Beach Side Yoga

This weekend I had the extreme pleasure to practice yoga in a park near the beach.  Now I am not a person who particularly likes yoga but my friend Jessica teaches it.  I don't know what it is but she is just the most fantastic instructor that I have ever had and I can't help but love every yoga session I have with her.  As a person with zero balance you can imagine how proud I was to be able to do tree pose!  Check out the pictures below (that I totally stole from Jessica's blog).  Feel free to check out her yoga blog here or if you're interested in more beach side yoga sessions visit her website ladyjyoga.com.

Beach Side Yoga, OG Yogies

Warrior Two

Tree pose, doin' it!

Etsy Craft Night - Magnets

Inspirational Quote:

When someone says "you've changed." It simply means you've stopped live life their way
-not sure who its by

Etsy Craft Night - Magnets

Sometimes, my life is really busy and sometimes it’s not, but all of a sudden it’s September and I’m like, woah! When did that get here!?  Well on September 1 there was an Etsy craft night and usually I see it on my calendar a few days ahead of time but because it was on THE NEXT PAGE I didn’t see it until the day of.  Luckily, I hadn’t made plans for that evening and was able to go. 

The craft was making your own magnets using a kit they provided and cut outs from magazines.  Turns out, the same guy from the last craft night was leading this craft night.  Apparently he has a lot of awesome crafts in his Big Ass Book of Crafts (no really, that’s what it’s called).  I met some fun new people, one of which moved here from Boston, and I also managed to burn my fingers several times using the hot glue gun (no pain no gain right!?....sure…). The stuff on display at the museum was the same but I did take a quick jaunt through the museum store and found some really awesome mugs.  Check them out below!

Here are my magnets.  As you can see (upper right) there were some technical difficulties, they kept pulling themselves apart! My favorite one is the one that looks a little orange and has a moon (its the one that is closest to the camera in the lower left image).

MUG SHOT:

I thought that these mugs were very cute and creative.  Great for kids...or adults who act like kids (which is all of us, don't judge!).  These mug are only for sale in their brick and mortar store but you can find out more info about it here.

Organization Board

Well I didn’t mean to get on a theme here but sometimes it just happens okay!  Several weeks ago I came across this website where a guest poster (Moorea Seal) blogged about how she stays organized.  I was totally and completely in love with her organizational ideas and amazed at how well she keeps her life together.  Towards the end of her post she writes about this board she painted black and put post-its on.  I thought it was a really great idea and wanted to implement it in my own life, but taking the time and money to buy the supplies and then wait for them to dry was far too time consuming for my taste so I came up with a plan B….

Ta da!!  Ain’t she a beaut!?  Now it’s nothing like Moorea Seal’s version but it totally works!  Instead of paint and wood, I used cardboard (thank you new printer box! Hope I don’t have to return it!) and black construction paper.  Then I took colored construction paper and a handy dandy paper cutter, with a fun shaped blade, to cut out the titles of each section.  A little glue here, and a few post-it notes there and voila! A totally useable, totally awesome organization board….hopefully I’ll use it!

10 Ways to Find Inspiration

Don’t you just hate it when you need to make something and you just can’t think of what to do? Here is what I do to find inspiration.  These aren’t listed in any particular order but they seem to work out well for me. 

1. Go outside.  Embrace what Mother Nature has to offer.  Go for a walk, clear your head.  Literally stop and smell the roses.  Go to the beach and feel the sand beneath your toes. Go for a hike, bike ride or anything that gets the wind blowing through your hair and allows you to soak up some Vitamin D (through sun block of course – wouldn't want to get cancer).
2. Exercise.  Get your heart pumping! It will help you clear your head and get your mind off of your work.  Kill two birds with one stone and exercise outside.  The bonus to exercise is all those awesome endorphins you’ll create.  Even if you’re aha moment doesn't come during a run, bike ride or swim at least you’ll be really happy!
3. Meditate.  Find some place quiet (maybe after a run outside?  It wasn't my intention to build upon these but when it works it works!) and then just sit there.  Get away from people and distractions (put down the cell phone!).  Living in such a fast paced world it’s easy to get lost in Facebook updates and Tweets.  If your cell phone needs to reboot every day wouldn't it make sense that you do too?  Find a happy place to just sit and listen to yourself breath, clear your mind.   Think of it this way, if you were to force yourself to expel all the air out of your lungs, the automatic response from your body is to inhale a bunch of fresh new air.  I like to think the same is true with creativity.  If you expel all thoughts from your head then the automatic response is for your brain to bring in fresh new thoughts (hopefully creating that spark you’re looking for!)
4. Explore your favorite blogs.  They’re your favorite for a reason.  They obviously speak to you in some way.  Maybe they make you laugh, or make you think, and hopefully you have a few in your line up that inspire you!  I read dooce.com for entertainment, goinghometoroost.com for inspiration, and I love visiting Paper Source just because they have so many great DIY ideas.  You never know where blogs may bounce you to next!
5. Google image search.  I honestly couldn't live without it.  Whenever I’m making a new project and I need help coming up with an image or an idea I search something in the ballpark of what I’m looking for.  Sometimes the perfect picture shows up and sometimes another picture will spark a new idea.  You could start out looking for a circus tent and instead end up with elephants eating popcorn.
6. Pintrest.  If you haven’t checked this out yet I highly recommend it (link here).  This is a collection of pictures that other people all over the world think are cool, funny, inspiring etc. that you can “pin” on your “bulletin board” for inspiration for that upcoming bathroom remodel or soiree you’re going to throw.  You can use it for other things too of course, but whenever I’m in a creative slump I head right over there and am amazed to find so many unique ways that people see the world.
7. Write it down.  There is nothing I find more cathartic than just writing down what’s in my head.  I can’t do it all the time but when I do write everything down it feels great.  By writing down thoughts in your head it gives you an opportunity to see what you really have on your plate.  Maybe you’re so stressed out about doing laundry before the weekend comes that it’s consistently on your mind, which of course is blocking your creative flow.  Write it down, get it out and move on.  Who knows maybe something you jot down will be something inspiring?
8. Read about it.  Go to your local bookstore (I’m a huge Barnes and Noble fan) and stop by the art section.  Look at any one of the numerous art books they have just laying out and enjoy the pictures inside them.  Don’t have time to peruse the books?  Swing by the magazine rack and grab a couple to go.  This way you can read them after you meditate in the park, you know, because you just ran there right?
9. Look at what others have done.  Take a look at what other people in your field are doing.  Pick out what you like about it.  I’m not saying to copy their work (plagiarizing is illegal) but maybe something they did will inspire you to do something else.  I like to find many different versions of something I’m trying to make and then figure out what it is I like about them.  Then I take that information and try to incorporate it in my designs.
10. Talk to people.  Use your friends and family as a brainstorming team.  Bounce ideas off them, and try to come up with new ones.  Ask questions and keep an open mind.  What may come across as an out of the box idea might be exactly what you were looking for.  Remember, your family and friends are there to help but they’re probably not paid employees of You Incorporated so be nice and don’t force them to brainstorm with you every day.

To the Beach

Today's inspiration:

To the Beach:
Living in Los Angeles you find that you are never really very far from the beach…ever.  However, because of this pesky thing called traffic, people here generally stay within their neighborhood bubble and never leave it unless forced to.  Well two weekends ago I decided that I wanted to go to the beach, but was feeling kind of lazy, and while it is within my bubble it was still kind of a hassle.

Let me explain to you why going to the beach isn’t as easy and wonderful as it sounds.  First you have to remember that it is summer here in beautiful sunny southern California. With a population of near 4 million people living in Los Angeles proper, you can imagine the number of people you may find on a sunny So Cal beach. This means that once you get within, oh I’d say seven blocks of the ocean you’ll sit in a half hour’s worth of single lane, stop light-tastic traffic.  If you stop and try and park prior to that you’ll either be in a 2 hour metered spot, not worth it, or in neighborhood parking that requires a special permit…which of course I don’t have.  Assuming you haven’t given up and actually make it close to the beach you have a choice to make.  Santa Monica, the beach I was thinking of going to, is at the base of a cliff.  When it comes to parking, you can park on top of the cliff, hike down it using the staircase and bridges (which means you have to hike back up it at the end of the day) and then walk across what I can only describe as the Sahara Desert before you can even touch water.  The cost for this is free for 2 hours and then a max of $8 for the day.  Your other option is to skip the hike up and down the cliff and just park at sea level.  You pay $10 for the day and still have to walk across the Sahara Desert.  Plus, everyone on the planet knows about Santa Monica, making it a tourist trap, meaning good luck finding a spot on the beach that’s not somewhere behind a lifeguard tower.  You didn’t think you were actually going to get to sit by the water did you?

Back to the point.  I was feeling kind of lazy, and instead of going to the ocean just drove by it instead.  I took a nice trip up PCH (Pacific Coast Highway or Highway One, whichever you’d prefer) and every time I thought ‘I should probably turn around’ I just kept driving.  An hour or so later I found myself in Oxnard, which isn’t really that close to the water anymore and turned around and dove home.

On Monday I had dinner with friends, and they said “let’s go for a walk on the beach.”  Having not made it the day before I thought awesome! Now I’ll get to go to the beach! Well the driver had the same dilemma I’d had the day before – the beach is just so FAR and requires STOPPING.  We ended up doing another quick drive up PCH before turning back.

On Tuesday I saw a blog post about someone who went to the beach with her family and I knew I had to go and touch the water.  Of course this week is jammed full of events (like picking my friend Stella up from taking THE BAR!! – fingers crossed she passes) and making it to the beach just wasn’t going to happen.

On Saturday (after my week died down a bit) I was invited to travel down to Manhattan Beach and see a Volleyball Tournament.  I was instructed to wear a bathing suit, which in my mind means, I’m going to get to touch the water!  Unfortunately it didn’t work that way and we walked along the strand NEXT to the beach but never ON the beach let alone near the water.

Finally…FINALLY on Sunday I got to touch the water. I went out to lunch near Hermosa Beach, and afterwards we went all the way down and touched the ocean.  The water was just perfect.  Maybe next time I’ll get to swim in it!

Feet finally IN the ocean!

MUG SHOT: Mr. Tea

'nuf said

Buy it here