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Thursday, August 28, 2014

August 2014 NatureBox

let's preface this by saying that these pictures were taken around nine/ten o'clock at night in a poorly lit kitchen using a flash. oh, and I still don't know very much about my photoshop elements.

moving on.

you know, I don't know what to really say as an introduction, so let's just have some pictures.


that little card was to tell me that one of my snacks had to be replaced, but I don't remember what it was, and I'm kind of wondering if I ever filled that spot in my pantry.

you know, I often get distracted when I'm trying to write these posts because I go and look at the NatureBox website and add new snacks to my pantry. I'm back now!


Salt & Pepper Lentil Loops :: I was a bit nervous about this one, since I've never had lentils before. they were really good! they taste like French fries from somewhere, but I can't figure out where! they do have a little kick to them, but it is quite delicious.


Blueberry Nom Noms :: I was expecting a lot out of these because I really like the dark cocoa ones last month. these weren't as great as those (hello, the other ones were chocolate!), but they aren't bad. they're soft and pillowy little oat cookies (:


French Vanilla Almond Granola :: it's granola. I like granola. I'm satisfied. in case you're wondering, that's caramel yogurt {Yoplait Greek}, which is kind of strange, but very good with an apple!


Blueberry Almond Bites :: these are so cute. they have three different types of rice, and one of them must give them a tiny almost spicy flavor, because I can't figure out what else it would be. cocoa is also listed as an ingredient, but I don't taste it.


Dried Cranberries :: not impressive. this is clearly the replacement snack. I don't really know what to say about these, because they're just like the cranberries that you can buy anywhere. I already have cranberries, and now I have more!

xoxo.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

34/52 2014

the end of summer is just flying by. I can't say I'm too mad, because fall is beautiful and will hopefully be a little less chaotic!


Wednesday 20 August // day two hundred thirty-two :: planning Sunday's lesson


Thursday 21 August // day two hundred thirty-three :: where I'd rather be


Friday 22 August // day two hundred thirty-four :: the only flowers left in my apartment. love these paper ones.


Saturday 23 August // day two hundred thirty-five :: my nails remind me of raspberry sherbet! they're OPI's My Address is Hollywood.


Sunday 24 August // day two hundred thirty-six :: new arrangement. for now. (;


Monday 25 August // day two hundred thirty-seven :: a rushed picture between jobs.


Tuesday 26 August // day two hundred thirty-eight :: eating an apple when "je mange une pomme" came up. except I conjugated it wrong. whoops.

xoxo.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

21st Birthday Party with WIFEE and the HUZz Band!

We celebrated my 21st birthday (the 9th) this past Friday night, and it was so much fun! I had originally wanted to have WIFEE and the HUZz Band play at my party, but then after months of changing the dates, Ruby and I decided that it would just be easier to use one of their pre-existing Door County gigs for the party. This was actually smart, because I haven't really had any luck with having people show up for my birthday party, ever. The band had a gig scheduled for August 15th at the Florian II Supper Club in Baileys Harbor, and we decided to dinner beforehand.

The Wednesday before the party, I went down to Appleton and got a manicure and pedicure at Spa BenMarNicos. My toenails were painted OPI's My Signature is DC and my fingernails were OPI's I Sing in Color.

I was off from work on the day of the party, which was really weird because there have only been a few Fridays that I haven't been there since I started working at the motel nearly four and a half years ago. I walked around Target for a little bit before my hair appointment.

It ended up taking longer that I was expecting to get my hair done, because my hair stylist and I were having a hard time deciding what we wanted to do. I wanted it curly, and I was hoping to have it up at least partially, but I didn't want to look to Prom-y because of the dress I was wearing.

I left there a little bit later than I was hoping to, and then I went home to get changed. I rented the Allison Parris Grand Celebration dress from Rent the Runway, along with the Lauren Merkin Grey Eve Glitter Clutch.


I was already freaking out because I was running late, and then I was having some problems with the zipper on the dress because the teeth wouldn't stay together. I called two of my friends, but there really wasn't anything that they could do, so I just ended up wearing the larger size. (Rent the Runway will send you a second size at no additional charge. I am so thankful for that.)

I drove up to Baileys Harbor, and I already saw the cars of the people that I was supposed to be meeting there. Our dinner reservations were for seven, and I was a few minutes late. I don't really remember seeing anyone in the restaurant other than us, but they might have just been on the lower level by the water and I wasn't paying attention. I found Anna, and she helped me tape my dress up, and then she took a couple pictures of me. The one thing I wish I could change about that night was that I wish I took pictures with more people.

photos by Anna Sacks

The dress was just incredible. I felt like a cupcake, and melanie said that she wanted to bake a cake for me to stand on! ha.

We sat down for dinner a little bit later, and Ruby had gotten these giant happy birthday balloons to put on the table. Almost a week later, and they still look brand new.

Dinner was really nice because I got to spend some time with people that I feel like I rarely just get to hang out with. I ordered the smallest steak on the menu (I don't really eat seafood, and I didn't think that ribs were a good choice for what I was wearing...), but it still seemed huge!


A few more people showed up after dinner, and then I dragged Abi with me to go fix my dress again, and then her mom bought me my first drink. I had a grasshopper which was really good, but I didn't drink the whole thing because I was kind of paranoid about having to drive home.

photo by Abi Bethke

It matches my car, so that was cute. pat was joking about wanting to take a picture of me in my car with it. (:

The show started around nine, but I don't have a lot of pictures of that (or really anything that night) because it was so dark in there.


Just before the end of their first set, they played "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," which Ruby said that Vee picked out as my birthday song. {listen to the original here} I thought that that was all that they were going to be doing, but of course not. They made me get up on stage and they played a real birthday song and made me blow out candles on some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cupcakes.

photos by Ty Helbach

I was laughing so hard and had no idea what to do with my arms. I felt so awkward.

photos by Abi Bethke

Abi took a couple pictures on her phone, and then she saw that my camera was sitting there, so she took a couple pictures on there for me, which was really sweet.

After I sat back down at the bar with Abi, melanie came over and told me that I was supposed to pass out the cupcakes, but I didn't want to, so Abi's mom went and brought us some cupcakes, and later she passed them out to the people at the bar.



Abi also took this last picture here, which I love. We would alternate between standing/dancing and sitting at the bar. Anna and I danced together to My Girl, and that was pretty funny because neither of us had any idea what we were doing. Then, for the Get Down, I ended up lying on the floor with Vee, and it was a funny and awkward experience, which he made even funnier/more awkward by kneeling over me while he continued to play his guitar.

All in all, it was a wonderful night.

xoxo.

*this is not a sponsored post.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

33/52 2014

it's been a pretty busy week. I worked a lot, and then my birthday party was on Friday! (: as the summer merges into the school year, I hope that things start to seem a little bit less crazy.


Wednesday 13 August // day two hundred twenty-five :: I went to Appleton to get a manicure and pedicure. I was hoping to take some pictures downtown, but I ran out of time. I grabbed a Groundskeeper Frappe from Copper Rock Coffee, and it tasted like an Oreo (:


Thursday 14 August // day two hundred twenty-six :: I found this scarf on clearance at World Market.


Friday 15 August // day two hundred twenty-seven :: birthday fun with WIFEE and the HUZz Band. technically this was taken after midnight, but it was the best one. the lighting there wasn't the greatest.


Saturday 16 August // day two hundred twenty-eight :: birthday balloons from Ruby!


Sunday 17 August // day two hundred twenty-nine :: this week's camp theme is s'mores! (:


Monday 18 August // day two hundred thirty :: it's barely rained all summer, but we have thunderstorms in the forecast all week.


Tuesday 19 August // day two hundred thirty-one :: breakfast. because white dishes make everything classier.

xoxo.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Twenty While Twenty {revisited}

1. get my own place. May 1, 2014. {see some pictures here}

2. take a solo trip. Minneapolis in March! {pictures here}


3. get another tattoo. {sorry, Mom} May 29, 2014.
 
please note the sign to the right of my head - yes, it hurts. I would also like to point out that that is a freckle to the left of the raven, not blood.


4. graduate college with my associate's degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management. 20 December 2013 {read about it here}


5. try a new recipe to bring to Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. Oreo White Chocolate Pudding Peppermint Cookies for Christmas


6. create a Facebook fan page for my photography. 19 September 2013

7. rename my blog & get a fresh design to go with it. never happened, because I still don't know where I want to go with it.

8. read twenty books. see the list here.

9. blog at least twice a week. yes!! and there were times that I blogged more than that, especially September, when I participated in Blogtember.

10. buy a real leather belt. no more bad quality Target belts for daily wear. 31 December 2013

11. bake a cake. {I've never baked a cake before, only cupcakes.} 4 August 2014

12. send out one piece of real mail {package, letter, postcard, etc.} each month.
August - lots of thank you cards & Nicole's Cara Box
September - birthday card
October - Sonya's Cara Box
November - thank you note & postcards
December - Christmas card
January - thank you notes & a birthday card
February - Valentine's cards (:
March - some postcards from Minneapolis
April - a postcard from Door County to a friend in California
May - some notes to family
June - a congratulations card to Abi for passing her driver's test {which you can see here}
July - note to my sister, note to my pen pal, Leah
August - nothing yet, but it will happen

13. learn how to be more frugal. {and blog about my adventures along the way} the only part I blogged about was a January spending freeze, but I've actually tried to be better about not wasting my money. I don't go to Target nearly as often, and I'm waiting for some of that college stuff to go on clearance before I buy it. I also have been using more coupons and buying things when they are on sale! (:

14. take better care of myself. {eat healthier, do yoga, etc.} I've been eating better {less junk, more fruits and vegetables}, and I've been doing my own version of yoga, if you could call it that. I teach a few tumbling classes at the Y, so I do stretches and run around with them, and I am planning to get back in the pool and start swimming again when school starts up again.

15. go to the spa to get a pedicure, massage, and/or facial. never happened, even though I have two gift certificates, BUT I scheduled an appointment before my birthday, and I went on Wednesday for a manicure and pedicure.

16. learn how to apply makeup - maybe someone at Sephora would teach me? never happened. oh well.

17. start writing a book. while I decided to go a different direction with this, I did start working on it. {but I haven't worked on it much, and it's been a while. oops.}

18. learn how to play one song on the guitar. hahaha never happened, and I knew in the back of my head that it wouldn't.

19. drive up north at least four times. I lost count of the number of times that I actually went, but here are some times that I did a whole post of pictures.
Labor Day photos here
fall photos here
winter photos here
Memorial Day photos here
July photos here

20. plan a fabulous party for my twenty-first! (: kind of, sort of. Ruby is the best and we're making it happen, even if it isn't what I was initially thinking. {it's going to be a lot better.}

I passed with an 80% (:

xoxo.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Twenty While Twenty: Twenty Books

Part of the "Twenty While Twenty" list of goals that I created was to read twenty books. Here are all of the books that I read while I was twenty! (:

My hope for this challenge was that I would more than surpass the twenty books, but I didn't. I got a little too distracted with the internet and hulu, but I hope to be better about reading in the future. I have always enjoyed reading, but it seems harder now to know what books to read!

{With the exception of number five, all titles are linked to where you can read more about/purchase the books online.}

1. A Beautiful Mess by Elsie Larson & Emma Chapman

This book is full of ninety-five photography ideas. I thought that there were lots of great and inspiring tips inside. It made me want to go and take pictures right away!

2. Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns by Lauren Weisberger

I really enjoyed this sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. It was a little confusing at times when one chapter would all of the sudden be a flashback, or months further in the future, but all in all, I thought it was a good book.

3. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

This book was definitely weird with all of the Shakespearean references, and the first-person-plural narrative, but it was really good and I kept reading because I wanted to know what was going to happen with the three sisters!

4. I Am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne

I originally read this book my senior year of high school during British Literature, when I was writing a paper on Black Sabbath & Ozzy Osbourne. Yes, I love them and I may have freaked out when I saw Ozzy's star on the Hollywood Boulevard during spring break that year. Anyway, I think this is a really good book if you like rock 'n roll history!

5. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

I bought this book at Target, from the dollar spot when it was on clearance for fifty cents. I was so excited, because I have only watched the movie once, and I wanted to read the book. Well, when I went to read it, I found out that the copy that I bought is a condensed version. It was a quick read, but a good story. Maybe someday I will read the full version.


6. Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath by Tony Iommi

I really enjoyed this book! The only Black Sabbath stuff that I listen to is the stuff with Ozzy, so I didn't really know who Tony was talking about for about half of the book. It was cool to see an overlap with Ozzy's book and seeing both sides for a few stories. My favorite part about this book though, was that in the 369 pages, there were 90 chapters, so they were all relatively short.

7. Eight Girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto

I can't remember if I first saw this on Kelle Hampton's blog, or if I saw it before then, and decided to read it after she talked about it. There are eight sections/chapters in this book, each about a different woman in a different place and time in history, and each chapter somehow comes back to the main character of the first section. It was about more than just taking pictures, it was about love and struggle and it was beautiful.


8. Space Kitty Blues by pat mAcdonald

I received this book last year from pat, and I wanted to wait a long time to read it. This book is semi-autobiographical, and I thought that it would be pretty weird to read this since I see pat so often. I was packing to leave for an overnight trip, and I wanted a book to read in the jacuzzi, so I grabbed this one, and I am so glad that I did. I didn't want to put it down. It's a great story and a quick read, with some beautiful quotes. Am I allowed to call this book cute?

"They were both just too beautiful for the worlds they were cast down into."


9. White Whine: A Study of First-World Problems by Streeter Seidell

I forgot where I first heard about this book, but I had to put it on hold at the library right away. This wasn't a novel or novella, every one to four pages would just talk about complaints made on social media from people who seem to have their lives pretty well off, with screenshot examples. The author has a website called White Whine, which is where the book is based off of.


10. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

This book is really good! There were a lot of other people in northeastern Wisconsin who wanted to read this book as well, because I was on the hold list for a month to get it! I was a little confused about why one of the three main characters was involved, but I really liked the way the book was written. There was a totally unexpected twist towards the end, and then the epilogue! The epilogue was probably my favorite part of the book, but it was all so, so good.

"This was how it could be done. This was how your lived with a terrible secret. You just did it. You pretended everything was fine. You ignored the deep, cramplike pain in your stomach. You anesthetized yourself so that nothing felt bad, but nothing felt good either."


11. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

I think I might have actually heard about this book before I heard about The Husband's Secret, but after I read The Husband's Secret, I knew that I had to read What Alice Forgot as well. The books aren't tied in with each other in any way, but I really like Liane's style of writing, and they were both such good books that I didn't want to put them down. The simple premise of this book is that Alice loses ten years of her memories, and it helps her see her life in a different perspective.


12. Finding Betty Crocker by Susan Marks

I picked this book up in the gift shop at the Mill City Museum when I was in Minneapolis. I thought that it was really cool to learn the history of Betty Crocker. There are even a few recipes in here, and it kind of makes me want to dress up as Betty for Halloween!


13. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

It took me a long time to get through this one, but I finally made it through! This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I didn't think that it was going to be a month-by-month look at someone's year. I am glad that I read it; it was a great insight on things that could help make all of us a little bit happier.


14. Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison

I wandered into the library one day to find a book to read (and to get some books for one of my classes at the Y). I think I had heard about some of Beth's books before, and I decided to read this one first, since it seemed as though this was the first one of the three on the shelf. I devoured this book. If I didn't have to work, I would have finished this in less than a day. This is a great story about the lives of four women and how they are brought together by shoes.


15. Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger by Beth Harbison

I didn't like this one as much as I liked Shoe Addicts Anonymous. This one was a little weird because the main character, Quinn, was living a little bit in her past and was torn between two brothers while helping their grandmother get ready for her wedding. Oh, and Quinn almost married one of the brothers ten years before... Talk about small town life and drama.

16. Roomies by Sara Zarr & Tara Altebrando

I'm slightly embarrassed to say that this book made me almost cry a couple times. I guess I just wasn't expecting to read a book about two recent high school graduates and have it apply so much (at times) to my life. The story here is that the girls are given their rooming assignments for their freshman year of college, and they start by talking about a couple things for their room, but they go back and forth all summer telling each other about what's going on in their lives. Two girls in different situations on different coasts, but they share their secrets before they even meet. It was a pretty quick read, and I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next!


17. Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

The first thing that you need to know about this book is that it has nothing to do with that place you go for hot dogs and ice cream. I was browsing the YA section at the library, and I was reading a few of the inside covers, and I thought that I would read this one because it's about a girl who lives in Wisconsin. This book is centered around farming and football, two things that I don't really know a whole lot about, but there were enough moments that I could relate with DJ, the main character.


18. The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder

The story of a great adventure; an escape for two teenage girls. My very favorite part was when they spent the night at IKEA, which I would secretly love to do. Zoe and Hannah take off to escape some things that happen in their small town in New Jersey and end up on a tour of the United States. This was another tear-jerker.

19. The Encyclopedia of Me by Karen Rivers

If I would have known that this was a book about twelve year olds, I wouldn't have picked it up. It was cute, but I think I am very much beyond that stage of my life. I did enjoy the way that the book was laid out. The main character (Tink) was writing an encyclopedia about her life, so there were alphabetical headings, which was nice because I like to have plenty of places where I can stop reading if I don't have a whole lot of time.

20. Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker

Which girl doesn't have dreams of a career in fashion? I know that I was once planning on going to college for fashion merchandising or fashion marketing, but after I had my senior portrait session, a tiny part of me also wanted to model, even though I knew that that was never going to happen. Violet is a shy high school senior who gets discovered and ends up being a model. This book was a story of chasing your dreams and knowing when to stop chasing them.

21. Water Balloon by Audrey Vernick

I actually haven't finished this one, but I started this book before my birthday, so I thought I would include it as a bonus one. This is another book that ended up being about twelve year olds. Honestly, I judge books by their covers. I don't have a lot to say about this one yet, since I'm only about halfway done.

xoxo.
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