Dressember Week 1

Heyoo!

Here are the photos I have taken for Dressember from Day 2 - Day 8! I've been having a lot of fun picking out dresses!

 If you want to donate to IJM to help abolish trafficking, please go to this link! Thank you for all your support :)

xoxo Sophie

Dressember Day 1

Heyooooo I'm baaaaaack!!!

I want to tell you about a little exciting something that I will be doing this month!

For the month of December, I will be participating in Dressember, where every day of the month, I will wear a dress. "Why the heck would you do that? It's freezing out!" - you may ask. I have two answers for you. 1. Because I like dresses, and 2. I am doing it to raise money for International Justice Mission, an organization that works to combat human trafficking. 

In the last couple of years, I have developed a huge passion for organizations that either rescue women and children (and men as well) from trafficking, or run/support aftercare facilities for survivors, or both. As it says on the IJM-Canada website: "IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to ensure that public justice systems – police, courts and laws – effectively protect the poor." IJM has performed rescues of thousands of girls from brothels all over the world.

100% of the money donated will be going to IJM Canada. Originally, Dressember was just a part of the US IJM project, but when I realized that I wanted to participate, I noticed that tax receipts could only be issued to US residents. After contacting Blythe, the amazing mind behind this whole thing, about this issue, she so graciously put together a Dressember page on the IJM Canada website, so that my Canadian friends can support me and receive a tax receipt for 100% of their donation!

I don't have enough dresses in my closet to wear a different one every day for 31 days, but I'm going to attempt to make each day different in my own way. I'll be posting pictures on here for the next month to document my journey and to keep you all updated!

So I would like to ask you to partner with me in bringing freedom and hope to those in captivity. The following link is to my personal page on IJM Canada's website. You'll find a video there to find out more about what IJM does, and you'll also find a little box where you can donate. Every dollar makes a difference! Thank you for reading and for caring.

http://justact.ijm.ca/sophiemiriam

[If you live in the US, there is another website where you can donate if you feel so called (x), and you will be able to receive a tax receipt from there!]

Dressember 1st OOTD!

xoxo Sophie

SORRY!!!

Heyoo!

So I TOTALLY had this genius plan to start a blog and update it every day.....and that clearly never happened. I've discovered that writing is just not my strong point, while music is, so I've decided to start a music YouTube channel where I post covers of songs.

I've only put one video up so far, since I started it yesterday, so if you want to check it out, please go to http://youtube.com/SophieMiriamMusic!

Maybe if my writing improves I will start this up again, but until then, have a lovely time listening to my music! Thanks for following me!

xoxo Sophie

Throwback Thursday: Prom 2012

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Heyoo!

It's prom season! Today, the grads of my old high school had their prom, and as I started seeing the photos pop up, it got me reminiscing about my own prom last year! It was held at the Capitol Event Theater, and old movie theater converted into an event venue! It was a beautiful building. Here are some pictures from my own prom!

My prom dress that I got for only $25!

My friends and I decided to take a schoolbus rather than a limo. Class to the max!

Me and some of my friends.

Looking through the pictures has gotten me all teary-eyed, missing my lovely friends! Luckily, I've gotten to see a handful of them this summer.

What were your proms like? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo Sophie

Weird and Wacky Wednesday: Tattoos

Heyoo!

I have always been fascinated by tattoos, and whenever I see someone on the street or in a store with tattoos, I always try and get a closer look to see what it may be. I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to tattoos I like! And I have already planned out all the tattoos I want to get in the future, and I'm going to share my ideas with you guys!

1. Tattoo: 5 point star

Location: wrist
Reason: I have had 5 sponsored children, all from different countries, but even though we are far away from each other we still all look at the same stars. (cheesy, I know, but I love it. Simple, but meaningful.)

2. Tattoo: The Jesus fish (Ichthys)

Location: ribs

Reason: Ichthys means Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour. The fish is a Christian symbol that in the early days Christians would use to identify each other. One person would draw the first line, and if the second person drew the second line to complete the fish, they would know that they were both Christians. It's basically a means of identifying as a follower of Christ! 

3. Tattoo: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13) in Spanish

Location: shoulder

Reason: This is my favourite Bible verse. It is such a reminder that I can't rely on myself in tough times, but I CAN rely on God! It will be in Spanish because one of my sponsored children, Madeley, sent me this exact verse in Spanish saying it was her favourite verse as well.

4. Tattoo: Psalm 40:1-3

Location: foot

Reason: Another of my favourite Bible verses! I want it on my foot because it talks about God setting my feet on a rock for a firm place to stand!

5. Tattoo: "Yeah, the road gets harder, but it's not much farther. It's gonna be alright."

Location: back

Reason: This is a line from one of my favourite NEEDTOBREATHE songs, More Time (link: lyric video of the song). It's just super inspirational and encouraging and I love it! The road is always going to get harder, but you just gotta keep going! (For those of you who don't know, NEEDTOBREATHE is the best band ever and you should totally listen to them because they are actually incredible.)

6. Tattoo: Treble clef turning into a staff

Location: starting behind ear and going down neck

Reason: Music is a HUGE part of my life, and I can't imagine my life without it. It really calms me when I'm feeling anxious.

7. Tattoo: OUTSIDER

Location: forearm

Reason: Yet another NEEDTOBREATHE-themed tattoo. They are seriously my favourite band. Their song, The Outsiders (link: live acoustic version on a radio show), is my all-time favourite song - not just by them, but literally of all time - the first time I heard it it really stood out to me! I don't know exactly what their meaning behind it is, but my interpretation is that as Christians, we are outsiders because we are set apart. People will always be looking down upon us, but we are called to love everyone no matter what they do. This tattoo will be a reminder to me that I am an Outsider, and that's ok, because God will always love me. I'm not very good at putting my thoughts into words, so sorry if that didn't make much sense.

Alright guys! Sorry that this is up really late! I had a super busy day but I wanted to put this up for you so I'm finishing writing at 2am. 

I hope you liked this post and if you have any further questions about why I chose these particular tattoo ideas, please leave a comment below and I'll try my best to answer!

Also, leave a comment with tattoo ideas that you have for yourselves, or tattoos that you already have! As a tattoo enthusiast, I'd love to hear about yours!

Talk to you tomorrow!

xoxo Sophie

Daily Themes!

Heyoo!

So as I've been getting back into blogging, I decided that I want to have a little bit of structure and have a theme for each day! That way, it will help me keep on track with blogging, and it will just be fun! I was brainstorming ideas last night and here's what I have so far:

Monday - Makeup Monday

I'm not a huge beauty guru, like so many other amazing blogger/vloggers on the internet, and I don't know very much about makeup, but I do quite enjoy wearing and buying it from time to time! On Mondays, you can look forward to product reviews/reactions, products I've been loving, fashion pieces, etc.

Tuesday - Talk About... Tuesday

If there's one thing I love, it's to TALK! Whether it's about TV shows, books, movies, current events, or even what's going on in my life! On Tuesdays, I will just sit down, and talk to you guys about whatever is on my mind!

Wednesday - Weird and Wacky Wednesday

I am EXTREMELY weird, and I think that's a good thing! So Wednesday will be dedicated to all things weird!

Thursday - Throwback Thursday

For those of you who use Instagram, this won't come as a surprise to you. For those of you who don't, Throwback Thursday is a day where I will talk about things of the past, memories, nostalgia, you get the picture! You may see a few baby photos here and there!

Friday - Favourites Friday

It's coming to the end of the week, so this day will be dedicated to talking about my favourite things of the week. Lots of vloggers do monthly favourites, but my opinions change so quickly that I don't think I have many things that I love for an entire month!

Saturday - Storytime Saturday

Lots of embarrassing things happen to me, so I'll tell you about them!

Sunday - 'Spirational Sunday

Yes, I shortened the word Inspirational. So sue me. Here you can expect inspirational quotations, Bible verses I love, what my Pastor talked about in church that morning, whatever!


I'm also thinking about having monthly themes every other month, where every day of the month, along with my regular daily post, I will have a post catered to that theme! I've only thought of a few so far, but here they are:

- The 30 Day Snap (as talked about in my previous post)
- Cooking with Sophie (This past year at university I was super lazy about cooking, but I want to branch out and cook more healthy/exciting things! I'll post the recipes as well!)
- A Song A Day (I'll share what song is currently stuck in my head!)

Alright! So those are my ideas so far! If any of you have any suggestions for other monthly themes, OR if you absolutely hate my weekly ideas and you have a better one, leave a comment below with your suggestions! I'd love to hear them!

I really am looking forward to posting these!

xoxo Sophie

Yikes!

Heyoo!!

Soooo...it's been a while, hasn't it! The time has just gotten away from me, and I really don't have any excuse, other than...you guessed it...laziness. There have been plenty of times where I could have written a blogpost, but honestly I just kind of forgot about it! :/

Anyways, I'll give you all an update on what's been going on!

1. I finished Supernatural. Crazy finale!!! Totally bawled my eyes out, as per usual.

2. I've decided to continue going to Brock for Con-Ed. I did a lot of research about Film, in all different aspects, and I DO still really like it, but I think in order to really know if I want to switch programs I am going to have to keep going in my current one to see if I still like it! We'll see how second year goes!

3. I got my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday! I'm still a little sore, but the swelling has gone down quite a bit so I don't look as much like a chipmunk anymore, and I'm starting to be able to eat solid foods, little by little. I had Mac 'n' Cheese today, and it was delicious.

4. I'm actually leaving for camp on Friday, and that's actually the reason I started blogging again: I want to do something that one of my favourite bloggers/YouTubers, SprinkleOfGlitter (I linked her YouTube channel), started, called the 30 Day Snap.

Basically, over the course of 30 Days (or is July 31 days? I can never remember), you take a photo each day and upload it to your blog. I've decided I'm going to take my photos at camp, and then on my hour off when I get internet I will try to upload them to here over the course of July. Hopefully it will work out! You can read Louise's original blogpost HERE.

5. I've been learning bar chords on the guitar! Hooray!

I'm still a little rusty, but practice makes perfect, so I'm going to keep practicing :)

I think that's all for now!

Have an awesome week, and talk to you soon, hopefully!

xoxo Sophie

My Dream Style

Heyoo!

So I thought that you guys should get to know me a bit better, so today I'm going to talk about my style preferences.

Keep in mind, most of the clothes I'm going to show here I don't actually have, because I'm a university student and can't afford to go shopping. So this is basically my "dream wardrobe".

I was browsing through my style board on Pinterest and I discovered that I often pinned these main 6 things:

1. Lace Dresses

I LOVE lace dresses, and this showed clearly, as the majority of my 1000+ pins of clothes were these types of dresses. They're just so cute and dainty and I just love them!

2. High-waisted

High-waisted pants, shorts and skirts were very in-style back in the 60's and now they are making a comeback, and I am over the moon! Soooo cute!

3. Boyfriend Jeans

There's just something about looser jeans with cuffs that just makes me so happy. This is funny because I primarily have skinny jeans, but again, it's gonna happen when I get money!

4. Vintage Tops

Look at the collar! Enough said!

5. This Comfy Ensemble

Scarves and boots and comfy sweaters - perfect for fall!

6. High-heels with bows

I didn't even know I loved bows so much until I went through my board and noticed that almost every single shoe post had bows on them! So adorable and feminine!

Those are the main things I found on my Pinterest, BUT there is one more thing that wasn't on Pinterest that I am absolutely obsessed with, and that is...

7. Fandom Shirts

What can I say? I'm a fangirl.


Alright guys, that is my dream style!

Cheerio!
xoxo Sophie

Across the Ocean

Heyoo!

Today I'm going to talk about a country that means a lot to me, and that is the Dominican Republic.

Three years ago, in February 2010, my church sent a group of 20 young adults/adults, including myself, on a Missions Trip to the DR. We would be working in a village called Esperanza (Hope, in Spanish), building houses and playing with the children.

Here's a bit of geography. Esperanza Village is in Puerto Plata, so probably the closest to Canada.

Alright, now that that's over with (I hate geography), let's move on with the story.

So in Esperanza, I met a little 7-year-old girl named Isabella on the very first day we were there. She was really sweet, and immediately took a liking to me. As the days went on, Isabella and I grew very close, to the point where she would constantly be around me, holding my hand or wanting me to hold her, all the while teaching me some Spanish and Creole while I taught her some English. I loved that girl. When it was time to leave, we were both crying, and I promised to pray for her and think about her every day. Three years later, I still do.

When I got home, I went into a depression from missing it so much. I'm sure people who have gone on Mission Trips know what I mean by this. I would literally cry myself to sleep every night. I vowed that if I ever had kids, my first daughter would be named Isabella.

Now, our trip was the last to go for a while, so I didn't hear about Isabella for a very long time. But this year, my Pastor and friend, Mike, and his family went to live in the DR for 4 months. I secretly hoped, every day, that I would hear something about Isabella, even just a little note saying she was fine. And that's exactly what happened today.

I was facebook chatting with my mom, and she sent me the link to Mike's DR Trip blog, saying that he had met Isabella's mom, and he had seen her again. I quickly read the blog post, and I found out that she's 10 now, and she lives with her mom and brother, and she is healthy. I almost started crying because I was so happy! There was a picture, and she looks so beautiful and grown up! Here it is:

I miss her so much, and I hope to one day go back and see her. And I hope she remembers me!

That's all for now!

Cheerio!
xoxo Sophie

Why Are Decisions SOOOO Hard To Make??!?!

Heyoo!

So if you don't know, I'm currently finishing up my first year of university (one more exam, hurray!). At the moment I am in the Concurrent Education program, which means that I'm taking my BA and my BEd simultaneously, and I don't have to reapply for Teacher's College in my 5th year. Living the dream, right?

Wrong.

Let's rewind a little.

You see, all through my life, I've gone through possible career paths like I go through a chocolate bar (breakneck speed, gotta love chocolate!). When I was younger, I wanted to be a vet because I loved animals, but then when I discovered that vets had to put animals down, I quickly changed my mind. Killing animals, sick or not, was NOT an option for me. I went through several other options after that, and then when I was in high school I decided I wanted to be a coroner. Sounds like a great job, eh? I was just so into crime/cop shows and I always thought the coroner's job seemed like the coolest. And besides...if you messed something up, it's not like you'd kill the person! (Great mindset, I know). But then in Grade 10 Careers class, we had to search jobs, and all the steps it would take to get there, and then I discovered that in order to be a coroner you have to be a surgeon first. Not ideal. Having someone's life on my hands freaked me out. That's probably why I don't look for lifeguarding jobs outside of my camp. So coroner was crossed off the list. Throughout all this, being a teacher was the LAST thing on my mind. Staying in school for the rest of my life? Ew! No thank you.

But then, in Grade 12, I took Co-op class, where we'd go to a workplace and shadow the people. I'm sure you all know what Co-op is. Now, when I was in elementary school, I started learning the violin. I became quite good at it, and I really loved my teacher! So when I learned that I could do Co-op anywhere, my mom thought of my old music teacher. After I discovered I didn't have to do an interview because she already new me, I thought I'd give it a shot. Easy work, people I knew, great!

So every other afternoon, I would walk the 15 minutes to my elementary school, and I would help out in the strings class. Basically my job was to sit with the kids and play alongside them, and if any of them were having difficulty, I would take them outside and work with them. I shortly discovered that I was actually helping the kids improve, and they all respected me and really liked me because I was nice to them, and I never yelled at them like the other teachers did from time to time (they never learned that yelling doesn't make the kids listen, it just makes them hate you).

Then I realized that I really did like Co-op, and it was fun playing along with the kids, and it helped with my own sight-reading as well, so when I was playing my harder pieces in high school I improved a lot. Anyways, for some reason, I decided that I was going to be a teacher, even though for all those years I swore it would never happen. I just thought, well this must be what God wants for me! I'd always been good with kids, I had lots of experience working with them, and now I was loving Co-op, so why not?

That is...until I got into first year university at Brock, the BEST Con-Ed program in Canada, or Ontario at least...don't quote me on that. At first, I started off loving it! I was there with one of my best friends, who I think in some way influenced my decision to be a teacher, I was FINALLY living on my own, in a house with three other amazing girls, and life was good! But then things started getting harder. Now, of course, this is natural, because it's a huge transition and for some reason all the first year professors get together and decide that they're going to make life hell for us. But I finished off Grade 12 with a 93 average, and by the end of first semester at Brock, my average was in the 60s. Not great. I know this happens to everyone, but even my mom was thinking that maybe social sciences wasn't the best thing for me.

Now remember, just because your marks are lower in university does NOT mean you should switch programs! This was not the only factor for me, and honestly, everyone gets low marks in first year! So don't sweat it! :)

Now, there's still a part of me saying "Hey, maybe keep going for a second year! Maybe it's just first year, and once you've adjusted you'll be fine!" But there's also a part of me that doesn't really want to be a teacher, because it scares the crap out of me. Speaking in front of people? Not my forte. Whether it's giving a presentation in class, answering a question in class, or even praying out loud, I get red in the face and my heart starts beating a mile a minute, literally. And speaking in front of people is what a teacher does every day from 9-3. Also, there's an even bigger part of me pushing towards a different career path: Film.

Why film? Well, in Grade 12 Media Studies, one of our assignments was to take a song and edit it into another video that somehow related to the lyrics. I was partnered with my friend, and we decided to take the song Today Was A Fairytale by Taylor Swift (a personal favourite) and mix it with Disney's Cinderella. Together, we watched the entire movie (which was a party in itself :D) and we chose certain scenes that worked well with the lyrics of the song. After we found the scenes, we tried to make it into a powerpoint with video clips, but that did NOT work out, obviously. So when I got home, with help from my tech-savvy dad, I found the clips on YouTube and edited them into iMovie. And I don't want to toot my own horn, but honestly, it was pretty amazing. My dad shows it to all of his guitar students who want to learn that song, LOL! I think we got 100% on the project in the end. That's when I started thinking about pursuing film, but I kept shoving it out of my brain thinking "No, Sophie, you want to be a teacher!"  So I went to school to be a teacher.

Now, in December of 2012, when I was home for the Christmas break, I had been looking on my tumblr and I saw a few posts about Jack and Finn Harries, the YouTubers. I decided to check out Jacksgap, their channel, and let me tell you, I was hooked after the first video. Watching them led to me watching all the other YouTubers that were in their videos, and then I just kept watching more and more YouTubers. I became fascinated with the art of talking to a camera and how it changed so many peoples' lives! I thought it was a really cool thing to do, and honestly, I tried to make a video or two myself. But let's be real..I'm super awkward talking to a camera. I'm sure if I did it more I would grow more comfortable, and I really wanted to, but I had to focus on school, and didn't have time to think up videos, let alone make them. Plus, the only way to film them was on my MacBook, and the quality was terrible.

Anyways, I would watch the videos, and I noticed how I would pay such close attention to how the people edited their videos so well! It was amazing! I have started paying attention to editing in TV shows and movies as well, as I am a junkie (as you can tell from my last post). This made me really realize that film editing is something I'm very interested in, and I would like to pursue a career in it!

So, me being the conflicted, poor decision maker I am, I am currently stuck between wanting to pursue a degree in Film, and not wanting to leave Con-Ed in case I regret it. I'm trying to have the mindset that one of my favourite YouTubers and Bloggers, Zoella, has: to just say "Yes", but it's hard to get into that place where I can say "yes" to anything. I know I have to do it, and I know I eventually will, but I'm having a HUGE internal battle with myself over my future, and there are too many "What if"s.

So here I am. Sorry this was so long, but I really wanted to get it into writing, in hopes that it would help make my decision a bit easier. Let's see what happens once exams are over.

Cheerio!
xoxo Sophie

Too Many Emotions!

Heyoo!

So I don't even know if anyone reads this, but if you do, hi my name is Sophie, and I happen to be at TV addict.

I watch all kinds of shows, ranging from lovely family shows like Parenthood all the way to crazy murder shows like Criminal Minds. As much as I do love Parenthood (starring Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls, she's friggen awesome), I do tend to lean towards the darker shows. I don't know why, but I just love them! A few of my favourites are Pretty Little Liars (let's be real, it's pretty darn dark), CSI:NY, Criminal Minds, Heroes, and my recent favourite, Supernatural.

I recently started watching Supernatural, and by recently I mean about a week ago, because 1) several of my friends raved about how good it was and 2) a whole bunch of the people I follow on tumblr posted about it, and it looked like something I would enjoy. 

Now, as I said, I started watching about a week or week-and-a-half ago, and I've just finished Season 2 of 8. And let me tell you...after only two seasons, heck, after maybe 2 episodes, I developed an emotional attachment to the characters, Sam in particular (if you don't watch Supernatural, Sam's the giant on the left.)

Let me tell you about Sam Winchester. Sam is the younger of the two brothers. His mom died when he was only 6 months old, he lost his girlfriend of two years, and he's seen way more death than a normal person should. Yet he, in no way, is desensitized.  Sam sees so much death, and battles so many demons and spirits, but when the time comes for him to pull the trigger, he can't. Sam sees underneath the demons, and he sees that there is a real person being trapped, and even if it means the demon escaping, he can't bring himself to kill the person. And that just makes me love him so much more.

Sam is also quite sensitive. He has so much love in his heart, and so much pain, that of course he's going to break down and cry. And I respect him so much for it. Not many guys can cry -- I mean...there's that saying - "real men don't cry" or whatever - but honestly...I think that's bull -- but Sam can still step up to be a man and save people from evil, and still have emotions. And let's be real here, whenever I see Sam crying, it makes me want to kiss him three times as much as when he's not. Just saying ;) Let's show Sam crying and we can all just stare at him and love him.

LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL HE IS. This is from Season 2, Episode 17, if anyone wants to die of feels. Don't watch it or else you'll never laugh again just kidding not really. 

Anyways. Season 2 in particular was just a whirlwind of emotions and feels, and I cried a lot more than I care to admit. But I guess I just did...our secret! I, for one, can not wait for Season 3!

That's my rant on Sam Winchester and the wonder that is Supernatural.

Cheerio!

xoxo Sophie

Heyoo!

So this is my first ever blog post...and I've gotta say it's a little scary writing this! I've never been a writer, so don't expect this to be "English Major Quality".

To start off, my name is Sophie, and I'm 18 years old. I have very thick, curly brown hair, and I have only just learned to accept it, since it's not going anywhere! I play violin, and some guitar, and I sing!

this is me playing guitar hurray!

I live in Canada, and I am in my first year of university. I am studying to be a kindergarten teacher, but I still don't know if that is exactly what I want to do! I've recently discovered that I am quite good at helping people who are going through rough patches in their lives, as I am a very good listener, and I don't like to judge people based on their backgrounds! This has led to me questioning my entire career path and making me wonder whether I should be a therapist or something. But as of now I think I will stick with my current degree and hope that one day I will be clear as to what I want to do with the rest of my life. Scary stuff!

Besides having a passion for working with children or those in need of love and listening, I also have a huge passion for working with women coming out of trafficking. If you don't know what trafficking is, it is when people are basically sold, like objects, whether as slaves, or as sex objects. I am hoping to become involved with an organization that helps these women.

Now that you know some things about me, let's talk about this blog thing that I've decided is a good idea to have...who knows why.

As the blog name says, this is just going to be a website of me ranting things, or reviewing things, or whatever the heck is on my mind. I really have no idea yet. Maybe some time in the future it will have some structure but as of now it will be a giant word barf and you will all like it!

So yeah, enjoy my randomness, and I'll talk to you soon!

*le queen wave*
peace out girlscouts!