Sometimes my mind can't find the words to express what I am trying to say and then when I can find the words, moving them from my brain to my fingers can be a challenge all on it's own. I have so much to say and I don't always feel that I articulate it as well as I could/should.
My emotions have gotten the best of me with this project and I am just so so so proud of it. I really want to be out there to make a different and I want to do my art so ... I combined them and made an affirmation card deck. There are 31 cards and one instruction card. They arrive in shrink wrap tucked safely in a black velvet drawstring pouch. I drew each of the unique designs on my ipad through a program called procreate and honestly, I love how they turned out.
I have had a pretty hard year... actually over a year now.
Life is teaching me that it does not care about what plans you had made, that it is going to do whatever it damn well has in mind.
The best way to deal with that (for me) was through my art. Turning my mind to a project that I could create positive feelings from. That is where I came up with the +Mindset box. Please watch the video for more explanation and enjoy the photos of the Etsy listing. I can only buy 5 card decks at a time and will try to stock them as much as possible so bear with me if they get low... I will order more :) I truly hope that if you choose to have these in your life that they make you smile and help you start off your days on the right foot!
I am so very excited to announce that my affirmation cards are now completed and in the shop! You can find them here.
A few of these cards were created during some very sad and dark moments in my life and yet I wanted to create something positive from those times. I have learned that life doesn't really care about your plans and it's going to do what it wants to do with your life... but you can change how you react to that. You can have a positive mindset that helps you start your day on the right foot. I want anyone that is going through a hard time to know that you are not alone in this world and that everything will be okay. One of my favorite quotes is "everything will be okay in the end, if it's not okay, it's not the end" - John Lennon.
My affirmation cards can be used daily to start the day with a positive mindset. There are 31 total so you could pull a different one for each day of the month and the deck comes with 1 instruction card. All artwork was created by me on my iPad using Procreate and an apple pencil. This project took me so long to complete and I poured so much efforted into making them. There were times that I set it down and started and finished other projects but kept coming back to this and I am so happy that I did.
I won't make this a long rambled post and I like to get to the point so here are some photos of what I have created and I hope that you enjoy! Also, check out my Etsy shop to get your own deck! :)
My husband and I don't have a lot in common (we actually love that about each other) but we do love to hike together. It's becoming a serious passion of ours. Last year I had witnessed hikers at a local park with bib numbers and exhaustion on their faces so I looked up the race- they were doing an ultra hike and I was dying to sign up. Why not challenge yourself to the point of absolute exhaustion and burning muscles and pain... yeah, that's the way I work. Problem was it was the end of summer and when I googled races to see what I could sign up for, they were all too far away and we would have to drive a few hours for them. So... we decided to sign up the following year. When I went to sign up I was disappointed as you have to earn something they like to call Karma which they use towards a lottery and pull your name to see if you get into the race - then you pay to sign up - so therefore, you're not even guaranteed to hike with the person you want to hike with because their name may not be pulled. I was bummed but if you know me, you know that did not stop me from finding a race. In January of this year we signed up for the Glacier Ridge Endurance Hike 30k. So that's about 18.7 miles. They also had a 50k but we wanted to make sure we could do the 30k first.
We started training at home on our stationary bike and eventually to our treadmill and when there was the first bit of spring we were in the woods hiking as much as possible to get prepared. I had a countdown going for work and I really couldn't wait for race day. I was so excited!
Then... we did a practice hike on the race trail a week before the race (luckily Moraine State Park is only about 40 mins north of us so we could drive up and see what we were in for.
We hiked 10 miles and it felt great...
I woke up on Sunday sick. Thought maybe it was allergies- HOPED it was allergies ... then I accepted it. I had a major head cold with snot and coughing and phlegm ... was I not going to be able to race? After all this time??!!!
I tried EVERYTHING. I did sinus rinses, tried nasal sprays, blew my nose until it hurt, I used Vicks Vapor Rub, ate healthy and drank so much water! But - I realized it had to run it course and I didn't know how it was going to go. On top of all of this... I had my monthly visitor show up the day before the race. Great. Now I have to deal with that too (that's a whole other story by the way- I used a Diva Cup for the first time and it was totally worth it. If you are running a long race/marathon, look into this!).
The morning of the race we woke up at 5:45am and had to be out the door by 6:30am. We packed everything the night before and drove up to Moraine for our first Endurance 30k hike. Check in for the race was quick and went smooth, parking was easy and everyone was so kind! They really put on a beautiful race and it was so well organized! We got over our nerves and warmed our muscles for a little and enjoyed the chilly morning in front of the lake before we lined up at the starting line.
Just look at how beautiful this morning was!
The countdown to start commenced and before we knew it, we where on our way.. 18.7 miles and a long day laid ahead of us. I have a way of turning that off in my brain though and listening to my body and working in the moment so I know I was enjoying it already!
A thing I didn't mention earlier was that we have a time limit for the race. 7 hours. We have 7 hours to complete it - so that means we have to do over 2 ... close to 3 miles every hour to finish on time and the course was muddy (it had rained every day that week, I swear it) and the hills/elevation change was no joke.
The course was muddy. The hills were hard and we hit the mile 10 turn around to head back. They had a nice station set up at mile 10 with all sorts of food and refreshments to keep us motivated. I personally wanted to stay and continue to eat but we had to make our way back. It was rough. One of the hardest things we have ever pushed our bodies to do. At this point we were getting moody and purely exhausted but my body just kept pushing me forward. My good to me body that I sometimes have to remember to be better to.
About 5 miles left
The photo below was the best part of the day... and it pushed me to quicken my step- at this pace I would finish in a little over 6 hours. Everything in my body was cheering me on and my heart was pounding... were we doing this!? Where we really hiking 18.7 miles!? To make up on time for some of the uphill struggles we actually ran every downhill or flat levels that we could... it was so difficult but I seriously was LOVING it!
Crossing that finish line was one rewarding feeling complete with utter exhaustion. You cross the finish line and your body almost knows it and just starts to shut you down. Thankfully, there was pizza and the 30k finisher medal to keep our spirits up ... along with all the candy you could dream of!
Finishing in 6hrs and 15mins!
Here are some of my stats for the day... I did forget to turn off my fitbit after crossing the finish line for a little... lol
I am still riding on cloud 9 and it's the Thursday after the race. I am just so so happy and CAN NOT WAIT TO DO ANOTHER RACE!
The biggest advice is (besides training properly) WATER! You literally can't have enough of it!
Thanks for reading my post guys and letting me tell you about my latest adventure. Life can be incredible!
Here is a little video showing the anxiety surrounding the race and me being sick- they were on my instagram stories so I thought I'd post them here too!
We just took a family vacation to Fenwick Island, DE and we even got to take the doggies. Brian and I were so happy they were able to join us on the trip. We went with my parents and my sisters family and rented a house only a few hundred feet from the beach. The weather wasn't too bad either considering it was the end of April. I made a highlight reel of our week which included relaxing, bike riding and exploring Asseteague Island. We got to see the wild horses and it was childhood dream come true. I do have to mention that one of the nights we were walking the dog we witness a fireball. The video above is only a short clip of it that my sister took but the whole thing was much longer. The sky turned all sorts of bright colors and it almost looked like daylight it was so bright!
Even a police officer pulled over and asked what we just all saw. He was also a little confused. Honestly, it had to be one of the most exciting things I've ever seen. If you go here: FIREBALL VIDEO FROM SOMEONES DASH CAM and fast forward to the one in Delaware you can see what I mean by how long it actually took to cross the sky. There apparently another one in Germany that same night.
ANYWAYS. I am so glad we got to do this with the dogs and they absolutely loved the ocean- though they were horrible for the 7 hour car ride.
I posted some photos below of some of my favorite parts of our vacation.
Blood Mary with crab meat and angry beans! So spicy and so good!
