Simply Clarke

Friday, May 17, 2013

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i'm on vaca... well almost #H54F

WAHHHOOOO!!!! It's Friday :)

I have a quick, fun announcement

{cred}

Yep, We are going to Cabo :) We are leaving tonight, but fly out tomorrow morning.

p.s. this is the view from our hotel!!

Don't worry, Simply Clarke will still be very much active; just be patient with emails!

&now for #H54F

1.
3 of our friends graduated from college this weekend & two had a joint party. So much fun!

2.
Day 1: Training for Summer Backyard Bible Club at work; It was awesome to see all of the volunteers so excited.

3.
Day 2: Backyard Bible Club Training with my friend Lauren

4.
Packing for Cabo last night ---ahh can't contain my excitment!!!

5.
Leaving for Cabo tomorrow :)

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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Hi Simply Clarke Readers! I'm Paulina from Discovering Simply Me!

I love doing my color crash course with different colors. They are always giving me ideas on how to pair didn't colors together when I normally wouldn't think to put together. This time around I brought in some inspiration of the past since The Great Gatsby is coming out soon and is one of my favorite books. But that time period wasn't my inspiration. But what I wanted to do is from the 1760s.

Josiah Wedgwood's durable blue- and -cream stoneware which was considered to be the height of fashion of its time. Kings and Queens decorated their homes with this fine china and grand pianos.

So I took this color and brought out the color in the dresses, called it Wedgwood and paired them with the three colors that would look best. But yes beige looks really good in this group too, but trying to get away from beige at the moment since the color and I don't like each other.

1 Wedgwood with Pool - Dress / Shoe
2 Wedgwood with Spearmint - Dress / Shoe
3 Wedgwood with Ruby - Dress / Shoe

I hope you enjoy these. Always check my blog weekly to see more color crash courses. They are kind of my favorite, so I do tend to do these a lot.

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Blog Love & A Proposal

Hello again Simply Clarke readers! I'm so happy to be writing again for Marquis' blog! Soo, recently my boyfriend (now fiancé) of 2 1/2 years proposed to me! And needless to say I am on cloud nine, ha. There's a picture of our proposal below :)

It's amazing to me how fast time flies by. It seems like just yesterday we started college, and now we have one year left! Now that the business of life has subsided a little as summer has officially started it's finally starting to sink in that I'm engaged. I kept looking down at my ring and thinking "Oh this is so pretty! When do I have to give it back?" And then I realized that I don't have to!! Ha, silly me. Let me tell you, I am SO relieved that it's actually starting to hit me now that this is real life! I don't feel like I have to ask someone to pinch me every 5 minutes. As the reality of being engaged to such an incredible man of God has been sinking into my heart and my mind, I've been so overwhelmed with God's love and grace. It's funny how such an exciting, girly thing can direct my attention back to God - but shouldn't it be that way? I definitely did not do anything to deserve such an amazing man, but everything that has happened surrounding and after our engagement has been so perfect and easy. God has been blessing us so tremendously.

I've noticed that my attitude and level of trust has changed as well. About two weeks before we got engaged I felt this overwhelming peace and excitement for what Stan and I would be doing in our life together, not just for our wedding day - and what we would be doing for God, not for ourselves. It was when I realized that this was all for God's glory and not for my own satisfaction that I began to find rest and excitement in what God had in store for us and I began to see why He had placed me in Stan's life. I had always known why God placed Stan in my life because he has helped me grow in so many different ways, but I never really thought about why He put me in Stan's life. And as I have been learning more about how he works and what makes him happy, I've began to see how I can better love him and see him through God's eyes.

In the past few weeks alone I've noticed such a change in my heart. I feel so at ease with not only who I'm marrying and when we're getting married, but also with everything that we will be doing in our life together for our God. It's funny - when you change your perspective and your desires to be that of someone else's you begin to find joy, peace, and excitement in everything - even the seemingly "bad" things, because you're thinking about someone else other than yourself, so the selfish desires tend to subside. Stan has taught me to love, to be strong, to understand, and to have courage. He's given me a better sense of humor (yes, it's true), and most of all he's become my best friend - the closest friend I've ever had. I am so thankful that God has given me such an incredible, talented, and perfectly-matched partner for me to grow and live with as we follow Christ! I feel like you get to know someone a little better through pictures, so here, enjoy some pictures one of my best friends took for us :)