Coziest Playlist

I'm a playlist person. 

I am always creating playlists for various occasions, from the shower to a long car ride, or getting ready for a night out to a cozy night in. 

I am totally ready for snowy, winter nights with candles lit and music playing. 

Here is my cozy, winter playlist:

• Incomplete - James Bay
• We Don't Eat - James Vincent McMorrow
• Like Real People Do - Hozier
• She Used To Be Mine - Sara Bareilles
• Playing With Fire - Thomas Rhett (ft. Jordin Sparks)
• Don't Go - Rae Morris
• Vandalizer - Sam Hunt
• Shooting Star - Air Traffic
• Till Kingdom Come - Coldplay
• Thank You - Amber Run
• Miss Your Fire - Casey James
• Hank - Ben Rector
• You Are My Rock - Beyonce
• Shelter - Birdy
• Midnight Girl - Casey Abrams
• Wrap Me Up - Leddra Chapman
• Windows - Lewis Watson
• Weathered - Jack Garratt
• Suitcase Full of Sparks - Gregory Alan Isakov

Let me know what you'll be listening to on those snowy (hopefully) winter nights, 

Love Always, 

Laura

Month in Photos: November

As it is almost the end of December, I thought I would share my favourite photos from November (oops).

I have an excessive amount of love for Christmas and anything festive or wintery. However, we still don't have any snow here so I am very disappointed to say the least. 

My friend and I went on a blustery evening hike. I celebrated a birthday for my friend from high school. And then went to the Christmas Market for the first time (and loved it of course!)

Month in Photos: October

It's almost Christmas so I am clearly a little behind.

This is my month in photos for October! 

I celebrated Thanksgiving with both my Mom's and my Dad's families. Then had a blast at my work's 'staff appreciation' event. Went to my first NHL hockey game. Celebrated my boyfriends birthday and then went to two Halloween events!

I have never really been a Halloween person but two of my good friends threw a Halloween Stag and Doe party so we had to go of course! 

Here are some of my favourite photos from October... and then I will do November... and then December and we will finally be caught up! Woot woot!

Favourites No 3.

Poetry!

Forgive me, this weeks favourites will look and feel similar to the last. It's because this week I chose to share my current favourite books of poetry. While technically books, these are not in anyway similar to the likes of Harry Potter and his adventures with Ron and Hermione or the plight of Hester Prynne. 

Lets dive in.

• Love by Lang Leav
• I Wrote This For You: Just the Words by pleasefindthis
• No Matter The Wreckage by Sarah Kay
• Unwritten Letters To You by T.B LaBerge
• Lullabies by Lang Leav
• The Lovers Dictionary by David Levithan (I know this is technically a novel but I group it in with my poetry books because to me, it just flows like poetry)

Hooray for poetry.

Love always, 

Laura

Favourites No. 2

Books!

I am a total bookworm. I often much prefer the company of the characters from my latest book over anyone else. I still find myself picking up a book a after climbing into bed and suddenly it is many hours later and I am willing the book not to end. 

Here are a few of the books of which the characters and story had the biggest impact on me.

• Fall on your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
• Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (This might by considered cheating, oh well)

These are honestly some of the stories that helped establish my love of literature. 

Honorable mentions go to: Charlotte's Web, Harriet the Spy, and Emma

Bookworms unite!

Love always,

Laura

A Bit of Frustration

I always struggle a bit with Mental Health Awareness Week. It's not that I don't think it's important to bring awareness to a part of life that is often frowned upon, hidden away, or dismissed altogether. It's that it seems that for one week out of the year, people are really talking about the lack of awareness, lack of understanding, lack of services. But then it all ends. 

I struggle because people who live everyday with some form of mental illness don't get to just living with it. We don't get to stop dealing with it or stop acknowledging it. There are so many examples of mental illness being used as a scapegoat for other issues in the media lately - watch John Oliver talk about this, more eloquently then I ever could here - if politicians are going to blame metal illness for causing social issues, then why not try to create avenues to help people who need those services. 

I guess the reason that I don't jump up and down for Mental Health Awareness week, is that when it's all said and done, I still have to go through everyday with the stigma attached to having a mental illness. I still go through every day expending all of my energy keeping my anxiety and negative thoughts in check while going through everyday activities and staying upbeat. It is exhausting. And yet, I wouldn't trade it for anything because I know that it has made me the person that I am today, it has taught me to feel through my emotions, to follow my heart, to embrace positivity. 

Mental health awareness deserves more than one week a year. People who live every day, both good and bad days, with mental illness deserve more than one week a year. 

Okay, rant over. 

Love always, 

Laura

Favourites No. 1

Music!

Music holds a very important place in my life and my favourite artists/songs/albums are always changing but a few are steadfast 'top of the list' contenders.

• Air Traffic
• Sara Bareilles
• Ron Pope
• Missy Higgins
• Sam Smith
• James Bay 

I always have a new favourite song of the moment so I am always up for new discoveries. Let me know what sorts of music you listen to.

Love always, 

Laura

Month in Photos: September

It's that time again. 

Here are some of my favourite photos from the month of September (be warned I went on a little trip so I have an unusually high number of favourites).

Not Your Typical First Date

Let's get to know one another.

One of my favourite things is lists. I love lists. So I made a few for you so that we can know all of the important details about each other. 

I can't help it. I like a lot of things

• Typography (It just looks so good)
• Poetry (I am hugely impacted by various written and spoken poetry - shout out to Lang Leav who somehow understands all of my emotions)
• Music (I don't just listen to music, I listen to music. Every aspect of it is important to me. I think I could actually go on for hours about this... Let's not get off topic)
• Photography (I love to take photos of everything... Actually everything)
• Art (It has such a special place in my heart, I would prefer to go to an art gallery over almost any other place)
• Books (I don't think that 'bookworm' really encompasses how much I love to read. One of my life goals is to have a library in my home...)
• Writing little love notes (I do my best to surround myself with people I can't imagine life without. People who challenge me to do more, see more, be more and I like to let them know how much of an impact they make)
• Tea (I drink tea everyday. Not joking. Not even a little bit)
• Mugs (How could I forget mugs?! I have such a large collection... One day I'll show you)
• Cooking (I'm trying to learn how to cook. I'm good at about three things as of right now)
• Yoga
• Travelling

Don't worry, this isn't the end. Before I hopped over here, I made a few (four, I made four) lists of some of my favourite things. Am I the only one singing a little Sound of Music right now? They are just some different things like movies, music, books, the usual. 

Lets compare? Fill me in on some of your favourites because I'm nosy like that.

Love always, 

Laura

Help, I'm Stuck

This past year has been one of many changes.

From people to school and back again. I learnt the true colours of certain people that I cared about. Others that I love took massive steps towards their goals (which lead them geographically away from me). On top of that learning to navigate the transition from student to graduate (and unemployed at that) was really difficult. I set out to find myself a career in my field and much to my dismay, I couldn't. I networked, applied to every opening, put myself out there in every professional manner I came across but nothing was working. I made the decision to head back into what I done to support myself throughout school, serve. 

I had promised myself that I wasn't going to go back into the restaurant/golf course industry because it was just too hard on my body and I was ended up back tracking into some not so great habits. Soon I found my self right back in that place I was at 19 - stressed and feeling stuck.

Over the last month, I made it my mission to get 'unstuck'. My job had begun to take up so much of my time that I didn't have a spare moment to do anything for me. I stopped networking, stopped looking for volunteer opportunities, stopping blogging, basically stopped everything. I took a step back and said to myself, I can't keep doing this, I am not happy. 

So here is what I did:

- signed up for a french course

- went on a little trip to beautiful British Columbia

- started looking at different opportunities within my desired field

- bought some new books (and colouring books)

I really needed to find a way to keep moving forward while still succeeding in a job that allowed me to get by financially and save up the money I needed to get myself to where I want to be. 

Each and every day I try to set aside a little time for myself and it was exactly what I needed to get myself back up and moving towards what I want for my future. 

Always remember that you are in charge of where you end up. Every day you choose your path so try your darnedest to make one step closer to what makes you happiest. 

Love always, 

Laura

Month in Photos: August

One of my favourite ways to look back on all of the things that I have gotten up to lately, is to put all of the photos from each month together. I have a bit of a photo organization obsession so this process is something I really enjoy. 

Here are some of my favourite photos from August!