Yoga Every Damn Day – 30 Day Yoga Challenge!

So, you know yoga_girl on instagram (aka Rachel Brathen)? She’s great! I want to be a handstanding yoga goddess just like her! I was lucky enough to take her workshop (and a picture with her!) in San Jose yesterday and was so inspired by her class I’ve decided to challenge myself with a 30 day yoga practice!

Very ambitious! I’ve practiced yoga on and off for the last 10 years and have been more off these last 2 years, but I am so excited to really get back into yoga! I love how I feel when I’m practicing – relaxed but challenged, learning about new poses but also about myself and my limits, super focused on what’s going on on my mat and forgetting everything else, I just love it! 

I signed up for a 1-month unlimited trial membership at Downtown Yoga Shala and it’s a beautiful studio. Today was day 2 of my challenge and I took a Vinyasa Flow class which is  “A flowing sequence of postures combining breath and movement. Build heat from the inside and out, core strength, stamina and flexibility in this class.” The instructor was great, very challenging but motivating. 

I’m so excited to see where my practice will be in 30 days! Maybe I’ll get to that handstand! 

Updated Armoire and Dresser

I moved in with the bf in December 2012 and while he had a great closet, I have a great collection of clothes. Ok, maybe it’s not a “great collection” as much as just a ton of stuff. Nonetheless, my great collection quickly overtook his closet and we decided we should probably get a dresser set.

Have you gone shopping for dresser sets lately? Can you say expensive? Or ridiculously overpriced? I was shocked at how much these sets cost and how cheaply made they seemed to be. Fortunately, my bf’s grandma had been storing his childhood bedroom set and when she moved they came back to him! I felt so silly because the weeks I’d spent looking for a new set, the old set was just sitting in the garage all sad and forgotten! And since they looked… well, how they looked, you can’t blame me for not wanting to put them in our room!

Not wanting to spend a lot to refurbish these guys, I decided to paint them black and reuse the handles because replacing them was going to cost more than I could justify. Sure, Anthropologie has gorgeous handles, but at $8 a pop and me needing 12 (you do the math) it wasn’t going to happen…

So, I removed the hardware and washed all the pieces with soapy water and let them dry while I sanded every surface that was going to be painted. After a good sanding and dusting, it was time to paint! I went with Valspar Signature Paint + Primer in a satin black finish. Why prime then paint when you can do it all at once? I might never prime anything ever again…. It took two coats of paint to get the color saturation I wanted.

While those were drying, I went back to the handles. I knew the old brass wasn’t going to work so I went to the hardware store looking for something that I could just spray on and found Rust-Oleum Universal Paint and Primer in One in the Metallic Satin Nickel finish. Most awesome thing I’ve bought in a hardware store. Like, ever. It transformed the  old, grungy twenty year old brass handles into beautiful, modern and expensive looking pieces!

 

These beautiful new pieces cost about $25. Not too bad, huh?!

Black and White Chevron Headboard Project

Boys are funny. Ask them about: Throw pillows – dumb. Coordinating linens – huh? Headboards – why?

Me. Throw pillows – love. Coordinating linens – obvi. Headboards – absolutely!

So when the bf and I got a Cal King bed we went without a headboard for months because I’ve only every had full sized beds and he just couldn’t be bothered. And then finally, one glorious day, the bf’s awesome mom dropped off an old, not pretty (ugly) Cal King headboard and I knew it could be transformed!!! So after a few hours staring at it trying to decide if I wanted orange stripes or black polka dots (both nixed by the bf) I proposed black and white chevron stripes and the idea didn’t get rejected! Although, I did get a slight head tilt from him and I had to reassure him I knew what I was doing. I’m. A. Big. Fat. Liar.

Here’s what the headboard looked like before:

White canvas with a brown wood frame. All kinds of wrong.

So, with my blue tape, pencil, and tape measure I began taping the chevron design. What a pain in the bum that was! The tape kept lifting, my measurements kept being off, and it just wasn’t working! So, I tossed the tape measure to the side and just began to do it by eye. Then, if it turned out ugly, I could just say, “Well, at least it was painted with lots of love.” Or, since it was free, it could just be tossed and forgotten forever!

I originally bought fabric paint in a spray can from Michael’s and had high expectations.  Let me tell you Michael’s, that product is an epic fail! It didn’t spray evenly, only got me through one zig, and was a runny mess! I usually try to do the job right with the right tools but it wasn’t working and I wasn’t about to go spend another five bucks just to get one additional zag! So, I was standing over the headboard, hands on hips, looking around thinking of what to do next when I remembered I had a little paint left over from this armoire and dresser refurbishing project. I thought, “Can I use this paint on a fabric headboard? Will it work? Will I die from it!? But, will it work?” My bf saw this inner battle going on in my head, so I asked what he thought. In true boy fashion he said – “Why not?”

So, with a 4″ foam roller I painted the remaining four zig-zags with black paint and it worked! In fact, it turned out great! And, after sleeping with the updated headboard for 3 months we’re still alive!

The headboard popped out of the frame very easy! I sanded it and used the same black paint again!

The BIG 3-Ohhhhhhh…..

2013 is a BIG year for me! I mean Godzilla on a skyscraper big… Like I’m turning 30 big. Like I finished a dual master’s program big. Like I have to get a Big Girl Job this year big! So many crazy things are happening this year and I couldn’t be more excited or unsure of the future – which leaves me in a slightly vulnerable feeling place <<insert Edvard Munch The Scream here>>. I love the fact that the world is my oyster and anything I put my mind to, I can achieve. However, deciding exactly what it is that I’d like to do has always been like that mystical unicorn that I never could quite catch. Never! No matter how fast I ran, I can’t catch that damn beast! I’ve always wanted to do and be everything! Teach, cook, travel, writer, yogi, hippie…. the list goes on and on and I don’t appreciate that I have to choose just one thing! So, here’s where I throw myself on the ground kicking and screaming like a two-year old and say stubbornly: I will not choose just one! I WILL do it all! I CAN do it all!

Whew. I feel better.

Now that that’s out of my system, I’m gonna pick myself up off the floor and dust off my ballerina tutu, cause at one point I wanted to be a dancer too, which is hilarious because I consider the Lawnmower and Shopping Cart legitimate dance moves.

This blog is a place for me to share my ideas and experiences about the special moments in life that look so much better through my rose-colored glasses.