A collections of thoughts, experiances, and projects completed by Annabelle. Including walk throughs on completeing projects, brainstorming projects, and technical how-to's.
The next big step to take in creating overall self improvement is to create a workout plan that you can stick to. I have tried this many times, but the problem is I lose focus on sticking to it, and try to over do myself and make unrealistic goals.
What is a Safe goal
I started my process this time by learning what the safe goal is. I did this with the help (again) of SparkPeople. I used their fitness tracker to know about much much time to schedule as well as a goal of calories burned. I also used their site to help pick out workouts and create groupings to make entering them easier. You are able to search and add different works and see where it puts you for the day and week.
When I created my workout plan, I created two different routines. One for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and one for Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. I used Sunday as a relax day. This way I could do different workouts and not get bored with the routines.
My Workouts
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday my workout is as follows:
Yoga - 40 minutes, burning an average of 212 calories
Crunches - 3 sets of 15, in about 8 minutes, burning 37 calories
Pushups - 3 sets of 15, in about 8 minutes, burning 35 calories
On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday my workout is as follows:
Yoga - 15 minutes, burning an average of 80 calories
Crunches - 3 sets of 15, in about 8 minutes, burning 37 calories
Pushups - 3 sets of 15, in about 8 minutes, burning 35 calories
Which means I work out for about 261 minutes a week, burning 1004 calories a week. This is slightly over the goal SparksPeople has set for me, but that is OK, because I have a hard time eating within the calorie limits, so it balances.
Yoga
I picked yoga as an excessive because it has many benefits. It is not only a workout, but a spiritual activity as well. I am a plus size person, so the stretching is very beneficial. I have download a few free apps that have some great yoga works and programs.
The hardest part of a workout plan is sticking with it. there always seems to be an excuse as to why you can't workout. Usually something along the lines of there is no time, I forgot, or I am just to tired already. I have tried to come up with a way to combat these excusess.
I have picked workout routines that for the most part burn calories without taking a lot of time. Being
that I have a schedule of what workouts I want to do when, I can add them to my Google Calendar, so I get a reminder, and I can't schedule something when I should be working out. Since my calendar is synced with my mobile phone, I am able to see and remember that there is a workout coming up and get ready for it.
I hope this helps you on your journey to self improvement!! Please feel free to leave any comment, questions, or suggestions on my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Youtube, Google+, or Email me!! I always look forward to feedback!!
The more I thought about this book I want to make, the more I felt I needed a game plan, or blueprint for what I was going to be doing. So I started to draw out what I wanted to make. I knew the material I was going to be using was going to be about 1/2 an inch thick, and I wanted to make sure to factor that in, as well as be able to allow my book to hold about 200-300 pages.
So this is how I started the process:
I measured the ream of paper I have. 500 pages = 2 inches.
The size of paper to be used is 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches.
I want there to be about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of space between the edge of the page and the edge of the book
Decide if you want to be able to add or remove pages, in my case I do
I drew a rough sketch of what I thought the book should look like
With Measurements know, you are able select the wood you want to use.
I am not very handy with power tools, so I took a simple approach to this. I went to Menards, and found somecraft wood. They have many sizes and shapes. I was able to find a bit that was 12 mm (1/2") x 12" x 24". We checked the piece to make sure it was square before we left the store. This would mean we would only have to cut the wood vertically to make the book. This was so very VERY helpful!!
Mark off the measurements needed to be cut, and make sure to take into account "waste". I classify waste as the wood the saw blade eats up to make the cut. Usually the saw blade will use about 1/8 of an inch, give or take.
Once all the cuts have been made, sand and smooth all the edges and make sure everything is still square and lines up.
I started with the spine being it required the most work. I the two sides and the back bone up, marked off where the screws needed to go on all 3 bits, and used my dremel to pre-drill the holes to avoid splitting the wood. We usedsolid brass screws, about an inch long.
To hold the papers in the book, I usedscrapbook album posts from Hobby Lobby, withextensions to hold the correct number of pages. Once the spin was together, I used a drill with a bit just little bigger than the posts, and drill through both sides to make sure they would line up.
Once the spine was screwed together and the posts in, placement of the hinges needed to be decided. I picked simple but decorativehingesfrom Lowe's. Once done, I used the dremel to pre-drill the holes and attached the hinges to the spine and to the covers.
This is as far as I have made it with my book. I am very excited about how well it turned out.
There is still detail work to be done on the cover and spine. I plan to work more on this over the weekend. Should be able to post more photos after I am finished and there is paper in the book.
Filling the Book
I have been reading a few books over the years, and taking notes. My notes have been typed, up I could always read what I had written. I know sometimes my hand writing can be pretty bad. I took all the separate documents, and combined them into one word document, and printed them (front to back) on my home printer. I found the easiest way to accomplish this was to set up the document with mirrored margins, so that I could allow for enough space for the binding/studs that hold the paper in.
Being that I wanted to be able to still add to this book as I go along, I printed up some blank lined pages. I made the lined pages in word, as a table with horizontal boarders only. I have itavailable online here. I made the page to have the same mirror margins as the rest of my pages. This way when I have the time, I can take notes from my readings, and replace the hand written notes with typed ones as needed. The last step to putting the pages in the book is to drill the holes in the paper. Once I have done this I am able to put them in the book and have my journal fully functional and ready for me to use.
The next step to this process, is to create a cover design for the book, and print it out.Once I have printed it out, I will use graphite paper to transfer the design to the wood, then use the dremel to engrave the design. I am going to try to do the same process with the spine and back as well. I am really excited to see how this process turns out. Now just to figure out what design to put on the cover. I feel that is going to be the hardest part of the process, trying to figure out what kind of creative idea I want to be on my book forever.
I this brings me to the conclusion that I have completed several steps to this project, but I am not sure what I am going to do this when I am finished.
Feeling Accomplished
When I was able to finish my book, I engraved the design I printed traced.Once I design was on the book, it was finally starting to look like what I had been envisioning. I started to get very excited and couldn't stop working on it.One word of caution make sure to take into account the size of the cuts and shapes.
As I finished the engraving, and looked at the work I have done, I quickly realized it still looked very rough, so I used a the green rounded bit (not sure what it is called, but looked it up onlinethis looks like it). With this bit, I smoothed the engraving so that there was no harsh edges
on top, then used a sander to smooth the whole thing down. I showed a few people in my house who didn't quite think I could make my vision come true and they are very impressed with my hard work, and my ability with power tools.
Old English lettering is very time consuming and difficult to engrave. I would suggest only doing the first letter of something in it, then use a different font for the rest of the words. But it did make the cover look amazing!
I was also able to get all my pages in the book. I easiest way to put pages in is to remove the top of the spine, and put all the pages in you want, and then screw it all back together. I ended up being able to get about 300 pages in my book, which excites me, because now I can add so much more to it!
Overall, I am very happy with the end product. I have a few bits of scrap wood left, so I am going to test some stains on it, and see which I like best. Staining it will be the last step to finishing my amazing book.
FINAL PRODUCT
I am completely in love with how the book turned out. I am using this for all my final copies of items. I have another cloth bound book I use to take notes or write thoughts/ideas/ processes down in. Then I take the time to clean them up, and fine tune them and put them in this book.
I hope this helps with a DIY project of your own!!! Please
feel free to leave any comment, questions, or suggestions on my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Youtube, Google+, or Email me!! I always look forward to feedback!!
As my previous blog post stated, I am sharing my journey down my Wicca path. If you are reading this post now, I am going to assume you are on your own journey down a similar path. I am very excited to have found a kindred spirit.
We are walking, but to where?
So when I first started down my path, I knew from the research I had done, that this is what I wanted
to do, but I felt lost as to how to continue to learn more. I am sure you are as well. What I have found to be the most helpful is that the learning is never done. I am always reading, researching, writing, and searching online. Once you start on this path, you will start to figure out that a lot of decisions are made based on how you feel. Craft purchases are based on the energy you feel present within the object, digging deeper into an area of study because you feel attracted to it. Your dreams will start to lead your actions while awake.
Online references
I feel most comfortable doing research and reading online. Not just because I have a heavy technical background, but because you are able to do it without a lot of outside eyes watching or people talking. You are able to read, review, view, and dig as deep as you like, without society snubbing their nose at you.
The first online site I found to was Wiccan Together. This is a great online community of people from all over the world who practice Wiccan, as well as other neo-pagan religions. Once you create a profile, you can join groups, to ask questions on topics, post blog posts, share stories, experiences, ect. It is almost like the Facebook of the Wiccan world.
What should you read?
Learning will become a very powerful tool in your Wicca journey. Most importantly learning more than just the the religion. There are multiple goddesses and goddess, many of which you can learn more about by studying Greek and Egyptian mythology. There is a variety of deviations you can become versed in, such as rune or tarot card readings, the list goes on. If you would like to read more on it, here is a nice website. It is best to read and education yourself prior to getting to set into your ideas of where you are going with your path. The more you know about the possibilities, the better you will know what will fit you.
Reading will get you a long way
I have found that reading books is the best way to gather information. I personally do both physical books as well as ebooks. Reading on my Kindle allows me to read while at work or in public without nosey people causing problems. No matter how I read, I always try to take notes of the important things I am reading. This way I can reference them again later. I have found Scott Cunningham to be an amazing author.
Here is a list of the books I have read/will be reading, and I have linked to amazon, so you can acquire as well, if you want.
Yoga
