Take my Advice for the First Time You Snowboard

Take my Advice for the First Time You Snowboard

I purchased season passes for my two boys’, my husband and me for Christmas. My husband has been wanting to take us snowboarding as a family for around 10 years or more.... So, I decided to make his little dream come true. My husband and boys where so excited however, I didn't feel the same as they did. I was nervous about this whole adventure that my husband was about to take me on.

I am very athletic and in shape. I played soccer in high school and stayed in shape after having two boys, with going to the gym. I thought to myself," I can do this, just has long as I can get over my fear of heights". After spending thousands of dollars for passes and gear for the four of us, it was time to finally hit the slopes.

After sitting my little bum on the ski lift my anxiety went crazy. My heart started pounding and I looked down and told myself," Oh lord please don't let me fall of this rough looking ski lift". I closed my eyes all the way up the lift, until my husband told me to lift the safety bar and get ready to get off the lift. "Oh, my word", was the thoughts going in my head. I fell hard and started rolling down the landing pad. Now this is when I realized that I do not feel 20 years old any more. After several hard falls throughout the day on hard iced packed snow, I went home and felt like a crippled old woman.

I wanted to share my advice with anyone who is in their thirty's wanting to learn how to snowboard. First, purchase a butt pad that will protect your tail bone. I fell on my tail bone so hard and too many times that it is severally bruised. I must sit on one butt cheek at a time for a couple of months now. Make sure and wear warm gloves, and socks. On your first day, you will be swimming in the snow a lot so it is very important to wear extra layers. Next, make sure you do not go snowboarding for the first time unless there is a lot of snow and fresh powder, to lessen the chance of getting injured from falling. Wearing a helmet is a very smart idea because you will end up slamming the back of your head into the snow. The smartest advice I could give someone about learning how to snowboard is to hire a personal trainer instead of having your husband teach you!

White Flocked Princess Christmas Tree

White Flocked Princess Christmas Tree

This Christmas I decided to purchase a flocked Christmas tree to decorate.  I love how the tree appears full and downy. With adding non LED clear Christmas lights the tree became very elegant. When decorating a Christmas tree, you want to make sure you use your smaller ornaments on top, medium sized ornaments around the middle, and larger ornaments on the bottom. I crowned the top of the tree with a beautiful silver princess crown.  I used my smaller white and silver Christmas balls around the top of the tree. Using different textures of ornaments helps add personality. I tend to use feathered angle wings, with a touch of rougher silver Christmas ball ornaments. Adding longer ornaments is fun too. I love adding silver and white sparkly ice cycles to my tree. Using crystal ornaments is another must for any tree. The crystals are great for when the sunshine hits them during the day. I love to match my tree with the wrapping paper for my gifts. I used silver polka dot, white sparkle and a flat silver Christmas paper. Feathered angle wings, rhinestone Christmas balls, shiny crystal ornaments, silver keys, and more helped make this tree very soft, elegant and a perfect princess tree !

Reupholstering my Bench

Reupholstering my Bench

I purchased this bench over the summer and decided that I did not agree with the material that the maker decided to use. If you ever find a piece of furniture that you love, however the material is just awful. You can always change the material to match any room or décor. Over the weekend I found some time to redo the bench and headed to Hobby Lobby for some material.

I was able to find a black faux leather material for just $8.99 on sale. I purchased a foot and a half. You only need a couple of supplies to complete this project. I used scissors, staples, staple gun, nose pliers and a screwdriver.

The first thing you want to do is unscrew the seat from the bench, chair, etc.. There should be four screws in each corner under the bench. Once the seat is removed this is a great time to wipe down the frame. Next, you will want to use the nose pliers to remove the staples from the seat to take off the existing material. 

Lay your seat on top of the fabric and measure, how much fabric you will need. Note that you will want the fabric to go over the seat about an inch. Once you have your measurements, cut the fabric to size.


Now is the fun part, using the staple gun. Start overlaying the fabric to the seat from one side to another, You should stable every half an inch to make sure that the material is secured to the seat. The corners can be tricky, so you just have to play with the material until you like how the top of the seat looks.

 Once I was done stapling the fabric to the seat. I cut out a piece of leftover fabric to lay over the opening of the bottom of the seat and hid the staples from showing.
After I completed the seat it was time to put the seat back on the frame. Use your screwdriver to insert the screws back into their holes on each corner of the seat and attach it to the frame.

Reupholstering this bench was very easy and inexpensive. The bench now matches my decor in my bedroom. Whenever you want to redecorate or get tired of your accent furniture you can always change the fabric. I think that we are

always too quick to get rid of things that we no longer like, instead of thinking if there is any way of making the piece of furniture look better.

Beauty

Over the past couple of weeks I couldn't recognize myself in the mirror. I was like," is that a white alien, or someone who has never seen the sun?". Will we all know that the suns UV rays damages our wrinkle free skin, so I guess our only option is to be white or to have a fake tan. I have a very light complication, however I can get tan if I am in the sun. So, throughout the years of my life I have always used sunless tanning lotions. I have tried them all with no success. Below are some pictures of sunless tanning lotions that I have used that did not work. However, I came across St. Tropez this summer. This sunless tanner is awesome, it gives you a beautiful tan color, hardly any odor, and stays on for at least three days. I always make sure that I have cleaned and exfoliated skin before applying this product. This St. Tropez product is dark mouse, so you need to make sure and wear latex gloves before applying it. I always work my way up from my feet to my neck when applying. Make sure that you are careful around your hands, knees, elbows, and ankles not to apply to much product. I always include my husband and ask him to help me apply it on my back. After you apply the product make sure and keep your skin moisturized to help the product last longer. This product also comes in a lotion, mist and even a tanning lotion you apply in the shower. St. Tropez also has different shades too, fair, to medium and dark tints. St. Tropez cost around $40 and up, never less the bottle last for a couple of months and it is an amazing product. So if your standing in the mirror and can't recognize yourself because your so white this winter, try St, Tropez to get a natural looking tan. You can find this product at www.ulta.com, and https://www.sttropeztan.com.