A Happy List: 140

The asiago cheese bagel sandwiches at American Fork Hospital

There is a new Beans and Brews right by my mom's house

Meeting an overweight Chihuahua named Marsha

Getting good medical news! Will announce later

My 1 1/2 year old niece's cat eye makeup

Doing a shoot with Kaitlyn and Sarah

How friendly people in Utah are

Finding a new "picnic spot"

My mom's bathrobe

Swaddling Trixie

XOXO

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Rainy Days

Rainy days in Connecticut are my fave. One thing I'm realizing about the east coast compared to the west coast is we experience each season to it's absolute fullest. During the summer in New York I was NOT a fan. (My bangs were permanently little swords and I was moist 24/7.)  But so far I'm liking all the rain and the pretty fall colors. 

I have this weird anxiety if I don't know what's happening for the next 5 years, so I always have to have like a tentative plan. Right now our tentative plan is to live in the suburbs of Massachusetts after we are both done with our Master's degrees and finally buy a house.

In reality I just want to live somewhere that is in the suburbs, but close to a city (>1 hour drive), has chill summers, but tons of snow in the winter.

But it can't be Utah because I can't stand the culture amongst other things.

WHERE SHOULD WE LIVE?!?!

(I do realize where we live after Jake gets his MBA will be largely influenced by where he gets his first job, but hey I can dream we have more control.)

XOXO

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DIY Polaroid Photo Wall

YOU GUYS. I cannot tell you how happy I have been to be able to decorate our apartment again! While living in my mother's basement in Utah had many benefits, I had the hardest time with not being able to make it feel like our home. Needless to say, our little New England home is my total obsession all day, every day.

I have very specific home tastes. It needs to look clean, but cozy, but also modern, but not like a glass castle. Ya feel? I honestly am the luckiest person in the world because I have a husband who cares 0% about any decor. #blessed #husbandoftheyear

There are tons of great ways to decorate your home, apartment or even dorm room with your favorite photos. But one of my favorites is a simple DIY photo wall. Basically, it’s the easiest thing in the world and SO. CUTE.  

You will need: white push pins, twine, gold binder clips, and some cutie Polaroid photos of your life! My husband and I have been loving our Polaroid Snap instant digital camera. The camera prints out photos instantly while we’re exploring new places or just hanging at home. These adorable 2x3” Polaroid photos are a perfect touch to personalize your home.  I got the push pins, twine, and binder clips from Flying Tiger for like $4 total. (Oh how I miss that place! Seriously one of my favorite things about living in New York City.) You can get the supplies from Amazon. Here are the binder clips, twine (love that pink!), and push pins.

Step #1: Eyeball where to put the push pins until your OCD husband gets nervous and whips out the measuring tape. Place appropriately.

Step #2: Cut way more twine than you actually need. Tie it around the push pins.

Step #3: Clip your photos to the twine! Sometimes there is a little twine thread that you can clip the photo to and it will hold it in place. But honestly, I let mine weight distribute themselves. So they could just slide either way on the twine if that makes sense. You have to put them all on there before you try to distribute the weight

Step #4: Cut your tails to the length you want. I wasn't originally planning on keeping these babies but I just liked the way they looked so I thought "What the heck".

Step #5. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done! And make sure to switch out your cutie Polaroid photos to keep things fresh!

The end! It's weird how such a simple little decoration can add so much! We have these giant walls because we have a second floor loft, so the living room is open. I have been weirdly stressed about what to do with them since we moved in, and I really like how this helps break up the space!

Anyway, I have tons more cute Polaroid photo DIYs coming, so keep your eyes peeled kids!

Thanks to Polaroid for partnering with me on this post! They are bae <3

XOXO

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Photo An Hour: Week 4

6:00 - I have never liked any sort of working out, ever. But, recently I have discovered that I am decent on a treadmill. I run a mile every day and then walk afterwards. In the mornings I just walk until the episode of Friends I'm watching is over. In the evenings, I walk until Jake is done with his workout. I only have one workout outfit haha, so hopefully Santa will get me some goodies for Christmas!

7:00 - Getting ready for the day. I truly believe that getting ready like sets your tone. Since I work from home, sometimes I don't get ready at all and without fail those are the days I am the moodiest lol. I got these little plastic organizers on Amazon for my vanity and it was the best decision. 

8:00 - Havin' a lil cup a jo in my favorite mug.

9:00 - Celebrating success with my basil plant! I tried to grow like 4 basil plants in the past and they all died. I finally figured out this one only needs water like once a week!

10:00 - Workin' and wearing my favorite silk pajamas. My mom thinks these are lingerie and HATES when I Snapchat wearing them hahahahah.

11:00 - This was Trumpkin's last day inside.

12:00 - I attempted to make buffalo vegan wings! It was basically cauliflower in a batter and baked.

1:00 - I overcooked the wings :( I followed all the directions so WTF. I think I might try to make these again because some of the less burnt wings were pretty good. I would definitely use less spice next time.

2:00 - When I was little, I used to lay on the floor while the fan was going and try to follow one of the wings until I got dizzy.

3:00 - MY SLIPPERS ARE STARTING TO GET A HOLE IN THE TOE UGH.

4:00 - Hungry from the wing fail, I made some waffles with strawberry preserves mmmmm.

5:00 - It is so annoying to have long nails sometimes, but I really do love the way they look. And I love that they aren't fake nails. Nail polish color is here!

6:00 - I am reading The Widow right now and it's sooo creepy ahhhh. Stephen King recommended it so obviously it was on my list lol.

7:00 - This is our bedroom lol. Literally just a mattress on the floor. I finally put up some twinkle lights to make it a little bit less ghetto. Also, there isn't a light in our bedroom? Like why? But there is a light switch ugh I am so confused.

8:00 - What is my hair doing ever. I have been getting so sick of long hair lately haha. But I think short hair doesn't look super good on me. I'll probably always have long or medium hair. I just am craving a change, ya know?

9:00 - My bedtime routine! I HAVE to do these every night no matter what. First I floss, then I brush with my Quip! (Yes, that is the order you are supposed to go in.) I love our Quip toothbrushes. Mine is rose gold and beauuuutiful. Also they send us brush replacements every few months. Not sponsored, just a fan.

Then I put my retainers in. I used to be really bad at wearing my retainers and my teeth totally moved ahhh. So I went back to my orthodontist for like a year and we kept adding springs and stuff and slowly moved my teeth back. Then I had a new retainer made and ever since then I am such a stickler on wearing it. If I miss a night I will wear it all day the next day. Gotta keep them teeth straight!

Ok so next I wash my face with the Say Yes To Tomatoes face wipes. I SWEAR by these for my skin. A few times I have had to use something else and I totally broke out. Ugh. 

Some nights I use the ELF lip exfoliator if I feel like they need it. But every night I put chapstick on (and then Jake kisses it off when giving me a goodnight kiss lol). There are (I was going to say "few" but there's actually "a lot") a lot of things in this world that I can not handle without freaking out 110%. One of them is chapped lips UGH. I like the mint balm, but when it runs out I am going to try EOS summer fruit. Gotta switch things up a lil to keep life interesting lol.

The last thing I do is apply Babe Lash! I also swear by this! It's a little pricier but sooo worth it.

10:00 - I am literally in bed sleeping before 11:00 pm every night. Just from learning about sleep cycles and all that in college, I prioritize sleep like SO MUCH. I think it's so important to get a good sleep routine down and whenever I break my routine, I feel so tired the next day. So I make sure to be sleeping before 11:00, and then awake before 7:00am. Usually I wake up at 6:00 every day, just like automatically because I have been doing it for so long lol. 

XOXO

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Weekend Scenes

I've been trying to take more every day photos because A.) I like having things to edit. B.) I like being able to look back on the smaller things in life.

Saturday we drove down to Staten Island. Jake built a computer and sold it, like whattt?! We drove on the Meritt Parkway and it is SO PRETTY right now with all the leaves changing. One of my favorite things about the area we live in/maybe the whole east coast idk is all of the trees. I have so many tree pictures in this post, but it's because everywhere is so pretty. Like we don't have to drive to a "certain area" that's pretty and fall-ish. Just everywhere is beautiful! AGHHHH

We like always go to Donut Crazy haha. They have these crazy cool donuts, but we usually get hot chocolate and their breakfast sandwiches or a bagel.

I guess they also have a lil' donut truck!?!?

Below is my favorite park of driving the Meritt. If you are in Connecticut in the fall, definitely add it to your list. 

I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW GLAD I AM THAT WE DO NOT LIVE IN NEW YORK ANYMORE. To be honest, I think it is the prettiest place still. I love love love cities and think they are prettier than the country or suburbs, BUT it's so nice to have a car and a spacious apartment and not having to use public transportation haha. If I were to get a million dollars, I would buy an apartment in East Village or somewhere downtown for sure.l

Driving across the Brooklyn Bridge was funny because there were all these tourists looking down on us lol.

Brooklyn for a second. Jake would loveeeeee to live in Brooklyn. He's weirdly like super ok with cities.

Jake selling his first computer! Kinda coo.

Trying to take a selfie with a 50mm (on a full frame, or a 35mm on a cropped frame) always turns out like this lol.

We stopped at Fab Cup in Staten Island where I met this friend. If you're in the area and need a good hot chocolate and apple cinnamon scone, I would recommend it! I wouldn't go out of your way though.

NEW YORK U SO PRETTY.

I feel like I want to start a Tumblr for lil' pics like these. Thoughts?

One of my favorite things about the northeast is how charming everything is. When we first moved to Connecticut we were slightly bother that everything was "old" and "dumpy". But I feel like the longer we are here the more charming it is? Like look at this little stone bridge!! There is stuff like this everywhere.

We went to Micro Center to get supplies for Jake's next computer. (Side note: Do you guys remember the micro penis episode of New Girl? It's all I could think about when I heard "Micro Center" and it made me lol.)

We then went to Primark in Danbury. If you guys watched my haul video on YouTube you know how I feel about this!! Here is photographic proof of how big it is. I think it goes back past the brick too.

Sunday morning I made us German pancakes, but I made them too thick like a friction' newb. Also discovered we don't have a cupcake pan? Like WTF?

Ummmmmm I think this was Sunday night. We tried to recreate the potatoes we had in New Haven (see in our video here) and Jake did a v good job. I also made myself a skull egg bagel sandwich lol. 

All in all, it was a v good weekend! Life has been weird lately because working from home doesn't really give me a ton of opportunity to be creative. So I am trying harder to not just like, let this phase of life go to waste, ya know? 

Although, I am not going to lie, I am VERY EXCITED to start school again in January! It will be fun to go into New York City once a week and to start an internship where I can interact with real humans lol. 

XOXO

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