{Changes aren't so simple}

Okay, y'all. Time to huddle.

So lately, I've been wanting to redesign the blog. Well, not lately. I've wanted to for a long time but I wasn't really sure what I wanted and I didn't want to pay to have it done until I figured it out. Here's the thing. When I started this blog, I started it because I was reading a lot of personal blogs about family and normal life, and at the time, I was in an acting conservatory feeling really disconnected from those things.   So the blog was born to help keep me connected to normal life, relationships, family, etc. Then, I left the acting conservatory and felt really disconnected from creativity and art and I started exploring design and lifestyle blogs, and suddenly felt the need to go more in that direction because I missed participating in that world of creativity and collaboration.

And now, I feel like there is a happy little marriage between the two. Somehow, they have met in the middle and both are equally important to me in life and therefore, in said blog.

Lord, this feels like I way bigger deal than it is.

I want to change my blog name. There I said it.

I've outgrown it. I want this blog to be about much more than just myself. I want it to be about inspiration for everyone, not just the simple gals of the world. Because sometimes things get complicated y'all. And to be perfectly honest, this is the first thing that made me doubt my blog name:

Seriously. When I watched this episode after I had made my blog, I knew somewhere deep down that this name would never work. If you know me at all, you know that I am for sure, a Katie girl. And yet here I am. Blogging as "A Simple Girl." (Not that I don't love the simple things in life :)) 

 I'm excited about all of the pending external changes. However, the content will be the same, friends. So no big changes there. I'm in the midst gathering inspiration and working on a redesign with one of my all time favorite bloggers/graphic designers, Alaina from Live Creating Yourself. Eee!

I'll let you all in on the new blog name and what not soon. Anyone else changed their blog name out there? I feel like I'm going through a breakup. 

Talk to you all soon :)

-C

{blue}

Feelin' a wee bit blue today.

I am about to go into work and I just don't wanna.

I haven't had a day off in weeks, and yet I'm still all kinds of worried about money for when I go to school. I really wish I had the extra money to take a quick little trip to Chicago before school starts when I get to Cincinnati. But either way, it will be good to get back and get settled again. I don't mean to be a negative nancy, it's just one of those days. 

I think a day off to see a movie, explore Houston, and just unwind would be an excellent cure. I just have to hang in there until Thursday. I know I can, I know I can, I know I can.

But if I could be anywhere in the world, I think I would pick here:

Spain

Maybe I will be soon :).

Happy Sunday, everyone.

-C

{Just a late Saturday night thought}

I found this quote on one of my favorite blogs, Makeunder My Life, and it really resonated with me, as I'm sure it will with a lot of you.

"I'm not where I want to be, but thank God I'm not where I used to be. I'm doing okay and I'm on my way." 

-J. Meyer

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Now to just keep moving forward...

I worked a long day today, so I will now relax with a glass of red wine and 13 going on 30. Do not laugh at me. I love this movie and sometimes I wish I would wake up and be "thirty, flirty, and thriving" too.

Sleep tight, everyone.

-C

{Office vs. Closet}

Is it just me, or are the weeks speeding by even faster than usual? As I prepare to head back to Cincinnati for school in just a few short weeks, I am trying to find a way to do all of those summer fun activities before we officially kiss the season goodbye. Between my constant working, it will be quite a challenge. But I am dying to go a wine tasting, peruse the shops in Montrose, have a girls night with my family, and maybe see a show at one of the theaters downtown. If you knew what my work schedule looked like for the next couple of weeks, you would probably laugh at my summer bucket list, but I am a dreamer.

Speaking of dreaming...

I've been putting together some ideas for my new apartment that I'll be moving into in September. It's a small one bedroom (seriously, the bedroom is pretty darn small) and while it's not luxury, I'm really excited about fixing it up and reviving it over time. I'll be living there until I graduate because nothing short of a roach infested apartment would get me to agree to move again. I do not enjoy packing.

Here is my current dilemma: There are two large closets in the apartment. One is in the entry way area, with double sliding mirrored (blech) doors. The other is obviously in the bedroom and it's more of an open nook area. It could make a really great closet, don't get me wrong, but I've also been toying with the idea of turning it into a little office/blogging nook and using the entry closet for my clothes instead. 

Some of my favorite closet office nooks:

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I like that they all have something that defines the space but still stays really cohesive with the rest of the room. In the first two, I'm loving the graphics on the walls that make it feel more separate and secluded, but in the last one I love the way they continued the same color scheme and just used a subtle sheer curtain to define the office. They all look like cozy, inspiring spaces to get your work on.

But it is hard to give up having a glamourous closet. Although, these open closet storage solutions make me think I could find some alternatives, as long as I keep the rest of the small room simple and clean:

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So what would you do, friends? 

P.S. Is it just me or is finding a title to blog posts the trickiest part of blogging? Stumps me every time.

Hope you're all having a great week. Tomorrow is Friday!

-C

{Lesson learned.}

As summer starts to come to an end and a new school year gets closer, my wheels start spinning.

I always look at summer breaks as periods to recharge, learn a few things and reset your goals for the upcoming year.

 If you know me or have been reading the blog for a while, you know that my freshman year I switched my major  at school from acting to communications. Sort of a big deal, because I had been in art schools since I was in middle school, and the idea of branching out was terrifying. But, I've taken that time and  have been trying to refigure myself out. Something about my acting classes started to feel wrong. They were not a release for me anymore, or even enjoyable. It just didn't fit anymore. And since then, I've been trying to figure out why. 

Right about the time I decided to switch out of acting was right about the time when life started to get pretty crazy, yall. And here's something I've learned about myself: I exhaust my emotional energy in one direction and am left with none to go anywhere else.  Not good. I've been working on it and have improved a lot. So, even though there were other reasons, (and even though I'm still not sure that the place I was studying would have been the right fit for me anyway) in a nutshell, I stopped acting because I was emotionally spent. I had barely enough energy to get through my daily tasks, let alone try to compete with a crazy schedule and the constant analysis of how committed I was to the program or to acting as a career. I was relieved when I left, and probably even a bit happier, but definitely not fulfilled. I was mostly just relieved that I didn't have pressure on my shoulders that I knew I couldn't live up to anymore. I had the space I needed to figure things out.

I've done this in many areas of areas of my life. I've let really important things fall by the wayside or become neglected because I don't have the energy for them anymore. I never realized this until this past year, but I am learning how to stop that from happening. And more than anything, I'm losing patience for it. I'm losing patience for not having the life I want to have because I'm exhausting my energy towards other areas that I can't control. I'm losing patience for having things in my life that are anything but positive and supportive. I don't have patience to be confused anymore. I don't have patience to sit around and figure everything out. I've hit the limit of what I will sit down and deliberate over or analyze because the longer I sit and do that, the more time I'm wasting. And time is precious. 

Life is simple. Really. It is. I just have to remind myself that sometimes.

{Wow-wee.}

They finally came out with the music video.

These two are smokin'.

{The best.}

Every time I start to get antsy, watch too many episodes of Sex and the City that have me dreaming of moving to New York, read a blog about someone who whisked themselves off to Amsterdam for the journey of a lifetime, or get caught up in looking at too many travel pictures on Pinterest, I start to hear voices. One of them says "Don't worry, Caitlin. Your time will come. Slooow down and enjoy what you have right now!" But the other voice says "What are you waiting for?! Life is short! No day but today! Make decisions! Figure it out! Do something!"

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I think to myself that I wish these voices could sit down over a cup o joe, talk to each other and work all of this out. But then I remember that's called schizophrenia. 

In the end, I think the best thing I (or anyone else who feels the same way) can do is to look at my current life (as mundane as it may seems sometimes) as an adventure. For now, there is so much of Houston that I have not yet explored (which I intend to as soon as I get more than half a day off at work) and being away from college and my friends makes me miss and appreciate it so much more. A constant trend I notice in my life is looking back at things and not appreciating every second nearly enough. I wish I could go back and absorb every moment that I was in London my senior year, every night when I was living in Chicago, and every afternoon after school on the steps of Baltimore School for the Arts. I don't want to wish my life away.

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"Make the best of it." That's the voice that is winning the argument, this time. 

See you again soon,

C