Hey cuties!! I hope you're all enjoying this luxurious month of self-love and making sure to be extra nice to yourselves! 

My last post about self-love was about trying to go easier on yourself when you can't cross off EVERY.SINGLE.ITEM on your to-do list, and trying to keep in mind all the things that you did accomplish. This mental exercise is also about accomplishment - but tied more specifically to your body. 

I want you to think about your body, but not about how it looks. I want you to think about what it can do.

I, for example, have some big thighs. I have a booty that's pretty big for the rest of me, and my thighs end up on the larger size since they're connected. I wasn't ever a huge fan growing up but didn't toooooootally hate them. I've recently become even more proud of them, though, and it's all because I realized what they could do. 

We have a workout class every week on Wednesdays, and we did a fitness test at the beginning of January to see where we were all at. It was tests like seeing how many squats you could do in 2 minutes, or how many push ups, etc. There was one test where you had to rest on the wall as if you were sitting on a chair, and hold yourself up for as long as possible. People started dropping out after 45 seconds....1 minute...and by 1 minute 30 seconds I was the only person left! I ended up holding the position for over 3 minutes and I was wayyyyy proud!

[obv not my workout clothing hehe, just wanted to demo what I was talking about!]

So, now when I look at my thighs, I don't think "oh, these are my beastly thighs" but instead I think "oh BOOYAH, these are the thighs that can hold a wall-sit for crazy long!" And instead of just being regular arms, my arms are the arms that can do 30 pushups like it's nothing! [Well, 'like nothing' is a total exaggeration, but it's about building yourself up in any case!]

Next time you start thinking about your body and thinking just about it's outward appearance - STOP! Switch back, reverse your thinking, and start associating your body parts with all the amazing things they can do!

So tell me: what body part are you most proud of and why?
xx

I found this nice cupcake recipe on the Martha site. She never seems to disappoint! I thought this recipe would a perfect one to make with a boyfriend/girlfriend and even friends!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 2 containers (6 ounces each) raspberries, 1 container pureed, 1 container coarsely chopped

You can check the rest of this recipe here!

 Hi friends! As I'm sure many of you who follow me on Twitter [@BlowfishShoes] have seen, I recently got hair extensions put in! In a matter of a few hours, I was transformed from a girl with chin-length hair to a full-on mermaid with hair 20 inches long. Watching myself change in the mirror was interesting, I instantly felt more glamorous and feminine. The whole long hair life has been a whole new experience for me. You see, this is the first time in my sexually mature life that I've had long hair. 

[EMBARRASSING BUT I LOVE YOU GUYS. That's me in high school, and up through the second year of high school. Trying to get the hair thing figured out.]

[The first time I had really short hair...3rd year of college. I had class at 8am EVERYDAY and could NOT be bothered to get up early.]

When I was a little girl, I had waist-length straight blond hair [actually much like the extensions I have now]. Then, when I was 10, there was a lice outbreak at school and I had to cut off most of my hair. I lost a good foot of hair and ended up with a shoulder-length bob. That was 14 years ago, and the longest that it's been since was a brief period in sophomore year of high school when it was about 3 inches below my shoulders. You might think that after the first drastic cut I'd instantly start trying to grow it out again, but hair just wasn't nearly as important. Instead of being something pure to NOT cut or dye or change, it became just another accessory to play with. I started experimenting, and I have been the girl with pink hair, a mohawk, red hair, curly hair, straight hair, blue hair, etc., but never the girl with long hair.

[Studying abroad in Europe...didn't have a hair straightener so it had a mind of it's own. Color returns for the first time since high school!]

[The curly hair phase. Yes, I got a perm. Yes, it was awesome. Yes, I felt like I WAS the 1980s. Yes, I am wearing a cape in that one photo. And yes, finally a student at the Aveda institute did not know how to do a perm properly and COMPLETELY fried it, thus ending the curly hair era. RIP]

I toyed around with the idea of extensions for a long time. They've always intrigued me, but I've always felt that I was too practical to get them. Since I'm a big kid and earn my own money, I figured now was as good a time as any to get them. Then I found out our boot camp instructor has a full head of extensions! Hers look great and I got to ask her a TON of questions about them, so that gave me the confidence to go try them out. I took myself to the salon [again...this doesn't usually happen as I'm an at-home-haircut kinda gal!] and after a few hours I walked out a different person. 

[Once the perm proved my hair too fried to keep, I decided to go crazy and first chop it into a mohawk, and then shave a pattern into one side. I felt seriously badass with this look. And actually a lot like myself.]

[This was most recently, before the extensions. I didn't really like only platinum hair, but I did LOVE the half-rainbow situation that I ended up with. I felt like this hairstyle really suited me, I felt a lot like myself but also very pretty.]

I felt so conspicuous as I walked out! I guess I was partly worried that the extensions didn't match my hair correctly, or that the blond was too artificial of a color, or that it was completely obvious that I had someone else's hair attached to my head. But on a more basic level, I felt conspicuous because I was not used to having almost 2 feet of hair hanging around me! It almost felt like a jacket, or a cape or some additional garment that I was wearing. I definitely got used to the feeling - as I learned how to handle this hair and manage it it didn't feel as obtrusive or noticeable.

So, now I feel like I've almost fully adapted to having long hair - I know how often to wash it, to braid it before sleeping, and even a few ways to accessorize it. The one thing that I have not adapted to is the dramatic difference in male attention. It was something I wondered about before getting extensions - I'm no dummy, and it's pretty apparent that ladies with long hair get more attention from men. But wow, I was not prepared for such a change.

[This is me now! Sorry for the grainy Instagram photo...I haven't taken any real photos with this new hair yet!]

Let me preface all this by letting you know how I see myself: I don't think I'm exceptionally good looking, but I don't think I'm unattractive either. I don't see myself as thin, but I'm realizing that I do have a fairly slim figure and I should be happy with it. Overall, I'm just a regular girl, nothing extraordinary. Having hair like this seems to have turned me into some sort of Barbie - men seem to only see the long hair and the slim figure and that is IT. 

Anytime I walked around on the street, I attracted drop-dead stares from men. Not normal, passing-interest stares, but mouth hanging open, wide-eyed stares. I went on a business trip last week and overheard a TSA officer instructing a man to "line up behind the pretty lady." It took me a second to realize that the pretty lady was ME. I've had more doors held open for me than ever before, and I've never had so many men just come up and start talking to me. It's a little bit unreal and makes me feel very odd.

It makes me feel first like I'm hiding myself. That I'm my same regular weird self stuck into this "pretty girl" body and that I'm pulling a prank on everyone. But then at the same time it does make me feel like myself. Like I always have been this "pretty girl" on the inside, but I just choose to express myself through my hair, which means I end up with short crazy Crayola hair. 

Then it makes me think that it's not really a question of more or less pretty at all. It's really just different looks - and they appeal to different people. Fewer men find short hair attractive than do long hair. It's just a fact that when my hair is short, I appeal to a smaller percentage of men than when it's long. It all makes no difference anyways, being married, but it has been a really interesting experience. 

Does anyone have any feedback? Experience with short hair or with long hair? I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts!

TONS OF LOVE TO ALL YOU GORGEOUS LADIES!
xx

 
Putting away the ornaments...and obviously organizing them in rainbow order! :)

Our baby tree [was I the last person to get rid of theirs??]

Our watchful owl candle :)

This is where I wake up every day! [And yes that's a Cosmo AND a National Geographic haha, you've gotta have both! And I made that book-shelf by my bed! Inspired by this tutorial from Real Simple!] 

A stack of things to hang up...and I found this picture and realized it's from this time last year! :)

What have you been up to lately?