Things I Loved in February

Blog Posts I Loved:

♥ Minimalist Wardrobe FAQ: Common Pitfalls + How To Get Started from Into Mind
♥ Life lessons: Advice from a thirty-something to a twenty-something from Le Blow
♥ Part 1: Why We Should Want To Buy Less from Wanderdust
♥ Travel Diaries 012: The Fairytale Village of Hallstatt, Austria from Bramble & Thorn
♥ Scrapbook Sunday: Elsie's December Daily from A Beautiful Mess

Music I Loved:

♥ Jealous by Nick Jonas

♥ Last Request by Paulo Nutini

♥ Stolen by Dashboard Confessional

♥ Let It Be Me by Ray LaMontagne

♥ Closer to Love by Mat Kearney

♥ 100 Years by Five for Fighting

♥ The Reason by Hoobastank

♥ Elastic Heart by Sia

♥ Sugar by Maroon 5

♥ In My Life by Jake Shimabukuro
♥ Work Song by Hozier

♥ Open Season by High Highs
♥ Deep Focus playlist on Spotify

Videos I Loved:

♥ Chandelier feat. Maddie Ziegler  by Sia
♥ Elastic Heart feat. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler by Sia
♥ Dance Moms: Group Dance: Stomp the Yard (S5, E2) from Dance Moms
♥ 100 Years of Beauty in 1 Minute - Episode 1: USA (Nina) by Cut Video
♥ 100 Years of Beauty - Episode 2: USA (Marshay) by Cut Video
♥ 100 Years of Beauty - Episode 3: Iran (Sabrina) by Cut Video
♥ Historically Accurate Disney Princesses by BuzzFeedVideo
♥ Without Question from The Road to El Dorado
♥ Nick Pitera Sings "Belle" From Beauty and the Beast by Oh My Disney
♥ Thinking Out Loud / I'm Not The Only One MASHUP by Sam Tsui & Casey Breves
♥ 3 Easy & Thoughtful DIY Valentines Day/Anniversary Gifts Ideas by ElaineMokk
♥ How-To Pull Off Short Hair. (or something like that) by Arden Rose
♥ Minimal Makeup Routine by Madelynn De La Rosa

Movies/Shows I Loved:

♥ Once Upon a Time
♥ The Road to El Dorado

♥ Dance Moms clips on Youtube
♥ The Walking Dead
♥ Faking It

Things in Life I Loved:

♥ Dancing to the ChaCha Slide and Cupid's Shuffle with Leslie at the bowling alley
♥ Finding a hotel on a special that's on the beach at South Padre (for Spring Break)
♥ Getting ALL into a duet with Thai every time "I'm Not The Only One" came on the radio
♥ Buying tennis and boxing gear (being more active this year!)

♥ Receiving a Toothless stuffed animal from Thai for Valentine's Day
♥ Making a Baymax themed card for Thai for Valentine's Day
♥ A girl ran up to me just to tell me how cute my outfit and I looked
♥ Finding another hat to wear on bad hair days and looking cute in it
♥ Getting noticed in the math club I'm in even though I'm new
♥ Revlon's Colorburst lip balm stain in Honey 

♥ Singing Jealous by Nick Jonas with Leslie
♥ Beautiful sunrises on the drive to work
♥ Feeling comfortable driving by myself
♥ Getting all A's in all my class's first tests

♥ Going on a tennis double date

♥ Going on a picnic double date

♥ Minimalist style and wardrobes

The second half of this month was not the best for me. I found myself starting to really procrastinate on my school work after the first tests, I didn't stick to my diet so therefore haven't lost any more weight than last month, and the weather has been very rainy and cold lately. I don't know what happened. All my motivation and determination on my resolutions went downhill. However, with my diet I felt like I was really depriving myself of satisfying meals. I'd honestly rather eat more of what I want and work it off through exercise like doing tennis or boxing, but this cold, rainy weather has me curled up in front of my computer instead. I haven't been reading as much as I would like to either. But I won't let this setback be my downfall! I will try to work harder in March. Here's to hoping for sunny days! 

Growing Out My Pixie Cut: 2 Months

Wooow! Would you take a look at that mullet! This is my hair growth progress after 2 months. I honestly didn't feel like my hair grew much at all between 1 month and 2 months, but once I compared the pictures, I could definitely notice a difference. Compared to the 0 months photo, I can tell that my hair has grown a good amount in only 2 months. This past month I stuck to using the same shampoo and conditioner I've been using since growing out my hair (Mane 'N Tail). I'm not quite sure how I feel about this product. I still couldn't tell you whether or not this product is actually helping my hair grow faster, but I can tell you one thing, and that is that this product does not help my curly hair texture at all! My hair never felt soft after washing and conditioning, and it may have made it feel worse if anything. Because of this I feel as though my hair was more unmanageable than usual. Another side note is that this product does not lather well, so it felt as though I had to keep squeezing more product out in order to get it all over my hair. I can't imagine how much would have to be used in order to get it to lather over long hair! This next month I will be using a different shampoo and conditioner and we shall see what happens.

Together Let's...Go Bowling!

The next thing that Thai and I did together from our "Together Let's..." list was bowling! This was more of a group hangout rather than a "date" because it was for my friend Leslie's 20th birthday. The bowling alley we went to was called Bowlero and it was pretty awesome. The pins had a black light shining above them which made them look as though they were glowing, neon lights lined the lane, there were screens with many different things playing in the background, and the score screen had hilarious clips between each person's turn! Everyone took silly pictures on the score machine and it would use our faces on funny toons. Some of the guys accidentally put female as their gender and that made some clips even more hilarious! I think one of the best parts of the night was when Leslie danced to the Cha Cha Slide and Cupid Shuffle with me (and Thai attempted to dance as well and looked pretty ridiculous). I would like to go with just me and Thai or more of a double date sometime.

Things I Loved in January

Blog Posts I Loved:

♥ Choose The Person Who Will Follow You Up a Mountain from Wanderdust

♥ Intentional Living // Choosing Your Trajectory from Wanderdust

♥ How to Declutter Your Home for Good from Into Mind

♥ How I'm Embracing a More Minimal Life from Jennypurr

♥ Dream Big, Work Hard, Make it Happen from Jennypurr

♥ An Honest Post on Friendships from From Roses

♥ The Things I Wish I Knew When I Was 18 from From Roses

♥ 6 Things To Do When You’re Seriously Lacking Motivation from Smart Twenties

♥ Surprise 28th from Story of My Life

Music I Loved:

♥ Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars

♥ La La La by Sam Smith

♥ Money On My Mind by Sam Smith

♥ Leave Your Lover by Sam Smith

♥ Chasing the Sun by Hilary Duff

♥ Can I Have This Dance by High School Musical

♥ Five-Hundred Days by AJ Rafael

♥ Something's Gotta Give by All Time Low

♥ Another One Bites the Dust by Queen

♥ Under Pressure by Queen, David Bowie

♥ Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams

♥ Roxanne by The Police

♥ Highway To Hell by AC/DC

Videos I Loved:

♥ Women's Ideal Body Types Throughout History by BuzzFeedVideo

♥ Weird Ways Couples Mess With Each Other by BuzzFeedYellow

♥ Signs You’ve Found Your Sarcastic Soulmate by BuzzFeedViolet

♥ You In The 90s Vs. You Today by BuzzFeedYellow

♥ YOU'RE NOT GAY ENOUGH. by Ashley Mardell

♥ Living in the Moment by Ashley Mardell

♥ "Dear Girlfriend, Will You..." by Ashley Mardell

♥ Yoo Jae Ha - The Covered Up Road (Cover) by Shayne Orok

Movies/Shows I Loved:

♥ Big Hero 6 

♥ How to Train Your Dragon 2

♥ High School Musical Series

♥ Hercules

♥ FRIENDS

Things in Life I Loved:

♥ Going rock climbing for the first time

♥ Deciding to grow my hair out

♥ Learning how to parallel park and driving on the freeway

♥ The perfect, warm weather with beautiful, blue skies lately

♥ Driving with the car windows down on those beautiful days

♥ Revamping my blog template all on my own and feeling so proud of it

♥ Getting through a milestone with Thai that made our relationship stronger

♥ Reaching 10 pounds less than my original weight (although it fluctuates)

♥ Planning to go to South Padre Island with friends for Spring Break

♥ Doing the Baymax fist bump from Big Hero 6 with Thai

♥ Dancing my heart out without caring if I look crazy

♥ Playing tennis with one of my close friends, Leslie

I thought I would give this kind of post a try on here. I was inspired by Amy from catscraftsncritters to start blogging about things that I love or make me happy throughout the month. Every time I read her Weekly Overviews in which she lists the things that she loves during the week, I always feel so happy and inspired by her ability to appreciate the littlest things that she experienced. I want to see myself be more appreciative like that. Before I started typing this post, I honestly did not expect the list to be this long! It actually makes me feel quite wonderful to see just how many things made me happy, intrigued, or inspired throughout the month. I guess sometimes we tend to forget about a lot of the little things. That's why I think that starting something like this is a good idea! Not only can it help you realize all the wonderful little things that happened to you lately, but it can also allow you to look back on those things in the future.

What things did you love in January?

Growing Out My Pixie Cut: 1 Month

Back in May 2014, I made the first big chop on my hair. After having long, curly locks for all of my life, this chop made me feel as though I finally looked like myself—like my hair finally fit me. For the months following, I absolutely loved having short hair and would constantly get trims to keep it that way. On December 20th, 2014, I cut my hair to the shortest it has ever been, and most likely the shortest I would ever go. I believe it was short enough to be classified as a (long) pixie cut. I have never regretted cutting my hair, but now that I have gone the shortest I would possibly go, I feel as though there's nothing more to do. So now it's time for a change. And that change is to start growing my hair out! 

I decided that it would be nice to post the progress of my hair growth on my blog. I didn't have a picture from the back of my head for when I first got it cut, so I just used one that I believed would suffice. I'll make sure that the pictures I take in the future will be from consistent angles.

I'm really happy with how much my hair has grown out in only one month! Unfortunately I feel as though I've already reached the "awkward length" of growing out a pixie cut. I have absolutely no idea what to do with it. It looks nice in the top 1 month picture, but most of the time it looks like an awkward mullet! I especially have no clue what to do with it when it comes to fixing it to for an activity like rock climbing or tennis. What I've been doing is a sort of half pony tail, but even that looks ridiculous because it looks like a little nub of hair sticking out of the back of my head. But there's nothing I can do except to pull through this awkward length!

I've been using Mane 'n Tail ever since I cut my hair on December 20th. Mane n' Tail is a product that was made for horses but many people buy it as well. (Don't worry, they have it in the normal shampoo and conditioner isle). This brand claims to strengthen your hair to reduce breakage. It doesn't claim to help hair grow faster, but a lot of people have recommended this brand when trying to grow out your hair. I guess in the process of strengthening your hair, it also allows your hair to grow to its fullest potential rather than breaking off or splitting. I'm not sure if my hair growth progress is due to this shampoo and conditioner, but this is what I've been using!

Any suggestions for hairstyles at this awkward length? Or have any of you guys tried any products to speed up your hair growth? I'd love to know! 

Together Let's...Go Rock Climbing!

This is my first official post from my "Together Let's..." series!  In the beginning of our relationship, Thai and I came up with a list of things we want to do together, called "Together Let's...". We were always adding new adventures to do together, but with me being a full time student and part time employee and Thai being a full time employee, it always seemed like we never had the time to start crossing things off of this list. This year will be different. To me, quality time in a relationship is vital, so I want to make sure that we set aside time to spend together, no matter how small or extreme that activity may be. These posts will document things that my Thai and I do together, whether that be experiencing completely new and crazy things together to simply cooking a nice dinner in the comfort of our home together. 

The first thing we decided to do was go rock climbing! Now, let me tell you that I have never done this before in my life. I underestimated just how hard it would be. Rock climbing requires you to have a good amount of upper body strength, and the amount that I have is pathetic to none. I always knew that I was afraid of heights, but rock climbing made me realize just how bad my fear actually is. It's not like leaning against the railing of a bridge or looking down from a tall building, because with rock climbing, you have only your own strength to rely on. Because of this fear, I was only able to reach about 2/3 of the wall up once without my legs shaking, my hands getting sweaty, and just becoming overwhelmed with anxiety. Seeing the kids on the walls around me climb with ease...well, it made me feel pretty defeated to say the least. I'm sure I looked pretty pathetic while freaking out and only being about half way up the wall. Thai, on the other hand, was absolutely amazing! He reached the top almost every single time and didn't seem scared at all! Our hands and arms are so sore after doing this. But I could tell that he really enjoyed it, and despite all of my failures, I also had an amazing time and want to go again to try and get better!

My New Year's Resolutions for 2015

1) Get out of the house more | This past 2014 felt like a blur, and not in the good way. When I think back on the year, nothing memorable really stands out to me because it was a kind of uneventful. This year I want to prevent myself from being a hermit and prevent myself from getting into those ruts. In the beginning of my relationship with Thai, we made a "Together Let's..." list, which is basically a list of things we want to do together. There are many things we still have yet to do. I want to be able to cross at least one thing off of that list every month and document those experiences on my blog.

2) Take more pictures | One of the reasons I believe that 2014 was so unmemorable is because I didn't take many pictures (and frankly, I have a pretty bad memory without having pictures to look back on). That's why I want to document my experiences better this year. But not too excessively; I don't want to miss living in a moment because I was so busy trying to capture it. 

3) Read more books | This is another common resolution, but it doesn't make it any less important! There are so many books I've bought in the past year that have just been sitting on my shelf collecting dust. There is a 50 books in one year challenge, but I feel as though it would be too difficult to read that many books with school, homework, work, working out, and also spending more time going out. Instead, I'm going to set my goal to read 25 books this year. That's about two books per month. If you'd like to see books I've read or want to read, click here for my Shelfari.

4) Spend less time on the computer | The good thing about my resolutions is I feel like many of them compliment each other. By getting out of the house, reading more books, and working out I will be able to accomplish my goal of spending less time on the computer. Specifically, I want to stray further away from League of Legends. Although I have loved the game for years, I feel that it is time to start moving on. I realized that a majority of the people in my "gaming life" aren't very positive to have around and aren't really what would be considered friends. I'd rather make other kinds of friends with different interests outside of League once I move to Austin. Not only that, but I feel as though the time I spend playing games could be time better spent doing something else.

5) Get my body to the place I want it to be | After years of trying to "love what I have" but always finding myself falling into insecurity, I want to finally make a change. The first goal I set for myself is to lose 25 pounds. Right now I'm not comfortable with sharing what my starting weight is, but I'm sure when I meet my goal weight that I'll be happy to share. Not only do I want to lose weight, but I also want to get my body healthy along the way by eating at least one fruit and/or vegetable every day and working out. I want to be able to feel confident in my own skin, and this year is the year it will happen.

6) Work on becoming the best version of myself | I want to work on my attitude and reactions. I realize that these two things are really important in affecting the outcome of a situation. If you decide to have a negative attitude toward someone and then react in a hostile way, the situation is bound to go downhill. I want to work on strengthening my relationship by being more loving and understanding. Rather than getting annoyed or lashing out, I want to see myself calmly and openly communicating. I also want to work on my happiness. I never feel good when I'm down and decide to react by writing a negative blog post or text people negative rants. I feel as though doing this is making me dwell on the negatives, and I'd rather focus on spreading happiness rather than negativity. One song that really inspires me to be the best person I could be is the song Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw: "I loved deeper, and I spoke sweeter, and I gave forgiveness I've been denying...Some day I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying."

I've never made a legitimate list of resolutions before, but I decided to do it this year. Ignore those people who talk down on those who make New Year's resolutions and say that no one ever goes through with them. Prove them wrong! You don't have to set extreme goals for yourself—any small step is better than taking none. It may seem as though some of things you want to accomplish are too difficult, but what I like to keep in mind is my favorite quote from my favorite TV show Scrubs: "Nothing in this world that is worth having comes easy." I absolutely love this show. Here's a clip from the episode with the quote; it always hits me hard every time I watch it because it applies to my life in so many ways. You really can do anything you set your heart and mind to. Good luck to everyone out there; I wish you all happiness in this new year.