Tuesday, February 28, 2012

lazy




day 59


I didn't really feel like giving any effort towards a photo today. Sometimes I just wish I was a house cat ...

But today was pretty good. Watched some pokemon and got to eat dinner with Matt's family.

Tomorrow and the day after that I'm babysitting again, so things around here will be just a little slow, but I'm aching to jump back into posting outfits nearly every day.


College Wish List Pt. 4


College Wish List Pt. 4


My college is located in a very wet climate, which not only is bad news for my hair, but also everything else. Alaska is somewhat rainy in the summertime, but it's not humid whatsoever, so humidity and nearly constant rainy weather are going to be a big change for me. But it won't be so bad with these adorable rain items! I have a philosophy that you feel like what you wear, and to an extent those you come in contact with as well, so whenever it's rainy, I want to wear a bright rain coat. Yellow, I think, is the typical rain coat color that people think of, and it's no surprise--yellow is just so happy!

All of these things are needs on my list ... I don't own rain boots or an umbrella or anything. Good thing there are several months before college starts!




down on my mind




day 58


A bit of sad news to start this post: I just received an email from my college saying I did not receive a leadership or an English scholarship. So I'm currently in kind of a "bummy" mood. Buuut whatever. :/

Now on to happier subjects!. My camera remote came in the mail today! Can you believe I've gone so long without one? I've been playing with it for a little bit in my room and it's so much better than manually focusing--especially when I'm trying to take self portraits. I'm just itching to actually use it for a shoot!

I didn't get home until nine o'clock tonight. Why, you might ask? Because I've been babysitting! Oh, how I love little children. I was trying to get the little ones to bed, and the boy did not want to stay in bed. I would sit on the stairs listening while he fumbled in his bed sheets and sneaked out of his room. I caught him at least three times doing it, pretending that I was walking up the stairs instead of being sneaky. The next time he got up, he caught me sitting on the stairs listening for him, so I let him sit down next to me while we pet the cat. Before he had given me a big kiss on the cheek and while we stroked the purring cat he sat next to me in the dim light. I don't know, it just felt like a really special moment. It wasn't that he got his way in staying up, I think it was that we were able to share that time and it was special because I was letting him stay up. It was absolutely perfect because right at the moment when he asked me when his mom was coming home, the garage door opened, I said "right now," and he gave me the biggest smile and dashed up the stairs, stopping for a moment to whisper goodnight and then ran back to bed to pretend to be asleep. It reminded me of when I was a little kid ...

Those are my absolute favorite moments. It makes me really excited to have my own kids one day, to be able to create memories that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. At the end of the day, college scholarships or remotes or school or work don't really matter, it's those moments shared with people that hold the most weight and the most value. And that's what makes me really excited about life, not only being able to fulfill my dreams, but being able to share those dreams with others and to create a million perfect moments and to just ... live.



Sunday, February 26, 2012

we'll softly open our mouths in the cold





day 57


I'm finally at day 57 of the 365 project! For those of you who don't know, the 365 is a year long photography project in which a person takes one photo a day for an entire year. This is my second year doing it, and I'm loving it to death!

This week, however, will be a slow photo-taking week as I am babysitting my favorite kids Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then going bowling on Friday. So that means I won't be able to do an outfit post all week! D: But I do love being busy with social-ish type things.

In other news, I'm working on creating some business cards for my photography business, as well as some flyers to hang around the community. It's all quite exciting!

Have an awesome week everyone!




Sleepywalk






Happy Sunday afternoon everybody! I hope you're enjoying your day off; I know I am. It's been a pretty lazy day so far. Right now I'm sitting on my bed with the covers pulled over me and a sleeping cat purring beside me as it snows outside.





My boyfriend, Matt, went on a mission trip to Russia over a year ago and bought me this scarf while there ... and just yesterday we both got rings at the arcade. We have made it a tradition to go on a date there (nearly) every weekend, and yesterday we decided to spend some of our tickets. Even though it's just plastic and the googly eyes have probably been glued on with elmer's glue, it's definitely one of my favorite rings.

And the skirt used to be an ugly dress, so I cut off the top and made the hem shorter in the front and added some buttons so it would actually fit ... and created this awesome skirt!




I'm gearing up for summer photoshoots with clients and am already beyond excited. I already have my very first wedding booked! Eep! Wedding photos are arguably the most important photos in a person's life. A wedding happens (hopefully) once in a lifetime, so the photos have to be done absolutely right. That's a pretty high bar ... I shot for a church a couple weeks ago for a building project, and that gave me a lot of good practice, so I'm not too worried about the wedding, I just want the photos to turn out perfectly!

Also I'm thinking about raising my prices for shoots. Do any of you have some suggestions? Matt and I have talked about it, and one of the things that allows me to stand out from other photographers is the fact that I'm super affordable (currently $50 USD for a 2 hour shoot, which includes up to two different locations and as many outfit changes as you want, and a cd with usually 100+ photos). The only reason I want to raise my prices (other than for being able to save up money for more photography stuff ... and since this is my only "real" job other than babysitting), is because I don't want to just give people $50 worth of photos. I would say that editing a shoot alone takes at least five hours. It's a lot of work. I love everything about photography to death, but it is still work and sometimes it's hard and tiring and challenging. So when I know that people are only paying fifty dollars, it's not very much motivation, you know? And I want to give my very best effort.

Even if you aren't a photography person, I would really appreciate your input. At this point in time I wouldn't raise my prices over $100 for senior/family sessions, but do you think that's reasonable? Would you pay that much? How much would you be willing to pay?

Thank you very much for helping me out on this, you guys are the best!




Well anyways, I hope you have a super awesome week. Stay warm! :)





Saturday, February 25, 2012

day 55 and 56




day 55






day 56




I finally found my sd card adapter again! Thank goodness. Anyways, yesterday I went to a birthday gathering for a friend, and you may or may not get to see a video from that, and today Matt and I went on a date to see The Vow and play at the arcade. He saved me from being stuck at home haha. We've been saving up tickets for a while and finally decided to spend some of them. We both got the Lounge Monkey (you have to say that name seductively), which is basically a flashing light, and cute rings that have eyeballs on them (perhaps I'll get a picture in the future). So it's been an awesome weekend for me.

How has your weekend been?



Thursday, February 23, 2012

photo dump



I've lost my sd card adapter yet again and I nearly died trying to get pictures on a computer, so you're lucky you even get to see these. Haaaaah. So here's my 365 photos from the last three days.



day 54

Winter Winds



day 53

Bitter



day 52

I am ready now to fall

College Wish List Pt. 3


College Wish List Pt. 3


Hooray! Another college wishlist! This one's a bit more random, with clocks and lamps and a chalkboard and headphones, but that's just the way it goes. I'm obsessed with time, the concept of it, being on time, etc. (random fact: I'm not very good at telling time because I cheated on the time cards we had in first grade that taught us how to tell time ... I was such a bad kid, haha. Well I'm paying for it now!) Clocks really add a homey touch anywhere, plus they're good to, ya know, not be late to class and whatnot.

And just look at those fun paper lanterns? The dorm that I requested to stay in has a glorious window wall in each dorm, so there is plenty of natural lighting, but being a photography person, I'll still need tons of light if I ever want to do indoor shoots in my tiny dorm room.

The dorm that I hope to live in sadly is going to be torn down after my freshman year, so I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe they'll let us paint the walls and nail things into them and whatnot, but if not I will definitely want a cute whiteboard or chalkboard to write down important things I want to remember. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the painting dream!

The headphones are more of a want than a need. But still, they're super awesome!

The wish list series still isn't over, so stay tuned for more in the upcoming days!

P.S. I've managed to lose my SD card adapter AGAIN, so the 365 will be updated as soon as I find it ... I guess it's time to clean my room again.




Tuesday, February 21, 2012

love has surely shifted my way



shirt is thrifted // dress is from my mother's closet // tights and shoes from forever 21 // most jewelry from my grandmother



This definitely should have been my Valentine's Day outfit, it's so pink! I felt super girly and pretty wearing this today, and this has quickly become one of my favorite outfits.




Lots of exciting things have been happening today! One I'll let you guys know about in the upcoming weeks, and the other is that I was featured in a modcloth post! You can check it out here!

And look at how long my hair is getting! I straightened it for the funs and it's getting so long! But I definitely like my hair better curly.




I got this fun nail polish from two awesome friends. The yellow is super exciting and the clear turns pink in the sun! How cool is that!

Another exciting thing is that my boyfriend, Matt, posted his first look on lookbook! Show him some love here!







College Wish List Pt. 2


College Wish List Pt. 2


Whenever I come home from school, my coat always manages to find itself on the floor ... along with many other clothes. Sharing a small dorm room with a college room mate will probably not call for clutter, so some of the things on my college wish list are hooks and coat racks.

Also, I love to display photos and papers and notes and movie ticket stubs, and my college provides a board for each student to hang things on in their dorm, so tape and magnets (and string and glue and ... ooh man) will be my best friends. You guys, I'm too excited to decorate my dorm and make it all pretty. Haha I'm crazy, I know.





jackpot




day 51







Good golly isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen? Since we didn't get to do very much yesterday on our actual anniversary, today Matt and I had an awesome adventure! We chilled out at his house, watching Supernatural and scaring ourselves silly, wrestling (quite literally. Matt's brother was concerned for my safety, haha. I stayed strong though. But even though Matt won the tickle battle, he has not won the war!), running around the fabric store (I had to purchase some things for myself and for school), and finally going to the arcade at the mall! Ever since my drama teacher and his fiance introduced us the the glory that is the arcade, Matt and I have made it a tradition to go there. I always get the jackpot on the thunder game, he always gets the jackpot on the ball drop game, and we both always get the high score on the shark smashing game. We're already at 5,000 tickets! There's a waffle maker as one of the prizes (crazy Alaskans, I guess), and he and I jokingly said that we were going to get it for our future home. We shall see.

All in all it was an awesome anniversary and I still have the biggest crush on him ever. :3 Aaawe so mushy gushy grossness. That is all.

Monday, February 20, 2012

so try to be somebody








Look at how fabulous this dress is! This was a thrift store treasure from a few weeks back, and I was so ecstatic to wear it! It was originally a grandma dress through and through, complete with nursing home smell and shoulder pads and super long (unflattering) length. What drew me to it though was the amazing collar and the color. There are still a few things I should probably do to the dress to make it better, like actually hemming it after cutting it off, and fixing the awkward waist elastic, but I was too excited to wear it to waste time on details. Haha perhaps one day I'll get around to it.





Since the color of this dress was so insane and awesome, I decided to go all out with the color palette and not even care what people thought of me. And really, all these colors do go together, just in a fun way! And who doesn't love being fun? So I'm wearing my fun floral green tights (I accidentally purchased a medium and didn't notice until it was too late!) and maroon hat, as well as my boots (from my school's drama closet ... also way too big. Good thing I added lace so that they actually stay on my feet).






I always wonder who the previous owners of clothes are and why they would get rid of their clothing. That's probably one reason why I love thrifting so much; because each piece has its own story. I'm just sad I won't be able to know what that story is.



Do you guys have any awesome thrifting finds? I would love to hear about it!






five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes




day 50




One year ago today (February 19th, 2011), our lives changed forever. We've had our struggles and hardships, our moments of laughter and fun, and at the end of the day I love him more than I did when I woke up. Here's to an amazing one year, dearest, and may the next year be even better.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

College Wish List Pt. 1

Containers



Ever since visiting the college I'm going to attend in the fall, I've been compiling together a list of items I will either need to bring from home or purchase in the lower forty eight. It's only a page long so far, but then again my handwriting is small ...

One of the items on my list of things to purchase is containers. I'm not a very organized person, so if I can throw my stuff in containers, I am happy. Really they help me keep things in their place. Bobby pins, rings, hair bows, loose change, random rocks and sticks I find, safety pins, my sd card adaptor, flowers ... so many things that need containers! So I've been keeping my eye out (ie creeping online stores) for some cute stuff to put my stuff in. Modcloth always has the cutest things, so it's no surprise EVERYTHING on my wishlist is from them. But hey, that is certainly not a bad thing!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

light cry





day 49





My little sister is seriously an awesome model. I think she's going to end up being my go to person when I have no photo ideas.

Other than taking photos, I haven't really done much today. Sewed a little bit, ate food, worked on some art stuff. Oh and watched Drake and Josh. Lots and lots of Drake and Josh.