• Books,  Life

    Books I’ve Read Recently

    I feel like I go through phases with the material that I read. At one point I was devouring audiobook after audiobook of wonderful fiction and I felt like I would never get enough of it. Lately though my interest has shifted to personal development and I have been reading quite a bit lately. Along with listening to tons of podcast episodes I have been looking for inspiration on my bookshelf. Over the last year I have bought so many personal development books on Amazon and I decided to start reading them to see what kind of collection I have built up. I have definitely not been disappointed! Here are a…

  • Life

    Inspiring Podcasts I Am Loving

    A few weeks ago I downloaded an app on my phone called Castbox and I have been devouring podcast episode after episode. I feel like I have tapped into such a vast source of information, inspiration, comedy, and advice. Check out some of the ones I’ve been listening to non stop! Fit & Fearless Ctrl Alt Delete Style Your Mind The Heart Of It Magic Lessons  

  • Life

    Happy Birthday!!

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEARNING TO BLOOM!!! Itโ€™s hard to comprehend where the last year has gone. I remember clicking publish for my first post on Learning to Bloom and here we are a year later! While I didnโ€™t post as consistently as I hoped I am very proud of the content I have created over the last year. It has been a dream come true sharing my thoughts and bits of my journey in this space. I have some really exciting content planned for the coming months and I hope to reach even more people in the coming year. If youโ€™ve been reading since the beginning, I want to say a…

  • Home,  Home Decor

    Our Houseplants

    Over the last year we have acquired a small collection of house plants. There is something about live plants in the house that makes it feel more welcoming and comfortable. If I had it my way our house would look more like a jungle! I am loving the ones we have now and am really looking forward to adding some new ones in the coming year!

  • Life,  Personal Development,  Self Care

    Little Things To Do For Yourself Everyday

    One of my areas of focus this year is self care. Self care is something that I constantly put on the back burner in my own life but in my quest to feel good about myself and be comfortable in my body, developing a self care practice is key. Making small changes can be so beneficial to your mental health and how you view your place in this crazy world. Small changes can make a big difference in your everyday life. Being able to recognize the little things that make you feel fabulous and then trying to implement them in a daily routine can really help motivate you and change…

  • Life

    Life Update

    It’s been quite a while since I actually sat down and wrote a blog post. I thought since I haven’t posted since the beginning of January I would let you know where I’ve been. January didn’t get my year off to the best start. After an 18 year run my fur baby, my heart, my cat Gus died at home only 2 weeks after having the vet tell us that his kidneys were failing. I had Gus since I was twelve years old and losing him was something I never thought I would be able to handle and in all honesty it was something I wasn’t ready to face. I…

  • Books,  Home

    My Bookshelf Tour

    Seeing as part of one of my resolutions is to read for 30 minutes before bed, I thought it would be fitting to take a little tour of my bookshelf. My dad made this for my brother for Christmas a long time ago. As we got older my book collection kept growing so we swapped bookshelves. Over the years I have given many away and bought even more. This last year I discovered the delights of thrift store book shopping ($5 for a book that would have been $20?!?!?). Many of these have been read but there are some that I still have to work through. So…without further ado here…

  • Goal Setting,  Life

    Reflections and Resolutions

    Happy New Year!!! Reflections It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the years pass and 2017 has been no exception. As this year comes to a close, I can look back on it with fondness and positivity. I began the year with a very significant change when I started a new job at the end of January. Since then I have joined the company as a full time employee and could not be happier with my job and the company I work for. The happiness and fulfillment that I get from my job has inspired and motivated me to go after other long time goals outside of work. This…

  • Fitness

    Body Boss Program So Far

    At the beginning of this year I did the 21 Day Fix workout program from Beachbody. Once I finished I still found it hard to workout without a set program. I have mentioned before that I always feel lost at the gym. The only thing I feel like I have down when I am there is cardio. When it comes to weightlifting I get a deer in the headlights look and don’t really know where to start. I began taking attending a few classes during the week after work and really began to enjoy exercises that combined cardio and body weight training. I added some different types of cardio a…

  • Life

    Finding Your Why

    Have you ever thought about why you want to lose weight? Is it because you are bombarded by images on the covers or magazines telling you that if you’re not thin you can’t be happy or healthy? Is it because you want to look good in a bikini come summer? Maybe you have some health conditions and your doctor is requiring you to lose weight.  When I was younger I think if I had been asked that question I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer it. If I did it would probably be something along the lines of wanting to be skinny. I never got that skinny body I…