2017

I came across my blog and realized I hadn't been on here in so long that my google doesn't even autofill the website anymore. :O (I wish I could do emojis on here haha). However I've always done my yearly recaps on here and wanted to continue that tradition.

Best moments of 2017 (there are videos related to a lot of these that are all linked below):

Filming a Beauty and the Beast styled wedding with a bunch of other great vendors. It turned out so pretty!

A video shoot inspired by the fabulous tv show Good Girls Revolt

Having a killer Valentine's Day party. I've never really been a huge V-Day celebrator before, but Amanda is super into it which helped my attitude. It definitely ended up being the best Valentine's I've ever had.

Watching SO MANY tv shows! such as: Game of Thrones, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Schitt's Creek, Sweet Vicious, Jane the Virgin, The Carrie Diaries, GLOW, Veronica Mars (still need to see the movie!), Don't Trust the B**** in Apt 23, the end of PLL (boo - to it ending and also the ending), Big Little Lies, The Handmaid's Tale, Freaks and Geeks, Riverdale, The OC, and Stranger Things s2 - these are not in order of importance because there are several shows on here I can't even rank I loved them so much.

Producing, filming and editing Stoneybrook Revisited: A Babysitter's Club Fan Film for AJP. We had an all-female crew and things were so efficient that we had several hours of down time on set. It was also my first time filming a series in traditional camera format and I am so pleased with myself for how cute it turned out.

Going to New York with Amanda! The best part of this trip was seeing all the friends that lived there (and the LA friends who were there the same time as us) and also getting to see some really excellent theater - Present Laughter, The Play that Goes Wrong, Puffs, and The Phantom of the Opera. Also getting to go to the GORGEOUS Frick Collection. The best part about this trip was that since we had both been to New York several times before, we didn't have to do any of the touristy things and just did exactly what we wanted to do. It was honestly so much fun.

SIDNEY COMING HOME! My sister had been serving an LDS mission for a year and half in Arizona but it was a huge highlight of the year to have her come home in May.

Getting raises at both of my jobs (main and side)!

The lantern festival in May. We got hired to face paint at this and made some killer tips and also got to float some lanterns. The event was slightly disorganized but it was so much fun because of the people I was with.

Taking a very chill hike with my family on Memorial Day. We normally get together with the whole extended family for every single holiday and it was nice to celebrate this one with just us.

Seeing Carrie Underwood for the 7th time in a surprise concert on June 17, 2017. More details in a later post, because this is a story that deserves its own.

Spending the majority of the year working on Lily Evans and the Stroke of Midnight. This was 100% the best part of my year. I LOVED filming and editing this film and I am so sosososo happy with how it turned out. We had a crazy amount of hiccups in the production process and so many things went wrong. But man, it was awesome, which was largely due to the people. Our cast and crew were great, and so many of our friends flew in to help us on set. It was so fun to work on something together in one place and it definitely bonded us all.

Turning 26 in October!

Growing out my nails! This is probably my biggest success, because anyone who knows me knows I have been an incessant nail biter since my early days of life. It's definitely a process but my nails look and feel so much healthier and I actually love them.

Getting the love of my life - my ipad - and learning how to illustrate on procreate.

Watching Stranger Things and celebrating Halloween in October. Also helping Amanda with all her Costober stuff was super fun.

Remaking the Parks and Rec intro with my family, continuing that new annual tradition.

Writing and directing a very cute Christmas short in December! We just filmed it one morning and did it with a bunch of our friends. I'm really proud of this because I put the whole thing together, made it happen, and it honestly was super fun to do.

Celebrating New Year's Eve with Kamille and Amanda in our pjs.

Honorable mentions: fidget spinners (my golden snitch one!), Simply Kenna's youtube videos, the chipmunk filter in snapchat providing us way too many nights of endless laughter, me eating vegetables a few times this year and liking it!, the delicious smoothies from Dancing Crane, my ipad (I really love it), the #metoo movement and everything happening for women right now, youtube (I'm finding myself obsessed with managing channels


I love this blog because it gives me a voice that I don't often use to speak out loud, and I kind of miss that. So I may be posting on here a bit more often that I have in the past. I'm really trying not to give empty promises this year so hopefully I can stick to it! (also honestly I don't even know if anyone reads this anymore, but I always wrote for myself more anyway.)

May 4, 1990

I love my parents. They've done nothing but support and love me all throughout my life. They've been to all my fashion shows, ballet recitals, and plays. They've stuck with me through the bad and cried with me when I've cried. They're my best friends and I got so lucky to have them as my parents.

25 years ago, on May 4, 1990, my parents were married and started our cute little family. They decided to celebrate their 25th anniversary by going to Italy, and had a fabulous time. They even brought me home a beautiful leather purse from Florence and playing cards from Rome, so who could complain? :)

I absolutely love giving gifts, so I really wanted to give them something special for their anniversary, to show how much I appreciate them. So I scanned in their wedding photos and made them a cute wedding book. Someone had also filmed about three hours of footage from their wedding, which was great, but way too long or boring for anyone to ever sit down and watch. My mom had talked to me about this before, so I took the three hours of old footage down to 10 minutes and made them a wedding video! (honestly, this plan had been in the works for over a year, and I had planned to give it to them before their 25th, but time got in the way--or worked out perfectly--so it ended up getting finished a lot later than I had planned). Below are a few of the pages from the book.

School was crazy so I didn't get it all done by their anniversary, but I gave it to them last week, about a month later. I made the book on shutterfly (I found a groupon online so it was a ton cheaper) and then put the dvd at the end of the book for them to be surprised and get to watch it. Here's the video if you want to see! Obviously the footage is super old, but it was so fun to put it together. In a weird way, I kind of feel like I was at the wedding, after getting to see so much of it in pictures and video.


The ultimate surprise though, was the video I made for the end of the wedding video, comprising 25 years of our family's home videos. I have probably watched it over 20 times and it makes me happy every time I watch it. My parents absolutely LOVED it and my mom was crying by the end of the video. (this one is worth watching if you have three minutes to spare, it's so fun)


It was a lot of work to put it all together, but worth every minute. My family is the best, and it is the best because of those two hardworking people. I love them! Happy 25th anniversary Mama Llama and Daddio :)

Summer

It's consisted of...

fro-yo and deep late night talks
night hikes

festivals
face painting
weddings

chick-fil-a and in 'n out

mosquito bites
non-stop reading

fangirl by rainbow rowell

slurpees and sodalicious
videography (weddings, work, mission homecomings)


school, and finishing it up
bonding with my camera

pretty little liars
hanging out with old friends and meeting new babies

allergies
trampoline gyms

walking home in the middle of the road
kickball
sewing

indie music
barbecues

texas roadhouse rolls
skirts and shorts and summer dresses

temple trips

concerts in the city

traveling

swimsuit shopping
driving and walking home in torrential rain

This season is always so good to me :)

Sunday

 Last weekend I had the chance to go home and spend it with my family, which was fun, because I hadn't been home in a while. Saturday night we went to see The Addam's Family musical at the high school my mom works at, and it was really good and funny! It's amazing to see how much talent there is everywhere you go in the world.

Sunday was a great day. Very chill and I spent some of it taking pictures with my new 50mm lens! I absolutely love it and kept gushing about how good this lens was to my family.

Pretty sure they were tired of hearing about it, but they posed for pictures anyway. Isn't family great?

My mom decided she wanted to pose for a good picture after I took the one above haha.

This picture above basically describes me..every day! I have absolutely fallen in love with my camera and its video and picture-taking abilities. It makes me pretty happy and I love getting to document all of life with it.

Oh yeah, one more kind of exciting thing happened on Sunday...

I CUT MY HAIR! I haven't cut it (besides trims) for about five years because I made a promise to myself long ago that I wouldn't cut it until I got married. Ha! Well, that doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon, and if it does, then I guess I'll have short hair at my wedding! ;)

But in all seriousness, I love my short hair! And so does everyone else haha. I've gotten a ton of compliments on it. It was definitely time for a change, and I've been wanting to cut it for a little while, so it came at a perfect time. My mom cut it for me and I think she did a great job! It's been so fun this week to keep looking at myself in the mirror and remembering that I have different hair. I keep forgetting! I know it's just hair, but it makes me really happy and it feels like it matches my personality perfectly right now.

So yep...pretty good Sunday! Cheers to short hair and double that to spending time with family. :)