Hello, hello! The weekend absolutely flew by, huh? It was a fun (and sweaty!) one over here. My Saturday was spent in Durham, North Carolina at the downtown YMCA. Why was in Durham?
I was there to get my PiYo LIVE certification! Iām planning to blog more about the experience in a full recap of the certification process, so if you have any specific questions about obtaining a PiYo LIVE certification, let me know!
Other than Saturday, my weekend was pretty relaxed! Ryan was actually feeling quite sick on Friday, so the two of us picked up a pizza and then hung out on the couch and watched Dateline until we couldnāt keep our eyes open anymore. It was a rockinā good time. (Oddly enough, it actually wasā¦ And thankfully Ryan is feeling much better today!)
Sunday at Lake Norman State Park
The weather on Sunday in Charlotte was nothing short of wonderful. It was perfectly sunny and slightly chilly. The perfect hiking weather!
Naturally Ryan and I had to take advantage of such a nice fall day and took Sadie on a late morning hike on the trails at Lake Norman State Park.
This is, hands down, our favorite place to hike thatās reasonably close to Charlotte. Itās 10,000 times less crowded than the incredibly popular Crowders Mountain State Park and still offers beautiful views and awesome trails. We tend to stick to the Lake Shore Trail, a five mile loop that offers tons of little lookout points over gorgeous Lake Norman. There are lots of elevation changes and while I wouldnāt say itās an easy hike, itās not too strenuous either.
We often see deer along the trail and itās very dog-friendly which naturally appeals to us, too. If youāre local to the area and havenāt made your way to this park yet, I highly recommend it!
Sadie has an absolute blast whenever we take her hiking here because she can sniff around and explore but also take little breaks and swim in the lake when she gets hot.
Sundayās hike took us just shy of two hours to complete. Once we were done, we headed home to do make lunch and do some chores around the house. I also finally hung my gallery wall!!!
I am so excited! I am hoping to fill the final three frames todayā¦ If you have any suggestions for creative ways to fill some frames, please let me know. I already have enough photographs in the gallery wall, so Iām hoping for something else.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
Questions of the Morning
- Any questions about the PiYo LIVE certification process? Let me know!
- What should I frame in the final three frames in my gallery wall? Iād love to hear your ideas!
- Tell me about one of the highlights from your weekend!
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I love your gallery wall. You could frame a painting! Or you could make a little collage type look with old concert stubs, movie tickets, or little keepsakes.
I had that same idea (I actually did that before in a larger frame as a gift to Ryan), but I haven’t saved anything recently! I wish I had!!
Here are some ideas I’ve tried: Frame some fabric – geometric patterns look pretty neat!, Abstract city buildings, pictures of nature are also cool. I also LOVE typography, so I’ve made some pretty neat pieces of art with just words and letters that were then framed for the wall.
Enjoy!
Hi! Do you have to be already certified as a personal trainer in order to get the PiYo certification? For the frames, maybe some memorabilia from concerts, marathons etc etc. I attended a wedding on the beach in Point Pleasant, NJ this weekend. It was a beautiful day on the beach! It could not have been more more perfect!
The wedding sounds lovely!! And I’ll be sure to go into more detail with your PiYo question, but to quickly answer it — no, you don’t need to be a certified personal trainer to get PiYo certified!
What about a monogram? Or a favorite quote or phrase?
We went hiking this weekend too. It was so pretty!! We went up to a place called Black Balsam. It was a short hike, but we were on top of a 6,000+ peak!
Amazing!!! I’d love to do some more hiking in the mountains soon!
A copy of a key of your first house (either this one or the first house you and Ryan lived together in) – last name initial, wedding invitation….just a few ideas! š can’t wait to see it all together!
It sounds like a fantastic weekend!! I love lazy nights with pizza and tv. We have the most fun those nights. I was reading over your comments and I like the suggestion of fabric or a little bit of architecture from buildings. You could always dry flowers too and frame those š
Have you ever considered becoming a pure barre instructor? I really want to- waiting to get my 100 classes… But I’m a bit nervous because even though you don’t need dance experience, all of the girls who work there have dance experience…. I think it’s so cool you’re certified in PiYo!!!
YES! I would absolutely LOVE to teach Pure Barre, but I have the same reservations you do — my lack of dance experience and flexibility! It’s a big goal of mine to teach one day though. My studio requires instructors take 100 classes before they can teach, so I’m working on that now. I hope I can teach it one day though! š
Definitely share your journey! I may use this week (as I finish up my 100!! Woot!) to pick the brains of the instructors… I’ve never taught a group fitness class before, but something makes me so drawn to this! š
How about the ever popular pinterest idea of maps of where you have moved (Fl with a heart over to Carolina!)
I have a map of Orlando framed in one of the frames right now! LOVED that idea!
I like how you hung the paper before you hung up the frames. Any way you can do a tutorial on this? What is written on the paper? I did a collage wall and just winged it. But this is a really cool idea and would love to see the step by step.
P.S. What is written on each piece of paper?
Yes! I’ll definitely do a full post on the process. Written on each paper is the measurements of the frame and how far the hole is from the top and side so I could easily measure and know where to hammer in the nail without guessing. š
What about framing fun paper? I don’t know if you have a Paper Source in your area of Charlotte, but they have beautiful wrapping papers that I have always wanted to frame. There may be another store like that around! I love Rifle Printing Co. prints.
I’m working on a gallery wall for our kitchen right now! One of my favorite tricks to fill frames is to hit up the .99 cent cards at Trader Joe’s – they have quite a few cards that don’t say anything at all on them, and will look like a cute print! I found one that’s just some flowers in a watering can, and it looks like something that I spent way more than a dollar on š
Love this idea, Haley!! Thanks!
Ideas for frames: type out your wedding vows in a pretty font …. some favorite quotes in cool typography … a cutout of a map with a heart around one of your favorite places in the world … leave it empty and use at as a wipe off note pad with a pretty colored paper behind the glass š
Your weekend sounds FUN! Michigan has a great forecast this week, and I’m hoping i can hit some hiking trails a few more times before we turn really cold up here! Happy Monday!
i have a gallery wall at my apartment too! most of mine are pictures, i varied between black and white and color, but the biggest frame i actually filled with a chalkboard! its the main focus of the galleryā¦ normally i have a bible verse printed in it, but it allows me to change it up every once in a while! š
You should do a top places to visit in the Charlotte area! The more of your awesome weekend and restaurant posts I see, the more I am convinced I need to add Charlotte to my vacation bucket list for this upcoming year. Everything is just so so gorgeous!
Your Friday night sounds a lot like mine! š Also, glad Ryan is feeling better, I was out sick for three days last week. Lots of yucky stuff going around this time of year!
If you haven’t checked out the http://www.younghouselove.com blog, they have tons of framing ideas. They recently decided to retire from the blogoshere but are leaving their site up for the foreseeable future so people can reference all of their projects. Have fun!
I’m in love with gallery walls right now! You could frame one of your favorite quotes or prints. You could hang an F in place of a picture frame for your last name. I have a lot of gallery walls pinned on my pinterest! Looks like you had a great weekend! My parents came to visit so we ate way too much good food!
What about a race bib from a favorite race? I framed the bib from my first half Ironman.
Congrats on your PiYo cert! This is something that would definitely interest me, so I’m looking forward to your recap of the process!
You got it! Definitely let me know if you’d like me to address anything in particular. š
Sounds like a great weekend! Love your hikes with Sadie and Ryan, you always look like you’re having so much fun out there! Can’t wait to see your gallery wall completed. I’m sure it will look awesome!
Sounds like a great weekend! Glad Ryan is feeling better! I am glad you said (in an earlier comment) that you will post about how you did your gallery wall. I want to do one in my living rm but get so intimidated by the process!
Yay for Piyo! I cannot wait to read your post about getting your cert! I am looking into doing this so getting the inside scoop from someone who has already done it will be awesome!
love the gallery wall! gonna look great! my sister loves piyo and getting certified. š
Ohhh we have to check out that LKN state park hike now!! It’d be nice to have a change in pace!!
I’m also working on a gallery wall, I ordered a few prints to hang among the photos – maybe just look around? That site is a black hole for time though!!
I come across so many inspiring and positive quotes on Pinterest daily. It could be neat to put some of your favorite quotes in your last remaining frames. One highlight from my weekend-dinner with extended family. It is always nice to get together and reminisce about times past!
Ohh! I can’t wait to see your photo gallery!
This weekend, I returned to cold Canada from Mexico so I am not sure if that was a highlight…but I had a lot of fun cheering on friends at the local marathon!
That gallery wall seems very cool! As part of our 1 year wedding anniversary I framed the sheet music (1 page) of our first dance song from our wedding and the words of one verse of the song as well. I also love to frame vintage pictures. We have an awesome vintage picture of one of the first PA Pirates games (bc we are baseball cray), a vintage map of Cuba bc that is where my fam is from, and some old newspaper clippings from the 50s of my husband’s grandfather.
I like to frame cards with pretty pictures or even some motivational quotes! Here’s what a quick search on google turned up: http://www.cafepress.com/+motivational+greeting_cards
I love that you were in Durham. I was downtown Sunday for a half marathon š I would love to hear more about the piyo certification. I was not a fan of the dvds but have heard great things about the classes.
I have never done the DVDs but from what I understand the live classes are quite different! I’ll definitely share more soon! š And congrats on your half marathon!!
Look for really cheap prints in cute shops – Here in Canada our Chapters (big bookstore) have them but its possible bookstores there have them too!
You are so talented! There is no way I would have thought to arrange a gallery like that and with all those cool shapes. I can’t wait to see the final product!
For the most part, I copied a layout on display at IKEA!! š I’m not that creative! š
I like quotes in frames! Etsy all day. Someone needs to put a “1 hour max” on that site or something because it’s just too good.
Frame some pretty wrapping paper with a design/color scheme that goes with your living area.
I recently saw on Pinterest that someone blew up a copy of a page from a favorite book and framed it. I thought that was really neat. For my daughter’s nursery I went to Paper Source and bought some of their beautiful paper (they have so many colors and patterns) and framed those. I bought all different shades of pink.
Love that idea!
I always save greeting cards I get and I’ve framed a couple of really cute ones I’ve received from my husband (and a couple I’ve given him). We also framed our wedding invitation, a couple maps from places we have been and I just bought a print of the US that I am going to frame with corkboard and use pins to track all the places we have traveled. Paperplaneprints on etsy has some really cute maps that come with pins or stickers.
That sounds like an amazing Sunday! My husband and I used to hike every weekend and things just start piling on the weekend and we havent been in awhile. I am thinking we will go this next weekend for sure! My favorite thing about this past weekend was getting our rental all ready to rent! We have people moving in this weekend and we are so excited to have a little extra income š
I ove the idea of the wall collage. I totally want to do this on our stairway!
Can’t wait to see the gallery wall! I want to do something like that too! What a fun weekend and congrats on the cert!
for your frames: how about your current go-to mantra, or a quote that’s inspiring you these days? since it’s your home office, having something inspiring, encouraging, and motivating could be nice. š it’s also a way to change up your wall from time to time as a few mantra/quote/phrase comes up that you want to motivate you. you can sometimes find great prints on etsy or other places of more famous quotes, or even design something on canva or picmonkey and have it printed professionally!
I can’t wait to see the wall when it’s done! I’m working on something like that at my apartment!
And I really want to try PiYo! I’ve heard great things!
Try fun scrapbook paper cut to fit the frames. I’ve done this in our apartment and love how easy it is to change things if I’m in the mood or want to accommodate a holiday.
That park looks like so much fun!!! I just have one question though, what is PiYo?
I like your gallery, it looks awesome. Hanging the paper first is the way to go. I would frame fabric, quotes, a key to your first home or DIY paintings. I have these things mixed into my own gallery.
Love the gallery wall! I never thought about planning it out like that before. Definitely saves some holes in the wall! You can search cute/seasonal typography quotes on Pinterest and have them printed. It’s such a fun way to break up the actual pictures and create some variety, especially if their fall/Christmas related (: congrats on your PiYo cert!
I love the map idea that skigirl had! I’ve also seen people frame text or quotes & I think that looks really cool as well! Kind of like this picture from Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/491033165596137699/
You could frame Sadie’s paw print, maps of where you’ve lived, greeting cards (I have a few Rifle Paper Co. cards framed because they are cheaper than prints! I also buy their calendars from the previous for pennies. Worth waiting until June! ), leaves or flours, menus, or paper letters or your monogram. So many ideas!
Congrats on your Piyo certification! I love hiking so I am a little jealous of your weekend. It is getting a little too cold here to be outside that long!
I don’t have any ideas for your wall that other people haven’t already shared yet, but I am excited to see how it turns out!
I have a gallery wall and it has pictures of all the places I’ve been to: Nepal, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Singapore, Peru, Mexico and all over the US. It is a great reminder of what the world has to offer…so much culture and history.
I am loving that wall color, what a soothing shade!
What would you say is the most challenging part of the PiYo certification training? Do you believe having your other certification as a personal trainer helped you? I love PiYo!
Framing ideas: topo maps. I have framed a few topo maps of big backpacking trips we have done. Also my nephews drawings! It sounds silly, but the bright colors and kinda messy-ness of them look cool framed along side photos and paintings.
I love your outfit, it looks so cozy! I bet you are loving the fall weather and the changing colors of the leaves. I’m from the midwest and live in Orlando now. I really miss this time of the year, so looking at your pictures makes me feel happy! Enjoy the fall weather š
You could frame some pretty fabric and/or lace in a frame and then write a quote or saying on the outside of the glass. I saw this at an antique mall and thought it was a great idea and adds some color! I’m expecting and I am going to do this in our nursery. Good Luck…Love your blog btw!
You can get some cheap fabric from Ikea and frame it! They have lots of patterns to choose from (colorful and black & white) š