Friday, September 30, 2016

The final #blogtember post: Humans of New York

Some may say that I slacked off for the last half of the #blogtemberchallenge posts, but in all honesty, I wasn't feeling super inspired by a lot of the last few prompts. Rather than write about things I'm not super passionate about, I decided to just pick and choose the few that came more easily. This last prompt, though, was not easy for me. When I first came across the #blogtemberchallenge, I glanced at all the prompts and specifically remember reading the one for today's date and thinking, nah. That sounds too hard. It's too intimidating. But the last few days I have been thinking about it more and more and I had to participate!

The prompt for September 30th is: Picture this, you've been stopped on the street by the photographer of Humans of New York, and he asks, "What advice would you give to a large group of people?" Share a picture of yourself along with the advice.

If I were stopped on the street by the photographer of Humans of New York, I would like to think that I would say...

I know that God lives. I know that we are all His children. I know that He knows each and every one of us personally and that He really, truly cares about us. I know that He loves ALL of His children. I know without a doubt in my mind that He loves me. And I know that everyone can come to this knowledge for themselves!

A great place to start learning this for yourself is happening this weekend and it's one of the greatest weekends of the entire year! LDS General Conference is the full of incredible speakers giving the most uplifting talks. I always come away from General Conference feeling refreshed and inspired! Feel free to tune in to one or all four of the sessions by clicking HERE! I promise you that you will not regret it!

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The General Conference schedule is as follows: Saturday and Sunday, October 1 and 2, at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. (MDT). There is also a special meeting for men happening on October 1 at 8:00 p.m. (MDT) and there was an amazing meeting held for women last Saturday that can be watched or read here!

Be sure to let me know which talks are your favorite if you do tune in! I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!

xoxo, Chelan

Thursday, September 22, 2016

How We Wore It | The First of Fall


After another month of missing, (whoops) we are back at it again! And back to Fall already. Whaaat? How did that happen so fast! I can't believe that we've almost been at this How We Wore It stuff for an entire year.

When I got called as Young Women's president, my wonderful mother texted me and said that every Young Women's president needs a new dress and told me to pick something out (cause she's awesome like that). I'd been eyeing pretty much all the dresses from Shop Stevie, but this one especially. First of all, it looked so comfortable - which it totally is. Second, it looked not hot or tight - which it's not. Third, it has a ruffle - give me alllll the ruffles! Fourth, the color is perfect for fall and the style is perfect for this weird transitional stage we are in here in Ohio. It's still like 30 degrees celsius +humidity but it's like, supposed to be fall, but it's not...

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

#blogtember Life Swap

If I could be anyone for a day, who would I be? This is the weirdest question to think about.. A bunch of names popped into my head: Joanna Gaines, Becky Higgins, Cara Loren, Cat Deely, Jennifer Lopez to name a few... Pondering this question just confirmed that I love my life. I am so blessed! But I will play along for a minute for the sake of this post. I think I would love to try out a day in the life of Naomi Davis from the blog http://lovetaza.com/Love, Taza. She danced at Julliard (whaaaat?) and she and her husband go on the craziest adventures with their darling family!

I would only want to swap lives for a day if I could take Parker with me, though. Is that weird? haha adventures are just more fun with my best friend by my side! some reasons I would like to swap lives for a day with Naomi Davis are:

Naomi is an amazing mom. You can tell she looooves her family! Her kids seem like the coolest little humans and they seem like they are a blast to be around!

She lives in NYC. I would love to try that for a day! See what it is really like to live there, not just visit.

She has the coolest style! It's so unique and she's able to pull just about anything off. I don't think I've seen an outfit of hers that I haven't loved. I also love and respect that she doesn't sacrifice her modesty even though she has a more popular blog.

She and her husband are best friends. You can see that they are so in love by the way she writes about him and the photos she posts of the two of them.

She's not afraid to share her beliefs via social media!

She loves to travel! I've never thought of myself as much of a world traveler, but the trips that Parker and I have gone on have been so fun and we love talking about our future adventures together. I think it's so cool that their family gets to travel so much all together! They make it work and it looks like so much fun!

She has freckles. I've always wished I could have freckles lol

She is real. Her posts aren't always butterflies and rainbows but they do always convey her love of life and her family and I really love that about her. It's one thing that keeps me reading her blog week after week!

Aren't they just the cutest family?!

And if you haven't checked out her blog yet, you are totally missing out! You can access it by clicking HERE (link goes to their about page)!

Happy Tuesday, y'all! Thanks for stopping by :)

xoxo, Chelan

Monday, September 12, 2016

Currently Reading: The Lilac Girls: A Novel By Martha Hall Kelly

I love that all of these #blogtemberchallenge prompts somehow fit so well with things I usually write about on my blog... like today! Reading! I've missed doing my currently reading posts! Today's prompt is "Three books! One you just read, one you're currently reading, and one you want to read." So I figured I would just call it another currently reading post since it totally fits into that category :)

A book I've read recently is "Everything, Everything!" by Nicola Yoon. It's about a girl who is basically allergic to the world, but then she falls in love and everything changes! It was a super fast read and a really cute story! I would probably give it a 3/5. It just didn't "wow" me but it was good!

"The Lilac Girls: A Novel" by Martha Hall Kelly is a book that I am currently reading. I'm in a book club of sorts and this is the first book we have read together. I'm a little behind, about 50% of the way through, but it's about different women's stories in World War II. Goodreads describes it by saying: "Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this powerful debut novel reveals an incredible story of love, redemption, and terrible secrets that were hidden for decades." I'm loving this novel so far and can't wait to see how it ends! It's a little graphic at times but I think that's what makes it so compelling. You just have to know how the story turns out for these different women! I would highly recommend it.

"Big Little Lies" by Lianne Moriarty is a book that I have heard so much about and it's been on my radar for a while now. So many people have talked about this book and raved about it so it is up next on my to-read list. Have any of you read it? What did you think?

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What are YOU currently reading?

xoxo, Chelan

Saturday, September 10, 2016

A Day In The Life

Today's #blogtember challenge was to take a photo every hour of the day today and share it in a post... Well, I didn't take a photo every single hour. But I did take lots of photos to show all the things I've been up to today! I should do this at least once a month because, man! I got stuff done! It was great motivation to get up off the couch and make things happen because you can only post so many photos from the same place before it becomes a little worrisome haha! Let's take a look at my day, shall we?

Breakfast at 10:28 am. German pancakes per Parker's request!
Clean the kitchen at 11:03 am. Sidenote: One of the #blogtember prompts that I've missed this week was supposed to be a home/apartment tour buttttt on that day our apartment was a mess so it just wasn't happening. Today you kind of get a little glimpse of parts of our place!

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

5 Things That Bring Me JOY!

#blogtemer continues with 5 things the bring me joy! It would be so easy to just mention the big things that bring me joy like the gospel, Parker, family, food, and dancing so I'm gonna do some more random and unimportant things that bring me joy for this post because that seems like more fun...

1. The sun. I really think I am happiest when I have got some good ole' vitamin D. After having spent almost the entire month of July indoors teaching dance this year (which don't get me wrong, was awesome! It was just weird not being outside in July of all months! #adulting) I needed some time in the sun. When we finally got to Montana and were out on the paddle boards on the lake, I felt so much joy! And Parker mentioned it haha! It's noticeable how much I enjoy being in the sun.

2. Diet Pepsi. This one is pretty much a given but ooooh there is just something nice about the click of a cold can being opened that just makes me happy. I love the burn of the first gulp!

3. Pretty handwriting. I don't know what it is about it but when I see pretty calligraphy or handwriting on Pinterest, I have to pin it.. even though I probably will never do anything with those pins. I am a doodler through and through and my planner and notebook are almost always covered in my different handwriting attempts.

4. Swimsuits. This is, by far, my favorite thing to buy! Growing up I got at least 3 new swimsuits every summer so when summer comes around, I neeeeeeed a new one. It's an actual need, you guys.

5. TV. I really do love TV. I get so excited about my TV shows and the characters become my friends (don't judge). I get sad when shows end and get so excited when new seasons begin! Big Brother is my current favorite.. I may or may not be watching an older season of it as we speak....

Well that's all for now, folks! Until next time!

What brings you joy?
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Sunday, September 4, 2016

A Currently Post Ft. A Happy Planner

I'm on a roll with this #blogtember thing! If you'd like to join in, it's not too late! I'm loving it so far. Having my posts planned out for me is so nice!

Last summer, I got a Memory Planner by Heidi Swapp which I featured on my blog here and here. I am still in the process of finishing up that memory planner... it was so much fun to do and a great way to document memories while staying organized, but I'll admit that it was much more work than I anticipated and the more I got behind, the bigger the task it was to catch up. But I am still determined to finish it at some point!

This year, I bought another planner for my birthday - a Create 365 The Happy Planner - that has a similar idea, but it's less scrapbook-esque and more writing prompts while still definitely leaving LOTS of room for planning which is just what I need! And each month it has a 'Currently' page which is exactly what September 4th's blogtember prompt is. I've added a photo of my August Currently page as well as a few others so you can see how stinking cute this planner is!

Without further ado, I give you my new Happy Planner :)

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Summer 2016

Today's #blogtember prompt is: "Now that summer's at an end, share a list of favorites from the season." Well lucky for all y'all readers of this here blog, I made a summer Chatbook that you can flip through virtually by clicking HERE!































Friday, September 2, 2016

#blogtember

Hey y'all! Long time no blog! I just kind of took the entire month of August off... of everything. Working, blogging, life-ing in general and it was absolute bliss! I really needed that time to revamp after my insane month of July where I was working 50+ hours total each week.. Parker and I had such an awesome trip to Montana/Southern Alberta with a little bit of British Columbia camping thrown in, too. We spent so much time with family which is just what I wanted/needed.

Now that I'm back in Ohio, I've wanted to get back into the swing of things in every facet of my life, but especially blogging and what better way to do so than with a blogging challenge, eh?

Rachel Sayumi, an adorable fashion and lifestyle blogger I know from BYU (Parker was her home teacher freshman year), joined this challenge and I think it's the cutest idea ever. The challenge stems from the Love Bailey Jean Blog and I feel like it's just what I need to get out of my blogging slump! I probably won't have time to blog every day so I'll just be following the prompts here and there. I'm a day late to the party so I figured I'd kind of combine days 1 & 2 (Introduce yourself & share a list of your current goals) into one post for today. Here goes nothing: