What I Wore: Friday 3/29/14

Top: Edge, Jacket: Sans Souci, Pants: Victoria's Secret, Lipstick: Ruby Woo by MAC Cosmetics, Bow: Forever 21

“This is no time for ease and comfort. It’s time to dare and endure.”

 — Winston Churchill

I am home from school and ready for a week in LA! I have always wanted to go to California and my sister and I are finally going on Monday. I’ve had a countdown going for about 40 days and I can’t believe the trip’s finally here!

For someone with such a strong desire to travel, I haven’t left my little state much. (I went on a plane for the first time last year). I went from rarely traveling anywhere to booking trips across the country and- in 5 months- on the other side of the world. There is so much to see and I am making a vow to take in as much of it as I can. “You can always make money, but you can’t always make memories.”

Think about what you want so badly to do but haven’t yet done. What’s stopping you? It is up to you to make things happen for yourself the way that you want them to. Forget about why you are feeling hesitant about going after your dreams and just go after them.

Here’s to an amazing weekend!

-          Alissa  

What I Wore: Sunday 3/16/14

Shirt: H&M, Top: Garage (in red here), Pants: PacSun, Sneakers: Converse, Lipstick: Heroine by MAC Cosmetics, Lip Pencil: Nightmoth by MAC Cosmetics, Flannel: Thrifted 

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” — John Lennon

Make your happiness and well-being a top priority. When you value who you are, you will learn to better value others. Stop putting your needs on the back burner. Embrace life. Every day can be a good day as long as you choose to make it one. Find people who are passionate about life and what they love. Spend time with them. People who are passionate about life can do some truly amazing things. Life is a whole lot different when you choose to spend it with people who are excited about the future.

Go out and do something. Take risks and realize that no matter how big or small the effort you make, every single thing you do matters. Everything we have done and everything we have gone through has led us to the people we are and the places we’re at today. We wouldn’t be who and where we were had we not pushed on through all of those hardships and basked in all of the glory of the good times we’ve experienced. Quite often, we will find that the bad times teach us more and help us grow even more than the good times. Everything has a purpose- it is up to us to find it.

Be fearless and open-hearted. Have a vision. Make things happen. Learn to love yourself and most importantly- embrace life.

-          Alissa 

What I Wore: Sunday 3/9/14

Blazer: H&M, Shirt: Forever 21, Jeans: Abercrombie & Fitch, Shoes: Charlotte Russe, Lipstick: Heroine by MAC Cosmetics, Lip Pencil: Nightmoth by MAC Cosmetics 

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

 — Steve Jobs

After a week off for spring break, I had been unsure whether or not people had noticed that I had been on somewhat of a blogging hiatus. After my friends told me how much they missed my posts, I knew that I had to put something together. As much as I say it, I will always believe that there is no better feeling than having people support you and want to see you live out your dreams. Thank you all for coming back and appreciating my little space here. It means more to me than I could ever explain.

This week was full of lots of time for reflection and figuring out what it is that I want to do next. I want to continue with Vogue and Vibes but I know (even more) now that I want all of my posts to be completely authentic, and I never want to post something just for the sake of posting something. There are days where I'm at a loss for words of inspiration to offer. I'm thankful for these days (not only the good days, where I have so much to offer my viewers). The days where I find myself needing to feel inspired are the days where I learn most.

Nobody in this entire world knows it all and we do not always have the right answers. We're only human, and there are no rules that say that we all must be happy and have everything perfect all the time. We carry an unrealistic pressure on ourselves, believing that we should berate ourselves for falling short. It's only natural to feel unsure, unhappy and uninspired. That's life. Embrace every single state- the happiness, the sadness, the inspiration and the lack thereof. Be gentle with yourself. Don't deny any feelings of sadness. Realize that you can't always fix everything and sometimes, things are not in your hands. Life has a funny way of working itself out- just when we are starting to believe that there is no possible way that it could. Understand that there's a high for every low- but never get lost in these lows.

Here's to the end of a wonderful break.

- Alissa