Catching Up on Photo 365: Part 3

1. Some of the daily things in my bag. How cute is the striped bag my little sister bought me?

2. My birthday weekend begins with a dinner from my best friend. Here's what I wore! 

3. My family & I also went bowling for my birthday.

4. After we went bowling, it was back home for some cake!

5, 6, 7, & 8. More snapshots from my birthday weekend which I blogged about before as well. (Follow this link to read all about it!) By the way, that glass of milk is actually a soda float!

Everything Has Meaning...A Reflection

As each day goes by, I don't have time to reflect on myself. I'm usually the girl caught journaling in public, trying to schedule and plan out everything, and trying to reflect on myself as I go along, but frankly I can't remember the last time I really sat down and thought about it all (you know...all of life).

Yet for some reason, tonight my best friend fell asleep while talking to me and my whole family shut their lights off at 11pm. It was all quiet. No one had the sense of urgency to talk to me, no had anything they wanted to spend time with me before bed, and it wasn't even a tiring day. But, I am not complaining, I thought I could use this peaceful serenity.

That's until I logged onto my best friend's Netflix account and finished up watching season eight of "How I Met Your Mother" and as I just nearly finished- I realized everything has meaning. I was not craving to see how Barney and Robin end up where they do in season nine, I was not trying to fill up my little young heart with the adventures of the married couple, Lilly and Marshall, but instead I wanted to feel like the main character Ted.

I wanted to feel hopeful, I wanted to feel as if I still had something to reflect upon, and as if I still had a story to tell. That is why I have been so obsessed with this show. I just wanted to think and even feel what my own story is and if this show let's me explore even just the tinciest part of it while I am going about my usual days, then yes I might even buy all nine seasons on DVD.

No, I am not trying to praise the show for what I think it is. I am just amazed that although I have not been able to reflect upon things the way I am used to, subconciously I decided to find different meanings in this show as a form of reflecting.

Heck, isn't that why we watch American television? Because it tricks us into thinking we need entertainment when really we either need to reflect, find meaning within ourselves, or fill in a small missing void we might not even know exists.

So when those days arive when you just want to watch a movie or catch up on a TV show while you're alone and there's nothing else to do, do nothing, but take the opportunity.

Catching Up on Photo 365: Part 2

I have been trying to keep up with this Photo 365 project since I started in January! It's actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. I still am hopeful, however, to have 365 photos by January 1st and then have a grand photo post/web page set up to showcase my whole year.

1. Homemade oatmeal and fruit. Yes this is definitely January!

2. There's a such thing as Peanut Butter Milky Ways?!

3. Trip to the NY Historical Society.

4. Yes that is me, just well...being me. (When I had longer hair!)

Scrapbooking with my Little Sister

Lately, I have been seeing some really great scrapbooking and project life ideas. Although, I love making digital photobooks on Shutterfly and Snapfish then simply just ordering them, there is a big sentimental difference when creating them by hand.

So when my little sister decided to pull out her small scrapbooking kit, I decided to help her put it together.


Isn't our little scrapbook adorable? If any of you have scrapbooked before or have started your own project life binders, please do share! I'd love to hear some tips!

Tech Wish List 2013

 1. Nikon DSLR D7100 Camera- This camera is perfect! I have never actually had my own camera and this camera would be great for my blog photos and I am more than sure everyone would enjoy my Instagram photos better than before. Once you see how a well-taken professional photo looks, you'll never want your iPhone 4 photos to be on Instagram again. Trust me, I am going through that phase right now.

2. Nokia Lumia 1020- Recently I damaged my iPhone 4 screen and I've been looking for a new phone. However, I do not think I am ready to make the switch from iOS to Windows. I love the way the Windows phone looks and I am sure it's not as easy to use as the iPhone (which I like, actually), but I am afraid that I will be comparing the softwares way too often and not really enjoy the phone's full features. This phone is perfect for photos. Imagine having a 41 megapixels camera in your pocket?! Think about this, the Nikon DSLR D7100 is only about 24 megapixels.

3. MacBook Pro (13in and 128 GB)- I love my laptop, but if I'm going to college next year while majoring in computer science and getting into the dept of graphic, media design, and web-development, I'm going to need a laptop that has enough space and a more productive app store. Plus, all my photos will look even clearer on my Mac!

4. Microsoft Surface Tablet RT- This tablet is in my opinion the most advanced and sophisticated tablet on the market. All those Android tablets look like enlarged cell phones and the iPads too. Windows 8 looks like it was designed for tablets and the Surface brings out those special Windows 8 features. It's the perfect tablet for me.

All this will probably cost roughly around $5,000 and unfortunately this wish list will be a wish for longer than I'd like. 

Just some Tuesday evening thoughts...

 

It’s fall now and I promised myself I would get everything I needed together before school would start. I told myself all of last year that I will be able to complete all my past-due tasks before the first day of September, yet here I am blogging about how I didn’t. It’s easy to say “I will get to it tomorrow,” but the hard part is actually getting those things done. I am going to be a college student soon and I have not made any improvements to my productivity and time management skills. Currently, I have a few projects I am working on (one including a new small business that I will launch very soon!), a few side projects I am doing for others, and still finishing up that novel of mine. You may ask why I overwhelm myself with things that I don’t really have to do, but the truth is…I don’t know how to stop. Why do I like to keep myself this busy? I ask myself that every day.

For the next upcoming months I hope to spend time with my family as much as possible and (again) finish up with my past-due tasks and get back on track (if that’s possible).

After I finish with applying for colleges and half transitioning from being a high school student to a (big girl) college student, I shall be able to at least focus on my big projects for a while.

In the meantime, I will still blog here and over at my technology blog and roll out as many projects as I can for you all to see. Excited? I am. Really, I am.

The Snail Mail Collective: Meet Emily!

Last month I participated in an online event known as "The Snail Mail Collective". This event is hosted by Melyssa from The Nectar Collective and Chelsea from Lost in Travels. Basically, you sign up, get paired up with a partner, get to know each other through e-mail, and then after two weeks you send the person a small package and that person sends you one as well.

I was paired up with a lovely girl named Emily Collins. Emily is from the west while I reside here in the east. It was pretty strange to see how much we had common and knowing that we live so many miles apart. We're both the same age, both looking for colleges, and beginning to discover all our talents. I also found out that we both love watching "How I Met Your Mother" and find each other's interests very fascinating! Emily wants to be a journalist one day for magazines such as the National Geographic and I think that is so awesome!



Emily sent me a notebook, a multi-colored pen, and a handmade greeting card! I was so excited to receive her package and I loved how she personalized a card just for me! She also left me a note on the first page of the pretty patterned notebook! I now carry around this notebook everywhere and jot down notes and ideas I have on my projects. :)



The Snail Mail Collective was a great experience and I hope to do it again sometime! Beyond that, I made a new friend! We'll still e-mail each other even though the collective is over we'll still keep contact. Emily does not have a blog yet, but will soon and then we'll be blog buddies!