State Badminton.

Ahhh I know I promised you a real post, but it's a work in progress. It's a major style post with everything I'm currently loving for fall. But this is how I spent my day:

Front (from left): Sharyssa & Surina

Back (from left): Bri, Victoria, Jessica, Me, Shultzy, Vivian, & Tiffany

Today we went to Day 1 of State. This isn't the team I started with at the beginning, but I've grown quite fond of each one of them. I was so privileged to not only share in their excitements and wins of today, but also of these past few months. Today was singles and doubles and we were to be at school at 6:45 am to drive an hour and a half from Hamilton. Not fun, especially on a school bus. Bri and Sharyssa were singles players today. Shultzy and Viv were one doubles team & Surina and Tiffany were the other. Bri was seeded, so she received a bye in the first round and made it to the semi-finals which will take place next weekend when she will play the #1 Singles player in the State. Sharyssa, who has played on Varsity for a week (after the loss of Paula), lost in round two. Shultzy (Bri S) and Vivian made it to the third round and lost to the #5 doubles team in the state. Surina and Tiff made it the fourth round and lost to the very same school that Shultz and Vivian lost to. Overall, I enjoyed every second spent with them, even the moments where I could barely watch and wished I could play on the court for them when they were tired. I'm very proud of how far they've come. 

Here's another quick update, while I continue working on the longer fashion one. Stay tuned. Have a fab Friday night!

The Downside to Coaching.

“Do everything with so much love in your heart that you would never want to do it any other way.”

This will be quick. I never posted my tuesday ten or anything yesterday because of that girl smothering me right there. Paula is my number two varsity player and one of the brightest rays of sunshine on the team. She has slowly become like a little sister to me. She has dealt with more than her fair share of crap at home, but still is one of my best players and amazing student. I found out she was in the hospital because of her mom and it broke my heart. I was finally seeing the downside to coaching because of how involved I was and how much I cared. She was off the team a week before state and state was everything she worked for, all season. At the game yesterday, without her there, the team was in a completely different state of mind including myself and Coach. We went 1-8 and got killed by Highland. It was our last season match and it was a difficult lose to swallow. I could barely give my "famous" speeches that overuse the word, "seriously." I got to talk to her on the phone twice and could barely hold back tears. Some of the girls and I went to see her last night and I'm glad I did, despite how heartbreaking it was seeing her under 24 hour supervision. All of this happened before I made the announcement to the girls that I would be returning next year as an assistant coach and the following year as a head coach. 

I found that quote above and found it to apply wholeheartedly to everything in my life. I'm not one to do something halfway without love, passion, or drive. It's the way I coach. I feel like I care too much sometimes especially after seeing how I could barely function yesterday with all the worrying. Blah, I don't know. I just wanted to apologize for leaving you hanging. Thank you for all the new comments and followers, guys. It's very exciting for me. :)

Happy Birthday Schnookie, time sure flies.

Hello 60th post. How totally crazy is that? Okay, so not THAT crazy, but time sure flies. My life seems to be totally flying by like tomorrow it's October. Seriously, WOW. I'm mostly excited though. I'm not really too happy to see the girl's badminton season coming to a close. We have three more games and that's it before state. I'm a little bit of a nervous wreck. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I'm not at practices/games 5 days a week. On Tuesday, we had one of our last practices and surely one of our best. We played three on four and had a total blast laughing and having fun together. That camaraderie was something I waited the whole season for and it was well worth it, but it did make me realize how soon this season would be ending. These girls have become an outlet to me. I have people to vent to, to laugh with, and to share my stories with. Being a part of their team, being their coach has given me so much joy and passion for something. Something I haven't felt in a long time and I only have them to thank for that.

(insert picture here) :)

This week is going to be another fun one I'm sure! It started with finally getting approval on my cousin and her fiance's house. My first deal, finaallllyyy!! Seriously, it's been so long. I'm also going to be baking RV's and Banana's cupcakes for a party on Saturday and for my brother who turns 6 today, I will be baking him a Blue Velvet Big Top Cupcake!! Yes, it's very exciting.

Have a good Thursday kids. It's almost the weekend!! I have a very special Friday planned for Trey and I because I'm using October to celebrate us because we met on October 17 two years ago. :) So cute. Any fun plans for you? Share 'em. Remember to follow! I'm now at 12 followers which is double what I had last month which is awesome. Thank you new readers and old readers!!

UPDATE:

When one joins Good List Daily, the owner and creator of the site, Crystal, draws and uploads for you your own personal picture for your lists and oh my goodness have I been impatiently waiting. Much to my surprise I just checked mine and IT WAS UP and boy did she hit the nail on the head with the picture. (We never talked about my interests or anything, I'm sure she read my blog though)! BUT HERE IT IS!!!

  I'm more than satisfied and now even more excited to post more good list daily's. Check my page out too!

TV Time

Fall TV is back. Glee started again tonight, so I will be glued to that every Tuesday night from 7pm to 8pm. It's an addiction that must be fed, just like that off my connection with my Blackberry. Long story short, the battery is kaput and the phone is dunzo until my new one arrives on Monday. Oh well.

Crackberry and me.

My dad's will suffice for now. This week has been just a lot of winding down. I push myself a little too much and I need to slow down and enjoy everything. The girl's season is surprisingly almost coming to a  close and I'm pretty much going to be doing nothing with my life. Awesome. Okay not really because I always find some way to occupy my time. I'm looking into new crafty methods fun, so if you readers have any, let me know. I'm always up for new ways to waste spend my money, of course. 

I'm working out way more than ever before (except when I was playing badminton), so I look my very best in my bridesmaid's dress in December and just so I can totally feel better. It's been so much fun. Running has been such a high and I love it. I can clear my head and just blast music. I'm also getting REALLY excited for this weekend, for the smell of cupcakes baking, and frosting everywhere. YES. It's 500 Cupcake Weekend. I'm nervous, but so excited. This is HUGE for Home Sweet Home Cupcakes and I'm blessed to have people like Trey and my cousin and aunt who are so willing to be here for me even when I might be a little crazy making the deadline. 

Have a super wonderful Wednesday. I'll be back tomorrow with my Wednesday Wants (relating to the picture below)! I'll leave you with this Gossip Girl love.

"They say it’s easy to forget your troubles when the weather’s warm. But all it takes is one fall breeze to blow reality right back in your face."

Communication Love.

Happy 50 posts! This is so exciting. :) No, I'm not doing anything quite special. This will be a quick invitation to invite you into my world off my blog. I hope I'm not opening up a can of worms for all the people who hate me, who happen to read this to start up on the bad mouthing again, but I can't stop anyone. I typically abide by "if you have nothing nice to say to someone, don't say anything at all," but I'm not most people. I've created a new formspring off this blog. I'm also inviting anyone to become email pen pals with me. It will be a welcome change from the advertisement emails I get because getting any kind of mail excites me. :) And I've absolutely loved talking to Malori even if it was just a few informational emails. I also have tumblr which is fun too. There is also one other venue of communication I'm inviting you to, twitter. I'm quite real on twitter, what you see is what you get. It's fun though. Please feel free to ask me questions, email me, and follow me on twitter/tumblr!
-Formspring: http://www.formspring.me/blackandbows-Email: danielle@realtyrevelation.com-Twitter: https://twitter.com/daniellefaz-Tumblr: http://littlecuppycake.tumblr.com/
Have a happy Tuesday. I know I will because we're on game 2/3 for this week today for the girls! Okay, just a quick update! We currently have a record of 2-3. We've had some really rough teams and our confidence/attitudes have really suffered. I've truly become a motivational speaker of sorts. Yesterday we won which was great and I hope to have two more wins at the end of the week to move us up in the rankings. And of course if only to boost the girls confidence in their abilites! :)

(My Varsity team)

Blogworthy Discoveries.

Frequently, I find new things to obsess over. Sometimes healthy, usually unhealthy. Oh well. Today's two new obsessions are totally healthy and totally blog-worthy. I spent a good chunk of this morning trying to think of ways to boost morale for the girls for their first game today! A frequent issue I have with them especially my varsity girls is how quickly they put themselves down when they're losing or not performing as well as they would like. It's really REALLY hard to bring them back up after they've knocked themselves and their abilities down. Today could go one of two ways: really well or really bad. I'm pushing for really well, but I can't guarantee that, so I wanted to prep them in a fun way. Back when I was a Mini-Town counselor, our discussion group relied on these amazing phrases called affirmations. Ours were two pages of sentences we said out loud always starting and ending with: "everyday in every way, I am getting better and better." It was a real spirit lifter then and I thought what a great way to get the girls in a positive game mode. I found these adorable little notes here and printed out 6 copies and wrote a personalized affirmation for each of the girls, folded it up, stuck a cupcake sticker on it, and put it away. I'm going to give each one of them out on the bus on the way to the game and have them read it, hoping that it sticks with them through the game even when things aren't going their way.

My second obsession is really heart wrenching and intense, but something that shouldn't be ignored. It's dolphin hunting. Yes, I said dolphins, those super smart, adorable, playful mammals are being hunted in remote areas of world specifically in the South Pacific. After watching the documentary, The Cove, I became more aware of this atrocity occurring in this village called Taiji in Japan. Between September and March, a group of about 26 men are rounding up dolphins by throwing off their ecolocation and then bringing them to "the cove" where they stay over night. At sunrise, they are being slaughtered by having their throats slit leaving a sea of blood after being dragged through the waters. Seeing the gutrenching pictures of something I never knew existed I was horrified. I want to do something, I want to help these creatures being killed for their meat that isn't even safe for humans to eat anyway. It's horrifying. I'm planning to hopefully sell cupcakes with dolphin shaped foundant where 50% of sales will be donated to Save Japan Dolphins. I know most of you were never even aware of this, but it's good to become educated. There are many resources online because education about these things is always a good place to start.

I hate to end my post on such a somber note, so I won't. Because of awareness and the movie, The Cove, and now Animal Planet's TV show, Blood Dolphins, there has been at least one village that has stopped the atrocities of dolphin hunting which is such an awesome thing. Even the smallest efforts help in most cases.

I hope you have a good Monday everyone...wow such an awkward ending anyway.
I'll have some happier stuff tomorrow, I PROMISE.

New opportunities and open doors.

I'll make this post short and sweet. People are knocking on doors of opportunity and I'm answering. Not many of you know, but I played badminton for three years in high school: two years on varsity and I loved it. I quit senior year because I needed to work. I haven't played since. I went to their first day of tryouts yesterday to see my coach and she asked me to be her assistant coach. I was doing cartwheels inside. Wonderful. It's after work and just perfect. Badminton gave me so many great memories. I love these girls.

(I was so cute with my pigtails, OKAY? :] ) 

I was actually nervous today to go back and start mingling with the returning players and start really watching the new ones. The varsity girls are such fun people who take the game serious, but not TOO serious. They like to laugh and so do I. I'm sure we'll get along awesome. I'm so excited to be able to work with them and hopefully help them grow as people along the way. :)

I also got a message from a facebook/blog/twitter/mutual friend who is the VP of her senior class at a high school not far from me who would like me to do their cupcakes for their Homecoming. I was little bit shocked and seriously thought I was dreaming. It will be a HUGE undertaking, but I'm definitely considering it. AH. Wonderful. 

Life's little surprises...:) 

Day 08 → Something/someone you couldn't live without because you tried and someone/something you could definitely live without.

Couldn't live without : Trey. One hundred percent. We're like attached and we've had our moments where we questioned us being together, but he rocks my world. 

Could live without : McDonald's... enough said ;)

Night kids.