Consistency

Consistency.  I'm not talking about the how creamy the gravy is, I'm talking about doing things over and over and over again. I think it is one of the most fundamental principles of life. You must eat consistently. You can't over eat one day and not have to eat the rest of the week, it just doesn't work that way. You can't sleep for 24 hours then stay awake for the next three days with the same energy as sleeping 8 hours per night.

It's the secret that makes simple things illusive. People who want to lose weight have heard that you will lose weight if you exercise. That's only partially true. You will lose weight only if you exercise consistently.  People who want to get out of debt know that they must make sacrifices of their wants and save to pay off debt. True, but it only works if you do that consistently. It's easy to try something one time. But it won't do anything for you until you've done it over and over during a period of time. Which is tricky, because that requires faith.

It takes faith to motivate yourself to do something difficult consistently when you're not seeing results. Humans like fairness when it's in our favor. It seems fair that if I do something one time, I should see a result one time. Not if I do something 100 times, I see a result. It's not always easy to eat healthy. But imagine that you had no evidence that eating healthy actually made you healthy... wouldn't it be harder? That's how it is for people (aka, all of us in some regard) who are inconsistent. We try something and we don't see it working. So we think it doesn't work and we give up.

It takes consistency to change. Effort exerted over a long period of time. We don't see the results for a while. But the cool thing is that with true change, the results keep coming and coming, consistently. :) If you start to try to be kinder to people, you may not notice any change immediately. It may be hard for you if you're used to being mean and sarcastic. Only over time will people begin to trust you more and open up to you. The fruits of your consistent kindness come later down the road in the form of strengthened friendships. One-time effort is not enough for a reward. True change is what gets results, and that is only accomplished through consistent effort. You won't have any huge change. Because change isn't huge. It's very small. It can only happen at the rate at which you grow. Living life and especially, having experiences determines that rate.

It takes consistency to see an increase in spirituality. You may feel the spirit if you're reading the scriptures one time. But only when you study consistently will you be more and more likely every day to have just the right scripture pop into your head when you need it. If you pray once, that is great, a bigger act of faith than not praying at all. But when you pray consistently, only then will you really see progress in your prayers. I think part of the reason for the delayed results for changing in life is for us to prove our intent. You wouldn't trust your usually selfish acquaintance if they were suddenly nice to you, because you'd suspect they have an ulterior motive, i.e., want the one-for-one ratio of blessing to effort.  It takes maturity to be consistent, or rather I should say it builds maturity.

Our Heavenly Father also wants us to prove our intent. If we pray only once a month when we need a blessing, it's better than not praying at all (just like being nice once a month is better than not at all); but if we really want to have true results, we need to do it consistently. Because when something is hard, requiring us to sacrifice, it really brings out true intent. There are classes intended to "weed out" people in certain areas of study. Professors purposely make things difficult, requiring students to sacrifice. Only those with very strong and true intent will be sustained through all those consistent sacrifices and efforts. These are the students who deserve to get the ultimate reward of the career of their choice. Professors want all their students to succeed. But by pressuring them and requiring them to sacrifice the professors and students learn a lot about the students' true intent.

It's the same with our Heavenly Father. He purposely made this life difficult. He knows it requires work and discipline and sacrifice to serve, donate, pray, study and learn. But He wants to give us a chance to show our true intent through consistently doing those things anyway. All it requires is faith to actually do those things.

Winter Wonderland

Hip hip, hooray for the festive season approaching!!! I love Christmastime for so many reasons. :) It really does bring a special spirit as we turn our thoughts toward the birth and life of Christ. 

I also really love Christmas parties!!!! "A party, is a party, but a Christmas party...!" (What show, what show?) 

I love getting together with family and friends, and for some reason, dress during holiday parties is like 10x fancier than dress for other season's parties. I love this outfit, and I'm stoked to wear it all winter long:) I may trade out the heels for my little flat wedges though, so people stop asking me how the weather is up here ;) 

Also, this is my rommates' room, so don't judge the messiness ;)

I'm a Map I'm a Map

Next redecoration for our apartment: a $10 antique map poster!

I was a little hesitant to buy this, because it really solidified the Afro-centric safari style. Which happens to consistently be one of my favorite interior design styles :P But I wasn't sure we wanted to be niched that much. 

I decided it would work, and we could either do light, colorful pillows and it should still work, OR we could do grey geometric pillows like this one: 

I don't really want to go fur/leather. I like having a style that's not so specific so it's easy to transfer pieces without having to lose all the pieces. Also, I live with five other girls, and I don't want to force my style onto them ;)

Roommate Photos

Sweater and Stripes

So, I think I'm late to the party, but I just discovered that stripes under a sweater is the bomb. I discovered that by being late getting ready for work and putting on a navy striped tshirt, then remembering that it wasn't summer and throwing a green sweater on top.
And it was cute.
The end.

PS, this is not my room, don't pass judgement ;)

Fall Wreath and Tree of Thanks

Yaaay! Finally getting ready for fall! Just in time as it started snowing. Good thing we snuck in one last camping trip last weekend!!! I love camping but NOT in the snow. 

I had been wanting to do some kind of fall wreath, and the Dollar Tree answered my call!  

I made this (imo) ADORABLE fall wreath for only $3. I bought the branch wreath, sparkly berries and off-white ribbon at the dollar tree. I cut up the berries (they were originally in a branch) and glue gunned about half of them to this wreath. Then I just tied a bow and snap! A cute fall wreath :)

I love the berries and bow!!! The colors were just perfect.

My adorable roommate Molly suggested we should make a gratitude tree for Thanksgiving. She and Mikayla cut out leaves and a trunk and it turned out so cute! We've been writing things on the leaves that we're thankful for. Our stake president and elder's quorum president stopped by to visit last night (while we were sweating in workout clothes preparing for our just dance talent show piece, nbd...) and they also wrote a few things.:) It was so great to have them visit. 

Tree of thanks! Happy thanksgiving! 

Here's the template they used to make the leaves. They didn't print it out, but it was a very helpful visual guide:)

Apartment Living Area- Why Are Throw Pillows So 'Spensive???? :(

We're thinking of sprucing up our apartment a bit. We live in a shabby little college apartment, but I think it's still important to make the area you live in beautiful and habitable as possible, no matter what your budget and what you have to work with. :) 

While we won't be shaping things up as perfectly as these beautiful living areas, here's some inspiration we're leaning towards:

As Brian Regan points out though, throw pillows (and every other bit of home decor) can be pretty spendy. ("I didn't know they were doin' that well...") We'll just move one little piece at a time and see where we get:) 

This week I started with a new pot for my plant King Julian II. He looks pretty good in his blue ombre pot.

PS, if you want links they're all on my Pinterest "Home" board:) 

I'm a Polar Bear!

Happy Halloween!!!

I love dressing up for Halloween!!!! I already dressed up as a maid and wonder woman, but I just wanted something cute and simple to wear to the office to be a little festive for Halloween, so I ended up being a polar bear:)  I just wore my polar bear sweater and drew a little black nose with eyeliner and set it with eye shadow. When I walked into the office, one of my coworkers was like, "You have something on your nose..." (I felt like Mean Girls, "I'm a polar bear- DUH!")

Maid and Butler / Professor Plum and Mrs. White...?

Maid and butler/ Mrs. White and Professor Plum

Halloween is upon us again!!! Since I wanted to spend zero dollars on a Halloween costume this year... Okay, I spent about five...

I decided to be a non-scandalous French maid. Or, you know, just an American maid ;)

I already had the black dress, tights, shoes, jewelry and handkerchief (in my hair). The adorable frilly apron was something I picked up when I was living in El Salvador. All the vendadoras wear them, so there are huge pockets to sell from and a zippered pocket to keep money in. Super handy:)

I spent $1 on some perfect stretchy lace trim from Joann's and sewed them into little cuffs for my wrists. I actually ended up making the feather duster. I bought one from the Dollar Tree, thinking I could spruce it up...but there was metal on the inside... anyway, it didn't work. I stole the plastic pieces for the top and bottom and glued them onto a $1 wooden dowel I got at Joann's and hot glued in a $2 pack of feathers. (And I ended up with a new Dollar Tree duster as well ;D) I painted the dowel white with some white paint we had lying around. 

These pics are from our ward date night. My date wanted to match, so I told him I was being a maid and he could be a butler if he wanted :) BUT this is what he ended up wearing (he was also carrying a white hand towel and giant cleaver) and after a couple of highly impressed people asked if we were Mrs. White and Professor Plum...we decided to go with that:)

Oh, and btdubs, we totally won the costume contest. Not like it's a big deal or anything. But whatever. ;) (JK, I'm super duper proud of it. Go for the "W." I wish they'd given us a trophy.)

Oh, gol, so cute.

And here we are on Halloween! Some of us went to a corn maze down by Utah Lake. It was really fun. Elena was our guide and I think we only made like, one wrong turn the entire maze. 

After that, half of them went to a dance party, then to watch a scary movie. I was pretty much danced out, and I HATE scary movies, so a few of us just chilled at home and ate treats and played truth or truth. :) Great Halloween!

I changed up my costume a little with a long sleeved shirt under my dress ( mostly so I wouldn't get cold...) and a white bow headband in my hair instead of the bun and handkerchief. I think I liked the bow better:)

Downtown with the Sissies