30 Days of Salad! {Try to Keep Up}

This is me doing a little advertising work for my big sis Leslie at Try to Keep Up.

 

Last summer she put on a cute little series called 30 Days of Salad.  As the weather turns warmer (well, not in Saskatchewan!) our stomachs turn to salads.  Over the summer Leslie's blog will have 30 different posts of salads. 

 

I discovered the best salad by Bev at Flamingo Toes last summer.  It became my new go-to salad to bring to BBQs.  Although now that I'm not eating wheat, I'm not sure what I'll do (probably eat it and think about the consequences later!)

 

 

Anyway, she's still looking for people to contribute! If you're interested shoot her an email! westcoastleslie@gmail.com  

Last Day of 2012

Right now I see a lot of Top Posts of 2012, or New Years Resolutions posts.  I don't really intend to do either.  

Last year I made a "poster" of a bunch of goal words I wanted to achieve and set it as my desktop background.  Unfortunately I think I was a bit over ambitious, and there was just too much to do.  

This year I'm keeping it a bit simpler.  I have 2 things I want to focus on, and I think through those two things, the rest will come.  

1) Go to more yoga classes.  This is something purely for myself, and I always leave feeling fantastic.  Giving myself this time seems to help put everything else in persecutive!

2) Read more.  I'm a bit embarrassed to say that over the last couple years I really haven't read that many books.  I find that my attention span for reading blogs or anything else for that matter has gone down the drain and I think it's because I just don't do enough reading.

So that's it.  Two simple things.  

And now for some fun, Friend Makin' Mondays over at All the Weigh - I read Kenlie's blog daily, but can honestly say this is something I've never participated in.  

2013

1. Share one thing that you plan to do for yourself in 2013.  As stated above, I intend to go to more yoga classes.  I'm a fitness instructor, and the gym I work at has a million classes a week between 3 locations (2 of which are convenient) so there really is no excuse! 

2. Share a good habit that you will continue doing into the new year.  I started eating gluten free this fall and love it.  I fell out of it over Christmas time, but intend to go back to it after Christmas.  I just like the way I feel when I cut out the carbs!  I intend to try to share more recipes on my blog too! 

3. Do you make new year’s make resolutions? If so, do you typically stick to them? Yes and no.  I don't like the idea of "resolutions" because no one sticks to them.  The word has come to mean "goals we know we're going to break" where as I prefer goals or intentions.  

4. Do you have any health goals for the new year?  I want to continue to eat gluten free, drink more water, and go to more fitness classes (yoga & others)

5. Share one thing that you plan to do in January.  In January I plan to go to some Zumbathons put on by friends of mine to network more with my fellow instructors.  

6. Do you have any travel plans for the coming year? If so, where are you most excited to go? My boyfriend have pretty big plans for the next 12 months!  We meant to go to Vegas in the fall, but somebody *cough, cough* didn't have his passport.  So we intend to go early this year.  He also has a work conference in Orlando, which i think I will join him there after for a tiny vacation (DISNEY!!!!!) and then in January 2014 he has a cousin getting married in Jamaica!  

7. What are your plans for New Year’s Eve? I'll be spending it with my favorite people, at Amy's house eating yummy things and playing games.  

8. What are your resolutions for 2013? More yoga, more reading!

9. What are you looking forward to most over the next 12 months? I'm really looking forward to finishing up with my dad's estate.  He passed away  in November 2011, and it's been a pretty long road to getting all this done.  (Side note to everyone out there - please get a proper will done, I can't stress this enough!)

10. Share something unique that you hope to do in 2013.  I hope to branch out and start running some of my own fitness classes and expand my business this way, starting with running some bootcamp classes in the park by my house with a friend over the summer.  This is super scary but it'll be a big step for me! 

Lastly, what are my plans for my blog in the new year?  Well, I'm going for simplicity in all aspects of my life, and that might mean that this blog gets a little neglected.  I have a great series of home staging from when I sold my dad's condo that'll be coming up in the new year, AND since I moved in with my boyfriend, I plan to share some of the home renovations he/we have done here.  I intend to share GF recipes as much as I can, AND it's a year of 'crafting with what I have' (I'm doing a bit of a personal stash-bust) so there'll be some of those crafts too, really getting back to the "envirocrafty" spirit! :)  I hope you'll stick around! 

iphone & blogging?

Alright.  I did it.  I finally bought myself a new cell phone, and and iphone 4S at that!  

Absolutely no buyer's remorse whatsoever!  I'm already a bit of an apple enthusiast (she said as she types this on her trusty macbook, while charging her nano...) 

Loving everything about it so far!  

BUT I thought because this is new territory for me I thought I'd check in with all of you.  Do you have an iphone? Smartphone?  

Do you use it in your crafty-life?  How?

I've only downloaded a few apps (Michaels and pinterest to list a couple)

Are there any apps you can't live without?  

Let me know! I'd love any advice!

I've been PINNED - OUCH!

I mean AWESOME!  

I don't know if you've all heard of Pinterest but it's "the place to catalogue the things you love"  It's pretty cool!

I just read how to find out if you've been pinned here on The Speckled Dog.  So I tried it, not expecting to find anything, because I'm really not that cool.  :P

But guess what?! I have been!!!

Remember this scrub from my sisterly spa series?!  

Here it is... 

I feel like a pretty big deal ;)  

Year In Review!

Thanks to everyone who has made this bloggy year so great for me!  Envirocraftiness is less than a year old, but 2010 has been great!

I've had more than 14,000 page views since I started this up on April 22!

One of my favorite projects that was clearly one of your favs too were these Christmas countdown block!

This one topped my stats at 437 page views!  It was also featured on Infarrantly Creative's facebook page!

Another project you seemed to love?  My cardboard headboard boxes!  

This one was right up there with 379 page views.  These guys were featured on Keeping it Simple!

My post with the most comments?

That would have to be the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway that I did!

118 people shared some love!!!

I've had so much fun with all of you so far, and look forward to what 2011 will bring!!

Here're some of the things I have in the works!

What the Heck Wednesday will be back in full force!  2010 saw some awesome sponsors, and I hope to make 2011 even better!! (remember, if you have an etsy shop or even just a blog you'd love to promote, shoot me an email and we'll work something out!)

More upcycled projects!!  I can't wait to make a shopping trip to ReStore asap!!

More tutorials, more of your work featured, more fun and more enviro-crafting!!!  

Thanks for being with me so far, and I look forward to getting to know you in the new year!

Another Blog Award!

I just received the "Blog with Substance" award from Kimberly over at Bugaboo, Mini, Mr. & Me!! Thank you sooo much!  I'm always surprised and flattered when people think that my blog is worthy of awards!

I've recently discovered Kimberly's blog through another blog, the T-Shirt Diaries because Kimberly is also another judge of Stashbusting September!

Blog Awards are always wonderful to receive, but sometimes I feel that they want you to pass them on to A LOT of people, which for me anyway, can become hard.  I don't want to just start passing these on to blogs that I've just found, not that they aren't great too, but I really want to be as sincere as possible when I give these out.  

The first requirement of this award is to thank the person you got it from (check!)

The next is to sum up your blogging philosophy in 5 words (That's hard!!)

1. Fun

2. Frugal

3. Honest

4. Sustainable

5. Learning

So now would be the step where I pass this on.  Instead, what I"m going to do is give a shout out to some other lovely ladies who are all involved with Stashbusting September.

Stashbusting September is an event put on by Robin over at the T-Shirt Diaries.  It's a contest where you're to create as many projects as you like for the month of September WITHOUT buying anything!  Yup!  And in case you're wondering "what if I find the deal of the millennium!?!?!"  No worries.  Robin wants you to post about it, and add her special Oops! button to the post!  Sound awesome?  I think so!

Next I want to introduce the team of judges Robin has put together.  I'm one of them, and super honored, but you already know about me and my blog, so I'll just move on....

I'd like to introduce to you Kimberly who is the sweet girl who gave me this blog award.  Her blog is bugaboo, mini, mr. & me.  I've just started reading it and can't get enough.  Just the other day she left bugaboo alone for just minutes, and in that time he managed to draw all over the counters, couch and mini with an orange sharpie marker!! YIKES!!  She had quite a bit of success getting it out of the couch. Thank goodness!!

She recently made this gorgeous "Farewell to Summer" Wreath!! LOVE IT!!

Definitely a blog worth reading!!

The final judge for Stashbusting September is Tricia from Leafy Treetop Spot - Made by Me. Shared with you.  Her blog is full of great crafts from tee shirt re-fashions to recipes and toys!

Some of my favorite projects by her include this petal shirt, with full tutorial!

And these booties that are just too cute for words!!

So make sure to pop over to her blog as well, she has so many great tutorials!!

That about sums it up for now! Make sure to drop by the blogs of these three lovely ladies!!

You're All Awesome

Comic from xkcd http://xkcd.com/442/

Alright, so I love this comic, but I wanted to make sure everyone got it, so the video was neccessary.  I also love that discovery channel commercial!

Anyway, the reason I'm so full of love today is because in my 2 hours of catching up on blogs (that's what happens when you miss a day!)  I got so much love and lovely surprises.  

Thanks to everyone for being so sweet.

Here's what I mean:

An email I received from Cindy:

Hi love your blog.. just wondered if you have a DIY on the coffee filter roses?  they are beautiful

 thanks a lot, Cindy

For any of you wondering the same thing, I will get on it.  My instructions come from Martha Stewart, but I feel that they could use some more pics to make it a bit clearer, and I'll be letting you know what works best for me.

Cindy and her daughter live miles apart and share this wonderful blog where they each post one picture a day.  What a fabulous idea.  It's so beautiful.

 www.inspiredpointsofview.wordpress.com

Next, I tuned into one of my favorite regular reads My Repuropsed Life and found out that I'm one of the lucky people that's featured on her Featured Followers post for this week.  

Thanks Gail!

For anyone who hasn't checked out her site, I highly recommend it.  She's a genius with extreme talent.  Also, I've found some wonderful blogs though her friday feature, so check those out too!

I stopped by Win Lose or Blog because today is the wrap up of their first season, and guess what! I won a prize!!!  I never win anything!!

This blog is highly motivational, and now's a great time to start following it as they're heading into their second season.  Congratulations to everyone who participated in the first season!

Lastly, on kind of the same note, I was checking in to see how Kenz was doing on her blog All The Weigh and she mentioned a comment I'd left her yesterday in today's post.  I comment on blogs because I like to share with others and make some bloggy friends.  It's always nice to know that your comments are appreciated and valued.  :)

Thanks again to everyone for all the love.  It really inspires me to keep blogging when I know that there's people out there who read and like what I do.  Right now things are hard because I don't have a job, and it gets lonely and there are definitely bad days, but all of you out there, wherever you are, make a difference.  

P.S.  I have a job interview next week! Wish me luck!

Blog Award

So a while back I received my very first blog award! Yay! I can't tell you how thrilled I was (and still am!)  Unfortunately it's taken me forever to post this (sorry!).

I received the Versatile Blogger Award from Carol at The Answer Is Chocolate.  Thank you soo much! I'm thrilled to have been one of your picks!

The conditions of this award are:

1 - thank the person

2 - Share 7 things about yourself

3 - Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs

4 - Let the award winners know!

7 Things About Me:

1) I've started making yogurt at home and don't care for the store bought stuff anymore

2) I don't mind killing bugs as long as they don't crunch - I don't mind killing that huge gross spider, but the beetle, someone else will have to do it

3) I'm a super lip balm addict

4) My fingers are "double jointed" and I can bend at the knuckle closest to the nail without bending the rest of my finger (kinda gross)

5) I love The Big Bang Theory because I'm an electrical engineer

6) Snickers bars are supremely inferior to Mars bars, due to the nuts

7) My boyfriend made me tissue paper roses for our first anniversary and they sit in my "Coyote Ugly Stick" from Vegas (which we always joke that we're going to run off to Vegas to get married... which isn't really a joke because my best friend actually did it!)

And now for the next 15 Versatile Blog Award nominees:

1) Dittle Dattle

2) Keeping It Simple

3) My Crafty Crap

4) My Repurposed Life

5) Stepping Thru Crazy

6) Try To Keep Up!

7)   Me & My Scraps

8) Keen Inspirations

Okay, so it's supposed to be 15 blogs, however, I feel that finding 15 is pushing it for me.  I feel that by trying to fill the "15" requirement I would be picking random blogs and it wouldn't mean as much, and I didn't want to do that.  So here's my eight!


Congratulations everyone! Keep on being awesome!

What the Heck Wednesday Winner

Firstly, I'm sure you'll all notice that I've made some changes around here!  Let me know if there is anything that isn't working right, or of any other problems.  I'm sooo happy to have buttons now!! I feel like a "real" blogger. 


If you're new to this game too and are interested in customizing your blog a little bit DO IT!! It's easier than you think.  I used picnik to make my images.  Haven't used picnik?  I hadn't either.  Jill over at Homemade by Jill has a great tutorial here.  Then, I used these wonderful instructions to post them to my blog.  It was SO simple!  




Alright, so last week I announced that the winner of June's WTHW was Carol from The Answer Is Chocolate.

As part of the package of winning, the lucky person gets to be featured on my blog!! 

I thought that we could all get to know her a little bit better with a fun little Q&A session! Here it goes:

Q: Pick 5 words you'd use to describe yourself

A: Loyal, Stubborn, Sarcastic, Contemplative, Silly

Q: What are your favorite types of projects to work on.  What 3 words would best describe what you make.

A: Lately, my favorite projects have been re-purposing or upcycling things. I like projects that evolve as I'm doing them and use materials that were probably not meant for how I'm using them. The Home Depot guys and gals are forever perplexed by me and I know my fellow crafters can relate. I like finding something special in the ordinary. Three words that describe what I make? Torn ( because I almost always have torn paper involved) Imperfect (because if I strived for perfection I'd never be satisfied with anything) and Felt...the emotion not the fabric ( because I have to have an emotional connection to what I'm making)

Q: What are your favorite smells?

A:Chocolate of course, Hawaii ( it has its own smell and if they could bottle it I'd breathe it in all the time!) and anything baking in the oven. 

Q: Is there anything that you're obsessive compulsive about? (crafty or otherwise?)

A:I have to fold towels a certain way, in thirds, and I have to be the first person to read the newspaper. 

Q: If you could be best friends with any famous person (dead or alive) who would it be?

A: Best friends with...hmmm I think Amelia Earhart because she was fearless and could fly me places. Wait...that didn't work out so well in the end did it? Well, still...

Here are a couple of trays that Carol made which inspired the tray I made for WTHW!  Make sure to stop by at The Answer Is Chocolate and leave her some comment love! :)

*click on the pics to take you to the posts about them*

This one with the fork is the one she used glass marbles for feet, which I stole borrowed for my Zen Garden tray!

I LOVE THIS ONE!! Here she used a bunch of tiny "watch guts" to embellish the corners!!  Fierce!!!  

Look for an all new What the Heck Wednesday tomorrow!

CSI Project - Martha Stewart

A few talented ladies in blog land got together and created the great site The CSI Project (create, share, inspire) where there are weekly challenges. This week's is MARTHA STEWART!!!

I have something planned that's been in my "I should do this" bookmarks folder. It's not overly creative or going to win, but I figure it fits the theme, so I'll enter it. It'll be posted as soon as I'm done making it.

Additionally they're giving away Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. It's super cool, so check it out!

Bloggy Adjustments

Still new to blog land. Very little progress on my BLUE photography day. I'd meant to get out and take some photos, but it was cold and a little rainy.

Today my mom and I went to Costco. It's on the opposite end of the city from where we live, so we don't get there too often. The downside of this trip is that I knew I'd be wrangled into running all over the city with my mom. It's never just a trip to Costco. Needless to say my patience are almost all gone.

I intend to spend the rest of today trying to spiff up my blog and play around some more!