What have you been up to lately?

I've been very busy lately.

I've been planning the future,
making lists,
organizing books,
labeling shelves with duct tape,
writing a research paper I love,
dancing to the beat of my own drum,
singing in my lovely choir and in my lovely car,
talking to my best friends,
getting advice from my mother,
calling far away friends,
hugging not so far away friends,
drinking coffee from my new anthropologie mug,
making Ginger Peach tea,
trying to trust my gut,
listening to 'I and Love and You' by Avett Brothers,
creating my own PostSecret to send in,
being content with where I'm at right now.

Hot-Air Balloons

By G. Batistini

Swingset Adventures

For Christmas one year, my mom gave me an ornament that said

"There are many shortcuts to happiness

and dancing is one of them."

It's still hanging on my bulletin board

and I believe the quote is completely true.

I also believe that swinging is another one of these shortcuts.

I hope you never forget to go on swingset adventures.

They are truly the best.

By Irene Suchocki

By one of my favorite people, Nicole Reynolds

by PostSecret

Cade Martin Photography

I'm absolutely in love with this photo.

Ballerinas on a mission.

Black&White

Pike Place Market

Rebecca Marie

GasWorks Park

road trip

I took this on the way home from a day in Bellingham, Wa.

put on your red shoes

My red shoes are patent-leather flats with buttons on the side. What are your red shoes?

Wanting Memories

I'm sort of a choir dork.

These are the lyrics to the chorus of my favorite choir song.

The song is called Wanting Memories. It is absolutely beautiful.

You should definately look it up and have a listen!

So I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes
Yes, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.

Seattle Sunshine

I took these at GasWorks Park in Seattle, Wa.

One of my favorite spots in the whole city.

A few more secrets...

Magical Pancakes

My sister sent me a link to this photo and it brightened my day. Needless to say, recreating this amazing breakfast will be our main goal over her trip home for spring break. I hope your next meal is as colorful as this.

Windshield Words

I drive my big sister's old car.

She was (and is) very into leaving inspiration

in random places, like the windshield of my volvo.

Brightens my usually rainy Seattle days.

Current Musical Obsessions

Rain Don't Last - Hope

Warwick Avenue - Duffy

Coney Island - Good Old War

3 Rounds and a Sound - Blind Pilot

Chasing Pirates - Norah Jones

Quelqu'un m'a dit - Carla Bruni

Navy Taxi - Kate Nash
Sentimental Guy - Ben Folds

Sabrina Fairchild, Princess Ann & Holly Golightly

The first Audrey Hepburn movie I saw was Roman Holiday. I fell in love with her elegance and confidence. Her image was simple, but definately made a statement- oversized sunglasses, cropped black pants, sleeveless dresses. My top three favorite Audrey movies are Sabrina, Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's. If you haven't seen one of her films, you should definately change that. I was also very excited to learn that Audrey Hepburn shares my birthday!

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” -Audrey Hepburn

Makes Me Think

Unlike FMyLife or MyLifeIsAverage, MakesMeThink (MMT) is a website where people submit things they experience or witness that matter. Here's a few of the submissions.

-Today, before my 2nd chemotherapy appointment, I stopped at a coffee house even though my doctors won't let me drink coffee anymore. And even if I could, I wouldn't be able to taste it. But I stopped there just to remind myself of the freedom I've lost to cancer, which motivates me to fight harder.

-Today, I stuck my hand into my coat pocket and found a 5 dollar bill wrapped around a note. The not read, "You have just been reverse-pick-pocketed. Enjoy the 5 dollars, and know that it was forcibly recieved by your pocket. Take, that society!"

PostSecret

For anyone who hasn't heard about it, "PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where peoplemail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard." New postcards are posted every Sunday and reading them is my weekend motivation to get out of bed. I love this project and have been collecting my favorite secrets from this blog for the past year or so. A few of them are posted above. More will come later, I promise!

Ten Reasons

Ten Reasons Why I love Seattle. GO!

1. Rain- it makes the few sunny days more exciting. and polka dot rainboots are always a plus in my book.

2. Pike Place Market- very Seattle.

3. Gas Works Park- if you haven't gone, go go go! best park around and an amazing view.

4. Pacific Northwest Ballet- absolutely beautiful. as close to perfection as humanly possible. and the $5 teen tickets are prime.

5. The Original Starbucks- yeah, we've got the one that started it all. My usual latte always tastes better at this particular starbucks.

6. Mountains- pretty to look at and if like being outdoorsy, i guess they are good for that, too.

7. General Love of Coffee- there's one street corner downtown that you can see 5 starbucks' from. If that's not an obsession, I dont know what is.

8. Dick's & BurgerMaster- my two favorite burger places (even though I'm a slightly fake vegetarian). There is much debate over which one is better. I prefer BurgerMaster, but Dick's is much cheaper so I guess it all boils down to how many dollars are floating around the bottom of my bag on any given day.

9. Sleepless in Seattle- One of my all-time favorite movies along with You've Got Mail. I love Meg Ryan & Tom Hanks together.

10. Cupcakes- You'd be surprised at how many wonderful cupcake places there are in the greater Seattle area. My mom and I are on an ongoing search for the best cupcake place. Her favorite is TrophyCupcake. I'm a fan of NewYorkCupcake & CupcakeRoyale. We rate our cupcakes based on presentation, flavor originality and freshness/texture. Let's just say we take our cupcake eating pretty seriously. We should be on foodnetwork.

Fifty People One Question

FiftyPeopleOneQuestion travels to different cities, finds fifty people, asks them one question and then documents their responses. My favorite of their five videos is from Brooklyn, NY. They asked people where they would like to wake up tomorrow. I can never quite figure out what my answer would be, but my favorite response is from the girl with the blue scarf. check out the link below...

http://fiftypeopleonequestion.com/films/3-brooklyn-ny

Welcome to My Blog, World.

I've been playing around with the idea of creating this blog for awhile now and have finally found the courage and time to actually do it. When I told one of my closest friends about it, he asked me what I wanted to write about. I realized that I don't want to write much at all. I just want to create a place where I can share the photos I've taken and other happy stuff I stumble across in my life. Enjoy.