An Ordinary Girl's World: Fashion, Love, Life

• Enjoying high 50s weather and beautifully sunny days. Yesterday I wore a t-shirt to class. A T-shirt!!!!

• Taking tango with about 7 of my friends weekly- My first class ended with me practically in stitches. So much fun should be illegal. The last class we had (on Valentine's day) ended with all the guys in the class surprising us girls with roses!! So sweet!!!

• My Class's Valentine's Day Modern Dance routine. It was just so cute! It has a cupid-like movement with arrows, a whole bunch of heart shapes, and even ended with a hand-blown kiss combined with an Arabesque stance. It rocked!

• Seeing a lovely old man skiing on a patch of snow on my way to Mass. He looked like he was having the time of his life and that made me happy.

• Seeing some college students enjoying what they perceived to be their last couple of days of winter by having a final snowball fight.

• Discovering (or rediscovering I guess) Regina Spektor's song Samson.

• Going for a retreat and making a few new friends :D

• Watching the latest episode of Being Erica! It was soo good!!!

• Having a sleepover party and watching 13 Going on 30 again with my gal pals.

• Working on organizing my life- one step at a time.

• Seeing these three college age/young adults bring cupcakes a trolley and other stuff to a homeless woman on the street and wishing her a happy birthday.She was so happy!

• Being able to grab a lovely breakfast at the dining hall despite having gotten there 20 minutes after it should have closed. It's the little things in life.

• Having an epic dodgeball to the death match with my friends last night. So much fun!

• Realising that I am truly blessed to have all these people who love me so much and whom I love so dearly. I Love you all too my darling devotees!

• Join online/offline community projects like ScriptFrenzy, NaNoWriMo, Art Everyday Month, 365 day challenge, etc. These are great ways to get involved in the ever growing online creative community as well as a wonderful way to kick yourself out of a rut and to create with abandon for a while.
• Have a Creative Genius Day/Night: This is a wonderful idea I got from Jenny's post on her blog Life After College. It involves setting out blocking out some specific time in your schedule to create a day or night just devoted to creating and engaging your imagination. Think of it as a really mini artistic retreat.
• Get out and try random stuff. There are so many different forms of art out there, so many different experiences just waiting to happen. Just get up and try stuff until you find something that you find interesting. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you may find.
• Engage in Artist Dates or an Artistic Retreat: Engage your creativity by feeding the desire to have new experiences inside you. If you don't have much take some time to see that new movie you've been dying to see, or if you happen to have a free week coming up (spring break anyone) why not commit yourself to exploring different inspiration sources through an artistic retreat.
• Read and work through books like The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and Art and Soul by Pam Grout. They are wonderful for overcoming the initial feelings of apprehension.
• Creating a regular time to create and partake in artistic exercises weekly , if not daily: Make your artistic pursuits an official part of your day by giving them a specific time slot in your day. I know it may sound obvious but you would be surprised at how much of a difference it will make to your level of artistic output just by giving them an actual time slot instead of waiting until you are free and feeling inspired.

Dearest Devotees,

Pain, disappointment, hurt. These are things that no one can avoid in this life, no matter how charmed their existence may seem to an outsider. Sadness and difficulties are all parts of the path that we must tread. I imagine there is no one who is successful, happy and fulfilled who has not had to face some sort of hardship to get where they are, because it is how we face whatever difficulty that is put in our way that makes us great.

January is the month of New Year's Resolutions, goal setting and ambitious planning. For many, the start of a new year brings a sense of revival, a feeling that the slate has been swept clean and a renewed sense of purpose. We believe that we can do anything that we set our minds to and that the sky is within our grasp, and we continue to feel this way until we encounter our first hurdle. A lot of the times, this first hurdle is the most difficult because it breaks the illusion that we are infallible and forces us to realise that just because we've started to work towards our goals doesn't mean that everything will come easily from now on. It is during these trials that we have to remember that nothing good ever comes easy. If it did, there wouldn't be so many clichéd sayings about the need to "pay your dues" and how "quitters never prosper" :) .

During these trying times, these quotes don't necessarily help me but what usually does help is remembering to smile constantly. I can not count the number of times I've felt better after laughing off an unfortunate mistake in my design or shrugging off a painful jab at my work by ignoring the jabber and spending quality time goofing off with a close friend. At first it may seem fake but after a while the fake smile fades away and a real one with real good feelings takes it place. Trust me, taking some time away from your path to nurse the wound caused by your first fall, will stop you from falling into the dreaded cycle of negativity and doubt and will ensure that you can come back stronger and more assured of your ability to persevere until you succeed. So the next time you encounter a perilous bump in your path to self-fulfillment, step away from the melancholic music, cancel the pity party and smile through the pain. You'll feel better for it.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. Have you ever tried smiling to cheer yourself up when you feel like things aren't going your way? How did it work and what other methods do you use to pick yourself up when you're down? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

• Make sure I'm working in a clean, airy, well-lit (preferrably sun-lit) room.
• Make sure that all technological distractions are set to a minimum- that means no facebook, twitter or tweetdeck, and that my phone must be on silent or vibrate. To prevent my computer notifications from distracting me I use programs like Concentrate and Ommwriter to turn all my notifications off as soon as I start working until I'm done.
• Surround myself with inspiring quotes, pictures and works of art.
• Have calming music and sounds playing in the background, such as Ommwriter's nature soundtrack, and some of my favorite classical pieces like Yiruma's The River Flows in You and Maxene Cyrin's piano version of No Cars Go.