Turning 21 in Seattle!

Blowing out my single candle on my cake

As I said in my previous blog post, I cannot say enough good things about these past few weeks. I'm not going to lie, I had really high hopes for this birthday above all others in my life. Every birthday of mine hasn't gone the way I planned or wanted and in my heart I was worried this one would be the very same. I didn't want to be getting trashed at midnight at a bar (no offense if that's how you spent your birthday, but I had to be at the airport at 7 am haha). I got to prance around the PHX Airport in yellow jeans with a sparkly 21 crown on my head and Starbucks in my hand with random strangers wishing me a happy birthday. 

My mom and I before leaving for the airport

Seattle was beautiful on my birthday. It was sunny and in the upper 70s and made it very easy to wear the very famous red birthday dress that I've raved about for months and months. My entire family went to a very fun classic Italian restaurant called Al Boccalino and ate family style. It is also where I had my first legal drink: a Blood Orange Martini. (Definitely not my cup of tea hahaha, it was yucky tasting)! 

Everything about the day and night was perfect especially the company and the cake of course. My mom went very crazy finding and creating the perfect cake for me from a super adorable bakery in Seattle called Macarina Bakery. The cake was a white vanilla cake with an incredible white chocolate cream cheese icing that was to die for with pink and turquoise accents with a cursive D on top.

I hope you enjoyed reliving my amazing 21st birthday with me. I thought this day deserved it's own separate post to be honest. haha I can't wait to share more of the pictures and trip with you!!

xx - Dan

Finally 21!

By the time you read this, I'll be on a plane to Seattle, if not already in Seattle celebrating 21 with a drink in hand with some of my favorite people by my side. I'm anticipating this one as my very best birthdays yet. This post will be short and sweet with some pictures from birthdays past. :)  (Yes, I haven't had a birthday in the last 5 years without a crown.)

(from left to right: 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 20, & 17)

I can't promise a lot of posts in the next 10 days, but I will try to pop in here and there!! Definitely follow me on Twitter (@Daniellefaz) and Instagram (@Daniefaz) for more frequent posts. Love you guys!!

xx - Dan

iPad and Instagram!

HEYYYY EVERYONE! I'm officially in vacation mode. I had my last shift at work yesterday and they even let me go early because I was that excited and ready to be done. I was practically skipping out of the restaurant. haha. It's also OFFICIALLY less than 24 hours until I'm 21 yay!! As most of you know, I'm leaving tomorrow for Seattle which is my actual birthday, so I won't be able to celebrate with all of my friends and some of my family. Basically, this whole week has been little mini celebrations and I enjoyed every minute of it. Along with that, I got two of my big gifts, so they'd be able to accompany me on the trip from my Godmother/Aunt and also from my Nonno (meaning Grandpa in Italian).

The first was one thing I've been wanting for a long long time and I can honestly say it was better than I could have imagined: my iPad...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeps!!! I'm so very lucky to get such a really nice gift from her.

Me leaving the Apple Store

Two of the first apps I downloaded were Instagram and Instapad. Being a poor, pathetic Crapberry user haha, I did not get to experience the beauty of Instagram until now. I get to enlarge the Instagram iPhone app and upload pictures now too!! (Soooo hipster, ya know. haha) I thought I'd share some of my pictures since I've had it and invite you to follow me (@Daniefaz) for pictures from the trip, my arm parties, outfits, and various adventures!!

Share your favorite instagrammers to follow in my comments and don't forget to follow me @Daniefaz! :) 

xx - Dan

20s

“Your 20’s are your ‘selfish’ years. It’s a decade to immerse yourself in every single thing possible. Be selfish with your time, and all the aspects of you. Tinker with shit, travel, explore, love a lot, love a little, and never touch the ground." 

—	Kyoko Escamilla

(on my 20th birthday)

If you know me fairly well, it's no secret how worrisome and paranoid I am. Everything is a what if. It's terrible. This time last year, I thought about what if my 20s went to waste because even though I was just about to turn 20, all I could think about was how I was only ten years away from turning 30. I'm a year in, only days away from 21 and every day makes me more scared. What have I accomplished in 21 years alive? I feel like nothing.

I can't help, but compare myself to my friends from high school graduating a year early from Pepperdine, friends going to teach in Africa, or others having jobs with actual salaries. I'm not in school, working as a hostess at an Asian restaurant, and with absolutely no idea what I want to do. It gives me serious anxiety. When I turned 20, I never saw myself in this place only a year later. It doesn't help that I not only put pressure on myself, but so do my parents. I feel like every conversation where I'm asking for $10 for gas in my car turns into, "well what are you doing with your life? do you plan on hosting forever? what if you had bills to pay? you dropped out of school, you know?" All questions I seriously say to myself on a daily basis without their input. 

It's so scary. I'm turning 21, now 9 years away from 30 and I feel like my life is nowhere even close to being together. I'm laying in bed at 3 am, just worrying about what's going to happen. Aren't your 20s supposed to be the best years of your life? I'm spending mine worried about the next ten years that follow instead of living in the present. When did everything get so hard? I graduated from high school three years ago and I can't remember feeling the weight of the world bearing down on me. When did all of that pressure and anxiety start to get to me and how can I get rid of it? While I may never know when reality set in, I need to at least make it subside some. I should be enjoying my life. 

I wish I could say where I see myself in ten years, but I really can't even tell you where I see myself in one. Fortunately for me, God does. At church this past Sunday,  I got my reality check. God is faithful and I know that while I sit here worrying about what will happen, I know I can trust that He is working everything out for my best interest. 

Everything will be okay. I will be successful in time and I need to not worry so much. I'm 20, not 30 and I have plenty of time to be in my 20s. 

xx  - Dan

Blog Awards: The Versatile Blogger & Liebster Blog

I don't think I've ever gotten a blog award, let alone TWO! I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by two of my absolute favorites: Emily of Southern Gorgeous & Coral of Keepin' Up With Coral and I was also nominated for the Liebster Blog Award by my best friend, Hannah of Grace Lamb. I'm so excited and honored to be recognized. :) Since the rules are relatively similar, I decided to combine it into one mega post. 

The Rules of the Liebster Blog Award

1. Choose 5 up and coming blogs to give the award to
2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
3. Post the award on your blog
4. List the blogs you have awarded with their links, and leave a comment notifying them
5. Share random facts about yourself

The Rules of the Versatile Blogger Award

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award

2. Add an image of the Versatile Blogger Award

3. Thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link to their site

4. Share seven completely random facts about yourself

5. Include this set of rules

6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination

I nominate:

• A& C of The Kennedys Amongst the Kardashians 
• Jayme & Mendi of Her Late Night Cravings
• Jen of Food, Love, & Life
• Rachel of Musings
• Royar of My Life as A Young Southern Prep
• Mason of Mason like the Jar (She's one of my favorite tumblrs and she's new to blogger, so go follow her because she's great!)

 Facts:

• I learned Italian and English at the same time and used to be able to speak Italian fairly fluently.
• My spirit animals are Jess from the New Girl and Sophia Grace (as in Sophia Grace and Rosie on the Ellen Show hahaha).
• I'm extremely paranoid. I am full of every what if in the book.
• It's very rare for me to be wearing only one shade of foundation because nothing ever matches well. 
• I dream of wearing Lilly dresses while baking in my big white kitchen in between doing laundry and cleaning. 
• The first thing I ever baked from scratch were Red Velvet Cupcakes and those have been my signature ever since. 
• When I can't sleep, I shop online...it's a serious problem. 

xx- Dan

Quickie Picture Update

Today is my first Saturday not working in like, forever. It was such a relief to get up this morning knowing I'd have another day off. :) So while I'm watching Harry Potter weekend, I decided to do a little weekend blogging.

Yesterday I had a Fancy Pants date night at one of my absolute favorite restaurants, Brio, and then a little shopping, before going to see (fall asleep in) The Lucky One. It was a lot of fun to see daylight on a Friday night and not smell like chinese food for once. haha. I got a new clutch which I'm OBSESSED with, I lost at DDR like back in middle school, and I happily ate chocolate chip cookie dough Dippin' Dots. I'd say it was a successful Friday night.

Today I spent all morning in the kitchen baking for a baby shower. I'm excited to share both recipes very soon! I'll be posting Kissy Pies on Pretty Chatty and then Slutty Brownies here on Classically Dan. Despite how much I hate baby showers and bridal showers and all kinds of showers, I was excited to try out these two super simple recipes that were real crowd pleasers.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend too! Leave me a comment so I can check out your blogs too!!!

Lots of love - Dan xx

Friday Favorites

Hey y'all, it's been too long. :) Okay only like a week, but still. This past week has definitely been a mixture of the great and the not so great. The positive is that the great definitely outweighed the ehh stuff. I was very excited to post my Friday Favorites for this week, so I could share with you some of the things that went on this week like Mother's Day, my brother's football championship, GLEE!!! (Ya know, the real important things in life.)

• Glee- I could seriously write like six or seven posts on Glee alone and why I am seriously so addicted to it, but this week was probably one of my favorite episodes of all time. (SPOILER ALERT: They win Nationals and it's absolutely amazing!) Everything about this week's two hour awesomeness was perfect. Courtney and I laughed, cried, and it was great. We're very emotionally invested okay? 
• Fifty Shades of Grey- I wasn't planning on giving into the hype these books are generating, but I obviously did. I can't put this one down. I'm almost finished and it's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it's a fun mindless read. 
• Courtney- I needed that Tuesday best friend time like crazy. Courtney just gets me. It's wonderful. After she got off work, we got dinner (Chipotle of course), and then Starbucks before going home to watch Glee. She's probably one of the most amazing people I've ever met and I'm so glad to have her in my life, seriously. Plus, she gets just as emotional about Glee as I do.
• Mother's Day- Thankfully I got Sunday off from work to spend the day with my Momma and the rest of my family. Despite all of the stress from the past few weeks of moving and whatnot, I'm very very glad to have my Momma. She's a wonderful person who has sacrificed a lot and always put her children first.
• Palladio Herbal Lipgloss in Eleventh Gorgeous- OBSESSED WITH THIS. Seriously. Two of my favorite youtube girls, Stephanie and Tracy, designed this lip gloss and it's perfect. It's such a flattering pink that smells like heaven. Of course heaven to me smells like cupcake batter. It's so inexpensive at Sally's Beauty too! I even bought one for my best friend, Rachel, for her birthday package! It's a must try. 
• Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple- I don't know how I didn't fall in love with this before since I've had it for over six months now, but I watched Michele1218's Battle of the Red Lips and was so wowed by it. It's a beautiful wearable red for day time or night. I line and fill in my lips with Prestige Lip Liner in Red Brick and then applied this. It gives a beautiful glossy red lip that I got a lot of compliments on. If you're looking for an easy red lip, definitely pick this up!

xx - Dan

Moving Day

The day I've been so anxious and excited about and especially most dreaded has finally arrived. I'm writing this sitting on my bed in a pretty bare bedroom. I never imagined this day would come today. I think I was expecting it more senior year of high school, but that came and went when I lived at home through my time in college.

I vividly remember being in the front yard of this house a few days before my 14th birthday, crying on the phone to my best friend telling her that my parents were moving us out here one month prior to my freshman year of high school. I was still so young. I got ready for my very first day of high school in this bedroom. I came home from my first badminton matches to this room. I gushed in my journal on this bed about my very first real boyfriend. I got ready for each and every school dance here. I twirled around my bedroom in two beautiful prom dresses and countless others for homecoming and winter formal. I cried my eyes out in this bed after my first love broke up with me, senior year. This bedroom has seen friends come and go through numerous sleepovers and dates. This was the first driveway I drove into when I got my first car.  I got ready for high school graduation in this room and I worried about every little thing in the world in every space of this bedroom and bathroom. I got ready for my first day at ASU here. I snuggled with my first puppy here. I baked my very first cupcakes in that kitchen. I posed for pictures in my culinary school uniform in the living room. Christmas mornings. Skype conversations until the wee hours of the morning. Dramatic blog posts from my bed. (Some things never change) I woke up to be 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 in this bed in this room.

I'm sad to leave it behind. There are so many memories and firsts and everything of the sort in this room, in this house. I knew I wouldn't live here forever, but I never imagined it would be this difficult to let go. Packing up my life was so hard. I had to make decisions as to what was worth keeping for another room. I found photographs, letters, boxes, cds, yearbooks, and wilted flowers, all holding strong memories. I'm trying not to cry so much because this subject has caused me to shed a few tears on more then one occasion since I found out we were moving. I'm hoping this can be the final post and I can put this room in the past and move forward.

xx - Dan

Rachel's Visit to Arizona

One of the absolute highlights of March, actually of all of 2012 was definitely meeting Rachel and getting to spend a whole week with her and Emily while she was here visiting on her Spring Break. Rachel and I have kept an internet based friendship for um, let's see, the past 3 years. We both called Emily our best friend, so it was natural for us to start talking via Facebook, my senior year of high school. Quickly we realized a common interest in blogging and writing and it was history from then on. To all of those people who say internet friendships don't count or aren't real, have no idea of the friendships I've maintained without meeting someone in person. She has kept me going when I felt weak and inspired me to stay strong. She's truly one of the most beautiful, kind hearted, and strong people I've ever had the pleasure of finally meeting.

Emily and I had a blast calling Rachel, our daughter, that week while we split time between the both of us while keeping our work and school schedules in check and dropping her off at various places. We did a lot of shopping, even more eating, and even more talking. Having her here was one of the biggest blessings in the world and it was extremely difficult to say goodbye after getting to spend so much time together. I'm so grateful God gave me the opportunity after so long to finally meet her and enjoy her company in person.

I could go on and on and on about how wonderful it was to have her here, but a picture is worth a 1000 words (cheesyyyy), so here's a few of those instead.

xx - Dan