Lifestyle Design

It shouldn't be a surprise to most here that I work- a lot.  Between my day job, blogging on lunch, and even more blogging on night and weekends I tend to sit in front of a computer for, well, at least 12 hours a day during the week and about four or five hours a day on weekends.

Needless to say, that doesn't leave a lot of time for working out.

When I traveled full-time this wasn't a problem.  I was out walking most of the time (not blogging) and continually walking five to 15 miles per day made sure that I dropped anywhere from 10-15 pounds on each long-term trip (and that was with drinking and eating whatever I wanted).   As soon as I got home from both trips that weight came back on, and in being so exhausted from working so much I never really got into the habit of working out.

That is, until I bought a desk cycle.

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One of my favorite travel blogging images is the digital push pin travel map that highlights cities and destinations that its creator has visited.

In one quick glimpse you can see every place in the entire world they have been and with just a little thought, imagine where they may be going next.

As we are building a home full of travel decorations, I knew that one day I would be taking this popular digital map and converting it into a real-life decoration to be used as the centerpiece for one of our rooms (with a fantasy of it being in a travel-inspired bar room).

I always expected these maps to cost upwards of $150 or more when finished, as is the case with some of the nice ones available on Amazon or Conquest Maps, but I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money right away.

Instead, I put on my crafting hat and ended up being able to make my own professional style travel map with pins at home for just about $50 US and an hour of my time.

If you've ever fantasized about making a push pin travel map of your own, here's what you do.

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If you've ever visited Istanbul, you'll no doubt have seen hundreds upon hundreds of the gorgeous and ornate Turkish lamps that are found throughout the city.  Our first thought was that these lamps were pretty awesome, and without hesitating we began a quest to to buy one for our (at the time) future home.

This was all well and good, but there was one problem: we had no idea how to make it work when we got home.

Luckily for us, modifying the lamp turned out to be incredibly easy, and you don't have to be an engineer with an electrician for a father to figure it all out (that being said, I'll give you one guess which category we fell into). 

But if you have reservations about making your Turkish lamp working at home, this step-by-step guide is all you need to take your boxed up lamp and turn it into the star attraction of a room!

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