Happy Birthday Mom!

I restored this picture of my mom. Such a perfect 80's picture.

My mom has done everything for me. I love her for putting up with me and all of my sass for 20 years.
She always listens to my crazy ideas and encourages me to keep going and reach for them.
She buys me groceries and still does my laundry, even though I am now out of the teenage years.
She is the first person I call everyday.
She is the most patient person, especially when sewing Prom dresses.
She somehow made it out of my teenage years alive, which gives her major bonus points.
She rolled her eyes when I left the house wearing crocs.
She taught me everything I know about shopping.
She shows me how to take care of people and love them endlessly.
She cheers for the losing team, even if they are who she began cheering for.
She gave me my love for sweets.
She taught me how to satisfy my love for sweets by teaching me to cook.
She taught me how to wear spandex and hula hoop around the house in the mornings.
She loves me
And I love her.
Happy Birthday!

Ushering in Fall

All of the girls Re-united once again.

My girls.

My friend Hannah came and visited from Texas/Florida where she has been working at Disney World. I look up to her so much for going out there and following her dreams and never giving up. She is so much inspiration for me. So we filled our weekend with all that Provo has to offer. Our friend Brady Parks (who you should look up on Facebook and listen to his music) had an outdoor concert to usher in Fall. Then a perfect fire up the canyon, a mad game of dare, and topped it off with some Sammys. The weekend was perfect and I can't wait for her to come back in December.

Fall Colors

This is Fall to me. And I love every minute of it.

Life Lately.

Lately.

I am doing the pre-requisites for graphic design at school, and i'm loving it. My homework consists of taking pictures, painting, drawing, and designing on the computer. How great is that? It is a lot of hard work even though I don't have as many tests, it is so much more challenging to be mentally creative ALL the time, since it is graded.

Can I just say sophomore year rocks. Lame word choice I know, but I go to art classes, come home to an apartment full of people and then we party all night, everynight. Occasionally I squeeze some homework in there. 

Below are pictures I took of my model of a best friend. I got a new camera for photography and wanted to try it out. (She made the pictures look good, not my skill I promise) I used this first one for a critique in class and all the boys wanted to know who she was and then we proceeded to do a critique where they loved my placement of the mountain line intersecting with her eyes and the horizon leading to her mouth. Like I said i'm a genious. ALL on purporse people. Yeah right. Apparently i'm artist without even trying. Maybe I should do that more often, it would make homework a lot easier.

. Happy conference weekend!



So I went all sorts of crazy a few months ago and signed up for a triathalon, before you think too highly of me, it was a mini one. It happend when my family said “lets all sign up for a triathalon.” And by that ALL I figured we all would. I was the only one that signed up, up until a week before the race.

It was a great experience to see how out of shape I really am, and to show that to everyone in the stands. But, it was fun to do it with all the eight year olds. Yes, the eight year olds did beat us. But I will have you know these eight year olds were offsprings of Michael Phelps/dolphins. They crashed my self esteem, but I brought it back up when everyone kept asking what the permanent marker “70” was on my arm and leg, and when I told them I did a triathalon (I left out the mini part) they thought I was hard core. I’m not hard core. But it was fun, and I have so much respect for real athletes who can swim.

Notice us lined up in front of the little kids, thinking we could beat them. What were we thinking?

I won a cool trophy that I might actually use, instead of displaying them in the bottom of my closet. Not.

There are so many great moments caught in this picture. One friend pushing the other off the slide. One friend chocking a girl she doesn't know?

Then I went to a slip n’ slide that was covered in baby oil. So not only did we slide an extra 20 feet off the tarp, we left oily and smelling like a baby. We ended up bleeding from the grass, and the rain came pouring down. But we left with great stories. That's what it is all about. Then we enjoyed some homemade peach ice cream. (I may have made it) And if I can do it, it was definitely easy.



Farewell to Summer

I know this is a little late, but my new apartment and the wi-fi just were not getting along. But obviously it is working now so I am taking advantage of it to do a few of my favorite things. Blog stalking, pinterest, and of course Facebook.
School is officially in session. It feels great to be moved back in and have my routine again, but we'll worry about school later. For now it is all about summer!

This summer I:

• Went to so many farewells that I gained a million pounds, but seriously eating at three houses each Sunday had to do something to me.
• Discovered my love for rollerblading
• Tried new snowcone flavors, but made the ultimate decision that Tigers Blood is the best. I don't care what any of you have to say. It is. Just soak it in. It is.
• Had the best week in Lake Powell and learned that my fear of swimming with fish is an okay fear because they will touch you and most likely try to nibble at you.
• Made my own bedding and was actually pleased with the way it turned out. Can you say miracle? I can.
• Went river rafting and loved every minute of it.
• Was asked three times a day for money by homeless people, (some interrupted my conversations to ask me). I would be broke if I was a saint.
• Rode transportation in to work everyday, so as to be a super hip "green" person.
• Went to outdoor concerts and movies and soaked in the sun and warm night air.
• Went to a friends wedding. It is a weird feeling, but i'm so happy for her.
• Learned how hard it is to be a parent, especially a single-mother, as I was a nanny. Not easy work people. You finally get alone time at nine when the kids go to bed, but then you realize you are going to drop down right on the gross jelly smeared table and have a breakdown if you don't go to bed.
• Had SO MANY fires, because when in doubt of something to do in our small down we did that. But it ultimately led to the best smore ever possible. Are you guys ready for it.  Cinnamon grahm crackers + cookies and cream chocolate bar + marshmallow = a burst of flavor that will leave you creating a smore assembly line and eating 5. FIVE.

Goodbye Summer. Hello Fall 2011!

A hometown Fair

Can I just say I am a sucker for a local fair? Especially when it is my own county's fair. There is just something about the carmel apples, cotton candy, scones, sketchy carni rides, petting zoos, and giant bunnies that make me smile as wide as a the spitting lama I saw, (it was a big smile in case you were wondering).

We splurged on our calories a little, okay maybe A LOT, but it was a great way to end the carnival and a great summer!

(photos taken via Instagram)



Side note: Indecision works out in the end. While debationg over that intriguing swirly potatoe stick, the sweet girl offered it to us for free if we would walk around smiling while eating it. Free advertising? Sure why not. Sadly we snuck away and ate it under a tent, but it was delicious, so here is my shout out for the potatoe lady.

Right Now.

I've been all sorts of crafty lately. I've been meaning to buckle down and do some projects i've been planning on for a while. I love being crafty, but for me i MUST be in the mood to do it. Meaning I must be patient, happy, and have a free mind. So getting all of these together for me does not happen quite often. But it has happened this last week.

But first things first.

I got my wisdom teeth out this week.

No I don't have any extra drugs to sell, BECAUSE I used childrens motrin, and that is it folks. Childrens motrin. Works wonders, except on my cheeks, which look like i'm (trying) to hide a gobstopper or golfball in my right cheek. So apparently low blood sugar and bloody swollen checks get me in the crafty mood?

Alright.

Go ahead. Roll on the floor laughing at me. But you have all been there, or you will. I promise. Plus I only had 3. Beat that! Who knows where that missing wisdom tooth is...who knows.

Me and my friend went to Color Me Mine. It is such a fun place to go, on a date, or by yourself like the cute grandma next to us, or on a woman date like we did. You get to paint and paint and then come back and pick it up when it's all finished and ready to use in the dishwasher (that's the best part.)



I made this quilt for one of my best friends who go married recently. I'm so happy for her and her new life. We combined it with the cutest picnic basket, and the little flower girl pretty much had to pry it out of my death gripped hands because I wanted to keep it.

Happy picnic-ing!

And this gem is my new duvet comforter. My love/hate relationship with sewing was on the love side today. I love it, although the stripes make me feel dizzy, they're stripes, so you have to love it.

I finally figured out how to make the perfect fabric flowers to attach to my backpack!

It is going to be a good week.

Happy Monday!



My Wish List

Clockwise:

1. Holga 35 mm camera

2. Watch from revolveclothing.com

3. The cutest backpack that would make school so much better. I promise it would. From shopcarrot.com

4. Waterfall ruffled quilt from urbanoutfitters

Happy Monday!

Where have you been my whole life?

After living a very unpriveledged childhood (my parents would laugh at that) I was finally taken to Lake Powell. Although my dad DID stop by once when we were little kids, because we whined sooooo much and he let us touch the water so we could never say we had never been to lake powell. What a considerate father I have right? People travel from France to come here, apparently it is quite well known my people. And all I had to do was drive a measly four hours away. But don't fret my friends. I am now well acquainted with LP and all it had to offer.

There is nothing better than the relaxation station my friend. Nothing better

Lake Powell was full of tubing until we all had bloody elbows, hiking (or scaling and shimmying up and down 30 foot holes as some people in my family like to call "hiking") Tripoly, reading books, cliff jumping, coughskinnydippingcoughcough, eating and more eating until I told myself I just had to quit because I couldn't justify it anymore, no amount of swimming would make up for my ridiculous caloric intake, and taking in the scenery.

I will never wait 19 years to come back Lake Powell, I promise. Even the mice and carp can't keep me from coming.

My favorite holiday, in pictures

We thought our stripes were pretty cute.

My Favorite Holiday.

I don't know what it is, the late night fireworks, barbeque's, shopping at booths, and wearing matching Old Navy t-shirts. It is just a great time all around.

We started the weekend off by going to Stadium of Fire. It was hard for my family to endure Utah County AND country singers, but I think they would agree that the firework finale and BYU Old Spice Comedian man made up for the first two. It brought back so many memories of dancing down on that field years ago during Stadium of Fire. My terrible memory only brings to mind the bad parts- the blue man group and worrying about getting lost in the crowds of people. But, i'm sure it was fun to dance!

Kaysville.

The city goes crazy.

They started setting up signs threatening to take down blankets that were put up prior to midnight of the 3rd. So to stake out our spot my brother and some friends and me slept on the grass to get a prime parade location. That plan sounded good until six in the morning when cannons started going off every 3 minutes.  You heard me, six in the morning, EVERY three minutes.

So needless to say, we went home and slept for a few hours then went back for our breakfast.

Notice the picture above, it was a MANLY pancake that I enjoyed every bite of.

And then we topped off the morning with the classic water parade. People travel for this thing. I'm not joking it is well known. Little kids loved to spray me? Why? I have no idea, but it made my shirt a leetle see through. Whoops!

Hope your weekend was great!