Pop Culture Yoga

I’ve been pretty consistent about going to a 90 minute yoga class each week. Even though I usually only have time to go once a week, it makes a huge difference in how I feel. Since I’ve been visiting family for the holidays, 2 weeks have gone by since I’ve done any yoga. So I looked on-line for a place near my parent’s house that does hot yoga. I’m use to a room of about 90 degrees or so, which apparently isn’t that hot. I found a place with a great new student 2 week unlimited yoga pass for only $20 that I couldn’t pass up. So I decided to try it out. They call this yoga “hot yoga” and the studio only teaches one class, “sumits yoga.” I’ve only been taking yoga at a studio for about 9 months (I’ve done it at home for years) and have only ever been to 3 different studios, so I’m definitely not an expert. Maybe it’s normal for some studios to only teach one yoga class and repeat the same class at various times throughout each day, but for me that sounded a bit strange. Despite that, I decided to check it out.

I showed up and everyone (including the teacher) was super friendly. They even gave me yoga toes to use for free during the class. I mentioned I’m use to yoga at only 90 degrees, and the teacher took my mat and said she would put me close to the door so I could feel the cool air when she cracks it open during class.  I went to the bathroom, shed some layers, and walked into a completely packed room with my yoga mat laid out and waiting for me right in front of the door. Great! Then I walked over to my mat and realized I was about 6 inches away from the people next to me. We were packed in there like sardines and the room was heated to 104 degrees! “Oh well,” I thought, “let’s do this!” 

The class started out okay, a bit slow with a small amount of meditation, but then jumped right into what I discovered to be techno, dance club, “yoga.” I hadn’t heard that kind of music since the last time I was in a club, and I can’t even remember when that was it was so long ago! I think the teacher used about 5 different traditional yoga words throughout the whole class. I realized how reliant I’d become on yoga speak, when I felt lost with her lay descriptions of what to do next. It was the strangest yoga class I’ve ever taken! We went through almost every yoga pose out there in one flow sequence. And we did it fast! It was like yoga on speed in a really hot room. When it was time for some stretching toward the end of class, we even went through that fast. By the time class was over, I was drenched in sweat from head to toe, but didn’t have tired aching muscles like I do in my regular hot yoga class. Did I get a good work out, or did I just sweat a lot? One thing was for sure, I definitely didn’t feel relaxed.

The funny thing is that this studio gets rave reviews. Maybe this is the new pop culture yoga that's the latest craze. Maybe it’s good for people who want a high impact workout without the impact and don’t want to do yoga because it’s “slow,” and just “stretching,” and “isn’t really a work out.” You know those people…the ones who have never done yoga, but assume it’s all meditation and stretching. I’m far from being a yogi, but know enough to have been a bit embarrassed that the class I took was actually called yoga. I guess if you do a few yoga posses, it’s considered yoga. Is this where yoga is evolving to? I hope not! I love the traditional Baptist vinyasa flow I’ve discovered. Maybe I’m getting old, but I can not do yoga to dance music! Enough said  :)

Chop and Donate!

It's that time again...
It has been about 3 years since I chopped my hair off and donated it. Now that it's super long again, it's that time again! I donated my hair to a wonderful organization called Locks of Love. They make hair pieces for kids under age 18 who have long term medical hair loss. Your donation needs to be at least 10 inches long to go towards making a hair piece, but you can donate any length of hair. They sell the shorter hair that is donated to offset the costs involved in making the hair pieces.


I get bored with my hair being the same after a while and like to change it up every few years. A friend of mine told me about this great organization and introduced me to donation. Now I look forward to it! Donating your hair is a great excuse to make a change too! If my friend can educate me on this organization and inspire me to donate, I hope to do the same for someone else. It's amazing the difference we can make in each other's lives with even something seemingly small as a hair donation.


The other great part about this is that my 3 year-old is now old enough to understand more about what I'm doing. It's amazing how kids react to helping other kids in need. Now L says, "I want to cut my hair and give it to those little girls who are sick." Precious!

Before

After

Halloween Mantel

I decorated our mantel for Halloween for the first time this year and had so much fun! Having kids has made me get more into Halloween and I'm loving it!! Here is the finished product. (It was impossible to get a good photo without the chandelier getting in the way.)

I used the lanterns I had sitting on our back porch and added a small pumpkin to them. I found the small ceramic pumpkins at Joanns on sale for a little over $1. My mom got us this great haunted house that is made out of cardboard. The assembling wasn't fun, but I love the finished product! I added some candles and candle holders that I already had. See below for the 'how to' on the pumpkin garland, and bats, and Trick or Treat garland.

Pumpkin Garland: I found these great pumpkins at Joanns (on sale of course). They have a hole punched in the stem and had a silver loop attached to them. I cut off the string, hot glued them to a black ribbon with silver sparkle detail. I spaced them about 9" apart. Then I glued on small buttons to cover the hole and make it look finished. I used an odd number of pumpkins (9) so I could use one to string up the center and have it even on each side. I have book cases on either side of my mantel and just tied the ribbon to those. You could tape the ribbon ends up or tuck the ends under a lantern or candle holder sitting on your mantle. 

I actually put a little hot glue on my mantel to  hold the middle pumpkin up. Then, I used bats to cover the knot I made at the end of the ribbon. I found the bats at Joanns as well. They were in a package of 5 and had a hole in the top with a string loop attached. I cut off the string and again glued a cute black button on to cover the hole. I then glued them onto the ribbon. I also put some bats on the wall above the haunted house using double sided sticky tape (see first photo above). The pumpkin garland would also be cute draped across your front door!

Trick or Treat Garland: This is my favorite part of the mantel and could easily be made into a regular garland instead of put vertically on the wall like I did. I found these adorable FREE printables at The Handmade Home. I printed them on white card stock and cut them out. I taped them to ribbon at both edges of the card stock. They are spaced about 2" apart. After I completed one set of three, I laid the second set right next to the first so I wouldn't have to measure out the spacing. I left about 6" of ribbon hanging down on the bottom and cut it on an angle. I also left about 4" at the top and cut it straight across so I would have something to attack the flower to and tape to the wall.

For the flower at the top of the vertical garland, I cut two 3" strips of orange ribbon, two 3" strips of black, and four 2" strips of the black with silver detail. Using hot glue, I glued the 2 orange strips together in a cross pattern. Then added the black strips in a cross pattern at a different angle....

 

...Then, glued the black/silver ribbon strips on top of each other, making sure they lined up with the other 4 ribbons. I finished it off with a black button in the middle and glued it to the ribbon at the top of my garland. I attached the garland to the wall by taping the skinny black ribbon behind the flower to the wall. The flower covers the tape so you don't see it.

One more thing! I don't know about you, but I'm constantly stashing rubber bands in a drawer when I buy flowers, produce, etc., but don't often use them. After this project, I had an idea to use them to keep reels of ribbon from coming undone. They were a perfect fit and work great! I love finding ways to reuse!!