Geez, it's been well over a month since I've posted on here and boy has that time flown by so fast.
So much has happened in my life, I've barely had a second to sit down and breath on my own.

Came back to University a month early for training for my job on campus this year. I was lucky enough to become a Community Assistant (RA) this year so that has taken over a large sum of my life lately in the best possible way. I will probably write another post on how much I love it and think it's a great way for anyone to grow during their college years, but that's for another time when I can actually write a well thought out post.

I'm currently struggling through "the hardest class in the Business major" because there's that whole school part of college that we all seem to forget about and wish just wasn't a thing. That class consumes a majority of my free time and makes me want to curl up into a little ball of emotions till it's all over. But I will survive. Got a B+ on the midterm so I can't be doing too terrible, right?

And along side that there is the stress of actually having to declare my double major sometime soon. Which is a big reality check, putting that set in stone sort of decides what I'm doing with my life at least until I'm done here.

My planner has been the most full I've ever seen in these last two months with work deadlines, duty hours, homework assignments, organization meetings, programs, campus events, and a bunch of other stuff I've gotten over involved with. Just a constant state of stress.

But the funny thing is, I love it. I love all of it, every last stress-filled second. I'm falling in love with the school I though I hated a year ago and it makes me so happy to be involved, getting to know people here and getting to know myself.

Just thought I should document and update a little bit in these ten minutes of free time (procrastination) I was able to find tonight. Quarter way done with college round two and it's all been looking pretty great. Hopefully I'll find a little more me time to do this again soon.

xoxo

Julia Carrington

So I went through a pretty shit breakup a while ago.

It was a mess. I was extremely heart broken and depressed. I fell into a hole that I thought would be impossible to get out of. I locked myself in my room, stopped eating, and basically became this shell of a human, going through the necessary motions of life, like a zombie.

Good news is if you saw me now, you wouldn't believe that for a second. I am the happiest I have ever been and living my best life. I don't regret any of it, but I am so much better off now.

I recently had a friend who also went through a bad break-up and since she watched me go through mine she came to me for advice on how to come out of that mess on top. This got me thinking about how much I would have loved to have someone there for me to tell be what's going to happen and how to get through it. So I've come up with my "potion" to cure a broken heart.

I am going to preface this by saying everyone is different and works through emotions in their own unique ways, these are just some general bits of advice that got me to be a happy person again.


A song to belt at the top of your lungs ...

So I am not going to tell you what song it is or give some silly little playlist because I have no idea what your story is and what you need to hear. You'll find the perfect ones that are most relevant to what's going on. Mine were Credit by Meghan Trainor and Too Many Fish by Karmin. Maybe you need empowering pump up songs or maybe you need a good crying song. Either way, music has therapeutic powers so sing your heart out.

Time ..

It always takes time to heal, no matter the type of wound. A wise man once told me to think about how long you've been with the person, cut that in half, and that's how long it's going to take to really get over them. It's silly to think that you can invest all that time into a person getting to know them and falling in love with them and they suddenly disappear from your life and everything feels normal. No. Not at all. Your life is turned upside-down. Your routine and habits are gone. You lost your person. It will take time to get used to that. It took me six months to finally say my life was back to normal again, but that makes sense.

A confidence booster ...

Do you what you gotta do to remind yourself that you are worth everything. Breakups can leave you feeling worthless and unloved. You don't have that attention anymore, that promise that someone finds you fun to be around and attractive. Go ahead download Tinder and see all the hot guys that will swipe right on you. Not to get back in the game, don't do that too soon, but get that little rush of knowing someone thinks you're cute. Your ex isn't the only one who will ever think you're beautiful, but sometimes that's hard to remember.

A reminder of the good news ...

This goes a little bit against my last point, but we are all children of God and we don't need to find our worth in anything here on earth because our worth is found in Christ. The God of the universe loves you and will always love you. That's pretty freaking awesome if you asked me. During this time of trouble and sadness, it's so important to take time to pull out a bible or reach out to people within your church for encouragements and prayer. God and your church family will always be there to listen to you.

Retail therapy ...

You gotta take the time to treat yourself like the princess you are. All that money that you used to spend on them(dates, gifts, etc.) is now all for you. My breakup was right before Valentine's day so all the money I had saved up to buy him a nice gift went straight to a mini shopping spree for myself.

Cut that last string of hope ...

There is nothing to be hanging onto because that is what will just elongate the process. It doesn't help you whatsoever so you need to spend your time getting over the person, not considering the what ifs. This was my big mistake, we ended things with a big maybe. That left me waiting and wondering until it was too late. If they wanted to end things in the first place then why would either of you want to get back into the relationship again? If it was bad enough to end for any bit of time it was bad enough to end for good.

Surround yourself with people who love and cherish you no matter what ...

Your ex isn't the only one who loved you even though it might have felt that way. It's easy to fall into the trap of relationships where you spend all your time with the one person and you forget about the countless number of people who still love you no matter what. Spend time with them, you don't need to go through this alone. You need someone you can talk through all these emotions and feelings with so you don't bottle it all upside and let it eat you away. Your friends and family will want to be there to support you.

Use this time to your advantage ...

Welcome to single life where you are now your own priority. Relationships are exhausting! There is this constant need to find time to be with your significant other. Now you have all this time to yourself that you would have spent talking to someone all the time or going on dates when they could. Now you have this time to yourself to figure out what you love to do. Now you get to date yourself for a little. Lucky duck. This is honestly my favorite thing ever. You are the longest relationship you'll ever be in. Relationships can come and go but you'll always have to get to know yourself and have fun.

Just remember it's all good in the end. Don't think about all the positives of the relationship that you'll miss or even all the negatives to convince yourself it was terrible. It was a relationship that you will cherish and remember because it was a big part of your life for some amount of time. Don't turn it into something terrible and at the same time don't put it on a pedestal. There obviously was good and bad and you learned so many things from your experience. It's going to hurt real bad but you'll move on eventually and this experience will make you a stronger person in the end.

I hope my words are able to help someone get through the crap and be happy with who they are.

xoxo
Julia Carrington

Julia Carrington

Everything you need: - waist measurement and waist to how long you want it measurement  - fabric of choice ( I am a small and got about 2 yards which was perfect) - invisible zipper in similar color to fabric - matching color thread - pencil - crap ton of pins - zipper foot for sewing machine (and the machine itself of course)  - seam ripper for mistakes - 1 inch elastic in your waist measurement - fabric scissors - tape measure

Fold your fabric in half with the side you want to show touching.  Sketch out a curve with half of your waist measurement.

Take your length measurement and draw out another larger curve out so it looks like you've drawn out a rainbow.

Pin down the fabric and cut along all the lovely lines we just made.

With some of the excess fabric fold it over and pin it down.  Measure out your waist measurement for the waist band.

Make a line at an inch and a half and cut out the piece.

These are the only pieces of fabric you are going to need so go ahead and put away and excess for some other project or something.

While the pins are still there, go ahead and sew one side of the skirt together at half an inch. Go ahead and take out the rest of the pins as well.

On the waist band, fold back half an inch..

.. then fold that in half with the side you want showing in. Then go ahead and sew that down and stay as close to the edge as possible. Repeat this for the other side of the waist band.

When you turn the waist band it should look like this.

Place the elastic inside the waist band.

Pin down the waist band onto the skirt along the edge of the side you want seen. Make sure to leave a half inch of space on each side of the skirt.

Using the zipper foot, sew as close to the elastic as possible.

Sew on your zipper according to the directions in the packaging. Make sure to finish the seam down to the bottom below the zipper. This was the trickiest part for me, took a couple tries being that I am not  an experienced zipper sewer. That's when the seam ripper came into play.

Fold up half an inch along the entire bottom of the skirt and sew down for a finished edge.

As much as we hate to admit it, we are all constantly on our phones. It's not one of the things our generation is particularly proud of, but it isn't something we can deny either. So I thought I might just share a couple of the apps I have on my phone that aren't really members of the "popular table" like Instagram, snapchat, Facebook, twitter, etc. Of course I uses all those on the daily as well, but here are four lesser known apps I love to use.

She Reads Truth (top left)

As a Christian it is very important to me to be spending time reading the bible or doing some sort of devotional. This app is really perfect because it is conveniently on my phone reminding me to read God's word every day. They have a series of devotional plans to do, a bible in your translation preference, and really cute lock screen reminders you can download. I really like this devotional app because it is so simple and fits my personality style and it has helped me stay more on top of this part of my life.

For the past few years Disneyland has been opening the park for a full 24 hours to kick off the summer. This was their third year with this tradition and my third year going, but the first year where I had no school that day so we could actually go for the full 24. It was a crazy idea in the first place and crazier because I had only finished class and moved out of college the day before, getting home around 11pm, going to sleep around 12:30-1am, and then waking up again at 2am to get ready for the day at Disneyland. Wake up at 2, leave at 4, get there at 5, in the park at 6, and staying till 6am the following morning. Looking back at it, I was crazy stupid, but we did it and it was such a fun day. Totally worth all the sleep deprivation. I did my best to document the full 24 hours, but iPhones don't have the best battery life and we didn't want to spend too much of our day at random power outlets. I'll just share the little bit that I got to document what a full day at Disneyland is like.

6:00 am - 7:00 am