Kayla is a Machine - Blog

Galentine's Day Goodies

Sat, 21 Feb 2015 00:38:20 GMT

Yes, you read that correctly. Galentine's Day has become one of my favourite holidays... even though it is a fake one invented by NBC's television series "Parks and Recreation".

"What's Galentine's Day? Oh it's only the best day of the year... ladies celebrating ladies! February 14th , Valentine's Day, is about romance. But February 13th, Galentine's Day, is about celebrating lady friends. It's wonderful and should be a national holiday"
-Leslie Knope

Though I have many wonderful ladies in my life, the last two years I've celebrated Galentine's day with just 6 lovely ladies that I talk to every day. This year, I decided to draw them all personalized Galentine's day cards based on their favourite foods and made little goodie bags to go along with them. Everyone showered each other with kind words and candies and we talked and ate and it was a great evening out.

You don't have to celebrate Galentine's day exactly on February 13th,you can celebrate Galentine's Day any day of the year if that suits you best! My group normally picks a day that works for everyone during the week before Valentine's Day. As much as I would love to have a big party with all the ladies in my life and decorate everything with pink and hearts, we have just kept it small and chosen to go to a restaurant for dinner the past two years because it means we don't have to cook or clean up after our get together.

This is a breakdown of what I included in my Galentine's Goodie Bags (and a few extra ideas for you too). I love this idea and might possibly do something similar next year... we'll see!

Galentine's Goodie Bag Ideas

-cute bag to hold all your goodies (I used the cute brown bags with heart cutouts from Michaels that you see in the first picture of this post)
-chapstick
-tweezers
-candle
-socks
-pink and heart shaped candies
-David's Tea Love Tokens
-nail polish
-manicure set
-chocolate
-jewelry
-personalized mugs
-soaps
-homemade heating pad
-homemade sugar exfoliator

And don't forget to include a card with a sweet message... though to be honesty, I didn't write much in my cards this year because I spent too long making the outsides. Their favourite foods are sushi, soup, cake, cheese, steak (meat), and chocolate (sweets) so that's what I based their cards on :)

...and just as a bonus, here is the Valentine's day card I made for everyone at work ("from" Kevin and Brian) that were hand delivered by cupid Kevin himself. Thanks for going along with my shenanigans guys and putting a smile on everyone's faces :)

Red Riding Hood & The Wolf [halloween makeup tutorial]

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 04:37:19 GMT

I'm stuck in traffic on my way home from work with my aunt so after about 3 hours of commuting and only being a few miles down the road I thought I would spend this time writing tutorial on how I did the makeup for me and my boyfriend's halloween costume this year.

I got a lot of positive feedback from the photos we both posted on Instagram and in person at the two halloween outings we attended and people were all amazed by how it was just some basic makeup used!

Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf

We went as a play on Little red riding hood and the wolf, but instead it was Red who gets her face clawed apart by a werewolf. People kept saying they didn't think that was how the story went, but the truth is, in early versions of this tale it was a werewolf who preyed on Red and did terrible things like tricked her into eating her grandmother and getting in to bed with her. I believe it was a lesson on listening to your parents and not talking to strangers. At least that's what I remember from my fantasy and fairytales English course I took in college.

My makeup (face primer aside seeing as that one isn't totally necessary) only took these products: black liquid eyeliner pen, brown eyeshadow, black eyeshadow, liquid foundation, and fake gel blood. The only tools I used were: 1 eyeshadow brush and a couple toothpicks.

My first makeup attempt was terrible. I tried to use those fake scar things from the party store... it just did not work out the way I wanted. This is my failed attempt at using those:

what a mess. I just had to start over.

started with a clean face (or put primer and foundation on... I only did the first).

So after peeling that mess off my face I decided to go old school and just use the makeup I had to create my "claw wound". I will give a simple step up step comment under each photo. Overall, to create this gash it took under 30 minutes.

Draw 4 thin lines with the liquid eyeliner

first, lightly blend brown eyeshadow around the initial lines leaving a bit of clean skin between in eyeshadow shading. Then layer black eyeshadow on top of the brown but not too close to the edges of the brown shadowing. Cover your entire eyelid with black/brown eyeshadow (but give it a little texture and shadowing).

using a tooth pick, lightly draw a thin dotted line of foundation between your two connecting eyeliner lines (each gash mark). this is to highlight and make the gash look more 3D. Using the black eyeliner, draw another line next to the first, connecting at the tips but widening near the centre and then tapering back to connect the tips.

You can see that the lines of foundation don't all connect and black outlines aren't perfectly straight You want it to look a little organic.

using another toothpick, dip it about an inch deep in the gel fake blood and wipe the excess on the container's edge. Holding the toothpick flat lengthwise against your skin, dab and wipe the blood (dip again as needed) across the "inside" of your gash on the foundation and around the eyeshadowed edges.

Leave some bits of the foundation clean as this is what really gives it a 3D effect.Be careful not to get the blood on your eyelid otherwise your lashes start sticking together and you can't blink properly... overall discomfort.

do whatever kind of makeup you want on the normal eye and then put in a freaky contact lens that whites out everything but the pupil and you're done!

And I won't do a full tutorial on how I did Kris' werewolf makeup but all it took was black liquid eyeliner, black kohl eyeliner, black and brown eyeshadow and foundation and for tool: small eyeshadow brush, larger contour brush, and toothpicks.

For the hair, I started with a base of eyeshadow, layered on pencil eyeliner, then liquid liner, then foundation highlights, and then brushed over it again with brown eyeshadow. For the eyes, just black eyeshadow on the lidsextending up into the eyebrowns and dipping at the middle tear ducts. For the nose, black eyeliner all over then brown eyeshadow blending upwards and wide across the bridge to give a larger, flat canine-style illusion to the nose.
Fake pointed ear and fake fangs, a red plaid shirt, bloody white tank top, tattered jeans and boots to finish off the easy were wolf costume.

So this was my halloween costume for this year, and I'm already trying to think of what we will be next year. I'm diggin' doing more elaborate makeup and a simpler costume, though I did DIY my Red Riding Hood costume as well by making alterations on some clothes I picked up at the thrift store and other pieces I had at home.

The make up tips for this style of gash is pretty transferably for any size or location on your body, so even if you don't want to do this on your face, you could easily use it on your arm or neck! If you have any questions feel free to comment below (I know my instructions are kind of choppy seeing as I wrote this post on my cellphone on my commute home).

Any suggestions on what we should be next year?

Sweet Eats

Tue, 09 Sep 2014 02:15:48 GMT

I feel like I need to apologize every time I post something now for not posting for months at a time. But I just need to accept that I don't take photos of every little thing I make with the intent of making a blog post about it.

So to make up for lack of posts, this post will summarize a few of the sweets I've made over the past year. I don't have the patience (or time) to write out detailed recipes/how-to's for each one so I'll just write a brief summary and/or link to recipes if you want to try it yourself! (Please excuse the fact that my paragraphs are unedited ramblings, I just tried to power through writing this before I got too distracted/tired/bored)

Two pound chocolate bar

I used a silicone loaf pan as a mold for this giant chocolate bar (it was around 9x4x4"), used a hammer to smach up some of the nuts, melted chocolate with a make-shift double broiler (saucepan full of hot water with a ceramic dish on top to melt the chocolate in), and then just mixed it together layer by layer. Stuck it in the freezer and once it was solid I popped it out of the mold, melted some blue chocolate and used a freezer bag with the end snipped off to do the writing on top. Then I wrapped it in tinfoil and designed and printed out a sleeve to go around it as well for Kris' 26th birthday.

Crack Pie

For Valentine's day, since it's one of his favourite desserts, I decided to attempt to make Momofuku's infamous "Crack Pie". They offer the recipe on their website but it's no wonder people pay so much to buy it ready made because it is a bit of a time consuming recipe. I've made this pie several times this year and it's gotten easier each time I've made it. Be warned, this pie is super sweet and definitely not healthy at all. Though delicious, I wouldn't advise eating more than a sliver of a slice at a time.

Caramel Apple Dip

I made this twice for some parties and it was a hit, once you start eating its so hard to stop. Basically, it's a dip starting with a base of cream cheese, covered in a layer of homemade caramel sauce, then covered in Skor bits and mini chocolate chips, then you just slice up some apples to scrape some dip onto and voila; absolute heaven. I followed this recipe but added the chocolate chips because why not?

Homemade Edible Arranement

This one isn't really a recipe but I wanted to include it anyways. Princess mentioned multiple times that she wanted an edible arrangement so for her birthday, I decided to make her one. Like the Crack Pie, I soon realized why people just pay an arm and a leg for these things because cutting and skewering all that fruit took an eternity. I like attempting these kinds of things because it does give me a greater appreciation for the high cost of them in stores (plus its just fun to make things myself). But all it really took was some knives, skewers, fruit, and a lot of patience.

Gender Reveal Sugar Cookies

I had the honour of making gender reveal cookies for my Pastor and his wife's second pregnancy to announce the gender of the baby (it was a girl)! This sugar cookie recipe reminded me of the cookies I used to eat after Sunday School at my old church when I was a kid, I think it was the almond extract that made it taste so legit. Next time I think I will attempt to actually make real royal icing though, I tried an easier version and though it worked and tasted good, it didn't harden the way I had hoped so I didn't end up decorating the cookies as fancy as I had intended for fear of the icing messing up.

Ferrero Rocher Cake

I made this for Kris' 27th birthday this past summer because he loves Ferrero Rocher and nuts. I think this cake looked pretty epic but admittedly, there's a lot of things I would change about it. I was a little over ambitious and made it triple layer, which was just a little too... huge. Not to mention the fact that i couldn't find crushed hazelnuts anywhere so all the hazelnuts around the side were smashed by me with a hammer for about an hour. But I was able to find large circular wafers used for cakes and pies at a local foreign foods shop so I was able to use that for between the layers which made it feel more legit. But next time I make this (because I do intend to try it again) I will actually follow the recipe like I should have... and not cheat and use box mix. I'll just have to borrow a food processor from someone to grind hazelnuts for the batter.

And I don't have pictures of these two desserts but here's two bonus recipes:

My f avourite chocolate chip cookie recipe I've stumbled upon. It is approved by my brother so that is a pretty high recommendation seeing as in all my years of baking he has never whole heartedly approved of my chocolate chips cookies until I started using this recipe. My advise is to cook it on parchment paper, use about half the chocolate chips it calls for (unless you like them really chocolatey) and pay SUPER close attention to how long it takes to bake these. In my over it is exactly 7 minutes, and I find they don't brown on the top so I check to see if the bottom is golden, if it is then I take them out and let them cool on the tray for 5 minutes before using a spatula to transfer them onto a cooling rack. Letting them cool on the tray is integral to them not falling apart during the transfer! These cookies are delicious when they are fresh out of the oven with a glass of milk!

And my last recipe to share is the super easy but fun twist on angel food cake, Pineapple Angel food cake with coconut whipped cream topped with sliced, sugared strawberries. My advice for this one is don't be stingy with the coconut milk, make sure it's full fat and not a cheaper one just for cooking otherwise the fat won't solidify and you will not be able to make the whipped cream. This recipe was so quick and easy to make and was filled with flavour and sweetness; definitely something you'll want to try.

So that finishes off my round up of some sweets I made this past year, hope you give some of them a try and maybe find a new favourite sweet treat to make :)

DIY Kid's Apron + mug brownie recipe

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 02:40:46 GMT

This post is late... nearly 3 months late. I'm really behind on this blog. I got a new job again. It's nice there. Anyways, this post is about my Christmas gifts this year. I wanted to try and DIY most of my gifts but wasn't able to, but I'm really happy with the ones that I could make. So if I can find the time I'm going to maybe make a few blog posts to feature them.

This year for my godkids I decided to forgo buying them toys and sew them their own kid-sized aprons personalized with their names embroidered on them and some easy "Brownie in a Mug" packets so they could do some easy (microwave) baking in their new aprons.

Aaven and Myla's mom was kind enough to send me some photos of her kiddies baking in their aprons since I haven't had the chance to have them over for a baking day like I did with the Iselah and Inaya in the photos below. They came over the week before I got my new job and I've been crazy busy ever since I started there.

If you're interested in making some aprons like it... too bad because I don't write down instructions when I sew things, I'm more of a trial and error kind of gal. But if you want, the aprons are very loosely based on the instructions from a kid's apron I found on pinterest (that is based on an apron from Anthropologie that I would love to have in the adult size). I purposefully made them big so they could grow into them and use them for a few more years before they are comically small on them. I also thought it'd be nice to personalize them with their names since my godkids all have such unique names its hard to find them on things.

But since I can't give you the exact instructions on how to make the aprons here is the "Brownie in a Mug" recipe I gave along with the aprons (also found via Pinterest). I actually ended up halving the recipe because I made it for myself and it was so sweet I didn't want to give the kids crazy sugar rushes (for the sake of their parents).

Brownie in a Mug

Mix together in a microwaveable mug:
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp chocolate chips
pinch of salt

Stir in:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp of milk

Microwave on high for 1-1.5 minutes (varies by microwave)
Allow brownie to cool slightly before digging in with a spoon straight from the mug!
Ice cream on top optional!)

I really liked taking on the challenge of hand making the kids gifts this year, hopefully I can think of other DIY ideas for years to come because it made it feel a lot more special to give them something I worked on myself.

Also, just a quick cute thing the twins said when they came over to my house for their baking day. When I asked them if they wanted to make cookies or cupcakes they said we have to make cupcakes because these are cupcake aprons. Then after looking at my apron with music notes on it, they said that it was a piano apron so I had to play the piano wearing it, and that my apron with flowers was for picking flowers. So cute.

an update

Wed, 13 Nov 2013 19:00:29 GMT

Hello blogging world, it has been quite a while since I've addressed you. Over half a year actually. How is it that I can be absent from my blog for that long and manage to get more hits regularly that I did when I posted on here at least on a bi-weekly basis?

During that half a year I've learned some things about myself, one of which is that I don't think I'm going to become that person I thought I was. I used to think I'd be that girl who blogs cool DIYs and recipes every week, daily outfit posts or just general howdy-do this is what's happening in my life kind of posts. And I don't have any kids but I did read this article that really hit me called "Removing My Children From the Internet". I won't go into here but if you have kids, I think it's a worthwhile article with some good points.

So despite not being that person, and not really caring for having my entire life constantly broadcasted in detail online, I thought I'd give you all an update on some of what has happened over the past 7 months:

April

I got a hair cut that I regretted almost immediately.
I started a new job.
Got my own pink gloves for the Cause Effect Fitness Muay Thai classes
This guy I've known for years started talking to me everyday.

May

Princess, Jacob, and Kris showed up on my doorstep at midnight on my birthday with ice cream cupcakes and it was probably the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for my birthday.
Spent my actual birthday with different groups of my friends and family. Eating. Always eating.
Celebrated my birthday with my upside birthday twin, Princess, by going rock climbing and to dinner with our friends.
This month was largely about my birthday. I've never really cared for birthdays, in fact, I kind of share Ron Swanson's opinion on them, to a certain degree. But this year was different. This year was really nice.

June

Went to Alaska to be a bridesmaid in my cousin Katya's wedding
Fell head over heels in love with the mountains
Climbed Flattop Mountain and felt complete
Near the end of the month Kris and I started dating. He's pretty awesome.

July

Camping and lots of beach volleyball
Awkward sibling photo at my cousin Titus' wedding
Went tubing and it was the scariest thing ever

August

Stayed up for over 40 hours making floral arrangements with my mom and then attending the wedding we made them for
Camping with my church for a zombie themed weekend complete with a zombie survival kit scavenger hunt that I put together.
Trip to Pennsylvania with the family
A million prizes from the CNE cause my boyfriend is a wack-a-mole champ. Finally got my first ever Hello Kitty plushie.

September

Aaven's 4th birthday. This kid is growing up so fast
Tricked into running the 10km version of the Terry Fox Run instead of the 5 I intended
Finally started my own volleyball team in a league called "Just Hit the Ball"
Survived Tough Mudder, a 17 km obstacle course. Took like 5 hours but I finished!
Attended my 4th wedding of the year.
Quit one of my jobs

October

Niagara Falls quadruple date
Hiking at Rattlesnake Point with Kris and his pet bear Marlow
Won the costume contest at a birthday party with our Dia de los Muertos outfits
Attended my cousin Lydia's wedding
First Halloween ever I didn't get to dress up because I left for a trip to New Brunswick
Got hired for a new job

November

November isn't over yet but I did go to New Brunswick for my cousin Mike's wedding (6th wedding of the year), so I thought it'd be worth mentioning and posting a picture of the Bay of Fundy since it was beautiful.
Finally worked up the nerve to take my G2 driving test... and passed! Woo!
My volleyball team 'Just Hit the Ball' finally won some games! We may have had a few ringers on our team though... but we are improving!

So there you have it. A brief overview of the past 7 months that I have been absent from this blog. I've got a couple posts in mind that we'll see if I do before the year ends (maybe a giant 'An Outfit for a Wedding' post with the 6 wedding I attended this year). This year I'm still aiming to be 'wrapped and done for December one' with my Christmas gifts but I've been so busy lately and with the hopes of DIY-ing a lot of my gifts I don't know if I'll make that deadline. Sadly most of the posts I could do are about those gifts... which means i can't post them until after Christmas or else I'll spoil the surprises. So maybe there will be a slew of DIY posts after Christmas... maybe...

Also avidly avoiding it I finally caved and got instagram so I guess you can follow me to see more regular bits of my life. Cause if you made it to the end of this post you probably care about that to some degree. or you're just really bored at work. I don't really care either way. here it is.

Okay enough rambling. The end.

Deviled Eggs for Easter

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:07:15 GMT

Does anyone else laugh when they read that title? Something about the fact that they're called deviled eggs and that it's for Easter makes me chuckle. But it's probably just me. I laugh at weird stuff, like this.

Truth be told, I'm not even a fan of deviled eggs, but when I came across these fun ideas for
them for Easter I just had to do it for my white family's Easter dinner.

In this post I'm going to explain how to make both the colourful and chicks deviled eggs. I didn't take too many photos but I think it's pretty self explanatory.

Colourful Easter Deviled Eggs:

Ingredients:
-eggs
-food colouring
-mayonnaise
-salt & pepper (optional)

Directions:
1. Boil, cool, then peel your eggs.

2. Carefully cut eggs in half length-wise and scoop the cooked yolks out into another bowl. (Don't worry about getting the insides perfectly clear, because you'll be filling them with the yolk mixture after anyways.)

3. Fill metal or glass bowls with water and a 5-10 drops of food colouring. Make as many colours as you would like.

4. Put the eggs whites into the bowls and wait a few minutes until they turn the desired colour. (Be patient! I kept thinking they weren't taking to the colour so I kept adding more and more food colouring so that's why my eggs are so bright. Also, after you remove them I found that they still because more saturated with colour so if you want pastel coloured eggs be cautious about how long you leave them in).

5. Beat the egg yolks with enough mayonnaise, and season with salt and pepper, until it reaches your desired taste and consistency.

6. Scoop or use an icing pipe to fill the eggs whites with the yolk mixture.

7. Season with paprika or serve as it is!

Hatching Chicks Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:
-eggs
-mayonnaise
-salt & pepper (optional)
-a carrot
-whole black peppercorns

Directions:
1. Boil, cool, then peel your eggs.

2. Using a small paring knife, carefully cut a zig-zag line around the circumference of the egg. Gently take the top half of the egg white off and set aside

3. Carefully scoop the cooked yolks out into another bowl. (Don't worry about getting the insides perfectly clear, because you'll be filling them with the yolk mixture after anyways.)

4. Beat the egg yolks with enough mayonnaise, and season with salt and pepper, until it reaches your desired taste and consistency.

5. Scoop or use an icing pipe to fill the bottom half of the eggs whites with the yolk mixture. Pile the yolk high and put the top of the the egg white back on top.

6. Cut tiny triangles from your carrots and stick two pieces into each egg yolk as a beak.

7. Stick 2 peppercorns above the carrots as eyes. Voila! You are finished.

I know this is too late for Easter 2013, but I hope you pin or bookmark this post for next year. Themed food is really fun to make, so I'm glad I got to do something from my Easter Pinterest board this year. What fun Easter themed food or crafts did you do this year?

RACE Winter Retreat 2013 Style Guide

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:11:57 GMT

You may recall the "Poser Style Guide" for last year's Rambunctious Fam winter retreat, so above is this year's style guide for all the costumes the whole weekend.
You can download the guide from the button below

style_guide_2013.pdf
File Size:	3018 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Can't wait to see you all in two weeks! Get ready for a crazy weekend :)

365 Project: February 2013

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:39:02 GMT

I'm amazed that I've kept up with this. I know the pictures aren't that great and are probably getting worse (plus I have yet to use a non-iPhone photo for this thing yet. Everything is so grainy) but I think that's okay.
Capturing moments, that's what counts, at least for this project.

If you want to see the full size photos for each day visit my ShutterCal and
click the day to enlarge the photo and see my blurb for the day.

Here are 5 of my favourite photos from this month:

February 5, 2013 decided to use my vintage inspired playing cards case to hold candy.

February 9, 2013 jam packed day: morning meeting, Zumba fundraiser at noon, and a two in one surprise birthday party in the evening

February 10, 2013 took a nice long nap before heading to work early to play Cards Against Humanity with some co-workers.

February 12, 2013 Spontaneous Ikea trip with friends then HC at Aaven’s house. We went from trading silly faces and funny noises to doing crazy poses. I showed him how I can’t do a somersault and he showed me he can balance on one hand and foot.

February 25, 2013 Babysat the twins today. They danced, coloured, took a bath, and I read them books till I had to leave.

Easiest banana pancakes in the world

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:33:28 GMT

I'm an avid breakfast fan. If I'm not working in the morning then I will normally make some sort of huge omelette and hash browns concoction and stuff myself. But, dare I say, eggs and hash browns is getting kind of boring. Even if I switch up how I season and garnish and prepare them... it's still eggs and hashbrowns. Not to mention how eating that almost everyday makes me feel very sluggish... I really should be cutting back on the amount of oil I fry those hash browns in... and not everything needs to be smothered in cheese, I guess. So this morning I decided to try something different.

I pinned it on Pinterest months ago and decided to try it today. Unfortunately, the link wasn't actually for the recipe so I don't know who to give credit for it, but thankfully someone had written the instructions in the pin description itself.
This is literally the easiest recipe for banana pancakes I have ever made because it only take two ingredients:
2 eggs and 1 banana. The end. No sugar, flour, or anything. So that means it's healthy too, right? Whatever.
Regardless, they are delicious and probably good to serve babies/kids too.

And even though I'm sure you can figure out how to make these pancakes from just the ingredients, I'll post the recipe and instructions at the bottom. Alright enough of me talking, let's get to the full sized pictures.

Easiest Pancakes in the World
yields about 10 mini pancakes (1 adult serving)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 banana

Recipe:
1. Mash banana in a bowl until smooth (no chunks!)
2. Add eggs and mix until smooth
3. Turn stove to medium heat and spray pan with cooking oil
4. Pour or spoon batter onto pan. Cook each side for 30 seconds or less.
5. Eat them!!

Optional:
Top with jam, peanut butter, honey, or whatever your heart desires.
My favourite topping was raspberry jam.

What would you top your pancakes with?

Do good for you and others

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:06:39 GMT

Do you remember when I wrote that post about working on working out? Just pause for a minute while I throw my head back in laughter. Exercise has always been my worst enemy. I try and I try but really lack the motivation to keep with it. So despite my inspired post, I have majorly slacked with exercising re: I have barely been to the gym or any sort of fitness class in the past 6 months. Sad, I know. Somewhere between quitting one of my jobs and the seasons changing I lost interest in exercise. So now as a new incentive, I have something called the 'Broken Rules Jar'.

Here's the plan, short and sweet:
1. Get a jar or piggy bank
2. Make up a few health/fitness related rules
3. Every time you break a rule, put a dollar in the jar
4. At the end of the year, give the money to someone/charity

If you want my full explanation and inspiration behind it click below to read more.

Inspired by a post on Pinterest I saw called an incentives jar, where you put a dollar in every time you work out, and you get to treat yourself to something (no food) with it at the end of the month/year. I liked the idea behind it, but I treat myself way too often for no reason to make the money jar a real incentive. So I came up with the idea of a 'punishment jar'. I have a set of 3 rules that if broken, I must put a dollar in the jar. They are small, simple, and achievable, but things that I struggle with and if broken can really hinder my fitness.

Now the thing that makes it a punishment rather than an incentive is that when the year is over, I have to give away all the money in the jar to someone or to a good cause. Yes, I know, it makes me sound like helping people is a punishment, which it isn't, but I donate time and money to good causes regularly, so this is just extra money on top of that. That's also why I decided to name it 'The Broken Rules Jar' rather than 'Punishment Jar'. I suppose it could have been called 'Penance Jar' or 'Retribution Jar'. Oh well, too late now.
Anyways, I duct taped the bottom shut to hinder me from breaking in and using the change for myself.

Now putting the money in when rules are broken is really by an honour system to yourself.
But if you need some help then tell someone you know who will keep you accountable. For me, it's my workout guru of a cousin, Sarah Jane.

And as you can see from the tweets above, there is fine print to my rules that make them slightly flexible. No excessive candy, which means I can have a bit sometimes, but not even close to as much as I normally eat (I am a sugar-addict). And the avoid pop fine print is that I can very occasionally drink it, but it is cut back to being a rare treat and not a daily or even weekly occurrence.

Anyways, to finish up here I'm gonna hype my cousin's fitness programs called 'Cause Effect Fitness'.
To quote their blog, "By utilizing our fitness goals for good. You workout, and part of your cost goes to a serving a non-profit organization, while raising awareness of the cause we are supporting."
Pretty sweet, right? You get fit and other people benefit from it too.
Their blog: FitCause.blogspot.ca Facebook: Cause Effect Fitness
(Did you notice the cover photo on their Facebook page is from my 365 project? Fun stuff)