remember that whole christmas card dilemma? well, your suggestions were good ones and i started putting my google fingers to work to see if i could find something that would work. but over and over, either i wasn’t a fan of the card designs, or they were way to expensive. still in a bit of a pickle, i headed to utah for thanksgiving, and asked my friend corey if he could take some photos of me for possible use in the card.
we headed out for our photo session, and i had a specific goal in mind. though it took a couple of 'locations' i felt confident that there was at least one that would balance that fine line between vain and pathetic. and after reviewing the shots, i was relieved to find that i had been right. all that was left was to find the right card to complement the photo, and jill came to the rescue with her flyer from shutterfly. i instantly fell in love with several of the designs, and quickly hopped online to see the whole selection. these are some of my favorites:
so what do you think? do you love these as much as i do? you can check out the rest of the designs here. and if you want to see the final product, be sure to email me your address!
and bloggers, if you'd like 50 free photo cards from shutterfly, check out their cool promotion!
ah thanksgiving. you dear dear holiday dedicated to food and gratitude - two of my favorite things! this year, you whisked me away to utah for a much needed vacation (another favorite thing). and bonus! it was quite the winter wonderland (yet another favorite thing).
more of my favorite things include:
spending time with the burk family
spending time with MY family
snowcapped mountains
meeting the new additions
making friends out of new family members.
(i have the greatest cousins-in-law!)
eating at diners, drive-ins, and dives dives
(moochies)
inflatable hammers!
(me and the virginia nelsons)
delicious thanksgiving buffets (like the one at the grand america)
i'm a big fan of christmas cards (even though the laziness of recent years may not convince you). i'm also a big fan of photos.
seems obvious that i would be a fan of photo christmas cards.
but photo christmas cards are made for families (you know what i mean), and i am a family of 'me'. which of course, is not to say that i don't have family, but that at 34, with both siblings balled and chained and babied up, the 'parents and brothers and sisters' card (geographically, if for no other reason) is long since past it's prime.
the 'me and the dog' thing just seems kind of...sad. and the 'just me' thing seems kind of...vain. so i want to know if any of you creative types have any great ideas as to how i can actually pull off a photo christmas card without falling into either trap?
i admit it. this brace is keepin' me down a bit. my activities are somewhat limited because it just takes so much darn EFFORT to be mobile. even getting in and out of the car is a challenge, so, while there have been scattered dinners and movie nights, i've mostly been keeping a low profile.
it's a bit frustrating since i actually get to be home for a good chunk of time, and it would be really awesome to act like i was a member of my ward again and, oh, i don't know, GO to things. but when i do go, i'm exhausted by the time i get there. then i have to try and be social and stuff when i just want to go home and go to bed!
as a result, i've turned to my cure-all for frustration: shopping.
i make a poor excuse for a shopaholic, but i gave it a shot:) it started when i went looking for tight pants. funny, but true. because when you're wearing loose fitting pants with a brace on...you just can't get that brace tight enough to stay put. you can completely cut off your circulation, and still somehow, that brace will be sliding down your leg. maybe it's something about surface area, or how much that pant can move (i mean, isn't that why we buy loose fitting pants in the first place?!), but it's a bad deal.
so i went looking for tight pants, of a non-spandex variety. and what did i find myself in? skinny jeans. now, prior to last week, just the idea of a skinny jean would have given me hives. i mean, good for the size 2s and their skinny jeans, but this was not a trend i'd be adopting.
and then it became a necessity of sorts. so, imagine my shock when i stood in the gap dressing room, wearing my size (not 2) skinny jeans. and
they.
looked.
good.
what started as a search for 'functional' clothing, turned into a feel good dressing room moment.
but, while one part of me has been set on finding clothing suitable for the new appendage, an equal and possibly larger part of my psyche, is playing dumb. "brace? what brace? ooooh, these boots are cute!"
i kid you not, the girl in the crotch-to-calf brace cannot stop buying boots! i mean, the fact that i can't actually wear them right now, well, i can't let that stop me from buying a cute pair of shoes that i WILL be able to wear ONE DAY. especially since we all know that when ONE DAY comes, all those size 11 boots i bought at target (thank you target for carrying size 11 shoes!) will be long gone. so really, all i'm doing is preparing for the future. isn't that something we are taught to do our whole lives?
right now, i'm preparing to wear these:
the irony is that my one 'splurge' purchase has been a pair of uggs. and i LOVE them. i can't explain it, since i came firmly from the 'uggs are ugly' camp, but, what can i say, they are so comfortable and easy when an 80 degree day becomes a 50 degree night.
it's possible that these are sleep deprived decisions i'll regret in three weeks when i'm lucid again, but i guess maybe this brace isn't the worst thing in the world. it's definitely getting me out of my comfort zone.
most of you will know that i read a lot. sometimes 'actual' reading, and sometimes audio books. in fact, i've developed an audio book addiction, as it significantly helps pass the one-hour-each-way commute to work.
my latest audio book was 'the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society', and i absolutely loved it. i'm not sure that i would have taken to it as quickly in traditional book form, but the audio book format, and the different readers, entranced me from the first words.
i know (based on your goodreads shelves) that many of you have already read the book, but for those of you who haven't, let me see if i can convince you that you should.
the book consists solely of correspondence between the characters in post- wwII britain. every character description and plot narrative unfolded within the context of these letters, and you spend the entire book feeling like an eavesdropper or voyeur, and loving every minute of it.
fiction about this time period often feels dismal and sad, and while i'm not averse to serious subjects, i prefer to finish a book not wanting to kill myself. this book tackled subjects of sacrifice and loss, and circumstances i hope i never find myself in, in powerful and moving ways, without leaving me depressed and disheartened. instead, as i neared the conclusion, i found myself wanting to find out how it all ended while simultaneously never wanting it to end! and, of course, i found myself wanting to book the next flight to guernsey.
i won't go into the details of the plot, as you can read it for yourself, but suffice it to say that in my opinion, it has everything a good book should have...including british accents.
in addition to my 'reading', it's been a busy movie week! while in dallas, i absconded to a local theater in my off time to see 'secretariat', and i think it's fairly obvious that the movie appealed greatly to the horse-loving cow-girl in me.
my only fear had been that the 70's setting (and wardrobes) would be a distraction (not a fan), but it turned out to be a non-issue. i was reminded just how much i enjoy diane lane, john malkovich's portrayal of secretariat's trainer was laugh-out-loud funny, and yeah, i cried like a baby. just something about the power, intelligence, and sheer magnificence of an animal like that, tickles my weepy bone.
on friday a few of us from the ward got together to see 'the social network.' the reviews were good and the movie was as well. my roommate and i were surprised that we were the only girls in the group, but also not complaining. and, since our original show time preference was sold out, we had some time to kill before the next showing. since i'm on the road so much, there are so many people in my ward that i don't know very well, and the wait time gave me a chance remedy that.
i was a little embarrassed when i asked one of the guys in the group how he knew one of the other guys. his response was 'from the ward,' and i followed up with 'oh, how long have you been in the ward?' turns out, he's been in the ward for a year, and yes, i am a shmuck. ah well, just another reason i'm glad to be home for awhile!
i wrapped up movie week on saturday afternoon when my roommate and i took advantage of the drizzly day to lose ourselves in a little josh duhamel. i've actually been looking forward to 'life as we know it' for some time, and i'm glad to say that i wasn't disappointed.
i mean, it's a chick flick, so you pretty much know what you're going to get. and while it was fairly stereotypical, i also appreciated that there were some deeper layers and truly tender moments relating to unexpected parenthood. it, unlike most chick flicks, is on my 'to buy' list.
last but not least, i'll just mention that at both movies this weekend, in a trailer for a new reese witherspoon/owen wilson movie, there was a song i adored and had to look up later. turns out, i loved almost every itunes clip from the album and immediately downloaded it. if i ever get around to posting a new playlist (i'm sorry about that. really!) brendan james will definitely be on it. in the meantime, check him out for yourself. my favorites are 'the lucky ones' and 'the fall' (video below). it will take more time to be sure, but (dare i say it?) there may be a joshua radin dethroning in the future.
