Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts

Friday, August 8, 2014

Snippets 04.

Snippets is a series where I share recent photos that I have taken--snapshots of my life. I share what I'm loving about my life lately.

ONE. The beach has been so beautiful this year (and yes, this is where I live). I've really enjoyed the windy days where most people stay home and the beach is quiet and cool except for a few kids flying kites. On wavy days like these, I just want to show everyone who says lakes are boring/not like oceans. Look at those waves! They may not be oceans waves, but we still surf in them.

TWO. I don't think I will ever take for granted how lovely it is to live in a forest. Even though the bugs can be annoying (and sometimes half the size of my head), it's the most beautiful area around. My house is in between a nature preserve and the beach, which means I literally get the best views on either side of my house. There's something just so wonderful to me about all the green, all around me. I love it!

THREE. In this mornings, I've been running up and down the stairs to the beach. I love the beach on wavy days, but I especially love the beach when I have it all to myself. Sometimes I'll walk down to the shore, take off my running shoes and just stick my feet into the water up to my ankles.

FOUR. Enough of the outdoors, look at my hair! I've been itching to dye my hair turquoise or green but before I take the plunge (and freak out H!), I decided to test it out on just the tips of my hair. Personally, I'm obsessed with the color. I didn't bleach it first, so it's sort of mixed with the brown of my hair and I really, really like it. Should I do my whole head? Just a couple more inches? Suggestions please!

What's going on in your life these days? Aaaand, should I dye my hair?!

Monday, June 2, 2014

Monthly Goals

Helloooo! Happy June! Today's our double day: weekly and monthly wishes! Man, it has been a heck of a week!

I've only talked about it a little bit but I had something big happen this week...I graduated! Yay! Side note: can I just say that graduation caps are officially the ugliest hats ever. Like serioiusly, America, is that the best tradition we can come up with? Other countries have gorgeous tribal or ethnic clothing and meaningful traditions (my family's half-Swedish and I've always loved St. Lucia Day). And while I know the US has other beautiful traditions, wearing flat caps on your head for graduations is pretty embarrassing. 

But aaaaanyways, all the family-and-friends socializing sort of overshadowed my goals this week. But I still didn't do half bad!

Last Week's Goals:

+ Make a to-do list every morning and actually get things done. So I started off great, but come Friday (when graduation festivities started) it was just not happening. My room's a bit of a mess and I've got approximately four thousand and seven thank you notes to write, but whatever. I graduated, homeskillet.

+ Read at least 15 minutes a day. I did great on this...until approximately Wednesday when I forgot I made this goal. Uh, oops. But then I remembered it on Friday and did pretty well the rest of the week so it's all good, guys. Plus, my genetics book = super interesting. I'm a nerd.

This Week's Goals:

+ Have fun in California! I haven't mentioned it in awhile, but my trip to California is this week! I leave tomorrow. As a reminder, in case you've lost your binder full of the details of my life, my family and I are celebrating my graduation by going to CA (I live on the East Coast) and visiting all the National Parks/beaches/aquariums we can fit in 12 days. I'm gonna see big trees. Anyways, this isn't a goal, but more an excuse to talk about my trip. #sorrynotsorry

+ Practice taking pictures! So I officially break the cardinal rule of bloggers: I don't take pictures. I don't even own a camera. Except my phone and a (largely unused) digital camera from approximately 2004. But I'm telling myself that it'll take a lot of skill to screw up pictures of such a gorgeous area. So even if it's on my iPhone, I want to actually take pictures of things for once! Maybe I'll get bold + take out that digital camera ;)

This Month's Goals:

+ Well let's look ahead to what June includes for me. First part of the month, I'll be in California, chilling out with the trees. Then, I'll be in Florida for a few days on some school business. Then (with literally less than 24 hours in between on either end of Florida), I'll head to Michigan for the summer where I work at an ice cream shop and listen to way too much indie pop music on my walks to the beach every afternoon. So it's gonna be crazy in that I have too much vacation planned! Jokes, jokes.

+ Form an actual morning routine. During summer (aka when I don't have 8am classes), I'm terrible at actually forming a good sleep/morning routine. Most days I get up between 8-9, but some days it's 7am and others it's not till 10 (which is actually embarrassing). This month, I'll form a morning routine that will involve a consistent but reasonable waking up time (with an alarm as back up!), exercise at least a few days a week, stretching, being productive, designing, etc. 

+ Work on my super secret project! How annoying is it to you guys when bloggers announce a project, but title is something like 'the super secret project'? Like why am I telling you about it if it's a secret? Mostly because it's not a sure thing + it's my way of knocking on wood. I hope to share more about it with you soon...if I can get enough of it prepared first!

What are your goals for the week + month?!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

5 Visually Inspiring Pins

I just wanted to pop in today and share with you a few of the things that have been inspiring me lately on Pinterest. I've been using Pinterest more and more lately for various parts of my life: getting in shape, decorating a dorm room, inspiring my designs and satisfying my need for visually beautiful things. I've heard a lot of backlash against Pinterest lately about how it's a waste of time. Personally, I think it's gotten a bit of a bad rap + I'm a tried and true Pinterest fan (even if they are incorporating more ads these days). How do you feel about Pinterest?

Pretty Paper Colorful Geometric Pretty + Paper
(Oh So Beautiful Paper)
(Swan Dive)
la-belle-vie:
(Source)

(Nature's Doorway)
trustyourgut
(DesignLoveFest)

Holler at me, y'all. What's inspiring you lately? Do you think Pinterest is valuable or a waste of time?

For more lovely things, follow me on Pinterest. And leave your username with a comment so I can check yours out too!

Monday, November 18, 2013

weekly wishes + orderliness + hippo flips

Hello pretties! Can I just say thank you to everyone who tweeted at me + generally was just nice + supportive yesterday? If you haven't seen yet, I've made some changes to my design work and have decided that I'm offering full custom blogger designs for $15 in order to build my portfolio. Find out more about the custom designs or see my new templates, which are only $10!

Can I just say this is the second weekend in a row that has just been fantastic? My team won our soccer championship earlier today, I love my new design + I've just been blessed by so many kind words from so many kind people today. I'm just really, really grateful.

As far as weekly wishes go, last week I made a goal to watch a TEDTalk everyday. So I failed at that; I maybe only watched them three days. But I watched more than seven talks so I'm counting this week as a success. I'll be sharing my favorites in the next few days!

In this coming week, I want to practice orderliness which sounds like something I'd be practicing in 18th century England or something, but it's more of a state of mind. I actually looked it up + it means 'the quality of appreciating method or system". And that's a big thing I strive for. Whether that means keeping my things organized or my living space or just my mind, I want to keep my life neat.


Science Bit of the Day

Not super sciencey, just cool. (Image + excerpt from The Guardian)

The week in wildlife: An elephant bull charges a female hippopotamus

An elephant bull charges a female hippopotamus as her calf scampers to safety. This female hippo was flipped several feet into the air as she stood her ground against an aggressive elephant bull at the Erindi Private Game Reserve in Namibia. (The hippo was just fine) (Also, how cute is the calf?!) Photo by Rian van Schalkwyk/Barcroft Media.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Catching My Eye 10.

Would you make me very very happy and take my survey? I promise, it's super short, 9 questions. And most of the questions are multiple choice, a few you have to fill in a word. I will love you forever! 

Today has been so long guys. Now that I'm done nannying (summer job), I have like zero motivation to get up in the mornings. Today I didn't get up until 10:45--how pathetic is that? Getting up late just makes me feel miserable all day. And then we had work acquaintances come by for the afternoon and I get really anxious and grumpy when I have to socialize with strangers for that long so I retreated to my bedroom for a nap until work. So it's been a bit of a blah day.  I have officially uploaded my Gatsby dinner party pictures though! So I super double cross-my-heart promise they'll be up tomorrow!

The best of the interwebs:


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♥The fact that this place (Lake Lucerne, Switzerland) is actually a real place. Gahhh I wanna go there.

The first quote I fell in love with as a youngster. Thank you, sweet home Alabama.

♥Old but oh-so-cute. --Sweet Home Alabama



♥Anabela from Fieldguided makes friendship bracelets in the color palettes of favorite photos. Who even thinks of that?? Anyways, they're super cool.




♥Make an iPhone tripod out of a toy dinosaur. Um yes please?? Can someone please get crafty and make this for me?

photo

♥This amazing portfolio of photos by Kevin Russ.

♥This year I hosted a Great Gatsby themed dinner party. Next year, I'm planning on hosting a shark week premiere party! Here are 31 Must-Haves and tips to make it epic.

♥Want to travel for free? Think about a volunteer tour.

♥Maybe someday iPhones will have autogrammar in addition to autocorrect.

♥You might have missed: July in Favorites The Good and Bad of Living in Alaska [guest post] ♥ How a History Major Became a Biology Rockstar [guest post] Sponsor CMS in August.

What have you been loving this week? Which of these links did you think was the coolest?

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Catching My Eye 07.


The best of the interwebs:


♥How to make your t-shirts look semi-ladylike.

♥This super duper cute elephant and hot air balloon throw pillow. Literally, anytime you see anything with an elephant (or rhino or whale or dinosaur) on it, please just buy it for me. I'll love you forever.

♥This writer made me laugh by rejecting his rejection letter.



♥This jelly.

♥Is there any land in America at all? This map makes it look like all rivers.

Here's that permission you've been waiting for.

McDonald's suggested budget for employees shows just how hard it is to get by on minimum wage.

♥Your sneezes sound like choruses of angels giggling. --Emergency Compliments.
♥You might have missed: Three Must-Read Memoirs ♥ Things I love about me +why that's not arrogant ♥ A reading playlist ♥ Sponsor CMS in July/August.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Dreaming of...Iceland

Almost exactly a year from now, I'll be heading off on my senior trip--my one chance to go (almost) anywhere in the world. I still haven't managed to choose a destination. Iceland is one of my top picks:

20121006-220516.jpg

(anopportunemoment.com)

Photo: Scenic view of Laugavegur Trek.

(Laugavegur Trail, photo by Ida Koric for National Geographic)

Photo: Hot springs at the Blue Lagoon.

(Blue Lagoon Hot Springs, photo by Jessica Anand)

Photo: View of downtown Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.

(Reykjavik, photo by Vinod Krishnan)

Photo: Wild horses in Iceland.

(Juan Maria Rivas)

Photo: Dyrholaey Promontory in Iceland.

(Dyrhólaey Promontory, photo by Noelia Magnusson)

Photo: A photographer photographing Seljalandsfoss.

(Seljalandsfoss, photo by Giedre Lesmaityte)

Photo: Snaefellness Peninsula.

(Snaefellsness, photo by Natalie Panek)