Leona Lane

52 PROJECT PROGRESS + CHECK SHEET

As I mentioned awhile ago, I decided to embark on a 52 Project with painting. I'm still loving it! I've also realized I like black & white much better than working with color - at least for text. I'm curious to see how this will morph over the course of a year. I've finished seven so far, and since I started sometime in November that is roughly one per week - although I've definitely missed a few weeks. I decided to try and get Tuesdays off this year (from my day job - I'm feeling like I need some consistency in my life) and if that works out Tuesday mornings are going to be for painting! 

So far the one below is my favorite! I saw the Tyler Knott quote "mountains know the secrets we need to learn" on Lisa Noff's instagram, and almost literally jumped out of bed to paint it! (ps. I'm giving away three of them on Instagram today... head over there to enter!)

I had a blank wall in our office that I turned into a drying/display area. I certainly don't have lots of floor or desk space to use, so this works really well. It's super simple - just six nails placed evenly apart from each other and in-line with the ones below, then black embroidery thread tied fairly taught between them. I clip up the paper with mini-clothespins. I love it! (and it doesn't overwhelm the office since it's just black and white!)

Then to keep tract of my progress, I made a little check off sheet. A simple grid with 52 boxes and '52 Project' painted across the bottom. I just paint an X in one of the boxes at the end of each painting session - super easy.

Since it's the beginning of a new year and some of you lovely readers might be embarking on your own year long project, I thought I'd scan it and turn it into a printable for you to use! It's already sized as an 8 x 10, so all you should need to do is click the link below to open on your computer and print it out. 

Click Here For Printable 52 PROJECT TRACKER

PEOPLE I CAN BE CRAZY WITH

Last week, it was like I disappeared off the face of the planet (and I was on such a good roll too). But that's kind of what a long work week does for me, especially when prefaced by a crazy yet epic weekend trip to Portland. But this week, I'm excited to be heading off to Eastern Washington to see my family and do that whole Thanksgiving thing. You know, with the pies and the turkey and stuff? Best of times. My very favorite holiday! Because, so much pie, duh. Well and stuffing, that stuff is pretty rad too. Oh, and pickle roll ups... how could I leave them out.

My family is pretty awesome. I would totally hang out with them, even if we weren't related. And really we're just a bunch of goofballs, we have so much fun together... so when I saw the saying "I love people I can be crazy with" it really resonated with me and I just had to paint it. Because A) so so true. and B) I kind of miss them like crazy. I can hardly remember the last time I got to hang out with my sis. 

So an extra long weekend of pie making, shenanigans, family dinners and all that. Yep, sounds pretty perfect right about now.

If you want your own copy, you can download it here. The dimensions are 2x3 (perfect for a small project life card) but there is enough white space to crop it tighter as well. 

 

PS. For those of you who think procrastination is bad habit... well, you're mostly right, for sure. But it can also, illogically, be a motivator of productivity. While trying to put off writing this post, I fixed the kitchen light, put away all the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, made a batch of green smoothies and updated my 'stats' page. And the day before, when I succeeded in putting off this post, I vacuumed the house, cleaned the bathroom, scrubbed the bathroom floor, had a painting session, made a drying/display area for said paintings, scanned some old recipe cards, cleaned off my desk, changed all the dead lightbulbs, took out the trash and did some laundry. And baked a cake (ok, ok, I'm kidding about the cake...)

HOME IS WHERE YOUR CAT LIVES

When I found out that October 29th was National Cat Day, I knew I had to do something for it here on Leona Lane. Why? because I'm trying to cement my status as the crazy cat lady, duh. After much internal debate, I decided to make a print to share with you all! (because who doesn't love a free printable?) It's my own favorite sentiment about what makes a home - Home Is Where Your Cat Lives. 

I just love the black and white quotes that are all over Pinterest these days. And since we have a Mac now and access to Helvetica, well, I decided that had to be the way this whole print making thing was going to go down. And I love the way it turned out! I printed one out as a 5x7 and popped it into a vintage frame to add to my collection of quirky art in the living room.

Everything that lives on my living room wall is pretty informal so the cat print fits right into that vibe. An antique frame that is empty, housing frames from a totally seperate era? not serious. A framed photobooth picture, mounted on notebook paper with 'Doge Quotes' written with whiteboard markers? not serious. Vinyl stickers on a vintage print? also not serious. A super cool block print brought back from an island in Micronesia hung with a hanger found curbside? not serious... but definitely super rad! 

I'm not the wildest decorator out there (for sure!) but I think that doing what feels like you helps makes a house your home, not just a home. So I hang what I like on my walls, hang plants from the beam on the ceiling, retrofit my lamp with a thriftstore lampshade and try to bring as many nature and outdoor vibes in that I can because that's what speaks to me. There is zero point in taking home decor to seriously in my opinion.

Follow the trends, or don't! Put cheap art on the walls. Mishmash your confused sense of style all together. Find what you love, don't worry about everyone else, and odds are you will probably feel like your house becomes your home. That's what worked for me.

I worried when we sold our house, not knowing exactly where we were going, that we'd end up in a horrid dingy box of an apartment somewhere, that didn't feel like our place the way our house did. But then I realized a. it was stupid to worry about that, and b. you can make any place feel like home if you want to and try to. Some places you're gonna have to try harder than others.

But if you are there, a few of your favorite things are there and your cat? Well then, you are pretty much set. Cause in my book, at the end of the day - home is where your cat lives. 

If you want your own print, I made three sizes available - 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10. Click on the size you want, click again to expand to the full size. Right click and save to your computer. Then print out as you normally would.

Happy printing! ...and Happy National Cat Day to all you fellow cat lovers out there!! 

PS. More cat inspired posts here and here!

Friday Fav | BKR Bottle

One of my recurring monthly goals was to drink more water, because to be honest, on a day to day basis I really hardly drank any. Horrible, I know. I had this sneaking suspicion that I would feel better if I wasn't chronically dehydrated. (Spoiler... turns out I was right!)

I noticed that I have a tendency to get grossed out by water bottles and stop using them - the slime and the weird taste... Plus everyone is saying the plastic ones are bad for you too. So I figured, if I was going to actually start drinking more water - I needed to find a water bottle I really loved. So I set out to find my perfect water bottle - aka, no moving parts, no crevices, no straws, made of glass, and reasonably portable (and hopefully cute).

Enter stage left, my new BKR bottle! I love it!! It met all my requirements, and it's my perfect color to boot! It holds half a liter, which for me is perfect - I can get through that without much trouble and that encourages me to refill and keep drinking throughout the day. It's dishwasher safe (yay!) and the silicone sleeve comes off easily and cleans up great! I've had it for a few weeks now and have been drinking at least a liter of water almost every day, and I'm already starting to notice a difference in how I feel! Feels good to accomplish a goal too :)

PS. I didn't get paid to write this, I'm just super stoked about my new water bottle and wanted to share with you guys! And if you missed it, you can download that cute camping checklist that I made here!

CHECKLIST FOR CAMPING

I'm so stoked that it's almost camping season you guys! I absolutely love camping!! It's up there on my Top 10 list! Right now, we're getting ready for our Memorial Day camping trip. Every year since Joe and I have been married, we have gone camping on Memorial Day weekend with friends. It's become a fun tradition! This year will be quite the adventure because Jenn is bringing baby Lucy. So it will be the first one with a mini-me along for the ride. And the first Memorial Day camping trip with the Scamp. And after Memorial Day, Joe and I are going to be road tripping through Oregon for almost a week! So lots of firsts to be excited about!

I've always been meaning to make up a camping checklist... because it seems like every trip we forget something. Last summer, we managed to forget everything to make coffee, except the grinder and the beans - that was an epic fail. No bueno. I mean it's car camping, you're not going to die. But it's more fun if you're not scrambling and searching for things just to come up empty handed. For our last trip up to Larabee State Park I wrote down a pretty comprehensive list and added things throughout the trip as we thought of other things it would be nice to have. Now that I've got it all typed up, I thought I'd share it with you guys. I figured I'm not the only one who would find it helpful. And hey, everyone loves a free printable!

I've made two versions - one is for tent camping and the other is for camping with a trailer. Click here to download the Camping with a Tent version.  Click here to download the Camping Checklist with a Trailer.

What about you guys? Anyone else have fun plans for Memorial Day weekend? Or camping trips lined up for this summer?