Say my name and every color illuminates.

This weekend was spent beachside with a childhood friend. We've been best friends for 20+ years. She has two children (4 and 6) who I consider my niece and nephew. It had been a while since I had seen them. Almost if not a year which is crazy. I don't think I've ever gone that long without seeing them.

Spending the weekend with them was definitely fun. I loved being able to hang out and play with the littles. Being back in a small-town only minutes from my own hometown made me realize how happy I am I moved away. I'm only an hour and a half away, but people here versus there seem worlds apart. A very small-town mentality.

It also made me realize just how different my best friend and I are. It's crazy to think that growing up we were two peas in a pod. Attached at the hip. Two bodies, one soul type of deal. Yet, twenty some add years later and we have both gone down two totally different paths in life. It was interesting to witness for sure.

I hardly ever go out into the sun these days. I'm not near the ocean, and the pool isn't really my thing. I was silly for thinking I could be out in the sun for hours and turn a nice golden brown (I mean, c'mon, I'm half mexican!). I was smart enough to put sunblock on my face, but every where else I am lobster red. It hurts, and I'm not looking forward to all the itching and peeling. I'm slathering myself in coconut oil in hopes that doesn't happen.

A new month is here! In two weeks I'll be another year older. I've never been age-phobic (my Mom always told me to never be ashamed of your age). But I must say, it's a little crazy to know I'm tippin' towards 30. I feel like in your 20's you're still a kid in an adult's body and you're figuring shit out. 30's are like, ok, you had 10 years to figure out this adult stuff, now here's the real deal! Wahhh. I mean, I'll only be 27. But wow!

Skippin' through fields.

Life captured through an iPhone.

Empty downtown. Island Girls & drag shows. 

Getting my peace on. Cooking. Sugar Skull glasses gift from roomie. 

Things that made my heart smile.

You love, love, love when you know I can't love.

Say hello to our new friend. I'm sure she has a name, but she's yet to tell us what it is.

Yesterday afternoon Jackie and I were on our way to Ana's so I could pop in and drop off a journal I had gotten her. I hadn't even turned off my street yet when I noticed this super cute, small beastly sniffing around in the grass. I stopped the car when I noticed she didn't have an owner anywhere around her. Jackie jumped out of the car and the sweet shaggy pup was so sweet. We scooped her up and turned around to see if we could find her family.

Immediately saddened by how smelly she was. Her (what appears to be toy poodle) curls completely overgrown and matted in some places. She had a flea collar and a super faded pink collar without a name or contact info. Whoever this pooch belong to, wasn't taking very good care of her. :( She is the sweetest. So cuddly and so content with just being held and loving whoever is holding onto her. I think it's safe to say our hearts were completely melted. Due to my room mates allergies, we took her to Ana's.

Ana and I had just had a conversation about how she wanted to look at dogs. She wasn't willing to commit, but heard a dog could help her heal and she was willing to try anything. And then this sweet precious cuddly shag-ster shows up out of nowhere with no one claiming her (we've put up signs).

I think sometimes the Universe has no choice but to literally drop what you need in your life right in front of you.

But my heart said, all of you will see.

It's friday and... I got nothin'! 

I started to re-read The Happiness Project. Love! 

I also cleaned out my closet and was able to donate three totes full of clothes.

I also saged. So, I think it's safe to say I'm feelin' great and on a total positivity- high. 

Good weekend to all! :)

Happy Hearts,

Alex

Goodnight, love.

I had no intention of blogging about a silly little television show. However, THE WALKING DEAD, Y'ALL! I can't. I just can't. I spent all of last night going into the ugly cry, convulsing on my side of the couch as if these people are real and my family. Silly I know, but I'm sure other Walking Dead fans can totally relate. I'm still reeling over it. Mind = blown.

So, this weekend was pretty laid back. Nothing too exciting. We got an extra hour to dance, dance, dance the night away. That about sums up my weekend. I enjoyed it though.

Now it's back to the grind this week and I'm lacking a bit of motivation. Tonight I have an event to attend and tomorrow I will be doing hair and makeup for children with cancer. This is always a struggle, as one could imagine. Visiting the hospital is always bittersweet. I love giving these children one day to make them feel like rockstars, but it breaks my heart and takes everything in me not to cry while working.

Later on in the week I have a few more events coming up and then gearing up for next week's as well. Busy, busy!

Wishing a happy week to all! :)

Happy Hearts,

Alex

Sunday Funday!

"I don't know how I feel about this!" I do love me some purple (I mean, it is in my hair), but I wasn't sure about purple lips. Hence my deer in headlights look. I saw a girl on my Facebook rock it and I fell in love. But I wasn't sure if I could. None of the boys (minus one) liked it. The girls wanted it though and asked where to get it. I don't know!

I was kind of unsure if I wanted to venture out last night. Our Halloween celebration was last weekend, and I wasn't in the mood to dress up. It was the perfect opportunity to slap on the purp lips and head out the door.

We drank, danced and had lots of laughs. Apparently it's a "thing" now to not wear pants. Basically boy-short undies are all you need. I saw girls' asses left and right. We saw slutty fire women, slutty devils, slutty bumble bees, oh and slutty sluts. Don't get me started on how silly I think being a "sexy" anything is. Be original and creative, girls.

The original room mate who moved to NYC in August is in town and comes in today! I can't wait. I've already promised her that we'll watch Walking Dead together. I can't wait! I also can't wait to see her face and hang out with her like old times.

Now? Oh, now it's time for Hocus Pocus on this lazy Sunday.

Happy Hearts,
Alex

Saturday confessional.

The weekend has arrived. Hello, Saturday. You are beautiful. :)

All the news channels here are focused on Hurricane Sandy. Or Frankenstorm as some are referring to it. That's about all I can tell you honestly, as I haven't been paying much attention. I do enjoy the weather from it though. Lots of wind.

I'm really trying to keep up with this little blog so I'm attempting to post often. I'm all out of things to write about (though I'm sure I could find something - I can be a chatty Kathy)! Here's some of my confessions...

• I curse. Quite a bit. I went through a phase where I never cursed, ever. I'm not one of those annoying people who uses "fuck" every other word (I do have a pretty large vocabulary), but you definitely will hear a more colorful version than "Holy moly, Jacks, that was scary!" around here. 
• Speaking of cursing - I will not, cannot curse infront of my Mom. I just can't bring myself to do it. I respect her too much and can't let her know I am capable of such vulgar things. ;)
• Halloween is my favorite holiday, but I refuse to go to Halloween Horror nights or the like. Can't, won't, refuse. The more someone tries to make me, the more adamant I am about not going. Scary and/or gorey things don't bother me. It's the anxiety I get. Not knowing when someone will pop out at me. No thanks! 
• Up until recently, I was a beer girl. No fancy pants drinks here. I did start drinking vodka tonics more recently though. 
• I do not wear perfume. Gaaaaross. I work for a hair company that is up to 97% natural (and certified organic!). I thoroughly enjoy flowers, dirt and sticks. I do not want to smell synthetic. 99% of women's perfumes smell awful to me. I usually wear a mixture of Vanilla singular note oil with Aveda's Mens Composition.
• With that said, I also wear men's deodorant
•  I am OBSESSED with nail polish. This is probably because I'm in beauty industry for a living. I can't get enough. You can probably show me any swatch of OPI and I can tell you what color it is and usually what season it came out. I also enjoy Orly and some Essie and ... Well, we'll stop there.
• I love having plants and greenery in the apartment and all through out my room. 
• I love Oprah. She can do no wrong in my eyes. I DVR pretty much everything that comes on OWN. 
• You can always find me dancing and/or being a goofball. It cures everything. So does laughter. Example: 

Typical me. My room mate and I spent a week speaking to each other without upper lips (it's hard!). I randomly sent her this text one day. Don't ask why. It appears I also have a mild snaggle tooth which makes me laugh even more. A rarity as well - short and naked nails.

Happy hearts,
Alex

Halloween, hangovers and hot messes.

Oh, God. I'm aliiiive. So this weekend was a bit crazy. It definitely took some interesting turns. Our infamous Halloween Party was on Saturday. We got excited for it, invited people and then never really revisited until probably a week prior. All of us seemed to have conflicting schedules, there was never a time when all three of us were going to come together. We decided to do things separately and come together in the evenings before bed. I don't think that ever really happened. Friday we finally got all of our crap together and I got super stoked. Saturday? A few people I was excited to see pulled out and I was bummed feeling like the uncool girl (yeah, yeah). But after a few drinks and realizing a ton of people were in my house having fun and dressed up, I felt a lot better. I opted to go as a sugar skull for the second year in a row (honestly - I had no time to craft a costume).

This is an awful picture. I didn't take ANY pictures before I started drinking. Fail. By the time it dawned on me, I was feelin' the vodka, sweaty, and my makeup was less than stellar. However, this picture does make it appear my nose is lopsided. That I can promise, it was not. Though as the night went on, it probably did get a little smeared. Haha. 

Some of the food. Also, hunch punch. Apparently we wanted people to see double. Oh, and you can kind of see our bloody drapes in the back. My favorite decoration we have in the apartment. :)

Jackie's face!! When you've gone to school for special effects makeup, I suppose you're going to have a pretty kick-ass halloween costume. 

We decided to leave the decorations up until Halloween.  Also, it definitely makes it more eery to watch The Walking Dead with only dim purple lights. On Sunday I was feelin' like a hot mess and our apartment was lookin' a hot mess. It took a while to clean and the amount of liquor we acquired made my tummy hurt all over again.

Currently loving my new ring. :)

So there's my weekend in crappy iphone photos. oh, and I had a surprising visitor show up to the party.  We had something crazy for about a year and had a brief moment. Towards then end I think I decided it just wasn't the right time or place (in all actuality minus that one person - I'm pretty terrified of commitment. Hello, daddy issues!). Well, he showed up and it was a total shock and surprise. I won't get into details (I'm not that open), but it was definitely nice.

I think I'll wrap it up here.  Oh, happy day. 

That feeling that doesn't go away just did, and I walked a thousand miles to prove it

Another super great weekend over here. I'm love, love, loving life. Friday night my room mates and I decided to go to the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. Felicia was out while Ashley and I decided we'd finish off a bottle... or two of wine at home. Now, I adore dancing. I hardly ever stand still - you'll always find me bopping around to a song in my head or the one playing aloud like a goofball. When I'm drinking it's magnified. So naturally, I put on my ipod and we went to town in the kitchen with a dance party. Felicia came home and so kindly offered to drive us to Food and Wine. We thought we were going to see Javier Colon (The Voice winner). While on the tram we were told Smash Mouth was there. Oops? We got the dates mixed up. We decided to just tour the world and continue drinking and eating instead of waiting in line to see Smash Mouth though I did ask the girls if we could wander their way in hopes of hearing "Walking on the Sun" (my middle school jam!) and "All Star". How great was it that as soon as we walked up they played "I'm a Believer" followed by "Walking on the Sun" and ended with "All Star". So. Much. Fun. Totally unexpected which was the best part.

Saturday was filled with the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival and Avalon Park Festival. Then of course a Walking Dead marathon to catch up a friend and refresh me. I seriously think I get too excited over this show.  I love, love lovveeee it.

Sunday was duh, Walking Dead. A friend and I decided to go back to the Winter Park Festival and stroll down Park Ave. I also think I convinced her to love Ellie Goulding as much as I do. No one will ever be more amazing than Robyn, but Ellie is close. ;)

Anyway, that was my weekend. Now let's hope this week goes by smoothly and quickly. Our Halloween party is Saturday!!

It is understood that we did all we could.

Terrariums! We have terrariums all over the school I work at (I guess that's what happens when you work at an all natural hair school). So, that's where my inspiration first struck. Then of course, I saw something on Pinterest and it reminded me that I'd been wanting to make one for a while. One of my best friends were on a mission this weekend to make them. But I wanted mine to be cute and little. So naturally, I ended up making three because once I started I just couldn't stop! The one with the sea star in it is for my Mom. Her birthday is Wednesday and I never know what to get her. I think she'll really love this little jar of life. They were so easy peasy to make and I can't wait to make more. At the end of our crafty day, we still had some succulents left over and plenty of soil and moss so we took a late-night trip in search for more glass jars.

I decided I wanted my last one to be bigger. I wish I would've taken a better picture to display the cuteness of my succulents and their little environment. It's on my nightstand and I adore it.

Sunday was truly funday. I haven't had one of those in a long while. I got up earlier than usual (even after going to bed pretty late) and got dressed. The room mates, my best friend and I all headed to the farmer's market. We had delicious snacks and indulged in home made, crafty goods and enjoyed the sunshine (ugh, don't remind me that it's still steaming hot out though). We came home and had lunch and I went upstairs to veg out for a while before my friend came back over for our Sunday night line up!

I must admit I am addicted to the following: Once Upon a Time (!!!), Long Island Medium (hysterically cry every.single.episode.), and Breaking Amish (what the what! is this real?!). Also, anything Oprah, so of course Next Chapter. Sunday nights are busy around here, folks! And it's only going to get better when the best show ever returns aka THE WALKING DEAD. I get SO excited when it's mentioned.

It really was just this awesome, lovely, peaceful feeling this weekend. To have genuine fun with the ones I love. I didn't worry about work, what housework needed to be done (for once I'm caught up with laundry!), or those god-awful events that took place two weeks ago (not worth naming them;). I just lived in every little minute, soaked up the fun and loved every minute.

Even though it's still hot and humid in good ol' Florida, I'm loving being where I'm at. Having the sun shine on me and taking in the beauty. I wouldn't mind though if it decided to get somewhat breezy though. You hear that, Mother Nature? October weather never hurt anyone.

Oh, I also decided to spend a good chunk of time in Barnes and Noble reading everything that looked interesting. I got into Numerology and came home and decided to do more reading on my life path number. I get into stuff like that. I found out that I'm a 7. It was definitely an interesting read, and while not something to base your entire life on I do suggest it. I don't believe it defines us, but it's something to take into consideration. I know I found a lot of truth in what I read about myself and others I know.

Well, play time is over. Now it's back to the grind. Hello, Monday. Hope to see you soon Friday. :)

weekend jive.

Breakfast off of a monkey plate. Olive and I catch up on Weeds. Fall is here at the Magic Kingdom! 

Tomorrow's agenda includes arts and crafts and I simply cannot wait. 

Happy, happy weekend. :)