Showing posts with label Inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspiration. Show all posts

A Wee Hike

2:32 PM | Labels: , , , , ,

A week ago Monday was my 26th birthday. Birthday's are a big deal in our family, as are Christmases and random "Happy Tuesday, I got you this present day!" days.

We like an excuse to celebrate in our family basically. It probably has something to do with being Irish. Anyway....

We generally go all out. We swear on our lives and pinky promise that we won't, but we can't help it. The birthday person gets to pick whatever they want to do, and then the whole fam damily joins in. Down through the years we've gone parasailing, hiking, camping, shooting, swimming....you get the idea. We have fun. Eating an enormous amount of food is par for the course as well.

I decided to wanted to go hiking and rock climbing....so that's what Adrian and I did! Our hike was...well it was a tad long and we didn't make it to the summit before our legs gave out. I am determined to go back and reach the top. Next time I will start earlier in the morning and take more water!! The info I read on the trail we took (The Tunnel Trail) said it was either a 4-mile hike or a 11-mile hike. Adrian used a GPS thingy on her phone and said we hiked uphill for much longer than 11 miles. I'm glad, because I was a bit worn out from our "wee" hike and I would have been really upset with my level of fitness if I was that tired from a 4 mile hike!!

How do you celebrate birthdays in your family? Do you have any long-standing traditions? Let us know, we'd love to hear about them!


You know how I'm obsessed with Marvel comics? My sister got me Avengers paper plates and plastic cups....swoon. There's no way I'm 26.


My mother sent our dogs Happy Unbirthday presents......horse toenails wrapped in tissue paper. Bam.



At the beginning of the trail head, before the sunburn and the mountain kicked our butts! 


Tunnel Trail 


Los Padres National Forest 


Hiding from the sun and devouring protein bars. 


A beautiful day for a hike...you could see all the way to the ocean. 


Sisters that hike together....


 Stay together. :) They also get sunburnt together. Oops. 


"You want me to climb THAT?" 


Learning the basics. If you are in the Ventura area and are looking for a climbing gym, check out Vertical Heaven! They're the best! 


Adrian had a gluten free chocolate cake made especially for me!! Thank you so much sissy! 


xo xo Liz 


  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown

Yoga and a Cocktail

6:32 PM | Labels: , , , ,


I have been supplementing my running and lifting weights with yoga twice a week, and I LOVE IT!! It’s almost addicting….you think you’re going to keep up just fine with these skinny little gals in their stretchy clothes and you think, they’re basically just standing there holding poses. It can't be that hard, right? I buck hay, run for miles and lift, like, iron you know?? And then you stand there, just ya know, holding a pose, and your legs start to shake and you actually start to sweat quite profusely. 

Like I said, LOVE IT. It’s a challenge I didn’t expect and learning some of the more advanced moves is not only difficult but it’s exciting. Who doesn’t want to be able to balance in strange positions like Spiderman?? Unless of course, you’re not Marvel comic obsessed like me.

Here’s a yoga routine by Tara Stile that I did this evening to help stretch my sore muscles from a week of hard training, and help build other muscles that I wouldn’t necessarily use otherwise.






If you try it out, I’d love to hear what you think! Let me know! 


The end of this yoga routine and the beginning of the six o'clock hour brings us to another happy custom. 



Cocktails.

I come from a family where cocktails and horderves are an evening ritual. When we don't have time to have supper together, we make sure to have a little communal something, even if that's just sliced cheese and apples and a glass of red wine. 

I generally like single malt scotch, or a gin and tonic so when I found this recipe on Pinterest I couldn't help but try it. Even the name is fabulous, if not a little naughty....the Suffering Bastard. And since I feel slightly like a suffering bastard myself this evening, I'm going to toddle off and try it! 

And oh, here's the recipe in case you want to be a suffering bastard, too! ;) 

The Suffering Bastard

Ingredients       

1 ounce bourbon 
1 ounce gin
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 dash Angostura bitters 
4 ounces chilled ginger ale 


Good night to all and to all a good night!! 


xo xo Liz 

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown

Onwards and Upwards

2:58 PM | Labels:


I have struggled, fought nail and tooth, crying through the pain…wiping the tears, and snot in some cases, away and carried on.

I have persevered.

I occasionally gave up, flat-face upon the floor and said, “It is too great a burden for me to bear, I give. You win.” until some person or event came along that spurred me into action once again, and I continued the fight.

I have run as far as I could and fast as I could, and I have journeyed one faltering step at a time.

And now, I am here.

I AM that girl I hoped I would be one day.

Throughout the worst days of my sickness with Lyme disease, I kept a piece of paper tacked to the wall beside my bed so I could read what it had to say easily and frequently. It was a description of a girl….how she was tan from being outside all day long, doing the things she loved. How she was strong from pushing her body to be the healthiest, strongest, most inhospitable to disease and sickness it could be. It talked about how the girl had a job from home that she LOVED and that allowed her to travel with…It was a description of the faint hope I was holding onto, that I would someday come out the other side of the pain and sickness and be able to start living life to the fullest.

I AM THAT GIRL NOW.

I just realized that fact a moment ago, but I am her.

It’s incredibly exciting. And freeing.

Don’t ever give up on the woman you want to be, the life you want. It may not happen right away. It took 5 years of painful struggling for me, and I know I still have a long ways to go. But, if you never give in and keep going, you will get there.

Persevere, my friend.

Onwards and upwards….always.



xo xo Liz


  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown

Give It a Shot

2:44 PM | Labels: , , ,


You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

I have that quote saved somewhere in one of the many folders I have entitled “Quotes.”
And right now, that particular quote was niggling at me today….or more accurately screaming in my face, asking if I was paying attention.

I feel very blessed to be going to school where I’m being trained to become a Medical Transcriptionist…I freaking love it!! I’ve also been really terrified of getting a bad grade on an upcoming quiz and not doing well overall in my studies. Which means I’ve been really good at putting off taking the quiz.

Until today, that is.

By allowing fear of failure to hold me back from even trying, I had been missing out.

Failing before I had even started, because I hadn’t even tried. By not taking a shot at the quiz (I knew the material, I have the ability), I had missed 100% of that quiz.

It turns out when I actually took a shot at it, I got a 95%.

Sometimes the hardest part can be just getting started on the task at hand. A lot of runners say that the most difficult part of their run is lacing up their shoes and walking out the door.

Don’t let fear of failure hold you back.

You’re only holding yourself back from achieving all that you can be.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

I’m going to try my very hardest to take advantage of every shot I can get my hands on this week, and I hope you do, too. 


Good luck!!




xo xo Liz 




  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown

August's Goals

5:45 PM | Labels: ,

A few days ago I was scrolling through Instagram (I do it a lot, I told you before, I'm obsessed!), and came across a photo of a friend of mine's goals for the month of August. 


I always make goals at the beginning of the month but it had never occured to me to share them! What a fantastic idea! I was so inspired by her hard work and aspirations that I decided to share mine with you in the hopes that it would pass the torch of inspiration along. 

Thanks Emily for being the torch to the light a fire under me! 

PS. And if you're not already on Instagram....go get one! It's so much fun! My user name is lizbrannan87 and Adrian's is abuckaroogirl....follow us! 

 

This is my crazy excited I just made my goals face! ;)

xo xo Liz 



  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown

Evening Run by the Sea

7:15 PM | Labels: ,









Exercise is always better in a beautiful place, and in my opinion, a hundred times better next to the sea. 

Roo thinks that chasing sea gulls is as much fun as chasing cows. 

Silly dog. 

xo xo Liz 


  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown

A Friend of One's Own

3:43 PM | Labels: , ,






"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand." Henri Nouwen

xo xo Liz & Adrian 


  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown

Buckaroo Barbie Revolution

5:51 PM | Labels: , , , , ,

What if we here at Buckaroo Barbie became the face of a revolution? What if we became the change that we wish to see in the world? Why don’t we become the people at the front of the line, and encourage those coming up behind us by our willingness to be different?

Our generation (and we’re talking about ourselves here) has no class. We’re a bunch of unmannered boors.

The other day I went to lunch with the mums and Adrian, and I was horrified to find that when I sat down I had placed my phone on the table, shoved my elbows next to my plate and slouched in my seat. This didn’t used to be commonplace. And my mums didn’t even comment on my behavior, which means she has grown accustomed to it.



We as a society have grown used to all manner of things that aren’t necessarily good.

We cuss in public.

We make crass jokes in the name of humor.

We wear our sweats to town.

We aren’t expected to always say “How do you do?” or “Nice to meet you.” when we’re first introduced to someone.

People don’t dress when they travel or fly, which used to be a given.

Our children are excused from their public tantrums because they’re not European.

We women aren’t even surprised when we get a text from a man saying “wat up?”, because apparently that’s an acceptable way to strike up a conversation with a woman you want to impress.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO US???!

Adrian and I so desperately don’t want to be the norm, we want to be the exception. We want our lives to be a huge fairytale, a story of integrity, hard work, the pursuit of knowledge and life-long class, and we believe the only way to achieve that is by being different.

We’re trying to be different by being…(brace yourselves, I’m going to bust out an old fashioned word here!),…ladies.



We were both embarrassed when we finally admitted to each other that we secretly look up to Kate Middleton and Angelina Jolie. It just seems like such a cheesy thing to say you look up to someone you don’t know, but we do!
Angelina had her wild days and so did Kate, but look at the classy women they are now! We feel that their image is something we’d like to cultivate in ourselves, and although we know that you can’t know someone just from observing the public image, it’s a good place to start when choosing someone as a role model for your own image.

And when we say that that we’re trying to be ladies, we know that we fail most of the time. We’re saying that we’re striving for something bigger than what we are now.

One thing we’re trying to change about ourselves is the fact that we cuss like dock-workers! Seriously. We could probably make a platoon of Marines blush just in an everyday conversation. We’re not proud of ourselves, but the fact remains we have dirty mouths. Sigh. We’re working on it….our new favorite expression? “Sugar lips.”



Even if you don’t agree with our opinion of the world, be the change that YOU want to see around you. Encourage those less bold than you. Stand apart, not because of your shock factor but because of your WOW factor.

So along this theme, we’re going to continue posting on the change we hope to see and the women we ultimately want to be.

Let’s challenge, inspire and encourage one another on our individual quests for excellence, shall we? At the end of the day, that’s what being a Buckaroo Barbie is about.



xo xo Liz & Adrian



  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown

It's A Choice

1:56 PM | Labels: ,

I want to let you all in on a secret. It’ll improve the quality of your existence, help you make better choices and go farther in life...be it professionally or your personal relationships.

If you’ve been reading Buckaroo Barbie for very long, you’ll have heard me talking about joy at some point. There is a big difference between joy and happiness. Joy is a choice. Happiness is a feeling that floats in and out of your life at will. Happiness is something that happens TO YOU. Joy is something YOU CREATE.

Everything that happens in life presents you with a choice: to be knocked down and allow negativity to set in at the things that happen TO you, or deciding to not allow life to affect your joy no matter what occurs. You don’t get to choose what comes into your life and the experiences you go through, you only get to choose how you will react to them. That right there is power, my friends.



I’ve tried going through life both ways; allowing things to happen to me, or making a conscious decision to chose joy every day and learn from what I’m going through at that particular moment.

Life is a heck of a lot better when you chose joy. It’s not easy, I don’t think most things in life are, but it is totally worth it.

Happiness is a bubbly feeling, a surface emotion. We experience happiness when life goes our way, and we lose our happiness when the world raises its ugly head and life happens. I have been forced, because of my health, to not participate in MOST of the outdoor activities that I love the last 5 years, but I have to say that these past 5 years have been some of the most joyful of my entire life.

Why? Surely not because I love lying in bed all day. No, I hate it actually.

I’m not a masochist, I really don’t like being in pain all the time either.

It makes me all kinds of uncomfortable to have to ask other people to help me, I think my first words as a child were, “I can do it MYSELF!”

It’s quite simple really.
Every day when I wake up I decide to have joy in my life. And then I do.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel sadness, emptiness, loneliness, hurt and betrayal just like everyone else.

But through those times, most of the time, I still have that joy because it’s a choice I’m making, not a feeling.




Life is beautiful, exciting and an adventure.
It’s also painful, difficult and overwhelming.

Make a change in your life and decide to chose joy; your whole life will change.

xo xo Liz


  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Comments(0)
Posted by Unknown
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
ban nha mat pho ha noi bán nhà mặt phố hà nội