30 days of questions

I came across this from a blog I just happened to take a look at. I usually am not fond of questionnaires (I find them childish and lacking truth) but I figured, why not? I really need something to distract me from my reality right now. I'm so tired of my life right now that I need something, anything, to remind me that life is good.

so here are the questions/topics. each day I'll answer them - starting tomorrow (due to lack of personal pictures at work and lack of free time when I get home tonight).

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your blog name
Day 03- A recent picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Tumblr and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Who are you?

I know - you're über excited.

fashion in the fall

part of me is super excited & part of me is wanting a new wardrobe.

come join.

cliff notes of my life

yes, I understand it's been awhile since my last posting but I've been too lazy to really get in touch with my feelings and spill them out. so instead of going into detail of how my last 4 weeks or so have been, here is the summed up, cliff notes version.

9/19/2010

took my girls trip to san diego. had a blast. weather was perfect. can't wait to do it again.

therapy seems to be a waste of my time.

fights with my dad is really getting to me.

suns win their first preseason game against the mavericks on saturday. cardinals pulled off a win sunday with undrafter rookie hall starting.

10/10/10

chris & I visited the ol' town of tucson for his best friend's wedding (which he was a part of - he's the one with the red arrow pointing at him). I haven't been in tucson since I graduated and got to catch up with an awesome friend. (sadly no pictures.) the wedding was nice, but I have a list of things I DON'T want to do at my wedding.

10/9/10

we got our half season tickets package for the 2010-2011 suns basketball season! I probably gave chris's dad good reason to think I'm lame because I jumped up and down a bit. (ok a lot.) I can't wait until october 19 when we get to go to our first game! (preseason.)

and our first regular season game is the home opener against the lakers!!!

aahhhhh!

talk about nerve wrecking....but it can't be as bad as the loved ones who have to wait 15-20 minutes for their beloved to come up from the chilean mine after 69 days! (yay for the rescued miners!)

san diego here we come

after weeks of debate and agreement and broken promises, I have finally decided I am going to san diego this weekend. with or without chris. and at this moment, it's most likely without.

I know it's not really recommended that one goes on a mini road trip/vacay without their significant other, but dang it, I've given him so many chances to join me and summer is almost at its end. I am 23 years old and waaay too young to be sitting around every weekend. and with the money we make and the vacation time we're granted, there's no reason to go explore the world. sure we've been to san diego before, but I've been itching to hit up the beaches all summer now. and it seems like every other week we I talk about going and how we can make it happen and at first chris is all for the idea but after a day or at the last minute, he always bails out.

so if he doesn't want to go, then fine. I'll pack my cousin and her friend up in my prius and we'll make it a girls road trip.

I'm going to have fun. 

new york and labor day in pictures

warning: lots of pictures to follow. :)

amazing news. I mentioned earlier that my brand new hard drive died on me last week - just days after uploading all my new york pictures on it. I thought I lost 10 days worth of awesome-ness and was absolutely crushed. not to mention chris was also really upset since he's convinced it'll be the last time he visits there because his grandma was thinking about selling it.

weeeelllll, turns out I uploaded 121 of the photos onto facebook! I didn't realize I did because when I tried uploading, it kept coming up with an error so I didn't think I ever got them uploaded. but I did! 

yaaay!

I don't have all the pictures I took but 121 of them is a lot and definitely enough to visually remember our little vacay. so here's my faves:

chris's grandma's backyard take feet from her back door.

chris's grandma's adorable house

sunset over findely lake

I loved the contrast of the sunset in new york compared to what I'm used to seeing. in arizona, our sunsets are deep, rich oranges and purples whereas here I felt they were softer and more pastel-y. beautiful in it's own way.

me frolicking in green lands 

there was so much green I couldn't believe my eyes. coming from arizona where the only green you see is weeds or pine trees up north, the amount of green I saw here was amazing. I loved every inch of it. but I don't think I could trade my desert in just yet.

canoeing

the beautiful church chris's grandpa pastored at

I'm not a religious person but I was awestruck with this church. I found it absolutely astonishing. the inside was insane with intricate woodwork and gorgeous stain glass. chris's grandpa was a pastor at this church for about 13 years! 

looking at lake erie.

chris and I at Niagra Falls (on the canadian side)

and since I have my computer up and working and my sister uploaded some pictures of our labor day bbq, I thought I share a couple of those too.

cheyenne, pepper, and my dad

I swear she's a little camera ham

pepper & cheyenne swimming along

it looks like they're best buddies, but in reality pepper is the annoying little cousin that cheyenne despises. she's actually scared of pepper. she refuses to go outside if pepper's at the door.yenne's almost anti-social I think.

I'm so thankful for facebook and it uploading most of my pictures. I'm also thankful for my awesome family and amazing photographer sister. :)

how the weekend went

I'm copying my sister & checking off what I accomplished this weekend.

• return dead hard drive to benson systems for replacement (thank god it's under warranty)
• groceries 
• start laundry 
• clean up the house still could use some cleaning though
• morning hike up Silly Mountain with the pups such a wonderful hike! I'll post pictures/go into more detail later
• more laundry/cleaning around the house
• dinner and seeing comedian iliza shlesinger at the tempe improv with scegan sooo much fun! had a great time laughing my ass off and hanging with my family
• dog park with the pups
• pick out & plant a eucalyptus tree in our backyard we ended up buying several trees - a local(ish) nursery was having a end of the summer sale and we got a pretty good deal on a package: a huge (4-6 years old) eucalyptus, a huge ficus, a super (1-3 years old) african sumac, and 5 different shrubs. we pretty much have all the plants we need for our backyard now and the nursery will do the planting for us! (not until the end of the month though, poo.)
• give bentley (our new car) a bath probably the most torturous task of the weekend - I was absolutely exhausted when I was done. and my nails still have dirt underneath. ew.
• relax & watch movies/catch up on our favorite tv shows saw law abiding citizen which I liked and watched some desperate housewives and teen mom
• morning hike on favorite trail through Superstition Mountains with the pups
• one of the following:
• Phoenix Zoo & Desert Botanical Gardens
• Golfland & walking around downtown
• D-backs vs. Giants game
• swimming & bbqing at my parent's (hopefully we can get pepper in the water now that she's older/bigger) pepper did sooo much swimming it was awesome! (pics later) and we had a good time playing charades (my dad did a great rattlesnake - too bad no one got it) and perfect ten (a fun trivia game).

I think overall we did pretty good. we didn't go anywhere monday except to my parent's but it was nice and relaxing and we still had a lot of fun. we also didn't do our hike around the superstitions but that was mainly because we were both pretty sore (me from washing my car and chris from jogging with the dogs). I told chris that I felt like the weekend was going by slower since we were doing stuff and he agreed. we also agreed that we had a pretty awesome weekend and enjoyed each other's company. we hardly fought too! we decided we're going to try to spend every weekend like this last one.

this week is a short week (thankfully) and we have our counselling appointment on saturday. I'm nervous as hay, but also really anxious. hopefully I can stay sane throughout the week.

weekend plans

after asking chris daily for the past week about whether or not we were going to make a trip this weekend, we, together, finally concluded to stay home. and I'm actually ok with it. I thought I'd be crushed, but I'm not. I am still determined to have a fun-filled weekend . I mean - it's labor day weekend - a free 3-day weekend! we brainstormed (again, together) about what we can do this weekend and I'm super excited. here's my agenda (hasn't been approved by chris yet):

• friday:
• return dead hard drive to benson systems for replacement (thank god it's under warranty)
• groceries
• start laundry
• clean up the house
• saturday:
• morning hike up Silly Mountain with the pups
• more laundry/cleaning around the house
• dinner and seeing comedian iliza shlesinger at the tempe improv with scegan
• sunday:
• dog park with the pups
• pick out & plant a eucalyptus tree in our backyard
• give bentley (our new car) a bath
• relax & watch movies/catch up on our favorite tv shows
• monday:
• morning hike on favorite trail through Superstition Mountains with the pups
• one of the following:
• Phoenix Zoo & Desert Botanical Gardens
• Golfland & walking around downtown
• D-backs vs. Giants game
• swimming & bbqing at my parent's (hopefully we can get pepper in the water now that she's older/bigger)

so I'm pretty stoked. I mean, just because we're not going out of town doesn't mean we have to sit at home all weekend right? I'm taking charge of my life. chris will just have to deal with it and join me or he can peace out. now I'll keep my fingers crossed that we'll actually do it. maybe by writing them here I'll be more determined to do it that way I can show pictures. that's my goal at least. I'm one step closer to being happier - I can feel it.

hope everyone has a super safe and fun holiday weekend.

SFW.7

oh my gosh. it's sunday. not only is it the last day of summer fashion week, but I also have to go back to work tomorrow. boo to both. but man, words can't describe how I feel right now. you are all so amazing and I feel so lucky to have you guess view my "blog" and observe my fashion all week! and I am so amazed by everyone's awesome fashion! I've read some really great blogs that I think I'm going to start following now (and I'm glad I'm not the only non-mommy blog, sometimes I feel outta place). you've all said so many sweet things and I love the positivity we've passed around each other for the past week. let's spread it around. let's be like the common cold - that way everyone catches this feeling and it's contagious! I've never had so much fun dressing up. and I've never felt so good about myself, not just by received compliments, but also by giving tons of compliments! ahhh I wish I could accurately describe how freakin' awesome this is! don't forget me, because I won't forget you guys!

without further ado: today the fam went to breakfast at ihop and chris and I are getting ready to take the pups to my parents' for some more swimming. the pool will feel nice and relaxing with how hot it is. here's my sunday outfit - I was going to wear something super cute, you know, go out with a bang, but I figured that'd be lying since I'd be spending most of my day in my swimsuit and comfy clothes, so I opted for being true to myself :)

top: kohls
shorts: papaya (?)
sunglasses: kohls
sandals: charlotte russe

I started dancing to some the academy is... when ginger wanted to join and of course pepper wanted to as well (she is ginger's shadow).

the shoes (I need to touch-up my toenails eek!)

thank you all again for your sweet comments and for stopping by! hope you continue to after the week's over! I know I'll continue visiting you guys!

and special thanks to emery. you are so inspirational and strong and amazing and my new idol. you deserve an award for being so awesome. this has been so much fun and encouraging. thanks again and I can't wait until fall!

SFW.6

aww only one last day left. :( I hope there's a fall fashion week so I have another week in the year to look forward to.(hint hint emery. (: )

today's saturday! got to sleep in until 8 today! crazy. 4 extra hours than usual. I meant to upload these earlier so that you guys could see them, but didn't realize it's already 7! where did my day go? oh I remember. took my car to get it diagnosed (paula's sick), my mom came over early to watch the first two twilight movies with me (we only got through the first one), then went to see the third twilight movie with my mom, her bosses, cousin, and aunt (so much fun), and had dinner at chili's. then came home, lost horribly at two games of euchre with chris and my parents (not usual), and now I'm playing wii bowling with them. fun day. definitely relieving after such a shitty day yesterday.

so here's what I wore:

headband: tilly's
top: papayaleggings: target (?)shoes: jessica simpson (famous footwear)

I was trying to climb the random post in the middle of our room. it's kinda hard in those shoes.

the deets:

excited to see all your looks! 

SFW.5

I don't know how all you ladies do it: stay so positive in life every single day (or maybe it's just this week?).  I tried so hard today to turn my leaf over but it seems to be stuck. and I don't know how jump out of this hole today. I always fall in when things are going good. bleh.

with that being said, it's friday. so sad (only a few more days left of SFW), yet so glad (looong day - loong week for that matter). I decided that I'm going to utilize my free afternoon to take a much needed lazy day. I didn't really try with my look today. I just wanted to wear something comfy so I can eat taco bell (mmm) and lay on the couch and watch movies with chris. I figured it's better than wearing pj's though.

so here's this afternoon's lazy look:

this is me pretending to be cheerful and happy after a "disagreement" between chris and I. thankfully he was still willing to take my pictures. I then attempted to fit the "image" of bikers (since I'm wearing a harley davidson tee) by looking tough/like a badass.

"vintage" harley davidson t-shirt: gift from my dad
shorts: gift from chris's mom
badass look: genetic from my parents

my dad was going through some of his old, old shirts (I consider them vintage since they're from the 70s/80s) and seeing if us kids wanted any. I didn't feel comfortable taking any of his harley shirts (he had a ton) since I'm not a badass biker. but he convinced me to take this one and the first time I put it on, I immediately fell in love with it. it's so soft and comfy. now one of my favorite shirts. I wish I had taken more.

here's me trying to look tough with my "vicious" pitbulls (in reality they're the sweetest things ever - ginger wouldn't stop liking my face until the camera went off - pepper on the other hand is in the nipping phase).

p/s: we finally got blinds in our house. like?

the deets:

shoes: converse - famous footwear

everyone's gotta have a pair of cons. my green faded a bit because I accidently left them outside to dry too long after washing them.

silver & gold headband: the icing

go check out everyone else's look! only 2 days left! :(

SFW.4

part of me is ecstatic it's thursday because that means I get to catch up on my sleep very very soon. but the other part of me is bummed because summer fashion week is almost over. I've been having so much fun!

today my parents are coming over and chris and I will be making dinner for them. we try to have them over weekly, but things have been pretty hectic the past couple of weeks.

here's my making-dinner-for-the-rents outfit:

purple cover-up: charlotte russe
top: charlotte russe
shorts: wet seal
shoes: wet seal

I immediately fell in love with the top when I saw the detail on the back:

I think it's a nice way to incorporate crochet in an outfit without overdoing it.

the details:

purple jeweled headband: charlotte russe

the earrings remind me of little disco balls hanging from my ears.

earrings: tillys

I realize I post a lot of pictures. my bad. I guess I like taking pictures too much. ha. one last photo to show the full outfit again.

I'm not sure what's wrong with my leg

hopefully dinner turns out decent! I'm not such a great cook. since I'm a newbie, recipes are a necessity.

it's still not too late to join in!

SFW.3

first of all, thanks to everyone for the such sweet comments. I wish everyone in the world could feel the warm and fuzzy feeling I get from your compliments. I'm going to do my part in sharing this feeling as much as I can but just smiling and giving compliments more. too bad I can't bottle up this feeling and pour it over everyone I walk by.

you've all inspired me. not only are your outfits amazing and effortless, but you share such positivity. it's funny how so many of you found an outfit I've always found boring, cute. I guess it's different since I seriously have to wear the same thing every day. just a different color polo and different jeans. so to me, it's boring. but you've helped me realize that it doesn't have to be.

so during my wonderful shopping trip with my dearest friend yesterday, I got tons of accessories to spruce up my everyday look. (as much as I could find that still followed our lame dress code.) so today, as I was wearing a grey polo, I added this cute silver headband. (a) forgive the bad photography. my photographer wasn't near and I was using my phone (camera's battery died). and (b) forgive the shitty makeup. stayed out too late last night to wash it off & woke up to late this morning to properly fix it sooo....   

silver braided headband: the icing
polo: aeropastale
jeans: walmart

here you can see the braided detail a little more.

I also got some adorable earrings to wear with my brighter colored polos. it's not much, but I feel it brings more personality to everyday boring work clothes.

this evening I'm headed over to my parents' house to go swimming and for homemade pizza. yum. and when the the highs are 114-116 degrees here and it's the dry heat so you don't feel like doing anything because it's just so dang hot, it's nice to live four miles away from your parents' who have a pool. so here's my pre-swimming look.

top: wet seal
boyfriend shorts: charlotte russe

ginger just got out the water and was shaking off. hence her crazy look and my awkward pose.

in my arms: pepper
by my feet: ginger

  details:

mini poinsettia hair clip: the icing

rose earrings: tillys

can't wait to see what you all wore today! and it's not too late to join in!