a brilliant way to brighten your day!

I've been having a pretty crummy week so far. Physically and emotionally I'm just completely wiped out, and I definitely needed a pick me up! I was talking to Amber about it, and she randomly asked me to name five things that would make me smile.

I picked Hypatia, grapefruit juice, How I Met Your Mother, dresses and pizza. Then Amber told me to do something involving all of them RIGHT NOW.

I went over to Hypatia and kissed her little forehead, then went to the kitchen and poured myself a cold glass of grapefruit juice. I changed out of my comfy rainy day clothes and put on one of my favorite new dresses! Then I called in an order for pizza and put HIMYM on netflix. INSTANT PICK ME UP!

It can be hard to think of things to do to cheer yourself up, so Amber's sneaky way of asking me really worked! I'm planning ahead for future gloomy days by writing down some of my favorite things on slips of paper and putting them in a jar. Whenever I'm feeling super blue, I'm going to pick out five things and do them right away, all at once! :)

the sunny side of the street

dress - modcloth

cardigan - old navy

shoes - blowfish

bag - h&m

locket - handmade

As you might know if you follow me on twitter (or read this post) last week was pretty awful. Every once in a while, it seems like everything goes wrong all at once, from the really big "my whole life is a mess" things to little tiny things like spilling food on your lap (which only seems to happen during those really bad weeks, right?) Anyway, I decided Saturday night that it was NOT going to continue.

I felt really proactive about changing things for the better. I bought the Dream Job e-course from Red Velvet (which, by the way, I highly recommend!), and spent the weekend totally re-evaluating my job, with a new sunny outlook to make everything run more smoothly, and more importantly-- be more fun! With a smile in tow, I headed into this week.. prepared to be in a good mood!

Then I read Kaelah's 30 Day Detox post! It's a 30 day challenge to expunge bad moods, and refrain from negative tweeting and blogging. Like Kaelah said, if one bad thing can sour your mood for a whole day.. why can't one good thing brighten your mood for a whole day?! This couldn't come at a better time for me, and I'm totally psyched about participating! I tried something similar last year with Good Mood Week (which failed miserably) but I think that this time will be totally different. I'm attacking the things that cause my bad moods (mainly: chores that build up until they become overwhelming, and my job) at the root, instead of letting the problems fester & just covering them up with a smile.

I figure, I have this one life.. why spend my precious time doing things I hate, dwelling on problems that bother me and spoiling my thoughts with negativity? It's time to get positive and enjoy each and every day! :) If all goes well, hopefully the 30 day detox will turn into a lifetime! And hey, maybe I'll start to actually smile in my photos once in a while ;-D

Do you want to comment, but have no idea what to say? Trust me, I've been there! So to make things a little easier, here is a question you can answer if you can't think of anything else to say! :)

What do you do to cheer yourself up? It's strictly popcorn, potatoes and movies for me!

I'm a little black raincloud

I'm having a really, really bad week so far, so I just didn't feel like doing a Style Idol post last night (or this morning) ... I'm going to push it back until tomorrow, and then I'll do an outfit post on Thursday. Hopefully my mood will have improved by then. There's a chance I'll push it back one more day if I'm still down in the dumps tomorrow but I'll try not to.

I'm not going to whine about what's bothering me here (that's what my family is for lol) but I did want to just drop in and say "hi" and apologize for the delay in case anyone out there looks forward to my style idol posts(?) and missed it today. I promise I'll be back to my relatively chipper self in a few days.

optimism

I just bought this print from one of my very favorite etsy artists, Heidi Burton. Her work is incredibly playful and optimistic, but not in that cheeky, annoying way that a lot of optimistic artwork is (I'm looking at you, Keep Calm posters.) I already own a few of her prints, and they never fail to make me smile! This one is my favorite :) And as someone who tends to be on the glass-half-empty side of things, I think that looking at this new print each morning will help me to actually be excited about getting out of bed and starting another day.

invisible

Been feeling very invisible, detached and lonely lately... hoping we can get our move going soon... I really need a change and some new surroundings.