Im devoted...are you?

Everyday I try to start my day by reading my two devotions: the Gaby needs Jesus one and my couples devotion. Devotions act as my breakfast and give me the energy needed to get through my morning. It has become my habit no matter what is going on and it is like that morning coffee I just have to have! My favorite devotion is "Jesus Calling" and I read it almost everyday right on my Kindle. It is a breathe of fresh air among devotionals. It is narrated as if God is truly speaking to me alone.  
So why do I keep talking about devotionals? The truth of the matter is that we all have our daily devotionals and we have all formed habits that are engraved in our routines. All of these devotionals vary according to interests. Did you know that the word devotional by definition is strictly related to spiritual or religious worship? So why is it that we confuse our devotions? We are sometimes devoted to worrying about tomorrow, devoted to money, devoted to work, and the devotions go on and on. Where we spend our devotional time shows what our hearts are devoted to. 
There is no reason to beat ourselves up for we are all human, but we are certainly not of this world. I invite you to focus on today and see where you are carving your devotional time. See if you make time to be devoted to God and how do your actions align with that. God gave us the gift of today and that is where we need to devote our time, energy & attention. 
This morning my devotion on "Jesus Calling" was about God reminding me that He is always with me so I must not worry about tomorrow. My couples devotional today was about finding joy in every situation.  Devotionals are uplifting, inspiring & fill you with God's presence in your life. Tomorrow is the start of a new month, I invite you to start a daily devotional and see how God starts to move your heart. 
Suggested devotionals: 
"Jesus Calling" (Christian bookstores or amazon.com) 
Www.biblegateway.com (they have men, women & family devotions)
Crosswalk.com (they have a great devotional for students) 

There are so many resources to look into. Today commit to reading one and go from there. For those who already read a devotional, kick it up a notch & tell someone (friend, coworker, neighbor, etc) about what you read today; be a walking testimony of what you read. Let us find joy in our devotionals! 
Xo 

24

Hey bloggers, happy September!  Time sure flies and I just celebrated a new year.  Thank you to everyone for the amazing and abundant love on my birthday and everyday!  My day consisted of taking care of myself for a change.  I decided that this year I would guide my own day and chose to do what felt good for me.

 The night before my birthday, my hunny & I went to go see a firework show for Labor Day and it was beautiful.  It is important to do things out of our normal routine in order to mix things up.


Another must-do for my birthday, was to get a manicure. I am a very girly girl and I got a french manicure in honor of my hubby. I usually pick my nail color based on what I know my husband likes =)


On the actual day of my birthday, I got dressed up and did my make-up to my liking.  The first stop of the day was to Sephora (my favorite beauty supply store) and as I was checking out, the make-up artist says to me:"Can I tell you something? Your make-up is really good.  It looks exactly like something I would do."  I had a pure joy attack!  I have been working really hard to learn different techniques and skills and I finally experienced reaping what I sowed.  That was one of the highlights of my birthday.

Birthday dinner: my good friend gave me a gift certificate to Buffalo Wild Wings.  I have been there many times and I love that you can play poker or trivia while eating.  We had an assortment of food and my favorite thing was the honey-barbecue wings!  It didn't hurt that I had a handsome guy as my birthday date.

Following dinner we went to have dessert of course! I'm not a huge cake lover, so my birthday treat was homemade ice cream.  My other good friend called a local place by where I live and bought dessert just for my birthday.  It was a sweet surprise and gift.







Finally, my birthday could have not been complete without a nice glass of Char!  I was saving this bottle of wine for a special occasion as it is a bottle given to me by my sisters.  I love that the label says "wine sisterhood."


I had a blessed long weekend and I am thankful for all my many blessings.  Year #23 was not easy, but it was meaningful.  I decided that my birthday would be my "New Year" and I would start fresh in every aspect of my life.  God has given me so much, that the least I can do is work hard, love others, and truly appreciate what I have.  I have also vowed to sweep any and all negativity under the rug and throw it away.  Time for a new rug!
Hope YOU have a beautiful September! Xo

Independently Stylish

I am behind on my posts for my blog, but I do want to thank all of those people who have been reading my blog.  I love to de-stress through blogging & God knows I need to release stress!  So this post is dedicated to one stylish Independence Day that I will never ever forget with my "B" family.  

 
 Fourth of July style: I went for a "grecian" up do as it helped immensely with the Miami heat (ha-ha!)and I did a very soft-natural make-up (used my Naked2 palette). My outfit: black & white striped H& M maxi dress ($12! people) and my red, white & blue flip-flops (they were a gift).  

 The best thing after a delicious dinner is dessert!  My friend & sister for life, created the dessert you see on the right and it was a masterpiece.  

It is definitely the people who make the party fun, enjoyable & you kind of never want to leave. Xo

Straight-Up

(Image source: www.bethenny.com)

This past week I started reading a new book, which I love to do, but I rarely have time.  It is such an amazing book that I finished the extensive 5,000 pages of it on my Kindle Fire in four days!  Every time I was forced to put it down (someone has to clean) I was so eager to go back to reading.  This amazing book is “Skinnygirl Solutions: Your Straight-Up Guide to Home, Health, Family, Career, Style and Sex.”  Notice that the book title starts with “Skinnygirl” and that is due to the great fact that the author is Bethenny Frankel.  Bethenny is the creator of the Skinnygirl empire which includes alcoholic beverages, shape wear and many more things which are all discussed in this book.  I am not a book critic, however I am a woman in her early twenties seeking as much knowledge about life as possible and that is exactly what I found in Bethenny’s latest book.  I am dedicating this blog to “Straight-Up” convince YOU to read her book because every girl should!

This book covers absolutely every aspect of a woman’s life from living a healthy fit life, to parenting, to understanding money, career & business.  Not only does she cover the everyday topics, but she also explores the topics of sex, marriage and all of those taboo topics women dare not talk about.  Reading this book was a “girlfriend” experience, in the sense that I felt as if my best friend was giving detailed advice about things that every girl needs to know.  Women should fully get to know who we are and this book helps us discover just that! 

Each chapter is creatively accompanied by drawings that help support the topic at hand.  I have to say that the drawings were one of my favorite details.  Also, throughout the book, Bethenny brings in expert advice from various sources to help elaborate each topic.  The book also includes up-to-date public figures (celebrities, business owners, etc.) that Bethenny uses to show the everyday woman that you can reach your full potential. 

All in all, the book is at the top of my favorite books. It has added so much valuable information that I can use in my own life as a student, wife, and ever changing woman. While reading the book there were multiple times that I told myself that I need to buy a hard copy because there is so much information I will be using in the future. The book has helped me to explore who I really am and most importantly having this new found knowledge is definitely power! 

Quick side note: the very first Skinnygirl product that I ever tried was the Margarita and I became hooked on it.  Margaritas are my favorite drink, so when I found this low-calorie, delicious drink, I fell in love.  Now I am moving onto the Skinnygirl wines. 

Don’t judge! J Xo

CC: Constantly Changing

Life is a constant revolving door, going in and out.  We call that revolving door "change" and most people rather avoid it than confront it.  As with anything in life, it is better to allow change to happen rather than to fight it and stay within your comfort zone.  I am pretty sure I could write a blog regarding change every week.  Today though, I want to focus on one aspect of change and that is the attitude with which we accept changes in our lives.  Early on we form this idea of what our world will always be like and we don't anticipate the upcoming changes.  How can one anticipate the unknown? You change your perspective and you learn to trust. 
I have experienced huge life changing experiences, some that I've brought upon myself and others that are the subsequent effects of events.  I tend to categorize all of the changes in a negative and positive category.  Lately though I've boxed all of the changes into a positive category.  Most successful people would agree that the big difference is found in the mind frame that you choose to receive and welcome changes in your personal life, at work, and even spiritually.  It is an amazing exercise to practice accepting change and it builds a muscle like no other.  Personally, I like to stop myself when I'm sinking into the endless negativity pit by figuring out how to use change to my advantage or how it can help others.  I shift my thinking to embrace and welcome change, no matter how hard it can be.  Another small activity I practice to embrace change is to do something I've never done before everyday.  It can be something as small as taking a different route to work.  This helps your brain to think outside of the box, which is a big help when learning to embrace changes. At the end of the day, change is a growing factor in the world and it will be negative or positive depending on how you decide to accept it.  Through tough times, remind yourself that change is constant and it drives us through the different cycles of our lives.
Embrace what is different, see change as constant and trust God through it all!

I Have to Do What?!

Part of growing up is learning to do what you need to do as opposed to doing what you want to do.  It is not an easy concept to grasp and people learn to be selective with it.  It is easy to do what we need to do at work or school because we know we are expected to do so.  However, we may not always do the right thing when it comes to other people because we feel as if we are not expected to do so.  The truth of the matter is that in order to have growth as a person, you have to learn to do what has to be done and discern what exactly that entails.  Sometimes doing the right thing takes much courage and patience.  And most of the time we find an abundant amount of excuses as to why we cannot do the right thing. 

Let me tell you the story of a young stubborn young lady who always held a grudge.  When someone hurt her feelings, insulted her, or put her down, she would replay the scenario over and over in her head.  It became such a big problem that it made her stress level go through the ruff.  She wanted to let go of those not so great memories and focus her attention on the people who brought good things to her life.  One day she felt God tugging at her heart and He said to her: “you need to forgive and really forget.”  She thought “I really have to forget?!”   

Not forgetting those negative events in your past is a defense mechanism and we all do it in order to protect ourselves from what we think could possibly happen again.  Throughout my personal growth I have learned from experience that doing the right thing requires me to have amnesia about the events that have hurt me in the past.  I have to do what?!  I have to learn to really forget negative things and move forward.  Ultimately it is not up to me to fix other people’s mistakes; I can only do that for my own shortcomings. 

 

There are a few things that I personally do to help me move past hard times in my life and to help me with what I NEED to do.  First, I look at a clock and remind myself of how precious and short my time is here with my loved ones.  Second, I write out exactly what is bothering me, this helps me understand why exactly I feel the way I do.  Also, I remember that “forgiveness is a gift to the other person” and “forgetting is a gift to myself.”  At the end of the day we are all called to do different things that may scare us, but that might just be the opportunity to help you grow in your personal life and that will spill over into all other areas of your life.  By the way, the young stubborn lady above is me and she is a work in progress day in and day out.  

Mally Beauty: Evercolor Eyeshadow Stick

Everyone who knows me well is fully aware of my make-up obsession.  Make-up is something I love to do to release stress.  I am a full believer that make-up cannot fix problems, but can it boost your confidence & your day!  I have been experimenting, learning and practicing with make-up and God bless my friends for allowing me to use them as my dolls.

If you are not aware of who Mally Roncal is, please go google her!  She is much more than a make-up artist, she is a beautiful soul!  Mally has created an amazing make-up empire called Mally Beauty.  I first learned about her on QVC and her personality drew me in & I ordered her products to give them a try.  I have been hooked ever since!  I have been wanting to write a review about my favorite Mally products and I will do that in a different post, however, today I am going to tell you about the Evercolor Eye Shadow Stick.

A couple of weeks ago, Mally had a Twitter give away & by the grace of God I was one of the winners!  My prize: my choice of an evercolor eye shadow stick.  I decided to try Mally's "deep plum" shadow stick.  Plum is a beautiful color and I fully intend on using it for my fall smokey eyes.  The eye shadow sticks are amazing because they have primer in the product already and it gives you a long-lasting effect for an all day wear.  The best part is that you don't have to have great make-up artist tips in order to
obtain a beautiful eye look; you just apply it on your lid & you go!

 The deep plum is amazing for a smokey eye and so I tried it (on my friend) and I wanted it to look darker and smokier. The shadow stick also serves as an under eye liner which gives it an even smokier effect!  For this look I also used Mally's eye primer and her volumizing mascara. This was the first time I used a deep plum for a smokey eye and the first time I used a shadow stick to do so!  I love the finished product and I will definitely be practicing it more & more for my fall looks!




Mally's Evercolor Eye Shadow sticks come in a variety of colors. My favorites are: saddle shimmer (my all time favorite shadow!), violet, copper rose & this deep plum!






Xo~God Bless!