Keep Calm and Relax

Day 11 Photo Challenge: Relaxation

This is a picture of us digging our feet into a pool of hot, red clay balls at a Korean spa. The whole point of this spa trip was to detox and just relax. It's hard to stress out when you're completely relaxed and peaceful.

Part of  the Korean spa experience is that you get completely naked for the unique whirlpool area. It's definitely an interesting experience and I highly encourage letting go of all your inhibitions about being completely nude and embrace your body - it's for the whole relaxing experience.

Try something new and don't let your inhibitions stop you.

Keep Calm and Appreciate the Little Things

Day 10 Photo Challenge: The Little Things

that bubbly sensation when you sip that just opened ginger ale on a hot day...

Just sit back and let that sensation tickle your tongue.
Don't let little photo ops like a super bubbly soda pass you by. If there's something that catches your eye, take a photo! It could turn out really good and it'll be like capturing a little piece of life.

Keep Calm and Give Love - V for Vendetta, In Case of Revolution Gift

Day 9: Photo challenge: Gratitude (Day 8 was organization and not that interesting on my part)

"For the second year now, my group of friends have gotten together to exchange Secret Santa gifts. We take time out of our busy schedules to get together and appreciate each other's company. Our celebration was full of laughs and inside jokes."

There's also a craft How-To along with this topic!

I was the Secret Santa for my friend who loves V for Vendetta. I was browsing wanelo and came across this V for Vendetta mask in a shadow box with the words "In case of Revolution, Break Glass" being sold on etsy (the artist did a great job, but was asking $20 without shipping). I've never bought anything on etsy because if someone else can make it - I can too! Picture of my version of the gift below:

So I got work trying to find all the supplies I needed.

I hit up my favorite store: Michael's <3 and got a shadow box and white vinyl letter stickers. I ordered the mask off Amazon. All this came out to about $11!

The directions after that are pretty simple.
1) I put the mask in the shadow box, but the V mask has such a big schnozz that this happened:

Ruh roh! That shadow box is NOT closing. I tried cutting the edges of the mask and squishing the mask to fit in the shadow box, but all that did was distort the mask so that it looked like a really creepy clown.
I ended up taking the hard backing out of the shadow box and created a "soft" backing made out of felt - just enough so that the mask wouldn't fall out. I secured the mask to the felt with bobby pins. This way the mask would fit without being squished, but the back was now all bumpy and wasn't hangable anymore.

If you wanna do this project, which is super simple and not that time consuming, MAKE SURE YOU GET A SHADOW BOX THAT'S BIG ENOUGH! and don't make my mistake.

Have fun! And remember remember the fifth of November.

Keep Calm and Stay Happy Surrounded by Friends

Day 6 & 7 of Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Happiness and Friendship

So I may have forgotten to put up the photo from yesterday, so it's getting paired up with today's theme!

This was my happiness entry:

because...
The beach is the epitome of happiness to me. It offers relaxation, beautiful scenery, gorgeous weather and sand to burrow yourself into to get away from everything.

Being that the beach is such a happy place for me, I have a couple of beach related crafts coming soon!

And I reminisced about friends with this entry:

of a time that...
We all packed in cars for a mini road trip to visit one of our friends in Southern MD. We ended playing on a playground for hours. It's so great to run around a playground with friends who are just as into it as you are.

Keep Calm and Stay Creative - Dark Side of the Moon Melted Cray DIY

Day 5 Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Creativity

In honor of today's photo challenge for creativity, here's a How-to for the melted crayon interpretation of Pink Floyd's Album cover.

I couldn't get enough of melting crayons with the palm of my hand so I made this and gave it as a gift to my roommate!

1) I started with a black canvas I bought from Michael's -  more expensive than white canvases, but it's worth it. $5

2) I had a big white paint Sharpie (lovingly known as obese Sharpie) laying around so I drew the triangle as centered as I could

3) I cut the crayons in half, keeping the color label side, and then glued them on

I glued them on with the color label showing because I thought it added a nice touch:

4) Melting the white crayon was tricky. It splatters everywhere! But I held the canvas so that the crayon was pointing straight down and directed the splatter the best I could.
I did the same with the colors and it turned out so great!

*Make sure you do this in an open area. I opened a window and did everything on the window sill to prevent all the melting wax fumes from invading my room.


This project only cost me - $5 for the canvas + 8 crayons out of a 24 crayon box ~50cents = $5.50

I'll be posting up more crafts and DIYs so
Pin it, Share it, if you wanna DIY it <--to the tune of Kim Possible

Keep Calm and Reminisce - 365 DIY

Day 4 of Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Memories

When I reminisce about the warm weather, colorful surroundings and crisp blue water, I feel like I'm back in the Bahamas. It's a little escape from the every day.

It's important to create memories and if you find yourself only drifting day to day, it's time to go do something!
One of my newer projects is the 365 Photo-a-day challenge. Chances are, you've heard of it.
I've chosen to make my album on Facebook because I like the photo interface, but I made it private/only visible to me because I didn't feel like the world needed to know my daily activities.
I'm not much of a writer, so taking pictures is such a good way for me to reflect on the highlights of my day. I'm more alert of what's around me and if I enjoyed something, laughed at something, or thought something was beautiful, I would snap a quick photo on my phone.

I love scrolling through the photos I've taken and smiling at the little stuff that made my day a week ago or a month ago. It's a really great project for de-stressing and appreciating each day :)

Keep Calm and Enjoy Nature

Day 3 of Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Nature

"We hiked up to this cliff after a day of white water rafting. It was one of my first experiences hiking so I was fascinated with what we saw. We even saw the river we rafted on earlier that day! At night, we camped out and went star gazing. We saw three shooting stars amidst a sky drowning in stars. It was breathtaking."

Nature has a way of taking our breath away because it's something so crisp and pure. It's a great way to de-stress because it's a good place to clear your mind and focus on the beauty in front of you.

Keep Calm and Be Active

Day 2 of Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Being Active

"This is us at the finish line of Rebel Race - a 5k mud obstacle course. Running + sliding in mud = happy college students. This photo shows the energy and lack of stress we felt when we finished. I love fitness and how it can instantly lift a mood."

Keep Calm and Laughter

It's (technically, was) April Fool's Day! Also the first day of the Keep Calm and Photo Challenge that I have been kinda geeking out about :P

It's a 14 day photo challenge where you take pictures of things that help you de-stress. I love challenges like these because it allows people to sift through their old photos and have that ah-ha moment when they find the perfect one and it encourages everyone to slow down a little, appreciate the little things around them and let themselves be inspired.

Of course there is a prize at the end, an iPad, picked raffle style. I can't guarantee an iPad if you do this challenge yourself, but I can guarantee you'll have a blast doing it. Have fun snapping your stress away!
 
Today's theme is: Laughter

"I can be as weird as I want around my sister. She always gets me laughing with funny faces or quotes from Bridemaids. Ever since we were little, I would always tickle attack her, although we're older now, it still amuses me just as much."

Check back for tomorrow's theme: Being active!