Friday Favorites

Yay for the weekend! Tomorrow is my big test and I am SO excited for it to be over with. Here are a few things that I was loving this past week. 🙂

1. This week I really loved some of the excerpts that I read from my book before bed. They all focused on having faith rather than planning for and worry about the future. They spoke about how God has a plan for us all that is already set and will be slowly revealed to us moment by moment.

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Some days I like the readings more than others, and this week I felt like they really were all things that I needed to hear.

2. On Thursday night my Dad and I went out to dinner in Hoboken to a restaurant called “Margherita’s Pizza and Cafe.” I had been looking forward to our visit all week! It was nice to get out of the apartment and spend some time catching up.

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I had a feeling that the food would be good here because each time that I previously walked by there had been a line out the door. The atmosphere was really cute and cozy and felt like your typical small family owned Italian restaurant.

They started us off with bruschetta and Italian bread and butter. Then for our main meals, my dad had chicken parmigiana and I had raviolis stuffed with eggplant, sun-dried tomato, and cheese. Both of our meals were fantastic!

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We then finished off our evening with a coffee and cappuccino before heading out.

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Overall we had a great time! We hopefully are going to try to do something like this once a month or so. 🙂

3. Lastly, two of my favorite things this week have to do with my bedroom coming along in my apartment. As of right now, the kitchen and living room feel nice and cozy, but the bedroom is a mess. For the past (almost) two months I have had no rug, curtains, or even a bedspread. Luckily that all changed this week!

My aunt had been working hard on a hand-made quilt for my bed for a little while now  and she just finished it!  I haven’t seen it in person yet, but it looks absolutely beautiful from the pictures.

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My grandma picked out the fabric for me when she was in Amish country this past summer and I immediately fell in love with it. I knew that it would make a beautiful quilt, but I’m not super confident in my quilting abilities yet so I decided to ask my aunt to make it for me. Luckily she said yes and it’s already one of my very favorite things that I own (despite that I don’t actually have it in my hands yet)!

 Even the small details are perfect!

To go along with this, I got a nice surprise from my Grandma telling me that she bought me a braided rug for the bedroom as a Valentine’s Day gift!

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Here’s the photo she sent me, but I’ll be sure to post actual pictures when I get it!

I had been looking at very similar rugs online for weeks now but hadn’t mentioned it to anybody. I was so shocked when she told me that she bought me one in the exact color that I liked!   I am so excited to get it into my bedroom and see how it helps things come together.

I will definitely be doing a post on the apartment in the near future to share my attempt at making this place feel like home!

That’s all for this week. I am so grateful for my fantastic family who truly made this week fabulous.

Have a great weekend!

xo,

Jaclyn

What is “Always My Sunshine”?

I started this blog several months ago because I missed writing, I missed expressing myself, and I missed being creative. I have always loved to write, but studying engineering does not give me many opportunities to do so. I spend most of my time solving equations and complex problems, and occassionally preparing a technical lab report. The closest I get to creative writing is when my younger brother sends me his college essays to edit at 10pm the night before they are due (Sorry Ant!).

I didn’t start this blog for anybody besides myself. In fact, I will be surprised if anybody even reads what I write on here. I wanted a way to document what I am thinking about, ideas that I have, delicious recipes I find, workouts that I enjoy, and things that go on in my life on a daily basis. Recently, however, my mom mentioned that I should start a blog to document my experience as I study abroad in Australia.

I will be traveling for approximately two months between Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. Instead of waiting until I return home to share hundreds of pictures and try to remember all of the little details, I will try to upload details of my adventure weekly. This will allow me to share my experience, as well as this blog, with family and friends back home.

One thing that I know my family will ask me is “Why did you choose “Always My Sunshine” as your blog’s name? What does that even mean?” Though I know that I don’t need to justify my decisions, I will share that I chose this name for a variety of reasons…

1.  I aim to be able to find the sunshine in every situation, and if I can’t find any sunshine I want to be able to create my own. To me this means having a positive attitude and finding the hidden blessings in everyday life, which is something I am still working hard on.

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2. In my life, my family and close friends serve as my own sunshine. Being around them uplifts me, it makes me feel at ease, and it reminds me how lucky I am. They are and always will be my sunshine.

 

3. To me, sunshine symbolizes happiness and peace. Whenever I visualize my happiest place, it is always full of bright sunshine and warm rays shining down on me while I am surrounded by the ones I love.

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What better way to name this little project of mine?!

xo,

Jaclyn

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend with family and friends – I know that I did!

On Friday it was torrentially down-pouring here, which put a little damper on our 4th of July plans. Instead of having our usual cookout celebration, my mom, stepdad and I headed out to run some errands. They were on a hunt for a new dishwasher and I had a few things that I wanted to pick up for my apartment.

I have been in rare form when it comes to shopping. I almost never shop for clothes but for some reason lately, I can’t stop! I ended up buying two dresses and a cute crop top from Express instead of anything that I actually needed.

After we finished up, we headed over to Tutti Fruity for some delicious frozen yogurt! My mom has been on a fro-yo kick lately.

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As you can see, I would never skimp on my fro-yo toppings 🙂

On Saturday, we had our (postponed) 4th of July Cookout with the whole family. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. I made a festive and healthy dessert pizza (recipe courtesy of http://www.simplytaralynn.com). It came out great and was a huge hit.

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Instead of indulging in sugary drinks or alcoholic beverages, Conor and I drank red, white, and blue sparkling water for the day. It’s low calorie, refreshing, and delicious! Definitely one of our new favorites. 🙂

Enjoy this beautiful Sunday!

xo,
Jaclyn

Q. What did you do this 4th of July weekend?