When you trust a broken set of habits every day, it’s only a matter of time before you feel broken too. Let go of your toxic energy and negative ways. Not only does today mark the end of a work week, but it also marks the end of the month, so let go. Thank God Its FRDIAY. 

Let's do a little bit of reflection on January.

Fashion Trends of the Month

        

Rules of the Month
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Book of the Month 
So I've been hearing such positive feedback about this book, that I decided to buy it on my phone, thanks to iBooks and read a little of it each night. I must say, it was definitely an enlightening book!

Quote of the Month 
"Dear Human: You’ve got it all wrong. You didn’t come here to master unconditional love. That is where you came from and where you’ll return. You came here to learn personal love. Universal love. Messy love. Sweaty love. Crazy love. Broken love. Whole love. Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling. Demonstrated through the beauty of… messing up. Often. You didn’t come here to be perfect. You already are. You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous. And then to rise again into remembering. But unconditional love? Stop telling that story. Love, in truth, doesn’t need ANY other adjectives. It doesn’t require modifiers. It doesn’t require the condition of perfection. It only asks that you show up. And do your best. That you stay present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU. It’s enough. It’s Plenty.”

Recipe of the Month 

Fresh basil pasta with sun-dried tomato sauce

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose or semolina flour

3 eggs

1/4 cup fresh basil, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (the kind packed in oil), chopped

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup pureed roasted red peppers (or regular tomato sauce)

Salt and pepper to taste

Add the flour to a large bowl and crack the eggs in the center.  Sprinkle the minced basil on top.  Using a fork or your hands, mix together until dough is formed.  Add more flour if necessary to ensure the dough is not sticky.  Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes.

Separate the dough into 4 equal portions and roll out each portion into a very thin sheet using a pasta machine (or rolling pin if you're really talented).  Lay each sheet on a floured counter or cutting board and hand cut into 1/2"-wide noodles. To ensure the noodles don't stick together, boil immediately in salted water or hang them up to dry until ready to cook.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.  Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan.  Add the garlic cloves, sun-dried tomatoes, and red pepper flakes, and cook for 5 minutes.  Deglaze the pan with white wine.  Add the red pepper puree and mix together.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Add the cooked noodles into the saute pan and stir to coat the noodles with the sauce.

Serve immediately with more basil and/or freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Inspiration of the Month 

Mmm of the Month 

                                  

Don't forget to let go of this week's troubles and plunge into the weekend.  Relax. Have fun. Do something different. Whatever you do, don't hold on.

The madness of Monday... I know, the start of another work week and a crisp clean paper to begin that color coated to-do list. Okay fine, maybe that's just me.

Instead of setting our intentions today, because as all my avid readers know, Sunday's are for setting intentions for the week, we are going to talk about Healthy Habits. 

• Drink water 
  
• either go with the 8 cups per day theory 
• the recommendation to drink as many ounces of water as the amount of pounds you weigh 
• or go with my suggestion - at least 1.5L,  aim for 3L each day

• Meditate or sit in silence for 12 minutes every single day

• Less talking, more listening. 
• Take interest in other people. Make a point to learn about your environment and surroundings each day. Absorb what you can learn from other people's journey.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables 
• Prepare your own meals 
• Improve your posture
  
• Have complaint-free days

"First we form habits, then they form us." - Jim Rohn

• Smile more often 
• "We may never know all the good that a simple smile can do." - Mother Teresa

Wise Wednesday

Has it really almost been THREE months since I've written?
Well, it's finally Wednesdays so here comes those wise words.

Horoscope of the Day:
The right thing isn't always the easiest thing. You may be faed with a choice that you know you have to make It's a hard choice. Making that choice may cause some disappointment, or some dissatisfaction in some area of your life.  It may even make you less popular. You know, though, that if you don't do what your heart and your conscience are telling you to do then you won't feel very good about yourself. But once you make the right choice, it will be like a key unlocking a door to something you want and need. Be true to yourself, Libra.

“Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference. Don’t allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It’s there for your convenience, not the callers. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. Don’t burn bridges. You’ll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river. Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Don’t major in minor things. Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Learn to say no politely and quickly. Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Don’t waste time grieving over past mistakes Learn from them and move on. Every person needs to have their moment in the sun, when they raise their arms in victory, knowing that on this day, at his hour, they were at their very best. Get your priorities straight. No one ever said on his death bed, ‘Gee, if I’d only spent more time at the office’. Give people a second chance, but not a third. Judge your success by the degree that you’re enjoying peace, health and love. Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly. Leave everything a little better than you found it. Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation. Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life and death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems. Never cut what can be untied. Never overestimate your power to change others. Never underestimate your power to change yourself. Remember that overnight success usually takes about fifteen years. Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do. Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in harbor is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out. Spend less time worrying who’s right, more time deciding what’s right. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life. Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get. The importance of winning is not what we get from it, but what we become because of it. When facing a difficult task, act as though it’s impossible to fail.”

— Jackson Brown Jr.

        Song of the Day: 

        {{{{ 1901 - Birdy }}}}

This is life, not a funeral service

Have you set your intentions for the week? Have you enjoyed a recuperating weekend preparing for the upcoming work week? Have you taken the weekend to hit "Refresh" so your week isn't as long and exhausting? If you have, you've already done way more than I have! If you haven't, here are some wise words to help put your mind at peace,  as promised!

First, turn some candles on, and light those incense. Allow your soul to calm itself, and your mind to rid itself from the never-ending stream of to-do list items that repeatedly keeps rolling through.  Take a deep breath and take it all in.  Remember to set your intentions by first choosing a mindset for a peaceful, patient and productive week.

 Remember, it's not just a mindset. We must live a life of balance. It is a lifestyle. We must live with good intention, with value for exercise and good health. We must find the importance of intimacy and sexuality.  When we remember that its not all about work, we remember to play. Be a playful being. Lighten up.

Our culture, our society is so afraid to be intimate. Society has taught us to keep our walls up.  Life doesn't have to be taken so seriously. Breathe. Exhale the restrictions you've placed on yourself. Inhale all the mysterious and playful secrets you're going to make this week.  I challenge you to do something crazy this week. Let yourself go. If something crazy is 10 calories more, 20 minutes less on the elliptical, 30 minutes late to work, actually talking to that attractive man or women in line behind you, one more drink for the week, or letting one person tear one wall down... do it! Do it this week. Do it now! 

 Get passionate. Get crazy. Let go of fear and your need to control.  Let it slip away as you dive into the river of the present moment. Don't think too hard about things. The flow is meant to be experienced. Loosen up a bit. Get dirty. Have fun. This is life, not a funeral service. Enter into it. Participate. Experiment. Take a risk. Be spontaneous. 

Sunday morning

There's nothing like a beautiful Sunday morning to begin wrapping up the weekend and getting ready for the work week.  Let's not forget to set our intentions for the week, allowing our negative energy to be left behind. Today's focus is going to be on the meaning of our lives and truly living it out to its fullest extent.

F. Scoot Fitzgerald once said, 

"For what it's worth, it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing.  We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it.  And I hope you see things that startle you.  I hope you feel things you've never felt before.  I hope you meet people with a different point of view.  I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

In a world where we find ourselves restrained each day, whether it be by ourselves and the fear of failing, by our family, our friends and the society, or by physical means, such as money and education, we must fight back and demand of ourselves to live the fullest life we are capable of. We must ask ourselves what the meaning of life is, what our purpose is in this world and then we must attack life with our positivity and our will to achieve greatness, to make a difference in this world, to leave it better than the way we came into it.  At the end of the day, we should be able to sit down and think to ourselves that through all the struggle, pain and "fighting back" it was all worth it.  Find what matters to you, find who YOU want to be, and go for it.

BIRTHDAY WISH LIST

21? 21. 21!  Officially into "your twenties" and "your selfish years."

Well, here comes the birthday wish list...

 v Tory Burch Logo Leather wrap bracelet

 v Justin Timberlake & Pink concert tickets

 v A trip to Las Vegas and/or Miami

 v Anthropologie Gift Card 

 v Spa Day: 90-minute massage and 60-minute facial

 v Narciso Rodriguez Perfume

 v Urban Outfitter’s Phrenology Head Poster

 v Candle Diffuser with a pack of tea light candles and essential oils

 v Tory Burch Boots

 v Chanel Espadrilles

 v Dinner by the beach

 v Matte Black Ray Ban aviators

 v As many pictures printed out and put in a chronological photo album

 v Chocolate cake, with coffee ice cream with M&Ms (with those cool candles that never go out)

 v Flowers

 v Sephora Gift Card

 v Free People Gift Card

 v Soul Cycle Membership

 v Society of Chic’s Open Back Black Pearl Dress

 v Jewelry Box

 v Kitson Gift Card
     v Keurig Coffee Machine

And finally, an October Baby Shout-Out

.. to the Libra baby of the month! Noah, 1 year ago today you made me an aunt, and every day since you've been a bundle of joy! You give me a reason for being back in LA, you put a smile on my face on my worst day, and you make me love and laugh like I never thought I could.  I can't wait to watch you grow and do with  you, all the cool things your mommy did with me-- take you to the park, take you trick -o- treating, shopping, and be the cool auntie that gives you girl advice! I adore you more than words can describe, and I love you more than I ever thought was possible! I wouldn't rather share a birthday month with anyone else!  #librababy <3 I love you!! Happy 1st Birthday!!