I like this, this, and this. Oh, and this.

I've been discovering lots of things that I like lately, so excuse me if this post is a little bit sporadic.

For starters, Jenny & Tyler did a show on Friday night in the Dixon Center. I had never seen them before, but I'm officially hooked. They are really talented, completely adorable together (seriously--and I don't say that sort of thing often), and really sweet, personable, and friendly overall. Their songs are so well-written (some of my favorites are "One-Eyed Cat," "Deepest Parts of Me," "Muse," and "Love Through Me") and their voices go together perfectly. Also, I love the design of their This Isn't a Dream album cover, especially the back!:

What can I say? I just really like artsy, well-designed things! That being said, I've been looking at lots of design blogs lately. It has come in handy, too, because it has inspired my roommate and I to come up with ideas for our apartment next semester (only 5 months away! I am so excited). One blog I've been reading a lot is design me daily. I was going through some of the archives yesterday and stumbled across a post on there that lead me to Single Stone Studio's Etsy shop that features lots of really cool wall decals. Hello, living room decor! A few favorites:

 

I love the way everything in this picture is designed. I wish we could use paint in our apartment, because I would so do this! I like the two-tone thing for the flowers.

 

Simple, but very cool and classy. You can also get it in your choice of one out of 40 different colors. Love it.

I apparently have a new thing for this whole birds and cherry blossom design thing, because I've found a lot of things like it that I really, really like. Too bad this decal is $75. :( Not quite in my budget.

Anyway, yeah, I'm getting really excited about this whole apartment thing. I love simple, modern things, and these with a nature-y theme are just a plus. Definitely my thing. It makes me wish I was getting my own house so I could go all out with paint and everything. Having an unlimited supply of money would be awesome, too... Sigh.

Something else I love: Photography. All kinds. For real. Favorite thing ever.

  © Mandy Lynne Photography 

This picture makes me really happy for some reason. I don't know if it's the colors, the lighting, the little girl, the fact that it's outside, or all of the above, but I like it a lot.

 © Max Wanger

I have a thing for engagement photos in general. :)

One last favorite thing: Sunny days in the park with friends!

 

Sunday afternoon, a group of about 12 of my favorite people went to Fletcher Park to have a picnic to celebrate Tuna's 20th birthday. It was gorgeous, and I loved getting to spend time with all of them so much! (My nose is still suffering from a run-in with a Frisbee, but other than that, it was a great time.)

Okay, sorry for the overload. Trust me, there could have been way more!

¿Cómo se dice "taco"?

First things first: I finally got around to making a header for the blog. Not the greatest thing I've ever made in my life, but I think it works okay. :) I've been meaning to do it forever, so I decided to go ahead and do it now that it's finally THE WEEKEND.

(Insert complete and total happiness here.)

Speaking of the weekend, it's been awhile since I've needed one this bad! Staying true to traditional week-after-Convocation form, this week has been way too stressful for its own good. If this wasn't already true, it definitely is now: I officially hate research papers (see last post for more details). And to think, it was supposed to be a fairly easy paper on something I'm actually interested in. But no--I was still up until after 4am and only that soon because I basically gave up on it. Way to make a good first impression on your professor, me.

The snow yesterday was nice. :) It was the light, powdery kind that didn't really stick to the roads or sidewalks, meaning we didn't have a huge, slushy mess to trek through like we did a couple of weeks ago (though we also got to make a snowman). It was just really pretty and peaceful, which was exactly what I needed. Not great for playing in, but I'm kind of over that at this point anyway. I just want spring. All this cold and cloudiness is getting to me. I need sunshine! And warm weather! And green! Sigh. It'll get here soon enough, I guess. The lack of it is just making life in general kind of blah. Oh well.

In an attempt to make my life a little more interesting, my mom and brother decided to make videos for me. They're completely random, but they made me laugh a lot. Here's one of several:

Yeah, my family is ridiculous. The video served its purpose though--it did make me happy!

Snowflakes and Cran-Raspberry Juice

God is so amazing.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. I feel like my relationship with Him has been so much better than it was last semester. I guess maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm more adjusted to college life and stuff like that, but whatever the reason is, I'm definitely glad! He has blessed me so much. A couple of examples...

Example #1: This weekend was the best weekend I've had in a really long time. After 2 weeks of feeling like I was going to go insane, it was pretty refreshing! (Insert random thought: I don't think I like the fact that every semester is going to be different. I liked the people I was with all the time last semester. I don't want that to change.) It actually ended up being a fairly busy weekend, and the fact that it was homework-free just made it even better! (Well, okay--I had homework, I just didn't do it. And I am completely okay with that fact.) I had my first motorcycle ride, my first racquetball lesson, and got to hang out with some of my favorite guys, who I have not seen much lately and have missed a significant amount! Along with plenty of time with the guys, I also had a nice amount of girl-time, so I think it was getting pretty close to being the perfect balance.

Example #2: It snowed today! It wasn't just flurries, either. It snowed pretty hard nonstop from about 10:30am until um...I'll take a guess and say 2:30pm. (It was at some point during my 2-hour nap. Ah, I love college!) It was so pretty, and just made me really happy overall, even if it didn't stick that much. I have to admit, when I woke up to rain this morning, I wondered how great of a day it was going to be. However, I am infinitely thankful for rainboots. One of the things I hate most in the world is having the bottoms of my jeans get wet and having to feel that cold wetness against my legs whenever I sit down. Now that I have rainboots, though, I do not have to live with such issues in my life, and that makes me happy. (You know, now that I think about it, I guess that was really two examples in one... Oh well.)


Anyway, I'm sure I could go on forever with my examples, but those two were the most significant to me at the moment (I like God in the day to day stuff--it just makes me happy and love Him even more!).

Oh, I bought juice today. I've been in the mood for juice lately, so when Kristi and I went to Wal-mart (in search of racquetball raquets. Those things are amazingly hard to find! We were told we'll have to go all the way to Chatt, which is completely ridiculous. Anyway, yeah, we decided to use the same approach with raquetball as we used with pool. Practice makes perfect!), I decided to get some Cran-Raspberry juice. Sooo good. As I headed to check out, however, I realized that I was buying a jug of juice and own a grand total of zero cups to drink it out of. So I also purchased my first cup for 74¢. Gotta love Wally World.

Okay, I think I've rambled for long enough.

Bye.