Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

Hey there everyone!  

I know it's been a while since my last blog post but things have been so busy that I haven't had the time lol :) Even though there's a quarantine happing right now big things have changed! I wanted to start off by saying that these two photos were taken about 6 and a half years apart, the one on the right was taken back on December 24th, 2014 and the one on the left was taken just last week WOW! It's crazy, right? I look at the difference between the two and see the same person yet you can see that the smiles are completely different, on the right, the smile is of a shy, awkward introvert girl who didn't realize just how important health and fitness was aside from just running and aiding a salad to my meals, and on the left, is this confident introvert, positive woman who now knows the importance of health and fitness.  I look back on how I used to take care of myself and realized that it wasn't perfect and I didn't really know how to fuel my body properly, I never understood what the big deal was with fitness (like I said aside from running three days a week and eating a salad every now and then.) 

December 24th, 2014

April 6th, 2020

The difference between these photos isn't outward appearances but inward appearances!  Yes, I'm smiling in both pictures but you can tell which one has more passion and drive just by fire in the eyes! I can't begin to tell you just how many ups and downs I've had in between these two pictures, I went through many challenges through the duration of the past 7 years,  I only just started to get into fitness more the past four years and I can tell you it wasn't pretty lol! I had never really followed meal plans before so when I started my first workout program I followed one and it was probably the hardest thing I'd done, my body just wasn't used to how hardcore and disciplined it was. 

The first thing I did was join an accountability group for women, this picture was taken last year in Indiana at the Indiana convention center

This is my accountability group! We had just finished writing down our goals! 

this was the last night :( 

I came away from that trip with having learned so many new things about myself and what I was capable of, how driven and determined I'd become. Throughout that week I realized just how much community matters, they were always there and it was so much fun getting to know so many new faces and sharing the same experience it was unreal! they were there for me throughout my entire journey and they helped me get through a lot when I started to doubt whether or not I was cut out for something like that. I can't begin to tell you just how much they mean to me, it's a sisterhood like no other! (I'm on the way end the only one in red lol! our team color was black or white and I somehow ended up in red lol)

I can't begin to tell you just how much hard work/ discipline went into my journey.  

Hard work is something that most people (not all) as soon as they hear the word they are turned off by it "Hard work? No way, I'm not doing that." But sometimes if you want the best results then you have to put in the HARD WORK! I'm not saying it's easy because let me tell you it's not, but if your willing and determined you'll find a way to get it done and when you are finished you won't believe how amazing you feel!

This was after I had FULLY committed to a 100-day program... This was my second round, I had stayed committed for 200 days! You can see I have tears in my eyes because it felt amazing to have finished. 

We have to check in with ourselves!

Checking in with ourselves is all part of the journey itself we have to make sure that we're staying on track and holding ourselves accountable for our excuses, I'll be the first to admit that I struggle with checking in with myself every night, it's not easy for me to hold myself accountable I confess but I am trying to more disciplined about it. Something else I learned throughout my journey is that you have to be willing to let yourself fail because its in those moments that we learn to push harder and become more aware of the world and how hard it can be to reach your goals when you have people that want to pull you down.     

FAMILY PUSHES YOU!

Family is the most important thing in our journeys because they help push and encourage us to become the best you that we can be, we have to remember that family matters and that their the ones who make sacrifices right alongside with us so we can achieve our goals in life!

Stay on track! 

It's very important that we remember to stay positive no matter how negative things get because without positivity there is no hard work and without hard work there can be no goals, and with no goals, we can't make it happen and if we can't make it happen then we're just going to sit on our butts and pity ourselves saying that we "failed" and it's everyone else's fault for not telling us. Let's remember one thing

IT'S NOBODYS FAULT BUT YOURS 

that you're sitting down in the first place because they didn't tell you to hit snooze on your alarm, they didn't tell you to skip your workout just because you were too "tired" to get out of bed no, you had a choice and you choose to hit snooze and now you're blaming others for the choices that YOU decided to make. The truth hurts sometimes and there are no excuses as to why it hurts when we were the ones who created the issues, I'll admit that it stills hurts when someone says something mean to me, and yeah I do pity myself sometimes but then I get over it and push harder! As I try to get my career up and running I've learned a lot in the past 2 almost 3 years that people are mean and can sometimes say nasty things because you're achieving your goals, and I'm not saying that it's going to get any easier as we continue on our journeys but we've just got to be strong enough, disciplined enough, and hard enough to take the truth and come out on top feeling amazing because good things come to those who wait!

As I come to the end of this blog I hope you enjoyed it and I hope that everyone is staying safe and remember, 

STAY POSITIVE AND WORK HARD! 

Your Adventure Is Waiting!

An Adventure is one of those things where no matter what situation you are in, it's always going to happen unexpectedly, NOW!

You could just sit around waiting for it to happen but here's the thing. . . While you were sitting around waiting for this miraculous event to appear, someone has already taken your place and is now having the time of their lives!   

Our Adventures are in rare forms we just have to know when they, in fact, are in front of our eyes. Waiting for it to happen can be extremely difficult but it is worth it in the end!  

 Make a list of crazy goals you want to accomplish by 2020 and see what fun things you can think of, and maybe just maybe one or two of those things on that list of yours is an adventure waiting to happen, but be sure to grab it and seize the day!

I happened to make such a list of crazy goals at the beginning of this year that I wanted to accomplish and sure enough, I accomplished most of them! 

 Now,

I'm not saying that if you write these things down they are bound to happen because that's not the cause, however, by making a list you are in fact holding yourself accountable for your actions and goals! 

Accountability is one of those things that bring on the daring adventures, it also helps keep your foundation strong while setting up your mission for success! 

My list of goals for 2020 are pretty adventurous, yet simple and challenging at the same time.

My List:

1. Run a beast in under three hours!
2. have more discipline when it comes to nutrition and water intake! 
3.     Go rock climbing!
4. Go caving with my brothers!
5. Do another mud run with my sisters! 
6. Be more adventurous! ;) 
7. Change lives!  

See how easy it was to make a list? Now the challenging part is going to be holding myself accountable and seizing my adventures!

What's your list of goals for 2020?!!  

                                        Positivity is key! 

Hey Ladies, Happy Wednesday or hump day.

Okay, so today I want to talk about WHY positivity is key, (because that's where I lack)  and I'm going to start by sharing what I thought this morning. 

So, this morning I woke up when my alarm went off and I just lay there in bed thinking, at first I had all of these positive thoughts flowing through my mind that I couldn't wait to workout!


But then just as soon as they appeared they faded into the dark and all of these negative thoughts popped up instead and started playing in my head like a broken record saying. . .

"Today is going to be an awful"

"you are going to suck." 

"You are not good enough." 

"I can't do it today." 

"I'm never going to get the hang of this." 

So what I did as I walked into the living room to do my workout I. . . .

THOUGHT POSITIVELY! 

Instead of thinking negatively I changed it around and thought positively and I felt great during my workout! I felt so positive and confident that I didn't realize I had finished  :)  And I will say that every now and then a negative thought would pop up but I turned it around and showed it the road of positivity! If you put in your mind that you are going to succeed then it will happen. 

I've come to the conclusion that, if you think negatively then your mind is going to feed off of it and continue growing until it's big enough to consume every positive thought that goes on in your mind. I think we are almost afraid to embrace positive thoughts because there is no "ROOM" for the positivity to grow, our negativity feeds off of all our doubts and fears leaving us to only think like we've failed.   

If we keep thinking this way, then how are we ever going to rise up and be who are supposed to be?

Do we just let our negativity take over the driver's seat? 

Or

Do we shove out the car door and leave it stranded in the middle of nowhere?

 As we invite positivity to be our NEW driver!

We have to have a clear vision of our future and 

TAKE ACTION! 

THINKING POSITIVELY!

CONSISTENCY!

ACCOUNTABILITY!


Taking action is one of the most important things that we can do along with thinking positively and staying consistent but most important of all is. . . ACCOUNTABILITY! I want you to apply these four things every day for two weeks and see what a difference it can make! 
If you knew you couldn't fail what would your goals be and why?
  

Would you take action?

Would you think positively?

Would you be consistent?

Would you hold yourself accountable?

Would you apply these four things and strive to be the best YOU that you can be?!  

My Fitness life goals!

    

So recently I've been running more and more 5K's, plus mud runs, and it's been so much fun. The training has taught me so much throughout this year; it has really shown me just how lazy and out of shape I am.
Back in March, I found this mud run, so naturally, I signed up for it. I started training three days later, just my regular routine: wake up, run, repeat. I didn't realize going into a mud run just how you were supposed to train until I tested my strength with a boot camp class.
Leading up to race day it was really exciting for me because it was something I had never done before, (I had done two mud runs before, but I mean never have I done a tough mudder mud run). When we got to the race I started to get this feeling in my stomach. I was super nervous about it because as we pulled up and got checked in I started to realize that this was way different from the past two that I had done. Looking around I realized that watching people sprinting past us I got this feeling in my stomach again. A little bit later as we lined for our wave the feeling returned, but it wasn't nerves anymore; it was something way different.
I got in my zone as they had announced that we had to sprint. At first, I groaned in my head but then as it got closer and closer to our start time this feeling returned yet again, but it wasn't nerves anymore, it was the feeling to achieve!
Sprinting past all those people I felt like I was meant to be there, running with all those people. My fitness life goals are simple but challenging and to achieve my goals I realized that I have to work twice as hard because let's be honest, nothing is EVER easy and I think if it was, then people wouldn't understand the meaning of the struggles along the way.

Whenever I'm stressed about something I grab my running shoes, put in some headphones and just feel my troubles leave me with each footfall. I can literally feel my stress melt away leaving me to feel relieved and at pace.

I guess it all started in 2012 when my Mom mentioned this 5K that she wanted to with my sisters and I. During the training I thought that it was the hardest thing in the world to do. I was only 14 at the time and I had clue how to train and what I should fuel my body after each run. I thought, "There is no way I can do this", but we got through the training and we made it to race day. My first thought was "How are we going to do this? Look at all these people who are made for this". At the time I was NOT very active so I never would have mentioned a 5K let alone run one with my four sisters and Mother. As we ran I started to notice things that I never would have before: I was enjoying myself as I ran and it was nice to encourage one another along the way. We crossed the finish line together feeling tired but accomplished by our goal!        

Fast forward to the present and I am 21 years old and am trying to train for another one at the end of September! All in all, I have done about fifteen 5K's and I couldn't be happier! But getting back to my fitness goals, the other day my sister and I were talking about 5K's and how I've wanted to run a Spartan for about three years but I've never found one in our area, (I skipped out the fact that I had said just minutes before I was NOT ready for one). Until I was looking something up and we had just ended our conversation on 5K's I noticed this ad for a spartan sprint. My first thought was "how funny, we were just talking about this!" when I happened to see that it was a 5K. My mouth dropped opened as I opened the link to the website; I got chill bumps all over as I scrolled through reading, my mind telling me "this popped up for a reason, you should do it". After some research, I was excited that I actually might be able to do it!

It's proven that if we TRY we will SUCCEED

In this case, I really want to show the world! Recently someone had messaged me on Instagram and said that I had a positive feed and that they really like the atmosphere that each of my posts gave off.  I replied and said I really love to encourage other people to go for their goals. This started the conversation about coaching than on from there she asked me just what were my fitness goals, and I had said that my goal was to run a 10K by the end of the year and to accomplish a few other things. 

I'm still trying to decide if that's something I'm meant for. It seems like my heart is telling me to go for it, but another part of me is telling me to wait. I'm still not sure what to do! I've been thinking really hard about it and trying to put myself in that position to try. I think in my case I'm almost too afraid to try because in my head I've already failed and it's the worst feeling. But I feel like I was MADE for this I'm not sure how I know but I can just feel it deep down, calling me, telling me
"get off your lazy butt and try". But I feel like there is this wall in front of me, keeping me from reaching my goals and I can't seem to just hop OVER it and that is what's stopping me from trying. But I also know that if I don't try to scale this wall in front of me then there is no way I can move forward and reach out for my goals in life. I want so bad to reach for them but being held back is a really big struggle deep down.

  

And it's true. 

But for right now I'm going to get off my lazy butt, scale the wall that's been put in front of me and cross that finish line towards my goals. If I want it to happen you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to make it happen.    

Thank you guys so much for taking the time to read my blog I want to give a shout out to my friend Jessi Glovers for lighting the fire under me to try! She has been really encouraging to me and I feel like that is what I need right now: the encouragement! I hope you will stick around for my next blog post. Remember to stay focused and reach for your goals! 

A Wand For Your Thoughts.

So, for all you Harry Potter fans out there this is for you. As you all know the first of September was Hogwarts start of term, so being a big fan of the books I decided to make Sirius Black's wand.

The detail on this wand took me about three hours, but I love how it turned out and it was so much fun to make the little symbols.

The Elder Wand.

I wanted to try and make the elder wand so I could cosplay with it, so I just pulled up a reference photo sat down at my desk and got to work. It was really hard getting the color right I went through so many different shades of paint, the only thing I'm not really happy with on it is the little white part where the symbols are that part I made just a little bit too small and if I could go back and change it I would but then if I did then it wouldn't want to make me learn harder for the next time I tried.

Lord Voldemort's Wand. 

First off, I can't tell you just how hard it was to make that little pointy part it took so many tries to get to stick out like that.

Nevile Longbottom's Wand

So here I have Nevile's wand and I'm just going to say that while making this I got super frustrated, I didn't have enough clay for the whole wand so that's why it looks that way. And I was not very happy with how I did his handle, so here's how I get over my frustration.... I just work through it or I start over. Now as frustrating as that sounds I just work through it or again I get up and walk away for a small break than I sit down and try to focus, so right now I'm just trying to come up with new designs. And that's the fun! Getting to use my imagination, getting to be creative and that's why I love making things with polymer clay, there are just so many things that you can make and it's really amazing. So, in the end, we all know it's just a wand for your thoughts.

What I hope to be.

Hey, you guys! So many new things have happened to me this year, I don't know where to begin, so I'll start here. Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to build up on special effects makeup supplies, but as you guys know they are really expensive! So I've been using child's finger paint and eyeshadows, and some other things I could find around the house. But I recently made a homemade nose and scar wax with just flour and vaseline and it worked just fine.

And the finished product

So as you can see this was my first time working with wax, it was really easy to apply and I was happy with how it turned out but the only thing that is a down side to the wax, is that once the vaseline touches your skin it start's to melt and get's shiny as you can see in the picture. Now if you guys are squeamish then I'd say don't scroll down but for those who aren't, by all means, please scroll on,

I was bored one night so I used my imagination for this one.

Okay, so I know this is so gross but this is something I love doing and something that I hope one day will be my profession, I'm trying to make video's and post them online but I've just been so jam packed with work that I just don't have the time, but I know that if I want to do this then I have to make time for it.

As you can tell I made a bruise on my forearm.

So I love trying new methods and techniques but most of the time I don't follow them right, but then again that's how I learn by making mistake's most of the time I do get frustrated when I mess up but that's just part of it. All of these pictures are from this year and the ones I'm about to show you are from a few years ago after I had just started getting into doing this so it's ok if you guys cringe ;)

As you can see I didn't blend the makeup around the wound so that part stands out and takes away from the wound itself. 

I cringe when I see this because it was my first try and I can point out a lot of things wrong with this but I'm not going to if you're a special effects artist and you're reading this then please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

This was a few years ago and as you can see this was the second time I think that I had tried to do scratches, so it doesn't look really realistic.

I even tried to do characters but I don't have the right makeup for it so I just used what I had and this was how it turned out.

Lara Croft. 

This was taken a few weeks ago just to show you how I'm practising, I made the necklace from polymer clay and it took me for ever to do the details on it but I think it turned out ok, for the dirt I just used the brown paint from the child's paint and I did the same for her cut's and bruises, I'm so happy with how this turned out I never thought I could do until I tried. I know this was a very short blog but I just wanted to give you a little taste of what I'm doing so far, I hope in the near future to blog more and just share with you guys how things are coming along.

Somewhere over the rainbow

I know it's been a long time since I last wrote a post, but life has been pretty busy for me, in a good way. One of the many busy things I did was purchase a mini rainbow loom late last year and learned how to use it. These are some of the first ones that I made on the loom; they only took me about ten/twenty minutes to make. 

Fishtail Bracelets

I also learned how to make these really fun and easy flower ring holes. It took me a few tries but I ended up getting the hang of it. I learned how to do these on youtube. I don't think their called flower ring holes but that's what I'm calling them. 

These fun and cute cross bracelets are a perfect gift for a friend, family member, or for your grandmother's birthday. I also learned how to make these on youtube. I did not make these on the mini loom, I made them with my loom hook.

I learned how to do this one on the bigger loom. It took me a little bit, but I ended getting the hang of it. You can find how to do these on youtube as well. 

This spiral bracelet I made on the mini loom and, again, you can find it on youtube. 

If your looking for a fun and cool looking bracelet try these out. 

This I made on the bigger loom. It's called the Infinity Bracelet and I learned how to do this from a girl on youtube. I made three. One in blue and black and the other yellow and glow in the dark bands. 

I made these with my fingers. It's really easy. You just take your pointer and index finger, put a band on (twisting it in a figure 8), then put on another band, Pull the bottom band over the top one then add another band, then repeat, keep doing that and your bracelet will continue to grow. And ending off is the same way. You would end off using the mini loom, with a C or an S clip; it doesn't matter what one you use.      

And this one is the same thing, I used a broken earring for the center. But you could use whatever you wanted. 

Now these charms I made on the larger loom. As you can see their flowers and fruit. Really great friendship bracelet charms. 

Now I will try to post a youtube video for you guys so just hang tight. And by the way my younger sister named my post. :)