Family Portrait Project: Fab Gab

 I don't know what it is about these Rowley girls but they are just too photogenic. Why is everyone getting old so quickly? For some reason Gabby is forever 6 in my mind but she seems to be getting older anyhow. What gives her the right I ask!? Now just look at her, gorgeous and rockin' the braid crown. I figured a high contrast monochromatic piece would be nice since I burnt up a bunch of my color on sunbursts recently.

 

Family Portrait Project: Becca and the Bump

 



 

Britney and Becca are both due in February! I looove babies and pregnancy seems to be in the air. This is my way of drawing a baby by proxy, cute pregnant ladies!  Not only that but it was fun to try my hand at drawing sunbursts....I need some practice...but it was a lot of fun. I love color almost as much as I love babies so sunbursts are just a blast. When I think about it color doesn't wear diapers and cry so maybe I should rethink my love priorities.

 

Merry Everything!

Tis the season to get way too excited about buying gifts and then sit in a pile of receipts, cup of eggnog in hand, and wonder where all of your money went. I LOVE to give gifts and I'm a sucker for Aaron, so once a year I go all out. Being the starving college student that I am sometimes I have to be very sneaky in order to get Aaron's gifts because when one of your two dollars goes missing your husband is bound to notice. The question every year is "what do I get him now"? Last year I splurged and got him a fly fishing float tube, the year before I splurged and got him hiking boots and a pack, the year before I splurged and got him a "zombie survival kit". Noticing a pattern? I splurge. This year we are trying to be debt free. We are SO close that splurging feels a little too naughty. So what do you get a man with expensive taste? Oh man, I could use some help with this one. Merriest of everything to you and yours.

Food Love, meet List Love

I'm in a serious relationship with food. Sometimes I feel like I would die without our love but sometimes food doesn't treat me so well. It's a love hate relationship. But seriously people, have you ever gone to the store hangry? I usually end up at the grocery store in this mode and end up with $1,000 worth of chocolate chip cookies and macaroni and cheese which I try to juggle instead of just getting a cart like a normal human being. I've started using these great grocery lists to plan out my shopping and meals and it saves me money as well as ensures I have healthy food in the fridge instead of just many blocks of fancy cheeses (I currently have 3 year aged Irish Sharp Cheddar, Smoked Gouda, and Habanero Mozzarella, mnmnmn). Try it out! My Momma gets these 5.5"x8.5" in a pad and slaps a magnet on the back so it's easy access on the fridge. Happy Listing. Happy Eating. 

 

 

 

 

Dress up for cheapskates

I love beautiful things and clothing is no exception. Over the last few years my nicer clothing from the Mom and Pop Era (oh the days of high school when your parents bought your clothes) have stopped fitting or gotten pretty shabby. I've supplemented my wardrobe with some carefully picked thrift store finds and gifts but I've noticed that I'm starting to look less chic and more eek. So I went hunting. There is a never ending supply of gorgeous expensive clothing, just look up Anthropologie...wait, don't, it will ruin your life....you already did? Bummer. Well I've noticed that when you search certain items on pinterest or similar websites that the same item will come up under multiple addresses, similar to when you are shopping for a flight or hotel room. There is not one set price for anything out there. You can always find a deal if you are really looking. Here are some of the deals that I found in the last little while looking for Christmas gifts for the many many women in my family. 

 

This dress is $32 at Luulla.com an awesome shopping site for the penny pincher.

 This is the original dress that I found on Chinabeauty.com for $76 Sometimes you can't find the exact item but the same fabrics are often used on more than one article of clothing like with these dresses.

 This little beauty is $38 on etsy.com, one of my favorite handmade shopping sites.

 The original heart-throb was this skirt from shabbyapple. On a recent trip to Salt Lake my tiny and beautiful sister tried it on and I fell in love. The high waist and stiff fabric make it a little less fun to wear for fluffier gals like me so the elastic waistband in the cheaper skirt was actually a welcome change. This skirt is also made of a thick shiny fabric that makes it very formal looking which I don't prefer for everyday wear.

 I got trapped by this dress. I thought I had found the best deal but alas I found a better deal after I had already purchased. This is one of the times you can find the exact same dress or item on different sites and for different prices. Etsy $45, dresslily.com $24.

 Another exact match! Udobuy.com $42, CiChic $25

 Oh this dress! I was 100% ready to buy it at KoshFashion for $72 + shipping and the day I went to purchase the website mysteriously disappeared. I was frantic and went searching high and low for the dress only to find a near match.

 I love this dress to the MAX. Only $21 from luulla.com Thank the heavens that the KoshFashion website mysteriously disappeared. I saved enough money to get a second dress!

 

I found this dress for $23 on sheinside.com but THEN! I found it for $19 on ebay! woo hoo

This fun and simple dress is $39 on mode-sty.com and a whopping $18 on cichic.com

Bird Dog Jo

You grow up with this kid, look up to her, want to be her, and then BAM she gets pregnant. How weird it is that the 9 year old I trailed back in the day is growing a human. I love this girl. I will love her little boy. He will be the most spoiled and loved baby of all time. They came for Thanksgiving and the family spent the day hanging out in our pajamas making pie. I did Thanksgiving with the in-laws but this pre-holiday hang out was just what I needed to cure the homesickness.  She is only six months along but we wanted some pictures of the bump before time got away from us. Here are a few. My favorite is the blurry swing picture. It's a ridiculous picture but I just love it.

Books, Oh the Books!

How many of you out there wish you had the EXACT library from Beauty and the Beast? How many of you are dying because it's the end of the semester and all you want out of life is to read something that isn't a school text? Christmas break and the end of the semester are soon upon us so I figured I would share a few of my recent reads to give some inspiration to you would be readers out there. Fair Warning: most of the books I like to read are YA so don't expect any Chaucer on this list.

 Delirium is the first in this series by Lauren Oliver. It has a 4.5 star rating and is a fun dystopian read.

 Panic is a 4 star read. I read this and enjoyed it enough that I read another of her books, Delirium. I'm hoping to get in the next book in the delirium series after the semester ends.

 Four is the fourth (ba ha) book in the Divergent series. Technically it is not part of the trilogy of Divergent, Allegiant, and Insurgent but an offshoot of one of the main characters perspective. It has a 4.5 star rating but I think I would give it a 4 just for the sake of pattern.

 Kristin Cashore is an awesome new author and this is the third book in her first series. Graceling and Fire are the first two books and although they tie together better if you read them in order you don't have to. However I think I would read Fire if I only had the option of reading one of the three. This book has a 4.5 star rating.

 Mr. Brown's fourth book in the adventure series is just perfect. I love the mystery, history, and adventure in his novels which don't need to be read in order to be understood. It is given a 4.5 star rating but I give it a 5.

 I am a lover of Robin McKinley. She has written some of my favorite fairy tale revisions including rose daughter, beauty, and spindles end. Reader beware this book does contain adult themes as the main character goes through some abuse. It is a beautiful story but probably not for younger readers. 4.5 star rating.

 If you haven't heard of the Hunger Games, bless your heart and the rock you have been living under. The series is a good read and has a 4.5 star rating. Dystopian for those that lean that way.

 Peeps is the first in it's series and the second book recently came out! Westerfeld deals with some interesting life questions in his books without getting bogged down in politics. This is a fun read for those who like weird science. At the beginning of each chapter he talks about strange viruses. If you enjoy this read you should definitely pick up his uglies series which is of the currently popular dystopian style (uglies, pretties, specials). 4.5 star rating.

Elantris is the first book from author Brandon Sanderson who has become one of the most read fantasy writers today. This book brings back the beauty and elegance of a single book telling a story...not a series, not a trilogy, not a mumbojumbo of a trillion stories. It can become very political at times but it doesn't drag. It has a 4.5 star rating but I give it a 5.

Hope you enjoy!

Synesthesia - Taste your colors, feel your music.

Sean Day, PhD tastes in Technicolor. " the taste of beef, such as a steak, produces a riche blue...Mango sherbet appears as a wall of lime green with thin wavy strips of cherry red. Steamed gingered squid produces a large glob of bright orange foam, about four feet away, directly in front of me."
Carol Crane can really feel the music...and not in a groovy, this band moves me kind of way. The sound of a trumpet tickles her neck, violins brush her face, and guitar music touches her ankles.

Carol and Sean have a rare condition called synesthesia where their senses cross over one another. There are many forms of synesthesia with any number of sensory combinations. The most common form it takes is perceiving color in numbers, letters, or concepts such as time. Some people hear a name and taste chocolate while others feel pain and see yellow. Researchers believe that one in a thousand people are synesthetes and possibly as many as one in three hundred. There have been many studies proving that synesthesia is a legitimate condition with elevated brain function in certain sensory spots of the brain. No study has found the root of what causes synesthesia but there is no shortage of theories. My favorite is that all people are born without the barriers between senses and as they age barriers between the neurons grow. This would mean that babies who hear their Mother's voice can also taste, feel, and sense color in the sound. How beautiful would that be? I can't imagine a life where I would be able to connect music with color. The whole world would be art. At the same time how strange would it be for a synesthete to loose that connection. How would I feel if I lost any of my senses? Seeing the world in gray, eating but not tasting, touching and not feeling. How blessed we are to have the senses that connect us to each other. I hope that Heaven is a place where all human barriers are broken and our senses come together again so every move and sound is complete with a full range of senses.