Wednesday!

Howdy ya'll!

I know its been a few days BUT Tim and I have been super busy entertaining super important house guests...the parents! Yep, Tim's mom and dad were finally able to come and see our cozy little apartment and we had SO much fun! Mom and dad haven't been down to SoCal for a vacation in...I don't know how long! We took them all of the places they wanted to go, including a few more.

After they arrived on Friday we did a little late night catching up before heading off to sleep. Saturday was pretty relaxing because Tim and I both had to work that evening. Mom and dad headed up to the LA area to visit our cousin Becky and catch up. Sunday was tons of fun because we went over to Oak Glen to do some apple and pumpkin pickin'! We took a slight detour with navigator Timothy decided to forget to change freeways...oops! By the time we got home that night, our bellies were full of apple donuts, apple cider, apple pie, apple ice cream and APPLES. I have no regrets. None.

Monday was our coastal trip up PCH starting with cruising around the Long Beach harbor to see the Queen Mary and the docked cruise ships. Our next stop was Venice (ew) where we took a short stroll down the crowded strip and then ran back to the car. Lastly was Santa Monica for a killer sunset and then over to Calabasas for dinner with the Shelley's. I've never been to Calabasas and I must say that I was quite impressed. I love the rolling countryside (if you can call it that) and all of the beautiful scenery throughout Malibu Canyon. Those Pepperdine kids sure are lucky!

Tuesday came too quickly. We ran some errands while Tim was at work and then all went out to dinner at my work for one last shindig before the parents left this morning! Not only did we do a lot of sightseeing this weekend, but mom and dad made our little place feel EVEN more like home. We hung mine and Tim's handmade coatrack from his aunt and uncle, reupholstered my antique cedar chest and finally hung up the TV we've been meaning to put on our wall. Those few things made this place feel really complete. Not to mention they stocked our refrigerator and freezer with delicious food. I am so thankful for such wonderful parents that take such good care of us. Tim and I have been incredibly blessed with two pairs of amazing parents. Thank you Jesus!

Today made for an interesting one since my brain was still on a mini vacation. I forgot one of my homework assignments, treats that I made for my classmates and basically slept my way through my last two classes. Time to get my act together! The rest of the semester is going to fly by because of all of the projects and assignments that are coming up. I'm excited to be on the downhill now though; only TWO more semesters left! Finally...

Anyways, time to cozy in with some late night snacks and a cheesy chick flick.

<3

Everyday is Disney Day!

Good evening!

Today I had the amazing experience of partaking in my friend Alexa's first time at Disneyland! Alexa is from Germany and is studying in California until December 22nd, so we have a lot to show her in the two more months we have left! Getting to know Alexa has been such a privilege; she is bright, sweet and always ready to go on an adventure. Today, Alexa checked off one of the many bullet points on her "California Bucket List," going to Disneyland. <3

Our friend and classmate, Arlene, is a cast member at the parks and very graciously let us into Disneyland today. Since Alexa had class at 4, we were only able to stay at the park until 3 (so sad!). I feel like we covered all of the important aspects of a perfect Disney day though. Here's proof!

A blurry but fun first tram ride! Also a 1st visit pin, duh.

Quintessential castle picture.

Mouse ears! & found BFF and cast member Polli along the way. <3

We had to take a picture of THIS.

The Matterhorn!

Space Mountain, Ghost Galaxy version.

All in all, pretty successful day! It was so great to be there during Halloween time too because of all of the adorable decorations and theming everywhere. Alexa even got to experience the 13th year of dressing up The Haunted Mansion in true Nightmare Before Christmas fashion. I love it! You'd think that I'd be sick of Disneyland by now, but days like this renew my love for the happiest place on earth! 

xo

Autumn Inspried

Lately I've been seriously reevaluating my fall wardrobe. In the past week I've perused countless websites for fall fashion inspiration and one thing has caught my eye time and again. Peacoats! There's nothing I love more than a timeless coat that not only keeps me toasty warm, but completes an outfit. Since reading Lauren Conrad's style guide to fabulous coats, I can now accept the fact that I'm head over heels for blush and camel colored garments this season! Here are a couple of my absolute favorites:

The Oxford Road Double-breasted Cape from Ruche & The Belted BRoad Collar Coat from Forever21 (Image below)

I'm more of a thrift shopper as of late, so I'm excited to shop at all of my favorite local thrift stores with these inspirations in mind! I'll blog if I find any treasure! :)

xo

Sunday

Oh nothing feels better than snuggling in for the night after a long work weekend! Don't tell Tim, but I actually enjoy spending my Sunday nights watching football with him ;). With the end of a week comes a beginning, and this week is another busy one! I have a midterm tomorrow and on Wednesday that I really should be studying for right now!

This semester has been going very well, I'm so relieved and happy about that! I guess thats what happens when you don't have a wedding to plan in addition to attending school full time. I seriously miss all of the planning though! Is having wedding withdrawals a thing? Because I think I have that sometimes...I can't wait to help with my sister-in-law's wedding in January, its going to be all kinds of winter wonderful!

I've decided that I need to start regularly posting pictures on my blog and not just of all of the Photoshop I've been practicing with. I need to add elements of my every day life. Starting tomorrow! Let's do this :)

xo

Saturday

Once again, I've been digging through the archives to practice, practice, practice! This is my friend and previous roommate, Bri. We did a random photo shoot one night when we were bored and experimented with her graduation hair and makeup. I guess I wanted to make the colors all funky when I originally took the picture...so I decided to play around with some black and white settings today.

Before...

& After

I will forever envy Bri's natural luscious, dark locks! Next is a photo of my sister that I took last year. The photo is clearly already beautiful, but I wanted to practice with skin softening and some more vignettes. 

Before...

& After

xo

Friday

It truly is becoming increasingly frustrating to not have a nice camera anymore. My camera is so dated that its painful :( I really hope that within the next year I can finally afford to get a Canon 7d. That would be a DREAM come true! Until then I'm going through old photos and "editing" them. Lightroom is tricky. Must. Learn. More.

Before...

& After!

I also tried playing around with a few different tools. Can you guess which ones I used?

Before...

& After

Yes I realize that I have a long way to go haha.

xo

Thursday!

My day has been long and well worth it, how about yours?

So in my previous post I said that I was going to make some sort of apple treat. WELL that turned into something peachy, peach cobbler to be exact! I never knew how easy it was to create such a delicious dessert, I think I'll have to make it more often! I'll have to find the recipe I used later and post it on here for you guys if you want it.

Anyways! Today is the third Thursday of the month and that means YOUNGLIVES! My very favorite day of each and every month! I get to spend time with beautiful teen moms and their precious bundles of joy (and energy). There is nothing I'd rather do on a Thursday than serve teenagers that need love and support. What made tonight even more special than usual was that I led my first ever YoungLives club talk! I have always admired youth group leaders, worship leaders and pastors for their abilities to deliver a strong, resonating message to their audience. It was a challenge for me to write this talk because I have never given a "speech" that had scripture present in it. I mulled over a few different topics that I could cover, but in the end I wanted to keep it simple, for some of the girls that go to YoungLives haven't called Jesus into their hearts yet. I finally chose a topic when I was on my way home from school last night blasting Miranda Lambert as usual. The song "Heart Like Mine" was playing and Miranda sings "He could calm a storm and heal the blind and I bet he'd understand a heart like mine." Wow, Miranda I love you for speaking that truth! That's when I knew I wanted to talk to our teen moms about Jesus calming the storm. I guess I can post for you guys exactly what I presented tonight! Here it goes:

The earliest memory I have of crying over math is in sixth grade. Sixth grade math should be easy, right? Apparently wrong in my case. I would start off with confidence and energy. That led into blank stares at my homework page. And finally, I would just eventually break down crying. The one thing I could count on throughout all of my turmoil was my dad. My mom was always encouraging but it was my dad that really calmed me down and set my mind at ease. In seventh grade I suffered through pre-algebra, but don’t worry I got better at it because I had to take it again in eighth grade! Freshman year of high school rolled around and still, I found myself crying and agonizing over every single math test I attempted. I’ve literally taken every math class twice, and you would think by now that I would have all of the answers figured out. Each and every time I cried, my dad was a rock for me to cling to and get me through the toughest times. Math created a storm swirling around me, throwing lightning bolts my way and drowning me in problems I didn’t understand (and still don’t). Like my dad, Jesus also has the ability to calm storms.

In the Bible there is a story so profound about Jesus calming a terrible storm that it appears in two different books; Matthew and Mark. I’m going to read you the story out of Mark chapter 4 verses 35 through 41. Here it reads:

“That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’”

In this story in the Bible, everyone aboard the ship was terrified of what damage the storm could cause. Jesus was peacefully sleeping without a care in the world. How could he be sleeping during a huge, scary storm? What we all face in our daily lives is hard sometimes. Some storms are too much for us to bear on our own. For me, math was terrifying and wrecked my ship countless times. My dad, like Jesus, calmed my storm time and time again. If when we are in turmoil we take a moment to pray or just talk to Jesus and ask him to calm our fears, our storm, he will do just that. No matter what we face in life, we don’t have to be scared if we believe in Jesus and that he will always be there for us. Like those disciples on the boat, we will come to Jesus thinking that we are going to drown. Jesus says, “Why are you so afraid?” All you have to do is have faith and ask him to come into your heart and calm your fears. Not every day is going to be easy and we will face plenty of storms in our lifetimes, big, small, and everything in between. Even if you feel alone, lost and helpless, don’t worry! The storm will pass and Jesus will get you through it.

In college, I haven’t always had my dad around to hold my hand while I cry. As I’ve grown and read the Bible and attended church, I’ve realized that my dad in Heaven is always there for me when my birth dad can’t be. So, remember, no matter where you go and what storms you face, your father in Heaven is waiting for you to call for him and ask for help!

I know that it is pretty elementary, but I've never given a talk like this! I hope I'm able to have more practice in the future. :)

On a different note, I just downloaded Adobe Creative Cloud via my university's website. The best part about it? ONLY $40! I know, ridiculous! I've officially begun my Lightroom 5 tutorial training until I can have someone teach me in person. This is the beginning of a long journey, but I am determined to be a pro at Photoshop and Lightroom. I'm one step closer to reaching my goals!

Looooove!

Apple Season!

Everyone is in that fresh autumn craze! I'm definitely right there with ya! The first weekend of fall I went all out and decorated mine and Tim's apartment ASAP. This afternoon I went out and added to my fall collection with some apple scented candles and refreshed my candy corn supply, haha. Now I'm in the mood for something tasty and apple-y! Today's experiment includes freshly homemade apple donuts! We'll see how this goes...post about it later!

Goodnight, Good Night

I am happy to say that my homework is done, we had dinner before 9:00, Tim's hair is cut, and EVERYTHING is finished before 9:30. I really ought to get my homework done at a decent hour more often! But thats college, right?

Speaking of college, for one of my classes I'm reading a book called Wal-Mart Wars. In the beginning, it sounded interesting. I'm pretty open when it comes to reading a variety of books. But THIS particular book has been a challenge so far! For some reason my brain is having the most difficult time comprehending most of what the author has to say. I've been trying so hard to sit down and just read the darn thing, but sometimes I just have to give up and go work on something else.

Its just been one of those days. My mind is elsewhere and I find myself daydreaming of crafts I could be making or photos I could be taking. I think its okay to give in sometimes though, don't you?

xo