First Few Days of Summer Break

I'm finally on break, after writing about 30 pages for various papers in my History and Philosophy classes and a final on The History of Ancient Philosophy. Because my parents are working and my brother and sister are still in school, it's just me and the dog for now. It will be almost a month before my siblings are out for summer break. My brother's high school graduation is on June 25th! That's almost a month more of school than I have. My sister is also having a graduation ceremony for finishing 8th grade, that they call it "The Moving Up Ceremony," because the 7th and 8th grade is in the same building as the town's high school.

Also, I've kind of gone off the bandwagon in terms of my Happiness Project. I'm going to try and work on it more over this summer. My theme for May will be Creativity. I really want to get a head start on some creative writing that I've been meaning to do. My dream is to write a novel, but I have not written anything nearly that long yet. I've done mostly just short stories and poetry.

To help keep track of my goals to be more creative, I will post about my progress, as well as things that I find inspiring.

Right now, for example, I'm reading The Likeness by Tana French. It's a murder mystery set in Ireland and is her second novel. Her first novel, In The Woods, involves the same characters, though you don't necessarily have to read one before the other. I highly recommend it, though make sure you have a lot of free time before you read this. It's extremely hard to put down!

Photos from WeHeartIt

Healthy Snacks and Mindset

I read a great article on how to snack healthy at I Heart Daily. They make suggestions based on your cravings. I especially love this picture: a cored and sliced apple with peanut butter in between!

Doesn't this look absolutely scrumptious?

Some of my favorite snacks are:

• Toast with Peanut Butter, Honey, and Bananas
• "Ants on a Log" (i.e. Celery, Peanut Butter, and Raisins) 
• Whole Wheat Crackers (the slightly sweet kind) with a bit of Cream Cheese
• Pretzels
• Yogurt with Granola
• Strawberries with a touch of Sugar (This is really good b/c when you add sugar, the strawberry absorbs it while expelling some of the water. This makes it almost doubly as sweet without the need for too much sugar!) 

Also, since February is the month of Self Love for my Happiness Project, here is a great article about how to love yourself. It comes from Positively Present. 

The tip that really stands out for me is the idea of changing your mindset. I definitely get down on myself way too often. I would really like to feel good about my accomplishments. One of the reasons I think I do this is because I am afraid of being perceived as snobby or being seen as a girl who thinks she is way better than she actually is. There are all these messages from school, religion, entertainment, and friends that say that we ought to be humble. But I think that being "humble" does not really get people anywhere. By constantly putting ourselves down for the sake of being seen as a good person just prevents us from appreciating who we are and what we can do. I find myself sometimes pushing away compliments. I try to enjoy the compliment and simply say Thank You, but often I will say, "Oh, but I could have done this better," or "Oh, I was just really lucky," or "Oh, I don't really think so."  

Do you find yourself doing this? Don't you think it's time that we start acknowledging that we are all amazing people? We all have strengths, and yes, we all have weaknesses, but that's what makes life fun and interesting. Who would want to live in a world that's perfect? Who would want to watch a movie where the main character is perfect and already has everything he or she wants? 

My goal for this month is to give myself permission to feel great about myself. After all, when you feel good about yourself, you're more able to make others feel good as well. And you know what that means... more good feelings abound. 

Hope you all have a great day, and remember, you're awesome :) 

Simplicity

Today I read an interesting post on Unclutterer called "Setting Limits with a Super Simple Month." While the goal is admirable, I am not sure whether I would want to limit the times that I go out. Living in Boston and going to school in a college town, I would feel like I am missing out on too much. However, I do recognize that it is important to have some time to yourself. Also, buying only necessities is definitely a thing I need to be working on, since living expenses seem to be eating me up alive. Why does my contact lens solution cost about $10 for the little bottle that runs out in 2 weeks? Why are sandwiches $7.50? When did the world become so expensive?

Anyway, the post did get me thinking about ways that I would enjoy making my life a little simpler. This month, February, is the Month of Love for my Happiness Project. One of the ways that I should act in a loving way to myself is by having some time for myself away from the craziness that is the life of a college student in a city.

Here are some ideas to give myself more time:

• Turning off my electronics an hour before bedtime
• Organizing what I need for the day the night before (No more running around going crazy trying to find everything) 
• Spending less time on my schedule (I tend to overschedule, which I'm beginning to see is a way of procrastinating) 
• Waking up earlier. (My ultimate goal is to be able to wake up and have energy at 7:00 a.m. My current wake up time ... 7:45 or 8:00.)

Here's what I would want to do with that free time

• Paint my nails a gorgeous, cheery color
• Make collages from my old magazines
• Meditate
• Do the Laundry (Having dirty clothes around makes me feel like my life's gotten too crazy to handle even the simple things.)
• Settle down with a good book. 

Happy Things

How beautiful is my dog? I just saw this picture that my sister posted on her Facebook page, and I needed to have an "I love my dog" post. I can't remember if she took the photo or if I did. (I'll have to ask her later. Some of my dog's hair is shaved off, so this was probably taken soon after she was sick and needed an IV, but she's all better now. :) 

Also, an update on my Happiness Project! Tomorrow is the first day of February. For Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project, she decided that February was the month to "Remember Love." Here are my resolutions for this month! 

1. Write something good about myself or something good that I accomplished that day, every day in my journal. 
2. Reach out to others by making more of an effort to spend time with friends. I especially want to spend some time getting to know my sorority's new members. I've met them only a few times, but I can tell they are really sweet girls. 
3. I will stop myself from saying negative things about people, even when I'm really angry. 
4. I will mail letters to my friends and family as often as I can, since snail mail really does show how much you care. 
5. I will not let myself get myself down. If I start to think negatively, I will try to see the positive side of things. 

So here's my list. I am open to changing some and adding on a few more. Do you have any suggestions? 

- Catie

Stressed

I've definitely hit a lull in my happiness project. Because Recruitment is taking up so much of my time, I haven't been able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour, or exercise. My eating has been awful, since there's very little time to have food, and yet we always have an abundance of candy. Now, don't get me wrong, I really love my sorority, but right now I'm just having one of those days that I've been trying to prevent with my Happiness Project. My life is seriously out of whack right now.

What do you think is a good way to get out of a funk? Honestly, right now every aspect of my life is stressful, and I haven't even been able to post on this blog for a while because of it.

Here is a picture of puppies that I found on WeHeartIt. It's really cute, so I hope posting this will cheer me up. Sorry that this isn't really a well-planned out post or anything, but I promise that I will try and get some good posts up as soon as I feel better! Hope things are going well for all of you :)

Happiness Project Update

It's been a little more than 2 weeks since I started my Happiness Project, (based on "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin: Go to her blog! ) Already I feel that I have more energy. I don't require a cup of coffee to last me through the day. Pretty much everyday I've met my goal of waking up without pressing snooze, though I will admit that this morning I slept in for about 15 minutes. I have no idea why I wanted to wake up at 8:45 this morning, since I wasn't planning on doing anything until 11:00, when I went to Church.

Do you have a Happiness Project of your own? What kind of goals do you have for the New Year? If you haven't made some, why not make some right now? It's really nice to see how small changes in your life can lead to more happiness, and who doesn't want that?

Other things I am trying to pursue include trying out Yoga. I've just done some beginner/intermediate poses, but it's actually harder than I expected it to be, but enjoyable. I think I prefer it to the elliptical, which is what I normally work out on. Yoga is great because you can do it anywhere, even in your dorm room! Do you enjoy Yoga? I'm trying to learn it on my own for now, since classes in Boston can be tremendously expensive.

Photo from WeHeartIt

Under the Weather

It's the day before school starts and I'm sick. Ugh. I've got one of those head colds with a very sore throat, dry eyes, and stuffed up sinuses. I'm running around, trying to get things done before school begins and I'm even more stressed out, but right now with a half unpacked suitcase, a ton of random things strewn all over my desk, a headache, a semi-working phone that ought to be replaced ... I'm just not sure how I will get everything done!

But this negative attitude is exactly what I'm trying to combat. So, here's my plan of attack: take out contacts, take a 20 min. nap, finish unpacking my suitcase, go to CVS to buy floss (which I left at home) and contact lens solution (which I'll probably be out of after taking my lenses out), pick up my textbooks that arrived for me in the mail room, eat dinner, clean room as much as possible, and then have some free time.

Happiness Project Update: I managed to get up early this morning and on the first alarm! I got up at 8:15 in order to get to my sorority recruitment training workshop. But even though I got up almost 2 hours before it started, I was late because I was confused about where the workshop was being held. I was on the completely wrong side of campus.)

Nail Polish, Shopping, and Other Matters

Since I haven't done a fashion post in a while, here are some things I'll be spending my money on after I get back to school (and start getting my paychecks at my part time job again).

My favorite nail polish brand has to be Essie. They have the best colors, the best finishes, and the polish comes in really cute bottles with even cuter names. Here are some of my favorites for this winter:

The nail polish featured above is "Angora Cardi"! Essie describes it as a "deep dusty rose."

Now let me introduce you to "Huckle Buckle," a wonderfully whimsical shade that Essie describes as "iridescent deep lilac."

At $8.00 a bottle, these nail polishes are more than worth their price. The polish also lasts a very long time, which is another reason why I love these nail polishes. If you want to buy some polish to put some sparkle in your winter, go to Essie's Website.

My picks off Piperlime include a few cute tops and skirts.

This top has a beautiful shape that exudes a kind of classic, yet chic look. It is the Cynthia Steffe Adalia Tank. Unfortunately for me, it is $95, so I don't think I'll be purchasing this unless it goes on sale or I get a big paycheck soon. You can buy this at Piperlime

And finally, an update on my Happiness Project! I am still making the bed every day now. However, I'm having a hard time trying to get up early in the morning. Hopefully this will change once I go back to school and immediately will have tons to do on my schedule again. I'm going to keep up this blog for sure, but the posts may be a bit shorter until I get the hang of blogging while at school.

January: My Happiness Project Begins

Sometimes I feel like this girl... so tired that I literally want to fall asleep under my books, but this semester will be different. I've decided to embark on a "Happiness Project" (Don't know what this is? See the post below) I will still post about other things, but I definitely wanted to share a bit about how my project is going. This January I will focus on ways to have more Energy, like Gretchen does in her book. Here are my goals for January... (I tried to make them simple and something that won't be too much of a hassle)

1. Wake up without pressing Snooze
2. Make my bed everyday (So I won't be tempted to fall back asleep)
3. Have a Bedtime Routine
4. Do Yoga, Meditation, or Stretching for 20 min. every day
5. Make the switch from caffeinated coffee to decaf or decaffeinated tea (Coffee on weekends is okay but only one cup)
6. Go to bed early, wake up early.
Aim for Bedtime @ 11:30 on weekdays and Wake up @ 7:30 on weekdays.
Weekends: Be asleep by 1:30, Wake by 9:30

The hardest one for me is the bedtime one. While I usually never pull all nighters on the weekdays, I've definitely stayed up way too late on weekends. Last semester I usually woke up around 8:30 on weekdays to get some homework done, but that was when I had class starting at 11. If I can push my wake up time to even earlier than 7:30 that would be ideal, but I've had an aversion to waking up before 8, so I'm making my goal more attainable for now.
Also, if you guys want a chance to win a copy of Gretchin Rubin's Happiness Project, which inspired this post, go to Snickerdoodles and please mention Chocolate Lemonade when you enter the contest. Good luck!

~ Catie

Photo Credits: weheartit.com

The Happiness Project

Gretchen Rubin's the Happiness Project just reached # 2 on the New York Times bestseller list! I haven't gotten a chance to purchase it yet, since I'm still recovering from spending a ton of money this December on Christmas presents, but I went to Barnes and Noble and read the first chapter. For those of you who haven't heard about this, Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project details the changes she made in her life throughout the course of a year in order to pursue happiness. View her blog at www.happiness-project.com

What do you think of her way of finding happiness? Would you be interested in making your own Happiness Project? I think that I will try and form my own project and post on here about how it's going.