{47} grain of rice

who among us did not buy a bracelet or necklace that included a grain of rice with your name on it? pretty sure we all did that on some vacation in our lives. i had mine done on the beach in Ensenada, Mexico. i was in Mexico on a missions trip and on our way back we stopped in Ensenada to see the whales and do a little souvenir shopping. i picked up a necklace with a single grain of rice with "lauren" written on it. where the necklace ever ended up is what i'd like to know!

so, i grabbed my smash pen (because it has such a fine tip) and wrote my name again and again on many different grains of rice until i finally got one where the letters were pretty clear. i took a picture of it next to a penny just to prove its utter tiny-ness.

{46} river rocks

as i was searching through my craft supplies for something else, i came across this bag of river rocks. they were dying to have my name painted on them so i did. and it wouldn't be complete without a yellow doily. check!

{45} l is for lion

this one required some internet research. a) to figure out what animal each letter should stand for and b) how to make each of them.
so, i grabbed various ideas all over the internet and then recreated them in my own (albiet similar) way. i have no desire to keep this childish creatures for myself so i am gifting them to the youngest E since she loves to be creative!

ps. the "n" is a newt.

{44} google earth

i saw this idea originally online and then pinned it. i loved it so much that i just jumped all over the idea.

so, to make it personal and my own, i only used my birthplace (winnipeg, manitoba) as the location where i could pull letters from. so, the "a" was super easy because of the runways at the airport but the rest were decidedly more difficult. particularly, the "r". i wanted them to all have signifiance to my life but it ended up not working so well because i couldn't find "lauren" in any of the significant spots in winnipeg!

L= the location of our future IKEA (opening Fall 2012!) just off of Sterling Lyon Parkway
A=James Armstrong Richardson Internation Airport (aka Winnipeg Airport)
U=CanadInns Stadium (the former-and again current?-home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers CFL football team)
R=Bird Construction Company just off of north Main Street (no signifiance--just looked like an "r")
E=the eternally-under-construction Canadian Human Rights Musuem
N=the Red River

{43} clay clay clay

i used the recipe at the back of the "365-days of creativity" book to make clay today. i thought it seemed like it might generate a lot of clay, but i was not prepared for the sheer volume i was left with. i had enough clay to build a life-size hut. insane. so, after i finished making my name, i just kept on creating. i've shared some of my other creations down below too. i still ended up throwing 2-3 cups of it in the garbage! i'll know better for next time. :)

i'm especially fond of the "george" in script and the cookie-cutter inspired clay george that i made!

{42} military alphabet

boo. i'm in the hospital today. i scheduled this post ahead of time because i knew i would not be up for creativity today. boo-urns!

some people call it the miltary alphabet, or the phonetic alphabet, army alphabet, radio code alphabet, etcetra, etcetra. i'm not really sure what it's "official" name is, but it was my inspiration today. sort of stemmed from the morse code post. just another medium to cross of the list!

{41} bronze letters

i can't believe i haven't used my scrapbooking supplies yet. that's a good sign because it means i haven't run out of ideas yet. the day will come yet when all i use are my thickers and other alphabet sheets. but, today i used an old set of bronze metal letters. i had received these from my sister-in-law several years ago as a "thank-you" for looking after their dog for the weekend. so, i just laid out my name and then a few other letters and made a mirror image below it. simple is the word of the day (or week).

{40} popsicle sticks

yay! i hit 40!

oh, gee. so bored. i had just enough of the plain popsicle sticks to spell out my name. i glued each of the sticks together so haphazardly. this is a tosser! i want to use popsicle sticks again but actually BUILD my name in layers, etc. just like one of those log cabins you made in elementary school. that day was not today. much too much to lazy! :)

{39} rummikub

another game, another day! rummikub is the game that i would always play with my grandmother when i'd go to her house. she was very competitive and would ALWAYS win at this game. i would barely have played out my first hand and she'd already have won! i have such fond memories of those times with her--playing rummikub and scrabble!

now it's a game that my mom and i also play. it all comes down to who gets those happy faces because that almost always determines the winner. right now, i am on a three-game winning streak!

the snow is melting!

the weather outside is so delightful! the weather got up to +8 degrees and it was just wonderfully warm and sunshine-y outside! george and i played in the backyard for 1.5 hours and i took him for a nice long walk where he met 6 dogs! i just love the spring when everyone comes back outside!

{38} tealights

well, i had tried this once before. i started using the automatic lighter but my hand was getting tired so i decided to use matches instead. so, i've lit all the candles for the LAU and i started lighting the "R" with the match but i go to blow it out and i blew EVERYTHING out. i got so upset that i just threw all the tealights back in their bag and figured i'd had enough of that.

but, this time i decided to haul all the tealights to my parents' house and try it there. they had a much better lighter and it took me minutes to get everything lit. then i quickly hopped up on the chair, grabbed my picture and blew it all out. THEN, i had to worry about the smoke alarm going off because there was so much smoke in the kitchen. fortunately, it all worked out. ;)

{37} upwords

i come from a "games" family. we love to play games. my mom and i favour the word-type games like scrabble, proble and upwords. when we have a free evening together, i love to go to her house and just play games with her! upwords is always challenging for many reasons. one, it makes you really think about how to maximize points plus it is challenging on my patience! :) i hate any words that are more than 4 letters long because it's harder to build on top of them so i find myself getting frustrated when a 5-letter, or heaven forbid, a 6-letter word is played!

in the end, it's all fun. it comes down to the letters that you pick up and if there is a place you can actually use them.

{36} elsie-inspired

i got the inspiration for this idea after seeing elsie larson use this photo-composition to ask l.a. (of freckled nest design) to be her bridesmaid. i loved that idea super much so i made my own, less fantastic version (the self-deprecation must end tomorrow!!).

{35} paper folds

more inspiration from pinterest! i saw this pin and i thought that i might able to figure it out quickly enough to make my name. yup, no problems. it was so much easier than i thought. i just hate using the x-acto knife because i can't make nice rounded edges but it still turned out pretty neat.

after pencilling in the fold and cut marks on the light blue sheet of paper, i cut them out with the x-acto knife, then bent the paper into place and glued to a navy background.

not sure if it's a keeper or not...

{34} morse code

i saw a picture of morse code on pinterest and, well, anything that has to do with alphabets these days piques my interest (or pinterest, if you will). so, i figured i would have to use morse code for my next medium!

the "dit dit dot dit dot dit" comes from the broadway music, titanic. i LOVED that musical. have i seen it? no. but i got the cd soundtrack forever ago after seeing the cast perform a song on the old rosie o'donnell show. i listened to the soundtrack incessantly and would perform the songs in my parents' kitchen. because of my strange ability to recall the lyrics from nearly any song i hear, i still remember the lyrics to that musical even though it's been many years since i've popped that cd into a player (or, quite frankly, a cd into any sort of "player". old school!).

{33} collection letters

this collection on flickr is so awesome. it is a massive collection of just letters of the alphabet that have been submitted. i used that site and picked the letters from my name to make today's name. i guess i could just make the next 332 entries out of that flickr album but maybe that would be a cheap way out!

{32} play-doh

my mom had asked for a good recipe for play-doh so i had found one online for her. then she called me and asked what colour i wanted so i chose green! then i went to her house and made my name out of play-doh. man, was that stuff squishy. it was so awesome just to play with. i need to make some for myself as a stress reliever! :)

{31} ecuadorian scarves

wednesday was all about scarves. last sunday i had purchased two beautiful scarves from my friend mark who is selling them as a fund-raiser to raise money for a program in a small village in ecuador. the scarves are soooo pretty.

so, i wore one on monday to work and one of my co-workers loved it so she asked me if i could bring some in. so, mark dropped off a bag of them at work on wednesday and the women of my office went mad for the scarves! it was very awesome and for such a good cause. i did end up buying a total of 6 but two were for gifts.

so, i decided to use the four that i kept for myself to spell out my name. i didn't think i'd have enough scarves to do it, but it worked out pretty well. the first scarf is solid black with a gold thread, the second scarf is grey with a silver thread, the third scarf is a gradient purple and teal with a gold thread and the last scarf is gradient beige and teal with a gold thread. i love them all!

{30} name tag

one month in! i'm feeling super lazy today so i decided to haul out a "lazy" picture for today's entry.

it is my name tag for at work. it's where i spend 37.5 hours of my week so it needed to be shown at some point. i love where i work. i love the people where i work. i love the work that i do. i've matured a lot in the 3.5 years i've been there and i have such an appreciation for everything about the place i work.

{29} hot glue

there are just so many awesome pins that i'm finding on pinterest and using as inspiration! i'm loving the creativity that i'm finding on there. today, i was inspired by this pin and decided i would incorporate that idea on an old frame instead. so, i went down to the ol' mcc and had my mind set on getting a really big frame that had an oil painting on it. i found one but it was marked at $20.00! uh, no thanks. so, i kept looking and found this very small 8.5x11 frame for $2.50 and felt that was much more reasonable.

then i drew my name in pen on the frame and then traced it with the hot glue gun. i did two coats of the hot glue because i wanted it to really pop on the frame. once that was dry, i  grabbed some white acryclic paint and put 3-4 (i can't remember!) coats of white paint over the whole thing. did it turn out exactly like i wanted? no. but i still think it was a neat idea and i like that i invested some good time into today's piece. this one's a keeper too.

{28} origami

yet another idea inspired from pinterest! this time it came from here. i then downloaded the instructions for each letter in my name, found scrapbook paper that had a solid colour on one side and a pattern on the other, cut 6-4"x4" square and started folding. it really helped that i own a boning tool so i could make the folds very crisp because using such a thick paper was a little difficult. i did use some scotch tape to hold the folds down so i could take a picture of them as well (again, if i'd used thinner paper, this wouldn't have been necessary).

this is one of the "lauren" pieces that i will be keeping and not throwing out. it was too much hard work on my hands to just throw away!

{27} 3D line art

this idea comes courtesy of a pin i saw (http://pinterest.com/pin/239957486365417246/) where someone had made their hand in a 3D form using line art. i thought that i might be able to create my name using a similar format so i gave it a whirl. some parts of the letters turned out more 3D than others but i still like the final effect. if i was crazy enough, i would attempt it again and draw the lines much slower (i whipped through this thing in 30 minutes) but creating all these names each day is prompting me to move quickly!

{26} the academy awards

one of my favourite days of the year! i love awards shows. i've always watched them since i was super little. i just love seeing what everyone wears and who wins awards. even when i was a kid and i didn't know anything about the movies nominated, i enjoyed watching the shows.

tonight is our annual oscars-viewing party at andrew and erin's. andrew has ballots for everyone and points are awarded for each category (some are worth more than others). two years ago, i blew everyone out of the water and won the whole thing. that year i had only seen ONE movie out of the entire list of everything nominated. this year is a different story. out of the 9 best picture nominees i have seen: extremely loud and incredibly close, the help, midnight in paris, moneyball and the tree of life. pretty good for a non-movie watcher like myself!

so, of course my name had to involve the oscars in some way. i at first wanted to make a whole bunch of statuettes and then create my name from them but i opted to create my name digitally using the names of ever actor nominated, the best pictures, best director and a few others (because i still needed more!).

(yes, and copyright of the graphic i used goes to the academy of motion arts and sciences)

{25} define me

i bought a dictionary for 25 cents at the thrift store earlier this week and i hope to get good use out of it! i began with this. i found words in the dictionary that defined me for each letter of my name. then i highlighted them and drew the letter around that word. again, i like things a little messy and not perfect, so it is free-handed and full of scribbles but i enjoy fast projects. there will be days again when i can devote hours to a creation but that day was not today! :)

{24} cereal box

i was totally inspired yesterday by this blog (http://rebecca-365daysoflove.blogspot.com/). she is also doing a 365-day project and i love (pardon the pun) that we are both doing words every single day. her creations are way more impressive than mine but she has inspired me to get more creative and work a little harder at what i'm doing. i'm definitely going to follow her progress!

so, i saw how in one of her posts she created these pop-outs from a cereal box so i dumped out my fibre one and ripped apart the box. then i just folded the box in on itself, grabbed my x-acto knife and started slicing. it went really fast (i'm less about perfection than getting the task done) but i do enjoy the result.

the question now is, do i keep these things? i mean, some of them are dispensable but would i keep something like this? i'm saying 'no' because what would i do with it? maybe if i knew someone named 'lauren' i would gift all this over to her but i think i'll just chuck 'em. :)

{23} lipstick on the mirror

first, i actually had to see if i owned any lipstick. i don't do lipstick. it just does not work for me. but i liked the idea of writing with it on the mirror in the bathroom. of course, then i remembered that i must have lipstick because how else did i do the post called "39 kisses"?

today was a weird day. it was a good day except for the fact that i totally wiped out on the ice on the sidewalk outside of my house. b-rutal. plus, there were three neighbors on the sidewalk at that time and they all saw me go down. i just laughed and said i was fine but as soon as i got inside and shut the door i went "owwwwwwww". my tailbone is totally bruised. in fact, it made me so upset that i went and bought candy to make myself feel better! no! what about the post yesterday about fitness and motivation? well, this was a test. and i failed. i guess that's why i will get up tomorrow and start all over again and remind myself how strong i am and that i do have willpower. i lost 75 pounds for sh*t's sake. i can do this!

back to the task at hand (i jazzed up the picture by upping the contrast by 300% in PS):

{22} fitness

i've got fitness on my mind. on the weekend, my friends erin, carrie and i decided that we would sign up for the manitoba marathon in june! yoiks! not the full marathon or anything crazy like that, but still, it's definitely a goal to work towards. i'm really excited about it. so, today i ran 1.7 miles in 30 minutes. not great but not horrible for just starting out. i figure we have 16 weeks to train so i will improve by then. i just want to have the endurance, you know? if i walk the entire thing, that's great, just as long as i can last through it all!

{21} paperclips

well, this didn't turn out exactly the way i had planned. it was originally supposed to be embroidery thread wrapped around the letters of my name but i couldn't figure out how to do that properly. so, that might have to be a project for another day (only 344 to go!).

i used 24 paperclips and bent them in various ways to make the letters of my name. they are held together with little strips of scotch tape! then i realized i didn't know how to display them because they were white (which i originally had thought would be totally advantageous). i tried hanging them in the window but after looking at the picture i realized you couldn't see them. i do want to do a camouflauge day but today was not supposed to be that day! so, i ripped off the artwork from my dining room wall, strung the letters from my empty frame and placed the frame back on the wall.

of course that totally prompted a re-organiztaion of my artwork so what was in the kitchen is now in the dining room and what was in the dining room is packed away and one of my pieces that was packed away is now in the kitchen. just keeping it real.

{20} credit card

yeah, maybe i shouldn't post a picture of my name on my credit card but i really don't see why not. that's because i had to cut it up as soon as the picture was taken. my credit card number was totally stolen! for reals. that's wild. so, i had a call from the credit card company and they said they saw some suspicious transactions trying to be processed so they cancelled my card (hence why i wasn't able to use it recently!) and called me to tell me about it. i'm just glad that they monitor my account and have now placed a warning flag on it. that's just totally wild. never had that happen to me before.

{19} nail polish

nearly three weeks in! i thought writing my name on my fingernails would be tougher than it actually was. but, it wasn't. first i gave myself a nice little manicure and got rid of those awful cuticles that winter tends to produce.

hey, did you know that an anagram of "lauren" is "unreal"? i can't believe i've lived 30 years without knowing that. i think that i need to start incorporating that a lot more in my life because it is totally awesome.

{18} george

consider this day to be one of the laziest creations. actually i consider anything that i create on the computer to be "lazy" just because i'd rather use my hands to be creative than use a mouse. plus, i'm totally not stoked about how this turned out. i actually doubt that i will ever like any of my computer creations, but some days i know i must use the computer instead.

anyway, here is my sweet pup george. he is just the best thing in my life. he makes me laugh and smile every day and just fills me with general happiness and glee. i love him so super much.

{17} books on a "shelf"

i'm sure i'll use books again at some point but i loved this idea. i at first tried to line up the books like this on  my actual book shelf but it proved to be much too much too small so i had to create a "shelf" on the floor. actually i had to do it twice. at first i got all the way up to "laure" and then i ran out of wall space for the "n" so i had to move everything to a new wall! and then george went up to the books to sniff them and i panicked that my precariously placed "a" and "r" books would topple over! fortunately, they stayed in place.

i know that some of these authors are going to roll in their graves (so to speak, because some of them are still alive) because i placed them next to books that they do not want to be associated with but...whatev. these are the books i have read and the ones displayed on my shelves.

they are: apollo 13, harry potter and the half blood prince, the bourne identity, shopaholic & baby, shopaholic & sister, the wizard of oz, sisterhood everlasting, seinlanguage, committed, mini-shopaholic (sense a theme?), wicked, confessions of an ugly stepsister, slammerkin, the girl and the dragon tatoo, eats shoots and leaves, persuasion, the night circus, bossypants, everyone worth knowing, to kill a mockingbird, irma voth, goin' deep, fever pitch and dispatches from the edge.

(i've decided to try to include a picture of myself as often as i can along with my name. either creating it or with the medium used.)

{16} sign language

this was actually one of my first ideas written down...to do my name in sign language. oh, please tell me that i got the letters correct and that they are facing the right way!

when i was a tween, my friend renae and i learned how to do the alphabet in sign language and i remember that we would sit next to each other in church and "talk" to each other throughout the whole service in sign language! of course, that brings me to my next memory when we got in SO MUCH TROUBLE because our moms could see us mis-behaving from across the church and my mom came all the way over to us and told us to "smarten up!". yup, definitely one of my most embarassing moments ever.

i'd love to be able to communicate in sign language so that i could work with deaf people, and especially deaf children. i'd love to be able to do that type of charitable work. if only there was a sign language class available to take here in steinbach. maybe some day there will be!

{15} snow

i have a sneaking suspicion that i will use snow as a medium again sometime but in a different way so i will leave this post's name just that vague.

the good news is that it has been so warm again lately that i've started running again! yeah! i started running in the fall of 2009 but after injuring myself quite badly in florida while on a run, i have found it hard to get back in the habit. i tried running a bit last summer but now that 75 pounds are off my frame, it's easier than it used to be. so, little by little, i'm building up my endurance. maybe by the time "real" spring comes, i'll be much better at it. i still have dreams of doing a marathon some day.

today's name comes courtesy of my back yard and a stick. woohoo. george and i were playing with his ball in the backyard and there wasn't a lot of snow that was still untouched but i found just this little nook of smooth snow. unfortunately the shadow from the fence is casting a strange glow...actually creating the letters and then hanging them from a tree branch or from the fence and taking a picture of my name in shadow is a fantastic idea. notebook!

curious george and the balloon

this is seriously the cutest thing ever. i had this small balloon and i put it over the register and because of the constant air movement, the balloon stayed afloat in the air. and then george wanted to play with the balloon. *gosh, he is the cutest.

{14} conversation hearts

happy valentine's day! i shall eat myself silly with candy today (well, after my freezing wears off from THREE fillings i had this morning...probably the result of indulging on candy last year on valentine's day). c'est la vie.

conversation hearts are my second favourite candy. my first favourite candy is banana marshmallows. they are my equivalent to drugs. or alcohol. i was addicted. i have not had one now since sometime in 2010 and my hips are probably thankful for that. i really have not had much candy but when i saw this bag of conversation hearts at the store, i couldn't resist. i just went and bought them. bad, lauren! bad! oh, well. i'll be better tomorrow.

oh, and let me please address the fact that some people think it's funny to say to me "happy national single awareness day". now, don't get me wrong, i love being single. i really do. i love the independence and lack of drama that comes along with not being attached to someone. so, because of this, i do not like if people think that i'm at home today moping and crying and overeating on chocolate (even though i am planning on overeating on conversation hearts). because i'm not. this is the life that was laid out for me and i'm okay with that. if you're in a relationship and you're happy, then good on you! really, i think that's admirable. but, people who are single can be equally as happy too.

oh, i should show the picture(s) now: