BEDM Challenge: Day 19 Blogroll!

So I am posting today's blog every day challenge much later than usual, but better late than never, right? I'm not sure why I took so long to do Day 19's challenge because it is so EASY! Here it is:

"Five of your favorite blogs and what you love about them."

I can go on-and-on about blogs that I love so I knew EXACTLY which blogs that I wanted to share with all of you! Here are my favorite blogs in particular order and your welcome in advance for sharing these online gems!

1. Blogilates

So I am pretty much obsessed with Cassey's blog at the moment and she has been helping me tone up for summer! Cassey's infectious happiness and stories gets me through the most excruciating of her workouts. The amazing thing about Cassey's workouts is that you need next to NO room and NO equipment outside of a mat, you, and some workout shoes. Get ready for summer with her FREE diet plans, workout calenders and motivation! 

2. Skinnytaste

It's no secret that I'm a health nut and I wouldn't be able to keep my taste buds interested in eating healthy without Gina's amazing blog, Skinnytaste! Gina is AWESOME and gives the full nutrition lowdown on her tasty meals and she makes sure to keep food easy to make, but also really nutritious. Give her site a look and the bonus is that if you are doing weight watchers she even gives you the total +points for the meal!

3. The Style Dunce

Katie Wartell's fashion blog The Style Dunce is amazing because not ONLY is she one of my best friends, but she is also incredibly funny and her content is well written! Katie went to FIT, but left because it wasn't her scene (hence her blog's name!) and I'm so glad she did because then I wouldn't have met her. You'll love her fashion inspiration and humor on the newly minted The Style Dunce.

4. Going Home to Roost

Going Home to Roost is easily one of my favorite blogs because of its great mix of content and I never know if I'll get some pretty blog and photo inspiration, a DIY, or a nice recipe to try. Bonnie at Going Home To Roost has even gone so far as to make a great online community for the blog and I am so happy to be a part of it. You can get info to join the Roost Tribe, here.

5. Girl With Curves

One of the very first fashion blogs that I ever started ready with Girl With Curves and I have managed to stay on the bandwagon after all this time! I love Tanesha's blog and her endless fashion inspiration. You'll love her great, wearable fashion and her how-tos are too easy!!

Well those are just a few of my favorite blogs and I loved sharing them with everyone! What are some of your must read blogs and why do you love them?

BEDM Challenge: Day 18 I'm A Tortilla Making Machine

So today's challenge made me sad that I don't have any pictures from my childhood. I hadn't even realized that I have not a SINGLE photo from when I was a kid, say what?! My mom is sort of the keeper of any photos or memorabilia from my childhood. Yes, I said memorabilia! Day 18's prompt made me go way back and take time to remember my childhood.

"Tell a story from your childhood. Dig deep and try to be descriptive about what you remember and how you felt."

This is the last photo that I took of my Abuela about a month before she died when I was 19.

My earliest memories are centered around my grandmother's kitchen. As a child I spent a lot of time at my grandma's and like any traditional abuela the kitchen was the center of her house. I used to love sitting with my grandmother in the mornings and drink my "coffee", which was really just a bunch of milk with maybe a couple of sips of coffee mixed in. My grandmother's cooking was LEGENDARY and there are so many tastes that I can only try to recreate, but get NO WHERE near. Abuela's cooking was like medicine for the soul there was nothing that she couldn't cook away. I hope that one day when I'm a grandmother my grandchildren will say the same about me, but I'll do it WITHOUT the Crisco.

My mother has never been much of a cook and she never truly enjoyed being in the kitchen, but my grandmother was completely different. My grandmother loved people by feeding them and it's a trait that I have definitely learned from her. I remember being about 6 years-old and being completely fascinated by how my grandmother moved in the kitchen with lightening speed. Abuela was 4'9 and maybe a 100 lbs, a mother to 11 and the gentlest woman that I have ever known. Learning to make tortillas is one of the skills that passed on to me and whenever I get elbow deep in dough I think of her. I can hear my grandmother clucking at me when I am flipping the tortillas over an open flame and I can feel her approval that I am doing so barehanded because all good Mexican women should, right Abuelita? ;)

My grandmother was so particular about how things should be done and I find myself even arranging the balls of dough the in same L-shaped formation on the counter that she did before rolling out each tortilla. Because of my grandmother's passion in the kitchen I have learned to see it as an opportunity to show how much I care about someone. To me food can be a vehicle for the love you have for someone and I believe there isn't anything that a great meal can't fix. When I was in my grandmother's kitchen I felt safe and loved in a way that I haven't felt since she died. Abuelita died when I was 19 and I miss her terribly. 

I love you, abuela. Thanks for making sure that I have the old school skills to be a tortilla making machine!

Shop Update//Exciting News!

How is everyone? 

I hope that your Friday is shaping up to be as great as mine is, and in celebration of kicking off a great weekend I am sharing some vintage pretties that I just put in the shop!

Vintage Maroon Secretary Blouse, here.

Vintage Key-Hole Dress, here.

Vintage Blue Floral Dress, here.

In addition to these great listings I am going to share some really exciting news about a new option that I am offering in my Etsy shop, Seoul Sold. I just rolled out my personal shopping experience for great vintage clothing in Seoul! How great is that? I am so excited to start personal shopping for any and everyone! :)

The normal sights on a shopping trip into the city's vintage markets.

With just a click of your mouse you and I will become best buds and talk about your dislikes and likes and what kind of vintage garment your little heart desires. I will then head out into the city and do all of the leg work for you and find the perfect vintage item to add to your closet! Check out the details, here, and let me know what you think!

Have a great weekend everyone.

BEDM Challenge : Day 17 Getting Made Up

Day 17 is here and I am over halfway done with the blog everyday challenge! I didn't even realize  that I had gotten past the halfway point and that now that I have it feels really good! I was unsure of how successful I would be when I joined this challenge and I feel great for having stuck to it 100%! Here is Day 17's prompt:

"A favorite photo of yourself and why"

I chose a photo from my wedding day and I absolutely love the moment that it captured. When I look at this photo I remember how I felt just hours before my wedding. I was so excited and eager to get get things underway for the wedding day and looking at this photo reminds me of that. Also, it was when the hair and make-up started that I realized that my marriage was ACTUALLY HAPPENING and that was so much fun!

Well that was one of my favorite photos of myself and why! Do you have a photo that you love and does looking at it make you remember the moment that it was taken?

BEDM Challenge: Day 16 The Love of a Good Man

When I read today's writing prompt I instantly knew what I wanted to write about. So without further ado, here is Day 16 of the blogging challenge:

"Something difficult about your "lot in life" and how you're working to overcome it."

I don't like to complain (although I loooooove to whine ;)) and I try to keep my head up about things that I can't control even if I worry myself to death about a situation. Since becoming an Army spouse I have realized that keeping a positive outlook on life is KEY! There are so many things that I cannot control in my day-to-day life such as where I live, what doctors I can see, how many non-military friends I can HAVE AT MY HOUSE because I live on an installation....ugh, and the list goes on. I mean, my husband has a curfew and cannot enter certain trendier spots in town which also limits what I am able to do and on top of it all I don't even know what is in my future. 

My husband could be sent anywhere and everywhere, and as a spouse so can I. Normally, I am all for adventure and am the first one to get my travel shoes on, but there are times when it hurts. It hurts me that I can't be home for the holidays, that my family grows up without me, my friends go through life, and I am thousands of miles away. I can get through the general feelings of sadness just fine though, because I have learned to adapt and keep my head on my shoulders. But then there are times that it doesn't just hurt; it kills me. 

Like now. 

In just a couple of months I will be leaving South Korea. I will be leaving my husband and heading back stateside to start graduate school. I hate even typing it and I DO NOT like thinking about it. It has been a fact that since my husband and I met, I would one day be going on to graduate school, and it has also been a fact that we would most likely have to be apart during some of this time. It was so much easier when it was a "someday", and even once I had applied there was always the chance that I wouldn't get accepted anywhere. When I did get in, and when I was offered a sweet deal to a great university...the reality that I would be leaving for school in the fall began to set in. Because of where Army bases are located in the U.S. and because of the nature of my husband's job, there was only ever the smallest and tiniest of chances that he and I would be able to stay together while I pursued my graduate education.

And now...I'm the one that's going away not him. VOLUNTARILY.

 

Accepting the offer to attend graduate school has made me feel selfish and headstrong. In general it has caused me so much grief since the euphoria of my acceptance letter wore off that I've just sort of felt numb about it since then and I have refused to talk about it with my husband. I feel like a kid that is pulling the covers over her head to block out the monsters in the night, and every day that passes by feels like a treasure slipping out my hands. 

So now that I have laid it all out there how exactly am I dealing it? 

Well I have been embracing EVERY SINGLE DAY in Korea and have been doing my best to make intentional and memorable experiences with my husband. I try to show him how much I love him and appreciate him because he is sacrificing so much for me to go after my dreams. Rich loves me like the stuff in fairy tales and he honestly can't stand to be away from me. When we first met and he deployed to Iraq, I remember him telling me how much it hurt him and he described it like a physical ache to miss me. I remember how his face lit up over Skype when I would first come into view. I remember the long tearful calls to each other when he was sent away during the first months of our marriage, and I remember how big and cold our bed seemed without him. 

Wait...I thought I was supposed to be detailing how I'm coping, haha. Ok, back on track! So I have just been making sure to take stock of the love I have and haven't been taking a thing for granted. My husband believes in me and because of that: I know I will NOT fail. I have been reflecting on what I am giving up to achieve the goal of a doctorate, and it has made me realize how hard I will need to work to make leaving my husband WORTH IT. My fire for school has never burned brighter and the reason has changed from my undergraduate years. I used to go to school because I loved it. Now I will go to school, I will excel, I will teach, I will thrive, and it will be because I LOVE Rich. My motivations have changed and I know that this shift in mindset will be what pushes me and ensures that I do not tire, complain, or give up on this dream that my husband and I have nourished. 

That is how I cope through the love of a good man.

Has there ever been a time in your life that you have just thrown your hands up in the air and uttered, ORLY? I know I have, but what about you? How have you coped with your situation and how did you feel when you came out the other side?

P.S. I also cope through listening to Taylor Swift because old habits die hard.