Yeehaw

Cowboy Church.

Have you ever heard of it? It's a celebration of Jesus while being surrounded by God's incredible creatures: horses.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of dress shopping for the perfect attire to go with my worn-down cowboy boots. Yes, that's right... My handsome boyfriend took me on a date to cowboy church.

To start our blazin' hot evening (I mean that in the sense of mother nature, of course - 100 degrees) we drove approximately 55 miles outside of town to a small barn in the middle of no where. We were greeted by stables of friendly horses and cheerful people. We ate salsa, mingled and made good friends with a freakishly tall horse named Domingo. I've decided horses are like big dogs, they all have personalities and crave attention.

After about an hour of snacking, befriending, and sweating the sermon finally began. We listened as flies swarmed the barn and were taught on scripture about prosperity, and - of course - horses.

Following our service the church put on a hoedown. It was such a delight! An old lady taught everyone to square dance, and giggled and boogied till it was past my bedtime!

I highly encourage everyone to be adventurous. What a blessing it is to be able to cherish such memorable and magical moments. Plus, it doesn't hurt I have a stud of a boyfriend to share my life with. 

And most of all: Let your Light shine☀

Excuses, excuses.

I have been busy, and distracted and completely procrastinating about posting on here. But, as my grandma says: Enough is enough. (Ok, I lied, my grandma doesn't really say that..)

With summer school well on its way to becoming overwhelming, I am still making time to enjoy my summer. The sunshine is brighter than before, the sweating more intense, but what goodness it is to be able to enjoy late nights, friends coming home, and eating veggie burgers on the grill.

I haven't taken the time to mention details of my INCREDIBLE trip to Africa, but one of the many things that changed me when I returned home was my eating habit. I no longer am eating meat! Surprisingly it is actually going quite well, and as I explore the ins and outs of this lifestyle I will share some recipes that have worked well for me. Starting with my veggie burger dish from last night!

Dillon and I headed to our local Whole Foods market, bought eggplant and black bean packaged burgers, tomatoes, avocados, buns, brown eggs, and onions. We fried the eggs, cheesed and grilled the burgers, sautéed the onions, spread the toasted buns with avocado, layered the tomatoes.

Best. Burger. Ever.

I highly recommend substituting your meat one day this week with one of these. Yum!

The patty I ate was made from gardenburger, black bean chipotle flavor.

Have you had a veggie burger? If so, what was your thought? If not, try it and please tell me how you liked it in comparison!

Let your light shine.

Africa

I am home from Zimbabwe! What a beautiful experience it was - here are a few captured moments :)

Also, never forget how enormously magnificent our God is. We are beyond blessed.

in case you get confused.

This is the start of something new...

So, for about a year now I have had a desire to begin a collection. This thought has pondered my mind continually. It wasn't until I was shopping for work in Atlanta last January that what i would begin collecting finally hit me.

I had thought about collecting everything from aprons to teapots, and broaches to coffee mugs. I knew that whatever I decided to acquire I wanted it to resemble me in some way. I wanted it to reflect my passions and relate to my personality. I wanted my combination of goodies to be original as well as easy and trendy to display.

After much thought, like I said, I dedicated my collection to the finding of retro cameras. The rules of this process are simple: 1) only add to your collection through gifts and 2) tangible purchases. The reason I limited my collection to these two rules is because I want to eliminate the ease of purchasing online. I feel like a collection is divine through one's accumulation process. I want my collection to take time and be priceless to me individually.

For this reason my accumulation of treasures has been minimal. Spring of 2010 I received an older film camera from my uncle and that was the only piece to my wishful display. But yesterday, in the midst of scrummaging through used clothing for my Zimbabwe mission... I found it.

This old Kodak camera is the coolest. I found it - disclaimer: my roommate actually showed it to me - and I knew it had to make it to my shelves. It has a little case and strap to go with it and it just looks so nifty!

Here's a snapshot of it sitting on my desk's bookshelf. Let me know what you think.

What is it that you collect? Or what do you dream of collecting?

Classic Treasures

My heart aches for some fabulous finds off of etsy.com - here are some most recent finds that demand a surplus of attention.

I apologize in advance for any purchases you might make after this post. However, in my defense all of these treasures are reasonably priced and exceptionally happy.

Enjoy!

Vintage locket

Luxedeluxe - this would NEVER leave my finger.

Cat eye sunglasses

Tangerine blouse

Polaroid

1950's Jacket

Happy days ahead

This summer shall be jam packed with recipes and adventure.

I am ready, are you?

Flow

"God made love to be something that cannot be stored - we are rivers, not reservoirs."

I needed this reminders No matter how sad or upset someone can make me, and No matter how many tears I may cry - as a follower of Christ, I am still called to continuously flow love from my being.

Let's be realistic here... as hard as it is sometimes to display love in our lives, things could be far worse. It's not like God is expecting us to be as extreme as rapids, but He still wants us to be moving, advancing, giving. He wants this or the people we already love, the people we do not even know, and especially the ones we don't like.

So here's to today. Heres to making it better than my night, and filling it with God's love. And here's to this past week and a praise for downloading the blogger app on my phone so i can better connect on here.

Enjoy the instagrams of my life lately. I just downloaded vso, so I expect to have even more fun pictures soon :)

Let your light shine.

I did it

Yes.


I did it. And I did it without breaking down.


I have conquered finals. And I even made a 100% on my last final - what a way to end this horrendous week off, right? The grand finale of fireworks were indeed cheer-worthy. 


Praise God I got through this, and I am even more thankful to take the time and be joyful for the incredible opportunity to educate myself more fully. Usually this time of year I get exceptionally bitter, but this year the good Lord put a few different things in my path to maintain my focus and eyes on Him.


One of the things that really stuck out this week was Francesca Battistelli's song called "Don't Miss it." The simple lyrics have reminded me to be thankful for this chance to earn an education. Despite dreading the tests and exams that come with college, I still maintained a positive outlook during the week. Here is the chorus:

"Don't try so hard to move past the moment.These days go by and they're gone before you know it.So come on, open your window, let the light shine in -This is life don't miss it"

I have determined there is still something so pleasant about expanding your knowledge base. This song just helps to establish my joy for life and all things included within that.


However, the most significant impact of my week happened the Sunday before finals week. I started my finals week off with a concert at Lee University in Cleveland, TN - I went with two of my dearest friends to see Gungor.


They are without a doubt one of the most impressive musicians I have ever seen perform. Ever. They are so full of the desire to glorify God that His presence was so overwhelming in the auditorium. 

Having hundreds of fellow Christ followers worshipping in one room is without a doubt powerful. It is so phenomenal to see God work. This concert calmed me and prepared me for the week to come, and helped me to keep God writing my life's script. I maintained God's leadership, and let him take charge.


The only thing God can't do is fail, remember? While God doesn't only want A students, he sure did provide for me - 100% remember?


Let God reign.

PS - Here's the email my professor sent me after the exam:

Hi Laura - I thought you'd want to know that you got every single question right on the exam.  That's a first for me - congratulations.

God is good. Happy summer!

My creature

This makes me giggle. Even when I'm drowning in the dreaded disease known as "finals," I can still be amused by the hilarity of my puppy dog's howl.

This happens almost every time a cop car drives by, or the ice-cream man makes his run down my street.

It never gets old.

Side note, Gibson got a bath today - he really is a good pup. Despite his tremendous amout of shedding, and frequent needs for potty-breaks, I am blessed to have him.  Sometimes people say I saved a life, but in truth we saved each other's lives.

I think the good Lord puts quirky creatures into our paths to keep us sane, Gibson definitely helps level me out.

And don't let me forget to mention how amazing Dillon is. Man, does he do good things for my soul! He makes me laughs, adds to my faith, and reminds me to live life. Dillon often calls me boring because I'm always being productive, but I honestly can't begin to imagine how incredibly dull my life would be if I didn't have him to add some flavor to my days.

I am one lucky gal. <3

Riddle

What's black, white, and red all over?

This time the answer is not the newspaper :)

Me, last Thursday night in my fabulous Calvin Klein dress I found at TJ Maxx for under $40!

Huzzah!

I believe.

This would be me procrastinating the inevitable dread of finals approaching next week, but I love this quote and I had a great desire to play with Illustrator today.

I find this quote to be wildly appropriate in my life right now. Not only do I see God so actively at work in my own life, but I see him consistently doing so many good things for the people around me. A dear friend of mine raised $2,000 for a China mission trip in less than two weeks, another friend is successfully selling shirts for a mission in Haiti.

God shows up in all occasions, and his work can be tremendous so long we open the door to his power. 

Let your light shine, let the sun rise, let the goodness of our Savior beam.

Catch Up

This week I spent most of my hours studying for an intense law exam, and finishing up a 20 page paper. Needless to say,( despite having to work in the morning) I am so very glad it is the weekend before my last week of class. Regardless of finals quickly approaching, I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I cannot wait.

Over Easter weekend I made my lemon cookies for our egg-hunt. If you haven't tried these yet, I seriously recommend you spend an hour of your time and do it. They were the first to be completely devoured by the attendees, plus they simply looked marvelous and happy on the table.

Check out the recipe, you (and the people you share with) will be very happy you did.

Watch Out World

Today I did my first radio co-hosting with Small Business Roundtable. For a couple of months now I have been interning under John Martin, the host, and I now had the opportunity for some airtime.

How fun it is.

If you're interested in getting some tips of being an entrepreneur, I recommend you listen.

I hope you enjoy!

LISTEN HERE.

Captured

I found this "Type Design" source via Pintrest tonight, and I am so happy to announce someone understands my addiction to taking pictures. Personally, I have a strong desire to capture every moment of our lives. Day by day life seems to move faster and faster, and I yearn to remember it visually - through photography.

It's not rare for me to get made fun for always having my camera out.  I have even been told I need to attend rehab for my consistent need to snapshot the life that surrounds me. But despite the jokes, I have no desire to stop.

And this design only helps to fuel my itch to click.

Sean Wes

So I urge you to take more pictures and be open to being in more pictures. Days, months or years down the road you won't regret it - even if you do regret cutting your hair a certain way or whatever fashion trend you submitted to.

Photograph your life, and let your light shine.

Blessed

Even with everything crazing going on lately, I just need to take a moment and remind myself of how great my God is.

And how cool my iPhone is for letting me create fun things like this.

I don't wanna be

“Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and talk about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.”  - C. Joybell

If you ever are feeling low, and you need a quick encouragement - C. JoyBell C. offers some of the wisest thoughts in the world. I am exceptionally impressed by her ability to beautifully convey in words that help overcome all the encounters life provides. Man, what an inspiration!

Her quote leads me right into my post about someone else who is quite incredible with words - in lyric writing that is. 

I recently saw Gavin DeGraw in concert. Aside from a country singer opener, the night was fantastic. I stood singing and dancing to his old songs with one of my best-friends, Kendra. We let our hair down (ok, not literally, since it was so hot in the venue) regardless, we enjoyed the entire experience.

Gavin DeGraw is one exceptional artist. 

I highly recommend spending a few extra dollars to see him live. It will rock your world.

There's more

There's more - that concept seems so simple to really reflect on and hard to grasp, but I'm here to tell you it's legitimately true. 

I'm sure you've heard the saying about the grass always being greener on the other side, but in all honesty we just don't utilize the complete goodness our life can have. If we just focused a little bit more on making our lawn luscious and well nourished then our front yard would be greener. And honestly I think that's all there is to it - I think that we have the utilities to make our lives fabulous, we just don't take advantage of it.

I'm reading a book. Ok, that's a lie... I've had this book sitting on my bookshelf for months now, and I'm not actually reading it. But I picked it up earlier this week and saw a brilliant quote. It make me smile and I hope it's a quick reminder to yourself that we have a God who is God. Do you realize how fantastic that is? 

                 

God isn't some far away object. He is a father that is every present in our lives. The bible shares with us how magnificent He is, but so often we dismiss all His incredible goodness. He specifically tells us about his availability to bring joy into our lives. He tells us to knock and a door will be opened. The only thing God can't do is fail.

Quit settling. Start to retrieve the finest things in life - Godly things. Rely on all that our Lord can offer and your grass will be greener than a fresh four-leaf clover.

And if you ask me - that is a remarkable blessing I would hate to waste.

Breakfast of Champions

I believe that food is a staple to our lives. Not simply because the substance is something our body needs to survive, but it is a consistent feature in almost all bonding experiences. First dates typically involve a dinner, family get-togethers have snacks of some sort, and holidays always end with a home-cooked meal and lots of conversation.

So often you see married couples of many years eating silently across the table with "nothing to talk about." But I find it hard not to converse when someone so handsome is sitting directly in front of me.

I'm talking about Dillon.

Not too long ago we decided to clear our morning schedules and get breakfast in a place I had never gone before. If you know nothing about me, here's one valuable fact: I love breakfast. Dillon knows the way to my heart, and after already dining at this small local downtown diner, he immediately decided that I had to go, and he was going to take me.

I'm so glad he did.

Longhorn is like an upscale Waffle House - except with pancakes and they don't call you by a pet-name. Dillon and I were so intrigued by all the menu choices we decided to each get a meal, as well as share a plate of pancakes.

Needless to say our table was so full we had to remove extra condiments so everything would fit.

You may say gluttony, but I say it is memories.

With bellies full of lots of food and our hearts full of love, our entire morning was priceless. 

Let my experience be an inspiration to you. Add some valuable conversation to your life over a meal this week, and fall in love with the intimacy food shares. Be even more daring and go to a restaurant you've never been before.

Live a little, and let your light shine.

Give me a break

Today marks the end of my last undergrad spring break. My "junior" status in school has been promoted to senior as I project a December graduation. Thus, while writing this blog it came to my attention that having delightful "just because you deserve it" breaks will be coming to a complete end. Unfortuantley, spring break won't happen when I'm a "real person." By real person, I mean an adult.

Ohh, my.... I just cringed a little at the thought.

Nonetheless, I will look back on this week and cherish the little spontaneity I had.  I am well pleased with the extra hours of sleep, the pain in my legs from a decent run and the excitement for the new things that have been introduced into my life.

Instead of giving you a split second recap of my entire break in one blog I decided it'd be best to formulate a few blogs about the days I spent not doing homework.

I will start with the highlight of my entire week.

Wednesday.

On Wednesday I went into the woods with Dillon, my handsome boyfriend, and Gibson, my adventurous pup.

The weather was perfect, the water was cold and the sun was shining. Needless to say, the hike was perfection. That is until Dillon twisted his ankle, but we won't focus on that part.

I have come to terms that the only time my dog ever really behaves is when he's in the woods. I'm not sure why, but I can let him off his leash and pretty much guarantee he'll be nearby rolling in the mud, running the trail or smelling a bush in our path.

It's amazing how good he is.

Gibson climbs rocks like he was born with thumbs and swims in the water as if he were native to it. Ironically, the same goes for Dillon but lucky for him - he was born with thumbs.

I, however, get somewhat prissy when it comes to being dangerous and always sometimes require a piggy-back ride.

On a complete side note, I have lost my red lipstick! It's time to buy a new stick, any suggestions to a "kiss-proof" brand?