Pay It Forward (Also, The Reason I Won't Make Resolutions Anymore)

Welcome to 2015, everybody!

This year, if you've read the title, I've decided not to make a resolution.  As I was driving home from work this afternoon, I was thinking about all of the resolutions I've made over the past years (lose weight, read more, etc.) and how I've always seemed to fail to keep up with them.  This year, I've decided not to set myself up to fail, because I'm almost positive that I will fall short of whatever huge plans I make.  It sounds pessimistic, however, it's been a habit of mine to overshoot and over-plan and then feel bad about not meeting those sometimes difficult goals.

So, instead of making resolutions, I have decided to take part in the Pay It Forward initiative and give to people in hopes of inspiring them to do the same for others.  My friend, Hillary, on Facebook posted this idea and the way to get involved on her page and I couldn't think of any reason not to join.

In addition to the Pay It Forward goal, I've decided to set small goals for myself to strive for this year.  I've signed up for a gym membership back in November, did really well for about three weeks, then stopped going.  I'm hoping to make it to the gym at least once a week this year, which is totally doable, and I'm hoping to stay motivated and maybe increase that number once it starts to warm up and I'm not so sleepy anymore.

Goal #2 is always to read more, because I read a few books last year, but nowhere near what I would like to be.  It's hard when life gets so busy, but I'm hoping I can fit it in somewhere.  I just need to make a list of a few books that I'm 100% interested in so I can stay motivated to finish a book in less than three months time.

Other than that, I have some bigger things I hope to get to this year, like going back to school, planning some bigger life changes, but those kind of things are being taken in stride and are kind of being played by ear at this point.  We'll see how it goes!

Do you have any goals or resolutions for this year?  Let me know if you're taking part in paying it forward this year, I'd love to see what ideas everyone has.

Today, I Believe...

• That sometimes all you need is time, space, and coffee to power through the days ahead.
• Relationships are amazing and worth a lot of your attention, but never lose your head in them.  They may be the person you end up spending your life with, but your true friends will be there even longer.
• Endings are sad and scary, but there's always hope to fall back on.  It's never too late for a new beginning.
• Finding new music that you instantly love is one of the greatest pick-me-ups in rough times.
• It really is okay to eat an entire half of a cake while you're mentally unstable.  Just make sure, when you come back around, you do an extra lap or so around the track.

Happy Monday, everyone.  I hope you've all been well! (Or are getting well after the onset of seasonal allergies have kicked in).

April Playlist + Goals

I can't believe 2014 is basically already a fourth of the way over already.  This is ridiculous!  This months goals are pretty simple, I think, and there are only three.

1. Get things started -  I have an awesome birthday gift idea for someone special (which is going to take a bit of time to get together), and I also need to start jogging again. ASAP.

2. Get organized, and stay that way - after moving, things are even more of a mess than how they started... Spring cleaning!

3. Maintain my haircut + take care of my skin - Oklahoma (and e.l.f. brand makeup removing wipes) have not been good to my face and it's just starting to get back to its normal self.  Also, last time I got my haircut was in mid February (over a month ago) and I just cut it.  If you have short hair, you know this is a huge problem.  No one likes a mullet. 

Playlist!

Click here top listen to this months playlist.

Keeping it Weird

1. Rusty Belle - "Hellion"

2. Ruckus Roboticus - "Never Play With Scratches"

3. FC Kahuna - "Hayling"

4. Gotan Project - "Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)"

5. Of Montreal - "Tim, I Wish You Were Born A Girl"

6. I Monster - "The Great Soul Destroyer"

7. Phantogram - "When I'm Small"

8. Moby - "Porcelain"

9. The Mountain Goats - "Up The Wolves"

April Photo A Day Challenge

Happy April Fools Day!

I know I'm a bit late with this one, but I promise this month is going to be more on track than March.  March was full of a lot of business and moving and not-so-ideal situations and I apologize for my lack of keeping up.  Here are the photo challenge ideas for this month!

As always, let me know if you plan on following along on Instagram and leave your username so I can follow you!

Instalife 10 & 11 and Mini Update

Long time, no see, huh?  Sorry I've neglected to post for the last couple of weeks but things haven't been going fabulously in recent days.  A lot has happened and I am officially relocating again.  I know, this is the third time in a year.  Someday I'll get my act together and stop moving around so much (and hopefully then I can do some home DIY projects on here).  However, please forgive me if I'm a little more sporadic with my posts for the next few weeks as I'm trying to repack and relocate again and re-settle in.

Anyways, here are the pictures I took for the last two weeks!

Day 61: Stranger - Skipped...

Day 62: Music

Day 63: Black and White

Day 64: Numbers

Day 65: Outfit

Day 66: Wheels

Day 67: I love...

Day 68: Where I Stood

Day 69: Nails

Day 70: Mood - Skipped...

Day 71: Broken

Day 72: Transportation - Skipped...

Day 73: Animal

Day 74: Woods

Day 75: Lazy

This one got skipped because I had the 24 hour flu... Don't judge me.

Hopefully this next week or so will work out better, and the move will go without too many hitches.  Wish me luck!

New Throwbacks (March Playlist)

In the past year or two, a lot of bands that I listened to in middle school and early high school have released new albums.  I've put together some personal favorites from those new albums for you to check out. Let me know what you think about the new albums or songs! They're all pretty different.  What did you listen to when you were in middleschool?

Listen to the playlist here!

1. M.I.A. - Sexodus

2. Daft Punk - Doin' it Right

3. Panic! at the Disco - This is Gospel

4. Fall Out Boy - Young Volcanoes

5. Placebo - Too Many Friends

6. The National - I Should Live in Salt

7. Cold War Kids - Loner Phase

8. Bo Burnham - Nerds (Explicit lyrics. Seriously, you've been warned.)

9. AFI - 17 Crimes

10. City and Colour - Of Space and Time

11. Relient K - If I Could Take You Home

March Goals and Instalife #9

Happy March, everyone!  We're edging closer and closer to spring, and I don't know about you, but I couldn't be more ready for warmer weather.

This month I only have three goals that I would like to stick with, but each of them are pretty big goals for me.
1. Save more money. I don't know how I always manage to do this, but I seem to always be completely broke and I'm determined to make that stop happening.
2.  Stay on track.  I have a lot of goals for this year, so this month I'm going to start making sure I focus on what's important right now.
3. Do things - ON TIME. This one is pretty self-explanatory, especially because in February I was a little all over the place with my schedule.  I promise, I'm trying to fix it.

Instalife #9

Day 54: Walking through town

Day 55: Just woke up

Day 56: Baby picture

Day 57: Glitter. I'm obsessed with this tape.

Day 58: Your choice: my mom finally met Tyler =)

I skipped day 58, which was a picture of a drink...

Day 60: chores... Work chores. Blegh.

And today it's freezing rain so I'm working on catching up and getting things done!

Who else is ready for spring with all of this nasty weather we've had?

March Photo a Day Challenge!

I can't believe February is almost over..  This year is already almost a quarter of the way through, and it still feels like Christmas was last week.

Now's the time for March Photo a Day Challenge!  Let me know if you plan to follow this month's challenge and leave me your instagram name so I can see the pictures you take.

My instagram is: DivineMissE02

Instalife #6 & #7

Obviously, I've been neglecting to post here for about two weeks, and if you saw my previous post, you'll know I've been pretty busy in that time.  Here are my 365 day challenge photos (plus some extras) for the last two weeks!

Day 33: Shadow - I always get raccoon eyes when I wash my face...

Day 34: Mail - I regret contacting anyone from a college.

Day 35: Cozy - Slept in!

Day 36: Stairs 

Day 37: Memories - I've always done this with the last piece... I don't know why.

Day 38: Routine - My morning routine was all messed up because I packed everything to come with me on the plane to Connecticut.

Day 39: Travel

Day 40: Shopping - All the snacks!

Day 41: Birthday - Kaeley is the best. Black forest cake, from scratch.

Day 42: Makeup - Playing with some color.

Day 43: Lips - I need to make one of these and frame it.

Day 44: Baking - I skipped this! AH! =(

Day 45: Lights - O'Hare Airport

Day 46: Candy - Tracy and I are adults and got 4 spins worth of candy from the machine at work.  Worth it.

AAAAAND EXTRAS!

Casino with some of the best people I know.

Giant margarita thing.  Delicious, and dangerous.

Walking Dead penny slots!  I actually won on this one =)

Travel day, out of the snow and back to OKC.

My nephew, Tyler, was born this week!!!

Snuggle time with the munchkin <3

Look for another Instalife update in just two days!!  Almost caught up!

February Playlist

This month's playlist consists of some of my top played songs through my iTunes account.  Granted, I don't have every song I listen to downloaded and some of my top played songs have already been in a playlist in the last couple of months, so I switched a couple of them out for Pandora and YouTube favorites instead.  Let me know if you guys listen to any of these playlists or have suggestions for future songs to add to my lists!

Listen HERE!

1. Greg Laswell - "Comes and Goes"
2. Andrew Bird - "Fiery Crash"
3. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - "Man on Fire"
4. The National - "So Far Around the Bend"
5. A Weather - "Fond"
6. Blackmill ft. Veela - "Let it Be"
7. Sufjan Stevens - "Chicago"
8. The Mountain Goats - "No Children"
9. The Lumineers - "Stubborn Love"
10. Fleetwood Mac - "Never Going Back Again"
11. Greg Laswell - "Then There's You" (Yes, another Greg Laswell song, I love him..)
12. The Moutain Goats - "Outer Scorpion Squadron" (And I love The Mountain Goats, too.)
13. I Monster - "Early Morning Robot"
14. Modest Mouse - "Dramamine"
15. Punch Brothers - "Soon or Never"
16. The Smiths - "Asleep"

Instalife #5

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been kind of dead the last week or so, I was trying to organize a baby shower for my sister as well as get ready for my upcoming trip this weekend while working a ton.  Hopefully I can catch up a bit before I leave for Connecticut this Saturday, so here are the photos I took for the week of 1/26-2/1:

Day 26: What's in my bag?

Day 27: Books (most of my actual books are in my parents garage)

Day 28: What I Bought

Day 29: Mom

Day 30: Water

Day 31: Shoes

Day 32: Friend (Picture taken from work with Victoria)