Shabby Apple

Hello! I hope all of you had a lovely and joy-filled Thanksgiving. I plan to post some recipes of the culinary delights I made to celebrate the feast, so stay tuned!! But for now, it’s time for…

Fashion Fridays!

Since shopping is the perfect topic for Black Friday, today I’m going to be discussing an online retailer that I recently stumbled across—Shabby Apple. There is a lot to love about this store, both from a couture standpoint and an ethical standpoint. They donate 5% of sales to help women obtain micro-credit loans. You can read more about that here. SA is also committed to Fair Trade.

Shabby Apple sells a lot of super cute dresses, fitness gear, accessories, shoes, jewelry and more! You can shop for women, preteens, girls, plus sizes…even maternity!

Check out the 1943 collection. Seriously, I think I want just about all of those dresses! The Manhattan collection is pretty darling, too. And the photography! Gorgeous!!!

Here is just a sampling of the dresses SA has to offer. (Click on the image to go to its web page where you can see more views, enlarge it and—if you choose—buy!)
      

What I love about these clothes is that they are 1) pretty darn adorable, 2) they seem like a good company and 3) the clothes are modest. Yay!!! Triple whammy! The only bad thing is that they are only online (as far as I know) and the are kind of expensive if you don’t catch things on sale. Still, I think the positives out way that, don’t you?

The best part is right now everything at Shabby Apple is 15% off! Click here to learn how you can save even more (scroll down to “Double your effect”). In case you are wondering, I am in no way connected to the brand and I don’t get any kind of premium for referring you or anything like that…unfortunately. Haha. Just thought I’d clarify that in case anyone thought I was starting to sound like an advertisement. : )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more fun from Shabby Apple check out:

• Five Fall Fashion Trends
• An Apple A Day blog
• Dear Shabby style advice
• Lookbook and Vignettes
• Fit to Flatter: dress for your shape

Happy shopping, ladies!

Christ is King…of everything.

All I can say is: thank. God. for. autosave. I was typing the paper I mentioned yesterday and suddenly my computer decides to freeze up and crash. But fear not! Autosave came to rescue and recovered my Word document. Yay! Computers can be good friends sometimes.

Random complaint alert: Lately I’ve been feeling really nauseous and I’m not sure why. My tummy is just so moody and weird. I still want to eat but nothing sounds good. Anybody have any ideas why this could be? It’s been going on for probably at least a month now. But enough about my stomach! Moving on… : )

About the title of this post: yesterday I went to confession and, as usual, the priest gave a little talk/reflection before absolution. You know what I mean? Well, since today was going to be the Feast of Christ the King  (yay!!) he talked about that, about making Christ king of our lives. Let’s be honest here:  Is Christ really the king--the everything and the all--of our lives? Sadly, my answer is no. He isn’t. I wish he were, I want him to be, but as of now he isn’t my all-in-all like he should be. Is this his fault? Noooo…his arms are ever open wide (see?).  Must be me then. Yeah, I was afraid of that. What Father talked about in confession was making Him* the king of everything—both our public lives and our private lives. I know there is some scripture passage about that (probably more than one) but I can’t think of it. Anyway, this advice kind of hit home for me. Basically what this means is that everything we do should reflect our love for God and our desire to please him. In other words, we should do everything we can to make him happy and everything we can to not make him sad. Sounds really simple, doesn’t it? We would do as much for any mere mortal that we loved. Unfortunately, it’s not easy; it’s really hard. And I struggle just as much as the next person with it. Father’s words, however brief, really gave me something to think about, though. Now, it’s all about finding the courage  and conviction to live that advice everyday—plus the tricky issue of figuring out what's right and what's not.

Another thing that the priest mentioned was praying for those who don’t see Christ as their king. Thinking about this made me kind of sad. Wow, there really are so many souls who either have no idea about or else blatantly reject Jesus. But I hear prayer is a powerful thing, so let’s get praying!

I know this post isn’t the most riveting ever and that I kind of have a tendency to ramble, but give these things a thought. It’s a great time to do it with the new Church year starting next week.



*Should “him” be capitalized when referring to God? I always thought yes but I’ve heard some say no. I’m putting it in caps here to show that I’m not talking about Father, though. Let me know if you know anything about this issue. Is it just personal preference or is there some rule behind it?

Frustration!

As the title of this post hints, I am veryveryvery frustrated at a certain program called Microsoft Access. Argh! Last night was my computer class and— in brief— the aforementioned program is not working for me. As if finding out that I have to redo a significant portion of my assignments wasn’t enough, I get home and realize that the ol’ program won’t even let me do my homework! If anyone has any kind of Access expertise, let me know!!!!

This whole scenario brings me back to something I’ve been reading about in the book of Hebrews. You see, every night I try to read a little excerpt from the Bible. I started about a year ago with the Pauline letters (because of the Year of St. Paul) and I’m still reading them now in the Year of the Priesthood. This just evidences the fact that I read very little every night! Most of the time the verses just go right over my head, but every so often something will grab my attention. Such was the case a few nights ago when I read this:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges." Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards. (Heb. 12:1-8)

Pretty awesome, right? That last verse really kind of grabbed my attention: “without discipline…you are not sons but bastards.” Wowza! So pretty much suffering is good! It is what makes us legitimate children of God and heirs to heaven. Plus, I love how St. Paul tells us to toughen up, for we ain’t done nothing yet: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.” Suffering is real and present in all of our lives, whether it be the computer program that won’t cooperate or something more serious. St. Paul (Hebrews is by him, isn’t it?) continues:

Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not (then) submit all the more to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. (Heb. 9-13)

I’m not going babble on any longer with my unqualified commentary. Besides, I think these verses  really speak for themselves, and I encourage you to read them; don’t just skim it—try to actually read it, word-for-word. I think it just might help you. I know it helped me. Sure, my computer is still giving me grief, life isn’t always pretty…but it’s more than all that. God has a greater purpose for us—for you and for me. That purpose is heaven. And no matter how bad this world gets we’ve always got his love and his promise to look forward to. So, “Cheer up, chaps!”



P.S. In case you don’t already know about it, the USCCB (United States Council of Catholic Bishops) has a great resource on their website for searching the Bible, getting the daily Mass readings, or retrieving passages. That’s what I used to locate these verses here so I didn’t have to retype them. You can also search by word or phrase. Sooo helpful! Oh, and you can do the same with the CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church).