Project Inspire Link-Up!

{Dear Ann,

You're not allowed to read this post. Since you can't link up, I'm linking up for you, and your card still has to be a surprise for when you get home! I want to keep you in suspense:) And you already know how much I love your card, so you don't need to read this anyway. So you can just exit out now....}

I was paired up with Ann at Hi, from Ann. This is the super-cute card that Ann made for me! I've really loved getting to know her through emails and comments on each other's blogs. And getting this in the mail completely made my day and put a smile on my face!

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Ann is having fun taking a three-week course away from home...which means she's not going to get to see my card for another two weeks! It did arrive safely at her house, though, which is good. So since she can't post about it, I'm going to share it in her place - just as proof that I wasn't a lame partner who didn't send out a card {although I was a lame partner who put off making the card until the day before it had to be sent out...}!

Overall, this was a great experience. I always love getting mail {who doesn't?}, and I loved making the card for Ann. I'm definitely going to be participating in things like this more often!

Check out everyone else's experiences here!

High Five for Friday

This week has been a blur. A very long blur. Which is a contradiction...but that's just the type of week it's been.

1//4//5

#1) My nails make me want mint-colored clothing! {P.S....those aren't my nails. I didn't get to take a picture of mine. My nails don't look nearly that good, anyway.}

#2) BOOOOOOTS!!!!! DO you remember those boots that I was supposed to get, like, two weeks ago? Well, I didn't get them. But I just got this pair last night and they are AMAZING! Excuse me if I end up wearing them in every single outfit post I do from here on out...

#3) My card from Ann arrived! I'll be posting and linking up for Project Inspire hopefully today, but possibly tomorrow. It'll get done!

#4) Babysitting for the cutest baby ever on Wednesday - he looked like a baby doll, and he was an angel! 

#5) I'm going to a "harvest dance" tonight...whatever that entails. Lots of cowboy boots, I imagine. It sounds fun! 

Happy Friday, y'all!

Because I Looked Amazing....Part 1 of My Thrifting Haul

dress: vintage, thrifted
belt: vintage, thrifted
shoes: target, thrifted

I was thrifting with my mom yesterday, and while I was looking at sweaters, she came over with this dress and said "It's so 70's! You have to try it on!" So I did, just as a joke...but then I loved it. It fits me perfectly, and it is actually really cute! The tie around the neck is my favorite. And I love the belt we found to go with it - the asymmetrical buckle is pretty awesome.
While we were in line buying everything {yes, there is much more to share!}, a lady saw the dress and she was like, "I'm not going to lie...I am so jealous right now!" And you know what's really cool about the dress? It was made locally! The label has the name of this old dress shop in town from the 70's. You know what else is really cool? The gold on the dress is, like, the exact same shade as my hair.

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And now, shifting gears to progress on the happiest year of my life:

This past week has been really great {despite the fact that my sidekick has been MIA}! I'm not sure if the greatness of the week has made it easy to keep my goals, or if keeping my goals has made the week great...either way, I did much better than last week!
My most impressive accomplishment has been  monitoring my computer time. There's still a lot of room for improvement, but there were actually multiple times when I sat down at the computer and did homework without opening my email or blogger. Craaazy!


a year of happiness
the october goals
{week 1 went undocumented}
week 2

Hope everybody had an amazing Sunday!

It's Friday, Friday!

#1) Today is my last race of the season...it's definitely bittersweet.

#2) I won another giveaway - my luck is finally kicking in! This one's from Hope Squared, and I'm pretty ecstatic about it!!!!

#3) I'm really excited for Project Inspire {a card swap I signed up for through Hollie Takes Notes}. I finally sent my card out on Monday {which was the last possible day...I've known about this for, like, a month. I'm such a procrastinator}, and I can't wait for Ann to get it! I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my card, too.

#4) I'm no longer make-up-less! {check out my guest post on Jen's blog for more about that} A quick trip to the drug store was all it took...

#5) Ditching school, hanging out at a bar...and seeing HUNTER HAYES! More about this later - for now, just know that it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm linking up with Lauren today!

Who else has had an amazing week???

Dear Boys,

Dear Red,

I don't even like you, but you were number one on my list for a while.
You do this and you're a winner - too cute!

Love,
Princess


Dear Duck,

Tonight! And Friday?

Lurve,
Turtle


Dear NM,

You're confusing.

Unsure,
JK



Dear Rabid,

You, too.

Yours,
Sane


Dear Train,

I'm sorry....but you don't need to treat me like I'm five!

Apologies,
Niamh

Me, Myself & I ... numero trois

Another round of Me, Myself & I has come around! This is so my favorite time of the month...who doesn't love talking about themselves? I love reading what other people have to say about themselves!

#1) What is your favorite season? Explain.
Fall! Fallfallfallfallfall ohmigooseness, fall! Even though it's the shortest season of the year in these parts {and actually, we're going back to summer weather this week! Argh!}, I love every second! The colors are amazing, and the food is to die for (pumpkin and cinnamon and caramel flavored everything!), and getting dressed becomes 5 gajillion times easier and more fun....I love fall!

#2) Talk about a moment that changed your life?

A moment that happened recently was meeting Elder Golden, an LDS General Authority. He seriously lit up the room with is spirit...and I decided that I wanted to be that person.

#3) If you could be any Crayola crayon color, what would you be and why?
I can't decide between robin's egg blue and magic mint....they're the happiest shades of some of my favorite colors!

thank you Jenna for sharing this link!!!

#4) Describe yourself as a superhero: Superpower? Name? Sidekick?
Apparently, I'd be The Merciful One-Eyed Pirate - which is fine by me. That's definitely a cooler name than I would have come up with! My superpower would be telepathy/reading minds. Being able to run way super fast would be amazing, too. And my sidekick would be a certain super tall blonde chick who ditched me to be in Utah this week....

#5) If you had all the money in the world and could only shop at three stores, where would you shop?
Anthropologie, Target, and J. Crew!

{1//2//3//5}

P.S. I'm also guest posting on Jen's blog today - check it out here and give her some bloggy love!

Revealed!

For anyone who hasn't heard of this whole Blog Angels shindig, here's a quick explanation:
We are assigned a blog to be an angel to, and we help them out any way we can for the month. Bottom line, it's a ton of bloggy love going all over the place. It's been anonymous thus far...but now we all get to figure out who had whom!

My blog angel (or would it be blog angel-ee?) is.....

{drum-roll, please}



Christine at Pink Hugs and Blessings!

I did what I could for her - I commented on her last post and stuck her button on my blog.

And wait - just because I'm the luckiest blogger in the world, I have another one!




Starr at The Kiefer Cottage!

I actually just got reassigned to her yesterday, so I haven't gotten to do much yet. I commented on her most recent post and then took the liberty of blog-stalking her and reading, like, every post she's ever written...
This girl is hilarious, and she has the cutest family!

I'm excited to keep doing what I can for the rest of the month! And now that it's all out in the open, we can be official bloggy friends!

{see the rest of the reveals here}

Another Week of Happiness

via

Guys, I think I'm just a little bit pathetic. 

I only just finished Week 2 of the happiest year of my life, and every single day this week, at least once, I've wanted to cancel it so that I can just go off and mope. Fortunately, I didn't cancel it, so I don't have to feel quite so lame, but this was definitely not my finest week. 

Let's go over the goals one by one, shall we?

+ kneel for prayers, morning and night - This is the one goal I was pretty good about...besides those couple of nights that I wimped out and half-said my prayers while laying down in bed.

+ daily yoga stretching - I'm officially modifying this goal. Stretching has almost the same invigorating effect as yoga. It's really not realistic for me to get yoga in every day. That having been said, I didn't actually stretch daily, either. At all. Soooo...I'll work on that next week.

+ New Testament reading in the morning - I did do the reading every day, but it didn't always happen in the morning. 

+ Book of Mormon reading before starting my homework - This just didn't happen at all some days. Whenever I didn't do the New Testament reading in the morning, it got pushed to before doing my homework. Fail.

+ 15 minutes of piano practice daily - This was an absolute joke. But just so I don't feel like a complete failure on this, I'm going to count the organ practice I did on Wednesday as piano practice. And since that was for an hour, and an hour fits 4 15-minute practice sessions, it's like I practiced piano four times!

As nice as that reasoning was...it doesn't really count. So I'll do better this week. Hopefully.

+ monitor computer time - I was...okay with that. Just okay.

+ tidy up before bed every night - Just okay with this, too. That's how you know this was an off week - I'm usually totally OCD about the cleanliness of my room. 

+ run - Another joke.

+ ACT energetic - Aaaaand...yet another joke. I've been getting way too few hours of sleep to even fake it. 

That was yucky. But, to be fair, I didn't really put an insane amount of effort into this week. Or really any effort at all. 

Hopefully this coming week is, like, a gajillion times better!

Here's to an awesome week to come-

Friday is SOO My FAVORITE!

1//4//5

#1) Friday is my favorite on a whole new level now. It's not even because it's the end of the week anymore. It's because of the BEST idea EVER created by men...has anyone heard of "Tie Friday". If you haven't, you are missing out so much that I could cry for you {okay, so not really, but really, it's amazing}. 

Tie Friday = guys in ties. 

This may not sound very impressive, but if you could just see how nicely some of them clean up...Friday would take on a whole new level of awesomeness for you, too.

#2) I HAD MY FIRST CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE OF THE SEASON ON THIS MORNING! Next, Starbucks' Salted Caramel hot chocolate...

#3) I won a giveaway at The Sapphire Bee...what!

#4) I've got a TON of work to do this weekend - and that's great because, um, I'm learning.

#5) I'm getting a pair of much-coveted riding boots tomorrow! I think. If all goes well. I'm crossing my fingers and toes!

I hope you all had an amazing Friday!

Fall Bucket List

Inspired by a gajillion other lists out there - here's a list of things I want to enjoy this fall:

I'm going to be making the most of this season I love so much!

What are you looking forward to this fall?

Here, There

I'm over at Covered in Grace today, co-hosting the Monday Meet-up! Go check it out, and give Brooke some love!

OCTOBER: {vitality}

Here are my goals for OCTOBER! The theme is vitality.

So far, I'm doing well with most of the goals, and okay-ish with the others. The hardest ones are acting energetic and monitoring my computer time. I'm always really tired, so acting energetic is quite a challenge. I did fine earlier on in the week, but it went downhill from there, as I got less and less sleep. And monitoring my computer time....um, yeah. Exhibit A: Last night I found "Pretty Darn Funny" and I just had to watch every episode. Yes, I did have other things that I needed to be doing.

I'm loving the challenge, though! 

It's only going to get better every week!

P.S. I submitted a form for Shane's Operation Beautiful a while ago, and it's up this week! If you haven't put in a form, I highly recommend it! You can see mine here.

This Weekend, I'm Watching...

You know, when it rains, it pours. It never fails, even if the pouring is just going on inside my own head. That's kind of how this week has been, but then this comes along:

And suddenly, everything's okay again.

Anyone else watching General Conference? What's your favorite part so far? Elise has come up with some way cute printables for some of the talks already - here and here. Check them out!

P.S. I will be coming back later for that post on my October goals that I talked about forever ago...actually, it was only on Monday, but it's just been that kind of week.

My Pants Are Falling Down!

...and that's how it's been all day. Remember these pants? These amazing, lovely, wonderful pants? Well, when I bought them, I had this brilliant idea of buying them a size bigger, because I had that drilled into me growing up: you always buy everything a little bigger than you need it so that you have room to grow! The problem with that now is, I'm done growing. There was no point in buying them one size up, unless I was planning on growing horizontally. Which I'm not, really. So now I'm stuck with too-big pants. Fabulous too-big pants, but too-big pants nonetheless. But I'm willing to suffer through it! They are the most amazing color, after all. And I can only wear them so many more times before they have to be retired for the winter. I'll deal.

via

On an entirely unrelated note,
Am I totally vain if I get a kick out of reading my own blog?
{Actually, don't answer that}
I think I'm pretty fascinating. I just spent an abnormal amount of time reading my own posts. They're waaay more interesting when you know exactly what was going through my mind when I was writing them.

In celebration of Finding the JOYS in My JOURNEY's 6-month bloggiversary, here are some of my favorite posts:

April - my very first post...not really my favorite, but the awkwardness of it makes me laugh
May - my Mission: Put Together wrap-up post
June - my absolute favorite song and my first {and last} trip to GAP
July - a way-legit tutorial and "Dear Boys" (my first, I think!)
August - the evolution of my relationship with August: hate - try to love - love!
September - two truths & a lie and some life changing

Aaaaand so I don't come off as too self-centered, I'm participating in Melissa's Blog Scavenger Hunt!

WILD- Christine @ Pink Hugs & Blessings
POST- Kim's post on being a "Martha"
PICTURE- Erica's "sassy face"
RECIPE- I'm gonna be honest...I haven't actually tried this yet, but come on! How does it get any better than Stuffed Pecan Rolls?? (from Elisabeth @ La Vita e Bella)
CRAFT/FASHION- loving everything from this post by Kilee @ ONE little MOMMA
BLOGGER- me and Jessica...I would so want to be her BFF! I don't know how anyone could ever not be super-happy around her!
POST- this one by Elise
PICTURE- this outfit post from Anne - she has the sweetest smile! And that last picture is great...
POST- this post (and pretty much every other one) from Autumn
BLOGGER- Elise @ Elise's Pieces -  I swear, she always posts exactly what I need to read, exactly when I need to read it!

I love me some bloggers!

It's Here!

Here's my big news...but I need some background first.

via

So by raise of hands, who has read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin?

Good, good...if you haven't, you really should. 

That was the first bit of background. The second is that it's my birthday month.

I read The Happiness Project back in July, and I immediately thought that I could use something like that. It's not that I'm unhappy, but couldn't we all be happier? I was crazy-excited to start - my only problem was, I didn't know when to start. Then I thought about how October wasn't too far away...
So I'm giving myself the best birthday present ever:
the happiest year of my life.

I've turned my happiness project into something that is going to help me make the most of myself, and make me the best me possible. It's going to be hard - I've planned the monthly goals around my weakest points. But that's the only way I'm going to improve, right? Every impossible moment is going to be worth it! I'm also aligning my monthly themes/goals with different Personal Progress experiences...it never hurts to do them again, and I don't think you're ever too old! I'll probably be posting about it pretty regularly during this coming year - it'll help keep me accountable.


I started off the year with a pretty easy theme. October is all about Vitality. I'll post more specifics later this week, but I've got to finish my school work for now - one of the goals has to do with time-management and monitoring my computer time...yikes!