Feeling Crafty: DIY iPhone Charger Decoration

As I've probably mentioned many times before, Pinterest is one of my favorite ways to waste time. I love looking at all the crafty things people make and pinning them to my "desire to be crafty" board like I'm actually suddenly going to be able to make them and have them turn out like their supposed to. 

While both of my parents have the crafty gene, I somehow missed out on it. I can't draw -- even my stick figures are sad looking. Every time I take on a DIY project I usually mess it up someway, somehow.

Finally, I decided to give crafting another go. And this time, I actually succeeded.

Granted, this is a super easy project and if I would've messed this up, that would just be plain sad. I found this one Pinterest, although I didn't pin the original post so I can't give the website for it.

Materials:

- washi tape or Scotch Expressions tape (what I used)

- iPhone charger

I picked up two different types of tape but you can use just one, or three if you'd like!

Final Product

(excuse my horribly chipped nails)

This was literally the easiest DIY ever and only took me about 5 minutes total.

I can't stop obsessing over how cute this turned out!

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Fall Is Coming!

Even though it's only August and there is still a good bit of summer left, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty excited for fall to come. Besides summer, fall is my favorite season! There's just something about the changing of the leaves, the good food, and cozy atmosphere of fall that I can't resist. So I decided to share with all of you my top reasons why I'm excited for fall! (I'm just a little too excited if you haven't noticed.)

#1: Everything is apple or pumpkin flavored.

Apple pie, apple doughnuts, apple butter, apple cider, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin spiced lattes....the list is endless! I love anything apple or pumpkin flavored any time of the year, so when it comes time for fall I'm ready to devour some good food! There is a place about an hour from me called Apple Castle that has everything apple that you can ever imagine. It's amazing.

photo credit

#2: Fall just smells good.

This kind of ties into my first reason because many of the "fall scents" for candles and whatnot are apple and pumpkin scents. Bath and Body Works has AMAZING fall scents and I may have already started stocking up ;). My favorite one by far is "Leaves", which is described as "golden nectar, juicy mandarin and red apples are spiced with cinnamon and harvest berries." Yes please.

photo credit

#3: The leaves change colors.

Nothing makes me happier than when the leaves begin to change. I love looking out my window and seeing all of the pretty purple, red, orange, and yellow trees. I know some states aren't able to really experience this because of the weather, so take my word if you can't: it's beautiful.

#4: It's cozy.

I love a perfect fall day where the sun is shining, there is a slight wind blowing, and the temperature is slightly chilly but not cold like winter. It's cold enough to wear a cute sweater/light scarf instead of bundling up like you're about to make a trek across the arctic. Also, all of the "fall colors," which are essentially the colors the leaves turn, are warm, making the season even cozier!

#5: Haunted houses and Thanksgiving.

Who doesn't love going to a good haunted house around Halloween? Also, Thanksgiving is during the fall, and everyone loves Thanksgiving and all the good food that goes along with it! Other things such as pumpkin picking and hay rides are perfect fall activities!

Needless to say, I can't wait until fall is in full swing and I can enjoy all of these things!

What's your favorite season? 

So, I Joined Weight Watchers: Week 1 Recap

Hey guys! I know it has been forever since I've blogged, but this summer has been absolutely crazy! So if you all remember a post I had written at the beginning of the summer, I had talked about how I needed to lose weight and that this summer was going to be the summer that I made my "transformation."

Well, that didn't completely happen.

I've been struggling to lose weight more than ever. Not due to my lack of exercise, but due to my poorly developed eating habits. Basically, this past spring semester I started eating really bad and just never got out of that rut. While I did lose roughly 6-7 pounds this summer up until last week, I knew that I could have done so much more if only I had been eating right this whole time. 

So last Friday morning I woke up, said enough is enough, and decided to join Weight Watchers.

It was a very "spur of the moment" kind of thing, but it needed to be done. So my first official day of counting points was Saturday, and I was super excited to start! But already on Day 1, I had to face my first challenge: eating healthy while eating out.

I had planned a shopping day with two of my friends and for dinner, we went to Primanti Bros., a Pittsburgh-based restaurant. Unfortunately for me, there is no information for that restaurant on Weight Watchers or online anywhere. So I had to use my best judgment on what to eat. If you're not from the Pittsburgh area or have never been here, Primanti Bros. is famous for their sandwiches. A typical Pittsburgh style sandwich consists of meat, coleslaw, and fries all between two buns. Yeah, not so healthy. (Sidenote: I guess it's a Pittsburgh thing to put fries on top of everything - we even put them on salads here! Some people from other areas think that's really weird.) 

Fortunately for me, I don't like coleslaw, so that saved me some points there. I also got the most simplistic sandwich they have: bacon and cheese. It was a hard meal to track because I just tracked each item separately, so I wasn't even sure how accurate the points ended up being. But I thought I handled my first challenge well!

The rest of the week was much easier with eating at home. I packed my meals for my breaks at work and also planned ahead on what I would be eating each day. I found that I when I got hungry but didn't want to waste points, fruit was the best option. Throughout the whole week, I used my points and never touched the extra weekly points given. I did, however, use some of my activity points on days that I had ran because I find that I get hungrier on those days. But I still ended the week with over 10 activity points untouched!

My first weigh in was today. I was super nervous about what the outcome would be. I started out at 161 pounds (roughly, though. My body was fluctuating between 161 and 163 last week).  I got on the scale this morning and it said........158.5!!! 

I was, and still am, SO HAPPY! I am officially 10 pounds down this whole summer, losing 2.5 pounds in the past week. Weight Watchers says that the program is designed for you to lose a half pound to 2 pounds per week, so I'm glad that I was even over the max of that range! Also, it feels so good to be back in the 150's. I had never been in the 160's before in my life until this past 6-8 months. It feels good to break that barrier and know that I'm on the track to becoming an even better version of my old self!

Stay tuned for many new Weight Watchers recipes! Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask away :)

Motivation.

When it comes to exercising and eating healthy, it can be hard to stay motivated sometimes. For me personally, a lack of motivation is what leads me to make poor choices when trying to lose weight/get fit.

However, there are many tools available to help keep you motivated and on the right track.

1. Fitness section of Pinterest. I love Pinterest for many reasons, but one of my top reasons is for finding motivation to workout as well as great exercises and healthy recipes! If I want a new workout or am feeling a little unmotivated, I just go to the fitness section of Pinterest and I am always instantly motivated to get to work. There is a workout for everybody on there and it can also lead you to find other great sites, such as Fitsugar. 

2. Motivational Quotes. This one kind of goes hand-in-hand with #1 because I find the majority of my "fitness motivational quotes" on Pinterest. Below are some of my absolute favorite that are great reminders to just do it.

^ this one is my personal favorite ;)

3. Motivation/Inspiration Wall or Board. This is also another idea I found while on Pinterest. Essentially, decorate a wall or make a board full of pictures/quotes that motivate you. You can also keep track of your weight loss this way if that is what you're going for. Below are a few pictures of these motivation boards that I've found on Pinterest. My goal is to make one of these soon!

I hope these ideas helped you find new ways to get and stay motivated! Just remember to go out there and kick some bootay ;)

Happiness.

This is a blog post I have been wanting to write for the past couple of weeks, but I never felt I was quite ready until now.  Happiness is a big part of life. Essentially, it is what we as humans all strive for. If your level of happiness is low, you're going to feel incomplete and you're not going to enjoy life. 

With the stresses of life however, happiness can be a scarce feeling. However, I have determined that happiness is achievable if you have a positive attitude. A year ago, I was really struggling with this concept. I was a "negative nancy" and couldn't figure out why I wasn't happy. I had everything I always wanted: a good group of friends, an amazing boyfriend, a good family, and a good life. So why wasn't I happy?

My negative attitude affected my happiness. I remember my summer job was stressing me out because I was working a lot and it was keeping me from my friends and boyfriend. I let this affect me and bring me down. This habit continued throughout my fall semester of college. However, I made a great change in the following semester. My spring semester was a crazy mess of papers, tests, projects, and activities. Because I was so busy, I realized I had no choice but to just accept it. I found that my attitude was bringing me down.

If I kept telling myself "this sucks so bad, I hate this," then it was going to suck. Instead, I started telling myself "this isn't the ideal situation, but it is what it is. I need to make the most of this." This simple attitude change made the biggest difference in my life. I am at a point in my life where I am the happiest I have ever been. And guess what? I am just as busy and sometimes stressed as before. But I choose to accept it and move forward.

A really good way to make sure you stay positive is to surround yourself with positive and happy people. Negative people are only going to drag you down with them. A little thing I like to do to keep myself in line is leave little positive notes. As a part of my journey last summer, I took post-it notes and wrote quotes on them about happiness and positive things. I had them at my desk as I constant reminder. Another way to do this is to set your desktop and/or phone background to a positive quote. My desktop background is currently a quote from Oprah Winfrey that says "Where there is no struggle, there is no strength," This reminds me that the hard times only make me a stronger person.

Also, the lock screen on my phone says "think happy thoughts." By doing this, you will constantly be reminded to be positive and be happy. 

I will end this post with a few of these quotes so that maybe they can help you as well. :)

Summer Goals

In two days, I will officially be done with my sophomore year of college.

what?

I can't believe another school year has flown by! I know everyone says this every year, but this year seriously went so fast. I feel like I just moved in. Crazy!

So since I don't have to worry about school for 4 months, I want to focus on accomplishing a few things this summer!

Get in shape, lose weight. Last summer I lost 15 pounds just by simply running. I didn't work out my abs, arms, anything else. I also didn't eat as healthy as I could have. This school year, I gained all that weight back and then some, so I really need to kick it into gear this summer. I want to work out ALL of my body and eat healthy -- and stick with it. Overall, I would like to lose 25 pounds this summer. While this may seem like a lot, I know I can do it if I work hard enough. 

Run a 10k. I only started to get into running last summer and ran a total of four 5ks. This summer, I want to challenge myself by training to run a 10k that is in August. Running longer distance will be interesting and hard at times. But training for a 10k will also help me accomplish my first goal!

Run a 5k in under 30 minutes. As a newer runner, I'm not that fast. My best 5k time last summer was 30:31, so my goal for this summer is to get a time under 30 minutes. It will definitely be possible considering I started out running 35 minute 5ks last summer and shaved it down about four minutes in just three months. 

Start to write, a lot. This goal kind of covers two things I want to do. One, I want to devote a lot of time to this blog over the summer and develop it a lot more. Two, one of my life goals is to write a book. I've always loved to write, especially when I was little! I think it would be so cool to write something and even get it published. So this summer, I want to start brainstorming ideas for stories and start to actually write something.  

Find a new passion. I've recently been going through what I would like to call my "fifth-life crisis." I'm 20, so obviously it's not a mid-life crisis ;). But I've just realized that I'm not completely sure what I want to do with my life and if where I am at is okay. I'm so interested in doing many things, so I feel like now is the time to do them all! So this summer I'm going to start trying new things and maybe even find a new passion.

Travel somewhere new. Almost every summer, my family and I go to Cape May, New Jersey. This summer we are either going somewhere different or not going on vacation at all. I want to travel somewhere I've never been before, whether it is with my family, friends, or boyfriend!

Find confidence. I probably have one of the worst self-esteems ever and I don't want to live my life like that anymore. I want to gain confidence this summer, and I feel as if a lot of my goals will actually help me reach this.

So that's all I can think of for now! I'm sure throughout the summer I'll add other little goals as I think of them!

What are your goals for the summer? 

Change is now.

Today, I hit my ultimate low point in my life. While it is nothing too bad or serious, I've just realized that I am not happy with where I am at in life right now. Most things in my life are great though, such as my friends, family, and my boyfriend. But I've realized that even though my relationships with everybody else are fantastic, my relationship with myself is not.

I've struggled with self-esteem issues for ever since I can remember. Being a naturally curvy girl, I used to label myself as "fat." However, in the past year or so, I've come to realize that my curves are beautiful. Nothing is wrong with them at all. This was a great realization for me and really made me change my outlook on myself and my body.

While I was happy with my body in this respect, I would soon start to mistreat it. After my freshman year of college, I realized I was making some poor choices with food. This past summer I really tried to make an effort to watch what I ate and exercise regularly.  However, since the start of sophomore year, I've really neglected both of those things. 

I started skimping out on going to the gym. I started eating junk food and snacking too often. And it has finally caught up with me. I'm on the pathway to ruining my body; my recent weight gain is an indication of that. This isn't who I am. I'm not the girl who eats so much junk food and doesn't work out. I've just been that girl temporarily.

I sat down earlier tonight and decided that I need to change everything, NOW. Tomorrow I will go to the gym. Tomorrow I will make healthy food choices. And that will all continue. There is no stopping. I feel like I am restricted in this body, like it controls who I am. I have no confidence. Every time I get ready in the morning, I have a constant struggle of what to wear because I no longer feet confident in anything. It is an absolutely horrible feeling to hate your body. I want to love my body, love myself, and treat my body the way it should be treated.

Change is now. It isn't something I will put off anymore. This lifestyle change will be hard at times, but it will be the best thing I could ever do for myself. I will prove that.