What's in a NAME?

I have been considering changing my blog name for a long time now. I have been blogging for over seven years and my blog name has always been the same. When I named my blog "My Mod Style", it was based off my own design style when it came to decorating my home. For years my blog did focus on interior design.

One of my favorite Decor Love collages I designed...

As time went by and life changed, decorating ideas became less and less on the blog. Now seven years later, the blog title just doesn't fit anymore. I also don't want people to be misled by my title. My blog is not a "style" blog at all really. As much as I like to share outfit posts every once in awhile, I am definitely not a fashion blogger.


When I started to brainstorm a new blog title (which I am horrible at by the way) I kept trying to combine words together that I thought represented me as a person. I wanted someone to "get me" and what my blog was about right away. Well that's easier said then done. I even resorted to blog name generators online hoping that they would inspire me to come up with something. Nope.

At work lately everyone has been calling me a hippie. (Because apparently if you are "different" and since I recycle, that makes me a hippie.) I found a funny hippie name generator online that came up with the name OCEANIA STARLIGHT for me. I thought it was cute but too random for my blog title. I didn't want vegan in my title because even though that's a huge part of who I am, it's not the only thing I blog about. Then I got stuck on the word happiness.

Read these awesome words of advice about life...
Source
I am sure some people may roll their eyes at someone who appears to be happy ALL THE TIME. Well I'm not happy all the time. Pretty much Monday thru Friday when I'm at work I'm very stressed out and dropping F-bombs because I want to pull my hair out. No my life isn't unicorns and rainbows everyday, but I am at a place in my life where I feel things within myself have finally fallen into place.

Source
Inner happiness and peace. I love the person I have become and I am glad that I have let go of all the bad things that have happened to me in the past. I don't relive my past anymore and I have also learned how to forgive. Now that I am at a good place mentally in my life, I am starting to work on the rest. Things like traveling, building a tiny house (maybe) and possible moving somewhere that I can cycle outside all year round. It is all part of creating happiness and the simplicity I crave in my life! So what is my new blog title? It is Creating Happy! I decided to use the word happy instead of happiness in my new blog title because I thought it sounded cuter.


What is different about the new blog? Nothing really, besides a new look and a more fitting title. Everything that is on My Mod Style has been imported to my new blog Creating Happy. I hope to start having you redirected to the new blog automatically soon, once I figure out how to do it.

I was nervous to do this but at the same time very excited! :)

Arches National Park

Our first stop on our California road trip was Arches National Park located in Utah near the city of Moab. Arches is a park full of tall rock formations and naturally formed arch ways. After you enter the park you start driving up a windy hill. You end up so high you can see the highway off into the distance far below.

On your right side you look down below to the road where you started.
On your left you start to see rocks lining the road.
It was hot outside, 96 degrees

The dogs were not allowed on any of the trails so they had to stay in the car. We kept the car moving so that it stayed cooled. I didn't really understand why dogs weren't allowed on the trails because they were all paved concrete walking trails. Even people stay on the trail it's self and don't go near the arches and rocks. Sadly since we were just driving through I didn't get to see if there were any real hiking trails where you can actually go out into the formations. The park was busy and it was hard to take pictures on the trails without a million people in them. I don't like it when it is that way. I prefer being out in nature where it's peaceful and quiet. When you can get lost in your thoughts.

Almost right away you start seeing the arches and rock formations. It doesn't even look real....









My favorite photo I took...

My photos do not do the park justice. You have to be standing next to the formations to actually see how big they are. I would visit Arches National Park again in the future as long as there are actual trails somewhere. I really want to check out the Needles area in Utah. I've been told the good hiking is there. Utah is so beautiful.

View all our my posts about our California vacation HERE.

Inspiration: A Year Long Road Trip & More Tiny Houses

The below video is so inspiring. (Caution: It may make you want to quit your job and do nothing but travel.) It's about a family who was sick of working just to pay for a big mortgage. They decided to make a huge change and sell everything they owned. They bought a travel camper and hit the road with their four young children to venture on a year long road trip.


I've become overwhelming obsessed with finding a way to live a gypsy lifestyle. Since our trip to California there has been much talk about building our own tiny house on a trailer. Will it happen? I can't say for sure since I don't know what our future holds for us. If it was up to me today though, construction would have already started. hahaha

I recently stumbled across a very inspiring story about someone currently building a house on wheels. His name is Ethan and his house is pretty amazing I think...


I really enjoyed reading his story about why he decided to build a tiny house and how he is going about it. His house isn't finished yet so I am really excited to be able to watch the rest of his progress. You can read his story HERE.

Not sure if you can live in a tiny house? Do you wonder how small is it actually? You can now stay at the Caravan Tiny House Hotel located in Oregon. You can get a true feel for how the houses are. I think this is great idea for someone considering building a tiny home. Cody and I plan to stay in one sometime next year.


We actually spent some time over the weekend de-cluttering closets, selecting things to donate and also determining what from our toy collection we are going to try to sell. If you are going to live in a tiny house it requires a huge amount of downsizing. I am so ready for a huge change in my life. Downsizing my possessions is a great place to start I think. Here are some tiny homes that I fell in love with on Pinterest...





I hope you find these images and stories inspiring. I have started sketching my own tiny house floor plans.
If I can get my drawings looking descent enough I may share them here on the blog someday!
View my entire Tiny House Pinterest board HERE.

Driving to Calfornia

I'm finally getting around to sharing my first post about our vacation. We decided to take three days to drive out to California. We took our time so that we could stop and see some sites along the way. I love going out west because I think the scenery is gorgeous. Day one of the drive was 500 miles and it took about 8 hours to reach our final destination in Monticello Utah. Below are some of my favorite photos I took during the first day of driving. The first one is of the sunrise near Fort Collins Colorado on highway 25, taken around 5:30 in the morning.


The entire drive through Colorado you are surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. It's pretty amazing. Once we got off highway 25 and merged onto highway 70 we were pretty much in the mountains at that point. One of my favorite things about road trips is seeing the ever changing scenery from state to state.


The skies out west are always so blue!
We made a quick stop at a very cute town called Frisco. It had small town charm but you could tell it was a tourist hot spot. I had never even heard of the place. There were people riding bikes everywhere and we were surrounded by hiking trails. I think we are adding the city of Frisco to our travel to do list. :) This is another reason I like road trips, you find places to visit for future vacations. I like discovering hidden gems.


Back into the mountains we went...As you get closer to Utah you see more rocks...

I was so excited that we were able to stop and take some photos of the Colorado river. I think it's so neat how it is a orange/red color from the clay. I had never seen anything like it before.


Chloe and Muffins did a great job during the long ride...
We got to drive through some neat tunnels that were carved into the mountains.
Beautiful flowers at a Colorado visitor center.
Shortly after crossing into Utah we stopped at a rest area to stretch our legs. The stop was really nice because you could get out and take some photos. I feel like my favorite scenery from our drive to California was in Utah. In my opinion, driving through Utah is like looking at a painting the entire time. A lot of it is so wide open and you can just see nothing but mountains in the distance...

Muffins wondering how she ended up in Utah...


During our drive we also stopped at Arches National Park located near Moab Utah. I plan to share photos from that trip next. Below is a Google map of the route we drove in case you are interested. If you ever get a chance to drive it I highly recommend it. It is breathtaking. I use Google maps to plan all my road trips!


Learn more about the city of Frisco HERE / Arches National Park HERE.
Stay tuned for many more posts about my trip. :)