positivity positivity positivity

SO in my adult life I have only spent one winter in an area where snow and cold is constant. It was in 2014; I was in school, on a dance team and lived with my best friends! Also it was a super mild winter(blessed!!!) This most recent 2016 winter was only my second experience in the cold and lucky me it was a brutally cold one.

Growing up we always lived near a beach (east coast I miss you) and never got to fully experience sledding, skiing, snowboarding or actual real ice skating. And like I was totally fine with it. But like, yeah sometimes I wished I could be a cute ski bum just like Mary-Kate and Ashley in their Olympic road trip movie. Look how perfectly mis-matched they are, I love it (p.s. I braided my hair just like that and wore uber shiny lip gloss for basically all of 8th grade, thank you twins). 

But in reality I will always choose sunshine over snow. I've never really had good training on how to cope during the cold months. Because of that, this winter was really bad for me. I'm recently married, living an hour from all my friends/family, I shut myself in, felt awful, and basically hibernated until I could see the sun again. Basically, I had S.A.D.=Seasonal Affective Disorder. I had all the symptoms:

• Feel sad, grumpy, moody, or anxious.
• Lose interest in your usual activities.
• Sleep more but still feel tired.
• Have trouble concentrating

It was awful and I didn't realize that I was suffering so badly until I basically broke down in March. There is so much that I can get into but that would take five years. The sadness I felt over those months was so bad that it really started effecting my relationships with friends and family, which was NOT okay with me. So I signed up for dance classes, wrote letters, painted more, did a little bit of retail therapy(wow it seriously boosted my happiness when I bought some happy springtime clothes)(side note: maybe I need to wear more color in the winter...) So anyway, I am feeling so totally happy today and I felt like I needed to get this written down. I'm documenting this so I can remember how affected I am by the lack of sunlight in my life. I want to remember how awful I felt so I can take action to never have to feel that way ever again in the coming winters. I mean, unless we end up in Southern California or something haha 

TED Talks that inspire me

FAVE TED TALKS WHOO HOOOOO!

One of my favorite things to do while I commute to school is listen to TED talks. I love the radio but Justin's "sorry" gets old after the 2049583409 time. I just listened to a playlist on my TED app that was titled, "How to Revive a city" and man it was great. My fave talks from it were this one and this one. Oh and Jess Speck's one about the walkable city! These talks inspired me to get out into our own city, Salt Lake, to serve, walk around, explore and contribute to keeping the public spaces open! The lack of sun and clear skies has taken its toll on me this winter--without the sun I shrink and isolate myself in my warm home. But in this in between time of winter/spring I am determined to get out and connect with nature, myself, and our city!

some more fave TED talks:

•  Less stuff More Happiness
• Bad Feminist
• Teach girls bravery not perfection
• Teach kids to code
• Shut up and Listen!

Spring inspiration collection

It's almost officially springtime! My favorite season has always been Spring because of the fresh feeling of rain, the beauty of bright greens and the atmosphere of rebirth in everything; humans, animals and nature.

I'm feeling fresh flowers, lots of pinks, greens and whites.



I'm feeling some spring cleaning and the need to fill up my frames with some fun artwork!



I'm feeling energized and motivated to keep working out and getting stronger. I'm trying real hard to get the beginner trophy on the Nike Fit app and it's way awesome! Also, my new jump rope is about to be my best friend.





I'm feeling sooooooooo ready for a road trip. Mike and I are planning lots of Utah trips because we realized that we haven't really explored this gorgeous state together besides Moab (where we met).





I'm feeling like wearing flowy dresses, pretty colors and soft textures.









I'm also feeling like painting a million abstract pieces and springtime bouquets but like when am I not feeling that? haha





photos via Pinterest

My autobiography

I've been thinking about writing down my autobiography. Like my great grandpa and grandma wrote theirs, same with my grandpa, and my dad has written some stories as well. I should be documenting my life ya know just in case I'm caught in a horribly tragic accident and my children want to know what I did on november 22, 2015. ok not funny. but I feel that's like what I'm basically doing on this space anyway so I should put them all in one place, right?

But I think I'm going to begin. Maybe even make it a goal of mine to document my entire life--well the memorable parts. I should definitely record the time when I peed my pants in kindergarten(1st grade?...) and other memorable stories like that.

I might post some of the more funny/interesting stories here. I've already got the story of how Mike and I met on here so might as well keep getting personal. This will be a great thing for my kids and grand kids to have someday. And like any massive task, I'm starting small and setting a goal to record a little story at least twice per week. We'll see how this goes.....or how long it lasts haha.....

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!

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