Little Life Update

Hellooooo! It's been a while Since I've let y'all in on what I've been up to. I've been... busy... Sure. We'll go with that.

This post is going to be very bullet-point, music, and picture heavy!

Firstly, a playlist of my latest jams, for your listening enjoyment while you read all about my life. It's quite an eclectic mix. My taste is evolving. I have no problem with this.

• General Life Update: I've been reading a lot and spending a lot (and I mean a LOT) of time at Ryan's house. It's been peaceful and pleasant and relaxing and happy. Knightro's been with me since Christmas and the weather's been absolutely BEAUTIFUL for the most part, so Ryan and I have been enjoying a lot of time outside!
• Knightro: Knightro is the greatest dog. He's seriously the absolute best dog in the whole entire universe. Everyone loves him! He's become best friends with Ryan's neighbor, Marti, and he now goes looking for her anytime we go outside. It's pretty precious. Marti is a really sweet woman and reminds me a lot of my mother, and I usually try and go talk to her at least a few minutes every day with Knightro!
• School: Going well. I'm glad I decided to be realistic and take my classes online this semester. I'm getting good grades so far, actually learning the material, AND I'm not overwhelming myself with other grown up things like work.
• Work: I absolutely LOVE my job. Sure, it exhausts me, and sometimes in the morning I'll be doing something and thing "man I don't wanna go to work!" but in the end I really love my job and I can't verbalize how thankful I am to be able to say that. Finally. The five months that I've been there have flown by and I'm looking forward to much more time with this great company and our great mall.
• Family: My family currently lives in three different places now. I'm not a fan of this situation, but whatever; all I really care about is that I'm in Orlando! Ha. My father was transferred to Maryland at the beginning of this year and luckily he learned from his past with me that moving my brother (a junior in high school) to a different school was not a good idea. So I'm in Orlando, my mom and brother are in Jacksonville, and my dad's in Maryland. For now.
• Speaking of my mother, she's coming to town today. I love love love my mother but I do not have the energy for people today, considering it's my first day off after a few days of work. Not to mention the lack of planning involved - "do you work tomorrow?" "no" "okay I'll see you at 11:30"
• Parents are weird. People are weird. Just give me my quiet time and I'll be okay.
• Planner: My planner life rules right now. I think I've achieved planner peace. These DIY Fish inserts are so awesome and I just enjoy doing things and I'm so productive and it just RULES. Not too long ago I bought a Kiwi Desk-Size Day-Timer Malibu from a friend on Facebook and it is so BEAUTIFUL and my Malden is also being wonderful and I'm just having a great time. I love planners and journaling and pens and writing and being productive!
• Health: My body's been sending me some messages lately along the lines of "stop eating all of that crap and give me REAL SUSTENANCE" lately and I've been slacking with tracking my Weight Watchers Points so I'm going to try to get back on that.
• I haven't stepped on a scale in a while but all of my clothing still fits fine and I just bought some new jeans (FINALLY) and I went down a size so while I'm terrified of weighing myself later this week I'm just trying to psych myself up with positives so I can take the inevitable blow of a gain.
• Money: I think I've been managing my money kind of okay lately. The beginning of the month I got a bigger-than-usual paycheck, my normal allowance, AND two old paychecks from when I worked at Waffle House so I took responsible advantage of that and just paid all of my bills at the beginning of the month to get them out of the way. It felt good. I even still have a little bit of money left for the last week of the month! That never happens! Ha. I'm getting a good idea of my needs/wants/expenses/ideal income/etc. so it's definitely helping me organize my budget a little better. I want to do a post on how I planned out all of my money for the month, so hopefully I can do that soon!

I'm just doing my thing and living my life and trying to be a good person and for the most part having a good time. It feels good. The next couple of months are pretty light in terms of plans; spring break is in the first week of March, finals are in the second week of April, and sometime this summer Ryan is most likely going to Field Training for the Air Force. Life is really picking up and it seems as though 2014 is the year we all become adults.

Thank goodness I'm turning 21 in August, then, right?!

Bottoms up, and Happy Thursday!

And now, a smattering of pictures from my life. Enjoy!

Pro-Tip from The Goddess of Laundry

This morning, I was folding my laundry and came across three socks without a mate. THREE! That's just too many. Especially considering the last time I did my laundry, I noticed an unusual surplus of single socks as well.

What do you do when you find a sock without a mate? Throw it back in the hamper and hope the mate shows up in the next load? Just toss it into the sock drawer to be forgotten forever?

How long until you have to go buy another pack of socks because all you have are random lone socks? Not long, I'm guessing. And socks these days have gotten freakin' expensive. (Trust me, I know - I was going to celebrate getting hired at my current job with a pack of nice black socks, until I saw that any socks that fit the standards of my picky toes were upwards of eight dollars. Like, come ON, I know I just got a job, but I don't get a paycheck for like three weeks!)

When you find yourself in a situation such as this, just ask yourself one question: what would The Goddess of Laundry do?

She'd put it in her box of Lonely Socks.

Thanks to this box, I was able to reunite seven pairs of lost, sad, and confused socks this morning. SEVEN! And they were all my favorite kinds of socks, too. Four of them were black, so I could wear them to work.

Seven happy little bundles of lonely-no-more socks. It cost me zero dollars and about two minutes.

In other words, it saved me both the time and the money of the tyranny that was coming to my way - driving all the way to Target or Walmart, inevitably looking at everything in the store, getting depressed at the rising cost of socks, and leaving the store with new socks and a $10 debit of disappointment on my checking account.

Official Laundry Goddess Pro-Tip: Don't you dare throw a lonely sock back into your hamper, under your bed, or worse - into the sock drawer to be lonely forever. Make a designated box, bag, bin (I used an adorable purple $1 Sterilite Target box with an Avery shipping label that I customized on my computer to match the rest of the Sterilite boxes in my closet), or any other kind of container that suits your fancy - specifically for socks without mates. Every once in a while, go through that container and reunite the long lost lovers.

Your feet will thank you.

Have a lovely day!

Surviving Sickness

Good morning everyone! Long time, no blog, right? I have to leave for work in about fifteen minutes, so I'll save the life update for later. Today, I want to show you all how I've been surviving the current cold that's going around... it finally got me! So, want to know my secret?

It's this little sparkly bag. I've been lovingly referring to it as my "am sick" bag.

Call it what you wish, but this thing is genius! As you can see below, I am strict and religious about taking my medication - I hate being sick and I want it to get out as soon as possible. Somehow, I always forgot about the times when I took cold medicine and when I should take it next, so I started writing it down.

Once I conquered the timing of my medication, I encountered another problem: I didn't have the medicine I needed at the right time. So I started carrying around this little pouch full of all of my sick necessities.

Contained in the $2 Walmart pencil pouch is the following:

• Small pack of tissues
• Thermometer & thermometer covers
• Zicam (I swear by this stuff. It works so well!)
• Alka Seltzer Plus - Cold (my cold medicine of choice)
• Crystal Light packets to encourage hydration
• Airborne - for the brave souls who spend time with me!

I was so excited when I came up with this idea. If I'm going out somewhere, such as work or the grocery store, I just toss this bag in my purse and I'm able to keep myself prepared to fight the cold. I keep this pouch at my desk or on my nightstand, and it's been super convenient for when I come over to Ryan's house as well!

This little pouch has seriously saved my life during this little bout of the common cold. 'Tis the season of sniffles, so set up your little sick bag to make taking care of yourself nice and easy!

Hope you all are having a lovely week. More blog posts will absolutely be coming :)

☀︎ Scatter Chatter: Piercings, Planner Flip-through, And My Fantastic Fi...

Hey y'all! This morning I really wanted to blog, but I did not have the attention span nor the time to deal with my attention span... solution: VLOG! It's got me babbling about piercings and who knows what else, a look inside my personal Malden planner, and a peek at the gorgeous Finsbury I found at the mall the other day!



Hope you guys enjoy and have a great week!

2014 Goals

I'm not one for resolutions. I used to be; I actually kept an art journal throughout high school, and would list out resolutions in that and check them off as I accomplished them. That was back when life was a bit more predictable and I didn't have to worry about grown-up things like work and graduating college and paying bills.

Oh, to be young again!

Just kidding. I'm old enough to reflect longingly on the easy times of being 15 years old, but I'm still young enough to not want to go back.

I digress.

I know we're already two weeks into the new year, but I've had these goals written down since the last week of 2013 and have just been flip-flopping with sharing them with you all. Probably because my father is Healthy Fun & Frugal's #1 reader, and lawd knows I don't need more things for dear ol' daddyo to "check in" on. Ha.

(Love you daddyo!)

So, without further ado, my goals for this year - things I want to accomplish in 2014, but will not beat myself up about if I don't.

• Read 15 Books - this is not impressive, by any means. I started small because the real purpose behind this goal is just to get back into the habit of reading for pleasure. I know that I absolutely can read 15 books in, like, less than a month. So if and when I hit 15 books, we'll raise that number. But I'm starting small!
• Reach 140 Pounds - this is also pretty small. I lost about 30 pounds in 2013 and then that leveled off around the time that school became difficult and I got my job, so weight loss was put on the back burner. Luckily, my hard work from last year wasn't reversed, but I had a goal and I'd like to reach it!
• Maintain Employment - I like my job. I REALLY like my job. And I need money and independence and all of that grown up crap. So I want to keep my job.
• Dedicate More Time to Creativity - I found, in the last half of 2013, some creative hobbies that I really enjoy, and I just want to continue to explore and practice and enjoy these hobbies. When I dive into a creative project, my anxiety lessens significantly and I really enjoy myself, so I want to spend more time doing these things.
• Blog Your Heart Out! - I just want to blog. A lot. And make a lot of YouTube videos. I LOVE social media, and I think it's incredible how many people you can reach through one blog post - though my blog doesn't have a huge following or anything, I've still met a sizable amount of people and learned a lot with it. This goes along with dedicating more time to creativity.
• Open Etsy - I enjoy designing digital media for planners, etc. so I kinda want to capitalize on it, haha. Technically my Etsy is already opened........... more on this later when it's more of a focus for me!
• Save $1000 - I just need a savings account. With money in it.

Have a great week, y'all!

Monday Motivation: Why I Use (and love) a Paper Planner

"Hang Forever" by Ivy Levan - my latest jam

I suffer from a severe lack of motivation. Mostly I feel that there's not much ahead for me; a side effect of my many ailments is not believing in myself, not thinking that the little steps to accomplish my big dreams are worth the effort - because I don't actually believe I'll reach any of those dreams.

And that's why I use (and love) my paper planner.

My friends and family all think my planner obsession is nuts - I say it's necessary. On the lighter side of things, the act of writing, doodling, and decorating is very therapeutic for me. An hour spent planning and reviewing and decorating is a sure-fire way to relieve anxiety and bring me into the present moment. In addition, being able to customize and create a system that is 100% me and perfect for my life is awesome.

Into the deeper side of things - motivation and affirmation.

I try to treat myself like the queen that I am. ;)

In the morning, when I first sit down with breakfast, my mind is suddenly flooded with worries about things I need to get done, things I want to get done, things I have to do, and how I'm going to fit it all into my day. So I write it down. I write EVERYTHING down. There is a notebook at my desk dedicated to nothing but "brain dumps." If there's even an inkling of a feeling that I may want to remember that thought, I write it down. If it's a task for the day, I'll write it in my planner. Sometimes my list can get long and overwhelming; most days I accidentally fill up the section on my daily pages for tasks (something I'm working on - think before you write, Alexis!).

For me, seeing a full task box is something of a little challenge to myself. Most days, if there are that many things on the list, it's little things: empty dishwasher, write blog post, reorganize/clean up desk space, wash bedsheets, clean mouse/rat cage, fold laundry, archive old planner pages, etc. At first, the full task box is overwhelming, but then I actually read it and realize that if I just stood up and put my mind to it, I could have half of it done in half an hour!

For instance, yesterday, my brain was moving at light-speed trying to prepare for the new semester. I looked at my full task list and began to panic. But then I noticed that a huge chunk of my list was simple house cleaning tasks - dishes, decluttering/wiping down kitchen, fold laundry, etc. I blasted The Dubstep Dictionary on my stereo and was able to add four checkmarks to that task list in twenty minutes.

A long list can be overwhelming, but the empty check boxes sure do motivate me to find a way to get things done - MUST. CHECK. OFF. BOXES.

Additionally, I keep my planner as a sort of record. Not only of events I want to remember, but also just day to day things: why didn't I do what I wanted to do this week? What did I do this week that helped me accomplish all of my main goals? Maybe I was sick for most of the week, and that's why I got a lot of blogging done, but my room is messy. Maybe I had the week off of work and nothing to really worry about, so my apartment is spotless and I was able to kick all of my tasks in the ass. These things really help me focus on the task at hand and how to move forward and get everything done.

I use the Life Mapping Version 2 inserts from DIY Fish in my desk size Day-Timer!

And lastly: I use my planner in the traditional manner, to remember tasks and appointments. I'm a little (read: a lot) absent-minded sometimes. As a visual person, when I see my appointments, time commitments, and tasks laid out in front of me, I can be more realistic about what needs to get done, what I want to get done, and what can wait.

In all honesty, my planner is probably overkill for most people, but it works for me and that's what matters! It keeps me sane, helps me see what's important, and most importantly: it remembers dates and times.

I encourage you all to ignore the naysayers for anything in your life, today. So what if someone thinks your way of doing things is weird? You're not harming anyone, and it works for you. That is all that matters. :)

Have a beautiful Monday and a great week, y'all!

PS: I'm completely obsessed with these DIY Fish Life Mapping Version 2 inserts. I will absolutely be doing a post on those soon!

New Year

11pm on December 31st. Most people are celebrating the end of yet another year by blowing things up, drinking the spirits of the season, enjoying the company of their friends and family - I'd be lying if I wasn't doing the same!

On New Year's Eve, while I'm often attending little gatherings, I can't say I'm really socially present. I find that December 31st is the night that I most want to write and reflect; I think about what I was doing at this exact moment last year, and how different what I'm doing is right now, and all of the things that happened in the past year to cause those differences.

2013 was a weird year for me Just tonight I've been reminded of many less-than-pleasant memories of the year that I'd successfully put on the back burner for some time. That is, in addition to the ones that I was not so lucky to forget.

I completely lost myself early in 2013 and have spent the majority of it just trying to find myself again. I'm still working on it, but I'm happy to say that there has been progress.

I don't want to think about 2013. I don't want to think about 2014. I am 20 years, four months, and three days old. My life is in a constant state of flux, college is a never ending identity crisis, I feel like I'm stuck in limbo and have been for years. 2014 starts in 12 minutes. I'm going to kiss the boy that I've been blessed with for the past six years and then begin my new year - I will simply try to be the best version of myself in 2014. I will try to stay in the moment and I will try to remain content.

Happy New Year, my lovely followers, readers, lurkers - I appreciate you all so much! Enjoy yourselves as we begin another chapter in our lives; but it's just a chapter. Don't feel obligated to create the whole story!

Monday Mania: Reunion Edition!

Hi everyone! I'm sorry it's been so long... I have been SO busy. I spent the entirety of December working my ass off to sell gift cards and provide the best service to our guests at the mall... and it paid off, because two days for Christmas, I was walking to the booth with my manager and she goes, "So, do you like this job?" and I told her that I'd really been enjoying it. She then says, "Good, because we've decided to keep you permanently!" I told her I had been working really hard and I really loved it and she told me she had definitely noticed the hard work, and that was just great. I get to start the New Year on a good foot - employed! I'm so excited.

But, yeah, working through the holidays took SO much out of me. I basically only worked, slept, and tried to get all of my holiday chores done. It was insane.

For this post, I'm just going to post a ton of pictures and give you an update on my life in little tidbits, so enjoy!

Firstly, though, I want to post my current favorite song - "I Want Crazy" by Hunter Hayes. I discovered this song when an a cappella group, Home Free, performed it on the finale of the Sing Off!

Christmas came and went as it usually does. My family ended up coming to my apartment and we had a good time! I asked for a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas, and Santa Claus went above and beyond and brought me a Kindle Fire HDX. It's amazing. At first I thought I would prefer a reader alone, but as a techie, I've been LOVING this Kindle. It's so much fun, and I am loving being able to read books, magazines, blogs, the news, etc. on the same device!

Ryan got me this gorgeous necklace for Christmas. IT IS SO PRETTY.

Knightro has been staying with me since Christmas. I can't decide who's happier about having him here: him or me!

He loves sitting and looking out windows :)

• I got to see Sara Bareilles and Parachute perform at the House of Blues a couple weeks ago. It was incredible. Sara Bareilles is such a talented musician and a sweet person, and I am constantly inspired by her work.
• I finished up this semester in the beginning of December; as usual I was stressed out and a mess over school. My GPA is still a hilarious joke but it's slowly getting better, and that's what matters. The desire to drop out, however, just gets stronger and stronger and every day. I don't like school.
• Next semester I'm signed up for five classes. I'm not planning on taking all five of them; I just couldn't decide on which ones to pick so I figured I'd just decide that in the first week of class. Who knows, maybe I'll keep them all! I am trying to take it easy next semester for a few reasons: to get my GPA up, to allow more time for work since my family is going through a financially painful time right now and I'm turning 21 this year and I want to be able to support myself more, to allow more time for stuff I enjoy and is therefore good for my mental health (a cappella, taking some craft classes here and there, cooking, etc.), and a million other things.

Here's my current weekly setup in my desk-size planner.  Not sure how I feel about it. I've used the last few months as test runs for setups that I like, but I really want to be set up for the new year in a more uniform way!

In a Secret Santa exchange online, I received these beautiful Flavia monthly calendars - I'm in love! Each month is a different color. I think it's perfect.

My little brother got me this super appropriate calendar for Christmas. I can't wait to look at it for a year straight.

Hooray for calendars! Check out my first planner video on YouTube, too:

I GOT A NEW BABY DUMBO RAT AND SHE IS SO CUTE AND I AM LOVING HER SO MUCH

I named her Britta, after the character on Community!

Here's Home Free, my Sing Off favorites, performing "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash. This performance is killer. Just watch it. You'll understand when you're done.

Knightro enjoys just sitting and staring at my rats and mice.

Hope you all had a great holiday and a wonderful New Year! There will be more updates now that the holiday season is over - no worries :)

"Tired" doesn't even begin to describe it.

I am exhausted. I am burnt-out and broken down. I am over-worked, under-motivated, and yet my mind is constantly racing with ideas, to-do lists, worries, needs, wants. My body can't keep up with my mind and my mind can't keep up with the world.

Just like my energy, my attention span and motivation are waning. If I am not staring aimlessly at nothing, my brain is constantly coming up with new thoughts that MUST(!!!!!) be remembered or taken care of or written down. And so most of the time, I am left with either an unrealistically long to-do list, or an overwhelming plague of disappointment because I couldn't remember that idea, that thing I needed to do, that blog post I wanted to write.

I am at work right now; a place I am finding myself quite often lately. I don't really mind it. The job is wonderful, for the most part, and as far as I'm aware, I'm not disappointnig the higher-ups in any way. However, that damn mind of mine is constantly bringing me down.

While at work (in down time - usually there are lulls at the booth), I wanted simply to study for the statistics final that I have tomorrow at 7am.

Instead, I started typing up a simple study guide, and quickly gave up for lack of attention and anxiety over the fact that I have a 7am final and I won't be home until 11pm at the earliest and I'm far less than prepared for this final than I'd like to be and college is overwhelming and I don't know what I'm doing with it and at this point I'd rather just drop out.

See what I mean? It's overwhelming.

All week I've been trying to take a break from staring aimlessly or endless task lists by sitting down and writing in my journal, catching up on some television, scrapbooking, whatever. Just something relaxing; preferably something that requires some focus and creative energy.

My theme for anything I've done this week has been "slow down." It's written in giant, colorful letters on at least two days in my planner this week.

The problem, however, is that I feel like I don't have time, and maybe I don't. I don't know.

All I know is that it's finals week, my psychiatrist is missing in action, my therapist can't get me in to see her, CVS is out of my crazy pills, and constantly failing at keeping up with my racing mind is not helping.

So, my dearest followers, I have some advice. Whether you're dealing with work stress, school stress, family stress, holiday stress, something else, all of the above, whatever:

Slow down.

The laundry will be folded. The groceries will be bought. The checkbooks will be balanced and regardless of the outcome, this semester will be over soon. And no matter what happens, you will feel better when it's all over and you know that, if anything, you survived.

I'm trying to take this to heart, myself. I have a massive problem with not living in the moment - quite common among those who suffer from notable anxiety issues. Earlier today - and I wish I remembered what I had actually thought - I told myself that I'm not living in the moment. I was living in the two hours from now, ten hours from now, a week from now, a decade from now, and I needed to snap back into the moment.

I have since been brought back to my usual state of future-panic, but I had a nice morning of peace in which I was able to run some necessary errands (deposit check at the bank, pay rent, try to fill prescription, check mail, get textbook from Ryan's) while enjoying Christmas music and not panicking about the fact that I'd be leaving for work in a few hours and I wish there was more time in the day.

Just slow down every once in a while. Regardless of how I do on my final tomorrow, or how my grade comes out in the class, I know I'll be significantly more relaxed on Monday when all of my work is done for a month.

Your kids will still hug you, even if you can only provide a $50 Christmas. Your parents will still love you, even if you fail that test. Your significant other won't hate you if some comfort or ease in the relationship is sacrificed in order for you to do something you love.

And if they do, maybe they need to slow down, too.

Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Cover by Marius Beck)

I've always loved "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus. Despite her reputation and, in my opinion, kind of odd music video, I really admire the raw emotion she's put into the song. You can really feel that wrecking ball she's talking about.

Eric Whitacre, an incredible contemporary composer whose work I have always loved performing in choirs, posted this cover on Facebook earlier - and just WOW. It's good.

Happy Sunday!