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5 Ways I Practiced Gratefulness This Week

One thing yoga has taught me is to be grateful.  I remember during one of my very first yoga classes when the teacher shared a thought.  It has stuck with me since that day more than two years ago.  “If you woke up tomorrow with only the things you were grateful for the day before, what would you have?”  Good one right?

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Sometimes, in our day-to-day lives, we get annoyed or angry or sad.  Sometimes we feel bad for ourselves and think it just can’t get much worse.  I am completely guilty of this on a day-to-day basis.  I’ve really tried to move away from this way of thinking.  The brain is a powerful tool and you have to train it to think in certain ways.

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Here are 5 ways I practiced gratefulness this week.

When Andy and I had to leave each other after our weekend in NYC. I got in one of my moods…sad, mopey, and not very talkative. How I practiced gratefulness:  How lucky am I to have someone in my life that makes saying goodbye so hard?  Some haven’t found that yet or some are thousands of miles apart and can only see each other on a computer screen.  I’m grateful.

When a big ugly pimple showed up on my face.  This one inspired this post.  I really let it get to me.  I hardly wanted to go to work or look at people.  I tried hiding it anyway I could. How I practiced gratefulness:  Really, Kelsey? It’s a pimple, a little red dot! There are people who have to go through life with severe cases of acne or other skin conditions.  I’m grateful.

When a stressful situation happened at work.  This obviously happens to a lot of people. You can get discouraged or unmotivated. How I practiced gratefulness: I have a job! A job that makes me a good living, and gives me great benefits so that I can take care of my health.  I’m grateful.

When I got annoyed having to pack a bag. I  always say I feel like the ‘bag lady’ and get frustrated having to plan out my wardrobe for 3 or 4 days.  How I practiced gratefulness:  How lucky am I to have so many people all over the place who I love and want to visit.  I’m grateful. 

When I was tired on Monday and didn’t want to go to the gym, because I had a “long” weekend.  How I practiced being grateful:  I have two legs and a car to get me there.  I have the ability to move those two legs and money to put gas in my car to get there.  I’m grateful.

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What are you grateful for?

Take Me Back Tuesday – A Weekend in Manhattan

For this weeks Take Me Back Tuesday post, I decided that I’d like to just re-live my past weekend in Manhattan,  Yeah, yeah I guess that’s being a little greedy but it was just the perfect weekend.  Andy and I celebrated our one year anniversary in the city.  It was an absolute beautiful weekend for it and neither of us realized before that it was the weekend of the marathon!

We arrived at our hotel Friday night which Andy booked.  As soon as we arrived he took me up to the roof top deck which had an awesome view of the Empire State Building!  He knows me well.  We tried to get some pictures of ourselves but night time selfies are tough!

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We went to dinner at a restaurant in Murray Hill called Cask Bar & Kitchen.  Take a look at my Yelp Review.  We indulged in some bread and oil and a great cheese and meat board.

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Saturday morning we woke up and went for a run.  It was the perfect temperature and the city was buzzing because of the marathon!  We ran a couple of miles up First Ave, which is part of the marathon route.  I was only maybe pretending we were running the next day 🙂

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We came back to our hotel and did some handstand practice.  I really need to work on my banana back! Baby steps.

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After our work out we decided to head out and walk uptown towards Central Park.  I hadn’t been to Central Park in a while and thought it would be pretty on a fall day.  On our way there we ran into a street market!

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Central Park was so pretty.  The pictures don’t even do the foliage justice!

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From Central Park we headed to Rockefellar Plaza.  I’ve heard that the Top of the Rock is an awesome view of the city.  Of course, most tourists go to the top of the Empire State Building but going to the Top of the Rock you actually get to SEE the Empire State Building.

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The view was awesome!  Andy was probably getting a little antsy with how many pictures I was taking from every angle possible.

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That’s Central Park behind me!

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Everyone was really friendly up there and offering to take pictures.  I returned the favor of course!

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On Saturday night we headed to dinner and then to a Comedy Show at The Stand in the Gramercy area.  I highly recommend this comedy club.  Tickets were cheap and the acts were hilarious.  Oh and I should mention that Jim Gaffigan was a surprise guest!! Along with Godfrey.  They are both really well known comedians.

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We had an awesome night!

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On Sunday morning we woke up and headed to a great diner (I think they might all fit that description).  I ordered their “Red Flannel Hash” which was a twist on hash that included sweet potatoes and beets! It was so different and so good.

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After we ate we headed to the train.  I was sad we couldn’t catch the marathon but then we were lucky to see it from the train!!  That’s all I needed 🙂

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I love this weekend.  New York is such a fantastic city and I’m grateful to live so close and just a train ride away.  Now if I could just figure out how to get my pictures on my blog to be bigger!

DIY Halloween Costume – Cast Away

I’m sitting here watching game 6 of the World Series, and am missing Boston mucho!  Why the heck couldn’t they get to the World Series in the past few years when I was living there?!

Anyways, to distract myself I thought I’d share my DIY Halloween Costume from this past weekend.  Andy and I were Tom Hanks and Wilson (yes the volleyball) from Cast Away!  I thought it was super funny because it’s a pretty old movie and a pretty random costume idea.

Here is how it turned out…

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Directions to make this costume

Materials for Wilson (all from JoAnne Fabrics)

  • White T-Shirt
  • Brick Red Acrylic Paint
  • Small sponge paint brush
  • White Head Band
  • Sticks

The shirt with Wilson’s face took me all of about 10 minutes.  Make sure to put a piece of cardboard in between the t-shirt so it doesn’t bleed through.  I pulled up a picture of the face and simply copied it on the shirt after I had outlined it in pen first.

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For the head-piece, I took a white head band and folded it in half.  I super glued the long ends to make almost a hollow tube.  I then cut little holes for each stick and super glued them in each hole.  Then I took some fake grass / sticks and glued them to the front.

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Materials for Tom Hanks Character

  • Brown fabric to fit around waist
  • A big brown wig with beard (ours was a “caveman” wig)
  • A FedEx box (which is free!)
  • A rag to wrap around hand

This one was even easier than Wilson.  Andy simply threw on his wig, we pinned the material around him, and wrapped a rag around his hand with some red paint on it.  He grabbed the FedEx box and we were done!

This was one of the easiest costumes to make and everyone got a kick out of it!

 

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