a glimpse of the past

Anyone who knows me personally, knows I love old black and white movies, in my opinion the best entertainers were Louis, Bing, Cary, and Audrey. I often dream that I was born in the wrong era. But maybe not. I don't think I could deal with latrines and live without technology. But alas. This is going through my mind today as I walk to classes.

If you need to relax

Just take a quick listen to this. I love listening to classical music while I write the dreaded necessary papers for almost every class now that semester is coming to a close.

Feeling a little brown?

Turn that frown upside down!

This will surely give you a reason to smile, I just love me some Caro!

Perfect Peonies

I'm so glad I had them in my wedding bouquet, I love them so much. They are one of the most delicate, delicious colorful flowers I know. They scream springtime to me.  

Do you have a flower that you just become mesmerized by? 

I don't know what it is about peonies, but I love them. 

Especially with some variegated pit greenery. 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

 

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

On all of these you can tell I just upped the red saturation and the exposure a tiny bit. 

Also, I amped up the clarity so you could really see the details. The good news is that with my photography, the raw image I'm getting isn't far off the finished product. Improvement right?!

Happy Tuesday!

What remarkable thing are you doing today? I'm practicing my brains out on the piano piece I'm playing at my Grandma's funeral on friday. More to come on that later.

~M

joyful {inspite of the} weather

I think the absolute B E S T April fool's trick that could have been played was definitely by the weather this year! I wish I had taken a picture but the temperature yesterday morning was over 70 degrees...oh how lovely it was too! I went out and planted some freesias in our garden, swept our apt. steps, and actually put away my snow scraper for my car (p.s. how stupid of me!)

So around two A.M. when I saw this while I was at work I was just absolutely saddened...

...yes, I whole FOUR inches on my car when I left work at 6 A.M.

Happy Monday! Here are some alive, bright, beautiful things to start the week off right!

I'm only kinda proud of my beautiful plants. And of course they smell DIVINE.
They make it feel so much like spring in my apartment even though its yucky outside!

{via}

Oh yes, I would love to have a saturday on that in a garden, reading a bit of
Jane Austen with some lemonade. Ah, summer, come quick!

{via}

Oh my goodness! Adorable! I can't wait to get our puppy in a couple months.
...and then maybe another one after that.

{via}

E. Taylor. 

Gorgeous + Confident. 

Legend + Classic

This week, I want to really focus on developing self confidence, and making your own je ne sais quoi. I really think that as women, especially in the spring (because of winter blues or holiday weight gain) we find things wrong with ourselves whether physically, emotionally, or whatnot. Everyone starts focusing on getting in shape for swimsuit season, or finding a new look to become 'confident'. Don't get me wrong, I struggle with that too. But I that why I want to explore this, for myself and others.

~M

.Perfect night out.

Over a month ago my honey told me to request off this past Sunday at all my jobs. I spent the whole month wondering...what were we going to do?

Surprise surprise, Jer took me to see the penguins at Living Planet Aquarium (we've been wanting to do it for months)...

(Jellyfish)

(14 ft. Anaconda)

...and then to a Ballet showcase at U of U

For those of you that don't know Jer, this is a BIG DEAL. He isn't into those kinds of things. Like, really not into them. And he had remembered me mentioning I wanted to go to a ballet a long time ago, so he planned an awesome date night revolving around going to a ballet.

Afterwards we headed to Aristo's in SLC which was all amazing greek food. 

Overall a perfect night out.

The start of training

For the first time since the New Year began I finally had some spare time in the afternoon to go running. How did it go you may ask? Well, seeing as I haven't really run since high school tennis...not so great.

But, that does not make me want to quit. It just shows me how absolutely out of shape I am!

(ready to go running in my new running gear from the Nike store in LV)

I started down our street to Sara Bareilles' Kaleidoscope Heart CD and got about half a mile before I could taste the metal taste and subsequently started being very short of breath. Lung full's of smog anyone? So I only jogged/walked back, but beginning new habits is the hardest I think so its a start. My goal is to go running 2-3 times a week, increasing my distance as I progress. I've been looking at some 5K's that could work and there are some near the end of February in Utah County that would work. 

And as a plus the new running shoes arrived (:

I'm looking forward to breaking these in. Here's to the happy miles ahead!

.Inspirational.

A couple weeks ago I went to my second ever concert with one of my bff's Sasha. 

We went to see Sara Bareilles, and she was AMAZING!

She performed all of her popular songs, plus my favorites, including 'King of Anything', 'Bottle It Up', and 'Love Song'. Even though we had to wait FOREVER for her to perform, it was well worth it. The concert hall was sooo crowded, shoulder to shoulder and back to front. No elbow room. Which reminded me every minute we were there why I don't like concerts. Although I love seeing my favorite musicians in person, I get slightly claustrophobic. Anyone else have that issue?

However we were close to the front so the view was still great.

The girl behind me was singing off-tune (cough, cough)

Isn't she such a fun performer?! Sash and I were talking afterwards about how down to earth, fun, and spunky she was. Definitely made for an awesome concert!

And although I hadn't bought her new CD yet, I totally want it for Christmas. It's called Kaleidoscope hearts...and its rather inspirational. (:

{Anchoring me back down}

I am in LOVE with Mindy Gledhill, and her latest CD Anchor. I seriously want it, (hint hint Jer) for Christmas. All of her songs are so relaxing, and reminiscent of childlike life and sweet memories from long ago.

Take a moment to watch this...I promise you won't be disappointed.



Go to youtube to watch more of her videos. They just have such a sweet tone and message to each one. It makes me want to dance. And after all, "Dance is the hidden language of the soul."

-Martha Graham

p.s. this is for a giveaway on Blue Cricket whose site I love! www.bluecricketdesign.net I don't normally do these, but its a very good incentive this time.