The Branch Bunch

Oh Anthro, you've done it again!

Look at these amazingly beautiful Holiday ECards! Now, I'm not ready for it to be the Holidays, BUT I can't resist Anthro...

Already sent this one to my sister. :)

You can find more HERE!

Fall Scenery- Check!

One of the other items I was able to cross off my "Fall to-do List" was- Go up the canyon and enjoy the beautiful fall scenery. CHECK!


I actually went by myself this time. It was so wonderful to be able to wander around alone with only the sounds of nature- The crunch of the leaves under my feet, the rushing of the river, the wind whistling through the trees. Heaven.


The colors are at their peak right now. They're more vibrant and bountiful than I have ever seen. The mountain sides look as if they're covered in flames.






One of my dad's favorite things is the Abraham Lincoln that you can see as you exit the canyon... This baby formed all by himself.

Why hello Mr. President.


I was even able to cross yet ANOTHER item off my list last night and I can't wait to share that with you! Man, I am on a roll!

P.S. The Chevron Pillow Giveaway closes tomorrow at Midnight! So if you have yet to enter, you better fix that! Savannah's actually hosting another giveaway over at her blog and she'd love you to check it out! :)

Bipolar Weather = Bipolar Me...

*SIGH*

(I literally just sighed... that's why I typed it...)

It is cold, there is snow, and there is only one thing keeping me happy. The fact that I can bundle up...

1. Full outfit (Poncho)

2. Yes, slippers

3. My gloves I bought in Alaska that are from the Himalayas

4. Cozy hat

I guess SOME of the scenery hasn't been that bad. But this snow is messing with my head. I keep changing from being really grumpy- to singing Christmas songs- to being grumpy that I'm singing Christmas songs already- then back to grumpy in general. The weather man says it's supposed to warm up and dry out again next week... and boy am I hoping that's true!! 

How's the weather where you are??

LUCKILY

I will be spending this evening meeting some of my BBFF's (Best Blogging Friends Forever) at THE cutest boutique ever. :) YAY! I'm super excited and can't wait to tell you aaaaaalllll about it!

:)

Happy Friday everyone!

(as long as it's not snowing...)

If you want to pretend you're partying with me too, you can read my guest posts from this last week. :)

1. and here's to you, Mrs. Robinson

2. Vintch

3. Lauren Elizabeth

4. Ask The Duplex

OR if you're sick of me you can read this very interesting post from my sister's blog:

A Charmed Life

Last Weekend

I hope you are all having a fantastic beginning to your week. How was your weekend? Here are a few shots from mine... They're quite random...

1. The amazing sunset from my rear view mirror. No worries, I was at a stop light when I took this.

2. One of the yummiest cupcakes in the world

3. The bracelets I won in a giveaway last week! I've gotten tons of compliments about them.

4. I FINALLY got around to sending out my Alaska Giveaway prizes. Ya... I should probably be banned from sending giveaway prizes... it took me WAY too long.

5. Divergent (sorry about the awkwardness of this photo...)- the book I read this weekend. Well, really it only took me a few hours. haha! When I am reading, nothing else happens... It was really good and I'd definitely recommend it! 

6. Sorry this photo is so bad... I was "secretly" snapping a photo of Bentley from last the season of the Bachelorette. Yep, he lives in my city and goes to the same building as I do for church. As you can tell I did not succeed in keeping my paparazzi-ing on the DL... He looked right at me... whoops.

7. I pinned what was supposed to be the "Best Broccoli in the World" recipe a couple of weeks ago and decided to try it this last Sunday. It was delicious!

This is my 2nd attempt at THIS magic photo contest. Let me know which out of the picture below or THIS one- which you like better! Don't be surprised if you see more.

Happy Tuesday!!

Magic Photo Contest Entry

Sarah from A Lost Feather is having the best contest/giveaway EVER! I've been so excited about it and have been dying to know how she makes all of her awesome "Magical Photos". A few days ago she did a tutorial on how she makes them and is now having a contest! Since they're similar to something you'd see in Harry Potter, she's giving away a couple of "time turners" (if you know HP, you'll know how awesome that is! haha!) This is my (one of my??) entry for the contest. It was really my first try at this, so don't be surprised if I change it to something different.

A few of you have asked to see me dance before, well, here you go. haha! I will be the first to admit that I am rusty. It's been a while and since I've stopped teaching I haven't had any practice. So these "Forever Fouettes" are FAR from perfect. But it's a start. I'll probably play around with it more today. :)

You should all really check out Sarah's blog. It's one of my absolute favorites! :)

OH!! OH! OH!

I almost forgot to tell you! I think I fixed the whole "Jessie Ann" thing! Yay! :D I have no idea how it changed... weird. But it should be back to normal now. Whew!

The Cabin!

Hey guys!

I'm back from my cabin! It was so much fun! I absolutely love that place. It's incredible. Want to see what I mean?? Ok, ok... Here you go:

(lots of pictures. I won't talk until the end. Promise. Sorry these are all Instagram photos. I'll do my camera photos tomorrow.)

Whew! Did you make it?? I applaud you if you did. :)

Can you see why I say that I'm convinced this place is magical? It's the most beautiful place and I'm proud to say that it's mine! (well, my family's) 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! BE SURE to check back tomorrow for a riveting tale of our adventure to a mysterious cave!

Also make sure you check out this weeks Blog of the Week!

Labor Day and Random Photos

I'm spending the weekend up at my cabin with family and friends for the holiday, and I'm so excited! These pictures aren't from my cabin, these are right outside my house. But I'll be back on Monday with lots of pictures to share, I'm sure. :) If you want to see a sneak peak of what it looks like, you can see a few pictures on my guest post over at Cat's blog. CLICK HERE for that. We're pretty much the luckiest people in the world because our mountain is magical. I'm convinced. haha! Jk, but it is amazing!

And this is just a random collage I made while playing on my phone. I wanted something that included some of my favorite photos as my phone's background. :)

Hope everyone has an amazing Labor Day weekend!! :D Yay for long weekends! What do you have planned??

Fun Stuff!

Today I painted my nails...



And admired the belt I got a few weeks ago in Talkeetna...


I thought about how lucky I was to guest post for Courtney over at Dear Darling and how amazed I was to receive THIS award from Cat. :)

I also thought a lot about the giveaway I'm having while I'm driving through Canada and won't be able to blog! I've been putting the posts together and am SO excited!! I'm doing them as a thank you to my AWESOME readers! Seriously, you guys are incredible. :) Thank you for being so fantastic!

And since you've been so good- here's a preview of the prizes!!! I know the quality is bad. That's because I SUPER zoomed in so you couldn't really tell what anything was... MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

So remember to start brushing up on your Alaska knowledge! In order to enter the giveaways (6 of them!!!) you have to not only be a follower using GFC but answer an Alaskan trivia question correctly!! So start spreading the word!

Aren't I fun?! haha!

Have a great day ladies and gents!

Catching Up With Instagram Pt. 2

Important Announcement:
I am re-doing my "Link Love" page. Instead of having boring ol' words on there, I'm going to have buttons! So if you would like your button to be posted in that page PLEASE send me an email! :D Yay!

***

Now back to our regular programming...

Here are some photos from the past few days...


1. Remember Beach Lake? Well we went back to do the hike that leads to the ocean, and I'm SO glad we did! Gorgeous!
2. Writing in the sand. That's a beach MUST.
3. The view from my friends balcony where we had a girls night. Awesome.
4. The awesome view of Denali from Beach Lake! To put into perspective how large that mountain is- it is roughly 300 miles from where I took this photo...
5. My current obsession... Pretzel M&M's... Delicious.

Jumping On The Bandwagon

I never thought this day would come... I tried oh so hard to resist... but I couldn't... and now I'm hooked...

PINTEREST!!

I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon and sharing with you my favorite Pinterest finds from this week...

Source: gardenviewcottage.tumblr.com via Gentri on Pinterest

Modest is Hottest, Ladies. "I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing. If I do an interview with photographs people desperately want to change me - dye my hair blonder, pluck my eyebrows, give me a fringe. Then there’s the choice of clothes. I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt. But that’s not me. I feel uncomfortable. I’d never go out in a mini-skirt. It’s nothing to do with protecting the Hermione image. I wouldn’t do that. Personally, I don’t actually think it’s even that sexy. What’s sexy about saying, ‘I’m here with my boobs out and a short skirt, have a look at everything I’ve got?’ My idea of sexy is that less is more. The less you reveal the more people can wonder. - Emma Watson

I WILL have this in my future child's room.

Source: weheartit.com via Gentri on Pinterest

I WILL have this in my future home's bathroom.

Source: re-nest.com via Gentri on Pinterest

I have never had the desire to have "colorful" hair... until now...

Source: collegefashion.net via Gentri on Pinterest

What have you been "pinning" over?? We should all be Pinterest friends! Soon (hopefully) I'll have my lovely Pinterest button up on my sidebar for you. :)

Silliness and Birthdays

This girl had a birthday yesterday...

My little niece is growing up. I can hardly believe how old and mature she is already. She's also THE smartest person I know. Seriously- the girl's a genius. Walking encyclopedia as my mom likes to call her.

We celebrated with a trip to the house of bounce (big room with lots of bounce houses), lots of balloons tied to her chair, her favorite dinner- pastaroni (I don't even know how to spell that. Can't believe that's her favorite. haha!), FUNFETTI cake- which fell apart before I even got a picture, and presents.

We kept the partying low key since last year we went ALL OUT! CLICK HERE to see what I mean...

The other night it was just the kids and I while my sister and bil where out buying the birthday present (a new bike!). So of course we had some fun with the camera!

Have you ever taken pictures where you shake your head really hard letting your cheeks flop around as much as they can?? If not, you should. The outcome is HILARIOUS! Here's how my nieces did:

I love this picture! They had to take a break because they were laughing too hard. :)

They were laughing so hard! We had such a great time! This works better for older people with floppier cheeks than little kids have. haha! But they still gave it their all and were laughing so hard!