the happiness project

it's another cold + rainy day here in Hsinchu. I'm sitting here with cold toes and a sniffly nose, waiting out the weather for a chance to scoot off to buy a space heater. and I've been reading the happiness project [still, I know] and decided that I'm not going to wait for 2013 to roll around. I'm not going to wait until the end of the year or until I have the perfect plan in place. I'm going to start my project now.

I'm not sure how much of this whole thing I'll be sharing, but I can tell you that for December I've decided my theme will be ENERGIZE. yep, I'm copycatting right out of the book. I think that since the scooter crash and my forced inactivity, I've adapted a more lethargic lifestyle. and I'd like to reverse it. cold weather typically means bundling up and staying in, and I don't want to waste my time here doing that. three of the things I am going to focus on [and the reasons why] are below.

DECAFFEINATE: hello, my name is Jamie, and I am addicted to coffee. at some point during college, I began drinking coffee. but it wasn't until I entered the workforce that it became a daily habit. I used to drink 3 or 4 throughout the day, and a 3pm diet coke on top of that. combined with the stress of my job, I started having eye twitches and heart palpitations. so I gave up the DC and tried to cut back on the coffee. earlier this year I had several unpleasant [mostly for Husband] mornings where I did not get my cup of joe. and I realized that having my ability to have a good day dependent on a caffeine fix was not the best trait. so I weaned myself off it, and spent most of the summer not drinking any at all. then we moved to Taiwan. adjusting to jetlag "required" coffee, and I picked up the habit again. I'm currently at 1 cup every morning [not terrible] but have recently been getting headaches [whether from too much or too little caffiene I don't know] and I think it's time to stop. I want the occasional cup of tea or dark roast to be a comfort and a pleasure, not an obligation or necessity.

GO TO BED: if you know me, you probably know that I am NOT one of those people who can function on 4 hours of sleep a night. me without enough sleep is worse than me without my morning coffee. cranky, irritable, and short-tempered. being unemployed a full-time housewife/part-time substitute, most mornings I can [in theory] sleep as late as I want. knowing that, it's hard to make myself go to bed at a decent hour. but more than getting to sleep earlier, I want to sleep better. that means: no caffeine in the afternoon, turning off the computer/tv an hour before bedtime, and getting that space heater. [and maybe buying a foam pad for our mattress.] I have not been sleeping well as of late, and I'm hoping these changes will help with that.

EXERCISE: my knee is still recovering from the scooter crash, but it's time to get moving again. I'm back at yoga [with some minor pain] and have been doing some spinning on the bike at the gym. all the rain lately has made me knees extra-achey [thanks old track injuries!] it's a little depressing to think that I was supposed to be running a half marathon 2 weeks from now. I don't want to push myself to hard too fast, but I'm hoping to graduate from the bike to the elliptical to finally hitting the pavement for a run by the end of the month.

I'm also going to work on getting a full plan for the project set, finalizing my "commandments" and "universal truths" and some kind of a tracking system.

and with that, the weather has decided to break... so it's off to get that space heater.

happy weekend, friends ♥

easy canvas wall art project

a few weeks ago I made this canvas and I've been meaning to share it with you... this DIY project is one of the easiest ways to make wall art. all you need is a canvas, a sponge brush, some tape [masking or washi works best], and of course acrylic paint in your choice of colors.

seriously, that's it. tape on your design, paint the spaces any color or mix of colors you like, wait for it to dry and peel off the tape. easiest. project. ever.

you can do different variations on this project... when I was in Jersey I made a set of 3 smaller canvases all in the same color, and lined up the tape patterns so it was like a puzzle. you could also paint the canvas a solid color before taping, and then your lines would show through that color.

up close you can see the lines aren't perfect from the tape. I used washi tape because that's what I had on hand, but masking tape or painters tape [heck, even scotch tape] will work. the washi tape curled up a little between coats of paint and that's how my lines got fuzzy... but it doesn't really bother me.

go forth and craft, my friends!