It's a blurrrr

Here's a little glimpse into the Vegas weekend, some of girls getting ready with the Bachelorette in the middle.

 

With the bachelorette, the wedding, and Halloween the days are flying by.  Today we have family flying in all the way from New Jersey.  I'm so excited because on Monday we get to take my 3 little nieces to Disneyland!!! I love Disneyland, I can't wait to instagram the whole day and post about it here.  Anyway, my week just feels like a blur, I can't wait for the wedding and will be glad to have things calm down once its over.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Because He Loves Me

Alright for a minute, I'm going to be like one of those weird cat ladies who never had kids and treat their pets like their children and talk about how great my dog is.

He is always by my side.
He never cancels his plans with me.
He is always home when I come home.

Okay maybe this post is really more about my frustration with a friend who cancelled plans today, but still animals are great.

Feel Good Fridays

It'll be years later when I look back on this simple moment, when the boy at the register tells me I have pretty eyes and I proceed to enjoy my free time reading and sipping hot coffee---that I'll ask myself, why didn't I realize how lucky I was in that moment.  And then my much older self will ask my then self the same question and the cycle will continue.


I dedicate today's post to being mindful.  Mindfulness is such a good way to decrease stress and add to your happiness.  Being mindful to me means being aware of what you're doing, where you are, who you're with when it is actually happening.  Its appreciating the great moments when you're actually living them instead of merely looking back at them.

For a brief history of Feel Good Fridays, click here.

The Wisdom of Justin Bieber?

Is it weird that I used a Justin Bieber song to make a major life decision?  Yes, yes it is probably really weird.

"Ask me what's my best side, I stand back and point at you

You, you the one that I argue with, I feel like I need a new girl to be bothered with,

But the grass ain't always greener on the other side,

It's green where you water it

So I know we got issues baby true, true, true,

But I'd rather work on this with you

Than to go ahead and start with someone new"

I've been going back and forth about my long distance relationship, and whether its really worth it.  And after seeing him for the last few days, this song came on on the radio and it really made me realize.  Whether he is "the one" or not, I'll regret not putting my all into something that has a large chance of being the real thing.  And, if he turns out not to be the right guy for me, its good practice for when the right one does come along, its the effort you put into relationships that keep them going.

So while I hope to make more of my life decisions on my own, thank you Justin Bieber and more specifically Big Sean for helping me along.

The Bridal Shower

Homemade Cupcakes

We made the centerpieces with spaghetti jars, burlap and ribbon

 

 The Bride and me

The three sisters

More pictures and details to come...

Feel Good Fridays

 Photo cred.

For a brief explanation of Feel Good Fridays click here.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D. explains in her model of happiness that "studies show that 50% of individual differences in happiness are determined by genes, 10% by life circumstances, and 40% by our intentional activities."

This is groundbreaking work to think about.  Only 10% of happiness is decided by life circumstances.  That means whether you're wealthy or poor, fat or skinny, pretty or ugly, you have a college degree or you never graduated high school...those circumstances only affect your happiness by 10%!  40% is affected by our intentional activities.  That to me screams that we are in control of how happy we feel.  We don't need all these self help books and exercise programs to make us happy, we just need to train our minds a little bit.

I hope this affects you as much as it does for me, have a great weekend everyone! 

Lovely Monday

Hi everyone!  How was your prospective Mondays?  I spent mine out and about preparing and planning for the Bridal Shower I'm throwing my sister this weekend.  Don't worry I'll be sure to post about everything I did this week and next.

Last week I had a mini-reunion with my college roommates.  Seeing and being with them is like being with family.  I would be 10 times happier if I could live with at least one of them again, hopefully that will happen this year. 

Anyway, we went shopping on Melrose and then to dinner at Lala's Argentian restaturant, also on Melrose.  I felt like a total LA local.  I love a lot about LA but I'm way happier to visit then actually live there.

::pumpkin spice latte, how I love thee//Melrose inspiration//shopping//good food with great company, is there anything better?::

Feel Good Fridays

 For a brief explanation about Feel Good Fridays click here

This is a Part 2, to my last Friday's post:

Are you an optimist or a pessimist, what's your explanatory style?

Why are some people successful despite many setbacks and others fail?  Why do some people keep striving and others give up?  Psychologists relate this to your explanatory style, the way you explain events to yourself.

Martin Seligman, Ph.D. says there are 3 dimensions to explanatory style but today I am just going to focus on one....pervasiveness.  Pervasiveness describes the way you view some events to carry over into multitude aspects of your life.  The optimist views bad events to be specific to that situation and the good events to be universal.  For instance when an optimist receives a bad grade on a midterm, he says to himself, "I got a bad grade because I didn't study very hard, next time I will do better."  As opposed to the pessimist who says, "I failed my test!  I'm not smart, I'm just not cut out for this college thing."  In this example its pretty easy to see why optimism leads to overall success.  Also, when good events happen an optimist applies it universally; "I got an A in that class because I am intelligent and a good student."  This gives the optimist the courage/confidence to keep going.  This is the mental pathway that leads you and everybody else to success.  In the end, it is only in your best interest to think optimistically.  As the title of Selgiman's book says "Learned Optimism, how to change your mind and your life."   


I hope you all are feeling good this Friday!

Night time at the lake

You know those nights when someone invites you out but you are so absolutely tired and all you really wanna do is cuddle on the couch, but something inside you makes you go anyway ?  Well today I wanna celebrate that something.  That something that ignores all the reasons not to do something and says "I don't really care, I'm going to do it anyway."

So even though I was dog tired last night, I went out with my cousin and his friend.  We went to one of our man made lakes, the kind you need to "belong to" to use, and hopped a fence and went night swimming.  It was quiet and still except for the black water moving thick and slow as we swam through it.  It was one of those experiences that makes you feel like you're really living. 

Anyway, (in my head I picture myself toasting when I say this) here's to the nights when you feel like you're really living and to that something in your head that just always says YES."

A Good Moment

This was my lazy Saturday afternoon.  Good moments in life are important...but what's most important?  ...knowing to appreciate them.