Japanese Fashion

So, if any of you follow me on Pinterest, you have probably noticed me pinning a lot of Japanese fashion lately. Holy moly you guys, I have found my dream clothes! I don't know why I've never noticed Japanese fashion before but it is so fun! I discovered it the other day when I kept finding these outfits that I loved and they were called "Mori Girl". I thought maybe it was a brand so I looked it up and apparently it's a fashion sub-culture in Japan. I guess over there, they have different fashion cliques, I suppose we have cliques too but you guys, their outfits are like costumes! They are so fun! I found this blog that goes through all of the fashion styles over there (seriously, crazy cool) and looked through a bunch of them. Anyways, my favorite is Mori Girl.

Mori means "forest" in Japanese and basically the style is a girl who looks like she lives in the forest. The style consists of lots of layered clothing, simple colors, great textures, vintage looking, billowy and comfortable. From what I could find, this is actually a new "lifestyle" there, like how we have "goths" "preps" "cowboys" "hipsters" "hippies" "granola" etc. The lifestyle is described as being girls who love vintage things, take lots of pictures, love simplicity, have a natural look, and enjoy life in it's simplicity. It's pretty interesting, to me anyway! I'm pretty excited that I have found this style and can incorporate the outfit ideas into my own wardrobe. I've been back and forth between hippie/bohemian (loose and flowy) and retro/vintage (tailored and fitted) for awhile and this seems to mix them perfectly! A lot of the outfits I've found seem pretty costume-y for every day wear, even though I love them. Here are some examples:

What do you think? Too costume-y or do you think I could pull it off without everyone thinking I was crazy? :) Not that it matters anyway really! I just love it and kind of want to go shopping in Japan now... Take a look at the other styles, are there any that you love? Some of them are crazy!

The Oil Cleansing Method

A few of you have been asking questions about what I've been using on my face and how I use coconut oil in my "beauty regime". Ha, that sounds fancy! Here's a little back story first...

Basically since I graduated from high school (8 years ago! gasp!) I have been fighting acne. Sometimes it wasn't too bad, then other times it was cystic, red glaring terribleness rising out of my face. I still have people who ask me what high school I go to <facepalm> I began seeing medical doctors, holistic doctors, trying essential oils, vitamins, a new diet, more sun, less sun, creams, face washes, antibiotics, etc. etc. Nothing worked. Sure, sometimes the bumps would go down a little, then they'd just come back and be worse than ever. All the doctors said I needed to give it time, it would be really bad then would be good! Hallelujah! Except the good part never came... It's been frustrating to say the least.

I've never been one to complain about my appearance or wanting a different sized body part or what have you, but my skin? I could handle having the baby smooth skin I see on so many people. Especially, people I know do not live as healthy a life style as I do. I just think to myself, "How can they have such great skin and be eating/drinking/doing that?!" I know I shouldn't compare myself, but I couldn't help myself. It's something that can change about my body that is just stubborn and refusing to comply.

This January, Jared and I decided we need to change our lifestyle to be more healthy. Last year we both were sick alot, could sleep honestly for 15 hours straight at the drop of the hat, didn't have the energy to do any of the things we loved and I had debilitating headaches about every other day. We knew something needed to change. So we cut sugar out. Sure, every now and then we splurge if someone makes a special dessert, but really I don't miss it. I began to feel so much better! Jared did too, but this is my experience, not his ;) I stopped having headaches (!!!!!) gained a lot of energy and started sleeping better. Go figure, sugar you sly creature! After quitting sugar, my face started clearing up too. It didn't last long but it didn't go back to how bad it had been. Progress.

After we had implemented a new diet (basically cutting out the processed junk and spending more time making clean food) and were feeling a zillion times better, I began looking into beauty products. I figured if I was making my insides clean, shouldn't I be keeping my outside cleaner too? (I may have become a bit paranoid about chemicals and additives etc. so, keep an open mind haha I'm just a little crazy!)

So I found online that you could wash your face with coconut oil, and as I have been oil pulling for a few months now and have discovered the magical amazingness of coconut oil, I figured I'd give it a shot. Here's the rundown (it's so simple, it's ridiculous!)

1 - Get your coconut oil and a wash rag and head to your sink. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature but don't worry, once its on your hands you just rub it around and it'll change to oil consistency.

2- Wet your face with your hands. If you're wearing eye makeup and washing it off (you can do this with the coconut oil too!) then wet over your eyes too.

3- Dip a couple fingers into the coconut oil and scoop out a couple fingernail size chunks (make sense?) Rub the oil in your fingers to thaw it out.

4-  Rub the oil all over your face, rub it in good too, don't let it just sit lightly on your face. If you're washing off eye makeup, I usually rub it over my eyes after my face so I don't end up rubbing makeup all over my face in the process.

5- Wet your wash cloth (get used to doing this blind if you're washing off makeup!), wring it out, then drape it over your face. I usually do warm water but whatever makes you comfortable. Leave it there for about 15 seconds.

6- Using that wash cloth, run it over your face a couple times to remove the oil sitting on top of your skin. Don't scrub super hard. Just lightly rub it off.

And you're done! After your skin dries, if it feel tight you can rub a tiny bit of oil onto it as a moisturizer or use pure aloe vera.

A few extra tidbits:

If you feel like you need to exfoliate, just add a bit of baking soda to the oil before you put it on your face. It's awesome! I do it about once a week.

If you have an unruly zits that just won't go away, I have had success with tea tree oil in reducing the redness and size. Just dip a q-tip into the bottle and dab it onto the cold sore. Try this on your hand or somewhere else first to make sure you don't have a crazy reaction to it. Some people are sensitive to certain oils.

Again, I have only been doing this for a month and am not an expert on any kind of natural/beauty etc. But this is what I have found to work well for me plus it's chemical free!

I have read that you can use extra virgin olive oil, castor oil (mixed with evoo), avocado oil, jojoba oil, or sweet almond oil as well. I have included a bunch of links below that talk about it. Do some research too, google it, find what you like. This is just what I've found. I may incorporate some castor oil mixed in with my coconut oil at some point but for now I'm keeping it simple and trying it out.

You can buy coconut oil in some beauty sections of the store but it's way more expensive than the cooking kind and it's the same stuff just in a different bottle! I just get mine from Raley's, a grocery store here. I've heard the Trader Joe's organic coconut oil is great too. Basically just look for organic, unrefined, pure coconut oil.

I've also read that coconut oil could clog your pores, while I haven't experienced this, some may. Again, I am very new to this and trying different things but giving them enough time to actually show results. So if you find things that work best for you, I'd love to hear about them! Acne is an ongoing struggle for me and I would love to find the miracle concoction!

Here are some links to blogs that talk about the Oil Cleansing Method in more detail:

The Oil Cleansing Method
Wellness Mama
Overthrow Martha
Little Miss MBA
Thank Your Body

HOLY COW!

Umm... so it's been awhile! Miss me? Well, I have unfortunately been struck with the winter doldrums for the past while and have been utterly uninspired! It's been the worst. But, the sun has been showing her lovely face more lately and I'm feeling chipper so here we go again! Here's a little preview of what you've been missing out on...

In January I visited my sister in Springville, UT and got to ride the train down from Salt Lake. Did you know I love trains?  I LOOOOOOOVE TRAINS!

I finally up-cycled this old cork board that was left at the house when we bought it. I'm super excited with how it turned out!

I've been listening to a lot of vinyl lately. I just love it. Also that I snagged this album at a yard sale for 50 cents. FTW!!

Oldie but goodie, been missing home a lot lately...

As sad as it is, those are pretty much the only photos I've taken since Christmas (aside from ones with my adorable nieces but I just let parents share their kiddo's photos, cuz I'm weird like that!). Winter is not an inspiring time of year for me and I am so excited that it's drawing to a close!

The last (unphotographed) few months have been filled with searching for recipes for homemade beauty products, visiting new babies in the family, and watching a lot of Netflix. I'm not kidding you guys, I just can't get over this winter slump.

But, on the plus side, if you've seen me in the last couple years you'll have noticed that I have ridiculously awful adult acne... I mean, really, just awful. I haven't been able to find anything that works, been to dermatologists who pumped me full of antibiotics that did nothing, tried store bought vegan and organic face washes and such and no avail! Nothing worked. Then I found all these recipes for homemade/natural solutions to beauty products and my life has changed! I began washing my face with coconut oil, it sounded counter-productive but I tried it and OH. MY. GOODNESS. My face started clearing up after 3 days. And that never happens. My skin is still not awesome, but I'm getting close to a month mark of no chemicals on my face and I can't believe the difference! It's so exciting! Anyways, so that has led me to all sorts of natural solutions to beauty products. I'll share some more in detail of what works for me and what doesn't once I've tried them for awhile but it's really fun!

Well, that has been my last few months. Not terribly exciting but that's life in Elko! I kid, kind of, but really this is a cool place <insert ridiculous grin here> I hope you have all been able to avoid those pesky winter doldrums and are getting pumped for sunshine and flowers coming soon! TTFN!

THANKSGIVING BREAK

It's funny how accustomed I've become to my new life. I used to see a member of my family about once a week when we were living in Cedar City, and see Jared's parents even more often than that. Now that we are all the way up here in Elko, it's harder to take trips to see family so they are few and far between. But we have friends here and so we kind of just get used to our little bubble of work and weekends and every day routine. Then we go home. And it all changes. I realize again how much I miss everyone. How fun it is to just hang out, play games, and chat with family and not have to think, "we need to cram as much as we possibly can into the next few days because who knows when we'll be down next?" And seeing our nieces growing up too fast and trying to catch up on lost time is so hard!

Six months ago, if you had given Jared an amazing job that was closer to our family (or anywhere else for that matter) I would have been excited to go. But I realized on this trip, that if we move any time soon, I am going to be incredibly sad. We have made some amazing friends here in Elko. Some of whom I consider part of my family. I am so happy that I've been able to meet such amazing people and be able to share our lives with each other. To clarify, we have no reason to be moving any time soon, it was just something I was thinking about when I went to my parents. And that's another thing- obviously, my childhood home will always be "home" but I realized I referred to Elko as home and truly meant it. I've never done that with anywhere I've lived.

It was so great to see our families this week. Talking about everything under the sun (mostly ancient America and the relation to the Book of Mormon- AMAZING!), playing frisbee golf, playing with our 6 nieces, catching up with siblings, eating scrumptious food, shopping and taking silly photos. It was refreshing to be face to face with our families. I miss them a lot! We're so glad that we are able to travel home and that we have technology now to keep up to date with our families.

I hope your Thanksgiving breaks were all filled with family and yummy food!

Bloglovin'

Do you like to follow different blogs? By family members, friends, or on any other topic known to man? Do you have them all bookmarked and have to go through clicking on each one, going to their page every day, not knowing whether or not they posted but just wanting to check? I know I used to do this.

<<< here comes the shameless plug for Bloglovin'>>>

Then I found Bloglovin! I love this site! I follow a lot of family and friend's blogs but also design, fashion and photography blogs and I was missing out on a lot of content. With Bloglovin, you add all the blogs you want to follow and whenever one of them makes a new post, it comes up on your feed. It's awesome. Plus, they have a great app for Apple products (and I'm sure Android as well) that's streamlined and easy to read on the go. It's such an easy way to have access to all the blogs you want to keep track of. Plus, it's all FREE! Gotta love that!

So go register on Bloglovin, add all the blogs you want to follow (like mine for instance?!) and enjoy seeing all the new content in one place! Thanks friends, I hope you enjoy Bloglovin as much as I do!

LOVING LATELY

I don't know what I would do without the internet! I love searching for images, projects, products, sites and people who inspire me to create more beautifully and more often. Here are a few links of things I have been loving lately:

 

Lauren Conrad's office makeover *swoon* 

An adorable little online shop called Have. I seriously want this print!

Have you heard of The Period Store? Every month you can order your feminine products, and then they include a piece of artwork, a gourmet candy, tea and medicine. Haha it's an Aunt Flow visit care kit! I haven't ordered one yet but it would be fun to get surprise things in the mail at that time of the month! Goodness knows us women need some cheering up about then!



A motivational thought on storytelling by Ira Glass.

Those are some interesting things I've found lately, anything you've found worthy of sharing? I'd love to hear about them!

MY EVERYDAY: OCTOBER

October is by far my favorite month in Elko! The leaves starting turning gorgeous golden and burning colors, the air has a crisp bite to it, and pumpkin is in everything! One of my favorite things to do this month was to load up a thermos with hot cocoa, pack a fruit filled pastry and walk around town looking at old houses. It has become my new favorite hobby! 

 This house is my favorite so far! Isn't it beautiful??

I started ordering Bountiful Baskets! Check out their website and look for a location near you! It's a great way to get fresh produce and support a community! Plus I get all sorts of different produce that I don't usually buy so it's fun trying out new recipes.

I went exploring up Lamoille Canyon taking some much needed time for myself to write and take photos. It was fun getting away into nature and just sitting and contemplating life.

We painted our front door orange! I've been wanting to do this for months so we finally took a weekend and did it. I am pretty obsessed with it and love the way the front of our house looks now!

Selfie!! I felt pretty that day, add in the autumn leaves and I was one happy camper! 

October was good to me, I had lots of time to gain inspiration, fatten up a little on cocoa and pastries (totally worth it!!) and get ready to hibernate this winter. I'm beginning to really enjoy all the changing of seasons we have here in Elko!

A PATIO SET

BEFORE

AFTER

I picked up this wrought iron patio set from an online garage sale a couple weeks ago. It's hard to tell from the before photo but the paint was all peeling and the cushions were extremely sun faded and dirty. 

So I repainted the frame with Rust-oleum Satin White, and picked up this outdoor fabric and new foam from Joann's for the cushions. Jared helped me staple the fabric and foam onto the seats, I Windexed the table top and put it all together on the deck. 

It is so nice having a place to sit and eat, read, or just hang out outside! And for a fraction of the cost of a brand new patio set! I can live with that. 

Have you done any refurbishing or renovating lately? I'd love to hear about them!

25 Before 26 Goals

1. Plan on starting a family
2. Go backpacking
3. Live a more healthy lifestyle
4. Write down my actual thoughts more
5. Remember birthdays and send cards/gifts
6. Throw a book exchange party- DONE
7. Throw a dance party
8. Start a children's book, poetry book, or memoir
9. Make meditating a daily habit
10. Weed out library
11. Set up guest room
12. Set up play room
13. Learn to paint better
14. Draw more
15. Take advantage of weekends better
16. Learn to garden (or at least to care for the plants we have!)
17. Paint our kitchen cabinets
18. Read 40 books
19. Find a way to make money doing what I love
20. Find more meaning in my every day life
21. Start doing family history
22. Work on improving my memory
23. Stop biting my fingernails
24. Stay in good contact with all my family members
25. In general, simplify my life

Those are my goals for the next year! Do you make goals at your birthday? This is my first year doing it, but I think I'll be able to achieve a lot of them. Already have one down!

Happy 25th

I turned 25 a few days ago, while I was surrounded by family, riding on a carousel and eating deliciously greasy burgers.

I am so thankful for the amazing family that I have. Especially the amazing parents and grandparents that I was given. I am in awe of these people every day, and I love them more than I could ever say. I had the best birthday just being able to be with them! I was also with my little (tall!) brother Ethan, who is pictured walking away in the photo of my Papa and me.

We were given families to help us through the hard times in life, and to share the wonderful times. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have the family I was born into and the family that I married into to share my ups and downs with.

I love you all to the moon and back! Thank you for being amazing!

Stay tuned for my 25 before 26 goals of the year!

Carnival Fun!

 

Carnival lights, puffy dust filled air, the smell of food frying, teenagers screaming and game booth bells ringing. We buy some tickets, eat funnel cakes and curly fries, play a round of the basketball hoop swoosh game, and get in line for the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel is my favorite. If I see one, I have to ride it. I just have to! I can ride the craziest roller coaster and not be scared, but going over the top of a Ferris wheel always make my stomach jump just a little. I love having these amazing date nights with my man. He is my best friend, partner in crime, and love of my life! Plus he bought me expensive cotton candy just because I love nomming on the pink stuff.

Do you like the carnival? What's your favorite ride?

Springtime

Life is perfect right now. Our trees are blooming, the air is crisp at night, warm and reviving in the day, and playing in the water has begun. Children’s laughter floats from our neighbors houses as they run through the sprinklers and shoot water guns at each other. All our windows are open, letting the fresh air envelop our lungs. It is a good time to be alive.  

New Furniture and House Updates!

Hello there! It's been awhile since I posted about our house, so here's what we've been up to. We haven't done much painting or anything, mostly finding furniture we like which has been such an adventure! Keep in mind, we're kind of temporary decorating with the walls- meaning we're not hanging anything that has to be held by nails because we want to paint first but can't decide what colors! It's hard haha. So eventually we will have our awesome paintings up, but now it's just things that can be held with pushpins :) Enjoy our little home tour!

 Here's our house, see the little daffodil's in front of the window? Haha those little yellow specks? They make me happy :)

 Welcome to our home! I made this cheery wreath since I was getting tired of our winter one!

Here's our cozy living room! We love hanging out in here, it is the comfiest couch ever!

 Our dining table! We love it so much! It folds down to fit just us two but then folds open and adds a leaf to sit at least 8! It's great!

We just got this china hutch last weekend. It houses Jared's family's only heirloom- their great-grandma's china. It looks so pretty with those glass windows!

This is a vintage library desk I got from the same people I got our dining table from. They had had plants on top of it for a while (who puts plants on a table so beautiful?!) so it got a little warped but it's a pretty easy fix. It gives it charm too so I'm keeping it that way for awhile! It's great having a work space again!

Picked this adorable dresser up this weekend! It needs a little TLC but I just love the shape and colors so I had to get it! This one will be getting a paint job sometime, but it'll probably look about the same, just new paint :) This is in our room, see our cute shower curtain in the background? :)

Well that's all the new stuff we've been putting in! It's slowly but surely coming together :) Look forward to some more projects coming soon! We've been busy working in the yard and still trying to organize all the random odds and ends that get thrown into random boxes (you know you do it too!). This has definitely been our most fun adventure so far! 

Updates in Photos

It's been awhile! We've spent three months in our new home and are loving it! We're decorating slowly and enjoying the time we have together! We are definitely ready for some warmer weather. We spent Christmas with our families, and have taken other small trips to Overton, Kanarraville, Provo, and Salt Lake City. Here are some photos to catch you all up!

Jared, Abby and I hiking in NV // A pretty pink breakfast // My wonderful grandma and me! She is amazing! // Trip to Reno // Dallin, Alexa and Ethan at the top of a cool mesa // Dad, Mom, Jared, Ethan and I playing Bocce ball at Overton park- such a fun game! // Going boating at Sand Hollow Reservoir //  Jared and I mini golfing with his parents

Fourth anniversary flowers and waffles! // Me in an awesome ballroom by Gateway Mall in SLC // Valentine's banner // Easter decoration // A new outfit- loving pink! // My newly painted office // Taking a tour of Jared's work- that truck is so huge! // My new succulent babies

There ya go! Obviously so many other things have happened in the last few months but hey, you got the overview :) Now that we're settled into the house, it'll be easier to set up more blog posts.

Ta ta for now!

Home Decor Ideas

Now that we finally have our house, my brain is brimming over with fun decorating ideas! Of course, my Pinterest account is packed with them, but here are some of my favorites that I would absolutely love to have in our home! I am so excited for all these projects and most of all, PAINTING! After renting for 6 years, I finally get to paint walls! It's kind of intimidating and scary but it's going to be so much fun!

coral stools!! // that back splash is gorgeous //  painting our cabinets white with bright accents (like the chairs!) // DIY butcher board counters 

doesn't that throw scream snuggle me?? // a beautiful mid-century wing back chair // my favorite gray couch I've found so far, put together with some orange pillows!

adorable antique glass door knobs // DIY tufted upholstered headboard // tiled stair case // faux fur desk chair- this will definitely be going into my office!

I am so excited to decorate our house! I can't wait for all the shopping, thrifting, DIYing and planning! If you want to see any other inspirations I have for our house, check out my boards on Pinterest.

** The above links are to where I found the images, they may not be the original sources. If anyone knows them, please tell me so they can get the credit. 

We bought a HOUSE!

Sorry I've been absent the last little bit, we were too busy buying our first house! I just wanted to say thank you for all the "likes" on Instagram and Facebook, which I'm taking as congratulations. I'll be posting more soon about all the upcoming projects! Stay tuned! I hope you're all having a wonderful Monday! I'm going to spend mine cleaning up so it's squeaking when we move in!

Finding a Happier Me

I couldn't go back to sleep after Jared left this morning, so I checked the blogs I follow and came across an answer to my prayers. The things she said are things that I have known before at some time in my life, but had forgotten and needed to be reminded. Sometimes it just takes a well worded thought to break through the barrier our minds sometimes build around certain topics. Check out her post here.

Lately, I've been trying to find a job, but every place I applied to just filled me with dread thinking of going there every day. I've been trying to find what makes me happy so I can do that as a job, but I can't seem to find jobs offered here in Elko that are for the creative minded. At least no openings at the moment. This has gotten me thinking about my life and what I really want to do with it.

I have always had a hard time finding what I'm passionate about. I enjoy so many different activities at different times that I don't really stick to one for long. I have realized though that graphic design is something that has always stuck with me. I studied creative writing for 5 years, and photography for 1, when all along I should have been doing graphic design. This is why students should try a little of everything, because I had no idea what graphic design entailed until my senior year of college.

So, today is going to be dedicated to figuring out what makes me happy and how I can keep doing that in my life. A lot of soul searching, scripture reading, and praying is going to be happening around here so hopefully I'll figure out a plan of action soon.

See, this here, making this made me happy :) Too bad I only have Word to work with haha!

Today's Feeling Is...

This is exactly how I'm feeling today. I can't wait til we just own our house and the paperwork is all behind us.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We went Christmas tree hunting with my family over Thanksgiving weekend on Cedar Mountain. Usually we'd be wading through snow drifts up to our waists, but this time there was hardly any snow on the ground! It was so strange! Here are some snapshots from the day:

// Alexa and I being awesome! // Dallin, Alexa and I- can't figure out which faces we're doing for which photo // My honey and me! I just love that man so much! //Our family in front of the trees! Dang, we look gooooood!

It was such a fun day filled with rock hard snowball fights, hot chocolate, yummy smelling firs, leftover turkey and no-bakes! I love my family so much! They are the best friends I've ever had!

When do you get Christmas trees? Do you cut your own, buy from a lot, or have fake ones? Jared and I are trying to decide what we're going to do for ours this year. Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are having fun getting in the Christmas spirit!