5 Little Grins Link Up [Week 26]

The giveaway winner is Tandi V! Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway! We will be having another one in May!! 

<a href="http://www.beawarriorqueen.com" target="_blank"><img alt=" 5 Little Grins " height="246" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/4fb1b81a9b1ad6d17c9317ea03174589/tumblr_mucw6eXUKG1s3gqbyo1_400.png" width="350" /></a> 

We'll go ahead and say it: Most people think Mondays suck / are the worst / should die a fire-y death. I'm sure you get the picture.

We've all had our fair share of bad Mondays and bad Tuesdays and just plain ol' bad days. Instead of focusing on the bad, what if we focused on the good things?

What if we focused on the little things that made us smile today, yesterday, last week? Could our whole attitude change? In time, would we find that we're having more good days than bad?

Cassandra, Paulina and I would love for you to join us on our weekly link up counting at least 5 things that made you smile in the last week. We could start our Mondays on this positive note!

Of course, this is all about encouragement, so hop on over to some other blogs and leave a positive note and make a new friend!
The Rules! (These are really just kind suggestions)

1. Follow your hosts: Cassandra, Raewyn, and Paulina!

2. Link up your post that includes 5-ish things that made you smile in the past week

3. Comment after you link up

4. Go visit some other blogs and make some friends!

5. Have fun, and don't forget to smile!!
Oh my gatos, this week!! 
It was a little bit of a rollercoaster with a few panic attacks, but what can be expected when we're two weeks away from our wedding...
1. My heart is filled with so much love and gratitude!!! We have received so many amazing and wonderful gifts so far, words cannot express how grateful we are. In fact, one gift made me cry at lunch yesterday and the other gift made me cry when I was getting ready this morning! [thanks momma!!] 

I'm not the most beautiful of criers; Iman snapped this at lunch yesterday 

2. Iman and I had a crazy adventure yesterday getting stuff for our honeymoon - luggage and the like. We speckled it with some brewery visits to make it way more fun.

Tustin Brewing Co.

Got these sunnies from Brickyard Buffalo

Trying to tan my legs for the wedding :) 

3. My cousin Gregory's birthday was on Saturday and it's always a rough day for me. He would have been 17 this year. Instead of feeling sad, I was determined to be happy and had a lot of fun doing wedding crafts.

Ribbon Wands! 

My motivation behind every day!! 

4. Jess from Jess Loves This Life and I are planning something amazing for June and I am just too excited! 
5. On Wednesday I had dinner with two of my best friends from high school and it was so much fun to catch up! 



Check out one of our featured Warrior Queens:

Sunshine Award

Ok guys, I'm such a hot mess. I try not to be but let me just tell you about my morning really quick. Like SUPER quick. I got all ready for my second day of school and then apparently posted this half finished blog. Then, I had to use the restroom while I was driving, stopped at a gas station and locked my keys in the car. That's a story for another day...

Everything got more fantastic from there. My boss is amazing, I got my teaching schedule, decorated my class a bit and Paulina SURPRISED me with a blog makeover? Do you guys love it? Anything we should add?

Yesterday I asked her to help me fix Rafflecopter html and gave her my password and I come home today to this. GAH! She is such a great blog friend. Must take a trip to NJ.

Baaaack to the second originally scheduled post...

Today I was planning on writing about how much I love Fresh and Easy, but then I got nominated for a Sunshine Award from Christina @ Polka Dot Heart! Thank you so much for the nomination!!

The whole idea of the sunshine award is that you nominate 11 bloggers who put a little sunshine in your day, who are positive, creative and inspiring.

The Rules:
You have to post a picture of the Sunshine award in the blog post.
Post 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you.
Nominate 11 wonderful bloggers.
Write 11 questions for them to answer.
Also let the bloggers you nominated know you have nominated them.

11 Random Facts About Me

• This is my 17th job, and I finally think this one is going to be a career. 
• I got a B.A. in Journalism so that I could start a magazine, but I hate interviewing. 
• My fiance and I have known each other for just under 10 years, but we started dating 2 years ago.
• I have gone to 5 different colleges, but graduated only one year late despite university changes.
• I refuse to  be a crazy cat lady, so I have a rule of "one cat per person" in a household.
• I am an insomniac who is adjusting rather well to waking up at 5 am...we are only 2 days in though
• I meet a lot of the greatest friends online and my friends I meet in real life think it's strange. I think it's liberating.
• I'm not from OC, but we moved to OC as a teenager, but I try to escape the stigma.
• I just learned how to do my eye shadow within the last year. I don't wear makeup very often.
• Hearts are my absolute favorite and I want a bunch of heart tattoos. 
• Even when I was a kid, if someone told me something and used sexist terms or said "I'm a boy so I can do that" I would get extremely angry and feel challenged to do just that and put them right. I still feel this way on a daily basis. 

11 Questions I Was Asked

What made you start blogging?

I've been writing in a blog since I was 14, because all of my friends had one and I was going away on a 3 week family trip. 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I hope to be doing great in my new position as computer teacher, working more on making Warrior Queen a physical magazine and maybe with a kid or two! AH!

What are your top 3 favorite colors?
Hot pink, Fire-engine red and grey

What is your favorite place you've traveled to?
I really loved the city of Whistler in Canada. I would love to go back. 

What is your favorite season?
Springtime! I love when it is sort of cold, but warm. Springtime in Cali brings my allergies but not the dreaded Santa Ana winds like fall does. 

What is your favorite type of blog to read (lifestyle, fashion, mommy, etc)?
I love lifestyle blogs!! I'm a sucker for them. But also, more personal lifestyle blogs where people bare their souls. I try to do that as often as I can, but it's hard. Smitten By is a wonderful site. 

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
I don't think I want to be an animal :( I would love to care for a wild animal, but I like my life as a human.

Do you believe you match your zodiac sign?
Very much so! I'm a Gemini and whenever I or someone reads it we always go Oh! That's so True!

What is your biggest fear?
Being left completely alone in life. Somehow not having anyone to love or to feel love from.

What are some of your favorite hobbies?
Dirtbiking, writing, going to concerts (I consider this a hobby for sure!) and definitely baking.

What is something you've accomplished that you were proud of?

I would have to say that I am proud of trusting myself and the power of change. This might sound a bit funny, but let me do a quick run down for you. Iman and I had a great friendship, but I always liked him and he always disappeared. By the time I was 21 I had completely closed myself off from a future with him. Of course I was surprised a year later when we went on our first date. I was terrified, especially because I am a runner. But I trusted him, and I listened to his amazing life story of change since high school. At his core he was still the boy I had always been in love with, but on top was a completely new person that I still get to know. When things get rough, we always have our trust and our belief in our love. For that bravery, I am most proud.

I nominate...
Paulina @ Color Me Brave
Megalin @ My Random Lovelies
Cassandra @ 2 Teenage Girls
Lesley @ By The Porchlight
Christine @ Life With a Side of Coffee
Elizabeth @ Army Ever After
Zauni @ The Kind Side
Melissa @ Dreams and Colour
Danielle @ A Writer in Love
Lauren @ Love is the Point
Sabrina @ Cattails and Cardigans


My 11 Questions
What is your favorite way to give back to the world?
Have you ever done a random act of kindness? What did you do?
What is the one positive thing you do every day?
How do you make your day more positive when it just sucks?
Where do you find serenity?
What are your plans for Halloween?
What are your favorite type of cupcake?
What is your most treasured memory?
When were you the most brave?
What makes you a warrior queen?
What does love mean to you?



Have fun and I hope you all participate. :)



P.s. Shoutout to Danielle and Cassandra for letting me know I published an unfinished blog post. How embarrassing considering I have many new followers because of all three of my giveaways right now here, here and here. Welcome to my hot mess of a life guys!


Check out one of our featured Warrior Queens:

SoCal Friday

Today, I'm wishing I was not in the office, solely because Beach Fridays were my absolute favorite day of the week back in high school...Park Tuesdays came in second. I thought I'd tell you a little bit about what my favorite California Friday is [for the record, my senior year of high school we got out at 1 p.m., so every day was a fun day but we made it a point to go to the beach on Fridays, even if it rained. You're only a senior in high school once!]

My Perfect California Friday

9:00 a.m. Wake up! I wouldn't want to spend the whole day wasted in bed. That's what Sundays are for!
10:00 a.m. Grab an Acai bowl for breakfast, or a burrito from that one shop in Huntington Beach
11:00 a.m. Meet up with the best friends to hurry to the beach, it's already 80 degrees!
11:45 a.m. Finally found parking at the beach! While this may seem tedious [and can be] we like to make it fun by blaring our music and laughing.

2:00 p.m. I'm tired of laying in the sun, let's go walk the pier in Huntington and eat at Ruby's On The Pier!
3:00 p.m. Hmm, it's not too late to take PCH to Laguna to look at the shops. But we have to leave now or                  we'll get stuck in the canyon!
5:00 p.m. Should we go to Sawdust?
7:00 p.m. I kind of want to go home but it'd be so cool to see the sunset from Top of the World.
8:30 p.m. Okay, that sunset was super totally worth it!  Should we head down to San Clemente for a                            bonfire?
10:00 p.m. Maybe if we're reallly quiet, they won't notice we're still having a bonfire...and drinking alcohol.

Ok, so maybe this idea was more fun in my head, or I'm really delirious and this sounds crazy. But I've already written it and it actually is pretty typical of several of my days in the summer during high school and when I'd come home for the summer. Bonfires were always my favorite, Top of the World is somewhere I never seem to go enough, and, for some weird reason, we were always going to multiple beaches in one day. As if being lucky enough to be at the beach wasn't good enough.

We're spoiled. But I bet you've all gone to the beach more than me this summer. I haven't gone once. I'm cursed. If I make it known to the world that I am going to the beach tomorrow, then it will be overcast and cold tomorrow. It will be sunny by my house and as soon as I drive that 5 miles over to the more coastal area, we've got clouds and / or a breeze.

Meaningful Ink

I have a confession...an obsession that I cannot stop thinking about...I am counting down the days until I can get my next tattoo. [Unless someone buys me one, it's going to be at least a year, but still].

I love thinking that no one, besides me, is ever going to have the same map on their body. They will never have the same moles, scars and wrinkles. I am completely, one hundred percent me. But I still like to decorate my skin to celebrate the thoughts that are in my head. The process is beautiful and a work of art prior to the evidence of the art.

It all starts with an idea.

October 2010, WQ Symbol

For years we drew some sort of WQ with a heart symbol on our wrist to remind ourselves of our strength and self-love. After 2 years, I decided it was time to give myself this permanent reminder.

August 21, 2011

When I was 16, my cousin passed away. He had had cancer from age 2 to 6 and had been cancer-free for two years when he passed. Shortly after, a friend drew the above ambigram, and I held onto it until my brother's 18th birthday. We each got tattoos dedicated to him, our life inspiration.

August 21, 2011

 I still wanted to incorporate an actual sun into my tattoo, and decided to get one behind my ear. I would have liked it to be a little higher because of its size, but I love it.

February 2012

In 2011, my best friend [my "wife"] told me she wanted us to get matching diamond tattoos. I told her only if we did so on some weird body part...like our big toes. A year later, she took me to get these - a symbol of our friendship and our strength.

September 2012

The infinity tattoo with my fiance was the only tattoo I ever got without thinking for months on it. I've known since I was 18, that I wanted to get a tattoo for him in some way, but this was his idea and I love it. Even before I was engaged, I knew that he was there, committed to me.


My next few tattoos will be super fun / meaningful ones as well.

I'm planning on getting "time and change" on my left thigh - a testament of my time at The Ohio State University, and the everlasting friendships. "Time and Change will surely show, how firm thy friendship O-HI-O."

I also want an intricate back piece [much after I'm married]. The angel veins of the heart absolutely astound me. In the bigger strings I plan on including symbols of the people who have changed my life - my family, friends, future children, etc Around the tattoo it will say "If I were to pluck on your heart strings, would you strum on mine?"

Behind my neck I want to get an infinity sign with the word strength spelled in it. The loops will incorporate a heart and a peace sign "peace, love, strength, forever." I've been wanting the peace sign and heart since I was 17.

I plan on someday getting tattoos for my future children as well :) and lately I've been really thinking about getting a chest piece. I'm not sure why, I used to think they were very limiting, but they have really grown on me. I love the beauty in some of them, like Christina Perri's. Basically, I want a bunch of "small" tattoos all over, not necessarily a sleeve or full body piece.  Who knows what else! It is just so exciting to plan this art work.

When I was younger, my friends always talked about piercings and went and got them. I only ever wanted my nose pierced [which I did at 18, and then got the other side pierced at 22]. I've also had my tragus pierced but took it out after a couple of months. I currently don't have my nose piercings in, but I definitely miss having my left one [the one I got first]. Interestingly enough, I found out that my nostrils are different sizes drastically when I got my right side done!

Take a look at my opinion article I wrote for the Daily Sundial last year!

Happy Tuesday!