Hello my little sugarplums.
Im so sorry I havent been around much, but I am still knee deep in holiday cheer (and maybe wrapping paper.) This morning I am on my second trip home to Eugene to spend some more time with my bestest and my family. Not quite sure what the plans are for New Years, but you can bet it will be an adventure. I hope you are all enjoying the holidays. I will update soon. Love.

brrr

its freezing today. so I am bundling up and taking off to run my last minute holiday errands. then I am going to cozy back in with puppy and finish making some gifts until it is time to drive home for the holiday. I am getting so excited.

what are you up to?

life is short.

open your eyes

Happiness

December,

please.

My life, lately.

This is my life right now. 

And the reason I have not been posting.

 UPDATE SOON!

A handful of husbands.

This photo has me, for the first time in my life, considering multiple husbands, since I would rather die than choose just one.

Ellie Goulding

I have fallen head over heals for Ellie Goulding this past month. 

Her voice melts in the most enjoyable way.

She is ultimately indescribable. 

And as cute as a button.

You must just listen.

& enjoy.

Drumroll please........IM MOVING!

So I have been sort of dreading this post for a few reasons. But at the same time, I have been excited about it also. So here goes! I am moving! Yay! Ive got a beautiful one bedroom apartment that I am moving into this weekend. As you all know right now I am living with the boyfriend and my pup. With the end of our lease, we have decided to get our own places. We are not ending things, just getting our own space. I dont think that moving in together was necessarily our problem, I honestly think it was our lack of space. We live in 650 sq ft with only one wall separating our living space from our sleeping space. This means we do everything together. There is no door to close if I need to work and he wants to watch a movie. Even the best couples need some alone time and this set up has made it very hard for either of us to have any independence. Something that is very important to me. While it is definitely a sad time, we are both very happy with our decision and looking forward to the benefits it will bring. We know that a lot of people will not understand or agree with our decision, but we dont really care. As long as we are doing what is good for us, then I really dont think it matters what any one else thinks.

So, while I am sad that I will not be walking into the apartment and seeing the boyfriends face everyday, I am also through the roof excited about my new place. After flipping out and not thinking I would find anything decent in my price range that would be a good place for me and for Dex, I was so lucky to find this place. It is a basement apartment with lots of light, way bigger than our place now, has a yard and dog run for Dexter, and so many other pluses I cannot even begin to tell you how lucky I feel. I will be posting pictures of the new place and more details about it soon, but there it is. The big news.

This will also be the first time I have ever lived alone! Something that I have thought every one should do at one point in their lives. Especially women. I think there is something to learn from being and living with yourself. I cannot wait to see what comes of all of these big changes. I am in a major transition zone and I know that there is a lot of room for growth and opportunity here. I am planning on taking full advantage of it!

go for it all.

Dexter, lately.

my baby.

simplicity, harmony, opportunity.

 

WARNING: shits about to get personal!

What is it with this month? Is it a month for changing or what? I have seen multiple bloggers writing about how they are revamping their blog or changing it in some way because their blog has gone in a different direction. I myself had a similar post ready to be published with many of the same claims for a month now, but decided to start from scratch, today. Today is the day. 


My blog has shaped into something very different than when I started it. Not that it is a bad thing but I am not sure I like the reasons why. First off, I slowly got away from posting about my day to day experiences and photos. This past year has been a very crazy time for me. Lots of emotional and physical changes that at times were just too much for me to handle. I stopped sharing my life on here. I couldnt shape my thoughts and feelings enough to describe it all to myself so I dont know how I would have explained it all to you. Instead I would post mostly outer inspirations. These are things that really did speak to me and help me through whatever I was going through at that time and they all seemed to really speak to you guys too. I get a lot of positive feedback when I share the things that inspire me and I love that. I love to pass the inspiration on and hopefully help someone else. But in only posting these types of things I am loosing out on a lot of the benefits that got me into blogging in the first place. Like documentation of my real life experiences, it really means a lot to be able to just click back and see images from an amazing but understated day or a quote that really lets you know how and where I was one random week in april. Also, the amazing kind of encouragement and therapy that sharing real issues, ideas or successes with an audience that really cares and can help.  And not to forget, the friends and family that stop by on the blog since they cant as easily stop by my apartment and get the run down of whats been going on with me this month. 


So with all of that said, this is my claim. To start anew. I will of course still be posting all of the wonderful things that inspire me on a daily basis, but I will also be writing a lot more about me and my daily adventures. (I have already started if you havent noticed:) I have a LOT of big changes coming up and I am planning of fully embracing them and making lots of little changes alongside of them (one coming up next week). I just wanted to drop you all a little line and let you know about the change, perhaps a little preparation. I love you all for sticking by me and dropping your little notes of love and encouragement. You have kept me going this long!

Where is your blog at?

Is it where you hoped or want it to be?

the best things in the world...

just some thoughts...

So I've got a thing for...

This skirt. I dont know where I would wear it but it would be amazing. So beautiful.

Be you...

currently working on this.

with everything I have.

go there.

Your Heart asks you to go into the Unknown while your mind says its too dangerous. The unknown is where dreams wait for you, go there.

A day at the park...

My bestfriend Rachelle came up mid week and got to hang with her sister, niece, me and the kids I nanny.

She came up last night and stayed with me and watched crappy movies. Then today we all went out to eat and played at the park til the rain washed us away. I love all of these people so much. They are all my family.

And this is what happens when Shalane asks me to snap a few pictures of her and her kid. Epic Love.

These girls are the closest things to sisters that I have and I love every minute I get to spend with them.

shadow.

Opal Rose

This is my little shadow during the week. 

She is so cute and special that I could just die. 

where ever you go...

Where ever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.

You.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. 

There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” 

-Dr. Seuss

coffee date.

A fall morning coffee date. 

Love.

My wonderful weekend...

Eugene. My hometown. I adore it, I really do. This weekend was simply wonderful. 

It started Friday, with a photoshoot. A family shoot for a cool girl I went to high school with. Her family was so radtastic, I couldnt have asked for a better group. They were game for anything, which I love! I also took a few shots of just Tara for her website and blog. She cooks awesome food and she has even created her own spice and gave some to me! Even though I havent cooked with it yet, it smells so good I want to die! PLUS, my friend Stephanie came along to hang with Tara and help me out. I loved everything about this shoot. Here is one of the last shots I took of miss Tara, isnt she lovely? Go check out her site and blog too!  www.saucymouth.com

Later that night, it was time for girls night! Bah! I love my girlfriends. I dont have a lot but the ones I have are auhmazing! A couple of them have kids so it is hard to get us all out at the same time, so we have started a little tradition of having girls night in. Its a blast. This time we had most of the gang. AND our newest addition, my friend Jessica that we met when she started dating one of my all time favorite guy friends. She is literally the sweetest person in the entire world. We all stayed in and drank whipped cream vodka and PBR. Good combo I know. Oh and the champagne that for some reason Juliette and I decided we need to go to the store for. (we didnt need to)  It was so much fun though. I love my girls with all my heart and couldnt imagine my life with out them. Here is a group shot (of course I am not in it, I took it) and my favorite of the 3 that made it the longest ( us - 0 whipped cream vodka - 1).

Saturday was fairly dreadful and I have only the whipped cream vodka that I just previously raved about to blame. I stayed in bed and watched the football game that most my friends went to. Go ducks. I ended up staying in all night watching movies and oprah on my moms DVR. I ended up having a pretty wonderful time too.


And today was also a pretty epic Eugene day. I have this friend. He is pretty super. His name is Liam but no matter what, I still call him Wiky. Rachelle and I met him at some snowboarding events. He was the DJ and we LOVED him. He was playing the best mixes we had ever danced to. He noticed us totally jammin and gave us a shout out. We met him later that night and the rest is history. He is one of our favorite boys ever and by far the best DJ I know. Seriously. SO good. We had a coffee date for this morning. He told us to meet him at Sundance, our coolest local grocery store, they have all the best natural and organic stuff. They were having a tasting. I never knew they did this but it was sooooo cool. Free tastings of everything, coffee, cheese, fruit, jam, beer and my fave of the day, the PESTO! It was so cool, so hippie, so Eugene. Here are some snaps I took of it.

 Rachelle was very serious about her tasting!

 Such love.

 The PESTO! So good!

 So intense at the beer tasting. Look at Wiky! I just wanna pinch his little cheeks!

 I loved all the names of these seasonal beers! So funny!

And here is my dearest Wiky. He is such magnetic soul. I adore him. He brought his friend and roommie Tucker and we all four had a great little coffee date. We talked about fun and photography. It couldnt have been better.

I also got to spend a lot of time with my amazing family. I love them so much. This whole weekend made me realize that as we get older and everyone begins to move further along their own paths we have got to put out the effort to have these little girls nights and coffee dates to keep the good people in your life around. I feel so happy and rejuvenated after spending time with people I love.

How was your weekend?