Jumping is generally a lot of fun, especially if you capture that mid-air moment. Sometimes it’s just hopping and skipping along the sidewalk and sometimes it’s as crazy as jumping from a cliff into water below. I love getting a picture right when you’re floating in the air, pure joy on your face, hair flying wild, and limbs all over the place. It’s so fun and carefree! And when you’re jumping around, you can’t help but feel energized. It gets your blood going and puts a pep in your step. I grin every time! I’ve gotten shots on the pier, off a boat, on the beach (spelling out letters), on stairs, on a diving board (not diving in the pool though), and so much more. They’re some of the happiest-looking pictures you’ll find in most people’s albums. There’s just something about jumping that brings out the joy in us and that’s absolutely great!
Posts Tagged ‘fun’
365great Day 253: jumping
365great Day 250: parasailing
When my parents and I were in Cancun, my dad and I went parasailing. It was so amazing to be up in the air like that, floating above the ocean with insane views of the gorgeous waters and coastline. It was very serene, since there wasn’t much to hear except the rustle of the gentle breeze. I hardly felt like we were moving at all and it really just seemed like we were sitting in midair. Everything was so picturesque and perfect that I wouldn’t have wanted to come down were it not for the fact that my feet were getting cold after being still for so long in that harness. It was a lovely experience to share with my dad, whose love of adventure and fun like this shone on his face. I must have gotten that from him, because we were both grinning ear to ear during and after the ride. Not only was it fantastic to try that activity, it was great to share it with my dad.
Homegrown Collective August 2013 projects
Are you ready to see the results of my Homegrown Collective August box?! I sure had a ton of fun with it. 🙂
The Homegrown Collective GREENBOX is $39 per box + $9 shipping (or as discounted as $429 for an entire year, with options in between) and comes with fun and easy projects to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program you can apply to join.
I started off with the alfalfa sprouts project.
I put in just enough to cover the bottom of the jar.
I then filled with plenty of water to submerge them, though I had some floaters.
The next day, the water had browned and I poured it out. It was hard to get the screen on underneath the lid! It’s a tight fit. I rolled the jar and shook it so the seeds got spread around.
By the third day, they’d sprouted! I was so surprised I actually gasped out loud when I saw it.
On the fourth day they continued to grow and I tried to get the remaining seeds to sprout by giving them more space.
By the fifth day, I noticed that they had orientated themselves upwards even though there was no sun where I kept them. Guess they just knew which way is up!
Just six days in and they were definitely full grown and ready to come out. I let the brown seed covers float up and dumped them out.
I then let them sit out in the sun and the heads went from yellow to green. Ready to eat! I had some but gosh, this was waaay more than I could handle.
Next up was a lovely bath soak to pamper myself!
I put together a few scoops of green tea and some lavender flowers in the muslin bag and mixed them up.
I ran really hot water, put in epsom salts that quickly dissolved, let the tea bag sit in the running water, and then let the bag float around the tub.
After my relaxing soak, I flipped the bag inside out to get the tea out, rinsed the rest off, and let it dry for next time.
Finally, I got around to trying the pomegranate chocolate cups!
It was a slow process ensuring I got the seeds out as whole as possible, but I was rewarded with a nice pile of them.
I don’t have a double boiler, so I melted the chocolate with a bowl in the pot. I boiled the water too much and water got in, but it turned out ok. I nearly forgot to pat dry the seeds before putting them in the cups!
I poured the melted chocolate over the seeds and just about overfilled the cups. I generously sprinkled the salt flakes on top and put it all the in fridge. It came out looking not much different and tasted fantastic, even with my messed up chocolate.
I decided to have some fun with it and make some with my cat-shaped ice cube tray! I accidentally messed up the chocolate again so it didn’t turn out to well, but I’m totally trying again later. Nom!!
So what do you think? Jealous yet? 😉 I loved each of these projects and will definitely be doing them again. I’m also looking forward to the upcoming box!!
If you’re interested in getting it yourself, sign up here!
[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]
365great Day 145: giveaways
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Ah! I wanted to find a giveaway to use for this image so I decided to go to Ramblings of a Suburban Mom because she’s awesome and I know she’s been doing some great giveaways. I was soooooooo unbelievably thrilled to find that she’s giving away Zoku products! AND THEN I kept reading and discovered she’s giving away a Homegrown Collective box too (they’re the first thing I’m ordering when I get a job)!!! I swear, I can’t be any happier. And this is exactly why giveaways rock so much. Sure, you won’t win most of the time, but honestly if you keep trying, you will. I set my heart out to win Conscious Box because I wanted to try it without having to pay and when I found that they were really promoting themselves amongst bloggers, I tracked down a ton of giveaways and entered them all. I didn’t just win one 3-month subscription, but three! Granted, two were part of the same giveaway, where I could gift a subscription to a friend, but that’s still awesome. Similarly, I reaaaally wanted to win Escape Monthly so I entered dozens of giveaways for that as well AND won twice yet again! Of course, winning makes you feel super, but even just participating and hoping brings a little joy each day. Sometimes it’s nice just to get involved and share in other people’s happiness as they win. And then winning a giveaway? That’s beyond great.
365great Day 125: Couple
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Couple is an app I discovered over a year ago, when they first started off as Pair. It was billed as an app for couples, so the name change made sense. Basically, it’s like having your own personal social media thread, just the two of you. You can share pictures, videos, draw sketches, send messages, and even do long-distance “thumb-kissing” within the app. Everything is private so it’s a great place for couples to bond and share more deeply whenever you’re apart. After all, I certainly don’t want the whole world seeing what I wrote on an open social media forum and the limited capabilities of text messaging doesn’t always cut it. I especially like the sketching feature, which has allowed us to draw out pictures and diagrams to better explain what we’re trying to communicate. For a long-distance relationship, this has been an amazing app. Here I’ve shown you part of our timeline, where I sent over a picture of the pandas that Panda got me and he sketched out a cool robot (I think it’s from the movie where cars turn into robots). I never knew he could draw like that until we got this app. The things you learn! Between the deeper connection and all the fun features, Couple is truly a great app.
365great Day 87: bungee chairs
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The first time I encountered bungee chairs was at work a few years ago. Then I happened to see this awesome round bungee chair at Target and I told myself I’d get it as soon as I earned enough points on Shopkick for a $25 Target gift card. Alas, by the time that happened the chairs were gone. I was so sad and pined for them for about a year when, amazingly, they came back to Target, slightly redesigned. Last year’s design featured all teal bungee cords and black metal legs; this year’s design features alternating teal and black bungee cords with teal metal legs. They’re similar enough that I’d like either, but I’m partial to the one I ended up getting, probably just because I own it. 😉 For whatever reason, the teal ones are hard to find in stores so I had to track them down, but I am now (finally) the happy owner of one! I love how the design is perfect for hot summer days/nights when the airiness proves useful, plus this chair is less forgiving when it comes to slouching, so I’m pretty sure my sitting posture has improved. Now that’s pretty great!
365great Day 77: dolphins
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Dolphins are amazing creatures! They are so smart, so cute, so friendly, and just wonderful. They’ve got personality too! I remember when I met Squirt in Singapore and he would pose beautifully for the women, but then not cooperate when it came to men! He was cool with his trainers, but not a fan of strange men. Totally hilarious. Then there were the bottlenose dolphins in the waters of Hawaii, that came up to our boat and swam with us, always matching our speed, whether we were racing with the wind or just floating. They made it clear they were here to say “hi” and play around and it was so cool. They must have hung around for a good half hour before going on their way. It was perfect, though I’d really love to swim with dolphins sometime. That would be so great!!
Gogobot 500 Days of Summer
In celebration of reaching 500 members in Gogobot’s West LA Facebook group, the lovely community manager and her interns put together a party that also featured the premiere of the Gogobus Thrift Shop music video that we filmed at the Gogobus Stop Spring Break Party. Of course I had to be there! We took over the outdoor patio at the back of Rush Street in Culver City. It was nice to see some familiar faces from the last event and also get a chance to meet some new ones.
Stay tuned for an update to the music video when it’s posted! [Update: it’s up!! GO WATCH IT (and like please) – I’ve also embedded it below. Enjoy! :)]
Approaching the venue.
Love the outdoor patio!
Upon checking in, you were given a cute beach ball stress ball, some bubbles, and a greeting card and postcard. Photo credit: Steven Lam
Free swag was strewn across the tables. 🙂 Photo credit: Steven Lam
Quite a delicious spread! Photo credit: Steven Lam
Perfectly cooked.
And of course there was dessert. Some people already snagged a few before I could get a shot.
I wanted a chocolate one and this looked right but it turned out to be vanilla, lol.
The Gogobus music video premiere! Photo credit: Gogobot West LA Community Manager Audrey Lo
The awards for the music video! Photo credit: Gogobot West LA Community Manager Audrey Lo
365great Day 38: 1 Second Everyday
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I’ve officially completed a full month’s worth of 1SE clips! I found out about this fun project through Kickstarter, where I backed it and got to download it from the App Store when it launched. I was a bit late to the game (oops) and didn’t redeem my copy for quite awhile, but I finally got around to it and I’ve been having a blast! It’s so entertaining to watch little 1-second clips of days gone by and remember what was happening in that moment. For the most part, it only holds meaning for me, but it’s so meaningful.
If you’ve ever done a photo a day sort of project, you sort of know what I’m talking about. But the added dimensions of video make it even more powerful and it’s a fabulous way to look back on your life. You’ve seriously got to try it! Now you don’t have to rely on still visuals solely to share your story and record those memories. You can incorporate motion and sound, which are very enriching. I’ve had video clips that I chose purely for the sound that it had captured. What a fun, simple way to capture snippets of your life. And the app makes it super easy to clip and compile. It’s great!!
365great Day 36: plasma balls
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These are such fun toys! I mean, how trippy is it to put your finger on there and watch as it responds to your touch? Even without touching the plasma ball, the constantly moving “lightning bolts” extending out is pretty cool to watch. If you’ve never played with one of these, you’re definitely missing out. It’s like having a magic ball that follows your every move in beautiful hues of pinks, purple, blue, and white. It’s a fun scientific gadget that is sure to please! I’ve got one as a desk toy that actually operates as a USB splitter – practical and pretty in one! A cool gizmo that brings science alive in such a fun way is truly great.
