2011

Initially, I didn’t think 2011 was that great. After all we didn’t buy a new car, or a house, or get a pet, or have a baby, or even do much else. But thanks to Facebook and the timeline I realized that 2011 was indeed a great year, and it’s probably going to be really hard to beat it. So here is our year in pictures.

January: We brought in the New Year with some great people and celebrated the SuperHoliday the right way. I also started this little bloggy of mine!

_{My beautiful friend Nune and her husband Igor. Nune was just back for a few days from Yerevan to visit before heading back for another year and a half.}

February: With the help of my friend Lena, I got to take my very first Chimpsy class with Mark, which ended up teaching me a great deal about photography as well as setting me up with a job I love.

_{One of the very first photos I took during my first every Photography Class}

March: A month of greatness indeed. My grandfather had half of his left lung removed due to cancer, and was out and riding his bike within 14 days of surgery!

April: This month was filled with dreaded Chemistry and the awesomeness that is the Colorado Mammoth Lacrosse!

May: Graduation!!!! I got up at 6 AM and headed out to the school, froze my bottom off waiting to get a diploma holder all to justify $50,000+ that I spent on an education. Oh and also to allow my grandfather the pleasure of seeing me walk on stage.

_{I looked so tired on Graduation Day. But I managed to walk without tripping or hurting anyone}

June: A month of blogging, job hunting and photography! This is the month that a lot of catching up happened in my life.

_{Day one of the 30 day photography challenge.}

July: A month of great food and lots of front porch seating. We had several BBQ this month and a great birthday party, organized by yours truly, for my mother in law. The highlight… the 4th of July party at Kevin and Katy’s.

_{4th of July BBQ at Katy and Kevin’s.}

August: This is really one of the most beautiful times of the year in the state of Colorado. Not only that, but three of the most dear people to me have birthdays in a stretch of about 2 weeks from the end of August to the beginning of September. We had a joint party for Katy, Kevin and Donald. OHHH, and I started working for Chimpsy!

_{Kevin being watered down by his sister. Kodi enjoying some birthday cake. Katy refusing to have her picture taken.Oh and yes, they are a family of K’s :-)}

_{Donald following Katy’s lead and not letting me take a decent photo}

September: Oh the month where I chopped off all my hair and we took a trip to Tucson to find a house!

_{The hair transformation. Cut a good 10 inches of hair off my head! I loved it. Husband hated it.}

_{Enjoying our time in Tucson, before the craziness that is house hunting started.}

October: The first snow of the season hit Colorado. Pretty late for the first snow! Chimpsy also had it’s first Aspiring Pro Class, which I tagged along and learned a bunch on.

_{The snow from our loft windows.}

_{My favorite photo from our Aspiring Pro Class. Taken and edited by yours truly.}

November: The month of our 2nd anniversary and the first month of the year where we truly traveled a bit. We spent time in Texas, Las Vegas and in Washington DC!!

_{One of the most beautiful sunsets in New Mexico, as we were driving back from Lubbock Texas from Brandon and Trista’s wedding. Unedited and right out of my camera!}

   

_{In Las Vegas, after our anniversary dinner. In DC exploring the US capitol.}

December: This month we headed up to the mountains to sky and celebrate Christmas.

_{The view from our condo in Keystone. Stayed right by Lake Dillon. This is unedited.}

Overall, I’d say our year has been a pretty big success!

How the Glitz Stole Christmas

 

I have to confess, I signed up to do the blogger Christmas swap hosted by Lindsey and Raven, and then completely spaced it until I got an email from beautiful Sheena!

I have to say, I met a pretty amazing girl through this swap and it helps that we pretty much think alike.

Look at how gorgeous this girl is!!!

I was way excited to get my package from her, and even more exited when she practically read my mind and got me the one thing I’ve had my eye on for weeks.

I literally had my eye on this polish since OPI came out with the collection. It looks absolutely fantastic on and I did a little jig when I saw it. Thank you Sheena for the amazing gift! I love getting snail mail, especially when it’s such a thoughtful present.

Now head over and check out Sheena’s little blog! She’s such a sweetie, and the best part, she’s from Arizona … you know… where we’re moving to.

Where did femininity go?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while… well since I realized that all I wear nowadays are jeans and t-shirts while all my beautiful dresses, skirts and blouses hang around collecting dust. Then I saw the above pin on Pintrest, and it really got me thinking.

What is happening to us? I understand that we should all be independent and making our own futures. I fully support that, but didn’t Marilyn Monroe make her own future? Wasn’t she independent. Look at the difference between what was considered sexy and feminine then compared to what is sexy now. … Duck face?! Really?!

I’d like to believe that there is more class in our world then this…

   

Can we please leave something to the imagination?

My grandma once told me that the best kind of sexy is the kind a man imagines. But with today’s fashion, we’re practically parading down main street naked. Wearing less then a bar out is not okay. Wearing shorts that are smaller then most underwear?! Not okay.

Hi girls… do you know why they call panties underwear?! Because they are suppose to stay under your clothing. Do you know the purpose of underwear?! To not be paraded around in public. The only person who should be seeing the panties you are wearing is the person you go to bed with at night.

Oh and the great American tradition of wearing pajamas out.

I’ve been living in the United States for over 14 years now, and I still cannot get use to seeing people at the grocery store, the mall, hair salon, and post office wearing the clothing they sleep in.

AHH, this look is just perfect! Way to not give a f*** about what others think. How can anyone even walk out of the house looking like this?

I cannot believe that we’ve come to a point in our lives that we die to sit in front of the TV so we can see what the Kardashians are doing, watch the way they dress yet allow ourselves to leave the house looking like slobs.

Why can’t we bring more of the classics back? Why can’t we put on a pair of heels instead of our slippers? Why can’t we just put on some mascara and maybe brush our hair before we walk out the house.

If there is one thing I’ve learned from my experience of working from home is that it is much easier for me to have a productive day, if I get up and get dressed into something nice, do my hair and makeup then sit in front of the computer. When I stay in work out clothing or sweats, I just want to kick my feet up and shop online.

There is nothing wrong with wearing pearls. With putting on a pretty face. With wearing heels just because and with feeling absolutely fantastic because we put in the effort. While some will argue that they don’t have time to put on their makeup because they want to sleep an extra 15 minutes, I can guarantee that it is well worth the time.

 

Now I’m headed to bed to figure out which pair of heels I’m going to wear to put up the Christmas tree in.

Where I’ve been

 

 

We spent our anniversary in Las Vegas, where we did lots of eating, sight seeing and sleeping.

Then spent an amazing 5 days in Washington DC, with some of my amazing family. Doing a lot of sight seeing, eating, and catching up on each others lives.

Now we’re home, in beautiful Colorado, getting caught up with work, laundry and of course blogging.

Hope you all had a fantastic Turkey Day!!!

What I’m Loving on a Snowy Day

 

Today we woke up to this sight:

There is over a foot of snow everywhere, and it’s still coming down. I get to stay home with my hot tea and work, but the hubs had to venture out in the mini blizzard to get to work. It took him a good 30 minutes to clean off the Cavalier and get it warm enough to start melting the sheet of ice on it.

I wanted to share a few of the things I love on this snowy Wednesday, and what better way to do it then linking up with the beautiful Jamie and What I’m Loving Wednesday.

I am loving the new tires on our Camaro, makes it a lot easier to drive around in the snow, instead of getting stuck.

We will hopefully never see the sight above. Poor car stuck in the snow and unable to get into the garage. The new tires are actually made to grip the snow and get us going.

I’m also loving the new ZL1 Camaros and kind of wanting one.

Isn’t it beautiful?! Completely unpractical, but drool-worthy!

I am loving the floorplan of our to be house

I am not loving that we still don’t have a move date, and that we may have to build the house from ground up rather then walk into the already built, ready to move in house we saw on our trip to Tucson.

I am loving the fact that we’ll be getting our wedding photos done, finally!!! After two years of marriage we’ll have beautiful, professional photos done by my good friend Lena Karabushin. She was the mastermind behind our engagement shots.

I’m loving that by tomorrow evening, these dresses will be delivered to me.

 

And loving the fact that in just 8 days we’ll be heading out on a little road trip to Texas.

I’m especially loving my 50mm f1.4 lens. It is AHmazing and worth every little penny.

And as always I’m loving this man: