when we moved into a different house this past summer, i was excited about the chance to start fresh with a new bedroom. we had lived in our previous house for fifteen years. i had a mondo-bedroom. we built and designed the house with my bedroom as “two in one” — framed to easily have a wall added for re-sale. we never added the wall, so consequently, i had a bedroom twice the size [if not more than that] of my bedroom now. it was the biggest challenge to go from tons of space & two big closets to… this. check out the sweet before photo of my bedroom in june. no furniture. nothing on the walls. ugly beige paint colour. orange flooring. lovely box in the corner.

and… TA-DAHHHH.
after photo.

i had a ton of ideas for my bedroom; it was overwhelming. in september i made seven trips to ikea. seven. i haven’t been back since and i rejoice! ikea is fun times if you’re going to browse and party and spend a lazy day trying out all the couches and pretending you live in the little rooms. when you’re rushing in and making notes and going to the warehouse and standing in return lines it suddenly becomes annoying. the biggest project in my room was the photo wall. i have traveled my face off in the last three years and i was craving a way to  surround myself with the world.

i was very systematic with how i planned out this business. it took HOURS. first, i had to comb through thousands of files to find the photos i wanted to print. that was a hard decision. then i had to map out in photoshop the layout of the photos, with the size of frames i wanted, on the amount of wall space i had available. then i had to choose metal, white or black frames, write down how many of which i needed. then i had to hang them over the course of a few evenings. i say, a few evenings, and not one, because i felt like giving up multiple times. my friend leah & i used her iPhone as a level [cool app!] and marked my entire wall with a pencil and a ruler. not to mention the times we pounded a nail in the wall only to realize, oh crap, that needed to be one inch up. do not look behind these frames. there is some serious destruction. but it’s pretty on the outside & i feel good about this.

i mainly chose prints from our cannon beach road trip, my UK trip [london, scotland, ireland] & one or two images from montreal — unfortunately it wasn’t my most-recent montreal trip [that was after this wall was already done] but from autumn of 2010.  i also found three prints on etsy that i love — i’m all about typography. obviously, the one above my bed is the alphabet & the two on the side say “small acts transform the world” and “i like boring things.”

left: a project above the white chair in my bedroom. little clipboards of people and notes i love. my BFFs kristen and leanne, my brother brandon & my friend sam at my twenty-first birthday party, my friend kelsey the morning i took photos of her & jon, a little note from my friend jess, a prayer card for my friend jayme who’s serving in uganda for six months.

right: i adore this print from my trip with sarah for joanna & alex’s tofino wedding. tofino is such a rainy, cold, beautiful, magical place. i want to go back to that cabin and dance in the rain. i like that i look at this moody scene every day. i also have a nice little collection of candles that i should light more often & my earring tree.

above: more little trinkets. my jewellery box, two old photos of my family — about four years ago. an instax polaroid camera i don’t use near enough, three bottles of perfume, a lantern from urban outfitters.

there’s another half of my room, the closet we renovated, that i still need to show off. but it needs a tad more work! ;)
hope you enjoyed this little look into my world.

my promo video does not lie.

i love to laugh. i laugh easily & i laugh often.
i laugh about the same jokes i heard last week.
i laugh about the same videos i’ve watched twenty times.
i laugh about how much i laugh.

sometimes, when i am overtired, i laugh-snort.
sometimes, when i am trying to control my laughter, i start whimpering.
little whimpers of bubbling giggles that escape because my self-control has failed.

sometimes i think my friends & family have a suspicion–mainly my dad–that i exaggerate my laughter. no. no no no.

[okay, maybe a tad. sometimes i get on a roll] — but one day. i was flying alone and bored. i started watching old videos on my laptop. picture this, window seat. curled up towards the wall, hand over my mouth, attempting to “breathe through” the giggles and failing miserably. i could feel little bubbles of laughter escape. i could feel the eyes of the passenger next to me. i pressed on, determined to pass the time by watching these videos i loved so much. i had to give up after ten minutes. i couldn’t do it. i couldn’t NOT laugh. there was a 95% chance those giggle-bubbles were going to turn into giggle-bursts and then there was a 100% chance i would be labelled as “that girl” on the plane. i did not want to be “that girl” — i only wanted to watch my videos!

i shut off my laptop and went back to looking out the window.
i couldn’t do it. my giggles are out of control.

yesterday, emily & i photographed leanne.
i was a giggling mess.
leanne couldn’t handle it.
so she tried to hide her giggles, too.
i took this photo.

laughing is fun.

happy monday morning! it’s sunny, it’s cold, i’m on my second cup of coffee, wearing my favourite scarf, sitting in one of my favourite local coffee spots, listening to phil wickham, thinking about the weekend past. my poor dog, taylor, tore a ligament in her leg this week [right behind her knee] and had to have surgery [$$$] this friday morning. she got home saturday morning with a spiffy new purple cast and some strict instructions for the months ahead. no climbing stairs [we currently have our hallway baby-gated off,] no walking off-leash, pills twice a day, shots once a week, on and on it goes. thankful for my incredible mom who is a much better caregiver than me…. and my incredible dad who split the cost of surgery with me. love my parents — and they’ve been married 24 years as of today!

saturday afternoon was spent with my friends christie + dan, who were recently engaged over the christmas break. these two met at trinity western university a few years ago and have been together for about two and a half years. they are tying the knot in september and i am excited to be at their wedding and capture it as their friends.

sunday morning, i had the honour of preaching [for the first time] to our wonderful group of preteens. i spoke about generosity and the idea of sowing and reaping. what we have been given is our seed — if we keep it, great, we have a pile of seed! but… if we sow that seed, we’ll reap more and more. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. [2 Corinthians 9] — i loved sharing. highlight of the weekend, for sure. ps. one more highlight… kristen is engaged. ;)

& i like these verses.