Two years ago TODAY I decided I was casually going to create a blog. To be quite honest, I didn’t know why, I didn’t know what I was going to make of it, and I didn’t know how to go about it. Just like one of my all time favorite movies, I was well, Clueless. I knew I loved to write, I knew I loved to make people happy with little things in life, and I knew that I was good at those things and wanted the rest of the world to share in it with me. Little did I know 2 years later, I would still be in love with it, have my own domain name, my own Instagram account solely for my blog, be working with some insanely cool brands, and most of all: I had no idea people would fall in love with it just as much as I had.

I will keep this post short and sweet because I don’t have much to say besides thank you and I love you all so very much. I also want to mention one quick thing blogging and being in the blogger community has allowed me to learn:

you can change the world by being yourself, but first, you’ve gotta believe in yourself, and love yourself in order to do so. 

The people that love and support you, love and support you for a reason! They see something in you that they love and believe in! You are allowed to love yourself for all the same reasons that they love you! Embrace who you are! Loving every side and aspect of yourself is the hardest task God asks of us on a daily basis, but by doing so, we are allowing ourselves to be that much more in control of changing the world and making it a little bit better of a place. Love yourself so you can love others too, if there is one thing that I want you to take away from this entire blog, it’s that.

thanks again for 2 years of fun, sparkles, laughter, and a whole lot of love 🙂

until next time, xoxo, Ally

I would say that today’s post is going to be a little ramble about my life but honestly when are these posts not? Whether it is an article on Kourtney Kardashian I wanna share with you all on Friday or a snack I have been adoring, everything I post here is just a little bit about my life, glad you’ve stuck around to read it!

Today I want to talk about love. A well-known concept to many that causes confusion, complication, and worry, but also happiness, comfort, and that real good warm fuzzy feeling where you can practically feel your heart growing. Now I have only been around for 18 years and 4 months, but I have come to understand very recently how many different forms love can take. Now as much as I love a good romcom just like the next teenage girl, I wanna talk about non-romantic love today. The kind that solely is someone saying, “hey, I care about you and how you feel and you’re pretty important to me.” AKA my all-time favorite kind.

Now if you haven’t before, go ahead and click HERE to take the “5 Love Languages” quiz. Not only will it help you realize a whole lot about yourself and why you feel love certain ways, but sharing your results among your friends helps you understand how they feel appreciated as well. I have written a post before on how everyone feels love differently, and it still is something that I work to understand today. I feel love really highly when people do things for me that show that they care about me. Just yesterday I received a card from a blogger I really look up to and realized fairly quickly that my friend was behind it all. She knew how much blogging meant to me and took the time to get that card sent to me because she knew it would make my day. It 100% did and it is hanging next to my bed right now and I am still feeling so super loved from her reaching out like that. I strive to do things to show people I care about them such as writing my friends notes, simply shooting them texts reminding them that they’re pretty neato and I am lucky to have them in my life, or even just running up to their room and hugging them (hehe hi rachel.) I am a huge huge HUGE believer in letting people know that you care. Why shouldn’t we all tell people how important they are to us literally all the time? Shooting someone a quick “hey I am so happy we are friends” text can make their day with little to no effort by you, AND I guarantee you they’ll pass the favor along to a few of their friends, and look at that, you’ve basically changed the world for a day. Now THAT is an adrenaline rush of love my friends.

So you wanna do some little bits of love? Here’s a few ideas:

-as I said, shoot them a text! From a cute gif of a movie you two enjoy to a simple “I love you” bitmoji, nothin makes someone smile like checking their phone after class to a quick reminder that they are loved

-snail mail!!!! my personal favorite, but that’s just because i am REALLY into decorating envelopes. I adore not telling my friends but having them open their mailboxes one day to a cute letter. plus, who doesn’t LOVE getting mail?!?!

-ask them to hang out!! Now I know this one isn’t practical for everything with distance being a major issue for a lot of people (college ):), but when you do happen to be in the area, grab coffee, grab lunch, literally sit on their front porch and chat for a bit about life! There’s nothing like some real life face to face interaction with people who just, get you, ya know?

So that’s how I love to love. How about you? If we can all tell someone we love them today, I betcha we can change the world. Sending ALL my love you all of you sweet friends today! Until next time, xoxo, Ally