Healthy & Stylin

I was doing my morning ritual of reading The College Prepster when I saw she mentioned Fitbit and Tory Burch were partnering up.

How exciting!

My friend has a Fitbit and I was looking into it since I'm trying to be more healthy, but didn't really love how they would clash with the rest of my staple accessories. But this partnership is perfect! I can't wait to see the finished products. 

Baby, it's cold outside.

No seriously. It's freaking freezing. When I first heard the term 'Polar Vortex', I thought it was some new hipster bar on H Street. But no, this Polar Vortex is just terrible. And cold. Terribly cold.

It was so cold that I wore UGGs to work today and didn't even care. 

But for today's post, instead of writing about why I hate this weather and how I think it's unfair that there's no snow, I wanted to show things that make me feel warm and cozy.

Being in a cocoon of blankets with a warm cup of tea or hot cocoa and reading a book sounds perfect right now. I might go do that right after I try to tidy up my apartment.

Chunky sweaters are everything. After work, I almost always immediately change into one of my favorite chunky sweaters. I assume the amount of comfort they give is about as much as the blue blanket gives Linus. (Peanuts, anyone?)

There are very few things in life that make me happier than a cup of hot chocolate. Look at it and revel in its glory. All that's missing is a little whipped cream. 

A portable fireplace!! How cute is that? I love how easily it could fit inside of an apartment. 

And you can't have a fire without s'mores! This looks delicious.

Now I want all of these things. All at the same time. Ugh.

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014.

A lot can happen in one year. 2013 was no exception.

If I could, I would write about every significant event that occurred in 2013 but seeing as I'm overly sentimental, it would end up being longer than the Bible. 

What happened to me in 2013:

I managed to survive senior year and graduate from college on time! Being indecisive early on during undergrad, I took a lot of classes tried to transfer to different schools within my university and ended up being on a very tight schedule when I finally settled on a major. Summer classes, lots of trips to my academic advisor, and one semester of 18 credits got me there. I'm still in awe that I graduated.

The first anniversary of my 21st birthday rolled around and I celebrated with my closest friends on a booze cruise. Perfect weather, pastels and Lilly galore, what more could a biddie ask for? And yes, I did play 22 by Taylor Swift an obnoxious amount of times throughout the day.

I moved into my first apartment after graduation, experienced an incredibly terrible situation with my landlord and had to find a new apartment and move out within the first two months of living there. I luckily found a great apartment, and actually learned how to assemble IKEA furniture myself. I find this to be a big accomplishment.

I learned how different and hard life becomes post grad. Everyone always talks about the 'real world' and I thought I was prepared. I've come to realize that there is probably no way to prepare yourself for the transition. There are many things that I've learned but here are my some of my top takeaways:
-Becoming financially independent is hard. Budgets are hard (especially if you love to shop).
-Friendships are hard. Not living in the same building or within walking distance as all of your friends is an eye opener: Who are your friends based on convenience VS Who you actually value and care about.
-Gchat is your best friend at work.

 And lastly, for four years, I held myself back when it came to boys because I was waiting for this one guy. After some unfortunate events, I finally decided to stop waiting and stop holding back. It's been nice allowing myself to meet new guys.

What I hope for 2014:
*Side note: I waited a week to continue this to gather my thoughts about this.*

So I guess this is the 'resolution's section of my blogpost. There are so many things I would like to accomplish this year, but here are my main goals and I plan on doing a check in at the end of each month to see my progress.

1. Eat healthier and join a gym. I've already been doing this for the last couple of months, but I want to continue and be as healthy as I can be. I also want to start taking classes at gym like Kickboxing and Spin.

2. Be better at budgeting and managing money.. Being a biddie on a budget has been super tough, and I need to learn to say 'no' more often so I can save my money and manage it better.

3. Learn to clean. This is going to sound terrible, but I really just don't know how to clean. Growing up, even during high school, my family had a maid and she would always clean after me. I hope I become better at this and learn how to be more organized!

4. Stop having social media anxiety. I need to stop caring about all the likes and whether a post or a picture will get x likes. I know, this sounds ridiculous...but it's a thing.

5. Leave the country. I have never traveled outside of the country. I do have a passport, because I thought I would be visiting Poland at some point but that's a whole other story. But I really want to ACTUALLY get out of the country and experience another culture even if it is for only a week or so. This must be done in 2014.

6. Find a new job.

7. Update this blog! I've been bad at updating this regularly. I want to get into blogging more though, so I'm going to make more of an effort with maintaining this. I think it's a good outlet for me and it'll be great to look back on.

I cannot wait to see what 2014 has in store for me!