The Before Shots

Remember when I said I get to design my room back home

because my sister stole my old room?

Well that time finally came! We have been non-stop

busy getting the room as close to finished as possible.

We are missing a few more pieces to the room and we

need to hang a few more pictures but then I can reveal

the "after" shots.

I'm SO excited!

My sisters room was painted this fairytale/garden theme

when she was in second grade and I felt horrible painting over

it all, but it was time. Mostly because it will be a guest room

when I'm not home. I'm not so sure the guests will all want to be

living in a cloud. (Although I thought it was pretty fun for awhile.)

Every piece of the room was painted. Even the ceiling fan and the

air conditioning vent. Talk about a hard core

painting job!

A Thursday Afternoon

New hurr. (hair) And yes, those are my new Disney pajamas as well.

Oh yeah, and may I introduce you to Baby, my camera.

the cutest little street you ever did see

my go to place for tea and a fruit and cheese platter

I have decided two things.

1) I love my town and this beautiful place called Northern California.

2) I am a Thursday person.

Good things happen on Thursdays. Example: We finished

painting my room and I found a special something or two for

the room. (Pictures of the Before room will be up tomorrow.)

Contain your excitement.

Right now I'm sitting in my new room and listening

to Frankie S. sing me sweet songs on my record player.

Also, what are you doing New Years Eve?

Reflecting on Christmas

This was the first Christmas without my Papa and feeling his presence around

us was truly magical. His favorite drink was a Manhattan and

so the entire familymade the drink and one was set by his picture.

The rest of the evening was spent

twirling in my Christmas dress, loving being with cousins, getting bumped up

to the adult table (this was HUGE), and admiring the books all the aunts made

for my Grammie to remember Christmas pasts with Papa.

It was a beautiful evening. I hope every one of you had a

wonderful evening as well. :)

Merry CHRISTmas!

Here are some photos from my Christmas thus far.

From my house to yours...

Have a very merry Christmas and celebrate with the ones

you love. And please help me pray for those who are

not having the Christmas they deserve.

I'm baaaaaack!

I am back from the happiest place on Earth and Newport Beach! It was

a wonderful vacation and I loved spending every minute with my family.

As much as I LOVE Disneyland, I was definitely ready to come home yesterday

and spend Christmas at home.

And now today is Christmas Eve (and also one of my best friends

birthday!!) and this is where I will be for the next two days...

sitting in front of our tree sipping some hot cocoa.

Tonight my family goes to mass and we usually open one

present before tomorrow. Then we'll watch The Family Stone

and go to bed with sugarplum dreams in our head. :)

Merry Christmas Eve!

I am the ultimate loser because I left the connector for my camera

to download pictures onto my computer and so now I have to figure out

a way to get all my pictures from the trip onto a computer for all to see!

Phew! Wish me luck!

Clothing Obsession

I know I have posted on my obsession with

Kate Middleton and Pippa's clothes before,

but they just posted a compilation of her outfits on People

and I honestly wish I had each of her outfits.

They are classy and beautiful.

Her wedding dress takes the cake for most beautiful gown

for the year in my book.

I dream about this dress.

And the flowy-ness of this one.

Red hat and shoes? Genius!

And now Pippa!

I want this coat.

and this coat.

I may or may not have a coat obsession

and I am totally ok with it.

Whose clothes were you crushing on this year?

P.S. I'M GOING HOME TODAY! :)

Ryan Gosling... and Cats?

Yesterday, my friend stumbled upon this tumblr

and let me just say, it is brilliant.

I don't know if you all have seen the Conan interview

where Ryan Gosling let out the Disneyland cat secret,

(if not, check the video below)

but this person took that idea and ran with it.

And it's a beautiful thing.

Enjoy!

Ryan Gosling and Disneyland.

Is there anything better?

A Shift

something has shifted.

i can't quite put my finger on it, but something has definitely shifted.

ever since coming back from Thanksgiving break, i have felt more

content here, in Tucson. i think it is probably the fact that i knew

i was going home in a few weeks, but i didn't mind being here one bit.

and you see, i couldn't stand the thought of being here one more day

before thanksgiving.

maybe i'm growing? my heart really does belong in Sacramento,

but maybe i can work on not despising this desert as much.

with the christmas season being here, i suppose

this would be the ideal time to open my heart to new experiences

and new places more willingly.

have you had to open yourself up more to a certain place before?

care to share?

photo

A Quote a Day...

Photo: Here

And lastly from that period I remember riding in a taxi one afternoon between very tall buildings under a mauve and rosy sky; I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again.

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hello! I hope you had a marvelous weekend.

What did you do?

I have a new obsession

and i blame it all on netflix...

netflix put How I Met Your Mother on

it's instant play and I have been watching episodes

like they are going out of style. i can't help it!

they are all so hilarious! Neil Patrick Harris is perhaps

my favorite but then i also love Ted and then there is

Marshall and Lily who are the cutest and funniest

and finally, Robin! How do i decide?

if you aren't on board yet with how wonderful this

show is, here are two clips from the show. the second one

is a compilation of "best" moments. the first is perhaps

the greatest pick-up line ever used, and the third

is a video of Neil Patrick Harris from 1990 when he received

the People's Choice for Doogie Howser. (ignore the out of order

number groupings. i was too lazy to switch the whole sentences...)

Classic.

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Guys, you are all in for an awkward and awesome thursday.

I hope you are as excited as I am about this because I've

got one SUPER awkward story for you. :)

So sit back, grab some kettle corn and read.

awkward:

so my friends and i were meeting up with our other 2 friends for lunch.

me: "hey, where are they seated?"

seth: "i just saw them. just go straight."

me: "ok!"

well, when he told me that, my brain somehow determined that the two

people sitting at the table directly in front of me were my two friends we were meeting.

but the thing was... that i did not know those people at all. but my brain, this weird, confusing brain, literally turned my friends into these random people and i almost sat down at this random persons table without even thinking. then this happened:

me: i found them! "blah blah blah" babbling as usual

seth: "allie...what are you doing?"

me: look to people in front of me as i am about to sit down at their table and my face turns from happiness to pure confusion. i had NO idea who this person in front of me was and he definitely didn't know who i was and was SO confused that i was about to sit down with him.

me:"I am SO sorry!"

friends: "bahahahahahahahahahahahah!"

than to make matters worse, my friend monica did the SAME EXACT THING!

But she even hovered her Chick-Fil-A bag over their table all ready to sit down

right as she realized she didn't know these people either.

moral of the story: my brain changes people's faces to match the ones i'm looking for and

i am a completely awkward and embarrassing person.

(did this even make sense? it was slightly traumatizing)

awesome:

1. my classes are all finished!

2. I got my dad an awesome Toilet Golf game for Christmas. (Exactly how it sounds

is how it is.)

3. My friends and I are celebrating the end of the semester by

dressing up and going to dinner.

Note: all these events happened yesterday but needed to be saved for awkward and awesome Thursday!

Hope your Thursday is awkwardly awesome!

Memorable Pictures from 2011

My friend told me about these pictures that are on Buzzfeed

right now and I just had to share a few. Most of them

are pretty depressing but as photography, I think

they are beautiful. Here are some that I chose to share:

And that's how my heart melts.

This is so disgusting. This was at UC Davis and that is really

close to where I live at home. The fact that the police officers

sprayed people directly in the face with pepper spray

baffles me.

This was a dust storm in Phoenix and I think this is stunning

yet scary!

9/11 memorial on the 10th anniversary

aerial view of the destruction in Japan

What are your thoughts on these and of everything

that happened in 2011 in general? :)

A Quote a Day...

"Time decides the where and when.

We decide what we keep."

-Sam at Ashore

I read this the other day and it stopped me in my tracks.

So stunning. I had to share for anyone who didn't

see her post. :)

Photo: Here

To Brighten Your Monday

This week is rough. It's finals week... du du du duuuu.

So to brighten up this gloomy week ahead, I found some

Friends quotes and a Baby Mama quote that I just love.

Enjoy!

I'm hoping that by listening to Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes

that my anxiety level will go down and these finals will

be a piece of cake. ;)

I'll let you know how that goes.

Home: a video about it

So Thanksgiving posts are just never going to end.

Just so you know. ;)

Now that we are on the same page...

here is a video I put together last night about the break.

My friend picked THE BEST song for this video. I loved

this song already but I didn't even consider it for the video.

How silly of me.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Have a nice weekend!

Happy December 1st!

Guys... IT'S DECEMBER!

Wow am I excited! Finals always try to get me down during

this beautiful month but you know what, I'm not letting them

this year! It's almost Christmas time and that means in 2 weeks

I am going to Disneyland to see all the Christmas decorations

there and then going home to celebrate with the family. Life

couldn't be better. So finals, you can just stop trying to frustrate

me. Ok? Thanks.

I made this Christmas countdown for above my desk to look at

when I'm feeling overwhelmed. Each day I take one off and it has

an Elf quote on it. Today's is: "It's just like Santa's workshop! Except it smells

like mushrooms... and everyone looks like they want to hurt me."

Got to love Elf.

Finals time errybody! Bringing out the fake candle that flickers

like a real one (heaven!) and the good ole laptop.

Have a great first day of December!