Ninna Lu

DIY | A Calm Vertical Wall Banner

 

 

   A quick stop to my local Paper Source on my day off turned out to be a super fun DIY project. I found these Contempo brand kraft paper letters at their store and I immediately wanted to create a fun vertical wall banner to add to my meditation corner. The materials I used are pictured below.

 

Materials used: super tacky double sided tape, kraft paper letters, poly brushes (2), Annie Sloane chalk paint, rhombo black graphic paper, vintage sheer gold ribbon, scissors, and a ruler.

 

   I used chalk paint because I had left over paint from a previous DIY and the color I used for those picture frames were the same exact color. You are welcome to use spray paint for paper as well. I used two different paint colors for my letters, honestly not knowing which side I'll use, it also depended on how well the color will look with my graphic print paper used to create the vertical wall banner.

 

 

 

   I cut a very long two inch (wide) strip of my rhombo black graphic print paper to hold my paper letters vertical. I also had some vintage sheer gold ribbon (optional) laying around my craft room which I used the super tacky double sided tape to attach the ribbon to the back of my long strip of graphic print paper. 

 

 

   When hanging your letters make sure there is an even amount of space within each letter to make it look uniform. Another tip, when centering letters on the vertical banner, use extra double sided tape to areas of the letters that are not held by the paper ribbon since it will add too much weight to the paper banner holder. 

 

 

   I decided at the last minute to interchange the colors of my letters to make it pop out more. You can make these wall vertical banners with any word/s of your choice for your corner of your home. I hope this post brings some of you a little calm inspiration.

Thank you so much for reading.

~ marissa

 

Power to Those #Unique

   It was an unusually heated day in beautiful San Francisco this past weekend, yet thankful that we are only a hour and a half away. There is always a hint of excitement for me when going to the city for the day especially when there are countless things to discover. This time we were headed to an event called Unique SF at the Fort Mason Center. One of three main city events for Unique USA, there is also one held in Los Angeles as well as New York.

 

 

A curated event of over 80 vendors all inside the Festival Pavilion, Unique SF brought in many jewelry vendors, local fashion designers, and a few specialty shops. My pups were outside waiting with the hubby so I quickly perused through the four aisles of utmost uniqueness. Here's my loot.

 

 

Urban Geometry provides a chain and airplant for free when purchasing a prism plant holder.  That's a unique score!

 

 NeoClassics' unique tees for men and women at the event were 3 for $25. 

 

My most unique find at the event was the crochet dream catcher from Amy Margaret.

 

I'll let the pictures tell rest of the story.

Thank you so much for visiting.

~ marissa

My Meatless Challenge

   I woke up one Monday morning feeling terribly and beyond exhausted after a full eight hour sleep the night before. Drained of energy, I was dragging myself to the office, also quite ashamed of how I felt. I came across a coworker on my way in, asked each other the usual questions such as "How was your weekend?" and/or "How is it going?". I let him know about my weird level of tiredness and he immediately answered with, "challenge yourself for 30 days to not eat red meat...". A big aha moment came to my mind right away, that I had eaten (not purposely) nothing but red meat for the last three days. No wonder, I felt this way I thought. That was on July 20, 2015, the first Monday I challenged myself to go meatless (no beef, pork or poultry).

 

{On my seventh day, I attempted to make these eggplant pizzas.}

 

{You can find the recipe and many others in my delectable fare Pinterest board.}

    

   So I turned to just tofu and vegetables. Lots of it the first two weeks. I didn't notice a major difference in how I physically and mentally felt until the 2nd week of my 30 day no meat challenge. I found that there was a difference in how I perceived everything, my mind was so very clear and focused.  I also noticed that I had more energy and my mood has definitely improved. My clothes felt a little looser although my weight remained the same. But I couldn't live on just tofu so I decided that I needed to incorporate seafood on my third and fourth week. This decision also made dining out with my husband a whole lot easier.

 

{My favorite dinner of all time is this tofu stack and asparagus spears at a local restaurant.}

 

{ I experimented on this tuna poke nachos at a downtown spot. It was yummy.}

 

   It has been determined that after my 30 day no meat challenge that I would just keep going with the same pescetarian diet. It works so well for me that I don't crave beef, pork or chicken when it's presented to me. It's very odd to me as I've been a meat eater all my life. But I'm happy that  I don't have the urge to eat it at all. Want to know which level of vegetarian you're willing to go? Check out this article here. But precaution must be taken, as I recently learned that boiled shrimp is very high in cholesterol. I also recently discovered that orange roughy (a type of fish) has the least calories and cholesterol level in all of seafood. Curious? Check out this seafood nutritional chart and a great Huff Post article on 5 Reasons to Become Pescetarian.

   One of my great discoveries of eating just vegetables is that my cost of grocery expenses have gone done tremendously. Since not eating seafood on a daily basis, there have been nights where my roasted vegetables are my main course.

 

   Realizing that today is officially my two month anniversary of becoming meatless, I found myself picking up a copy of the Vegetarian Times magazine for more innovative veggie recipes and I can add seafood to it as I please.

 

Need more reasons to try the meatless route? Read this last article here.

 

I hope you find this helpful.

Thanks so much for reading.

~ marissa

 

 

 

 

Ninna Lu | A Photo Retrospective: August 2015

 

  Do you ever sometimes wonder where time has gone by? As we enter into the month of September, I am looking back into my month of August's Instagram feed. As my main goal is capturing life's moments on the blog, I thought why not an end of the month photo retrospective that will quickly tell me a story. So here it is...

 

 :: I was invited to have a special lunch at work with the company's Executive Chef and I was able to experience this four course meal in the kitchen. It was very delicious! ::

 

 :: 1 :: From what I've read, coloring is another form of meditation. I recently bought this book called the "Secret Garden" and it has helped me calm down after coming home from a hectic day.

:: 2 :: Quite a momentous event, my first niece, Ava, came into our family's lives last month.

:: 3 :: It's officially my 7th week of just eating veggies (plus seafood for protein). Not eating red meat for me has been pretty significant as I've been a meat eater all my life.

:: 4 :: I've discovered a new book ,called "Quiet" by Susan Cain, to read that I handpicked myself as it's hard for me to pick a book of my own unless its been gifted. I find myself reading non-fiction books lately.

 

 

 It was definitely a hot month, but I couldn't help but start thinking of fall fashion. As always, fashion is in the back of my mind, hidden sometimes, but always shows up no matter what. 

 

Follow @shopninnalu or @ninalu_daily on Instagram.

Thanks so much for visiting!

~ marissa