Five on Friday

Goodness friends I haven't linked up for Five on Friday in such a long time! I'd say it's about time to join the lovely ladies again. Linking up with Christina, Darci, April, and Natasha for my favorites from this week!
{one} Simplifying my life is something I am focusing on this year! Cleaning out my closet was LONG overdo. My process for this was anything I haven't worn in the last month or two months gets donated. I have challenged myself to not buy any new pieces of clothing, my own version of the contentment challenge.

{two} This gorgeous calendar caught my eye in Anthro a few weeks ago. I LOVED the image of the derby on the front and once I saw all the beautiful images it contained I just had to have it. The 2014 Travel America Calendar from Rifle Paper Co. highlights iconic images around our beautiful nation and i jsut so happens that I have only been to the first five places listed... coincidence? Maybe but I cant wait to travel to the other 7!

{three} I am in the beginning stages of my PowerSheets journey and they are nestled in my beautiful Simplified Life Binder, that I talk about here. This process has been a very revealing, brutally honest process. I am working through Lara Casey's Goal Setting Series and.... it's tough. God keeps revealing to me "Fear not for I am with you," Isaiah 41:10. It is so hard to give over control but goodness, I have to just trust that His plans are A MILLION times better than any plans I could every dream up!

{four} A perfect reminder as I begin many new adventures! Print by Mandy Cave Watercolor.

{five} STILL reeling over this experience of a lifetime! If any of y'all follow along you know I love two animals very, very dearly... Newfoundland dogs and manatees. During my Christmas break I had the privilege of swimming with the gentle wild manatees in Crystal River! See all my pictures here :) Warning they are so cute your heart will melt!

Happy Weekend from my manatee friends and I!

Simplified Life Binder

I am such a planner girl. I like my little check boxes, my daily to-do lists, and goal lists. But sometimes the to-do and goal lists tend to blend together. I want my goals to be set apart from my daily tasks of getting cereal or paying a bill. Goals should be something I look forward to, something I build up to not just another check on my to-do lists. I've determined that setting good goals is a really tough, really revealing process. You really have to dig down deep and truly ask yourself how you are doing and what fires up your heart!

In order to make this happen, I asked for a few lovely paper products for Christmas. The first was the Simplified Life Binder Starter Kit by Emily Ley and the second was my very own set of PowerSheets by Lara Casey.

The Simplified Life Binder Starter Kit comes with a binder of your choice, a set of colorful dividers with empowering sayings on them, a tabs notebook, as well as three sheet sets: Spending, To Do, and Grocery List. They are so bright and cheerful! Emily Ley offers many other free printables that can be easily dressed up with pretty tape.

Inside my pretty striped binder is a set of 2014 PowerSheets. 

These are so inspiring! If you want a kick in the tail to get truthful about what fires you up I would highly recommend working through the PowerSheets. You have to make sure you are completely honest with yourself in order to accomplish whatever goals you have!

Dreamin' Big

I want to become more than just a dreamer. I want to have the courage to step out of the boat onto the waters like Peter did and trust that He won't let me fall. It's fear that keeps me from my dreams. It's fear that makes me want to take the safe route. The Lord calls us to give our fears to Him and to trust His plans for our lives. As scary as that is, it is also incredibly encouraging and exciting! 

Even though I just started this little blog back in August, I am beginning the process of turning the dreams I have for my little space in the cyber-world into reality. The quotes and prints above can be found on Pinterest and they are some of my favorite encouraging words. I adore crafting, styling, decorating, and stationery but as a college student I don't always have the budget or time to do everything I dream. I daily doodle layouts for a new website with a shop where I can share what I love with others. For now, new found love is where you will find me... but someday down the road I'll reach my dreams. Progress not perfection!

I am dreamin' big y'all! 

Gold Foil & Natural Wood

Remember these beauts of prints I posted about?

I have been looking for a worthy wall space for them and finally realized my monogram above my bookcase looked lonely.

The red from the monogram and the red in the Emily Ley "It is Well" print brings the collage together!

I loved the natural wood aspect of the frames which is surprising because I am partial to white frames.

I love how the frames tie together the natural wood above my headboard and the chest my Granddad made me at the end of my bed!

Five on Friday

Happy First Day of November :) Joining in for another Friday linkup with the lovely ladies!

{one} While I was in New York City. I only made one BIG material purchase! I saved up for this trip and spent my money mostly on food an a few attractions like a Broadway musical and the Statue of Liberty. My big purchase was a pair of gorgeous Tory Burch flats:) I try to wear them at any and every opportunity I get! I was able to talk myself into buying them by telling myself they are a great job interview and professional shoe.

{two} I have acquired two prints from two women who greatly inspire me... Emily Ley and Lara Casey... I know I talk about them often but that is only because of how much encouragement I have received from following these two God-fearing women! You can find the Emily Ley "It is well" print {here} and the Lara Casey/Southern Weddings "The South is Where Love Family & Tradition are the Sugar in our Tea" print {here}. 

I wasn't sure what kind of frame I wanted for these gorgeous gold foil prints until I spotted these natural wood frames in HomeGoods! I'll be sure to post about the lovely frames next week when I decide where to hang them in my room :)

 {three}I LOVE beautiful stationery! I buy all of my stationery at Marshalls, TJ Maxx or HomeGoods. They have such great choices and something always catches my eye. This week it was beautiful emerald and gold foil calligraphy thank you notes...swoon... They just had Southern Weddings and Lara Casey written all over them!

{four}I knoww I already posted beautiful shoes once already but I scored these super cute leopard loafers at Target! What can I say? I am a girl who loves her flats and boots, you can find them {here}

{five} Dogs in Halloween costumes... need I say more? This cutie is my sisters black pug Ava who happens to also be a Halloween baby! She turned two yesterday so of course we dressed her up as a bumblebee and she was thrilled haha :) Taylor decided she wanted to be a bee too!

Hope y'all had a Happy Halloween!

Five on Friday

Joining Christina {here}, April {here}, Natasha {here} and Darci {here} for the weekly Five on Friday link-up! 

{one} I'm going to be a Second Cousin y'all!! It sounds silly but the Jones side of my family is so close. We are lucky that all of the cousins are in roughly a 15 year age range {33 to 19}. Growing up our families would go to the North Carolina coast every summer for vacation as well as have annual holiday gatherings at Grandmom and Granddads. I love how close all us cousins are to each other and how we feel we can call or visit each other whenever! Last week the family received the most exciting news from the oldest cousin Matt, who is married to Christina of Carolina Charm, that they are having a baby!! AHHH I couldn't be more excited!! The news came in the sweetest form of Grandmom finding out...

{two}Does anyone remember Phantom?! When I was little we would take a Phantom with a cute little rhyme on it and a bag full of Halloween goodies and spread the spook around the neighborhood! Otherwise known as the only acceptable time to run around in all black at night and ding-dong-ditch friends...so much fun! This past weekend when I was home I was able to babysit the sweet Johnson kids. When I was brainstorming something fun for us to do, Phantom came to mind! I headed to the store and loaded up on fun things like glow sticks and of course... mustaches!

 Needless to say the mustaches were a hit!

   The kids and I had such a great time! It's always fun to run around and act like a kid :)

{three} Updating a blog is an all consuming task! I love decorating and am a little bit of a perfectionist so I find myself trying to make improvements whenever I can. This week I worked on the logo, getting rid of the pixel look and centering it! I also made a new pin it button and will be working on a blog signature in the next week. Lets just say I definitely enjoy working on the blog more than my building pile of school work.

{four} The State Fair is in town! This is the absolute symbol of fall in the Raleigh area. My roommates and I are lucky enough to live so close to the fair grounds that we can hear the 10 minutes of fireworks everyyyy nighttt from 9:45 to 9:55.... but other than that, I love the fair!

{five} This week was the Making Things Happen conference in Chapel Hill! This inspiring conference was created by the oh so talented Lara Casey and Emily Ley. While I in no way had the funds to be able to attend the conference, I was able to follow along on instagram and twitter with #mthconference. These women are incredibly inspiring... fear is something that drives our lives and unfortunately prevents a lot of people from pursuing what they love.

Fear is something that has followed me all of my life, especially during creating this blog. Fear told me I was not good enough, interesting enough or creative enough to be able to create a successful blog. I often feel inadequate in the blogging world as there are so so many blogs out there that are very similar. I want to stand out in this crazy blogging world and show whoever comes to my site who I truly am. Being transparent, that's what I am aiming for!

Y'all, I have such big dreams for this blog and my life in general! Making Things Happen is all about conquering your fears and pushing yourself to reach your goals today, not tomorrow. We all have something standing in our way of that illusive goal, why not move it out of the way today!

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Have a Fall filled weekend :)