Quotivate ME!

A few days ago, I was bored so I went to the gym to tire me up a bit before bed. For the life of me, I felt like it was a never ending elliptical trail. At 15 minutes I was DYING and I pushed myself to keep going because I knew I COULD if I really pushed myself AND I DID! Mind you, I was dead by the end of it and I had only just hit 3 miles by the last 30 seconds on the 30 minute mark. The next day, I was energetic to get to the gym. I was fully aware of the fact the I had to be up at 4 AM to open up the shop but all I could think about was how I tired I was after 30 minutes and how I almost had stopped at 15, the day before. I knew I was proud of myself for finishing, but I felt that drive to prove to myself that I could do the workout without effort. With that eagerness, I burned more calories and went farther in distance, but what I had done during the workout was essential to motivating me. I pulled out my iPhone, started the music, tapped that Pinterest app and searched the words, "Workout Quotes." After reading these quotes, I felt like I could have conquered the world and will share with you the quotes that were most eye-catching and mind-boggling to me:

" You have a choice. You can throw in the towel or you can use it to wipe the sweat off your face"  --  Gatorade

"Be strong when you are weak, Brave when you are scared and Humble when you are Victorious"  -- Unknown

"A Lady in the street, but a freak in the gym"  --Unknown

"TOO EARLY. TOO COLD. MY LEGS HURT. I WAS UP LATE."   <---all reasons are invalid!

"Don't be upset by the results you didn't get with the workout you didn't do" --Unknown

"If you aren't working towards it, maybe you don't deserve it" --Unknown

What are some of your favorites? 

New Years resolution. UP YOUR GAME!

I've been steadily going to the gym since the first week of the new year and my eating has not been too horrible, considering that I work at a cupcake shop. At the gym, I've been doing 30 minutes on the elliptical and setting my goal by increments of 10. Definition: when you're at 10 minutes you should be at 1 mile, 100 calories burned AT THE MINIMUM. At the end of 30, you should have 300 calories burned at 3 miles. I do the 5 minute cool down the elliptical automatically puts on after 30, so in reality I do 35 minutes. This is what my goal is for the whole month of January and I will up my time 5 minutes every month. Mind you I'll cut it shorter every now and then to workout abs, arms and such. Another goal set; to be able to do the splits by the end of the year. I'm a horrible stretcher and I'm not as flexible as I probably should be so setting this goal will remind me to stretch! Try to, whatever your goal is, to up it up!!!! Push yourself to reach your minimum, at the very least!

Slow Start

It is already January 3 and I haven't been to the gym yet. I have the typical excuse that I was incredibly sleep deprived from work, the drive and New Years, WHICH IS TRUUUE, but all my excuses are invalid because the number on the scale would say so. Not that I know what number he'd show me (yes, our scale is a boy). I try to avoid the number and go off of how I feel, but the number is important to know how much progress is made. Coincidentally, my mother just text me, asking to go and buy a battery for the scale. She's starting Weight Watchers so, clearly she wants to mark the start. I'll convince her to head to the gym since she still has a membership and my gym is south-west, 2 hours away. on the plus side, I had a healthy breakfast. I had a all-fruit smoothie with protein powder and 2 whole-wheat dry toast, which to my surprise inst as bad of a breakfast as one would think...

Starting off Happy.

Hello, My name is Liz and on this blog you will find a bit of my passions, such as crafts, decorating, recipes, photography, tutorials and more! As you can see, I've already used this blog to show a tutorial from a while back but I've decided to use this blog for much much more than tutorials.
The contents of this blog will also be about being, feeling and staying happy, healthy and ALIVE! Now, I dont want this to be a journal, more so, something to look to to make me feel great everyday. In a journal or diary, you write the bad and sad feelings too. I'd like to feel less of those bad/sad days and I have been feeling less of it since I started this whole Mind Over Matter thing around September. I'll admit, there are a few things that throw me off the edge, but who doesn't have those days.
I will also be using this blog to track my progress during my weight loss journey because this time, I'm pushing back my, "FOR SERIOUS THIS TIME," attitude about getting to my goal weight. This time I want to feel good PERMANENTLY, and not just after I have done a nice long workout or after I've lost 5 pounds.
So, you've got the quickie about what this blog is but as you read, there will be an array of things on this blog because I do love a bit of everything and sometimes you get sick of people telling you to be happy.
I plan to have blog post up at least once every week, for now. Getting Blog started is hard, but rest assured, blog I shall!

Washed Wood Frame

School is almost out so my friend and I decided we wanted to exchange going away gifts, seeing as we are both moving to new cities (her to a new state). I decided one of the gifts I wanted to give her would be framed but I couldn't find a frame to suit. I headed over to the Wal-Mart and decided to buy the things I would need for my attempt at a "faded beach wood frame". I knew I wanted that washed and scratched look on it and might be able to get it by sanding the paint after a gentle coat of watered down paints were brushed on.  At the end, I added a sawtooth hook and in the end, got the exact look I was hoping for over the frame.

What You'll Need: (1 each)

• Unfinished Wood Frame ($3.58 at Wal-Mart)
• Acrylic Paint ($0.58 cents at Wal-Mart)
• Bristle Paint Brush($1.00 at Wal-Mart)
• Sponge Brush (I believe these are less than a dollar at Wal-mart)
• Scissors
• Disposible Cup
• Sand paper (Medium Grate)($?)
• Newspaper 

  

  1. Unfortunately for me, today was trash day, so all of my junk mail and news papers were disposed of, but please line your workspace area! I used a paper plate to rest my frame over before I began painting.

2.  Next, depending on what size frame you have, add a sufficient amount of paint into your disposable cup (I cut down a plastic cup to make it smaller, to use as my container). I used maybe about a tablespoon about of paint into the cup with less than one tablespoon of water. **Paint ratio should be higher than Water


3.  Wiping the excess paint from the bristles on the the sides of the cup. i did i light wash of creme on the frame.

3.a  I let it dry and did a 2nd light coat, once more wiping excess off the brush.

4.   Once that was completely dry, I used the sand paper to make VERY INCONSISTENT scratches across the frame going in the direction of the wood. A scratch here, a scratch there; i just wanted to be able to see the wood some what. (As you can see, i decided to line my workspace with paper. Splatter droplets are nearly unavoidable)


5.   I watered down the blue paint the same as I did with the creme paint. I used the bristle brush to apply one very light coat of paint.  Then i used the DRY sponge brush to wipe off excess paint that was left "pooling" in the bends. I also used the sponge to wipe off some of the blue on certain spots so the creme would show through.


6.  Let it dry and use the sand paper to gently scratch up the frame again. make sure you get a light variety of scratches (inner frame, edges and corners, ridges, etc.)

 **The frame didn't have a hook so i added the sawtooth hook that where hammer ins. No nails necessary. I do, however recommend hammering the edges on the hook, not the middle. That's how i dented mine. It folded like a V shape and i had to use a new one. I guess I don't know my own strength. AND FYI, I also gave the back one coat of the  blue just to cover the droplets.


I added the picture in and VOILA! behold your beach washed frame!