52 Week Hand Lettered Project

{yes, I am drawing on graph paper...}

Ok, so my girl Emily and I were talking at Wine Club last week and I brought up that I have been feeling really inspired lately. I feel motivated to be my best and happiest self. I already got the fitness and food thing down, got the yoga thing in check, I get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water, work hard at my job, LOVE the home Max and I are creating, etc etc. I feel so full, yet I have all this pent up energy that I need to be released somehow, but haven’t figured out what to do with myself yet. Make sense? No? Ok well just keep reading anyway…

She convinced me to try out Pen and Peplum’s 52 Week Hand Lettered Project. Basically there is a theme for each week, and you create some an artsy fartsy piece (like drawing words in cool ways…). At the end of the year you have 52 pieces of word art that you created and describes things about you, your year and your personality! Neat, right?

Now, I’m not an artist by ANY stretch of the imagination, but this sounded like so much fun to me… maybe because in my “tortured emo days” I would plug in some depressing music and draw words with thin tipped markers. I’m serious, this actually happened, I can show you proof of a page drawing of words I did one time when Max and I were in a fight. Pathetic. Or is it? This project may show me otherwise… maybe it was a personal outlet to express my emotions? Or maybe I'm reaching... 

Anywho, my hope is that this project not only gives me the (small) creative outlet I've been craving, but could also grow into additional inspiration. The first week’s project (that I had to catch up on since we’re already in week 3) was “2015 Mantra”. I thought for a few minutes on this and decided on Wanderlust, meaning a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world. I thought this was only fitting given that 2015 is going to be the most adventurous travel year of my life thus far!

I’m so excited for this project! Make sure to check it out on the Pen and Peplum blog or Instagram account. 

Homemade Beauty: Green Tea Mask

Whenever I get a chance to add a little extra pampering to my beauty routine, I like to see if there's a DIY version of the procedure.

As mentioned before, Meggie and I used to spend a lot of our weekend nights growing up having "Spa Parties", and much of that time, we were slathering some version of a mask on our skin. 

Never homemade, though.

Making your own green tea mask can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. There are endless articles or YouTube videos that will show you how. As usual, I took bits from everything and came up with something that worked for me. 

For the Courtney version of a DIY green tea mask, you'll need to gather: 

• 6-8 green tea bags, opened & emptied into a bowl
• 1 tbsp sugar (raw or granulated)
• Strainer
• 1/2 orange (or lemon)
• 1 banana
• 4-6 fresh mint leaves

[If you're not using loose leaf tea, tearing open existing packets will work]

[While you're at it, go ahead and brew a pot of tea for yourself to 

enjoy while the mask does its work. 

Drinking green tea offers many benefits to the body]

[Yummy]

[Push down on the leaves even after you've strained it, to ensure all excess water is removed]

[Raw or granulated sugar adds an exfoliant to the mask]

[The recipe called for lemon juice, but I always stock oranges, 

so this time I made it work.  In the summer when additional cleansing is necessary, I may opt for the more powerful citrus.]

[My herb garden is a bit out of control right now, so I plucked a few mint leaves to give the mask a fresh scent]

This final ingredient should be interesting. It was not mentioned in all of the posts I read about, but we'll see if it truly offers the creamy, moisturizing bonus that some articles promised.

[If you have an extra make-up brush, use that to spread the mask on evenly]

[Or as evenly as possible. 

Let's not start to list all the things that appear to be all over my face...]

[Nourishing myself inside and out!]

Once the mixture was made (which yielded way more than I needed for one use) the process was very easy. If all goes well, I should be keeping my youthful glow and avoiding wrinkles like those on my baby girl.

She can totally pull them off...

So Long, Race T's!

In an effort to clean out the closets and dressers here in our tiny condo, I've decided to keep only a few of my race t-shirts for future use.

[Side note: I promise I don't just sign up for these races for the t-shirts!]

Just under half of the T's so far have come in the microfiber, sweat-wicking material that is great for my weekday runs. Those will remain in tact, and because I can't seem to totally part with the other ones, I'm going to make something out of them.  

What I will likely do is make a really thin quilt that I'll give to the doggies or something; the shirts won't be shirts anymore, but the memories will remain. I think I'll cut the them into rectangles where the event logo/information is centered, and then just start sewing away!

So, as I am about to sign up for my next race (a 3 mile, super hot, super sweaty trail run 3 weeks from now which, truth be told, sounds like it should be offering a dirty dish rag as a shirt), let's review the race shirts I've aquired so far: 

              

[My very first road race: 8K in Downtown Chicago, April 2011]

               

[My very first race in New Orleans: 5K in December 2011]

               

[9K starting at Old Spanish Fort and ending at Jackson Square in the French Quarter: January 2012]

                

[Super boring scenery: 10K along the levee tracing the Mississippi River. February 2012]

[Not shown: Run Forrest, Run 5K in the French Quarter, April 2012]

                

[First race of this season: September 2012]

                

                

[October 2012. Another boring 5K route on a levee, not a great time, but a race is a race and I LOVE this t-shirt]

                

[This shirt explains it all]

[November 2012. Thanksgiving Day 5 mile run. It felt so great to chow down that night. This will definitely be an annual thing for me]

             

[December 2012: MY FIRST HALF MARATHON!! My very first NOLA race was the 5K version of this event the year before.  

This is the race I wouldn't shut up about all fall. I'm still debating whether or not to run it this December]

[9K in January 2013. We've come to a repeat race again. The pink shirt was the first Jackson Day race I ran. This year the day was FREEZING COLD & WET, but ended with a piping hot coffee & beignets in the French Quarter, so it was way worth the misery]

[February 2013. Another repeated event]

[February 2013.

Simple, even boring 5K, but this is still my personal record @ 24:30]

[February or March (?) 2013. Last minute decision. Woke up that morning and decided to run it. Beautiful day. Great race.]

[May 2013. 5K through a cemetery with my friend from LA]

[Most recent race to date: May 2013. 

Super fun (& funny) 5K I ran with my baby sister!]

[Freebee]

Finally, when I go to our local Varsity Sports to purchase new running shoes, they always give you a free t-shirt. Since those shoes contribute to my success at races, I consider them part of this bunch! 

Stay tuned for progress on this weird project I'm working on with the scraps of the leftover, less desirable tees. 

DIY – My Magazine “Bible”

I have a subscription to SELF magazine. I love everything about this magazine, including the recipes, music suggestions, fashion, various beauty product recommendations, etc (oh yeah, and the fitness info is cool too J). Whenever I receive SELF in the mail I make it a point to read it from cover to cover within the next few days.

With that being said, I hate clutter and between my SELF, US Weekly and In Style subscriptions (not to mention Max’s Bon Appetit and our combined MSU Alum magazines), things tend to pile up. I have no problem recycling US Weekly but find it hard to part with other magazines that provide such great information and helpful tips. So I decided to create a binder that combines what I love from all of the above (kind of like Pinterest but a printed version). This puts everything in one place and is user friendly and organized enough to flip through for inspiration whenever the mood strikes! I have organized this binder in 7 categories (and growing): 

1)       Workouts – actual tear-outs from magazines, kept in nice shape in individual clear envelopes

2)       Fitness – all other workout related articles I deem worthy of the “bible”

3)       Yoga Love – fun articles or different information related to yoga

4)       Foodies – recipes, information on best foods for skin type, “beating the bloat” , etc

5)       Musical Inspiration – great workout playlists, celebrity top picks and everything in between

6)       Fashion – documenting latest trends and fashion forward articles/pictures (my own look-book)

7)       Beauty – makeup, hair & skin tips… best products to use

8)       Miscellaneous – anything else I want to hang on to J

One day I’ll consider this to be a waste of space, but until then, it’s like an adult scrapbook. As the binder reaches its capacity, I’ll most likely re-assess its contents and clean out accordingly (or just get a larger binder?). It’s going to be an ever changing “bible” but one that will keep me motivated and inspired in many aspects of my life for the foreseeable future. 

{Nina Dobrev = inspiration}

DIY(ish) Instagram Calendar

So, when I saw this idea here, the first thing I thought was that, “Courtney would love this!” I got really excited and immediately read further onto the DIY portion of how to get it done. It looked simple enough so I decided to make one on a whim for my sister using Instagram pictures of her “first born”, Jackson. Plus, this was kicked off before I knew Apple would exist 24 hours later... 

After getting deeper into it, I realize that I am not very experienced in the DIY arena. It’s been years since I have participated in arts and crafts, and honestly, it takes major concentration for me to even cut in straight line. With that in mind, I decided to cheat and use an already constructed calendar that simply required stickers. One day I’ll have the guts to make it a REAL DIY project. But, in the meantime here are the steps I took for my simplified version:

1. Order prints of your choice for each month. I loved using PostalPix because it was easy and you could do everything right from your phone! App is available on the iPhone and Android.
2. Collect remaining supplies (I went to a local scrapbooking store): rubber cement, blank calendar, sticker numbers and the names of each month (or calligraphy pens if you’re daring), construction paper for cover, and whatever you want to use for the year.
3. Use the Rubber cement to glue the Instagram pics on the cover of each months page, stick the numbers on each day of each month (extremely tedious, some were crooked, but it was worth the time), cover front with paper of your choice and the year (stickers... pen... whatever strikes your fancy).
4. ENJOY!

Again, I cheated, so this wasn’t a TRUE DIY, but it was something that I had fun with and thought came out looking pretty good (considering). I only hope that it brings a smile to my sisters face every time she looks at it J

2013 – The Year of DIY’ing

  

  1)       Paint  swatch wall art

With the New Year here, and lack of holiday decorations, things feel a little… bare. I get this feeling every year after the decorations are taken down. There is an unfortunate emptiness. There are many walls that could just use… something. Not that I want to clutter by any means, but some projects would bring some warmth to the joint. With that being said, there are many DIY type projects I’ve been looking into for decoration. Here are some projects that I have in mind, decorative or otherwise, to work through in 2013.

2)       Instagram Canvas Wall Art

3)       Sharpie Mug Set

4)       Favorite Quote Tote Bag (I would use song lyrics instead)

5)       Remove residual wax from old candles to reuse the jars

6)       Organizing necessary documents

7)       Burlap inside a frame… use dry erase to write notes, lists, groceries, etc

8)       Cork Board w. wine or champagne corks