2012 in 12 Pictures

January

February

March

April

 May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

It truly has been an amazing year. Looking forward to another exciting one in 2013. 

Happy New Year! 

What I'm lovin' Wednesday

This week has been flying by..which is totally a good thing because I cannot WAIT to get home to sweet Virginia so I can sleep in my bed, eat fro yo with Brittany, and trash my whole family at nerts. Maybe I'm naive, but 7 months away from home is just too much.

Anyways, you'll be happy to hear that I am living up my last few weeks in Provo...and by living up I mean spending most days in the provo library memorizing poems and people watching.

1. Breaking Bad

I know I know...this is on like every list I've made recently. But this week was the season 5 premiere and it was EPIC. Did anyone else watch it? I also managed to get my friend hooked on it...which I consider a personal victory. As intense and sometimes violent this show is, it is really interesting.  I feel like I've learned a lot about the drug trade...which is something I was completely ignorant about before. I mean, its a huge issue right now. So that's how I justify watching hour upon hour of it. :)


2. Eisley, The XX, Radiohead, Fleet Foxes, Woodkid, Ella Fitzgerald, and Chairlift.

3. Batman!

So The Dark Knight Rises is coming out this week and I am stoked. To prepare ourselves, a few of us watched The Dark Knight last night and it just reminded me how incredible these movies are. Which brings me to my next point...

4. Has anyone ever noticed how stinkin adorable Morgan Freeman is?

Just look at that bow tie! What a cute lil man. If adopting additional grandfathers was an acceptable thing to do, he'd definitely be top on my list.


5. I had so much fun with my little sister Taylor when she came out to visit me. We went on some painful runs and dangerous hikes, watched hours of Downton Abbey, checked out some of the coolest places in provo, went to a rodeo, spent time with our extended family, and invented 2 new sister handshakes. Pretty sure my abs still hurt from laughing so much. Love you Tay!

Looking back

Here's a little glimpse at the last five years of my life on today's date:

 

 June 28th, 2008

On our way back from my last year at girls camp. Gosh we are good looking.

Oh and I also had short hair back then!!

June 28th, 2009

 

 A few weeks after I graduated high school, I decided to do some experimenting with my hair. Although I initially intended to stay blonde, through a series of unfortunate hair colors I ended up with dark brown. I actually really liked it!

June 28th, 2010

I was super busy working during summer 2010 but I did manage to squeeze in some great fun with the fam including a fun camping/rafting trip in West Virginia. Also, as you can tell, I was back to blonde.

 June 28th, 2011

 

Last year I did a lot of babysitting in the summer. After all of the chalk, bubbles, and swinging in the park I could handle for one day, Ethan, and I decided to make owls out of paper. Can you tell which one is mine?

Well I guess that brings us to today...for which i will just post a series of random things I've been doing the past 24 hours:

Last night was Italian night and, as usual, Sean and Lee had to take things to the next level. So they brought fake mustaches. I tried to work it...but failed.

Sean and Amy were being crazy as usual :)

 Completely broke my shoe on so many levels this morning walking up to campus. I don't have any idea how this happened but it doesn't really seem fixable.

Well there ya have it. I have no clue what life will look like next year..when I've graduated and moved on to life's next adventure.  However, based on the past couple of years...I've got a good streak goin on. Have a lovely thursday!

lovekel.

What I'm lovin' Wednesday

I consider myself a girl of eclectic taste. Sometimes I just feel the need to share my odd likes and dislikes with people. Hence the new weekly tradition, what I'm lovin wednesday. Plus, this will force me into blogging at least once a week. (hopefully more right?) anyways, here it goes.

1. Decorated middle eastern animals.

I don't know what it is but there's just something about animals with colorful beads on them. It could be just that it reminds me of my time in India or that my child-like love for playing dress up has recently extended to the entire animal kingdom. Either way I'll probably be one of those people that buys halloween costumes for their cat. (Brittany Wood I'm looking at you)


2. Movies, TV Shows, news reports and Documentaries about Drugs.

Not that I'm at all interested in doing any type of drugs myself, but I find the making, selling, and using of drugs to be really interesting to learn about. Especially since it's been in the news lately. Maybe I should work for the DEA.

3. My Early June playlist

You can only see part of it...but it does include some Jay-Z, Guster, and James Morrison later on :)

4. Couch Surfing & Dreaming of travel

 Okay so I haven't actually tried couch surfing yet. But I like the idea and I've mentally planned out several trips, including Eugene, Charleston, and Morocco. 


5. Peaches

Easily one of the best parts about summer


6. My yamaka frisbee...or the "love-bee"

Everyone loves this thing. We've played hours of frisbee with it just this summer so far. It's cool lookin, it's unique, and it doesn't hurt your hands when you catch it. Plus you can attempt catch it in your mouth without fear of knocking out teeth if you really want to. Trust me, we did it. 


7. That time of day when it's late afternoon and the sun is low and bright and everything is golden and perfect. 

My friend Naresh from India. Wonder if he cares that he's now on my blog.

Hope everyone is having an awesome week! 


lovekel

The Invitation

The Invitation 

It doesn’t interest me

what you do for a living.

I want to know

what you ache for

and if you dare to dream

of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me

how old you are.

I want to know 

if you will risk 

looking like a fool

for love

for your dream

for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me

what planets are 

squaring your moon...

I want to know

if you have touched

the centre of your own sorrow

if you have been opened

by life’s betrayals

or have become shrivelled and closed

from fear of further pain.

I want to know

if you can sit with pain

mine or your own

without moving to hide it

or fade it

or fix it.

I want to know

if you can be with joy

mine or your own

if you can dance with wildness

and let the ecstasy fill you 

to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us

to be careful

to be realistic

to remember the limitations

of being human.

It doesn’t interest me

if the story you are telling me

is true.

I want to know if you can

disappoint another

to be true to yourself.

If you can bear

the accusation of betrayal

and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless

and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty

even when it is not pretty

every day.

And if you can source your own life

from its presence.

I want to know

if you can live with failure

yours and mine

and still stand at the edge of the lake

and shout to the silver of the full moon,

“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me

to know where you live

or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up

after the night of grief and despair

weary and bruised to the bone

and do what needs to be done

to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me

who you know

or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

in the centre of the fire

with me

and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me

where or what or with whom

you have studied.

I want to know 

what sustains you

from the inside

when all else falls away.

I want to know

if you can be alone 

with yourself

and if you truly like

the company you keep

in the empty moments.

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Be.

My beautiful life currently consists of:

Braids

Bon Iver

Boys

Blossoms

Being Brave

Breaking Bad

Blackmill

"Baths"

Blue Skies

Banksy

Berries

Backflips

Bonfires

Basketball games

Beaming

Being barefoot

Blogs

Did this post remind anyone of the Berenstains' Bears 'B' Book? Its a classic. Anyways, things are so fun and chill lately. I'm loving spring term so much more than I thought. 

Life has also consisted of mountains, postcards, quirky films in Park City, sunsets, pomegranate herbal tea, reconnecting with old friends, trying new recipes, listening to jazz, dreaming of places I'm going to travel some day, playing frisbee, eating almonds and apples, being spontaneous, writing letters, laughing hysterically, riding my bike, doing lots of research, and dancing. But those didn't fit in with my 'B' theme. 

I'll leave ya with an awesome quote from the book I'm reading for my current research project:

" Hapiness isn't a knock of good fortune that we must await, like the end of rainy season. Neither is it something that we must find, like a freeway exit or a lost wallet, if only we knew the secret path and if only we could acquire the right job or the right boyfriend. Interestingly, the notion that happiness must be found is so pervasive that even the familiar phrase pursuit of happiness implies that happiness is an object that one has to chase or discover. I don't like that phrase. I prefer to think of the creation or construction of happiness, because research shows that it's in our power to fashion it for ourselves."

- Sonja Lyubomirsky The How of Happiness

So go out there and create some happiness, you beautiful people, you! 

p.s. Dad I hope you are reading this and caught that last part. It reminded me of you :)

love, kel

If

If

By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!