Project 31. Celebrate Your Beauty.

Some say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I say beauty is within each of us. It is so easy to get caught up in how other people perceive beauty that we forget to enjoy the beauty that surrounds us as well as the beauty we possess. Every woman is beautiful.. so let us celebrate!

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” -Ashley Smith

What is "Project 31"? It is a collection of thoughts, ideas, and women who portray beauty in a inspired way. "Project 31" is you celebrating your God given beauty, and celebrating the beautiful women around you.

Wanna join in? Here is the challenge... For 31 days, blog each day about things that celebrate your beauty, and the beauty of the women around you. I attached a list below you can follow, or you can make up your own.

THE LIST OF UPCOMING TOPICS:

Day 1. What does beauty mean to you?
Day 2. What makes you uniquely you?
Day 3. Who is someone you know who inspires beauty?
Day 4. Style 31. Post a pic of you in your favorite outfit.
Day 5. Write a blog thanking someone who has made your heart come alive.
Day 6. Jaded beauty. Has the world's definition of beauty ever jaded you?
Day 7. Write a blog to encourage another beautiful woman.
Day 8. Have a beauty secret (e.g. hair tip, make up tip)? Share, please!
Day 9. What virtues do you value in yourself?
Day 10. What are you learning as a wife, mom, or friend? (Or just woman in general?)
Day 11. Post a recipe. Or if you don't cook, try a new recipe and write about it.
Day 12. Write about what wears you out as a woman.
Day 13. Tell us omething you would like to change about yourself for the better.
Day 14. Style 31. Post an outfit pic!
Day 15. Write to encourage a friend. Inspire her beauty.
Day 16. Write a letter to (daughter,niece,young girl). Tell her what beauty means.
Day 17. Write about 3 things that make you happy.
Day 18. Describe your personality.
Day 19. Write about your favorite comfort food.
Day 20. Write about your job and why you love it or hate it.
Day 21. Write a letter to your husband to encourage him.
Day 22. Write a letter to your family as a whole.
Day 23. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?
Day 24. What are you being taught you presently?
Day 25. Style 31. Post a pic of your favorite comfy clothes.
Day 26. What do you hope your grandchildren will say about you someday?
Day 27. Write a blog to encourage someone and build their confidence!
Day 28. Write about your insecurities as a woman.
Day 29. Write about "a day in the life of me." (Pics are great!)
Day 30. Who is your role model as a woman?
Day 31. Write about your dreams and goals as a beautiful woman!



Ready? Goto: Mandy's page or Kat's page to link up. Let's encourage each other in this project by visiting each other blogs and leaving encouraging comments.

Loving Words of a Toddler....

Olivia often will catch me off guard with something very hilarious. I love that she just speaks her mind, and more importantly, I enjoy the humor that accompanies her thoughts.

Last night we were laying in bed snuggling when she turns and looks at me very seriously....

"Momma, I don't wanna smell your breath (mind you I JUST brushed my teeth!), you need to close your mouth like this [she demonstrates how to close my mouth] like this."

This is just an example, but of course, I couldn't help but laugh loudly for a good 2 minutes.

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Hopes and Desires for the Bee

As a mother, I am so excited to see what kind of a person my daughter will be.

I feel like I seen 'glimpses' of the kind of person she is becoming, but maybe it is in my head. To me, she is beautiful, intelligent, inquisitive, has a great sense of humor, a kind heart, a very real sense of her surroundings, and is very happy-g-lucky. I think she will have a remarkably positive demeanor... which I am quite proud of! It took me a lot of growing and internalizing to become a positive person and to her it is her nature. I love that.

I want so much for her... I want her to take a dance class, and play soccer. I want her to dance every time she hears some music just because it feels good. I want her to continue to ask why, even when it becomes annoying because she WANTS to understand the world around her. I want her love of books to continue all through her life.

There are so many things I want for my daughter. We all want great things for our kids, don't we? One thing that is very important to me is her trying all kinds of activities, goals, and experiences. She doesn't have to love everything but I want her to know what all is out there. As a child or even as a teenager I never joined anything, probably because I was too afraid of the unknown or that I wouldn't be good at any of it. I want her to know she is capable of anything and that the opportunity is there if she accepts it!

Remember make believe? Me too!

Despite what my mother would tell you, I was not ALWAYS a serious child. I remember a time when playing house on the front porch and cooking up "Carrot Stew" (which consisted of any peelings from the stew my mom was making that I could manage to sneak from the trash mixed with ketchup)was the normal. However, it is probably true that I was always a little short on imagination. That being said, now that I have a toddler and am having to "re-grow" my imagination is proving to be an awkward and down right hilarious endeavor. Somewhere between Olivia learning to crawl and talk I gained a sense of humor... which is truly a wonderful thing at my age! I have entered a land where silliness is a must and nothing is too embarrassing if it makes the bee smile or enjoy our day.

This weekend I found my self doing a number of little things that to most people would be hardly worth mentioning... but to me.. they make me smile even now. We stalked the halls of toys r us with no agenda and only my toddler to lead me! I took a moment to look through her eyes, and what fun it was. We wandered down an isle with elmos that sang and danced, babies that walked and cried, dogs that redacted when you pet them and so on. We played with everything that she could reach making quite a ruckus! Every now and then she would hear a tune she recognized and would take off running in the other direction to find it. Sometimes it was those cd collection sample boards... the kind you press a button and it plays a toon. However, these were no ordinary sound boards! Ohhhh no my friends, these were hung at approximately 2 feet from the ground with a large variety of tunes like the "Wheels on the Bus" and "Hokey Pokey", which we sang and danced to in the isles. However, I will admit that I feared I was caught a couple of times!

Next we moved on to large bubble gum pink feather boa's and huge glossy fake pearls. Later, the bikes! Ohhhh the bikes. My lil bee was in heaven and wanted to take a turn on every bike she could reach. Eventually we had to part ways with the child superstore.

I also found myself playing at the park with Olivia, swinging side by side on the "big girl swings", followed my some play time... in what I can only explain as a towering metal jungle gym of sliding fun. Again, I played with Olivia on her level for as long as I could. But I had to draw the line some where, right? Yep. She FINALLY found my boundaries. I found myself about 10 feet in the air with nothing short of a metal screen holding me up. I froze, and for a minute I debated on whether they would have built these for adults. After internalizing this, I did what any other parent (who is secretly afraid of heights) would have done. I grabbed my kid and pulled her to lower ground explained that we better go "puppy hunting". Puppy hunting, you ask? Yes this is what I say to get Olivia to get her to follow my path or to move onto another activity when in a place, such as a park, that we may spot a puppy now and again. For all you parents out there, this is more commonly known as a "bribe".

Lots more fun as the weekend continued, but it is getting late. But before I go, I thought I would share this. Tonight we got into bed and Olivia wanted to chat, as usual. Tonight she wanted to 'wash mamas hair'. It was truly amazing, apparently a sink with running water sprouted right out of the middle of my queen sized bed for which she used to wash my hair (that apparently I could not see). Naturally, this made more sense about 5 minutes into this activity when I finally figured out what she was doing. She kept asking me for ketchup. I continuously asked what the ketchup was for and continued to ask her if she meant shampoo? She proceeded to tell me how she doesn't need shampoo for my hair, only ketchup. I quickly gave up the battle on shampoo vs ketchup, but continued to wonder what might have influenced this thought process. She continually asked me for more ketchup. When I continued to hand it to her she would carefully squeeze it into her hand from what appeared to be imaginary ketchup packets. Funny, I could have SWORN I gave her a bottle... not packets....

Some things never change.

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First time finger painting!

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