Look at those Branches!

I mean this picture speaks for itself. Look at how those branches just curve and criss cross around each other. I love it!

Belly Dancing part Trois: Safe Haven

This October, will be one year anniversary of taking my belly dancing class! Huzzah!! No, I haven't been in any dance recitals yet (I'm a huge chicken), but the more I take the classes and practice the moves at home, my confidence in actually wanting to perform increases. Anyway, my class is at the same time every week and for a whole year, my manager always set my scheduled to have that night off. Great. However, the week before last, my other manager decided to take over the schedule making and yes, he scheduled me to work the night of my class. I told him that I don't work Tuesday nights and he of course he came up with an excuse on why I needed to work that night and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Whatever. Tuesday comes around aaaannnnnd, there was really no need for me to be there. At. All. All the areas in the store were covered and yet he made me come in. I was pissed. Now, it sounds irrational, but I've come to really look forward to my classes. It's the one day out of the week that has absolutely nothing to do with work or home. I get to dance and laugh it up with a bunch of ladies, who also, sees this as little break within their work weeks. Yes. There are times where she has canceled class due to life, but that is something that can't be helped. F***king with my schedule is a whole different story. I've been at my job for 10 years! I always came in when they needed me, stayed late and rarely took any sick days. But the one time I ask to not close for night out of the 6 day work week, you deny me that request?? *sigh* Lucky for me, my instructor had a free class on Sunday and I was able to go to that! YES! And then it dawned on me. Besides, the comradery we ladies have when we are clumsily learning a new dance move, I come to this class as a safe place. I don't have to worry about rude customers or rude managers. No one with bad attitudes or negative vibes. Also, with it just being women in the class, we let it alll hangout! Our boobs jiggle while doing shoulder shimmys, having our stomachs hang out for body rolls and undulations! It is the life!! LOL! Seriously though, my teacher always makes a point to tell new students that even though we are all made and shaped differently, the beauty of belly dance allows you to appreciate and love the skin your in. To embrace YOU!! After every class, that feeling of peace just surrounds me and I love it!

Trees and My Fascination with them!

I don't know why, but I absolutely love trees. I think my love for nature's oxygen tanks started at a very young age. No matter where I am or what I'm wearing, when I saw a tree that looks climbable, I latched onto the shortest branch and pull myself up.

Now that I'm older, I'm more likely to take a picture of a tree than to climb it.

Big trees, with a ton of branches, with vines crawling up the side are my favorites! For some reason when I see them, I believe that every tree has a story to tell and the branches are the different chapters in that story. If only I can speak tree.

Belly Dancing Part II: So Uncoordinated

It has been a couple of months since I started taking my belly dancing classes and I must say that I am in love!!! I must admit, that it did take me awhile to get used to doing chest lifts and drops, snake arms, shimmies, undulations, traveling twists and everything else in between. Now, my teacher taught us this awesome choreography that we will probably perform in a recital later on the future. I'm not looking forward to that. Anyway, it is a pretty simple dance with all moves we have learned so far. Welllll, I always knew how uncoordinated I am, but I never realized how bad I am until I'm dancing with others. Why they're going right, butt is going left. While we're doing traveling twists, which I LOVE, I tend to lose my balance, lose my place in the song and then eventually lose my mind. And she wants ME to perform on stage with people actually watching me dance?!?!?!? *runs away while screaming* *takes deep breath* But a couple of positive things I can say about the mistakes I make in class is that I don't give up. I am also able to laugh at myself when I do make the mistakes. I stumble, I fumble, I laugh and then try again. Like they say, whoever they are, practice makes perfect. :D

Winter Days

*skips over rant about me not being on here enough and blah, blah, blah, blah*

Sooo, who else is ready for the Spring?? I really hate the winter. I never realized how much I hated being cold until this year. I live in the southeast and this year we had some of the coldest temperatures that I have ever witnessed. Nothing makes you hate waking up in the mornings more than single digit degrees. *sheesh* Then, it had the audacity to snow and ice this week!!!! When will it end?!?!?! Weather like this makes me think about the days when we lived in Honolulu, Hawaii. Nothing but sunshine, warm days, sandy beaches and that sweet Hawaiian breeze. Hmmm.....I think it's time for me to start planning my next vacation.

Belly Dancing Part 1: My Back Hurts

Tonight I took my first ever belly dancing class. I was nervous and out totally out of my element, but I've been wanting to do this for years! I finally found a dance studio close to my house and I signed up for it right away. So how did it go? I never knew how stiff I was until I had to shimmy and do the snake with my arms. And yes, my back hurts. We had to raise our chests and then drop them. Over and over and over again. I usually don't do that on a regular basis, so my back is not use do that kind of a work out. I'm really uncoordinated as well. We had to walk forward, while pointing our feet and moving our arms at the same time....Yeaaaaaa. I sucked pretty badly. Anyway, besides noticing how long and awkward my arms looked in the mirror, I really enjoyed myself. The teacher is awesome and she has really great personality. I can't wait until next weeks class, but until then....*shimmy, shimmy and shimmy*

A Picture and a Story

First time doing this in the morning..weird. Anyway, Good morning all!! I had an epiphany the other day while I was thinking about this guy I used to date. I remember how inconsistent he was with our dates and it got so bad, I finally broke it off with him. As continued with my thoughts, I realized how inconsistent I am. With everything. I would say I was going to do something and then stop. Perfect example, this blog. I actually enjoy writing on here, but then months go by and I haven't posted anything!! I wonder if that is why my friend tried to hook me up with him in the first place. She said he and I are just alike. He's a mess. I'm a mess. We would be perfect together!!! Nope. Which made me wonder if I'm doomed to always attract a guy who is as inconsistent as myself....*insert horror scream here*. Scary thought. Soooo, for the billionth time in my life and on this blog, I'm going to try to break this unhealthy streak by giving myself another challenge. I know most people do a monthly challenge. I'm giving myself at least a week. I decided to take pictures of something/anything that grabs my attention, post it on here and then write about it. Maybe a story, a silly comment, heck, anything!! The goal is to stay focus and consistent. *takes a deep breath* Here we go!!

My mom ordered some Chinese food the other the night and I always have a small love for their fortune cookies. For they're slightly sweet cookie and for the little piece of paper comes inside of them. I know they aren't real fortunes, but they make me smile all the same. When I pulled this one from the crispy shell of my cookie, I was super delighted by this message. Why? Because I just got off from work and I was tired. Very tired. My whole body was sore from all the walking and lifting that I did throughout the day and all I wanted to do was sit. And you know what I did for my "good time"? I took a hot shower, played with my dog, read a book and then went to sleep. How is that considered a good time, you say? I am an introvert. After talking and mingling with people all day, the one thing I enjoy after a day like that, is my peace and quiet. That's it.

Spain!!!!

I forgot to mention (or maybe I did) that the same time I went to Paris, we also we to Madrid, Spain!! Spain was much warmer than Paris, much sunnier and in my opinion, getting around was a lot easier to navigate through this city too. One disappointing thing about our trip to Spain was that our first day spent running around the airport. It's a long, crazy story and some day I'll share the story on here. But for the whole day that we had to roam throughout the city, we enjoyed the sites. Since it was a nice, sunny day, we took the metro to Retiro Park and strolled through the park until we saw the Palacio de Cristal! Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations and we didn't get to go inside. *womp womp* We also got to see the actual Royal Place of Madrid which was pretty neat as well. After all that walking (and getting lost) we headed over to the Puerto de Sol for Tapas and sangrias! There's another back story having to deal with getting tapas, but that too, is for another time. The next time I travel to Madrid and other cities of Spain, I totally plan on enjoying more of the sites, eat more of the food (leaving unwanted guest in the US) and just enjoy life.

All Work and no Play...sucks.

...I really need to become more consistent with this thing. Smh. Anyway, good evening all! I finally worked up the energy to come on here and actually type something for change. Basically, working full-time all the time...kinda sucks. I enjoy the nice paycheck, benefits and over-time. However, I wish I had more energy to do something besides work. My daily routine is usually: morning routine, work, and then home. Once in awhile, I'll do something different, like having dinner with friends, but other than that, blah. On the bright side, one day while I was out visiting my favorite spiritual store, I bought two books: "The Creative Photographer" by Catherine Anderson and "I Could do Anything, If I only knew what it was" by Barbara Sher. I picked up the photographer book to get some inspiration for taking better pictures. Or a better way to share my photos besides Facebook. And it did!!! Throughout the book, Anderson shares how anything you see, can become a work of art. Also in the book, she shares crafts and other examples that you can create with your photos. One example that stuck out me, was personal gift cards. I love cards!!! The more quirky and unique they are, the more I love them! I decided to combine my two loves together and create works of art that I can share with everyone! Here's the first one that I made! I stuck one of my fake flowers (obviously it's fake) inside of my DIY light box and TA-DA!!!! I think it came out pretty good. With the second book, I bought it because I was starting to feel like there is something else that I should be doing my life, but I don't know what. The book helps you figure out what is stopping you and what you think might be holding you back from doing what you really want to do in life. I got half-way through the book before I put it down and didn't pick it back up for weeks. Not because it sucked, but mostly because I have the tendency to start a project and not finish it. I mean, I would just dive straight into it and then I suddenly I just drop it. *sigh* I know I have the potential do more, but unfortunately, I have that bad habit of putting my plans aside and not picking them up again. But the book is sitting right next to me....*opens it and starts to read*

Another Pink Tree

Good Evening ya'll! The holidays are now over and if you work retail like myself, that is a cause for celebration. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays, but that time of year just brings the worst out of people! Anyway, now that the holidays are over, it's time for me to take down my pink Christmas tree. *tear*. I would and can leave it up all year long, but then it would be as special during Christmas time. Lucky for me, I am able to replace it with my new tabletop tree!

Now, it does look like a duck tape tree and even I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to buy it, but it was on clearance and if I didn't like it, I would just take it back. I brought it home, put some batteries in it and voila!!

It's cute!! Cuter than I thought actually.

Welp, it's a keeper and a perfect replacement. Now I just need to figure out where I'm going to place it. Hmmm.....

I Love Pink and Gold!! (And a blog update)

Good Evening everyone!! First, I must give a super, huge thanks to my talented friend Sara (go to her gallery to see her amazing artwork: xKanamix.deviantart.com) for re-designing background and header!!! *round of applause* For a long time I always wanted to change my blog and I just couldn't get it right. AT. ALL! But thanks Sara and her artistic talents, she has brought my blog to life! Do ya'll remember the pink tree I bought last year on clearance??? Well, look at it now!!

Since, the tree is already uniquely made, I decided to just do gold glittered ornaments and nothing else. And I think it turned out fantastic.

Hehe, my glitter shoes look great next to this tree as well.

Oh and one special touch I wanted my friend to add to the header was the latin phrase "Alis volat propriis." I saw it on Pinterest last night and when I saw that it translated to "She flies with her own wings" I knew that I had to have it!! It expresses the way I want to be, meaning, I want to be in a place mentally where I am confident in myself to do what ever makes me happy. So, every time I come to my blog and see that phrase, it will help remind me that I know that I can accomplish anything that I put my mind to.

What Happens in Vegas, I will share with you!

*taps mic* Is this thing on??? Good evening all!!! I haven't post anything in a long time because of work. I mean I have been working a lot these past couple of months and I'm glad it slowed a little bit before the storm a.k.a holiday shopping. Anyhoo, back in September I finally got the chance to go to a city I always wanted to visit....VEGAS BABY!!!!! First, I would like to say that it was just a day trip, so I have no problem sharing my experience there. There was no time to doing anything "risque", but next time...most definitely. Flying to Vegas was pretty uneventful until we started flying over the Graaand Canyon.

I was totally blown away by the mountain scenery; absolutely amazing! Soon after that we landed in Vegas! :D Since it was only a day trip, we decided to take a tour through all the hotels and casinos on the Strip. This was my best friends third time going to Vegas, so she knew some attractions to see while we were walking around. Luckily for us we were able to catch a shuttle ride to and from the airport for just $12! (I can't remember the real price, but it was cheap)

The first hotel we visited was the Venetian hotel and I fell deeply in love with the extravagance of this hotel!! There was gold and replica's of paintings everywhere!!

And of course there was the very famous Gondola ride. We didn't take ride because we were on a budget and the cost to take trip in one of the boats was pretty pricey.

After the Venetian, we walked on one of the connector bridges, that connect all the hotels together, and headed to the Wynn hotel.

On the way there, we saw this awesome waterfall and I had to take a picture next to it!

Every hotel, there were really high priced stores like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and a whole lot of the stores that we didn't even bother walking into. But they were nice to look at as we passed by.

These flower balls were made out of real flowers and I was just totally fascinated by them. We pretty hungry, so we walked over to the Fashion Mall (Or something like that) to get something from the Food Court. This mall looked like an UFO. Neat.

While walking through the mall, we saw the biggest Forever21 ever and I wished that was a shopping trip soo much, but sadly it wasn't. After that, Treasure Island and the Mirage!

Instead of walking, they provided a little tram that went from Treasure island to the Mirage. Which was nice, because it was getting outside and our feet were starting to hurt.

After the Mirage, we went into Caesars! Holy moly, that place was large and amazing!! I thought the Venetian was over the top, but the Caesar hotel was beyond that! Connected to Caesars was a shopping called the Forum, which lead into the hotel. Now that I think back on it, it got kind of confusing trying to figure out where you were, but I enjoyed the scenery as we walked around in circles.

I think we were in Caesars for almost 2 or 3 hours..whew! Next is the Bellagio (which as the awesome water show at night) and the Cosmopolitan hotel! I loved the Cosmopolitan for one reason only....

This stuff!!! There was strands of crystal all through the casino and I loved it!

Let me fast forward to my other favorite hotels, because we did so much and I took so many pictures, I would typing for hours!! The Paris hotel was my second favorite hotel, right after the Venetian. They had an Eiffel Tower right in the middle of the casino!

Then New York New York was freaking amazeballs! It was like you were in a mini version of New York city.

As it got darker, the city came to life. There were street performers everywhere!! Whether they were in costumes of random characters (Spongebob, Sonic the Hedgehog and Transformers) guys dancing in the street and musicians of all types (there was a guy playing the bagpipes). Our last show of the night was the water fountain show at the Bellagio.

I definitely can't wait to go back because there is still so much to see and do and I can't wait to experience it all!