Denver, CO

Hello, friend!

I am on the way home from Denver, Colorado as I write this, and I want to share with you all about what I’ve been up to in CO this weekend! I have a very close friend named Naomi<3  who lives in Colorado. I met her on my mission trip last summer in Mexico and have continued to stay in touch with her since then! After a couple months of planning, I decided that I would go out to Denver to visit Naomi and go to Estes Park, where her church was having a teen retreat. 

LITERALLY DENVER {heart eye emoji}

Last Thursday, I hopped on a plane and flew to Denver right after school and experienced a beautiful sunset as I flew across the middle of the US. 

I got to Naomi’s at around seven o’clock, and we just talked and caught up which was very much needed!! It’s fun and kind of crazy meeting one of your closest friend's family and seeing how she lives for the first time when all you know about her is from a two-week long trip! Only in the kingdom could that happen!! The next morning, we woke up and Naomi brought me to a butterfly pavilion which was such a cute place! Unfortunately, it was cloudy/foggy out so you couldn’t see the mountains which she lived RIGHT by but I did see them later. The butterfly pavilion had all sorts of living things! I saw tarantulas, fish, starfish, bees, worms, etc. It was so fun being in the butterfly pavilion and I was a bit freaked out that I would step on a butterfly who happened to be resting on the ground(thankfully I didn’t!).

Are they glowing? Basically.

Yes, we found Nemo AND Dory!

Sheldon.

More butterflies waiting to be hatched!

Then we drove back to her house and drove up to Estes park a bit before the retreat so that we could see the mountains a little bit!

I was BLOWN AWAY. 

I’d never seen mountains this big in my whole life. They just kept on going up up up and I’m so amazed that God created something so grand and beautiful!! It reminded me of my Niagara Falls experience, when I just could feel God’s power through nature. 

ELK!!!!

After visiting a taffy shop and looking around in the little downtown area, we drove to the YMCA, which was where we were staying, and I got to meet all of Naomi’s friends which was super fun!! We heard an awesome lesson by one of the ministers in Colorado, and it was really convicting.

The next morning, I woke up at 6:00 to get ready to see the sunrise and I took a ton of pictures of the sun rising over the tops of the mountains. AMAZINGGGGGG!!

Colorado is one of my favorite states now! Saturday was spent hanging out with friends and playing ukulele, listening to fantastic lessons by great speakers, and eating a lot. I also spent some quality time with one of my very special friends, Christina, and studied the bible with her and a bunch of other fantastic teens from Denver. On Sunday, it was time to leave and of course I took some more pictures of where we stayed, and of the girls in my cabin! I am so grateful for this experience, and for everyone who I met. 

Naomi!! :)

One last picture!

This trip felt like a huge blessing and gift from God and my parents :), especially since my birthday is coming up(march 1)!

Happy days! xx 

Joy :)

Why You Should Thrift!

Hello, friend!

If you don't know what thrifting is, here's the jist of it:

going to your local thrift store and buying stuff.

Thrifting is something that is really popular amongst teens, and especially those who are trying to develop their own style. If you have maybe thought about it but haven't made the decision to go, here are some reasons as to why you should visit your local thrift store to find the next staples in your closet!

1. IT'S CHEAP
This is a given, but thrift stores are cheaper than normal stores. Check with your local store and see if they have certain days where "green tags" are half price. Many stores have special deals at certain times and they just want to get rid of their items so that they can circulate new ones.

2. You are saving the planet.
Literally. Fast fashion(clothes from stores like Nike, Forever 21, H&M) is causing cheap clothes to pile up in landfills and to be honest, you're paying wayyy too much for the price it took to make that clothing item. You can read more about fast fashion here. Plus, a lot of these companies use women/child labor in other countries, and are paying them as little at $4 an hour. Of course, it is often inevitable to buy clothes from stores like these, but instead of buying ALL of your clothes from there, why not try a thrift shop?

3. Get creative!
I have found that thrift stores can actually carry some high end products if you dig around! One brand in particular that I have found a couple great items from is Tommy Hilfiger. Last Sunday I got a Tommy Jeans sweatshirt for literally ONE DOLLAH. I think that with thrift shopping, you have to be open to going a little bit out of your comfort zone and buying things that you normally wouldn't, or you have to have an idea of what you want from a thrift store before you go, otherwise you might not find anything you will actually like(if you're a picky thrifter like I am). ALSO a tip is-- when you go, TRY IT ON and make sure that you will actually wear the piece of clothing because you don't want to end up buying 15 items for $20 but then you end up wearing only one of them.

4. Thrift stores change daily
You can basically go as often as you like and find something new every single day. You will not run out of items, and if you travel other places, feel free to go to their thrift stores too! You never know what you will find. You can also totally DIY your own clothes from thrift store clothes as well, like cutting the bottom of an oversized sweatshirt or making some shorts out of some jeans you find. And you might not just find clothes, but cool cups or records, or decorations that you can refurbish as a little project!

5. You can give back!
When you go and buy clothes, also remember to give some of your own back! Goodwill in particular gives back to the community by helping people get jobs, and who knows, maybe your piece of clothing from last year will be someone else's favorite item to wear.

I hope that this has inspired you to go thrifting!! Go with some friends and help each other pick some items out. You'd be surprised at how much time you can spend thrifting and what great deals you can find.

Welp, talk to ya later!
Joy :)

January Faves

Hello, friend!

January is now far behind us, and I thought it might be fun to share with you guys some of the things that I loved last month, like food, entertainment, etc! These blog posts are fun because then you get a lot of ideas about what to do differently or add to your routine in the next month.

Watch/Listen:

1. RKCB
RKCB is a small group that does indie/EDM type music, and I have been loving the songs, "Open Arms," "Daydreaming," and "Restless". They just do a great job at making music that is relaxing and nostalgic sounding, but at the same time extremely modern and catchy.

2. La La Land
Okay, this is a given because of my last blog post, but I have been loving the soundtrack. Enough said.

3. John Lusk- Increase Our Faith
This video series on Dtoday.tv is great! John Lusk made a series of 8 videos that contain great scriptures from the bible and fantastic stories about how God has strengthened his faith and thousands of others. He also gives you practicals that you can really think about for a while and discover more about yourself and your own faith as you watch the videos. 10/10 recommend!

Apps:

1. Glitche
This is one of the coolest photo effect apps that I've ever seen! It doesn't really have filters, it just has a different range of effects that can make your pictures look like there's been a glitch in them.
Here are some photos that I've taken and edited on Glitche:

2. SleepCycle
I honestly have loved this app for like 5 years(I've had it since it was free), and I do believe that it has helped me to get more sleep, especially in this past month! This app is basically a smart alarm clock that has a sound and vibration sensor to monitor your sleep. It can tell you when you were in the most deep sleep and the closest to awake, and wakes you up in a time gap between 10-90 minutes before the time that you set your alarm to. I normally have my alarm on 10 minutes gap during school days and 30 minutes(recommended) gap during the weekends. This is because if you are in a deep sleep, and you enter your "time gap," (the amount of optional time you set before your alarm), it will wait a little later until you are out of your deep sleep cycle and then set the alarm off. It records it all into a graph and then tell you how long you were in bed for, your sleep quality, average time sleeping for the month or week, etc. This app helps me to see my trends in my sleep, and the alarm sounds are also extremely calming to wake up to, versus a typical clock alarm.

Food:

1. Fresh berries
This might sound SOO boring and you might be thinking,"Joy what the heck everyone has fruit," but there's something special about having them in the winter that makes them so much more enjoyable(probably because it reminds me of summer). I normally take a bag of blueberries and bring them to my first hour class and eat them, and then after school snack on some blackberries!

2. Basil Pesto, Black Olive and Feta
YAY pesto!! It can literally go on anything. I have recently been making my own paninis at home with pesto, lettuce, cheese, ham, etc and then putting it into the toaster oven at home. It's DELISH! Also, I'll put just pesto and then some parmesan cheese and wallah-- super easy tasty lunch!

Fashion:

1. WithWaikei
I discovered her at the beginning of the month, and she is now my style inspiration. She has her own blog and makes every outfit look so effortless and put-together!! If you want to check her out, this is her blog. 

2. Olivia Jade
Aunt Becky from Full House's daughter inreallife. She's gorgeous(just like Aunt Becky/Lori Loughlin) and her minimalistic attitude about makeup and fashion is right up my alley!! She has a Youtube channel that is growing so quickly, she just has a really down to earth, non bragging personality which I think can be rare in the Youtube fashion community.

3. Morphe
This month I purchased a morphe eyeshadow palette, it's called Fall into Frost. IT'S AMAZING. It has 35 different colors, with one row being matte colors, and the rest cute glittery colors. It's only $22 which is QUITE cheap for 35 extremely pigmented eyeshadows. I feel like since I'm just experimenting with makeup, it's a great palette for a beginning like me! :) However, some beauty gurus like Jaclyn Hill and Zoella rave about this palette as well, and they're certainly not beginners. You can buy it at morphebrushes.com and if you go to Jaclyn Hill's Youtube channel I think she has a discount for the palettes as well.

As I end this blog post, I am going to end it with an idea that I want to focus on in February. I know that I've (more than once), felt incredibly uncomfortable around a person who has hardcore judged another person and assumed their whole life story after meeting them just one time. They say things that are downright rude and unneccessary, but most of all WRONG about the other person and based on zero facts. Recently I had one of these experiences, and I just wanted to focus on the fact that it's not right to judge other people and assume that you know everything about them after just one or even several interactions with them. "Judging a book by it's cover," can also be applied to a person. Obviously, it is very difficult to judge other people; we judge EVERYTHING every time that we're on social media, and this judge mental mindset leaks into our interactions with another. It's important to talk about some more serious topics like these, and I challenge you this month to be less judgmental of others and remember to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Happy February! xx
Joy :)