Friday Favorites- Recommendations & My Favorite Authors

Friday is back again! So I’ve been home for almost a week now (6 days to be exact) yet I still feel so behind. I have yet to get to some comments and haven’t had time to read all my favorites blogs like I usually do. Ever since we got back from our trip we’ve been in packing mode. I’m wrapping, taping, and moving things and boxes around all day.

We still have a little while before we take off at the end of October, but in between then we have two trips coming up (to North Carolina and a road trip to Zion National Park in Utah) and lots of stuff planned in between (including going to tv tapings of Conan and Jimmy Kimmel yay!) So we’ve got to get a head start on the packing, because we all know how l o n g it takes!

By far one of my favorite moments of this week was getting to meet Mindy Kaling! I really can’t believe it still. I’m so happy I have this picture to remind me of this awesome moment. She is such a great voice for women, minorities, and female comedians. I’ve always loved her and I’m even more obsessed with her now than I was before if that’s possible 🙂 And if you aren’t already read her books!

I didn’t take any pictures but on Tuesday night I went to see Cheryl Strayed speak at Chapman University. She is such an eloquent speaker and I am so glad I got to see her in person. For those of you who don’t know, she is the author of Wild. She is quite a popular lady, the auditorium she spoke at She is such an inspiration. I love her story and her book. It was one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it.

I’d love to see part of the Pacific Crest Trail (the one she hiked) once we move up to Washington, even though she did the California and Oregon part. I love seeing powerful women like Mindy and Cheryl getting things done!

Next Wednesday Dave and I are taking off to North Carolina for the first time ever. We are going to visit Dave’s best friend and we were also invited to a friend’s wedding who we will be living near once we move to Seattle. We will be in the Chapel Hill area as well as Bald Head Island.

I would love your suggestions of places we should go to while we are in town. I will of course do some research but would love to get some insider tips if you girls have any for me!

While we are on the topic of giving suggestions I’d also love to hear your tips for moving. I’ve done my fair share of moving in my day, but I feel like there are so many tricks that I may be missing out on. What moving company did you use? How did you organize everything? What would you do differently? So let’s hear it ladies!

People Magazine posted an article online about Elizabeth Gilbert sharing her secret to  happiness with the man who put ‘love’ in Eay, Pray, Love. I love her as an author and she’s also a great speaker. Did you guys see her on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday? She is wonderful and she’s such a great role model for women empowerment.

Happy Friday girls! And thanks again to everyone who linked up with Mattie and I yesterday! Hope you all have nice weekends!

As always I’m linking up with these lovelies:

Hill Collection and Running 4 Cupcakes

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Friday Favorites: Bachelorette + Books, Oh My!

 

Happy Friday friends! I’m linking up with the ladies at A Little Bit of Everything Blog, Grace and Love Blog, and Momfessionals as usual! 🙂 Head on over to all their sites if you wanna join in the link ups!

I’m also linking up with other blogging women at A.Liz Adventures, Carolina Charm, Hello! Happiness, and The Good Life Blog.

 And last but not least The Farmer’s Wife and September Farm.

My good friend Kathleen and her boyfriend Greg who are living tiny, who were my first interview in my series, wrote a beautiful piece yesterday that I had to share. It was really well written, and it inspired me. I’m so proud of them and their living tiny journey.

I’ll give you a quick excerpt but I highly recommend you go to her website and read it in full.

“We walk through life following what others do or say because we’re afraid to take the lead. We assume others have it all figured out. The truth is, none of us do. But there are things we can do to make ourselves stand out and not get lost in the chaos.

Don’t forget to tell yourself that, ‘You are good enough!’

Just because you might be doing something that other people have done before, doesn’t mean it’s not unique. You are doing it in your own way. It’s your style, your interpretation.

The things you do are yours and yours alone, so own it!”

“I know a lot of people my age are always asking, ‘Am I in the right job? Am I making enough money? Is this what I should be doing with my life?’

These are the questions we should always be asking. Challenge yourself to find a career that matches what you enjoy doing. As an added bonus, make it something that inspires or educates others in a positive way.

If you can’t find the passion in your job, try finding that passion on your own time.

We can’t all have that perfect 9-5. Don’t exhaust yourself searching for it. Spend time in your personal life fulfilling your talents and exploring your interests.

The more you practice your passions (whether at work or outside of work), the more people will notice. For example, if you enjoy doing yoga, you might look into being a yoga teacher. If you are artistic, you might explore starting up an Etsy shop to make a little extra cash. And if you decide these are the things you should be doing instead of the 9-5, pack up your office and find a way to make these things your daily grind.”

 

In case you missed my book review of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild be sure to check it out here. I absolutely loved this book! It was so, so good. I loved reading about her incredible 1,100 mile hike through the Pacific Crest Trail. She shared so much of her life and thoughts throughout the book. What an amazing and inspirational story. Definitely read it if you haven’t already!

And I posted about my book review on Twitter and tagged Cheryl and she liked it! I had a total fan girl moment 🙂

I’m so glad the Bachelorette is back on. It’s been a guilty pleasure of mine for years and I still enjoy it. I really like Kaitlynn, she’s honest, funny, and gorgeous. So excited to see who she ends up with.

I know it’s still so early on but I already have a favorite for her: Shawn B. He got the first impression rose. She said he gave her the feelings she was looking for, they kissed the first night, he’s a personal trainer, and likes kids. They’re super cute together. I’d definitely keep my eye out for these two. (No I haven’t read any spoilers and please don’t spoil it for me!)  And the internet is saying he looks like a mix between Ryan Gosling and Calvin Harris.

Calvin Harris meet your doppelganger.

Through the linkups last week I found a blogger (can’t remember who though, sorry!) who talked about spring dresses for cheap. She introduced me to a website called SheInside. They have super cute dresses and they aren’t expensive. They are having a big sale right now. I bought 3 dresses already. 🙂 I’m eagerly awaiting them in the mail.

Here are the three dresses I bought:

This adorable white dress is only $15!

This pink flare dress is $20.33!

And I took a fashion risk buying this dress, but I’ll try it on and see if I like it. It’s really pretty. I love the flowy-ness of the dress. This one is $33.19.

See what I mean with the super cute, and affordable dresses?!

I love red carpet events when stars bring their A game. It’s fun to see them all dressed up. Here are a few of my favorite looks from the Cannes Film Festival this year.

I’m obsessed with Nikki Reed’s dress. She looks stunning! And what a gorgeous couple they  make.

I love Mindy Kaling, her show and her book. Can’t wait for her next one to come out in September! I also love her color blocking dress.

Amy Poehler looks simple and elegant. 

I love purple and Salma Hayek looks great!

 

Last weekend I saw Pitch Perfect 2 and it was funny, sweet and touching. I found myself tearing up at the end of the movie. It has it all. If you liked the first one, you’ll definitely like the second one.

 

 Have a great weekend everyone! Excited to read all your link ups.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

I loved this book. I couldn’t get enough of it. I wanted to know more after it ended. I wanted to know where she went next, how she transitioned back into real life in Portland and what lasting impact it had on her. (I know there are lots of interviews she has done since she completed the trail, and I have yet to see the movie starring Reese Witherspoon because I wanted to wait until I was finished with the book.) But those were my initial thoughts after I finished reading it.

As a woman one of my main concerns would be safety on the trail especially being by herself. So I was really interested to see how she dealt with that and how she told herself she wasn’t scared.

I really enjoyed hearing about the camaraderie she felt among the fellow hikers she met on the trail. She said they motivated her and lifted her spirits when she was feeling down or exhausted. It also must have felt nice to commiserate about the trials and tribulations of the hike.  For a while she was the only woman on the trail but later met other women. I felt a real sense of women empowerment and thinking how strong and courageous she and the other women were hiking this trail and taking on such a huge undertaking.

It made me really happy to see the kindness of strangers while she was on and off the trail. People gave her rides when she hitchhiked, offer to feed her and let her shower at their houses, and a free place to stay behind stores. It made me believe in the goodness of people. I, myself, would be quite nervous to trust people but it’s nice to see there were still good people while she was out there. (She hiked the trail in 1994 at the age of 26.) But there is one incident she talks about in the book that would have made me really nervous.

Being on the trail she was able to work through issues that she had been carrying around with her for years. Before she started the trail she had lost her mother to cancer at 45 years old, her family fell apart in the wake of her mother’s death, and her marriage ended. In the long hours and days she traversed the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) she had a lot of time to think about all those lingering issues and learned to make peace with them.

It shows real dedication and character that she hiked the 1,100 plus miles in the summer, mostly alone, when the easy thing to do would have been to quit and go back to her old life.  

One of my favorite things about her journey was that she was not an expert hiker to begin with. She had only done short hikes before. Not that this is something I would want to do, but it at least gives me and other hikers hope that they could do it. They just have to have to will power and desire to do it. I’m also super impressed that she and other hikers took on the PCT 20 years ago when hiking wasn’t yet that popular. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about reading it.