Guilty Pleasure

Now that it's almost November I have decided to work my way up to Thanksgiving by being a little more introspective about not only what I am thankful for but things I wish to change, or re-evaluating exactly what I think it means to be me and what I want to continue to hold important. It's probably just a part of that "quarter-life crisis" I seem to have come down with.

Anywho, in this post I thought I'd share my top 5 "guilty pleasures." I wouldn't say I actually feel "guilty" about them, it's more along the lines that I think of them as "time killers" The activities that I find myself spending much longer then I had intended on and wondering where my day has gone.

5. Saved Clothing Searches 

As I'm sure most of us do on our search for those one-of-a-kind items I can blow many hours just re-searching through my top saved searches. Some of my go-to's are: vintage 50's dress, polka dot dresses and Disney bows. 

I'm constantly struggling with wanting to always look cute and not wanting to spend more money on clothes. But when I'm wearing a great dress I feel like I can conquer the world, so why not? I get a lot of inquiries about where I get my dresses and a lot of the time it's online. I live in Miami, where the style is more "Aye Papi" and less "adorkable," so  I'm constantly searching for a dress that screams me. I think there is a fine line between looking cute/unique and looking like a dork. I walk that line. 

4. Old Disney World/Disneyland photos

Now this is a pretty obvious one. Of course I would love this because it's two of my greatest interests put together! But it's amazing how many hours can vanish when I really get to digging through the online archives of strangers and their old Disney memories. And when I say old I mean from it's inception up to the mid 90's, I can get sucked into all of it. Throw Minnie or Snow White in there and I could be gone for days. Although I love the old professional shots and concept art my favorites are peoples' personal snapshots. It's funny how we can pose the same places in nearly the same fashion now and it can look exactly the same and entirely different at the same time.

3. Podcasts

I happen to harbor quite a fear of a thing called silence I have really grown attached to listening to podcasts. Since there are now so many different genres you can find a podcast for nearly anything under the sky. It all started for me with Christ Fellowship Podcast and Shane and Friends.

My current most listened to shows are: (A countdown within a countdown: Countception!)

5. The Walking Dead Cast

4. Inside the Magic

3. Dead Authors

2. DIS Unplugged

1. Ear Biscuits 

2. Instagram

Enough said. Even with all the spam now I just can't keep myself off of it. It's a problem.

1. Netflix

There is nothing quite like the feeling of finding a new show to watch on Netflix. I've been known to watch an entire season in one day if I find something I like. Sure, I could be cleaning my house, reading or writing but when I've just finished a mid-season cliffhanger and Netflix begins to countdown to the next episode, how can I resist? Does anyone else see that 15 second countdown as more of a challenge? I need to pee, grab a bag of popcorn and put the clothes in the dryer before the next episode; I can do this!


What do you find yourself wasting time on & feeling a bit guilty about?

National Superhero Day

If I were a superhero I would be 

Rainbow Girl. 

I would ride a Unicorn and blast rainbowbeams of delight and virtue so that villains could not help but find the nearest puppy, snuggle it on their faces and then go plant a garden, relinquishing all thoughts of evil. 

What would your superpower be? 

Everything I learned, I learned from Disney Movies

Life can be pretty complicated these days. It goes by fast, making us run after it, trying desperately to keep up. Does it really have to be so complicated? I thought back to when I was a kid, rewinding tapes in ancient VCRs to watch my favorite movies over and over...and over again. Let's just say my old Lion King VHS is practically ruined from overuse (don't fret, I bought the special edition DVD). Luckily, DVDs and Netflix are much more forgiving because I still watch my Disney favorites on a little more than regular basis. Now that I'm a little older and wiser I realized that I have been learning lessons from my beloved Disney characters all these years. I think lessons gathered from Disney movies can help people navigate their complicated lives.

1- Toy Story 3 : Change is Inevitable 

Life is about change, so we might as well embrace the changes as they come. I've endured a lot of change within the last, and most of it was for the better. Change can be good, and moving on to another stage in life is healthy. Even if it means the relationships with those we love will be different, it doesn't mean we won’t still be there to support each other every step of the way.

“If nothing changed, there’d be no butterflies.” –Walt Disney

2- The Lion King: Don't Run From the Past

Learn from your mistakes, don't run from them. Here's the deeper explanation. You can't dwell on the past, but you also can't run from your problems forever. An escape can work for sometime, but eventually you will have to face them again in some form or another. And these things can be as simple as learning to avoid baboons with sticks to learning to face those you abandoned and owning up to the mistakes you made.

3- Lilo and Stitch- Ohana Means Family

Families can come in all shapes and sizes. Some children have a mom and a dad, others live with their grandparents and other times older siblings raise younger siblings. There is no such thing as a perfect family as all families fight and have their differences. But at the end of the day even if your family is small or broken, it is still good.   

4- Meet the Robinson’s : Keep Moving Forward

It’s okay to fail, as long as we keep moving forward. I've talked about this before but I really have a problem with failure. I do everything within my power to avoid it. And I think many people do. We will turn down opportunities and stop ourselves from taking risks because we are afraid of failure. But as they bring out in the movie, “From failure, you learn. From success, not so much.” We need to remind ourselves to view failure as part of the journey.

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” –Walt Disney

5- Peter Pan : Never Grow Up

I don’t have to grow up. At least, not if it means that I forget what it’s like to be a kid and the magic and joys of childhood. That’s something I want to hang onto no matter how old I am. Have fun. Laugh. Tickle somebody. Play a game. Go on, it’s good for the soul! Be in the moment, and just enjoy it. It’ll keep you young.

“Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.” –Walt Disney


6 - Up: Don't Give UP On Your Dreams (see what I did there?)

 It’s never too late to follow your dreams. I've spend a lot of time dreaming as a kid- places I wanted to go, things I wanted to accomplish. Sometimes, the reality of adulthood can take a toll on our dreams but it’s important to take out those old dreams every once in a while and take them for a spin. Don’t put it off for too long. Time doesn't always give us a redo. I recently traveled to Hawaii and had the trip of a lifetime, which was a huge dream of mine. Go live your dreams!

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”- Walt Disney

P.S. I don't claim ownership to any of these GIFs. I found all GIFs used for this post on google. Thank you to all who made them! 

Happy Halloween//Confession

confession: I've always secretly wanted to be an actress.

I took various type of theatre classes all throughout elementary and middle school, but I was too afraid to join any theatre clubs in high school because I was the new kid. I didn't know anyone and I chickened out of auditioning.  When I went to college, I didn't think I was good enough to join a theatre club since I didn't take any classes in high school. I've filmed a few skits here and there with friends but I never truly got back into a hobby I really enjoyed. Now, I've moved on from that dream to bigger and better dreams, but it got me thinking...

I wish I were braver. 

I have serious fear of failure, so I miss out on the chance of success.
Sometimes I have a hard time being where I am now. I look at those I admire and think to myself, if I'm not that good ( at writing, at photography, even acting...), I might as well not try--there are obviously too many people more talented than me.
When in reality, when I think about it, I know there are tons of people around me, who might not even be as 'good' as me, but since they're doing something about it, they will soon enough, be better for it.

I've had this conversation inside my head dozen of times, and even with Anthony a few more, and yet here I sit, still afraid failing. Still afraid of trying.

What's something you wish you would do, but haven't yet?
What helps you be braver?

Speaking of being brave, Halloween Horror Nights was especially spectacular this year. I do love a good scare. Happy Halloween! 

An Adventure in Disneybounding

So, as someone who spends their fair share of time traipsing around Disney World, for a while I'd been wanting to take part in the act of Disneybounding. For those unassociated, it's basically planning your outfit to be inspired by that of a Disney character. For my first endeavor I had to choose everyone's favorite mouse, Minnie herself.

My rule of thumb when creating any outfit is: there is no such thing as too many polka dots. Disneybounding as Minnie Mouse allowed me to take that motto to new heights. I picked up the red polka dot dress, which screamed Minnie, at Forever 21 for $20.00 and the yellow belt was something I have had in the back of my closest for ages. I was particularly giddy when I stumbled on the mouse shoes at Kohls. Those set me back around $30.00. Naturally, I bought the classic Minne style ears from the Disney Store in Disney World. Keeping with the theme, I chose to accessorize with Minnie Couture nail polish from OPI. I used two different polishes from the collection which created a polka dot effect on the classic red shade. The polka dot sunglasses were more of a necessity for me in the Florida sun, rather than a fashion statement. Although, I think they fit the theme pretty well. If I were to tackle Minnie again, I might change a couple of things but I was overall happy with my first attempt in Disneybounding. I am quite excited to disneybound again as some of my favorite characters.

 

24 and I Still Don't Have a Clue

As we get older, our perception of time changes. When I was little it always annoyed me to hear adults say, "Where does the time go?" or "Why...it seems like only yesterday you were this little girl..." I am beginning to understand that the concept of time, and the way it is measured; not only changes as we get older, but the value of time changes as well. As we get older, our time becomes more precious to us. We understand that the hours we spend at work, and hours spent away from our loved ones are hours...that are gone. They are moments that have passed without any significant memories being made. Vanished. Poof. Gone.

We also begin to understand, while a year is something that goes by incredibly fast; it is also a large window of opportunity for change, and understanding ourselves and the world we live in, better.

A year ago, I looked into the mirror and saw a perfectly put-together girl woman. A little too chunky, maybe. She was a little too this, and a little too that...However, a year ago, when I looked into the mirror I was so sure of who I was. Then my whole life changed. I graduated college, married my best friend, lost my horses (which felt more like losing part of my soul) and traveled to some pretty amazing destinations which helped me realize something:

I was also incredibly and unbelievably... full of shit.
In a world that is constantly changing and evolving...isn't is just a little presumptious to think we have a handle on anything? Isn't it arrogant to think that in the midst of a constantly changing world that we have a perfect stronghold on our surroundings? (These are rhetorical questions. Yes. Yes, it is.)Yesterday, I sat in front of my mirror:

No makeup on my face.
My hair in its natural Hermione-Granger-like state.
Still feeling chubby.

I sat there and looked at myself...the way I always look, and I felt this immense sense of relief realizing...I don't have a clue who I am. All of the years that I've spent hours making myself appear a certain way, and I'm finally figuring out: I am still changing. The person I am right now, as I type these words, won't be the same person a year from now.

A year ago at Disney World.

My Heart

I have been thinking all night how to describe the current state of my heart. For someone who has a love of the English language, and gets excited by discovering unique vocabulary...I am at a loss.

Therefore, I find myself going with the old Southern standby: 

Blessed.

Merriam-Webster defines the word, blessed, as : (adj) blissfully happy or contented.