“People often say that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.” - Salma Hayek

take me here

musica!

i found out that i have a friend (marissa) who actually reads this! how weird! maybe i'll update it about more relevant things now... how about the music i have been listening to lately?

albums
mumford and sons - sigh no more
stars of track and field - centuries before love and war; a time for lions
natalie taylor - natalie taylor (i can't stop listening to this one)
band of horses - cease to begin; everything all the time
future of forestry - advent christmas, vol 1; advent christmas, vol 2
greg laswell - take a bow
paper route - absence; thrill of hope ep; thank god the year is finally over ep; are we all forgotten ep
peter bradley adams - leavetaking, gather up ep, traces ep

specific songs
jesse bonanno - never alone
paper route - thank god the year is finally over
stars of track and field - end of all time
states - time to begin
katy perry - teenage dream (i can't help it, i'm obsessed)
chris and conrad - lead me to the cross
natalie taylor - this holiday (come home)
b.o.b. feat. hayley williams - airplanes
bruno mars - marry you
versaemerge - fixed at zero
band of horses - i go to the barn because i like
kadawatha - agape


honorable mention

katharine mcphee - terrified feat. zachary levi

i am in love with zachary levi! i mean, just look at him:



- voice of an angel
- he plays chuck on tv
- he's a christian
- he's super hot
- he probably loves petting kitties and composing music on his piano for me... i mean what?



;)

farewell to some of my favorite boys. i know you'll do great things in the future! praying for you guys -

i need words

I need words
As wide as skies
I need language large as
This longing inside
And I need a voice
Bigger than mine
And I need a song to sing you
That I've yet to find

I need you
Oh, I need you
I need you
Oh, I need you

To be here now
To be here now
To hear me now
To hear me now

these guys will be big one day

http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/artist_videos/476859?sel_song_id=6116902&autoplay=true

watch that, yo. it's called "rattled" and it's by daemon city lights.

i have seen them twice, and they blow my mind. plus i'm friends with a guy in the band! one day i'll be a roadie.

until then, check it

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
- Psalm 8:3-4


thank you God for being everywhere and being in everything. thank you for cherishing me and adopting me as your own. i love how small i feel when i look to you, or when i sense you where the cliffs meet the sea or in the heavens above. i love that you have made a special place in your heart for me. when i look at the stars at night or the sunrise in the mornings out the window above my bed, i am reminded of your grace and beauty. thank you.

this is a world of dreams and revery

my blog's title is "this is a world of dreams and revery". the song that this line comes from is about whimsy and wonder at the daydreams and reveries that we live in as humans. there is something in us that wants more, something that dreams, hopes, muses, and wishes for something grand that's out there. for me, this implies the need for optimistic outlook (which i am not very good at having), faith, and imagination. i want my blog to reflect that. i want to be so much more than i am. i want to be someone who doesn't dwell in the darkest moments of the human condition, but instead rejoices in the hope of a new day in Christ. i want to be able to look past all the sin and broken-heartedness here and focus on the positive impact i can make HERE and NOW for my Savior. I suppose a lot of that comes from the need to really focus on him only, which i have not really been making an effort with.

if anyone comes across this blog, pray for me in these areas. pray the Lord helps me to see the joy and wonder in this life. pray that my eyes are opened to his goodness and grace, and pray that i'll daily find and meet with him. these are crazy times, friends. we need each other more than ever.

found this today, what an encouragement!

61 ways to build your optimism

1. Be realistic about your expectations.
2. Accept the past, manage the present and work hard towards the future.
3. Seek for a ray of light/hope in a negative situation. It’s a bit difficult considering all you are going through, but there’s always an opportunity lurking somewhere in the dark.
4. Utilize what you have for now and aspire to grow in every area of your life, remembering you can only swallow food in bits and pieces before taking another big bite.
5. Be authentic, be yourself and stop hiding behind the MASK of pretence.
6. Get infected by being in a network or company of constructive people, because optimism is positively contagious.
7. Have a dream, believe in it and do everything possible under the sun to run with it.
8. Accept you are human with imperfections.
9. Express love towards other people.
10. Be selective of what you read, hear or watch from the media. Excessive media influence could dampen your spirits.
11. Develop the habit of using positive affirmations constructively.
12. Listen to music. It has the ability to make your mind wander a bit. Come on!!! dance to the groove; sing even if it won’t get you auditioned for XFACTOR.
13. Exercise regularly. Taking care of your body mind and soul builds courage and resilience to face the pressures of the world.
14. Avoid living in self denial.
15. Try as much as you can to stay calm when overwhelmed with the issues of life.
16. Be thankful for everything you have, who you are, the people around you…..
17. Develop a sense of humour. Cultivate the habit of laughing or cracking jokes.
18. Spoil yourself and make sure you enjoy doing so. Go on vacations, get a massage, eat out……..
19. Improve yourself at the slightest opportunity you have. Your capacity to succeed in life will depend on your personal drive to take each opportunity as stepping stones to fulfilling your life long dream.
20. Be gracious enough to accept things you cannot change. There will always be things you cannot change no matter how hard you work at it.
21. Reflect and focus on the good things that have occurred in your life.
22. Create a positive attitude.
23. Don’t harbour any form of resentment particularly with issues from the past.
24. Know when to call it quits. Some things aren’t just worth the effort and time you put into it.
25. Occupy yourself with things that bring out the best in you i.e. family, children,friends, travelling, reading etc
26. Focus on creating solutions and not drowning in problems.
27. Be a positive role model to your children, friends, family etc. Be a source of inspiration to people who look up to you.
28. Be good at your job demonstrating your useful skills.
29. Have a hobby to keep you occupied. It could be a form of sport, reading, writing etc.
30. Improve your physical appearance when necessary.
31. Get some rest because it is required to put things in perspective.
32. Learn something new in order increase your knowledge.
33. Be passionate. Embrace life and everything it stands for with love and passion.
34. Show persistence in all your endeavours because it’s one of the keys to happiness.
35. Worry less because it reduces the level of your anxiety..
36. Celebrate the successes of other.
37. Be determined and motivated to excel in all you’ve set out to do.
38. Learn to try out new things.
39. Maximize your success and give attention to your failures remembering that failures are learning experiences that yield positive results if handled properly.
40. Set a goal so that you will have something to look forward to when the going gets rough.
41. Practice the habit of forgiveness.
42. Avoid clutter. Be organized not only with your things but also with your thoughts and your plans.
43. Create a positive environment in your home or office.
44. Read several motivational stories, blogs,quotes….
45. Think positively about who you are.
46. Develop a strong ambition.
47. Visualize happy thoughts. Imagine a picture in your mind what you want to achieve and how you can achieve them. Oftentimes, what you create in your thoughts give birth to what happens in reality.
48. Walk tall, with your head high up exhibiting confidence.
49. Smile as often as you can. It has a way of showing your sincerity.
50. Have a blend of optimism in the way you pick, choose and say your words.
51. Spend some time taking stock of all the influences in your life. This includes friends, family, television shows, magazines, blogs, etc. Thinks about which aspects of your life motivate you and push you to live positively for yourself. Think about those aspects that pull you down and drain you of your positive energy. Spend less time around the negative influences and more time around the positive!
52. Set aside more time for yourself where you can be alone. Sometimes it is easy to become depressed and grumpy when you give all of your energy to others. Having scheduled “you” time will guarantee that you will be able to pamper yourself and participate in your favorite hobbies.
53. Try changing your perspective about situations. Sometimes that is all it takes to turn a crummy day around. I try very hard to find something positive that will come out of the crappy things that daily life deals us. It doesn’t always happen naturally, but it gets easier when you push yourself to see the good in life.
54. Have friends and family in your life who can cheer you up and encourage you to be positive when you fall down. It’s inevitable that you will have a bad day, stress attack, or an emotional melt down in the future. It happens. The difference between you and a negative person is that you have the courage to get back up and keep going. We all need to be reminded that life really can be amazing if we take the time to see things positively.
55. Fill your space with reminders of how wonderful your life is. Write your favorite encouraging quotes on colorful post-its and paste them around your home.
56. Write letters and cards to your close friends and family with positive wishes and joyful greetings! Spreading positivity helps you feel positive in general!
57. Encourage the people in your life who take on pessimistic attitudes to be more positive. If those people are not willing to hear you out, limit your time around them. Negativity is very draining and you can only be around it for so long before it takes over.
58. Get excited about the little things that make you happy!
59. If you are feeling down and depressed, own your feelings. Don’t deny that you are grumpy. Accept that you aren’t feeling 100% and give yourself time to just be.
60. De-clutter your life! Get rid of things that you don’t love, things that you never use, and things that aren’t sentimental to you. Clutter can weigh you down and fill your life with unnecessary negative energy ! Make room for new things that you adore!
61. Channel your inner child every so often. Do things that the child within you would love! Blow bubbles, ride the merry-go-round, drink chocolate milk, play hop scotch, color, take photos of random objects, play dress-up, etc.

i'll at a number 62, which should be number 1... seek God first, focus on others second, and think about yourself third.

love, it will not betray you
dismay or enslave you
it will set you free
to be more like the man
you were made to be.
there is a design, an alignment,
a cry of my heart to see
the beauty of love
as it was made to be.

"God wants to use you to make a difference in his world. He wants to work through you. What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of it. Not how long you lived, but how you lived.

If you're not involved in any service or ministry, what excuse have you been using? Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses stuttered, Gideon was poor, Samson was codependent, Rahab was immoral, David had an affair and all kinds of family problems, Elijah was suicidal, Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow, John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least, Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered, Martha worried a lot, the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages, Zacchaeus was unpopular, Thomas had doubts, Paul had poor health, and Timothy was timid. That is quite a variety of misfits, but God used each of them in his service. He will use you, too, if you stop making excuses."

- purpose driven life

i'm on high school staff at orchard community church, but what else could i be doing? i think that what this would say about me is "andrea struggled with doubt" or "andrea wasn't quick on her feet" or something similar. but these aren't real excuses, are they? if God used these great women and men of the bible, he can use me.

so,
what is stopping me from doing more?

little stranger girl

whenever i want to feel small, childlike, loved and in awe of God, i listen to this song. tonight is one of those nights. also, he's got a voice like butter.

"there's a love he cannot hide
though he waits in the line to fight
so he looks up to welcome you, his child
little stranger girl, you are home tonight

he reaches out a thousand miles
and sends his voice to where you lie
and in your dreams he carries you, his child
little stranger girl, you are home tonight

when you have grown, you may ask why
and you will read these words he writes
and they will say, I thank you, my child,
little stranger girl, you are home tonight"

- Peter Bradley Adams

today i like these things

this quote



















this is one of my favorite places in the whole world (well, as much of the world as i have explored at this point). i love sitting on this cliff and thinking.



how does she get her skin so clear!? she looks amazing, but it's ridiculous. ridiculous i say!



fabric banners.. cute and easy to make!

























harry potter + the office?! interwebz people are genius.

thankful

sometimes it feels like my life is so out of control. i feel constantly busy and overwhelmed. i have class every morning, i nanny in the afternoons, and at night i'm either at church, doing homework, trying to relax, or hanging out with friends. these things are all such blessings, but it's tiring!

once i was out of school today, my best friend hannah and i took a trip over the hill to santa cruz in order to do one of her school assignments. we got to walk around this farm that is completely self sustaining, take some pictures, eat some ice cream at marianne's (where else?!), and then we came home to watch hot rod and eat some dinner before we went to cafe lift (essentially a weekly talent show outreach), where she was going to sing with our friend kenzie.

even though i am often so tired and irritated by the constant busyness, today was a real treat with my girl friends. i feel like i don't get to see them enough. but friendship is such a God-given blessing. i learn so much from these women about faithfulness and serving selflessly, not to mention the fact that they are all incredibly witty and funny (i'm the only one who isn't. haha).

i think friends and family is what i am most thankful for this year. God has grown me in so many different branches of my life, and has used friends as conduits for nearly all of these changes. i am so thankful for the constant reassurance that God has placed me where i am at for a reason, and that my purpose is to love and serve people without any agenda. how freeing is that? even when i am at my wit's end trying to keep my responsibilites in order and still get some 'me' time, God shows me how powerful he is.

Thank you Jesus for all that you continuously give me. thank you for friends and family to share my life with.

I like this verse:

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

- Lamentations 3:22-24

DIY cd booklet

got the idea and tutorial from this lovely lady and changed a few things.

i love making mix cds for people i know, but i never have cd cases to put them in when i give them away. this seemed like the perfect answer to my dilemma!

i followed her instructions pretty closely, but i changed a few minor things. first off, she recommends the use of tape to close the edges down on the sides. on hers, it fits perfectly, but for mine i decided to use more of the scrapbook paper instead. i like the effect better, and i was making this at 2 am so i couldn't just go rummaging around, looking for tape. haha.

i also wanted a way to wrap the ribbon around the case so that cds wouldn't fall out. the lady's tutorial had her wrapping a few layers around her case, but i have had this fascination/obsession with buttons lately, so i wanted to find a way to implement it.

i used gold/cream colored wire, looped it through the button a few time, and then poked a hole through the the scrapbook paper and then glued and taped it up on the inside. this way i could wrap the ribbon around the button a few times so that the cd case would stay 'closed'. i added the cute name plate, and on the back taped and glued the ribbon on with a sticker with my creative initials on them.

now all that's left to do is to reinforce the edges a little bit and to make the actual cd for ashlyn!

i'm pretty happy with it, it's one of my first real crafts :)

we have practically the same blog name, but she is way more talented than me!

it's friday

This girl I follow on here does this thing every friday where she lists "what she is loving this week". I think this is an awesome idea, so I'm going to start using it :)

1. sweet, happy photos like these:


2. restoring an old, antique window i got at the flea market for ten bucks!

3. the fact that i could very well take the leap into a dslr camera this week! i'm going to take classes at my college next quarter on how to use it!

4. my cuddly kitty is extra cuddly tonight.

5. the fact that i'm actually kind of a blogger now. my tumblr is fun, but i only really reblog things, i never write my own stuff.

6. i have been sick for three days, and i missed a major test but my teacher is letting me retake it on monday!

7. i just discovered pandora. it's incredible.

8. i'm going to be doing some sewing and creating of headbands, some more restoring of the old window, some painting of photo frames, some making of cd booklets, and some chandelier shopping this week =)

9. my best friends are really incredible people

10. i am loving blog stalking other people. everyone has such awesome ideas!


well... that's all for now :)

dear blog, i would like to start using you

"Jealousy is the thought or feeling that you are replaceable"-unknown

I found this quote just now on a friend's facebook profile. I tried googling it but it came up with zero results, leading me to believe that it is a quote that he heard from a family member or friend. Despite it's obscurity, I found that I connected with it on a deep level.

I'm not the prettiest girl around. I'm not the funniest, nor the smartest, or even the kindest. Within my circles of friends, I would have to say I am "perfectly adequate", to quote (500) days of summer (my favorite movie). Because of this knowledge, my self-worth and confidence is relatively average or low for the most part. I struggle with being overweight, with having acne, and with having many feelings of ineptitude and shortcoming.

Most of my best friends are incredibly spiritual people who are talented in many areas. They are humorous, musical, loving, passionate, and loyal. They have this faith in God that I admire so deeply since I deal with doubt so frequently. This is the area I tend to struggle with jealously the most.

I tend to worry that my friends will suddenly decide I'm not funny enough, or pretty enough, or kind enough, or (and this is my worst fear) that I'm not spiritual enough to be of use to them. It's a terrifying place to be when you feel replaceable. I worry that they will make these new 'awesome' and 'spiritual' friends and will eventually turn from me because I am just not meeting their emotional needs anymore since they have better friends too that now. And when you're "perfectly adequate" in every way, it's hard to feel like you can stand out and really shine for them. I like loving and serving my friends. I'm not perfect at it of course, but I enjoy it and I'm thankful for the God-given opportunity to help others.

I think this is a rather hard place to be, seeing as its very possible I could lose my friends in an instant if God chooses. I dated someone once who had asked God, on the night before a missions trip, to take away all distractions so he could focus solely on the Lord. It happened. He lost me, his friends, and felt alienated by people. This story encourages me because it led to a wider appreciation and understanding of God, but it scares me as well because I desperately do not want this to occur.

I don't want to be replaceable in anyone's eyes. I believe I feel this way because my self-value is so low. The more I point myself to God, the more I am reassured of his perfecting love and his abounding grace, and the more I realize my identity belongs to him alone. I liken it to a solar system, where he is the Son (pun intended ;) ) and I am a planet that swirls and twirls around him. My orbit is not consistent or without it's share of mistakes and sin by any means, but that comparison reminds me that I dance around him because he is the only constant. He doesn't change. He is so faithful when I am not. It reminds me that I am not simply replaceable. I have value and a purpose, of which is to be to love and to serve others for all of my life.

People will undoubtedly replace me in the future. It's bound to happen. But I know that my savior will not. He is constantly loving me and correcting me. As long as I continue to dance around him, he will continually reveal himself to me. And because of this, I never need to feel jealousy at a new person being introduced to the group or feel fear at being left behind for a 'better version'. He will provide me with all that I need and more. He sacrificed for me, and he will take care of me. And, let's be honest, if he loved me enough to die for my sins, why on earth would he give me up? ;)

"And God must be a pretty big fan of 'today', because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that has never been known. Yesterday is dead and over. Wrapped in grace. Those days are grace. You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live." - Jamie Tworkowski

encouragement for days like these

"You're just like God made you, so embrace that, love on that. I know how hard it is some mornings to look in the mirror at all your imperfections and be stoked about what you see, let alone feel loved, but how about today we try? I mean what the heck, if God sent you here looking that way, i got a real good feeling we are who we are for a pretty good reason. Know today that you are adored, God adores you, and if you don't believe that its cool you don't have to. It does not mean at all that you're still not adored." - Aaron Gillespie