619 miles

Better Lettering Course

I've been wanting to improve my hand-lettering for a while now and on my way over to my deployment I found a great course that I binge watched in one sitting. The Better Lettering Course is the brain child of Caroline of Made Vibrant.

Kerry took the course too and we are both participating in April's daily hand-lettering challenge. You can follow us on Instagram @ksheridan32 and @nashfrankscreative

Each day is a different word that we can interpret anyway we want. So far I've just been doing the word, but Kerry kicked this one up an notch and I'm lovin it!

by Kerry

by Jenn

It's super fun to see the different ways people decide to letter the word alone or in a phrase. 

The course is a total bargain and I'd certainly recommend it, even if you've never done any hand-lettering in your life. Caroline does a great job presenting the information in a simple easy to digest format.

I also picked up these two books for inspiration and instruction. The Little Book of Lettering is more for great inspiration and Hand Lettering Ledger has tutorials with practice pages as well. I've thoroughly enjoyed both of them. 

 

*This post contains affiliate links, which means if you buy through that link Jenn gets a small amount of money. Don't worry, she ONLY posts things she wants and has actually purchased or would purchase herself.

 

Happy Easter!

How to set a running goal & stay motivated

Hello there blog readers! I'm going to start this post off with a few disclaimers.

1. I don't necessarily consider myself a "runner" but I have been running a lot lately.
2. I've pretty much never reached any of my running goals in the past, but this one is different.
3. I had the idea for this post as I was running in the heat with a pretty good headwind pushing me back and even though I wanted to stop I kept running.

I've set numerous running goals in the past and yet never reached them, so what qualifies me to write this post?!?! I would say that I have a lot of experience setting goals and I've run a bunch, so I'm just going to share my experiences with you. I say this one is different because I've set a pretty big goal (for me anyway) and I've already ran more miles in 16 days than I have in months!

My goal is to run 100 miles in two months. It's actually not "my" goal. One of my friends that is deployed with me casually mentioned that she wanted to run 100 miles while were on our deployment. I thought, why not, I'm gonna do that too. Then I took it to the next level and recruited even more people to join in, including my husband and brother! 

Here are my steps to setting running goals and staying motived to reach them.

1. Make the goal a challenge, but still achievable. 

What I mean by that is don't make it something super easy, like running a minute every day, but don't make it something crazy hard like running a marathon in a weeks time. I've run off and on for a while now and when my friend said 100 miles it seemed like something that was pretty hard, but I thought maybe, just maybe I could reach that goal. So strive for something like that. It sounds pretty hard, but there's something in you that says you can probably pull it off with some hard work.

2. Do it with friends

I posted the challenge on a group fitness board on Facebook and invited anyone else to join in. Even though I am deployed and thousands and thousands of miles away, it is super fun to have loved ones from home running "with" me. I used the Nike+ app to create a challenge and I invited anyone else that also had the app to join in. Now we can see each other's progress and cheer each other on. There may also be a little bit of friendly competition going to see who is ahead.

Even better than having virtual running buddies is to have one in person. Several times when I've been running with my friend here I have only kept going, or heck.. I've only started, because she was there! It's more fun to go with someone... even if you're slower than they are! We've both helped get each other started and keep each other moving. 

3. Get Crafty

I am a visual person and I love graphic design so I had to make a visual tracker for the 100 mile goal. I was inspired by Elise's daily goal tracker and came up with a simple visual of 100 circles, one to represent each mile.

Download 100 miles 

After all, the best way to tackle 100 miles is just one mile at a time! It's a lot of fun to see the progress and to color in each circle as I complete another mile. You don't have to get crazy on the computer to do this. Just make tick marks on a piece of paper or write the number of miles each day. Just have something tangible that you can see (without having to log onto your phone) everyday to help inspire and motivate you. I have mine posted on my locker in my room so I can see it every day.

4. Share your progress and your struggles

I think I've posted almost every run to Facebook via my Nike+ app. People may be annoyed by it, but so far it's only brought positive comments and words of encouragement and motivation. There are plenty of times when I've ran and felt so slow at first or super sluggish (don't eat three+ cookies after dinner!) so I've shared that too. Running is HARD. It's definitely no cake walk...errr cake run?!?

5. GO!

Just get started. No time like the present, right?!? Well, I will admit that being deployed is probably making this goal a tad easier to achieve. Being gone sucks because I don't have my  family, friends, dog or house, but because I don't have these things I can spend my free time running and working out. Depending on your goal you pick the best time for you to start, and if a freak snowstorm dumps 14" of snow on you, well then extend the time table for the goal a little. Just make sure you start. Don't talk yourself out of it for sill reasons. Getting started is the hardest part. Once you get into a rhythm it's much easier to maintain.... plus some friendly competition never hurt :) 

So let's recap.

First, pick something that's challenging but that you think you could pull off with some hard work. Announce it to the world and get your friends to join in either virtually or in person. Monitor your progress visually and share that progress (and the struggles too) with others. Finally, get those feet a movin'! 

Do you want to join in? Download the goal tracker and join us! If you're on the Nike+ running app let me know and I'll see if I can add you to our challenge.

this is happening | jenn's life | aug 2014

Happy Labor Day! I was originally scheduled to be working, but I paid someone to take my days of work (this Flight Attendant gig is strange sometimes...paying someone to work for you?!?!?).

The highlights from August were two Southwest trips, my check-ride at the Guard, landscaping at Tony's house we are trying to sell, and some relaxing time at home. I finally decided on doing subway tile in herringbone pattern for my kitchen back splash. I painted the kitchen, but I don't like the color... which stinks.

August flew by so quickly I can't even believe it's September. I am looking forward to some nice crisp fall days ahead!

I made a 2013 Instagram album from Artifact Uprising and I thoroughly enjoyed looking through it last night when I came home from my trip. Here is what my life looked like via Instagram in August:

Were there any fun or exciting things going on in your life in August?

Kerry's embroidery | Old Man and the Sea

Poor Kerry had to have hip surgery a couple of weeks ago. She's doing well recovering and her husband and family are taking good care of her. She hasn't been able to sit upright, so she has to lie down most of the time. So what's a crafty gal to do when faced with lots of laying down-time? Embroider of course!

She's made some other super fun embroidery projects in the past (I see London, I see France...), two, but I think this one might be my fave!

Check out her Old Man and the Sea project. She used this Sea Captain pattern from Etsy seller CozyBlue.

I just love the texture of his beard and the stitches in his hat. She said there were "LOTS of tiny stitches". I'm impressed that she put her downtime to creative use. I may have just surfed Pinterest and watched mindless TV.

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Our DIY Asheville Wedding - Invitations

I hope you guys enjoyed checking out the Save the Dates. I used them as the jumping off point for the actual invitations. As I mentioned before I really loved how the mountains turned out and if you've ever been up to the Blue Ridge Mountains I think you'd agree that it really does evoke that feeling of being up there.

So the invitations were going to require more pieces. It was a destination wedding, so we had a lot of information to convey and I didn't want to leave any questions unanswered. I made up a free website on wordpress which I included in the Save the Date to give guests (and those that couldn't make it) a chance to check out what was going on.

So the pieces of the invitation suite that I made are: Invitation, RSVP postcard, envelope liners, maps, and travel & activity cards. I used peacock envelopes and cards (to back the invitations) from Papersource. They also have a template for envelope liners that made the cutting job much easier. I used Persnickety Prints to print the invitations on pearl paper and Overnight Prints for the RSVP postcards. I printed the maps and travel info at home.

I also had a custom stamp made by Etsy seller papersushi that said "Love makes the world go round." Since custom takes time and we were in a time crunch, I used the image proof she sent of the stamp and made stickers for the envelopes. She also made us custom return address stamps that are soooo cute, but again they didn't arrive in time so I wrote out the return addresses on the envelopes and I'll use the stamp for the Thank You cards.

 

 

I used expired low charts from the recycle bin at work to line the envelopes. Since Tony and I are both pilots I wanted to include that aspect into the wedding (you'll see it pop up in other areas too). Free charts make great decorations and we love all sorts of maps. We also knew that many of our pilot friends would appreciate it as well. On some I even tried to put a part of the world that they were familiar with.

The Asheville image on the front of the RSVP postcard came from the NCgenWeb online archives.

We used a wedding website and App to share up-to-date info with all of our guests.

Even though it did take a lot of time I really enjoyed handwriting the names and addresses on each envelope. There was so much inspiration on Pinterest and while I don't think I could make a living doing envelope calligraphy, I love the personal touch that it added to my invitations. My friends knew it was from me when they saw it in their mailbox even before seeing the return address on the back. I loved that!

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A fun app: Party Party

I've been having lots of fun lately with this new app from A Beatiful Mess called Party Party. You can make the most fun stop-motion videos and .gifs. Sometimes I download fun apps and then forget about them or I don't use them because it takes too long going through and selecting filters and fonts..etc. This app is super easy and quick! I even used it to make a special announcement for my favorite Hair Salon, Neatbeat.

Here are some of my videos using the app:

I then used iMovie to put a couple of these together to make this special announcement for Neatbeat that I mentioned earlier:

 

 

 

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Our DIY Asheville Wedding - Save the Dates

I'm coming up on 7 months of married life this month and it has been crazy.... crazy in a good way of course. As mentined in a recent post 2014 has been full of excitement in life and jobs and this 7 months has flown by. I've been wanting to share our DIY wedding on the blog and with it raining outside and me procrastinating planting some flowers, I've decided to get to it!

When we got engaged in September we knew that we didn't want to do a year or two long engagement. We had purposfully been living apart and doing what we knew in our hearts was the right thing for us before marriage, so after the engagement it just seemed natural that we wouldn't wait forever to have the wedding....we didn't see a point. Not to mention I pretty much knew what I wanted for the wedding already. Being a lover of Pinterest and all things DIY I had already amassed a substiantial wedding Pinterest board. In fact, a few years earlier a wife of a work friend was convinced that I was getting married based on my pins... hahaha.

So we decided on Asheville in about 5 seconds and then we went to the calendar to pick a weekend. We wanted his daughter to be able to participate, so we picked out what weekends worked for her school schedule and that was how we picked January 19th. Which left us with approximately 4 months to plan.

So I know that most people send out their Save the Dates more than 4 months in advance, but I really wanted to design my own invitations, which I knew would take time, but I also wanted to get the word out quickly. This seems counter-intuitive now that I'm explaining it.. why would I spend more time designing Save the Dates instead of invites? Why not just jump to the invites?!?! Well in my brain it made sense at the time! 

I wanted all the paper products for the wedding to be modern and playful and to reflect Asheville and the blue ridge mountains that we loved so much!

I used Illustrator and drew up what seemed like a gazillion ideas. Tony and I decided together on this one:

I loved how they turned out and my favorite part is the mountains in the background! It looked even better in print. I had them printed at Persnickety Prints and on a pearl paper. Oh man, the pearl paper just added the best sheen and shimmer to the card. We put them in teal envelopes and I addressed them using a white pen. I'l show more photos of the envelopes when I post the invites. I highly recommend Persnickety Prints. When I printed out invited I used another company because of price, but eneded up going back to Persnickety to have them re-done! I also get photos printed by them. I'll be back soon to share the invitations.

 

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Positively Impacting People

Five or six years ago my hairsylist vanished. I LOVED how he did my hair and I was super bummed that he was no where to be found. After hearing my sob story a friend said, "Just call an Aveda salon nearby, you're guarenteed to get someone good." So I hopped on over to Aveda.com and found the nearest salon, gave them a call and got lucky. One of their pros had a cancellation and could see me the next day. At the time I had no idea how lucky I really was. To get a next day appointment with this gal was seriously a miracle! 

I went and saw Heather and she was so cute and stylish and she made my hair look AMAZING. I continued to go to her, even when I accidently ran into my old stylist at the mall. There was something about Heather, not only was she great at doing hair, but she seemed like a really really great person. Very passionate, very down to earth, just a genuinely nice person. As a hair stylist and client do, we talked about all sorts of things. 

Last fall Heather struck out on her own to a tiny little salon and it was there that we started talking about graphic design. She was a new business owner dealing with everything that came with such things. We talked about branding and I started showing her some of the graphic design work I had recently done in some classes. She asked if I would do some work on the website and make some graphics for different things, which I did. Then somehow we decided that I was going to make her an entirely new website. 

She was going BIG and had aquired a new amazing space for her salon Neatbeat and the little website she had just wan't matching her HUGE vision of what Neatbeat was to be. For Heather it's never just been about hair and having an incredible salon, it's always about Positively Impacting People, PIP for short. This is why I love this girl... her heart is so BIG. 

Long story short... or to wrap this up a little faster, the launch of her new website was this week! I finished it and I think it fits Heather's vision! 

I used a wordpress theme and then completely tweaked and modified it until it was what Heather wanted. I came up with the initial vision and design while I was taking a Designing for Web class through Nicole's Classes. I was blessed to have Melanie Burke from Fifth and Hazel as my instructor. I've had her for several classes and I've learned SO much. Thank you Melanie for imparting so much wisdom!

Please head on over to Neatbeat's new site and check it out. As always with a new site launch, there are tweaks still to be made and I am sure there are issues. If you see any, please let me know!

I hope that I am able to PIP as well as my girl Heather. She's seriously amazing and I feel so blessed to have lucked into an appointment with her years ago. Who knew it would lead to this?!?! 

 

this is happening | jenn's life | may - july 2014

2014 has been one CRAZY and INCREDIBLE year so far. I got married in January. Then I got a new job in April! I went to training for the new job in May. Our new counter-tops, sink & faucet were installed while I was in training and in June we picked up my stepdaughter to spend summer vacation with us. It has been a whirlwind of a year and I'm just trying to figure out how to manage everything. Here's a peek of life via my instagram feed.

I was hired by Southwest Airlines to be a Flight Attendant, so yeah.. now I'm a pilot in the military AND a Flight Attendant, it's fun for sure. We've had family visits, trips to museums, homemade donuts, painting closets pink, and a couple lazy saturday's thrown in there. It's hard to believe 2014 is halfway over and I've had some many amazing things happen. I feel so blessed!

I've also been working on a friend's website and I can't wait to launch it. It really makes me want to design a new one for 619 miles (which by the way is no longer the distance between me and Kerry, but hey.. whose counting?!?!).

I hope to have some kitchen renovation updates coming soon. I love the new counter-tops so much that it almost doesn't bother me that nothing else is finished....almost!