Minimalistic Frame Of Mind.

Minimalism, what is it?

Well Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from clutter. Freedom from worry. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real and true freedom.

The more you own the more you have to take care of, to clean, to wash, to fix, to organize. ect. It takes up space in your home and in your mind.

Imagine being able to move or travel by just packing a few boxes, that would take alot of stress away from your life not to mention less money to spend on moving or storing those items.

Some people own so many things that they have to rent a storge unit to store their belongings. Imagine if you just downsized enough to not have to rent a storage unit, you would have less stress and more money.

For me personally the idea of minimalism is appealing because of the mental and visual freedom it provides me…the less cluture I have in my home the more space I have and the less cluttered my mind is. It helps you see your life in a new perspective and helps open your mind to the things that really matter in life!!

Theres an old saying that goes perfectly with minimalism and its “less is more” and it truly is.

Go ahead, start small and just get rid of a box or two of items that are just collecting dust or clothes you never wear and see how you feel after that. I bet you will feel a little lighter like a small weight has been lifted off of your shoulders.

Why I started My Jewelry Buisness.

Let me start off by saying I have GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) without going to into depth about it I will just say it gets pretty bad for me and the only thing I have found to help relax myself during an anxiety attack is surrounding myself with nature.

I live right by Lake Erie so one of my favorite things to do is walk the beach and I do this year round, YES even in the rain and snow! Something about the sand, the waves, the sea gulls is so unbelievably comforting for me its what I like to call “My Happy Place”.

Over time I started collecting beach treasures which mainly consisted of seaglass. I decided to learn how to make jewelry pendants and other pieces of jewelry from my findings.

I FELL IN LOVE with the craft and now run an etsy store called ForYourSoulDesigns and sell at flea markets and craft fairs…I make my pieces affordable so that anyone can own a beautiful treasure.

Its nice to make money here and there but I mainly do it for the love of the beach and the love of the craft. Thank you for taking your time to learn more about ForYourSoulDesigns.

Simple Summer Days…

There is something to be said about just sitting on your porch soaking up the warm summer sun watching your kids play in the yard.

Life seems to move so fast now a days…I remember when I was growing up my summers  seemed so long and we did so much as a family, even the simple things meant so much.

Now a days people are so caught up on social media and their electronics…always on their phones or laptops or infront of a gaming system…what ever happend to going for walks with family, to parks, swimming at the lake, playing games ENJOYING LIFE AND ACTUALLY BEING AWAKE TO YOUR REALITY.

I hope one day the online craze will fade, if not in society than at least in my household. So today I am putting away my phone and spending time with my family, being fully here to enjoy life.

Moving on from this.

So in my previous blog post  “Am I Pregnant” I had talked about all the symptoms I had and so on.

Today I am 8dpo, I had called my gyno to explain the situation and she sent me to get a blood test done to check and see if im pregnant…after 3 long hours of waiting to hear back from the dr. I was told my test came back NEGATIVE!

I thought I would be fine either way because we werent trying to get pregnant but I did not expect the sadness and flood of emotions I felt…I was heartbroken!  

Turns out I wanted to be pregnant more than I thought but we are not financially ready to choose to get pregnant so for now I will just have to move forward with life and hope the future is good to us. ♡

Am I PREGNANT?

Alright so im going to take you guys back to 3 weeks ago when we were heading Up North to go camping, I had started my period 4 days prior and ON TIME which is VERY rare for me but on the forth day of my period (which is the day we left to go Up North) I suddenly got a really sharp pain in my pelvic area and was concerend…I mentioned to my fiance that maybe I had a cyst that just ruptured because I heard it happens like that. As we kept driving the pain subsided and was soon forgotten about. Fast forward a week later to when we got home from camping, over the next week I started feeling very sleepy to the point where if I sat down I would pass out now I at first just thought it was because my sleeping schedule has been off from camping but it continued and still hasent stopped. Also within the past two weeks I had two VERY vivid nightmares which definitely is not normal for me because I have a sleeping disorder to where I rarely fall into my rem sleep to be able to even dream at all…other “symptoms ” I’ve experienced are joint pain, headaches, queasiness here and there, a weird sensation when I pee and a slight twitching / pinching feeling in my uterus which is actually the first thing that made pregnancy pop into my head because I also had that twitching pinching feeling with my other two children….soo being the anxious person I am I bought a pregnancy test day 4 DPO (days past ovulation) and without thinking I peed on the stick looked at it saw nothing and shoved it into my purse and headed to the graduation party we were attending. I thought for sure it was negative because any other time I have been pregnant the results showed up almost immediately…. well when I got back to my truck I looked at it and saw two lines which meant positive I was so mad at myself because I didn’t wait the two minutes to look and now wasn’t sure if it was a false positive because you are supposed to disregard any results past 10 minutes but never in my life have I taken a pregnancy test that was negative then turned positive over time!!!

I waited two days and took another test it came up negative…which is normal because I shouldn’t have even been tested yet pregnancy test aren’t supposed to even be able to read HCG levels this far out. I am now on day 7 DPO and I’m still super tired, I have moments of queasiness throughout my day, headaches  and joint pain… I’m so anxious and confused as to what is going on because my fiance and I we’re not trying to have another child at this time and rarely had unprotected sex but all of the symptoms I am having are pointing towards pregnancy!! Its just a guessing game for the next 10 days   I hate the 2 week wait….Uggghhh I WANT TO KNOW ALREADY!!!

Laws Of Attraction (Surprising Update)

Hi everyone, I just wanted to check in…So it was only yesterday that I had posted pt1 of my Law Of Attraction series and I had said it was the first day I was going to put the theroy to the test WELL…..I did and let me tell you I was SHOCKED!!!

The story:

After picking up my fiance from work we stopped at a gas station and he asked me if I wanted anything, I said no. But as he was in the store I was like Hey I should get some scratch offs so I texted him and asked for a couple…

I told myself that I was going to win (I never win on those things) and I kept saying how thankful and grateful I was that I won (even though I hadnt scratched them yet)…I got home and started to scratch the tickets and GUESS WHAT….I won $250 on my first scratch and I won $5 on my second ticket….

That is CRAZY to me…I never win on these things and the very first time I try the law of attraction  theroy I won and a pretty large amount!

I am deffinetly more intrigued now than ever and more motivated to keep putting this “law” to work.

WOW….I still can’t believe that happend!!!

Well thanks for taking the time to read my post,
ForalwaysAshley

Law Of Attraction (series pt1)

Have you ever heard of the law of attraction? Its basically the suggestion that what ever you think  to be true can eventually manifest…

so say you really want a new car, well if you tell yourself your going to have a new car and you believe it to be true you can actually manifest a new car whether it be landing a good job to pay for a new car or winning the lottery or a family member helping you,  out of nowhere…this is called the law of attraction whatever you think about you attract to yourself.

Well I want to give this “Law Of Attraction” theory a run and see what it can do for myself and my family… One way I read you can do this is by creating a vision board, And thats what I am going to do,  A huge thing my family could really use right now is a new reliable car “ours seems like it is going to die out on us any day now”, Good health, and lets face it we could use good amount of money I’m not talking about millions of dollars simply enough to help us get back on our feet and be more comfortable.

today is the 1st day of this theory for me, I am going to try my hardest to think positively and to repeat in my head the things I would love to have in my life and act like I already do and see what happens.

Wish me luck.

My online jewelry business.

I struggle with an Anxiety Disorder and I found that walking the beach helps me feel calm and grounded so I started walking the beach every morning. I would come across beautiful pieces of seaglass and decided to start making jewelry out of it..I found that this also made me feel happy and relaxed and thats when my Jewelry business started..I named my jewelry business ForYourSoulDesigns because my jewelry is inspired by nature and my pieces are meant to create harmony within onesself therefore being good for your soul.

All of my pieces are solely created by me and I put alot of thought and effort into them.

I create necklaces from beautiful pieces of seaglass, rings inspired by flowers and bracelets that help create peace and tranquility within onesself.

The best part of this for me is that going to the beach is part of my career and I wouldn’t have it anyother way!

To purchase one of my designs go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/ForYourSoulDesigns

Thank you to everyone for all your beautiful comments on instagram and a huge thank you to anyone who has purchased one of my designs…You do not know how much it means to me and I am so happy my pieces help others.

Foralways Ashley

Hello summer..Goodbye Fat!

Well Hello there…I can’t believe it’s June already…summer is finally here. But with that being said it has got me really thinking about my lifestyle and my weight…I am a mommy of two preschoolers and after I had my second son my body just didn’t seem to want to go back to how it use to be. Before I had my children I weighed 120 now I am stuck around 150… I can’t seem to lose the weight I do not eat horribly and I do get exercise but clearly my body doesn’t think thats enough, I’M STUCK!!! SO I have decided to really start working on my body and changing my life style!!! By this time next year I am determined to be no heavier than 125 and making it a goal to be between 120 and 112 by August 2017   (my wedding month/year!!)
  

I am literally starting from scratch and know very little about Fitness, healthy eating, and the right proportions…so this will be a learning adventure… I got this!!!

Anxiety is a B!#$%

What it’s like for me having anxiety…it’s horrible, it makes me feel paranoid, insecure, scared, sick (physically and mentally). Anxiety is a pain in my butt,  it’s one of those illnesses that you can’t physically see the ailments but they are very real…what makes having anxiety worse is that the people around you don’t understand it or fail to realize it’s a Very real condition. My fiance thinks saying I have anxiety is a some sort of scape goat or get off free card, like an excuse not to do something…this hurts the most, he is suppose to be my supporter but instead he says things like I’m over reacting, I’m being a drama queen, I’m weird, get over it, other people can do it ect. These words hurt me to the core, if only he knew how badly I want to feel and act normal…if only he knew how horrible and REAL Anxiety really is…I think mine goes a bit beyond just anxiety and starts to also touch base with OCD and bipolar disorders…I’m going to list some things I do or thoughts I have, Not to be mocked or looked down upon but for others to gain a better understanding of how hard it makes everyday life and also in hopes that other people with these problems will read this and comment (I could definitely use some people in my life that are going through the same things.)

Driving my truck causes me stress and sometimes I have a panic attack.

I constantly think negative thoughts or horrible thoughts and if I am hurt or sick I automatically think I have a horrible disease and am going to die.

I stress out and overall worry about normal things.

I have a thing about numbers where I won’t turn the radio or tv on certain volumes (like 28 4 or 5 ) because those are mine and my son’s ages and if I do that my mind tells me that means we are going to die…messed up right!!! I know it’s super silly and fake but I do not choose these thoughts to pop into my head they just do.

I hate going places alone like for walks, grocery stores, gas stations ect. Because for some reason it makes me feel very nervous to the point where I can’t concentrate and feel awkward like everyone is looking at me.  (This is a big one for me because I rarely want to go places alone but this makes my fiance upset because he doesn’t always want to go places…this is where he tells me to get over it or says things like other people can do it….OUCH)

On top of all of that…My anxiety and the fact that it makes me over think things causes me to have severe trust issues.

As for physical symptoms, I have experienced, racing heart feelings, abnormal breathing, headaches, dizziness and vertigo, stomach pain not to mention I have physically made myself more sick by overthinking…the mind is a crazy thing!!!

Do any of you go throw any of these things? What other symptoms have you experienced? How do you cope? Please if you do not have anxiety then just don’t comment..you don’t understand therefore you can’t understand how it is or what it’s like…and I have already heard all the name calling that comes along with this disorder.

“One day at a time” “just breathe”
Two quotes that mean a lot to me and help me get through this.

Hope you all have a very nice day.

Foralways Ashley♡