#resolutions update

I said I would travel more (in Africa)

I certainly traveled.  I went to Ghana, Senegal, and Ivory Coast.  I also went to London, but that’s not in Africa,  so…

Have more fun and adventures

I think travelling counts as adventures!

I saw lovely animals in Ivory Coast.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sights, scenes, art and monuments in Senegal.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Gorgeous body products in Ghana.

All sorts of wonderful adventures while I was in London.

Beautiful view of the big ol' Ben Won't say it never gets old… That's not exactly true, but yesterday in particular I was liking it anew. #bigben #beauty #clock #holiday #travel #travaille #wanderlust #travel #instatravel #travelgram #tourist #tourism #vacation #getaway #traveling #trip #london #ilovetravel #jetsetter #visit #view #traveling #visiting #instago #fun #instatraveling #igtravel #travelling #travelpics #passportready #travelblogger

A photo posted by ✨êfüâ✨ | The Beauty Project (@efuastar) on Jul 14, 2016 at 3:12am PDT

Happy. Sometime you don't know where the journey is taking you, but you're glad you're on one.

A video posted by ✨êfüâ✨ | The Beauty Project (@efuastar) on Jul 2, 2016 at 12:33am PDT

Exercise more

I did a lot of exercising on my travels, and discovered just how much I really enjoy walking.  Still looking for some decent walking shoes, though! But I found some cute sneakers that I can walk in.

Purple Sugar Honey Iced Tea | Airport shenanigans… Not too hard to guess what colour lipstick a girl is wearing with this outfit . #makeuplover #beauty #purple #makeupjunkie #makeupobsessed #makeupcommunity #makeupmess #makeupofinstagram #instamakeup #Friday #beauty2share #bbw #thickwomen #thickthighnation #fbf #beautyobsessed #igbeauty #lipstickaddiction #superga #frenchconnection #gap #lipstickjunkie #effyourbeautystandards #plussizefashion #plussize #love

A photo posted by ✨êfüâ✨ | The Beauty Project (@efuastar) on Jul 21, 2016 at 11:25pm PDT

Update my personal style

I did work toward this, although I didn’t round this out.  This year I’ll be working with a couple of designers to make this happen, and come up with all sorts of awesome things to help achieve this goal.

Be more organized

I meant with regards to makeup, and by golly did I sort of do this one!  I even got the coolest makeup organizer – but it’s not large enough for my makeup collection, so we’re going to be expanding this in 2017.  At least it was a start!

I was really thrilled with the results.

It’s the last push from now until the end of the year. Just thought I’d bring this back to inspire me to do a few more things.

(Photo courtesy of eput)

It's hard to believe that two months of the new year have already passed. It's it's even harder to believe that I only have to more months of school and I will have completed my freshman year of college!

February was a month of mixed results. To read January's results, click here.

Section 1: The List

1. Follow through with my resolutions. 2. Be healthier. 3. Read at least one book a month.  4. Manage my money better. 5. Clean my room up. 6. Go to bed earlier..  7. Be more considerate of my siblings. 8. Keep in touch with far away (and not so far away) friends. 9. Spend more time with my parents. 10. Be more considerate of Chris. 11. Put more focus and effort into my relationship with God.

Sections 2: Results + March Goals

1. Follow through with my resolutions.

Sort of... on some I did very well. On others, not so much.

2. Be healthier.

FEBRUARY GOALS: I’m going to continue on with the drinking water and eating breakfast thing, but I’m also going to start getting myself in shape (please remember, just because someone is skinny, does not mean they’re healthy or physically fit). I bought the lovely (and dreadful) Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred Workout DVD (try-out review I did) for me to do maybe three times a week and then also, Chris and I are going to try and go to the gym together at least twice a month.

RESULTS: Well, I think I'd extremely well on this! Chris and I have been successful in making it to the gym every week 2 to 3 times. Also, I started buying groceries instead of buying fast food. And except for this past weekend (Lakeland trip), I spent $0 on fast food. That's right, Z-E-R-O. 

MARCH GOALS: To continue drinking water, going to the gym, and making my own breakfast and lunch. I also am trying to go to Pilates with Heidi on Thursdays and maybe sneak in a 30 Day Shred workout on the other days. The fact that I'm doing so well with this resolution, makes me want to do it more. It's actually super fun!

3. Read at least one book a month. 

FEBRUARY GOALS: Setting aside a half an hour before bed to red.

RESULTS: FAIL... again.

MARCH GOALS: To be honest, I'll be happy if I can make it through a page of a book that's not school-related!

4. Manage my money better.

FEBRUARY GOALS: Enter money into Quicken.

 RESULTS: DID IT! 

 MARCH GOALS: To set aside at least $50 into savings. Now that I feel like I have a good grasp on keeping up with my spending, I need to start saving! This month I need to get an oil change and take my car in for a check-up. Hopefully my check-up won't be too expensive...

5. Clean my room up.

FEBRUARY GOALS: Furniture placement.

RESULTS: Everything is placed...

MARCH GOALS: I want to be able to see my floor. I literally can't see it because of clothes and bags and books. It's starting to annoy me... and you know it's bad when it's annoying ME.

6. Go to bed earlier.

FEBRUARY GOALS: To go to bed earlier...

RESULTS: Pretty successful. I've been making it into bed by 9/9:30ish because I'm waking up at 5:30 (which I actually love when I'm in bed by NINE). 

MARCH GOALS: To be in bed by 9, no exceptions!

7. Be more considerate of my siblings.

FEBRUARY GOALS: Sharing more. Yelling less.

RESULTS: If share if I remember and if I have a problem, I tell my mom instead of screaming at them.

MARCH GOALS: Same as previous.

8. Keep in touch with far away (and not so far away) friends.

FEBRUARY GOALS: Go to SEU & visit Heidi.

RESULTS: Had dinner with Heidi = way fun. I miss her. AND I visited Karla and Anthony at SEU! Chris and I spent the night last weekend and it was crazy fun. SEU has a beautiful campus and it was interesting seeing what dorm-life was like. But most of all, we got to relax with Karla and Anthony like old times. But it was weird because we just went where we wanted to go and did what we wanted to do... like adults. Which was weird because I've never really experienced that before. It also kind of gave us a glimpse of out friendship in the future, which makes me excited. :)

MARCH GOALS: Spring break is this month baby! This month I have one goal: to go to the beach with Karla and Anthony! We've been friends for 4 years and have never been to the beach together!

9. Spend more time with my parents.

FEBRUARY GOALS: Watch a movie with my mom.

RESULTS: I don't remember. But this month was full of nice long talks with my mom, so I'd say that's a good sign.

MARCH GOALS: Keep hanging with my mom.

10. Be more considerate of Chris.

FEBRUARY GOALS: Do things that Chris likes and not yell so much.

RESULTS: I think overall I did well with this but there are a lot of things I could improve on.

MARCH GOALS: Stop yelling and jumping to conclusions. 

11. Put more focus and effort into my relationship with God.

FEBRUARY GOALS: Memorize a verse every two weeks and get the Hillsong United cd.

RESULTS: FAIL. Actually, overall in this area, I seriously failed. 

MARCH GOALS: To read my Bible every day. No exceptions.

Section 3: YOU!

(By Cristina Lauren)

Section 1: The List Hello! Happy end of January! You all know what this means... confession times. Now is the time to admit to how we all are doing on our New Year's Resolutions. For those of you who saw my resolutions post here, you might have noticed that it was very lengthy. So I boiled them down to their very basics:

1. Follow through with my resolutions. 2. Be healthier. 3. Read at least one book a month.  4. Manage my money better. 5. Clean my room up. 6. Go to bed earlier..  7. Be more considerate of my siblings. 8. Keep in touch with far away (and not so far away) friends. 9. Spend more time with my parents. 10. Be more considerate of Chris. 11. Put more focus and effort into my relationship with God.

Section 2: Results + February Goals The first bullet is how I did this month. The second bullet is what I'm going to do next month to improve myself and/or step it up.

1. Follow through with my resolutions.

YOU, the reader, be the judge of that! 

2. Be healthier.

 I've drank two full bottles of water every day and have eaten breakfast. However, I slack major on the weekends. So next month I'm going to try to do better with that.

For February, I'm going to continue on with the drinking water and eating breakfast thing, but I'm also going to start getting myself in shape (please remember, just because someone is skinny, does not mean they're healthy or physically fit). I bought the lovely (and dreadful) Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred Workout DVD (try-out review I did) for me to do maybe three times a week and then also, Chris and I are going to try and go to the gym together at least twice a month.

3. Read at least one book a month. 

FAIL. I'm almost finished with Pride and Prejudice but it's so difficult to find spare time to sit down and read something that's not school related.

Maybe I could do this at night before I go to bed? I was thinking of setting aside a half an hour before bed to read.

4. Manage my money better.

FAIL. The two pay periods in January I missed putting them into Quicken.

There's only one way to do this: Get paid, enter amount into Quicken. Collect receipts and crap, enter it into Quicken at end of the day. No way to get around it.

5. Clean my room up.

FAIL. 

What I NEED to is get my furniture situated so I have storage space. Next month is all about furniture placement, baby.

6. Go to bed earlier.

So far, I'm doing pretty well! And the thing is, I actually like getting up really early. I like being awake before everyone because I feel like I have so much more time to accomplish everything I need to do.

Just gonna keep on doin' what I'm doin'!

7. Be more considerate of my siblings.

I've tried to share more and not as yell as much. But I'll be honest with you, it's extremely difficult to keep your temper steady when someone else is bothering you.

Again, continue to do what I've been doing.

8. Keep in touch with far away (and not so far away) friends.

Super successful on this one! It's so easy to keep in touch with everyone when you like them so much!

I have many plans I need to make with Miss Karla and Mr. Anthony for next month (college visit plans, fair, visit SEU)! And I have a date with Heidi, who I miss major and can't wait to see!

9. Spend more time with my parents.

Doing well, I actually sat down with my mom and sister and watched a movie. And you know what, I liked it. It was fun.

I'm going to try and watch a movie with my mom at least once a month. It's kind of fun. :)

10. Be more considerate of Chris.

You'd have to ask Chris, but I'd say I'm doing well. I've trying to keep my tone down when I get into something heated and I even played Halo with him ONE full game on xbox live.

Keep on doing what I'm doing. And maybe possibly get better at it.

11. Put more focus and effort into my relationship with God.

This is kind of in the middle. I've been semi-consistent in reading my Bible everyday and have even tried downloading more Christian music to listen to in the morning. The thing is, I really want to do this. I want to read my Bible and I want to listen to Christian music. But it's one of those things I just keep putting off until the point when I realize it's been weeks since I last journaled or prayed. 

Memorize a verse every two weeks (my memory isn't as good as your's Karla! ;)). Get the new Hillsong United cd that release February 15 and listen to it on way to work/school in the morning (so excited)!