DIARY // CRUNCH TIME

hey friends,

hope you had a lovely weekend. boo to daylight savings. i went to bed so excited that it was only 11:20pm and then realized it was actually 12:20am…sad times. i don’t know if i mentioned it on here before but james is a night owl and i am a morning person. if i could, i would go to bed at 10 and wake up at 6 every day…but we meet somewhere in the middle (usually with me falling asleep first, ha).

anyways, it’s crunch time round our household. we’re both working on finishing our hebrews course (due march 26th)! only need to write two papers and ace the final. no biggie….please pray for us. i haven’t written an essay for almost 5 years… and i’m faced daily with decisions like this…

ok, i’ll stop complaining. but please pray for us :)

xoxo,

s.s.♥.

CHARMED

i wear this bracelet every single day.

it reminds me of a few things.

1. it reminds me of two of my besties, rachel & thea. we bought each other this bracelet with the heart charm in 2009. rach had just moved to vancouver and thea was about to board a plane to sydney, australia. we bought them to remind each other of our friendship and because who wouldn’t want a tiffany’s bracelet :)

we also took a billion pictures with our tiffany bags & bracelets because we were cool like that…we’re still cool like that.

that year, my two best friends moved away (not to mention ian, chris & nadia as well!) i was sad..a lot.. but all i needed to do to remember them was look down at my left wrist and jingle jangle.

the heart charm also reminds me of another love. it reminds me that i am loved by God. that no matter what i’ve done, he loves me. that his heart for me is so big that he sent his one and only son to die for my sins. and you know what? God loves you too :)

next comes the present…oh wait the present…

the present reminded me of the gifts that God had given me. i lost the present while i was dancing the night away at a wedding on the mainland.

it was a sad night for me.

moving on……

the key was the fourth charm i received. i got the key for christmas from my mum. the key reminds me of the verse proverbs 4:23 (guard your heart). it reminded me to guard my heart and not fall in love with any old guy but wait for my true moG who would get that key.

the crown was the second charm i received. my beautiful sister, catrina gave me that one. the crown is one of my fave charms except for the fact that it gets caught on everything. i honestly have a billion snags on sweaters from that crown…but i love it. the crown reminds me that i am the daughter of the KING aka i’m a princess. it reminds me that my true value comes from what God says about me. i’m his princess and that’s what’s up.

the newest addition is the hot air balloon. this is one of the charms that we gifted to the girls at illuminate. the hot air balloon was given to remind the girls of this year’s theme, she will rise. even though i’m not 15 like a lot of the girls there, i still need that reminder. i still need to know that God will rise me out of the pit of despair. i still need to know that God gives me the strength to rise above the difficulties that i will face! i still need to know that because Jesus rose from the dead, i have risen in new life!

it’s good to have reminders.

some people wear wwjd bracelets, some wear tiffanys. to each their own.

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

                          -deuteronomy 6

stay gold,

s.s.♥.

CATWALK // WELCOME ZARA

today is the day people.

you can finally buy zara online in canada.

those on the island…reeeejooooiiicceeeee!

today is the day i’m also starting a catwalk feature called wdp.

work, date, play. 

one outfit for work, one outfit for a date, one outfit for play (coffee, picnic, shopping with girlfriends).

i work in a fairly casual workplace (praise the LORD!), so i can get away with rocking a sweater and jeans. and how cute is that faux leather peplum top? and that beauty light pink dress? i love it paired with the jean vest…oh zara, i love you.

all clothing from zara.

happy shopping!

-s.s.♥.

SHE WILL RISE

started writing this post last week on Wednesday but then the week got away from me! blerg…

oh wow. did last weekend even happen?

i have been bunkered down with sickness for the past two days…not fun! after such an incredible weekend, and an insane month, my body shut down. i also found myself with a not so great attitude, making me not really a joy to be around. yesterday afternoon i finally realized that it was probably an attempt from the devil to get me down after such a fabulous weekend, so i got up off the couch, apologized to james and rose up from the funk. God is good!

And yes, last weekend happened. God showed up, and Holy moments happened that only He could orchestrate. it was absolutely incredible.

to be honest i expected about 170 girls to register. we had only ordered 200 bracelets but God went above and beyond and brought 250 girls out, bringing up our registrations from last year’s 140 to 250 (over 100 new girls!!!). AND over half the girls were first time girls to illuminate…yay!!

there was a lot of screaming. there was a lot of smiling. there was a lot of dancing. there was a lot of girls being girls. my heart sparkled.

my heart for illuminate is always that girls would come in and be encouraged, equipped and empowered. my heart is that they would know that God loves them like crazy and that he has a plan for their life. my heart is that they would come in and feel comfortable to be the girl that God created them to be. my heart is that they would leave knowing that Jesus is there for them, in every situation they face. my heart is that they would leave smiling ear to ear. that they would be excited to live the adventure that God has for the. 

here are a few instagrams from the weekend…

i stole this pic from kim moran (who spoke saturday night and absolutely inspired every single person in the building!!!!) during the opener every girl was given a balloon and at a pinnacle moment, every girl released her balloon. immediately after balloons started falling from the ceiling.

my beautiful, brave friend, bg, shared her story how God met her while she battled cancer.

the incredible helen burns came to speak! this woman has inspired me for years! (i first heard her when i was 18 at hillsong church in london). it was such a blessing to have her pour out her heart and wisdom over the girls.

this incredible photo is from our closer. chenoah sang a song she wrote & then alicia key’s girl on fire. the girls went mental. seriously, that was my most favourite moment of the conference.

so overall it was an incredible weekend.

God is sooooo good.

xoxo,

s.s.♥.

GEMS // HONEYMOON VIDEO!

we celebrated valentines day on wednesday (because we were at city youth on thursday).

james cooked me a delicious thai dish then we ventured out to get some frozen yogurt and watched a movie downtown.

we get home and i enter the bedroom and BOOM there are candles lit EVERYWHERE, like tons and tons of candles. my mind was boggled as i wondered how on earth he had gotten all those candles lit when i was with him for the past three hours prior. turns out he hid our key and our friend (who lives in the same apartment as us with his lovely wife) steve came in while we were at the movie and lit all of them! (thanks steve!!)

i was incredible surprised. my man knows how to plan incredible romantic surprises.

little did i know he had another surprise up his sleeve. that day he had secretly edited our HONEYMOON VIDEO! i screamed in delight when he showed it to me. ahhhhh take me back to the beach!

enjoy!

J&L Honeymoon! from James Liira on Vimeo.

it was even better than it looks. seriously. 

best.

vacation.

ever.

xoxo,

s.s.♥.