Fitness Friday: The Beginning

I am so proud of myself for working out every day this week! Also for working out for a good amount of time. I have basically been at the gym about an hour each day.


Monday: 45 minutes on elliptical

I was exhausted, having not worked out in quite a while, but I pushed through. I was sweating within 5 minutes, gross. But in a way I love it because I know I'm getting in an amazing work out. I was going to try some of the weight machines at the new gym, but there were a good amount of people and for some reason I always am shy to try that kind of stuff like I'll do it wrong and someone will think I'm dumb. That's dumb

Tuesday: 30 minutes on elliptical, thigh & upper arm work outs, 27 minutes on treadmill

Got to the gym a little late today, but ended up working out for just over an hour! I added songs to my Spotify "Work Out" playlist which really helped the time on the elliptical fly by. I finally got the courage to try a few of the machines. I still feel silly using them, but at least I did it! I kept the weights really light because I haven't worked out in so long and even though I'm not sore this morning, I don't want to accidentally overdo it. I originally got on the treadmill for a 10 minute cool down before I left, but ended up watching CSI since there are little TV screens on them. I love it!

Wednesday: 40 minutes on eliptical, arm work outs, 10 minutes on treadmill

My workout was great. I used the interval function on the elliptical which changed the resistance and it killed me towards the end. Then I did some bicep exercises and cooled down with 10 minutes on the treadmill. I'm not really sore, but my legs are a little shaky going up and down the stairs so I'm either going to skip tomorrow or keep it light. I'm so excited about how dedicated I am, but I don't want to overwork my body by starting off too hard.

Thursday: 20 minutes on elliptical, arm work outs, 18 minutes on treadmill

I didn't work out all that hard today. Since last night I could tell that my body was overall just tired, but I went anyway because I don't want to break my streak. A few minutes into the elliptical workout I could tell my legs were just fatigued so I kept it short so I don't overdo it. I'm hoping that I can get a good hour in tomorrow.

Friday: 30 minutes on elliptical, arm and leg work outs, 10 minutes on elliptical, 10 minutes on treadmill

I almost didn't go today because I have this terrible stiff neck. However, I went and got in a great workout! My legs still feel really tired. It's a weird feeling. Not so much sore as just tired. I'm sure tomorrow will be my day off this week. I watched Lost most of the workout through Netflix on my phone. I work out so much longer if I can keep myself from getting bored.

All in all this was an amazing first week of working out! I feel great and I am really starting to get into a routine. I haven't had the trouble getting the motivation to go the gym like I have in the past. I mean, I am just at the beginning of this right now, but we'll see where it goes. I'm striving for 6 days a week and in a way, I think that gets me to the gym more easily than when I told myself I would go 3 days a week. When I used to say that I would go a couple of times a week, I would always push it off. But knowing in my mind and having it set on 6 days a week, I basically already know I'll be there pretty much daily. It's helped me get into a routine

I'm definitely going to update with my fitness progress every Friday. I haven't been eating quite as well as usual, too many sweets this week. I'm still getting used to being more hungry from working out. I swear I could come home and eat everything in the house after a good work out and I'm working on controlling that. So I haven't lost or gained a pound after spending 6 hours at the gym this week. I'm fine with that because I know that my diet over the past few days is to blame. To me, this is more than just about losing weight. I do want to drop 15-20 pounds, maybe a little more, but my main goal is health.

Things I learned this week:

1. Planning to go to the gym daily puts into my brain that I will be at the gym more often than not, so I don't make excuses to go "tomorrow"
2. Today (Friday) I tried eating a few almonds about 20 minutes before my workout and my belly wasn't grumbling like it normally does half an hour into my workout. I also didn't come home and practically sprint to the kitchen to get food.
3. I will not be cutting my bangs again because they are just too difficult to deal with when I pin them back during work outs and then try to take them down after. It isn't pretty and it takes too much work to make them look nice so they end up pinned back all the time now.
4. Watching Lost is good motivation. I want Evangeline Lilly's arms, please.

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Currently

I might be that girl that takes a picture after every workout to keep track.

Loving: How much I've been working out this week. I'm so proud of myself for getting up every morning and getting to the gym. I haven't even had internal conflicts with myself about whether I should go or not, I just go. I've decided that so far it's easier to go more often because it makes it a routine. When used to say I would go 3-4 days a week, I would always choose "today" as my day off and it made it difficult to go. Now I'm pushing for 6 days a week so I just know I need to go everyday, there's no struggle with myself to gather motivation. Tomorrow I'm starting "Fitness Friday" where I'll sum up my work outs for the week.

Thinking about: Cleaning. The house has been a disaster since the yard sale. Bleh. The dining table is covered in mail and papers and fabric. It's just terrible. I'm hoping I can muster up the motivation to get a few hours of cleaning done today because I'm tired of looking at it.

Anticipating: This weekend! My mom will be home and the weather is supposed to get better. It's supposed to be in the 70's and I can't wait to be outside with the chickens some more and maybe even move my seedlings into bigger pots. So far my lettuce and spaghetti squash have sprouted and are a few inches tall.

Listening to: The sound of my typing and Blurx (my kitty) grooming himself. Otherwise it's totally silent.

Eating: Nothing right now. Blaine and I just finished salads and we split a cream cheese and jalapeno sandwich.

Wishing: To win the lottery. I guess I would have to play then, huh? I'm not one to usually just wish for a bunch of money. We are very lucky that Blaine has a job and that it's enough to support the both of us. But we got a nice little (ok, not so little) estimate to repair our septic system and it's going to make things tight around here for several months. I'm good at being frugal, we already live off of one income while I grow my business, this has just put us over the edge though. But we'll be fine and bounce back shortly!

Quinoa Lettuce Wraps for lunch & dinner yesterday

Blaine brought these home yesterday. An old lady came by selling them and Blaine couldn't resist.

Zuchinni sticks for lunch one day this week.

I know. I talk about working out and then all the pictures I took this week are of food. Nice.

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Happy Monday + Weekend Recap

I know the natural/popular thing to do is hate Monday's, but I love them! Maybe because I don't have to get up and go to a job I hate, but I just feel like it's a fresh start every Monday and am always so motivated at the beginning of my week.

This weekend was a busy roller coaster of a weekend. We had our first yard sale! I didn't think we'd clear more than a couple hundred because this town is much smaller, but we did better than we thought we would. AND (I'm happy and sad about this) we put out my painted filing cabinet just to see what would happen and I sold it. Made a $50 profit! The girl was in love with it so I'm happy it went to a good home and now I'm on the look out for another.

I managed to get a little sunburn during the yard sale which confused me because I hardly ever burn. But silly me, it totally slipped my mind that where we live now is at about 4000 feet so naturally I'll burn faster. We spent the rest of Saturday cleaning up the yard sale, Blaine put some of the new fence boards up and we just kind of ate and hung out. I must have fallen asleep on the couch with my head on Blaine's lap at like 8pm.

Sunday started off early with us going out and getting some Subway breakfast and donuts. We did a lot of driving around for fun. I love quiet days with Blaine, just driving and exploring. It's seriously my favorite. We also discovered that if we just followed the roads up into the mountains about 5 miles from our house, we were suddenly in the forest. With camp sites! We're so going camping up there soon! Who's coming?

We had lunch for the first time at the local bakery. They have a "saladwich" and it's seriously delicious and I'm kind of in love with it. I'm glad we decided to go there instead of going to Quizno's. I love Quizno's, but I love supporting local businesses more. I'm planning on grabbing some bread from them soon so I can make it at home.

We had a terrible mishap where one of our dogs (Einstein, our problem dog lately) jumped a fence and got to the chicken coop. I saw him running around barking at the chickens from outside the coop, but by the time I put my shoes on and ran out there he had gotten in. I got there just in time. One chicken is injured, no wounds or anything terrible looking, but she couldn't walk yesterday. This morning, though, she's making some progress so I'm happy about that. I must have had 50 pets over the course of my life, but for some reason we have bad luck with chickens.

Now it's Monday morning, I think I got up at 6:15 or so. I'm about to head downstairs to make Blaine and I a quick breakfast. I joined the gym last week right before they opened their newer bigger gym so I'm excited to go check it out this morning. I've been feeling really crappy and like I've been gaining weight lately, just overall not so wonderful. So I'm excited to get back on track with eating healthier (which I do pretty well already) and getting a ton of exercise in. My plan is to go several times a week and just leave at the same time Blaine leaves for work.

Some photos from our weekend... Happy Monday!

New fence is slowly, but surely going up!

Our latest rescue, just one more week until I can start introducing her to the boys.

Lazy Sunday morning in bed.

Tree outside our bedroom window is about to start blossoming!

Blaine who was "so tired form the yard sale" getting started on the fence anyway.

Weird bush in our front yard that I kind of love. Anyone know what it is? We have 2!

View of our yard sale

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DIY Painted Filing Cabinet Tutorial

I'm so excited to share this tutorial. Now we can all have pretty, pretty filing cabinets instead of boring beige, black or gray. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comments or email me!

Supplies Needed:
Filing Cabinet ($10?)
Spray Paint ($3.48x3 - 2 aqua and 1 white)
Sand Paper (I used 220 because that's what the spray paint I used told me to) (Free - we had some)
Several cloths to wipe down cabinet after sanding (Free - we had some)
Total: $20.44

Time Needed: About 3-4 hours depending on if yours has stuff that needs to be removed. Also this doesn't include drying time after you're done painting, before you can put it back together.




First find yourself a filing cabinet. I got this one for I think $10 at a yard sale a couple of months ago. I did plan on painting it, but didn't consider how difficult it would be to get all the tape and such off. When you buy one (unless you have one already), go for one without tape or anything on it. It'll save you tons of time.




I used a putty knife (that's what it's called right?) to get as much as I could off. Then poured on some Goo Gone and used a putty knife to scrape even more of the gunk off. If I would've picked a better filing cabinet, I probably would've saved myself an hour. So choose wisely!




Next you're going to spend a long time sanding, unless you have an awesome power sanding tool. I spent about an hour sanding this baby because I wanted to make extra sure that the paint would hold and not chip off. Second photo is what you'll look like after an hour of sanding.




After you're done sanding wipe down the filing cabinet. Wipe it down and then when you think you're done wiping it down, do it again at least twice. You want every loose particle off of it. I wiped mine down twice with a damp cloth and then once with a dry cloth. And then one more time with a wet cloth and a dry cloth one more time.

Now the fun part! Spray paint! I'm so attractive in my spray paint attire. Face mask, safety goggles and backwards jackets are the way to go. I used Rust-oleum Painters Tough Ultra Cover in Aqua. And the same type just in white for the fronts of the drawers.




Spray the first coat. Here are my spray painting tips given to me by my husband who knows how to paint cars.

• Start spraying off the object you're painting so it doesn't pool/puddle and then slowly move onto it. It's hard to explain: basically, if you're spraying horizontally, start just to the right or left of the filing cabinet and move in a steady line across the filing cabinet and don't let go of the button until you're no longer spraying it.
• Overlap about 50% with each "stroke"
• Change direction. If your first coat is horizontal, make the next one vertical. This will make it more even.

When I did it I followed all the above tips and it came out great! I followed the directions on the can and did 2 coats a couple of minutes apart. Then I followed with 2 more coats with about 30 minutes in between each coat.




While you're waiting in between coats, get the drawers ready. Take off all the hardware. I left the buttons because I'm not sure how to take them off and I was fine with them being painted. Make sure you remember to sand these before hand as well. You don't want to be sanding these in the same area that your filing cabinet is being painted. The last thing you want is debris in your beautiful paint job!




Do as many coats as you need. Like I said, I think I did a total of 4 coats.




The drawers got about 4 coats each as well.




Once you're done let it dry. I left it for about 15 hours (overnight) and then put it all back together the next morning.







Voila! Your office will now be much more stylish with a pretty filing cabinet. It took some courage to do the drawers a different color, I was afraid it wouldn't look good. I'm skeptical about my eye for that type of thing, but I think it turned out great!

If you have any questions leave them below. I would love to see your filing cabinet if you do it!

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Tomorrow is Yard Sale Day!

There is something wrong with me. I love going to yard sales, but I think I love having them even more! Tomorrow is the day! Before we moved to Tehachapi, I think we had like 4 yard sales in one year. I'm not kidding. I'm a yard sale professional (ok, those really do exist and I am not really one) and I'm hoping tomorrow will be a giant success. We live on a pretty main street with at least 4 yard sales with signs that drive people right past our house, so we don't even have to mess with putting up signs! Exciting!

This is what my house is looking like pre-yard sale. We're doing our best to get it all downstairs tonight. It's kind of taking over.








Needless to say I cannot wait to get the stuff out of my house. I'm also hoping we do well profit-wise. We just found out about a nice $1600 repair we need to get done ASAP so now the money is going towards that. Luckily, I had already chosen this weekend and have been working on getting stuff together for the last week so the timing works out great.

Ironically, after the yard sale is over I will take in the loveliness of a less cluttered house and then I'll be going to pick up a huge mess of stuff to sell on ebay. More on that later!

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Recent Thrift Finds

I don't thrift as much as I used to. I went crazy with it for a couple of years and I miss those days! Unfortunately there are only a couple of thrift stores in town and the stock doesn't change all that often so I go maybe once a month or when we leave town. This week I came across some great finds!

The owl is my favorite. I think I might paint him, though I feel a little guilty because I think he looks great the way he is. I just have too much dark brown in my house and want to brighten things up. The jewelry box is definitely getting painted and I'll either keep it or put it on etsy. How about that 6 piece Fish serving set? So cool! That'll be listed on Etsy eventually. However, if you're interested in it, email me :)

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Spring Cleaning Mode!

I'm in crazy spring cleaning mode. I want everything we don't absolutely NEED out of the house. I spent yesterday and today (so far) getting stuff ready for a yard sale this weekend. I'm getting rid of a lot of fabric to make room for Kintage inventory and just simplify life, so I hope there are some crafty people coming out for the sale. If you're interested, I have some photos on craigslist. Shipping would probably be expensive unless you bought several pieces and I shipped Priority Flat Rate. Contact me before Saturday if you are interested! :)

I'm excited for our first yard sale in our new town, but also a little nervous because it SO much smaller than our hometown. I hope it still goes well even though the population here is a million times smaller! It'll be SO nice to have a lot of stuff out of our way. I'm really, really trying to simplify our home and get it decorated. I find it's so much easier to keep things tidy when you don't have a lot of stuff that you can leave around and also there's not much to clean around.

Has the spring cleaning bug hit you too??

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The Best.

I'm not going to lie. Easy A is one of my favorite movies to watch. So funny. Also - I love her.






And in case you don't watch Ellen... This happened. Now I love her more.

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Getting Sick & Spray Paint Rocks

UPDATE: Check out the tutorial here!

I woke up this morning with a stuffed/runny nose (how does that even happen at the same time?) and watery eyes. Not cool. I'm hoping it goes away soon, I do not feel like resting all day. Because...

I'm now obsessed with spray paint and giving furniture make overs. I finally painted my filing cabinet and I have to say, it's pretty amazing. Don't you agree? Why do they not make them in pretty colors? I'll never know. But I solved that problem and I'm now obsessed with painting all the furniture I've been meaning to get done for some time now. Next up? Coffee & end tables are going from brown to white.

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Goodbye Picnik. Hello PicMonkey!

It's been a long time coming and I stopped using it a while ago because I knew it was leaving. Soon Picnik will be no more. Boo. I have Photoshop, but sometimes I'm lazy and Picnik was an easy way to play with photos especially since it integrated with Flickr. Well I have a new discovery: PicMonkey. It doesn't connect to Flickr, but it's still pretty good.

One of my cute readers, Elisha commented on a post leading me to her blog. Reading through I saw her post about PicMonkey. I didn't have high hopes that it would be as good as Picnik, but it definitely impressed me! Thanks Elisha :)

Get ready to be sick of my face! Fun things you can do with photos on PicMonkey:

Those are maybe 10% of the different features available. Now, there are some "premium" features just like there were on Picnik, but they're free for now. There's stuff like adding make up, teeth whitening, etc as well, but I didn't try those since my face is so small in this photo.

If you try it let me know how you like it!

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HomeGoods Stylescope Quiz

Making our house comfortable and looking the way I want has been tough. I haven't put much time into decorating since I don't have thousands to spend so I have to do it slowly and picking things I really, really love rather than just grabbing something because it'll work for now. Plus, I'm not great at envisioning things together and I freak out over "what if it clashes when I get it home?" and all sorts of paranoia. Mandi over at Vintage Revivals posted a style quiz from Home Goods. I LOVE Home Goods. That place is a danger zone for me. So I took the quiz and it was pretty accurate! I had some trouble in the quiz and I never knew if I wanted to choose the minimalistic rooms or the ones with decor I love, because I loved both. But I think Country Casual with a minimal amount of stuff around the house would be perfect.

You can take the quiz here if you're interested!

Aileen, you are a Country Casual

Your home expresses your open, easygoing approach to life. You love unique finds, and can turn a few mismatched garden chairs or floral teacups into a charming arrangement. You appreciate a pretty mix of relaxed pieces, like painted wood or weathered furniture, lovely florals and other patterns, lots of throws and pillows, mementos and bunches of fresh flowers that give your home a unique sense of breeziness and charm.
You value comfort. Your home is a warm and open friendly place, and you feel happiest when everyone is cared for and relaxed in your space. Elements like pillows, throws, overstuffed furniture, and good lighting set the mood. You may also enjoy layering different fabrics or mixing patterns to create a cozy effect.

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