Tender Things

I promise I'll put up some pictures from my birthday but first my Mock-tail party has to occur!

But I did want to share this super tender video because who doesn't love a cute proposal video??

I'm all about tender proposal stories. Especially if one of my friends is in it!

Seriously, tell me you didn't want to cry a little during this.

We should probably talk about how all guys should take a lesson from him in how to propose. 

second tender thing- Today was sunny and it was lightly snowing and it was so beautiful! I wish I could have been out there longer. 

I should add some pictures of my newest Valentines day decorations but alas I'm photo lab monitoring and don't have the pictures with me.

In other news, I'm going to attempt to make that heart cake for V day as well. 

Next tender thing- watching the faces of photo 1 students when their film actually has good images on them. One girl was jumping up and down and practically dancing with her strip of negatives. It was cute. Reminded me of myself in my high school photo 1 class.

And last tender thing-

My stars this child is tender. She loved this chair. She would not for a second sit on the back ground for a picture until we introduced the chair. She was running all around the chair and giggling. for some reason the chair was hilarious to her. 

so tender.

You might be like me If....

You  might be like me-

if you've had to pump your tires with air twice in 2 weeks because of how blasted cold it is.

If you slipped on the ice recently

If you're excited for my birthday on Sunday.

If you didn't brush your hair this morning.

If you really want to go on a road trip for spring break.

If you have thee best friends in the whole wide world.

If you have a teeny tiny crush on a TA in one of your classes.

If you applied for a full time photography job in park city for after you graduate and they hire you via the telephone the exact same day you applied only they need you now and can't wait for the summer so you didn't get the job 'cause you live in Logan and are still in school.

If you're really good at writing run-on sentences.

If you gag a little when viewing all the overly cheesed newly wed blogs. {but letsss be honest, i'll probably do this one day.... remind me to not be too cheesy.... k?}

if your roommate has a text sound that is a bullet shot and every time it goes off you want to fall to ground and shout "man down!"

if you think none of the women on the bachelor this season are good enough for Sean and you think I should convert him to the church and marry the Southern Gentleman myself.

if your contacts freeze to your eyeballs when walking to school in the morning.

if your baby niece is coming to visit you this weekend.

if you want to learn how to make this cake.

if you can drink a whole gallon of milk in 3 days.

if an old man helped you put your coat on like a true gentlemen.

if your younger siblings have more of a social life than you do.

if your drivers license expires this sunday and you get a big girl license that's horizontal instead of vertical. 

if your car gets frost on the inside and outside of the windows.

if you really want a dr pepper right now. 

if you're so far behind on Once Upon a Time you don't want to bother watching it anymore.

50+ of your friend's first name on Facebook is Elder or Sister right now.

If you got free Aggie Ice cream at the business building yesterday.

if you knew stamp prices are going up on my birthday

If you really want to shoot some snow engagements.

if you are in desperate need of an adventure.

If you are sick of the monotony of the every day college school day and it's only the 3rd week of school.

If you have a professor that sends you 6+ emails every day about "cool articles" to read for fun.

If you have 0 dirty dishes in the sink.

If you burnt 4 pieces of garlic toast back to back because you forgot they were broiling in the oven.

If you're in the mermaid club again.

If you've flossed your teeth for 24 days straight.

If your niece is coming to visit you this weekend.

If you are sick of this blog post.

The day I decorated for Valentines Day.

Okay, yes, I know. Valentines Day isn't for like 21 days. But I thought I'd decorate a bit anyways.


Also, I was feeling crafty. So I made this wreath. The link I found on Pinterest said it took a while. I didn't realize "a while" meant 4.5 hours though!
It's really tender and cute though, no?

used 2 yards of felt, over 400 straight pins and a million minutes.

paint samples cut out into heart shapes hung on yarn

Every time I take the time to decorate my house and make good food and pretend to be a homemaker, it makes me that much more excited for the day I get to do it for real!

Also, I have all these ideas that I want to do for Valentines day this year on top of everything I came up with last year. So, if anyone knows of someone who wants a girlfriend for the day..... ;)

And my 21st birthday is on Sunday. So all who want to come over to my cutely decorated apartment on sunday night around 6:30 for cake and ice cream, you're all welcome!

XOXO

Recent and Random Obsessions

Sometimes I get obsessed with weird things.

Right now I'm a little obsessed with

Red nail polish (don't be deceived because I'm not wearing it right now. I made myself wear pink this time)

half pony tails. I like how my bangs look when half my half pony tail has fallen out. I know, weird.

this song

I especially like this women's voice. I wish I had a powerful voice.

wedding pictures. You guys. this one is not strange. I'm a wedding photographer. But, Still. I'm not getting married so why do I look so much at wedding blogs and photographers??? they're just so pretty! I aspire.

egg noodles. with that fake bottled parmesan stuff and fake butter. it's really easy to put in a container and warm up at school too. Sometimes the processed stuff's not so bad...

babies. I have a folder on my desktop titled "my baby Gemma" and i put my favorites of her in the folder. It gets opened frequently. Today I saw a mom with a baby on campus and I went to baby talk with the child. I'm not a creeper. I just miss my slobbery kisses baby niece. Who apparently points with her little finger now. (I'm missing all her life!!) One day when gemma's really bored she's going to read my blog and realize just how much I love her. :D I saw a quote on pinterest yesterday that said "A great sister gets promoted to Aunt" So true! I'm going to cross stitch that into a pillow.  (But first...who wants to teach me how to cross stitch...)

I totally did her hair here. 

Gloves. I don't like things on my hands and feet. I despise sleeping with socks. But lets talk about how pickin cold Logan is these days. My little toes would get frost bite if I didn't wear socks to bed probably. And my fingers can't text because they are so cold! Ask betsy! She got a text today that said, "gownswddjdmd wasand q um z" true story.

making myself laugh. I don't think I'm as funny as I think I am sometimes but I do some dumb things not on purpose and I crack myself up. I'm really funny.... And that sentence/paragraph thing didn't make that much sense.. sorry...

It's far too late but I just wrote out my first official photography contract. So that's good news and all.

and on my first math quiz in nearly 5 years I got a 19/20. I don't mean to say go me, but I bought some ice cream to celebrate. And then I dropped the class. Long story. First time dropping a class in college. Feel much better about life.

Well, I'm going to bed. I'm shooting my friend Addie tomorrow on a green screen to make her look like a winter beauty beast. Or something like that. And I have to find a location for the background to shoot to put her into after shooting. Cross your fingers that it's in the positives and not negatives tomorrow.

Just in case you were wondering, it's 11 days 'till my 21st birthday. :D

A lesson all ages of students should learn. A realization.

Usually my blogs are the opposite of serious. They're light hearted and sarcastic and just fun. But this one actually has substance to it. {hooray!}

So I've been thinking back on the past 16 years of my life. My education career.
From the time you're in late grade school many kids start learning the tricks and loop holes in assignments and papers for playing the game to not necessarily learn more, but get the desired "A" grade instead.

I've been thinking about my high school classes and about how many times I did certain things begrudgingly or without thinking about it, not doing it to actually try learning something in the process. I regret it now. I didn't always do this. I mean, I've always loved to learn, but I really regret not always having the attitude in every class to actually learn instead of just do.

A couple examples-

English. I was taught all these crazy English rules and things in my HS English classes. We were given worksheets or assignments to help us remember them but I just did them like a speed demon to get them over with and get the grade but I never took the time to actually understand them. And now I can't remember when to use whom vs who, a semi colon vs a dash vs a colon, the rules on commas, etc. So, pretty much all the rules.

Science. This subject had to be my least favorite. I took the bare minimum of classes in high school in this department and I can't tell you anything I learned and actually still remember. If I would have paid attention in my chemistry class, all the chemicals  we use in my photo classes would be easier to understand and would have meaning to me. I wish I could remember the difference between the different endings to the names. When I'm all grown up and I'm a mom and my kids ask me for help on their biology homework, I'll just be able to tell them dissecting sharks is nasty business. And pretty much the only bone I can tell you the name and location of is the femur.

And as much as I didn't learn in high school, I still graduated with a 3.96 GPA.
Sure it got me a scholarship, and sure I have good grades in college, but I'm just now realizing how much more important learning is and not just doing what is required.

This all hit me today after my marketing class.
We had to read the first chapter and take a quiz online. But, growing up in the era that nearly everyone skips the reading, opens the quiz and searches in the chapter for just the answers on the quiz instead of learning what the chapter is saying, I did this. the reason why this hit me today was that I'm taking this class for fun. It's not a requirement for me to graduate at the end of the semester. I sincerely want to learn how to market my photography business and yet I was not trying at all to learn in this class how to do it. What is the point in taking this class I wanted to benefit from if I'm just going to do the bare minimum to get the grade? It's not. And it really made me stop and take a look back on every time I've done this in a class I was not interested in.

Which leads me to my Computers in art class. It covers photoshop, Indesign, and Illustrator. I already know how to use photoshop and indesign so I was mentally complaining in class about having to do the tutorials to learn how to use them but then stopped. I realized again that I'm at college to learn. Yes, I want a degree, but If  I don't learn everything I came here to learn then this was a total waste! Yes, I know how to use the programs, but there is no way I know everything about them! So why wasn't my initial reaction excitement to learn more about something I love?! I just don't know why I haven't made these connections earlier. It makes me want to put my self in a time-out.

I think we're in a society of doing rather than for learning. If we weren't, then:

•  Why are there classes you can take for speed reading. If you only scan the chapter sure you probably will pick up on the main points of the stuff you read, but you definitely didn't learn everything you could have. 

• Why is my GRE textbook on all the ways you can find the answers by knowing all the ways the test maker's trick you. Shouldn't they want to find out how much you know, not about how well you can find their tricks?

• Why are there so many ways provided for us to get around doing things the way we'd actually learn something from doing?

I'm not saying that I haven't worked hard, because I really have. But I chose when I actually wanted to learn and I chose when I didn't care and just wanted an "A". 

This is proving now to be something that is going to make my life harder with the grad school application process. 

Hopefully any who read this who aren't in their last semester of college can benefit from my realization earlier than I did.