Insta-leap

My life is getting kind of crazy right now. My last post was about a week ago and it was saying that my current project was ending and now I'm on another show. Is there a way to take a break from it all? I'm overworked. They say you shouldn't live to work but that's where I'm at now and I'm in the office for about 70 hours a week. I want to go and enjoy life but I need to take a break. I have a couple interesting opportunities coming up and I'm not sure if I want to take them or not. 

Oh life. 

Lets pause the current stressful rant and continue onto normal programming. 

It's Wednesday and leap day so that it means it time for the instagram drop. 

You can find me @thanksgrace

Last week, I took out my rook piercing and changed out one of my conch piercings for something a little blingier. I love this tattoo shop though. It's like a pirate boat. 

Salted Caramel Croissant. Enough Said.

In my free time I like to leave myself little messages.

Or make black hearts.

Flashback! Me as a baby. 

I'm still going to be reading, following, stalking, commenting on your blogs (because I'll miss you all too much) but my own posts will be less frequent and less verbose. 

Love you all! 

Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.

Insta-weddy-day

Wednesday is time for the instagram recap! Come follow me into the world of reconnecting with the world. I'm all of the sudden a bigger fan of technology today.

You can  stalk   find me @thanksgrace

It's been so beautiful in the past week. The clouds have been doing very dramatic things..

I was also doing a lot of dramatic things. I was wearing a whole lot of pink. I never wear pink but I paired this beautiful pearl necklace with my hot pink shirt and loved the combination together.

I'm going back to eating healthy from now on. At least for lunch.

Hence the trip to the farmers market. This is the photo and the tag that made me weekend great (check previous post for details).

delicious brownies from the wonderful Ms V. Let the stress eating and gaining commence. 

I'm in the final stretch (I think) of my current freelance job. Next week I could potentially be unemployed so why am I not freaking out? 

I think I'm looking forward to a couple days of rest..

Hope you're all having a fab Wednesday!

Banging Weekend.

Happy Monday! This morning I face-planted tripped while walking into the office and the response to that is, "so what else is new?" 

Hope you all had a beautiful weekend. This weekend was filled with food and a very fun run-in. I was at the farmer's market, snapped a picture, and tagged the location on instagram. A very old friend of mine saw that and just happened to be walking his dog in the neighborhood and immediately texted me.  Instagram does more than show off pictures folks! It brings people together. 

He pops up on my phone as "Coolest Person 4-ever!" (that's how old of a friend he is) and I have no idea who this is. After finding out and finally seeing each other we stroll over to get coffee and catch up. It was quite possible one of the best random run-ins I've ever had. I've known this guy since I was in junior high and it was such a blessing to hear how much he has matured and how much he still loves God and hungers for Him. I always feel lika mama bear when I talk about my friends but it was definitely a great weekend. 

What else made this weekend banging?

Well I got bangs..

Not sure if I like them yet. 

And I ate a lot of food and caught up with childhood friends.

Ham & Cheese Croissant with 3 kinds of mustard.

Turkey & Artichoke tartine

It was a very yummy in the tummy weekend. Hope you're all enjoying your Monday! I'm off to go through my google reader and semi-work.

Accessorize Me.

It's finally Friday! This week was tough for me and I don't really know why. There were many highs and lows and realizations this week.

• I'm an extreme introvert.

• My slight OCD behavior is getting weird (I noticed I press the lock button on my car about 4-7 times as I walk away). 

• I hold a lot of stock on dreams. My dreams have a profound effect on how I view and interact with people. 

• I have very small feet. 

• I don't enjoy the chase but I enjoy being chased. 

• I am very old fashioned. 

• I think one of my coworkers is the funniest person I have ever met. He's a conspiracy theory man, very honest (brutally so), but an absolute sweetheart. 

• I think I'm a lot busier than I actually am. 

They're not all bad realizations. Most of them are good ones to help me snap out of my weird funk. I tend to get stuck in my head a lot and overanalyze-overthink situations.

Ah well. It's friday, which means in about 12 hours I can shut off my brain a little bit and finally relax. 

This weekend is going to be spent watching movies, catching up on TV, farmers market shopping, and finally having my family birthday dinner because FINALLY the thought of food does not make me feel ill. 

And for your enjoyment, here are some NYFW pretty accessories to lust over this weekend.

Rodarte hair-paloza & quite possible DIY.... link 

Miu Miu beauties link

Here's to a fantastical & peaceful 

weekend!

insta-day.

Hope everyone had a splendid Valentines Day but that day is over and now it's Wednesday. And that means it's an insta-day! This iphone app is very distracting but I've been experiencing some glitches with it recently. It keeps freezing on me so I'll click like and my likes never go through. Or I'll want to click through a friend's profile only to realize that I un-followed them. I think I get too click happy and have little patience to wait out a phone freeze. Ah well, I have fun coming up with the titles of the instagram drops so the instagrams will keep coming. Instagram @thanksgrace

 I love my bolo tie and this leaf bracelet. I got the bracelet from a little street market in NYC and it makes me so very happy.

The day after I got sick, I dressed to the nines at work. I wore no make up because I was too tired but being sick is no excuse for dressing ugly!

 Beautiful, Beautiful Chloe shoes. My ankles are too small for this gorgeous shoe.

Bday gift which is proving to be very useful at work.

Useful in that it makes people laugh.

It's Wednesday! More people are leaving my work island this week but I'm happy with the remaining folk. No more passive aggressive behavior, less competition, and no more BO!

RANDOM: How does one deal with a passive aggressive person? I'm the type of person that likes to poke and provoke people but passive aggressive people scare me because I never know what I'm going to get.

office play.

Life is crazy y'all. But even when the office is crazy busy (and I now share the office with 3 other folk), I still love playing on photobooth. It's become sort of a game for me... I want to see how many pictures I can take before someone gives me a weird look. Usually no one notices, but it's still a lot of fun because I like to make silly faces. 

I like being silly in the office and I enjoy that nobody knows I'm doing this.

And just because I can, I want to share a peek at today's outfit. I'm going to go back to limiting my wearage of jeans so let the creative outfits unfold!

... hopefully.

suede sneaks, vintage paisley skirt, black tights, and a bright pink madewell sweater. 

I love the print of this skirt and and the contrast the colors made. The color scheme was a risk but I liked it!

Hope your weeks are starting off fabulously and thanks for all the Birthday wishes!

Twenty FOUR

 I kind of sort of mentioned my birthday on this blog and it was yesterday! I turned 24 on February 11 and boy was this past week was a week. I never get sick but on Wednesday night I admit defeat and I was sick. Without being too gross, my head was in a toilet for about half a day. I was in and out of my mind,  couldn't sit up, and could barely drink water. Getting sick was an interesting way to end my 23rd year of life and begin my 24th.. I had to quickly cancelled all of my plans for my birthday because the thought of food made me sick. This week was such a weird week. I was so sick I couldn't stand and the smell of food made me nauseated. My office mates brought me a cake and I couldn't even stand near it to blow out the candles!

The office cake. They're such sweeties.

And while I was sick in bed and couldn't eat food on my birthday, it was still a birthday success. Why you ask? Because my wardrobe is very happy.

I received all of my Jason Wu for Target purchases by my birthday.

The blue floral skirt is not pictured but I did get it. Can't wait to wear them all :)

When my family asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I shouted shopping! I may be too weak to eat, but I'm never too weak to shop!

Yes, my sister and I both went make up free because we were both recovering!

We then looked at pretty clothes & pretty shoes but I was good and didn't but everything I wanted.

 Giuseppe Zanotti booties beauties

Dries Van Noten pumps that I resisted. 

My birthday cream puff.

My birthday cake with lots of candles.

I spent the rest of the night listening to one of my friends perform with his band. That was the best present ever because I felt like a proud stage mom (even though he is older than I am...) Hope you're all having a great weekend so far!

bloop. insta-drop!

It's Wednesday and we all know what means.... Insta-FUN! This past week's instagram drop is a bit shorter than normal. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things. Please send me happy thoughts & prayers this week. Already, everything that could go wrong went wrong and everything that shouldn't go wrong...followed suit.

I enjoy this little blogging outlet of mine and, honestly (seriously), catching up on everyone else's blogs is the highlight of my day. I love being able to plop down in front of my computer and read/see what everyone else is going through and experiencing.

Well...

 On to dropping it like it's hot.

I think I mentioned my lovely Star Wars' ring before. This is my favorite purchase in NYC from a lovely little designer Verameat. I was in NYC for her launch. I was lost walking around SoHo and saw a sign for free cupcakes and that drew me in. Thank God for my sweet tooth and poor sense of direction because I am now the proud owner of a Millenium Falcon ring. This ring and I already have been through so much...

I know I mentioned these lovely boots in a previous post. This was one of my swaggerific black friday purchases online and they are now my new favorite boots. The zipper zips all the way down...

I have a strange obsession with trees and Brentwood is FULL of weird looking trees. There is an entire LANE of trees and all of the houses have the weirdest looking things ever. I love how this bark is all marled and tangly and so beautiful.

Hello Chains of Love! This is by far my most favorite purchase of this year. Every single time I wear this I get a million compliments. People stop me on the street and ask me what I'm wearing. It's so delicate and beautiful. Yes, I do love you!

Apple Cobbler cupcake. I think I'll take one everyday please.

The best part of instagram? I can be on it and look through pictures all day and people will think I'm doing research on my phone. You can find me @thanksgrace

dreamer.

While growing up, America's Next Top Model was a guilty pleasure of mine. I love the drama, sass, fashion, drama, and the overwhelming amount of knowledge that comes out of Tyra's mouth... There's this one instance when Tyra went off on one of the contestants. She screamed, "You don't know me! You don't know where I've been or what I've been through!" So whenever I have one of these exasperated moments, my insides turn into angry-Tyra-yelling-at-one-of-her-girls. It does bug me when people make great sweeping comments about who I am. I consider myself a very private and shy person. It's almost painful how private I actually am. There is probably 1.5 persons in this world who actually know me and can accurately predict who I am. Yes I do go on angry rants but no I don't actually hate people. Why yes, I do work hard but you have GOT to be kidding if you think I'll do your work for you and then cover for you! Yes, I love fashion and style but...okay, okay...you got me there on that one... LeSigh...assumptions... please don't treat them like facts. Don't make me Tyra you!

On a much happier note (and random tangent), I do want to dream! dream, dream, dream of a fantastical place. These pictures from Jeannine Tan, featuring Anna Denton, and styled by Kelsey Genna make me want to dream.

link

I dream of barefoot beach days while wearing fabulous dresses with flowers in my hair.

farm it.

The last week was full of agony for me! Not to sound dramatic... Welcome to 60 hour weeks and the loss of a social life! But still there is still so much to be thankful for! LIKE all of your encouraging comments and words. Thank you all so much for being so wonderfully uplifting! After the last post, I felt so down and hopeless. Randomly, I would get a comment-email which would lift my spirits immediately! So thank you all so much for you love! You are the best!

This weekend was full of rest and happiness. I didn't spend anytime with current co-workers this weekend because I really need to get away from it all. So instead, I'm going to share some of the things that made me happy this past week. On Saturday morning, I went to Farm Shop on the west side. The place is beyond cute and clean.

Yesterday I got to explore the westside with two lovely ladies. Farm Shop is so yum! 

Vanilla lovers' dream.

I wanted one of everything.

The menu.

My pastrami and eggs brunch.

There's nothing better than a good meal and even better company to wash away a bad week.

And there's nothing better than sweets to help prep the week!

My Sunday night black & white cookie. I miss you NYC! 

Are you ready for another week of work? 

This is my birthday week so hopefully I get some good news this week and the possibility of not working 60 hours...

Also thinking of gifting myself with some new inky-liciousness. Possibly on a finger or hand.. pain? thoughts?

Let's Do This!

insta-love

It's Wednesday and that means that this week is almost over. Life is getting harder. Out-dates are coming up, so that means people are trying to jump ship, others are trying to sabotage... everything is a game and I'm tired of playing. I'm sorry but I have more important things to worry about (like the color of the sky) than how to sabotage the person I'm working with. This is why I want good things to happen to good people.

This week, I cancelled all of my after work meetings (including night and weekend work-meetings) because I really need me-time. I find myself snapping at people at work or sticking in my head phones and tuning everyone out.

I'm angrier and more frustrated with everyone. My patience is wearing thin with the people I actually care about. My ears won't listen and my heart doesn't want to love. 

My empathetic side has shut down and I want it to wake up. I don't like being cold, short, and impatient.

hmm.. wake up! It's only Wednesday...

But it's now February and that means presents, cakes, flowers, and chocolates.

Lets get 

on to the 

drop!

I wanted to share the Disney love to my coworkers so I bought a box of taffy.

Delicious, yummy, cupcakes made with love from a sistah!

Carbs were a necessity.. Sorry diet but processed white flour was calling my name.

My friend was cleaning out her closet and found this gem! I said it was the perfect pouch to place your rings when washing your hands.

At Paris Baguette. The coffee cup is a boy! 

Minnie Mouse bow. I love that Mickey is on the backing..

This weekend was full of clear, beautiful skies!