Seven Year Anniversary♡

You've taught me how to love. How to let things go. How to take chances. I'm a better person because of all you do. I love you to the end of time. Happy anniversary, Steven.

Tamarack Resort♡

This past weekend we were lucky enough to go to Tamarack Resort. Our beautiful cabin was covered in snow and we had a ski area right down the road. Which for the record, I might not go skiing again considering how much of a fail I was at it! I think next time I'll go with the other girls to the spa.

McCall, Idaho has a yearly Winter Carnival and we got to go on their big opening day. It was full of visitors and ice sculptures and people sliding on and off the frozen lake. I even got to go inside an ice sculpture. (It was a big pirate ship that won first prize!)

I love to go exploring in Idaho. It makes me like it a lot more up here and makes me realize how blessed we are to get to go to things such as this. In the end, it's all about exploring and making memories with friends and loved ones. That's what we did this weekend. Wish I could go back!

A Homesick Christmas♡

Today is Christmas Eve and I'm up early prepping for our Christmas lunch tomorrow. I've decorated Christmas cookies, that to be honest, didn't taste as good as they looked! Anyways, I watched the final Hobbit movie this weekend. It kinda turned into a little Christmas tradition to go watch it in theaters. I'm going to miss that. (The movie was so good btw. It finally gave me the LOTR feels I wanted in the other two!)

I managed to get a couple things under the tree that will actually be a surprise for Steven. He can always guess what he gets from me! My family in Texas got their gifts I sent and I can't wait for them to open them. I didn't really buy too many gifts this year. Mostly just focused on getting me and Steven things.

Now that Christmas is here, I am sadder than I thought I would be. Spending the holidays away from your family for the first time kinda makes me a little emotional. Still going to focus on now and make sure to give my family a phone call. Please remember the military members that aren't able to go home. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Life Lately♡

I haven't written a post about life lately so I thought I'd do a little Christmas edition. I've been getting ready for the holidays for a month now and I'm still just as excited! I've got our lights and decor up and am constantly burning Christmas candles. We also got our first snow for this year and I'm wondering if we'll have a white Christmas. Isn't that what everyone dreams for?

We won't be visiting our family this year for Christmas because the military has its own plans. So we're just going to make the best of it and hangout with the 'family' we've made up north. Steven and I have already opened all of our Christmas presents to each other since we see no since in waiting to open them with just the two of us. I've started making little Christmas treats to snack on and have eggnog in our fridge. I'm not a very good cook so our Christmas dinner plans are still up the air!

I've been posting a bit more since work has been kinda slow lately. My hours have been cut a bit and I've been lounging around at home watching movies all snug. It's getting colder outside here in Idaho so I'm sure we're getting another snow before we know it! What's everyone up to lately? Until next time!

Hair History♡

There's some sort of guilty pleasure in reading about someone's hair history. I was reading From Roses blog post and thought I'd make mine too. I was born with thin, medium brown hair. Wispy and always flying untamed, although my mom did her best to pull it up in pony tails.

Ever since I first dyed my hair at the ripe old age of fourteen, I've been addicted to coloring and changing my hairstyle. (Picture on the left is my first black dye from a box) On the right, is a few blonde highlights and me trying ever so hard to get those 'scene' bangs that were so in at the time. I stuck with growing out my hair while hiding behind my bangs for a few years.

Above is my sophomore year of high school. Can't really seem to see what my face actually looks like back then? After going back and forth during this time with black hair/getting more blonde highlights, this is just a faded black dye. I never brushed my hair much. I was going for that 'messy' and 'carefree' look.

Right before my junior year of high school, I took the plunge and chopped my hair off. Making sure to tell my hairstylist to add a ton of layers. I really liked this hairstyle and just let it grow out until my senior year. (So simple to take care of and looked extra cute curled)

My Senior year is when I started to really lighten up my hair. I always wondered what I would look like blonde, but never had the guts to finally dye it. I dyed it all myself. Going through the orange phase. It took me almost all of my senior year to finally start getting it blonde.

For the longest while I was stuck with the orange/copper blonde and couldn't stand it! Especially with such dark eyebrows that I have. Taking so much time bleaching my hair, my hair wasn't very damaged at all. I would condition it as much as I could, not using much heat on it and if I did I would make sure to have a heat protectant on.

When I finally reached my white/blonde I was so happy and loved it. The thing was, maintenance. My hair grows exceptionally fast and in just a couple of weeks my roots would be showing a lot. I didn't like to redye a lot. I tried going long as I could before having to touch up my roots. (About 7 weeks after each touch up) It got exhausting and I was doing it all myself. (Not doing the best job) So I finally just went back to dark brown.

2012/2013 was my first year of college and around this time, I wasn't scared of dying my hair at all. I saw inspiration, and went for it without any hesitation. Even to see what I'd look like with red hair! It was fun and I loved to them all, but I wanted to go back to the closest brown to my natural I could before my wedding. (I wanted to make sure to look like me when I looked back on wedding pictures)

The beginning of this year, I played around with ombre for a bit, knowing I was going to cut a lot off soon. I kept the long ombre hair for a while. Also, trying to let my bangs grow out. I even went lighter for a bit, giving a lot of blonde highlight through my hair.

Just a while ago I chopped off my hair. Wanting to get rid of all that over dyed hair and just have some change. I lightened up a bit more and was rockin' this look for a while.

My hair is already starting to grow back out a lot. I've went back dark and am gonna always change up my hair in some way. It's just hair, it grows back, so why not try things out and live a little? I never regret all my dyes and cuts, it's all about having something new and feeling good about yourself.

What's your hair story?

My Work Space♡

I thought I'd give a short tour of my work space. (Thus far) I think it has a very 'cozy' feel to it. Not only that, but I think a lot of my personal taste is what makes it special. I think everyone should have their own little space they can come and relax at. The right side I have a few things to keep pens and pencils in. (I'm a pen/pencil hoarder) Also a little vase with some fake flowers.

I got my laptop cover and keyboard cover off Amazon. They have a lot of different colors to pick from, but I ended up choosing turquoise because it's one of my favorite colors! I also found this desk used and primed and painted it myself. I really loved how it turned out and it matches my laptop! Can you tell I love turquoise yet? On the left side I keep my Kindle Touch in case I want to read or find a new book. As well as a little bunny figurine and a korilakkuma.

I got the lantern lights on sale at Target. Totally in love! I wanted to add some special pictures on my wall. I saw a lot of posts on Tumblr and Pinterest that had them with polaroids, so I put a few of my favorite people. I plan on adding more later, and I just took them with my Fujifilm polaroid camera!

This is the drawer in my desk! I like to keep a few pencils for quick access as well as my notebooks that I like to write ideas and other random things in. I like to keep my headphones rolled up in the hello kitty glasses case. They don't get nearly as tangled that way! I got the hello kitty scissors at Hobby Lobby many years ago and still adore them.

I even keep Mitsey's little bed on the side. (She always has to be by her momma)

So there's a little tour of my desk area. I plan on doing a few more things to it later on in the future, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. What's your favorite little personal space?
Until next time friends!~

New Hair!♡

I've been wanting to cut my hair short for over a year now. It's not that I didn't want to cut my hair short, it's because moving to a new state you get a little nervous in finding a new hairdresser! In the end, I'm glad I waited and was recommended someone to cut my hair. 

I found my hairdresser through a friend whose hair I also really liked. Don't be afraid to get recommendations, and make sure to check out what their hair looks like! Haha.

I feel a lot lighter and just... a lot more comfortable. Having long hair for a really long time gets tiresome. Whether it's from having to wait for it to dry, or just trying to decide what to do with it. (Just throw it up, who cares! Is what I normally did if I wasn't doing anything important.) There's something about short hair that makes me feel like I can spend more time styling it. There's also some really awesome short hair tutorials on YouTube! Going to enjoy looking for some new options again!

For the longest time I used to think I had to have long beautiful hair to feel beautiful. Have you noticed most of our society shows the most 'beautiful' people with long luscious hair? I think that's why it's good just to break away from that kind of thinking and enjoy being more than just your hair. That's how I feel every time I cut my hair short. Refreshing! Take that!

Anyways. Even though I'll miss my long curls, I'm going to enjoy my head feeling lighter and not having a lot of hair to hide behind. 

Embrace short hair. Purple hair. Whatever hair suits your fancy! 

Until next time beautiful people~♡