the day I went out in the cold to catch the sunrise

^^ these two were in the sunset two days ago. The frozen fog had finally melted off for the day, and the pine-trees 
were covered in water-drops  so I found a place that I could backdrop the pine-needle/Water-drops, with some brilliant colors, and I fell in love with the results.

 My world has been covered in a layer of glistening lovely white stuff for days, and I think it’s beautiful! It’s called frozen fog, which basically is super wet fog that settled in the area and then the temperatures plummeted to earth and all the fog froze onto everything in sight. It happens every winter here, and is so pretty. :) Mama came in to my room a couple days ago, at 7:30 am, and announced“There’s a beautiful sunrise and I think you should go take pictures of it.” I grumbled a little, but did throw a coat over my pajamas and go out for a few shots. I ended up walking all the way back to the very back of our property to get these photos, so that there weren't too many trees in the way. I loved the shots that I captured. It almost makes me wish that I got up to see the sunrise every day. Almost! :)

     I love the way the frost turns an ordinarily"black and white" day into a beautiful gorgeous landscape that I can't stop looking at.  Frozen fog makes winter beautiful, especially when we don't have snow, and everything would otherwise be brown and muddy. It gives inspiration to ordinary days. That's probably the main reason why I like it. On days that I just can't think of something to do, to write, to photograph, the frozen fog is lovely and inspiring. 

     Anyway, I'll stop rambling about ice. :) Sometimes, I ramble on and on about nothing during a post, and I'm afraid to go back and read it and realize that it didn't  make any sense. :) I'm afraid that that is what this post is, but that's okay, rambling is what i do.

     Tell me about your weekend, yes?

xx,

we done went sledding and froze ourselves

 I have this obsession with trees. No really, I’m serious. J You should hear me on a trip basically anywhere; I’ll just randomly yell “look at that tree. It’s so pretty. I need that tree…” And my family probably just rolls their eyes and thinks “How did we end up with such a weird one?!”  Anyhow, my brother found this tree about 15 minutes from our house and told me about it, and basically, we both fell in love with it over time, but we never stopped to take it’s picture. So,a couple Sunday's ago, my family sweetly drove out there after church to let me take a photo of it. They didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, but now that we actually stopped once, we’ll do it again, and it will be better next time. J

 It’s a cool tree, yes? :)  

 And after taking a whole ton of photos of the tree, I turned around and found this adorable farm across the meadow and covered with a lovely layer of snow.  I think that it would be amazing to find a cute farm somewhere, kinda like this one, and just take photos of it, from all kinds of angles, far away, like this shot, and up close of all the buildings and people. It would be so interesting, especially if the farm had been in the family for like a gazillion years and I could hear all the interesting stories about their great grandmothers and aunties. Yes, that would be amazing.

The snow is gone for a little while, and I am sorta sad, and sorta happy. I can drive now, (my parents won’t let me drive in the snow and ice. This is probably a really good idea. :) But I do think that snow is pretty. It just last too long. It would be really great for a few weeks, but then I am tired of looking at it and I want the sunshine and green back. J

Last Sunday, mom and dad took all the kids sledding on a {relatively} steep road. Technically, I went too, but I spent most of the time taking pictures and whining about the cold. I really don’t think that people should venture outside when it is below 30 degrees. Especially when they have a warm house to be in. To go out is madness, and ridiculous. J We have three pairs of skis (Which by the way, is the one thing that I will venture out in the snow to do. I love to ski) and they fit 6 of the kiddos. J  That is the wonderful thing about huge family’s. There are multiple kids of the same size, so you get way more use out of things. Daniel spent most of his time on skis.

 Julia did a wonderful job skiing. She hasn't had much practice {having never been up on the slopes.) so this was her first time ever skiing on a realish hill. :)

     James was slightly confused by all the yelling people flying past him on brightly colored objects. lol

Prettiness, yes?

Luke was so cute, and having so much fun. He didn't complain about the long climb to the top either, and enjoyed himself thoroughly. 

Mary Liz, in her adorable pink snowpants.  

And this is me. Sitting in the van, attempting to stay warm, and wishing I was at home. J No seriously, it wasn’t that bad. Just 33 degrees. But the kids had so much fun, and I got some cute photos, so I guess it was worth it anyway.

James thought this was the funnest thing ever. Steering wheels are meant for babies to play with. :)

Do you have snow? What's your favorite snow sport?

xo,

the sun came out of hiding and the snowman melted

The sun came out of hiding today, showing itself off with a background of blue skies and fluffy white clouds, and melting poor Mr. Snowman.  And he was a pretty cute guy originally. :) The snow is mostly melted, and the ground is saturated with the cold water, but my horse loves it anyway. We put her out on the lawn yesterday and she thought it was heaven. The grass was soaked though but she ate as though it were the most delicious grain-molasses feed. :)

      The sun proudly streamed though the upstairs window this afternoon, landing on the picture and cross at the bottom. Sunshine is what I love and miss most about Summer. The golden rays flooding though the windows pleading with us to come out and dance in the golden light.

      The kiddo's had pita pizzas for lunch, and they were delicious. (Although they aren't allowed on my diet, I did shamelessly eat a piece. Or two. Cheating on diets is good for the soul. Somebody must have said that, I'm sure. :)

   
      Blue sky is so amazing. I don't really understand completely where it gets its brilliant hues, but all I know about that is that it's purtty. 

         Despite me rambling on about how beautiful today is, do know that it is only about 40 degrees out there, so I quickly snapped these photos and returned to the house and my tea. :)

      Aren't pine-cones interesting little things? Each so different and unique and a lot of fun to study. (and photograph.) 

     My goats soaking up the sunshine. (And that brown one sorta in the barrel? I used to do that when I was little and taking naps. Mom has a picture of me all sprawled out, clutching my blankie, with my head and shoulders in a bucket. I musta been a weird kid, that's for certain. :) Here's a photo for proof, peeps. :)

     And please know that I debated posting this. It's just kinda, weird I guess, posting photos from when I was little. :)

Clouds. <3

How has your day been? As beautiful outside as mine? 

And a report on Mr. Snowman. I took these photos about two hours ago, and he is now considerably smaller. It looks as if we are going to lose the poor feller. :)

Have  and wonderful rest of the day, lovelies, and eat some chocolate and sing a really happy song, kay?

xo,

in which i shall be random // my life as of lately

 

We toasted in the New Year with sparkling cider and dark chocolate. J

 My cousin, Gabby, turned six on Christmas day, and we had a birthday party, complete with pink party hats, in the afternoon. Andrew and Mary proudly wore theirs. (I'm a wimp. I didn't wear one. :)

The sparkling cider, which I realized, as I was taking photos, it looks like beer. lol

A friend got ahold of my camera a couple days ago and managed to get some photos of me. And I am not nearly as scared about having pictures taken of me. Or of sharing them here. J

I hosted a cookie exchange on the second, and these were four of the six girls who came. We had a lot of fun, and managed to laugh most of the time, which is normal for this group of girls.

 Mom was taking some photos of us, and told everyone to act crazy for one. Looking at it now, I can see that Catherine and I were the only ones who were crazy. Everyone else is laughing at us. J

 Mocha Crinkles. Delicious. Beautiful. Addictive. ‘Nuff said.

And another looking blankly off into space at the bathroom mirror. Awkward.

This cup is my favorite currently. It holds about twice the amount of a regular size mug, and is amazing.

 I can’t truly believe that Christmas is over…. *sigh*

Water droplets. <3 

So, I tend to do a lot of random photo posts. But that's my life... random photos here and there... 

I got another housecleaning job today, and I am quite happy about that. housecleaning is something that I actually enjoy, and hey, if I can make money at something that I enjoy its a win win situation. :) Plus the people are really sweet, and that always makes it much easier. 

And my brother is going to be home in 22 days... *do a happy dance around the room and scream with excitement* yah. :)

I am having a lot of fun cooking special food for the diet that mom and I are on. I think it's fun to have to think of something to eat every dinner. I'm sure, however, that two months from now I won't think it's very fun, but i shall enjoy it while it is. :)

I have lost my inspiration lately, but I found an amazing writing website and I am planning on doing some writing exercises to try to give myself a kick-start. I detest writers-block. It always plagues me when I want to write, and so i sit there unable to think of an intelligent thing to write. So I sit there feeling like a complete idiot staring into space wracking my brain for something that just isn't there.

So, what do you do when you are suffering from lack of inspiration? Do you read a book? Any tips? :)

xo,

outfit post two // jean skirt and boots

I am able to post pictures today, (the internet decided that it was fine for me to do so today, but obviously not for the last week. J ) and while my internet is not throwing fits, I am finally ready to post my second outfit.

     Photo credit goes to my brother Daniel, to whom I am especially grateful because it was frigid outside a few weeks ago when we took these. (It’s still really cold out… I haven’t even gone out to take photos yet in the snow because it is SO cold.

My piano teacher gave me this shawl for a birthday present, and I love it! I haven’t worn it yet because I can’t think of a way to pair it with something, but my mom kept telling me that it went with this outfit, so I put it on and am posting the photo to ask, what do you think, does it go with this shirt? J

So, I look slightly weird in these, but know that it was getting dark and I was so cold!! J

 I am currently in love with this sweater. It goes with basically everything that I wear, looks super cute and keeps me warm. Score, score, score! :) 

The details:

Cardigan: Thrifted

Cami: Fred Myers 

jean skirt: Thrifted

boots: Payless Shoe Source 

And these two photos (down there. :) are cute and I love them. the end. 

(Apparently it is necessary to look like a dork while doing sparklers (in front of a window full of littles who are scared to death of the things), while out in the snow in bare feet. Yes, this is what I usually look like in photos. :)

And a preview of a post I am hoping to have up soon of a photo-shoot I did/am doing with James. This is one of the cute ones I caught the other day. :)

How has your January been? What's been the highlight of the year so far? :)

xo,