inspired.

Wow, I've been feeling inspired lately. I have a whole page full of blog ideas, I've been learning more and more about photography, and I've been designing like crazy. I'm so excited to take on more design clients, and I've been messing around with some inspiration boards lately. I thought I would share some colors, patterns, and fonts that I've been loving lately!

If any of this inspires you as much as it does for me, I would love to work with you over at Sparkle Out Loud.

Also, I just wanted to share some picture I've taken because I'm excited about it. I'm an amateur so don't judge, I'm just having fun!

I don't really know where/how to edit my photos, so if anyone has some good editing software that they'd recommend, I'd love your suggestions!

looking forward

Not much has been going on around here lately. I've been swamped with school. I have two exams this week and two next week, so I'm just super duper excited to study for those! Kill me now. But there are a few things I'm looking forward to!

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. As you probably already know, I love Valentine's Day. Handsome already got (and opened) the package I sent him because we're both to impatient to wait. It's probably my fault for sending it a whole week early. But he loved it, so that's good. He got me (I opened mine early too) a bunch of chocolate, homemade brownies (yes, he made me browines....sweet, right?) and he wrote in the journal that we send back and forth. Anyway, my roommates and I are going out to dinner tomorrow (and I get to eat lots of dairy and garlic bread since its a holiday yolo) and then we're going to come back and watch a bunch of cheesy romantic comedies, eat chocolate, and drink wine. Because we can.

I'm bought my plane ticket. I get to go see Handsome over my spring break. Only for a couple of days though. It's going to be the shortest amount of time we've spent together so far, so it's going to be hard to leave I'm sure. But, it'll cut the waiting in half. It'll have been two months since I'd seen him last, and then we'll only have to wait two months until I get to spend the whole summer with him. And I can't wait for that.

I've been playing around with some designing and photography some more. I really love it! If you're interested in a design, you can see my design site here. I keep learning more and more about both design and photography and it's really becoming a passion!

 I might be able to graduate in December. I'm supposed to graduate next May, but if I can save up and take an extra class this summer, I might be able to graduate another semester early! The though of graduating this year excites me so much! I'm going to try really hard to start saving and get everything figured out!

What're you looking forward to?

when the world turns ugly i just turn and look at you

Today is a beautiful day guys. Handsome comes tomorrow and we get to spend the next couple of days together before I leave. But I have another reason to be excited....are you ready?

Today is the official launch of my new design site! Let me introduce you to

Sparkle Out Loud Design. I've been getting more design clients recently, and I wanted a cleaner, more user-friendly platform for the site. When thinking about how I wanted to go about it, I decided to do a little rebranding! I'm really excited about this you guys, it's going to be awesome! In honor of the launch, I have a little special going on.

Everything on the actual site is pretty much the same, except for the design and domain obviously. Beloved Designs is no longer up and running, so help me spread the word! I'd love if you could go check it out, even if you're not interested in purchasing a design. Let me know what you all think! 

You can like the Sparkle Out Loud Facebook page here! 

You can follow on Instagram here!

My other social media links (twitter & pinterest) are the same as they are for the blog.

Anyway, back to today's scheduled post...

Thanks to everyone who came and linked up this week! You guys always amaze me with this link up. I love that those of you that leave a link always go and visit others- it makes me so happy!

It's been awhile since we've had a What I'm Listening To post because of all of the fabulous holidays that have gotten in the way. I'm not complaining though. Holidays are fun and I'm sad the season over. But I am very excited to bring back this weekly thang where I share my current music obsession with you all!

Right now I'm really loving Florida Georgia Line's new song This is How We Roll. Luke Bryan makes a little guest appearance in the song and I really love the way his voice sounds when it's paired with FGL's. I wish this song was out when I went to the concert so I could've heard them sing it live together!

Here are the lyrics and you're welcome for your newest obsession.

The mixtape's got a little Hank, little Drake
A little something bumping, thump, thumping on the wheel ride
The mix in our drink's a little stronger than you think
So get a grip, take a sip of that feel right
The truck's jacked up, flat bills flipped back
Yeah you can find us where the party's at

This is how we roll
We hanging round singing out everything on the radio
We light it up with our hands up
This is how we roll
This is how we do
We're burning down the night shooting bullets at the moon baby
This is how we roll

Yeah baby this is how we roll
We rollin' into town
With nothing else to do we take another lap around
Yeah holla at your boy if you need a ride
If you roll with me yeah you know we rollin' high
Up on them 37 Nittos, windows tinted hard to see though
How fresh my baby is in the shotgun seat oh
Them kisses are for me though, automatic like a free throw
This life I live it might not be for you but it's for me though
Let's roll!

This is how we roll
We hanging round singing out everything on the radio
We light it up with our hands up
This is how we roll
This is how we do
When the world turns ugly I just turn and look at you baby
This is how we roll

[Luke Bryan:]
Yeah we're proud to be young
We stick to our guns
We love who we love and we wanna have fun
Yeah we cuss on them Mondays
And pray on them Sundays
Pass it around and we dream about one day

This is how we roll
We hanging round singing out everything on the radio
We light it up with our hands up
This is how we roll
This is how we ride
We slingin' up the mud, cuttin' through the countryside baby
This is how we roll

Yeah this is how we roll
This is how we roll
This is how we do
We're burning down the night shooting bullets at the moon baby
This is how we roll
Yeah this is how we roll

meet zia from bits of days!

Good morning my lovelies! I hope everyone is doing well! Today I want to introduce you to one of my amazing sponsors! But before I do that, I have an announcement! Beloved Designs is now selling pre-made designs! They are $35 dollars, and this is a great option if you're not looking to come up with an idea completely on your own. This is a much quicker and easier way to do the design process! I will be adding more designs often, so you can keep checking back and see if there is one you love! Here's the best part- once the design is sold, it will be taken off the site, so no one else will have it! It will be completely yours. Here are a few that are up right now!

If you would like to purchase one of these, please visit here

Anyway, back to the really important stuff! Meet Zia. Zia blogs over at Bits of Days. She's from Indonesia, but now she lives in Germany (jealous) and she shares tons of amazing tips and stories about living abroad!

Tell us a little about yourself

I originally come from Indonesia, but now studying at a university in Germany. I started blogging when I was 15 and have maybe over 10+ blogs scattered all over Blogger, Tumblr, and Wordpress. I always love writing because I'm not that talkative so I 'speak' up through words and that's why I love blogging!

What inspires your writing?

Basically everything. Everything that sounds interesting or can be entertaining inspire my writing. My blog is everything-thrown-together-kind-of-blog so I have no specific source of inspirations!

If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Mind reader! No more miscommunications and no more over studying for quizzes, hahaha.

What is your favorite movie and why?

Titanic, hands down! I always cry watching it, I mean, really the door is big enough to keep them both afloat!

What would you do if you won a million dollars?

Student loan comes first! Then also the rest of tuition fees until I graduate! The rest maybe I'll give to my parents, buy my own house and car, donate to some charities, and finally invest in some stocks or my own startup business!

Share one of your most memorable experiences

When I flew with an airplane for the first time. The thing is, it was my first time flying and I already flew halfway around the world from Jakarta, Indonesia to Washington, DC! I was really excited and didn't even experience jet lag!

Thanks girl!
Go show Zia some love :)
blog // twitter // facebook // bloglovin'

If you'd like to participate in our Favorite Things giveaway (sign up closes today) please fill out this form!