Making Things

I'm a pretty big fan of DIY's despite the fact that in the end, making something yourself tends to cost you a little bit more. As a broke girl I put this aside for a few reasons:

1. It's fun!

I spent most of the afternoon making necklaces yesterday. It's a great way to do something productive and creative, and it keeps you away from the computer screen that I'm so often glued to.

2. It's a good chance to get outside

A lot of DIY's are done outside because…paint. I got a nice little bronze going yesterday afternoon!

3. You create something unique

Even if you're following a DIY that you've seen online or re-creating something you've seen in a store, it's unique because you made it. It will inevitably have little imperfections and special things that are unique to you.

4. You'll cherish it more

I'm pretty sure the things that I've created personally will stay with me longer than something that I bought at a store. These are the kinds of things that I'd want to keep until I have kids of my own. They're just special that way. Also, how fun is it to tell people you MADE something after they ask you where you got it? The answer is lots of fun.

I've been wanting to do this DIY for a while now and I finally went to the craft store this week and made the leap. 

Here are the results:

I'm pretty happy with the results :)

All together the materials cost $50.00, which means these necklaces were about $25 a piece. This may seem like a lot but I think it was worth it. I love them a lot.

Not all DIY's are expensive though. Check out what I did last week:

That's right! I painted that bad boy! And all together the entire bench cost me $20!

Last summer someone on my street had put the bench out on garbage day and I swooped in and carried it back to my house (with the help of my boyfriend because it.is.so.heavy). I finally got around to painting it last week (mostly because my mom was threatening to get rid of it if I didn't). It was in pretty bad shape. The lacquer was peeling and it needed a good sanding. I got a belt sander and did some magic, spent a ridiculous amount of time taping the metal, and attacked it with some spray paint. It's not perfect by any means but I'm a big fan.

I wonder what I'll make next!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
DIY-Enthusiast, Paint-Covered and Sun Kissed

A Broke Girl Dreams of Europe

One of my biggest and most exciting goals for the next year is to go to Europe next summer. My boyfriend and I plan on saving tons of money this year so that next summer we can spend 2-3 months touring Europe.

There are a lot of reasons why we want to go but mostly because this is the only time in our lives that this will be possible. We'll never be younger, free-er, adventurous, or more willing to stay in hostels. We want to make sure we read the book before we die.

Today I started some research on Pinterest. Hey, there's a lot about a lot on there.

So far I've found some great info on some of the best places to travel, pinned tons about how to travel cheap, and pinned a bunch about how to pack for a backpacking trip (this is my biggest and most irrational worry about this trip).

So far we've decided that we want to go to:
* London
* Paris
* Amsterdam
* Germany (Munich, maybe Berlin)
* Rome
* Venice
* Greece

We'll probably add and take from that list as we plan but I'm excited to see how it goes.

First things first: I need to save about 5 grand. So far I have…$200. I think I'll start an adventure fund to keep me motivated.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Future World Traveler

A Month of Running and Juicing

Today marks the final month of the Six Months of Resolutions challenge!

I've already shared my experiences in juicing with you but the other part of the month was running at least 10K a week. This was actually pretty easy for me. I'm a runner anyways so it was just about making sure I got out to go for those jogs. Tessa and I did miss a week when I was too hung over one Sunday to run the last 3K I needed to reach 10 (whoops) and Tess had moved back from B.C that week so she had zero time to run.

The hardest part was having to make every workout a jog. When I go to the gym I like to do interval training and I dabble in the art of the stair master, but I couldn't do that because I had to get those kilometres in. This month's challenge should make that a little easier since we only have to workout 3-4 times a week.

The score sits at 8 for Tessa, 9 for me. This month is my final chance to win, and there are lots of places to mess up so I have to be very focused!

The challenge this month: No chocolate, candy, chips, lattes, fried food, or baked goods, you must workout 3-4 times a week, and consume 8 glasses of water a day.

Don't worry, I consumed my fair share of chocolate and chips yesterday in preparation. Chocolate covered almonds have become my vice lately so I had to say one last goodbye. I'm hoping this month will break me of my obsession because it was getting a little out of hand!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Chocolate for Breakfast Enthusiast

Office Mornings

Fridays are always good days for me. Even though I have to wake up earlier than usual, it's great because I get stuff done, get out of the office by noon, and have the rest of the day/weekend ahead of me. And I get to rock some of my favourite blazers. Working from home for most of the week really creates an appreciation for the opportunity to actually get yourself together before 2pm.

There's even more to be excited about because I have a good weekend ahead of me! Tonight I'm heading to Toronto with Erika and Emma to meet up with our friend Shauna to enjoy dinner and a movie. We're seeing The Fault in Our Stars and let me tell you, I'm beyond excited. I read the book a couple years ago so I've been pretty excited about this since I found out they were filming. I'm very prepared to cry excessively throughout the entire thing.

Saturday I work at night so that's a good opportunity to makes some cash, and Sunday Jordan is having a BBQ. Sounds like a good weekend to me!

Every second in between those things I'll probably be hiding in bed watching the new season of Orange is the New Black that just came out. I'm a real self-starter like that.

Enjoy your weekends!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Shameless Public Cryer, Netflix-aholic

A Woman of Many Jobs

When I left Toronto I vowed to never work a part time job again. Two weeks later I was giving my resume to my sister's friend in hopes of getting a serving job. I'm a little backwards like that apparently.

When I got home I realized that even though I had no bills, I was still feeling like I was stretching it paycheque to paycheque. I don't understand it either. I also felt like I had too much time on my hands. It didn't feel very productive and I figured that if I was going to try to occupy my time, I might as well make money doing it.

You're looking at the newest hostess in town:

You read that right. Hostess. Apparently my lack of serving skills held me back a little but I've been told that there's room to move up once I've gotten a hold on the menu/depending on my performance.

It's been fun to get a new job, meet new people, learn new things, and get my butt out of the house. Because I work from home I need something else to make me feel like I part of society sometimes!

On top of that my mom offered me a data entry job on Friday mornings so I come into the office bright and early and put numbers in a database, look at spreadsheets, and all of that fun stuff.

So that makes three jobs when you count my Monday- Thursday Editing job. I actually like having three very different jobs to go to. There's no juggling required because they all fall into different availabilities and hopefully I'll start to have enough money to have fun and save.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Associate Editor, Hostess, Data Entry Specialist

Juiced Up

As part of this months Six Months of Resolutions challenge Tessa and I were to complete a 10 day juice cleanse at some point throughout the month.

Last Tuesday Tessa texted me to let me know she had started and I figured "hey, might as well have a partner in my misery" and started up the day after her.

The rules were that you had to do 10 consecutive days of juicing. If you quit on the 4th day then you would get 6 points against you (and so on…you get the point). If you still had time in the month and wanted to try for 10 days again then you could with no points against you if you completed it. Knowing what I know now, no one would EVER do this twice.

Truthfully, I felt little to no joy during my juicing experience.

Here are a couple photos. I didn't get many because of my sheer lack of a will to live, or do anything at all.

What I Juiced
My favourite vegetables to juice were spinach, kale and carrots. Spinach is high in protein, carrots have a sweetness to them so they blended in wonderfully, and kale is apparently some kind of superfood.

I was initially a big fan of the combination of apples and oranges in my juices, but that was before I discovered pineapple and strawberries. Unfortunately too much acidity made my tongue feel a bit raw by the end of it.

I tried to do a 1:1 ratio of fruit to vegetables. This helped mask the vegetables and left my juice tasting yummy!

Note: never, EVER, juice beets. They are the worst. Don't even try. It's a waste of time and tastebuds.

How I Felt
During the cleanse I felt very strong (mentally…definitely not physically).

I had low energy throughout but I felt incredibly alert mentally. I'm usually exhausted at night when I'm watching tv but I was always feeling very focused and awake.

Physically, I was a different story. I didn't work out during the cleanse because I knew that burning calories when I was probably not taking in enough already was not a good idea. I was really subdued during this. Usually I'm jumping around like a crazy person and talking a mile a minute. On the cleanse I was more quiet, less compelled to be talking all the time, and more likely to be sitting down and conserving my energy. People found this really weird and always assumed I was dying. I told them to enjoy it while it lasted.

This is another annoying side effect: everyone will assume you're either close to passing out, not feeling well, or have taken up an eating disorder. While cleanses are generally a healthy idea, especially when done right, most people can't wrap their head around not eating. I heard a lot of grief from my family but had no energy to listen to it.

The Much Anticipated End of the Cleanse
Tessa and I both tapped out on our 7th days of juicing. When she quit I knew that my motivation would drop, the next day I was picking something up from the mall and said "Ah to hell with it" and grabbed myself a slice of pizza (apparently that's not what you're supposed to eat after a cleanse but it was so worth it).

My stomach definitely shrank because yesterday all I had was a juice at 10am, pizza at 2:30pm and by 8pm I knew I would't be needing dinner. I also lost 6 pounds which I assume will be easy to find since my weight loss was definitely attributed to probably being a tad dehydrated/ having nothing in my stomach at generally all times.

When I ate food I noticed 1) that I could barely fit anything in this dang stomach anymore (which is both a good thing, and a bad thing depending on how you look at it) 2) my energy came back pretty fast. Last night I was back to my old self. Jordan said that it was as if everything that I was too lazy to say in the last 7 days had been stored up and was coming out now that I was fuelled with food again.

In Conclusion...
I would not recommend a juice cleanse because:

1. They are generally pretty miserable
2. You can't workout
3. Some of my weight loss was probably due to muscle loss because I barely moved in those 7 days
4. Not eating food is the worst
5. You tend to crave things you never would have before and when the cleanse is over you'll probably eat them (ex. my trip to Pizza Pizza).

These are just my opinions of course, so do with them what you will. I'd definitely recommend buying a juicer so you can get all of your fruits and vegetables in as part of a healthy, balanced diet, but do so once daily, not for 7 days straight.

Now Tessa and I are back to making sure we run 10k a week next week (we decided not to run this week because as I said, burning calories when you're already consuming less than normal is not a good idea). As far as we stand in the challenge right now I have 8 marks against me and she has 7. Don't worry, I've got big plans for a comeback before this is all over.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Functioning Member of Society Once Again

Desk Organization

Do you ever have those times when you just feel like your life is a mess? 

They really tend to stress me out.

My best solution is always to go to Target and find an organization solution.

Last week at work I felt like I was completely out of it. There were emails flying everywhere, I was flipping through my notes wondering "Did I write that down?", and remembering things right before I was finished that I was supposed to remember in the morning. It felt really stressful and sent me into anxiety overdrive.

Right when I finished work I hopped in my car and made my way to Target so I could find some kind of balance for myself.

Luckily I found some amazing stuff that was also completely adorable.

I got myself a gorgeous gold letter holder, file folders, a brand new notebook for my daily notes, and two kinds of sticky notes. 

I immediately got to setting my desk up:

I've been using this system for about a week and it seems to be going a lot better. I write notes on my stickies and they peek through and remind me of things to do. My next step is to work on getting a little filing system going for my folders.

I know this may sounds sad, but these are the kinds of things I get excited about my friends. I've also had a thing for the stationary aisle.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Organization Junkie