Old Collier Leeds logo

Over the years my mom has been asked by friends, family, and strangers about the business, and my sister and I finally convinced her that it was time to bring it back to life. This weekend we traveled back to Kutztown to help her find inspiration again and take the next steps to relaunching the business. The first big improvement that was made was transforming her old kitchen into a studio. 

My sister and I then looked through my mom's old inventory and helped my mom pick out the first 10 styles that will be available on the new website. Fortunately, she still has a lot of inventory in finished styles, so it was a fun day of admiring all the old styles!

We name all the styles after our beloved animals, remembering that these animals are more than just pets, but part of our family. Below are the winners. These are just the metal patterns that will be affixed to the leather collars - what do you think??

Top picks

Mix of old and new styles on leather

We spent the weekend cuddling with our favorite animals and soon to be Collier Leeds models, Lizzie, Louie, and Stella. We rescued Lizzie from a Cleveland shelter as a puppy and our big, shaggy, muppet is now deaf as a doorknob and still the sweetest dog. Our bichon frise, Louie Vuitton, was a present to my sister and I when we found out we were moving from Cleveland to Kutztown - he doesn't have a mean bone in his body and loves to roll in the mud. Our tiger baby, Stella, is a pitbull that my sister and I fostered after she was found in a dog fighting circle in Philadelphia. Stella lives a very spoiled and happy life with our Aunt and Uncle but we visit her every time we go home to Kutztown.

The Lizzie Muppet

Louis Vuitton Valentino Skanipico Oswald

Baby Stella

My sister and I love going back to Kutztown to recharge and it felt great to have such a productive Collier Leeds brainstorming weekend. We woke up a Sunday and took a family walk with the dogs to wrap up the business talk. The poor dogs couldn't walk over the grated bridges and we all got a kick out of carrying them across.

The date of the Collier Leeds launch is still TBD but expect to see updates over the coming weeks! Although it's very outdated, check out my mom's Collier Leeds blog from 2011. It's pretty old school but she had a blog before blogs were cool!

ClassPass and NYC

I have been hearing great things about ClassPass for months but was, for whatever reason, resistant to sign up. Finally, after taking Boss Chick Dance workout with a friend last weekend and realizing it was a ClassPass class, I decided I would use March as a trial month. Last week was my first with CP and I am completely hooked!

I was pleasantly surprised by how well the ClassPass website is set up. I love how I can pick any day throughout the week, along with the neighborhood I will be in, and see all the classes that are available to me. Membership is $79 for the month and over 20 studios across Philadelphia Metro are currently participating. The only catch is that you can only take up to three classes from each studio over the course of the month.

I have taken 7 classes so far, my favorites being:

- Skinny Mini at Lithe (ouch)

- Spin at Body Cycle Studio

- RZ Core at Rowzone

- Yoga Sculpt at Philly Power Yoga & Thrive Pilates

On Saturday morning my sister and I headed up to New York to visit my friend Kathy, who was in town from London. We used my Amtrak points to book our trip from 30th St. Station to New York Penn Station, a super easy hour and a half trip.

We took the subway from Manhattan to Williamsburg for brunch at Station, a really delicious favorite of Kathy's. We opted out of the bottomless brunch ($40 for ALL you can drink) and still had a really tasty brunch!

After brunch we explored Williamsburg while shopping and getting our nails done. It was the perfect way to spend the first beautiful Saturday of the year and it was so great to see Kathy! The next time we see her will be in London in September and I can't wait!

This week I am slowly finding inspiration for a bedroom makeover. More details to come... Andrew is less than pleased :)

Painting with a Twist

This week I was able to attend my first Vynamic "Thrive Live"event at "Painting with a Twist." I had never done anything like it before and was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had. We had a nice little spread of food and drinks and spent the night singing along to '90s hits while painting the Philly Love symbol.

My finished product

The Vynamic team!

On Friday night we headed down to East Passyunk for restaurant week. It was a very cold, windy walk there but it was worth the cheeseburger, fries and milkshakes we got at P'unk Burger for $15. I had to break Lent for it but I couldn't NOT drink the milkshake...

We finally had nice weather on Saturday and we spent it running errands and finally doing some housework (no exciting projects yet...pictures to come at a later date). I walked down to the Italian Market and made sure to take a few pictures of the ongoing projects happening around the neighborhood. The restaurant space at the corner of 17th and Carpenter is finally being worked on again and the houses behind us are nearly complete!

Soon to be apartments and restaurant space! 

House nearly complete!

Winter his us hard again on Sunday and I took out my frustration on the trainer in the basement. I haven't ridden a bike in two years but I am determined to get back into it this spring. It hurt a lot but I felt like one of the boys, pedaling away in the basement :)