Gratitude

Happy Monday! Last week I was nominated by Teressina at Dream Bigger and Sherri- Mystical Writer for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you Teressina and Sherri for this nomination! I met both of these ladies and their blogs through the Blogging University course we all took back in January. Take a moment to check out their blogs and read through their lovely posts.

The guidelines for accepting this nomination are:

1. Show the award on my blog- doing this now
2. Thank the person/people who nominated me- doing this now
3. Share 7 things about myself (Oh boy!)
4. Nominate 10 blogs (do I know of 10? I will try)

7 Things about Me:

1. My favorite color is turquoise.
2. I love to read- sometimes 2-4 books at the same time. I also am one of those readers who sometimes reads the end of the book when I am about 75 pages in or so and then goes back to the beginning so I can read it with the end in mind. Sometimes I wonder what is wrong with me?
3. I have an unhealthy obsession with zombie apocalypses and the end of the world. Walking Dead, Fear of the Walking Dead, the original walker movie – Night of the Living Dead and all the ones after that, Z Nation, the list goes on and on. Sometimes if I find myself alone in a bathroom or in an office building I think “wait- am I in a zombie apocalypse?”
4. I love to travel and go on high-risk adventures. I’ve backpacked through South East Asia, Japan, Europe, Mexico, Central America and Latin America. I have gone hang- gliding, cave spelunking, jungle trekking, parasailing, cliff-jumping, snorkeling, ocean swimming and exploring.
5. Currently a HOT YOGA junkie- a 90 minute yoga class in a 90 plus degree room. I love how buckets of sweat just drip off in puddles around me and how strong my muscles feel after class. Yummy.
6. Vintage, vintage, vintage. I treasure all things old. People, books, photos, clothes, architecture, food, antiques and collectibles.
7. I absolutely love food. All kinds of food. I love thinking about food. I love cooking food and eating food. As a child, I used to thumb through cookbooks and look at food pictures just for fun. I still do.

5 Blogs I Nominate for the Versatile Blogger Award…

1. Just Blue Dutch
2. History Fashion Traveler
3. The Front Door Project
4. Suvarna Ventures
5. Words Are All I Have

I have really enjoyed getting to know you bloggers in this blogosphere world! Your posts encourage, inspire and help me see things sometimes in a different light. I look forward to continuing to reading about the amazing journeys you are all on.

The nominees are not obligated to accept this award but if they do, they will need to follow the steps above.

Thank you again to Teressina and Sherri!

Love and blessings,

Liz

 

There’s a New Doll in Town

My new friend Faraday’s Candle is participating in the quote challenge and has invited me to join in the fun. This is Day 2 of the 3-Day Quote Challenge.

Today, I would like to invite my new friend Chateau Des Reves to join me in this challenge!

Post one quote a day for 3 days 

Challenge one new blogger per day for 3 days

So, I’m sure by now you’ve all heard that Barbie’s had a make-over. And these aren’t any simple hair color changes. These are big, awesome awe-inspiring changes.

Barbie now comes in 3 body shapes- curvy (yay!), tall and petite. She’s also got 7 different shades of skin tones and 18 different eye colors to choose from now. I didn’t actually know that 18 different eye colors were possible but who the heck cares?! It’s diversity baby. I’ve waited 30 years for these offerings to be a reality and the 10-year-old Latina girl in me cannot wait to purchase a Barbie doll that looks like me. She’s going to be curvy with brown hair and brown eyes. And then together with baby girl- we are going to choose a Barbie that looks like her with chocolate skin and brown hair.

It’s about damn time Barbie. Welcome to the 21st century.

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

My new friend Faraday’s Candle is participating in the quote challenge and has invited me to join in the fun.

I would like to invite my new friend Inpromptu Promptlings to join me!

Post one quote a day for 3 days 

Challenge one new blogger per day for 3 days

Forrest Gump’s journey through the classic film”Forrest Gump” communicates a core, universal message – that all of us are on our individual life journeys, sometimes drifting like a tiny feather through the wind, so vulnerable and fragile- the slightest wind pushes us into a completely different direction, finds us in a place we never could have imagined. Yet, our ability to find happiness and peace within our current situation depends on how we react to those winds of change.

One year ago I was living in my forever home in Los Angeles- you know that place where you think they will drag your dead body out of because you don’t plan on going anywhere for the next however many years? Had no clue what was in store for me in the future. One year later, I sit here in St. Louis, Missouri-  thousands of miles away from my forever home.

I’ve always enjoyed the milk chocolate with cherry fillings. These days, however I am prone to caramel and pecan. I don’t put back the “bad” chocolates back into the box if I find them disgusting, as I did as a small child. I have learned to eat them anyways and try to find something sweet about each one of them.

You

You there. Yeah you. Just stop a minute won’t you?

I know you. I know you are tired. Your soul hurts. Your brain hurts from too much thinking, analyzing and creative problem-solving.

It’s hard to get up every day and be inspired. It’s hard to try to always look at the bright side of things- every single  day. People suck sometimes and no one likes or relates to what they can’t understand. It’s hard to be different. To always stick out. To always have to explain your story. To always be on your way to somewhere. Sometimes- you just want to be there already. You want to sit there and stare off into space and just be.

You’re too short or you’re too tall and you’ve got too many pounds you’ve been trying to lose for oh- three years now. There are way more wrinkles and gray hairs than you could have ever imagined at this age. Sometimes you get too emotional and say the wrong things. Then think- screw it- who the hell cares what they think anyway?

But you continue to get up, even if it’s half-ass. You never cook the pork chops all the way and end up having to stick them in the oven again and again until the pink goes away. You show up to the Girl Scout cookie meeting and listen to the ins and outs of cookie selling and smile politely at the moms you barely know across the table and ask about their Winter Break. You go on your 30-day sugar detox in the hopes of whittling away some of that layer around the mid-section and putting off that Type 2 diabetes that runs like crazy in your family.

You’re not dead yet. It’s not over. You need to keep up the good fight.

Just know that I understand, I get it. You are not alone. Rest your head just for a moment. Put your feet up. Grab your cup of coffee. Pull that blanket around your shoulders a little tighter. Cry in your car at the red light where no one sees. Go back to your daily meditation breaks, your hot yoga class, listening to Adele’s 25, to your podcasts, to your Spotify/Pandora stations;  reading the 3 sisters- the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Huffington Post- self-selecting those articles that get your heart beating  once again, scrolling through your Facebook and Instagram feeds, reading the blogs you follow, whatever it is that keeps you ticking and going and continuing to be inspired. Just don’t stop.

I won’t if you don’t.

Journeys

Happy New Year! I will not mince words here- I am terrified of writing this post.

Back in December when I was feeling all kick-ass and all, I signed up for Blogging 101 University through WordPress.

Here I am and my first assignment is to introduce my blog to the world and a fellow community of bloggers through this post. That means that people might actually read this. I’ve been writing and flying on the down-low- not really promoting the blog, not worried about what others might think- but now I am terrified.

Well I put myself in this so might as well move on with it. I have been writing this blog as a way to cope with the fact that I have moved halfway across the country from every family and friend I love. From Los Angeles, California to St. Louis, Missouri. Now I am five months into that journey. Much has happened.

I have learned that I love writing. I love the journey I am on and I feel like there is something bigger happening here. I want my blog to be about creating community for people who are on all types of journeys. They could be physical but also emotional journeys. Life- shit happens and we are all on journeys- divorce, death, job loss, sickness just to name a few. I want my blog to inspire people along their journeys and I want to learn from other people’s journeys. I want to continue to tell stories- my own as well as others. I would like to grow my blog to build a community of people who can inspire and support and learn from one other as we move along our life journeys.

What journey are you on?