4th of July 2012

Spending the 4th of July this year in Boston was one of the best Independence Days I ever could have had! The East Coast is especially patriotic with all the history that happened here during the Revolutionary War. I brought over the tradition of spray-painting shirts, so we taped them up the night before and then we spray painted the next morning (we realized we had no red paint). The morning of the 4th was spent at a parade in the town of Sudbury. It was perfect because it was a little later (we slept in) and it was short so we didn't have to spend a long time in the heat.

After we went to that we headed off into Boston where we parked and rode the train to the Esplanade. It's right by the Charles River with the most gorgeous view of the Boston skyline. Some friends from our ward saved spots all day so we got to sit with them. We played cards and ate food while waiting and just hung out. I love the atmosphere on the 4th of July because it's so happy and exciting! Everyone is spirited wearing their red, white, and blue so it's just a lot of fun.

The fireworks actually got delayed for about a half-hour to forty-five minutes because they thought a thunderstorm was coming. There was a huge mess of people coming and telling us to move so we'd stay dry, but we didn't want to leave, because we knew our spot would be gone if we left. We ended up staying because no storm came and then it actually poured during the fireworks. It was kind of surreal, watching the fireworks in the rain. I mean, how often does that happen?

Let me just tell you something about the Boston fireworks. You know how there is usually a grand finale in fireworks shows? Well this show is like a grand finale the whole way through, it's amazing! The fireworks are so sweet and there are sooo many. Best fireworks show, I have ever seen for sure! I was pretty happy with my picture taking skills to have gotten this shot.

We were all soaked to the bone from the rain (that only lasted about 15 minutes) but packed up our stuff after the fireworks to go. It took a little while to get through the crowds and we were able to catch one of the last trains to get to our car.

In short, it was a wonderful 4th of July. Just what it should have been. I am so grateful for this country and for the freedom we have. I'm grateful that we can vote for our leaders and I admire the way we unite as a nation when good and bad things happen, such as simple things like celebrating Independence Day every year, or really awful stuff like 9/11. For me, there is no better place to live. I'm happy that this summer I've been able to get to know another part of this nation. I can only love it more. :) Happy Independence Day!

MULLET

Have you heard of the mullet skirt? Business in the front, party in the back...oh yeah! I found this shirt at a store in the mall called Cotton On (one of my new favorites--I also got the blue striped tank from there, sorry I know it's a little tacky to wear a whole outfit from the same store but the colors just matched so nicely). I was trying on some stuff in the dressing room, saw this skirt on the floor, tried it on and fell in L.O.V.E.

Wow, this skirt is flowy, flattering, beautiful, colorful, and comfortable. I feel like it's one of those fads that will come and go pretty quickly, but I'm jumping on this bandwagon for as long as I can because this skirt is amazing!

What do you think about the mullet skirt? Yay or nay? Answer below!

Do you like the mullet skirt?
	Heck yeah!
	Good on you, not on me..
	Never in a million years
pollcode.com free polls

P.S. I didn't make it to the third round of Sewvivor, but thanks anyways to everyone who voted for me! Totally appreciate it and love you for it. :) It really is fine, and I made a super cute dress this weekend (my own design). Pictures to come!

A Dress...and Choices

Is it just me or do I look super awkward in these pictures?! Except the last one, I like that one. This is the dress that I made a while ago. I made it without a pattern and still, almost 6 months later, I love it so much. Obviously it isn't perfect or perfectly made, and I do not want to brag, but this dress makes me happy. :)

Ya know, it's funny. Well not funny. My life is...crazy. I have so much going on right now and life is so hard and struggles come my way every single day. It's also good too, I love my job, roommates, school, and I feel so blessed. Life right now, is just...life, at it's best. And I am pretty darn happy living it right now. I think I am realizing these days that we choose happiness in our lives, nothing that happens in it, good or bad--although it can influence our choice--can make or break the fact of how happy or unhappy we are. So maybe instead of me saying life's good, because it isn't always good, I should just say that I'm good. I'm doing well in the life that was given to me and that I'm living.

We always hear so much about how attitude influences everything and it tends to go over our heads. But it's true. Listen to those true words, because I'm realizing that it does. I am happy in my crazy life and that is all pretty much my choice. You can choose too. :)

Beautiful Heartbreaks

Hm. I'm just at a loss of what to write for this post. Actually maybe not. I have been watching or listening to this video multiple times every day this week. It is absolutely beautiful and comforting. Watch it. :)



Really, that song is amazing. With things I struggle with, or have struggled with, lately I've been so mad that I have them. It's not my fault that I struggle with certain things or have different trials, and it is not my fault that some of those things I have to choose to overcome and that they are so difficult to handle. Life is just so hard. But watching this video has been incredibly helpful because it let me realize that when these things happen, the view absolutely wonderful when you overcome them. The harder the challenge, the better the view...And it can become such a beautiful heartbreak to overcome these things. Because no, it's not my fault that I have different trials. But how wonderful if I can overcome them and turn them into something beautiful.

I think about Stephanie Nielson (in the video) and how she was burned by a fire, but no one looks at her as a problem or a trial. She is just seen as beautiful. Beautiful because she overcame something incredibly hard. I want to be like Stephanie and others like her one day. Anyways..those are just my thoughts of the day..

On a completely different sidenote, I really love this outfit. Red and yellow look just lovely together. And they are fall colors that can never go out of season! Plus the glasses just add something else altogether..something awesome haha. And one more sidenote....HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I will be sure to spill all the deets on my costume and Halloween events and such tomorrow!

Tutorial: How To Take in a Frumpy/Too Big Cardigan

So the cardigan I was wearing in the post yesterday and the one I'm wearing now is probably my new favorite cardigan! It's super cute and the perfect color, especially for fall. :) Buuut....I had to fix it first. I thrifted it, so it was a little big and didn't fit completely right and made me look baggy. I'm sure all of you have been able to relate to this at some point. Maybe you bought the cardigan and wore it because you liked the color and style but knew it really didn't look the best on you. Or maybe you saw it in the store, tried it on, and put it back because it just didn't look right. Or maybe you bought and never wore it. Either way, I feel like we all try on cardigans like these! So I've posted a tutorial on how to fix them and make them fit better!

Does your cardigan look like this and make you feel like this?

Then follow these easy instructions to fix your cardigan (and this can also work for t-shirts or dresses that are just a little too wide/big.

1. Take your cardigan and turn it inside-out, try it on and then either pin fit it (meaning you put pins on the spot where you want to take it in) or measure how many inches you will have to take it in to sew it on the side seams and arm seams

2. If you didn't pin fit it while on you, then take it off and measure how much is needed on each side and put the pins into place.

3. Get matching thread in your sewing machine and then sew along where you pinned the cardigan (it's still inside out at this point). See stitch lines below for an example of how I sewed it.

5. Turn it right side out and you're done! Easy right? And then you have a wonderful cardigan that fits great and looks like this and makes you feel like this:

I really do love my red cardigan so much more now after doing this and I wear it a lot more because it fits and looks a lot better! And it took me probably about 15 minutes. So go in your closet, pull out that too-big cardigan you never wear, and get sewing!! :)

It's Beginning to Look Like Autumn

it started to rain :)

Well, its definitely starting to feel like fall around here! Its been raining quite a bit the past few days and it's been getting cooler too. The leaves on the ground are getting crunchy and turning into lovely shades of yellow and orange. Midterms are in full swing, Homecoming is here, football games are at their peak, and Halloween decorations are covering store shelves like no other holiday has ever existed. Pumpkin flavored things are in almost every restaurant and every girl is pulling out her rainboots and cardigans for the cooler weather. I like it a lot. :) I feel like it's supposed to be fall and it's a time that I really enjoy. For one, my birthday. And then it means that lots of holidays are coming up: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And holidays mean family, breaks from school, fun, and happiness (and fun shopping too!).

Probably the one thing that makes me sad about fall though is the fact that winter is just around the corner. After Christmas, it's winter semester, snow everywhere, no breaks or holidays, cold, not a lot of fun events like sports or stuff, and more sickness. :( Winter in Utah is what makes me want to live in California. But at least for now, fall is one of the reasons that reminds me why I love Utah too. I just hope it stays for a long long time...we could postpone snow until Christmas and I wouldn't mind it one bit!!

And random movie talk now...I watched Titanic today (don't worry, I skipped that one part, if ya know what I mean--it's a lot easier to do when watching it on the computer) because I haven't seen it in a while and I was kind of wanting to. Now I'm just thinking, "Why did I want to watch it again?" Titanic is one of those movies that I think I really love and is a good movie to watch every once in a while, but then for a few days after watching it, I can't stop thinking about all the sad and scary parts. Man, it was so intense and sad to watch. Another bad reason for not having seen it in a while is that I can remember what happens but not enough to convince myself that it will still happen. Like I still get anxious when I'm waiting to see if Jack will survive not drowning in the little basement room and I still get nervous because I'm wanting Rose to just blow the whistle so she survives. Of course, the movie always follows it's plot the way it has before but it still makes me anxious every time. Titanic really is such a good movie. It's very gripping and very sad and it's definitely a nail-biter. It's also a wonderful love story. I can't help but watch it and think how grateful I am that I was not born in that time and that I was not on that ship. I also can't help but just feel for every person on that ship, because I know what's going to happen the whole time, but they don't know. I like it because it focuses on the story of Rose and Jack, but not the entire time. It also shows the other stuff going on the ship, with the captain, the band, all the people on the lifeboats, the people jumping in the water, the crew, etc. Ahh I think I've convinced myself of the amazing-ness of this movie again! haha.

I think the lesson I learn from the movie and story of it (and I don't mean this in an insulting way at all, it's just my observation) was just that the Titanic was a very worldly thing. It was a huge fancy ship and said by many to have been "unsinkable." When they received the warning for the icebergs at night, they didn't stop like other boats, they just kept on going. They were too prideful to have enough lifeboats for all the passengers because it would have cluttered the deck. There were so many rich people on deck that were actually annoyed when told to put on their life jackets and no one wanted to believe that their magnificent ship was sinking. I guess it kind of makes me think about the Second Coming (okay, I'm getting a little churchy here..) and how like the people on Titanic, we need to be prepared, or else we're not going to make it. There were so many people by the end just jumping off the huge boat or clambering into life boats trying to save themselves. Some people didn't even try because they knew they wouldn't succeed. It's so sad. But it teaches me that I need to be ready for that now so that when it does happen, I don't freak out over it because I'll be ready and know it's coming. Sorry was that too LDS missionary sharing/churchy for you? I don't really talk about that stuff on here very often but maybe it's good to, because it is a part of I am and what I think about. And just to clarify, I'm in no way saying the people on the Titanic were bad or that they deserved to die. Not at all! But I do think they could have been more prepared for the outcome of it or could have done so many things to prevent it, as I'm sure many people know. It was just an analogy in my head. Wow, but really, it's a good movie. If you've never seen it (its PG-13 fyi), I'd recommend watching it because I think it's one of those movies that every person should see.

Anyways, why do I write SO much? So much that probably no one reads. Oh well, sorry for all the words taking up space on your browser. I hope it didn't drive you crazy! Have a great Thursday, it's almost the weekend!!!

This Dress=Pure Happiness :D

So this is the dress! I am oh so proud of it...its my little baby or something hehe. I designed it and sewed it all by myself..even without a pattern! I am so impressed that it even turned out ha. But now that it did, I'm afraid I might wear it every chance I get! And that's ok. :)

Do you guys have something that you're just really proud of because it came from your talent? Like maybe a great work of art, or a dance you choreographed, or even like a cool hair do or lego sculpture. haha. Well, this dress is that for me. I feel SO proud. And it makes me so happy!!! Plus I got a lot of compliments on it which made me feel good because I was getting complimented on something that I made.

It's just a really happy dress and I'm so happy it turned out cute. You could say you hate it and I wouldn't care (well, I would a little bit probably) because I love it that much.

P.S. It has pockets.

P.P.S. I had the most wonderful weekend! It was a long one at home and I spent it all with my family. I saw both of my sisters' ballet recitals and they both did such a great job! It made me miss ballet a lot so I decided I'm going to dance again because I love it. We went out and took a bunch of cool pictures of ballet stuff and my brother does gymnastics so he did some cool things too. I will share soon..maybe tomorrow?

k bye :

Some Stripes and a Hat

Such a simple outfit but so cute, right? I think the hat makes it all! I got it at Forever 21 for $6.50! Yes please and thank you!! I would say taking these pictures was one of the highlights of my day (I think my favorite pic is the 3rd to last one), just because it was pretty fun. Once again, it's the hat I tell you!

My leg hurts right now. :( The right one to be exact. Because basically I stood for 4 hours at the Bruno Mars concert and then stood for 5 hours at work yesterday. And I was gonna go to hip-hop club to bust some sweet moves, but alas, my hurt leg. It feels a little better now and I'm sure I'll be jumping and leaping by tomorrow, but doesn't getting hurt just stink sometimes? I feel like it happens to me WAY too much! Ha, I'm a bit of a klutz...

Wanna hear a funny story? So me and my roommates will write random notes everywhere over our apartment. Like for birthdays we write all over the mirror. And then we have a bunch of those word magnets that we put into shapes and words on our fridge and also I just bought a whiteboard from the dollart store that we wrote notes on. Well pretty much we're all really dumb or can't spell or something because today we found the THIRD misspelled word we've done in the past few months! For one of the birthdays we wrote "You are beautful" (missing an "i"), on the fridge we wrote "We love Sring!" (missing a "p" and even though it was huge we didn't notice it for like a week!) and today we found on the whiteboard, "We've been missig you!" (missing needs an "n").

Haha it's a little pathetic. But also pretty funny. We tend to laugh hysterically for at least five minutes after we find them all. Ohh how I love my roomies. :D

An Outfit A Day...
Striped Shirt? Urban Outfitters (isn't that like the cutest red-striped shirt ever? I got it for $10! And I am in love with it.)
Hat? F21
Necklace? Mall Kiosk
Jeans? Ross
Shoes? Forever Young (unfortunately, I got these shoes only like a month and a half ago, but they're already dying! I think the reasoning for this might be because it's been obsessively raining here in Provo and I wore these shoes not planning for the weather. Sad.)

...Keeps the Fashion Police Away
Comfort? 9.5
Original? 7
Did I like it? 10=I looooved it!
Overall? 9