Stay Beautiful

Hello Everyone!!

As promised, I have uploaded a video to my YouTube channel about my eyesight and my glasses. This video was requested by subscriber Lean OnMe and asks basic questions about my vision and what it is like to see with and without my glasses. Here is the link if the video doesn't work: http://youtu.be/RSuZZkMR9Cc

Also, since yesterday was the Fourth of July, I went out and about with my boyfriend to enjoy the festivities. On the night of July 3rd we drove out to Eagle River, Alaska to watch the fireworks there, however I didn't bother to take any pictures or video because I was not impressed with their display. Maybe I'm just too used to watching the fireworks back in Juneau, but seeing the fireworks here just didn't even compare to the Juneau fireworks for me. 

Then, yesterday we drove into downtown Anchorage to watch the Fourth of July Parade in Delaney Park. I really enjoyed the parade and the fair-like atmosphere of the park, though I was a little disappointed that the floats and people in the parade didn't throw candy out to the kids watching the parade. Do Fourth of July parades normally not throw out candy to the people watching the parade? Is Juneau really the only place where that happens? In any case, here are some photos of the parade.

Above is Star the Reindeer.

There were also pony rides, games, various activities and food stands set up in the park.

Rico and I bought a delicious funnel cake to share and then headed off to walk around downtown.

Afterwards we took a look around the Fifth Avenue Mall and I'm so excited that we're getting a Lush store there. I already know that I'm going to spend entirely too much time and money there. We ended up having lunch at the mall and took advantage of some of the holiday sales before we headed home.

It was such a lovely day and I'm already excited for the next Fourth of July. How did you spend your Fourth of July holiday? For those of you who aren't from the United States, do you have any holidays coming up that you're looking forward to?

I hope you're all having a wonderful week and I'll be back in a couple days with either a new video or blog post on my June favorites.

Until next time,

Lauren

Beauty of Uncertainty

Hello Everyone!!

Once again I've been on quite the DIY roll. This past week I was watching Jim Chapman on YouTube and saw his #DIYwithJim video where he showed viewers how to transfer personal pictures onto canvases. I loved this idea so much that I decided to try it for myself! The first couple I tried didn't turn out as well as I hoped they would, but as I made more they turned out better and better. I think these would make great gifts for anyone, all you need is gloss medium, a paint brush, canvas and a printed picture that you or someone you know would like to have in their living room, office, bedroom or wherever! Just remember to be patient and don't get discouraged if your first ones don't turn out exactly how you hoped they would. Here is the video from Jim Chapman's channel where I learned how to make these. Here is the link if the video doesn't work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUaR1aboRoU 

Here are all of my pictures that I made.

I love the last few that I made and I'm planning on making more. With the first couple that didn't turn out so well I'm going to reuse the canvases on a different DIY that involves using paint and tape to make a chevron pattern. 

This week I also decided to make make-up brush, eyeliner, and q-tip containers. I will admit that I spent an entire evening, about 4-6 hours, just tying the bows to my satisfaction. Personally, I love the way they turned out and if I find anything else I need containers for then I will definitely make more.

Pictured below is everything I used to decorate the jars. I bought all of the jars and ribbons from Michael's and I used the wide black ribbon to make the bows, and the cream, tiffany blue and thin black ribbons are all wrapped around the bases. The knitting needle I used to aid me in tying the bows, the scissors of course were used to cut the ribbons and the lighter was used to burn the edges of the ribbons to prevent any fraying in the future. I hot glued all of the ribbons onto the glass jars and then filled two of the jars with blue and silver spring filler that I bought from Michael's to help my brushes and eyeliners stand up. 

I hope you all liked this post and are having a good week so far. I'm excited to do more DIY projects and in a couple days I'll be uploading a video about my eyesight and glasses that a viewer requested. If you have any video requests please leave them in the comments or message me on YouTube. :)

Until next time,

Lauren

A Good Day

Hello Everyone!!

This past week I haven't been up to much, mostly because I had horrible migraines for a few full days. Even with my migraines I was able to film a couple videos for my YouTube channel, though I didn't realize how poor the camera quality on my laptop is. I've uploaded one of the videos, but I don't know that I will upload the other one I filmed. The video I uploaded is an About Me Tag video with 25 random questions. Here is the video if you would like to watch it and the link if the video doesn't work.

http://youtu.be/UzZ8gAg5Les

Also, I've been quite crafty this past week and finally made the DIY project I mentioned in one of my first posts. It's an empty glass candle jar with cut up CD bits and pieces hot glued onto it and plaster in between the cracks. It ended up a bit messier than I would have liked, but the jar itself is growing on me and I'm thinking that I might put cotton balls in it.

Keeping with the crafting theme, I've been working on knitting a scarf that I started back in January. I quite like the diamond seed pattern, though I do have to concentrate a bit more on what I'm doing than if I were doing a plain stitch. I don't know why the scarf photographed with some sort of red spot in the center, but the yarn I am using is completely gray. 

And finally, probably the most exciting news I have is that my boyfriend and I bought two betta fish today! We weren't planning on buying any pets, but we went to Michaels today to get me some craft supplies and when we saw Petco next door we thought we'd pop in and just look at the animals. We ended up loving these two bettas and we happened to find a tank with a divider so they could stay in the same tank without fighting. 

On the left is the fish I picked, which is a dragon scaled betta, whom we've decided to name Samson, and on the right is a double tailed betta that Rico picked, whom we have named George. 

Now it's movie night and we're watching Thor: The Dark World and eating chicken and pork dumplings, yum!! I wish you all a wonderful weekend. :)

Until next time,

Lauren

Wide Open Spaces

Hello Everyone!!

Yesterday Rico and I drove up to the Denali National Park and Preserve and saw Mt. McKinley along the way. For those of you who don't know Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America and located in the Denali National Park, which is 240 miles north of Anchorage. 

We drove for about four and a half hours before we got to the park entrance, though I believe we were driving along the park for quite some time since we could see Mt. McKinley from the south and north view points after about three hours. When we started driving the skies were clear and blue and it looked like it would be a gorgeous day.

However, while we were driving it started raining and by the time we arrived at the park it was pouring down so I didn't take many pictures on the way there.

In the picture below there are trees that are lovingly referred to as "drunken trees". The trees lean because of melted permafrost and there are many of them throughout Alaska.

As we drove back to Anchorage we left the rain behind us...

 ...and came upon some beautiful blue skies. In the picture above you can see Mt. McKinley in the distance. Rico and I thought it looked rather small, but that's probably just because we were so far away from it. Below are pictures from the drive back that I thought were too pretty not to share.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing some of the beauty Alaska has to offer. I also posted a video slide show on YouTube of pictures of my hometown Juneau, Alaska. I have inserted the video below, or if it doesn't work here is the link that will take you to the video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qojmcZe_pY 

If you liked this post and would like me to post more of my adventures around Alaska please let me know in the comments.

Until next time, 

Lauren

A Love That Will Last

Hello Everyone!!

Today is my two year anniversary with my boyfriend, Rico! He is such a blessing in my life and I am so lucky to have him. However, today he has work until late tonight so we celebrated early on Thursday when he had his day off. We had a fun day out at the mall, explored Pet Smart, got ice cream and then went out to sushi for dinner. Here are some pictures I took that day.

Here I'm in the car, my sweater and shirt are both from Old Navy.

We went to Marble Slab Creamery in Anchorage and I got cotton candy ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, gummy bears and cookie dough. I know that's a weird combination, but it ended up really good! The only thing I would change is to have cookie dough either without the chocolate chips or with white chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate.

This is me and Rico in our kitchen excited for sushi.

We went to a restaurant called Sushi and Sushi. We ordered gyoza and mixed tempura that included shrimp, broccoli, asparagus, onion, and some other veggies for appetizers. For entrees I ordered a best friend roll which is spicy tuna with tobiko, cucumber, crab and fried snapper, and Rico ordered a bento box that included teriyaki chicken, mixed tempura, a california roll, sashimi and white rice. It was all delicious and I really recommend Sushi and Sushi to anyone in Anchorage.

I hope you all enjoyed hearing about how we celebrated our anniversary and I hope you're all having a wonderful day.

Until next time,

Lauren

All Too Well

Hello Everyone!

Sorry I haven't written for about a week, as I mentioned previously my sister has come to stay and I've been busy going on all sorts of adventures with her. Today my sister is at work so I finally have time to write. Over the past week we have gone to target probably five times and we also went to see X-Men: Days of Future Past with my boyfriend, and Maleficent just a couple days later! I absolutely loved X-Men, it was full of action, though there was quite a bit of violence which I'm not such a fan of. Maleficent was also a good movie, a little strange at times, but good. 

A few days ago we went to a park in Anchorage called Westchester Lagoon. By the name you would think it would be some tropical paradise in the middle of Alaska where you could swim and sunbathe to your heart's content. That is not the case, though there was plenty of sun that day. It ended up being a normal park with what appeared to be a rather large lake in the middle, so my question is, what makes it a lagoon? What traits are necessary for a body of water to be considered a lagoon? 

In any case, we went for a walk along one of the trails at the park which a map said was one and a half miles one way. That's not a whole lot, but I really wasn't expecting to go on a three mile walk that day and I was wearing slippers, also known as flip flops or thongs depending on where in the world you're from, which do not make the best walking shoes when they're old and worn out. I didn't think to take pictures for my blog until we were leaving, but here are the few I did take.

Here are some ducklings following their mama around.

And here's some pictures of the beautiful day.

Here I am taking a selfie. I think the woman behind me with the stroller really makes this picture authentic since I didn't realize she was there until later on. 

And just before we left I got a picture of this picnic area that I thought was pretty.

Now my sister and I should know better since we grew up in Alaska, but we decided that since the day had been so pretty we would drive to Girdwood, Alaska the next day. The next day however, in true Alaska fashion, was not nearly so pretty and it started to rain as we drove into Girdwood. We ended up just driving around the town and looked at the Alyeska Hotel, which is so large it looked like it should be a castle. We ate at a restaurant called Chair 5, where I had a mandarin teriyaki chicken salad and my sister had a burger and fries. I was planning on taking pictures of the food, but the foodie in me took over and started eating before it occurred to me that I hadn't gotten a picture. Here are some pictures from our drive down the Scenic Byway. 

And here's a shot of me at one of the lookouts along the road.

I'm wearing Denizen jeans from Target, a sweater from Old Navy, a camisole from H & M and my slippers I mentioned before are Reef from Macy's. I love Reef slippers because they're so comfortable and don't give me blisters, but I really don't recommend them for walking long distances. Denizen jeans are also one of my favorite clothing items because they aren't stiff like other jeans and they are able to fit my curvy body which I often find difficult to dress. 

This has been quite a long post, if you're still with me kudos to you. Let me know if you like seeing pictures from my life and Alaska and if you do then I'll try to do more posts like this one. I hope you're all having a lovely day.

Until next time,

Lauren

P.S. - The title is All Too Well by Taylor Swift because that's my sister's favorite song at the moment and we listened to it on our drive.

Sigh No More

Hello Everyone!!

Yesterday was my last day at my job so now I am officially unemployed. I'm kind of sad to leave that job because I liked my co-workers, but I didn't really like the job itself and I didn't feel like I was paid enough so I'm happy to be done with that job in that respect. I do wish the job I had lined up had worked out better, but you can't win everything. I'm going to try to find a job that I can walk to, though my sister did email my resume to the place she works at, so maybe I'll be lucky and get a job there. Until I find a new job I've decided to be happy with my new found free time. I have scarves to knit, a DIY project to finish and I think that I'm going to check out the gym at the nearby university and see how accessible it is during the summer.

In other news, my sister has come to stay for about a week! She just moved up really, but her apartment isn't ready yet so she's staying on my futon until then. She works during the day throughout the week so I still have my time to myself, I only see her in the evenings and in the mornings if I take my boyfriend to work. Tomorrow we're all planning to go see X-Men: Days of Future Past. I really hope it's good, I love the X-Men series and all of the actors involved in the movies.

I've also decided to use my free time making YouTube videos, though I don't really know what to make videos on. So far I've made a haul video of what I got my nephew for his birthday, though of course I did a blog post on that too as you already know. If you have any ideas for videos and what you would like to see please let me know in the comments. I hope you're all having a great week!

Until next time,

Lauren