It's been a big dream of mine for a while now to travel to Kenya. I don't think that this country is the top of most people's bucket lists, but Kenya is beautiful. It has so much wildlife, beautiful landscapes, amazing beaches, and most important of all, ELEPHANTS. I would absolutely love to stay a few nights at Giraffe Manor, spend a day visiting the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and tell them how amazing they are (though to be honest they probably already know), lie on the beach and swim in the Indian Ocean, and go on a sunrise safari or two to see amazing creatures in their natural habitats. If you do a quick Google search you can find so many cool things about Kenya and it's my dream to be able to travel there one day!
Hello and welcome to yet another edition to my Favorite Links! As I was getting the links together for this post I noticed that it was extremely dog heavy... I must be missing my pups lately! Don't worry, there are a few other pieces of internet goodness sprinkled throughout the post, so be sure to check it all out below, and don't forget to share some of your favorite links in the comments! Tonkey Bear on Instagram
Who doesn't love a good dog Instagram account? Casey, my PC co-advisor at BSU, and I are huge fans of Wafflenugget, an adorable Bernese Mountain Dog on Instagram, so when I came across Tonkey I knew I had to share my love with not only Casey, but the world. He is legit a dog-bear and it is freaking ADORABLE. If you need a daily dose of cute on your feed, consider following Tonkey! (And Wafflenugget!)
Though the artist of this series is quite clearly biased toward pugs, these pieces are so great. As you can probably tell my favorite installment is Thor, but there are so many other great reimagined dog heroes. I love it, and more things like this need to be made on a regular basis. Keeping my fingers crossed for a DC version in the future!
I've been a huge fan of subscription boxes lately. Though I haven't indulged in any myself, I bought my mom a gift card to Stitch Fix for Mother's Day and my dad a couple of months worth of Mystery Tackle Box for Father's Day this year, and they both have said that they're really enjoying them so far! I came across Try the World on a Facebook ad (Google ad sense has me totally figured out) and I am so intrigued by it. Each subscription box features different foods from a specific city around the world, which is so awesome because my favorite part of traveling is trying the food of each region I visit! I could totally see myself subscribing to this at some point.
Men React to Their Girlfriends Getting Catcalled
Catcalling is one of the most frustrating things that can happen as a woman*, and it happens so, so often. This is an interesting project of men reacting to their girlfriends getting catcalled. It's too bad that it takes their girlfriend getting harassed on the street to see how much it can really impact a woman's daily life, but at least it's continuing the conversation about the matter.
*Keep in mind that catcalling and street harassment does not happen to women alone. It is an issue that impacts many demographics. As a woman, I am reacting to this video from a woman's perspective.
Design blogs are among my favorite type of blogs to follow. I stumbled across this lovely gal, Teri, while perusing through Pinterest in search of a new desktop background for my work computer, and she has so many adorable freebies! The more I sift through her website, the more I fall in love with it, so I highly recommend checking out her blog and her work!
These words have actually come out of my mouth on more than one occasion.
Ask Brett.
Buzzfeed has a few lists like these, but it they are always SO ACCURATE TO MY LIFE. I wish I had a place big enough and a schedule flexible enough to have a dog in my life at the moment, but it's just not in the cards for me right now. I just have to continue to really take advantage of all of my Kiwi & Mikey visits and become best friends with every dog I meet. #doglessprobz
Celebrating World Elephant Day
If you follow me on any social media platform, you would probably know that this past Wednesday (Aug. 12) was World Elephant Day! I'll spare you my outpouring love for elephants (for now) as I have a few more Elephant Awareness Month posts lined up throughout the rest of August, but I thought I'd share a video the DSWT posted on their Facebook that talks a little bit more about what they do for Elephants. I would also encourage you to check out WorldElephantDay.org and sign the pledge to spread awareness of what is happening to this beautiful species. You can click the link in this post, or click the badge that I under my "Community" section in the sidebar (it looks just like the image above)!
I bought this book in late February to take along for my family vacation, but I never got around to reading it until this summer. It just so happens that I finished up reading this book smack dab in the middle of Elephant Awareness Month, which made reading this memoir all the more special. I learned about this memoir at the same time I first learned about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and I knew I had to read it. I was definitely not disappointed. This story chronicles the life of Dame Daphne Sheldrick, the founder of the DSWT, from her childhood growing up in Kenya, to her marriages and children, and - most importantly - her many relationships she developed with orphaned animals while rehabilitating them and reintegrating them back into the wild. This is a story of great love and (sadly) many great losses in her life.
While there are many funny anecdotes about the animals she and the Trust reared, it is not without deeply disturbing stories of poachers and violence against wild animals and the mistreatment of those held in captivity. Being a lover of animals, especially elephants, there were definitely parts of this book that were very hard for me to read. Unfortunately, the sad stuff is the reality of the situation for wild animals in many countries and it has been for years. As hard as those stories are to read, it does have the ability to spark your inner activist and make you want to do all you can to protect the gentle and empathetic animals that this memoir focuses in on.
If you're an animal lover like me, especially if you're a big fan of elephants, I would highly recommend this book. Learning about Dame Daphne Sheldrick, an outstanding conservationist who has quite literally given her life to helping animals, has been one of my favorite things I've done this summer. She has lead an extraordinary life that is nothing short of inspiring.
For those of you that might not know, August is Elephant Awareness Month! (Don't feel too bad if you didn't know. My elephant-loving self only just found this out this year. There seems to be an awareness month for everything, so it's hard to keep up!) We all know by now that I LOVE elephants, so I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to talk about a few of my favorite organizations whose aim it is to help save elephants from poaching, abuse, and captivity. I highly encourage you to check these organizations out - all of them are fairly active on social media and all do very cool things!
I found out about this organization earlier in the year and instantly fell in love. This wonderful organization takes in orphaned animals - primarily elephants and rhinos - and raises them to the point where the animal can live in the wild once again. Coincidentally, I am right in the middle of reading Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story - perfect timing for this month! - and am learning all about the story of how this organization came to be (look out for the book review next week). They also offer a program where you can donate to foster an elephant, which I think is the coolest thing EVER. I definitely plan to participate in the foster program sometime in the near future, and would LOVE to visit the trust in Nairobi one day. They're doing such wonderful things! Elephant Parade
Elephant Parade is a really cool art project that raises awareness of elephant endangerment and donates 20% of their proceeds to various organizations that work to prevent the poaching of elephants and improve the welfare of the species. The organization has artists from around the world paint large elephant statues in their own unique way and displays them in cities around the globe to raise awareness. You can even buy smaller statues on their online store - each one unique so you just have to collect them all!
This style is so in right now, so why not buy a pair that supports a wonderful cause? The Elephant Pants donates $1-$2 dollars per item to various elephant conservation organizations, and during the month of August, a few select items will donate $5! I love how each print tells a story about a famous elephant in history. I could click through each item just to rad the story that goes along with it. It really reminds you why these causes are so important. They sell pants (my favorite designs are above!), shorts, bags, tapestries, and even a cute little charm bracelet. I can't wait to get my hands on my next paycheck so I can buy a handful of these beauties! :)
Do you have any favorite wildlife conservation organizations?
Let me know in the comments because I would love to check each and every one of them out!
Happy Tuesday everyone! Several snow days and impromptu days off the past couple of weeks have allowed me to roam around the interwebs and accumulate quite the list of links to share with you all today. From the Patriots to puppies to adopting elephants (you read that right), I'm really excited to show you all my favorite things on the net as of late! Patriots Win Super Bowl XLIX!
THEY FREAKING PULLED IT OFF! The Patriots won their fourth Super Bowl Sunday night and what a game it was! I don't think I ever went through so many emotions while watching a football game in my entire life. I was happy, I was sad, I was angry, I wanted to hide and turn off the game all together. Seriously, you should have seen the room I was in on that final Seattle drive. We were all SO depressed! I did not think we were going to be able to pull off a win. I thought for sure that we had lost a third Super Bowl in a row. Then BOOM, our undrafted rookie makes the play of the freaking century. WOW. What an ending. We are the champions once again!
It seemed like this year's Super Bowl commercials erred on the depressing side (check out my thoughts on that here... #COMmajorprobz), but Budweiser stole my heart once again by continuing their #BestBuds legacy and claiming my #1 pick for Best Commercial of Super Bowl XLIX. Their 2014 commercial was also my favorite of last year's Super Bowl, so if you missed and are a puppy lover like myself, I definitely recommend checking it out here!
I'm definitely a snacker. I prefer eating many smaller meals throughout the day instead of sticking to the big three (though I'm a huge fan of breakfast), and I'm always at a loss for what to grab when my tummy is rumbling. I know I should snag an apple or banana, but when I'm hungry, having just a piece of fruit or a salad does not fill me up and leaves me a little frustrated. This list gives you extremely healthy options for snacks which also keep you satisfied for a few hours! (I especially love mashed avocado on wheat toast! YUM)
How to Be Productive Every Day
This is a cute little post from one of my favorite blogs, Lemon Freckles, that gives you a few handy tips on how to stay productive. Even though this post is aimed at students or those who are self-employed and tend to work without someone peering over their shoulder, I think these tips can really apply to anyone. Being productive can seem elusive on some days, and we all know what happens when we're not productive - we get stressed. Try out a couple of these tips to help stay on top of your mountains of to-dos!
#CowArt
A friend of mine posted this on her wall and I couldn't stop watching/laughing. A couple of farmers in the Mid-West decided to get a bit creative when feeding their cows and tried to see if they could get the herd to create some aerial designs! Click play to see what they create - so funny! :)
30 Day Push-Up Calendar
I just completed this 30 Day Push-Up Challenge that I found on Pinterest! My upper body strength is pretty low, so I knew that I wanted to challenge myself to do more with it. I decided to kick off the year with this challenge and I actually got all the way through! The thing I liked most about doing a challenge is that I had an opportunity to exercise each day, even if my day was busy. I also really enjoyed that with this challenge, you're given rest days every 2 days so your muscles can grow and adjust. I really felt a difference in my upper body strength and will very likely be doing this challenge over again!
In searching for a February fitness challenge to attempt, I stumbled across DoYouYoga.com. (True Life: I just typed "DoYouToga" and almost didn't catch it...) This website is an awesome community of individuals learning and practicing yoga and features blog posts, a message board, and even video courses! I'm currently participating in a 30 Day Yoga Challenge video course which has been awesome so far! (I will be posting a full review when I am done!) If you're interested in trying out yoga for the first time or learning more about this form of exercise, I highly recommend joining! (You should also add me as a friend here!)
WHY AM I JUST FINDING OUT ABOUT THIS FOUNDATION?! I heard about this organization through a monthly favorites video on YouTube. It is a wonderful organization committed to the rescue and preservation of Wildlife in Africa, especially orphaned elephants and rhinos. The best part? You can donate and foster an elephant or rhino! The program works by receiving donations from foster "parents" or families, and you can then receive updates and photos on how your fostered animal is progressing! SO AMAZING! I know for a fact that when I am more financially stable I am 1,000,000% going to participate. Take a look at their website and read up on the organization. It is wonderful! (P.S. Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story by Daphne Sheldrick has shot right to the top of my to-read list upon discovery of this organization! #newrolemodel)
