THINGS I LOVE LATELY.

A little list of things I love lately! Because sometimes you just have to be grateful for all the little things. 

THINGS I LOVE:

1. This lovely little drink I've been making myself everyday! It's such a refreshing summer drink and it makes me so happy! Plus, I put it in my Rain Forest Cafe glass I got from my last trip to Las Vegas and that is a cute little reminder of my fun trip there in April! The drink is so simple. You just mix a can of Dole Pineapple juice and a can of Fresca. Add some crushed ice and a straw and you have a little piece of delicious Summer happiness!

2. Oprah's Super Soul Conversations! Her podcast is so uplifting and inspiring and helps me feel a little bit more lifted when I listen to it. 

3. Taking time for a little something small I enjoy. Lately, it's been sitting on the porch swing. Everyday when I get home from work, I put my things inside, change into some comfy clothes, and sit out on the porch swing to unwind. Sometimes it's just for 5 minutes and sometimes I'm out there an hour. I realized it's something I personally need to get back in tune with myself, and I've been loving that!

4. All the flowers in bloom everywhere! They're all so pretty and brighten my day. I love all the different blooms in everyone's yards when I go on my walks. I especially love stopping to smell the yellow roses and the yellow/orange ice cream mix rose bushes. Ooh so yummy!
 

4.The OC! Yes, that OC. The silly TV show from the early 2000s that we all secretly loved! I'm re-watching the seasons right now, currently on season 4, and it still holds up, you guys! It's just such a silly, entertaining show and makes me feel like I'm my 15 year old self again! Oh the drama!

5. All the little mid-day thunderstorms we've been getting these past few weeks! I love a good thunderstorm! I love just going out on the porch and watching the lightning light up the sky and the rain run down the street. I love the rain! Especially those quick little storms that show up out of nowhere with such force!



LINKS:
Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations:  www.supersoul.tv
Cookies from:  www.thirstdrinks.com

DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.

"Done is better than perfect."

I heard this quote on a podcast I love and it really resonated with me. I don't automatically consider myself a perfectionist until I realize there are so many projects I haven't yet started because of this overwhelming idea that it has to be perfect the first time around. I have so many things I want to do, but I don't start those projects because something so small holds me back. 

Well folks, done is better than perfect. Starting and creating something even if it's not amazing is so much better than never making the thing at all. The more self-help style podcasts I listen to, the more I realize successful people didn't just have all the answers in the beginning. They didn't wake up one morning and say "I'm going to have a successful clothing company/bakery/blog/etc" and it just magically happened. They tried and failed, they experimented, they walked down the wrong job path until they realized that's not what they were supposed to do. They tried, and they tried, and they tried. Until, eventually, they turned their once small, intimidating idea into something successful and extraordinary.

Even when I take a look at the back pages of my blog right now, I have so many drafts of blog posts that never got published because I didn't think they were finished. But what's the point of writing 92% of a blog post and then never clicking that "publish" button? 

I wanted to start a blog a long time before I actually did, but the dumbest reasons held me back. I didn't know what it would truly be about, I didn't know a good blog title, I didn't have all the ideas right up front so I didn't start for a couple years. How dumb is that?! If I had just started the blog, the ideas would have come, but I thought it was the other way around. 

It's so awesome if you already know your life's calling and you know what you are meant to do, but I feel like for the majority of us, we're all just figuring it out along the way. And I think that's totally okay! Trial and error help us grow everyday, and I personally want to give myself the freedom to try new things and fail at them than not even try at all. 

So that being said, I'm working harder every passing day to remind myself that done is better than perfect. I'm allowed to fail. I'm allowed to make a really crappy macaron the first time around and get better with each batch. If the worst possible outcome for a project or business idea is just that it won't be successful, who's to say you shouldn't try?

You can listen to the "Don't Keep Your Day Job" podcast here: www.dontkeepyourdayjob.com

The podcast is so inspiring and motivating to run after the one thing (or multiple things) in life that call to you, to live your life intentionally, and to live your happiest life. I really recommend it to everyone! 

I hope you, yes you, figure out what would make your heart truly happy if you just weren't scared of failing. And then I hope you take a step towards that goal today, even if just a baby step. We only have this one life, and I think you should live it doing what you truly want to do. 

Happy pursuing! :)

APPRECIATING THE LITTLE THINGS

Lately, I'm all about the little things. The little moments that easily get overlooked, but strung together make up an entire life. 

Jeremy and I have been watching (or re-watching for me) Seinfeld from the beginning as we eat dinner after work. It's such a small thing but I always get so excited when we make our food, or more realistically lately, go out and get our food, and come back home to watch a little Seinfeld. It's the perfect summer escapism show and it just has been making us laugh so much! So as silly as it may seem, the couch, Jeremy, and Seinfeld have become a little happy place for me these past couple weeks and I couldn't love it more!

So here's to reminding myself to stop and enjoy all the little happy moments in life even if they seem as silly as eating yummy food and watching a TV show.

HAPPY LITTLE THINGS.

Because sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy all the little pieces of happiness in your life no matter how small and insignificant they may seem. 

1. At work, the Portlandia theme song came on and it instantly just made me so happy. Part of it was because it subconsciously tricked my brain into thinking I was watching the show. But also because it reminded me of driving through the canopy tree neighborhoods in Portland and listening to that song in the car with Jeremy. 

2. Coffee shop mornings with friends. I always look forward to Friday mornings for this exact reason. Good drinks, good toast, and good friends. 

3. Today at work, a guy came up to me and asked "You love your job huh?" When I said yes, he said "it really shows" and just told me how he appreciated how happy I always look walking around. That was just a really nice thing to hear. 

4. We had pizza day at work yesterday and we're having it again today! Yay for pizza days!

5. It's been a lovely cloudy drizzly day up until now (noon) which is so nice! I love a good overcast morning. I drove to work with all my windows down this morning and couldn't get enough of the fresh breeze through my hair and the nice rain smell in the air.

6. We watched a really dumb movie last night called "The Belkno Experiment" but sometimes I secretly really love bad movies. It just seems like no one on the production team realized just how cheesy it was before they sent the final product out into the world and I find that funny!

7. I organized and cleaned up my shop so I can really start focusing on Confetti Heart more! It's so nice to have an organized shop, and I really want to concentrate more energy into my business.

8. Today I got the urge to learn French again so as I've been sitting here editing photos I've been listening to French lessons on YouTube and it's interesting just how much comes back when you hear phrases again. I just want to be able to speak French so badly! One day I will. :)

9. Mama has been here for the past couple of weeks and it's been fun to have her here! We go on little drives, we watch TV together (one of our favorite pastimes!), and we get to chit chat in person instead of on the phone so that's been nice.

10. I'm just really happy today! I've been having a lot of good days lately so I'm very grateful for that.

IMPULSIVE LITTLE HEART OF MINE.

I have this little problem where I want to do too many things, be too many things (occupation wise), live too many different places, and have too many grand ideas.

Lately here are a few. As you can tell, my heart has no idea what it wants.

• Move to New York City for a couple of years and make just enough money where I can afford rent, live comfortably, but still give myself enough free time to experience all the fun touristy things.

• Buy a home/apartment/condo in Los Angeles. Recently I've been looking at houses everyday online in LA and get my heart too excited for something that realistically is at least a year or two away.
  
• Live in Hawaii for a year. I just really love the idea of living in Hawaii. I don't know if living there will take away some of the magic of the island but I don't think it will. I know there's a big difference between being on vacation somewhere vs actually living there, but I think it would still feel carefree and fun living and working there too.
  
• Take a short term job on the set of a TV Series in Iowa that I got offered. A couple weeks ago I met some people on the set of a movie being filmed here in SLC. One of them offered me a 60 day set job starting in August. The only problem is it's in Des Moines, Iowa and I don't know where the heck I would live for just two months. It would be some really good money though so I'm very tempted!
  
• Buy a house in Salt Lake City to fix up and rent out. Houses here are so cheap and it's fun to think I could actually afford one today if I wanted. Yay for unknowingly saving money for a down payment all this time.
  
• Open a bakery. Ever since I was little, I've always loved the idea of opening my own bakery. For some reason lately I'm starting to really take notice of all the vacant buildings I could see my bakery moving in to. It's just fun to think about when I pass by cute abandoned shops.
  

Despite all my different ideas lately, I actually am very happy with my life right now. I really enjoy my job. I'm able to live in the fun part of Salt Lake City. I love how cute Salt Lake City is. I'm saving a lot of money. I really love all my friends here. And I just really love how easygoing and carefree my life is right now.

Life is happy. But it's always fun to daydream. :)

HAPPY LITTLE THINGS

1. It's Friday! I love Fridays so much! (As I'm sure everyone does.)

2. My mama is here for the weekend! She flew in yesterday for conference weekend and I'm so happy she's here. I think it's raining most of this weekend so we'll have to find fun indoor things to do around the city. 

3. I got to visit with Andres this week! He came to town for his Spring Break and we followed our tradition of getting Kneaders. I swear I only eat Kneaders when I'm with him even though I love that place which makes it even that much more special! It was raining all day when we hung out so we both ordered soup in bread bowls only to have the girl tell us they were out of bread bowls. Um, what? You're a bakery, girl, just make more. We were obviously just being divas haha. 

3. One of the things I got Jeremy for his birthday is the cutest little happiness journal. You write one happy thing that happened during the day every day, and it's a 3 year journal so you get to look back at your happy thing from the previous year(s) which I LOVE! I love the idea of looking for the happy in each day, but I especially love the idea of reading what your happy thing was exactly a year ago on that day. Here's what the journals look like:

(Photo from Papyrus Website)

They are so cute and little, and we just keep them on my nightstand so we can write in them together before bed everyday. I got them from Papyrus in City Creek but I bet you could find them at any bookstore. :)

4. It's overcast and drizzling today which I love! I feel like everyone at work is so much more laid back on rainy days and I like seeing that carefree silly side of everyone! 

5. I sold 11 skirts so far since Monday and that's exciting! Skirt sales have definitely been growing exponentially over the past few months and it's fun to see my little business grow before my eyes. I'm sure a big fan of being a small business owner. And an even bigger fan of working from my couch in front of continuous episodes of The Great British Baking Show! :)

 6. Jeremy turned 23 on Wednesday! I like to tease him for being a baby but I'm really only a year and half older than him which isn't anything. It's just fun to tease. We went to R&R BBQ for his birthday dinner, got Ruby Snap cookies for dessert, and watched a movie! I told him the next day that I wanted it to still be his birthday because I liked celebrating him and having a day just about him. 

It's just a happy little week this week and I'm grateful for that! I hope you all have a happy week too. :)


Link to my Confetti Heart shop: www.etsy.com/shop/ConfettiHeart
Link to the "Happiness Is" book: www.papyrusonline.com/happiness

HAPPY LITTLE THINGS

Maybe it's because it's Friday, but I'm just a happy little bear today! It's beautiful outside today, everyone has been so nice to me, I ate the yummiest lunch that Jeremy made for me this morning, and I'm just grateful for my life.

So, here's a Happy Little Things list. Things that I love or just things that are making me a little extra happy these days. :)

1. My office at work. I've never had my own office at a job and it really is as nice as I thought it would be. I've hung up maps of Yosemite and Yellowstone on my walls. I have grapefruit oil in my oil defuser so it always smells yummy. I get to listen to all The National or Edward Sharpe as I want without bugging anyone else. And I just get to have my own little space to do my work as I please.

2. The closing scene on Saturday Night Live. I always love when the host says goodbye and the next 30 seconds of credits rolling over footage of all the actors smiling, laughing, and hugging each other on stage. It always makes me so happy. One day I will see that in person.

3. Jeremy & I decided today that we're going to buy Lagoon season passes this year! The season starts March 25 which seems so soon and I can't wait! The park is always so empty on Sunday so we talked about making Lagoon our cute little Sunday tradition. I told him it can be our church. :)

4. The feel in the air on a beautiful crisp day just before the rain comes. There's just something about the shift in weather and temperature that makes a day feel so fun! I really love the chilly wind that comes right before it starts to rain.

5. Diet Mountain Dew. I know it's bad for me, I know it's slowly destroying my body from the inside out, but oh baby do I love me some Diet MD! (If it makes you feel any better about my health, I do drink a ton of water everyday so maybe that helps outweigh the MD? I don't know. I just like to justify it haha.)

6. My bed. Lately I get a really big smile on my face every night when I lie down in bed. Jeremy & I seem to always be on the go so it's just so pleasant to climb into bed after a long day.

7. The book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up". I'm still reading it and learning from it but I'm so excited to downsize and declutter my life! I have so many unnecessary things that I'm excited to rid myself of.

8. Our ski cabin trip that's coming up with Jeremy's family! They're renting a cabin somewhere south of here (I should probably find out where) and we're going for the weekend at the end of February! I'll finally get to snowboard with Jeremy and see all his cool tricks. :)

9. Saving money. I've never really been a huge spender, but lately I've really been trying to crack down and save a lot more, and it's just fun to watch my account grow! I kind of love saving money. It's crazy to me that some people live paycheck to paycheck; that sounds like the most stressful life.

10. $5 Movie Tuesday! Jeremy and I make it a point to go into and get off work early so we can go to the movies after. All the theaters in Utah do $5 movies all day on Tuesdays (including IMAX, and the crazy seats, 3D, everything!). It's so fun and it makes me look forward to Tuesday evenings with him.