Trendy Tuesday!

It's time for Trendy Tuesday! Here are a few things I've bought recently that I am in love with.


I got these unique, colorful loafers at Ross for $12.99. They are the Self Esteem brand and are super comfy. They look really cute with my skinny jeans. I'm a big fan of loafers and so these brightly colored ones caught my eye.


I had been looking for a new shade of dark colored nail polish and this is the kind that I chose. It's called "Over the Edge" by Essie and I bought it at Target. I've never owned a bottle of Essie polish before but I thought the color looked cool so I gave it a shot. I had to paint two coats to get a nice color to come through but the upside of "Over the Edge" is that after you paint two coats, it looks awesome! The color isn't as dark as it appears to be from the picture. I would call it a metallic dark grey. I don't like the harshness of plain black nail polish so when I wear dark colors, I go for dark greys, dark blues or dark purples.


I, like most other girls in college, have not been able to escape the Nike shorts trend. However, I also like other brands of similarly styled running shorts in addition to Nike shorts. On Saturday, I got these shorts from Old Navy. They were on sale for $12, which is a great deal when you compare them to other brands that look similar to this. They run large because I might normally wear a medium but I had to get a small in these. I wore them to my ballet class yesterday and they worked perfectly. They fit great, are comfortable and also pretty cute! I may go back to Old Navy at some point and buy another pair of these.

That's all for this week's edition of Trendy Tuesday! Hope all of you out there in cyberspace have a wonderful day!

Emily

Unexpected Peace

You know that quote "stop and smell the roses"? I had a moment like that this morning. I was making myself some coffee (well actually, I was pouring myself a cup of International Delight's Iced Coffee-yum) and I just completely stopped because I heard the birds singing outside my window. It amazed me so much because I stand at that spot in my kitchen every morning and fix my coffee and I had never noticed the bird's singing before. I've lived in my apartment for about 5 months now and not once had heard them. I doubt that they just started it up today! They've been sounding that lovely every morning and I just didn't stop to listen.


(Looking out my window this morning.)

Here's the thing. In the morning when I am fixing my coffee, I have a gazillion thoughts running though my head. "Oh my gosh, I only have 3 minutes before I need to leave." "I can't be tardy at this class again!" "Will I have time to go put on some mascara?" "It's going to be so cold outside." My own thoughts drown out the birds I guess. But this Saturday morning was different. Instead of forcing myself out of bed at 7:30 in the morning to get ready for class, I was able to lay in bed until 11 am. It was wonderful.

I'm the type of person that almost always has music or the tv on in the background. When I sat down on my couch this morning, I almost turned on Spotify to listen to something and then I decided not to. I mean, the birds sound pretty amazing. There's something about taking some time out to be still and just listen to the birds chirping outside. That's what I'm doing right now. I can hear the clicking of my typing on my laptop, the birds singing and the road noise from the busy street that I live off of. Paying attention to those things is so peaceful.

I often hear people talk about having a quiet time with God. I really struggle to do that because I am so easily distracted. How could I not be distracted though, with almost constantly having the tv going and the music blaring? I think I need to learn to be at peace with being still and quiet once in a while. That's why I love going to my yoga classes so much-because it's so relaxing.

So often, it's the little things in life that stop me dead in my tracks. A beautiful sunset that paints the sky a spectrum of colors, the gentle breeze blowing through my hair, bright colored flowers growing along a highway. You don't always need to do something big to experience joy. Joy can be found in the most simple or unlikely places if you only stop and notice it.


(A photo I took of the sunset on campus a few days ago)

Beyond Good Intentions

It's 12:49 at night and I'm sitting in bed going back to my familiar phase of "I'm going to get into blogging." This isn't something new for me. I've had a very sporadic relationship with blogging in the past. For years, I've wanted to blog. Technically, I've had this one since 2009, but I have very few posts on it so far. I always start out with such good intentions about posting. Good intentions scare me though. You can have good intentions about something and that's great...but it doesn't get you anywhere in life. I really want to move past having good intentions with this blog and actually be intentional about posting.

I feel that if you truly have a strong desire to do something, you should listen to yourself! There's something in me that wants to blog. I love the way that each blogger customizes their blog in their own unique way. No two blogs are exactly alike, just like no two people are exactly alike. That's why blogging exists, isn't it? It's giving people a glimpse into your thoughts, your viewpoints. It's like a little window into someone's life. A celebration of who that person is and what they care about. How amazing is it that we live in a time where people can share these stories with one another? I can understand better about someone's life in Belgium after reading their blog (*cough*Cara*cough!) and visa versa. If everyone in the world wrote a sincere, heartfelt blog to help others hear their side of things, maybe the world would be a better place.

It seems to me a huge loss to live in the time of this crazy cool technology and not use it to share insight with others and gain insight from them. So, as I said, here I am, now at 1:02 am, on my computer writing this. My first post as a wannabe blogger!

Seriously though, even with all of its ups and downs and twists and turns, life is much too beautiful to let it go undocumented.

So here I am.

True.

Beautiful Austin, TX at night. Citylights<3

Don't ever be somebody else's slogan because you are poetry. :}

I Promise Myself

I Promise Myself

what if we all said this every morning before we started our day? how different would our outlook be? would we treat ourselves and others better? how different would our lives be? taking some time to reaffirm things to ourselves can help us to put life into perspective. :)

I PROMISE MYSELF:

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person I meet.

To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature I meet.

To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me.

-Christian D. Larson

take some time to think about these words and how you can put them into practice!