monthly memories: january 2016

January, where did you go? It’s now the middle of February and time is seriously slipping right by. I don’t think I posted much at all last month–sorry about that!–but between starting my job and trying to get my life together, there wasn’t a lot of time for blogging :( But I’m back to share my January recap!

January was a great month! Like I mentioned before, I started working and I’ve been having a blast! My coworkers are great and the work is similar to the kind I was doing in school, so no complaints there!

I shared my upcoming to-read list over on instagram at the beginning of the month, and here they are! I’m currently reading The Opposite of Loneliness and am loving it so far! Marina Keegan was such a great writer and it’s sad that such an amazing voice is gone.

One of my favorite coffee shops, Heartwork Coffee Bar, celebrated their first birthday and I was so excited to be able to take part in the festivities! If you’re in the San Diego area and are in need of a great cup of coffee, be sure to stop by!

Speaking of coffee, there was a lot of it that was consumed in January! If you want more recommendations, Clockwork Coffee Shoppe in the College Area and Hawthorn Coffee in North Park are also places that you should definitely check out! Clockwork Coffee is close to home and I find myself going there A LOT. They have great coffee, a wonderful atmosphere, and the owner, Laura, is the sweetest!

In January I also found out that Ben Rector is coming to San Diego! (insert celebratory emoji here!) I immediately bought tickets to his show and I can’t WAIT until March 18th!

What were your favorite memories in January?

2016: being intentional

There have been a lot of posts going around about people’s word of the year, so I though I’d join in as well! My word–or in this case, phrase–of the year is being intentional.

One of my close friends from college is very intentional with what she does. There is always a reasoning behind the things that she does and I really admire her a lot for that. For 2016, I want to work on being intentional in all aspects of my life: what I do, what I say, what I buy, and what kind of relationships I want to build with people. More often than not I find myself doing things “just because” or “on a whim”, and although there’s nothing wrong with that, I definitely want to have more substance behind what I do.

I can already tell that this is going to be a year filled with new beginnings and new experiences, and I can’t wait to see what it has in store for me and the people around me. I hope that being intentional with help me grow not only as a person but as a friend, sister, and daughter as well.

What’s your word of phrase of the year? :)

today is…gloomy

I’ve been playing around with this idea for a while now and I’m so excited to be writing my first “Today is…” post!

If you’re in Southern California then you know about the crazy rainstorms that have been moving through the area for the past couple of days. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of rain, (and we definitely need it with this drought!), but it has been POURING at times!

The gloomy weather here reminds me of my trip to Seattle (which I wrote about here) and it makes me miss the city so much! It was so fun to finally visit one of the places on my travel bucket list and I had an amazing time!

Since it’s been so wet and rainy I’ve been snuggling up at home and trying to stay warm. It’s so weird for it to be so cold in San Diego! How do you stay warm when it’s chilly?

monthly memories: december 2015

With the beginning of this new year, I thought I would start doing monthly recaps to reflect and look back on all of the wonderful things that happened. (Shout out to Alyssa over on alyssamopia.com for the idea!) Since it’s now January–how crazy is that, by the way?!–here’s my recap of December 2015!

I think December might have been one of my favorite months of all time. Not only is it holiday season (I love Christmas), but I was also able to do some traveling, hang out with friends, and be with my family.

The month kicked off with me heading up to Northern California to visit one of my closest friends. I spent a long weekend up there and it was so fun! We were able to go to Christmas in the Park in Downtown San Jose, visit the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and see friends from college.

A few days after I got back from NorCal, I was able to visit Seattle, Washington! I had been wanting to go there for a while now, and was finally able to do so. Let me just say that it. was. incredible. I hadn’t done a lot of traveling by myself, so being there in the city, taking it all in, was incredible. I felt so invigorated and accomplished from getting to our Airbnb and being able to explore all of the places that I had been wanting to visit. I had the most amazing time and would definitely go back if I get the chance!

I spent the end of December hanging out with my family. My sister had come back from school for her winter break and I was so excited to see her! She left for the east coast back in August and we definitely needed some sister time. It was great having her back!

December was truly one of the best months I’ve had. I can’t wait to see what this month has to bring! What was one of your favorite memories in December?

15 things I learned in 2015

A big apology from me as I’ve been so MIA recently. So sorry about that! I didn’t finish the 30 day challenge (why can’t I ever finish them?!) and so much has happened since the last time I posted that I just didn’t have time to do so. BUT, since it is a new year–HELLO, 2016!–I thought I would kick off the year with reflecting on 2015.

2015 was crazy: I graduated from college, moved back home, tried to adjust to “adulting”, started a creative outlet, and even did a little bit of traveling. It was such a crazy roller coaster that I thought I’d share 15 things I learned in 2015.

1. It’s okay to not know what’s going to happen next.
2. Graduating from college is a big wake-up call.
3. Don’t underestimate the power of good conversation.
4. True friends will always be there for you, even if you don’t see them every day.
5. Don’t be afraid to be creative.
6. Sometimes you need to have a good, long cry.
7. Failures and rejections aren’t the end of the world. Don’t get discouraged.
8. Reach out to others when you’re in a funk. Chances are, there are others who feel the same way as you do.
9. Traveling alone is invigorating.
10. Giving and receiving random acts of kindness are wonderful.
11. Write everything down.
12. Document as much of your life as you can.
13. Invest in people who invest in you.
14. Take risks.
15. Never settle.

I honestly am so excited about the start of a new year. There were a lot of things that happened in 2015 that I would like to file away, and I love that this year is a clean slate for new and wonderful things to happen. So here’s to saying goodbye to 2015 and hello to 2016!