Goodbye 2014....

A new year is on the rise and I cannot believe it. This year has been the longest, and the shortest, all at the same time.
2014 has been full of challenges, new adventures, life lessons, heartbreak, old friends, new friends, and so much more. If I can be honest with you for just a minute... this has been my least favorite year haha. I am so thankful for this year and all it had to offer, and I learned so so much through it all.. But this year has definately dished it out it's fair share of crap! Every year does though, right? Like I said, I am endlessly thankful for this year and all that I learned and how much I've grown through it all.

I have high expectations for 2015. It's like being stuck in the mud for a while and finally getting your foot loose and starting the climb out, towards better things. That's how I'm feeling about this new year. I am oh so very excited for all the new adventures coming, the lessons, the laughs, the cries, the friends, etc. it is all so exciting.
And most importantly, it's new.
A new year. A fresh start. That is so exciting.

Here are some goals I have for myself for 2015 (goals not resolutions..)
*Eat healthier
*Exercise more
*Do well in school
*Be kind
*Show love to those around me
*Be joyful
*Be myself

Those are just a few of them :) What are some goals you've set for yourself for the new year?!

::I thought it would be fun and typical to share some photos from my favorite memories in 2014::

 *Pumpkin Palooza at school

 *The Peony Project dinner

*Sleepovers with Natalie

 *The Balck and White Gala at school

 *The day VFCC became UVF

 *Leadership Training week before school started

 *Chaperoning at PennDel Youth Camp

 *The time my friends and I ventured to the beach in February(or March...)

 *Going to My Favorite Muffin with my favorite Suite mate, Kelly

*Snow days on snow days on snow days

Out with the old, and in with the new.

Here's hoping that 2015 has a lot to offer and does not disappoint!

A year full of Jesus, joy, friends, laughter, and adventure.

Goodbye, 2014..

Helloooooooo 2015!!!

GF - DF

Praise God from whom all gluten free - dairy free bakeries flow!

My mom had told me about a GF&DF bakery right here in Pittsburgh! So today we ventured out to pay them visit. It was a cute, tiny, city bakery all tucked away on a busy street full of little shops.

They had so many different kinds of breads, rolls, snacks, mixes and so much more!

Gluten free, dairy free goodies everywhere! Ah!

Of course I wanted to buy everything in the store... but we ended up leaving with three cupcakes (two cappuccino, and a hostess-like one.) and a pizza pocket!

It was the best day, and I look forward to finding more places like this one :)

I hope you are all having a lovely week and enjoying the Holiday season!!

Woah!

It has been far too long since I have blogged and my how I miss it!

I just finished my first semester of Sophomore year in college! Crazy! And now it is the holiday season and I am so excited to be home for a nice long break.
I don't know how to go about recapping the last however many months so I will just start new :)

Recently I've been really into smoothies! I'm still dairy free and more recently gluten free(what a pain!) so I am always trying to find something to satisfy my sweet tooth. And fruit is healthier than candy, right? ;)
A few weeks ago I didn't have much left in my apartment before leaving school but I whipped up a chocolate cinnamon banana ice cream smoothie. It was to die for! I used DF - GF ice cream and cocoa.
Today I just tried something new. A honey banana pineapple smoothie. I saw a recipe online that called for coconut extract which probably would've given it more of a pina colada taste which would've been good, but I didn't have coconut haha. It was still so good and refreshing!

~Honey banana pineapple smoothie~

What are your favorite smoothie recipes? :)

// Life \\

Well hello! it has been utterly too long since I have posted. But hello :)

So these past few weeks have been very very busy. I moved back in to college, held a leadership position the first 2 weeks, and then dove right into classes! Phew! I am tired!

But amongst all the craziness and hustle and bustle of getting back into the swing of things, I have had a lot of time to spend some much needed time with my lovely friends here at school! I went to the mall, had tea and talk time with some friends, and today I went out to lunch with my beautiful friend Aislinn :) After lunch we went and walked the streets of downtown Phoenixville and visited some shops and just had a good time. Here are a few photos I took!

So much fun. I am very excited for this semester and all the new opportunities and adventures I am going to have. I hope you all have had a lovely end of summer! :)

The 4th.

Happy 4th of July!!
Oh my, I love the 4th.

For some reason my town did fireworks last weekend.... Not really sure why. So this left us trying to find somewhere else to watch fireworks. So this evening my mum and I drove up to the top of this hill to watch some fireworks. Well..... when we got there, the parking lot was packed full of people, and we couldn't even see the fireworks! Agh! So we drove and drove. We chased the fireworks :)
We were finally able to find a little random block party of sorts down the hill from my house. We had a front row seat! It was a joyous time :)

Here are a few pictures that I snapped today.

I just really liked my shirt today....

Fireworks :)

Dairy Queen treats with Daddy!

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 Oh! I got creative tonight :) Two of my friends from home are going to be attending the college I go to, and they've been asking me millions and millions of questions about anything and everything under the sun! So I decided to make them these darling lists of things they may need. (Mind you, they each sent me a list of what they already had, that's why the lists are different!) Take a look-see :)




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I hope you all had a lovely 4th of July!!! :)

Summer yummies.

While I was at school, I was always telling myself that I need to exercise more and what not. Well, that never happened. I either never found time for it or was just too lazy :/
So! Since yesterday was the first day of July, I decided it's time to crack down. Exercise and eat healthy!
I've always found it trickier for me to find really healthy things to eat, because I have a food allergy to anything and everything dairy. Literally everything. You would think this would make it easier to eat healthy, but for me it just doesn't. Fruits and veggies is the way to go I guess :) While I was surfing Pinterest trying to find a not-so-crazy exercise plan, my friend Natalie conveniently posted one on her blog! Yay!

I also may or not have found a butt workout to do....... (hehe)

I am definitely feeling it today, let me tell you! But I'm glad I found something a little on the easier side instead of something crazy. I absolutely recommend trying these out if you're looking for something :)

Back to the healthy eating: I had a scrambled egg for breakfast, and wanted try something new for lunch. My neighbor had brought over some fresh veggies from her garden, and what is better than fresh veggies! I concocted up something that I honestly had no idea how it would turn out. But it ended up being so delicious! I loved it.

*Cucumber, Tomatoes, Cilantro, Red wine vinegar, olive oil, and sea salt*

Happy July, lovelies! I hope summer is treating everyone well :) 

Amy gets crafty*

This summer my mom had me go through all of these clothes that have been in the basement for a while. They were clothes that my sister and I had no interest in anymore and we just never did anything with them. While I was going through them, I came across a few things that I had forgotten about, and a few things that I thought I might be able to re-make into something that I want to wear. I came across this dress that I had only worn one time. It's a black and white checkered dress that went past my knees. I tried it on and it still fit and was cute, but I'm not really into dresses that go past my knees unless it's a maxi dress ;)

SO. I decided I could make it into a cute top! All I did was cut it to a length I was happy with, hemmed it, and added thicker straps using the throw-away pieces from the skirt. My sewing machine is broken, so I had to do all the stitching by hand, which resulted in some pretty shabby stitch work.... but it works for me. And I think my straps might be uneven....... but I'll fix that later :) 

This picture seems to bring out ALL the flaws! Ugh!

:)

So if you're ever getting rid of clothes you no longer wear or clothes that just aren't your style anymore, before you pitch them, try to think of ways you can recreate them :)

//

Today I was inspired to join Natalie in her 365 days of thankfulness on instagram. (You can read about it, and keep up with her posts here.)

I'm so excited about this because, like I mentioned in my last post, I enjoy capturing the little things throughout my days that make me smile. Sometimes the days seem to fly by, especially if we are really busy or just running around a lot that day, and we forget to take a minute and think and see what we are truly thankful for. So please, join me(us) in this 365 days of thankfulness by using the hashtag #365thankfuleveryday. You can follow along with me on instagram @amyakay :)

- Oh me, oh my.

This past week has been craaaaazy!
I had the wonderful opportunity to be a chaperone at PennDel Youth Camp with my home churches youth group. The night before my pastor called me and informed me that I was the only girl leader going with our group (including 25 girls) and I was a little panicked! The week turned out to be way better then I thought it would. It was incredible to see how God worked in peoples lives, including my own.
That being said.... I am exhausted!
I can't really complain though, because I have been able to just relax and lay around a lot this week, so that has been nice.

Something that I established in January (I wouldn't really call it a new years resolution though) was that I wanted to take more pictures. Photography has always been a passion of mine but my shyness would cause me to not want to be "that person" always stopping to snap a photo at any given opportunity. Well, I am proud to say, that I have turned into that person. I've realized that life is too short to just let it all float by. I want to be able to capture it and remember it forever, or at least for a while. Although it feels like I am having the most boring, lazy, summer.. everyday I try to take pictures of fun little things, or pretty things I saw or bought that day. It's so fun. I love being able to document the things that made my day great. That being said... here are the pictures I took today :)

I cannot get over these gorgeous flowers outside of my neighbors house. Ahhh!

I made myself a cinnamon chai frappuccino with almond milk. Mostly because I wanted to use my new Starbucks cold cup tumbler :)

 Almost everyday I take a picture of the sunset because I can never get over how not one is the same as it has ever looked before. It amazes me.

I hope that everyone is having a lovely summer :)

Lately...*

It seems like all I ever do anymore is just sit around with my head in the clouds. I find myself constantly daydreaming about trips I want to go on, places I want to visit, foods I want to make, foods I want to eat, coffee I want to drink, crafts I want to make, etc. It's insane! I hardly have any of the means to do half the things I dream of. But this evening I decided it was time to do somethings that I have been wanting to do. 

Today my grandma, my mom and I went out. We had a few errands to run and I wanted to stop at Michaels and look at their jewelry stuff! I picked up some very nice things there and was so excited to start making jewelry. I got home and sat down at the table and had no ideas what so ever. All my inspiration was gone. I was so discouraged and sad, because I have been looking for things to get my mind away from certain things lately, and I didn't want to just mope the night away(like I had every other night). So I turned on my spottily, took out all my supplies and beads and what not and just looked at it all for a good 15-20 minutes. Then I began! I was so happy. It is so relaxing to me and just so fun!

I'm thinking about opening a shop on Etsy. Not completely sure yet, but I have been thinking about it. Would anyone buy my stuff? :) 

City day::

I am in the process of thinking of some fun things I could blog about every now and then and maybe even get a weekly thing going, also, I would like to try to get some more followers :) But for now, I'll just share my wonderful day with you, if I may.

Today me and my dad decided to go to the Strip District in Pittsburgh. If you don't know... the strip district is basically just a long strip of road with tons of neat shops and street vendors. Usually we go on Saturdays when they are super busy, but this time we went on a week day. A lot of the street vendors were not there and some shops were closed, but it was loads of fun none the less :) And of course, I took some pictures......

I hope you all had lovely days as well :)