Thanksgiving

November 26, 2015 6:12PM

Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays because it's usually spent with good food, good friends and family, but of course good conversations. I know a lot of people don't know what they have to be grateful for and Thanksgiving is a good day to just reflect on the daily blessings God provides for us. It's not only good to reflect, but to also share. Thanksgiving is truly giving thanks and that means sharing with others our blessings. Today, society is so busy and so focused on our motions. Mindlessly, doing our work or activities. Living in the motions, but never the moment. Sometimes we get so caught up in this thing called "life" and fail to even notice that God is with us. When I feel like I have nothing to be thankful for, I am reminded of His love and blessings and I think this video from Igniter Media sums this thought really well.

  

                       


Many of us are so blessed to have so many things, weather it's a house, clothes, a job, sight, a healthy body, and so on. This video always convicts me because it really shows the truth behind our selfish and ungrateful thinking. Praying to God about foolish things instead of thanking Him. I struggle with this from time to time, but somehow God is always shown to me mysteriously. He knows everything I need and that is to dwell in him or to live in Him. This Thanksgiving I can say that I am truly blessed and I want to share to you guys my many blessings, but first here is a bible verse that really speaks to me:

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." 

1 Chronicles 16:34 

This verse speaks loud in my heart because even if it doesn't feel like we have anything to feel thankful for, we should at least be thankful to have a good God who's love is everlasting and infinite. This very fact makes me want to give thanks every moment of my life!  

We usually hold Thanksgiving at my house with just the immediate family, which include all my siblings and my parents. We cook our favorite dishes like sweet pork, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and corn beef. (Yes, no turkey. It's over-rated) But, this year I had the pleasure to celebrate with my two best friends, Amy and Kee, in the morning and later at night with my cousins at their house. My best friend, Amy, just turn 22 years old and we celebrated her birthday and Thanksgiving. It's been almost three months since we hung out because we are all doing our separate things and don't have much time to see each other. It was really nice to just relax, catch up, and eat Pho. (In the photo above it's me on the left, Amy in the middle, and Kee to the right.)

After brunch with the girls, I went over to my cousins place. The food was great, especially the mac and cheese and ham. This Thanksgiving was actually a very special and sweet one for my cousins, but of course for me too. A lot has taken place with my cousins actually. This was the first time in more than five years that my cousins family have all been together. It was a really nice feeling to see old faces and get to know how everyone was doing. There were a lot of happy emotions and the atmosphere was super festive. After dinner, we played a huge game of Mafia. If you don't know what Mafia is, it's basically a card game where you have to find who is the part of the Mafia. You can probably look it up. It was super fun, we play it every time we meet up together. Later at night, the madness kicks in with Black Friday shopping. I'm not the one to go Black Friday Shopping on Thursday, but I was able to get some good finds Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Maybe I'll probably write another post of my shopping finds later on.

We also meet up Friday night to go midnight bowling, to have fun while everyone is in town. I'm not a big bowler, but it was super fun and my arm is super sore now. We played for like four hours straight. I was  practicing my curving skills and surprising did pretty well. I'm so glad and thank God daily for blessing me so such a beautiful family. This Thanksgiving was probably one of the most memorable ones. I hope you guys had a good Thanksgiving and were able to share your blessing with one another. I would love to hear about your Thanksgiving or blessing, please share them in the comments below. I read all my comments. Until next time, God Bless!  

Fall 2015 School Lookbook

November 8, 2015 9:37PM

These are some outfits that I wear to school. These outfits are more for the warmer climate places during the Fall season. I might make an update post for cooler climate outfits later into Fall/Winter. My style switches up depending on how I feel in the morning and how the weather is that day. I hope you guys are able to grab inspiration from my looks and I want to know which looks were you favorites, so comment down below. Photo credits to my friend Panyia Xiong.

OUTFIT ONE: MONOCHROME MONDAYS 

On Mondays, I usually always want to dress as comfortable as possible because it's well Monday. I don't feel like putting too much effort on Mondays, so I go for easy pieces, but still want to make it look put together. This outfit is one of my favorite go to outfits, if I feel like being comfortable. Instead of wearing jeans, I put on a pair of faux leather leggings that make the outfit still look chic. I bought these off of eBay. My shirt I actually DIY. I bought a men's x-large button up from Goodwill and slim the side seams and took off the sleeves. Super easy DIY and it looks super classic in my wardrobe. I wore my black cardigan for some warmth. Then I paired the look off with my black snap-back, silver chain necklace, and Nikes. I'll try to link similar pieces, if I can't find the originals.
To purchase click--> 1. White Button Down Dress 2. Leggings 3. Black Cardigan 4. Baseball Hat 5. Silver Chain Necklace 6. Nikes

OUTFIT TWO: AUTUMN ROMANCE 

The weather today was super warm, so I decided to wear something more light and flowy. I actually bought the floral kimono top from Goodwill like two years back and never wore it. I fell in love with the floral print and color, but never knew how to wear it, so decided to finally wear it with a simple flared knit black dress. I think that the kimono has such a romantic feel and the pink lace trim around the edge looks even more romantic and girly. I finished the outfit off with simple black booties that I got as a gift and a gold stud necklace I also got as a gift.
To purchase click---> 1. Black Dress 2. Black Booties 

OUTFIT THREE: ON EDGE 

On this day, I actually had a class presentation in my Fashion Design course. I presented my Fall 2016 collection for the London base brand All Saints. I wanted to dress like my brand, hence the leather jacket and monochrome color scheme. I brought my jacket on a Asian wholesale website a couple years back and just love the fit. My dress I bought from Goodwill, but it was originally from Target. I pair my look with my Charlotte Russe booties that make me feel confident and that's what I need most when presenting. My outfit is super minimal, but still super fashionable. 

 OUTFIT FOUR: MINIMAL GRUNGE

I like how this outfit is super causal, but still has a modern grunge look. Instead of the classic blue jeans, I wanted to add more interest with these light gray wash jeans. I bought these pants actually at the girl's kids section at Target. My legs aren't that long, so kid jeans fit me perfectly. My favorite part of this outfit has to be the choker. Like what I said in my previous post on Fall 2015 trends, chokers are making a big hit and I am totally loving the trend with v-neck necklines. I feel like the choker makes my outfit more mature and adds the grungy vibe. Every time I put my hair up, I need to cover my neck either with a scarf or a collar shirt, but my favorite are chokers.The black cardigan is the same one from the first outfit. If you don't have a basic black cardigan, you need one because I wear mines like crazy. Then I paired my look with ankle buckled booties from Target. I really like Target because I can always find a good deal. 

OUTFIT FIVE: FREE FRIDAYS 

On Fridays, I don't have any classes, but find myself at school regardless because of homework. I kind of realize that most of my outfits are all monochromatic! I should have just made a monochromatic lookbook, oh well. (maybe later) Anyways, this outfit is very comfy and still very modern chic. I've been seeing a lot of fashion icons wearing varsity sweaters, so I thought I should buy one for my wardrobe. I got mine from Sears for only five bucks. I usually don't ever shop at Sears, but I happen to go shopping with my mom and stumble into this sweater. It was a little chilly this day, so I wore my black skinny jeans. For warmer days, I would tuck in the sweater in a black leather skirt or shorts.

I hope you guys liked my looks and if you guys have any ideas of what I should do in the future comment below, I would love to hear them. For any questions or comment, comment down below. have a lovely day and God bless!       

The Power of Prayer

November 8, 2015 8:10PM

I'm going to try to write bi-weekly devotionals and let you guys know what I'm studying and what I'm going through. This week I wanted to go over the power of prayer. I recently just ended a 40 day fast last week Friday. I started this fasting with a group of girls from my church and decided to fast soda and watching YouTube before bed. I tend to drink a lot of soda and not enough of water and decided to give up on YouTube before bed because I would spend hours on my smart phone watching meaningless videos. I started to notice that my excessive YouTube watching was effecting my sleep and probably my vision. In return of not drinking soda and watching YouTube, I wanted to spend time writing in a prayer journal. For many years, I've struggled with in my prayer life.

My faith walk has been shaky many times and I struggled to have a daily prayer life. I knew how important prayer was and how powerful it was too. In church, we emphasize prayer a lot and we pray together a lot. But, deep down I felt like prayer didn't do much. I didn't see the importance of it because I couldn't see the results of it. I know that God is with us everywhere and at all times. But inside of me grew a small doubt and insecurity that God wasn't listening and that made me turn away from prayer. I never really shared this with many people because I felt like it was just a small struggle that didn't really matter.

 In doing the fast, I struggled really hard to write prayers in my journal. I actually took the easy way out and recorded myself on my phone because I was too lazy to write it. I probably prayed only like twice a week. I usually would just lay in bed and pray, but end up thinking of something else and never finish my prayer. In this fast, I wanted it to be more personal, more focused, and more intentional. So, instead of praying lying in bed, I prayed on my knees by my bed. Kneeling made my prayers feel so much more spiritual and made it more like I was surrendering myself to Him. It gave me the sense that I was so weak and so undeserving, which I am. Praying is what I need daily because I am always in need of His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness, His love, and just Him.

Currently in school, I’m taking a theology class called Faith and Community. One of the readings that were listed for the course was a book called “Why We Pray,” by William Philip. Although, this book was required on the syllabus we ended up not even reading it. Still I bought the book and it seems interesting, so I took a look inside. Philip writes in the first chapter, “The most important question to ask first about prayer is – Why? Why do we pray? Not, why should we pray?” This book really goes into why we pray (hence the title) and shows the significance prayer has. It also references a lot of biblical backup, so that was a definite plus for me. I would encourage you guys to get this book, if you’re interested about why people pray. I’ll have a link right here --> Why We Pray

Prayer is something that is important to me because it shows the relationship I have with God. If I think about the relationships I have with my friends, it all starts with communication. Verbally talking to them and getting to know them more. Communication is pretty much the key thing that connects people. In the same way, it applies to the relationship we have with God. In order to know him more, we must have communication with him and that is only found through prayer. Prayer is really just talking with him. Although, we know God is with us everywhere and knows everything about us, prayer is how God knows we want a personal relationship with him. When I pray, I get a sense of thankfulness and joy that I am able to communicate with Him and let Him into my life. Prayer doesn’t have to be long or spoken out loud, but it should be faith filled. 

In prayer, the focus should be how thankful we are to have Him and to have what we have. The struggles that we face and the healing we need, plus the struggles of those around us. Asking him to forgive us, to seek him, to want to know him more, to let him guide us, and to just ask Him for our needs. Prayer means being honest with God and letting yourself be vulnerable. Opening your heart, your mind, yourself to let him really help you and use you. Although, we pray and don't see the signs of how prayer effects our life, we have to have faith and trust that God will provide and that His will will be done. God likes to test our patience because He knows whats in our hearts and wants us to work in His time and not ours. God has a purpose for everything and we just need to let his plans unfold before us. I encourage all of you to start praying or to start a prayer journal. My prayer journal is just like a diary, but a diary of my relationship with God. I start off every prayer entry with  Dear Heavenly Father. Make your prayers meaningful and intentional. I wanted to leave you guys with a these passages from the bible;

                                 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will 

                                 find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone 

                                 who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to 

                                 him who knocks, the door will be opened."  

Matthew 7:7-8  

                                "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,

                                by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present

                                your request to God. And the peace of God,

                                which transcends all understanding, will guard your

                                hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:6-7

I pray that you guys took something out of this devotion and hope you guys can reflect about this in your life. If you guys have any questions or prayer request please tell me. I would love to answer your questions and pray for you. Until next time, God Bless!