If you give a fish a field trip...

{dress: Pacsun, top: old, tights//hat: F21, boots: Tilly's}

I'm sure you've all read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie right? Of course you all have, who hasn't? Well, I had my own 'if you give a mouse a cookie' moment last week at my biology class. For my biology class one of the things we have to do throughout the semester is monitor Emigration Creek which flows through campus. My professor takes this project VERY seriously. As those of you who are close to me know, my biology class has been a struggle for me so far. Not because it's difficult or anything but because it just doesn't capture my attention AT ALL so I tend to fall asleep, daydream, or work on other homework. Science has always been the most boring subject for me, and I've always been really grateful for the people who are actually interested in science because if the world were full of people like me then nobody would have learned anything about the world and why things happen. I would've totally been one of those people in ancient Greece who came up with mythology to explain things. Some kid would've asked me, "hey why does such and such thing happen", and my response would have been to come up with some cock and bull story to explain it all, because in my opinion who even cares? I mean, I understand it's importance but for me there are so many other interesting things to learn about, like literature, music, art, or all things creative. But, hey, that's just me! Well, back to my 'if you give a mouse a cookie' moment. Last week we went out to the creek for a tutorial on how we needed to take the various measurements we needed and such. We collected all of our gear and headed out. Once we reached the creek and the professor started talking I completely zoned out. There was just so much to look at and so much nature to appreciate! It's seriously so beautiful out there! Then it got me thinking, hey this isn't entirely my fault because...If you give a fish a field trip to the creek she will want to appreciate nature. When she starts to appreciate nature, she will want to daydream. When she starts daydreaming she will stop listening, and when she stops listening she won't have a clue how to do her measurements next time it's a creek monitoring day. The moral of this story is don't take this fish on a field trip! Or, actually, do take this fish on a field trip but don't require her to take a dumb biology class!

Happy Tuesday!

Today actually happened to be a creek monitoring day...we're doing this in pairs and unfortunately for me I happened to befriend and partner up with the only other girl in the class who is exactly like me and spends the majority of class in lalaland. We're smart girls, though, so we managed to figure out how to do our measurements, calculations, and conversions all on our own! Who needs the professor (who happens to look and sound exactly like Mr. Ratburn from Arthur) anyway right? Not these ladies! Oh and what you're all looking at are the nifty little water boots I need to wear to get into the creek and one of the cool little doodads that we use to measure temperature and such. Creek monitoring as it turns out, is actually really fun! I mean, who doesn't like splashing around in a creek like a 5 year old while getting to act all professional  taking measurements?!

1 dress 3 ways!

Hey there homies! ;) As you can see, today a massive snow storm hit! Which is kind of funny because when I took my puppy out on a run this morning the weather felt so nice I considered changing out of my pants and into running shorts! But that's just Utah for you, it can go from a sunny 34 degree morning to a stormy 28 degree afternoon. Anyway, since it was so stormy outside the rest of the photos had to be taken inside and let me tell you, the lighting in churches isn't the greatest!

{dress: F21 old, top: Ross old, shoes: Charlotte Russe, belt: F21}

Today my parents and two younger siblings spoke in their Spanish ward, so Allison and I skipped out on going to our singles ward to hear them speak. Let me tell you, I'm glad we were there! I couldn't have been prouder of my little brother and sister! Since they were born and raised here they never got very much practice at speaking Spanish the way Allison and I did, and it's always been a little bit of a struggle for them, but today they blew it out of the water. Other than a few slip ups, their Spanish was so good! I was one proud big sister! Well, this will be my last post on my little white dress! I feel like making it a goal to actually wear this dress more than once put it to better use. I feel like a lot of the time I'll buy something because I totally love it but then after wearing it once I usually won't wear it again for MONTHS. I loved how forcing myself to wear this dress various times throughout this month forced me to get creative so I didn't feel like I was wearing the same thing over and over again, and because of it I got some really great looks! I even have so many more ideas for different ways to wear it, but for now it will be getting a break. I feel like this last look was my favorite of the three, what do you guys think?

Green Smoothie

Hello everyone! This week for Food & Fitness Fridays, I decided I wanted to talk about the green smoothie! Green smoothies are something that have been getting quite a bit of attention lately. Whether they've been mentioned in the news as the new hit way to loose weight fast, or the new trend among celebrities for cleansing. Either way, the green smoothie is something that I've been incorporating into my diet for about a year now. For me it all started as a way to get more protein and nutrients into my body when I decided to try veganism and it just sort of stuck ever since. Partly because they're just so friggin' delicious and  partly because they're so quick and easy to make. Now, don't confuse the green smoothie with juicing! Juicing is quite a different thing, and there's a bit of a controversy over which method is better: juicing or blending (green smoothies are blended). Neither one is technically better, they just serve different purposes. Juicing takes away certain elements of the fruits or veggies you're juicing while magnifying others and vice versa with blending. If you ask me, though, I like blending better. Sometimes I drink a green smoothie for breakfast and lunch, and other times I'll just drink one green smoothie for breakfast. How many you drink a day in place of meals is really just up to you and your tolerance for drinking meals rather than chewing them. The recipe I'm going to show you guys is one of my own invention that I put together after making green smoothies for so long, and it's a pretty good one for beginners. It has enough fruit in the mix to give it a fresh sweet taste. Some of the more nutritious and hardcore green smoothies have very little fruit and lots and lots of greens so the taste can be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to it. I personally think the greener the better...but I've had a year to get used to and fall in love with the taste of greens like spinach and kale! One important thing to mention before showing you guys this recipe is that if you intend to incorporate green smoothies into your diet a lot, the first and probably most important rule of thumb is to ROTATE your greens! Don't just always use spinach or kale, experiment with other greens! Leafy greens contain elements that if you ingest too much of by eating large quantities of the same green you could inadvertently end up poisoning yourself, so rotate, rotate, rotate! Experimenting with greens can be fun!

Spinach & Berry Medley
Makes 2 servings!

1/2 banana
2 cup spinach
1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1/4 cup raspberries
1 cup blueberries
1 cup water
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (or if you don't have time, you can use store bought orange juice!)

The end result: A nice, rich, red violet smoothie! The more greens you add the greener the smoothies will be!

If you want more recipes and information on green smoothies I definitely recommend reading this book, Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko! It's the book that helped get me started and helped me get to a point where I know what fruits and veggies go well together and I'm comfortable concocting my own recipes for green smoothies! It gives you great recipes for smoothies that help with a variety of different things like detoxing, stress relief, weight loss, and much much more!

White Dress Round 2!

{Moto jacket: h&m, dress: old, tights: F21, leather booties: Macy's}

Hello everyone! Remember this dress? Do you remember my 30 day no shopping commitment and the commitment I made to actually wear this dress, especially since it'd be the last item I'd buy for the next 30 days? Well, as promised here is the second way I styled this dress for the month! I decided the crisp white of the dress would go perfectly with the deep red of this faux suede moto jacket. Oh, and can I just say that I'm in love with this jacket? I got it at h&m a few months back for a steal! I randomly stopped by h&m one night, and found that they were having a mega sale! I saw this jacket, which was originally priced at $50 and got it for $20! Finally, I added the tights for some extra warmth and color contrast, and the wedge booties to keep my feet nice and toasty while adding some height to my frame! I'm excited for Martin Luther King Jr. Day tomorrow! A day off from classes will be very welcome, AND it'll be pay day! 

Well, happy Sunday and happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day tomorrow! 

Food & Fitness Fridays

*I meant to post this on Friday, but I didn't get around to it till tonight, sorry!

Hello Friends! I've been thinking a lot lately that I wanted to incorporate food and fitness into my blog since it's such a huge part of my life. I thought the best way to do it would be by making a Food & Fitness series for Fridays! So, every Friday I plan on posting some fun workouts/fitness tips, a fun healthy recipe (it'll probably be a dessert recipe since I'm addicted to dessert), or a post on one of the cool hole in the wall restaurants that I've come across on my hunt for restaurants that are both more on the healthful side and that fit my special dietary specifications. Special dietary specifications you ask? Well, its a bit of a long story, but I'll do my best to condense it. At the beginning of last year I watched Forks over Knives and it completely changed my outlook on food. I have always striven to eat healthfully but this movie just totally made me reevaluate my definition of "healthful". After watching the movie, I tried veganism for a few months. My goal, though, was to still eat grass fed, free range meat once a month so I would still be keeping the word of wisdom. Anyway, after trying it out for the better part of a year I realized that to avoid eating animal products I was filling my body with other extremely processed replacers and soy (which is REALLY bad for you, but that's a different story) which was kind of defeating the purpose of being kinder to my body. Also, it was just REALLY hard to give up eggs. So after that, I decided to just be vegetarian. Except, I would be really careful about the animal products I consumed. I feel like the large demand of animal products now a days is one of the biggest culprits for the treatment and poor quality of life that is afflicting the animals we eat. I didn't want to have any part of the way these animals were being treated. When I eat eggs they're cage free eggs, the meat I eat once a month is grass fed, free range. They can cost a pretty penny but I'm lucky that I have amazing parents that buy the groceries. I'm also blessed with an amazing mother that knows of all the best farmers markets to go to, and local small farms to get the best quality meat from animals that weren't filled up with all kinds of crazy chemicals and were actually allowed to roam around instead of living in a tiny enclosed space. I try to adhere to a largely plant based diet to be kinder and more respectful to my body and other living creatures. Now that my shpiel is done, here is my first Food & Fitness  Friday post! Tonight I had a girls movie night over at my place. Featuring: John Tucker Must Die, Baby Mamma, and The Proposal. My DVD player was malfunctioning so we ended up watching Pitch Perfect on the PS3, and episodes of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix. I decided to go with two treats, a creamsicle smoothie and chocolate vegan cupcakes (I know I'm not technically vegan anymore but it's a good recipe). I can't remember exactly which health food magazine I got the recipes from anymore, but I think it was "Clean Eating Magazine". Now, without ado here are my slightly revised versions of the recipes.

Creamsicle Smoothie

1 cup cold coconut water, no sugar added (the best place to go for this is Sprouts)
1/3 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I used a brand called Chobani that I bought at Winco)
3 tbs Simply Orange orange juice
1 cup frozen mangoes
1 cup ice

Blend coconut water, yogurt, mango, orange juice, and ice in blender until smooth. Makes 2 servings!
Per Serving: 103 calories; 1 g fat; 0 mg cholesterol; 10.5 g carb; 9.5 g sugar; 4 g protein; 3 g fiber
Nutritional Bonus: Calcium, Vitamin C, Potassium & Vitamin A

Glazed Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes
Makes 12
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa  powder
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 avocado, pitted and peeled
1 cup of pure maple syrup (I got mine at Sprouts, but they sell it anywhere. Also, beware, It's close to $10 for about 12 ounces so you will use most of it all at once.)
3/4 cup of soy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk since I'm completely against soy.)
1/3 cup of canola oil. (I didn't have canola oil on hand so I just used Mazola corn oil)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze
(Ok the version from the magazine called for tofu, which is made from yucky soy, so I actually ended up doing it differently. Here is my version)
2 tbs heavy whipping cream
1/3 stick of softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbs pure maple syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

To make cupcakes: preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Puree avocado in food processor until smooth. Add maple syrup, almond milk, and blend until creamy. It should resemble baby poop at this point, sorry for the comparison but its true. Whisk into flour mixture. Spoon batter into cupcake cups. Bake 25 minutes. Cool.
To make glaze: whisk together heavy whipping cream, softened butter, vanilla, and syrup. Add in salt and cocoa powder, and mix until even and smooth. Gently spread onto cooled cupcakes.
*I don't have the nutrition information for this one quite yet since my glaze is made differently and has fewer calories. Once I know for sure I will let you all know! My ballpark guess would be somewhere around 200-250 calories per cupcake?

This is what the batter should look like once all the ingredients have been mixed!

After Baking!

After Glaze! You can't even tell eggs are missing from the recipe! The cupcakes are MEGA soft and moist

Yummy sweet treats for a girls movie night without breaking the calorie budget, plus tons of nutrients to boot!

Ornithophobia

{White tank//tights//pearl hair band: F21, Boots: Rue21, Blazer: Banana Repbulic}

Hello friends! As you all know, the weather as of late has been FREEZING! So you all must be wondering why in the heck I decided to wear a skirt in 12 degree weather. Well, the answer is simple. One: I'm crazy, two: I will forsake wearing pants whenever I can no matter the weather, and three: skirts are comfy. I mean, I'm all for feminism but who says you can't be a strong woman in a skirt? In the words of the great Zooey Deschanel, "Why can't I be a F-ing feminist and wear an F-ing dress if I F-ing want to". Oh, and don't fret I didn't actually get very cold because, excepting when these photos were taken, whenever I was outside I had on a big coat and scarf.

Now for a few words on the outfit! I was feeling like I wanted to bring out my inner prep. Not that my inner prep is that hard to find. After all, all through high school I was an extremely nerdy abercrombie wearing prep. After high school, my style evolved back into the creative weirdness that it was when I was a kid. It's a style my family likes to call 'hobo bag lady'. Anyway, to put together my preppy look I decided to go with a royal blue color scheme infused with a few neutral pieces like my boots and tights. Oh and quick side note on the boots, I bought them for a total of $36 a few months ago! I was pretty excited about them because I had been eyeing a pair, that looked no joke identical to these, at a small boutique. The ones at the boutique cost $80, so when I found these for half the price I was thrilled!

Happy Monday! (Ha, as if happy Mondays exist!)

Oh, I almost forgot! Here are a few outtakes that inspired the name of the post.

The reason I'm basically crying is because of my ornithophobia. Which basically means I'm abnormally and irrationally afraid of birds. If I'm ever in the proximity of birds I tense up and feel the urge to run away screaming. I swear the sound of wings flapping is the most terrifying sound on this earth! Oh and don't even get me started on those beady little eyes, nasty little feathers that are basically needles jabbed into their flesh, and their freaky wings and claws. The other day when my sister and I came home we noticed a LARGE pile of bird guts, blood, and feathers right in front of our garage door. I, of course, freaked out and started crying. Anyway, I had completely forgotten about the bird remains because there wasn't as much anymore so my sister and I started taking the pictures. Then, my puppy came scampering over to sniff around my feet. I picked him up to give him a quick hug and when I looked at his face I noticed that his mouth was buried in bird feathers! As the pictures show, I proceeded to freak out. All I have to say is that my puppy is lucky I didn't drop him. If you look closely you can see some of the feathers near my feet.

So long, farewell

{Dress//Earings//ring: F21, heels: Gianni Bini}

Hello all! Today was the farewell of one of my very best friends, Marilyn! She's the tall one in the center. We've been friends since she moved into my old neighborhood almost 13 years ago. Wow, I can't believe it's been that long already. I have to tell you, she's one of my favorite people in the world! She's so genuine and funny! She's so unabashedly herself, but not in one of those pushy brutally honest ways. I'll miss her for the next 18 months while she's serving as a missionary in Toronto, Canada but I couldn't be prouder of her. All the same, we had a good time reminiscing on those good old high school days and all of the insane shenanigans we got into!

On to the outfit! I know I promised myself that now that the semester started and I would need to buy all of my supplies I wouldn't buy ANY new clothes...but I caved. I figured, hey I've got a couple of farewell's coming up this month and a few other things so I think I can justify buying this dress...and a couple of other items. I have issues. I really am a shopaholic. BUT, I'm going to work on it. Meagan, over at one of my favorite blogs, becauseofjackie.com, has committed to no shopping for 30 days and I'm committing to joining her! So, no more shopping for this girl for the next 30 days, and I will attempt to purge my closet. Just like Meagan, I need to get rid of anything I haven't worn in the past 6 months. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong. It will be an EXTREMELY hard thing for me to do. I get emotionally attached to clothing. I see it all and think back on the memories I made while wearing it. Plus, when I go through all of my clothing I know I'll just start making excuses and thinking, "welllll...I MIGHT need to wear it again so it should stay". On top of being a shopaholic I'm also apparently a hoarder. Anyway, since I bought this dress with the excuse that I would be wearing it A LOT this month I'm committing to actually doing so, and I'll post the different ways I styled it this month!

Happy Sunday! 

My wallet died...and went to hell.

{Pooh Bear sweater: Ross, button up shirt: h&m, jeans: Arden B, suede boots: AE}

Well, today was my first day of classes! I was more than usually excited to be back because I had to take last semester off. Anyway, I decided to go with my Pooh Bear sweater and some boot cut jeans for my first day back look. Back when I was around 5, I had this pair of beige suede mary janes that had a Pooh Bear on them.  They were my absolute favorite pair of shoes. I actually wore them on my very first day of kindergarten. I just thought they were the cutest things ever and I wore them with basically everything. Well, I eventually out grew them but I replaced them with another Pooh Bear related item. A white sweater with Pooh Bear and stars on it that said, "Make a Wish". My older sister claims this sweater was actually hers, but as my memory recalls it was mine. I mean, I was the one that wore it all the time...and I even have the pictures to prove it (she's probably getting annoyed as she reads this).  Anyway, I LOVED that sweater! Just as much as I had loved those shoes. You would think that with this Pooh Bear obsession of mine, I had been a fan of the Winnie the Pooh Bear show. I actually wasn't. I actually didn't even watch the show all that often. So what spun the love of Winnie? Well, I think it was just simply the comforting look of that cuddly little chunk a chunk of a bear. He was so adorable, and when I wore something with him on it I felt comforted, safe, and warm. So obviously when I found this sweater at Ross, I HAD to have it! Although it did make me feel all warm inside like the one I had when I was younger, it did nothing to keep me safe from the INSANE cold. It was 18 degrees outside today but it felt more like -2. I need to bunker down for a BRUTAL winter!

Anyway, in other news, I'm going to be broker than a butt crack for a long while. Turns out my painting class is going to cost me close to $200 just in supplies! AND, then there's still the cost of all of the text books I'll need for my other classes! So it looks like redesigning this little space of the web of mine, and sponsoring a few blogs to help build a following will have to wait a couple of weeks! I'm pretty good at managing my money, and I always have a bit of cash to spare to spend on clothing but it looks like my wallet's residence in college hell is going to make any new purchases impossible. Sigh...I guess I have enough clothes anyway...but how will I resist?! I know in the grand spectrum of things wanting to constantly buy new clothing seems petty, but new clothing and fashion is just one of the ways I take my mind off of the difficult situations in my life right now. Anyway, enough of that, I'm a very blessed individual and it felt good to be back at school! I hope those of you starting the new semester soon have a great first day!

P.S. The fuzzy little guy in the last picture is my 5 month old pup, Roku. He came to pick me up at the TRAX station with my sister.