L.A. RECAP
Hiiiiii. I'm back from L.A. I got back late Saturday night (well technically early Sunday morning) and had a wild day at church yesterday (Sunday's are a very long day for me). I had a good sleep in though and I'm excited to share some photos from my trip with you!!
We flew in Wednesday night and stayed at a hotel near the airport. Since the conference didn't start until Friday night, we had some time to kill so we decided to be true tourists and do a hop-on-hop-off tour. It actually worked out real well because it served as our shuttle from the airport hotel to Hollywood AND we got to see a ton of LA! It started at LAX and took us by Marina Del Rey, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and finally to Hollywood.
The weather started out a little bit chilly with a side of extra smog....(ewh). But once the smog burned off it was VERY hot and beautiful :)
We stayed at The Hotel Roosevelt which is iconic and was the hot spot in early Hollywood days. I'm a big fan of the hotel. Nicely done rooms and gold and black in their logo. My kinda place...also their pool area...oh m geeee.
Obviously In & Out was a must. And can I say how much my heart was hurting to be so close to Mickey but not enough time to do Disney? #tragedy Hey James...take me back!!!!???
Godchicks (the name of the conference we attended) was at the Dolby Theatre which is where the academy awards take place!!!! And get this, it was the FIRST Christian event to take place there. Praising Jesus in that place was INCREDIBLE! The speakers were Joyce Meyer, Christine Caine, Dawn & Rich Wilkerson Jr. & Holly Wagner. Every speaker brought an incredible word...God was speaking very clearly. I'll be sharing more on that at a later time, but for now enjoy these last few pics!
Oasis Church's team did such an incredible job! I'm sometimes a snob when it comes to going into a new place to worship because our team is just soooo amazing but Oasis was phenom AND all the dancers and videos were sooo on point. I guess that's what you get when you have professional actors and dancers attending your church!
It was also a great time spent with my pastor, mentor and friend, Lisa. She is a treasure and we had a blast together!!
And how good was that PINK SKY and MOUNTAIN as we flew into Seattle????!!!!
Hope you're having a great Monday.
XO,
s.s.♥︎.
OFF TO L.A.
photo taken on our coachella trip in 2013
I'm off to LA for a couple days and thought I'd say a quick HELLO! I'm so excited to be attending Godchicks conference. The lineup is UNREAL...Christine Caine & Joyce Meyer...!!! Be sure to follow along on snapchat (username: lauraliira) & instagram as I'll be posting LOTS. Get ready for a ton of in & out and palm tree pics...oh and guess what? Bando is having a pop up shop on Friday!! Can't wait to check that out! #DREAMCOMETRUE
over & out,
s.s.♥︎.
WARDROBE // 13
Happy Monday morning! Hope you had a wonderful weekend!! Our great weather has stayed around and I'm happy to report I got some beach time in on Saturday AND I'm also going today...BOOYAH.
Today I have some more photos from my shoot with Rachael. Not only is she an amazing photographer, she also taught me how to keep with the cool kids and style that half up hair do. Real champ right there. Make sure you check our her site and like her photog page on facebook!
Thanks Rachael for these amazing photos!!
Outfit Details:
Blazer, Top, Leggings, Watch, Sunglasses (similar), Slides.
And don't be making fun of me for my Adidas slides! I seriously live in them. James hates them, but they're so comfortable and Aritzia sells them so they must be cool...ha.
Past Wardrobes- 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12
Happy Monday!
xo,
s.s.♥︎.
WHAT'S UP WEEKEND
image via death to the stock photo
Welcome to the freaking weekend....well almost, all we got to do is make it through Friday...and you know what, we so got this.
Got any plans? The weather has cooled down here so it's not as beachy as I hoped but we're going to head out to Sidney on Saturday! James is working and I will be studying for an exam next week. Speaking of next week, I'm off to LA!! yahhooo. It'll be a short & sweet trip but I will be sure to take lots of photos of palm trees and in&out..don't you worry.
I'm on the hunt for summer dresses and this one is right up my alley.
Oh my goodness, how cute is this date night idea? I so want to recreate it.
We're starting to plan a getaway at the end of October and I am getting SOO PUMPED.
Oh and ps. I'm going CAMPING TWICE in the next month...who am I? I'll definitely need this glamping teepee to take naps in.
S'more oreos are a thing...but all I really want are those neon oreos from the 90s...please tell me you remember those?
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!! xo, s.s.♥︎.
LET'S BE FRIENDS!
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NEW GROUNDS // ON HOW YOUR WAY IS NOT THE BEST WAY
I had the privilege of preaching at Dream Women (my church's women's ministry) yesterday morning. Sharing the Word of God is always an honour. I'm still boggled that He chooses me to speak His life, encouragement and Word into people's lives but I sure do love doing it. Over the years of speaking I have realized that it's not about me whatsoever. It's about HIM and what He chooses to communicate to His children.
Anyways, the word He gave me for Dream Women was out of John 11. It originated from an old blog post I wrote back in 2012.
Sometimes, things in life don't always go as we plan...and you know what, that's usually a good thing.
Here's the post from 2012...
"Just wanted to share something that God dropped on my heart this morning…I was reading the beginning of John 11. Jesus found out how Lazarus was ill and waited two days before departing to see him. I love the way the Message put it, ‘Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days.’ Ha, isn’t it funny how we sometimes look at God’s way as “odd”. Love it.
He told his disciples that Lazarus was asleep and he needed to wake him up. His disciples didn’t get it and…Then Jesus became explicit: “Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there. You’re about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let’s go to him.” John 11:14-15 MSG
YOU’RE ABOUT TO BE GIVEN NEW GROUNDS FOR BELIEVING jumped off the page right before my eyes. I sat there reading it over and over and over. This is a crazy week for me. We have our girls conference, ILLUMINATE starting on Friday. Many of us have been praying for it, for a long time! We know God is going to move in incredible ways in the girls’ lives. BUT sometimes things don’t always go the way planned…like last year and the flowers.. oh those dang flowers… let me remind you..
At the end of the conference last year we wanted to give the girls each a rose. We ordered the flowers online to save the costs. Well those stinking flowers got held up at the border and would not arrive in time. I found this out Saturday morning and wasslightly, heavily, freaking out. Little did I know, God had it all covered. And in it all he was GIVING ME NEW GROUND FOR BELIEVING… I received a phone call a few hours later from my pastor. A local ministry was donated 66 dozen roses, they didn’t need them so they called my pastor to see if our girls conference wanted them. Yes, you heard right.. 66 DOZEN ROSES. God turned our measly attempt of 100 roses to 792. In that crisis, seeing God go ABOVE & BEYOND most definitely GAVE ME NEW GROUND FOR BELIEVING!"
If Jesus had come as soon as he got word that Lazarus was ill and healed him from the sickness, we would have missed out on the incredible miracle (fyi He raised revived Lazarus from THE DEAD..yah...incredible!!).
Maybe there is something you've been praying about for awhile, or a circumstance or trial that you're facing and you've started to lose faith. I just want to encourage you to keep hoping, keep trusting, and keep waiting on Jesus. He's going to answer that prayer...maybe not the way you want Him to answer but in His way....which is so much greater and amazing than we could have dreamed of.
If God gave me those 100 roses all those years ago, the girls at Illuminate would have been blessed but God loved us too much to just do that...he gave 792 roses and in turn all of the girls (including me) experienced a great miracle and saw God's crazy, extravagant provision and love. His way was so much better than my way.
He loves us too much to let us just have our own way. Don't fret, don't be anxious. Remember He is at work and He is setting you up to give you NEW GROUNDS FOR BELIEVING.
xo,
s.s.♥︎.