Monday Motivation: May

Hey guys! I've been horrible at taking care of my blog lately and I could stay all day listing down reasons but I won't! I've found that since I started my new job, I don't find myself having as much free time as I used to. It's not a bad thing though because I've finally found a place I'm comfortable with. It was a little challenging when I first started because everything was completely new to me and I would have to learn on the spot. With everyone experienced around me, I couldn't help but feel a little...stupid.

Early this year, I started reading Demi Lovato's book - Staying Strong, and I came across a chapter a few weeks ago that I believe was no accident and I feel was written just for me! I wanted to share it with you today just in case any of you are going through the same thing.

April 22 

"Remember how far you've come, not just how far you have to go. You are not where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be." - RICK WARREN 

Most of our lives move at such an accelerated pace we don't always have the time to stop and reflect on how far we've come. We are usually too busy looking ahead. But it's so important to keep checking in with yourself. We change all the time. It's easy to get caught up feeling dissatisfied with where you are when you don't take the time to appreciate how far you've come. You don't have to be exactly where you want to be, but the fact that you are on your way is remarkable. Good things and progress take time. 

Goal: Make today all about celebrating how far you've come in your life since last year. What is something you've changed in your life that you are proud of?

I highly recommend checking out Demi's book if you can! There are motivational messages, like the one you read above, for every day of the year. It's pretty awesome. Anyway, I hope you had a nice weekend and I wish you all an even better week ahead! :)

Kisses,

S

My Top 10: Scents & Memories

Scents can be very nostalgic, at least to me. They have the power to bring me back to a specific memory and it's quite surreal and amazing at the same time. Today, I wanted to talk about my most favorite scents and the memories associated with them!

1) Coffee. Mmmmm! I'm not a huge coffee drinker but I adore the smell so much! There's something about it that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside which is a little strange since most of the memories I associate with coffee include all nighters and school.

2) Roses. I'm talking fresh roses, the kind that just whisper sweet notes that you can only hear with your nose. One of my all time favorite shower gels is Rose Jam from Lush and it wreaks (I mean it in the best way!) of roses and ughhhh it's SO good!

3) Chocolate. I mean, of course. When I was younger, I would dream of opening up my own little chocolaterie, kind of like the one in the movie 'Chocolat', mainly because I'd always have a reason to be around chocolate! 

4) The beach. The smell of the water, sand and sunscreen combined bring me back to summer and I always associate that with some of my favorite memories!

5) A Lush shop. The smell of a Lush shop can be a little overpowering for most people but it smells like soap heaven to me! I give myself little Lush treats once in a while and they truly make me so happy!

6) Freshly cut grass. This might sound odd, but I really do enjoy the smell of grass! When I was in college, my apartment was close to a lot of greenery and I don't know, this particular smell just reminds me of mornings where I would just walk to school and enjoy the sunshine.

7) Peppermint. Hands down, this has to be the scent that relaxes me the most! Peppermint, naturally, reminds me of Christmas time but mostly, it takes me back to nail salons and massage spas!

8) Bread. Another one of my dreams included owning a bakery! Baking is one of my favorite things to do and there's really nothing like the smell of a freshly baked loaf of bread.

9) Garlic + Coriander. Coming from a Lebanese family, garlic and coriander are two of the most popular ingredients in it's cuisine. When these two are being cooked together, it creates one of the most amazing aromas that instantly makes my mouth water!

10) Citrus fruits. Specifically tangerine, lemon and grapefruit! They carry a ton of summer memories but also, they're one of my favorite scents that I like to wear all year round.

This post was a lot of fun to write and I hope you enjoyed reading through it! I'd love to know what your favorite scent/s is/are! Tell me in the comments below.

Kisses,

S

Monday Motivation: April

One of my favorite things about blogging is the ability to make an impact on someone with just words. I started this 'Monday Motivation' series last year with that idea in mind - to inspire people to live. 

I once read that you can be alive but not living. Personally, I think to really be living, you need to do things that make YOU happy. Today, I want to share something that happened to me early this month. I've been working the same job for almost two years and initially, I loved it but as time went on, it felt like I had to drag myself to work. I thought that everyone felt that way so I pushed through it. I kept looking forward to the weekends, or rather 'weekend' since I only got to have a day off. What I was doing didn't excite me anymore and more importantly, it didn't challenge me - I was doing it just for the money. I took a month off work and on my first day back, I had an epiphany, if you may, and said to myself "what are you doing?". I wasn't enjoying what I was doing anymore and it wasn't making me happy. So that day, I decided to quit my job. At the time, I didn't know what I would do next but I knew it didn't feel right staying there anymore. Since then, I found a job in a different field and it seems like a right place to be. It's been really challenging so far but I'm excited to learn and just see what this chapter of my life holds for me. 

Long story short, I just wanted to tell you guys that if something isn't making you happy, stop doing it. It really doesn't need to be more complicated than that. I'm not just talking about a job. Whether it's people, things or situations that's making you unhappy, find the courage to allow yourself to let go of them and finally give yourself a chance to truly be alive.

On a much lighter note, I hope you all are having a lovely day, wherever you are! I missed doing these motivation posts and I hope today's post helped you somehow! If not, please enjoy this video of a beluga whale being serenaded by a Mariachi band.

Kisses,

S

My Spring Soundtrack: A Guest Post by The Girl in The Moonlight

*Waves shyly and clears throat.* The awesome Shirley has invited me onto her blog to talk spring and sunshine and music!

While sunshine is accompanying us a bit more often in England, sunny music is my best friend. As both Shirley and I enjoy sunshine and music, we thought it would be an awesome idea to exchange each of our playlists that we'll be listening to for the next couple of months. You can check out Shirley's HERE!

The Way You Make Me Feel - McFly
No Worries - McFly
Something New - Tom Fletcher 

Be Who You Are - You Me At Six
Boys in Books are Better - Carrie Hope Fletcher
He's the One I'm Bringing Back - Nina Nesbitt
Glue - Nina Nesbitt
A Permanent Hug From You - Dodie Clark
A Year And A Day - Wayward Daughter
Never Met You - Tom Law 

Way Back When - Kodaline  
I Blame You - Plug in Stereo

Fixer Upper - Frozen 

Girls Who Play Guitars - Maximo Park

Something That We're Not - Demi Lovato
Not a Bad Thing - Justin Timberlake
Waste of Time - Eliza Doolittle
Ain't It Fun - Paramore

Thank you SO MUCH for having me on your blog Shirley! I love your blog; it's the sunshine that makes any rainy day better! This was a lot of fun and I'm glad we've worked together! It would be great to do so again!

What songs will be brightening up your days this spring?

Bunnies & Green Grass,

The Girl in the Moonlight.

What I Loved in March!

Happy April, everyone! Ahh, I've missed the sound of my fingers tapping away against my keypad! I recently just got back from holiday and as incredible and much needed as it was, it feels great to be back home. I wanted to take this time to make a post about the things I enjoyed last month! :)

Great Weather

Before I left for the Philippines, Kuwait's weather was starting to warm up a little and it got me excited! I was so over the cold already so imagine my excitement when I was welcomed by the tropical heat in the Philippines! It was the perfect amount of sun and breeze so thank YOU, weather, for being amazing last month!

Products

I finally got the time to play around with new beauty products last month and I found a few new favorites I'm happy about! I brought all these items along with me on my trip and they truly served me well! ;)

Sunscreen, although very important, can sometimes be a chore to apply! This spray sunscreen from Bath and Body Works was a God send. It's so easy to apply and it smells so yummy!

I've been using the same foundation for the past 5 years so it was time to try something new. I picked up this one from Cover Girl and I've been loving it so far! It blends in perfectly with my skin tone and what I love about it most is it dries to a powder finish so it looks very natural. It's also weightless - you can't even feel you're wearing anything!

I only brought two eye shadow palettes with me when I traveled and this was one of them! The colors in this are stunning! It was my first time trying shadows from Wet n Wild and I was really impressed by the pigmentation and the lasting power. I pretty much used this palette every day. This one is called 'Walking on Eggshells' if you're interested!

One of my best friends (she also blogs!) gave me this lip balm/stain from Jordana! It's a beautiful coral color that's perfect for this time of year! It's also really moisturizing and stays on all day. I've been wearing it a lot since then so thank you, Kareen, if you're reading this! :)

Music

5 Seconds of Summer came out with some new songs last month and they're all so fun and catchy, I've been obsessed. My favorites so far include "She Looks So Perfect" and "Heartache On the Big Screen".

Movies

I saw two movies this past month that stood out to me! The first one was About Time. Honestly speaking though, I was only looking forward to seeing this movie because one of my favorite actresses, Rachel McAdams, plays the leading lady. However, it turned out to be quite an interesting and heartwarming movie. It revolves around a guy, who at the age of 21, discovers that he can travel time. So, he uses that in his advantage to find love. Ah, if only things were that easy in the real world.

I also saw Divergent last month! I only read a few chapters of the book beforehand so I'm not in a place to compare the two but it was still such a good movie! Post-apocalyptic story lines have been quite popular over the past few years, and I love the spin Divergent puts on this topic. I'm already looking forward to seeing the next one but it might be a while so I guess I really need to catch up on my reading!

Short Hair

I cut off a total of 9 inches of my hair last month and although it felt scary at first, it's very liberating! I can't even remember the last time I had my hair this short! It's very low maintenance and this might sound odd, but my head feels so much lighter now - it's amazing.

While we're talking about hair, I also wanted to quickly mention a curling wand I recently purchased from Remington! I used it to style my hair in the photo above. It creates beautiful curls and I've just been really getting a lot of use out of it recently!

Time Off

After working straight evening shifts for over a year, I FINALLY got time off work. I used this time to do my favorite thing - be lazy. I can't stress how incredible it felt not to have to set alarms! I also got to travel to one of my favorite places - Philippines. I'm planning on making a separate post about that but I posted a few pictures that you can see HERE.

Overall, March treated me really well. I only hope April can do the same! I want to know, what stood out to YOU  last month? What are you looking forward to this month? Tell me in the comments below!

Kisses,

S

My Week in Pictures!

This past week has been quite insane but in the best way! I flew out to my home away from home, Philippines, and it feels amazing to be back here. The food is incredible (as it has always been) and the weather has been surprisingly forgiving. I've been meeting up with some of my college friends and a few of my relatives as well and that has been nice. Also! This past week, I challenged myself to try out a few new things! I thought I'd summarize my trip so far in this little photo dump. ^_^

This was my favorite part of the flight! When they dimmed the lights, there were stars that lit up the ceiling. It was so beautiful, this picture doesn't do it justice!

I guess you could say I'm an Oreo cheesecake enthusiast! I've tried a LOT of them, but I always go back to this particular one from my favorite cafe in Bacolod, Calea. I legitimately teared up when this got to my table!

My sister and I had really bad jet lag the first night so we just ended up taking a ton of pictures heh heh ;)

I was so happy I got a chance to visit my 'Silay Sundays' house and church family! They're some of the sweetest people I know and they've helped me through so much! :)

I've noticed a lot of Milk Tea places opening up around town and I've been to this one last year and it was so good, I had to come back! Plus points to the people who work here because they're one of the few that can get the actual spelling of my name right without me telling them! :)

I got together with a few of my friends from college and we all planned a trip to a mountain resort that opened up recently! It was filled with a bunch of random things, hence Mr. King Kong in the background!

That's me pathetically trying to pretend I'm caught in Spiderman's web.

They also had a rope course that you can go on! I tried it out with one of my friends but wow, it definitely looked way easier than it actually was! It took us about 2 hours to finish the entire thing and although I was so close to giving up multiple times, I'm really happy I pushed myself all the way to the end. We also tried the zipline! It was my first time and I literally wanted to pee my pants but it was so fun! 

My absolute favorite meal on this trip so far was served in this floating restaurant!

Shoe twinning with my sister! ;)

Two of our best friends graduated this past week and I'm so happy we made it out to watch them!

Who says chocolate shakes are just for kids, yeah? While everyone celebrated growing up, I gave a little tribute to the chocoholic 6 year old within me, celebrating staying young.

Kisses,

S

What I Loved in February!

Hey everyone! I know I’ve gone on a little hiatus these past few weeks and this post is way overdue but I thought I’d still put it up anyway. I’m currently on holiday and I’ve really been enjoying being lazy (obviously) that I couldn’t even bring my fingers to type up a post. However, here I am now so let’s talk about all the great things that I found myself loving last month!

Baking

Wow, did I do a lot of baking in February! I tried my hand at baking my first red velvet dessert (you can see the outcome HERE)! Baking is one of the few activities that I can work on for hours and it still manages to relax me.

The Spectacular Now (Movie & Book)

I first heard Megan Parken talk about The Spectacular Now in THIS video and I was immediately sold when she mentioned it being similar to the likes of A Walk to Remember, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. Of course, I checked it out for myself and I completely fell in love with the story. I read the book first and then saw the movie. I personally like doing it this way but I guess you could see the movie first if you wanted to because the stories are slightly different, but equally great. I’m the worst at summarizing stories without giving the entire plot away so that's all I'm going to say about it!

Apps

OKAY so I finally climbed on the band wagon in February and downloaded Flappy Bird. Easily, I got sucked into it. My high score is currently 27! (Yesss, I am actually very proud! ^_^) Since Flappy Bird was removed from the iTunes store, a ton of similar apps came out but my favorite ‘spin off’ app would have to be Fall Out Bird! It’s even better because Fall Out Boy songs play in the background of the game! Personally, the little Pete floating head gives me the most luck! ;)

When I updated to iOS7, one of my favorite things included with the update was the weather app! Like come on, how cool are the graphics whenever there’s a thunderstorm or snow or even a starlit sky?! Anyway, since then, I’ve found another weather app I’ve come to love and it’s the Yahoo! Weather app. It’s more precise than the one Apple offers and although I don’t get the satisfaction of seeing animation across my screen, it’s still pretty decent.

Okay the last app I want to talk about today is the Akinator! I was introduced to this by my sister and honestly, I was a little freaked out by it at first! I couldn't understand how an app could literally know who I was thinking about but now I love it! It's a paid app but it's so fun, it's worth every cent!

Dry Brushing

The idea of dry brushing may come off as weird at first but it's actually flowing with benefits! I only recently started dry brushing and I'm loving the results so far. I'm actually thinking of making a whole blog post about this!

YouTube

Generally, I watch a lot of YouTube videos but I've enjoyed watching two people in particular this past month - Meghan from meghanrosette & Arden from ardenrose186. They're both really sweet girls with unique personalities and their videos are super entertaining to watch.

Music

Finally, for music, I've gone back to an old favorite band - Fall Out Boy! They dropped an album, Save Rock and Roll, a while back but I only got the chance to listen to it recently. My favorite songs off of this album are 'Young Volcanoes', 'Alone Together', 'Miss Missing You' and 'Save Rock and Roll'.

I hope you all are enjoying this month so far! It's been amazing to have time off work. I will be back next month with more posts, hopefully! Love you all. ♡

Kisses,

S