My Fitness Monday: perseverance

Persevere. That word has insurmountable feelings accompanied with it. Don't we all want to persevere in whatever we may face on earth? I do. Christ died for me, to bring victory over EVERY intricate detail in my life. That's a reason to persevere.

I ran for ten straight minutes today. That number doesn't seem like a whole lot, but when I started I could barely run for two minutes.
I ran for ten minutes today.

As I'm continuing to read Made to Crave, I'm being challenged in my spirit. We were created with a great desire to crave. The enemy likes to use whatever he can (whatever we'll give over to him) to twist our deepest desire that craves God into anything that will detour that craving. For a lot of us, we've craved food. Delicious, sugary, salty, unhealthy food.
I am realizing that nothing will satisfy my natural craving for God, but God.

Everyday brings new struggles, but along with that an endless supply of grace.
I'm attaching a link from a challenge from the Made to Crave website that I really connected with.

http://madetocrave.org/2011/02/chocolate-is-my-comfort-and-deliverer-dacmic/

upcoming & ongoing...

I had a friend recently text and ask me if something was coming back in style, and it spurred a new post.
What's in style?
Fortunately, my friend natalie already has great style. But many ladies don't know what to wear or what will look good on them. I can help!
The thing that I find most important is being yourself... sometimes that can land you a spot on what not to wear if cat t-shirts are your thing... but always stay true to yourself. You will never feel beautiful on the outside if you aren't comfortable with yourself on the inside. I am most comfortable when i'm pushing the envelope; wearing mix-matched patterns and colors, but that's certainly not for everyone. So here's my trend alert for what's hot now!

• Orange- this color is huge right now! In every hue too: burnt, bright, and muted.
• maxi dresses- this trend has been around for a while now, but I don't see it going away anytime soon! They are perfect for anyday, any occasion. You can dress them up with heels and accessories or throw your hair in a bun, put one on and slide on some sandals. They are extremely versatile!
• lace minis- I love lace, so I am pretty pumped that these are around. If your tall like me, then you have to be resourceful and pair this with stockings or pants, but anyone can pull this look off!
• booties- I can't say enough about these. Wear them with shorts, wear them with pants, wear them with dresses... wear them over your feetie pajamas, ok maybe that's too much.
• leopard print- it's everywhere! pumps, nails, jackets, bracelets. It's the perfect accessory for almost any outfit!
• long skirts- flowy, wonderful, goodness. If you find one with pleats, count yourself blessed.
• High-waisted glory- call me granny, but i'm obsessed with anything high-waisted! The awesome thing about this trend is going to goodwill and buying a pair of high-waisted pants from the 90's for $6. You just can't beat that...

Now see what I'm saying:

This is just a small preview of the amazing styles going on right now. It's a beautiful, beautiful season...

Happy weekend!

My Fitness Monday: My Birthday!

I'm just gonna go ahead and be honest- it's my birthday and there is a very high chance that I will be consuming something sweet today...

I'll keep this short, but I started reading the BEST book on being healthy physically and spiritually:

I will be focusing more on what I learn from this book as I continue to read it. I'm excited about partnering with my good friend, Devan on this journey. We plan on reading this together and keeping each other accountable. I highly reccomend this book! It's absoultely changing my entire concept on diet and weightloss. It's so much more than being skinny- it's all about what will make us worship our creator better!
Keep staying healthy!

(I'll be sure to apologize next week for what's going down today)

Reflection

I actually did finish my challenge last week. Ben & I went out thursday evening when I got home from work and just as he began to start capturing my outfit, his camera died. And because we are basically living out of a suitcase right now, we don't have the charger. However, all is not lost as I enjoyed creating new outfits out of the same ol' clothes that I already have. I'll try to do this more often...


This week has been one for the books. Do you ever have one of those weeks where nothing is going right and it feels like your life is falling apart? That was my week. 
I don't know what the future holds right now, but I do know that God is extending compassion and grace that only He can give. 
That's the really amazing part about life. We can face such rejection and trials that leave us feeling completely inadequate and hopeless. But God...
He can revive our broken hearts. He can restore our mind. He can rebuild our lives! Completely! He's proven Himself faithful to me over and over. I can't help but bless Him in the midst of everything bad around me, because I know He is good and loving and in complete control of my life. 
There is purpose in the bad and I'm choosing to surrender and say, this isn't about me. This is your show, and I just want to be on board with whatever it is that your going to do. 
I'm so thankful that God is using this time to speak to mine & ben's hearts. I want our marriage to glorify God and I feel like it's shown most when we experience hurt, and we're still able to grow closer with each other. 


All I know right now is God is in control. And that's really all I need to know...

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I'm now on blog lovin!
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...I'll post pics of my thursday outfit later on.

Tuesday's gray and Wednesday too...

I can't wait to close on our house. Literally. I feel like the end of August will never come! So to pass time quickly I decided to begin a new challenge this week. I need things to look forward to, and this has been very exciting! But it is only wednesday...(debbie downer)

The Challenge:
Wear a new outfit everyday, without buying a single thing.

I often find myself stuck in this rut where I am constantly saying (complaining), "I have nothing to wear!!!" That is usually followed by a pout or a hysterical cry, because i'm a lady, and the hope that my husband will comfort me by saying "let's go buy you a new wardrobe". That hasn't happened yet, so I'll stick with this challenge to stay out of such rut. I'm just piecing together items that I already own and pairing them to create a new outfit. 


So here is my tuesday and wednesday outfits: (monday will come later- nobody likes mondays anyway right?)

skirt: urban outfitters

shirt: forever 21

leggings: target

mustache ring: gifted

skirt: anthropologie

shirt: forever 21

shoes: target

belt: gap

Now for the rest of the week...


*Thanks to my wonderful husband for the amazing pictures. Is there anything you can't do?

My Fitness Monday: making time

  It's been a crazy couple of weeks- so much so that is has been nearly impossible to find time to excercise. We've been back and forth at my parents house, ben's parents house, hospitals, school, and work. I'm ready to get back in the routine of working out every night. I've noticed it really affects, not only my physique when I have to pause working out, but also my mental state. Running and walking at night clears my mind of all the worries and stress of the day. Sometimes I use that time as prayer time which is wonderful, but ben and I have also had some incredible talks as we are able to express our hearts in a natural environment. It really had become my favorite part of the day. Lately, I've had conversations with several people who always say they don't have time to work out and sometimes that is honestly the case, but it's one of those things that you have to declare in your mind that you are going to make time for. There are several ways you could fit in a workout in your day: wake up earlier and get a jog in; bring clothes with you to work/school and hit the gym right after; cut back on t.v. and use that time to excercise, etc. Anything is better than nothing! I hope I continue to be dedicated at striving to be healthy, and I know life will throw things my way that I cannot control, but I can use those times to control what I consume and when I go to bed, because those factors are just as important to stay healthy.  
  I'm going to one of the local 5k parks tomorrow to see what I can do-- I'll update on that next week!  

Oh August,

What a beautiful month. I am extremely excited about this August for several reasons; one of those reasons being it's my birthday month! I love birthdays and I feel like I need more than one day to celebrate, so I celebrate the whole month. I realize that's overkill, but let me have my month. I'll give you yours...
Another major reason i'm excited about August is because we close on our dream home on the 29th!!! I can't believe it. Buying a house has definitely been a frustrating, emotional, crazy time in our life, but I could not be happier with the home we're getting. It's perfect! See below:

My mind has been on overdrive trying to figure out how I want to decorate and create the perfect atmosphere in each room. I know we're going to paint the exterior color of the house, but i'll wait until that happens and show you the finished product :) 


  August may be the last full month of summer, but there's still plenty of time to wear flowy tunics, rompers, gladiator sandals, and straw fedora's. That's good too, because I'm not ready for summer fashion to end. In fact, I want to buy a lot of summer attire for my birthday, but I know if I do that I have fall lurking around the corner... and there it is- the great dillema- what season to buy for. So, my advice is to buy pieces that are versatile. Such as, a sundress that can be worn in the fall with boots and a cardigan, or shorts that can be worn with tights underneath when the weather gets colder. Even though I would love to be able to afford a new wardrobe every season, I'm not a celebrity, so that's probably not going to happen. And that's okay. I'm learning more and more to be thrifty, and create a whole new wardrobe out of the clothes that I already own. It's so important to me to let my creativity be shown through my fashion, and I get to do that by piecing a shirt that I have owned for a couple of months with a skirt that I've had for 2 years (and by not matching!!). Sometimes it gets frustrating, but I go to blogs that I love for inspiration, and then go stand in front of my closet with an open mind and creative eyes. 
One of my goals for this blog is to show how to be unique and fashionable no matter what career you may have. I work for a bank, but I don't let the dress code affect my style. 
I'm very excited about making my own clothes, I can't wait to explore my passion and dream and see where it leads! It's so fun to dream, I hope I never stop...


Summer looks I want to re-create:

kendieveryday: style twin

I love this flowy skirt. Perfect length! This type of skirt could easily be found at a thrift store and modernized with a little mending.

Rachel Bilson: personal style icon. Amazing summer cheek!

I love anything that's cropped or high waisted. 

*The blog got a beautiful makeover- thanks to my incredibly talented husband.

Love!