I Did It

I worked out for the first time since before we left for the cabin! Sure it really sucked while I was doing it, but I feel sooooooooooooo much better now. I've kind of been in a funk since we got back and haven't been healthy at all. Lots of junk food and no working out. I didn't realize how depressed that made me! But I made myself get my butt off the couch and do it. I unfortunately had McDonald's for lunch though. I really didn't care at the time, because I was starving and we had no food at the house. But we just got back from shopping not too long ago. So for dinner, I'm eating a spring mix salad with falafel (I just discovered Kroger carries it) and carrots. The mix has herbs in it, which I thought would be good, but it's actually kind of weird. Certain bites are really intense. Either way, I'm really proud of myself. Sure I still feel like a blubbery walrus, but I did it. And I'll do it again tomorrow. I set an alarm on my phone for 6:30 pm to work out. I'm hoping doing that will get me on some sort of schedule and force myself to do it. I kind of want to go for a walk tonight too, but I may not. I always feel weird walking by myself and Daniel probably won't want to go with me.

I have quite a few recurring dreams. One of them is being back in high school (I've seriously had this dream at least 20 times). I had that dream again last night, but this time it was mixed with another one of my unfortunately less, but still recurring dream, that I'm in some Scandinavian country and it is freaking beautiful. I looked up pictures of Iceland on google and my dreams pretty much match that. So I was in high school (even though I had already graduated in my dream) in this beautiful country, I'm just gonna say Iceland. Man I want to travel there so bad. I really want to visit all the Scandinavian countries. The only thing that looks different in my dreams is that the houses are on hills.

All of the pictures are basically like what my dream is like. It's crazy because I've never looked up pictures of Iceland before today. I just imagined and dreamed that's what it would look like and it does. However, I usually think I'm in Sweden in the dream.

I Need a Hobby

Like desperately. I really liked the whole idea of the "being outdoors more" thing, but it's not realistic right now. Mostly because of gas. We're trying to cut back on driving, because we do it A LOT. Most days we go to different stores and stuff because we're bored. I really need a hobby that doesn't require much driving. I just can't think of anything! I've tried knitting and always end up giving up out of frustration. I'm really not a huge fan of tv.

Man I am so ready for fall it's ridiculous. Everything is better during fall.

Cohousing

What an interesting idea! I'll just use the definition from Wikipedia, "A cohousing community is a type of intentional community composed of private homes supplemented by shared facilities. The community is planned, owned and managed by the residents – who also share activities which may include cooking, dining, child care, gardening, and governance of the community. Common facilities may include a kitchen, dining room, laundry, child care facilities, offices, internet access, guest rooms, and recreational features.

It's basically a bunch of people living together and doing chores together and helping each other out. I forgot this existed. I first heard about it in a documentary I watched about happiness. It seemed like these people were truly happy caring for and being around others.

For some reason, I've always been interested in hippie-type communities that they show in the movies. Where people end up becoming family, even though they're not blood related. Maybe it's comforting to me because I've always had a small family. I really only talk to my immediate family. And even them not as often as I'd like.

I just think it's a neat idea. It's like trying to bring back villages like their used to be.

Cabin Trip

Man I had so much fun! We went hiking, tubing down a scary river, and shopping. I've got to say, I think one of my favorite things in the world is going either camping or getting a cabin with my friends. I always have a really great time.

So this lead me to think of an idea for a new hobby: becoming more active outside! Mostly what I'm interested in is hiking and kayaking. I really enjoyed hiking and I really like kayaking as well. Daniel and I both want to buy one though. There's a rental place by us, but it's pretty pricey. But I figured this would be a good thing to get into for many reasons. 1) it's physical 2) I love nature 3) mainly upfront costs 4) involves spending time with Daniel 5) nature is good for the soul and happiness 6) I don't feel anxious or OCD about anything outside. My main passion now is interior design and I get very OCD and perfectionist about it, which stresses me out.

Unfortunately, there aren't many trails by where we live now. We'd pretty much have to drive at least 15 minutes to get to any, which isn't horrible. But most of them are 20 or more minutes away. There is a lake somewhat near us though. For a lake anyway. It's like 30-40 minutes away. Although there's water in Suwanee we could kayak on too. The biggest thing is saving up for 2 kayaks. I'd like to get some hiking boots too.

I'm really excited though and hope we actually pursue this!

Trim "After" Pictures

In the second picture, you can see where on the outside of the door frame some of the paint peeled off when I took off the paint. I'll have to touch that up whenever I paint next time. Much better though!

 

Weird Lately

Lately, I've felt somewhat depressed and I'm not even sure why. I don't like it. It could be because of trying to get in shape. I mean yes I feel good about myself for the most part. There's still the thing I'm most self conscious about which is my butt that isn't really doing what I want. I'm mad at myself because I keep making unhealthy decisions. I'm still staying in the 110-112 range, but still. I feel like the cellulite won't go away unless I eat even healthier. It's usually one thing that gets me per day. I just want it to go away. Last night to try and cheer myself up, I made a list of things that make me happy. It was kind of a nice/weird brain exercise that at the time actually did make me feel a little better. I just reread the list. Not the same effect, but still nice. I also kind of made it so I could get an idea of what I should do more of. Since you should do more of what makes you happy (according to Pinterest lol). It's funny how much of it had to do with fall/autumn and food.

I'm getting excited about the cabin trip though! We leave on the 18th. I know it's going to be really fun. It just needs to hurry up and get here.

Exteriors

This is what our house looked like the day we bought it. It no longer looks this clean and landscaped. Lately (well always), I've been thinking about the outside of the house. I really want to get it back to looking like this. Today I picked so many freakin' weeds. I was probably out there for probably 45 min. just picking weeds. It looks a ton better now though. Right now, the yard needs to be:

edged
bushes trimmed down
deweeded (I got like 98% of them)
remulched

I think that's it. I really want to paint the shudders and door too. It's still a toss up about what colors. Daniel thinks black door and black shudders. I really think it would be cool to have an orange door then black shudders maybe, but I'm scared it'll look like Halloween. We may have to play around in photoshop. I do actually think the scheme now is cute, but I want something different.

Man there's so many things I want to do with this house. I know they'll all take time. It's very difficult being patient. I figured I'd start on what I can actually do right now which is pick weeds. It's actually kind of fun, but I'd rather them not there at all of course.

I'm Done Until the Cabin Trip

I actually don't think I've mentioned it, but we're going on a cabin trip with 5 other people. We leave the 16th I believe. I am unbelievably excited. But fitness and food wise I need to kick it into gear. I gotta look good for the hot tub! I've ate bad lately. Yesterday wasn't bad...until I went to my friends house for a rescheduled 4th of July party. Which I mean I allowed myself that. But still. I'm going to try not to drink until we get to the cabin. If I eat well from now until then and continue exercising like I have been, then I should be good. Hopefully.

Fruit flies!

Having fruit flies are a bitter sweet thing. Good because they let you know you're eating lots of fruit. Bad because they're annoying and destroy your fruit. We made a trap for them by cutting the top half of a water bottle off and flipping it upside down then and taping it. There's vinegar and nectarine juice in there. It's actually working really well! I had to put all my fruit in the fridge though :( but I discovered something. Cold bananas are delicious! I don't know if its because they're carrying a different type of bananas now or if its because I put it in the fridge. But somehow they got so sweet and delicious! I'll probably still put everything outside once the problem is gone. I think it was the nectarines. Because I've never bought those before and have been buying the same fruits minus those and have never had a problem. 

That reminds me though, I ate bad the last two days :( one I will kind of excuse because it was a holiday. Actually both days it's mostly what I drank that was problematic. Oh well. It's better than last time when I ate a whole box of cookies! I guess I had to learn my lesson, because I had never done anything like that before. And I hopefully never will again.

I don't know what I'm going to eat today, because we really don't have much. Oh yeah lately, I've been eating a lot of frozen vegetables since those stay fresh longer. For protein and carbs, I've been eating brown rice and seasoned black beans. I really want to buy some rice paper wraps from Super H-Mart, but I forgot last time I went. They look so cool and fun :)

Hopefully I'll convince myself to run today and do some strength stuff. Cause it's been two days since I've done anything. 

Spit and Fingernails

What an odd combination, but it works wonders for getting oil paint off of the floors. Very, very tedious though. I never posted an after picture of the trim in my room. Probably because I was embarrassed about all the paint that snuck through where I taped off. But I've got like 60% of the room done now :) My nails are getting messed up, but I don't even care lol. I just want the paint off the floors. 

I'm really itching to start the trim in another room. However, we're pretty broke right now, and paint isn't cheap. My goal is to have the house done by Christmas. I keep imagining this beautiful clean white mantle with stockings and modern, but simple Christmas decorations. Before we bought the house, I kept imagining how awesome it would be to wake up in our own house on Christmas morning. We missed that by a few months though. That's ok. At least we're able to this year!

I have a few ideas for things I want to do in my multipurpose room. Which I'm excited about, but of course I need money to do them. I want to paint a table I already have and paint two mirrors I have. They're black, but I want to paint them white. Also, I want to buy a new mirror (mine broke) and add wood to the outsides of it and make it look all vintagey. I also have some shelves to hang in there (nothing to put on them though lol). I'm also thinking of buying some feathers from Michael's to put in a vase I recently got from a thrift store. I think this rug is cool. It's $40 from ikea, but I have a feeling I would get tired of it fast and regret buying it. 

I'm actually surprisingly satisfied with our bedroom! All we need are blinds, trim, a mirror over my dresser and either another mirror or some kind of art over the bed :) We don't have room for much else lol. Maybe a rug. We talked about getting an ottoman thing too for linen storage since we DON'T HAVE A LINEN CLOSET! :( I still don't know what I want to do on the top of my dresser. I want to keep it simple. Maybe some flowers, perfume tray. Something classy. 

Ahh so many ideas floating around in my head! After all interior design is my passion ;)

Day 2 of No Facebook

And it's great! I gotta say, I really thought I would miss it. The first night I kept catching myself going to check it, so I deleted it off my phone and ipad. But now, I really haven't even had the desire to check it. I'm very happy about that. I mean I'm not saying I'll never go on it again, but I just wanted to see if I can do this. I don't know if I said this on my last post or not, but I also went through my instagram and unfollowed probably 50 or more people. It was so excessive. I was mostly following vegan food pages, but I really didn't need all those. I just kept the ones I liked the most. It was taking me way too long to check my feed. It's been really nice.

I'm gonna try to get some of my house cleaned today now that I have this new found time. It's pretty dirty. Mostly everything is picked up, it just needs to be swept and wiped down. It's supposed to be rainy all day, which is even more motivation for cleaning the house.

I really need to get rid of some stuff soon. I don't have a lot, I'm just tired of looking at it.

Sometimes You Have to Take a Step Back

I'm struggling with something that I wrote a post not too long ago about comparing yourself to other people. It really is a difficult thing to do. I'm writing this post to hopefully talk some sense into myself. I really need to be thankful for who I am. I can't be another person. As pretty as someone is or how good of shape someone else is in, I cannot be that person. 

I think maybe I need to take a break from Instagram for a while. Because that's kind of what I'm talking about. Comparing yourself to fitness people and vegans. I mean yes it's inspiration, but sometimes it can have an opposite affect. It detours you from what you're trying to accomplish because it makes you feel bad, which leads you to not feel motivated. 

I just deactivated my Facebook account. It's not really the same, but I'm going to give it a try. When I actually look at the stuff on Facebook that comes in through my feed, it's really not very interesting. It's really just a time killer. About a week ago, I "unliked" the majority of the pages I was a fan of. Just to weed out what came into my feed. What was left were pictures that aren't that interesting and statuses that aren't that interesting. Even I knew the statuses I posted weren't interesting. Realistically, I'll probably go back, but I kind of want to take a break for a while. It's funny I keep getting that itch to check it.

There's certain things people think they can't live without, but they can. I didn't have a cellphone until my senior year of high school and I got around completely fine. I also wasn't driving then (because I'm a giant procrastinator). I actually kind of enjoyed not having a phone. Would I get rid of my phone now? No. Facebook? Maybe. We'll see how it goes.