Happy Monday! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. I know up here in the tundra of NY we had some pretty awesome weather. Yeah it was only 40 but man was that nice! So today I wanted to make a special announcement. If you have been following me for awhile, you are already probably familiar with that I'm about to tell you. Drum roll please...

I am teaming up once again with Julie from Girl on the Move, and Jen from Jenerally Informed to bring you the second installment of The Blog Staycation! If you remember, we did the first ever
Blog Staycation back in August of 2014 and it was a huge hit. Unfamiliar with it? Let me explain.

The blog staycation is a span of 4 days where you dedicate yourself to working on your blog. This means taking care of some of those to do lists, bring more productivity, and meeting some other fantastic bloggers! You can choose whatever it is that you want to work on. You can participate in all 4 days or only what works for your schedule. We will be hosting Twitter and Facebook chats to get everyone pumped up!









 I want to participate in the Blog Staycation!

I will be doing a review on all of the products next week so stay tune! Thanks for watching and Happy Friday!

I measure in at a tall 4'11". Yeah you read that right. You're probably thinking, "aww that's so cute! Everything must look so cute one you!" Wrong. I swear people who make clothes assume someone of my height should also be a size 0. Not only do I need to be a size 0 but I also have to have no chest or booty. In the words of Meghan Trainor, I am all about that bass.

So today I wanted to talk a little bit about the struggles I have encountered being under 5 feet tall (in gifs!)

1. Maxi Dresses. Nuff said.

2. Men love to call your shorty. Like I've never heard that one before guys.*rolls eyes*

  5.Nothing is ever set up correctly for you. It's assumed everyone is at least 5'7".

   
Yeah there's the story of my life. Always the short end of every joke. No pun intended. I think I am going to do a short series on the struggles of being a short girl. I will most likely post places to shop and ways to make your height work for you. What do you think? Would you read? Lemme know if the comments!

Today I am participating in Love the Here and Now's link up- 10 Awesome Things. I missed this last month, so when I saw Anne's reminder tweet I made it a point to sit down and start a draft. Lots of amazing things going on, so 10 awesome things will be easy to list ;)

1.  We have had 5 full days of temperatures in the double digits. Folks after weeks of negative and single digits, this is SO awesome! 30 degrees is the new 70 degrees! (I kid, I kid but seriously, yesterday I went out at lunch and was like, do I need a coat? No it's warm out. I'll just put on the fleece. True story.

2. I am apartment hunting! If you read my March goals yesterday I let out a little ditty about moving out of my apartment at the end of this month and then moving AGAIN in June/July to an apartment that better suits the needs of both me and my boyfriend. Because I have somewhere to go at the end of this month, it isn't as stressful as it could be so its pretty freaking awesome to look at all those new places!

3. I am FINALLY starting to lose all of that stress weight I put on over the past year. I added 30 pounds to my small frame (I am only 4'11") making me the heaviest I have ever been.  I was really beyond frustrated with the weight being I was working out 3-4 days a week on top of cutting back portions and eating healthier. The belly fat was just not budging! I owe it mostly to my Thrive supplements and my new favorite past time: Yoga.

4. This dress. So. In. Love. Awesome. 


5. St. Patrick's Day is in March and I am as Irish as they come. I have made it a tradition to make the trip home on the weekend that is closest to the 17th (It's on a Tuesday this year) to have corn beef and cabbage with the folks!

6. I ordered some new hiking sandals on Sunday in hope that it will hurry winter along. I am just dying to get out for a nice hike in the state parks. Unfortunately it's been so cold this winter, I haven't gotten to go at all.

7. Coffee. Cause who wouldn't add it to a list of awesome?

8. I joined Bulu Box. I am so excited to receive my first box this month! My interests have changed so much in the past year. I am pretty sure I am cancelling Ipsy for this. Oops!

9. Blogging has finally become a habit for me. I don't feel like I need to force it anymore. (Well not force it cause I don't like it, but you know what I mean right?) My creative mind is flowing.

10. Lots of awesome things coming this spring on the Blog. I am hosting my first ever e-reading challenge. It started on Sunday. There is still time to join in!

Looking forward to rocking March with all of these awesome things!

Whew, was it just me or was that just February that just whizzed right by us? I feel like it just started. I sat down to write in my journal which I swore I just wrote in yesterday, and the last date was February 1st. I set up February to be a month full of friends and fitness in reference to my Happiness Project. What I didn't realize is the specific combination I put together to achieve those goals, were very emotional. So let's see how I did.


1800 Minute Challenge and Eating better (The fitness part of my month)

So when I originally planned out February and doing better with my fitness, I had EVERY intention of getting to the gym 3-4 days a week. With the bitter cold and crazy snow we have been getting that didn't exactly happen, however that doesn't mean I didn't step up my fitness this month.

I had Yoga classes every Thursday this month and decided to practice more frequently at home. I also took up some barre classes online. Between both of those activities and choosing better food options, I feel like I did a great job. It also encouraged me to participate in a Yogathon. I did two 75 minute yoga classes back to back, and man did that burn! 

I finally saw weight loss and mostly thanks to my Thrive system for that. It's kicking belly fat's butt and finally giving me a smaller waist! And it is getting small, trust me I got the measuring tape out ;) 

So I would say I kicked butt on that goal. Now this is a goal I am taking into March because my 1800 Minute challenge is still going as well as my Biggest loser challenge at work.


Two new friends and re-kindle old friendships (The friend part of the month)

Well again this was a pretty crazy goal on my part, but I will say I needed to face this. It has been way to long that I have tried to make new friends or reconnect with old ones. It is really rough to move away from all the people you love. It's even harder when you realize they are moving on in their lives when yours seems to be standing still.

So as far as the meeting two new friends, I actually succeeded! I went to a brunch at a friends house in early February and clicked with another girl who was invited. We have since chatted back and forth trying to work out a time when we can get together. (She is a grad student so I get it, she's busy).

The next is a girl I meet via Twitter who lives in my community. We have tweeted back and for for a few months and I actually had a chance to meet her at an event on Fat Tuesday, but chickened out. So I then made myself send her a message asking her out for coffee or tea. We had a friend date this past Thursday!

Now about the re-kindling part of this goal. I was better at getting in touch with people. Trying to make some plans once the weather is cooperating. It was nice to chat with some folks who I see on my Facebook daily, but that's all I know about them anymore. It also brought up some emotions. It made me realize some things (Things I don't wish to share yet) that make me sad. Things I know I need to personally work on to make them better.

Conclusion of both goals

Now I said at the beginning of this post that these topics brought lots of emotions. One of the reasons, and I didn't realize this at first, but Yoga is known to bring out all kinds of emotions. You are working on mindfulness and meditation along with conditioning your body.  Some poses can really be emotional and I learned that, as much as it hurt to come to some of those emotions, it was okay. I was able to face them and let them go. 

Same thing with friendships and relationships in general. Sometimes it takes you digging up the past to realize why you aren't so close to someone or why you have trust issues. Your past relationships sometimes explain your current relationships. Emotions will come up and that's okay too. It is a good thing to be able to learn from these things and make your current and future self better.

Because of both of those goals, February was very hard. But not hard in a sense that I wanted to give up, but hard that it made me aware. That is a very good thing. I am proud of the goals I met and glad they challenged me in ways I wasn't expecting.

Ongoing Goals

Reading is going to be an ongoing goal for me. It helps with stress and my wandering mind. Not only did I read this month, but I decided to organize a reading challenge! The E-Reader Challenge started yesterday (March 1st) and will continue until May 31st. I am offering a prize drawing at the end for a $25 Amazon Gift Card.  Check out the categories and link up here--- > Challenge Sign up!

 March Goals- Getting Organized

I am going to be moving out of my apartment and into my boyfriends apartment at the end of March. I need to start going through things so we can combine our things without to much clutter. (Spoiler alert; I will be moving AGAIN in June when we move out of his apartment into another apartment better suited for both of our lives).

Speaking about organizing, I need to get my blog functions more organized. With all of the stuff going down this month I need to get my posts organized as well as my schedule. I do not want this space to suffer because my real life is nuts. So hopefully you can expect regular M-W-F posts like they are now. If I miss a day, you will understand right?

Both of those things in mind, I really need to start utilizing my planner more. I need to start keeping track of everything going on so I don't burn myself out. It doesn't seem like a lot of stuff but getting organized is hard work! I also need to add in work functions and regular social functions and my month is pretty much shot!

So there you have it folks. I rocked February's goals and March could be another challenging one, but I have faith I can get it done!