Day 43 makeup hack day. My cousin showed me this video and said I should try this for one of my something news so I did. I have to say, I am incredibly pleased with the results. I felt like it allowed me to fill in my eyebrows so that it wasn't overwhelmingly dark. I'm not a fan of super dark eyebrows on myself. I don't feel like it looks natural on me. But oh how I love the Audrey Hepburn eyebrows that people have. I'm jealous. I'll admit that. I am happy with this trick and will be using this from now on. Check out the video to see how it came out.
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Day 42 is a big day for me. My husband encouraged me to do this video. For some reason I get really shy when talking about our business and what it's about. Well here it is. Random Positivity is is about inspiring people to do new things. It has become our mission to get people out of the funk of letting life go by. To inspire others to doing something they've been holding off. To make sure that when you leave this life you're going to know you did what you needed and wanted to do. Life is taken for granted and it's done so easily. We think we have to live a certain way, be who others want us to be, or follow the popular path so we can have all the social "norms" to be accepted by people we don't even like! Excuse my language, but FUCK THAT! Yes I said it. I'm tired of the "yes" man cooperation that you are not supposed to be happy in what you do for a living. This is a new age where technology allows a no namer to film their own piece of art and display it without a huge studio behind them. This is the age of no namer singers being heard throughout social media because you have that much talent. This is the age where walls are torn down and doors are kicked open. Go do something new for your future self. It is your time! It is now!
]]>Day 41 is here. And I decided I wanted to get crafty. I've used my cricut before but I never used it with a canvas or to make any type of home decor. This should be fun. I learned some simple "duh" moments during this first time attempt. For example wait for the paint to dry before I start messing with it. Hahaha. Sounds like an easy "duh" moment. It was quite simple to do. And I was able to keep myself entertained. If I wasn't rushing I can see how calming it can be to create something new. The painting part was especially relaxing and freeing because there wasn't any sort of rhyme or reason. I just knew I wanted some paint here and there. Check out the video below if you'd like to see how mine came out. This was a simple craft to do if you'd like to replicate I have the instructions below:
Supplies needed
Instructions:
Day 40
The oh so cute can I pull this look off Messy Hair Bun. I've seen it, I want it, now it's time to learn how to do it. I came across these 3 tutorials on how to do the messy hair bun and of course I found them on TikTok. Don't judge! I decided to finally try my hand at it. As I was attempting this for my first time I was getting discouraged. My head came out looking as if a bird nested on it, then the eggs hatched, grew up, went through a garage band phase in their teens, broke guitars in my hair, and finally flew away. It was not working out for me. Then I realized after that I didn't have a phone bungee hair tie that was used in the tutorial. Also I think my hair was too long for the tutorials I was watching. Which now makes me think I'll have to go buy the right "equipment" and find tutorials catered to long hair messy buns. Then I can have my answer, to messy bun or not to messy bun? That is the question.
Click on the video below to watch my messed up attempts on the messy hair bun.
]]>So by now if you've been reading my blogs and/or following me on social media, you'll be noticing a TikTok trend. I used to fight social media and here I am embracing it. I used to be naysayer when it came to anything social media. I thought it was pointless and dumb. I thought it was just people posting their food, doing reckless stunts, and being narcissistic. But that's because I was unaware that deep within the bushes of duck lipped selfies and photos of how great one's life is, there is an entirely different realm of teaching on social media. There are a huge number of "how to's" and better yet you can be taught the steps within 60 seconds, thanks to TikTok and IG Reels.
Getting back to the challenge at hand, I came across this tasty looking dish made with cream cheese. Um, yes please! Cream cheese is so freaking tasty. It needs to become a food group all by itself. This is Chicken Breast Stuffed with Spinach, Artichoke, and Cream Cheese. Other than the amount of chicken and garlic being used there wasn't any other measurements so I'm using what I ended up doing in trying out this recipe. If you'd like to see my first attempt at this recipe check out the video below!
The recipe is as follows:
Ingredients
4 Chicken Breasts
30 grams or 1 cup of chopped spinach
6 Marinated artichoke pieces chopped
2 Cloves of Garlic minced
1 8oz package of cream cheese (Be sure to soften it first, I didn't and it was hard to mix. You can soften by leaving it out for 30 min prior to use.)
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil (I forgot this when I did it. Hahaha. Oh well, learning!)
Directions
Day 38 was really fun! I love tasting food that I've never tried before. You never know what you're going to like unless you give it a try. You might discover a new flavor, texture, weird combo of ingredients you would not have thought to put together. Being open to new things allows you to open your world to so much more. Foodieland was a great place for this. The environment was fun and there was a variety of restaurants to choose from in one spot. Very convenient for the fan of food. I decided on trying Yakisoba, which I never had before and it was a little bit on the "safe" side. I'm familiar with noodles but never had Yakisoba, which is a Japanese fried noodle. There are ways to ease into doing something new like what I did at Foodieland. Familiar yet different. It doesn't always have to be way out there to make you uncomfortable. Inspiring to do something new is just have a little change. Going here for the first time I have learned a few things to do next time going to an event like this, to ensure I take full advantage of the event. Check out our Youtube video below to see the Foodieland Yakisoba experience!
Tips for a food festival:
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Check out our YouTube video below for directions. Don't forget to subscribe, like, and share
]]>Day 36 Garlic Cheese Balls! Can I just say yummmm! This recipe didn't have any measurements so I had to play with this and figure it out on my own. I found this recipe on TikTok (of course), I was able to come up with a garlic butter I felt was tasty. Doing this new challenge was nice. The fact it's a new recipe just adds to so many other things I can do with this recipe. Making a sweet dessert or adding pepperoni and a marinara dipping sauce. I am comfortable in the kitchen, but you can still be challenged in your comfort. I hope you are inspired to do something! So here you go. If you'd like to watch the YouTube video click on the link at the bottom of the page.
Ingredients:
Pillsbury Grands Flaky Layer Biscuits
6-8 tbsp Melted Butter
Shredded Mozzarella cheese
1/4 Dried Parsley
1/4 Dried Oregano
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Garlic Paste
Directions:
I hope this inspires you to do something new!
Day 36 in the bag!
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Day 35 I decided to try my hand at knitting or should I say needles? So corny. Anyways knitting has been a craft I've admired. I don't tend to buy a lot of them but adore knit clothes. They're so pretty. I tried crocheting in my last 30 in 30 Challenge on Day 9. I took to it well and began crocheting my own beanie. Honestly the colors are an ugly mix. I didn't think about the way it would look. I just saw the ball of yarn and that looked really cool to me. As a beanie, not a cute mix. Either way I have been practicing the crocheting and actually made something! I want to continue on the yarn venture so why not knit?
I can see why knitting seems harder than crocheting. I looked at quite a few tutorial videos and went through a couple of blogs on "knitting for beginners." The video tutorial I felt was simplest to follow was the one from Hobby Lobby on YouTube. When I started the cast on the needle I found that easy but once I had to use the second needle is when all hell broke loose. It seemed simple watching it but doing it was a completely different task. The coordination it took to manipulate the yarn and needles was something I lacked in. Of course I'm a beginner and am not going to get it right away, but damn. I felt kind of fumbly.
Day 35 Knit that in the bud!
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So Day 34 was thrown a curveball. Originally we were supposed to visit a new seafood market. I've been wanting to go for the past 3 weeks, but every time I schedule it, something comes up. I'm not giving up on this one though. Today was for an obviously good reason, my daughter woke up with a fever and vomited. With that said, we were absolutely not going to be leaving the house. Luckily she started feeling better throughout the day. Yay! With the inability to leave, I had to drum up something that was quick to record during her nap! I started to look at TikTok. This is an unbelievably great resource for quick recipes. I have found so many on there that I would like to try. Fortunately I came across the mug mac n' cheese. Since I needed to run to Walmart for some children's motrin I picked up cheese and pasta.
Here's the recipe:
1/3 cup elbow pasta
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup grated or shredded cheese
That was it! 4 ingredients, I love it! Remember you can use whatever you have on hand. Don't have elbow pasta use what you got. I figure you can even use lasagna pasta as long as it's broken up really well. No grated or shredded cheese? Get your block or slices, and cut it up small. Easy peasy.
Directions:
I'm glad I came across this recipe, not only was it easy and quick, but I usually have these ingredients on hand so it makes for a nice "I'm hungry and now and don't want to cook" meal. So in the end even though I couldn't do initially what I had planned. I was able to execute and continue on with our challenge. I hope this inspires you to do something new!
My impromptu day 34 was a success!
]]>Day 33 started as any other normal day. Then the challenge came. Chewing a pack of Bazooka gum to make the biggest bubblegum bubble I can. My friend Gabby came over to visit but also to take away the puzzle from Day 18 of the first 30 in 30 Challenge. That puzzle was worked on for 3 weeks. She wanted to keep it completed and I was planning on taking it apart and throwing it back in the box. I was glad she wanted to keep it. I did not need that thing in my life anymore. It served its purpose. Anyway back to today's challenge, it wasn't originally planned for Gabby to join me for the challenge but I'm so glad she did.
It was time to start, the first piece goes in. It was challenging to chew because of how hard it was. As we kept putting more and more pieces it required a strength I didn't know I had. There were moments I had to keep myself from gagging. I thought I was going to vomit a few times, my eyes were getting watery and I was starting to feel a bit sick from it. The amount of chewing lasted for 30 minutes and the bubblegum bubbles we blew were just regular size! So disappointed. ALL THAT CHEWING FOR NOTHING! Then again I did get an unbelievably taxing jaw workout from all of it. I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up tomorrow with a sharp jawline that can cut diamonds. Hahahaha.
As I'm typing this, I grew curious and looked up the largest bubblegum bubble recorded. The record is held by Chad Fell for a bubble that was 20 inches (50.8 cm) in diameter! Guess how many pieces of gum was used. Go ahead, guess. It was three. THREE! Can you believe it? I was so pissed finding this out. Ugh. This is where we learn that more is not always best.
Doing the challenges, even as "simple" or "silly" as this bubblegum challenge, is always reminding me that things are not always what they seem. This was undoubtedly one of the most underestimated challenges I have ever done. I thought this was going to be one of the easiest challenges but I could not be further from the truth.
So glad Day 33 is done!
Check out the YouTube video below
]]>Alrighty Day 32 is here! Cajun Boil day, yay! I love me some food. Boiling Crab is so fun and tasty it's one of the restaurants I enjoy eating at, but it can get pricey (especially the way my crowd and I eat). Eating with your hands, the sound of cracking shells, juices flying, and a protective bib to wear? Yup sign me up. Sounds like a good time. I have been wanting to make this at home for so long.
My family already had plans to go to our friend's house for a small get together and she brought up doing a cajun boil. Elaine is such an amazing host, she found the recipe, did the grocery shopping, and had the know how on prep. I did not have to do any research at all. Woot woot! I can finally cross this off my list. I'm open to those new experiences. Let's get to it!
We had live Maine lobster, clams, corn, shrimp, potatoes, and sausage. Yummmers! The burner and pot was set up, we had a rapid boil going, it was time to drop in the goodies. We started with adding Zatarain's Crab Boil and lemons to the water. We let it boil for about 10 min to get that water flavored. We added the lobster first, boiled it for 15 minutes and was removed from the pot. Then came the corn, potatoes, and clams boiling for 5 minutes then adding the sausage and shrimp to boil for 5 minutes. Here's the breakdown for boiling time for each:
Lobster 12-18 minutes (we did 15 minutes)
Corn, potatoes, and clams 10 minutes
Shrimp and sausage 5 minutes (although the shrimp was a bit overcooked, I would try closer to 3 minutes for the shrimp.)
Once everything was done boiling we moved onto the sauce. Oooooo the sauce! Here's the recipe below
"The Whole Shabang" Boiling Crab Recipe (found on TikTok under @supremestephany20)
*In our video we tripled the recipe and used only 1 tbsp of Cayenne Pepper for the entire batch and I felt it was a perfect mild spice. If you can't handle spice add very little at first maybe 1/2 tsp at a time to make sure it's not too spicy for you.
Directions for the sauce:
Melt butter in pan over medium heat (keep the butter from burning). Add the garlic until golden then add all the spices. Mix. That's it! Super simple. I love me a super simple sauce!
This will absolutely be made again. Now I can tweak little things here and there to create it as my own.
Day 32 what a flavorsome day! Done.
Check out the Youtube video below
]]>Today was day 31 of our 30 and 30 challenge we are continuing on with a second dose of the 30 and 30 and challenge. If you are new to this blog, welcome! The 30 in 30 challenge is doing something new everyday for 30 days. Since this will be a continuation of the previous challenge, I decided to go ahead and do day 31. Now for today to kick off our 2nd 30 and 30, I decided to do a hip hop class which I've never done before. My cousin has really wanted to try it, and it was great that she invited me. I am so appreciative that she did, because it was such a fun class.
My cousin and I arrived at Playground LA about 30 minutes prior since it's in Los Angeles and we needed to find street parking (eek). Luckily we found one rather quickly. As we were waiting outside, people started to gather waiting for the doors to open. We began a few conversations and a lot of people said that it was their first time going to this class. I started feeling a bit more at ease. But when I saw them dancing, they were killing it! They were just on top of it and it was really cool to see. This was something that they genuinely enjoyed. You can see it in their dance. like they know how to get direction how to do the choreographed movements and add their own style to it which was amazing to look at. As awe-inspiring as it was to see these incredibly talented dancers around me, it was unbelievably intimidating. I stuck out like a sore thumb. I felt so out of place just like the indoor rock climbing challenge. As people were hitting move after move, and I was stumbling on myself, a particular episode from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air popped in my head. The episode when Vivian Banks decides to go after her dream of being a dancer and was in the class with all the 20 somethings. During the first class she was not able to keep up, she fell as she ended up crawling out of the room. I kind of felt like that.
As I started to stop focusing on everyone else and just focused on the dancing, I began to enjoy it so much more. When the class was done, Sam Allen mentioned that he would like to do the same thing next week. I thought to myself "YES! I'm coming back and Vivian Banksing this!" Later in the episode she goes to a dance audition that the same girls were at and Vivian knocks the routine out like she was born to dance. I'm going to continue creating progress videos on practicing this routine. I will get good at this.
Day 31 Hip Hop Class to be continued...
Check out the Youtube video below
]]>The final day of the 30 in 30 Challenge. Originally I wanted to culminate everything with a self portrait photoshoot. The idea behind this, was to see myself at the end of the 30 in 30 as a new person. Well that changed when my niece, Leilah, asked me 3 days ago what I was going to do for my last challenge. Because I didn't have it set in stone, I told her "I don't know yet." Her response, "you have to do something big." That was it for me. She was right, this is the final day of a huge change in my life. Yes, I will do something big. But what? I started searching for areas I can zipline close by. As I kept looking there were no available dates. So I looked into parasailing. It just happened to work out with the time, date, and availability so that Terry (my mother-in-law) could watch Alonna. That was it, I booked the appointment with Long Beach Parasailing.
Originally Mike was going to just stay on the boat while I went up by myself. It was a last minute change that he joined me up there. I'm so glad that it happened. I could not have asked for a better person to be sharing that moment with. It was so symbolic of everything that we went through during these 30 days. He has been right there with me every moment, constantly encouraging me, giving me constructive criticism (which I didn't always take well), and has and is challenging me to better myself. So to have him be lifted up into the sky while having us live was truly a perfect moment. There he was capturing this so we can share the experience with all of you. As we were going up I felt excited and once we were up in the air, it was like breathing in a new person. I spread out my arms and the beauty of the wind overcame me. As the wind held up the parachute, all I can think of was the experiences I went through these 30 days that created this moment.
If it wasn't for everything happening to me at work the way it did. If I never resigned. If Mike and I didn't decide to hold off on me working again. If, if, if... if the things I didn't want to to happen did not happen. I would not be experiencing the adventure we went through. I say we because I am not alone in this. Mike and Alonna have endured my crazy throughout this endeavor. It has been one of the most life changing experiences that I am incredibly grateful for. I look forward to the next 30. I can't wait to see what's next! I hope this inspires you to do something new too!
]]>Day 25, wow this day had some psyche challenges going on at times I didn't expect. First of all, the day didn't go as planned. We were heading over to drop off our daughter to my sister-in-law's house and our tire popped. I'm just grateful it happened when we were driving on the street instead of the freeway. My husband was getting ready to change the tire to our spare when he saw there wasn't a car jack in our trunk! So I wasn't going to make it for the 10:30am class and had to delay it to 12:30pm. Since we didn't have the jack we needed to call AAA. Thank goodness for roadside assistance. Our technician was so nice and quick with our tire change. We went straight to get our replacement. By the time we got to Sam's Club for our tire change. It was closer to 11am. We were told it would take about 45 min to an hour. By the time everything was done it was 12:10pm and I had to call to delay to the 2:30pm class. Finally everything was settled and we were on our way to the gym.
Once we got there it was so cool looking. Just walls everywhere with rocks. LOL, I guess that's what you would expect from an indoor rock climbing gym, right? Another thing I noticed was the fact I was the most out of shape person in that gym. Everyone else looked fit, skinny, guys with their shirts off with no body fat. Yup that made me feel self conscious. I kept thinking, "will I be able to do this? Is there a reason fat people aren't in here?" Even though those fun thoughts were running around in my head as I was trying to catch them to shut them down, I got the harness and shoes on and headed over to the wall with the instructor. She taught me the necessary safety checks, demonstrated rock climbing, and belaying. When she climbed all the way up, that's when the nerves started hitting me. I didn't really understand why. I was excited to do this the whole time until that point. Nerves started to get to me. And here we are, it's my turn. My nerves are getting to me but I'm here, now or never! I choose now! Let's do this! I clipped myself in, did my safety checks, placed my hand on a rock, my other hand found another rock. I pulled myself up, found footing on the rocks below and kept going. I climbed up and just kept moving forward. I started feeling good, the excitement was coming back! YAY! I'm doing this I'm rock climbing! Then I got to the top. Oh shit! That's what I thought. I have to go back down. I didn't want to climb back down I really wanted to try to belay. But I wasn't just nervous anymore, I was scared, seriously scared. I could hear Mike telling me people were cheering me on. It didn't matter because I was freaking out. I thought I was going to stay stuck up there until I got so tired I would fall. I had to seriously talk to myself. Don't get me wrong outside encourage is needed and helps during those moments of self doubt. But ultimately, it's our inner voice that speaks the loudest to us. It's that inner voice that nobody can hear but you. It's that voice you need to get cheering for you and letting you know you CAN DO THIS! After all of that turmoil in my brain. I finally got the nerve to let go of the wall and trust that I can do this. Deep breath, one hand holding the belay another on the rock. One, two, three, let go of the rock, now. I did it! I let go and went down to the bottom. I did it! HELL YES! I was so proud of myself in that moment. I freaking did it. I wanted to keep climbing more, and realized how much fun this was. I really hope that this encourages you to do something new. Despite whether or not you don't fit the "norm" of what you want to try. Just do it. That's the beauty of life, you create it as you go.
Day 25 has been accomplished! (standing ovation with roaring applause goes on in my head)
]]>It's Day 24 and I finally sat in on a Toastmasters Club Meeting. If you're unfamiliar with toastmasters it's an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to "empower individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders." After searching online different new things to do I came across Toastmaster. I have actually wanted to do this before, but as usual stuff happens and we forget what we've wanted to do. When I saw this reminder I was very excited. Not only will this help but I feel since covid happened and club meetings are online, it isn't as intimidating as I felt it would be. Sometimes it's scary to meet new people in person. This online way is a really nice transition into meeting people in real life.
I honestly didn't know what to expect from the meeting. After some club websites, I thought the meeting would be very formal. But to my surprise, it felt like a nice easy going group. I felt welcomed and a part of the meeting even though it was my first time. I jumped in during table topics which gives you about 2 min to talk about the subject. I spoke for 42ish seconds (can't remember the exact number). I can see how intimidating it might be but once you're in the water it's nice. I will be joining them again next week. I was able to listen in on the speech that was prepared. It was well done. I know that Toastmasters will help throughout life. Anything that moves you forward is worth doing. I never would have done this unless I resigned, watch a show about cooking, and the poached egg that sparked the idea of the 30 in 30 Challenge. My husband is so incredibly supportive and I know I am truly blessed for that. It does help make life easier when you have someone that supports your dreams and thoughts. We may not always find that in the person we live with. Sometimes it's a friend, Facebook buddy, an Instagram follower, really you can find someone to cheer you on somewhere. Just keep doing new things and you never know what you will discover about yourself. I hope this inspires you to do something new!
Day 24 complete 6 more days to go!
]]>Holy crap! Day 22 of the 30 new things in 30 days challenge. This was intense. I felt so nervous doing this one! Today was the day, it was lobster day. Not just any lobster, it was live lobster. LIVE PEOPLE! Oh man, when I was at the grocery store looking at the lobsters moving around in the tank I was honestly starting to second guess myself. Then when I asked for 2 of them I just saw a moving frenzy as the guy went in with some tongs to pick them up. I started to freak out on the inside but stay calm on the out. I told myself, "I committed to doing this, so I'm doing this!" There it was I grabbed the bag from the man behind the counter and went to the cashier. No turning back now, this is gonna happen, it's happening. I got home started boiling water, grabbed the saucepan, tongs, butter, strainer, and cheesecloth to be prepped for anything I was going to use during the live today. I decided on trying to make clarified butter too. So this was a two for one day. I'm doing two new things today (pat on the back). When it came time to place the lobsters into the boiling water, I inner freaking out was becoming my outer freaking out. I was getting scared to pick up the lobsters, but I did it and placed them in the pot. I did it! I completed my first task of the day. Clarifying the butter was a good way to take my mind off the lobsters. I felt that was very simple to do. When it came to cracking the lobsters and getting the meat out, I feel I did well for a first timer. Oh wow, now that I think about it. I think that was the first time I had a whole lobster. I've had tails before but I don't think I've ever had whole lobster. Wow another first! Today was a big day! The lobster turned out to be tasty, I'm so grateful for that. Especially after yesterday's tempura I needed something yummy to come out of the kitchen. Today I tackled 3 new things, which means I had 3 new experiences. Good job! Hahaha, sometimes you have got to tell yourself you did good.
Get out there and do something new today!
Day 22 in the bag!
]]>I can't believe we're on day 21 of the 30 in 30 challenge. I decided to run out to the grocery store to get some veggies to make vegetable tempura today. I originally wanted to go to a new fish market and buy live lobster for the first time, but due to my lack of planning, I ran out of time. I forgot all the other stuff going on that day. We had speech therapy and swim class for Alonna that day. Also, there were the errands we needed to do like grocery shopping, laundry, washing dishes, clean the kitchen, and it didn't help that Alonna was extra fussy in the morning. Her favorite word being "no" to everything, even the stuff she means to say "yes" to, made the day that much more difficult. It's tough being a parent. Talk about your something new. If you are a parent you understand that you're something new each day are the challenges that arise with raising a child 24/7. To add this 30 in 30 challenge on top of everything else. I didn't think about when we'd shoot our Live Instagram. I figured "oh we'll just turn on the camera and shoot." I forget about prep work. That really tends to be a lot of my issues. I will jump into something not thinking about anything else that might be needed. Most definitely a blessing and a curse. I digress, (not sure if I'm using that word right, but I hear it a lot), let's get back to the tempura. Oh geez, after looking back at this I ended up messing up a lot! The bite wasn't crispy, it was very "bready." I probably overmixed the batter, which wasn't cold enough to start with. Then the oil temp was all over the place! It was so hard trying to keep it in the right temperature it would go above 400F then drop down to 325F. I think that was one of the hardest things to try to do during the cooking. Despite the difficulties and it not coming out how I hoped it would. It has most definitely sparked an interest in me to continue trying this again. I'm going to look into different recipes and see what other techniques that may help a beginner like me in this tempura making world. I hope this has sparked an interest for you to try something new too!
Day 21 complete on to the next new thing!
]]>Oh man this was a hell of a rough one to deal with! 3000 piece puzzle in 24 hours! What the hell was I thinking? I really wasn't when I decided on this challenge. I honestly think that's part of the fun. Sometimes we overthink so much, it paralyzes us to do anything. I feel like that's why "crazy" people just tend to have more fun in life. They don't think too much, or if they do, it's a matter of a "screw it" attitude and whatever happens, happens. I am one of those who can be on both extremes. Certain things I put an excessive amount of thought into that really doesn't need it or I go into something like starting a business without thinking. I have learned so much during this time. Lol, oh back to the puzzle. The stamina it takes to try to do a 3000 piece puzzle in 24 hours is something I did not think about at all. Standing around a table, having your head bent down, and eyes focused for hours was exhausting. But as we were doing it I started seeing strategies that would help along the way.
Below I have a link to the time lapse. We didn't get to finish it in 24 hours, I think we finished one eighth of the whole thing, if that. But none the less it was a great experience to have. And it's just a fun thing to go through. We had some laughs, moments of frustration (most of the time), and little victories of finding a piece that works after 3 hrs of looking. I really hope that this inspires you to do something new, maybe something a little out there. Comfort zones are just that, it's a comfort spot. You can't grow where you aren't challenged. Grow a little each day by experiencing something new.
I will be updating this blog post once we have finally completed it.
]]>Wow who knew there were so many different types of knots out there? I had no clue until I started researching knots for Day 2 challenge of tying knots. Let's be real, this wasn't something I've always wanted to do, but as Mike (my husband) and I started talking about the idea of the 30 in 30 challenge, we saw how pricey it can possibly become in the end of all of this. Especially with our financial situation, we weren't in any place to be spending a ton at this time. We started to look at my list of new things to do and see what is feasible. I didn't have enough "cheap" things to do for 30 days so we started coming up with stuff we had around the house. He made the suggestion of tying knots. I thought it was interesting, we had rope. Why not? So here we are.
This was day 2 of the 30 in 30 Challenge, and boy was I challenged.
I was completely naive to the complexity of doing these knots. I didn't realize how hard it would be doing the knot for the first time on Live Instagram. That in itself was a difficult hurdle to get over. Trying to explain what I'm doing, while simultaneously attempting to show it, and receive information on how to do it! What was I thinking?! I know I tend to think I can do more than I can. It's the blessing and curse. I like to overshoot my capabilities and even though I may not be completely successful on something, well at least I tried. If you'd like to see me struggle in knot tying, I have the YouTube video below. Regardless of the attempts and fails. It has opened a new world to me I never knew existed. Not only that, it is something I would like to learn more about, just because it will be useful information to have in belt.
Day 2 complete on to the next 28!
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Wow, it's interesting. As I sit here thinking about what to write, I'm writing. The infamous "they" always say to start at the beginning. I guess that's as good a place as any. I began this 30 New Things in 30 Days Challenge after resigning from my job. This idea didn't happen right away. Certain circumstances happened at work and I just needed to leave.
Ever since I graduated high school I have always been either working or studying for school. Years later I was reacquainted with my future husband, whom I've been married with now for 8 years. After our wedding it was back to work on Monday. My husband placed his passion on hold and quit coaching to become a security guard, so that I can quit working and focus solely on nursing school. This August will be our 9 year anniversary, and we still haven't gone on an actual honeymoon. With the birth of our daughter, we decided it was best for him to stay home and take care of her. After going over our savings and finances we realized that we saved enough for me to take a month off before starting to look for another job. Being a one income family, we of course had several fears and worries that overcame us. But in light of it all, we knew this was a good decision for the family.
A few days after resigning, I was sitting on the couch watching "The Kitchen" when I saw Sunny Anderson poaching an egg. I thought to myself "I've always wanted to try to do that." Then another thought came in, "why haven't I?" Seriously it just took an egg, simmering water in a pot, and vinegar. I have always had these ingredients readily available to me. So why haven't I done this yet? I realized that I have been wanting to try this for years! Years! That's insane to not have tried it by now. I began thinking about more activities, recipes, traveling ideas that I've always wanted to do but never have. It drove me to create a list of all of it. I never realized how much I wanted to do and see until it was written down on a list. That's when it hit me! I've got 30 days off so I'm going to use it do things I've always wanted to try. Hence the 30 in 30 Challenge was born! Cue the sunlight breaking through the clouds and the heavenly choir sings "aaaahhhh." We decided to go for it and document the events live on Instagram. My husband assists with the camera, while I go through the activity.
I never anticipated to create a blog as part of my something new to try. Initially I had all 30 days planned out, and plans don't always work out. Changes had to be made and this happen to be something I can do today. Even though it's Day 17 of the 30 in 30 Challenge, I will be reflecting back on each day's challenge in this blog starting back at Day 1 where I poached an egg. I hope this inspires you to try something new today.
Day 17 has been completed! Mic drop... BOOM!
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