so here's the thing

Sorry for the absence again! My computer is practically fried and I am just too scared to turn it on sometimes! I always think of these great things to write down, but they never actually make it on here... sorry about that. 

so here are a few things I am loving this week!

{morning lattes from this coffee shop that used to be a news paper}

{work clothes-business casual of course.}

 {exploring downtown}

{feeling like an adult with a real job}

{spending me time at the gym}

{exposed brick}

{breathing fresh air}

{pushing myself to new heights}

{remembering all our laughs}

{getting up early and starting my day off right}

{cute new clothes for a cute new job}

 {high heels-sassy ones at that}

{open fields}

 {fresh cut tulips}

 {living vicariously through my friends' travels}

I hope everyone has a fabulous rest of the week and weekend! hopefully my computer will miraculously fix itself!

Oh, and I started my internship this week.  I LOVE it! I couldn't be happier! I feel like it is only going to get more challenging and rewarding as the weeks come at me!

{all pictures are from}

finally a chance to breathe

i stayed up late last night rewriting a paper... a paper i worked on for hours...and my final copy, took 30 minutes to write. 

away from complaining. i still haven't uploaded the pictures from my break, but i will, don't worry! 

&

there will be a dedicated post to my trip!

{via}

with only 6 weeks left in the semester

i have realized i can do it!

i got so bogged down and apathetic that i forgot to look at how blessed i am to even be where i am!

i have great friends, an awesome family, a beautiful dog, and a wonderful boyfriend

and all of them care for me so much!

other things i have learned this week:

i love leaving for a week when the weather is dreary, and winter is still sitting around, and coming back to spring!

i love getting in my warm bed and letting the blankets encompass my body, as i fall asleep

i love the smell of coffee in the morning

and listening to music to get me ready for the day

i love daffodils. they are finally blooming

i hate the smell the dogwood trees will have in about two weeks (which also just bloomed)

i love my parent's yard. the colors, sounds and smells.

enjoy it!

it's hard to say sorry for being away so long

when i'm in florida for the week!

But this i am,

and i am so sorry for no forwarning or anything!

right now i am sitting by the pool in Sanibel, Florida again!

my friend s and i have been enjoying the beautiful weather

(minus this crazy wind they have been having here). 

 i will say that the sun is shining, i'm tanning, and enjoying the company...

so really i can't complain. 

 i hope you are having a fantastic week and the weather allows you to get out and do something!

p.s. i'll be back for real on friday!

be bold.

don't you love when you step out of your shell and be bold and it pays off!  

Last night i took the opportunity and chanced it.  

i was bold and fearless.  

I spoke my heart.  

and it payed off. 

hopefully it will be the start to something greater and better than before. 

i hate regretting and leaving feeling open and empty.  

without walls, vulnerable, wanting, and not filling these voids with love.  

so here's to being bold and fearless, to taking lemons and making wonderfully delicious lemonade.

 

{via}

QBA. (explanation below)

so this weekend i got the awesome opportunity to take a few wonderful ladies to ocean isle beach for what we at younglife call campaigners weekend.  we worshiped, praised and learned all weekend long.  it was beautiful.  the weekend contained lots of QBA aka quality boss action.  those ladies are the craziest and came up with that phrase, and i loved it! QBA happened frequently.

{sunrise on saturday}

 

{L.O.V.E.}

 

{jump}

  

{stroll}

{through the legs}

 

{pose}

{laugh}

it was a great weekend overall.  i love these girls.  i love this thing called younglife.  most of all i love Jesus, and how much he loves me!

a need. for sure

both of these beautiful clutches are from emersonmade and i pretty  much have to have them.  They are perfect! flowers and adorable details are a must right now in my life! either would be the perfect addition to my spring wardrobe! 

spring!

today was the first real warm day all year

it was in the 60s

and it showed

everyone was outside

it was so great to see people out walking and enjoying the weather

yeah, the snow was exciting since we barely ever get it

but after a while people were ready for the normal to kick back in

people were ready for beautiful weather like this

the birds are out

flowers are starting to bloom

and people are smiling and enjoying it

i can't wait for school to give us a break so we can enjoy it more than i did this weekend!

{via flickr}

i hope everyone has a fabulous week!*

how sweet it is...

when you actually get to have a conversation where "how are you?" isn't code for small talk.

to see an old couple...and you can still see the love.

 to enjoy the silence

to have a great read with a cup of coffee

{shoes}{couple}{sitting}{sip}

7 things i like about me.

maybe you will think i'm crazy but here are 7 random things about my life!

I always think of the worst possible situation.  I mean crazy things like "_____got in a wreck and can't get to the phone to call." (don't worry, I'm working on it).

my closet is color coded. completely. then arranged by shortest to longest in that color.

when in the shower i hang two towels on the towel rack at the end of the shower.  when i'm done showering, i always use the left one first to dry my hair.

i absolutely love watching so you think you can dance.  i aspire to be a contemporary dancer. which my old bones will never let me be!

i am obsessed with dogs.  not in a weird fetish way.  i just think they can bring so much joy to someone's life! as my puppy does!

i pretty much wear jeans everyday and I have no problem with it at all.  i have a really hard time when i need to dress up though, and jeans are not an option.

i have naturally blond hair, and i wish there was some kind of shampoo that would make it be it's blondest without me having to say "i do this treatment to my hair to keep it blond".

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

sorry for the absence. NC got some snow.  And since we never get lots of snow, NC people don't know what to do, and where I live basically shut down for the weekend.  It was awesome though to sled and such.  My highlight of the weekend was definitely yesterday morning at breakfast when my dad suggested we tie our boat tube to the back of my brother's jeep and pull it in a parking lot.  We had so much fun! Then P and i followed it up with lunch and a little Mario on the Wii. We opened like 9 worlds.  It was definitely something to be proud of. Last night my mom and I cuddled up in front of the fire and watched Miss America! My top 3 favorites were:

 

miss virginia

  

miss texas

 

miss oregon

I was so excited to see one of my top favorite 3 win! Congrats to miss Virginia! If you didn't see her stunning yellow dress, google it.  It was amazing!

oh and since the roads still aren't cleared my class is canceled tomorrow!

what did everyone else do this weekend?!

p.s.does anyone know how to change the spacing on my sidebar so everything isn't so ridiculously spaced because i am html dumb. thanks!

btw

(this post may be long, it will be like three days packed into one!)

over the past few months of doing this, i have grown to love it! blogging that is. you ladies mean so much to me, and i love checking up on what you all are doing! it may be silly, but i feel like i have accomplished something with my 28 followers who are so sweet and genuine! it is like a little family for my little growing blog...and i love it, every second of it.  although i do get a little overwhelmed when my reader shows i have 50 unread posts from all the your fabulous blogs i read! but i just wanted to make sure all you ladies realized how much i truly care about you and how much you all mean to me!

{via}

now back to the obsession general liking of other blogs. i have a problem. especially this semester.

i only have one class out of all five of them where i don't have my computer open...so that means that in all four of the others, i have blogs open constantly. my friends think that all i do is blog/read blogs but i promise i pay attention sometimes! like this instance today in our shakespeare class...(still not sure why i am still enrolled in this little gem)

professor: rambling about how the word "expense" in sonnet 129 is equal to orgasm and how shakespeare was probably gay, had an affair with not only some high status young male, but a black lady as well.  oh and he didn't live with his wife... we learned all of this about him by reading the sonnets.
me: This may be a stupid question, but how long did it take him to write these sonnets? They seem pretty complicated.
professor: basically speaking french with the occasional condescending: "a 7th grader with a decent vocabulary can figure these out, they are so simple and straight forward" blah blah blah (not answering my question) continues to blab.
c: (speaking to my friend j) i have no clue what's going on, how did alex know what was going on, i thought all she was planning on doing in here was blog?
j: (speaking to c) me too, since when does she pay attention in class?
me: (in my mind) why are you still talking about how anyone can understand what shakespeare is writing when i asked how long it took him to write them?
professor: did i answer your question? good.
me: .... (maybe blogging is the better alternative to attempting to learn shakespeare)

so essentially what i learned today in class is that shakespeare is really hard to understand unless you break it down bit by bit with a college professor who is obsessed with it. but really, who has hours upon hours to do this? we only got through 10 of the 154 sonnets in two class periods which = 3 hours total... really shakespeare? fact: obviously you didn't write that to the point if it takes that long to break them down and get the meaning down....

back to reality. i have had a really hard time keeping up with everyone's blogs recently because i have been trying to learn shakespeare, pr, more pr, writing and food science...but i pinky promise i will finish reading them all by the end of next week! 

tomorrow (or i guess, technically, today) i am leaving to go skiing with younglife.  we will be back late saturday night which will be followed by a short and sweet hang out with preston and an overnight babysitting job from sunday to monday. so i will be back probably monday.

 {via}

but i thought this would be fun-

how about leaving some questions for me to answer? 

anything is game, i'll answer it. pinky promise. ask one or as many as you'd like!

days go by

this will be a quicky...or hope so!

Jennifer from I'm Just A Girl gave me an award this week! I promise I will pass it along as soon as I get out from underneath this work load and find some free time to do it justice....If you haven't seen Jennifer's blog, run to it right now to check that puppy out, it is so wonderful!

it's beautiful days like today that i wish and throw i mild tantrum that i don't carry a camera with me everywhere. 

 {via}

Today I am rocking a shirt from a designer consignment shop called Dress. the shirt is a grey/silver silk by some designer named Walter. Walter designed a $165 (beautiful, yet overpriced) shirt which I purchased yesterday for $70.03 after tax.  This is by far the most expensive shirt i have ever bought, yet i love it. and i am glad for my purchase. Along with this shirt, i am wearing my dark denim skinny jeans with black flats that have gigantic bows on them.... i will admit that i am a sucker for shoes!

Today between classes I had some time to sit in what we call the Court of Carolina's on State's campus.  IF you know naything about NC State, it is known for the ugly brick everywhere.  But I still stand by the fact that the oldest part of campus, surrounding the Court of Carolina's is beautiful.  I love sitting there on the hill basking in the sun, hoping someone comments on my new shirt. It is so warm here that i was able to shed my shoes and enjoy the sun, and with the lighting, i am sure i could have gotten a few real cute pictures of my toes and adorable shoes! but until then...

{via}

this is the court of carolinas. I was lying in front of that beautiful building called the 1911 building.

i'll have my cake and eat it too, thanks.

Hello lovelies!

last night we had a tiny birthday bash for my mom who turned 49 30! ;) we had plenty of food and then some! we ate my mom's favorite...st. louis toasted raviolis with bread, pasta, other things and of course, cake!

for her birthday we surprised her and stole all of her  very organized  recipes about a week ago and made them into cook books for her.  we originally thought two 1-inch binders would be fine, absolutely not.  it took us four of them with over 200 slip covers (each slip cover had at least 3 recipes in it!)  I must say that it was a project but we were glad to have done it for her. 

today has been so beautiful! it was almost 60 out which was fabulous.  I had an early class then just got to hang around my house with my puppy elsie and her friend hank, the dog. Preston came by this afternoon and we took the pair on a walk.  i must say, elsie is growing up fast, but i am doubtful that she will ever learn how to walk on a leash properly.. hank on the other hand is a pro.  we enjoyed our walk.  Preston and i rarely get to spend some alone time together so it was nice to just walk and talk about nothing in particular....

 {via} 

tonight i'm going to a highschool basketball game with the younglife team! so excited about that.  Then afterward it will be the sonnets by shakespeare popcorn and a movie in bed! can't wait!*

i hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

agape

last night i made some of my guy friends dinner... we had mac-n-cheese with hot dogs cut up in it and green beans--a childhood favorite.  it was really nice to get out of my mini apartment and hang out with them... while i was there i told them about my absolutely not stressful day and how great it was.  they ended up being great guys to vent to.  they helped me realize that it wasn't that much work, i just needed to focus on God and He alone would help me get through each day! one of my friends j even had my shakespeare professor last semester and said he was hard but a great teacher and that he learned a lot.  so i slept well last night with no nightmares about school!

today was busy so i didn't exactly have the time to even think of stressing about class.  i did finally purchase my books which i will pick up tomorrow.  once i get cracking on my reading this weekend, i will feel better to have some things crossed off my homework list.

other than that i have realized that there really is no reason to stress over things you can't control.

i am also working on setting boundaries.  my pastor spoke about it the other weekend during the first section of a series he is calling "Resolutions" in spirits of the double digit year. i am working on learning how to say "no" more often to ensure that my days are meaningful and led by Christ.

 

i know that sounds hypocritical because i was talking about how i need to get cracking on my school work...but last semester i really learned the value of time with Christ.

I am doing this group through young life called BRU Crew (Bible Readers United...we felt cool when we made up the name hah!) we spend an hour a week together reading the Bible.  We started at Genesis 1 and are reading all the way through it in 9 months.  Hard, but honestly it has been well worth it. this group forces me to spend time alone with God on a regular basis on a personal level.

i'm not going to lie, i am a little behind because i wasn't a very responsible reader over break. but i am sure that i am more stressed about the reading than Jesus is.... last semester the time i spent with God really made me reevaluate my priorities.  for some reason it all clicked.  i was able to balance all my school work and everything else and it paid off.  so even though i was super stressed the other day and called it my "challenge" and thought it would be impossible to do great,  forget what i said.

i know i will be able to because i am focusing on Him and He alone gives me the strength to get through my days.  So by focusing on Him daily, all the craziness of class and school work fall right into place.

"...do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

{http://iamnothingami.tumblr.com/post/247174443/via-sassaroon}

merci beaucoup

 Thanks so much to Katy Mary for my very first Blog Award!  She just started a new blog called Three Hundred Sixty Five Loves and it is fabulous! My favorite thing about her is that no matter how small my little blog family is, she always takes the time to comment!

So with all things there are rules to this award:
1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2) Copy the award & place it on your blog.
3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4) Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.
5) Nominate 7 bloggers.
6) Post links to the 7 blogs I nominate.

so here it goes... all about me-

1. I am a natural blonde

2. I wish so much that I could be the editor of a fun weddings or interior design magazine, and I am very sad that the publishing world is going through a rough spot

3. I played clarinet for 10 years and just recently stopped playing due to school.

4. I love music you can sing along to.

5. I am a caffine addict.

6. I am also a coffee whore--starbucks white chocolate mocha and caribou morning break

7. I am completely in love with my quirky pup elsie (:

Here are 7 of my favorite ladies-

1. Katharine is one of my dearest friends I met at college.  She definitely deserves this award because her posts are so real.  She speaks truth more than anyone I know and i love her for it.

 2. Laura may be one of my top read blogs.  I love everything she puts on it about decor.  She also has an amazing etsy shop with beautiful art!

3. Gracie is so fantastic.  She has a wedding coming up.  She is marrying the man of her dreams, and I can't wait to hear all about it! Her blog is just a joy to read. 

3. Nicole is another top read blog on my list.  Not only do I hope to be her sister in law some day, but i hope my blog gets to be as lovely as hers!

4. Taza is famous in the blog world, for real. If you haven't read her blog or seen the cute pictures of her puppy, go asap because it is amazing!

5. Amanda's blog is so great.  Not only does she speak so much truth but she also always takes the time to drop a love note!  She is so wonderful and her blog is so fun to read!

6. I have recently started to get into the novelista barista's blog.  her coffee inspired blog has definitely drawn me! go check it out!

Now that i feel famous and all, go check out their blogs and leave a little love!

 

love, love, love....

Sure is the season for love!

i am so happy for all my friends who are engaged right now!

most of you don't know that I work for a local weddings magazine called "Weddings Magazine"

maybe work isn't the right word, haha, i'm the intern.

but this job comes with lots of perks.

I get to attend bridal shows!

Over the weekend, i attended a 2 day show.

I saw so many people I knew!

I don't dress up too too much, but i did love getting cute for the show!

i always try to wear cute "work" clothes, but it never works... but last minute i had this great idea to pair these two shirts with a navy pencil skirt and they both looked fabulous....so day 1 and day 2 outfit complete without buying anything new!

Although I loved meeting other vendors and talking to brides about their big day one of my favorite things to see was the love!

There was so much love in that room!

The families were such a support to the girls planning.

Some families came without the soon-to-bes and were just getting ideas.

It was so adorable to watch how the "lucky grooms" treated their soon-to-be-brides.

Always thoughtful and loving.  The smiles and gentle touches of genuine feelings are hard to describe but that feeling has embraced me this weekend.  I cannot wait to know-to know for sure. 

I know I always say that I can't wait to get engaged and married, which I can't but at the same time after this weekend I know I can wait a little longer to be sure it is the right timing. It is every girl's dream to find her prince, I've found mine,  we both just need to grow up a little more!