Cleanse Plus A Litte Chevron Love

  so, i started my juicing cleanse on wednesday, and i felt GREAT!!! i worked out REALLY hard, got a lot of cleaning done and enjoyed the new juice. it was actually really sweet and delicious! 

  the next morning i woke up and felt like a train wreck. sore throat, aches of a fever and all. needless to say, i was down and out the next three days. 

  someone asked me if i got sick because of my cleanse. although, that is highly possible (you should always consult a physician before jumping into any new type of fast, cleanse or detox your body may not be used too)i don't think the juicing cleanse is what triggered me being sick. why?

1. because i juice often enough for it not to jolt my system.
2. i was around someone who was sick for almost a whole day the day before i started the cleanse.  

  so, now i'm starting it over again, because i really want to be successful at doing it for three days. 

  the day before i started the cleanse i got super crafty! lol. mountain man and i rent a house and it's a lot of space (too much) for two people. that being said, we don't have every space filled or decorated. even though it feels like home because it's our love nest that we share with our amazing kiddos- tazana and gunner goo- i want to give it that warm personal touch its missing. did i mention i want to do it on a VERY tight non-existent budget. : )

  i decided to add our first intials to our mantle. our mantle needs a lot more work than this personal touch, but i'm doing what i can as i can. so, i bought a wood "K" to paint chevron onto with my acrylic paints that i already had at home. mountain man picked out his favorite "R" which needed no extra attention.

the horribly decorated mantle. 

  here is how I painted chevron onto my "K".

 

  to start my chevron "K" i first measured vertical lines two inches apart.  

  

   then, i did the same thing to make horizontal lines. also two inches apart. thus creating two inch squares. (i started my horizontal lines 1/2 an inch from the bottom so the squares wouldn't be perfectly aligned with the top and the bottom of the "K")

 

  now i can start drawing my chevron. i started with the first full square on the bottom right. draw a line from the bottom left corner of the square to the top right corner /. in the next square draw a line from the top left corner to the bottom right \. continue this pattern for the rest of the squares. 

  don't bother erasing any lines because your paint will cover them right up. i placed painters tape along every other chevron line so i could paint it grey blue.

   let it dry. mine didn't take long. then, i painted a second coat. after that is dry remove the painters tape. when you remove tape from something you've painted pull the tape at an angle AWAY from the part that you painted. this will help prevent the paint from peeling away with the tape. you're welcome. : P

 

  oh! i painted the sides of the "K" as well! that way it wasn't exposed layers of plywood. it created a more complete look. 

  for this next step you can re-apply painters tape to the portion you just painted in order to paint the second set of chevron lines. i free handed it because i had a brush with an angle on it. and i grew impatient and wanted my beautiful "K" and "R" on the mantle! 

 

   once it was dry i threw that baby on the mantle. so excited to make our house feel a tiny bit more like our home. loves it. 

 

   hope y'all have time to do this fun affordable project!

making our house a home-

~Kera  

 

  

  

   

detox juicing

   as you may or may not know I have dabbled in juicing this past year. i LOVE it. seriously. it makes me feel great. i haven't been consistent because my juicer is a freakin' monster~like a huge monster with a teensy tiny produce insert tube, a cup that vibrates out of it's place while you're juicing, and it leaves behind large pieces of pulp. that's one way to know that you have a shooie juicer is the pulp is moist and large.
   
   that's why i have decided that once i pay off my last credit card (yay!!) that i will purchase a breville and a subscription to birch box.<<< more on that later. when you plan to use a machine daily or more than once daily you should really invest in it. i have done a lot of research and comparing, and this is going to be the best juicer for us. it will be easy to pull out my produce and just pop it in the juicer, get the most juice out of the produce, easy to clean, prepare the perfect amount of juice for just two people, have *fine *dry pulp, have two speed setting for soft and hard produce....and the list goes on. basically, i dream about it and i can't wait. 

   but that's not what this post is about. i've completely gotten off track with taking good care of myself in between school and working full time. i've just been exhausted by it all. but as mountain man would say "we just have to stop being so d**n lazy." so, to start my body off right i'm doing a 3 day juicing detox! yay.

  because i have a shooie juicer i'm keeping it simple. for christmas i got the everything juicing book. although, i've done a lot of reading and research on juicing this book is where i'm getting my detox. 
   
   right when i wake i will have a hot glass of water with lemon. this gets your digestive system moving!
  
   i'll have a green juice for breakfast. everyone does this a little different but i like mine to taste green.

green juice:

• 2-3 kale leaves
• 1 -1.5 cups of spinach
• 2 celery sticks (including the white and leaves! FIBER)
• 1 cucumber
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 pear OR 1 red apple (to make it a little sweet)

     because i'm just doing three days i'm sticking to the same cleansing juice for the rest of the day. the cleansing juice i'll be drinking is apple grapefruit. its simply that: 

apple grapefruit:

• 2 red apples
• 1/2 pink grapefruit

DONE!

   if i'm feeling weak i'll have another green juice. during this cleanse if i feel the need to eat it will need to be limited to soft foods like a soup broth with soft veggies or some kind of fruit smoothie without milk. i'm trying to stay away from dairy these three days as well. 

Wont you join me???

here goes nothin'!! ~Kera

   

2013 already???

     so, last year I totally failed at blogging. they say third time's a charm, right? 2013 has started off with a bang.

     ~ my grampie was sent to emergency heart surgery, and that was scary for our family for a month or so.
     ~ then, on the other side of the family, my nana passed away suddenly.
   
    I was able to find the positives in all of these things. both family situations have actually brought us all a lot closer, and I hope it stays like that for the rest of the year.

   on a more positive note, mountain man finished the fence in our backyard, so now we can just let mr.gunner out to play! in celebration of that we had our friends over and their dogs. it rained. now our cream carpet is brown. rug dr. is due for a visit.

 the lovely ladies of the night

we found time for a cheap date night because we had a gift card!

we're getting more organized (ignore mountain man's drinking selection-trying to find another place for that)

i turned our unused dining room into a "creativity room"

we met a dog that could have been gunner's brother at the park! they loved to play!

that's 2013 so far. i can't wait to see what other fun adventures it will bring.

oh. and last year was great! (maybe i'll share more about that bit by bit.) mr. gunner, 6 mos, has grown a lot, and tazana is almost 4! she loves playing with gunner and cuddling up at night. here are some of their most recent pics for your viewing pleasure. i just know you're dying to know how they are doing!

playing with mr. gunner's towel together

 mama's beautiful girl

 mr.man doing what he does best.

this is why we call him "handsome prince" because he's just so handsome all the time!

'til next time ~Kera