Sponsors for April

Swing The Day Away is accepting sponsors for April! Currently, Swing The Day Away receives an average of 3,460 pageviews a month. That's almost a thousand more than last month, and it's only going up! I'm still a bit new to the sponsor scene, but I have been thinking about doing some features on my sponsors to support them and their blogs. So if you're interested in sponsoring Swing The Day Away, you can head on over to the Sponsor page and choose between a large spot or a smaller swap spot!  If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at swingthedayaway@yahoo.com!

Happy Spring!! :)

Quick Pics

A lot of these pictures are leftovers from Florida. Just random shots from throughout my vacation. We were there for seven full days, but the whole trip took nine days with the additional travel days. I love getting away from home, but I definitely miss everyone when I'm away. It's hard to be so far away from people, even if where you're going is a lot of fun! I love visiting Florida and I always look forward to getting to go. It's crazy how many times I've been there over the past couple of years, but it's also pretty awesome. I was very lucky to have gone so many times already, not just recently but throughout my entire life. Anyway...here are some bonus feature Florida pictures!

[Hibachi dinner]

[What Insanity looks like]

That last picture is me after starting Insanity up again. I think the farthest I got was about 26 days before I kinda just did it here and there. And I did stick to it the entire time I was in Florida, too. Then I came home and caught a cold and I didn't want to work my body hard when it was already weakened. I need to get back into it again. I'm hoping I'll find the will to do it next week after the holiday.

[Free chocolate!]

Because I'm a tea fiend, I had to use this creamer to drink my tea out of. Not because there were no mugs or anything...but because the mugs were smaller than this and it just wasn't enough. And yes, I did drink it out of the spout sometimes.

[Bok Tower]

[Orange trees on the side of the road!]

[I felt like Jasmine]

I'm not really into the whole tanning thing (as if you couldn't tell by what I call my amazing "moon tan"), so I don't really enjoy laying out on the beach or by the pool all the time. Once in a while, though, I do like to just hang out by the pool and bask in the feeling of the sun warming my skin. I love how it feels to be warmed by the sun. It's so relaxing and it's nice to just read a book outdoors in the warmth. It's things like that that are my favorite things in life. Simple things that a lot of us just take for granted. 

My grandparents also have a timeshare at the same place that my parents do, and they have the three weeks after us. So they came down on the Saturday before we left. Since our flight was on Monday morning and we had to be out of our condo on Sunday, we stayed with my grandparents Sunday night. My mom and I shared the second bedroom and right before I was about to lay down and get settled in bed, I noticed something on the floor. It was that gecko. And I just stared at it and whispered to my mom, "There's a lizard in here". It ended with me, my mom, and my grandmother trying to catch it with a plastic cup. The little guy ended up getting away through some crack under the bathroom sink, though. I was definitely nervous going to sleep that night. I was afraid he might come back and crawl on me or something!

I know I shared the Minnie ring that I got, but I never shared the other souvenirs I picked up! Since I collect novelty mugs, I'm always on the lookout for some new ones. Even though I go to Florida a lot, I actually didn't have a Florida mug, so I finally got one! I'm a fan of tacky touristy places. I'll admit it! 

The other souvenir I got is something called a Hurdy Gurdy. I got it at the gift shop at Bok Tower Gardens. They had different songs, but the one I got plays "You Are My Sunshine". You just turn the little crank on it and it plays the music. It's kind of like a music box, but different. It'll play if you just hold it and crank it, but if you put it on a table and turn it, it plays so much louder. I guess they're supposed to be played on some sort of tuning table, but you can play it on any table. I thought it was so neat!

[Going to Hogwarts...the back way]

Other than going to Florida, this month I've been going out with friends a lot. Two of my oldest friends (one of them being my cousin) and I were just driving around listening to old, lame music and singing at the top of our lungs the other day, and it was so great. Again...it was something so small and simple, but I just felt like it was what I was supposed to be doing. And I thought to myself that there is nothing better in the world than spending time with people you love and who make you happy. There's nothing that can replace that joy. It's probably the best thing in the world. We spent the day thrift shopping at various Goodwills. I got that awesome tea mug I had mentioned in my previous post, which I was excited about because you rarely find a mug that is dedicated to tea. They're usually always about coffee. I also tried Shake Shack for the first time, and it was delicious. Sometimes it's just the little things in life...

Neutral Gingham

If I'm a little absent this week, it's because I'm going through a pretty rough time right now. I'm not sure how to go about this, but I might make a separate post about it. I want this blog to be honest and I don't intend to hide things or pretend that things are completely ok when they're not, but I also want this to be a place of positivity. I don't want to just dump my problems here.

Dress: H&M//Sweater: Delia's//Tights: Simply Vera by Vera Wang//Shoes: Jessica Simpson//Belt: Forever 21

In other news, it's been steadily getting warmer finally. The temperatures are supposed to be in the 50s next weekend. Perfect for Easter! Also, I did some thrifting today, which is something I don't do as much anymore but that I really should. I found a neat tea mug, a nice scarf and a flannel. Finally...I found another flannel, even though it's not really flannel season. Oh well...it's better late than never.

I can't believe March is almost over and April will be starting. Time is flying by so fast and sometimes it's hard to keep up. I've always been one to plan ahead and find fun things to do so that I always have something to look forward to. I love to be out doing things and enjoying all that the world has to give, but that does get hard when tough times get in the way. But I'm only human, I suppose. Sometimes you just can't do anything but mope.

Happy Spring!

Yesterday was the official first day of spring! Finally! Unfortunately, it hasn't really been feeling much like spring around here. It just snowed on Monday night, rained Tuesday, and now it's flurrying! This weather better get with the program, here. I'm waiting for 50 and 60 degree weather to come! I can't wait for all the flowers to start blooming and color to be restored to the world. I also love spring colors and how they're so much brighter and cheerful than winter palettes. I can't wait to go coatless again!

Dress: Forever 21//Belt: Forever 21//Tights: Urban Outfitters//Shoes: Payless

I thought this outfit would be fitting for the change of the season since it includes three spring colors. I may end up wearing this outfit or something similar to it for Easter if I don't come up with anything else before then. There are a ton of dresses that I'd love to wear for Easter on Modcloth, but I literally can never pick which one to get! I wish I could just buy my entire wishlist, but it would probably cost a few thousand in total. Yes, I am serious.

Anyway...spring! I can't believe Easter is in 10 days. I have some ideas for what I'm going to bake, but nothing is definite yet. I'm thinking about some festively-colored cookies. Hopefully it warms up a bit by then, too. This winter is feeling like the longest we've had in a while. During the past few years, it was definitely warmer around this time of year.

I feel like I talk about weather and seasons a lot, but they really do have such an impact and influence on me. My mood can be influenced by the weather and I associate a lot of memories and feelings with different seasons and types of weather. Even the smell of a certain time of year can bring back memories for me. I guess I'm just season-sensitive! haha. I'm also just very sensitive to the cold in general. I'm almost always cold and dreaming of when I can finally leave the house bare-legged and without a coat.

Celebration Farmer's Market

Near Kissimmee, where my parents and I stay when we go to Florida, is a little town called Celebration. It has the cutest little town center with a strip of shops and restaurants. There's a little lake with benches and rocking chairs placed around it. It's really on the border of being too cute, but I absolutely love it. And on Sundays, they have a farmer's market full of lots of fresh local foods and products.

I really enjoyed walking around the booths and trying all the free samples that the vendors were offering. One woman had a cookie booth where she was giving out free samples of gingerbread cookies. It was so delicious. I had to stop myself from buying cookies, as tempting as they were. She had gingerbread cookies decorated for Easter and springtime. I really love the teapot-shaped ones since I love tea so much!

Other booths were selling salsas and dips, breads and bagels, jewelry, art, and of course, fresh produce. The prices seemed a lot cheaper than the grocery store, too! I would definitely do some of my grocery shopping here if I lived in the area.

Dress: Forever 21//Shoes: Payless//Sunglasses: Nine West

This was our last day in Florida. My grandparents came down on Saturday, so they joined us on Sunday for the market. They stay down there for three weeks! We also went out to Olive Garden for dinner where I inhaled about 12 breadsticks throughout the course of the meal. They are seriously addicting. Part of the reason I chose this simple dress is because I knew we were eating at Olive Garden and it's more loose-fitting than some of my other dresses. It helps to wear something unrestrictive when you know you'e going to be eating a lot...haha. I also love throwing this dress on with my yellow wedges. I love mixing primary colors together!

My parents and I had an early flight home on Monday morning. I am not a morning person, so it was tough to get up at 5:45 a.m., especially when I couldn't get to sleep until around 2 in the morning. The only good thing about being up that early is that I got to see the sunrise from the airport!

We got back home at around 1 in the afternoon and while I absolutely love Florida, I still missed being in my own house and room. The house always looks weird and new to me after being away from it for a bit. While I was on the plane, I took some pictures of the clouds and view. I love taking pictures from inside the plane because how often do we really ever get to see the world from that high up? It still amazes me that one minute you're in one state and then a couple of hours later, you're in a completely different one. Anywho...I leave you with some shots from the plane! This is my last of the Florida posts!

Fifth Time's A Charm

Before I start this post, I'd like to let you know that Katherine over at Of Corgis & Cocktails is featuring me as her March Style Icon today! Be sure to head on over to her blog and read the post! :) She's such a sweet and awesome girl and I'm so glad we've become friends. She is the designer behind my lovely layout, and she did such an awesome job with it! :D

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

One of my life goals has been to go up in a hot air balloon. I didn't care if it was tethered or not, I just wanted to be in one. I think they're really neat and pretty. While I would love to go in one that isn't tethered, I was finally able to go in Disney's Characters In Flight balloon! I'm not sure if it actually gets lit with fire before it goes up, but it is filled with helium. It took me four trips to Florida and five visits to Downtown Disney to achieve this goal, but it finally happened! :D I had to go alone, though because my mom is terrified of heights and I guess my dad wasn't too thrilled about it either...haha.

The view was gorgeous. The balloon reaches to 450 feet in the air! It overlooks all of Downtown Disney, plus a lot of the Disney resort areas. You can even see the Epcot ball in the distance! I went up right at the beginning of dusk, so the sky was really pretty. That was my ideal time to ride it, and we had arrived just in time! :)

Afterwards, I celebrated the achievement of a life goal with a giant peanut butter Mickey cookie from The Candy Cauldron. It's definitely one of my favorite stores at Downtown Disney since it's full of yummy Disney-themed treats.

My parents and I walked around a bit and did a little more shopping. It was Friday night, so Downtown Disney was packed with people. They were having a St. Patrick's Day celebration that weekend (and this weekend), so there was an Irish band playing outdoors and they had special food carts with Irish foods and drinks.

[I'm not a huge Alice fan, but I thought this painting was really awesome!]

Downtown Disney is really pretty at night. They have twinkling lights in the trees, the carousel, and just all the signs and stores in general are all lit. It's a really fun environment for both night and day to just walk around and window shop!