Not Exactly Planned, The Best Thing

The way I got back to the Twin Cities isn't at all like I imagined it would happen. I lost a new job I moved 650+ miles for... so defaulted back to my real home to recover mentally and financially.

Mentally, I'm good. Financially, meh, I don't think I'll ever get this figured out! :P

One of the best things about being home again is being more involved. I'm getting back into activities I let slip away when I started 'growing up' and working full time. I subbed on a softball team last summer and I've been subbing on a volleyball team the last 2-3 seasons. The most awesome bonus though, is having so many siblings to do fun stuff with... Now we just have to DO IT!

I've done a lot of internal debating over what I should do to improve and grow in life. Creating headbands might seem childish, but they're one of the projects I'm working on that I think will teach me a little about a lot. Dealing with people, a product, business, customer service and then some.

I have the benefit of living cheaply at my grandmothers for the time being. It feels like a good time to explore my options and educate myself on any topic that sparks my interest.

A few things have been on my mind to try for a long time but I'm not sure to what capacity I want to pursue each activity. I have 3 chairs I'd like to reupholster and I'd like to do it well so I may look for classes on upholstery. I mentioned upholstery to my sister Rachel because I think she's done some furniture diy projects and when I mentioned it she seemed interested in learning this skill too! She has dining room chairs she wants to recover. Now we just have to try to do it. We think we can do the project with our own sense and plenty of searching on google and youtube.

Another avenue to develop myself would be health and fitness. I've lost a good amount of weight in the last year or so and I'm still working on losing more and toning up. I love talking about health and fitness. While I'm not the model student to health and fitness right now, maybe getting more involved will be exciting enough to help me turn passion into profession.

The ideas and options are endless. I'll keep working on headbands and in the mean time, research and decide on another project to develop life skills.

What have you wanted to try for a while but haven't for whatever reason? I'd be interested in hearing your ideas, interests and passions. I'll keep you updated on the progress of mine too!

On my Head, I am Creative

Recently I took up a new hobby. This was my second attempt so I was a little worried about wasting money on supplies... again! Fortunately, it's a great second try!

I'm crafting fancy headbands at home during my free time. It started because I wanted to wear more fancy headbands. But seriously, boo to fancy prices! I grabbed a headband kit to test my interest level and learn how. It was $10 and included all the supplies and directions on how to make a headband and a snapping clip!

But I can't help but go gung-ho... I loaded up on clearance fake flowers and a few expensive but nice headbands. I grabbed a bunch of cute things (feathers and jewels etc.) to incorporate in my creations.

Once I made my first 4-5 headbands I started wearing them around family and friends to see their reaction, if any. Some people surprised me and didn't react or comment at all. Then you start thinking too much... "Maybe it's ugly... maybe it's too big... maybe the colors are weird? Maybe they're shy or it's just not really their thing." You start to question your craft, your art, your judgment... and honestly...

I was bummed when I didn't get reactions, but it just made me want to try harder to make a headband that demanded a compliment! ;)

I went to a baby shower wearing one that I thought was a bit of a statement. How can you not ask about this head piece (pictured right)? But no one did... :(

This headband was a mix of flowers and feathers. The flowers are elegant - almost vintage looking - colors of a golden cream and a nice light teal. I accented each flower with a golden ball center and made it fancy with feathers. This was probably the most advanced headband I had put together in the early days so I wasn't too worried it didn't get the attention I hoped it would because basically I liked it and knew I did a good job and had plenty of room to improve! Surprised, but not discouraged.

I went to my mom's house and made headbands with my nephew and his sister. My mom had plenty of encouragement and was surprised by the lack of comments too. I had fun teaching the kids how to make headbands and I think my sister liked the headband my nephew and I made together for her too.

A short time later I was wearing the same headband and hanging out with my sister Robyn. She commented on my headband! I gave it to her and she's wearing it in the picture. Robyn said she'd love to wear my headbands to work (and her friends would probably love them too! SCORE for word of mouth!), but she she needed them to be all black, or black with some white.

I was encouraged. I made a few more, including the one that I think I'll call my favorite... and I named it Champagne Sparkling Heart. An upside-down heart if anything, but you get it!

I probably wear this one the most, but I still feel like I get more compliments on this one than any of the others I've worn.

I made a few headbands for Robyn. A polka dotted flower, a Zebra striped flower and a nice black rose on a pearl headband with white flower accents. I brought them to a girls night party to hand off to Robyn and with the permission of my sister Rachel (it was her party). I showed some girls at the party some headband creations to get some feedback and the feedback was good. Yay! I even sold a headband quickly and easily that night. I also had more requests for specific types of headband styles. All black and fancy feathers! Challenge accepted.

The all black idea is the hardest one to figure out. But feathers... a little easier to create.

The feather headbands can be a little time consuming. These are all made by hand. There are options to buy pre-made feather pads at the craft store but selection is small and I really like creating these from scratch. What would be the point of just gluing a pre-made feather pad to a headband? Doesn't sounds very crafty to me... so I make the feather pads by hand.

I am on www.pinterest.com and get some ideas for my next creation there often. But I'm a Google'ing machine! I find tons of great tutorials and pictures through google.com and youtube.com

People are so creative! It's easy to get inspired.

I can't say exactly how long this new hobby will last. The potential for my excitement to fizzle is almost tangible. It really hinges on if I can sell any headbands. My first priority is covering the cost of the supplies I've spent money on so far. Even if that's all I do, I'll be happy. I'd have a bunch of cute headbands to wear and I wouldn't have spent any money on them!

I'm working on making this a legit side hustle while I'm living at my grandma's house for now.

I've got other ideas rolling through my head, so I'll post details about those ideas soon!
Thanks for reading!

More than a year!

I can't believe that more than a year has passed since my last blog entry. Lots has changed since then, but I'm not going to recap, I'm just going to post something relevant to today!

I have a few things I'd like to post about regularly as of today, but I'm not going to make the promise to myself to commit to the topics just yet because the ideas need to be more specifically defined. I may touch on those topics sporadically in the mean time though...

Like as soon as my next blog! Really excited about it! :)

German is hard. Das ich gut. Er something.

Today I got an email from Mike Posner. Yea the singer of "Cooler Than Me". Ok, not a personal email... I signed up for it. Anyway! Point is, it was a mistake, it was in German or something.

I mentioned it on Z98 today. Oh! Here Listen!


Later I got a call on Q97 from Eddie and he told me German is easy! :)
Listen to him teach me German.


Twas fun. Haha!

What makes a Granola Bar Gooey & Chewy?

Last night I made a first attempt at making granola bars. I should have made a smaller batch for sure. I have that problem often! Turned out pretty good, but not quite like I wanted them. I dream of making a copycat fiber bar you find on store shelves which get a little spendy when you like them as much as I do!

The bars I made are tasty but I want to try another round. It'll be a challenge to finish eating this batch before I start experimenting again... I'll probably run out of freezer room!

Have you ever made your own granola bars? Have any tricks and tips to share?

I don't recall my exact ingredient amounts but here's a basic idea. (All stuff I had in my cupboards already)

Quick oats 1 cup

Steel Cut oats 1 cup

Rolled oats 1 cup

Wheat germ 1 cup

Ground Flax Seed 4 Tbs

Rice Puff Cereal 2 cups

About 2 cups of the chocolate nut mix to the right. It's a really good mix on it's own so I thought it'd be great in a granola bar.

Cinnamon 1/2 tsp

Honey about 1/2 cup

Pure Maple syrup 1/3 cup

Brown sugar 2/3 cup approx.

Margarine 1/2 cup approx.

Water 1/6 cup approx.

Sea salt less than 1/2 tsp

Vanilla 1 Tbs

Sprinkled some mini semi-sweet chips 3 Tbs

I think that's it...

Mixed it all together and pressed it into a pan. Baked for 20 mins at 350°

I wonder if I have to use corn syrup to get the gooey chewiness that the store bought brands have...?

I think my next batch will have more rice cereal type stuff and fewer oats to get a lighter texture. Gotta figure out the secret to chewiness though.

-Carissa

2 Months To Go

For the last 13 weeks I've been working slowing on bettering my habits for a healthy lifestyle. I never intended to be so slow about it, but that's just the amount of effort I've ultimately been putting in each week.

August 2008 was "the good month" I was really solid about my efforts and after that 4 weeks I fell off the face of healthy-living-earth, gained weight and that's where I've been hovering since.

I'm sitting here today thinking: "Man, I'm so drained. I wish I wasn't in this work-eat-sleep cycle." I know what I have to do to fix it, a first step and little bits of consistency is all I need.

Got to break that cycle.

A couple days of waking up earlier than I'd like to after late nights will turn me intoan early-nighter faster than you can shake a tail-feather.

Exercise is the next part. I have this flawed mind set that if I don't work out for 30 minutes or more it's just a waste of time. Why get all sweaty and only burn calories for 15 minutes? Well, nights that you feel too tired to do anything are nights that 15 minutes of sweat will make all the difference right? Right!

I'm feeling really good about the small changes I've made to my eating habits so there's no sense in requiring long hard workouts either - baby steps for real!

I need this month to be another "good month". The second month will be gravy.

It's all up to me.

(That can't be good for your knees... is it?)

Thanks for reading,

Carissa

I'm losing weight on YouTube

I'm feeling comfortable saying that I am posting regular videos on YouTube and losing weight! Woo!

I'm just getting started really but off to a strong start. I'm posting 2 videos a week. A "Weigh-In" and a for-fun video series called "Hotter Every Humpday".

My Weigh-in's tend to be the longer video and "Hotter Every Humpday" (HEH) I try to keep fun and short (or shorter at least... haha!).

I actually have two YouTube channels:

www.youtube.com/carissav is where you find my weigh-ins and HEH. This channel I recently decided to focus on Health related anything. (so you will find some other stuff posted there, but not from now on)

www.youtube.com/carissasophia is the newer channel for 'everything-else'. Videos unrelated to health junk.

Thanks in advance for subscribing. Assuming you subscribe. If not, boooo! Hehe, kidding... maybe!

Thanks for reading. TTYS.