Engagement Pictures

This past August Bryan and I were able to take our engagement pictures in Harbor Springs, Michigan. We have gone the past couple of summers with my family and love the area. It is a quiet little town with no stop lights in the downtown area, and a lot of fun shopping. Our photographer, Stephanie Baker, was absolutely amazing and was able to get a number of great shots in a short amount of time. We were also lucky in the fact that one of Stephanie's friends, who is a videographer, wanted to shoot us for her portfolio. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Reading Woes

Once of the greatest loves of my life is reading. Ever since I was a little kid I have loved to get lost in a book. I get so wrapped up in the story that have a great visualization of the setting and all the characters in my head, and I can't put the book down until I have finished reading the entire book.
Lately, I have done this with every book that I have picked up, even How the States Got Their Shapes. I dont know if that is due to the fact that I have not spent as much time as I would like reading in the past year or if every book I pick up is really just that great.
My love of reading started at a young age, and I am sad to say that it is due to bribery. But hey, it worked! During the summers, Bradfield Elementary school had a reading contest to see who could read the most each summer. As a result I would spend much of my time outside reading everything I could get my hands on. The first series that I truely loved was Babysitters, Little Sisters. It was about a member of the babysitters club, little sister and life from her point of view. In first grade we were given a challenge to read a number of books and after we filled our sheet up and our parents signed it, we had the privilege of going to the teacher's lounge and getting a coke from the vending machine and drinking it during class. And oh how it worked. I filled sheet after sheet and it drove my parents crazy. Even up through high school my parents would have to come into my room and take my book away so I would go to sleep. I know that my reading drives my fiance up the wall and he doesnt understand my passion for it. I have however, gotten him to read the first book in the Harry Potter series.
In today's world, we have digital readers and let me tell you they have started my love for reading back up. I have found that the bookstores have free books or ones for $.99 and I get as many as I can at one time. I currently have 30-someodd books on my ipad and I have read all but 4 of them. Good thing I have a long plane ride next week, I will read and finish most of them before I get to Harbor Springs. This week alone I have joined a book club, and I can't wait to get that email about what book we are reading and read almost two books. I bought one at the grocery store Wednesday night and finsihed it yesterday. I literally could not put it down and it drove me crazy. I have another book on my ipad and am almost finished with it as well. Everynight this week, I have stayed up late reading until I fall asleep and I am so tired the next morning, yet all I want to do is pick my book up and start reading agian. The only problem that I see with this is, a. I am not getting enough sleep to function at work, and b. I read so fast that I can't afford it. I share books with my parents and I am luckily moving in with them very soon, so I have a ton of books at my disposal, but I have read most of them and some of those I haven't read I have tried to read but just couldn't get into them.
Well I'mn off to go download some books to take on my trip. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know..i need them!

Honest Effort

Today I am going to try and make a promise to myself to actually do the things I say I will when I say I am going to do them. In the past I have been really bad about that, acutally, I have just been really lazy. All during the work day I tell myself I am going to get so much done after work and I usually come home and shower and get in bed and play on my computer. The only good thing that has come out of this is that I don't go to the grocery store very often, so I don't have food to much on. I honestly think this is the only reason I have stayed slim since I moved out of my parents house. But enough about that.

I am determined to write about what is going on in my life and the things that I have tried and the places I have traveled. I am going to San Diego in a few weeks and Michigan soon after that, so I should have some great stuff to write about.

Well, so long for tonight, I am off to bed.

Contest Giveaway

I have entered to win a handbag from Foley + Corinna. I have come to really love their style over the past week. The fact that I am updating my closet and replacing all of my staple pieces and getting rid of everything that I haven't worn recently is part to blame. I am on a shopping kick and hope to get all the latest styles and have some unique pieces that no one else has.

If you want to enter the contest go to breakfastatsaks.blogspot.com to learn more.

P.S. Runway rundown is one of my new favorite sites and I can see myself spending way too much time on there in the next few days. Thank goodness the weekend is here.

Cook Book

One of my dear friends and zisters is getting married in May and we are creating a cook book for her as part of the lingerie party (it's a really cute idea, ask if you want to learn more). As I have been working on this all I want to do is becoming domestic and stay at home all day cooking, cleaning and crafting. At some point this is going to get me into trouble. Luckily I am not married or engaged and my boy friend lives about 30 minutes away, so this keeps me from cooking every spare moment that I have. Another plus is that I don't want to spend the money on buying the kitchen wares to cook. I have some but I promise you it is not enough to cook a decent meal without having to get very creative.

I will tell you that I am getting crafty, as I bought a new piece of furniture last week and have been trying to figure out what decorations are necessary to make it as cute as possible. I am almost confident that I have figured out what it is lacking and come tomorrow it will be complete. Only one more piece to buy and I promise I will put up pictures when it is done.

I did spend the past two nights working on a picture frame that I received for Christmas. I know it is February and most people would have gotten to it long ago but I have been busy and trying to get stuff done within a reasonable time frame. This particular project just happened to get pushed back. I did however finally get to it and let me say it looks amazing. I spent hours on Wednesday night finding pictures and editing them to make it look perfect. Yesterday I picked up the pictures and the first thing I did when I got home was put them in it and let me tell you that I am so happy that it is finally done. I will post a picture as soon as I have it hanging on my wall, something that I had planned on doing last night but once again it got pushed back. But it will be on my wall tonight (or tomorrow morning) as the people who gave me the frame are coming in town and I want them to see it.

But back to the cookbook... I have loved every minute of making it and wish that I was a good enough writer to become an author and actually write for a living. Maybe in my next life.

Snow Days

Snow days... I thought those were just for kids?

Guess not.

As much as I hate to say it, the working world has not been too bad these past two weeks. A two day work week last week and then a mid-week break today. I honestly can't complain.

Other than the boredom that started to set in last week towards the end of day two of not seeing anyone, I have been completely happy to stay in bed and lounge around my apartment. I have been pretty productive as well, cleaning the place and organizing my closet. I have a little more to do to finish my list, but hey it's not as long as when I started out.

Well time to be productive for the day...meaning I am going to get out of bed and do something, like play with Thumper.

Fashion Crisis

Last night while putting my laundry away, I was faced with the reality that my I am facing a crisis with my closet and clothing. It's not that I don't have cute clothes and ample space to store them, but more the fact that I don't like spending time in the morning picking out my clothes. And not to mention that it is 20 degrees outside and I want nothing more than to put some comfy sweats and curl up in bed with a good book.

I am doing a wardrobe workover very soon and reorganizing not only my closet but my dresser and the drawers under my bed. I am also going to face the fact that I have a ton of comfy clothes and I am going to get rid of some. This is a huge undertaking and if any one wants to help, you are more than welcome to. I will also be putting together outfits and taking pictures so that I can pull one out and throw it on in the morning with out spending too much time standing in my closet debating.