lifestyle blog

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday ever!!!  It’s a holiday where you eat, relax, meet up with friends/family, eat again, and hopefully be grateful.   This is the bee knees of holidays people, there’s nothing better.  (I also love all the shopping sales that closely follow. Ha!)  But it simply wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving without being able to say what you’ve been thankful for…

Wafiq and I have a ritual of saying what we’re thankful for almost daily. When times were a little tougher I think we would say them twice a day… Taking time to challenge each other in a grateful war always makes the mood brighter.  And it takes your mind off all that negative shit that’s stuck up in that brain of yours.

This year, I have TONS to be grateful for, so lets get into it!

With the last few weeks feeling like my eyes were wide fucking open, I decided I have to get my shit together.   I always feel this way, like I really need to get my life wrangled in, but this time the feeling felt focused.  Small changes had to start happening, now.  A few weeks ago I discovered The Container Store.  Damn, for people that already knew of this beautiful secret of a store, congratulations.  I bought one small organizer for all my hair clips, I think it was $2.99.  I brought it home, and felt changed.  Organized and proud.  But I left it at that.  Every once and awhile I would brainstorm ways to organize my makeup but didn’t follow up.  So… after this slam dunk of events happening and being woke the F up, I decided no more waiting – I need to act!

Clear drawer trays: (here)

I chose clear because I can leave notes under them // Clear drawer trays: (here)

Super cheap but super valuable hair organizer: (here)
So that’s what I did. I went to The Container Store and bought pieces that I thought would help organize my room.  I didn’t think about what someone else would use to organize, I didn’t think about what made the most sense, I didn’t think about what a fancy organizer person would do – I only thought about how I wanted to organize my shit… and I proceeded.

The reason I’m even bringing up The Container Store is because it’s a one stop spot to knock out all of your organizing needs + most of the items are affordable. I’m obsessed with this store now. So let me tell you how I started.  I bought this tiny box organizer that looks like a children’s fishing tackle box and decided to separate all my hair clips into the dividers.  Before, they were all in one location, but in a small plastic box mixed together. I had no idea how many ponytails I had, where the other shiny blonde bobby pin was, or what clip I was looking for.  This $2.99 organizer made it so simple, and easy to store!  (Full disclosure, I left it out on my bathroom counter for a week just so I could stare at it).

For my makeup,  I started with different sized drawer organizers.  I went back and forth about where I wanted my makeup… On the counter or put away in drawers.  What do you think? I’ve seen it on counters lately as like a decoration? But I wasn’t feeling it for myself… so I went for these drawer organizers.  I decided on clear plastic organizers because they’re shiny, and I put little notes underneath them to reference.

Hi everyone!  I have my war with social media all the time because I’m not a big phone person, therefore I don’t check social media all the time.  And I’ve been sort of blah with Instagram lately.  It turned Facebook on me with all the ads & sponsored posts.  They also seem to show me to same 10 photos every time I login and I end up missing new pics from accounts I love to follow… Hopefully this changes.  BUT, I started thinking, there are a few accounts that I get excited to see a new post from.  Below are 5 that I’m kind of shy to admit I follow… eeee!

Please share some accounts you love, or your own! I’m trying to brighten up my feed a little 🙂

Attention All: We have a new motto in our household.  I’m putting the same test on you & your household as well.  No more “I can’t wait for…”

I’ve never been someone who’s said “I can’t wait for…” or “I can’t wait when…” very often but I caught myself the other night.   I kid you not, Wafiq & I said approx 4 times in a row an “I can’t wait for…” sentence.  “I can’t wait for us to get the new computer screen”, “I can’t wait for the new speaker”,  “I can’t wait for…”.   We sat down on our badass couch in front of our huge ass TV in our treehouse home and started laughing.  WTF.  We have everything we’ve ever wanted right here in front of us.  There were moments we couldn’t wait to have our own space, we couldn’t wait to get through the immigration process (& payments), we couldn’t wait to make money… and here we are with all of those things fully accomplished.

And now we’re acting like we need more?!?

Even when we barely had our own room to sleep in, we rarely said out loud how much we couldn’t wait to have our own place.  I think we both knew if we started to focus on the things we didn’t have, we could end up in a dark, miserable tunnel of misery.  So we rarely talked negatively.

It’s interesting once you start having “things” you start focusing on more things, for some reason.  I think accidentally.  I laughed out loud when I heard myself.  We both did.  And we said, no more! It’s freaking ridiculous what we’re doing.  And instead, we focused on watching the season premiere of Survivor.

Hell. Yes.  I love the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It comes at the perfect time, the end of the boiling hot Texas Summer.  The last hoorah!  Some of my favorite things include live music + being outside & the lighthearted energy.   (However, not a fan of festival crowds)

There’s a few pieces I’ve stalked & have my eyes on for festival time.  The cool part of festivals is that you can get really creative with your clothing… REALLY creative. And no one cares.   On my regular run to the Coffee Tea & Bean drive thru on Saturday mornings, I don’t feel as comfortable rolling up w/stick on tattoos & a bikini top.  Come festival time, it’s all creativity on deck!  OR you can opt to creativity, level 0 and no one cares, that’s the part I love.  If I’m feeling red lips or glitter, I’ll happily give it a try. If I’m feeling my pajama shirt & a make up free hippie spirit, I’ll do that too. FREEEEEEDOMMM!!  This year for me, I’m sticking to comfort.

Holy shit!  Almost literally. I was scared to go to the bathroom the morning after I ate those fucking sunflower seed shells.  I know that’s all you’re wondering, how was my poo poo.  Well, ladies and gentleman I’m relieved to report everything flowed normally… so far.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about you didn’t see my Insta Story. I’ve been trying new cookbooks & have recently been using the Naturally Nourished recipes.  I went for a casserole recipe the other night & noticed one of the ingredients was “shelled sunflower seeds”.  To me, this meant in-shell.  I was in Trader Joe’s googling “Shelled Sunflower Seeds” with results showing sunflower seeds, IN SHELLS.  Confirming my thoughts that the recipe had to mean sunflower seeds, in their shell.

Does baking a shell of any seed make sense? No it doesn’t. But neither did putting bulbs of garlic in green juice to cure my shingles, but it worked.  My mind told me no. My gut told me yes. To pursue & discover this new secret vegan ingredient, sunflower seed shells.

I blended about 1/4 Cup of sunflower seeds, in their shells. I did have a moment of hesitation after noticing the sunflower seed shells weren’t grinding down very well.  After persistence, I sprinkled the crumbs onto my casserole and baked.

Sunflower seed shells are a softer shell, okay?  I ate them as a child.  I know.  So I thought, maybe baking them would create a soft, crunchy crust.  Clearly wrong.

THIS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA. And likely unsafe. Therefore, don’t do it. Shelled means unshelled. I don’t understand it still, and probably never will, but what the hell, learned something new.  In my defense, in another recipe from the book it asked for “Pistachios, out of their shell” which is why I assumed if that’s what they meant w/sunflower seeds they would’ve said it the same way?

I love wearing white. The color is fresh, clean, young and classy.  I feel like white is a perfect color for any occasion and is definitely a go-to for me.

I had to participate in an outdoor sand Volleyball tournament last Friday & almost melted to my death.  Of course it was the hottest day we’ve had so far at 90 degrees.  I couldn’t drink enough water to keep myself hydrated & went home with a huge headache Friday.   On the plus side, 1 of the 4 games was a personal success in my book.  The other 3 had a few errors that I’m choosing to ignore.  I’m very competitive so I hate sucking at things.

Like I’ve mentioned before, the one complaint I have about Amazon is the browsing options.    You can’t really get on Amazon & browse through it like you would at a store or another website.  You have to know what you’re looking for in order for Amazon to be useful.  That’s why I like sharing what I buy.

I’ve always dreamt of people with indispensable money – what it looks & feels like to go anywhere & do anything without a worry in the world.  Eat wherever you want, drive whatever you want, pay for your family/friends vacations, payback the people you once had to borrow from, go to any doctor you want, get a nice face mask.

Books + Podcasts + Music are the three things I need.  I use them to help my mind take a break.   I want to disclose, I’m all over the place when it comes to reading.  I go through phases where I want to read about drug addiction, then Jesus Christ, then marketing, and sometimes a good fiction of a girl trapped in the woods.  The variety keeps me from getting bored & I highly recommend opening your genre preferences.

As I was growing up, teachers, parents, grandparents, cousins, graduates, & friends all stressed the importance of having good grades to get into a good college after high school.  That was the only option for anyone who wanted to be successful.   That’s why we worked so hard in high school, so we can go to college.  Because who doesn’t know what they want to do with their entire life at 18 years old?  And if you didn’t know, you can take classes until you find out.  “If you don’t go now, you’ll never go back!”