CADTOOL

coachella. and. disney. trip. of. our. lives. (incase you were wondering)

A year ago in April I remember watching a youtube video of Jay-Z performing Young Forever, he surprised the crowd with bringing Beyonce out to sing the chorus. My heart melted a little bit in that moment…and I knew deep down, I needed to be at coachella the following year. I then became obsessed with coachella. I read numerous blogs about the festival, drooled over all the pictures of celebrities there (oh m geee, ZAC EFRON!), I scoured the message boards on the coachella website reading about the magical adventures, and one week later when I was visiting my bestie (Rachel) in Vancouver we started to plan for next year’s festival.

When planning such a vacation a good first (IMPORTANT) question is, who the heck do we bring with us? Courtney was sitting with us, so naturally she was invited right then and there. There we began planning a beautiful adventure. Finding a fourth was difficult but thankfully Thea came to her senses and decided to come.

We decided to roadtrip it down and Rachel being the amazing planner she was, had a folder (because nothing is official unless you have a folder) set up in no time and before we knew it CADTOOL was really happening. And my apologies to those of you who we pissed off with our plastering CADTOOL everywhere (and not letting you know what it stood for), we were very obnoxious but all is fair in love and coachella? :)

So we ventured out on April 11th, 2011 in Courtney’s mama’s SUV (THANK YOU DEB!). And what an adventure did we have! Thankfully I had a new moleskine (thanks to my amazing boyfriend!) to record what I saw and heard.

All in all it was an amazing adventure packed in with oodles of goodness and magical moments with my besties (and lots and lots of driving). We ventured from Victoria to San Francisco to Santa Monica to COACHELLA to San Diego to Anaheim to LA to Anaheim to Mammoth to Portland to HOME!

I’ll be doing a COACHELLA write up soon but if you want to hear more about the trip, take me out for coffee and I’d be glad to chat you up. :)

stay gold,

s.s.♥.

SHUT UP

i’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. In my next post I will be writing a life update about all my amazing cadtool adventures and about other new awesome things in life ;) but for now I have to share what the Lord has been teaching me this week…

My connect group started a new study last night titled, “LORD CHANGE MY ATTITUDE”. I was a little hesitant to do this study at first, because (seriously) who wants to admit that their attitude needs changing? But get this straight…having an attitude is going to seriously hinder you. It’s going to hinder your personal development, your walk with God, your relationships with others, your career, etc (the list goes on and on).

In the study James MacDonald studies the Israelites. They were meant to go in and possess the land that God had for them. The promised land. The land flowing with milk & honey (mmmmmmm). To make a long story short, the Israelites did not possess this amazeballs land. They stayed and ended up dying in the wilderness (picture a dry, desolate place). Their awful attitude prevented this from happening! UGH!

And that happens with us in life. Here are some notes I took from last night’s video (it was all about complaining)

1. Attitude controls outcome

2. Those who choose murmuring as their lifestyle will spend their lifetime in the wilderness

3. We choose our attitudes

4. An attitude is a pattern of thinking formed over a long period of time

5. Complaining is sin

6. Complaining means “to express dissatisfaction with a circumstance which is not wrong and about which I am doing nothing myself to correct”

7. God hears our complaining

8. God hates our complaining

We have the choice to complain or SHUT UP. And sadly I think a lot of us choose to complain. Just two days I was faced with the choice…

It was a beautiful Monday afternoon and me being the procrastinator I am, left it to the very last minute to use my redfish bluefish groupon ($8 for $16 worth of amazing seafood). So I went on my lunch break to discover the longest line up I had ever seen there. I waited a full hour before I got to the front of the line to order. I didn’t notice it until I was near the front of the line but they had raised their prices by a few dollars. I know that seems really petty but I found myself sooooooo mad. I had just looked up the prices online and the two piece halibut was supposed to be flipping $16.50 not $19. So there I was two people away from ordering, ready to turn on my sassy beyatch attitude and complain about the “false advertising on the website” when all of sudden the feeling came over me. Oh, you know that feeling. The conviction hit and God showed me the tired workers who had been dealing with these sassy beyatches all day. The last thing these workers needed was another one. So I repented and ordered as sweetly as I could. side note…while waiting for my food I look over at my car in the lot and see the ticket guy entering my license plate into his machine thingy. I ran over saying Oh pleeeease no!!! and something wonderful happened, he flashed me a smile and said don’t worry about it! He didn’t even mind that i didn’t put coin back into the machine while i went back to get my food! :)

But enough said, don’t complain. Choose to SHUT UP because God truly has the best life for us and he can’t take us there if we choose to complain.

over & out,

s.s.♥.

Love my diana mini. It’s so teensy that it can be worn around the neck without weighing you down.

So my film came back and I was actually happy with it! It’s only the beginning, and I absolutely love the vintage-esque feel it gives off. I am so stoked to see what this little lover does in California!

stay gold,

s.s.♥.

Incredible….and what’s even more incredible is that I’m going to see the actual PIXIES in May!

dear diary #007

Today the sun was shining. I pulled down the top of the ol cabrio and put on my go to summer song, The Cure’s - Just Like Heaven. No other song can get me stoked for summer as that one. (A close second is Stacey Q.’s- Two of Hearts. Amazing video…I get all my dance moves from her) I can’t believe today is MARCH 28th (Happy birthday Mum!)…seriously, it’s the END of March. I can’t believe that almost three complete months of 2011 have gone by. Insane. A lot has happened in the past two months, maybe that’s a reason why it’s flying by so quickly?

So pretty much every weekend has been filled with oodles of goodness. A couple weekends ago I went over to Vancouver to visit my bestie Rachel before she moved back to VIC!!! and her roomate who happens to also be one of my closest friends, Courtney!! (She WILL be moving back very SOON…right Courtney?)

Such an amazing weekend, arrived late Thursday, slept in Friday, went for an afternoon coffee at Calhouns with Courtney who also happens to be my editor. Looove her. I conquered through some major writing block I was having (yet I need to get on my writing this week!!!!!!!!!!) I picked up a diana mini camera and am so stoked to see my pictures from my first roll, which is waiting for me at Walmart. They say your first roll sucks, hopefully mine turned out as I took a lot of pics that weekend in Van. Anyways, we did a lot of CADTOOL planning…OH MY GOSH we leave in TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and on Saturday me and Rach rented bikes and biked around Stanley Park. It was such a gorgeous day. Hopefully those pictures turned out. It was a beaut weekend. i was sad to leave Vancouver, knowing I don’t have a good place to stay any more. But I am WAAAY happier that my bff is now living in VIC! & Courtney is on her way.

I find myself battling a cold now, a well worth it cold though. This past week I spent the majority of my time with 14 teens. CITYREACH! They volunteered their spring break to grow closer to God through serving our Island! We served in many different ways including at Sanctuary youth centre, Glow Day Camp, Nanoose, at a farm that serves as a rehabilitation centre. (I legit stacked wood for 3 hours straight. I have never done that much manual labor in my entire life.) Ahhh but what an amazing time we had together. To finish the week off we went up to Nanoose to paint. That night at Nanoose we had an incredible time of worship & prayer. It’s so encouraging and amazing to hear the prayers of teens who have such a desire for God to change their schools,families,city. To finish off the night we had an epic bonfire….which also makes me sooo excited for summer bonfires! Ohhh summer, you really are just around the corner.

So yes life has been full. Full & beautiful.

still can’t believe i’ll be in california in two weeks!!!! COACHELLA!!!!!!!!!

until next time diary,

s.s.♥.