So I Walk into GAP for the First ((and Last)) Time....

And an hour and several trips to the fitting room later, I'm the proud owner of
THE MOST AMAZING PANTS EVER!!!

shop here

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.....

+ look at the color! And to imagine I was thisclose to buying a GRAY pair. Sheesh.

+ they are so comfy! I always had something against jeggings - no clue why - but now that I own a pair, I love them to death

+ they go with...um, everything in my closet! No kidding. I stayed up way late last night just putting together jillions of different outfits with them.

+ they were FREE

hand-me-down shirt & scarf,
GAP jeggings (cuffed because it's a gajillion degrees outside)

thrifted cardigan & bandana/scarf,
hand-me-down shirt & belt, GAP  jeggings,
wet seal flip-flops

hand-me-down blazer & shirt & necklace & belt,
GAP jeggings, wet seal flip-flops

So you remember M:PT? I was one of the lucky winners of the voucher for free GAP jeans! ((See the other winners here)) I had never been in a GAP store before, and I don't imagine that it will be happening again in the near future - have you seen the price tags in there? I would have had to pay over $70 for these pants! That's a bit much, especially considering that pretty much every other item of clothing I'm wearing in these pictures is a hand-me-down. But they were free, so it's not an issue.

Happy happy day!

In Which My House Is Very LOUD

unrelated...but i love it! from here

There are men on my roof. And they're not being particularly quiet about it. 

But that's totally okay, because they're the ones giving us a new roof! Our old one was nice...and old, but when shingles come flying off every time there's a storm, you know it's about time to upgrade. It looks soooo much better now! These past few days of stomping and hammering and drilling and stapling above our heads has been 100% worth it .... especially since we've managed to be out of the house for most of it :)

tid + bits

via

Ahem...obviously my concept of time is a bit loose. As I've shown thus far, "tomorrow" could mean anything from tomorrow to next week. My bad....I'm working on it!

#1) We just put new knobs on our antique buffet table! We've been a bit reluctant to make any changes - it was made by my great-great-great grandfather, therefore it's special. But it was getting a bit ridiculous; the original knob/pulls just weren't doing the job. And it looks all shabby chic now!

via

#2) Last Saturday I got to hang out at the lake all day with a bunch of friends. We went swimming, kayaking, and wake-boarding. This was my first time on a boat/wake-boarding, and I LOVED it! Kind of strange, considering my fear of water, but whatevs! There's just a great feeling that comes from being on the water like that....

#3) I had an AMAZING shopping trip the other day - fabulous thrifting! And the best part is, every single item could have worked for M:PT. If you knew how I shopped pre-M:PT, you would be amazed!

A Note in Passing...

Real quick - check out Emily's blog for her new Oscar De La Renta giveaway!

I can't wait to share my amazing week with you tomorrow!

LOVE

Have you ever thought about what you would do if all the songs in the world were about to be destroyed except for one, of your choosing? That's how I think about it if someone asks me what my favorite song is. I love so many songs that thinking like that is the only way I can narrow it down to just one.

In case you were curious, that one song is "Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing".

 1 // 2 // 3 

I'm pretty sure that this is everything that a song is meant to be -- "virtuous, lovely, [and] praiseworthy", uplifting ... it's a prayer. I know that "the song of the righteous is a prayer" unto the Lord (Doctrine and Covenants 25:12), but this is one of the few songs that I actually feel is a prayer every time I sing or hear it.

This is my absolute favorite recording of it - I cry every time:

This is the last post for a week - hope y'all have a great one! I know I will!

A Joy in My Journey



via

Are you ever INSANELY grateful that you're not brilliant? I suppose if you are brilliant, this is totally irrevelant to you, but that's the type of thing that I am grateful for on a regular basis. Like, every day. All of the super-amazingly-brilliant people are the ones that had maaajor issues with life - like Einstein, Bach, Haber, Beethoven, Mozart, Rembrandt, Bosch, Van Gogh, Hemingway....and so on.

They all see more. I mean, they're the ones that really get it - the type of things that people like me can't even begin to wrap our minds around. The amazing-ness of that must have been heavily shadowed by the frustrations that came with it.

Thank gooseness I'm only average-ly intelligent!

Ode to the French Braid

Dear French Braid,

Where have you been all my life?

Well, not all my life. My mother french braided my hair when I was little, but once I got into junior high, she stopped doing my hair for me. I also developed the idea that I looked awful with my hair pulled back from my face. That idea lasted a long time (L-O-N-G), but I've since gotten over it. Braids are really in right now, and I've been eagerly noting all sorts of tutorials, but I always come back to variations on the french braid.

via

via

via

via



via

 

It's become my go-to hairstyle - it's one of those effortless chic looks that actually is effortless. I'm in love!

Well, Look Who's Back

via

Gaahhh! It's 2 in the afternoon! And guess what I've done today? Ummm...yeah, pretty much nothing.

I've been on the computer since about 9 in the morning, reading blogs and watching videos on YouTube. While the blogs I was reading were pretty fabulous (I just found Oh, Sweet Joy! today and I quite like it), reading them wasn't particularly productive. Like, at all. But it is soooooo good to have the computer back! It completely crashed last week (AGAIN. This is the second time, and we've only had this computer since February!), but after letting someone from the tech support thingy in India take control of our computer for a couple hours, we got everything back! Kind of. Actually, all we got back was a the factory settings on the computer. We lsot all of our files, but at least we can turn it on! Hurrah for technology!

BTDubs, it turns out that being away from the computer is good for the blogging part of my brain (yup. Everyone gets one when they start a blog), and I came up with all sorts of things to post about during my time off! I'm ready to become a serious blogger...well, for the next three days. Then I'm gone for a week again. Sheesh - this blogging business is harder than it looks!

'Cause They Said So...

I'm working on joining Bloglovin' right now, and it said to post this link on a new post, so I'm doing it. The link is here. I guess this means you can follow me on Bloglovin' now? I'm very new to all this...

Giveaway!

There's a Steve Madden giveaway! Not over here (I'm not cool enough for that yet), but over with Emily at Life, etc. There's a pair of UV absorptive sunglasses, a black, grey, and white chevron infinity scarf, and awhite faux snakeskin and leather satchel handbag - excited yet? Head on over to Emily's and enter!

via



P.S. Emily's blog is more than worth following! I absolutely love her & her blog.