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1.29.2012

Winter Beauty is All Around

I woke up on a Friday morning, a little later than usual (Anyone else do math tests in the evenings? That's when I get the best scores ;P), and looked out the window. I was enthralled by the view - a usually ordinary landscape, now turned into a scene of brilliant beauty... all because of that wonderful little thing called snow.

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Grabbing my camera, I rushed outside to capture it all; treading carefully as not to disturb any more snow than I needed to... as not to ruin the tranquility of the beauty all around.

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Oh, the magnificent detail... clearly and masterfully designed by the Creator of the Universe.

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"He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. ​He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? ​He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow." ~ Psalm 147:15-18

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​Chance, they say? I say NO.

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There is no way this could've come about by random chance. Whoever came up with the idea in the first place, must have been really out of his mind. How he ever managed to convince anyone else is beyond me.

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The evidence of a Masterful Designer is all around, all you've got to do is open your eyes and see.

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"For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them." ~ Matthew 13:15

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                         Do you?

1.26.2012

Snowflake Bokeh & Giveaway Winner

I love snow. The pretty sight, the clean fresh smell, and the soundless way in which the snowflakes touch the ground.

Slight Curves Adjustment
 It's unique...


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...special...


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...simply magical.


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And yet, it's still a normal occurrence.


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 The visit of pretty snowflakes... 
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 ...during that beautiful, icy cold, season of snow.


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But I guess that's what really makes snow special.


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It's simple, unique, beautiful, delicate, and still normal.


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 It's all those little adjectives squeezed into one teeny tiny package.


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A snowflake.


The winner of the 01.10.12 Giveaway (selected via Rafflecopter's random winner generator) is...


Abbie (forabbiesblog@...)!

Congratulations, Abbie! :) I'll be sending you an e-mail shortly!

1.23.2012

Sock Curls

I saw this video tutorial yesterday...




...and I simply HAD to try it on my hair! I doubted it would work though, 'cause my hair is the kind of hair you can't pretty much do anything with. It's super annoying sometimes. Even if I were to try something as simple as this (and I have tried something similar)...

via pinterest

...or this...

via pinterest

...(and forget about these entirely)...

via pinterest

via pinterest

...it just won't work (having layers probably doesn't help much either). My hair will NOT cooperate, and that's that. It flies all over the place! That second to last hairstyle idea I showed you? I can only imagine it in my dreams... unless at some point in my life, I become great friends with the world's most renowned hairstylist... which is highly unlikely. :P But anyway, as I was saying, I was very skeptical about the whole thing - not that my hair wouldn't curl, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to roll my hair up into those little bob-like thingies. But after spending half an hour at it, I emerged from the bathroom last night... looking (an feeling) quite silly. Turns out it isn't all that hard to roll your hair up with socks. It's really easy if you first moisten your hand with water and just run it through the section you're about to roll up, helps hair stay put.
In the morning I stood in front of the mirror and removed the socks. For the first few moments I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I had real authentic-looking curls... it was amazing! My hair is usually straight by the way, maybe just slightly wavy, at the ends. The curls were kind of wild though, so I just wet my hairbrush and ran it through my hair, which didn't ruin the curls at all.
This is how my hair looked this evening, not as curly as it was in the morning but still pretty wavy.

photo credit: little sister
If you want to curl your hair, I'd definitely recommend this - it's super easy! :)

1.22.2012

December Leftovers

Just a couple of photos I happened to find while I was looking through my December folders. Enjoy! :)

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I love this. Plain and simple. All I can really say about this photo.


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Black and whites are amazing!


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Thorny beauty.


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Also, this week, I'm really excited to say... I managed to take a frozen-snowflake-in-midair photo (at least that's how it looked on my camera display)! Be sure to keep an eye out for that in the next few days! :)
Have a lovely evening/day (really depends on when you see this/where you live ;)!

1.18.2012

A Snowy Hug

I can't believe I haven't posted in over a week! I'm so sorry! I was going to post on Saturday, but I got this spark of blog designer's inspiration (high five if you actually know what I'm talking about ;) and I decided to redesign my main blog instead. I love how it turned out! :)
Anyways, it snowed last week. The snow stuck around for a couple of days... during which I had some fun taking photos of it! :)

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Black & White
I currently have this on as my desktop background. LOVE it!!!


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It also snowed last night; but if things go on as they have, it'll probably be gone in two or three days.
Has snow given you any hugs recently?

1.17.2012

Before... and After

Before...


...and after...

As much as I loved my red design, I felt I needed to change things around a bit, so I came up with a new wintery design! How do you like it? :)
I think it turned out really well, almost exactly as I'd imagined it! Be sure to grab my new blog button on your way 'out'! ;)

1.15.2012

Currently Designing...

Things may start looking kinda crazy in the next hour or so. I'm redesigning... and listening to Owl City besides! :) Please stand by while I sort things out!

1.10.2012

01.10.12: Giveaway at Essence of Eve

Today is my birthday. Surprised? Maybe, maybe not. It really depends on how well you know me, whether or not you follow my main blog, and/or your activity on Pinterest and/or Twitter. :P But anyway, I already told you so it doesn't really matter anymore. ;)
So I wanted to do something special for my birthday, and I really considered a sponsor giveaway, but so soon after the holidays, I figured it would be kind of hard to find sponsors (I'm planning on doing something big for my blogoversary in March though ;). Instead, I decided on giving away a couple of prints, right here on my blog! Four non-portrait Essence of Eve prints of YOUR choice, to be exact! :) You can enter below (via Rafflecopter):

a Rafflecopter giveaway I understand some people (including myself) have had trouble entering Rafflecopter giveaways in the past. If you, for some reason, can't enter via the widget above, please e-mail me (or comment on this post). I'll enter you manually. :)






I'm off to see Soul Surfer now! Have fun entering! :)

Fourteen.

Today, January the tenth, two-thousand twelve, is the day I turn fourteen. :) I remember when I was little, I used to get all excited on the week leading up to my birthday. I'd be going around the house trying to find my birthday present! :D These past couple of years though, the excitement has rather diminished. I mean, I still think of today as a special day, I just don't go around telling EVERYONE just how excited I am. It's kind of funny coming from me though, 'cause when I was little, I thought adults weird because they didn't make a big deal out of their birthdays. No parties?! That's unthinkable. And yet I don't have parties anymore either. My little six-year-old self would be horrified! :P
You know, having your birthday ten days after New Year makes it kind of hard finding a topic for your birthday post. I can't do resolutions, because I did those already, things I accomplished/learned last year, that's done too, so I'll just do birthday plans, oh, and dream cake!
So today I'm giving away a couple of my prints on my photography blog (keep an eye out for that. I'll have the giveaway posted later in the day), and I'm also going out to get Soul Surfer with my mom!


I've been wanting to see this for so loooooooong! Can't wait! As for my birthday dream cake (the one I have is really good, but this one just looks awesome on the outside)...

via pinterest
The only thing wrong with it is that it's a Nikon... I want a Canon. :P
So anyway, I'm off to... celebrate my birthday! :) Many thanks to everyone who's already sent me sweet birthday wishes. I really appreciate it!

Currently listening to...

Saltwater Room by Owl City

  Yours truly,