May Misccellaneous

Today I am going to share some miscellaneous stuff with you! I made some hearts for Sandi since she is making a canvas with hearts from her IG friends.

I used stamps on my documented life page - the challenge was to use stamps in a new way.  I discovered that I do not, apparently, know how to use stamps... the ink got all over me!

 I've been eating this avocado dressing...its DELICIOUS!  SO very tasty.

 Ingredients: 1 avocado, 1/4 c olive oil, 1 handful fresh cilantro, 1 jalapeño, 2-3 cloves garlic, juice from one lime, 1 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup water.  Place it all in a blender/food processor and ta-da - super tasting dressing!

Lastly, I was recently elected to Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges!

I'm very excited about it!!

That is all for now, friends.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great evening.

Fitness Journal Pages

Hey there!  I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day!  I finished my thesis - for this week at least.  I also went over to my best friends house and we went to the pool and then watched Frozen - it was my first time to see that movie, can you believe it?

Anyways, yesterday I finished another spread in my fitness journal and that means I have two spreads to share with you!!  So, here they are:

I think keeping a journal like this is good if you are trying to motivate yourself to keep working out, or if you just want a way to keep track of what you have done.  One of my favorite things is to flip through it and look at what I did several months ago!  Plus the making of the journal - the entries - are therapeutic and take little thought since I am just putting in what I did!  If you keep a fitness journal I would love to see it!  Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

DIY Postcard Swap May 2014

I participated in the DIY Postcard Swap and earlier this month the cards went out and then cards came in!  When I went home to visit my family I found this card in my room:

Mom made me my own postcard!  Here are all the cards she mailed out:

And here are some of the ones I was lucky enough to receive:

This one came from a retired art therapist - how cool is that?

I love postcard swaps so much because they bring so much fun mail to my mail box (which is otherwise filled with junk mail).

Postcards!!

Hello!!!  Y'all know I love me some postcards and this post is going to share some of my recently created postcards with you!  Thesis, like many other things in my life, provides me with a roller coaster ride of emotions.  After a particularly good day of thesis writing I made these postcards:

I can't remember what started these postcards but it was the collage that I was doing that actually resulted in 6 completed postcard backs and then I thought "well I might as well finish some of them!"  I think they turned out well.  Thanks for stopping by!!  Have a wonderful night!

Texas Fun!

When I was in Texas I did a lot of work on my thesis, but we were able to do a few fun things.  First, mom took a day off and we went to a few small towns and looked at antiques and ate at a cafe.  Here is what we got:

 One day we made pancakes with this Bisquick Mix...

 It works with almond milk!  So, if you are looking for an easy way to make gluten free and lactose free pancakes this is it!  We also used the mix to make shortcakes and then had strawberry shortcakes for dinner:

It was so yummy!

Then the day I left we went to an antique show:

Here is what we got at the show.  I got the Texas and got the Garden sign for mom for mother's day:

And mom opened her other mother's day present too:

Its a small pig planter!  I really enjoyed being home.  I am hoping I get a chance to spend some quality time with my family after graduation too!

Thesis Crunch Time

Hello friends!  Apologies for my absence.  I have been BUSY!  It's Thesis crunch time.  I went to Texas...

Airplane Selfie

I was there Monday-Saturday and I had to work on my thesis the entire time.  I worked on it out on the front porch one day:

It was nice.  Then mom and I sat out there and talked and read magazines until dinner time:

My thesis involves thematic analysis and I have never done that before now.  Its a lot harder than I imagined.  So, the last two weeks has been a week and a half of racking my brain on how to do thematic analysis and trying to find the themes from the interviews I did, and half a week of writing up my results.  I used this book a little:

I also read a lot of articles about thematic analysis because all of my professors were out of town so I had no one that I could go see to get answers to my questions.  I did cutting and sorting with index cards:

I felt lost for most of the last two weeks.  This was the turning point:

My very first theme!  After that it was much easier to figure out.  I've worked on this so much I am getting to that point where I am out of things to say and out of ideas.  My current page count is 87 - can you believe that?  

I have a meeting with my thesis chair tomorrow so that he can give me some feed back.  My entire thesis is due next week - I will send it to my committee who will have 2 weeks to read it and then I will have my defense on June 17th.  I can't believe its only 3 weeks away!!  Yikes!  I will be so happy after its over though.

Anyways, that is why I have been not posting, but now that it seems to be at a manageable place (and hopefully i am not cursing myself by saying that) I can get back to doing fun things like making art and then I can post more too! Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a wonderful week! 

April Right Brain Planner

Here are some of the right brain planner pages that I completed this month.  From my monthly planner, the calendar page:

 The cover from the monthly planner;

And here is the calendar page from my annual planner:

And two other pages from the monthly planner:

I am hoping to engage my May planner much more.  I was kinda slack on April since I was stressed out about school.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day!

Two-A-Days

Last week I kicked my own butt with workouts.  We were having auditions for our new Group Exercise Coordinator (our boss) - and that required the instructors to be present to take their "class" and provide some feedback as to our impressions.  So I went Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  I also did my regular workouts...

 So, I was doing two-a-days. I was inspired and I got this tank to to workout in this summer:

By Thursday I crashed!  I don't think I was eating properly so I was VERY tired.  It probably didn't help that the weather was crazy either.  I took several days of active rest though so I could recover.  I will be doing more two-a-days this summer, but probably not three days of them back to back!

First Friday Community Painting

Hello!  Today I wanted to share a video with you!  My best friend Hillary and I worked at First Friday last week for our student organization, the FSU Art Therapy Association.  We did a community painting and I made a video to show the painting progression.  Here it is, enjoy!

*Disclaimer... that song is "Happy" by Pharrell Williams - I do not own rights to it, I just like it.

And here are a few photos of Hillary and I being goofy:

Have a wonderful day!

Last art journal page for the class swap

Here is the last art journal page that I created as part of our class art journal swap:

 Light at the end of the summer = graduation!  I can't believe it is only 3 months away!

And here is another page from my right brain planner inspired fitness jornal:

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a wonderful day.  "See" you tomorrow!

Postcards

This past Tuesday I passed my art therapy comprehensive exam!  I celebrated by spending several hours doing art!  I made these postcards:

It was nice to not have to do homework.  I do still have a lot of work to do on my thesis but I chose to take a day off since I passed my comp exam!  Later that evening I went out to dinner with the art therapy girls - it was a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the semester.

Week 16 & Week 17 Documented Life Project

Hey there!  Happy Thursday!  Today I wanted to show you some pages from my Documented Life Project art journal/planner.

Here is the week 16:

And the art journal page:

The challenge was to use something from cardboard food packaging - I cut out that cookie from a gluten free cookie package.

Here is week 17:

And the week 17 art journal page:

The challenge was to include your favorite shoes.  Yes, running shoes are my favorite.  Because I have plantar fasciitis I need the support that my custom orthotic inserts provide - and they only fit in running shoes.  But that is not the only reason - I have always LOVE wearing running shoes, even when I am not working out.