100 Happy Days | Days 12-19

Hey y'all!

Another week, another 7 happy days. I've been having so much fun with this 100 Happy Days Challenge, and I'm so happy that some of you have joined in on it.

For those of you who are a little confused, the #100HappyDays challenge is this campaign to find something little to be happy about every day, and to document it via your preferred social media outlet- mine is Instagram :)

Day 12 (4/8): I went to see the school play with some of my friends, and it was a lot of fun! Also, please enjoy Neha's face-getting her to smile is like getting no errors on the driving test. (impossible)

(don't mind the fact that I'm pretty sure the background is more in focus than I am)

Day 13: (4/5): Technically this isn't the photo I posted, but the photo quality on that was absolutely terrible, so y'all won't be seeing that.  Last Saturday was junior prom, and I went with some of my best friends. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of high school dances (I'm not about that grinding life), but I had TONS of fun! I think my favorite part was when the DJ played Let it Go, and the entire junior class belted it out like no one was watching. 

Day 14 (4/6): I finally checked out the Noodles and Co. branch that opened up near my house, and I was pretty impressed! The picture is so bad because I was so excited to devour my Japanese Udon noodles.          

Day 15 (4/6): More prom spam! We clean up nice, even if I do say so myself ;)

Day 16 (4/8): It was my best friend Sneha's 17th birthday! To give you an idea of how close we are, I wrote her a letter 19 pages long (19 is her favorite number). We've been inseparable since 2nd grade, and I can't imagine what life would be like without her! 

P.S. First time wearin' a maxi skirt, how'd I do? 

Day 17 (4/9): Who doesn't love cookie baking? Let's be honest here!

Day 20 (4/10): We had early release today, and I've started driving (no one killed yet!), and Momma and I celebrated with Thai (always the best choice). 

What made YOU happy this week? Let me know in the comments below!

xo, Hima

I Challenge You!

Hey y'all!

I hope you enjoyed reading yesterday's post. It got quite the reaction, so please do go read it if you have the chance! 

Today, I'm talking about the 100 Happy Days Challenge, which I'm sure many of you have heard of. Basically, the idea is that you find something to be happy about for 100 days on end, and post it on your preferred social media site to keep accountable. At the end, if you complete the the 100 days, they print all your pictures in an adorable little book and send it to you.
Here's a little quote from their adorable site.
"People successfully completing the challenge claimed to:
 - Start noticing what makes them happy every day;
 - Be in a better mood every day;
 - Start receiving more compliments from other people;
 - Realize how lucky they are to have the life they have;
 - Become more optimistic
I'm 11 days in and I've already noticed that I'm happier. Yes, sometimes it stresses me out because it's 11:30 PM and I'm about to miss a day, but I'm a huge Type A personality, so I stress over little things.

Day 1 (3/22) The little brother's birthday! This kid makes me infinitely happy even when I'm tearing my hair out at how annoying he is. Clearly, he didn't want to be in pictures. 

Day 2 (3/23) Bella. She's so cute I want to cry. (of happiness don't worry) 

Day 3 (3/24) I know I already posted this, but last Monday was my good friend Meera's birthday and her sunny personality always makes my day!

Day 4 (3/25) Stanford cathedral. What's not to love!?

Day 5 (3/26) This is pure joy and it made my day. 

Day 6 (3/27) It's spring and dandelions are beautiful. In the words of my friend Anagha "You either see a thousand weeds or a thousand wishes." 

Day 6 (3/28) I tried Synergy Kombucha tea! A lot of people don't really like this (it's definitely an acquired taste), but I love it. More to come. 

Day 7 (3/29) On Saturday, my brother had his birthday party at an adventure center in Santa Cruz. It was SO rainy and by the end of the day, we were all soaked. It was also one of the funnest days of my life. This is one of my best friends, Prachi, who might just be better friends with my brother than she is with me. Regardless, I've known her FOREVER, and she can always make me laugh. 

Day 8 (3/30) My statement necklace collection. Love it so much!

Day 9 (3/31) Rain! Actually Monday was a not-so-great day, and the rain really encapsulated how I was feeling. 

BONUS: Bella learned how to take selfies on Monday. So that was fun. 

Day 10-can't show you this yet! Go check out yesterday's blog post for more info!

Day 11 (4/2): Ever have one of those days where you walk out of the house and think, What the heck am I wearing? Today was one of those days. It was approximately 50 degrees which was teeth chattering weather for me. Naturally, I hunted around for some tights. I couldn't find the sheer black ones, so I made the great decision to wear these floral ones. And then I added another pattern with polka dot shoes. And a not-ironed, wrinkly shirt. 

IDK OKAY BLACK AND WHITE IS BLACK AND WHITE DON'T JUDGE ME. 

Yeah so my inner 5 year-old fashionista came out today. Oops. Whatever. Skirts are fun. I had fun. 

So. Now, I challenge you! Can you be happy for 100 days? Let's do this!

xo, Hima

On What Blogging Means to Me

Lately, I’ve been thinking about blogging and the role it plays in my life. I’m only a junior in high school, and there aren’t a lot of other high schoolers out there who have a blog. Of course, there are Aree and Noori, my favorite twins and fellow 16 year-olds, but not a ton of other people.

When I first started blogging, I wasn't really sure what I was in for. I had been reading blogs on and off for a while, so I knew I didn't want to start off with the built in blogger templates. Before I wrote my very first post, I made sure that the blog looked nice. I had a header, a button, and intro image, social media buttons, and an about me page. If you can believe it, my blog has looked the exact same since day one. I know I didn't want to deal with the whole "first post" awkwardness, so I jumped right in and did a High Five for Friday.

From the beginning, I reached out to a few bloggers to help me find my way in the blog world, and get some feedback. Looking back, I can say that it's the best thing I could have done. I received overwhelmingly positive response from bloggers who were clearly obsessed with blogging, and really believed it could have a positive effect on everyone. A few weeks after I launched Hima Hearts, I learned how to make all my pictures the same size, how NOT to be a no-reply blogger, and where to place photos in posts to break up the text. I found my blogging voice, and really started getting into the groove of things.

A couple of months after I started my blog, I wrote my first "serious" post on how my summer job changed my life (no, really), and went, and it was difficult to write it all out, but I was amazed at the response. I didn’t think a lot of people would read it, because it was a lot longer than my normal posts, and heck of a lot less funny. (Although the idea that I’m funny is my own personal opinion. Am I? Please say yes). The comments on that post made me realize that there are real people behind all the beautiful blogs out there. Y’all aren’t just beautiful clothes-modeling mannequins, or baby-swaddling mothers, or recipe-creating chefs. Everyone has a million sides to them, and that’s the beauty of blogging. You don’t have to be defined to the niche of your own blog- you can write whatever you want. And you don’t have to read only travel blogs, or photography blogs- you can connect with bloggers of all types.

The first time I posted my blog link on Facebook, I was terrified. What if people judged me? What if people thought I was spamming them or clogging up their newsfeed? Once again, the response was overwhelmingly positive. People whom I barely know will come up and talk to me about how much they love my blog, or how funny they thought a certain post was. They'll ask me how I have time to do it, and the answer is simple. I make time.

I started off blogging because I wanted to document the little things in life. I wanted to take more pictures and just take the time to enjoy simple pleasures. Now? Now I blog for SO many reasons. I blog for the little happy dance my heart does when I get an email from Disqus notifying me of a comment. I blog for the friendships I've made- to see an email from Aree, or Noori, or Marla, or Brittany, or Ash, or Erica, or Rachel, or any of my other blog friends pop up in my inbox. I blog for the anonymous "Your blog is kinda sorta INSPIRING." on my paper heart at school last week. I blog to force myself to keep taking photographs. I blog, most of all, for myself. To look back on this in five years to relive the good memories.

This post isn't to mark any kind of anniversary or anything- I just felt like writing about blogging. Now, if you're a blogger, answer this: Why do you blog? If not, tell me something that you love so much that you make time for it, regardless or how busy you are, or how unmotivated you're feeling.

xo, Hima

P.S. Sorry for the seemingly random pictures throughout this post. I didn't want to steal any stock images off the internet, so I just posted some of my own mildly interesting photos to break up the text. Remember the part about photography? ;)