365 Photo Challenge: Week 24.

Day 167.

Told you I'd be back soon... Another week of cocoa/brown is complete. Brown has been interesting... but I'm ready for a new color. Only two more weeks.

Day 165: my love... Diet Coke. Day 166: my wall... aka I was in bed when I realized I hadn't taken a picture for the day and looked up and saw brown picture frames. Day 167: cupcakes I made for my co-worker's birthday. Day 168: me... and my brown hair. Day 169: an impromptu mantel piece that happened when we were cleaning up our house the other night and needed to do something with a random pallet that was sitting in our dining room. Day 170: our dining room table. Day 171: my dresser.

Day 165.

Day 166.

Day 168.

Day 169.

Day 170.

Day 171.

365 Photo Challenge: Week 23.

Day 159.

There really is no excuse for not posting this last week. I actually got it all ready, uploaded the pictures, and did everything but write it out last Sunday, and never got around to finishing it up. So these are actually pictures from two week's ago. Last week's pictures will be coming at you soon.   Day 158: my roommate Paige and a random box of Cocoa Drops. Day 159: my favorite tree at my parent's house... although I'm pretty sure it's dying. Day 160: a cold sak that I brought my lunch in one day. Day 161: my purse. Day 162: the light at the restaurant for V and Jon's rehearsal dinner. Day 163: Jon's drink at the wedding. Day 164: a big tree at a park in Houston.   It was a good week.

Day 158.

Day 160.

Day 161.

Day 162.

Day 163.

Day 164.

Operation Bridesmaid: Complete (kind of).

(Kelsy, the matron of honor, and I. You can't see the dress, but whatev.)

Remember a few months ago when I blogged about how I needed to lose some weight because I was in a wedding and needed to fit into a dress? Welp... the wedding was yesterday... so Operation Bridesmaid is officially over! I did lose some weight, although not as much as I had hoped. I had to have the dress altered a bit. But at the end of the day, I fit in to the dress...

The wedding, which is the more important thing that happened yesterday, was amazing. My two best friends from college, Valeria and Jonathan, are now married and that's one of the coolest things ever. Everything was beautiful and the reception was one of the best times I've had in a long time. A great day.

Just thought I'd give you an update! The effort to lose weight will continue, just because I fit into the darn dress doesn't mean I don't still have work today... Just thought I'd let you know thanks to Weight Watchers and my aunt Susie for altering my dress, yesterday turned out just fine.

(it was dark so this is a bit pixely, but here we are! V, Jon, and I.)

(The oldest picture I can find of us. Our freshman year of college...)

(Valeria and I. I love her a lot.)

I don't know if you know this about me...

...but I love fall. Ok, if you have been reading this blog for a while, then you should definitely know that I love fall. But I haven't really posted about my love for fall much this year. So here I am... I love fall. I love the cool breezes. I love the pumpkin flavored things. I love the color schemes. I love presence of nutmeg, cloves, all spice, and ginger in baking. And I love the trees when their leaves change.

Most of the trees in Kansas City peaked a couple of weeks ago. But the trees at my parent's house are apparently late bloomers. I find that refreshing. Right when you think you are done soaking up the beauty until the next year, you come home to find these beauties... Here are some pictures that I took on my phone yesterday... Pretty incredible.

Try-It Soupday: Lasagna Soup.

(Their picture.)



I didn't try a new recipe last week, but I did indeed make soup. I made my favorite Mulligatawny recipe for a food day at work and it was a hit. Just thought I would start off with an excuse of why I was a slacker last week...

As for this week, I'm back! I'm staying with my parent's this week because there are seventeen girls staying at my 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, no finished basement house. I thought I'd give them a little room and stay with the folks. What this means is that I got to cook for people! I love cooking for people. Cooking for myself... just ok. Cooking for people... great. Cooking for people I love and love me... even greater.

I chose tonight's recipe with my brother Cory in mind. He's a bit pickier than some. I also picked it with my dad in mind... he likes his meat. I made Lasagna Soup. It had no vegetables. (You're welcome, Corky.) It had beef, which I haven't cooked with since I moved out. (You're welcome, Daddy.) It had pasta, spaghetti sauce, ricotta cheese, and all sorts of seasonings... The family really liked it. Cory even liked it (a success in my book.) I... only sort of liked it. It was a bit heavy for me. But my dad said, "This is a recipe that you bust out when you have a lot of people over. They'll all be raving about it." (Or something like that.) It was a 3 to 1 vote that it was a keeper. So, don't take my word for it... take the words of Norma, Ladell, and Cory. It's a do-over in their hearts.

Lasagna Soup

365 Photo Challenge: Week 22.

Day 155.

Happy Monday, everyone! While I'm going to try to blog more about the "lovely" things in life, I'm going to still continue with my ongoing projects. This week started a new month therefore a new color in my photo project... cocoa/brown. My brother Joel texted me last night saying, "You need to pick better colors for your picture thing... you've basically chosen different shades of vomit - mustard, orange, brown, etc." It's true... the last couple of months haven't been as vibrant, but I find that to be a good challenge. Finding beauty in even the "vomity" colors. (And I'm not actually the one choosing the colors, I found this idea from this blog and it's telling me what colors to do.) Anyway, my week in color...

Day 151: the front porch light of our next door neighbor's... Day 152: Reese's, possibly my favorite candy (it's a three way tie with candy corn and Smarties) Day 153: I was sick on Halloween but I did get out long enough to go through Sonic's drive through and get a Diet Coke and a 50 cent corn dog. Day 154: dinner at Jack Stack to celebrate my brother Cory's birthday. Day 155: Peanut Butter Patties... the best Girl Scout Cookie, in my humble opinion. Day 156: a building in the West Bottoms (downtown Kansas City.) Day 157: coffee at Latte Land.

Day 151.

Day 152.

Day 153.

Day 154.

Day 156.

Day 157.

Who I want to be...

(My walk at work.)

It's been a while since I've done a post that isn't focused on photography or food or decorating. I need to get back to the original focus of this blog... to talk about the things that I notice that are beautiful or special or worthwhile to me. I used to blog about things like coffee shops, and trees, and frost on my car... just because I enjoyed them. I need to get back to that. This post will be more in that direction...

The other day I was taking a walk outside on one of my breaks at work. It was a beautiful fall day outside. There was a nice, cool breeze. The sun was out. Leaves were blowing across the sidewalk. I was listening to some good music. I remember tilting my head up to the sky to take in the beauty of the day and just thinking, "This feeling, this person that I am right now, this is who I want to be."

I don't want to be that person who is grumpy at work. Or who complains about how busy she is. Or gets frustrated with her roommates for not putting their dishes away. Or makes a joke at someone else's expense. That's not who I want to be. That's not who I'm created to be.

Have you ever had feelings like this before? I get that feeling, that "this is who I want to be" feeling every so often. Like when I'm walking outside on a fall day. Or when I'm at a concert surrounded by beautiful music produced by incredible musicians. Or when I'm baking something special for someone that I know could really use some encouragement. Or when I'm blogging about beautiful things. Or when I've just finished a project that turned out exactly how I'd envisioned it turning out. These are things that I love. These are feelings and gifts that I've been given. This is the person who I am created to be. I want to be this person.

(I listened to the below song on repeat while writing this post. It's another thing where I think, "This is who I want to be." when listening to it.)