re-grouping

I have decided it is time to re-group and re-fresh my blog or perhaps re-locate it. I wanted to start this blog as a beautiful place to share stories and inspire people with projects and design. I lost site of this and now it is time to reflect and start a new. So Thank you for stopping by please look around and stay tuned for whats to come.
Creatively Yours,
Christina Marie

World Market Towel Rack Hack

I recently was searching the web for a new towel rack. You see when we moved in to our new home our guest bathroom had only one towel rack and it hung over the toilette!…Now call me crazy but I don’t want my bath towel hanging up over the toilette and I wouldn’t expect my guests would either. So I took it down along with the matching one in our master bath, my good intentions were to hang them both up behind the guest bathroom door to create a double towel rack.
 

Goodbye Chocolate Monster

Lately my skin has been horrible and no dermatologist or product seemed to be working. So I have turned to food. I have now been on a very low sugar, low carb and if I can help it NO processed foods regiment for 2 weeks. So far it has been going well, until this week.
This week the chocolate cravings hit me! They come with fiery and unrelenting force...ladies you know what I'm talking about! You just cant help it you have to have something rich and chocolaty! But what could I do I wasn't supposed to eat anything like that.
Well today I concocted a perfect antidote and all day I have been free from further chocolate cravings! Now don't get me wrong it was still chocolate and still sugar but it wasn't a processed sugary bar. It was 100% natural sugar and good dark cocoa powder and I want to share it with all of you in hopes that it can help others with the miserable chocolate monsters that live inside us.

1 glass of organic milk
1/2 tsp of dark (60% or more) cocoa powder
1 organic banana
put it in a blender or use a hand mixer like I did.  That's it!

Its sweet and yummy, almost like chocolate milk shake but with no processed foods or added sugar PLUS using 60% or more cocoa powder means you get all the great antioxidants that chocolate has to offer.  ENJOY!

Creatively Yours,
Christina Marie
PS. If you need it a hint more sweet add just the smallest drip of raw honey on top before you blend.

Side table face lift

As you know my Pop builds a lot of things from scratch. one thing he built was this neat little corner table for his outside patio. It was an outside table so he never gave it any finishing touches and it was made out of left over scrap pieces of wood. However after a few years he was tired of it and went to throw it out but being me, I snatched it up with a plan in mind.

Hitting the re-start button and welcoming 2015!

2014 was a crazy year for me. It had some up points but over all it was one stress filled year! I welcomed my Hubby home from deployment number 2, moved 3 times, had a lot of personal decisions to make about my future that were all accompanied by a lot of stress and on top of that I had some personal health issues that were not fun to deal with. Well now that it's 2015 and I have done the typical New Years reflection and have found that non of my 2014 goals were met! Partially because of the things listed above but mostly because of me. So...I have decided that this year is the year I make my goals achievable. 

My goals for 2015 are to not judge myself so harshly. In order to help me do that I want to get back to my yoga practice where I feel calm and centered. This feeling resonates into the rest of my life when I am actively doing yoga. It inspires me to take the time to enjoy life's beautiful moments and live in the present.I feel if I can get back to that I will judge less and enjoy more.  

In the process of being less judgmental about where I am in my life and what I am doing I have also decided that its truly time to throw myself back into this blog! I started it as a way to share myself with the world and it quickly became a place where I constantly judged myself because I was so worried about how I would come off. Well no more! I am over my writers block/self shaming and I am here to share and hopefully inspire. 

Below I have re-posted my first blog post about why I started this blog in the first place. I hope your read it, I know its lengthy but I hope when you read it that you get inspired too to hit the re-set button on a past project you put aside and never completed. Happy 2015 everyone and welcome back! 

Creatively Yours, 

Christina Marie

A little story about a blog

If you were to ask my Mom she would say "I'm my fathers child" because this passion to make things and the ability to visualize my projects started at a young age and it mirrors my Pops way of thinking. See my Pop, who isn’t so much a Mr. fix-it as he is a Mr. build it, taught me a lot about tools and not because he felt he had to... but because I would wander down into his wood shop in the basement and ask to help him. I started out learning how to use a good old fashion nail and hammer, then his belt sander and hand sander. By the time I was 10 I also knew how to use a table saw, jig saw and drill press. He always had neat little tricks to teach and he owns about every wood working tool you could ever want. He and I never actually didn't build furniture together but I helped him build shelves, shed doors and bird houses. He did however built me beautiful doll furniture when I was a child... but it was always a Christmas surprise so I never got to help out on those projects. 

Me and the man responsible for the maddnes...My Pop! 

Fall Reflections

It's dark out and the wind has stopped. I open the door to let Mack out and there is a cool air seeping in. I slide on my slippers, wrap my sweater tightly around me and step outside. The air is cold and I can almost smell frost. This cool frosty weather evokes a sense of magic. There's something about that first smell of frost on a falls eve that excites me and also makes me long for home.  

Visions of a bed frame dance in my head.

Wow it has been a really long time! There has been so much going on in our lives; we moved, took a month long vacation, unpacked a whole house, have been exploring a new city and I have a new job. But I’ll get to all of that later… Right now I am so excited to be back blogging and even more excited to share with you all a DIY that took me well over 6 months to complete. This DIY was also my first Annie Sloane Paint Project, so I will do a review of that product for you soon but first I just want to share the bed itself with you.

Welcoming Home My Soldier

A Soldiers home coming is an experience I simply can’t explain in words… if you have been through it you know what I mean. But I’ll do my best. When your soldier comes home it’s better than any Birthday or Christmas you ever experienced. The anticipation that builds creates a feeling of nervousness and excitement that almost torments your soul. And when that moment comes… When you finally embrace your soldier it’s more wonderful than you could ever have dreamed or imagined possible! My Mother in-law experienced this event for first, and hopefully last, time this deployment. She said “it was like the day he was born and I finally got to see and hold him for the first time.” I thought that was beautiful and although I don’t have children, I can only imagine that is the best way to sum it up.
Three weeks ago I got to welcome my Hubby home again, for the second time in less than 3 years. At 4am (the time stamp on these photos is wrong so please pay no attention) my Mother in-law and I packed into the car and drove the 10 minutes to the airplane hanger where the ceremony was held.

MOVING

Yup I'm moving again....BUT I cant wait cause the Hubby is coming home!!!! So I will be offline for about a week or two until I get settled and get internet. I promise I'll be back with some great posts for you all in mid-March! For now stay positive and get creative. All my best!
Creatively,
Christina Marie

Finding quiet moments and balance for a stress free life.

Stress is apart of our every day lives. We wake up stressed out and go to bed stressed out. Many of us don't even recognize stress anymore because we are so use to it. Many of my friends right now are planning for new babies, moving, house hunting and weddings planning which are good stresses but still stress. Some are dealing with the lose of loved ones and others are dealing with personal illness. We all have stress! For me these past 8 months have been very stressful with my Hubby being deployed. So I wanted to share a few things that I personally believe in and try to do to in order to find those quiet moments and have balance and as much of a stress in my life as possible.
1) Breath in the fresh air… I’m not talking about just stepping outside and going, "ok I took some breaths!" and then running back inside to do your job or project. I’m talking about going out for a short or long walk, I take my dog every day, and really taking time to breath and look at nature. Really breath deeply. Maybe find a beautiful spot and stop there. Take in 5-10 really long deep breaths. Look at the beauty around you the green grass or the blue sky…Even here in New England when its cold and grey, I look at the bare trees all dancing together in the wind and I reflect on how strong they are for living through the hard winter months. To me no matter how ugly or crazy the world gets nature is always peaceful and grounding and oxygen is always my drug of choice.

A Inspiration for Wally’s on Wednesday

A small town favorite watering hole, called Wally’s, is building a new building and I wanted to put my two cents in about the decor that I feel would suite the place. (I may be friends with the owner LOL) Any way I want to give you a super quick idea of what its like in the small town. Its an agricultural community filled with lots of small farms and a few big ones. There is one tiny grocery store and one bank. Everyone comes out for fourth of July and there are two beautiful little churches with tall steeples that you can see across the farm yards. So basically your quintessential New England Town!
The new building will be built in an old farming field on the main road and is going to look like sort of like an old farm house meets a barn. So what better decor to go with it than rustic meets industrial right! OK here we go!
So I picture something like this for the counter. Its all reclaimed wood and this particular one was done by Elmwood reclaimed timber. BUT not with wood counter tops it makes it look TOO farm country.

Wicked Inspiring Wednesdays!

Wednesdays can be a hard day of the week. Filled with mixed emotions of “oh wow the week is 1/2 over” and “oh no the week is ONLY 1/2 OVER!” So here I am to hopefully make you be a glass half full type of person, get some inspiration for the rest of your week and make you look forward to your weekend.

For my first Wicked Inspiring Wednesday post I decided to go with something that I have a true passion for…..Mirrors! I don't know why I love the little buggers so much but I do! I find them all the time at antique shops and flea markets and its always so hard not to buy them all up. They can come in all shapes, sizes colors and frames. I love old ones, new ones, tall ones, skinny ones… all mirrors! (wow hope this subject doesn't make me come across as vain lol)

Thanks for the image Kingdom of style

New Year, New Outlook

2013 was not an easy year for me. In the early part of the year I found out my Hubby was deploying for the second time. The year and the deployment were harder than I had thought and I desperately looked forward to 2014! Then the 2014 hit and things still were only so so. My Hubby is due home very soon! but I have been dealing with yet another road block in my professional life. So I went to bed the other night feeling frustrated and depressed. That night I had a great yoga session and actually got more than 5 hours sleep I awoke feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. I have so much to look forward to and be thankful for! My Hubby is due home in a matter of weeks. Yes I did get rejected from a program I wanted to be a part of full heartedly but its rejection means that I get to live with my Hubby again as soon as he gets home and not have to do long distance for another few months! Also I have a wonderful family who loves me, beautiful niece and two nephews who make me smile and laugh and who I have had the pleasure of spending time with the last 6 months and I still have a burning passion for design and furniture that leads to some great creativity! 

Photo thanks to Paloma81.blogspot.co.uk

So my New Years resolution is coming to you late but here it is…. This year I will; be more positive, be a bit more adventurous, be more enthusiastic about myself and my abilities and I will blog more! Yes 2014 will be a good year because I will make it that way.

Photo thanks to Google Images and Pinterst!

Also in 2014 I will be adding a weekly blog post called Wicked Inspiring Wednesdays! (Sorry the wicked had to be put in I’m from New England for crying out loud lol.) I hope these posts will intrigue and energize you half way through the work week and that they will inspire me to write more about what I see as fascinating design and beauty.

So tomorrow is Wednesday and tomorrow will be the first Wicked Inspiring Wednesday post. I hope you come by!

Creatively Yours,

Christina Marie 

DIY Harry Potter Wand

Wands in Harry Potters world are no laughing matter and if your 9 years old and going as Hermione Granger for Halloween a wand is definitely no laughing matter. This was brought to my attention by my wonderful niece who called me up and said “Kiki I need your help! I need you to make me a Hermione Granger costume.” After I explained that I could not make her an entire costume in 2 weeks with no measurements or time we agreed that the most important thing she couldn't buy or find at home was a wand. I agreed to help and put my creative thinking cap on… This is what I came up with. 
Supplies Needed:

Old Fashion Baby Shower

Baby Showers can be a hard thing to plan. You want your baby shower to represent and honor the Mother to be. I knew I had to throw my Sister a baby shower she would never forget. Something elegant but not too stuffy. The hardest part for me was trying to plan it from hundreds of miles away. Luckily I have some amazing friends that helped me pull it all together in the last 24 hours. It turned out beautifully…or at least I think so what do you think?

A Foot Stool: in honor of a belated father days

Wow packing for a move really does consume your life! I know it was over a week ago but on Fathers Day I obviously got to thinking about my Pop. Naturally thinking about my Pop leads to thinking about wood working projects (its the if you give a mouse a cookie affect LOL). So in honor of my Pop and our mutual love of wood working projects, I have decided this weeks post would be on how to build a foot stool.

Supplies: (All of these I found at Lowes the total cost was about $25 bucks)
4 wooden legs
4 let mounts with hardware
1 round pre-cut piece of pine wood

Tools:
Power drill or hand screw driver
Ruler
Pencil
Dermal, metal file or drill bit (may or may not need)
Staple Gun (if upholstering)

Upholstery Supplies:
1 1/2 Yards Trim (I had extra but I wanted to make sure I didn't screw up.)
1 18" Square of foam
1 Box Nail Heads (I bought trim,foam and nails at Hancock Fabrics )
1 Yard 54" Fabric (Bought on Etsy Avisa Organics)

Homemade Salt Scrub (helps me with acne)

Recently my good friend Willa and I were discussing how in the last 3 years our skin has gotten worse. I have always struggled with light acne but suddenly when I turned 22 it took a seriously bad turn, especially on my back. After trying all the chemical options I decided to go a whole new direction.

When it comes to using chemicals in my house I am a bit of "hippie" (for lack of a better word). So as my acne got worse I thought "why not be diligent about not using chemicals on my face and back too?" You see I was a believer and constant user of benzyl peroxide but recently it just hasn't been making any difference. So I began to try different things. The first thing that really helped was switching to an all natural lavender body wash (Lavender helps with inflammation). I since have also switched to a natural SPF and only use it when I know I'll be outside. The rest of the time I use Trader Joe's Nourish Oil-Free Antioxidant Facial Moisturizer mixed with a few drops of rose-hip oil. My skin so far has responded pretty well!

One thing I really like to do for my back and for my face is exfoliate 1-2 times a week and to do so I combining three different ideas/theories into my homemade salt scrub... the Oil Cleansing Method, sea salt and essential oils. I wanted to share it with you all especially because so many others are struggling with the same issue of adult acne.

Besides even if you don't have acne its refreshing and gives your skin a nice glow. I will give you two variations one for body scrub and one for a face scrub.

I just use the ingredients I can find from the grocery store here. But when we move I hope to transition to all organic ingredients.

A House Dreams Are Made Of

This past weekend one of my dearest and best friends, Meg, bought a house! So today I'm doing a post to honor the dream of home ownership. I went through the Internet and found houses that if I were house hunting right now I would want to look at...or at least drool over LOL.


This is one in Virginia that we actually looked at before we found out that we were not moving yet. Its amazing. Needs just enough work where I could put a personal touch on it but not so much that we couldn't move in right away.

Fence Post Patio Table

Last year the Hubby and I bought some really cute Adirondack chairs for our small slab patio. But as we enjoyed them for the first time after painfully putting them together I realized, we had no place to kick up our feet or place a cool beverage. I didn't want to spend more money and our patio was really small. No way an outdoor side table would fit. So the next day I poked around in the garage and found some old boards and an idea sprang to my mind. I would whip together a little and cheap! coffee table for outside.

I made a quick run to the hardware store for some new screws and a fence post. I took the fence post and cut it four times. Each cut was about a foot and a half long. I then laid the four boards out and put two braces on with smaller screws to the underside. This ensured that all four boards stayed snugly together. I then marked the legs and screwed two screws into each one from the top of the table...I gave everything a quick sanding and Boom!

See the braces underneath to hold the boards together