Snuggles

Soooo...I'm pretty sure Utah hates my birthday. Every single stinkin' year since my fam and I moved here (19 years ago) I've had a freezing birthday. I only got four years of blissfully warm birthdays, back in Guatemala, and I don't even remember them! ;) Anyway, I thought this year for sure would be the year that I'd finally get a warm birthday, since February (and January too for that matter) was so dry and warm (60 degrees!!) but nope, March 1st rolls around and what do we get? SNOW. Then today, we just got hit with ANOTHER massive snow storm. So yeah, I think it's safe to assume that Utah not only hates me but also gets some sick pleasure out of dangling warm weather in my face for a whole month just to snatch it away! Utah, you little d-bag. I guess my birthday isn't till the 19th so I do technically have almost a full three weeks before it rolls around and Utah could still change it's mind and decide to be nice to me during that time, so we'll see. For now, though, I am completely shaking my angry little fist at you, Utah!

sweaters: c/o OASAP
shorts: abercombie similar
socks: Aerie similar
photos: Romina

You know what bipolar weather calls for? Bipolar outfits! Buhcause nothing screams, "it's-cold-but-it-should-be-hot-and-sometimes-it-is-sort-of-warm-but-then-two-seconds-later-it-might-storm", like a sweater paired with shortie shorts and long socks! Not to mention, it's just sort of cozy if alls you wants ta do is stay snuggled up inside with a cookie, and a book (if puppies and a hot male were thrown into that mix too I wouldn't complain;)! Anyway, yeah, cute sweaters and shorts? Totally awesome!

Much love!

Happy Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve! Yippee! For Latinos that means that today we'll be having a HUGE Christmas dinner, celebrating the birth of our Savior, and counting down till midnight when we'll open our gifts! Since I'll be taking tomorrow off of blogging, though, I wanted to stop by today to just quickly share my last "holiday" inspired look! I also wanted to take a moment to share with you guys the reason behind my joy for this season and one of my most cherished Christmas moments! I want to preface this all by saying that when my family and I made the move to the States we moved into very humble circumstances. My first Christmas here is one that, although I don't remember clearly, is spoken of almost every Christmas season in my home to remind us of God's tender mercies and the gratitude we feel for the place we've reached as a family. It was a cold and quiet Christmas Eve night and my family and I sat gathered together in our small apartment. I can't quite remember if we had any Christmas decorations, if we did they would have been quite simple. My two sister's and I would have been somewhere between the ages of 6 to 2 years old. It was as we sat there, quietly celebrating, that my dad looked around to each of his little girls and felt an ache in his heart that he hadn't been able to get even one gift for us to share. We, of course, where happy regardless but still he sat in silence ruminating over his disappointment. As he sat, quietly wrapped in thought, there came a knock at the door. When my dad went to see who might be calling on such a night he found that there was no one at the door, instead there lay a carefully wrapped gift on the doorstep. As he looked around at the snowy surroundings to find the blessed stranger who might have left the gift, he found that there was no one in sight. He closed the door with a feeling of such great love and gratitude. As he was gently setting the gift down, there came another knock at the door. Once again, there was a gift placed on the doorstep but no giver in view. All through the night this process continued until when midnight came, and we where to open gifts, our small apartment was overflowing with gifts given from unseen hands. Now, the importance of this story isn't that we went from having no gifts to an abundance of gifts, rather, that a loving father's quiet and unspoken prayer was answered by an even greater and loving Father in Heaven. That there where people out there in tune with The Spirit so much that they answered those promptings and thus became unseen angels for a small family. Many Christmas' have since passed and there have been many seasons of abundance and many seasons of humility. Regardless of the grandeur that we may or may not have on a particular season, though, we know that the true reason we celebrate is to show our great joy that "God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son" and because he sent his Son we have the great and blessed opportunity to be with Him again and be re-united with loved ones beyond the veil! How deep and great is my joy for the Savior! "Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room! And heaven and nature sing!"

sweater: c/o SheInside
skirt: c/o OASAP
socks: c/o Aerie
shoes: h&m similar
photos: Shailynn (She is the best!)

I don't want to ruin the message of this post with too much outfit talk so I'll keep it simple. If you want a more cozy/casual Christmas look this sweater and skirt are definitely for you! The sweater is so, so, cozy, warm and perfectly over-sized to hide your Christmas dinner pooch and this suede skirt is so soft and keeps things fun/flirty! Also, Shailynn is a MAGNIFICENT photographer and one of the sweetest girls I know! Seriously, girl has got it all! Plus, she makes me laugh like a goober, if you couldn't tell. If any of you are in need of photos, she is your girl! I mean, she made ME look good and I'm a gosh dang awful model! Anyway, that is all! I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and take sometime to consider the reason why we celebrate!

Much love!

LOVE THE REAL YOU!

Guys, I've been sooooo excited for this post from the moment that aerie contacted me and I got a package full of these lovely goodies in the mail! First, because I'm such a HUGE fan of the Aerie Real Campaign. Second, because they're seriously the ONLY store I buy undies from so I had a minor freak out when I saw they had emailed me, heehee! I remember the first time I noticed one of their "re-touch" free photos. I had a complete double take moment from the sheer shock of it! I ran home and told my sister, "Guess what?! I was just in the aerie store and one of the pictures in the store was of a girl who had a couple of stretch marks on her butt!!! Isn't that the coolest thing ever?!" In the spirit of butt stretch marks being awesome and all lets get on to what this post is really about, self love. Such a tricky topic. I've already talked about my own personal journey with weight here and I could do that again today because it played such a huge role in my own journey to self love but let's be real, as heart felt as that topic is to me, it's an exhausted one. Not because it isn't important, but because if we're being honest nothing is more frustrating/annoying than a skinny girl hopping up on a soapbox to say, "Hey, I was sort of chubby once, I hated it, it was hard, but guess what? I'm skinny againnnn! Hooray!" Not. If we're being honest that's just straight up annoying and kind of unproductive. It sends out the message that, "Hey, I was unhappy being a little heavier but now that I'm not heavy anymore I can be happy again because my level of happiness is only dictated by how small the number on the scale is." Again I say, NOT. Was I at one point that type of girl? Sure. Name a girl who hasn't been and that is a girl who's straight up got her shiz together and we should learn her secrets. Everyone has got their insecurities and 90% of the female population has felt insecure about their weight. (That's not an actual factual figure so don't quote me.) Whether it's because they get shamed for being too thin or they get shamed for being too large. There seems to be no medium here, we're all getting shamed for the shape of our bodies and the only ones who seem to be passing the "test" of what's acceptable are the PhotoShopped models. What's up with that? Taking it further, though, there's this obsessive pressure put on us as females to reach the idyllic "size zero". Do you know what the value of zero is? NOTHING. The number zero has no value. How sad is it that we're essentially pushing ourselves to reach "no value"? Even now that I believe that I've come leaps and bounds in loving the REAL me I'll still occasionally find myself thinking, "Why can't I be a size zero that actually looks like a size zero. Why do I have to be a size zero that has a big butt and wide hips?" Uhhhhh, and even that statement right there shows that even I still have work to do if I felt it necessary to underhandedly flout my size.When it comes to size, WHO CARES?! Are you physically healthy? Then guess what? You've passed the metaphorical "test"! The only one who can give you permission to love yourself is you! Self love is a choice. Choose to be happy with who you are, regardless of how big or small you are! I promise you, nothing shines brighter than self love and happiness! The most radiant girls on this planet are the ones that are happy and have a deep sense of self worth! Remember that the root of ALL love starts with SELF love!

tshirt: c/o aerie
kangaroo print boxers: c/o aerie
socks: aerie
phone case: c/o aerie
#aeriereal undies: c/o aerie
shrug: c/o OASAP
photos: Shailynn

I'm happy because I'm alive, I have amazing people in my life whom I love, I have a safe home, and countless blessings! A scale doesn't rule my happiness or level of self love because I choose to not LET it! I'm happy and I LOVE the REAL me! And in that spirit, what are some of YOUR traits that make up the REAL you that you've learned to, or always have, loved?! Here are some of mine!

1. My big ol' butt and birthing hips. That thing is planetary but ya know what? I like it. I have my own planet. ;)
2. My wide toothy smile, that when it comes from the heart, causes my nose to scrunch up. I used to hate it but what the heck did my parents pay for braces for if I was going to hate on my big teeth?
3. My freckles. They're hard to notice in photos, but they're there. When I was a kid I was insecure as heck about them until my little sister told me they were my "sprinkling of brown sugar".
4. The fact that my under-eye "sleep baggies" don't go away until at least noon. Annoying? Sure. Do they make me unlovable? Heck to the no!
5. Dimples, dimples, dimples. I've always loved my dimples even, though, when I'm old they're just going to be two MASSIVE wrinkles. I'm looking forward to it! ;)

I can't wait to hear the traits you love about yourselves! After all, it's those little quirks that make us unique that are truly beautiful!

Much love!

*A big thank you to Aerie for starting a campaign that's all about loving the REAL you, stretch marks, muffin tops, and all and for showing us a wide variety of equally beautiful models as they really are!*

TurTurKeyKey

Soooo, I'm not dead. In case y'all where wondering. Nor did I take a trip off of the face of the Earth. Nope. Nothing cool like that. I just didn't post for a WHOLE week because I'm lame. I hadn't shot any outfits so I thought I had nothing to post but then I realized, "hey, this is my blog and I can post when I want and what I want." So I could've posted a picture of an elephant if I really felt like it and typed up all of the magnificent thoughts I have floating around my head. ;) Buuuut I didn't. Which goes to show that I'm just sort of lazy. ;) I did however take that week off to really catch up on some other blogs that I enjoy and they really made me realize something. I'm a writer. I love to write. It makes me happy to tell the stories of my day to day shenanigans to you guys, whether or not you actually read them. Just like I'm a writer, I'm also a reader and I LOVE reading blogs that are well written, funny, and relatable. They're the blogs I look forward to reading everyday. This blog was once, well written. As of late, though, I got so caught up in transforming it into something more chic, more simplistic, more "high end"...more something that it's not but that just isn't me. It really, truly isn't. I like posting pictures of my "non brand name" "non designer" everyday outfits along with completely irrelevant text. It's like sweet & sour chicken. Two things that shouldn't go well together but do. Outfit photos+completely random stories. That is my blog. That is how I like it. Aaaaalso I totally left my hair completely alone for this shoot. No extensions, no styling, no anything other than a brush through. This is it in it's natural curly state. It is poofy and fluffy and most days I can live with that and actually like it but not today. Today I see it and I'm like, "Eh, I shoulda styled that". Oh well, let's just pretend it actually looks cool, kay? Kay.

sweater dress: h&m similar
shrug: c/o OASAP
socks: aerie
boots: (I can't even remember, sorry;)

We all know Thanksgiving is pretty much right around the corner and let's be real we're all probably going to eat waaaaay more rolls than we should. Buuut, I mean, should is a relative word, right? Let's just eat a thousand rolls and say we didn't, deal? Deal. Either way, Thanksgiving dinner is all about cozy outfits that will look cute & warm but won't make you look fat after you eat all dem rolls. That's what I was trying to go for with this outfit and I have to say, an over sized sweater dress is THE perfect way to look cute in something that will hide your post dinner "roll pooch". Also, this shrug from OASAP is like the coziest thing ever and it instantly dresses up any outfit without looking too fussy! I've pretty much worn it a thousand times already! Also, over the knee socks. Dudes, they are bomb. So cute, so cozy, so perfect! Also, do like they do in How I Met Your Mother and make yerselves a TurTurKeyKey! ;)

Much love!