Big Exciting News!!

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well! As the title suggests, I have some very exciting news! This blog is going to start featuring posts from and about my new business. I have turned my passion and love of organizing and home decoration into a business (well I'm just starting to turn it into a business). I know that the posts have not always been the most regular on this blog, but that is going to slowly start changing! Fort Copper now represents myself as an organizer and home decorator.

I have a couple new weekly posts that I am going to be doing. I will start with Monday Morning Quick Tips. These will simply be short posts with tips, tricks, advice on decor and organization. I will also be doing Flower Fridays, which will be information and pictures of the weeks flower arrangement. Eventually, I will integrate Transformation Thursdays (before and afters) and Tea Tuesdays.

This blog will still have some lifestyle portions (such as Tea Tuesdays and book posts), but I will be starting to post more and more towards my business. Organizing and decorating is such a passion of mine and I am excited to start sharing it with you!

Oh the flowers!!

I have become very interested in flower arrangements...I think it's part of my need to put things together and see how individual pieces can fit together. Or I just like to put pretty things together :) Either way, I have started doing these arrangements for the past couple of months. 

My favorite flowers are Lillies (any kind), Cottage Roses and Hydrangeas. Cottage roses are the flowers I work with the most because they work with just about any flower or on their own and they are the easiest to find and buy. I also work a lot with Carnations (as you will see below). I normally do two different arrangements, one in a larger case and one in a mason jar, that way I can use a good amount of flowers and I can put them in different areas of our house. 

One of my favorites is my most recent arrangement. It includes Cottage Roses and Alstroemerias: 

The orange cottage roses were a great find (and the same color from some of our wedding roses) and I was happy to work with a great filler flower. 

I have included some more of my favorites below:

I do not have a problem...

I love tea. It is an obsession and one of my favorite things to collect. It is something that always makes me feel better and something I always reach for. I drink anywhere from 3-6 cups of tea a day and I am starting to create quite a collection.

Part of the collection...

I would say that I love a good black tea. I'm a big fan of the flavored black tea (especially something with a hint of fruit in it). I usually drink my tea without any cream or sugar and I let it steep for quite a while. I have included some of my favorites below (multiple because I can't just pick one :) ) along with where they can be purchased.

For loose leaf tea:

I think my all time favorite in this category is the Catherine's Blend from Tea For All Reasons (shop link: http://www.teaforallreasons.com/shop5/store5/agora.cgi ). This blend is so dainty but still packed with flavor. Tea For All Reasons also makes two of my other favorite blends (among quite a few of the blends that I own by them, which are all amazing!!): Dowager Countess Grey and Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle is a black tea that is so delicious. It is robust, musky and makes a delightful cup. The Dowager Countess (so named from Downton Abbey of course) is dainty yet delicious. A friend and I describe it as almost drinkable potpourri, but still will be good for any tea drinker.

The other two loose leaf teas that I enjoy drinking and are among the favorites are from English Tea Store (link: http://www.englishteastore.com/ ). This site/store is really good for the beginner tea drinker (as well as the more advanced) as they have a really good variety of loose leaf and bagged tea. They also have plenty of other goodies to purchase including teapots, kettles, and snacks.  My favorite is the Arctic Raspberry which is fruity and delicious. It is a light tea that is good for an early afternoon cup. The other favorite is the Buckingham Palace Garden Party. This tea is good, but for me if it steeps too long it becomes very bitter (which can be normal for tea).

For already bagged tea:

So many favorites in this category. The PG Tips and Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Gold are a must. both of these teas are delicious and comforting blends. It is usually my second or third cup of tea of the day. They are such a good pick me up blend. For green tea, I drink the Tazo Zen. It's been a longtime favorite, and I very rarely switch my green tea (except that I am ordering the PG Tips mandarin orange green tea). I was "recently" (in October) gifted a box of the Twinings Blackcurrent Breeze Tea and this tea has changed so much of my afternoon tea drinking! It is such a light blend that is soft and flavorful. I also like the Twinings Nightly Calm in the late evening. I don't drink a lot of Herbal Tea (although it is so good), but for a favorite...it is just about anything from Celestial Seasonings. They are so good with herbal blends. I have yet to find a blend that I do not enjoy drinking.

So that is my two cents on tea! I will continue to post every once in a while if I find something great! Do you have any favorite tea?

Today I Will Smile

Sometimes all you need is a smile! If you "fake" the happiness, you will actually start to feel happier. Mornings can be so hard, but no matter what is going on, put a smile on your face! It can make a world of difference! 

I am Happy

This is a very important thought to have first thing in the morning. This is the whole positive thinking series really. If you start your morning with a smile on your face and the thought of "I am happy", your day will go so much better!

I know that it can be very hard to do this (especially if you are not a morning person!), but it can be accomplished!

I CAN do this

This is something I mentioned yesterday, but I feel like it needs its own day. Today's positive thought is:
I CAN do this.

This is a slightly different train of thought from yesterday. When you are struggling with a task throughout the day, or at really any moment in life (because everyone has to deal with struggles), just say "I CAN do this". You will be able to face the issue with a much different mindset and will be able to overcome whatever it is.

What do you think?

Today I will succeed.

Today's positive thought of the day is:
Today I will succeed.

No matter what you are trying to do it is important to go into it with an attitude of success. This is especially important for me to remind myself today. Remember: if you think you cant, you cant, but if you think you can, you can! What do you think? Have a great day!!

I am great just the way I am

Today's positive thought of the day is:
I am great the way I am.

I feel like this is something that is frequently forgotten. We get so wrapped up in all the beauty and "things" hype, that we forget how great we are. How great we are without all of the other "stuff".

So as you set about your day today start with thinking about how great you are just the way you are.

Today Will Be A Good Day

Today's positive thought of the day is:

 

Today will be a good day.

 

I firmly believe that each day is a new day and a fresh start.  I try to wake up every morning and say today will be a good day. This small thought can change your entire morning! It can make it easier to get up and get going. Instead of thinking "ugh another day" change it to today will be a good day!

What do you think?

Positive Thinking

Starting tomorrow I am going to be posting every morning. You may ask yourself, why? Outside of the fact that I love to blog, I am taking a new challenge. My challenge is to have one small positive thought every morning.

I would love for everyone to join me in this! What do you think? It only takes a small moment every morning and it can be a positive thought about anything! These will just be short posts every morning in the hopes of starting the day off well, they will not be my normal longer posts.
I will be continuing with planned posts as well, on beauty, fashion, fitness, and books, but I wanted to add this into the mix. I think it can be so amazing to do! So, what do you think?

Oh the Books!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the weekend! I thought that I would share two book series that I am currently reading through and loving!! But first off…I love love love books! I love to read and love to get lost in a book. It’s one of those things that never gets old and books never get old to me either. My favorite types of books to read are series. I don’t know what draws me to series, I like being able to continue reading about the characters and have them develop and the story just continue on. My favorite series (and favorite books of all time) has to be…drumroll please…

Harry Potter

I own all the books for Harry Potter, as well as the movies, and the Hogwarts Library collection. These books were a large part of my childhood and growing up into adulthood and I have yet to find another series that I love nearly as much. I am a Harry Potter nerd. I cherish these books.
I also like the Hunger Games series which is a lot newer and will also be owning all the movies when they are done. I love those books as well. I also love the Divergent series. That series is so well written! It captivated me right from the beginning. A couple other series that I really enjoyed are: Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Mortal Instruments, and Beautiful Creatures.
I am currently working my way through two series that I am really enjoying that I thought I would share with ya’ll and highly recommend:

Sookie Stackhouse

I am loving the Sookie Stackhouse books! These are not in the correct order at all, but they are such great, quick reads! I am still working my way through them and have not been able to stop reading them (except maybe to get a picture of them and type this blog up!).

Game of Thrones

I am loving Game of Thrones. I saw them in the bookstore, didn’t get them and boy did I regret it! I have been watching the tv show and been loving that and so I did go buy the books in an effort to try and read them before the next season of Game of Thrones came out. I am currently on the second book (I gotta read a little faster!) and I am loving them too! I am finding that I am liking or hating different characters. It’s funny because there are characters that I didn’t mind, that now that I’ve been reading the books I am just not liking them.
So those are the two series that I am currently reading, loving, and highly recommending to everyone!!!!

Until Next Time…

Mia

Wow, It's a New Year ( I know, I know, it's already 15 days into the new year)

Well, it's been a hot minute! I am so sorry that it's been so long! Between the holidays, family, and now our vacation, things got a little overwhelming! (This seems to be a running theme, but I promise...it's really not).

Alright to start off...a couple of updates!

Our big girl is 6 months! She is learning so many things right now, being able to just run for a long while in the forest. She has also been able to have encounters with wildlife, which has been interesting for her! She is such a happy and energetic puppy!

Our wedding is almost all the way done! The remaining things that need to be done are things that have to be done closer to the wedding date. The last major thing to do is send out invitations! Everything else has been booked and ideas have been generated for everything else. I also did say yes to the dress!!! I bought my dress very recently and it was such a memorable experience :). I am very excited to finalize and make our decorations, gifts, and other items!

Posts are going to start being more regular...I know I've said this before but it is really going to happen, so stay tuned! I am starting with a beauty post that will be up for viewing on Friday!!

Today's post is going to focus a little on New Years Resolutions. Do you make them? Have you ever broken one? Why are they so hard to keep?

I have definitely broken them more times than I have kept them. I feel like a lot of times we set a resolution that we think we can achieve, but is actually to large or very out of our reach. For example, I love weight loss goals! I think they can be such great motivators and getting healthy is great to do, however sometimes we set that goal just a little to far. The resolution needs to be something that we can reasonably achieve, otherwise we are just setting ourselves up for failure. DO NOT set yourself up for failure!

Now, what is reasonable for one person, may be out of reach for another. Only YOU can know your limits and what will work for you. Maybe what is better to say as a resolution is that you will stop drinking that soda at dinner, or stop having dessert every night. That may not work for someone else. Someone else may need to put a number to there goal, such as losing 15lbs. It all depends on what YOU as a person needs. Don't worry about what someone else's goal is or that you should be doing a goal just like that person, it may not work for you.

My resolution this year is broad and may seem "out of reach" , but it's more changing a frame of thought. I want to see the good in everything given/handed to me. Every situation has it's ups and downs and I am going to try and choose to look at the positive of each situation. A lot of times we get wrapped up in negatives and how horrible something is. I want to change that thought for myself. What is your new Years Resolution?

Until Next Time...

 

Mia

 

A quick note

Hey everyone! It's been a little busy in our household!

I have been getting a lot done! We did our engagement photo's (which we should be getting sometime this week), we have made a lot of decisions regarding our wedding, and Copper has been getting into everything!

For starters, we have gotten so much done for our wedding! We have our ceremony and reception venues booked, our officiant booked, colors picked, cake baker booked, idea's down for the decorations, flowers, wedding gifts, and a possible caterer! It's all starting to come together so well! I am excited to start putting all the decorations and little things together!

Copper has been doing good! She has been growing a lot and with that she has been getting into a lot more places and things (along with a lot more trouble haha)! She is in a training class so that she can start behaving better and we can learn some new ways to teach her.

I'm sorry that I have been so absent on here, life has a way of getting in the way. We have been trying to get a lot done with a rough schedule.

Have you ever had a time where life has just "taken over" and gotten in the way of you doing other things?

I've got some new posts coming up about makeup, wedding, and life! I hope everyone is doing well.

A new Week

Today is Monday. Normally it would be a day of dread; the start of a new work week, when everything would normally just go wrong. For me today symbolized a new routine (of sorts).

It's nothing really special, life still remains the same in our household. I take care of our home, our puppy, little errands here and there, and I apply for jobs. It's my outlook that I am changing.

I started my day off Smashing Dishes. I joined a local support group where we live, that meets every month and is just an encouraging group. It was such an amazing experience this morning, to stand up there and state something that I wanted to change (or "smash") and just have someone say ok. No judgment, no advice, no disrespect, just OK, I am here for you. And then in turn, be able to stand and support someone else that needed to do the same thing. A bond is formed with each and everyone of us when you have someone that will just stand with you, not pass judgment, not try to give advice, and just say OK, I am here for you.

To pick an issue to smash, it should be an issue that you can change. It shouldn't be something that you may fail at, even if it takes time to change it (as it probably will) the fact that you are acknowledging it, and taking a first step to changing the issue is a milestone. For me it was the most amazing feeling after I "smashed" the issues. It felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders and I know now going forward that I will be continuing to work on the issues I smashed today. I know that I can do this and that if another challenge comes up, this is such a great first step.

Not only did we smash the issues with dishes, but we made some dishes as well. There was plain white dishware available (mugs, plates, and bowls) that we could write on with permanent marker. This is seriously the coolest thing because you write on the dishes (which can be any color) and then put them in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes and it is permanently on the dishes!! If you plan on doing this, make sure you wash the dishes by hand to ensure the writing stays on the dish. But I am getting off the immediate topic. So we wrote on the dishes something that we took away from our earlier smashing. It is such a great idea, because it is something that you can look at and use everyday and keep your spirits up and mind in check.

For me personally I wrote, It's OK. You can do this. It is something that I know I need to remind myself of. That things are OK, it is OK to feel a certain way, and that things will get better.

I encourage everyone that feels like they just need to let go, to break a dish outside. Please be safe about it (where the appropriate attire, gloves, eye protection, etc.) as I cut myself breaking a smaller piece of one of my dishes this morning. We were told that if a dish wasn't possible, you can always throw eggs at a wall, or hit a water balloon with a tennis racket, something! Life can be so overwhelming that sometimes we just need to let go and this is a great way to do it and combine it with a new outlook.

I also started off with a new bible study plan this morning. I am very excited to go through this plan and I look forward to blogging through every bit of it. I will start posting those blogs here very soon, I am still working the kinks out about how it will work and when they will be posted. It is a daily reading plan that goes through part of the book of Luke.

Have you started a new routine or a new outlook? Are you going to smash something?