Gratitude Challenge Day 28: Life Lessons

Welcome back to another day of the gratitude challenge! I hope you are enjoying being grateful and find it easier to be thankful for what you have in your life. Today's theme is about my life lessons- what are the life lessons I've learned and why are they necessary?

In my 29 years of existence, I have to say that I have learned quite a few lessons. As I came out of high school after I turned 18 I thought that I might as well get my first credit card "in case of emergencies" or at least that's what I convinced myself it was for. I liked how easily accessible it was to buy things if my paycheck was gone and soon one card turned into multiple, you get the drift. I am thankful that I was able to pay my minimum monthly balances and I never went over my limits. One thing I'm grateful for is that it's a great way to build up your credit. From 18 to about 26 I had really great credit. After having credit card debt I have learned that you either need to have full control of your spending habits or just don't get credit cards if you can help it.

The next lesson I've learned is that as you grow up you need to expect the unexpected. You tend to think that your friends will always be around but then they get married and start a family or move away and you don't get to see them as often. Relationships will come and go as your life changes and you grow up. If you asked me 15 years ago where I thought my family would be in the future, I wouldn't have thought that my parents would be divorced and that we would all be living in different parts of the world. 

Lastly, one of the most important lessons is that no matter what, you should always put yourself first and take care of yourself. My mother had my brother and I and was always looking after us making dinner and helping with homework etc. and working full time as well that she didn't have the time to focus on herself. I think a lot of mothers are like that and it's quite sad to see. It's not a bad thing to focus on yourself whether you're married or have kids, but making yourself a priority is super important. 

Hopefully you can relate to these life lessons. Let me know what you have learned down in the comments! 

Until tomorrow,

Ashley

Gratitude Challenge Day 27: My Past

Hello and welcome back to the final few days of the gratitude challenge! Today's theme is about my past and certain occurrences that I am grateful for. Let's get started shall we? 

If I could sum up my past in one word it would have to be bittersweet. I grew up having a mother and a father who loved me and took care of me and was lucky enough to be able to have an older brother to look up to. My home life wasn't the best because my parents argued a lot and both drank quite often and their marriage ended in divorce when I was a teenager. I would say that witnessing my parents and how they were towards each other made me realize that that is not what I want for myself. I told myself that once I got into a long term relationship or once I got married that I would do absolutely everything I could to make it the best. No relationship is perfect but you get what you give don't you? I'm grateful to have gone through my parents divorce because it gave me an understanding that life isn't perfect and some people just aren't meant to be with each other and they're better apart. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a fan of the arguing and name calling but going through what I did only made me a stronger person in the end. In my own marriage I would prefer to talk about things than to yell about it. I absolutely hate yelling, I think it's such a waste of time and breath! 

One thing that I loved was when my family had a vacation to Disneyland and we surprised my aunt who had no idea we were going for a visit. I was so excited to be able to travel to California for the first time and to experience Disneyland because it seemed like such a magical place for a kid. To be able to meet up with all of my extended family was so much fun because we don't get to see each other very often. I hope one day that we will get to have a family reunion like that. 

What event in your past made you the most grateful? 

Until tomorrow,

Ashley

Christmas Gift Swap

Hi lovelies! With only 90 more days left until Christmas, I wanted to take part in something I came across on Twitter recently and thought why not spread the word! Christmas is a holiday that I'm obsessed with and I love being able to give gifts! There's something about gift giving that is so fun and exciting. Viola over at https://apieceofviola.wordpress.com/, came up with this lovely idea which was a success in the past so she decided to give it a go this year! Why not visit her page and show her some love! 

SO here are the facts:

• You will be paired up with another blogger at the beginning of November and then you can start to get to know that person to get an idea of what they might like for the gift.
• The budget it totally up to you and your fellow blogger
• UK only

If this sounds like something you'd love to do, here's how to get involved!

1. Fill out the Google form here and wait for a confirmation email from me (Viola).
2. Write a blog post about this event within five days of receiving confirmation so that we can get as many bloggers involved as possible!
3. Once paired up, get to know your fellow blogger, buy their gifts and send them off!

*November 1st is the deadline for completing the submission form

*November 6th is when you get to find out who you'll be paired with

*By December 17th Cutoff date for sending your gift(s) to your fellow blogger

In order to take part, you must:

• Fill in the Google form document – here’s the link again.
• Write a blog post about this event within five days of receiving confirmation.
• Send a couple of nice gifts to your paired blogger by December 17th.
• Write a post about your gifts (must include photos) after you have received them.
• Send me links to all of your blog posts so I can see how the event has gone!

I'm so excited to be able to take part in this gift swap (#apovgiftswap) and I can't wait to see who I'll be paired up with! Why not join in the fun?!

If you would like more info from Viola on the gift swap click here!

Happy gifting!

Ashley

Gratitude Challenge Day 26: My Hidden Talent

Hello again and welcome back to day 26 of the gratitude challenge! We are nearing the end and it's been so much fun being able to reminisce and to be thankful for so much! Today we will be talking about a hidden talent I have and what I use it for.

This one is a little tough for me because I honestly don't think I'm talented in any certain field at the moment. I think it takes practice and a lot of experience to be able to be good at something. I look at this as things I do well and in that case I can say that I am a perfectionist. Obviously I'm not perfect but I try to get things right as much as I can. When I'm baking, I hate to make mistakes so I try to measure out the correct amounts for the ingredients. 

I suppose cleaning is one of my talents! I do it well since I do it often and I'm happy to see the results at the end. 

Until tomorrow,

Ashley

Gratitude Challenge Day 25: Memories

Hello and welcome back to my 30 days of gratitude challenge! I can't believe that I have been able to post every day so far this month without fail so I'm pretty proud of myself! It's easy to get into a writing routine once you stick to it. Today's theme is all about memories and which memory is my favorite and why I'm grateful for it.

I have so many memories growing up but because I grew up with an older brother we did a lot of things together as kids. My brother loved playing hockey and started playing when he was about 6 or 7 years old. I can remember he would make me be the goalie and would dress me up with a helmet and cushions on my legs and just take shots at me. Sounds nice huh?  He taught me how to ride a bike and I would ride it around the yard and around the house. 

I am very thankful for having a brother to grow up with. I think it taught me how to be tough in a way. Holidays were always fun because we would go trick or treating together and get dressed up and come  back with loads of candy. In the winter time, we would both go outside in the snow and build snow forts and it was a lot of fun. It was nice to have someone there to always do something with and even as we grew up we didn't grow too much apart. 

My brother and I don't always see eye to eye now that we are both adults but I know that we will always be there for each other and that's what family is about. I am thankful to have shared a lot of good memories as well as the not so good ones together growing up. 

I'm thankful for all of the times that we laughed together and cried together.

I'm thankful that you taught me how to do so many things and gave me the inspiration to work hard and earn lots of money.

Thank you for being a role model to my younger self and showing me that I could achieve anything!

Thank you for joining me today! Hopefully it brought you back to some good memories of your own!

Until tomorrow,

Ashley

Gratitude Day 24: Seasons

Hello all and I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend so far! Today is yet another day of the gratitude challenge, day 24 to be exact. Today I will be talking about which season I'm most grateful for and why.

Growing up and living in New England my whole life I was lucky enough to experience literally ALL four seasons most of the time. The Springtime was mostly wet and dreary, Summers were blazing hot and humid, Autumns were so gorgeous and the leaves would always change to those red, yellow and orange colors, and the winters normally brought tons of snow!

I'm most thankful for Autumn though! There's something about the smell of the air and the leaves falling that gets you so excited about the upcoming holiday months. As a kid, Halloween was always an exciting holiday because I always seemed to know what I wanted to dress up as to go trick or treating. It was usually a witch or a princess, etc. I loved decorating and carving a pumpkin with a scary face on it. I'm thankful for those special memories with my mom as she helped me pick out our pumpkins.

Thanksgiving was another holiday that I used to look forward to. Being American, my family always had large portions of everything you could think of for Thanksgiving dinner. Just thinking about the turkey meal and all of the trimmings makes me excited. I still like to celebrate being thankful because that's what Thanksgiving is all about. I try to not go crazy cooking a ton of food because my husband looks at me like I'm nuts. Plus you have to get a small enough turkey to fit in the English ovens anyway. I'm thankful for all of the memories I had with my family for the past years for Thanksgiving.

There are SO many things I'm thankful for about the autumn season: The fashion, everything pumpkin flavored, being able to bake yummy things and the decorations! I've already started to pick up some Halloween decor because I plan on going all out this year whether we get trick or treaters or not! I'm thankful for the scary movies that are shown on t.v. this time of year. I love the classics like Casper, The Adams Family, Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis, Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Ghostbusters! The list is endless. 

Now you can see why the season I'm most grateful for is Autumn! I'm so excited that it's finally here again and can start going nuts with decorating and baking! I'd love to know which season you're most grateful for so let me know in the comments below!

Have a great day!

Ashley

Versatile Blogger Award

I'm so excited to be tagged by the lovely Jay & Jessica for the versatile blogger award! This is my first tag so thank you girls for nominating me! This tag is all about getting to know your fellow bloggers out there by including 7 random facts about yourself. When your finished, you then have to nominate 10- 15 other bloggers. Let's get started shall we?

#1- I grew up having a love for horses and still do! I used to go visit my aunt who had horses and ever since I could remember I would be in the stall wanting to help out cleaning up poo, feeding, and putting fresh shavings down for them. I also took horseback riding lessons for a while and wish I was still doing it today! Maybe it's time for me to get back in the saddle again?!

#2- I'm a Masshole! If you don't know what that means it's a term for people from Massachusetts and how they have a certain arrogance when they drive, except I'm more or a grandma when I drive! I was born there and miss it so much! 

#3- My husband is 14 years older than I am and no it doesn't bother me (I'm 29 and he's 43). Age is nothing but a number in my eyes. He doesn't act his age or look his age either so I'm pretty lucky!

#4-My father used to be in a country western band in the 80's and toured all over the U.S. Maybe this is where I get my love and appreciation for music. I would love to learn how to play the piano one day!

#5- I have an obsession over anything spicy! I always have a jar of hot sauce handy to add to almost any meal that includes a sauce, the spicier the better! I actually don't mind getting heartburn either, I know weird right?!

#6- I'm an avid hand washer and am obsessed with keeping my hands clean! Possibly a little bit of a germophobe? I always wash my hands after I go out somewhere and I feel like I can never touch a door handle in the center, I try to use the bottom because it gets less hand traffic? Haha probably one of my weirder facts about me! 

#7- I used to be pretty messy and unorganized all throughout school and now that I'm married somehow I seem to be the complete opposite and love cleaning! I love the scent of cleaning products and use bleach for almost everything! I have so many pet peeves about things staying clean like dirty laundry being left in the bathroom, seriously so disturbing to me!

I hope you know me just a little bit better now after these facts but it's seriously taken me some time to come up with anything interesting. I love learning things about new people so I'd like to nominate the following bloggers to participate in the Versatile Blogger's Award:

@ellymitchelll

@GeorgiaRMK

@ashleelizdotcom

@ClosetKate

@souhaaliarafa

Feel free to all of you who would like to do this tag for yourself, I would love to read all of yours to get to know you all more! 

Have a lovely weekend,

Ashley