My competitive side and my crafty side

A few things.

Occasionally, my competitive side comes out. With my FitBit, you can see your friends steps, and you can challenge them to daily or weekly contests. I get challenged all the time, but I don't usually check on them/care about them all that much.

For some reason, though, when I got home from work yesterday and saw the competition (as well as seeing my name on the feed), it really struck me that I needed to win. So, out came the Zumba videos on YouTube. Over came my friend, and we went on a long (cold) walk.



And victory! My intense little competition fire burned out after my win though, maybe it will return in a few months haha.


On another note, I'm working on my wedding scrapbook! When I first got married, I made one, but I gave it to my parents (they asked, okay? I'm not that narcissistic) and I haven't yet been motivated to repeat the process.

Until now.



I'm still in the organizational stage, but at least it's progress! :)

KNIT ALL THE THINGS

Ok, ok, even though I’m not horribly artistic, crafting is my guilty pleasure. When a girl told me this last weekend that my home looked like “Pinterest gone right,” I figured I could just go ahead and die happy.

My crafting history, however, is extremely short at this point. Not that long ago, crafting was extremely intimidating to me. When I found this project in a magazine at the hospital one night, however, I decided I needed to learn how to knit.



I mean, if anything is going to motivate someone to take on a major knitting project, it would be that blanket, amiright?

It’s freaking beautiful. Never mind that I have never knit anything in my whole life. I don’t even crochet. Or sew. Or even use one of those looms that most little girls use to make potholders for their grandmas. Nope, not me. I figure square one (and two through twelve) will be this gorgeous blanket.

Enter a craft store purchase of some bamboo knitting needles and cheap yarn so I could hurry up and teach myself. Next, YouTube tutorials for casting on, a basic stitch, and casting off. Then, the realization that internet tutorials suck because you get zero feedback and that cheap yarn is miserable to work with.

Needless to say, my knitting box went into retirement for several months.

I saw that lovely picture the other day though, so my motivation returned. I bought some better yarn and realized that KNITTING IS AWESOME! Who knew?? You can do it while you watch a movie, on long road trips, sitting around and talking with people, pretty much whenever you want! (Even a climbing/canyoneering trip where everyone else is hardcore and you feel kinda silly)



Now I just need to find the perfect yarn for that darn blanket…

Smash Book!

Ok, let's be honest, when I heard the name "Smash Book" for the first time, I thought of the elementary-drama, hate-filled insult books from yesteryear... however, these little scrapbook-cheats are nothing of the sort... in fact, they are only filled with joy and wonder.

I love scrapbooking. There, I said it. It's just so... fun! I guess everyone needs a creative outlet, right? The thing is, scrapbooking is SO time-intensive, and time is something I don't have a whole lot of at the moment. So these Smash Books are a great option.



They're basically a little spiral-bound scrapbook whose pages are already colored/decorated/designed (eliminating the step of doing it yourself!). So this means every little detail won't always match your theme... so I wouldn't use them for like, my wedding or anything. But they are SO great for several reasons - they are perfect for capturing memories as you go. Each book comes with a pen/marker, and the other end is a glue stick (I also keep colored tape handy) so you can attach movie stubs, receipts, autographs, or whatever else you want to put in there to remember your trip by. You can also buy little envelopes and other details to stick in there to keep your memorabilia. It's also fast. By the time we got home from our cruise, all I had to do was print the pictures and stick them into the spaces I'd allocated for them. So rather than waiting months for the project to be done, we already have the scrapbook of memories from our awesome trip.



A few tricks and tips I've picked up - carrying all the supplies in a gallon-bag makes them easily accessible but self-contained. I keep tape, mini scissors, various smashbook accessories, an extra pen/glue stick, and whatever else I need. Plus it's a great place to keep the stuff you want to stick in there but don't have time to address yet. I love to use it as a trip journal as well - both Kip and I would write entries throughout the week, so that will be cool to go back and read. Some pages merit multiple picures but don't have the space (note: I used a mini-smashbook for the cruise, but I have some in bigger sizes) you can layer them.. basically tape the top of a picture down, then tape another, and you can lift the top ones to see the bottom ones.



Overall, it's a fun, simple way to capture memories... as long as you don't mind it being a little random and haphazard!