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.)

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 :)

the best ones

Wanna hear a cool story? So once upon a time, when I was just a lowly 19 year-old sophomore in college, I was in a terrible living situation, with a roommate/ex-best friend who refused to talk to me and a desperate need for some friends. I was really lonely, and I cried all the time. One day, out of the blue, my friend Katherine, who was also going to BYU, and a friend from my high school, called me, saying they had an open spot in their apartment and would I want it? I knew most of the other girls from high school too, not super well, but we were friends, and I knew they were all really nice and fun girls. It was honestly crazy, because they had absolutely NO idea what I was going through, they just had the feeling they should call me. It was a no-brainer for me to move out and take the spot. And let me tell ya...it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

There are some friends you hope to stay friends with forever. Some of them you do, and some of them you don't. It's hard to know how friendships will turn out when people move away, get married, and go separate ways.

For a few years, I got to live with the best roommates I ever had. They were the BEST. Our lives were filled with quote walls, road trips, Friday night hang outs and Saturday night movies, summer bucket lists, talking about boys way too late at night, making music videos, and taking a gazillion pictures. When I think of my college experience, I will always think of these girls and the amazing times we had.

Of course, life changes, and at the end of summer 2013, we all kind of went our separate ways. Some got married, the others moved, and I stayed in Provo. Not gonna lie, it was one of the hardest things ever for a few months to not have those girls as my roommates. I missed them all like crazy and it was a big adjustment. I guess I can often be an emotional and sentimental person too, which does not help in situations like that haha.

I think I kind of assumed we might not stay friends after that. Me and my insecurities...always getting the best of me! ;) I was so wrong. Since we've been roommates, we've still found time to get together when everyone is in town, do Sunday dinners with the ones still in Provo, go to mission homecomings, weddings, and be there whenever we can. And every time we do, we have a great time and laugh until our cheeks hurt (haha no joke).




We got together Thursday night, and as I started writing this post, I was just going to link the "goodbye post" I thought I'd written when we all went our separate ways, but turns out I never wrote it! It's a year and a half late, but let me just say... I'm so lucky and grateful to have friends like these. Some of the best years of my life were spent with them and they are the best. We all continue to grow and move on, but the one thing that I hope never changes is our friendship.

LOVE THEM.

Shake it OFF

So on Monday we had a ward talent show, and it was so much fun! It was supposed to be back in January, and I wanted to make a music video for it, so a couple months ago, we got a bunch of the ward members together and filmed all over campus (sorry, that was a really long sentence haha!). We had a pretty good time and I loved getting to edit and put it together. Let me know what you think!


I'm pretty happy I found this hobby of mine, because I really like it. :)

Oh! In other, WAY more exciting news, Carrie Underwood had her baby yesterday! So exciting! They named him Isaiah Michael Fisher and I wanna see a picture so bad but at the same time I wanna respect their privacy haha. His birthday is exactly one week before Carrie's, such fun!

Alex and Courtney's Proposal Video

So my cousin Alex is almost exactly a year younger me and seriously one of my best friends. We were always really close when we were younger and then his family moved to Boston (the aunt and uncle I stayed with while I was there are his parents!) and we didn't get to see each other as much. But after he got back from his mission he moved to Provo so it's been way fun to reconnect and hang out more!

I was so excited when Alex told me he was proposing to his girlfriend Courtney (who I'm also pretty good friends with because I got to know her well while I was out in Boston) and let me film it all!

I seriously love Alex and Courtney SO much and couldn't be more excited for their engagement! They've dated on and off since they were in high school, so its kind of already felt like Courtney's been part of the family. It'll be great for it to finally be official in May. :)

Here's the proposal story if you wanna hear it:
Alex and Courtney had gone ring shopping and were going to get the ring custom designed, but it wouldn't be in for about 5 weeks, so Courtney didn't think the proposal would be happening for a while. But Alex decided to get another ring from a local shop so that he could surprise her in proposing and get the ring sooner. Alex wanted Courtney to be completely surprised for the proposal, so he told her they were going up the canyon because one of his roommates had a big surprise for his fiance, and that I was there because I was going to film the whole thing (which I did..haha!). So we got up to the place where the fire was at and no one was there (as was the plan) and Courtney was super confused because she thought people should have been there. Then, as her back was turned, Alex's friends started walking up holding black posterboards in front of them that said "Marry Me" in glowsticks. As soon as she saw it, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. And she of course said yes! It was all really cute and she had absolutely NO idea so it was perfect.

Anyway, if that was all too long for you to read, the video is below, as well as some pictures that were taken by Alex's roommate Jae. I've never actually been a part of a proposal but it was so fun and I'm already excited for their wedding in May (which means I'm going to Boston!).

2014

I don't think I realized how awesome 2014 was for me until I started looking back on it and remembering all the cool things I did.

Some of the best things this past year brought...

TWO fashion shows with Provo Fashion Week! One in April and the other in October

Stadium of Fire with CARRIE UNDERWOOD! and seeing other people in concert like Andy Grammer, Brian McKnight, and VanLadyLove

FOUR weddings for roommates and relatives...

Working at the daycare with so many fun kids and then quitting in August.

Going back to school and taking fun (and scary at first) classes like Public Speaking and contemporary dance, where I did an end of semester solo.

Traveling on a two-day trip to California with Carina and going to Cheyenne twice in the summer with my family:

Getting to be the costume designer for this hilarious video. It went viral with 15 million views on facebook and youtube combined! Watch the behind the scenes video afterward and you'll see me a few times.

Salt Lake Comic-Con twice, in April and September.

The bible video I was in two years ago finally got released! You can see me in it at about 1:59, I'm wearing orange.

Running my first race at the Potter Run!

Learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro, filming and editing some fun videos, and getting a new camera for Christmas from my parents (a Canon Rebel t5i!!!). I'm really excited to get more serious with videography in the future.

Ending the year with two weeks of amazing Christmas break with my family. Literally. It has been perfect. :)

For all of you visual people (which, if you're reading a blog, you're probably one of them) here's my year-end video. I keep watching it because it makes me feel good and happy :)


2014 was a really good year and I'm especially looking forward to 2015, because there are already so many fun things planned (college graduation, family reunion, weddings), as well as a lot of things unplanned and unknown (what am I doing after graduation, where will I live, etc.) so it will be fun to look back in a year and see all the changes, because I'm sure there will be many. Can't wait!

Pictures from Last Week

I love going to college and living in Provo. Since I'm graduating in June and don't really know what's going to happen in my life after that, I'm trying to enjoy everything as much as possible!

I had to take this photo of my new boots in the fall leaves lining our gutter because it looked so picturesque! Fall can't leave, I love it too much!

I loved seeing my boots in the leaves so much on Sunday that I had to take a picture. Fall is the best.

A photo posted by Kailee Cristina Brown (@kikicbrownee) on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:46pm PST

Monday was FHE and we had a bonfire, roasting marshmallows and starbursts and making s'mores.

My friend Matt (also pictured in the FHE selfie up above) and I were talking about the Parent Trap handshake, so one night he came over and we learned it! Pretty great, and here's the video I posted on instagram of it:

Learned the Parent Trap handshake with @soundslikemathematics today haha.

A video posted by Kailee Cristina Brown (@kikicbrownee) on Nov 11, 2014 at 8:09pm PST

This past weekend was a fun one. Friday night I met up with my old roommate Jenna and we went to a concert at Velour, one of the local concert places people often going to in Provo. It was super fun! I haven't been to Velour in forever and when I've gone before some of the bands haven't been great, since it's a place for local bands to play. But I got to hear RKDN and VanLadyLove, both whose music I'd never heard before but now LOVE. Finding awesome new music is the best!

(l to r: Robbie (Jen's cousin), Jenna, lead singer of VanLadyLove, and me)

Jenna and I were only roommates for two months, which seems absolutely crazy to me, because it felt like we lived together for so much longer than that, and we are such great friends! I'm glad we got to hang out and hopefully we get to do it again soon!

This is one of my favorite RKDN (pronounced Arcadian) songs...it has that kind of 80s vibe that's pretty popular and cool right now:


And this is a favorite from VanLadyLove:


Saturday morning (which turned into the afternoon) I had a brunch with my best group of girl friends. It was so fun and we ended up hanging out for like 5 hours! Haha I had so much homework to do and had no time to do it because we spent so much time together. It was great though, because it was the first time all five of us were together in three years! This was us three years ago, right before Jessica left on her mission (I feel like we've changed so much since then!):

(l to r: Lauren, Alyne, Jessica, Sarah, me)

Jessica went on a mission and then Lauren went on a mission right before Jessica got back and in between all of that Alyne and Sarah got married! Pretty crazy. So we had such a blast hanging out. We've still hung out regularly and as often as possible, like once a week or every other week, but it hasn't been all of us for three years.

Haha and now here we are with a giant bear! Alyne and her husband Cameron got this bear from Costco and to say it's huge is basically an understatement! It was pretty much love at first sight for all of us with this bear, named Max. He's also an excellent cuddle buddy haha.

Anyway, I'm so glad to have friends like these ladies and still be so close with them after so many years of friendship! They are my favorites and I hope we stay friends for a long loooong time. :)