Blog posts that inspire

Follow Your Dreams ~Inspiration from Victoria Magazine

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Hello Everyone,

I don’t think I have made it a secret about how much I love Victoria magazine especially January’s issue. If you have not picked up a copy I would suggest you do! It was SO inspiring. For me having my very own side business has always been a dream. I never knew how I would accomplish it and to this very day I still don’t know how, but creating beautiful things has always been a dream for me. 

Even having this blog has been one of the best adventures that I have ever taken. This blog has caused me to create an environment that I love and can’t wait to return to. I love my blog seriously I do. It’s nice to have something that belongs to you. Especially if it is something that you are creating. I always pray that the Lord will continue to lead me in the right direction. 

I picked up my magazine in December and dived right into the articles. This issue is the Entrepreneur issue and has lots of women who are starting businesses while also following their dreams. 

 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

 

 

This issue talked about seven women entrepreneurs. I follow about three of them and love the work that they do. It is so rewarding to do what you love. I think that most of us follow Jennifer L. Scott and love her channel. I thought they did such a wonderful job telling her story. 

 

photo credit: John O’Hagan ~ Victoria Magazine 

 

The other entrepreneurs that I follow are Cheryl Luckett and Erisha Rubingh. Both of them have wonderful companies that will inspire you to live well. Another person that was mentioned in the magazine was Ajiri Aki who has a business that I dream of.  Ajiri Aki has a wonderful business called Madame de la Maison.  Ajiri has a fondness for beautiful things and turned that into a career. She started her business after she explored Paris’s flea markets and began to buy items to sell online. What a dream!!! 

 

 

photo credits: Madame de la Maison 

 

 

I hope you found this post to be inspiring. Whatever your dream may be, whether it’s joining Youtube, starting a blog, or an online business, do what you LOVE. With everything going on around us we are in a time where the “pursuit of happiness” is a must!

 

Thanks for reading! 

 

 

Simplify Your Life

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Good Afternoon Everyone,

It’s back to the daily grind for me and my family. Our daughter has returned to school part-time so we will see how it goes. My step-son is suppose to return to college this week. Fingers crossed he does. This has been a long, long Thanksgiving vacation and I want my couch and fridge back! Speaking of all of the things that go on in our lives I wanted to share this book that I purchased back in 2008. 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley 

 

It is called 100 Ways to Simplify Your Life by Joyce Meyer.  I was looking at my bookshelf and my eyes just landed on it and I thought, wow this might help someone. We are all facing challenges this year already. I know for us we are losing lots of restaurants in our downtown location. It has been really sad to watch it all fall apart. But I am trying to trust that God has a plan. 

 

 

This book is full of short chapters that provide great impact. I do have my favorite chapters and wanted to share them. The third chapter is called, “Keeping God First”. It starts off with a wonderful quote, “Man’s life is of God, not of his goods, however abundant they may be”. ~ Henry Alford.

Joyce says, ” I believe it is God’s will for his people to be prosperous in every area of their lives, including finances, and material goods. Psalm 35:27 says that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of His people. I find no scripture saying He is pleased when his people do not have their needs met.”

I try to keep this in mind when things are tight or when I believe something ought to be my way and it isn’t. Another favorite chapter of mine is “Don’t Make Mountains out of Molehills”. Boy, can I make things worse in my mind. I am trying to learn to keep things in perspective. 

 

 

There is also a chapter on “Minding Your Own Business, Refuse to Live in Fear, and Don’t Fret over Evildoers”. I need a refreshing course on this! I feel like evil is running wild! But the quote in this chapter helped me to but this back in order, it said, “I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about?” ~ Henry Ford 

I hope you have found some peace and inspiration in this post. I am just as confused and lost about what’s happening in our world today. But I just keep praying that God will lead us in the right direction. I hope you have a great Wednesday!

 

photo credit: Nina from Pinterest 

 

fyi: This post is not sponsored. I use affiliate links, including Amazon affiliate links.

 

Thoughts on my Youth

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photo credit This is Glamorous



Today I wanted to be honest and open in my post. Do you ever think about things you wish you could have done differently?


For me, I married young and had our daughter at age 22. At that age, most people are still in college and still have some sort of freedom. When I moved out of my mother’s home at age 19 I had only lived in my apartment for about 6 months before my husband and I started dating. 


He already had been married and had two children. They were 6 and 3 at the time. About 9 months later he asked me to marry him. Now I will be honest, I did not want to at the time. I thought why in the world would I do this. I was still young and still had my own dreams and goals. 



























photo credit Ulker Mammadova 





But I did and here we are 16 years later. The boys are gone and our daughter will be starting her sophomore year in high school this coming fall. I heard a quote recently from Beyonce that made me sit and ponder for a few days (see the interview here). She said, “Make sure that you have your own life before you become someone’s wife”. 


How do you guys feel about that comment? Never mind who said it… but what do you think about it? It for one moment made me think, did I do that? Did I have my own life? And the truth is… I didn’t. 

Now please hear my heart I am not mad at my husband nor do I regret where we are today. But as I think back I wish I had someone back then telling me to explore the world, take chances, and take risks! 
My heart still craves adventure and for taking chances but now since I am almost 40 everything has to be a calculated step because it will affect my family, not just me. 




























photo credit Zay



Now I have gone to the Lord in prayer and asked, what shall I do? Here I am Lord, wishing that I had studied abroad, lived in a different country, explored the world around me, but can I still do that? I keep telling myself, there is still hope.


Now that I have almost finished my “motherly duties” and once my daughter is settled in her college life then maybe the Lord will allow me some “adventure time”. I want to do things in his will so maybe the early marriage and early motherhood was the purpose he had for me. 


There is something grand about being finished early in life. A lot of my co-workers who are in the late ’30s and early ’40s have very young children. They are tired constantly and have had to give up things now instead of early on. One of my co-workers who is the same age as me has a 1-year-old. Prior to his arrival, she had an extra bedroom that was her entire closet!

At the same time, I was getting those new closet cabinets I came into the office so excited, and then she shared how she had to change her closet into a nursery for the baby. I felt bad immediately. But then I realized we made different choices in life. She studied abroad, lived in Japan, and went on trips. While she was doing all of that, I was at home with a newborn and two step-sons. But now I see that we are about to flop lives and that is okay. 

So I will say this. I am learning that the Lord has a different plan for each of us. I still don’t understand why my plan turned out this way but I am hopeful that I will know in the end. I do know this. I am telling my daughter that she does not have to marry early and have kids. “Have your own life before you become someone’s wife”. Go out and see the world, enjoy it!


What are your thoughts?














Beautiful Past Ideas & Stories ~ Past Posts

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nicola bathie mclaughlin on Instagram: “dreamy views and window treatments of dreams via @arielokin”

photo credit Nicola Bathie

Good Morning Everyone,


I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We did, however, I had a picnic scheduled for yesterday afternoon but it got humid too fast and my step-son couldn’t make it. 


I told him that I would re-schedule it because he wanted to be included. I will be sure to do a blog post about it once we go. 


I am super excited today. I don’t know if any of you follow Jennifer L. Scott (although, I am sure that some of you do) but I watched her recent video about her new blue and white tea set that she got from Victoria magazine and I just fell in love with it. My set is scheduled to arrive today!!!! Yay!!!! I am so excited to see it you guys! I can’t wait. 


photo credit Victoria Magazine 

In today’s post, I wanted to share past posts about how to live well. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did writing them. As I was going through them I was reading them myself. They are such wonderful reminders, wonderful ideas, and great short stories. Enjoy! 


2016:


Enjoy La Dolce Vita


2017:


A Paris All Your Own ~ A New Book


A Paris All Your Own ~ Part 2


2018:


The Civil Life

Radiate Calm ~ Part 2

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I don’t know about most of you but I really had to “dig deep” this past weekend and find my solitude and radiate calm for myself and my family. 


To be honest I could not believe the madness that took place. I understand the concerns and worries of our country but to destroy businesses and take advantage of a horrible situation just really shocked me!


I could not believe what some people were doing. Even here in my own very city they spray painted our monuments, busted windows, set fires, fought, and stole. I never thought that I would say this but I hated my own city. It was horrible to watch. 


Not only that a jewelry store that I visit often for repairs and go look at vintage jewelry was broken into Saturday. All of their jewelry was stolen, including the vintage pieces. My heart sank…


To know that their our individuals out there who took these items knowing that they are not there for “justice” but for greed just infuriated me. 


So I took the weekend and a few days to calm myself…. Yes buildings can be fixed and items (some) can be replaced but that still does not make it okay. You are still committing crimes. I had to remind myself that God is in control and to stay off of social media especially Facebook because there are some individuals who don’t share the same beliefs I do. 


I searched my blog for past posts on calmness and found this one that I wrote in 2018 called Radiate Calm.





My porch at home. We spend a lot of time here. 

I read my post and reminded myself that I do not have to act like that. That staying calm is assertive. When you remain serene, you’re communicating that you have the situation under control and there’s nothing to worry about…… It’s tempting to fly off the handle in a confrontational moment, but far more valuable to bring goodwill and order back to an unraveling situation. Maintaining a sense of equanimity even when matters are tense disarms antagonists, builds trust, and forces everyone involved to focus on the problem logically rather than emotionally, allowing for a better and quicker resolutions”. 


I pray for our country constantly. We really need some guidance and peace at this time. Until then I will do my very best to respect all people and remain as elegant as I possibly can. 






(photos via Mrs. Shockley & Pinterest)





A Wish~ A Friend Overseas…

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Good Morning Wednesday,


Today is my husband’s grandmother’s funeral. It will not be a fun day but it will be a day of healing and peace. She is at rest now and I hope she enjoys heaven. 


A few weeks ago I was thinking about all of the places that I want to travel to. I want to see Europe of course but I also thought about the pyramids in Egypt. Would I like to see those? There are so many places in the world that one would want to see. 



























Photo by Sergey Mind on Unsplash





That got me thinking about a friend. Having a friend in a different country. I would love to have a friend (a very trustworthy and beautiful friend) who would be willing to share their country with me. I just recently had a friend move to London but you never want to be overbearing to people and ask about visiting and staying with them. That could be hard.

But oh how I wish for the day. I dream of taking one of Sharon Santoni’s Provence Tours. I have been wanting to do something like this for a very long time. Her tours are perfect for someone like me. 



















Photo by Eva Dang on Unsplash



A tour like that would be perfect with a girlfriend. No husband or kids! Sorry…

How do you guys feel about that? Do any of you have a friend overseas that doesn’t mind you coming and staying? And if so where have you gone and what have you done? Please share in the comments below. I would really like to know. 


Thanks for reading and enjoy your day!


Learning about Cookware

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Good Morning Everyone,


Back to clocks springing forward. Never fun. I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours has been a little rough. My husband’s 89-year grandmother passed away this past Thursday so we were dealing with that.


Although, this was not a huge shock to anyone. She had been really sick for a while and was just ready to go. That may sound a little harsh but she expressed it. I always find it fascinating when someone has embraced their own death. That to me takes a lot of peace, faith, and courage. I hope that when it is “my time” to depart I hope that I can embrace “going home” as well.


With all of the recent, viruses, and health scares it has one looking at everything. I was recently watching a video regarding cookware and how certain chemicals can get into your food. So it got me thinking about my very own cookware.


So I went and pulled mine out and saw all of these scrap marks and thought, “oh heavens, did all of that get into our food?” Oh, dear…


So I continued to watch Lisa’s video and thought maybe I need to pay attention to this.


I then realized that I did keep some of my husband’s stainless steel cookware and I thought I would try that out for a few weeks. 


Now they work great! I do have a hard time scrambling my eggs in them but I think I just need to get the hang of it. 

So what are your thoughts about cookware? Do you have a preference? What do you know about chemicals? Please share your thoughts below. I am very curious.



Thanks for reading!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)