31 Days of Nails Challenge!

Hello!! So a totally different project for the blog! I won't just be raving about something haha! I follow quite a few nail art blogs and have become kind of obsessed with doing my own nails/nail designs.  Anywho, one of the bloggers (Nail Days) is doing this 31 Days of Nails challenge and I am going to do it! I am sooo excited about it and I can't wait to see where it goes! I usually redo my nails everyday anyway because work is really rough on my polish and designs so I will hopefully stick with the daily posts.  The only exception that I can forsee is my vacation at the end of April to early May but after that brief hiatus I will be sure to get right back with it.  So here are the challenges:

Since today will be my number one challenge, here is my RED design!

As you can see, they are strawberries!!   I think they are super cute and were relatively easy to do so I'm pretty excited about them! 

If you want to know a little bit of background, I used to be a terrible nail biter! Like so bad...there aren't even words to explain how awful it was.  The only time I had ever had long nails was when I had acrylic nails on which is what started this nail journey.  My sister got married in December 2011 and I had fake nails put on for the wedding.  I let them grow out with every intention of getting them filled but a month went by and I never did and it was just time for them to come off.  I took them off and realized how long my nails had grown and decided that in order to keep from biting them I would have to keep polish on them and have them be pretty.  So I started painting them and of course the flimsy nails that had grown out broke and chipped but I refused to give up and now I have pretty nails that I enjoy a lot and I love the creativity that nail art provides. So I am really excited to share all of it with you!!!

I hope you all will enjoy this little adventure and we'll see if I can keep it up :)

xox

Ahh Pinterest...

For those of you who don't know what Pinterest is, let me enlighten you.  It's a website where you create your own "boards" and "pin" random things from the world wide web onto them.  It's kind of like bookmarking different websites all in one place that you can share with your followers.  It sounds a little strange until you start it and then you waste a few hours pinning things and realize, "Holy Cow, I started doing this three hours ago!"  Some may view this as a waste of time...I happen to love it!


Anywho, I have several boards and one that is entitled Quotes...original I know.  Despite my lack of creativity in naming my boards I have come across some pretty awesome things, one of which is...

I think this quote was made for me...I'm always looking for something...when maybe I should realize how happy I am with my life in the present.   I'm vowing to myself to make this more of a habit, find what makes me happy and simply be happy with it.

On a completely different note, I am kind of up in the air on how this blog should function.  I love writing whatever I want to but I feel like I don't actually write frequently enough...hmm who really knows...so I'm going to try to mix up writing about things that weigh on me and things that I enjoy.  I know not everyone enjoys what I do so if you're not interested in a post...skip it! ;)

So kind of a random post but ooo well! Enjoy what is to come :))

PS If you are on Pinterest and are interested in following me you can at http://pinterest.com/rachellouise18/ 

Appreciate

  I don't know how often you have ever felt unappreciated but I know that it used to be a very common feeling that I had.  It doesn't take much to let someone know how you appreciate them and yet it seems to be the hardest thing to do.  I work at McDonald's and I definitely feel that when you bust your butt making $200 order or clean every second you can or are simply especially nice or have an especially good attitude that it should be expressed that you're appreciated.  It's not hard, a simple good job would do.  However, I find that its not the workplace where people go unappreciated the most.  It's in daily life because I know that I assume that the people most close to me know how much they mean to me, but do they really?

  I started thinking about this because today is my grandmother's birthday.  I try to think of the last time I told her how much she means to me and besides "I love you"s and visits and I can't ever remember a time where I sat down and told her how grateful I am for her and how lucky I am to still have her, happy and healthy, in my life. 

  I also realized that some of my best friends probably don't know how much I appreciate them either.  My best friend since birth for example...we don't talk every day, we barely have seen each other in since she went away to school. None of that matters though because we can always pick right back up where we left off no matter how much time has passed.  When we do see each other, no matter if its for two weeks, two days, or two minutes, they are the best time spent until the next time we see each other.  She supports me in any endeavor and I know that if I ever needed her she do all she could to be with me.  She also never mentions how she never gets gifts from me because she knows I'm so broke pretty much all of the time.  She's literally one of the best things in my life and I don't know that I've ever told her.

I guess this is my personal challege and well as a challenge to those of you who read this.  Show some one that you appreciate them every day for the next week...or month...make it a habit because who doesn't love to know that you appreciate them for simply being who they are.

Thanks for reading and sorry that I've been pretty inactive lately.

Love Always!
Rachel

Pride

  Hey everyone!! I know it's been a little while since I've written but I usually wait for inspiration to hit me, and then I write down a basic idea for an entry and then I just start rambling haha.  However, my inspiration fairy seems to have taken a vacation or something so this is just a short and sweet post.

  As most know, pride is one of the seven deadly sins. I can understand how this leads to someone's downfall, but I don't really want to talk about that aspect of pride.  I'd rather talk about what it is to be proud of something or someone and how it may affect a person. 

  I was having a conversation about my little brother being the musical at his high school and this person said that I sounded like a proud mother.  I started to think about it.  I realized that I probably do sound like that when it comes to talking about many of the people that I care about, especially my family.  I am so insanely proud of my mom and siblings ( I am the oldest) for everything they venture into.  My mom is a stellar human being, who is generous beyond measure and entirely too nice sometimes.  I hope that I am half the woman that she is, and if I'm even a quarter of the mother that she is then my children will have great lives.  My sister has recently become the mother of two beautiful little girls and has adapted to motherhood with the grace of someone who was born to do this.  My brother has gone out for school plays and musicals since his freshman year and is the kindest and least judgemental person I know.

  I only hope that my pride and belief in them and others encourages self-esteem and self-love.

  Overall, I am so proud to be a part of these people's lives and to be able to call them family. So if pride is a sin, I'm very clearly guilty of committing it and I wouldn't change a thing.

I have a secret!

  Hello everyone! Before I dive into this post, I want to thank those who have read my blog and are already so incredibly supportive! I am one of the luckiest people in the world when it comes to knowing that I will have that support no matter what I venture into. So once again thank you so so so much, it means the world to me!

  Now on to the actual post that has been on my mind.  As I mentioned in my last post, I am a big fan of watching "beauty gurus" on YouTube.  Well, today one of them posted a tag video called my top 10 secrets.  In addition to this video, every Sunday I read a blog called "Sunday Secrets" from PostSecret.  "PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard" (http://www.postsecret.com/).  On most Sundays, postcards have been randomly chosen and posted to this website for everyone to read.  On other Sundays, there is a kind of theme, ie. Father's Day etc.  I am a huge fan of not only the website, but the entire idea, and that people everywhere are struggling with secrets of their own and can release some of their issues into the world without feeling like they are being judged.  While some secrets are heart-wrenching, others are kind of silly.  Regardless of what the secret is, they are all expressions of the people who sent them and it is thoroughly inspirational.

  I guess with these two things together today, I took it as a kind of sign.  Everyone around us has a past and things that I will never know about them that make them who they are.  Everyone also has different struggles that they deal with daily whether it is a conscious act or not.  I think that once you are comfortable with your secrets or have learned how to deal with them, life becomes a beautiful thing.  I recently dealt with one of my secrets and it has changed my life.

  For those of you who may not know me, I am pretty open about what goes on in my life.  I enjoy getting other people's perspectives on my personal struggles so if you ask me a question you may get more information than you ever dreamed of.  I have no regrets in life, because I very firmly believe that everything that I've experienced has gotten me to the person that I am today.  However, I wasn't always as steadfast in that belief.

  I very recently got divorced.  My secret was that I wasn't happy in my marriage, I wasn't me.  I changed everything about myself and moved across the country to be with someone who didn't really appreciate the real me.  Part of this is my fault because I allowed the changes to take place. I desperately wanted my marriage to succeed and I thought that changing me was the only way it would happen.  Instead, I ended up hating myself and lacking any shred of confidence.  It was no way to live. 

  I faced all of it though and it took me a long time to get to where I am now.  But I wouldn't change any of the pain and hurt that I went through because I truly am the happiest I have ever been. 

   I want to encourage you to share a secret, it doesn't have to be huge or life-shattering but it can be if you want to.  Reading "Sunday Secrets" helped me come to realize my own.  So if you feel like it, you can leave an anonymous comment below and maybe it will set you free.

  Thank you so much for reading once again, and love yourself!!

Love always,
      Rachel

Welcome!

  Hello everyone and welcome to my first post! How exciting! I want to let you know more about me and why I started this blog as well as what you may see coming soon.
  2011 was a difficult year for me.  So as 2012 came around I decided to make my first ever new year's resolution....I decided to be a better me in every way that I can be.  It's a wildly vague resolution but I felt that I could definitely accomplish it that way haha! Anyway, this resolution included taking better care of myself, cutting soda out of my diet (which is a huuuge accomplishment), being sure to wash my face, etc. My true goal being to feel more confident and have that confidence be seen by others. 
  Once this decision was made I started trying to figure out how to make all of this happen.  I cut out the soda first, which I feel the need to mention once again was a huge accomplishment for me.  I also started to wear makeup again, which due to college life, had been a practically nonexistant part of my daily routine.  I knew that I instantly felt a little bit better about myself when I took the time to do my makeup so I decided that was the best place for me to start.  I started watching YouTube videos to figure out looks to do on my sister for her wedding and, of course, ventured into other looks that I have come to love.  However, without getting into too much detail about that, I began to use these YouTube channels to learn more about makeup and hair and nails.  I gained so much insight and inspiration from these women that I began to translate that into my everyday life.  I stopped biting my nails, took better care of my skin, and took pride in how I looked. It may sound silly and vain to some people but it turned what was a pretty dark time for me into something beautiful.   Feeling better about myself really did shine through and others noticed.  It's lead me to believe that once you truly love yourself, you can allow others to love you fully.
  Overall, I just want to keep track of how things are going for me as well as offer any kind of advice, no matter how serious or silly it may be, to others.  I firmly believe that the best way to spend your life is spending it trying to better the lives that you may touch and this is simply the beginning of this yet another way of doing that.

  I hope you enjoy this blog and we can grow together!  Stay happy!!