Category: Yours Truly

Where I write my latest personal thoughts, what I have been up to lately, cool events I have attended and wanted to share my experience, recipes, books I’ve read, latest interests, and just about anything I can’t categorize!

Yours Truly

Why I Love Women of Comedy!

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Hey everyone! Hope you are having an awesome Tuesday! If you know me, you know I love love love watching comedies! You can probably also tell from my photo above that I enjoy reading books by comedians. Side note, these are not my only favorite comedians, just the ones I own books of! These books are funny and also great because you get to learn about each of these women’s lives and what it took for them to be successful. Some of my fave ladies of comedy include: Kristen Wiig, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Regina Hall, Amy Schumer (she’s growing on me), Ellen, Wanda Sykes, Melissa McCarthy, Chelsea Peretti, Maya Rudolph, and a few more!

I’ve recently been thinking about what we watch on TV and how it affects us. Yes, most TV shows are watched to relax and “escape” from our busy, everyday lives, but what if you could watch something that wasn’t all about the drama or shock value
Continue reading “Why I Love Women of Comedy!”

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Yours Truly

Vegas Baby! [My Photo Travel Journal]

Hey everyone! I was in Vegas with two of my best friends just over a month ago, so I thought this would be a great Throwback Thursday blog post! It’s a very common vacation destination, but for people like us who hadn’t been there before, we were getting SO many mixed opinions of what to do. Here is a photo journal with short captions summarizing our trip and what WE did! I’ll tell ya, we went full tourist mode. I wrote a blurb with some recommendations at the bottom! Pretty much all these photos were taken with a Samsung S5 and edited just on Instagram. Enjoy 🙂

Off to Las Vegas for my first time…

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Really cool random building on the way to North Side Outlet Mall…

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Ziplining down old Vegas, aka Fremont Street!
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Continue reading “Vegas Baby! [My Photo Travel Journal]”

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Yours Truly

Captured Emotions [with Ampersand Grey Photography!]

Hey everyone! Happy Wednesday! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve likely seen my latest posts with photos from Michel Austin at Ampersand Grey Wedding Photography. She’s based here in Edmonton! I chose these three photos for this post because I felt like even though they are all in black and white, they each still portray a different emotion, hence, captured emotions. I love the last one because it looks really artsy. These photos were taken at Michel’s studio, which looks like a very cool loft. She was a BLAST to work with and we tried out so many different shots, I loved it! There are still many more I haven’t posted, so stay tuned for those! 🙂 If you haven’t seen the ones on the last post, click here! Thank you for checking out my blog!AmpersandGrey005_WEB Continue reading “Captured Emotions [with Ampersand Grey Photography!]”

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Yours Truly

Give Yourself Some “ME” Time! Ya Need it!

AmpersandGrey052_WEB“Me” time.

What is “Me” time? Well, it is what it sounds like…time dedicated to yourself. Only yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re introverted or extraverted, every person needs some alone time. We all lead busy lives and sometimes we forget that we need to stop for a second and think about ourselves.

Being constantly occupied with life’s duties such as work, family, friends, studying, and everything else can lead to stress. Even if we enjoy being busy, it’s bound to get overwhelming at times. There was one point when I was in my last semester of my degree; I was studying, working, volunteering, trying to get blog photoshoots done, and in the beginning I thought, “I’m an independent woman…look at all the things I’m getting done!”

Continue reading “Give Yourself Some “ME” Time! Ya Need it!”

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Yours Truly

#YEGSpotlight: Crush and Co.

Happy Thursday everyone! Wooh, today I thought I’d spotlight one of my favorite boutique/boutique owners, it is a boutique on the west side of Edmonton called Crush & Co.! Yes, I’ve collaborated with them a few times already and just love the team as well as their clothing and makeup artistry! If you didn’t know, my makeup is always done by Nina in any Crush & Co. feature, she seriously does an amazing job everytime! Check out some of my day hanging out at Crush & Co.!

Crush & Co. is owned by the lovely Nina Nguyen who started the store with just a makeup station and had no idea that the rest of it would turn it into a clothing boutique. Nina’s journey to where she is now is a great story if you ever stop by and ask her (which I suggest you do!). She didn’t know she was going to be into makeup until she started at MAC, and seven plus years later, she’s still doing it! The store used to be her mother’s bridal boutique that Nina was not interested to have as her own business, so all bridal is now on the upper level of Crush & Co. Nina always had a love for fashion however, and was always a hustler! When she was younger she’d sell her clothes out of the back of her car and her friend’s kept asking for MORE because they loved her style. It was this realization that she decided, with personal touches, selling clothing (in addition to doing makeup) would be the perfect plan. And I’d definitely have to agree…IMG_2192 Continue reading “#YEGSpotlight: Crush and Co.”

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Yours Truly

I THOUGHT IT WAS FRIDAY?!

Hey everyone! What’s up? As the title says, I thought today was Friday and was already mentally relaxing, but nope, it’s Thursday. Haha. I thought I’d take some time and thank the loyal readers and newcomers for supporting my blogging journey. It’s a passion of mine that I plan to improve and grow! Stay tuned and have a great weekend! Photo by Lord Ski. Continue reading I THOUGHT IT WAS FRIDAY?!

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Yours Truly

Got Bloggers-Block?!

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Happy New Years everyone! It is OFFICIALLY 2015! I hope you all had an amazing holiday! It has officially been ALMOST two months since my last post…super not cool. Something that is cool though is that I have finished my degree! WOOH. I’ve been relaxing with family and friends the past few weeks, working, soul searching…..ANYWAYS, it’s time to get back to blogging! Vacation is over! LOL.

I wanted to write about how to stay motivated to keep blogging once you’ve started. Yes, this will be more of a reading-type blog post rather than the usual visual and style ones (so if you don’t like reading, scroll and see the pics and goodbye!). I wanted to share tips on things I’ve learned to stay motivated to keep blogging and how not get discouraged when things don’t take off as fast as you’d have liked! Remember, your blog will only become a success if you have a passion for doing it. If it’s a chore to you and you’ve never enjoyed blogging, quit now. Continue reading “Got Bloggers-Block?!”

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Yours Truly

My Quinoa Salad Recipe!

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Hey everyone! Long time– I know! I love eating healthy, although times like now, during finals, the importance of my nutrition tends to deprioritize. This recipe I’m about to show you for my salad above (yes, I took that photo of my photogenic meal with my android) is a mix of a few recipes I found online, plus my own twist of whatever I had in my fridge at the time…you’ll especially like this if you like chipotle or taco salads. When it comes to portions, I’m not really sure, I just feel that if you like something in your salad put more, if you don’t, put less. Also, I’m not sure how many people this serves…depends how much you eat haha… So here goes… Continue reading “My Quinoa Salad Recipe!”

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Yours Truly

No Spend November!

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Hello everyone! Okay, so this past September and October I have been spending an unnecessary amount of money. It’s like I think I’m Kim Kardashian and socializing IS LIFE…but no, it’s not haha. I don’t know if it’s because this is my last semester and I’m trying to enjoy it to the fullest by eating at restaurants all the time and going out often, but it has to stop– okay, not totally stop, but for November. In my first two or three years of university and on my own, I literally NEVER ate fast food or at restaurants. I also went to clubs like once a month. I was SO good at saving money. Wahhhh. No lie. I should be saving up to pay back the acquired costs of university and living. I would also like to buy some really good Christmas presents this year! So, to solve this problem, I will be doing No Spend November to hopefully lead into good habits that will carry on to December and 2015. I got the No Spend November idea from my coworker and thought it was great. I just need to go back to my old ways mannnnn. Continue reading “No Spend November!”

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Yours Truly

Reader’s Question: What Motivates [Me]?

ashleyHey everyone! A while ago I asked my followers and friends on social media to send in some questions or requests that they’d like to see on the blog. One was this: What motivates you? At first I was trying to figure out what I should talk about is my motivation to do a specific thing, but I realized all things require motivation, and if you’re like me, most of the things I do are tied in together somehow. So this will be about what motivates me in life. Things in my life that require motivating include anything from getting a fulfilling career, continuing to learn, school, continuing to workout and be fit, relationships, blogging, working, staying organized, and pretty much everything that requires effort and dedication in order to do well.

I have created a well thought out list of seven different things that keep me motivated to do the things I love, whether they require hard work or not. Here we go…

Continue reading “Reader’s Question: What Motivates [Me]?”

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Yours Truly

#TBT: Tastemakers’ #JiveGlasshouse Garden Party!

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Hey everyone! Happy #ThrowbackThursday! Here is an event that I sadly haven’t posted about yet, but it’s WELL worth posting 🙂

On July 27th, Tastemakers held the 3rd annual Jive Glasshouse Garden Party. It was a very hot, but beautiful afternoon, LOTS of sun, and everyone looked amazing in all white! I was the MC for this event, and I had a pleasure introducing the sponsors and local talent, Jessica Holtby, Karima, and DJ Mitchmatic! Screen Shot 2014-08-05 at 8.46.27 PMI was honestly blown away by Karima’s performance…after her original set was over, the crowd wanted more, so she gave it to them 🙂

At this event, there was a lot of socializing going on, and there was a ton of new faces! There were also activities like wafer golf (golf where you tried to get the ball in a bowl), bubbles, a candy bar, a huge selfie mirror, and of course photographers to take photos! There was gorgeous furniture and delicious hors d’ouvrés, although I was running around so much, I didn’t get to try it all!

Continue reading “#TBT: Tastemakers’ #JiveGlasshouse Garden Party!”

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Why I write in my Journal! [Benefits of “Journaling”]

IMG_0234.JPGHey everyone! I hope you are all doing well today! The sun is up & it’s actually nice out in Edmonton. This past weekend I strolled into Coles, because I always love finding an interesting book to read, or beautiful notebooks, journals, or even gifts I can get for people. I came across this suede, ancient-style, gold and purple journal and just HAD to have it. I felt it looked unique, and I’ve always wanted a leather journal.

Anyways, what most people don’t know about me is that I journal (if that’s not a verb, it is now!). My whole life from when I was in second or third grade, when my parents got me a Little Mermaid journal (it was so cute), was when I started. I write my life basically day-to-day, as well as write my thoughts on things from the past (reflecting on past significant experiences), how I feel about things in my present, and my goals and dreams for my future. I try to write daily, and sometimes if I have a lot going through my mind, I’ll write more than that. I feel journals should definitely be kept secret, because it’s supposed to be a place of your own, where you can let your mind out without being judged or persuaded into thinking something else. Continue reading “Why I write in my Journal! [Benefits of “Journaling”]”

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