a civil war

day 301

Yesterday my friends and I volunteered at the Light the Night leukemia walk in Portland, so of course I had to snap some photos of Ivy in the sea of balloons we filled.

outfit: pumpkin patched

dress/shirt/shoes: borrowed // tights: mom's // socks: target // brooch: thrifted // coat: forever 21






Check out this absolutely perfect brooch! I found it for $4 at my town's brand new Goodwill and I couldn't be more happy about it. In light of yesterday's post about writing, it's a fun way to express my love for the written word. I've recently gotten into collecting brooches and I really love the fun, quirky ones. I can't wait to expand my collection and see what treasures are out there.

These pictures were taken at the pumpkin patch, and while I was trying to dress in fall colors, I definitely did not intend to blend into the sea of pumpkins! But I think this outfit was perfect for the occasion. Orange, denim, cowgirl-esque boots, I definitely felt like a country princess weaving through the corn mazes, petting cows, and picking out pumpkins.






I hope you guys have a great weekend!

and as the fog clears

it's day 300!

(this picture also looks way better here)

detail shot here.

1. I can't believe I've taken 300 pictures for this project.
2. I can't believe I only have 65 photos to go.
3. I can't believe there's only 65 days left in the year.

My friend asked me today if I was going to do another 365 project next year. In 2010 I did the 365 on a whim and it completely changed my life. In 2011 I did a 52 week project because I was scared I would stop doing photography if I didn't do a project. And this year I did it to document senior year and college. That's three years in a row of doing a year-long project. So I don't think I'm going to do another project for a while. But as I told my friend, I have so many photo ideas that I'm sure won't make it into the 365 that I'll still have a lot of things that I want to photograph. Plus, I want to broaden my client work and I love the creative process and photography itself that I'll never be able to stop. And I don't want to anyways. I love writing and art, but photography (and especially digital) has an instant gratification that not many things has. It will never cease to blow my mind how emotional and cinematic photos can be and how powerful they are. I have been thinking a lot about what my purpose in life is, and while I love doing a lot of artistic things, writing and photography are definitely my two passions. I feel bad for the writing side as that was my first love and my first calling, and I hardly ever do it (save for this blog) and I hardly ever talk about it. Once the 365 is over I definitely want to incorporate my writing into my photography, because I don't want to be neglectful of one and focus solely on the other.

That paragraph didn't really have a particular conclusion, I'm just voicing my thoughts. Other than revealing the deep inner workings of Lauren, I felt super awkward taking this photo. The tree was right in our dorm's "backyard," so all of the girls and guys dorms that were facing the woods (three floors of dorms) could see a crazy girl standing in a tree with a camera right in front of her face. But that's the story of my life. Other things about my life? I got an A- for my psychology midsemester grade, which I'm super excited about, and tomorrow my friends and I are volunteering for a Leukemia walk. I'm just hoping it doesn't rain.

starry eyed

sweater: borrowed // shirt: thrifted // shorts: forever 21 // tights: diy // shoes: target





Hooray for another outfit! I forget if I mentioned this on the blog before, but this is basically my first fall of being fashionable. Haha, it's funny to say, but until around the end of junior year I didn't really know much about personal style or how to dress. It was just because I was ignorant of the possibilities of clothing combinations. Gosh, I sound so horribly shallow talking about how awesome putting together outfits is, but I guess a way to justify it is the fact that your clothes are the first first impression people have of you, so you want to represent your personality accurately. I'd say that's pretty awesome that people get a chance to know something about you just by looking at the way you dress.





I hope you have a great Friday!