Natalie - Natalie Wise Blog

Add Some Blue Skies to Your Day

A bright Spring coat, such as my bright pink wool version from J.Crew, is a must-have for this time of year. You’re sick of your heavy down winter coat, right? Me too. Investing in a transition coat (or a few, I also have a seafoam green coat and a red trench!) bring color and light to your wardrobe while still keeping you warm on the days Spring decides to be not-so-nice.

Oh Spring! How tempestuous a season you are! Snow, rain, “wintry mix”, this abominable thing called “freezing mist” and then…bright, glorious blue skies! How my heart soars! I’m absolutely LOVING my sky-blue nail polish from Sinful Colors (Bright Lucite-dont’ya love that name?!). Glossy, gorgeous blue sky nails are a sure-fire way to bring some brightness to your wardrobe (and your life!).

What are some ways YOU add color to your life this time of year? Do you have a bright rain coat, umbrella, wellies, or a favorite shade of nail polish? Let me know in the comments!

Monday Things

I just want to tell you:

You are beautiful.

And loved.

And worthy.

And I’d totally give you a hug if I could, because I think you’re awesome.

And I just wanted you to know that.

I mean, all this outfit stuff?

It’s fun. It’s an expression. It starts a conversation.

I know the whole schpiel (spelling?) of why I do what I do.

But does it really matter when it comes to the nitty-gritty?

Nope.

It’s the heart that matters.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again:
I AM NOT PERFECT.

I am so, so, so far from perfect.

Just ask my friends. Just ask my family. Just ask anyone who has spent five minutes with me ever. If you’ve ever watched one of my vlogs, I’m sure you figured it out 😉

I am flawed and sometimes I find myself frustrated that I have to be stuck with this whole humanity-thing so often when I’d like to just GET the being-like-Jesus-thing.

But I am daily, minute-ly (totally not a word) being perfected by Jesus.

He is working on me, and it’s a beautiful thing.

You see I just can’t get the words out, friends!
I can’t tell you how much you are loved by God.

I’m a writer. Words? My thing. But I can’t re-write your story. But God can. He wants to step in to your story and change the ending. I can’t tell you how much He desires to walk with you.

Not only does He want you, He is JEALOUS for you.

He doesn’t want the world to have you!

The world with its ugly, mean, and dirty. With its hateful and hurtful and guilt and shame.

God says no.

God says love and beauty and trust and freedom and openness and joy.

Can one have an “altar call” on a blog? A “come to Jesus” post? I don’t know.

I just know that He loves you, He desperately wants you.

And if you want to accept that into your life, here’s what you can say:

“Lord, I’m done with this world’s definition of me. It stinks! I want to get my heart right. I recognize that I am sinful, that my sin hurts you and separates me from you. I ask for forgiveness from those sins through your death on the cross. I believe that you rose again and you are coming again to give us eternal life. I desire to live my life according to Your desires. I invite you into my life and into my heart, to teach me Your ways.”

Those words? Sometimes we need to say them daily. And that’s OK. He’s just wants us on our knees, coming to Him, even if it is with offerings of humility in our frail humanity.

Natalie

Keep Shining

“Don’t you worry your pretty little mind, people throw rocks at things that shine…”

As a culture we have this really messed up pattern of behavior where we tell people to SHINE (be famous, stand out from the crowd, stand up for what they believe in, etc., a concept I read about in this article about L’Wren Scott’s suicide, I think) and then as soon as they stand up we throw rocks at them. Why do we do this?

Most of the time we’re afraid that someone else is shining more than we are or might be taking away some of our own glow. And it brings up our own insecurity/failures/past/wounds. So we deflect and find comfort in defense mechanisms such as demeaning the efforts of those who have found their place in the world.

Stop. Stop now, ya’ll.

There’s enough to go around.

We all bring something different to the table, I promise.

That’s a beautiful thing.

How about instead of throwing rocks at other people, we reflect on what those rock-throwing-tendencies say about the state of our own hearts, and humbly admit that we might have some work to do. It takes ownership of faults and our own failures. This is hard heart-work. But it must be done. Oftentimes it must be done over and over and over. For the health of our own hearts, it must be done. I promise you, you’ll never shine to your own full potential while still holding on to a mentality of rock-throwing.

And then, in humility and selflesness, let’s applaud those who shine. Let’s use them as inspiration to be braver in our own lives, to throw off our insecurities so we, too, can shine, and light the world with our collective glow.

Wouldn’t that be a beautiful place to live?

“A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.” ~James Keller

*P.S> If people have been throwing rocks at you lately, like a few people have been in my life, lean in to it. First of all, consider the source. If you deem the source someone in your inner circle whose opinion and voice in your life you value, then you can dig deeper. If not, release it from having any say in your own heart and pray for the other person. The hard thing here is that you might realize someone you thought had your best interests at heart, didn’t, and that hurts even more.

If it is from someone you value, say to yourself, “What here has merit?” examining the situation, your own heart, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Strip it down to the essence of what you can work on, and use the rest as motivation. Looking back on my life, the naysayers were actually the ones who helped me access my deeper inner strength when I was struggling.

Shine on, you gorgeous thing, you!

Natalie

Spring Things

Enjoying the sunshine, bright lips, and big sunglasses!

Slowly working on my office and pulling a few pretty things together here 🙂

Over the weekend I made some strawberry sauce and lemon curd. YUM!

Then I baked some blueberry muffins to enfold all of that delicious lemony-goodness. It was also delish on shortbread cookies, obviously.

Then of course I had a LOT of dishes to do.

Good thing I have these pretty sink things to make it happy! Pretty colors & aromatherapy soap for the win!

{hot pink pot scrubbie//method frosted fir hand soap//mrs. meyer’s lemon verbena dish soap//mrs. meyer’s radish hand soap//green sponge//wood veggie brush}

I’m obsessed with Mrs. Meyer’s products. And that tiny bottle? Target $1 section (with attached coupon for $1 off a big bottle, so it’s win-win). That’s also where I found this little crate that is going to be perfect to use as part of my Easter table centerpiece! (it’s hanging out on my office shelf above right now!)

PS> Radish sounds weird but it’s actually one of my favorite Mrs. Meyer’s scents, and for some reason reminds me of the cute kitchen I had in my condo in Florida!

And the bunny towel? Smitten. My grandma lovingly embroidered that. I adore it (and her!).

#allthehappythings

Show me your happy little Spring things on Twitter? Hashtag it #allthehappythings!

Natalie

You Make it Beautiful: Happy Spring

beautiful early-morning spring light through my curtains.

It’s Spring. And my heart struggles with this, in a strange way. I know normally Sunshiney Natalie would be screaming from the rooftops (especially after a maple latte this morning) that it’s SPRING YA’LL!

But really my heart is just in a little bit of a no-not-Spring place. Just a bit of a “let me stay here, buried in snow, I’m fine…really…” sort of half-smile place. More like the several inches of snow we got last night and the gray day here with my candle and vintage lamp and a warm mug of goodness in my fleece pajama pants (yes, still, at 11am #writerlife) snuggled under a blanket that has Love written in several languages on it. Just a little bit more of this.

I’ve been thinking lately of when I was little, how I spent so much time in my room quietly creating, happy as a clam to be in a cozy space creating beauty out of nothing more than glitter and gluesticks and paper and words. I would write all sorts of little storybooks and set up a shop to sell them to my mom for a nickel each. Just a happy little quiet Natalie-heart.

And then life.
You know what I’m sayin’?

Today is one of those days where I feel that unequivocally, life pressed down on top of my heart. Anxiety, selfishness, fear, bitterness…not so pretty.

See the truth of the matter is, I have a tender heart. I have a poet’s heart underneath it all, when we get down to it. One that sees pain and the quietness and the joy of life and takes it in deeply. A heart that has been wrecked with pain and brokenness.

These soft hearts like mine don’t just bounce back quickly. It is a bit more fragile. A bit more malleable. A bit more attentive and empathetic and a whole lot softer. It still hurts now and again and I face the thought of blooming into spring one more time with trepidation.

But I’m thinking how I don’t want an “And then life” life. Not worldly-life. I want heart-life. I want quiet-beauty-inner-happy-deep-well-soft-heart-poet-eyes-take-it-all-in-and-bring-it-back-to-life-and-breathe-it-out life. A happy little quiet Natalie-heart.

So I guess that means I do want Spring. The beautiful, life-giving, revival of Spring. To breathe that in again and let it fill me. To sit with that for awhile, to heal and slowly be brought back to life.

“You take brokenness aside and You make it beautiful.” Amen.

Happy Spring, my dears!

Natalie

Chocolate Chai Oatmeal

I know this doesn’t look like anything special. But the flavor, oh-my-goodness the FLAVOR!

Chai + Chocolate = Genius.

I got the idea from Chocolate Covered Katie (love her site) but fiddled with the recipe a bit.

I also had a Chocolate Chai Latte at Starbucks not too long ago so you can bet I’ll be making a version of that for ya’ll soon!

Chocolate Chai Oatmeal for One

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup milk

3/4-1 cup boiling water (depending on how you like your oatmeal)

1 1/2 tsp. loose chai mix or 1 chai teabag

Pinch salt

2 tsp. sugar (adjust to your liking/needs…obviously I wouldn’t recommend this EVERY day…but you might want to lower the cocoa powder amount if you do this because the cocoa can be bitter)

2 tsps. cocoa powder

Steep the chai in the boiling water for 10-15 minutes to get some good flavor in there. Remove the tea mix or bag and add the brewed chai to the rolled oats and milk in a large bowl. Add the pinch of salt and the sugar. Microwave for approximately 3 1/2 minutes. Let stand in microwave for 2 minutes. Stir in the cocoa powder and top with a few chocolate chips if you have them handy. Enjoy!

Natalie

Monday Mid-Day

Ya’ll this verse is just SO on my heart today. What a beautiful reminder of how good and gracious our God is! So much hope. #allthetime

{hover and click the pink heart to pin!}

This beautiful song is also on my heart this morning…”You have called me higher, you have called me deeper…” so when we’re ready to get sent in that right direction, we can know He is whispering in our ears the entire time, sending us with love and grace and never alone.

Today, I am praying over this blog and everyone whose heart finds the way here. I am praying God blesses you, gives you rest, and sends you off to find your place in His great big beautiful story.

You’re playing your part magnificently, darling!

Natalie

Friday Vlog #likeaboss

Friday Vlog 3/14/14 from Natalie of Good Girl Style on Vimeo.

You guys the vlogs I recorded today…it’s just…I don’t even know. Is it nap time yet? #caffeinecrazy #caffeinecrash Sigh. Enjoy my craziness? I settle down after the first minute or so.

The Friday Things:

1.) Tea Forte Tea (yes it DOES have mango! ha! and it’s on sale!)

2.) Onecklace monogram necklaces!

3.) The sweater is the one from this outfit.

4.) Clinique A Different Grape lipstick

5.) Sally Hansen Hard Lemonade nail polish

Happy Weekend!

Natalie

Sequins and Suede

My friends have been asking me for more style posts. Truth be told, you wouldn’t want to see most of my style from recently, ha! It’s been your standard March-in-New-England parade of jeans tucked into muck boots with varying sweaters, vests, and scarves. It’s all rather formulaic and predictable.

But Sundays…well, on Sundays I can be persuaded (per-sueded? ha, crack myself up ;)) to put on some suede and sequins. And some color. Oh man am I craving color in my wardrobe right now! So this outfit is from Sunday 🙂

Are you craving spring and your spring wardrobe? I am! It’s almost here!

Sunnies? Local store

Cutwork sweater? Kohls

Bauble necklace? Caroline G.

Sequin Tank? Ann Taylor

Orange jeans? Target

Suede boots? Steve Madden

Natalie

KIND Healthy Grains Bars Review

KIND so kindly (crack myself up) sent me a bunch of their brand-new Healthy Grains bars to review. We all know how much I love their regular bars (see my review of those here), so I was more than happy to try these out. They have 5 flavors: Oats & Honey, Dark Chocolate Chunk, Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate, Vanilla Blueberry, and Maple Pumpkin Seed. I love how creative the folks at KIND are with their flavors!

The Vanilla-Blueberry (one of my favorite flavors) was a great mid-morning snack when I was running errands, sending birthday mail and picking up presents. Such a filling snack and a cheerful burst of flavor to keep me going.

I also enjoyed the Dark Chocolate Chunk while writing out some notes. The Maple-Pumpkin Seed was my least favorite and, surprisingly, the “plain” Honey & Oats was actually my most favorite.

I love KIND’s marketing and philosophy. “KIND Healthy Grains Bars are all natural granola bars made from ingredients you can see and pronounce.” Well, this one does have amaranth and quinoa, so that might be a stretch for some of us, but you get the point. Real food here. Nourishing snacks. Something to fuel you not make you feel guilty. And don’t worry about that dark chocolate…I’ve done my research and it’s definitely good for us 😉 #seriouslythough

Overall, these are crunchier than the regular KIND bars, which is good and bad. Good if you like crunchy. Bad if you like to throw it in your purse and carry it around for 2 weeks before you eat it (like me), because they break into a million tiny pieces. Some were drier than others, and I’m not sure why, but I liked them when they weren’t toooooo dry. I would definitely pick up the Oats & Honey and the Vanilla Blueberry bars again. I’ll just be sure to keep them in a secure pocket so I don’t end up licking crumbs from the package. Don’t even try to pretend you’ve never done that 😉

Thanks so much to KIND for letting me try their new goodies! Pick a few up and let me know what you think in the comments!

Natalie