Oh, Family!

I absolutely love Thanksgiving.

It's the time of the year when my cousins (who we don't see too often) come up and we all gather at my Grandpa's house for food and fun! We are kind of a stereotypical group:

We have the girls, posing for pictures, and the guys... one of whom is smiling (Go, Mathew!), one of whom is blurred because he moved his head at the last minute (Nick), and one of whom is blatantly not smiling for the camera (Patrick). Oh, boys.

The other fun part about Thanksgiving is the gingerbread houses, remember?

For the girls, it was a huge ordeal- perfect lines of icing, the right colors of candy for each window, door, and shingle!

For the little ones, it was more about ingesting candy. And LOTS of it.
(I can say without hesitation that Lilly ate more than one tube of icing- and the green around her face and hands proves it!)

The finished products:

Mostly all cheerful, except for Patrick who had some sort of massacre on his house (the second closest to the camera), I believe he named it "The Silence of the Gingerbread Men".
Creative one, he is!

And the obligatory posing smiling with the completed houses:


What traditions do you have for the holiday season?

Be Friendly & Control Your Hyperness.

Okay, this is ridiculous and ADORABLE.

Little 9-year-old Alec Greven is a published author of the book, How to Talk to Girls- and this kid is completely serious! He is too cute, and this video about how to get a girlfriend in elementary school ("...and then once you're in high school you can take them out on dates, and who knows? Maybe you'll get married!") is so precious.

My favorite quotes:

"And, she might figure out that you love her- your secret is to make sure that nobody finds out that you love her."

"You have to be able to get over [your crush] 'cause if you can't, it'll be sure to ruin your life and it will haunt you forever..."

"I always say: Life is hard, move on."

"Be friendly, be clean, control your hyperness."

{via}

Is he cute, or what?

Katniss is My Homegirl...

... and Economics is (right now) my new favorite subject.

Why, you ask?

Well, in the middle of a long discussion about the Federal Reserve Bank, and how it regulates inflation and is the "bank for banks" etc, etc, we learned about the twelve District Branches (who make up a committee that makes decisions) and where they were located.

At first, I looked at the map and was like, "Really? We have the least say in the meetings? We have a huge district!"
And then....

OH EM GEE.
WE ARE IN DISTRICT TWELVE.

Yeah, that's right. I'm Katniss status right here in California.
And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, get yourself over here right now. And READ.

{via}

I knew there was a reason I lived on the West Coast.

Sometimes I Play with My Food.

I'm not very good at finishing things.

I have a half-finished yarn quilt thing that I started when I was in second grade.... and never completed. I have various notebooks that are scribbled in for the first three pages and then tucked into a convenient corner in my room.

But if there's one thing that I can say about myself, it's that I'm creative.

I guess my stomach is kind of small, but it seems like I can NEVER finish my ice-cream cups. Crazy, right? Especially since I can eat half a carton in no time at all... but that's a different story.
I believe it's a mental problem.
I make up for this deficiency in common sense (Because who refuses to finish ice cream? It's barbaric!) by sculpting my leftovers, usually into the roundest shapes I can possibly make.

Voila,
what was left of a Sweet Cream and cookie dough-infused Coldstone Love it.

I call it The Orb of Indefinite Indulgence.
It's a masterpiece.

Pack Up!

I think I have got to be one of the most sporadic writers in the history of blogging... and it's kind of giving me whiplash. (Yes, whenever I hear "whiplash" I think Twilight "Your mood swings are kind of giving me whiplash"... don't judge.)

ANYWAYS, I'm trying to return to whatever schedule I might have had (Monday Melodies, ahem.) with an awesomely cool song that my friend Emily showed me.

It's a real pick-me-up song by Eliza Doolittle called "Pack Up", and it's been in my CD player on repeat for the last two weeks. It's that good.

Amazing, right? I got to love that man's rich voice and her quirky style! Her voice is totally not what I'd expect first looking at her, but boy do I enjoy it!

{via}

PS: Can I just say, first college application submitted? WHOOT!

Don't Mean to be Gleeful, but....

... this has got to be the cutest thing I have ever seen.
Yes, I know my last post (which was a while ago... I've been a bad blogger and a busy student) was about Glee too- but there are just so many adorable things going on in these pictures!

Look at those little guys compared to these big ones!
Isn't it adorable how little Finn is the smallest of the littlun's when big Finn is the biggest of the bigun's?

SO. FULL. OF. ADORABLE.
Kurt and Kurt with matching hats? Mike and Mike with matching Flannel? Finn and Finn with matching vests? Rachel and Rachel with matching animal sweaters??
I think I'm going crazy.

And behind the scenes, too?

Favorite Mini-Gleek quotes:
Mini-Finn: "My name is Finn and I like Rachel Berry!"
Mini-Puck: (kiss, kiss) "These ones are fully loaded!"
Mini-Mercedes: "Mr. Schuester, I think you feelin' a little green!"

Remember When....

... I posted about this guy? Darren Criss? And said that great things were heading his way?
Well, those great things are here.

Hello, Dalton Academy!

Inspiration: Leah & Jon

It's probably strange for me, a 17 year old girl, to admit this, but I secretly love weddings.

I mean, everyone loves going to weddings, but I take the next step and bookmark wedding sites and peruse them to my heart's desire- for inspiration, for the happy stories, for the beauty!

I came across this gorgeous wedding here and I realized- I really admire all the creativity that's put into people's "big day". So much of a wedding reflects the couple's personal style, and this whimsical wedding is no exception!

Does anyone else get a Sound of Music Maria-running-across-the-mountains feel with this picture? LOVE the saturation.

Okay, the floral dresses are just too cute. I love how it looks so effortless- the mismatched shoes, the all-floral-but-all-different dresses; the wedding party really had a chance to show their inner selves too!

That wedding arch? BEAUTIFUL.
Can I just say that I'm in love with their color scheme? It's just so cheerful! Nothing's perfect because it's so different, but at the same time everything's perfect in the brightness and colors!

Running through the vineyards waving streamers? Yay! We're back at musical status!

Even the decor has the same whimsical feel- the vintage jars on the beams, the bright paper flowers, the streamers...

Handwriting love! Now why can't I paint like that at home?
And how cute is the beanbag toss through the sign? Perfect for kids and adults alike!

His socks = AMAZING.

Look at that.
So different, so similar, so mismatched, so perfect!

I don't even know that many flowers. I feel bad using the word "love" over and over again when describing this wedding, but that's the only word that comes to mind!
I LOVE IT.

So beautiful.

{click here for more pictures and details}