music monday.

I've been obsessed with this song. All day, every day. Three different versions and they are all amazing.

Enjoy!

sunday encouragement.

paper heart DIY.

I needed something crafty to do tonight, so when I came upon these cute paper hearts, I knew it had to happen. I got the tutorial from Chalk White Arrow and used magazine paper instead of newspaper.

Here's how it turned out!

They are currently on the wall in my bedroom. Still trying to decide whether they need to be hanging or if I like them enough just up on the wall. What do you guys think? 

foodie friday - i love donuts.

My love affair with donuts has always been out in the open. Nashville has spoiled me with Fox's Donut Den (where coincidentally I just was last night with a friend), but I had no idea what was in store for me at a little place called Peace, Love, and Little Donuts when I stumbled upon it earlier this week.

Pure heaven, that's what. It's in the Arcade off of 4th downtown, and I am in love. Apparently they have a few other locations around the country, but it was a whole new world of donut goodness for me.

I ended up getting the Tree Hugger donut and a chocolate pretzel donut. The friend I was with got a Maple Bacon and an M&M donut. They were all delicious. I was nervous about bacon on a donut, but whoa, it blew my mind. My sweet tooth was verrrrry happy, needless to say.

late january resolutions.

1. More reading, less internet time.
2. More letter writing, less facebook messaging.
3. More telephone calls, fewer text messages.

Also, a few bits of happiness for today.

Nostalgia with Charlie, wishing we could go back to Italy and eat some delicious food. 

I am loving my TOMS today. And how much they clash with everything. 

hope.

Just a little encouragement on this Sunday afternoon. 

foodie friday.

Happy Friday! Everyone's favorite day of the week. Roomz and I send each other a fridayface snapchat  on Fridays and they are usually pretty fantastic.

I thought I'd start doing something food related on Fridays because let's face it, I'm a pretty big fan of food. I also want to start trying out new recipes and cooking/baking more at home. So hopefully this will turn into a regular thing with recipes, restaurant recommendations, etc.

So to start, I'm going to be completely unoriginal and do a green smoothie post. Woo woo! I'll admit, the color sometimes throws me off, but they are pretty dang delicious. Here's one I threw together this morning.

Grab some strawberries, a banana, a big handful of spinach, and some oats. Chop them up and throw them into the blender. 

I also added a drizzle of honey because I'm obsessed with it. It goes in everything these days. Blend it all up and...

Ta-da! 

I've experimented with a few different fruits and greens and they've pretty much all been delicious, except for one fluke with peanut butter that I didn't love. Try 'em out! 

Have a fantastic Friday!

tiny blessings.

It was an incredibly good Wednesday. Normally, Wednesdays kind of get on my nerves. You're halfway through the week and you're tired and just wanting it to be Friday. But today was good in so many unexpected ways.
I've started volunteering at Sophia's Heart on Monday and Wednesday mornings, which means waking up early but also getting to cuddle sweet babies. Sophia's Heart is an organization that is in both Milwaukee and Nashville. The Nashville branch serves as a homeless shelter for single women and families and offers a transitional housing program as well as different classes to help prepare the residents for life after they leave the shelter. My favorite thing about it is that there are so many adorable kids who are living here. And I get to go play with them and watch movies and color twice a week!

These sweet sisters were the only ones today, and we watched The Little Mermaid and played with my phone camera. 

She loves taking selfies. 

After hanging out with these cuties for a few hours, I went home and got to take a short nap before heading to work. I love naps. It turns out that the 11 year old I nanny (we'll call him A) was going to be at a friend's house until 6, so I spent the afternoon at their home chopping vegetables, doing laundry, ironing, and taking down Christmas decorations. I never used to like doing any of these things before this year, but something about being able to zone out and just complete repetitive tasks is so relaxing. I was in such a good mood when I went to pick A up. On the way home, he was singing along to the radio, which always melts my heart a little. One of my favorite things about him is that he knows all the words to every rap that comes on...we're kindred spirits that way. 

I headed home shortly after and decided I needed a run. I hadn't been running at all since being home for Christmas, and it felt so good! And now I'm cuddled up in bed about to read for a bit. I got a chance to visit the library on the way home and picked up a few new books and some that I've read before but wanted to read again. So pumped.  

"A heart at peace gives life to the body."

- Proverbs 14:30

ice, ice, baby.

Oh, weathermen. I'm kind of sad your predictions didn't actually come true. Nashville was supposed to be a sheet of ice by this time, but so far, we've only seen rain. However, the supposed ice-pocalypse had quite a few positive aspects to it. First and foremost, I didn't have to work today! My boss called right before all the craziness was supposed to begin and said she'd feel safer if I stayed at home, so I climbed back into bed and waited for Mimi to get home from work. And then we made a supply run, which included curly fries, soda, cookies, and candy, of course. Everything two girls need to ride out an ice storm. Never mind the fact that we had absolutely no groceries in the apartment.

Jeff Wyler sent me thank you cookies for leasing my car. They were chilling at the post office, so of course we had to go pick them up. 

Then we watched a movie with the worst character development I've probably ever seen in my life. Thank you, Netflix. Then we jammed...to this:

So thankful that roomz appreciates the finer aspects of music like I do. 

And then things got glittery. Which was about the only place things could go from there. 

So thank you, fake ice storm, for making my day as wonderful as it could have possibly been.

"This is the day that the Lord has made; 

Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

- Psalm 118:24

music monday.

I've been a fan of Matthew Perryman Jones for awhile, but his new song with Mindy Smith is UH-MAY-ZING. Mimi played it for me tonight as we drove to dinner and I fell in love instantly. Everything he does is pretty much incredible. Pure music genius. 

a week full of joy.

I've been feeling more awake this week, and no, it's not the result of some crazy vitamin supplement or exercising more. It was simply a conscious decision to be more aware. To read more. To focus on all of the little blessings that come with being alive. So here's a summary of my week.

Winter trees. My roommate, Mimi, is obsessed with them, and ever since she mentioned her love of them to me, I have fallen in love too. There were a few blustery, winter days this week, and the trees were so perfect on those days. 

Draw on tattoos. Mimi and I have talked about getting tattoos forever. The permanency is a little scary, but she got this cute little kit from her parents for Christmas, and we decided to test out some ideas we had. 

Friday was absolutely beautiful. Certainly an unusually warm January day, but the winter blues were getting to me a little bit, so it was a very welcome surprise. 

Mexican food at Cantina Laredo. I went to dinner with my friends Alexis and Heather, mostly to try this skillet apple pie they were raving about. It was pretty delicious. And so was the guacamole. I'm a sucker for anything Mexican. 

After volunteering Saturday morning with my favorite small group in the world, I called Alexis and asked if I could nap at her house for a bit because I was exhausted. She is wonderful and said of course without even thinking I was weird. And then when I woke up, she had made double chocolate chip cookies. Talk about a great friend. 

I'm off to church in a bit, and I can't wait to see all of the amazing people there. I love, love, love my small group and am always so excited to get to spend Sunday evenings with them. I'm leading group this week because our fearless leaders, Greg and Katy, are both at a show tonight, so I'm a teensy bit nervous, but so glad for the opportunity. Wish me luck! 

"Be joyful always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 

- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

the little things.

So I didn't really make New Year's resolutions this year. Not in the typical sense anyway. Sure, there was a general feeling of wanting to eat better, run more, etc, but I have also been thinking about how I can be more creative. And I want to start appreciating the little things in life more often. We started a series last week at church talking about how we can see God in the everyday moments of life - being able to detect His presence and the glory that He has created even in the little things. I often forget about how these moments impact my day and how much joy they can bring, so this blog is going to be a celebration of that - a celebration of being hopeful. So here's to new beginnings.