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GypsyLovinLight

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I used to dread Mondays, but I must admit that when Mondays role around now I get pretty excited about sharing inspirational/happy things for Monday Sunshine, and this week I am too excited to share what I have found. I discovered GypsyLovinLight just a couple of months ago through instagram and immediately fell in love with her images. I mean, just look at some of these images…can’t you feel her passion for life and beautiful soul just radiating right from them?? As I have struggled with depression, I find myself looking for things constantly that are uplifting for help, and I was immediately drawn in by her story and images and I have been hooked ever since! No one lives a perfect life all of the time, but I believe the creative passion and free, loving beauty in life that is captured so well in her style of art and photos is something to be constantly striving for, no matter how stormy life feels sometimes. I should just mention (in case it wasn’t obvious!) that ALL of the photos in this post come from her blog at GypsyLovinLight.com and I do not own any rights to any of them, I just think they are too incredible not to share…and that goes for the amazing quote I found and listed at the bottom that I found on her about page because it just embodies so many things that are beautiful about life to me 🙂 Enjoy!

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Gypsy9

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“I saw visions of delicate beauty that flowed seamlessly with nature. A vision of a primal soul adorned with magical jewels, in touch with the rhythm of life’s cycles. She dances in ecstasy and joy under the moon, by the fire, with the gentle earth caressing her feet. Always grounded and connected to the great mother. Her flowing skirt shimmery by the light of the moon, a smoky haze accentuates her softness, dust kicks up from the ground like a million sparkling stars. Her inner light is illuminated, and she shines both inside and out.” -GypsyLovinLight

 

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7 Tips To Be More Active Through the Day

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Ever since the beginning of my fitness journey (or weight loss journey) I have REALLY struggled with getting more active the most. I, like a few other people in the world I am sure (no need to raise hands!), am inherently LAZY. It is a personality flaw I have. What can I say? I just really like to laze around the house and do nothing! Ha! When trying to lose weight though, or even just to maintain a healthy body, staying active is one of the best ways to reach your goals. Whether you are an exercise-every-single-day-for-hours kind of person or an I-try-to-do-it-when-I-can-if-I-feel-like-it kinda person, everyone could benefit from a little extra activity and there are some very simple things to implement to make your lifestyle more active and healthier, without actually hitting the gym! #winning

Here are some tricks I have found helpful:

Walk More

I have an aunt who recently loss bucket-loads of weight and changed her life entirely, and she said the biggest thing for her was trying to get to 10,000 steps every single day. It doesn’t have to involve running around the track (although it can!), but getting more steps gets your body moving and more active. Park farther away at the grocery store, take the longer route when walking from point A to point B, walk instead of driving if your destination is a short enough distance away. I might even recommend investing in a pedometer to track your steps if you want to get really serious, I have seen ones as cheap as $7 or $8 on Amazon, but I have had my eye lately on the slightly more pricey FitBit because it has such great reviews and so many cool features!

Take the Stairs

Do you usually take the elevator at work? Well stop that right now and get to work on those stairs! It only takes a little bit more time and stair action is great for your legs and getting the blood moving. Not to mention it helps you get in some of those extra steps I mentioned earlier!

Stand Instead of Sitting

Alright, this one might be a little more tricky because you might work a desk job, but standing allows your body to work more muscles and burns about double the amount of calories than sitting does. This means if you can get up and stand for a few minutes every hour, or maybe ever 45 minutes you can take a little walk around the cubicles to get your body moving you should do it.

Do ACTIVE Housework

Yes, if you were to spot me vacuuming my floors, you would see me doing lunges as I go along. I know it is kind of silly but adding in a few extra leg workouts while I vacuum helps me to get in all of the strength exercises I should be doing daily. Housework in general can be a little bit of a workout sometimes, but some tasks are more-so than others. Some sweat-inducing task ideas include weeding the garden, scouring the tub or shower, scrubbing the floors, rearranging furniture, or raking the yard. Maybe this one will be hard for some of you really neat and tidy people, but when was the last time your furniture got vacuumed or your baseboards and walls all got a scrub down? There are tons of easy workout activities all dressed up as housework. Even if you can’t think of a high-intensity chore to do, you can add quite a bit more activity and burn more calories just by doing your regular chores a little more enthusiastically.

Add Mini-Activities to Your Regular Habits

There are a few things we do every single day like getting dressed or brushing our teeth, so something I started doing is picking a couple of tasks and every time I have to do them, I add a physical activity too. For example, every single time I go to the restroom, I do five squats first. Or ten, if I feel ambitious. Every time I brush my teeth, I do ten crunches. It is sort of a silly method but just like lunging when I vacuum, it keeps me motivated toward actually reaching my goals.

Mid-Day Dancing

I feel like everyone should make this a to-do, whether you are trying to be more active or not! Dancing is SO much fun! If you can manage to spare a minute to dance around and wiggle all you’ve got in the middle of the day then do, because it is an awesome way of getting a lot of activity packed into a short amount of time since you are working so many body parts. Now, I am not saying you should stand up in the middle of the office and become Jim Carrey doing the Samba from The Mask, (double points if you do though!)  but if you can do a little jig on your break or even dance in the car to your favorite song on your way home you get all the extra added activity!

Strengthening in the Car

Speaking of moving around in the car, a lot of us spend a large portion of our time glued to the seat of a car (or train/bus/whatever). Why let this time go to waste? A really good, not-so-noticeable exercise you can add in while you are sitting there are muscle clenches. You just focus on a specific muscle group and work on tensing those muscles tight and holding it for a few seconds, then releasing. Repeat as many times as you feel really give you a good workout. You could do arms, your belly, your butt, your legs, all easily without other people really being aware of what you are doing (bonus for those using public transportation!) Just make sure if you are driving that you focus on driving first, your toned stomach does no good if you are splattered across the pavement because you were trying to exercise while driving- leave these exercises for when you are not the one in control of the wheel and really make use of that free time!

Hopefully a few of these tips can inspire some of you with ways to add more activity into your own lifestyle! Good Luck!

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Wild Living

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After a Monday like today, I am definitely ready for some Monday Sunshine, but as I sat here trying to decide which of my many post ideas I wanted to work on I just felt…. uninspired. And what do I do when I am uninspired? I end up getting distracted looking at old pictures on my computer or reading odd little articles online. It just so happens that I came across some pictures from when we went to the zoo a few days ago and I just can’t help but share them. I know probably tons of people disagree with me because zoos are always so crowded and the animals are always sleeping- but we LOVE going to the zoo. I am a dork, but I always feel this sense of wonder and amazement at seeing the animals, it is just so incredible to me how beautiful and intricately designed each creature is. Not to mention that as an artist I love color, and one of my most favoritest (yes, I know it isn’t a word!) things is seeing bright, bold colors occuring naturally within nature! I mean, so often we are surrounded by “manmade” colors that are bright and flourescent, and we usually think of colors of nature as being kind of neutral and earthy, so to spot a bright yellow flower, a hot pink flamingo, an orange tiger, etc. and experience those bright colors in nature is just my secret obsession and makes me unbelievably giddy and happy. Ok, end mushy-gushy-nature-nerd rant. So I thought that for Monday Sunshine I would just share with you some of my favorite photos we have taken at our zoo and I hope they bring a little smile to your eyes! (ok, so Tony took most of them. Or all of them. Benefits of having a more talented husband than me!)

Check out my husband’s website here and his youtube channel here! Instagram: @Juiceboxtony

t.sol rhinos t.sol lion t.sol leopard t.sol sealion t.sol elephant

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ok, so technically this was taken at the aquarium a couple of months ago, but I accidentally uploaded it and then decided I wanted to keep it on here because come on….how gorgeous are these jellies??

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Emergency Lip Revival!

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For some reason every time the seasons start changing, I start drying out like a nasty old prune. I think most people who live in places with cold climate winters can relate to the dry skin/lips/etc. when it is freezing cold outside, but I in particular have a hard time all year round it feels like- basically every time the weather changes. Maybe it is the desert climate I live in? My biggest problem area is, and always has been, my lips, so over the years I have worked and experimented to come up with the perfect concoction of lip treatments to repair my dry, cracked lips quickly. It is an especially great treatment for emergency care if your lips are extremely painful or you are embarrassed of how the dry lips look and want soft, luscious lips again ASAP. So here is what I do when my lips are screaming HELP!

1- A Simple Sugar Scrub

Scrubs are seriously the best thing you can do for any kind of dry skin because they exfoliate it so well, removing the dead skin without hurting anything else and leaving behind glowing skin. The same goes for lip scrubs. I have a personal sugar scrub that I came up with a recipe for and LOVE (will be posted next week!) because I hate spending money on things that are so easy to make, BUT if you don’t have time or don’t want to prepare a recipe scrub, the simplest way to do it is just to get a little spoon of white sugar and put a few drops of water into it, until you can create a little paste. Then take it and rub your lips like crazy! Try to get all around the outsides of your lips too! I find it helps if you moisten your lips with a tiny bit of water first because the scrub seems to go on smoother. I always use a circular motion to rub the scrub in, and I usually try to be pretty rough while doing it so that it really gets all the bad skin off, but do it however feels most comfortable for you!

2- Deep Moisturizing

The key to dry lips is that they are lacking moisture, so you want to use something that will really smother and lock the moisture in. I actually prefer to skip right over the “typical” lip moisturizers because I feel like when my lips are really bad they just don’t work fast enough. I just head straight for the vaseline or the mentholatum- before you comment, yes I know they are not products intended for lips, no I don’t care because they really do work. I plaster the stuff over the whole bottom half of my face to make sure my lips are totally covered, haha! I like to just sleep overnight like this because literally, the damage will be 100% repaired by morning, but if you are on a time limit or unable to just let it sit for a few hours, do it as long as you can- even just 5 minutes will help I promise! Just take care not to actually get it in your mouth because 1, it tastes awful, and 2, like I said, they aren’t products intended for in the mouth typically. I just like to get creative and make my items be multi-taskers.

A little secret- if you don’t have or don’t want to use a product like vaseline, use honey. Yep. Honey. Just take a spoon and rub it across your lips, leave it there for 5-10 minutes, and wash it off. Honey is incredible and I am finding it increasingly harder to discover things that honey can’t do- moisturize your lips with honey and they will feel like baby skin.

3- Continuous treatment

Find a good lip moisturizer or chap stick, and be as consistent as possible in applying it. I mean every 20 minutes (or more if it tastes good, right?) If you need to do another sugar scrub immediately after the deep moisturizing then that is fine, but usually I just go straight from the mentholatum to applying chapstick. I love Burt’s Bees products, but lately my absolute favorite is the “egg chapstick” as my sister calls it, it is from Evolution of Smooth, or EOS chapstick. I pretty much snatch these every time I am at the store the same way people grab a pack of gum as they wait in line. They are cheap and work wonders.

4-Things to avoid

If your lips are prone to getting dry, especially if they have recently been dry or it is winter, try to avoid things that will dry them out. Salty or processed food going into your mouth (even if you don’t think it touches your lips!) will make your lips more likely to get chapped. Licking your lips too often will make them dry, which is horrible because if you have really dry lips you want to keep licking them to try and moisten them, but TRY to resist because it just makes it worse! Finally, avoid products that have a drying effect, like most lipsticks. Opt for a lipstick that specifically is meant to moisturize (there are only a few out there, despite what advertising says!), or stick with a gloss.

If your lips are really sore, cracked, chapped, etc. just do this routine as many times as it takes and your smackers will be back in business in no time. Pucker Up!

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Monday Sunshine: Life is Short

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Monday Sunshine this week is all about this quote. I searched and searched and searched, but I can’t find the author anywhere. I found a bunch of people that I thought might have been the author, BUT it turns out none of them were after researching it a bit, so if anyone knows by chance then do a girl a solid and let me know! Otherwise…this quote i just found on pinterest (where else?) and I love it. So true. Even though I am on a weight loss journey and should be having NO butter, real or fake! Life is definitely too short to waste your time with things that are fake, you deserve the real thing, both in food and in people!

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A Little Box Of Sunshine

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So after a frustrating weekend with my site accidentally getting deleted and homework and dealing with a toddler with a broken leg, I am really in need of a fresh start and a little dose of sunshine! And for this week’s Monday Sunshine I thought, what is more sunshine-y than an actual box of sunshine?! I did this as a gift for my sister for her birthday, and it was seriously so, so fun to put together.

So there are a few ways to do this, ranging from super simple to super extravagant so you really can do any version of this on any budget. I chose to stick with a yellow theme this time, but I have also thought about doing a yellow & orange theme, just an orange theme, a box of favorite things without a colored theme (because favorites ARE sunshine-y!), or doing actual “sun” things (either with the word sun or pictures of a sun?). Really the possibilities are endless.

Of course, I just re-used an old box that I had. (always recycle, right?) and luckily it happened to be a super cute box from Adore Me, so for those of you are curious, that is where I got it. I also think it would be REALLY cute to add some colored tissue paper, I would have done yellow, but of course at the time I was throwing this together last minute and didn’t have any. BUT that really just goes to show that this can work really well as a last minute gift idea. SCORE. So here is a list of things that I included in my box, but I also had a few extra fun ideas that I didn’t get to put into my box but would be super fun to add too so I will list some of those as well!

WHAT I INCLUDED IN MY BOX:

  • Lemonheads
  • Shaving Cream in a yellow can
  • Star shaped sticky notes
  • Calypso Lemonade
  • Goldfish Crackers
  • Lemon Soap from Bath and Body Works
  • Carmax Lip Balm
  • Peanut M&Ms
  • Sour Patch Kids
  • Juicy Fruit gum
  • Strawberry Lemonade Koolaid
  • Yellow Nail Polish

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OTHER IDEAS OF THINGS TO INCLUDE: EOS Chapstick, Lotion, Hand Sanitizer, Play-Doh, Stickers, Yellow Markers/Highlighters, Bottle of Soda, Bananas or Pineapple(if they will be opening it immediately!), TicTacs, Pencils or Pens in yellow, Pajamas or Pajama Shorts, Makeup that has yellow or orange bottles, Swedish Fish, a Gift Card, a Cute Yellow Mug or Cup, Car Fresheners, Photographs, Yellow Bubbles, Silly String, Small Stuffed Animal, Morning-Burst Face Wash (Clean&Clear), Loufa, Bath Bubbles, Travel-sized wipes, Lemon Tea, a Candle, Sunglasses, Lays Potato Chips, a can of Cheese Dip or Easy Cheese, snack size Vanilla Wafers or Golden Oreos, Juice or Drinks (i.e. lemonade, fuse, squirt soda, gatorade etc.) Mr. Goodbar, Burt’s Bees products, a Hand Fan, T-Shirt or Tank Top, Flip Flops, Cute Undies, Washi Tape, Office Supplies, Balloons, Socks, Towels/Washcloths, Fancy Soap, Picture Frame, Perfume or Body Spray, Love Notes from you, Glitter, Flowers (real or fake, again depends on when it gets opened), anything with a Smiley Face on it, Fun Jewelry, a Poem, Hair Accessories, Kitchen Towels, Lipton Tea, A Favorite Movie, Notepads, Markers (or any fun crayola accessory really), Cookie Cutters, Candy, Jello. Literally there are SO many ideas, these are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head without really thinking too hard about it! I would love to hear any other ideas you guys have so I can add them to this list!!!

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Fitness Journey Update: Part I

Taking baby steps and imagining the sand between my toes while I do it!
Taking baby steps and imagining the sand between my toes while I do it!

***Ok, first of all guys, just want to send a quick apology because it has been a few days since I have done a post, but we have had a crazy few days with illness and broken bones and hospitals, etc. etc. etc. Yes, the three “etc.” were completely necessary. Thanks for staying awesome and being patient!***

A few weeks ago, I started on a fitness journey. All of my life I have struggled with my weight, although I somehow managed to keep myself at an average, healthy weight growing up. As I transitioned from adolescent into adulthood, then got married, then had a baby, and then struggled with depression, plus the regular stresses of work/parenthood/life in general, I steadily lost complete control of my health. This resulted in more weight gain, continued depression, worsening of my Acid Reflux, extra health problems, feeling like crap regularly, and a complete and total loss of self esteem and self respect. And then it came, an epiphany if you will, and I decided that things are going to change. Now, I have said this a MILLION times before, and where I am still in the beginning stages, there are a LOT of people around me who still don’t believe I can do this, but I am determined. We only have one life, this is our only body, and I want to spend my life enjoying it without the restrictions that being overweight and unhealthy brings. This is my first “official” update post since the beginning of my fitness journey, and I promised that I would document it for everyone to see and let everyone hold me accountable so that I can be super embarrassed if I don’t meet my goals, haha! Really though, hopefully if anyone out there is in my same shoes these updates will inspire you and you can do this with me! So, here goes nothing!

Total Weight Loss: 10 pounds

Amount of Time: 5 weeks and 3 days

Inches Lost: None, sadly. Unfortunately I have SO much weight to lose that 10 pounds seriously is like nothing.

Differences Noticed: Most of these aren’t actual visually noticeable, again I still need to lose a bit more I think before I SEE anything…

  • I am having less headaches- maybe from eating more healthy foods and less processed stuff?
  • My skin is starting to look really good. My conclusion is that I am putting less toxins in and that makes the skin look better.
  • I have a LOT less heartburn than before. Having had acid reflux most of my life, I think I will always struggle with heartburn a little, but I still can’t believe how much better it has been.
  • My feet don’t seem swollen at the end of the day.
  • My ring is no longer squeezing the life out of my finger like a boa constrictor, in fact it is now loose enough I can spin it around my finger again! Yay!
  • My boobs are getting smaller……Oh wait, no they’re not. D*** it. Maybe if I think it enough times it will come true

Struggles:

  • I am CONSTANTLY grazing. I don’t even realize when I do it. It has been THE hardest habit to break, and after five weeks I am still really, REALLY struggling with it. All of the sudden I will just realize that I am shoving things in my mouth and eating and not even notice. I think I might try to keep a food journal where I write everything down that I eat and see if it helps remind me to stop eating mindlessly.
  • I don’t just dislike working out. I physically can’t. I am at such a whale status that seriously every time I try to work out I have to be super careful because I could seriously hurt myself with all of this weight. I literally have ZERO strength and flexibility right now, so I am starting small.
  • Stress eating. I have a serious stress eating problem. If I get the tiniest, little bit stressed I throw all ambition to be fit and healthy out the window and eat. And I still haven’t figured out how to control that, so if anyone has suggests let me know! In the comments, or email me, or instagram me, whatever- this is my biggest struggle right now.
  • I feel emotionally drained. I know that I have lost 10 pounds, but it seriously feels like nothing because I have so much to lose. And with the amount of weight I need to lose I would have thought I would lose a LOT more weight in 5 weeks than just 10 pounds. It is the most frustrating, depressing thing to see when I get on the scale and it has barely moved from when I started. I am trying to remember that it took me 3 years to put on all of this weight and it isn’t going to come off overnight, but it doesn’t make me feel any less sad or frustrated about it unfortunately.

Helpful Tricks Learned:

  • I am striving to drink at least 64 oz of water daily. It about kills me to get there some days, but I feel like this has made the biggest difference for me so far.
  • Reading inspirational quotes and stories. I know this is kind of cheesy, but I really do feel so inspired by hearing other people’s stories and successes and it is seriously the only thing that keeps me going.
  • Brownie Brittle. Holy…best stuff ever. It takes care of the chocolate craving, tastes JUST like a brownie, is crunchy and wonderful and it is my absolute favorite treat when I crave something sweet.
  • Setting goals. At least for me, it has helped me to keep focus and perspective. I have my ultimate goals that I want to reach, and every day I just set one little goal to achieve that will take me one step closer to my ultimate goal. Overall I really don’t want this to be about losing weight, then going to normal life. What I really want out of this is to learn about and adopt a healthier way of living, a change in lifestyle. I will post more about my goals and my goal setting process next week for you!

If anyone has tips, tricks, advice, inspirational stories, etc. for me I would absolutely love it! Just leave it in the comments or email me directly! I am going to try a few new things in the next few weeks and will post another update soon!

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Rainy Day Braids

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So lately, I have really gotten into all things braids. I haven’t worn them for years and honestly have never really thought of a braid as an “option” for my hair in a long, long time.  I don’t actually know why though, because I have come across all of these amazing braids and I just think they are so pretty and there are really so many different ways to wear braids to tailor to any occasion, whether it is something formal, work, or just lounging around the house! So for the first time in years, I decided to try out braiding my hair! It must have been the Seattle atmosphere inspiring me, ha! I wanted to be careful because sometimes I think braids look kind of little girl-ish and I wanted to avoid having that look- maybe that is why I avoided doing them for so long?? BUT I have been following this amazing blogger for years now (Amber Fillerup, who else??), and she is incredible with making the most gorgeous braids, so after getting some inspiration from her feed I decided to start really elementary and do a super simple, single, loose braid that I then pulled apart and intentionally left strays out to give it a slightly messier look. For my first time trying in years I was actually pretty excited about it, and I am super glad I did a loose and messy braid because we ended up heading out for a soccer game later that day where it seriously POURED rain on us and I totally got knocked in the head with the soccer ball when I wasn’t paying attention! I am a serious ball magnet and probably should stay within a 100 foot radius of any game.  Meanwhile Sydney was just having a blast jumping in the puddles, and it was just so cute that I included a few pictures!

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Love Yourself This Valentine’s Day!

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For some reason people often think there is something wrong with buying themselves a gift, but listen carefully when I say…THERE IS NO RULE SAYING YOU CAN’T SPOIL YOURSELF ONCE IN A WHILE! Do you see where I am going with this? I will give you a hint…… Valentine’s Day is coming up.
Despite my love for all things pink, sparkly, girly, and romantic, it has never been a secret that I HATE Valentine’s Day. I don’t really have a good reason, but there is just something about the gushy, cheesy expectations society sets for one to dote on their romantic partner, not to mention completely leaving out every single person out there. Don’t get me wrong, I love celebrating with the man that is my Valentine every year, but something about the entire concept of the day just leaves me rolling my eyes in annoyance. There are many other holidays out there where we have the chance to purchase silly gifts and focus on the ones we love. On a day to celebrate “love,” I think it is time we have a holiday where we focus on loving ourselves.

So often we become victims of life, caught up in the hustle and bustle of busy days, taking care of other people, and being envious of those that seem “perfect” and wondering when we will catch a break. I recently discovered this amazing campaign started by Be Bona•Fide that promotes the idea of loving yourself, imperfections and all! So often, especially with how influential social media is in our world, we view everyone else as having such perfect lives. I know I do. *(I actually believe it played a huge impact worsening my struggle with depression) What we don’t realize is that nobody is perfect, and nobody is living a perfect life. There is real struggle behind every perfect photograph that we hardly ever get to see. The Be Bona•Fide campaign is about coming to terms with the fact that we aren’t perfect and it is ok. It is truly about overcoming the insecurities we have by realizing nobody has a perfect world, and through that knowledge coming to love ourselves.

Because I feel so inspired by Be Bona•Fide, I am going to make a challenge here. I think once in a while it should be OK, and is NECESSARY even, to step back and say, “Wow, I am Awesome!” My challenge for everyone (including myself!) this Valentine’s day and for every Valentine’s day from here on out is to take the day to stop and say, “I may not be perfect, but dang it I am pretty freakin’ AMAZING and I LOVE MYSELF!” Make Valentine’s Day, the day of love, about YOU. Buy yourself a gift even. In fact, I especially encourage buying yourself something. No matter what your budget is, you deserve to splurge and treat yourself. Spoil yourself a little! You deserve it!
Here are a few of my favorite ideas right now for a “Gift to Self”

me ring

A “Me” Ring from ModEvil found on Etsy. Aren’t these the CUTEST?!

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A Sleepshirt from Victoria’s Secret. I absolutely love their nighties and will never have enough in my collection! Long but still short enough not to tangle around the legs = perfection..

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EOS Chapstick. From the Evolution of Smooth. Get ready for pretty much paradise on your lips.

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Fresh Blooms. I LOVE fresh flowers!

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A new bathing suit. Yes, it is February, but there is no wrong time of year to have a new swimsuit! (Plus if you are like me, it might encourage good behavior to fit into that swimsuit come summer! MOTIVATION!) These are some Nanette Lepore ones I am loving!

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A new book. The next book on my “to-read” list is #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso, the CEO and founder of Nasty Gal fashion!

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Mermaid Perfume. Because we are all mermaid’s at heart and I am a firm believer in letting out your inner mermaid.

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A delectable treat, and as it is Valentine’s after all, nothing is more loving for yourself than to treat yourself to some of the amazing goodies from Shari’s Berries! Trust me, you will be addicted!

Hopefully some of these ideas get your minds thinking on how you can show yourself a little love this Valentine’s Day and for those interested in checking out Be Bona•Fide or participate in their incredible movement then click here!

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Highlights From So.Cal

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This is the first vacation that we have ever taken together as a family that lasted longer than just a weekend, so of course we tried to pack in as many activities as possible while still trying to maintain some sort of “relaxation” effect……in other words we tried to do the impossible. Of course we failed spectacularly at getting any relaxation because let’s just face it- taking a 2 year old out of their comfort zone on an adventure is never going to be relaxing. BUT we did have a ton of fun and got to experience some really wonderful things together as a family! We decided to spend our vacation in southern California so we could spend some time with family for the holidays. Over the 9 days we were gone, we hit up the Long Beach, Disneyland, the Ojai valley, the beach, and Las Vegas. There is way too much to write about to fit all in one post, so I decided to list some of our highlights from the trip!

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Character Greetings- Let’s just say that the look on both Sydney’s and Belle’s face does the whole “character greeting” thing perfect justice. Sydney was SO excited to see the characters and would start screaming their names and laughing, and the second it was her turn to go up she suddenly was freaked out and started crying. Literally the instant we put the camera down and turned to walk away so the next kid could go, she was calling their name again and wanted to see them. Right after seeing Mickey she even called out, “Mickey Mouse, I love you!” but only after several minutes of pouting while we tried to snap a photo. Little stink.

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I’m a Mermaid!- No doubt about it, Sydney has always been a water baby. She loves swimming and has absolutely NO fear of water, which as a mother is completely terrifying! One night we decided to go down to the pool and swim, she was jumping in and I was catching her when she just randomly squealed, “I’m a Mermaid!” I was shocked, and thinking I hadn’t heard her correctly I asked her what she said and she yelled it again! It was adorable and I am still so surprised that she even made the connection with her 2 year old mind that mermaids swim in water, and since she was swimming in water she could imagine herself as a mermaid. We were laughing for like an hour after, it was so cute!

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Lights on the Canal- I don’t really have a lot of pictures of the lights because it was dark and the only camera we had with us at the time doesn’t perform very well in the dark, but this was one of my favorite things ever! We have some family that lives in a little area that is modeled after the canals in Italy, it is adorable, all of the street names have Italian names and the whole little community just looks like a tiny Italian village by the sea or something. On Christmas night we decided to go walk along the water and it was so fun because all of the houses were decorated and lighted up, like a little gingerbread village along the canal!

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Meeting Noah- Ok guys, this was seriously incredible. Noah has been one of my favorite artists ever since I discovered his work several years ago. He is an amazing artist who is known all over the world for his work and contracts with Disney creating some of the most amazing works of art themed around Disney characters. We just happened to be walking through Downtown Disney and I saw an art shop featuring tons of his work, and I found one I loved so much that I decided to go back and get it and when I went back, there he was, in house! I got him to sign my piece, then as we were leaving he stopped and said Sydney was so adorable and he just pulled out a pen, grabbed a random piece of paper and drew her a little illustration of Minnie Mouse right on the spot, for free because he was trying to get her to smile! Is that not amazing?! I am still in awe that I have a one-of-a-kind illustration addressed directly to Sydney that he did for us because he loves what he does, not because I asked him or because he was required. It was incredible.(Check him out here)

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The Lava Lava Affair- One of the days we went to the beach and it got a little chilly, so I pulled out the lava lava (sarong/wrap) that I bought in Australia to wrap Sydney and she immediately fell in LOVE with it. I have no idea if it is just the type of fabric or the way it feels on her skin or what it is she loves about it, but the rest of the trip she refused to go anywhere without it! She spent a LOT of time trying to wrap it around herself in new fashions and kept telling me it was “so cute.”

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The Food. The Candy. The Treats. –Of course, a vacation always feels complete if you have some good food! Maybe we are biased, but we love Mexican food so we were on the hunt for our favorite places! We landed on a fun restaurant in Downtown Disney called Tortilla Jo’s which was super fun for Sydney because they have a guy walking around making Balloon Animals! We also ran across some delicious tacos in Long Beach. And for anyone looking for delicious treats in Disneyland, might I recommend the in-house made peanut brittle. Oh. My. Goodness. Too die for good.

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Meeting “Grammy” and “Papa”– My grandparents live in beautiful Ventura county, so we because we were in southern California it was a “must-do” on our list to make a trip to see them. I wish we could have stayed a little longer than one afternoon, but getting to see them for just a few hours really made my whole trip. I love how insightful they are and with their age and experience, they just have an amazing perspective about life and I wish that I lived closer so that I could have that insight around me more often! Plus it is always amazing to see how Sydney interacts with her great grandparents. I am a little cheesy probably, but there is just something special about having four generations together…so special!

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Dumbo the Flying Elephant.– Can you guess why this one makes the list? When I was little my family took a trip to Disneyland and I begged to go on the Dumbo ride. Being a daddy’s girl, I played to the soft spot he had and he stood in line for two hours to take me on that ridiculous ride. And here I am 20 years later at Disneyland with my 2 year old, who has basically ignored all the “magical” and “cool” stuff at Disneyland until we passed the Dumbo ride. I still don’t think my ears have recovered from the high pitched squeal she let out. I literally don’t think I have ever seen her more excited to see something than she was when we walked passed the flying elephants. And boy, did she want to go on them. With her only being two, I didn’t expect we would go on many rides or that she would really grasp what was going on, but we were surprisingly able to go on a lot of different rides and she definitely knew what was happening. She loved the rides. She got the most excited about Dumbo, however she also really like Pirates of the Caribbean (we were shocked, too) because it was in a boat and she really liked the little canons and guns going off (kids are so strange sometimes…)

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Seashells- Even though it was December and the California coast isn’t exactly warm in the winter, we still had to make a few trips to the beach just to soak up the sunshine. Like I mentioned earlier, Sydney is a water baby. She just LOVES playing in the water. I thought she would be afraid of the water, but she mostly was just so curious about it. She was curious about everything at the beach- the sand, the shells, the birds flying around, the waves… It never ceases to amaze me how curious she can get and how delighted she is when she discovers simple things. It is kind of a mini reminder about what life really is and should be about, the little things that make life beautiful. She loves rocks (just like mama) and so immediately she started picking out the coolest looking shells and things she found and would bring them over to show them off. I just felt like the luckiest mama watching my little girl share her curiosity and excitement with me, just so precious and fun!

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We had so much fun on our little trip and I wish I could write about everything that we got to see and do! Like a lot of you other mothers with princess-loving daughters, we watch Frozen frequently in our house (Sydney is obsessed) and there is one little line in that movie that just resonates with me. In the infamous song Let it Go, she says, “it’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small.” I love that. This trip was about getting away from our regular lives for the first time together as a family and it was so great to get to put things into perspective. It was a great way to end 2014 and the best way to start the new year. I hope everyone else enjoyed their holidays too!

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