“Style isn’t just about what you wear, it’s about how you live.”- Lilly Pulitzer

Today I decided to give my blog a makeover! How do you like my new theme Matala? When I created my blog in early August I decided to stick with the Manifest theme. It was simple, clean cut and highlighted the main focus, the actual heart of the blog, my words. Since I have been getting more involved in the blogging world and exploring and following tons of other blogs, I realized how many options there are out there! You can definitely have the best of both worlds. Plus I think this theme reflects my personality more accurately!

 I have made it a personal goal for the next six months to learn more about blogging, design my blog to be more user friendly and increase my interactive presence in the Blogisphere! It is a great way to practice writing, reading, learning, teaching and reflecting. All things that my Gemini soul needs and craves on a daily basis! I also want to make an effort to post more often, which will prove to be difficult in the next few months with traveling so much. But I promise once May comes around you will see posts from me at least once a week, if not more! My blog continues to be a work in progress and I strive to continue to improve and add to it as I learn more and more. Fellow bloggers, how did you learn how to design your blog? Are there any helpful resources or did you do lots of exploring and messing with the site on your own? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Next week I embark on my journey all over Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. All that is left is judging a presentation competition at my school and then packing, planning, and fishing Season 3 of Game of Thrones (Right Jackie!?) I will leave you with a few quotes that have inspired me the past few days. As an avid reader and writer, I absolutely love quotes. I love turning to them for motivation, inspiration, empathy and everything in between. It is incredible how many quotes say relatively the same idea but the way they are written is what makes them unique and beautiful. Enjoy & get inspired! I will quote a tweet from myself, that I accessed via the Timehop app (which is a hilarious trip down social media memory lane if you haven’t used it before) which I tweeted two years ago this week,

“ Never settle in life even when you are happy, always push yourself to be better than you are right now!” -Anonymous 

“Did you say it? ‘I love you. I don’t ever want to live without you. You changed my life.’ Did you say it? Make a plan. Set a goal. Work toward it, but every now and then, look around; Drink it in ’cause this is it. It might all be gone tomorrow.”-Grey’s Anatomy

“I never fall apart because I never fall together”-Anonymous

“Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground”- Judith Thierman 

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’s yours.” -Ayn Rand

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

Cheers! xoxo