2010 in Review Part 1– A Year in Photos

January was for flannel shirts and cuddles with that cutie face. February was for Valentines dates with Mr. Mayer and one of my bests. March was for St. Patrick’s day adventures and amazepants jump shots. April was for suuuuper long hair dos. May was for beautiful weather, picnics and silly portraits of your brother at your cousin’s wedding. June and July were for huge dreams coming true. :) (which I will be blogging all about in the new year. Promise.) August was for spending time with the fam, working every night, and bumper cars, obvs.

  September was for roadtrips, state fairs and new friends. hiii :) (last two photos courtesy of Katie)

October was for family portraits and gem tank-tops (accompanied by a LOT of lunges). November was for procrastinating exam prep and instead distracting yourself with Christmas coffee, Christmas with lights and paper snowflakes.    December was for snowdays, studying, exams and friend family portraits.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and your family from me and my family. I seriously hope your day is full of magic.

j

<3

Christmas Playist

So I had planned on putting together a Christmas playlist for you, my friends but you know how time slips away, especially when your life is consumed with finals.

Aaanyways the reality is I’m listening to a lot of the same Christmas music as I did last year so I decided I would just share the playlists I made last year again.

So I present to you, for the second year in a row merry.merry.christmas part one and two.

So I am listening to all these lovelies plus  a lot of the Oh Blue Christmas album by A Fine Frenzy. I’m also listening to (probably the most) The Christmas Collection by Sleeping at Last (which is free, so go download it!).

Enjoy these lovely treats for your ears.

Jeremy :)

Ps. I Love You.

One of my favourite Christmas playlists out there right now is by my cutie pal Kara.

You can listen to her’s right here.

If you like mine you’ll like hers. So go treat your ears.

Uncut Christmas Vlog.

I always say I should Vlog about something but I never have anything good to Vlog about and I always feel like my videos are suuuper awkward after I shoot them. Anyways so when Kim asked me to be a part of a little Christmas project she was putting together, it was just the kick in the ass I needed to actually put together a little Vlog.

You can see Kim’s blog with all of the lovely ladies who took part here. Or right on my blog in my post from yesterday (GO!) Like I said yesterday, it is totally worth your ten minutes to watch that video. It is funny and heart-warming and just a lovely little video.

Anyways, I sent Kim over 5 minutes of me awkwardly rambling on about many a Christmassy things. Here, is that full video.

Once again, big thanks to the lovely people at YouTube for picking the most amazing screencap of me as the start image. And yes I know you can change them, this is the best of the three options I was given.

If you make it through the whole awkward thing congrats because I definitely can’t. I dunno, there is just something about watching myself on video – so strange. Also I had to cut out a ton of me laughing after the carollers comment. It was such a ridiculous thing for me to say and I cracked myself up.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it. I always love seeing other bloggers do Vlogs, its a fun little look into what they’re like in person.

lovelove jer

Ps. I love you Pretty wrapping via ohhellofriend.

one, two

Inter-Webular Goings On

We are currently in the thick of finals period kids. During this time period it is common to find students all over the nation drinking coffee as fast as it can be made, with bags under their eyes, stressed and un-showered. This is including myself, as evidenced by this group of texts Random yes. We were planning getting some supplies or Christmas dinner later this week.  And just for your information “And I shebang showered in days” is read “and I haven’t showered in days” ha. I was waiting for the bus, my fingers got cold and spazzy and my phone auto-corrected whatever I had typed to shebang. Classic autocorrect. But yes, I haven’t showered in days. My hair is disgusting and I’m keeping it contained in a hat and I don’t think that I’ve started to develop a smell so…

Anyways, there are some pretty exciting things going on around the interweb this week.

First, my pal London (holler!) of Such Sweet Tierney is currently hosting a 12 days of giveaways on her blog. Its currently day three and you can enter every day, all 12 days for a chance to win some really cool prizes. So go on over and get yourself some good swag.

Next, Vanessa blogged about the time back in September when I went to go visit her and crash the baby shower she was throwing for miss Katie. Here is proof that this little meeting did in fact take place. Yay! it was fun to be reminded of the good weekend we had. I can’t say it enough how cute and sweet Steven and Katie are, and Vanessa was a wonderful, and funny, with a fridge full of boxed wine. Such a good hostess. Anyways, go here to read all about our fun weekend.

Finally, the lovely Kimberly Scott asked me to take part in a little Christmas Vlog she put together. So I got out my little camera and started to ramble on about all things Christmas. Here is the video that Kim put together – its super good and totally worth your ten minutes.

Check out Kim’s post about the video here to see all of the fantastic ladies who were involved. It was just the break from studying I needed to keep my sanity and I’m so happy I got to be a part of it. Thanks Kim!

Aaanyways, I am going to take the rest of the day off (I think) I may motivate myself to give this little apartment a deep clean but we’ll see.

I’ll be back tomorrow to share the full, uncut (awkward) five minutes of me just rambling on about Christmas.

ilu.

ps. i love you This super pretty picture was in my email the other day in an email I got from Toast. Pretty right?

All I Want or Christmas – CT December

So last week the new Creative Type prompt went up and I thought I’d finally share my little project with you.

The prompt was “All I Want for Christmas”  and we had to use something vintage on our project.  Here is what I made... It is a little envelope in which you can keep all of your Christmas wishes!! I used some vintage fabric scraps and I used a vintage colour palate. I am currently loving the seventies olive and mustard combo. This is a fun little project that all of you can do too. Or something you can do with your kiddos on a snowy day. Just grab an envelope – I reused one that someone sent me some goodies in – and then decorate it all up however you’d like. Now go forth an make one yourselves after you check out what everyone else came up with for the prompt at the Creative Type.

Happy Weekend.

lovelove Jer.

Ps. I love you.  These pictures of Vee’s home make my heart happy. I love the little ornaments an the way she processed them? I dieee.

HP Mania or Dumbledore Level Magic

Everyday of the year I am a pretty big Harry Potter fan. I mean I don’t go around broadcasting it to the world but I have all of the books (except for the Goblet of Fire – which I lent to someone who never returned it) and all of the movies (except for the Prisoner of Azkaban – which I lent to someone who never returned it) (sidenote: I think there’s a lesson about lending my things to people somewhere in here…). But I have all the books and movies and frequently watch the movies throughout the year. I am a fan. But, at the time when a new Harry Potter movie is about to come out, I become a crazy fan. This year in particular, since I was lied to so many times about the release date of the movie. I couldn’t go and see the movie at midnight on opening night (as much as I would have loved to) due to a scheduling conflict (thanks school!) and then I just didn’t get to go and see it until this past Wednesday.

Anyways I remembered on Monday I had the Deathly Hallows at my apartment and decided to realign my priorities (I have two papers due the beginning of next week) for the evening and read as much of it as I could before the movie on Wednesday. This is how I spent much of my night on Monday… Reading by the light of the Christmas tree? Magic. Reading Harry Potter by the light of the Christmas tree? Dumbledore level magic! (that’s a LOT of magic for those of you who aren’t in the know. So I got pretty far in the book on Monday night but Tuesday after school I decided I wanted to get farther. So I did a bit of homework then went back to reading. While I was reading I remembered I had a few sheets of iron on paper somewhere in my crafty stash and decided to make myself a Harry Potter tee (I didn’t have one yet and a HP tee is just what every crazy fan needs). I was trying to think of the perfect tee to make, there are lots of funny/creative ones on etsy/the internets, but I decided to just go with Harry, Herione and Ron circa The Chamber of Secrets. Making a tee shirt takes longer than I remembered (printing and waiting and ironing and waiting some more) so in between reading and tee shirt making I drew myself a fun little Harry Potter tattoo, that may or may not still be on my body 4 days later… Please excuse the ridiculous crazy fan face I am making and appreciate the awesomeness of my drawing fake tattoo skills. ha!

Anyways, so with all of my prep done I went to the movie on Wednesday and was veeery impressed. I don’t pick favourites but I’m still leaning towards the Half Blood Prince as my favourite (it was my favourite book too) or maybe the Chamber of Secrets, but this one was really good. Of all of the movies, it was the most similar to the book, which I really appreciate. I just wish they would’ve put the whole book into one movie instead of this part one part two business. I definitely could have sat in the theatre for a couple more hours.

So there it is, my super Harry Potter nerd-ness on display for all of you to see. And now I have to get back to these papers I have been neglecting for Harry, Hermione and Ron.

What are you up to this weekend?

Jeremy

(I’m still laughing at my Dumbledore level magic comment up there – Gosh I’m witty)

(and modest…obviously)

PS. I love you This Harry Potter Snuggie!!! (on the lovely Ashley) How amazing is it?

I must have one. To, this is a matter of the most serious nature, of life and death almost. If you have one, if you know where you can get one, if you know where I can get one, if you have any information at all about these amazing things please, please please let me know.

Please.

Just for Fun

Its interesting to see how people change over the course of only a couple of years. In keeping with the family pics I posted yesterday I thought it would be fun to post our last family photo with the new one. October 13, 2008. October 11, 2010.

Almost two years to the day. Everyone seems so different. Its so strange/humorous for me to look at these two pictures together. It is especially strange for me to look at myself – personally I’ve come so far in the past two years, this year especially. Just becoming who I want to be, you know being true to myself and really going for my dreams/goals in life. I dunno, its just weird.

So here’s a fun little activity – take a loot at a picture of yourself taken pretty recently and then look at it beside one from a couple of years ago. Its quite the experience both humorous and surreal at the same time. Better yet, blog about it then link me up.

Happy Monday!

xoj

ps. i love you  This photostream (via Elsie) is suuuper pretty. Seriously, check it out.

Kroes Family Portrait Session

When I went home for thanksgiving last month my family asked me to take some pictures of us to update the portrait on our wall (the one I took at thanksgiving two years ago) and to have one for Christmas cards this year. So before we headed off to my Aunt’s for dinner we had a quick (like 15 minutes quick)  tripod, self-timer portrait session. Ok you say, its now the end of November and we haven’t seen any of these pictures yet? Well my family came to visit me yesterday and said the same thing. So needless to say I finally got around to editing the pictures today – which was actually a much needed break from the day to day homework routine that I have found myself in the past few weeks.

So, here are a few shots from the session.

The one where my dad is blowing in my mom’s ear? Yeah that’s the way he can usually be found in pictures – doing something to someone else to make them mess up the photo or making some really strange face himself. I’m pretty sure my grandma (who probably takes a hundred pictures each time we get together) does not have one ‘normal’ picture of my dad because he always makes some kind of a face. And love it about him. I’m actually super surprised that this went as well as it did given his usual antics.

Anyways given our short length of the shoot I was a little worried about not having anything usable even though in those 15 minutes I probably took close to a hundred pictures – but I think its safe to say there are a least a few usable shots from the day.

Now, to choose one and develop a Christmas card from it.

xo Jer

PS. I love you These photos by Natalie Franke of the super sweet Haddox Fam are so perfect. I’ve looked at them like 13 times today. Katie and Steven are one of the sweetest couples I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and these pictures capture them so well.