August Blog Post:: Re-Returns

Where do I even start?

I think maybe this time I am just going to avoid all the intros where I say how it's been long and how I've had a lot going on and how that's the reason why I didn't post for over eight months. Truth is sometimes life just simply gets in the way and before you know it, eight months have passed. Oh wow, look at that, I still did the intro....smh *face palm*.

Moving on, to start on what I hope will be a more regular blogging schedule (dear Lord let it be so), I am just going to post a bunch of food pictures I have taken in numerous occasions and share them with you. 

Truth be told, I need a bit of easing in this time around because it feels like I’ve lost this part of me in all these months; and you know what, with all that's in me, I'm damn sure going to get my groove back.

That being said, enjoy!

All featured here are courtesy of my very own kitchen. I kinda got my cooking mojo back lately (story for another day).

I hope I'll see you soon; you know what, I WILL 'see' you all soon.

Anne xo

October Blog Post :: Venting?

I just started writing this post and realized that, off the top of my head, I honestly don't even remember the last time I posted here.

Truth is I've gone through job changes in the past few months; left my old job with a law firm after being offered a position with a different company so I have been very busy with the transition.

*sigh* Who am I kidding, if I'm being totally honest even though my new job has been keeping on my toes all to my delight, I had just been lazy in keeping up with my blog hence why I didn't come on here a lot (read at all).

Anyway, today I mostly want to vent. I think. I'm not quite sure though. I can't seem to figure out the emotions I am feeling today, let alone put them down in writing. But, with me, even if I don't really know what to write, somehow the mere act of writing puts things in perspective and cheers me up. I'm pretty sure by now, you (which ever poor soul is reading this), have figured out there may be no actual point to this post and that I am basically having a 'dear diary moment'; if you hadn't figured that out, now you know.

I think I'm done now lol.

I have a few ideas for the blog in the very near future so I promise you won't be seeing a dear diary post; at least not for a long minute (let's hope so *fingers crossed*).

Hope you guys have all been fairing well. 'See' you soon.

Anne xo

Hello May

It is certainly WAAAY past the point to come up with a May post but hey, this is a special month for me so I'm gonna go ahead and ignore that minor detail.

So I mentioned in previous posts how my work lets me travel to different parts of the country, actually I used to travel to a lot more different places in my previous job than I do in my current job but I wouldn't change a thing (that's a story for a different day altogether.)

I had a chance to travel to Tanga at the beginning of the month and thought I would share some of the snaps I took. And yes, the majority of the photos DO show what my major priority is during my trips there, or anywhere really; if I'm being honest that's my major interest even when I'm just at home.

I stayed at the Tanga Beach Resort which is honestly one of the most beautiful places to stay in Tanga. I always look forward to my trips there. I mean, being catered to all times of the day is on its own enough to have me over the moon (figuratively) but the location and scenery is just breathtakingly beautiful! I feel as though the pictures simply just don't do it justice.

Also, this is NOT an ad; although, I wish it were because then it would mean I'm doing my dream job where I get to travel to places and review them for a living lol.....again, a topic for a completely different post.

I hope this month treats you all well loves!

Anne xo

Remedy

The first time I heard this song I was moved, more so than  when I heard 'Hello' to be honest. But oh well, to be fair, the whole internet was buzzing about 'Hello' and that kind of thing tends to dim the excitement for me.......it's just how I am really.

I remember all of the things that I thought I wanted to be
So desperate to find a way out of my world and finally breathe
Right before my eyes I saw, my heart it came to life
This ain't easy it's not meant to be
Every story has its scars

When the pain cuts you deep
When the night keeps you from sleeping
Just look and you will see
That I will be your remedy
When the world seems so cruel
And your heart makes you feel like a fool
I promise you will see
That I will be, I will be your remedy

No river is too wide or too deep for me to swim to you
Come whenever I'll be the shelter that won't let the rain come through
Your love, it is my truth
And I will always love you
Love you

When the pain cuts you deep
When the night keeps you from sleeping
Just look and you will see
That I will be your remedy
When the world seems so cruel
And your heart makes you feel like a fool
I promise you will see
That I will be, I will be your remedy, oh

There is something simply heart-breakingly beautiful about the lyrics to this song. Again, this isn't really surprising coming from Adele is it? 

I haven't listened to this album in a few months but this song suddenly came up on my playlist earlier  and the timing couldn't have been more perfect (and no it's not romance-related lol......as defensive as that may sound).

Hope you're having an amazing week!

Anne xo

Thankful

These words truly resonated with me this week. I tend to let my imagination run wild sometimes and my worries, fears and thoughts get the best of me. This week I learned, yet again, that what I may, at the moment, fear most might not even be real.

You know how sometimes something is not an "issue" at first but then somehow you think and obsess over it for soooo long that you convince yourself otherwise? I've been guilty of this in the past and while I may not have mastered the art of not letting this be so, I still am working on it and definitely getting better. As in one of my favorite quotes by Confucius,

"It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop". 

I couldn't agree more......absolutely ANYTHING can happen. I was reminded of this again this week and I honestly couldn't be more happier and thankful.

Okay so I realize this post might not make a lot of sense to you guys due to lack of details but if you do choose to take anything from it, I hope that at least the featured quotes resonate with you as they did with me in a positive way and give you hope that in whatever it is you are going through, it won't and can't last forever; anything could happen!

Anne xo

Late Monday Inspiration:: February Edition

Hey loves, I do hope you had a lovely Valentine's weekend with you and your loved ones. I most certainly did.

Here's a little late Monday inspiration from me to you.

Sure you can be a negative nancy in your interpretation of this quote or you can choose to take it as a push and reminder that whatever it is you want to do, go ahead and do it now, what's stopping you?

In the spirit of not only talking the talk but also walking the walk, I have some plans and ideas of my own. I'll share them with you guys as soon as everything is set in stone.

Be great this week loves!

Anne xo

Hello February

A new week, a new month, a new start......isn't that refreshing? It definitely is to me.

I've been a little uninspired lately; well to be very honest I HAVE been inspired to post more but I just couldn't think of what to write about. To this day I haven't been able to randomly write about just anything for the sake of posting on the blog, there is always something behind my posts; could be something I'm going through or, as the blog name suggests, something very random around me that catches my eye. Lately though I've felt a little pressure (mostly from myself) to post about specific things, positive posts so to speak (if that makes sense). 

But guess what, that's not me. I post about all of it; the good, the bad, the happy and the sad (that unintentionally rhymed lol). Take this time for instance, I had a moment, literally minutes ago where I felt let down by a friend, I'm sure it wasn't intentional (I hope not lol) but I still felt hurt. Now I'm not a naturally confrontational person and like I said, I don't think any of it was intentional so instead of holding it all in, I decided to come on here and channel my hurt into a post. 

Times like these, words just seem to fly out of my fingers and I kid you not, I always feel a ton better after I'm done writing. My emotions, good or bad fuel my writing and give me inspiration to post; isn't that where the ideas behind all great artistic work come from? An emotional push? 

 

I couldn't agree more; for those like me who may not necessarily have the easiest time sharing whatever they are going through, I think it's important to find a healthy outlet. I guarantee it will do wonders for you. Let's face it, keeping things in never is healthy and who knows what facing it all will bring, you could end up being very pleasantly surprised.

I REALLY do....mine sure is right now.

Have a good one.

Anne xo

Monday Inspiration:: January Edition

Hey guys, so the weekend is over and here we are starting a new week. Mondays are tricky, this isn't really news but then again we absolutely have the power and the choice to make it better.

Thought I would share a little Monday inspiration to help brighten up the day.

Instead of wasting your energy and losing focus by being grumpy and blue this Monday, choose to instead get back on track and use your energy on  something worth while. The world is your oyster, don't forget that. Time to make all your dreams a reality.

Do have a fabulous week ahead!

Anne xo

Food for Thought::January Edition

A friend recently told me that my posts have been a little too much to chew on lol. I thought I would make this one a little easy on the eyes (this has absolutely nothing to do with my lack of ideas for a post okay? good).

On a serious note though, I came across these pictures with their insightful messages and thought I would share them with you guys. Hopefully they might have some meaning to someone out there.

Anne xo

Fresh Start

No matter how much you want to deny it, a new year somehow always feels like starting a new page. I honestly don't think you can shake that feeling away.

We've all seen pages on social media making fun of people who are always saying 'new year, new me'.

?

Okay okay so maaaaybe that statement in itself  is a bit of a stretch and usually people who say these things somehow always seem to forget all about it after a mere few weeks. After all, how realistic is it to be a 'new you'? It's just too much pressure and even if it were possible, not too many of us have the discipline to follow through with that.

I personally think that there is something very refreshing about starting a new year. It feels like a new start and the possibilities just seem endless! As cliche as it sounds, it's January again and we have all the months up until December to go through and once again it's an opportunity to hit the restart button and go through the motions all over again; except now, we have a chance to take all that we've learned in the previous year and make the necessary changes in our day to day lives. Everything that happened the previous year has passed and is gone and now we have a chance to restart or maybe keep pushing (whichever is preferable).

Again, you can choose to push the refresh button at any time of the year, in fact it may actually be a better option; however, being that it is the start of the year, why not take advantage of it and start from here? What's the harm in that?

I do hope you had a fabulous time during the holidays and that the new year brings with it all that you hope and aspire for.

Happy happy new year loves!

Anne xo

Let it go...

There certain things that we come across in life that tend to somehow stick to us because of how they resonate with us, touch or affect us.

A few years back I read, or was it watched or heard?? (for the life of me I can't remember which is which) a phrase that has been one of those that stuck to me to this very day. It goes along something like this;

 "Never let the actions of others affect who you are".

See, as individuals, we are each different and unique in our own ways. We each have our own values, beliefs, behaviors with respect to how we treat other individuals. However, I have come to find that many a times, we let the actions of others affect how we are. We let circumstances change us into behaving in ways we never would have, to the extent that sometimes we even surprise ourselves. 

In my last post I briefly mentioned how the past weekend wasn't necessarily my best one. My initial reaction to the events of the weekend (I don't mean to make it sound so suspenseful lol) was naturally, as a human to harbor negative feelings. It honestly took me a while to work through everything in my head and get to a place where I could think rationally. 

So yesterday, as I was out and about, I just realized how much power I had given to whatever it was that was bothering me. I realized that I was letting things, that shouldn't really matter in the first place, take up so much of my mind and in the process the negative feelings were slowly making me become a person I really am not. 

See, we are who we are and that is our identity, we cannot and absolutely should not let anyone or anything change us into something else. Nothing should have that kind of power over us.

For me, as I remembered this quote, I was reminded to simply let go; I may not have power over the actions of other people, but I definitely have power over how I react to these actions. I refuse to let myself change into a different person based on the actions of other people; whatever happens will not affect who I am as a person. 

I know it's not an easy thing to accomplish but I believe it's worth the effort.

Anne xo

Bits and pieces.....

I honestly had a bit of a difficult weekend; while I am not going to share anything in here, I just thought I would share these few quotes, all courtesy of Instagram, that really helped me (still are).

Hope you lovelies had a great one and wish you a great week ahead!

Anne xo

The Little Things...

I'm not going to address the fact that it has literally been months since my last post so let's just move right along okay? But I guess by starting off like that IS me addressing that huh? Oh well.

A few days ago I had a bit of a light-bulb moment. And yes when you read this you might think that it's actually common sense blah blah blah but hey, to each their own opinion right?

Back to my point, you know how we're always waiting for a, b and or c to happen thinking that when it does we are FINALLY going to be happy? Yeah, that's not happening. I mean sure, you might actually end up being happy when whatever it is you're waiting for happens but lets be honest that kind of happiness more often than not ends up being unsustainable.

Now, I'm like most people so I'm not going to sit here and say that I am always the happiest person alive because that's not true (neither are you so don't lie to us, no one really is simply because of our nature as humans; but hey if you're, say an alien and reading this, please do comment and maybe you could teach us human folk a thing or two about always being happy etc).

I am in no way trying to say that sustainable happiness is impossible, quite the contrary. My light-bulb moment just simply put some things in perspective. Yes we have bigger goals and achievements which we feel will guarantee our happiness however in our search for these achievements, we tend to over-look the small things that have the ability to make us truly happy. There are moments, for me at least, throughout the day, that bring me genuine happiness and joy. Thing is, most times I tend to let myself live in such moments for only short periods of times before my mind puts it all at the back of my head and again I am back chasing the bigger goal.

While keeping our eye on what in our minds we feel is 'the bigger picture', I think it's important not to take the little things for granted. The things that make us smile, happy and joyful, however insignificant they may seem at the moment. A simple example for me is when I get in my car, on my way to work or as I am going back home, being alone and listening to music is just absolute bliss! (No, it really is, I'm not exaggerating).

I encourage you to try your very best to focus on collecting these little moments and the joyful emotions they bring. I have a feeling that the "secret" to sustainable happiness really isn't that complicated, it simply lies in the little things...

Anne xo

Musings...

In my last post here I mentioned how I had a lot to write about and how I couldn't digest my ideas and write them down. Almost a month later and my head is still a jumbled mess. Okay maaaybe I'm exaggerating a little bit here because it kinda sounds like I'm walking around totally confused and can barely function. That's really not what I mean. 

What I am saying is that I have a lot of ideas about how I want to deal with my blog especially in long term goals and having to figure that out while sorting out my post ideas has been a little tricky. Okay so I started out with a particular path for this post but I feel lost.....(see what I mean? It's not even a joke guys).

So, about my many ideas; I have an honest passion for this blog and it honestly is one of the few things that are constantly a source of joy and even excitement for me (however far-apart my posts may be, this is completely true....no, seriously). I have been following and reading different kinds of blogs ranging from food blogs, fashion blogs, personal blogs and so forth and lately I have been getting more and more inspired to let my own blog grow. It just feels like I can be or do so much more than I am doing right now and if blogging at this scale feels this good, imagine how it will feel when it's on an even larger scale? I do realize at this point that I may not be making much sense to whichever poor soul is reading this, or maybe I am....I don't know.

Anyway, I have realized that writing about this, like I am doing right now, is actually helping me to focus on the many ideas and thoughts all jumbled in my head. *light-bulb moment*.

So to whoever is reading this, my advice to you is, if you find yourself a little confused and overwhelmed about work, school, personal issues or whatever it is that seems so overwhelming, maybe take a step back and instead of trying to tackle the whole entire thing, try going at it little by little....piece by piece, it will make things so much easier and manageable. I mean, look at me right? 

Till next time.

PS: I just love this illustration and yes I know it totally has NOTHING to do with the post other than for the obvious aesthetic purposes. You can check out more of this talented lady's work here where I linked her Instagram account.

Anne xo

Food for Thought

I have a lot to post about but for some reason my thoughts are all jumbled up in my head. So I'm going to give myself time and let my head breathe for a while before I put them all down. Don't forget to listen to your body, it often knows more than we think and always steers us in the right direction. If it doesn't feel right at the moment, give it time, don't force yourself. You'll find much better results after.

In the mean time I thought I'd share a few insightful words.

Anne xo

Forgiveness

We have all been taught by religion, society, our parents etc on forgiveness. That it is important to forgive those who have wronged and hurt us in whatever way; for those like me raised in a home where our religious faith was very important to us, we were taught that forgiving is the right thing to do because often we commit wrongs (sin) and just as we ask for forgiveness from God, we too should extend the same forgiveness to others.

This is no doubt a very important lesson; however I feel a lot of emphasis is pressed on learning to forgive others while self-forgiveness is most times forgotten.

I don't know about you guys but often times I tend to be too hard on myself. Whenever I feel that I have done wrong, whether it is against some other person or just not doing what I feel is my responsibility to do and for one reason or another I am unable to do.

Its easy to forget that we are only human therefore prone to make mistakes. We carry the guilt of whatever it is we have done or not done (as the case may be)  for long periods of time even when those we have wronged have already forgiven us.

Personally this has proven to be a  very unhealthy habit and has at times even has consequences to my health as I had addressed in this previous post. I think, forgiving others who have wronged you is a very important thing in life because it frees you from a lot of baggage carried otherwise. However, equally and even more so important is forgiving yourself. None of us is perfect and we make mistakes from time to time. It's all an important process in life because in making mistakes we tend to learn very important lessons. Every time we make a mistake, even without realizing it, we experience a huge amount of personal growth.

So I say, as much as you forgive others, learn to forgive yourself as well. Take whatever lesson you can from the situation, better yourself and move the hell on. Keeping all this guilt never does anyone any good. Personally it just robs me of joy for life and living in general.

Life is much too short for you to be responsible for the lack of your own joy right? I think so.
Till next time!

Anne xo

Disclaimer: All the images used in this post are from various inspirational accounts on Instagram.