Happy Thanksgiving!

There's nothing like a solid Thanksgiving spent with my mom watching episode after episode of Parenthood, introducing my dad to The Hunger Games ("Oh, wait, Jennifer Lawrence is in this movie!?"), skyping my sister who is across the country spending her Thanksgiving in Virginia with our neighbor who is also across the country for school, and realizing a project worth 15% of my grade is due on Monday.

Solid. SOLID. 

This year has given me so many things to be thankful for. I can't believe all the things that have happened this year for my family and I. Between my sister's college dream come true, my parents' good fortune in having a mostly stress year for the first year in too long, and the summer of a lifetime for me spent in Seattle. 

Good things happen in time. I like to think we are all out of this slump we've been through and never before have I felt so thankful for the small things. We may not all be together this year, but we are all happy. We are all healthy. We have each other. Bad things happen and this year has shown me more than any other year that it's important to be appreciative of the good because it's not always so easy to push past the tough things to notice the small good details. When it's this easy to see the glory in just sitting in bed with both my parents sipping coffee, the happiness in it is so easily magnified when there's nothing bad to worry about. It's important to cherish this. 

Now is a gift.

one last adventure of 2012

i ended 2012 today the very best way i could have. we were all desperately in need of a getaway after some not so great news last week (again with 2012, we won't miss you...) so my mom, dad, grandma, and i piled into my grandma's car to head north. i've spent a few days of my summer every summer since i was born in the windriver mountains of wyoming fishing in foot wide creeks, sleeping in the family mobile home cabin on the prairie, and boating on fremont lake. i've never visited during the winter so taking a drive around the lake plus taking a miniture hike along the ridge above the lake was a completely new experience. it was completely silent up in the mountains today. instead of people, we saw four bald eagles and a moose. the quiet gave us all a chance to catch our breath before the new year starts. i'm not one for new years resolutions because i operate better when i set specific goals for myself rather than general ones, but if there's one thing in 2013 i want to embrace, it's the simple gratitude of the present.

p.s. i'll be spending my new years eve eating peanut brittle and watching mad men in my christmas socks and sweats.

merriest of christmases to all!

i wish each and every one of you only the merriest and happiest

of christmases!

we're spending christmas with my grandma, which is kind of my favorite way to spend christmas. no one does christmas quite like my grandma (...forever the most spoiled grandchild) and if her house doesn't put me in the christmas spirit when i've quite seriously done nothing to participate in the holiday festivities, then nothing will. i felt it all of last night and most especially today as i spent all but an hour in my christmas flannel pajamas and new fair isle socks (blog friends are the best!). 

no, but really. i've slacked this year as far as christmas goes. as in, i did no christmas shopping. as in, i owe a lot of people some seriously great belated holiday gifts because i have some seriously wonderful people in my life (stop being so wonderful! i can't even compete with the love you all shower me with!). 

and as far as christmas eve goes, it was the most relaxed christmas eve to date. christmas office episodes with my parents before bed, too many sugar cookies, finishing a book in one sitting on my kindle, drinking a whole lot of hot chocolate and coffee in christmas mugs, but mostly enjoying my dad's many, many wonderful phrases and quirky sayings. and making my sister as annoyed as humanly possible with forced hugs and snuggles. and making my mom roll her eyes every three seconds. really, my family is pretty fantastic.

and over thanksgiving break, i learned html

between editing pictures, back to back episodes of season 7 of how i met your mother,
and physics problems, i managed to teach myself html.
i knew it before, but in my last layout, it took some tricky sneaky
moves to figure out and finish after i'd finished the ground work.
low and behold, brooke's blog!
also, you should probably read it... she is a real hoot and i went
to high school with her, just saying.
(also she guest posted for me this summer here!)

i'm thankful

• for chai tea lattes, because they prevent zits and stress during midterm weeks
• for ombre hair, because the messier it looks, the better
• for online shopping, because otherwise my wardrobe would be maurices and the buckle
• for macs, because for once i've had a computer last longer than a year
• for iphones, because i've never been bored in class since
• for the internet, because i've met people that are fantastically not boring
• for fleece lined tights, because they allow me to dress as impractically as i please in montana without completely freezing to death
• for strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, because otherwise i wouldn't eat any fruit ever
• for taylor swift, because she wrote a hipster hating album when i needed it
• for my fleece northface gloves, because they allow me to drive to school in the morning when my steering wheel is colder than the 15 degree air outside

and mostly, i'm thankful that i'm the kind of person who is thankful for what and who she has every single day of the year. i'm extremely fortunate and blessed to have those people in my life this year there. and i'm thankful that i get to spend an extra long weekend with my three favorite people, cuddled up in my parents' bed in my onsie. truly, i have it good.

halloween 2012

i did a halloween recap last year and after the night we had,

i knew i had to do it again. halloween, after all, is my 

favorite holiday and forever will be.

-fake eyelashes purchased again because it's the one time a year i can wear them and no one will judge me because it is halloween and people do a lot worse.

-a costume thrown together from the contents of my closet, once again.

-lipstick bought and used for the first time in my life.

-a plan change mid-day and previous tickets sold on facebook last minute.

-"you're a...maid?"

-spotting "the coffee boy" yet again. instant recognition. coffee order recited. and now i can never go get coffee there again.

-asking a girl in a white bra and skirt what she is. "a polar bear!" ...of course.

-dancing with a boy in physics class who sits behind me. "you're one of the cute girls that sit in front of me!" 

-dancing simultaneously with his shirtless friend who could be an abercrombie

model.

-finally getting the thumbs up to do jenny's make up.

-getting asked to tie someone's shoe because "you're so close to the ground already!"

-my conversation breaker in the bathroom = asking everyone if they like taylor swift.

-making best friends with the guy in the fleece tiger costume.

-messing up the dance to gangham style. getting called out on it by everyone.

-bringing our best guy friend with us to serve as a 'bouncer'.

-finding a girl who sits behind me in my writing class and talking about Hunter rainboots boy for twenty minutes.

-"you're not a freshmen?"

-"you're not 21?"

-stealing hats right and left. wearing them.

-finding the friend of someone i'm not so fond of.

-coming home to eat a bowl of pumpkin ice cream.

top: modcloth // skirt: francessca's collections // shoes: urban outfitters

red, white, and mint

I'm not really one for the 4th of July, but when presented with the opportunity to match a holiday, I really can't resist. I wasn't feeling any of of my red, white, and blue combinations, however, so when my new mint peter pan collared shirt was calling my name, I immediately snatched it up. It's official. The 'mint' trend is absolutely my favorite thing in the world. My next goal is to pair mint with mustard yellow. I found these shorts at the very bottom of my dresser this morning and I am embarrassed to admit that I completely forgot I owned them. I bought them last year but they fit a bit tighter around the middle than they do now and I think they might be my new favorite thing. Also, my newest addiction is everything Ruche. My wish-list is far too long to be even remotely affordable, but with my birthday coming up in twenty days (twenty days until I'm twenty!), I am hoping to get a few lovely things.

My days have consisted of four things and four things only these days: work, taking pictures, editing them, and reading. My photoshop is constantly running on my computer and I wake up in the morning to edit as many pictures as I can before getting to work. Immediately after work, I'm planning my shoot for the evening and thinking of locations, shots, and how to "capture" the person I'm about to take pictures of. It's been a blast. I think my parents are a little bit tired of me being gone every evening and I think my bank account is a little sad because of all the gas I'm using, but coming home to show my pictures to my dad and receive critique has been extremely rewarding. It's official: I'm hooked. Taking portraits of people is such a unique way of looking at someone; I feel like I'm seeing them in a completely different way. Dare I say, it's a bit more intimate than a face to face conversation when I'm trying to 'capture' them or a part of their personality. It's an interesting challenge and I'm having fun learning so much more about my SLR camera than I knew before. And I even booked my first paid gig last week.

I'm wearing

shorts & shoes- Urban Outfitters

top- Shop Ruche

headband- Forever21

dear dad

thank you for being so weird. it used to embarrass me, but now i realize that sophie and i inherited a lot of it and it's the thing i'm most thankful for. no one should take themselves too seriously. thanks for the emails during the school year (to be text messages next?); they keep me sane and you always remind me that nothing, no organic chemistry test or bad week, is nearly as awful as it seems. thanks for going to my every soccer game (and frequent practices when you were the weird 'lurker' my new coaches sometimes thought was a child lurker). thanks for always making me push myself harder and thinking that i'm smarter than i am, you believe in me more than i probably ever will. and i never would have gotten as far as i have without that. i know you always want the best for me.

i'm home

with all of this

and i'm happy happy happy.

a very belated valentine's day post

I am one of those Valentine's lovers. In elementary school, it meant pulling out the crafty guns and going all out. I made most of my Valentine's and there was nothing I enjoyed more than decorating a box and opening it up after school on Valentine's day to read messages from my classmates. Granted, most of them were standard boxed Valentine's with simply a name written on the bottom from the classmate who threw it in there, but the ones that did have a note or had some extra craftsmanship won over my heart. I was also the kid in elementary school who always hoped to be that one girl in class that always seemed to get a red rose from a secret admirer. I was never that girl, but it was alright. I loved it anyways.



To me Valentine's day can go either way. You can love it. You can hate it. You can choose to make it all about your relationship status. But for me, it's always just been a day to celebrate other people. I'm a sucker for watching other people be made happy. It just puts me in a wonderful mood. And although none of the flowers at the desk downstairs were for me, I did like seeing the eyes that lit up. I liked seeing the eyes of my card swiping 11:00am buddy light up when I told him Happy Valentine's day at the cafeteria today.


Niklaas and I kicked it pretty cliche for us. We went to a matinee showing of The Vow, which I was slightly disappointed by but thought was a good story nonetheless, and then went to iHop. That wasn't planned but made the ever so cliche movie-and-dinner date "us" and fun. I have a separate blog post idea for that alone (overheard conversations at the dinner table are priceless). I had a soccer game immediately after in which I nearly puked but scored a goal in anyways like a bamf (haaaa, i make myself laugh) so we ended early, but it was a lovely day anyways.

I've been taking so many pictures of Niklaas lately. Be prepared. You are probably going to see a lot more of what he's wearing lately. I was talking to my roommate and fashionable bff about how much we adore his clothes lately and I can't help but agree. It's nice to know I'm not just biased! He really is just too cute, though. I swear, every time we're out in public together, girls stare at him. Granted, I'd probably do the same thing if I didn't know him. I guess I'll count myself lucky. But really, I love having a boyfriend that wears cardigans and button down gingham shirts and boat shoes and khaki skinny chinos. MMM.

I'm going to post pictures of his Valentine's Day present this week because it was too perfect for words! <3

Outfit

tights- Modcloth

dress- Delias

shoes- Target

cardigan-  Jcrew borrowed from roommate

belt- the Gap

merry christmas!

merry christmas!!

enjoy it while the holiday season is still here

i'm in wyoming without internet :-)