July in Photos

If you follow me on Instagram then you may have noticed my recent use of the "our project 180" hashtag- #ourproject180. My friends and I have started a photo-a-day project, not unlike the 365 project. Except we started ours in the middle of the year. It has been so fun! I love finding things to photograph each day and I'm proud of myself for not missing a day all month. For August I'm going to challenge myself to take less "hand" pictures (you know the ones! Crisp white backdrop with only my hand holding an object). While I enjoy that aesthetic, sometimes it's just the lazy easy way out. Seeing all these photos in a grid makes me excited to make a book of all the photos together once I've finished in December. 

Santa Fe and other stuff

We took a trip up north to visit with Ryan's sister and family. I had a dinner that would have made Ben Wyatt proud. So delicious. And my sister-in-law and I had dessert at a cute froyo place. 

We took the train to Santa Fe the next morning. It was my first train ride! 

Indoor farmer's market.

We went to this pretty hip park. 

After the park, we hit up a Mexican restaurant for lunch. The place had a few signs warning the customers that they serve their chile HOT. We asked for a sample, just to be safe, and found that it wasn't nearly as spicy as the sign warned. It was pretty mild. Ha! Oh, Santa Fe. 

We walked to the plaza and did some shopping. I bought that little hat and this awesome stuffed lion for the baby. Baby shopping is too fun... 

Our last stop was at this Swedish cafe/bakery. These treats were pretty good, but they didn't compare to the chocolate drizzled croissant I bought at the farmer's market earlier that day. I've probably thought about it at least once a day since then. 

I had lunch with some friends on Monday. Doesn't Emilio have the most friendly face? 

Baby Ceci!  Anne spoiled me with a ton of clothes that Ceci outgrew. Score. 

A photo of our apartment from yesterday. Ew ew ew, I hate moving so much. 

The next time I post here, we'll be in Arizona. Ryan informed me that we'll have internet access by Tuesday, a lot sooner than I thought! I should be packing more stuff right now, but I have a toothache, so I'm using that as a lame excuse to blog.... 

We're having dinner with friends tonight! I might post a few photos on Instagram.  

Lately

A bunch of phone pictures!
1. From my mom's graduation (I actually stole this one from my sister). 2. On Mother's Day we went to pay a visit to my brother's grave. He lived for 5 months and would be 29 years old if he were still with us. 3. We were treated to dinner in honor of Ryan's graduation! 4. Breakfast for a couple of sick people. 5. We took a trip to Arizona to look for an apartment and check out the area. Chandler has a lot of flowers, which is nice. 6-8. The Gilbert, AZ temple. I didn't realize how LARGE it is! My heart was pounding as we drove up to it. It's the most beautiful building I've ever been in. Palace status. I'm so happy that we will live so close to it. 9. After our session in the temple we went to eat at Kneader's Bakery and Cafe. Yum! 10. Hotel selfie: ready to look for an apartment. We may have found a place to live! Cross your fingers that we get it! 11. We got back into town just in time for my last shift. It was really nice to have a job again, if only for 3 months. 12. After work I was on the road again to Thatcher, AZ for a wedding. 13. Made it to my destination and had to get a hotel...alone. First time! I accidentally rented a suite for the night. Whoops. #treatyoself 14. Snapped this while the bride was getting ready. 15. The Gila Valley temple, where the couple was married. Two temple visits in one week was awesome. 16. Friends. 17-18. At one of the gift shops on our drive home. Melissa and Colin (peeps in 16) drove back home with me. 19. Wedding decor. 20. Can you see the bee in this photo?

If you don't already follow me on instagram, here's my username: @beverlopolis Go on, click it.

Christmas

(photos by Visual Brew Design and Photography)

These top photos were taken a couple of weeks ago at our photo club ugly sweater party. 

I love Emilio's sweater! 

Yesterday was awesome. We received so many thoughtful gifts, but more importantly, we spent lots of time with family. The older I get, the more love I have for these people. 

My favorite present! 

Oh!!! And one of the best surprises of Christmas was receiving a text from Holly that her baby was born yesterday morning! Baby Ruby Sensiba! I'm so excited to meet her and take her photos. Speaking of photos, I have an engagement shoot later today, and I have a lot of wedding photos to edit as well. Tis the season to get back to work. 

The Shins and Life Lately

I had the opportunity to attend The Shins' concert in Albuquerque last week with Holly. It. was. awesome. James Mercer's voice is flawless. And I danced a LOT. I also noticed that there were a lot of...older... people there. Like, middle aged. I guess The Shins appeal to all ages! I stood next to a man with a rockin' beard and long gray ponytail. He danced to a few songs too. I hope I'll still want to go to concerts at that age. 

In other news:

a.  I missed the Balloon Fiesta, but it's alright because I heard it was too windy for the balloons to lift off the ground on Saturday. 

b. My truck broke down, we got it fixed, and then it broke down again. I'm walking to school tomorrow morning. 

c. My latest art history paper was a complete failure. Good thing I can choose a paper to rewrite before the semester ends! 

d. Ryan and I had a serious talk about money last night. Budgeting is scary. 

e. I love Ryan because he's a reasonable guy that thinks about budgeting. 

I'll try to post an outfit this week. It's FINALLY starting to cool down a teensy bit. I've been waiting patiently for fall.... Anyway, I'm excited for autumn clothes. 

Printmaking is Not Dead

I just really love printmaking, guys. 

I'm not officially in a printmaking class this semester. I'm taking a "drawing" workshop class and my teacher is SUPER lenient about what we do in that class, so I've chosen printmaking. The new printmaking teacher is cool with me working in the print shop, and he invited me to come to their next critique. Ha, I'm basically in the class. And I love it. I'm choosing to attend a critique for a class I'm not enrolled in: if that's not love, I don't know what is. 

I have a lot of green ink left over after making this consumerism project. Christmas cards? I think yes. 

A Borrowed Idea

So I follow this hilarious blog that belongs to a fellow New Mexican. He was in the same ward as me until he moved up north. The stories he tells about his daily life on each of his blog posts crack me up. You should take a look. ANYWAY. He made a venn diagram of his interests versus his wife's interest. It looked like fun, so I stole borrowed his idea. 

I don't have any funny stories to go along with the diagram, I mostly did this to see the things that Ryan and I actually enjoy doing together, haha. Sometimes they're easy to forget when we get into the habit of just watching Netflix every night. (Speaking of Netflix, season four of Parks and Rec is available now!) I like to see all the differences between Ryan and I. You can probably tell by this diagram that Ryan is a left brain thinker and I am definitely a right brain thinker. I admire all the things that he can do that I can't do/struggle with. He's definitely a well-rounded gentleman.

What are things that you and your significant other enjoy doing? I'd love to hear :) 

p.s.! I've linked up over at Modern Modest Beauty to take part in Jenny's Sunday Style Linky Party. Hop on over to take a look at the other girls who have shared their Sunday attire.

Farmer's Market

I haven't been to the farmers' market in over a year, so when I saw all the cool booths selling cool things today, I was pretty excited. I decided to get some Christmas shopping done while there. I don't care that it's only September, I've decided to get that crap done early. Last year was sooooo stressful! There are simply too many people that I want to get presents for (Ryan has SIX siblings, four which are married, and two that have kids. That's a lot of people, mm-kay?). I really do love shopping for other people, I just figured that getting a head start would make things less stressful. 

My sister accompanied me. 

Check out those dino rings! 

The sweetest lady makes these beauties. 

Caprese sandwich. Nom. 

I got a couple of t-shirts for myself and (of course) a dream catcher. I love supporting local artists. 

How was your Saturday?