Happy Saturday folks! I have been so busy this week I rarely got time to catch up on all of my favorite reads. Today I wanted to share with you my favorite posts of the week and hope you all find them as great as I do.


Julia over at Grace Makes New wrote about one of my favorite subject this week! 5 Ways to Earn Free Giftcard. Love me some freebie advice! Be sure to check out Julia's post!

Kaelyn over at My Fair Daily wrote about The Beauty Sleep Challenge and I fell in love with her pajama pants! I found someone else who enjoys a cute pair of skull pj's!

 Anne over at Love the Here and Now always knows how to brighten my day with her inspirational posts. She didn't disappoint in her post on 10 Ways to Brighten Someone's Day. Great advice!

Hello Natural has been one of my favorite reads lately. Stephanie does a great job at bring some pretty amazing articles. 101 Reasons Why Coconut Oil is Miracle Stuff is awesome! It has great ideas when it comes to this stuff that I just can't get enough of already!

Christine over at The So Called Homemaker is doing a series on Real Estate for Real People. I really enjoyed her segment on renting because this is going to be me soon! Great tips if you are looking for real estate!

I hope you find some good reads folks!


I also wanted to talk quickly about my decision to start offering one sponsorship option on my blog. The only reason I am interested in doing 1 option, is I do not want to commit right yet to a full on sidebar full of sponsors that I may or may not be able to promote.

I have noticed my blog gets quite a bit of traffic on Saturday and Sunday's and I rarely post on these days. I am thinking about offering a blog takeover on one of those days each week. This way I will be able to promote you each week and only have one person to commit to weekly instead of 5 or 10. Once I get the hang of it I may offer more options, but I think this is the best way to start off and not make anyone upset with me. What do you all think? Does this interest you?

Lemme know and have a great weekend!

I have had a legit busy week! Yes I just used the word legit to describe my week. I am back again to link up for H54F! I don't know about you, but I am so happy to see Friday today! I am focusing my five things on work this week. Even though it was busy, I took a lot from it and figured why not talk about 5 things that happened to me.Work and coworkers can be so inspiring when it comes to writing for me.

#1 Walking into work on Monday was rough. I was really tired and had no real desire to work. I arrived to piles of stuff on my desk that was still lurking from Friday. I applied some of the yoga breathing techniques I learned last week and breathed my way though the day. I smiled and that allowed myself to be more approachable and made for an easier day.

#2 Tuesday was better. I cleaned up a lot of my mess and had a really great meeting. The meeting pumped me up for the rest of my day. Had a little mishap with some ordering but made up for that on Wednesday! Ended the day with dinner with my love.

#3 I was able to save my company a chunk of moolah by using my head and asking the right questions. I was so excited for my accomplishment I couldn't wait to give my news to the head honcho. I was rewarded on the spot with a gift card for my work. Make me feel really appreciated. Such a great morale booster!

#4 One of my coworkers is getting married. Some of the conversation about it brought up some blog ideas. I am so thankful for my coworker muses! They say and do the most inspiring things sometimes. If you're interested in some tips, have a look!

#5 After lots of deadlines with a small window of time I was able to get all my work completed before the company meeting. It took a lot of energy but I made all my deadlines and was able to laugh at all the stressing I was doing. I left on time and had a very relaxing yoga session.

Work reminded me this week that hard work does pay off. It may stress me out and and get busy but I get stuff done when the heat is on.  I hope you all had a great week! See you back here Monday :)

Now that we are coming down from the wave of engagement proposals, we are crashing down into wedding planning season. Everyone seems to know one somebody who got engaged during the holidays, or maybe it was you. Brides to be are now working in overdrive to read every tip, blog, and magazine that mentions the word 'wedding'.

As you comb through articles on wedding themes, wedding colors, wedding flowers, wedding dresses, and wedding tips, in order to achieve your dream wedding, we often forget one small detail: wedding guests. When I say guests I also include your wedding party in this category. They are not only representing you and your partner, they are also putting in time and money before hand to make sure your day is perfect as guests.

Now don't get me wrong, this day IS and SHOULD be about you and your partner, but you also want to make sure your wedding guests have a good time too. I know you can't make every single person happy, but from my own experience of all the weddings I have gone to in the past 5 years (always a bridesmaid. never a bride.. lol), I have learned some pretty valuable lessons for planning my own wedding one day.

• Location: We all want our wedding days to be magical. We often dream of tropical islands with beach backdrops. This is all fine and dandy if your are planning a small intimate wedding with a few close friends and family. And when I say a few I mean under 10. Most people cannot afford to fly to an exotic location for a weekend to watch you get married. I don't say this to be mean or shatter your dreams, but lets be realistic. Choose a location that is easily traveled to and will not cost your guests an arm and a leg.

• Favors: This day in age we know a lot of people who are not living local to us or where our wedding is going to be. Traditionally weddings happen in the brides hometown, and today most of us do not still live in our hometown. Many guests may be flying to get to you. Think smart when planning favors for everyone. Liquids, jams, and anything over 4 ounces that may be suspicious to a TSA agent at the airport should be crossed off your favor list stat. I take this tip to heart when I packed away some jam that was given me as a gift, not even thinking and was pulled aside and searched at the airport. No fun!

• Intentions: When getting married, we are left with the duty of choosing our wedding party. This can sometimes be very daunting because we can't pick everyone. Do not invite the people who did not make your bridal party list to participate in the bridal games so to say. A friend and I had this happen. We got invited to do all of the pre-wedding events (ie: mani/pedi's, bridal brunch, ect) yet were left to clean up all of the messes and handle last minute issues. In theory it sounded like a good idea. In reality we were really upset we got stuck with all the problems when we had planned to come and celebrate her wedding. Not be her runner.

• Children: This is a biggie. If you are NOT planning to have children at your wedding, you MUST make it clear. Never assume your guests understand they should not bring little Johnny to the reception. If you feel like this will be an issue you may either want to call the guests with the children to let them know personally or plan to offer a childcare option for anyone who cannot leave their kids at home. This is a sensitive subject but it is your party and at the end of the day this is your decision.

Now I am sure there are loads more things that I am missing, but these are some biggies. You don't ever want to make it difficult for your guests to make it to your wedding. You never want them to get searched at the airport. Never make your guests into your slave for the day. And certainly never make someone feel bad about having kids. These are all things you can easily fix by thinking ahead. Think ahead and your wedding will be great for everyone involved. 

I am wishing you a a successful journey on all things wedding planning. I hope some of these tips have helped you workout something you haven't even thought about yet.

Do you have any tips you would like to add? Anything happen to you as a guest?

Do children still have dreams? Do they still want to be firefighters or policemen? I can't remember the last time I was in the presence of a child that really had a dream. I often wonder if this is where the world is heading, or if this is just a little hiccup along the way. The children of today are way more concerned about social media and the latest electronic device, then what they want to do with their adult lives.


When I was 5 I wanted to be a dancer. When I was 10 I wanted to be just like my mom. When I got into middle school I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to study the stars in the sky, not the stars on the tv. As I got into high school I wanted to be a photographer AND a scientist. I strived to take all of the classes I needed to be the best student for what I wanted to be.

Today I work in science AND take photos. I won't ever be a dancer, but I still enjoy doing it when no one is watching. I'd like to think I am more and more like my mom everyday, even though I do not have any children of my own yet. My dreams to a point did come true. I feel like I lived up to the expectations of my childhood dreams. Not because I felt I had to; because I wanted to.

I recently caught up with a friend who is a school teacher. She said the lack of enthusiasm of her students is really starting to become a problem. They do not want to do the work, but expect to get the good grade. They want to spend all of their time socializing on their phones rather then taking notes in class. Does this make anyone else sad? Where has the innocence and magic of our children gone? Where did all this entitlement come from?

Did you have a dream as a child? What was it? Help bring the magic back into the children's lives.

Happy Friday folks! I am participating in my very first High Five for Friday or H54F. I am excited to recap my week and be grateful for the week I had. As I mentioned here, I am working on a happiness project this year and January is the month of R & R (Relax and Refocus). I am well into my half way point and this week certainly gave me 5 things that I can be happy about!

1. Monday brought me talk. That sounds funny, but I made the decision this year to talk to a counselor about managing my stress better. With the new job, a serious relationship, and some family chaos, I left 2014 in a pretty big stress mess. This was my second session and I am happy I made the decision.

All of these items make my heart happy!

2. Hot baths (With tea and candles of course!). I received some really nice hand made bath products from a friend for Christmas, and they prove to be heavenly. The relaxing herbs mixed in with epson salts are what my body needed. I got out of the tub and instantly felt ready for bed. So dreamy!

3. Soup and tea with a good friend. It's always nice on a cold wintery night to get together with a friend to catch up over a nice cup of tea and some hearty soup.

Bad photo, but it was pretty dark!

4. Yoga. I signed up for a stress management yoga class. Yesterday was my first session and I really loved it. This makes me happy because I also wanted to meet new people, and classes are a good way to achieve this. I was able to go to a place that truly made me feel at peace with some of the things I have no control over. I hope to use some of these lessons for years to come.

5. Getting to spend time with my other half. He has been very understanding to my crazy schedule and moods swings as I try to refocus my energies to positive ones. I don't know what I would do without his love and support when I am going through turbulent times.

Stay tuned as I continue to update you on my happiness project and more helpful tips to relax!