Friday, April 25, 2014

Record Store Day 2014

To celebrate Record Store Day, last Saturday the 19th, my dad and I made a trip to our local record store, RPM Records. Saturday was the first time I had been to RPM and now I can't wait to go back! They had a well stocked store and plenty of variety. Record stores are always a little less overwhelming to navigate when you have an artist or specific album you're interested in, but browsing the stacks can be really fun too.


I had no idea what I wanted at first but when I spotted the "No Time For Dreaming" album from Charles Bradley, I had to pick it up. I just finished making a playlist of music from the show Suits (which has some killer music) and they play Bradley quite a few times on the show.


I felt a little like Harvey Specter listening to my record. Now all I need is a fancy leather couch and a scotch.


After my dad and I got home, I decided it was my duty to catalog my parent's entire record collection. I don't think I ever realized how many records they owned. My parent's records have been stashed on shelves in our basement for a while now and they didn't even know exactly what they had (my dad almost bought two records on Saturday that he and my mom already owned).

Not gonna lie, I was really excited about organizing everything. I am definitely the weird girl who loves for everything to have it's place. I'm okay with messes, but I enjoy spending time filing and organizing. By the end I had made a list of all the record in the collection and cataloged each album alphabetically by the artist's last name and genre of music. The biggest category was general music, which included bands and artist which my parents listened to most often. Other categories were movie soundtracks, musicals, children's records, comedy, classical, holiday, and Christian albums.

Even as I was making the list and feeling like the piles might never end, I realized how many artist and albums are still missing from the collection. Sure my dad may own a large majority of Elton John albums, but we somehow only have one Beatles record. Now I can't wait to start a wish list for upcoming record store trips.

Do you listen to old records? Did you guys participate in Record Store Day? I heard sales were up this year.

-S

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Thank Your Body

I came across an older video about body image from Amy Poelher's Ask Amy series on her Smart Girl's YouTube channel and thought it was worth sharing. Amy posted the video back in 2012 but it serves as a great reminder to love your body.


I love that she suggests we all find some part of our bodies to be grateful for and to shift our focus from looking at the negatives to looking at the positives. It's so important to stop dwelling on the aspects of life we can't change and spend time and energy on the places that we can make a difference.

The best thing that I've learned is to make peace with your body at whatever stage it's at. Even if you want to lose weight, that's not going to happen over night. There's no need to be unhappy about your body at this very moment.

If you like that video make sure to check out more from Amy Poehler's Ask Amy series (they're all good) or other Smart Girl videos.

-S

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Step by Step

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend with their family and friends.

Last week was a good week for me in terms of getting stuff done. I got to see one of my best friends on Tuesday while she was in town visiting family. On Wednesday I was able to go to the library and get a few things done there. Thursday I helped my grandpa with some of his Spring cleaning. Lastly, on Friday I managed to go for a run and bake cookies for my family. The run was much more successful than the last one and I could tell that taping my foot/shin made a huge difference. Now I can't wait to keep testing the waters and get into some sort of schedule (if only the weather would cooperate).


Sometimes I think it's funny what I consider "getting stuff done" now compared to years past, but I'm always proud of myself if I do anything besides sit around and watch TV. It's so tempting and easy to let yourself do nothing when there's nothing required of you (even though getting a job is a general all-encompassing goal/requirement). I have all the time in the world now and it's been harder than ever to actually get anything accomplished.

Life is always day by day and step by step. As much as I would like a fast forward button to take me to the future when I have a dependable job, am living out of my parent's house, and I'm in a serious relationship, no such thing exists. Besides, there's a lot to learn from taking the stairs not the elevator.

-S

Monday, April 21, 2014

Easter Outfit of the Day

After church yesterday I wanted to change into something more comfortable (I was wearing a dress and forgot to take a picture of it). 

Ignore my unmade bed and low picture quality.

I was excited to wear my new spring top from Kohl's, which was much better than my typical jeans and a t-shirt default.

Top: ELLE Splatter Ruffled Crepe Top
Jeans: Jeggings from American Eagle
Sweater: I've had this for several years. Here's something similar.

Let me know if you guys want to see more outfits of the day.

-S

Thursday, April 10, 2014

As Long As You're Trying, You're Not Failing

Monday I went for my first run in almost half a year. After really aggravating my shins running last summer and feeling like I got no where, I decided to join the I'm-not-a-runner club again. And I've been perfectly okay with not running (there were a few times when my friends ran races and it made me want to try again, but for the most part not running was good). So instead of running I've been taking WERQ fitness classes, and I've been having so much fun. Unfortunately, my class package is over and (for now) I can't afford to take anymore classes.

Ultimately it means I'm back to relying on home workout videos and outdoor activities for exercise. I'm feeling pretty thankful that it's spring and spending time outside has been enjoyable again (at least for now, you never know what'll happen with the weather in MI).

Anyways, I went out on Monday for a walk and randomly decided it'd be a good time to try running. I thought things would be fine because I had stretched well before leaving the house and had walked for a good 5 minutes before taking off but after a minute of running I stopped to take a small walking break. The lower half of my legs felt so tight I was afraid they were going to cramp up so I tried to walk it off and then finally stopped to stretch them out. After stretching I was hoping to try running again, but I couldn't even walk right let alone run. Part of me was afraid I'd mess up my shins again and part of me was afraid I'd fall on my face because it felt like my ankles weren't working properly.

I walked all the way home feeling like a failure because I only ran for a minute, then I remembered that as long as you're trying, you're not failing. Working towards something, even if it seems like you're not accomplishing anything at the time, is 10x better than not working at all. It's a lesson that's not only good for running but every aspect of life.

So I'll be running again because the only way to get better is to keep trying (yup I've gone full on cheese balls now).

I know that I probably talk about this kind of encouragement a lot on here, but it's something I typically need to be reminded of. Plus I figure if I need to be reminded of this, there's probably someone else that needs reminding too.

-S

Monday, April 7, 2014

It's Been Too Long

It's been almost a month since I last wrote anything on this blog. There's really no excuse except that I just didn't feel like writing. I have been feeling stuck lately, creatively and with life in general. Staying away from this blog was a way of avoiding making sub-par and/or negative content.

Because this blog isn't specific to any certain area of my life at the moment, it's sometimes difficult to choose what parts I want to share on here. Occasionally I have so many things I want to talk about it's overwhelming and other times it seems like there's just nothing good to share.

I promise I will try to keep up at least a weekly schedule of posts from now on. Hopefully some sort of schedule will allow me to keep blogging more regularly without compromising quality content. I love being able to share my thoughts and my life on this blog and am not ready to give it up yet. Thanks for giving me some time away, but get ready for new posts soon!

-S