Turn that frown upside down

I have been in the weirdest mood recently. I know exactly why too, combination of coming down off that holiday high and also being that time of the month. This morning I couldn't stop crying and I moped about listening to sad love songs. Luckily the afternoon got a bit better.

 I found this site, I think thanks to Suzy again and one of her Stumble Sundays. There is a link to a list of 100 ways to nurture yourself. I recommend checking it out.

And I recommend following along with me as I have decided that I am going to do one every single day. I haven't had that good of a look at the list and I think it will be fun to discover what I'm supposed to be doing on the day. Although I'm sure I'll crack later on and start reading the list in entirety and planning in minute detail what I'll be doing on what day.

Any takers on joining me on the 100 days of nurturing?

And bonus picture of a seal because I think they are adorable and amazing and lots of other adjectives beginning with A.

How do you make friends?

The art of making friends is something that you instinctively gain throughout school but becomes harder as you go through high school.  By the time you have graduated college, the knack for making friends is almost gone.

So HOW is one expected to make friends nowadays?  I am heartily thankful for the internet but I need more friends IRL to use internet speak.

I am in the midst of a dilemma.  There is a lovely lady who I petsit for and she has the cutest baby too.  This is her dog.

Look how cute he is!!

Um, anyway, I get sidetracked.  The lady and I get on really well and I would love to be friends with her.  BUT how do you go from person who looks after your dog to friend?  Is it as simple as a text for coffee?

Any advice?

I’m baaaack!!

Truth be told, I’ve been back for a while.  Blogging kind of means admitting that real life is again the order of the day and honestly, I’m not quite ready for that yet.  My holiday was all kinds of amazing and I was going to do one big blog post about it but then I thought, if I do lots of little blog posts spattered here and there, then that kind of makes my holiday last longer.

But onto the real reason for posting: LASAGNE CUPCAKES.  Yes, two of the greatest words in the English language meet together to make a delightful meal.  One of my new blog friends Suzy has the coolest thing every Sunday where she collects all these different ‘stumbles’- definitely worth a check out.  I love all the different things she puts together.  And this week there was a link to this blog post which gives a recipe for LASAGNE CUPCAKES (it really does need to be in capital letters).  It was easy to make and mouth wateringly delicious!  Give it a try!

Nom nom nom!

For the next two days, I will be housesitting with the cutest boy.  And by boy, I mean dog.  Seriously, I’m crazy in love with him.  He’s a Lab called Ajax and I’m so looking forward to looking after him.  And I also love his family, they’re so nice.  I want to be friends with them in real life!!

What do you want to be?

One of my newest online friends is Blaire. I love reading her insightful posts. I did a guest post for her a little while back and now she's returning the favour for me. Her post is super interesting, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did!
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Hello readers of Girl plus everything. I am Blaire at A Journey through writing.



Laura wrote a post for my blog about what she wanted to be when she grew up and I thought I would do the same for this post. I think sharing all the dreams of my younger days gives great insight into my life and it show how this girl from Oklahoma moved to California and now lives in Boston.



When I was younger the first thing I wanted to be was a ballerina. Then I went through a phase where I thought I would be a vet. After my parents got divorced my mom filled the house with pets and I loved taking care of them. But then I realized that becoming a vet meant I would not only have to care for little dogs like the ones I had but big dogs that scared me. Also later in life I realized I didn’t have the stomach for anything medical or the mind for science. I think I also wanted to be a train conductor, I watched the show Shining Time Station on PBS and it made the life on the train so glamorous. And that was all in the time of elementary school.



Throughout all this time I loved filling notebooks with little stories. My mom said I liked to write because I had a speech impediment from birth and writing was the best way for me to communicate, though my spelling has never been that great. Well over the years I thought about becoming a professional writer. When my parents and I lived in California I thought about moving to Southern California and becoming a screen writer. But then I thought about going to Southern California for school but then moving to New York, because of course all writers lived in New York. When I told my mom this plan she thought if I wanted to live on the east coast I should just move to the east coast after high school. She told me I didn’t know what was going to happen to me in school, I could meet someone and never make it to the east coast. Since then I was all about the east coast.

The next thing I wanted to be was Donna from the West Wing. I really liked her, she was an assistant to the deputy of chief of staff and while she didn’t make any of the decisions she helped in the decision process. She also knew everything about everything. But eventually I realized that to work in government I had a job based on whether or not the person I worked for got elected and that didn’t seem that practical. Also I actually had no interest in politics. So the next woman I wanted to be was Abigail Chase from the movie National Treasure. In case you have not seen it, she works for the National Archive, and she too knew everything about everything but she was sexy history nerd too. Since then I have been pursuing archiving.



I wanted to make history fun for people, rather it was writing in historical stories or working in an archive. My senior year of high school my mom and I thought about every school from Boston to Virginia. I decided that New York was too big and it seemed too scary to start off my adventure on the east coast. So my mom and I visited Boston and Connecticut. I fell in love with Boston from the beginning. I just felt at home in Boston and after I got my acceptance letter to Suffolk University all I did was talk about Boston, so much so my friends gave me guide books to Boston and my friend knitted me a little scarf for my new life in Boston.

I didn’t know it then but God was really directing me to Boston because I wasn’t following Him but since moving to Boston I have gotten back into the church and back in my relationship with Him. I can’t really explain it but I have been blessed by Him.

Pursuing my dream wise, I chose history as my major and fell into women’s studies as a minor. I am now pursuing my masters degree in both Library Science and History in order to be an archivist. While my dream job is the Library Congress, I think I want to work at smaller archive so I can really know the resources. But the more and more I make plans the more and more I am discovering to leave things in God’s hands.

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Great stuff! I love Donna from West Wing too, she's all kinds of awesome. Who wouldn't want to be Donna when they grow up?! Although I think your current career course is fascinating. Thanks for guest posting for me Blaire!!!!

More words

I just found this the other day and it makes a lot of sense.

Source: explodingdog.tumblr.com via Laura on Pinterest

Guest Post: The Honeymoon Edition!

My dear friend Jenna took time out of her super crazy schedule (she is planning a wedding as well as trying to lead a normal life) to write me a guest post.  And boy am I glad she did!

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Hellllloooo lovely readers of Laura's blog!

Laura and I thought it would be fun if I did a post that was relative to why she asked for guest posts! 

Going on a holiday!! 

But in this case, I wanted to share where I would like to go on my honeymoon, since I am newly engaged! Woo hoo! My wedding is a year away and it is VERY low budget so we will be staying close to home. Which I am 100% okay with because I don't think you have to travel outside of the country to have a fabulous honeymoon. Granted...since I've never had one before this is all based on assumption. 

I live in Jacksonville, FL and we are are lucky to live close (within an hour) to a little city called St. Augustine. Have you heard of it before? 

St. Augustine, FL is the nation's oldest city! That may not SOUND like the most sought after destination for a honeymoon but there is so much charm and history in the small city. Not to mention all of the Bed and Breakfast's in the town are pretty breathtaking all in their own right.

If you're curious about the history of St. Augustine here's a short little summary of how it came to be.  http://www.oldcity.com/history-and-culture.php

And it goes without saying that there will be live music being played somewhere on St. George Street which is THE place to go when you visit. 

I've always wanted to have a little weekend getaway and stay in one of the B&B's (one of the ones that ISN'T haunted...because apparently a lot of them are!) and not have to worry about finding a parking spot close to the center of it all or getting to a little store before it closes. I want to have a whole weekend, be parked in the parking lot of a B&B, and walk wherever our hearts desire. 

Take a little trip with me and let me show you around!

St. George Street

A road leading to downtown.

And my favorite set of photos...from a gorgeous bed and breakfast!

Seriously?? The photos look like they should be in a travel magazine! 

This is 45 minutes away from me...yes I think I'll be taking my honeymoon close to home.

Honeymoon or not...where would you like to take a little mini-getaway to? 

Thanks for reading!

Jenna

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That looks like such a sweet place!  When I come and visit you in real life Jenna, I think we’ll have to take a roadtrip out that way.  Looks gorgeous!!

Some words

I like this a lot.

Source: iwastesomuchtime.com via Laura on Pinterest