Crunchy Frogs - Exercise of the Week: Week 38 2014

Pin It Now!

Exercise of the Week: Week 38, 2014


Crunchy Frog... yup I thought the same thing the first time it was introduced to me.  What the Hell is that and will it hurt.  Or are you going to feed me something gross covered in chocolate? a la Monty Python?   Not so much as hurt, but will give you some muscle soreness if performed correctly.  It is an ab excerise that uses  your core, legs and arms.  The thing about the frog is coordination and balance.  If you don't have those down or can't find them when you start this exercise you'll be tilting sidewise and falling over before you even begin.  There are several different versions of the crunchy frog. You can modify for yourself and what you are comfortable with doing.

to break it down:

its an in and out with your legs.  straighten legs out, bend them back in to your belly while keeping your core tight and balanced on your tush...

then you add the arms... as you straighten out your legs your arms are wide. as you bend your legs in curl your arms around your knees and repeat.

check out this video showing how to perform a crunchy frog:

Burpee Challenge: Day 17

Pin It Now!

Its day 17 of our Burpee Challenge and the Bink and I are moving through them still.  We both agree that by doing this challenge it has made doing burpees in Tabata class easier.  We can pound out 15-20 of them with out thought or mental toughness now.  Burpee songs such as: Simply Irresistible are not a struggle, especially for me as I'm still working on pushups and form.

We are discussing what next month's challenge is going to be.  When we decide, I'll post here before the 1st of October and ya'll come and join us in the challenge and tell us how you are doing!!!

Its not too late to join us for the remainder of this month's 30 Day Burpee challenge!!!

Lets Catch Up on Project Life Update!

Pin It Now!

This weekend I've been working on Week 10 of 2014.

 I was a little surprised at the number of photos I did and didn't have.  

The Bink and I had decided to move 30 minutes away to a much nicer place. So, there was a lot going on as we discussed things over Cake and frosting, between Tabata classes, and a very close friend of the husbunny being involved in a car accident, resulting in hospitalization.  On a side note he has made a full recovery and back to his old ways...

I managed to get a photo of Tycoe helping us pack. She was happily buried in that box for a couple of hours.

Its funny that Sunday's blog post, Happy Places I talked at crazy length about all the cool stuff I got last week, but when putting this spread together I tried to use those die cut pieces and papers that have been floating around the studio for a while without purpose.  

This spread ended up being a combination of old and new.  I like the 4x4 photo size, but I think I'm going to save those for photo sleeves that specifically hold that particular size.  

I've moved what I have so far from my 2013 album into the green We R Memory Keepers album that I got on our Anniversary.  It is so much lighter, but won't be for long.

Happy Places: our anniversary, cheap art/craft supplies, and video games with the husbunny

Pin It Now!

Its been a week, that's fo sure!!! Managed to squeeze in a visit to my hair dresser for a trim, which was much needed. Pixie cut = regular trims or it looks...bad!  Sunday last week the Bink and I hosted my bestest pal, Neverness, his parents, Hanzmo, and two visitors from England.  They were divine!!! Nah, really, the personalities all click.  It was good times.  Sitting around our table all, just hit my in my happy place.  It was a nice dinner and easy hike to the South Holston Dam.  I say easy hike, maybe for the Bink and I, but not so much for others...  Most take that in consideration in the future!!!

Speaking of Happy Places... Yesterday was the husbunny Bink and I's wedding anniversary.  We toyed with the idea of going to Oktoberfest in Kingport, but it was all nasty rainy weather here on the hill, so we decided to stay home.  We opted instead to do something we haven't done in awhile, Video game co-op...  Borderlands 2 to be precise.  We got it all set up in two rooms and played for several hours.  Yelling between rooms because the feedback from the Kinect has this really bad echo.  It got a little annoying after awhile.  The stupid compatibility pack on that game is super annoying.  I had like 4 copies of the stupid thing on the hard drive.  Had to delete them all and reinstall, which took its own sweet time downloading.  So, now my Siren is back in action after an extended hiatus.

Happy Place 2...

I've mentioned it before; I have a stamp fetish... Love them... soooo much...  I'm gonna say 'cause its due to my unicorn stamp that my dad bought me when I was little girl.  So, dad,  its all your fault.  haha nah really, love you. I do try to purchase all my supplies either with sale, coupon, or clearance.  Most of my extra stuff I get clearance out, 'cause I have the weird thing that if I'm going to use for art journalling I don't want to pay full price.  'Cause after all the layers I add to my pages you may or not see it.  I had my arm twisted a while back by Angie, one of my scrapbooking girls, to join a couple of mailing lists. One is called Peachy Cheap.  Every day they have scrapbook supplies discounted super cheap.  Sometimes they have what I'm looking for and sometimes they don't.  There's another site called scrapbook daily deals.  Most of the time they have nothing I want and I window shop and move on.  This past month... Ho boy.  They caught me big time.  They had an offer for 7 different packs of October Afternoon journaling cards for less than $9 bucks!  Two packs alone full price are more than that!  I couldn't say no; especially because of Project Life!  A couple of days later they offered October Afternoon's Daily Flash Apple Cider clear cling stamp sets: Game On! and Rake, Pile, Jump.  Good Golly, two sets for less than the price of one... yup they got me again.  And just last week they offered October Afternoon's Apple cider pack with a 6*8 paper pack, stickers, 2 packs die cut shapes, and squirrell washi tape.  It matches the stamps I got, needless to say. I now have a bunch of stuff to pretty up my Project Life! pages.


Happy Place 3...


I've taken a week off from Project Life! after the crazy progress I made end of August and to wait on my photos to come in from Persnickety Prints.  They turned out fabulous and they package them so securely, I love that about them.
Trying out the 2x2 and 4x4 size photo.  I like the 3x3 got those the last order I placed.  I'm seriously considering trying the polaroid print option they have for Project Life!  Really thinking about it.







Happy Place 4...

We made one trip out yesterday for an Anniversary Breakfast and made a couple stops and there at Tuesday Morning, the hit or miss store they had a bunch of Tim Holtz items (yeah, still obsessed), a We R Memory Keepers Binder (for 2014), and a host of other pieces priced between .99 and 7.99.  I made out like a bandit!  I don't need to go on a supply buying trip for another month at least. Did pick up a script alpha stamp set and sleeves at the local target also.

Any way tata for now see you on the flip side...

Back to Basics...Fitness Style!!!

Pin It Now!

quote by: Bonnie Pfiester

  I found this quote sometime the beginning of 2014 and it hit really close to home.  I started out last year with a couple of goals, i.e... running(having never been able to) and pushups(the manly kind).  It was utter shock and awe that I completed two 5k events end of last year when 20 years ago I would've walked the 1 mile run imposed on me in high school.  I reached my goals and kept going, though I neglected to raise those goals or set new ones.  When it got bitter cold at the 5 am hour I switched to Spinning instead of Running and enjoyed it. I was able to push myself with something new, but there was not a finish line ahead of me.  I've been cranking out pushups on my toes for months somedays struggling, shaking, and whimpering grasping for one more. At one point my instructor told me that he was working to make me a push up diva!  How I chuckled and shook my head, nah...  One day I do hope to be that diva.  When I decided to take it back to the basics I knew that I had to lace up my running shoes and hit the pavement.  I dreaded that first morning run.  I just knew it was going to hurt and I would pay in pain later.  The ephipany that came over me sometime during that long 30 minute jog was that I missed running.  Missed it!!! What an absolute foreign concept.  I realized that running longer, faster, and harder would be my constant.  After doning my trainers for the last two months I had my best time ever just last week and the buzz from that run is still in my head.  Though I will have good runs, bad runs, long runs, and short runs I am glad that I'm running and enjoying the journey.  

Exercise of the Week:

  Burpees... I love to hate them. I love them!  I hate them!  What's a burpee you say?  There you have it..... that picture says it all. 

In Tabata (high intensity interval training)

:20 seconds go

:10 second rest

12345678 tabatas

Burpees are done to a song, so lets say if my class were listening to James Ingram's, Mo Be There then every time those words (Mo Be There) are sung we must BURPEE.  Sometimes its one, sometimes more. Sometimes I can't see because of the sweat in my eyes from so many burpees.  But in the spirit of getting back to basics the husbunny, Bink and I have started a 30 day Burpee Challenge.  Come on and join us for this love 'em hate 'em burpee fest.

Back to Basics... Project Life!

Pin It Now!

Back to Basics... Project Life!

I started Project Life! in August of 2013 and it was a struggle to decide if I even wanted to start something even close to resembling Scrapbooking. It must have been inevitable since I hang out with a bunch of cool scrapbooking ladies once a month.  Though I'm not one for the elebrate 12x12 pages for 1 or maybe 2 photos that they and their friends create. When my local craft store started stocking the Becky Higgins Project Life! line I resisted for a long time and at a weak moment gave in and have been collecting ever since.  I made pretty good progress with pictures from August through December 2013.  I found the most frustrating aspect of putting the pages together was the printing and cropping of the photos themselves.  I can't apparently cut a straight line with my paper trimmer.  I think the mold is warped... haha... nah just me...

Unopened Midnight Edition bought on clearance for $10

I haven't done anything with Project Life! all year.  No excuses other than not liking cutting out the photos for the pockets.  To make it even more comical, every time I would find Project Life! things on Clearance anywhere I would buy it.  I've aquired so much I now have an entire drawer of kits and cards still in boxes shrink wrapped.  I finally said enough is enough, it took an email from Shutterfly for 101 free photos for me to say that though... I spent an entire Saturday pouring over months of photos and placed my order and waited oh so patiently for my pictures to arrive. That same day I came across a blog on Pinterest: http://www.olyaschmidt.com/ or Paint Paper Studio.  Olya had issued a #letscatchuponprojectlife challenge via Instagram.  I thought its serendipity.  Of course I'm up for the challenge it fits perfectly into my other challenge of getting back to basics. When my pictures came I was over the moon pissed off!!! They had crammed 101 photos into 1 photo sleeve and 65% of them were crumpled and creased. I decided that I would NOT treat it as a set back and would have to move forward with them anyway; creased or not.  I met up with my scrapping girls at the end of the week and spent the day catching up and organizing and placing my wrinkled photos in their pockets.  101 photos actually covered from January through mid March, I walked away from that crop feeling a little bit more excited and accomplished.  

I had toyed with the idea of buying online from Persnickety Prints, but never took the plunge.  After running through my 101 photos I needed more, so I bit the bullet and ordered from them.  I had already uploaded photos from 2013 and just hit the order button.  I am so glad that I did.  They came boxed, papered, taped and wrapped.  They were perfect and sublimely cut.  I didn't have to crop any of them. It was then that the excitement took hold and on a Sunday afternoon I camped out on the bed and started something else that's been on my to do list, watch ONCE UPON A TIME.  By the time I was through episode 3 I was well on my way to having most of those photos placed in their spots too.  I've now got the majority of pages from last fall done, embellished and journaled. Complete... Also, have caught up on Season One of Once Upon a Time and halfway through Season 2.  Just yesterday morning I received an email saying that Season 3 is available on Netflix... SWEET!!! Soon, I'll be all caught up on both...

this is red saying thanks for stopping by... so long art fans, where ever you are...

Back to Basics…

Pin It Now!

BACK to BASICS... Art Journaling

I've decided that in order to get back into the swing of things I need to get back to the basics. This return to the beginning is something that I'm working on for several things, such as: art, art journaling, Project Life!, fitness, and clean eating. 

After our move some of these things I just did by rote and no enthusiam for.  So, my friends that is what I'm aiming to take back. Excitement of things accomplished, doing things I never once thought I would be able to do, and taking back my childish enthusiam...

“You have to live spherically - in many directions. Never lose your childish enthusiasm - and things will come your way.” 

― Federico Fellini

So when working in my art journal I'm going to focus on those techniques that I really enjoy and just come naturally. Image Transfers just make me happy. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, but either way the finished work always takes me to a happy place. Take a look below at my most recent journal entry.

so long art fans... where ever you are