2012

2012. This year has been… well, uneventful. I feel as thought it passed by in the blink of an eye and I can hardly remember how I spent all 12 months of it. I didn’t go through any huge changes, I didn’t have my heart broken, I didn’t accomplish something incredible. It was just a year. And that makes me sad but after looking back at my last three posts on New Years Eve of the last three years, maybe boring and uneventful isn’t so bad sometimes. Maybe a calm year is just what I needed after three years of chaos. 

Good things in 2012:

-changing my major to something I absolutely love

-taking another wonderful trip with my whole family

-losing 10 pounds

-challenging myself in school

-figuring out what I want to do once I graduate

-moving in with one of my best friends

-doing cakes for two weddings and numerous other events

-started this little blog of mine

Goals for 2013: 

-do a 5K turkey trot

-get a kitten

-get a full-time job

-get my own place

-graduate from college

-take a trip somewhere new on my own

-cook my way through the Joy The Baker Cookbook

-be kind to myself

-meet new people

Happy New Year! Be safe out there tonight!

xo

Amanda

I'm backkkkk!

My favorite uncle and I

Cousin and one of my "grandpas"

Grandparents and I 

The school bus we took to the cruise

Mom and I in their room

Beautiful momma on her crutches

One of my many cousins and I at one of the shows (and brother in the background)

Beautiful St.Thomas

Parents

Balcony hangs

Sister, mom and I (yes, I was the assigned crutches holder and mom's personal helper)

Part of the fam exploring St.Thomas

Traditional last dinner picture with our servers

Waiting to disembark and saying goodbye to this sweet face

And this one

After a wonderful two weeks of vacation with my family, I am happy to be home. 

I can't even begin to tell you how great it is to be surrounded by my family. We reserved a conference room on Christmas Eve night on the cruise and had a little service, just the 25 of us. After the scriptures were read by one child from each family, some of the adults spoke some beautiful words but the one that stuck most with me was my grandma's. You see, my grandparents paid for 85% of this entire trip. They believe in using their hard earned money from the days when they were both doctors to do things with the family as a whole rather than leaving us an inheritance after they pass away. So in other words, a living inheritance of sorts. My grandma said at one point in between tears "This is the best Christmas gift anyone could ever give us." And I'd have to agree. I am so grateful to my grandparents for giving us this experience and so many others in the past. They are such extraordinary people and have taught me so much of what it means to love and give to others. Like any vacation, there were bumps along the way but it truly didn't matter after I looked around that conference room full of people who have loved me and built me up all my life. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.

xo

Amanda

Inspiration: New Years Festivities

Now that Christmas has come and gone far too quickly, it's time to get ready for New Years celebrations. I personally never do much on New Years but I love the idea of getting dressed up in something sparkly, throwing a party full of more sparkle, and bringing in the new year with friends and family.

Here's some of my New Years festivities inspiration.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

xo

Amanda

Guest Post: Kirsten!

hi guys! so first of all amanda is the cutest, she's such a great person and i love her blog. anyways, i'm kirsten from K&R, normally i blog about our lives, photos i've taken, outfits, food or just basically anything i want. so amanda asked me to guest post, as you can tell, about anything i wanted. for some reason this made it really hard for me to decide what to do, and then i thought "amanda always posts cute pictures of her outfits, so ill try and do the same!" so here you go, this is me trying to be all cute like amanda.

classic outtakes, gosh i think i'm funny

outfit details: under shirt (jcrew $10) // button up: urban outfitter (its older than i am) // jeans: urban outfitters ($10) // boots: steve madden (gift) //  infinity scarf: american eagle (gift)

here are a few things about my style and these pictures:

these pictures were taken right before a snow storm attacked us. in utah it gets pretty cold and layering is soo important here. i like to do also is tuck in my shirts probably more than is acceptable, but i think thats because its the only way i will remember my belt. as far as describing my style goes i feel like i don't even know how to describe my style besides the fact that i like getting good deals (but who doesnt?). maybe i would say i like to keep things simple and classy. another thing is i don't always focus on whats flattering, for me its about comfort, in the winter everyone looks like a marshmallow anyways, right? lastyl i've been working on mixing patters, what do you guys think? i feel like all the cool people are good at mixing patterns and it can make things interesting. how do you dress for winter? hope you stop by my blog!

thanks again amanda!

-K-

Oh, Kirsten! Such a sweetheart! Thank you so much for this lovely post! 

Go take a look at Kirsten wonderful blog over here!

A year in fashion review.

Now that the year is quickly coming to an end, I had the urge to do through my blog archives to see how my style has changed or stayed the same. I love having this little blog of mine to document so many different aspects of my life. Some are inspiring and others downright embarrassing. Either way, it's still really interesting to look back on all I've done this past here. These are some of my favorite outfits from the past year of blogging. Here's to another wonderful year of blogging.

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012

June 2012

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

How has your style changed this year?

Guest Post: Lauren: Holiday Gift-Wrapping!

Hey guys, I'm Lauren from One of Five. I'm so honored that Amanda asked me to fill in for her while she gets out of town for a little while. Even though she's probably having a fantastic time with her family and cutie of a boyfriend, we're going to have a pretty good time too, okay? :)

Today I wanted to share a few ideas dealing with gift-wrapping. We too often spend loads of time selecting the perfect gift, and then spend not-so-much time on how its displayed. I'll be the first to admit:: I've given a Christmas gift (on more than one occasion) wrapped in a plastic Target bag. Not exactly one of my finer moments. Sure, I may not be a professional gift-wrapper, but a plastic bag? Really? 

So for all of you elves that just miiiight be able to relate, 

and that just maaay be lacking a little inspiration in the gift-wrapping field, this is for you.

  

::how-to's::

one. silhouette gift-wrap. two. textured gift-wrap. three. cozy fabric gift-wrap.

four. newspaper and baker's twine gift-wrap. five. music sheet and bell gift-wrap. 

p.s. other little things::

+pom pom gift tags.

+red striped washi tape.

+how to make pom poms.

+printable gift tags.

+chevron paper bags.

*******

Okie dokie! There's a lot of links so let me know if any of them don't work! x

-L

Thank you so much, Lauren! Go take a look at Lauren's blog here! So many wonderful ideas and bits of inspiration! 

So says my phone.

I am safe and sound on the island that never sleeps after a very tiring two red eye flights! It's so good to be around family and just appreciate them, especially this time of year. Of course, I miss my other half but at least I get to see him the rest of the year. We're here with my grandparents until Saturday when we all leave on our cruise. Let me tell you, 24 of my favorite people on a school bus on our way to a week long cruise together is one of my favorite things in this world. I am forever grateful for such wonderful experiences with so many wonderful people. I have no interesting outfit posts so instead, here are some pictures from this past week according to my phone. 

 Jake's card from my Christmas presents//New Fossil purse//my parents' AMAZING surprise for me// a beautiful Christmas card from an internet friend

 Silly poppa//Christmas cookie packages//new dress//something about a lite up tree

adorable restaurant we ate lunch at today//the cruise itinerary//when my hair was really long//instructor's got jokes 

home sweet home//sleepy flyers//momma's set up on the plane//watching home videos from when my cousins and I were tiny

xo

An Early Christmas

Due to the fact that my mom and I are on our way to Puerto Rico and my dad and two of my siblings will be coming on Friday for our cruise, we had an early Christmas at home. We had dinner, opened presents, and just enjoyed having each other around. 

Here are a few pictures from the night!

(These next two are from earlier this week)

I'll be popping in and out of here for the next few days but I also have two wonderful guest posts for you! 

Hope you have a great week!

A weekend of silence.

My blog will be silent the rest of this weekend as I really can't bring myself to write about things that are just so insignificant in the grand scheme of things when there are so many beautiful little souls and beautiful adults lives who were lost in such a horrible event yesterday. 

Let's spend time with our families and be grateful we have them to come home to because so many others will never get to do the same again. 

So many prayers and love to the families affected by this. 

Alicia and Brian

This past weekend, I got the opportunity to take some Christmas card pictures for my friend, Alicia, and her mister, Brian. I'm no photographer by any means but I did have a great time capturing these two's love. 

Here are just a few of my favorites.

Also, 2 finals down, 4 to go! 

Good luck to all of you with your finals! 

FINALS

It's that time of the year. We're all panicking, having breakdowns, and downing caffeine like no other. 

Here's some things to inspire you to keep on keeping on instead of having a mental breakdown.

Enjoy and keep calm. 

You can do it!