Curated Weekly / 16

Helloooo friends! As you may know, I'm just messing around and trying some new things for the blog (I'd love if you'd take the one-question survey!!) and so I thought I'd spend a little bit more time recapping my week, in the form of a list.

1. On Saturday, after H and I had a nice visit at his school, we drove home to our hometown and had some time with our families. Sometimes I don't realize how much I miss my family until I'm back with them.

2. Sunday night (late) I had to fly back to Florida for school. I personally don't mind airports and flying but it really took it out of me to have my flight so late and that's really thrown my sleep schedule off all week. That and stupid daylight savings!

3. This week, I've been busting my booty to study for my chemistry exam on Wednesday that I honestly should have started studying for before spring break. But it's over and done. Just gotta wait for the grade now. 

4. Last night, I taught almost a full kickboxing class on my own! That was way exciting. I seriously never realized how hard it was to teach group fitness classes until I had to put on the mic and do it myself! You have to know all the moves, do them well and with good form, while teaching and motivating and encouraging your class and while listening to the music to know what comes next. AND the mic picks it up when I'm all out-of-breath so there's that. But it's really fun and I know I'm getting better at it.

5. I'm feeling a little bit of a burn out with this blog, which naturally comes every once in awhile. I'm not sure if I'll plan a short little break or try something else. If you're a blogger, how do you deal with burnout?

6. I started watching a new show on Netflix called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and I can't quite decide, but I think I really like it. It's so odd! It's a comedy about a woman who gets rescued from an underground apocalype cult and has to figure out life in New York. Let me know what you think!

And I'll leave you with a couple links to read this weekend...

• Signs you need to declutter your digital life 
• Four breakfast tartines (open-faced sandwiches)
• Beautiful desktop backgrounds
• Ten affordable investments for better blogging

What have you been up to this week? Thoughts on this format of the Curated posts?

Take my one-question survey, please and thank you!

Hi friends! I'm doing a little bit of adjustment to my posts here on the blog and I would LOVE if you would weigh in. I care about your opinion! I've created this (cell phone friendly!) survey--which is only two questions long (and the second question is totally optional). You can take two minutes to take it right?! :) 

TAKE THE SURVEY AND I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER.

10 Activities to Do By Yourself

I've always liked being by myself--I'm a textbook introvert. I love being with friends but I loooveee soaking in some good Allie time. I've always been like that. When I was younger, growing up in Minnesota, I spent most of my days playing in the forest where we lived--cutting down small trees to build forts or teepees or collecting leaves to press. I never realized it so much at the time, but I really liked the alone time as much as I liked being outdoors.

Last week, I was alone at my house for spring break. None of my friends were in town for the week so literally, I was alone. After a day or so, it felt surprisingly uncomfortable. It felt weird not even having the option of being with a friend. 

To combat this weird lonely feeling and get back to that Allie time that I love, I made a list of activities that are super fun to do by yourself.

• Learn a new hobby or practice an old one. I practiced lots of calligraphy and hand-lettering this weekend!
• Visit a tourist attraction in your town.
• Go to the library or a bookstore and peruse books.
• Play around with your makeup! There's no one to stumble in and be weirded out by your attempt at a smokey eye that makes you look more like a human raccoon.
• Drive somewhere in town, and just walk, observing where you are.
• Exercise, in whatever way you like! (I may or may not have danced around the house a bit...)
• Treat yourself to lunch at a nice restaurant! Bring a book or something to do so you're not just on your phone.
• Have a spa day, either at home or out at a spa. Treat yo self. I like doing those little face mask packets because it's always awkward to have to talk to roommates or family with blue gunk all over your face.
• Go thrifting or to a consignment shop.
• And of course, binge-watch Netflix. It's okay. I give you permission just this once.

What do you like to do by yourself?

Color Palette / Antarctica Blues

This photo is from one of my all-time favorite photography duos, Caroline and Jayde from Woodnote Photography. They do a lot of really interesting engagement and wedding shoots, but I really love following them on instagram for shots like this. Last year, they went to all seven continents. Can you believe that? I've just been aching to go to Antarctica ever since I saw these shots. 

Know of any other awesome photographers/instagrammers? Do share!

Curated Weekly / 15

Oops! I just realized I missed the curated post last week because I was too busy packing up to come home to NC for spring break. Well I'm here and my spring break is just about over (cue sad face). I've spent the week with my brother, but mostly by myself since he's been in school. I am definitely an introvert but it's been really weird to have this much time to myself! Right now, I'm visiting H at his school. Yay!

ALSO. I chopped off my hair. Check it.

• Bright and bold color combinations [Rekita Nicole]
• 18 ways to strengthen your intuition [MindBodyGreen]
• I love these icons from Creative Market
• 20 make ahead lunches for work [The Sunshine Blog]
• It's okay to be bad at your hobbies [The Dainty Squid]
• Sarah's favorite condensed fonts [A Fine Line]
• How to make your graphics work for you [Kory Woodard]
• 6 steps to a meal plan that will save you money [poverty luxe.]

In case you missed them...

• My favorite blogs and websites
• How to spend more time reading
• Handcrafted gift ideas for ladies you love

I love this super fancy 'ooh la la' print from The And So Collection.

Next week is H's and my anniversary and so I thought I'd get a little mushy and share some songs that make me think of our love. Listen here.

• First Day of My Life / Bright Eyes
• You Belong to Me / Carla Bruni
• World Spins Madly On / The Weepies
• You Remind Me Of Home / Ben Gibbard
• I Won't Give Up / Jason Mraz
• These Arms of Mine / Otis Redding
• Just You and Me / Zee Avi
• Free Bird / Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Wanted / Hunter Hayes
• You Are The Best Thing / Ray LaMontagne
• Anyone Else But You / The Moldy Peaches
• Do You Remember / Jack Johnson
• At Last / Leftover Cuties
• Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly) / Phosphorescent

This week, I'm heading back to school, back to work, back to life (ewwwww). I have a big chemistry exam on Tuesday and my big goal is to study hard and ace it. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to take a little break while I'm with H this weekend to study + then study again Sunday afternoon and pretty much all afternoon Monday. This is seriously my top priority because I'm not the best at chemistry. 

Other than that, in the next few weeks, I want to make a point to have lunch with someone I don't know well/haven't ever hung out with. 

What's going on in your world this weekend?

Can You Choose to Be Confident? (Yes! Here's How.)

For the longest time, I thought confidence was just something that happened naturally when you were good at things or pretty or well-liked. I thought it was a feeling that sometimes you had, and sometimes you didn't, and that's all there is to it.

The older I get, the more I am starting to think that yes, confidence comes naturally sometimes, and other times it just doesn't...but that maybe we can choose to be confident. I read something the other day that said that our confidence is also our "self-efficacy" which is just a fancy sounding phrase for how strongly we believe we are capable of achieving things--whether that's in work, relationships or anything else.

Choosing to be confident isn't just telling ourselves to buck up every morning and be self-assured. But there are certain things in our life that affect our confidence. According to this article, there are four different places that we get our confidence. The first one is one that we can't control--it's how often other people tell us that we are succeeding. But the other three, we totally can control:

1. "Developing mastery experiences"--which means experience working hard at things and seeing a good result.

2. "Vicarious experiences"--this is when we see other 'normal' people like us succeeding at things.

3. "Emotional status"--how well we manage negative self-talk, stress, etc.

According to this article, we can seriously change these three things and our life--and so we can change how confident we are. I'm not sold on it for sure, but I think it's such an interesting concept that we may be able to choose to be more confident people.

What do you think?

March Goals

Hello lovelies! I've missed you! I know it's only been a couple of days, but it's weird for me not to sit down and interact with y'all in the comments or on Twitter for more than a day or two. I was finishing up life at school and coming home for my spring break (YES). I don't have much planned for this week, so I hope to talk with y'all some! (Tweet at me or leave a comment!)

Semi-related, before we get onto the whole goal part of this post: I'm looking to get a bit more involved in the blog community and part of that is I'd love to switch blogs with one of you for a day. If you blog about positivity, productivity, wellness, design or anything like that, talk to me and we can maybe swap guest posts. Sound good?

Last Month's Goals:

1. Take a 3-day TV fast. Done. I'm not sure I really learned much from this, as much as I wish I could say it transformed my life or something equally inspiring. I just enjoy TV and I think in balance, it's totally fine! That said--I am focusing on balance! There's no need to watch more TV if I haven't done my schoolwork or exercised enough.

2. Go to office hours. Maybe I should just admit that this is never going to happen? 

3. Form a workout routine. Somewhat done! I did sort of get into a routine outside of my regular fitness classes but now I'm home so it's not quite the same. Still a success.

This Month's Goals:

1. Explore Secret Project #1. I'm so sorry to be that annoying blogger who talks about a secret project without saying what it is. Honestly, it doesn't even have much to do with this blog, but I'm keeping it a little bit private because I have no idea if it's an idea that's really going to stick. 

2. Find my methods and motivations for healthy eating. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's motivating myself to exercise regularly. But I'm not so great at eating well. Part of this just naturally comes with being on a meal plan--sometimes I walk into the dining hall and the only veggies are the same ones on the salad bar that I've eaten for the last five lunches. Sooo I eat pizza. Help a girl out--how do you make sure to eat healthy (especially if you don't naturally enjoy healthy food)?

3. Continue reading (at least 1-2 books a month). I'm currently on Book #3 of 2015 (The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule) and I think that The Good Nurse is next. If you're interested, you can keep up with my booklist on Goodreads or give me recommendations!

What are your goals for the month of March?