My must-haves for Spring:

1. a bold yet versatile dress - the kind that you can easily pair with tights/boots/sweaters on the blustery days that seem to hang on for much too long.
2. a fun jumper that can be worn casually or dressed up

3. colorful yet muted flat shoes - in case you're like me and often need a "color pop" to go with excessively neutral outfits

4. Jeans that are somehow fitted but slouchy at the same time - I really want to find a pair like these, since I've been wearing skinny jeans + boots all winter

5. Matte nail polish in pastel shades - I really like this NARS polish in "Pokerface"

6. To acquire the skill of looking this cool while riding my bike (not to mention, to learn how to do so in those heeled booties!)

The Sartorialist inspires once again

This is a short documentary done on The Sartorialist that he posted a while ago - unfortunately my life has been a bit hectic lately so I've fallen behind on the various blogs I follow. However! This video was a really cool behind-the-scenes look at how he looks at/photographs street fashion, and to me it was very inspiring both as a lover of fashion and a lover of taking photos. It made me want to go to New York and to buy some amazing, expensive lenses for my camera - neither of which are happening any time soon, but a girl can dream. One thing I can do, however, is do more people-watching and street fashion pictures - Lord knows there is an abundance of eclectic outfits right here in Bellingham.

Also, as a side note - I'm going to start posting some of my fiction writing assignments here as well. Most of them are extremely rough and even written at midnight, but the prompts my professor gives us are so interesting! And I'd love more feedback.

What happens in Whister

I went with a group of 11 fun, adventurous, hilarious people to Whister, Canada this weekend for College Weekend 2011. It was my first time to Canada and so so much fun. We laughed, drank (legally! I actually felt like an adult), danced (so much dancing), ate, played, piled into 2 beautiful hotel rooms and altogether had a fabulous time. Besides listening to communication between the numerous frat bros & sorority...girls (a mind-numbing experience), it was interesting to hear so many different accents all around us, mostly Australian and French. My American accent felt clumsy and dull! But regardless, much fun was had by all. Next stop, Vancouver!

NOTE: I wish I would have taken pictures of some of the outfits we saw out in the bars/clubs. Girlfriends were leaving n-o-t-h-i-n-g to the imagination!

doha #2

“Tired”
Tired from moving and moving
Tired from using my head too much, and my muscles
Frustration tires the heart.
I will make this temporary house my home
I will sleep here, and feel alive in the morning
And fill this room with laughter. Make a house a home.

doha #1

Instructions from my Fiction Writing teacher: "Here are the rules for writing dohas: 1) Be present -- speak from the heart. 2) Speak your truth -- what is true for you at this moment. 3) No revising, no editing, no pre-writing. Just put your words down and let them go." We've been writing dohas almost every class and sharing them in groups, so I thought I would post some here as we do them, just to switch it up a bit. Here's one of the first ones I wrote, last week:

“Starbucks”
16 months today
Happy and happy, best friends
2 tall mochas to celebrate, take a break from life
Sit with me and love me
Read next to me
Taking life together, 2 heads are better than 1.

Weddings and lack thereof

These are from my beautiful friend Maria's wedding shower last month. As of yesterday, she is a married woman! Her and her husband, who is another friend of mine, got married on the beach in Costa Rica and are now bopping around there for another 3 weeks to celebrate. Jealous!

I'm at that age where friends of mine are starting to get married, which is bizarre and wonderful, but it is also serving to make me realize how little I want to be married at this point in my life. Someone asked me the other day if I wanted to get engaged soon, and I came back with a "Hell no!" without meaning to respond so strongly. I'm only 20! For some people, it is completely perfect and right to get married young (like my friend Maria and her husband), but sometimes I think young Christian couples feel like they need to rush to get married because that's what they're "supposed" to do, and one should never make such a decision because of applied pressure. I have alot to do, independently, before I get married, and I see that taking up the next several years.

walkin' in a winter wonderland

Snow over last week = beautiful and stressful. My life is one big juxtaposition.

Ghosts of Manhattan

I did some more practice shots over winter break with my boyfriend's current music project, called Ghosts of Manhattan. I've never taken band pictures before these, and it took me a while to get used to taking pictures of boys with such serious looks on their faces! Making music is serious business, I suppose. The boys liked the setting of the pictures I took of my sister (below post) so we went to the same place. I also tried out my new fisheye lens on some of them, and I was happy with how they turned out.