The Pollyanna Project

"Even after having lived the hardscrabble life of a missionary's daughter all her life and seen the loss of both parents, young Pollyanna Whittier refuses to be depressed. Instead, she must be glad about anything she can think of, and it's paid off big time. Now, however, she must go to live with her cold, spinsterish aunt in a town inhibited by embittered, unfriendly souls. Can she use her glad game to win over everyone and transform the town?"

-IMDB: Pollyanna

We all go about our lives every day, minding our own business, working hard, loving our family, and trying to be a genuine person. Most of the time it's easy to stay positive and count the blessings in your life.

However, every so often something creeps up on you. It's that overwhelming feeling you just can't shake. It follows you throughout your day/week/even month sometimes. It looms over you like a dark rain cloud ready to burst and drench you at any moment. 

 We've all dealt with it and it's not easy to avoid.

It's called negativity.

Sometimes it's spawned by others and you may feel you have no other choice but to feed into it. I'm here to tell you, you don't.

I went through a period of time myself where I wasn't a happy camper. And we all know the saying, 'hurt people, hurt people', and I couldn't agree more. I'm guilty of it. Gossiping about people. Speaking down to others. Wanting to 'beat' them in whatever race I was running against them. Feeling so much negativity in our hearts that it almost consumes you... Maybe it's just me, but I feel I'm not alone in this.

So here's my challenge.

When you feel that dark cloud slipping back into your life,

find something - even if it's just one thing - in everyone, to be glad about.

I'm asking you to comment/sign your name below and take the pledge to cut out the negativity.

Choose love instead of hate.

Choose to smile instead of scowl.

Choose positivity instead of negativity.

Grab the button from the right side of my blog and get out there to spread some sunshine!

I'll show you mine - if you show me yours

[Foreword: I was inspired by Sydney from The Daybook to write this blog, every girl keeps her life in her purse, right?]


For some time my younger sister, Hanna, has made fun of me and my purse. Poor purse, what did it ever do to her? All it ever did was hold all my most valuable and most used items and it's always been loyal, stays right by my side through thick and thin. In any case, this is me standing up for myself, and my purse. 

It all started after she saw this:

After that it has been referred to as Mary Poppin's bag - it never seems to end and I can keep pulling stuff out of it - which in all honesty is kind of true.


Exhibit B: These are all the things my purse holds...

1. 2011 planner with a mechanical pencil - plans change that's why God made erasers

2. The actual subject in question - one of my favorite purses :)

3. Wallet from Forever 21

4. Redbox movies - a staple in our house, we <3 movies

5. Tupperwear full of hair ties, bobby pins, Burts Bees chapstick, earrings...etc

6. Fruity and minty gum

7. Tampons and fine tip sharpie - you never know when Uncle Charlie is going to visit, or when you may need to write something permanently

8. Keys

9. Our wedding photo CD discs...I guess just in case? :)

10. Camera and USB cord

11. iFlip video camera from Mom - Christmas present

&

my make-up bag (seen below)

Other items I've been known to have in there as well are a fine tooth comb, bottle of aerosol hairspray, a water bottle, an apple and my phone charger cord. I guess I see a little validity in her assumptions. I'd rather look at it that I'm just well prepared.

While we're at it, i'm going to go ahead and introduce my handy dandy make-up bag as well, PS - I'm kind of a drugstore junkie

1. Life is Good bag from Morrobay, CA - it makes me happy every time I see it

2. Perfume - DKNY Joy [smells deLISH] I'm super sad my sample is almost gone, a bottle costs $80

3. Philosophy Instant Sunshine - bronzer

4. Coralista by Benefit - blush, my favorite :)

5.  Mini Pantine Pro-V hairspray

6. Purple loose eye shadow

7. Brushes

8. Volume Express mascara by Covergirl

9. Lineur eyeliner - blogged about here

10. random lipgloss - don't remember where I got it

11. Maybelline Dream Mousse concealer - for those stubborn things that won't hide with regular cover up

12. Urban Decay eye shadow in Chopper

13. Covergirl Fresh Complexion pocket powder - LOVE this

14. Covergirl Eye Enhancers in Fard Accent - inspiration from Rachel at Tunes & Spoons here

What make-up essentials can you not live without? Do you stalk drug/department stores for good deals on your favorite things? 

I'd love to know - What's in YOUR bag?!

 

Um, so the evening after I wrote this blog, my favorite shiny black purse went to purse heaven. RIP favorite faux alligator purse, you were good to be and held all my favorites. 

I went out yesterday and bought it's replacement, I was pleasantly surprised. I found this little one just waiting to be adopted. I hope it will bring me just as much joy and hold just as many secrets and surprises :)

Hello, sunshine purse! 

Just remember...

[This is a result of me scaring my co-worker Erica, 

pretty sure she almost had a heart attack, sorry Enrique!]

Me? Stylish? Pfff...

I'm pretty sure I'm the furthest thing from stylish, however, I was awarded the stylish blog award from TWO of my favorite fellow bloggers :) Say whaaaat?! Thank you ladies; Ashley and Nadiine - you both have unique blogging styles and I love both of them equally :)

So, here's the conditions:
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 10 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about this award.

Alright then, here are the 7 things you may not know about me - even though I feel like I share my entire life on here - hahaha

1. I HATE wearing close toed shoes - I live in flip flops - including today while we were walking around Seattle in the SNOW :)

2. I love getting texts and phone calls just to say 'I love you' or 'Just thinking about you'

3. I wish I had a pink flowy dress that I dance with a handsome man to - let me just show you.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

4. I can watch Pretty Woman, How to lose a Guy in 10 Days, and The Family Stone over and over again probably until the DVD wears out!

5. When I was younger I wanted glasses so bad for some reason, and I lied on my eye exam to get them - well that idea kind of backfired, take a look at that hottie front and center with the HUGE, PURPLE frames. Super attractive :)

6. I haven't read any of the Twilight books, and I feel a little like I'm cheating on Harry P., but I do loooove the Twilight movies :)

7. I'm trying to convince Bryan to write a blog post in the near future, but I think he's a little blogger shy ;) I'll keep working on him - I think he's pretty good, but I am pretty biased.

What does this award mean to me? I feel like a 'stylish' blog isn't all about clothes or fashion, but about blogs of real heart and that keep you coming back for more. I hereby award this Stylish Blogger Award to 10 - more than worthy fellow blogees (even though there are far more than that in my blog reel)

Sam from Love Never Fails

Ashley from A Tale of Two Taylors

Angela from The Clark Family Times

Amanda from Just an Average Girl

Rachel from Tunes & Spoons

Leslie from Good Morning, Mrs. H!

Ashley from Lovely Little Adventure

Jamie from Making the Mundane Magical

Jamie Leigh from My Walk to I Do

*S from Our One Sweet World

Well ladies, I hope you accept this award when you are able to and have fun with it :)

Today's Letters Inspired-WE GOT IT!

Today's Letters: Dear Bryan James, your USBC bowling card came in the mail yesterday and reminded me once again how much I love you and think it's awesome you have so many hidden talents such as bowling. I'm pretty sure I loved this more than coke Slurpee's on a sunny summer day. Dear Icy-Hot, your minty fragrance has been filling the air in our apartment the last couple nights. Thank you for being super cold, then super hot to soothe the husband's and mine aches and pains. Is this what getting older smells like? Dear new house on a lake, do you fully understand how excited we are to live in you? PS - Thank you for all your good thoughts and prayers sent our way, WE GOT THE HOUSE! Crossing one thing off my 2011 Bucket list already :) Dear Bear (who always gets two letters), our life is about to change for the better - "Ya'll ready for this?! duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh" I love you more than Hermione loves Ron, more than Rob Dyrdek loves his Fantasy Factory, AND more than you love Dewars taffy from Bakersfield, CA - just in case you didn't catch on, that's A LOT of lovin going on .

Cheers for the weekend, the Seahawks in the playoff game on Saturday, and meeting my sister's Australian exchange student!

What are YOU excited for this weekend/coming week?

PS - Pretty please see the inspiration for this post HERE - Tim and Em never cease to amaze me!

XOXO

I am sixteen, going on seventeen...

Ok that's a lie, I am most definitely not sixteen - but this is one of my favorite songs in one of my favorite movies! 

The Sound of Music 

Released in 1965 with an amazing score mostly courtesy of Rodgers and Hammerstein. IMDB's description of the movie, "A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower." 

My description? "A beautiful love story of a widowed naval officer and a almost-nun. Before falling in love with him, Maria, the candidate the local abbey sent to Captain Vontrapp to be his children's governess, falls in love with the seven relentless children." 

This movie was set in the hills of the most gorgeous Salzberg, Austria in the late 1930's as the Nazi's are trying to take over. This movie absolutely captured my heart and makes me want to run up meadowy hills singing at the top of my lungs :) If you love musicals and you haven't seen this? I don't know what you're still doing here, you should probably go out and buy it right now so it can become a staple of your DVD collection :) In the mean time, I'll go ahead and re-cap my day full of this awesome movie! :)

Every year on new years weekend, we make the journey into downtown Seattle for The Sound of Music sing-a-long at the 5th Avenue Theater. If you can imagine, it's part concert, part PG rated Rocky Horror Picture Show and fully awesome! My mom dragged me to it for the first time sometime a couple years ago, and all I could think was, "This is going to be SO dumb." I couldn't have been more wrong. It has become a favorite family tradition that we look forward to every year now. 

Let me give you a run down -

They are very big on audience participation, when you enter the theater you are handed a yellow party bag with:

-a party popper

-a square piece of fabric (to wave at the screen when Maria is flustered at how she's going to make the children's play clothes, "Maria! The curtains! Use the curtains!!!")

-a fake little piece of edelweiss

-a couple note cards with pictures on them

You're instructed to:

-hiss when the baroness comes on screen

-boo when the Nazi's come on screen

-clap when Maria comes on screen

-Say "Awwww" when Gretl, the youngest Vontrapp daughter, comes on screen

you get the jist...

The notecards contain the following, when "How do you solve a problem like Maria" is playing you hold up each card accordingly: (PS sorry all the photos are of me, Hanna is in the, "I don't want to take pictures unless I have to" stage lol)

 "How do you solve a problem like

 Maria?

How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

a flibbertigibbet

 a whil of a wisp 

a clown honk-honk (insert me honking my nose here)

Now, all of this may sound absolutely nuts to you, because it looked absolutely nuts to be too the first year we went. However, if you can get past all the crazy things and learn to laugh at the situation and yourself a little bit, I think you'd find you have a lot of fun :)

And to top it all off? They also have a costume contest before the movie starts. There are quite a few of 

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

quite a few nuns

and of course, Fraulein Maria's

Do you think I'm totally insane? I'd be surprised if you didn't. All I know, is that it's a whole day I get to spend with my mom and sister, generally laughing the entire time. That's time I wouldn't trade for anything.

PS - Happy Monday friends! :) I hope your New Years weekend was unforgettable! We spent our evening in the bowling alley with Bryan's family :) I got 120 on my third game?! Watch out Grandma Jean!

Life's Natural High's

I was inspired by this clip I found on another blog and was very intrigued. What are my natural highs? I realized, I have quite a few :)

-Hearing my favorite song in the car, turning it up and dancing like nobody is watching. Even though the people in the next car over are mortified and my sister is in the passenger seat and is painfully embarrassed :)

-Turning it on public TV on a Saturday morning and finding that there is a "Anne of Green Gables" marathon going on

-When Bryan kisses my hand, my heart melts

-The smell of fresh cut grass on a warm spring day

-Laughing until my tummy hurts

-Comments from other bloggers :)

-Taking random road trips

-Winning a hand of LCR

-When my iPhone has %100 battery - weird, I know

-Movie trailers before the actual movie starts

-Coke slurpees [in case you didn't know, I'm obsessed with these things]

-Getting good news

-Realizing there's more money in your bank account than you thought

-Summer nights at the drive-ins

-Knowing that when I hug my mom she will, without a doubt, smell like original Tide and Downey :)

-Experiencing that reason that everything else happens for

-Capturing a really good, beautiful photo

Surely there are many more that happen when you're in the moment, these are just a few I could think of off the top of my head :) 

What are your natural highs? Things that make you so happy your heart could burst? 

via weheartit.com 

What's coming up this week?

NEW design :) 

The Sound of Music Sing-a-long Recap

& a couple really yummy recipes.