House reno's

Not only am I lucky to have my other half be an outstanding father and partner, but he is also a fantastic handyman and a fellow DIYer. We really are a great team!

He bought a home in April and quickly got to work on it. It had had only one owner and had been decorated about the time the home was built -- around 60 years ago. This was the upstairs washroom before he got started on it:

Dated floors, wallpaper and wood panelling walls. We spent an entire weekend, with the help of his parents, stripping wallpaper, tearing up the floors, painting, painting and more painting. We also wallpapered a bit, but with a more classic design that will hopefully stand the test of time.

 

This is the wallpaper that we ended up using. The original plan had been to paint, but once we stripped the other paper off, we quickly realized that there would be no way to get the glue completely off from the old stuff, so we opted to cover it instead. This paper was easy to hang and is actually textured. Isn't it gorgeous?!

 

 

 

We love the new bathroom. It was fairly easy and relatively inexpensive to redo.

 

The next room that he did was our daughters room. The before was plain, dated and not fit for a little girl.

 

 

 

We also had a condo on the other side of town, and A's room is pink there, so we choose bright green for this room. Other than a coat of paint and the carpet coming up, this room took next to no time.  The wall at the end of the bed is a bright green that matches the blinds and the inexpensive canvess art that adorns the walls. (Dollar store canvas painted green with decals that are also on the walls -- so simple and totally his idea!).

 

 

Note the ammmmmmazing headboard made from pallets! It's absolutely beautiful and our kiddo loves it. Very shabby chic....especially now that she has a matching bedside table too!

 

 

(See how to instructions in separate blog "DIY Pallet Furniture")



We had decided to host Christmas this year and with reno's in full swing and family from out of town coming, I was really pushing getting the living room done. The kitchen is still in progress and the basement hasn't been touched, so I wanted a place where we could enjoy each other company and relax. Before we started the reno's, it stayed true to the rest of the house: aged orange carpet, terrible wallpaper and old tiles at the front door.

The door in the left hand side of the picture is the front hall closet, adjacent to the front door. There is a wall that separated (note the PAST TENSE!) the living room from the dining room, as well as one that separates the dining room from the kitchen, so the main floor was really choppy and had no flow. We spent one evening taking down the wallpaper (until 2:30 a.m. - we were SO sore the next day!!!) and took the carpet up. His brother came over and retiled the front foyer and the closet will soon be turned into a mudroom closet. (Pics to come!!). We picked a beautiful neutral colour that is dark and creates a cozy, comfy atmosphere and brings out the natural wood colours from the mantel and the window frames.

I can't even begin to describe how much I love the living room now. We enjoyed our family over the holidays in our new space. We were all so cozy, with our tree lit beside the fireplace, my other half's brother playing his guitar and our daughter in her brand new jammies enjoying time with the people that love her.

These reno's have, at times, been a test of patience, a test of our relationship and a test of our very different tastes, but overall we have a great start to making this house our home.

Websites for kids

When I was a single Mom and couldn't afford cable or internet, my kiddo and I played a lot of games, did plenty of crafts and just hung out together a lot. Now that I am a bit more established and have some extra cash each month (but certainly not a ton!!!!) I can finally afford internet. YAY!!

I am fairly strict with what sites A plays on (she is only 4, after all), as well as the amount of time she spends on the computer. Some days I feel like she is trying to make up for the 4 years of her life that we didn't have internet with the amount of computer time she wants. I try and find a healthy balance of educational games and just straight up playing-to-have-fun games, although I especially like the ones that are comprised of both learning AND fun activities.

Below are descriptions and links to the websites that A is most fond of. Some she prefers over others, but if she gets screen time during the week, she'll typically navigate her way (by herself!!!) to any of the following:

Starfall is actually a site that they use in A's school on the smart board, which is one of the reasons I don't mind her spending a bit longer on it.  It's an education based site originally developed for teachers to help their students learn phonics.  There is an entire section written for parents about how to use the site (i.e. which section to start with...) and it's very user friendly. A especially likes ABC Lets get Ready to Read section.

ABCya.com is another site that A enjoys. It's actually for children grades K-5, so it's a website that if you have more than one youngster at home they may actually be able to agree on! There are sections for letters, numbers, computer knowledge, drawing, baking games....plenty of everything. A is super into baking, so obviously she loves this site. And Mama doesn't mind it either ;)

PBS Kids is another site that we frequent in our home. A likes it for the games and for the familiar characters (none of the above mentioned sites have recognizable characters. i.e. Cat in the Hat, Thomas, Curious George). There are videos and games, and you can choose your activity by character or by level of skill involved). Superwhy is, by far, A's favorite game on this site.

Disney is the last site that we normally hit up for entertainment. I find that the games are typically a bit too tough for a 4 year old, but I'm sure older kids would enjoy it. A does like the Princess adventure games, although usually I end up actually playing it while she watches. No educational component involved, but fun nonetheless.

I would love to hear some of your kids favorite sites or even apps on your phone. As I'm sure all parents can attest, playing the same games over and over is almost as much fun as watching the same Thomas or Dora show over and over! Ahhhhhhh, the joys of being a parent ;)

These are a few of my favorite....websites.

With Christmas holidays coming up, I'm planning on as much R & R as I possible can fit into the 16 days I have off. (16...I know, right?! Can't wait!!!!). I have a few things that need to be done over the holidays (filing paperwork, organizing our craft supplies and baking goods, cleaning our floors) but I have a few other things I would like to do as well. Many of these come from various websites that I check out every day. There's a few obvious ones - Facebook,  Hotmail and   Pinterest, but I also subscribe to a few others that I read daily and that include a few articles that I want to catch up on. Check the following sites out if you have an extra few {HOURS} on your hands. Warning: you will NOT be able to just log on, check them out and log back off. Give yourself some time to explore them :)

Elephant Journal is independent media dedicated to mindful living. It is composed of articles on a variety of topics -- my favorite being yoga, family and wellness. There are 16 featured authors, along with contributing authors also. Because it is independent media, there is an opportunity to submit writing and have it published (umm bucket list!!!), and the instructions on how to do that are on the website. If you do only have a few minutes, here are my fav articles from the site:
Sucker Punched, The Thought I Already Hate This Class I Have 55 Minutes Left, and my all time favorite (not yoga related at all):8 Photos of New Yorkers Most People Dont See

One of my other favorite sites is Mind.Body.Green.. It's dedicated to...guess? Mind. Body. Green. You got it. Just today I read "What I Learned When my life Unraveled" . Also check out "25 Things We Should Say More Often" (this is actually a link to a Kid President video and is AMAZING!!!) and "How I Overcame Anxiety Attacks ". So fantastic.

Something else that I absolutely love checking out are Ted Talks. I'm sure you've heard of them -- there's one for absolutely everything. The idea behind Ted Talks? 'Ideas Worth Spreading' by a variety of speakers. My favorite? It's a tie between  Ash Beckham  and  Shane Koyczan They are both absolutely beautiful.

Another amazing source of positive stories and news is  Upworthy It's where I find a lot of videos that I show to my kids at work, as well as a place I know I can look to if I need a pick me up. It combines videos from tons of different places, but all are touching, moving, uplifting etc. in some way. A GREAT place if you're having a not-so-great day.

Lastly, for all the other yogi's out there, Yoganonymous is a fantastic source for great yoga interviews, music, posters and yoga info. There are sections for lifestyle, practice, wellness and music. Yesterday I checked out 23 Problems Only Yoga People Will Understand


I hope you get a chance to check out some of the links I've attached above. They are fantastic sites that all focus on the beautiful side of life. Something we all need a little bit more of.

Much Love xoxo

How I Overcame Anxiety Attacks

Balance

A friend asked today what the biggest challenge in yoga I've had so far. It got me thinking -- what WAS the biggest challenge? Laying in savasana gently reminding myself to return to my breath when I start making tomorrows grocery list? Getting through an entire flow when my triceps are on fire because of a million chaturanga's? Balancing in tree when holding my drishti seems as easy as scaling the Empire State building ? Balancing hit a cord with me, but it wasn't anything to do with tree. Or in crow, or in airplane, or any particular yoga pose for that matter. It was the balance that I lack in life right now. Or at least that I FEEL like I lack in life right now. As the mother of a very active four and a half year old that works an emotionally demanding job while trying to nurture a intimate relationship and still time find, energy and love for friends and family, I find fitting my yoga practice into my life nearly impossible. And that, quite frankly, scares me. Not only because my teacher training is quickly approaching (although, that does freak me right OUT!!!!), but because I know that yoga is one of the things that keeps me sane, keeps me happy, and keeps me balanced. Then why do I find it so difficult to "fit it in"? So that's what I told Eryn. That was my answer to what my biggest challenge in yoga has been. It wasn't that I couldn't balance on my tri's in crow. It wasn't that I couldn't still my mind or that I couldn't stop comparing how my leg wouldn't reach as high as my neighbours in standing splits. My biggest obstacle of yoga is figuring out how to incorporate it into my already hectic life. Eryns answer was perfect:

"Oh…. but that's where you are SO mixed up!!! That IS the yoga, girl!! Not Tree Pose. Not the perfect backbend. It is JUST what you describe…. how you life your life. And I'm so happy that you're deepening your journey! It's been written in stone for some time"


See...it's perfect! Please check out her website if you get a chance. It's amazing. And so is she. http://erynsyoga.com/

Con't

Ok, so I was way too exhausted every day to keep up with the juice reviews. Which is, I'm sad to say, part of the reason it ended after day three. It honestly didn't take too much convincing to get Nic to enjoy Subway with me either, so at least I didn't feel like a total failure on my own. (As an fyi, neither Nic nor myself felt like failures. We were proud of ourselves and each other for making it through three juice days actually!). I think a five day cleanse may have been a bit too much for he and I both. Overall we enjoyed quite a few of the juices, with the exception of the green ones. They were just SO.DAMN.GROSS. Please please please leave comments below with tasty recipes for green juices if you know of any. We introduced solid foods rather quickly and I have noticed that a few leave me feeling not so hot now. I did notice a difference in bloating, in my skin and in my nails after a few short days though, so that was pretty rad. Crazy to think that food affects us just that much. So, on to the next adventure I suppose....

I've been thinking a lot lately about authenticity and being okay with not being a mainstream kinda chick. I have an idea in my head how I want to be as a person (32 years old next week and I'm STRILL trying to figure myself out!), but I'm struggling with a few things.

First: I really just want to be Me, and I think Me is kind of a paradox -- I want to teach yoga as my primary job but enjoy the structure of a 9-5 Mon-Fri. I want to eat whole foods that nourish and feed my body and soul, but be able to get stupid drunk sometimes. I want to continue blogging (so far I have 59 views of this page -- 58 of which are me checking it) but am afraid to actually post this in any social media format I frequent (read: fb). I want to stop eating/drinking from plastic, but not really because I worry about the toxins and all that jazz, but because I think mason jars are super awesome and they make me look like I am cool. So as you can see, I'm clearly struggling with figuring out how to be Me.

Second: There are things I want to do with my life that I don't know if I will be supported to do by my family. That sounds awful. You should know that I have a fantastic family who love me and always join me for a ride through all of my crazy ideas (for instance: I tried being a vegetarian one time. Until I came home after not eating meat for months and polished off the entire ham my Mom left on the counter for everyone elses dinner). They always just stuck by me, maybe rolled their eyes a bit, but regardless, joined me for my rollercoaster ride nonetheless. I digress, I'm concerned my family won't support me leaving a 9-5 job to start teaching a few yoga classes a week. I get where they're coming from, but teaching is what would make me the happiest Me I could be. They would get that....right?

Third: What if I make a mistake? What if I quit my full time job and can't cut it as a teacher? What if I sink money into a home studio and no one shows up? What if I get halfway through my teacher training and decide that teaching yoga isn't for me and that I want the freedom of picking it up and putting it down whenever is convenient for me? What if what if what if.

OK, session done. Replies and comments welcome.

Juicey

Nic and I have officially (and successful!) completed Day 1 of the juice fast. We started planning after watching Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead on Netflix (check it out if you haven't already or at least check out the trailer here) and have been super pumped since to start the reboot. There are a ton of benefits to juicing and we are hoping to just scratch the surface by starting with the 5 day plan.

We started the process by researching juicers. We decided on Jack LaLanne's power juicer, as it is affordable and had decent reviews. So far, so good! Theres tons of juicers out there though, so check them all and decide what you think would work best for you.

Next, we went through a picked out the recipes we thought we would enjoy the most. They all came from online resources like Juicer Recipes , Cali Green Mama, Etto Design as well as the Reboot With Joe site. I must admit, I'm afraid to post the pictures of our juices after seeing some of the other blogs photo's. A photographer I definitely am not. (Which is why I'll review them here instead)

Our breakfast juice is red, followed by a green lunch, red or orange snack, another green dinner and a purple dessert. A ton of water should accompany these, as well as some herbal teas to spice things up if boredom sets in. (No milk or sugar added!)

Todays menu looked like this:

Pre a.m. (first thing after waking up): Hot water with lemon
No picture because it sucked. Seriously. Lesson learned - take the rinds of lemons before throwing them in hot water. Way too bitter.

Breakfast:

Watermelon Crush from the Reboot site. I surprisingly enjoyed this, considering it had basil in it. Nic, however, didn't like it at all. Ah well. You win some, you loose some (like dinner...we lost dinner. Literally. Keep reading).

Ingredients:
1/2 watermelon
handful of basil
1 lime

Lunch was another Reboot recipe called Green Lemonade. Just for the record, it tasted NOTHING like lemonade:

 Ingredients:
6 kale leaves
3 handfuls spinach
1 green apple
1 cucumber
2 celery stalks
1 lemon

There's nothing you could have added to this to make it taste remotely like lemonade. It wasn't terrible though.

Next was Apple Crisp. It was, honestly, sooooooo delicious!!!! It came from the Juice Recipe website and was freaking tasty. Or at least I thought. Nic wasn't a big fan.

And then, came dinner. OH. MY. GAWD. When I say I "lost it", I literally mean I barfed. In the sink. My 4 year old thought it was hilarious but I, on the other hand, not so much. Now, in the reboots defence (that's where we found the recipe), maybe this was because Nic and I were basically shot gunning it from the mason jars. But in our defense, if it weren't so bad we wouldn't have had to!! (by the way, if you can convince someone to try out a detox or cleanse or reboot with you, the partner method is always best! If it weren't for Nic, I would have been into our kiddo's Halloween treats for SURE!).  Back to dinner. Here it is:

Its called Joe's Mean Green, and now I know why. Because it's mean to feed it to someone. Ok fine, Joe claims it's awesome. It probably is in terms of all the nutrients you'd get from it. But it tastes like hell in a jar.

Ingredients:
6 kale leaves
1 cucumber
2 celery stalks
1 green apple
half a lemon 1" ginger root.

Lastly, we had our dessert juice. Wait....to clarify, we made it but we were too full from the other juices to even drink it!! We couldn't believe it! Its called Purple Passion and sounds delicious. I think we may keep it for tomorrows dessert (juices should be consumed as soon after making them as possible, however leaving them up to 72 hours is fine. No longer though). Reviews to come!

So altogether, I would say Day 1 was a success. I mean, if you forget about puking in the sink. A ton of water was consumed, juices were, overall, kinda tasty, and both Nic and I noticed a huge surge in energy and a feeling of lightness. I find that after I eat I tend to feel a bit sleepy, or just lethargic at best I suppose, although today I was able to remain energetic the entire day. Awesome!!

Which was good, because look what we spent the night making for tomorrow!!

Speak Your Dream

I have taken the first step to changing my life. I have officially applied for the Yoga Teacher Training that I have been lusting after for the last year of my life.

HOLY. FUCKING. HELL.

I was inspired at the last (well, the only) yoga retreat I was at. A friend of mine who was teaching encouraged me to speak my dream, to say OUT FREAKING LOUD that I want to teach yoga. I said it. Out loud. And she will hold me to my word. She will gently encourage me to move towards my dreams. And it all started, just by speaking it.

What is it with actually saying it out loud to someone else that makes things so much more real? Why do I feel more pressure now -- oddly enough a really good, positive, healthy pressure -- to follow through on my plans? Now that she knows my dirty little secret and has heard it from my lips, I feel indebted to her to make it happen. After all, I can't tell my yoga teacher something like that and then NOT follow through. That's not very yoga-like of me! But it's so true. When you say it out loud, when you open your dreams up to the universe, things become real.

So here I am...awaiting news of whether or not my application has been accepted. I am not obsessing over checking my email (totally am...like every five minutes). I am again putting my dreams out to the universe, knowing that however it is meant to work out will happen. While I sit and wait, I encourage you to speak your dreams. Involve a friend in this process, a friend who will support you and nurture those dreams alongside of you. Speak your aspirations, your thoughts, your ideas, your secrets. And know that someone, somewhere, is listening. Speak your dreams.

Why wildflower? Why not rose, afterall, they're the flower of love, and often the one most associated with beauty. Why not the sunflower, who shines its face to the sunlight each day? Why not a lily, the symbol of humility and loyalty?  Or even lily pad, a beautiful plant that blossoms, only after growing out of the mud.

Wildflowers grow free. They grow among nature without human intervention. They are the source of all cultivated garden flower varieties. Ranging in colour from purple to yellow to red, wildflowers blossom in places no one expects to see flowers, in otherwise dull and deserted land. So incredibly much like humans. Just when we've given up. Just when we've thrown in the towel, we blossom. We blossom in places people don't expect us to -- at rock bottom, we bloom. We grow wildly and rapidly. Beautifully placed exactly where our creator, or our God, or whatever it is you believe in, meant for us to grow. We emerge from despair.. Our beauty shines, radiates, unapologetically growing in places no one expects us to. We are all wildflowers.

It's kind of a scary thing putting it out there. "It"? "It" could mean anything. Or, "It" could mean everything. As my comfort grows with the whole scary blogging thing (*wink*), my confidence in this new writing process will also, and I'm sure you'll hear more. But just to tide you over in the meantime, a few tidbits about me:

...Mama to a rad 4 year old girl. Looks like her Dad, sass like her Mom

...an aspiring yoga teacher with high hopes of opening my own studio one day

...digs any kind of music, but especially dudes like Amos Lee, Ben Harper, David Grey, Dave Matthews

...fantastically lucky to have found a man who can not only handle my craziness, but is actually enjoying it

...full time Youth Worker by day with a passion for helping

...lifelong learner and wannabe bookaholic who never finds enough time to actually read

...loves to entertain, cannot cook to save my life, loves to craft and is a secret budgeting superstar

Like I said, let me start off slowly and then one day, outta NOWHERE, Ima shock you all! Stick around, its about to get good...

In the meantime, Ill leave you with this little gem: