back of the tree material.

I can't seem to get enough of Christmas music, or lights, or trees, or movies right now. maybe it's because the season seems so short this year, but I'm currently psyched 99% of the time. it's a little out of control.
anyways, my family put up the tree last week, and we had this joke about some ornaments being back of the tree material - the ones with nice personalities you know. we just like to keep it real haha. seriously though, Christmas trees are the best.

christmas time was here. raincheck on snowflakes in the air.

this christmas was really terrific. I don't know what next christmas will look like, but I have a feeling it will be a little different so I'm pretty thankful for all this one was. I've been living in the moment a little too much and haven't been taking as many pictures of what we're doing, but I think that may be perfectly fine, and here are a few of the photos we did get of the highlights.

skating at crown center


andre's goodies!


christmas trees


and hot cocoa while we watch christmas movies


packaging things pretty


christmas eve at grandma and grandpa's house


adorable puppies and our christmas tree on christmas eve


having chloe around for a couple days


everybody unwrapping on christmas day


beautiful christmas loot


and with that I'll leave you with two of my favorite sleeping at last christmas-y songs.


I hope you all had a very merry christmas!

things that made my day.

2 january. christmas lights. I will really be sad when I walk into my room and don't see the glow of the lights on our house and the neighbors' anymore. it's such a nice part of this time of year.


3 january. there are a couple of photos of this, but my favorite part of break has been being by this fireplace and tree. I think I might be a fireplace junkie.




5 january. little notes like these that show up in my room.


6 january. some fun goals I have for the next couple months. (also where my new blog banner came from) =)


year in review: august

creative endeavors

I was very excited when I found this tutorial because I've been fascinated by custom bokeh for so long. it's so much fun and when I can finally get my 50mm it'll be even better! here are the pictures that resulted from my experiments with it. I tried a heart and a bird. some have the custom bokeh, some just have a bit of a frame and some almost have a fish-eye effect. it's funny what it did with a 18-55mm instead.


















and here is my attempt at a retro finish. I think it looks kind of fun.


year in review: july

creative endeavors: have yourself a merry little christmas edition

one of my favorite parts of christmas in the last few years has been packaging my gifts to everyone. this year I kept finding fantastic inspiration everywhere so I was psyched. two things to note. one, brown craft paper is rather hard to wrap with, and two, the toast christmas issue is one of the biggest reasons this worked. =) I'm in love with their catalogues. pure gold.

anyways, here are some pictures of the final products. the inspiration was "brown paper packages tied up with string".








oh toast, thank you for being a part of my life.

year in review: may

things that made my day

28 november. going to the messiah, dressing up, these people.


29 november. thanksgiving flowers.


twinkling lights above my window.


1 december. plaid shoes. (taking photos of plaid shoes while ignoring homework)



christmas lights.


year in review: march and april.

"snowflakes in the air"

. . .or at least on the windows.
last weekend we all decided to make snowflakes. some used patterns, and some did freestyle. some used normal paper, some used newspaper, and some even used candy wrappers haha. they all turned out pretty well though.










a little christmas baking.


the finished snowflakes.



my snowflake.




oh and year in review: february