look what we got in the mail yesterday!

it's going to look so fantastic framed in our bedroom (or living room...still not sure)! i love it.

it's been slow going getting our house together. the delay is mostly due to the eternal couch quest.

i promise to start sharing photos of our progress once we start making some!

(btw, last day to enter the giveaway)

the school update

today is my last day of school for the week. phew. i'm exhausted!

and next week, i have monday and tuesday off.

the CSU school system has had to enforce a bunch of furlough days throughout the semester due to budget cuts. it's pretty insane. but a 4 day weekend won't be too shabby.

so here's the rundown on my tuesday/thursday classes:

french: my first day of french class - beginning french class - was conducted entirely in...what else...french. oh my gosh, it was so overwhelming. but it's gonna work! i can tell! my book for that class was $200 though. $200?!?! so ridiculous.

ballet: i have 10 minutes to get from french to ballet. it's a mile across campus. no joke. so that's pretty exhausting. and sweaty. if you follow me on twitter, you've already heard about all the sweating.

painting: i have 20 minutes to eat and get from ballet to painting all the way back to the other side of campus. that's another mile. painting is my most overwhelming class. i wish levi could do it for me. it felt like more of a foreign language than french. Lord, help me this semester!

yesterday was my first active day of my monday/wednesday classes - tennis and jazz.

one hour of tennis, including lots of drills and running.

followed by two hours of dance.

and you guessed it! i have 10 minutes in between those classes, and it's about a thousand degrees in the sun playing tennis before heading to the humid dance studios where i feel like i'm breathing sweat. so sore today.

part of me is wondering what on earth i was thinking. this semester might just kill me.

but i know i can do it. i know it!

but just in case you don't hear from me for a long time, it's most likely because i'm dead.

(p.s. last day to enter the giveaway)

fun with proust take two - erin

i am so excited for the second round of fun with proust.

this week the lovely erin from reading my tea leaves shared her answers and her favorite photo of herself with us.

i must say, reading her answers made me smile.

i really love this series. it lets us get to know each other on a different level.

(for the inspiration for this series, please see this post.)

now, onto erin!

erin was instructed to choose her very favorite photo of herself (current, old, abstract, straight forward, alone, in a group - anything goes) and to answer the following 7 questions.

1. what is your idea of perfect happiness?

perfect happiness is a green field. sunshine. bare feet. an ocean breeze. it's also crunching through fallen leaves. and apple cider. and snowfall at nighttime. it's always kisses. and chocolate is nice, too.

2. what is your most treasured possession?

my blankie. ok, fine. not really. but still, my blankie is pretty awesome.

3. what is your greatest fear?

losing the people i love.

4. which talent would you most like to have?

a kick-ass rocker-girl voice and guitar strumming skills so i could start a bluegrass band with my sisters.

5. what or who is the greatest love of your life?

i am so bad with superlatives. so i'm choosing two--my family and my james.

6. what is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

my uncanny ability to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

7. what do you value most in your friends?

serenity.

and here is erin's favorite photo of herself:

i love it! thank you so much for playing, erin! if you haven't read erin's blog, please take a look here.

(p.s. don't forget to enter the giveaway right here. i accidentally rejected 14 comments yesterday at 1:00 pm PST, so check and make sure that i got yours. so sorry!)

school days

as you probably already know by now, yesterday was my first day of school.

it was terrific! (we're ignoring the 500 degree weather and all the sweating.)

levi sent me off with an apple for my teacher (literally - he put an apple in my bag to give to one of my teachers - haha! i ended up eating it myself).

i only have two classes on mondays and wednesdays, and both my teachers were super sweet. i have a feeling i'm going to love them.

i go back for round 2 today - my long day.

excited!!

(p.s. don't forget to enter the giveaway!)

sponsor giveaway: magnolia family vintage

i have been looking forward to today for two weeks!

because today is the magnolia family vintage giveaway!

one of my very best friends, sarah (check out her spectacular blog here), is the super stylish owner of magnolia family vintage. sarah also works as a stylist doing all kinds of fancy photo shoots with real live (super skinny) models and fancy schmancy photographers so you know that you're always going to find something incredible when you visit her shop. she's a professional after all!

so here's what sarah and i have come up with for you: a vintage giveaway.

the winner will have her choice of one of these gorgeous, vintage accessories:

if i could win my own giveaway, i would choose that darling little necklace with the bows. isn't it adorable?

on to the rules:

1. for ONE entry in the giveaway, please visit magnolia family vintage. then come back here, and tell me which item you'd love to bid on. (there's the cutest little 50s cocktail dress in there right now.)

2. for a SECOND entry in the giveaway, simply blog or tweet about the giveaway and come back here and let me know by leaving a second comment.

you can enter the giveaway until 7:00 PM (PST) on THURSDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER. the winner will be announced on friday morning. and who knows? maybe sarah will be in a super generous mood and pick an extra winner.

that's it! easy peasy!

good luck!