Happy Friday my friends!

I’ve been reading this kind of post on other blogs and finding it more and more funny every time i come across it: a break down of what really goes on during instagram photography sessions. because trust me i’ve been caught way too often with the “ally are you kidding me?” phrase when taking pictures of the most random things from the most random angles #oops #sorryJ.CrewWorkersWhoWereStaringYourShoesWereVeryPhotogenic. dominic and i got ice cream downtown last night and he jokingly teased me with “aren’t you gonna take a picture?” so of course we stopped in the middle of the street even after he begged to keep going claiming he was joking (i don’t think he was joking he loves being featured secretly) so here is my little version sharing all of my very embarrassing and way too common white girl photo ops and failures of what i’m TRYING (trying is the key word there) to portray:

what I want you to think:

it is winter and snowing so i’m casually drinking my coffee outside on this super nice snow day standing up in the middle of my front yard with no coat on! so causal! so fun! 

what’s actually happening:

its freakin below zero and my toes are frozen and this coffee tastes like dog poop because putting in too much creamer would’ve ruined the color of the coffee and i think my neighbors are about to ask me if i want a coat

what i want you to think:

so hip, so cool, what great lighting coming from my artsy day at Starbucks just blogging my life away

what’s actually happening:

the sun was in my eyes and i looked like a loner sitting in the corner of Starbucks because we had no wifi at my home and i rearranged those notebooks probably two hundred times and i was pretending to text so no one laughed at me while taking this

what i want you to think:

what a cute cupcake date! so pink and green! very lilly! so fun!

what’s actually happening:

i literally stopped in the middle of the street for this one and it took all my self control not to eat these cupcakes later to find out dominic took this exact same picture already when i was in the bathroom and it looked ten times better than this one NOT FAIR THAT IS NOT HOW THIS WORKS. (also slightly proud he even thought to take a picture like that, true blogger boyfriend)

what i want you to think:

such a cute spring outfit! loving life in this warm weather hence why i’m wearing a dress and sunglasses! what cute jewelry! so spring!

what’s actually happening:

i literally have nike shorts on under this dress and tennis shoes on and i’m wearing sunglasses indoors. this is taken against my bathroom wall and i didn’t even want the monogram to be in the picture but i was home alone and couldn’t figure out how to take it off by myself…

well there is the slightly embarrassing but all too true self behind my instagram shots you see in those little squares of my life. check them out on @xoxoallisonnicole (self promo sorry kinda sorry) if you aren’t following it already for even more pics like this that i’m sure aren’t what they seem to be.

and just because he asked for this here are those begged for (“i was joking”) ice cream snaps:

have a great friday and an even better weekend!

xoxo, Allison

i chuckled a little bit when i re-read that title of this post. like how in the world is a 16 year old girl who appreciates girl scout cookies way too much (they’re a food group i promise) supposed to instruct you on how to be happy. there’s the little catch, I’M not, but YOU can. i won’t make you work too hard I promise, because being happy is so so easy. we skip through life so fast and are so motivated to get things done and make things perfect that we don’t take time to realize what we are doing and how cool it is. like first off, if you’re reading this, you’re breathing, you’re living, congrats. we do so many things in our lives that seem like they should make us happy, but in the end we aren’t satisfied with the outcome. i pinned a quote the other day that had a quote that really struck me as ‘wow, it’s that easy?’

“find something that makes you happy, and use it to make others happy”

reading it over and over again made me want to sit back and think of the things that make me happy and how i can use them to make others happy as well. and the list i came up with went on and on once i got the hang of it and i realized that the way i’m supposed to do this, making others happy thing, is making myself happy first. ACTUALLY DOING THE THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY. taking time for myself, which is something i rarely do enough. we always want to do things for others and feel almost selfish if we find time to do things for ourselves, but in reality we NEED this time for ourselves. we can’t give to others if we have not first given to ourselves. so this is what my list somewhat looked like once my brain had been searched for all the happy i could come up with:

actually getting sleep and waking up feeling like i got sleep, eating fresh fruit in the summer time, hot baths with loads of bubbles, coffee in the morning when the rest of the world isn’t awake, breakfast–really good breakfast, breakfast for dinner as a matter of fact, sitting outside and just being there, fresh ironed button ups and matching crew socks, ice cream all year round-with extra sprinkles, spring clothes and sunny days to match them, baking and burning my tongue on too good of brownies. realizing that happy isn’t just a feeling, it’s a way of life.

so go out, be happy, be EXCITED, love yourself, and really watch for those things you love, and do so much of them.

all my love, xoxo, Allison

this post is just utterly to express how insanely in love i am with this weather we are getting here in Omaha. nothing like 70s during spring break to make you crave summer even more! if you aren’t enjoying the weather PLEASE get outside and do so because the sun is contagiously happy and warm lately. i went to the zoo today and i haven’t been so happy in ages. here are a few ways to have fun in the sun i’ve scooped up for ya, just click on the link to get yourself some happy!

popsicles are the best sunny treat 

I’ll take a picnic date any day!

lemon water yes puhlease

hope you have some sunny mindsets and even sunnier days ahead!

xoxo, Allison