Good Food = Love

So I just made this for Mike and I and wow you guys this formula is so true: Good food = love points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like we just finished it as an appetizer and HOLY COW I'M STILL DROOLING IT WAS SO JUICY AND AMAZING PINTEREST RECIPE FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a look through my sketchbooks

When you open my sketchbook the first thing you see is Vincent Cat Gogh haahaha I love this little guy. 

I love doing Master copies of works that I love. When you're in a funk it's always a good exercise to copy an art piece that you like. It teaches you about how that artist created their piece in the first place, how they made their strokes, how they decided on composition, and just how that piece of art came to life.

Filling up this sketchbook and at least one more is my goal for 2016 and so far I'm doing greaaaat!

discussing romantic feelings for past lovers

I was chatting with a friend yesterday about feelings we have for old boyfriends and it got me thinking about what complex things our hearts are. I don't have any romantic feelings for my old boyfriends because all my feelings are being poured into loving Mike. But before I loved Mike I went through a major turning point concerning old feelings for past lovers.

Mike and I met on June 20th, 2014. We spent five consecutive every day together after that. On the sixth day I was asked by an old boyfriend to meet up and talk about how things ended between us. I agreed and all of my past feelings for him rushed back into my heart and head, making me very confused and wary. I knew this past relationship was good(not great) and we could maybe get things back to where they were(comfort zone). This past relationship had been a big one and there were lots of real feelings involved. I had no idea if things would progress with Mike because I had just met him, he was leaving to live in California and I was staying in Utah. It seemed like the logical choice to get back together and try to work things out.

But.....

Long story short I knew that I was emotionally done with the past relationship before we even met up. I felt bad the entire time because I could've been hanging out with Mike the whole time. That was a huge indicator of who I wanted to spend my time with. Because of how torn I felt being away from Mike, I knew that he was more than a crush or summer fling. It was good to have closure with this past boyfriend but I just couldn't open my heart up to him again because it was already hooked on Mike.

In the end, I closed the door on that past relationship for good and was able to excitedly open the new door that led me to falling in love with Mike. The key thing was I had no regrets. I knew what I wanted and that was Mike, whether or not we fell in love or even dated or even kissed (yeah we hadn't even kissed yet...we really just knew the moment we saw each other) He was the one I wanted to be with and I'm so glad we actually did get to kiss, date and fall in love.

what I'm inspired by lately ...

Something that I really like about this whole internet journaling thing is that I am able to put words to photos (without having to print them out and glue them in my journal lol). I think that I really treat this space like a digital scrapbook--writing and posting for me.

I've been collecting some photos of what I've been inspired by lately--all these pics are from Pinterest or Insta--and I want to have them in this space too. So here goes:

Fall/Winter inspiration has been going great--I have a goal to actually dress like the photos I pin so I've done lots of fun layering, scarf tying and messy hair wearing.

I've come to realize that my style of decorating can be summed up in three words: white, art, plants. 

I've been painting some Matisse pieces because I love his flowers and if I paint them they will never wilt or die haha this one is still a work in progress.

But as much as I love painting flowers, I also melt anytime Mike surprises me with flowers. He decided to start a tradition of getting me a rose for every Valentine's Day we spend together haahaha I'm stoked for our 86th Valentine together haahaha

Oh and I've also been planning out my dream trip through Italy & Greece; to further study the geography and history of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology 

writing writing writing

I was not in school during the entire year of 2015. It was great to get a break and travel to California, Utah, Alaska and all over South America with Mike. But I missed something which surprised me a lot once I realized what it was. I think I missed school. 

HAHAHAHHAHAAHAAA ok 

but really, I missed parts of school. I missed the projects, the researching, the writing and feeling of importance. Like when you're in school you got stuff to do! There's deadlines and events that fill up your planner--I really missed all that. I think after my last year here I will be absolutely sick of it and be glad to get out. But right now I am totally loving all the typing and writing I have to do. It makes me so happy to check things off my to do list and actually have assignments to write down in my planner. Is that really weird or kinda normal? idk. 

What happened in Vegas......

I was just thinking about that time when Mike and I were in Vegas last October and wanted to document this memory. On our way back to SLC from our California road trip we decided to pit stop in Vegas just for kicks. I've never liked Vegas because literally there's nothing to do but gamble and have porn pamphlets shoved in your face 24/7. I didn't ever want to ever visit again unless I was about to see a legit Cirque du Soleil show or something cool like that. But as we were driving Mike convinced me to YOLO and chill in Vegas for a second.

It was such a pretty night. It was warm, the sunset was stunning and we got milkshakes from McDonald's as we walked the strip. I didn't take any photos. I relished the taste of strawberry ice cream. I held Mike's hand as we laughed at tourists. We made out while watching the Bellagio fountain show. It was a beautiful night. I felt so happy and free.

I want to remember that there was this air of anticipation too. I felt as though we were living in a 'Christmas Eve' sort of time bubble. We were ending our time in California which was sad. But we were only a day away from beginning our two month long travel trip through South America. Those moments in Vegas felt like a mini time freeze--a night where Mike and I were in between two very big adventures. I've only ever experienced those sort of 'time freeze' moments like right before Christmas day for example or before I moved to Virginia when I was 11 or at the end of the summer before I went off to college. I'm so very glad that we were able to make that time capsule memory and in Vegas of all places haha it was a beautiful little pocket of happiness and I'm so glad for it.

oh and if this memory was a photo it would be this one^

it's almost mid-february so here's an update

Soooooooo, February is almost halfway over and I haven't posted any current life photos---1 main reason: my life is not nearly as photogenic as it was while we were traveling all there is to see is snow and classrooms haha. But I still want to keep documenting my life as it goes even if it isn't as gorgeous as Machu Picchu or the Caribbean.

In January Mike was playing basketball with friends when the hoop dramatically broke and shattered. He snapped me this pic saying it was a funny but totally NOT funny moment and oh my gosh I felt so bad even though I wasn't even there. 




We've been painting a lot in my Studio methods for teaching art:

My attempt as copying a Kooning ^^

My awesome brother comes home from his mission in the Philippines THIS SUMMER!!! Every time I think about that it freaks me out a little like he's all grown up. 

We went on a Sundance film festival date with our friends and had a fun/random time walking around and trying to guess who's famous haha

I rewired our oven to fit the new plug I got at Home Depot and it was super easy thank you YouTube. I called my Dad and said I have finally grown up because I had to go into Home Depot to buy a new oven plug. It was very satisfying to rewire the oven and then cook dinner that night. I fixed it and yelled to Mike, "Oh my gosh I'm a BOSS!!"

Speaking of my Dad, he makes these amazing wood heads and this one totally reminded me of Squidward--like doppleganger.

I've been seeing my sis every Monday and Wednesday. She's come a long way since chemo like gaining back her weight, growing out her hair and just settling back into activities that the old Sarah used to do. I'm so glad to have her back--not that she ever left--we're just so happy that she's healthy again.

can't believe I'm writing about this

let's talk about FINANCE YEAH!

I'm in Family Finance this semester at BYU and honestly it's like I'm back in 3rd grade listening to my Dad read "The Richest Man in Babylon" during our Family Home evening lesson. One of our extra credit opportunities is to write a blog post about a financial topic so heeeeeere goes:

There are a million things I want to buy right now. Like it's bad.

I would say that I've always enjoyed shopping--well, after an hour I am so done-- but you could still say I'm a good shopper. I've never needed too much and always bought second hand things for my kitchen, clothes and tools. However, since getting married and moving in together with my husband I've experienced this crazy need to buy beautifully designed things for our home! I've never ever EVER cared this much about products and their quality, color and design. Like just look at my Pinterest boards why am I so suddenly obsessed with things to fill our home with?? I'm addicted to looking at beautiful, fun things. And like it's so tempting right now to buy nice things to cook with, wear, decorate and use in our home together because we both have jobs and have saved so much from the past year working full-time.

So what's wrong with me and why do I want to buy everything? I think I figured it out. Since getting married my expectations have changed. I think that I've felt pressure to create a nice home because now I'm a wife and can be classified as a homemaker. I also think that I want to fill our home with pretty things to impress our friends who come over for dinner dates and parties. Another bad habit that's formed is that I'm so used to using gift cards for everything because we were lucky and received great gifts from our wedding guests. I've done some major self evaluating and realized I need to re-set my financial habits that I've had my whole life. I've resolved to start practicing better money habits starting NOW; here are some of my goals:

• before purchasing something, wait 3 days and re-evaluate.
• before purchasing from a major store, check thrift and cheaper places--if product doesn't need to be of good quality..i.e. paper towels, tp, ziploc bags
• practice tithing first, then paying myself 10% in savings
• take a month off from online browsing/online shopping
• if there's something that I really really want--ask for it for my birthday in May
• instead of going out to dinner with friends, play games or something free instead
• use the gift cards we have left instead of paying with money
• count three things I'm grateful for every time I feel like complaining

Well there we go. Now that it's out on the internet I have to be accountable haha 

6 months WAAAT

WOOOOOOOOOOW I haven't posted photos on this blog in like 6 posts hahaha wow. It's weird like all I've been doing is writing writing writing. I've been looking through wedding photos because Mike and I hit our 6 month mark a couple days go. I found some random faves and decided to fill this post up with them because I've missed pretty photos in this space (oh and I'm not sure if I've shared them here not and too lazy to find out so ...)

Half a year! WHOA! Mike and I were joking about how our 1st six months of marriage were the best ever like how is the rest of our life going to live up to them??? Living together in perfect California, Road tripping and camping down through Big Sur, beachin' it in Laguna, chillin' in Disney, taking a leap and traveling to four different countries, petting llamas, swimming in the Amazon, sweating in Cartagena and then sailing on a boat for a week through the most gorgeous Pirates of the Caribbean style islands...oh and then going to the gorgeous LDS temple in Panama City!

It's just been the most incredible slash unforgettable slash overwhelmingly happy journey!! And like nothing will replace these memories we've made in the past six months--especially not me being in school and Mike working fulltime hahaha not really noteworthy but hey that's life-- but I know that our next adventures, whatever they may be, will be magical and unforgettable in their own way. I'm so happy I married Mike. We're 600x more in love than the second we walked out of the Salt Lake City temple together and so grateful for all the amazing things we've been able to do together so far. 

Weekend catch up

So, Monday. My whole body is so sore from shoveling all this frikken snow and also from my aerial silks class I took over the weekend. Let's talk about that: wow, aerial silks is my new obsession. I haven't been so focused, excited, motivated or just plain stoked about any kind of physical activity since being on BYUI's World Dance team 2 years ago. I love being so high up in the silks and making elegant poses haha I also love flipping upside down and stuff, that's scary but fun! I'm also learning the trapeze and lyra hoop.

If you're ever stressed out and need a reminder that you're doing pretty well in your life, watch this clock for five minutes. Just something I learned in my family finance class today. OH! I think I might go skiing this Saturday and I'm nervous but excited. We'll see how that goes, seeing as it's my very first time ever!!!! I have low expectations for myself in any sport so I can't disappoint. Speaking of skiing and cold, I've been crocheting a bunch of warm hats lately in the hope that I can donate them to a charity or refugee organization somewhere in Salt Lake. Crocheting is seriously so relaxing at the end of the day haha Mike calls me Grandma though.....why can't it be normal for 22 yr olds to love yarn?? haha

Anyway, that's all what's up lately. Here's to another cold week in February!