Fashion

How To Choose Joy

December 19, 2016

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning. -Psalm 30:5

I love this verse. It’s one of those “coffee cup” verses, if you will, but there is a reason it’s “cliche.” I hate that bible verses can even be labeled as “cliche”, because they wouldn’t be considered so if people didn’t use them inappropriately, out of context, or toss them around without any heart or meaning behind them. But, y’all, this verse is huge. It’s the epitome of what joy and grace is. The Message version, which is a paraphrase of the Bible, says it like this:

“All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
    Thank him to his face!
He gets angry once in a while, but across
    a lifetime there is only love.
The nights of crying your eyes out
    give way to days of laughter.”

Mornings in general are my favorite thing in the world. It’s my favorite time of day, because I get to set my goals for the day, pray, and choose to either make it a good day or a bad day. And, if I don’t get my full morning routine… my whole day is completely off. I know some of you right now are thinking, “ew, you’re one of those”- but stick with me! 😉

But seriously, mornings are the best and this verse even says so! Joy comes in the morning, even when the night is dark, even when we cry our eyes out, God shows up. He is there in the darkness, and the best news ever is that MORNING ALWAYS COMES. We get to rejoice in the truth that, as Christians, we can make mistakes, fall short (hello, this happens daily), and do things that hurt God’s heart, but he never leaves or forsakes us. We get to laugh at the days ahead, even in our hurt and humanity, because of how good God is. CAN I GET AN AMEN.

Joy is a choice. It’s always accessible to you, but you have to grab it to have. Joy is easy to access when we realize it’s there, but it’s also just as easy to forget about. And, unfortunately, this is something we know all too well. I am so quick to forget how good my God is. I get so hyper focused on where I am failing, or falling short, or not living up to my expectations, or not as in shape as I want to be no matter how hard I try for that 6 pack, or I don’t have all the shoes I want because of that budget life… y’all the list continues… but God tells me I am perfect as is. That this world is but a breath, and it will pass. So, with that, don’t you think that whatever it is you’re going through shall pass, too?

Praises.

I am always embarrassed when I get asked how I am so “happy” all the time, because I feel like it’s a slight at telling me I am that obnoxious person who is TOO happy. But, in all seriousness I am also shocked when people ask me this, because I know the inner workings of my heart. When my mind speaks louder than my heart, when emotions take hold of my thoughts, they tell me life is a raging storm, that I am a mess, that I am mediocre at everything I do… just being real here for y’all. But, because I am marked by the joy of Christ, even in my messiness, even in the dark inner workings of my heart… God makes himself known. If that’s not a testament to how much bigger God is than all we face, and how he can use ANYBODY to spread his message… then I don’t know what will. I am a frazzled, frantic, anxious mess way more than I would like to admit… but God makes himself known NOT because I am the bomb. Definitely not. But, it’s because I am chosen, his daughter, and he says to me “Hannah, even when you mess up, even when you let anxiety speak louder than what you know to be true, I love you. I use you for MY works and for MY glory.”

MIND.BLOWN.

I am so underserving of God’s grace. I feel like at this point he sitting up there shaking his head saying, “Really? You’re freaking out again? You’re questioning your worth… again? Wasn’t it enough I sent Jesus to prove how much you are worth?” BOOM. Ouch. Y’all, anxiety is my biggest struggle. I never thought I would have to say that… like, ever. It just happens, and if you’ve ever struggled with anxiety you can cope with me when I say that no matter how much you try to rationalize it or make it better… there’s not a whole lot you can do. But pray. And I have never felt closer to the Lord because of it. Even in my brokenness, he makes me whole. Because I strive for joy, not even nailing it but merely striving for it, He says “you are equipped and able to do my works.”

Choosing joy won’t happen easily sometimes. That doesn’t make you a bad Christian or a bad person, haha. It’s pretty normal, because we are human and we are bent to run from God. But don’t run, y’all. Every time you fall, run right back to the start. I cannot express how deeply God loves you and how much better it is to rest in knowing he is in control.

How to Find Joy

Live a prayerful life. The more you pray, the easier it is to see Christ in all things.

Be thankful. Thank him to his face, Psalms said! Be sure to recognize the things you DO have and thank him for it.

Find quiet space in your day. (I am the worst at this!) Be still, read, turn things off for at least 15 minutes. Do whatever it takes to have moments of rest and peace. No tv. No emails. Nothing.

Read your Bible. Guys, if reading the bible is a struggle for you, consider reading The Message version alongside your translation. Sometimes I just read The Message for encouragement. Like I mentioned above, it’s a paraphrase of the Bible, so it’s not the original text, but it’s translated by someone who captured the heart of the wording in the original text and it’s easier to digest.

Don’t compare. It’s so much easier said than done, but it’s true when it is said that comparison is the greatest thief of joy. This goes back to having a grateful heart.

Know what works for you…. let me elaborate. So, I know that I am a home body. I love to be home, I love being curled up with my dog and a book, some cozy sweatpants, and the same movie I watch 10 times a week way more than going out. Now, this can get me in trouble, because I could literally do this every day of my life and be content, but God calls us to live in community. So, it won’t be fully satisfying. BUT, I say this because I know that if I try to live a “yes” life that I go hang out with people all the time, go to every event I am invited to, or WHATEVER it might be, then not only will it not last long but it will end badly. I will burn out and I know all too well that lifestyle isn’t for me. And, I have to be OKAY with that.

I love y’all so much. You are seen, heard, and loved so much more by God. I hope you hear that and own it.

Merry Christmas

xoxo- Han

Christmas Traditions

December 17, 2016

I think one of the hardest things Paul and I have had to navigate in marriage is the holidays.

Now, because I know my own parents and my in-laws read my blog, let me clarify what that statement entails. 😉

(I promise it’s because we both LOVE YOU ALL AND WHERE WE COME FROM!)

We LOVE the holiday season and spending it with our families. The hard part has been meshing traditions from two completely separate families that we cherish so deeply without killing ourselves in the process. If we tried to please everyone, follow every tradition we love, and do EVERYTHING exactly as it was before we got married… we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the Christmas season as much. It would feel more like a long checklist of “must do” instead of “want to”. Mixing the old with the new, all while creating our own traditions together has proven to be a hard task! I can’t expect Paul to want to do Christmas EXACTLY how I did it growing up, nor can he expect the same of me. And, despite the wish deep, deep down in my heart to run out of my bedroom with my siblings while Mom and Dad video tape us with the Camcorder every year still… I know that I can’t and won’t do that really ever again. (Paul probably says “Thank God” to that.) The holidays as a married couple means picking with my husband what we want to do for our own family traditions, keeping our time together at Christmas sacred, and even though it’s just the two of us for now, creating a magical time of year for our future family. It means compromising, mixing and meshing, and putting together a tailor made Christmas season for us inspired by both of our backgrounds, loving the traditions each of us grew up with.

The heart of all of this is Paul is now my family. That’s so hard to grasp. (Even three years later!)

Creating new traditions is a hard transition. But, it’s also so much fun.

This is Paul’s and my third Christmas married, and every year we add something new and change things up.

This year, we added something that both of us have always wanted to do, but neither of our families did… a real Christmas tree!

We forced ourselves to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up our tree, mostly because tree farms aren’t open before, and took our parents and my grandma and grandpa with us to our first tree farm adventure. NONE OF US had EVER been to one before. Isn’t that crazy?! I got to watch us all trek across acres of trees that, after a while, just begin to look identical and you get a little flustered because you aren’t quite sure what you want. It’s a big decision, picking out a tree! We placed moms and grandmas at potential contenders so we wouldn’t forget where they were/wouldn’t lose it, and my daddy, hubby, and grandpa walked around pointing at different trees commenting on how straight the trunks were, if the pine needles looked healthy, and if there was only one single branch up the middle…I learned a lot. You see, my dad was a forestry major in college at Texas A&M, so… my daddy knows a thing or two about trees. After what felt like forever, we assembled our ladies who were scattered across the farm and announced that we had found our tree. The Morrison family Christmas tree. It no joke was so magical. We turned on Christmas music while Paul played lumberjack, sawing our tree down, and my dad waited to catch it at the top. I don’t know what it was about it, but seeing the two most important men in my world chopping down a tree together was one of my most favorite memories to date.

Too sappy? (Insert ba-doom-cha drum for punny joke.)

If you love Christmas Vacation as much as we do… perhaps you also just thought of the line “Little full, lotta sap.”

We rode a hay ride together back to the headquarters at the tree farm, and my heart was so happy. We all talked about how each year we have to get a picture, and watch as the group of us changes. New little ones, and others who have left us. It was truly one of my happiest memories to date. I loved every second. I took note of every smell, every sound, every moment I could. I squeezed each person multiple times, just so I could feel their warmth, smell their scent, and soak in every bit of this time together.

This is by far my favorite tradition we have created over the last three years. I know with every fiber of my being it is one that will stick for… forever.

This Christmas we will do Christmas Eve services with Anchor, something new and something I am so excited for. Then, we will come home to have a special dinner. I grew up with lasagna every single Christmas Eve for dinner at a beautifully set table by my momma. The last three years we have done rosemary lamb with risotto and brussel sprouts. But, who knows. Maybe this year I will do lasagna like momma did it. Then Christmas morning, the two of us make french toast casserole, open up gifts together, and Facetime our families who live far away.

We have a hard time holding off on Christmas movies (year round, if we are honest), but White Christmas and Christmas Vacation are held with high regard for ONLY ACTUALLY DURING CHRISTMAS TIME. (Post-Thanksgiving!)

December is when we first started dating (so fitting for us) and this month is our 5 year anniversary together, so we are recreating our first date tonight, which was driving around Grand Prairie for a Christmas Lights tour and drinking hot cocoa while listening to Ella Fitzgerald’s Christmas album. I wish I remembered the exact date.. but I believe it was the 15th!

Fun Story: For our first date, I was super nervous I was going to come home (like every other date) and be over it, and have to break it off the next day. But, I prayed for God to do something really special if this was someone I was supposed to be with. (And I REALLY wanted it to be.) At dinner, we went to Spaghetti Warehouse, when it was time for our bill our waiter came over to tell us someone anonymously had actually paid for our whole meal. I took this as the special sign I had asked for, and knew pretty quickly after that Paul was going to be my husband.

We love the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and go every single year the first week of December. It kicks off our Christmas season. Once the DSO happens, it feels like Christmas is officially here.

Mulled wine is basically on repeat throughout all of December in our household.

Christmas is the best. Traditions are beautiful.

Another new tradition that I look forward to every year, our Christmas photos. And, of course, Hannah of Cottonwood Road Photography didn’t let us down with this year’s. I am still actually trying to pick my jaw up from these. She is so talented, and somehow captures our personalities so well through a camera lens.

My dress and cardigan are all from Landry Kate! Isn’t it the cutest?! If you haven’t been into LK or shopped online with them, you’re missing out on an amazing curation of C-U-T-E clothing.

Merry Christmas, y’all. So grateful for you this Christmas season.

xoxo- Han

Christmas Time at The Morrisons

December 8, 2016

Y’all, if you haven’t caught on, I pretty much live for a small selection of things in life…

My hubby and Christmas time absolutely, 100%, without a doubt take the cake, though.

Top. Of. The. List.

Well, and Jesus goes of course without saying. But, I will say it. Jesus is number 1, which is why I love Christmas so much!

Paul and I met around Christmas time, and our first date was looking at Christmas lights. It was love instantly. 😉 Except, actually. But, not JUST because of Christmas lights.

Paul and I LOVE Christmas. I know this sounds stupid, and looking at it in hindsight, I really don’t know how I DIDN’T put this together… but for the longest time, I watched Elf year round. Obviously it took place at Christmas time… but I thought it was just a comedy… at Christmas. My roommates in college corrected me and I try (try, keyword) to watch it only after Halloween now… 🙂

Anyways, all this to say, Christmas means a lot to me and decorating my home for it is one of my favorite things to do. I love everything about Christmas. I had such magical Christmases growing up, my parents truly made it so special, and I have carried that magic on from childhood to adulthood. I love that Christmas gives us all permission to revert to our youth a bit, and follow traditions that nobody knows why they started or why we still follow them, but it’s too late to stop now anyways. I love the songs, I love the cheer, I love the joy, I LOVE giving gifts, I love receiving gifts (it’s my love language), and I love being with my family.

Paul and I went to Target and Home Goods to deck out our home this year, and we are so pleased with how it all turned out. We gave ourselves a budget, and got SO MUCH for our money with it between these two places. (This is NOT an ad for either, they just seriously were great!) Our tree, which you can recreate by shopping my Christmas Shop, comes mostly from World Market and Pottery Barn. We did a real tree for the first time ever this year, and LOVE IT. I will share more about that later. 🙂

Thank y’all for inviting me and Paul into your life. We love you so deeply, and love sharing life with you. Merry Christmas, from the bottom of our hearts to yours. Here is a little tour of our home at Christmas. I hope it gives you ideas for your own homes, and that you can create a magical space for yourselves (without breaking the bank!).

xoxo- Han + Paul

All photos by Cottonwood Road Photography for The Cake by Hannah

Swim Day with Dillards

May 13, 2016

It’s Mid-May, which means we are full swing into pool season, people!

This means it’s time to stock up on those bathing suits and kiss goodbye insecurities that might be keeping us from stepping a toe into the water this summer. I have teamed up with Dillards to show off four of their swimsuits available (among thousands of options!) and to promote their Swim Day TOMORROW, Saturday May 14th. Swim Day is THE day to go purchase swim wear in store, because you will get rewarded for doing so! Spend $100 or more (which is likely just one swim suit), and you will receive a gift from Dillards that could include a tote bag, hat, and so many other pool side necessities.

Rewarded for shopping? Sign me up!

I have FOUR completely different suits to show off that will appeal to different ladies looking for different kinds of styles + with different kinds of body types, and to cater to different personalities.

1. I have a high-waisted suit by Betsey Johnson that is PERFECT to cover up that tummy while still being in a true two piece. This one made someone from the balcony yell down during our shoot and ask where it was from. (That’s a good sign!) Basically, this one channels that inner Taylor Swift we all have a little (or a lot) of.

2. A fun white suit by Kate Spade with the most coverage on the bottoms (these are my favorite fit!) and a super stylish rosette top. The roses are 3D… I am obsessed. Great news, too, I tested out the bottoms in the water for you (it was 60 degrees!), and I can confirm that these white bottoms are not see-through!

3. A sultry one piece with cutouts. This one was surprisingly my FAVORITE. It will certainly be one I wear for romantic getaways like our staycation to Four Seasons this June for my birthday- it is the most flattering. I had no idea it would be my favorite. The cutouts rest right on the tummy lines where you SHOULD have abs… so it comes across as though you do. What could be better?

4. A fun + flirty bikini by Jessica Simpson. This one has great coverage on top that I really appreciated. I suggest going up a size in the bottoms, because they fit a little small. (Keep those cheeks covered!) I love the color of this one, too!

5. The perfect cover-up from Vince Camuto! If this wasn’t a swim suit cover up… I would be rocking this cute dress all the time, because I am OBSESSED with it. I love the way it lays over the swim suit underneath- it just barely shows off your top. SO CUTE.

Once you are equipped with the perfect suit, you have to get the perfect poolside reads and tunes for those summer days coming right around the corner.

My poolside reads?

Shauna Niequist– she is the BEST. I have read Bittersweet and Bread & Wine (both featured in this post) and I am working on finishing up the rest of hers before her new book comes out. Reading a Shauna Niequist book feels like chatting over a cup of coffee on the back porch with your best friends.

Harry Potter– Yes, I realize I am so behind the times it’s just not even funny. But, I wasn’t a reader as a child, I was more of the “play house” and have imaginary friends to play with outside kind of girl.

… I had three imaginary mice inspired by Cinderella that I carried around in a bird cage.

#IwishIwaskidding

So, yes. Now, I am diving into Harry Potter. I am on the second book and am obsessed.

View More: http://cottonwoodroadphotography.pass.us/thecakebyhannah

Poolside Soundtrack

Country. 100%

We are talking like Texas country, old school Garth, or dare I say the Dixie Chicks. (<<<<my first cd I ever bought with my own money at age 6).

Josh Abbott Band takes the gold for country summer soundtrack, though.

#OhTonight and #She’sLikeTexas speak to me.

I will say, though, aside from country, The 1975 are killing it and they have some great summer soundtracks that are just happy, feel good beats.

ALL OF THIS IS SECONDARY TO WHAT I AM ABOUT TO MAKE YOU PROMISE WITH ME TO YOURSELF. Something FAR MORE important than which swim suit you choose to purchase this Saturday.

Ready?

Vow With Me:

I, insert name here, promise I will not miss out on life by the pool this summer and all the fun things summer has to offer, because of the fear of being in a bathing suit. I promise to be proud of my body exactly as it is- every square inch of skin, every scar, every stretch mark, every pooch at the bottom of my tummy, every imperfection- because I am perfect EXACTLY AS I AM.

xoxo- Me

Got it? GOOD.

You are SO BEAUTIFUL… BELIEVE IT. Now go out, grab some of your best friends, and get to swim suit shopping tomorrow. Make a day of it! Go shopping and grab lunch afterwards with your besties. Dillards has so many choices (THOUSANDS) and you are sure to find a suit or two that you feel confident in and ready to rock.

Love y’all!

xoxo- Han

All photos provided for The Cake by Hannah by Cottonwood Road Photography

View More: http://cottonwoodroadphotography.pass.us/thecakebyhannah

Spring + Summer Travels With Sole Society

April 6, 2016

View More: http://cottonwoodroadphotography.pass.us/thecakebyhannah

I have been in search for the perfect weekender bag for months as my Vera Bradly bag from college is starting to wear out after years of use. With the summer months fast approaching and spring in full swing, my travel bug has bit me and the need for a good getaway bag has been more relevant than ever before.

I have been searching non-stop and asking all over for people’s favorite vacations spots. (Email me if you have any good suggestions!) I have been intrigued by Napa or Portland (in general, somewhere Northwest), as well as by Connecticut or Maine, and then I definitely have a bug for traveling somewhere tropical. (I have never been on a tropical getaway before!) I stumbled across a new Four Seasons Resort in Hawaii set to open this summer, and I am dying to get over there! (+ you’re welcome for sharing…ha.)

No matter where we end up traveling to this summer, depending on what our schedules allow for, I am going to have this awesome travel bag from Sole Society with me. I carried it around my whole shoot day with Hannah (Cottonwood Road Photography), stuffed full with three pairs of heels, a make-up bag, shorts, and a variety of other items, and it all fit perfectly. It’s the ideal size for a weekend getaway or for a carry-on bag for a flight- plus, the color is GORGEOUS.

Shop my whole look below! I am a sucker for simple, so although I love being “glammed up”- today’s outfit is 100% my favorite kind of outfit. If you haven’t signed up for Liketoknow.it, what are you waiting for? It’s the answer to all your “Where did you get that?” questions, and it’s such a helpful tool. It takes two minutes to sign up here (if even), and you will get emails sent to your inbox with direct links to every item I tag on my Instagram when you see a “liketoknow.it” link on my photo.

Love y’all so much.

xoxo- Han