Encouragement for Single Ladies on Valentines Day

February 8, 2019February 6, 2019 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

H&M Black Bodysuit | Soprano Blush Tulle Skirt (sold out) similar, similar| Arturo Chiang Studded Pumps (sold out) similar

It can be hard sometimes, can’t it? This single life. Most of the time you’re decent at faking it, and there are even very real seasons that you’re actually grateful that you’re still single as it allows you the freedom to experience things that your friends who are married are not as easily able to experience. It does not change the fact though that there are very real seasons of loneliness and times when you wish you could do life with someone as it seems everyone else does. I want to let you know this Valentine’s Day that you are not alone. I’ll start by being open and sharing my own struggle. This past Christmas and birthday were hard for me. I would love to be married and be a wife and mom, but that is not the season that God has me in right now, and while I still hope for that someday, I am also very aware that it is not promised to me. To all of you other beautiful single ladies out there, I want you to know that it is ok to cry sometimes when the ache in your heart to hold your own little one as you hear that another friend is having a baby or the longing to have someone “pop the question” to you becomes overwhelming as you see on Facebook that yet another friend is engaged. Go ahead and cry. It does not mean that you are less excited or happy for that friend, it is simply an acknowledgement that your heart longs for the same. The secret I’ve learned is to not stay there, but rather after the tears have begun to slow to cry out to the one who holds my future and knows where life will lead. I promise you, God has not forgotten us. While life may not look how we always thought it would, that does not mean that God does not have something amazing planned for you, different is not always bad, it can actually be just as good and sometimes better.

Secondly, surround yourself with a community of friends who are there on your side. It can be so tempting to bottle all of the emotions up inside, but you won’t find healing that way. Open up to your community and ask them to stand alongside of you. I have one friend in particular that anytime I can feel myself beginning to feel lonely or wishing my life had followed the route I had thought it would, I send her a text message and she prays for me and sends encouragement reminding me of truth. Your community does not have to all be single either, two of my dearest friends are both married and one has a precious little one and the other is expecting her first baby. They have been an amazing source of strength to me by letting me be a part of their lives! Being around them and their families is actually healing rather than hurtful, my friends little boy always puts the biggest smile on my face and both of them have been incredible encouragements. I also have learned so much about relationships thanks to them that I would not have learned otherwise, and whether I get married or not that is invaluable!

Finally, life does not suddenly magically begin when you get married, it is happening right now! Don’t waste these years wishing for something you can have no control over. Instead, go live life as full as you can! Some of my favorite stories my mom would tell me growing up happened before she met my dad, and you know the reason she had those stories? It is because she chose to make the most of her single years and lived them fully! Make this time you are living now worth looking back on and smiling over instead of looking back and realizing that you wasted such a large portion of your life. This is your chance to go on that trip of a life time, volunteer at your church or that mission downtown. Go find a younger girl and invest in her life, you will never regret it! Spend time investing in the friendships and relationships you currently have in your life, one of the things my married friends has taught me is that when you are married you still need those girl friends just as much as you did before you were married.

I want to challenge you this Valentine’s Day to not stay at home wishing that someone special was there to celebrate the day with. Go find some single friends and invite them to a Galentines or Palentines party! Or if you’re like me and nearly all of your local friends are married, host a Galentines party a few days before or after Valentines Day. Go make memories that you want to remember!

Finally, I just want you to know that you are a beautiful, amazing young woman. Yes YOU! Not having a significant other does not make you any less wonderful as the woman in a relationship. You already are LOVED, CHERISHED AND BEAUTIFUL. God has not forgotten you, and He has not left you alone. He is on your side and He is in your corner. I also am here for you if you need someone.

Happy Valentines Day!

Leighton Michele

Doughnuts?

May 21, 2018 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

Shirt: A New Day Jeans: LC Lauren Conrad JackRogers: Jack Rogers Similar, Similar, Similar Earrings: Similar

I don’t know about you, but summer Saturday’s were made for morning doughnut runs and picnics. One of my favorite local doughnut places is Hurt’s Donuts, a fun shop filled with unique doughnut creations! Here I am eating the “Homer”, but I also picked out: chocolate birthday cake, little timmy, cookie monster, cotton candy and andes. And the thing is, this is not even scratching the surface of all the options they have! If you are ever visiting the midwest, it is definitely worth your time to drop by and make a visit. (And bonus points, they are open 24/7!!!)

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele

Saturday Morning Farmer’s Markets

May 15, 2018 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

Dress: Neesee’s Dresses, sold out Similar Purse: Target, sold out Shoes: Target, old similar Earrings: SugarFix

One of the things I love to do in the summer is visit the local farmer’s market on Saturday mornings. I was so excited to hear ours was opening a few weeks ago and hurried over the first Saturday they opened. While it is still a little early in the season to be able to buy my fruits and veggies there, I loved getting to walk through and pick out some flowers as well as look at all of the craft booths. What are some of your favorite things to look for at the farmer’s market?

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele

Mother’s Day Lunch

May 11, 2018 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

My family celebrated Mother’s Day a little early two weekends ago when my aunts were in town visiting and my parents invited everyone over to their house. I am blessed to live in the same city as all of my grandparents, so I was able to celebrate with my grandma and all of my aunts on my mom’s side of the family as well as my mom. I am the decorator in my family and decided that I wanted to go with a flower garden theme for the event, so I rounded up some help, aka my dad, and we went on a run to get all of the supplies after I got off work the night before the luncheon and made it back about one in the morning! I literally bought everything from Walmart or Target and it turned out so beautiful! I bought several flowers as well as planters and used them to decorate with as well as fun twinkling lights to add to the atmosphere. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I also bought some nice plates and a table cloth all in blush pink and light grey to nicely accent the flowers I had chosen. It made the day more special for everyone and then my mom was able to take the flowers afterwards and plant them in her garden to enjoy all summer long!

My aunt and cousin also own Magnolia Photographers and brought their equipment along to take some mother/daughter as well as cousin and sister pictures! We haven’t had some good pictures taken in awhile, so it was so great to be able to work with them and have some photos taken.

If you do not have your present for Mother’s Day yet, arranging to have family photos taken is a gift I can guarantee any mom will love. If you happen to live in the midwest area, you should definitely check out my aunt and cousins business, they do great work and were so much fun to work with. I linked to their Instagram account above.

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele

California Dreaming

April 24, 2018April 23, 2018 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

I am so excited about today’s post! It had been too long since I had last been to the ocean, and even longer still since I had been there on a vacation, so getting to spend a day warm on the sand was heavenly (and to anyone who caught that Disney reference, we are instant besties). If I am being honest, the weather was a little cooler than I had hoped for, I think it was in the upper fifties, maybe low sixties, but I still pulled out my swimsuit and a cute summer dress for the day. Monterrey was a little less than a three hour drive away and we headed straight for Carmel Beach in Carmel-By-The-Sea. I had a lot of people hype this place up to me, and often when that happens I find myself disappointed, but truthfully, it was better than any expectations I had! The water was so beautiful and the atmosphere there is something I cannot describe. Driving through Carmel-By-The-Sea on the way to the beach was like driving through a fairy tale! Every home was so unique and had a magical look unlike anything I have ever seen! Then to walk from such a setting straight onto the beach… truly, there are not words to describe it. If you are ever in the area, truly give yourself more than a day. I am already dreaming of going back and spending longer in this beautiful area of California!

The first thing I wanted to do was run and get my feet in the water, so I slipped my sandals off and I was ready to go! I literally ran straight into the water and quickly discovered that it was cold! I may have worn my swimsuit under my dress, but it sadly never did see the light of day, though I am still thankful I wore it since I did still manage to get wet while playing chicken with the waves, lol.

Now, for a fun and random side note, I totally chose this outfit on purpose for a very unique reason. When I first saw the movie Monte Carlo, I fell in love with Meg’s character and her sense of fashion. My most favorite outfit that she wore was a peach shirt dress that doubled over her navy swimsuit and I was determined to find a way to duplicate that look the next time I made my way back to the beach and I am so excited that I was able to keep that promise to myself. If you don’t remember what outfit I am talking about, go watch the movie or google “Meg from Monte Carlo’s shirt dress” and you’ll be able to see why I was so excited with how close this duplicate turned out!

We spent several hours at the beach just wandering up and down it absorbing the beauty of it all. One thing that we all discussed later that we really liked about our friend group was that while we were good about taking pictures, we were also really good at putting our phones away everywhere we went and just living in the moment spending time with each other and experiencing everything! We all walked away with many pictures, but more importantly were able to walk away feeling like we actually lived our trip and not just photographed it which can often be a hard balance to find.

Lori walking along the beach taking in the view of Pebble Beach Golf Course

Candid of Megan and her boyfriend Ben sitting on the beach

The sad thing is that the pictures don’t even do it justice as beautiful as they are!

Me, Megan, Ben and Lori

From Carmel Beach we decided to drive high way one all the way down past Big Sur which was a dream come true! I grew up reading about this beautiful stretch of coastline and to be able to actually drive the highway that so many of my favorite book characters have driven was so surreal. I can’t say for sure, but I do believe that we pulled over at nearly every.single.outlook. along the whole coast! Each view was more beautiful than the last and deserved to be stopped and admired. One word of advice though, take dramamine. Even if you are not normally prone to car sickness, believe me, Highway One will be the place you discover you can get it.

The water was so clear and blue it didn’t even look real!

Because good friends take that cute “pinterest picture” for you… 😉

Then, we were there, the Big Sur Bridge! It held a totally different kind of beauty than the Golden Gate in SF, but it was still so stunning! You might say we were a little obsessed with bridges on this trip…

After Big Sur Bridge, we had to decide whether we continued on for another thirty minutes to see McWay Falls, or head back to Monterrey to eat dinner since we were all starting to get hungry. After a hard time making a decision, we last minute decided to go ahead and fully dive into the adventure we were on and go to the waterfall and we did not regret it for a single moment. To see such a beautiful waterfall falling straight into the ocean is something that if given the opportunity a person should never miss out upon.

Xoxo,
Leighton Michele

Outfit Details (you didn’t really think I was going to leave you hanging?!)

Dress: Similar , Similar, Similar, Similar Swimsuit: Same Sandals: Same

Fresno… Change in Plans

April 17, 2018April 16, 2018 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

Today’s post is a little shorter than my last post on my trip to California. Our second day we were supposed to go to Sequoia National Park, BUT there was a blizzard there that day and none of us were feeling the need to go freeze, lol. While we were sad we wouldn’t be able to go to Sequoia, we all decided to just roll with it and this day ended up being one of our most favorite ones from the trip!

We started the day hanging out at Megan’s house making breakfast, she made the BEST little egg muffins that we all enjoyed. Truthfully, I am still craving them several weeks later!

After breakfast we took our time at the house getting ready for the day and discussing different options. The weather was beautiful, so we decided to pack a picnic and just see where the wind took us. We spent the morning driving through many of the beautiful older neighborhoods that Fresno has to offer and enjoyed dreaming about those beautiful homes. When we finally decided we were hungry enough we headed to Woodard Park to enjoy our picnic.

Since at this point the weather was still cool for the most part back home, this was my first picnic of the year and I loved getting to enjoy it with such great friends!

After this we were off for the only big plan we made on this random, spur of the moment day: an escape room! Almost all of us had been to escape rooms before, and up to this point we had all managed to be undefeated, so to say the pressure was on is an understatement. Each of us are competitive, so the second we were “locked” in our room, we were all diving in trying to find our clues! This escape room was unique from ones I have done in the past due to the fact that instead of many clues being available to be searched out at once in no particular order much of the time, every clue had to be found in a particular order to unlock the next clue. It made for a very unique experience, but one that we all loved. If you have never done an escape room before, stop reading this post right now and call up some friends to go do one together, you will not regret it!

Also, needless to say, our winning streak is still intact, we made it out with 11 minutes and 43 seconds to spare.

After the escape room, we decided to drive around downtown Fresno and do some exploring. While down there we found some unique wall murals that we could not bear to say no too. The bright colours were so beautiful and really brightened the area up!

(L to R: Me, Megan and Lori)

Megan and her boyfriend Ben

Megan with a Fresno wall mural

Then we decided to finish the day in the most California way we could think of, a visit to In-N-Out, and of course, you can’t make a visit to this famous burger joint without getting a selfie with one of their famous burgers:

If you know me, then you know I am not normally a big fast food person, but not gonna lie, In-N-Out has gained a new fan. Now when can we get one here in the Mid-West???

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele

San Francisco… Take 1

April 9, 2018April 9, 2018 ~ leightonmichele ~ Leave a comment

Hi Everyone!

I am so excited for today’s post! It is going to be part one of three or four sharing my adventures from my spring break trip to California! If you follow me on Instagram you know that I went to California for spring break with some friends to visit one of our good friends, Megan, who is a travel nurse in California! It was such an adventure!

Our plane flew into San Francisco around 9:30 a.m. and we hit the ground running. We decided to head down to Fisherman’s Wharf and do some sight seeing in that area for the day before we headed back to pick Megan up from work.

There was this adorable bakery, Boudin’s, that had the CUTEST breads made into the shapes of animals! You could stand at the window outside looking in watching them form the bread into all of the animals you can purchase. I was mesmerized by it and truthfully could have stood there all day watching. If you are ever in the area I definitely recommend stopping by for lunch or an afternoon stack, the ambiance of this place is perfect.

*everywhere you look, everywhere you go, there’s a heart, a hand to hold onto. everywhere you look, there’s a face of somebody who needs you…*

I may have been guilty of playing the theme song from Full House like every other minute while we were there…. I am so thankful for friends that are 90’s kids too and were so understanding of my fan-girling about being in San Francisco.

As a recovering chocoholic, I thought that Ghiradelli Square was the absolute cutest and was head over heals in love with their shop. I mean, flowers, cute outdoor seating and chocolate, how could you go wrong?

There are so many cute shops along Fisherman’s Wharf, you could spend days there and still not see all of them. I loved the fun colours and almost storybook feel in San Francisco. I have never been to a city so full of colour and life that even on a grey, drizzly day it still feels like sunshine!

I have dreamed of going to the Golden Gate Bridge for years and am so happy to say that it did not disappoint. The beauty of that bridge against the backdrop of San Francisco is breathtaking and something that stays with you long after you wish San Francisco goodbye.

Then, as if our day couldn’t be any more perfect, we wrapped our time up in San Francisco by finding THE Full House house!!!! Que the Full House theme song all over again, this girl was on cloud nine!

But, the best part was still a nearly three hour drive away, although it is grainy and we are all a little rumpled from a day of travel, the picture below might be my most favorite picture from the whole trip:

(L-R, Lori, Megan and Me)

FINALLY REUNITED WITH MEGAN! These two girls are two of my best friends and it has been hard having one of us so far away, so to finally be reunited was INCREDIBLE! Guys, community is SO important, and getting to have mine reunited for the week was the best gift we could have had and absolutely made this trip to California. This picture was taken moments after we were reunited and I think the joy in our smiles tells the whole story.

In the next post I’ll share more of our trip, but for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed this post on the first day in California! I’ll link my outfit details below.

Xoxo,

Leighton Michele

Rain Jacket: Same (my pattern is no longer available, but these other patterns are adorable too!) Shoes: Similar (these shoes were perfect on the trip) Blush Shirt: Similar