color run with Matt, the Bensons, and 15,000 other people
I'm currently really tired and am laying in bed writing this, so I don't know how intelligent this post will sound, but today has been an awesome day. (I'll talk more about it tomorrow.) In the meantime, enjoy some instagram photos from the past two weeks. They've been great.
As always, you can follow me on instagram @impulsings for tons more photos!
This vest was another thing I pulled out of the "to sell" pile that I never actually sold. I think I actually bought it at the same time as this vest and was planning to alter it to fit me. That didn't happen either, but that's okay. I actually like that it's so loose now; it's the perfect balance to my more fitted clothing. It's a great vest, and I love the different patterns in the front/back. I don't have very many pastel pieces so this vest is basically coming to me at the perfect time, which is funny because when I bought it, I didn't really like it.
I wore this outfit when we went camping last weekend, because I knew I had to get pictures by the lake. Last year, it was so cold that I was freezing in shorts, but this year I was sweating even without the tights on. Go figure. In fact, this week we are supposed to have temperatures up to 85 degrees. What the heck. I need to vacation down in the lower forty eight where it's cooler!
p.s. In just a few hours I'll be running in the color run with Matt and our friends Joel and Marquel. I'm so excited! All the training has lead up to this one, fantastic moment.
I hope you have a great day, and don't forget to enter my firmoo giveaway!
I'm excited to share this video today, because tomorrow I'm doing the color run! I've wanted to do one of these for a long time, and finally my city is having one! Matt, myself, and our friends Joel and Marquel (Joel was previously my drama teacher and I shot their wedding last year) are all doing it together as a team. It's a pretty low key run, which is good for Lauren because I never run voluntarily. ;) But it's going to be a blast and I'm so excited.
It has been so so hot these past few days. It's nice and cool in the office where I work, so I'm usually wearing tights during the day, but as soon as I get home it's time to strip to the bare minimum amount of clothing. It's on hot days like this that I wish I had more summer clothing in my wardrobe, especially crop tops. I currently have three that I've worn to death, so I thought, "Hey, might as well try to turn all of my tops into crop tops." A recently post junior high Lauren would have been disappointed that I'm now returning to the days of knotting long shirts into shorter ones, but when you're trying not to die from heat, is there really any other choice? Speaking of crop tops, I've had my eye on this one forever now, but I haven't yet been able to justify buying it. Every time I'm tempted, I think, "Now Lauren, you could use that money for so many other things in the future, like that dream wedding, or roadtripping across the United States, or buying new camera equipment, or buying plane tickets to every place in the world," and then I don't click on that buy button.
I recently read this arcticle and consequently posted it to my photography page. One day, one day I shall do this. The plan now is to save up money, and when the time comes, spend an entire summer living out of my (soon to be existent) car or on couches that anyone is willing to let me sleep on, and make art, teach photography, and sell my (also soon to be existent) novel. Doesn't that seriously sound like the greatest thing ever? I've always wanted to take a huge roadtrip across the United States. My family has done a lot of moving so we've driven through a lot of states both in the Northwest, Central, and South United States, but we never got to go to any of the national parks or touristy type of places. I've always wanted to go see the Redwood Forest, or Niagara Falls, or Yellowstone National Park, or the Grand Canyon. But really, I just want to see as much of the world as I can. Travel the world or a crop top? I'll take the travels hands down. Sign me up.
shirt: old navy // shorts: thrifted // shoes: target
Just a quick little post featuring my outfit from day two of our latest camping trip. My little sister snapped these photos of me during lunch. It was seriously the nicest weekend in the world to go camping. Last year it was cold and rainy, but this year the sun was shining, there were hardly any mosquitos, there was a freezing lake to cool off in (in five second intervals, but still) ... I even got sunburned! I can't wait to share with you guys more photos from this trip, because I am pretty sure this is now officially my favorite camping spot.
Sssh, just pretend you don't remember that I wore this dress in my last outfit post. That's totally beside the point here. Instead, take a peek at this awesome vest I got at the thrift store! In my pity party about not having enough clothes to wear (which I realize is crap now, because there are so many better things I can spend my money on and clothes are not that big of a deal to me), I pulled out some old bags of clothes from the back of my closet. This vest was in one of the bags, put there because I was going to sell it on my online store that never happened after I decided that I didn't like it as much as I did when I bought it. So I decided to give the thing another go around and I love it! Now I'm glad I held onto it for so long, because it's a really sturdy vest and pretty neutral that will go with a lot of things. Who knows, I may never be able to stop wearing it.
It's funny though, I always buy things that I end up never wearing until years later. Maybe my purchasing instinct is just ahead of my time, and I'm buying things that I subconsciously know I will like in the future. ... Though, I hope that's not always the case, otherwise you'll be seeing me in weird red patterned shirts and grandma (not cool grandma, but weird grandma) skirts. Oh what was I thinking when I bought those things?
Has that ever happened to you? Where you bought something but then never wore it? It's obnoxious, haha.
I hope you have a great day, and don't forget to enter my firmoo giveaway!
You can follow all of my camping adventures on instagram by following the tag #hardcoreparkours2013
"The Russian River is a 13-mile-long (21 km) river on the Kenai Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. It flows northward from Upper Russian Lake in the Kenai Mountains through Lower Russian Lake, draining into the Kenai River at the town of Cooper Landing. The native Denaina people called this river Chunuk'tnu.
Like the Kenai, the Russian River is famous for its fishing, especially for salmon. There are two runs of sockeye salmon each year, in mid-June and mid-July, and a run of silver salmon in August." (from Wikipedia)
Last weekend my family went camping at the Russian River. Regardless of potential creepers, I want to share the specific places we go camping this year for you all who are curious about Alaska. The Russian River is definitely one of the prettiest campgrounds we've been to (but then again, they're all really pretty). Surprisingly there weren't many people on this memorial day weekend, which was just fine for us. When the salmon come in though, the area is swarming with people and animals looking to catch a fish. Salmon is a major market here in Alaska, so there are always commercial and noncommercial fishermen around. My parents love to fish, and always after their excursions the house smells of smoking salmon about to be canned or cooked. Mmm, love me some Salmon! The Russian river is one of the major rivers where people fish.
One of my most favorite things about camping in general has got to be the food. There's just something about cooking eggs, bacon, and bread over a fire and turning it into a sandwich that makes the taste unlike any other. And of course camping isn't complete without hamburgers, hotdogs, and smores.
This weekend in particular, the weather was so nice and warm. Of course the temperatures dropped down to about 30 degrees at night, and it's in moments like that that I'm glad I have my dad's military sleeping bag. That thing keeps me toasty. The Russian River is pretty inland, so the temperatures are more mild than campgrounds near the ocean. There are mountains on both sides so there's minimal wind, which is always nice. All around Alaska there are tons of hiking spots, so on the full day that we were there, we hiked to the falls, which I will share a photo of tomorrow in the "creative pictures" part of this camping weekend.
My dad, my mom, myself, William, Nicholas, Moriah.
Speaking of camping, that's where I am right now! (Thank goodness for scheduled posts, haha). I'm guessing every weekend will end up being a camping weekend on the blog, so hopefully you guys enjoyed it!
I love this project so much because of its humanity. It shows the essence of being human and it almost makes me cry because it shows how life is so quirky and crazy and beautiful and it reminds me of my own life and how much I've grown and changed, but at the same time, how much I've remained the same.
I also love it because of the stories behind the photos. I've said it time and time again, but my favorite part of photography is the people that I get to meet. It's so exciting that she is able to go to people's homes and learn the stories behind the photographs and get peeks into their lives. I hope at some point in my life I will be able to do the same thing--just travel around taking pictures and staying in strangers' homes and learning about everything.
You can check out the series here. (some photos NSFW)
Ever wondered how I manage my crazy hair? Well look no further than this blog post, because that is precisely what I'm going to share with you today. I've done many different routines with my hair, from straightening it exclusively, to putting way too much sculpting cream in when it was short. My current routine is so easy and stress free, and I can guarantee its success (on me) every time so I'm never worried about how it will turn out. As always, your hair will be slightly different than mine, so results will vary. It's taken me nineteen years to figure out my hair, so don't worry if how I do it doesn't work out for you. Everyone's hair is different and you'll fine tune every tutorial online to fit your preferences and style.
My own hair is very thick, and pretty curly. I have little ringlets some places and awkward straight pieces other places, so my hair pretty much does what it wants in its complete natural state.
This routine has also been done on my friend who has super straight hair, and it turned out pretty nice. Again, just play around with this until you find a method that suits your hair.
I shower at nights so that my hair has enough time to air dry and because I like going to bed clean. Right after I get out of the shower, I brush through my hair. In the shower I use shampoo and conditioner, and recently I've been putting in my little sister's leave in conditioner (ssh, don't tell her!), which makes brushing out my hair a lot more manageable. After I brush my hair, I let it air dry for about 15 minutes before I move onto the next step.
After the (roughly) 15 minutes are up, I part my hair into two sections right down the middle. I part the top with my brush, and the back with my fingers. This by all means doesn't have to be perfect. Then I set aside one section by securing it with a hair tie.
Then I french braid my hair. I'm not very good at making it look pretty, but thankfully it doesn't have to be. Once I'm done french braiding the first section, I move on to the other.
The final step for the night is to straighten my bangs. I do this partly because I usually won't have to do it in the morning or if there are any annoying fringe hairs from when I straighten it, I can press it down with a bobby pin, sleep on it, and in the morning it turns out normal. I also do it partly because my weird natural dry fringe is really annoying.
In the morning, I undo the normal braided part of my hair by simply unweaving the sections. The part that's french braided, I shake out with my fingers. I do this because my hair is usually still a little damp in the morning and I don't want to lose the wave that the braid gave.
I don't actually have a middle part, but force my hair to part in the middle for this routine so that when I put it back at its natural part, I have added volume on top of my head. I shake the hair in the back with my fingers and then toss my hair over my head to shake the middle part away and make my hair not look so separated. Then I flip back over and adjust my part as needed.
And of course the routine is not complete without a bow! I usually wear a bow on the first day after washing my hair because it is extra poofy and needs to be pulled back a little bit.
And that's all! I generally wash my hair twice a week in three day increments, sometimes four if I'm feeling extra lazy, but by that time my hair is really oily.
If you have any questions about my routine, questions in general, or suggestions for future posts, please don't hesitate to contact me.
