BEAUTIFUL PLACES

It's raining outside.  Correction:  it's pouring outside.  Usually I'm fond of rain, but since it is January and all, I was really hoping for snow.  On top of that, I'm feeling a little under the weather and the rain isn't helping.

I've decided to take a spur-of-the-moment vacation, and I'm leaving in about ten minutes.  Pinterest, here I come!

1. Italy

Via

I really wouldn't care where I visited, as long as it was within this country.  Since I'm Italian, this place has always topped my bucket list.  There's no way to go wrong in Italy:  great food, great shopping, great views, great, great, great!  (Also, it's my lifelong dream to relive the scenes in Roman Holiday!)

STICKER CRAZE

The days after Christmas are always a bummer.  Sure, you're excited about all of your new goodies, but you aren't so excited about having to wait 364 days for Christmas to roll around again.  I've been trying to think of some cheerful things to get my mind off that fact.

You know what cheers me up?  Stickers.  If you look at almost any preppy girl's Instagram, you're bound to see a picture of her sticker-adorned laptop.  In my opinion, if it doesn't have a sticker on it, then it isn't really yours.

A lot of sites offer free promotional stickers, and all you have to do is ask!

CHRISTMAS DREAMING

Giving is better than receiving.  We've all been told the sentiment since day one, and we tend to agree with it.

But we all know that it's fun to make out a Christmas wish list.  I usually ask for gift cards on my real Christmas list, but I secretly make out another list called the "In My Dreams" wish list.  In other words, it's stuff I want, but am probably never going to get unless I become a millionaire overnight.  Hey, a girl's gotta dream, right?

CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST

I love Christmas music.  I love it so much, in fact, that I start listening to the Christmas station in July.  I'm a sucker for the old choir songs.  There is something so gratifying about singing a Christmas song like that at the top of your lungs.  If you haven't done that yet, I suggest you try within the next five minutes.  You'll get my drift!

1. "Hard Candy Christmas":  This one is a bit of a wild card.  I'll never know why I love this song so much, but there's something about it that makes me want to sing it for days on end.

2. "Joy To The World":  What could be happier than this song?  I love pretending to be in an opera while singing this, too!  Not sure which version to get?  My personal favorite is this one with David Archuleta!

THE PROS: INSTAGRAM EDITION

If I ever am in dire need of inspiration, I have two resources:  Pinterest and (you guessed it) Instagram. There are some really amazing professional style accounts out there.  Of course there are some newbies out there (*cough* @prepforaday *cough*) who have pretty cool accounts too.  Here are some of my favorite Instas:

1. @Carly



Literally, goals.  Life goals, clothes goals, dog goals...

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

The goose is getting fat!  Please do put a penny in the old man's hat...

Oh, sorry!  I was just getting lost in the memories from my fifth grade Christmas play.  I think we had to sing that about ten million times.

Christmas is, and has always been, my favorite time of year.  Everything is just so much...muchier.  Everyone's a little happier.  The old humdrum of everyday life has been replaced by this magical, Christmas-y atmosphere.  It's like being at Disney for a month.

Everyone has little traditions at Christmas.  Here's what's in store for my countdown to Christmas:

Day 1:  Start listening to Christmas music.  Actually, scratch that.  I started listening to the Christmas station in July.
Day 2:  Prepare that Christmas wishlist!

THANKFUL

Happy Turkey Day!

I love this holiday because a) you can eat like a pig and no one cares, and, more importantly, b) it's the one day where we constantly think about what we're thankful for.  It's so much easier to look at the negativity in our lives.  At least today we have a legitimate reason to think about the good things instead.  If Thanksgiving happened every day, I think the world would be a lot better off attitude-wise (although we would all be considerably larger).

Via

There are some little things I love appreciating today, like:

sleeping in

slippers