If you follow my blog regularly, you’ve noticed that I occasionally spotlight a few bits of inspiration from a personal friend in my life. Some recents: Inside the homes of Lisa and Jen, my brother Kevin with his weight loss success story, and even my mom with a great tip for corn on the cob.

Today’s inspiration comes from my friend Tina. We met in Cleveland 10 years ago and she was my very best neighbor there. She was the first one to show up with cookies when we moved in, really motivated me to pick up running again between having babies, she’s just plain fun to be around, and yet – she is so far from being outwardly overzealous. Tina is genuinely kind, selfless, and humble. She is such a rock and probably has no idea just how much she is adored and admired.

Not the greatest quality picture – and not even Tina’s best hair day – but this is us together just last month with another dear friend Sarah sandwiched in the middle. Our family was visiting their families in Colorado Springs.

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{ idea no. 1: giant photo wallpaper }

This is the first thing that catches your eye when you walk in Tina’s beautiful home. Um, hello picture lovers. Go ahead and pin this one. She used a favorite photo of their kids and had the mural made at MuralsYourWay.com. Talk about impact.

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{ idea no. 2: more photo displays }

She printed some favorites at Costco. Each square is a 12×12 size. The cheapest way to do this, according to Tina, is to put 3 images on a 12×36 canvas (in Photoshop), save that JPG, and print that size (which apparently they do now!). Then cut the 3 pictures apart. She dry-mounted each picture at Hobby Lobby and mounted them to the wall with my own personal favorite – Velcro.

She had these printed at PosterBurner.com and then had them dry-mounted at Hobby Lobby.

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{ idea no. 3: big-striped panels }

You might be inspired to take on this little DIY project. Tina picked up white canvas panels at WalMart, some red canvas from Hobby Lobby, and just cut out thick red strips of the red to sew onto the panels. So stinking cute.

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{ idea no. 4: healthy + delish }

Tina eats really well. In fact, their whole family eats really well. I about died watching their 10-year-old snacking on spinach. For real. Not Oreos or Peanut M&M’s. Noooo. Raw spinach. And don’t get me wrong – I love spinach. But my kids still balk at the idea.

So anyway – one of the things we ate during our visit was this. It’s a recipe she got from her ultra-healthy mother-in-law called Almond Pate (I think it’s spelled this way, and I think it’s pronounced pah-’tay but correct me if I’m wrong). Seriously, I love this and am working on making my first batch at home now. I’ll get it on the Recipes section soon. And I’ll get more recipes from her too.

Click here for the recipe PDF.

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{ idea no. 5: regular exercise }

Tina, me, and David about to embark on a trail run in the mountains by her house. Incredibly refreshing to run through trees since we came from the desert.

Super dear friends Sarah, Katie, and Tina. That’s David and Sarah’s husband Eric too.

The Manitou Incline beckons me every time. This is my third time climbing one mile straight up, on crooked railroad ties. The altitude kicks my behind, my stamina is tested, and my time to the top is laughable – but oh man, how I love the challenge of hiking these stairs and completing the goal of making it without dying. Tina is kind to stay back with me.

Regular exercise is something we all should have in our lives. We know that. But like many of you, this is something that ebbs and flows in my world. Sometimes I’m really good and I’m making something happen on a regular basis. There are other times I could go months without so much as jogging around my neighborhood. This has become my reality of being a busy mom + business owner. Tina’s not my only friend who’s great about working exercise into her routine. But there is just something about being around her that motivates me to make it a priority, no matter what. I love her for that.

And I’ll let you know when that happens.  ; )

 

Tags: friends, home decor, incline, tina

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2012 at 3:06 pm and is filed under DIY, home, style & design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.