Trichotillomania | The Haircut

I made another video, this time discussing trichotillomania and my crazy bold haircut. :)

Dog Park Adventures

Yesterday my family and I took Margot to a nearby dog park. We've never been to one before, and it was great. There was an open field, an abundance of tennis balls, and even some little hiking trails! I decided to experiment a little with video instead of my usual blog posts, so I hope you guys like it!

Happy

 

There are a lot of things to be happy about right now, and it's truly making my mood soar into the clouds. I just feel so happy, and it doesn't take much to put a smile on my face. So here's why I'm so happy:

• School is out! We are done for the summer, which makes me absolutely ecstatic. This school year was a rough one, and it felt like it dragged out over a very long period of time. I'm ready to have a refreshing, exciting summer and to start school next year fresh.
• I am learning to play the banjo! It's one of my absolute favorite instruments, and a place near us offers free group lessons every Thursday. I've started doing those and then I plan on hopefully taking private  lessons after that! It makes me so giddy with excitement I can't even begin to describe how happy I am about it.
• I can do a handstand. So I've been doing yoga for a while and a handstand always seem way out of reach for me. But I've been practicing, and I can do one! I can only stay up for a few seconds, but it makes me so happy to feel the progress I'm making. 
• Margot. That dog makes me so so happy. She's my best friend, my hiking buddy, and the sweetest puppy in the world. I'm so grateful for her, and we've been having a lot of fun together lately. 
• Typewriter! So my wonderful and amazing grandmother found a typewriter for me and gave it to me as a gift! It makes me so so happy I can't even begin to describe it. I've wanted a typewriter since I was a little girl and decided I wanted to be a writer (like Kit Kittredge, my American Girl Doll), so to finally have one is completely surreal. Thank you Grandma!
• Cozy, lazy mornings. This morning has been filled with warm beds, homemade waffles, poetry, and lots of relaxing. I feel like I haven't had a good lazy morning in a long while, so this morning has been blissful. Hopefully the summer will be filled with more mornings such as these.

What are you guys happy about on this lovely first day of summer! Tell me about it!

Peonies

I absolutely adore this kimono. It's got beautiful colors, and it's so light and flowy, perfect for summertime. I wear it all the time, for it goes with all sorts of different things. Today I paired it with a simple black t-shirt dress, since it's quite warm today, and I love how it turned out. I'm all about comfort, and this is both adorable and extremely comfortable. It's also really nice and cool, which is great for warmer weather. Speaking of warmer weather, it feels like we just got hit with summer! School is almost over, the days are long and bright, and I even spotted a firefly in the darkness the other evening. It feels like it happened overnight, and just yesterday it was January and we were bundled up in sweaters and scarves, trying to keep the chill away. But now we're halfway through 2014, which is crazy. This year is flying by.

Margot decided to sneak into a picture--the cuteness!

dress and sandals from target / kimono from cotton on / hat from hot topic

Are you guys looking forward to summer? Got any interesting plans or adventures?

Paint Strokes

maxi dress and shoes from target / secondhand cardigan 

I am so in love with this maxi dress. It looks like a bunch of beautiful, thick paint strokes all over the fabric, and it's so fun and comfy and just absolutely wonderful. I normally wear it with a jean jacket, but it was too warm today, so I paired it with this cardigan, and I'm quite happy with how it ended up looking. Soon summer will be here and I can just wear the dress on its own!

Gypsy Vibes

I'm feeling a bit like a gypsy in today's outfit. The flowy fabrics, the folded head cloth--it makes me want to roam around the fields playing a guitar and singing (although I have an absolutely terrible singing voice). This is such a comfortable and cool outfit, and even though it's warm today, the fabrics breathe really nicely, and I'm not overheated at all. This little bandana I made out of an old t-shirt is a great way to keep your hair back in warmer weather, for it stays off your face and neck, but you can still wear your hair down. I like it a lot. 

I absolutely love the detailing on this white kimono-style blouse, it's very summery and tropical (in my opinion at least). Anyway, it wouldn't be half as pretty without the lining around the edges. And did I mention how much I love these pants? They have such a cool pattern, and they're super comfortable. They start out tighter from your waist to your upper thigh, and then just get wider and looser, giving it an almost bellbottom look, but a little more relaxed. They're great. 

 

white kimono from Francesca's / J Jill tank top / pants and shoes from Target

Is Happiness a Choice?

source

I was scrolling through tumblr today and I saw a surplus of cute, colorful images bearing the words "choose happiness." Most would think little of posts such as these, thinking them to be simple and positive pictures that are meant to brighten your day. But for me, I felt slightly bothered by their loud and almost ignorant message. As someone who suffers from chronic anxiety and depression, sheer happiness is something that is far more difficult and complex than a mere choice. I can choose to try my very best to be happy, but it doesn't always mean that it'll work.

For me, an "okay" day is something to celebrate, it's something that shows progress and hope. When you're stuck in misery for so long, a quick break from it is like a breath of fresh air, a short time to rest and recover. But when you wake to feelings of depression and sadness the next day, you're filled with frustration and anger at your current state of mind. Because being miserable is no fun, believe me. No one in their right mind would ever choose to be unhappy for unbearable lengths of time, for it's absolutely awful. So when I see images telling me to "choose happiness," it makes me a little bit upset. If happiness was just a choice, don't you think I would have chosen it already? If it were that easy, my depression could simply dissolve and I could get on with my life. You can't choose happiness any more than you choose sadness. It's not a conscious decision, it's a reaction to some sort of stimuli in your life.

Happiness is something that I constantly ache for, and something that I truly love. I know what it is like to be happy, and it is a wonderful, gorgeous feeling. However, it's unrealistic to assume that someone can simply choose to be happy all the time. It's impossible. And even if it were possible, would you choose constant happiness? I know that I wouldn't. Being miserable is not a good feeling, and if you suffer from depression, constant sadness can be completely crippling and frustrating. But since I have experienced such deep, intense sadness, it allows me to better appreciate the times when I am happy. I cherish those moments, for they are few and far between, making them beacons of light in the darkest of times.

I'd like to share a video on the very topic that I'm discussing, for it outlines how I feel quite perfectly. Beckie0 is one of my favorite YouTubers, and she struggles with several of the same mental health issues as I do, and shares many of my opinions as well. Please watch this video, and think twice before you tell someone to simply choose to be happy.

Sorry for the rather deep and serious post, but this is something that I wanted to share with you guys, as it is important to me. I also wanted to bring a little light upon some of the mental health issues that I struggle with, because I'd like to write more about them in the future.

p.s. If you'd like to follow me on tumblr, here's my link: http://thetasteofmountains.tumblr.com/

Smoothie Madness

 

I am absolutely head over heels in love with smoothies, and my Magic Bullet of course. I have a smoothie pretty much every day, and to be honest, it's almost always the same one. It's just so darn good, I can't help it! Smoothies are like a gift from above, because they taste absolutely delightful, and they're also pretty great for you too. Here's the recipe for my favorite smoothie, its super easy and absolutely delicious. 

Ingredients:

1 Banana

Frozen fruit (I usually do a mix of wild blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries)

Baby Spinach or Kale

A big ol' spoonful of almond butter

Flax Seed

Chia Seeds

Protein Powder (vanilla)

Almond Milk 

You can pretty much do as much of each ingredient as you'd like, depending on how you want your smoothie. The next step is simple: dump it all into your cup, and blend it all together! Voila, you've got yourself a delicious drink. I usually have this smoothie either for breakfast or after a workout/yoga. It's so refreshing, especially in this warmer weather, and is great for you too. 

Do you guys have any great smoothie recipes to share? I'd love to hear them!

Photography…and stuff

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been extremely busy. It's that time of year again where there's only a few weeks left of school so the teachers decide to cram in last minute assignments and research papers and all that nonsense, when all the students are pretty much ready to check out and go into full on summertime mode. So since I've been busy writing research papers and trying to figure out how to solve a logarithmic function, blogging has kind of taken a back seat. 

But I miss it! Oh, I've only been blogging for a few weeks and I'm a baby in this enormous blogosphere but it's so stinking fun. It's a way to let out all of my stifled creative juices and share my love for fashion and photography and all that jazz to my viewers (if I have more than three) without it feeling like a social media site that has all these unwritten "rules" and social conducts you must obey. So here I am, blogging again. It feels lovely. 

I honestly wanted to do an outfit post today but I didn't have the time and it's starting to get stormy outside, so I decided to share some photos I've been taking recently instead. Most of them are from the past week or two, but there's a few that I took months ago as well. I'm so happy with how green everything is--isn't it absolutely delightful? 

The above was taken right outside my front door a few weeks ago, before the leaves grew in. The sunset was even more gorgeous in person. 

I've decided that dew is nature's very own diamonds. Oh, how it glistens and shines--I'm in love. 

I hope you enjoyed some of these photographs, and I promise I'll start blogging more often now. Perhaps an outfit post is right around the corner! Have a lovely week, you wonderful people.