Category Archives: love

The First Sunrise

Posted in aspirations, inspiration, love, melanie kristy, photos, winter by

IMG_0045

For years I’ve been telling myself that I want to see the first sunrise of the new year. I want to get up way too early and venture toward the ocean and experience nature. And for years I’ve let this idea slowly slip away, because I wasn’t ready for it. Because I didn’t want to wake up early. Because it’s damn cold in January.

But this year, I did it.

IMG_0046

I convinced my friend Heather to wake up way too early with me and meet me near the beach. I bundled up in two pairs of socks, a sweatshirt and wool coat, scarf, and gloves. I brought towels to sit on.

We were going to picnic there but decided to get coffee and breakfast sandwiches after our adventure. (I did, however, have an amazing Gingerbread Man coffee on the ride back to my house).
IMG_0027IMG_0042IMG_0043

IMG_0060

I wanted to do something that was different, though. I wanted to write everything down that I wanted to let go of and do something symbolic to let it go. So I bought pretty scrap book paper and some cut out things from Michaels. I brought Sharpie markers. We wrote our secrets on them, I listed the health issues, weight and habits I wanted to be rid of and then we took the cut outs and made confetti of our problems. We talked about how we wanted our new year to be, what we wanted to do different or strive for.

IMG_0062IMG_0065

A lot of people think it’s cliche to make “resolutions” or goals for the new year. They think it’s dumb that people at parties are going to talk about all the things they’ll probably never do and make all these plans and ideas for things they’ll forget about tomorrow. But I think it’s important to take the time to think about change. I think that, even if you don’t actively follow through with these new plans, it’s good to think about them. Because you can’t improve on yourself or change anything unless you think about it first, right?

IMG_0072

So when I got home I took out a piece of scrapbook paper and wrote all over it words for my new year. My WORD of the new year is PRESENT, as in BE MORE PRESENT. But I wrote lots of other words I want to incorporate into my life or hold onto. It’s basically an inspiration world cloud of insight and hopes and goodness. I’m going to pin it above my desk to look at daily.

photo (1)

I hope everyone is having a great day, no matter how they spent their New Years Eve (hungover? I went to bed at 9pm…) or Day :)

xo Melanie.Kristy



 

 

 

 

 

On Slowing Down

Posted in inspiration, love, melanie kristy, winter by

20121202-202102.jpg

It’s December, already? How does this happen, anyway? How does time pass and all of a sudden you are here in this moment and you aren’t sure how you got here or why you’re here or what’s even going on. But it’s December, in 2012, the month that, according to the Mayans, the world is going to end.

Or the world as we know it.

That could mean we’ll be disconnected, battling a war on home grounds, without chocolate, the end of The Twinkie. It could mean natural disaster. It could not mean anything at all.

But if we take a second to think about it, trace the steps to how we got here in this very moment maybe, if the eternal light goes out on December 21st (or we lose someone or something or go through heart break or get sick or lose our jobs or become lost in the woods), maybe we can take a moment and inhale the pine and Christmas cookie scent, taste the peppermint lip gloss and sit in this moment.

& remember

Remember anything, really. Like those times when your biggest struggle was learning how to tie your shoes. The first concert you went to without adult supervision. What it’s like to graduate school with a degree. The last amazing meal you ate. The last time you really, truly laughed until your eyes watered (and then you laughed some more).

In reality I hate the busyness that comes with “growing up” and responsibility. I hate feeling stick with all these obligations because socially its become part of what’s “acceptable”. I’m going to school and working full time. I kind of hate it. But I don’t hate going to school. I don’t hate working.

And I really enjoy those free weekends full of Christmas lights, too much pizza, laughing until you cry and then ending the (too short) weekend with being immersed in beautiful, descriptive fiction.

But in the busy days its hard to remember what it’s like not to feel bush or stressed. It’s hard to remember what it’s like being five years old and riding a bicycle without training wheels for the first time. It’s that busyness that takes away. When we forget to breathe, we forget to acknowledge and we forget about the moment we are in or the times that we’ve already had.

20121202-202116.jpg

The World Would Be a Better Place If We Just Stopped Judging Oursevles

Posted in aspirations, love by

20121005-074256.jpg

Seriously, guys. Just stop it.

You are worth so much more than this.

You deserve to like whatever it is you like. And you deserve to feel okay about liking these things. There’s nothing wrong with liking Real Housewives or Taylor Swift or Twilight or NOT liking traditional girl things or boy things or whatever. There’s nothing wrong with being single or rushing into a relationship because you love someone oh so much (even if you realize later you don’t love them as much as you though. Because what if you do???) there’s nothing wrong with wearing yoga pants out to go shopping or not even liking shopping or spending more money on books than clothes.

The only thing that’s wrong with all of this is that we are judging ourselves.

We are adding to our own self consciousness by judging ourselves before anyone else can. </strong. And them in turn we are judging others. And I'm so fucking sick of it.

Go eat your donut for breakfast, listen to One Direction, stop hiding Fifty Shades of Gray under your mattress.

Be yourself and be proud of who you are and what you like. And remember that everyone else is allowed to have their own likes and dislikes and actions and thoughts that work for them.

The world will be a better place because of it.

Xoxo
Melanie

La Dolce Vita

Posted in lists, love, tilt by

Image

* The Sweet Life*

I’m not sure if you’d believe it, but I keep on writing blog posts in my Moleskine and not posting them. If you knew me in person you probably would believe this. I do a lot of writing. And a lot of it tends to just sit there. i make no apologies. Instead I’ll just tell you some things about my life that have been pretty sweet lately.

* Under the Tuscan Sun randomly on television yesterday and I had the opportunity to see all of it. I love that movie.

* Bath and Body Works is devoted to Paris. This makes it easy to find sweet smelling body spray (that I bought, of course, with glitter in it. It’s called Sweet on Paris and shaped like the Eiffel Tower) but also macaron scented candles and… bread scented candles. I’m not sure I’d ever buy or light a baguette scented candle however, the fact that it exists excites me a lot.

Image

* Toasting marshmallows

Image

* Fall is approaching. Fall is easily my favorite season of the year. Until it’s January and I’m aching for spring. I love them both, really. For different reasons.

* From Bagels to Buddha. I don’t want anyone to think I haven’t been reading. But lately I’ve been reading more about consciousness. And Buddhism. And aching to take some yoga classes (I know, I know. Just do it already!)

* Meeting new people and learning about them. This mostly takes place online as I’m taking classes online and generally good at finding my way around the internet.

* Mango chicken curry. I’m kind of baffled it took me this long to try it. But it’s delicious.

* I’m rather stoked about The Perks of Being a Wallflower movie. It is my favorite book, and the trailer looks like a movie I’d love. Then I found out the author of the novel wrote the screen play and directed the movie. So I am so ready to watch it multiple times. And You’ll probably be hearing more about it when it comes out. But for the mean time, here’s … here’s a link to the trailer. While I’d normally just post the video in this post, WordPress likes to change up how to post things and I can’t find a video post anywhere on this site.

Perks of Being a Wallflower trailer

((nevermind. WordPress wouldn’t let me publish my post in the format it was in anyway. I don’t know why! So I switched to the way I like it, and here’s the trailer!!!)

Perks of Being a Wallflower

* Facebook. Okay, so I quit Facebook for a while and I’m working on how to make it work in my life. I don’t want to quit it for good (although I didn’t miss much from not going on) because of networking opportunities and meeting new people and feeling connected every once in a while. I don’t want to feel like I’m too connected and stretching myself thin. However, if you’re reading this and we are not already friends feel free to add me (just tell me you’re from here at least or comment on this post to let me know)/ Melanie Kristy on Facebook and not even a fanpage.

* Lunches with friends. I do lunches a lot. (though this may be the end of lunches. Grad school is taking over my life on Wednesday!) Todays lunch is Mexican food. Which reminds me that I’m running late.
Ciao!
What’s so sweet about your life lately?

The Sweet Life

Posted in la dolce vita, lists, love by

La Dolce Vita.
Renaming Things I Love to something else. Because in the long run, all of these little pieces of life, the time that slips between the cracks, the pages that smell like old books, the people that come and go, the muscle pains two days after a work out, finding a bag on sale for even more than it was marked down to, these are all the odds and ends that make up our life. They’re the things that are quickest to be forgotten in stressful times and sometimes the least to be appreciated because they tend not to be part of the “big picture” (though sometimes they absolutely are).

mango hand lotion and glittery body mousse
starting a collection of Judy Blume books (15 years late but who cares?) So far, out of Forever, Deenie and Tiger Eyes, Tiger Eyes is my favorite
water and ac in my house is all that’s keeping me sane this summer
those rare perfect weather days
committing to myself again
counting Weight Watcher’s points and sticking to the program
making goals for myself
meditating in the back yard
Starbuck’s new refreshers drinks
buying a huge orange striped beach hat
Old fashioned movie theaters with black & white movie stars’ faces as wall paper for the entrance to the bathroom



Moonrise Kingdom

What’s in your sweet life this week/ month/ year/ life?
xoxo
Melanie Kristy

Things I Love

Posted in lists, love, tilt by

(credit)
One of my friends is going to Paris on Monday. The list I made her of things she needs to bring me back include: postcards, Macarons & the Eiffel Tower.

It’s Saturday. The weather is beautiful. The night came softly. It’s not too hot. Not too humid. My room is a huge mess (I definitely don’t like that). And I feel like I may be returning to myself. At least maybe a little bit.

Things I Love Today:
Indian buffets
dresses to wear as cover ups
trips to the beach
taking chances and messaging new people
blindly dling new music and digging it
planning to reread novels I love because sometimes that’s better than trying to find new loves
beards & glasses on men. apparently it’s my thing
shimmer powder all over my arms
my two new favorite TV shows are:
HBO’s Girls and ABC Family’s Bunheads.

Girls is just brilliant. Lena Dunham is the creator/ part writer (complete writer? not sure) and main character in Girls, about a group of twenty somethings living in New York City. The sex is awkward and the relationships aren’t glamourized. The characters are pretty awesome. Watch it.

Amy Sherman-Palladino created Girlmore Girls and she’s back with another awesome show called Bunheads (with a few repeat actors, might I add) about a showgirl who marries an admirer on a whim and moves to the town called Paradise where he lives.

finally sitting down in Starbucks and writing a SCENE. If I could do this every day, or even 4/7 days a week for the summer, I might actually have a book by the end of it. A rough rough draft at least.

What do you love today?

Reasons You Should Read Wanderlove

Posted in fiction, lists, love, travel, wanderlust by
(if you type wanderlove into google images, my face pops up, ha! it’s because I vaguely mentioned the book when I finished it back in this post here)
It’s about passion and giving up that passion, and how it comes back to you.
The title. Wanderlove. It’s Wander Lust but so much more.
Guatamala and Belize. Beautiful descriptions, Maya ruins, a chicken bus, a Chinese dragon tattoo and the name Starling.
Lobsterfest.
There’s a crushworthy guy character whose face you actually get to see at some point during the book.

Cupcake The Musical

Posted in love by

If you’re in Boston any time in the next six weeks, I recommend you head on over to the back bay area, eat dinner at Club Cafe and then see the Cupcake The Musical right after.

Cupcake The Musical is a whimsical story about a baker boy who sells his cupcakes on the streets of Summertown, a librarian and a life guard who are both crushing on said baker boy, and a cop who is trying to shut baker boy down. It’s a short, sweet musical that includes talk about magic cupcakes (which I happen to be writing a novel about currently), a few not so subtle innuendos and a real estate agent/ judge named Judy/”and others” who makes reference to her playing more than one character. Club Cafe coffers cabaret style seating and rows of theater seating as well as a drink menu complimenting the characters concocted from Cupcake Vodka.

You can find Cupcake on Facebook, also.

Every Word I Say

Posted in hanson, love, music, passion by

I promise to return to less music slash Hanson related blog posts next week, but I Just wanted to let you know that I wrote a Guest Groupie post over on the Good Groupie. It’s my attempt to put to feelings to words, or as The Good Groupie says in the post,  I describe “ that single moment when you stand in front of the stage and feel the musical high and you understand yourself perfectly through verse ” You can read the post here: Every Word I Say

 

<3