Perfect Summer Day

I do so love manicures...

I have nothing to hide..just me, on a perfect summer day.

Hey everybody! It's finally almost summer, and it is just gorgeous down here in Florida, warm, with clear bright blue skies, and, in our case, an amazing pool to jump into when it gets too hot!

So all in all, life's pretty dandy in my little corner of the earth, the biggest thing that's happened to me lately is my karate test...which I will, of course, describe to you.

I was testing for my brown belt test, and I was pretty nervous, I was worried i was going to forget my techniques in the middle of the test or something. What turned out to be the worst was the length of the test. It was two and a half hours and hard labor, and I'm not going to lie to you, it was incredibly hard and painful. I never have been a person that has alot of endurance, I'm a sprinter rather than a marathoner, if you catch my drift. It was really, really hard, especially the sparring at the end. It wasn't that it was so difficult, but I was just so exhausted and drained that every movement was an effort. What really touched me throughout the sparring was my family cheering me on. Even my brother, who usually isn't very demonstrative, was encouraging me and cheering me on, and that, along with my instructor, helped me get through it.

It was really hard, but I'm really glad I did it. I gave it my all, and I'm proud of that.

Also, on a lighter note, I went shopping at Kohl's today and got some amazing deals on some adorable shirts...I'll have an outfit post if you guys want :) It's just been an amazing past few weeks, and I can't wait for summer to start--how about you guys?

Love and butterfly kisses,

Ari

God's Creation: Lake Superior...

I LOVE this one..

Isn' this place just completely gorgeous? When I'm old and retired, I'm going to build a summer home right on lake superior. It's the best. Birch trees (my favorite) right by the fresh water (my favorite) with lots of cool driftwood and rocks (which is awesome) and cute little northern cabins (which are adorable). See? It's awesome.

Birch trees. Right. By. The. Water. :)

This isn't near lake Superior..but its another lake in Michigan and my goodness, isn't it gorgeous?

Pansies

Thought you'd all like that little glimpse into the purple lovelies of our garden--pansies :)

So how has your week been? Mine has been super busy, lots an loooots of school...I know, uninteresting, but hey--thats reality!

Comin Back to You

Hey guys! I'm sorry that its been five days...again...but this week school has been super swamp-ish this week :) I'm finishing everything up, getting ready for summer which I can completely not wait for!!
What plans do you guys have for summer? I'm going to be helping with my church's VBS, and going to a worldview conference called Summit in either Tennessee or Colorado..it lasts for two weeks, and its going to be full of students my age and I am so pumped about that!!
I've alwasy been interested in different world views and how to stay grounded in my own...ways to defend my faith and stuff like that, so I'm looking forward to the conference alot :)
So...
I have a confession to make.
I got a Netflix app on my itouch and I got totally addicted to The Office, to Parks and Recreation, and to Dropdeaddiva.
Yeah...it's not good. I never knew how hilarious TV shows could be. My horizons have been greatly expanded :P
It's kind of sad, but I don't have too much to talk about. My life has basically been school, work, organizing my room, reading some much cherished library books (because I hardly ever get to go there) and watching Netflix on my itouch...so my life hasn't exactly been super exciting, but there have been a few things I'm really trying to work on.
One thing was definitely organization, and the other was time management...one book that I really like is:

It's really helpful and fun to read too. It helped me see that I'm organized in some areas, like my books an d my magazines and my journals and stuff, but that I'm disorganized in other areas, like putting things away after I get them out.
So I'm trying to get that part of my life straightened out and it feels really good!
And you know what else feels awesome? Laughing hysterically at the office as Jim and Pam do something diabolical to mess with Dwight's mind :)
I'm sorry its not totally thrilling, and I promise I will be posting again soon :)
Have a great week!!
Love,\
Ari

Freshborn

I just love fresh basil...it goes with so many different dishes, and I couldn't let these baby basil plants go into the ground without taking some pictures. They were so cute in their tiny planter's pots :)

I loved the contrast with light and shadow in this photo...herbs are fun to take pictures of!

So are tiny purple pansies.

Sorry I didn't get these pictures up sooner--the blogger photo upload wasn't working for a while there, thus preventing me from showing you all :)

How was your Mother's Day on Sunday? sorry I didn't do a grand and special post that day--I was too tired! I woke up early to make Mom some breakfast and give her her present, and then I had to leave to practice with our church's praise band, and by the time I got home I was exhausted, so I actually napped some in my room.

I NEVER nap.

The blinds weren't even shut on my ginormous window.

I can NEVER sleep in daylight,

Yet somehow, I did.

That shows you how tired I was :)

So, I'm sorry I didn't get a post in...but I really do love my Mom and tried to make it an awesome day for her so....

That's really all the news I have for you guys, and I need to get back to studying for my Physics test (and my English project) so enjoy the pictures and have an amazing rest of the week!

Love and kisses,

Ari

Grab Onto Moments As They Slip By....

Do you ever just get a hankering sometimes for the way things used to be?
I grew up a late 90's\early 2000's child. and sometimes I look back at everything, bad hair, wierd clothes, and jellies shoes (I had a pair of those...pink sparkly ones!) and can't help but feel nostalgic. In an era where everything--clothes, shoes, hair, makeup, figures, are all striving towards such perfection, sometimes its fun to look back at the frizzy hair, MC Hammer pants (EWW!), baggy jeans, and loose tshirts and say "Ahhh..those were the days..."
I get that feeling whenever I read some old Babysitters Club books (Did you guys ever read those? I'm pretty sure Claudia and Mary Anne were my favorite characters :P) or happen to hear the Backstreet Boys somewhere, or watch a rerun of Full House--I remember what it was like being a kid, and how much the world has changed since then.
Back then, if you had a boombox, you were the coolest, and everyone was all excited about the Lion King coming out, and EVERYBODY knew about Britney Spears, Christina Aguilara, Justin Timberlake, and Aaron Carter (not that I'm condoning the lifestyles or careers of these people...that was just their era of fame!)

The style wasn't great back then, but it's funny to look back and think "Wow...I used to think those were the coolest ever!" Isn't it wierd how the world changes?
Makes me wonder what the world is going to be like in 2020..will I be looking back to 2011, and having the same feelings I do now about  the late 90's\early 2000's?
It's interesting to think about.
Only a few years have past, and so much has changed. Not that all change is bad, I LOVE my itouch, and I love the clothes and music nowadays too...it's just interesting to my to see how different eras go by, passing silently, never really missed until their over.
When I was living in the early 2000's, I couldn't imagine the world being another way.
it seemed to me that it would always be the coolest and most punk thing to have a bellybutton ring, that N Sync and the Backstreet boys would always be the hottest bands, and CD's would always be the way I would listen to my music. It never occured to me that world could or would change.
And then it did, and me along with it.
Luckily, I can always revisit those eras, through photo albums, music, and TV shows...but it's never quite the same. I can never relive my childhood, and its kind of scary to think about how fast time passes, and how little any of us take time to enjoy each moment, each era as it goes by.
Thinking about the past makes me want to enjoy the present as much as I can, and live it to the fullest, because the world will always be moving, and it never seems to stand still long enough for anyone to really experience it completely.
So I'll enjoy what makes 2011 great, because before I know it, 2012 will be here, and I'll be eighteen, and my teen years will almost be over, and I'll take what makes my childhood such a wonderful memory, and try to preserve that too.
The laughter, the dancing as I listen to music, not caring what my hair looks like, and putting on glitter eyeshadow because its fun..just living to the fullest.
That's what I want to do...how about you guys?
Love,
Ari

Look Ahead and Smile

Hello, fellow readers and bloggers, it's a lovely Thursday morning, and I was determined to get more blog posts in than I had previously been able to, so here I am!
Do you all like the blog makeover? It's still got some quirks that need ironing out,but I'll fix that in time.
A question for the more experienced bloggers: How does one get a blog header from a website like shabbyblogs.com or the cutest blog on the block.com or a site like that, onto my blog? I know how to do the backgrounds, I just copy the HTML code and put it in...but all the headers I've ever tried to get didn't have a code, so I would try just copying the picture of the header and then putting it in...but it would never fit properly! Any advice? The header I have currently I got from picnik.com, and I like it, but I would like to know for future reference, how to get a free header from a website, onto my blog--thanks!

So I was reading some of my old blog posts earlier, like from August and September, and noticed a big difference from then and now. Is it possible for a blogger to lose the enthusiasm and drive that makes her love blogging? Because lately I may have lost some of that. I noticed it last night when I was editing my photos, and then scouring the Internet for the right header and background, that I had really missed the feeling of being excited about blogging.
I've gotten a bit of that feeling back, which is a great, I can't wait to take my blog to new heights, to push my photography, and really take my blogging to the next level, so to speak.
April was a wierd month for me, full of an almost obsessive desire to change and improve myself in any way possible, and it really ate up alot of my time, energy, and focus.
School, blogging, and photography, all those things that used to drive me so much, kind of fell away, and I hated that feeling of emptiness inside.
So, I'm getting back to the basics, where I needed to be all along, snapping pictures, having a blast with my blog, and not trying to be perfect all the time.
Heaven knows I would have killed myself trying, but I'm done with that. I never have been much of a material girl, and that short brush with that lifestyle didn't do me any good--so I quit!
I'm just going to be me again, and you know what? It feels really good.

:)

So happy to be back.

Love,

Ari

Sunlight and May Flowers

So I finallllyyyy found my camera USB cord, so I got some photography comin up for you guys! I'm so happy I finally found it! it'll be mostly nature photography, that's my favorite style, I don't really know why, I just love taking pictures of flowers and plants and stuff like that, so that's what's usually on here :)

Doesn't that just look like lace going across the sky?

mmmm...I love spring blossoms :)

How was y'all's weekend? I had a great time! On Saturday I drove with my youth group to a local bayou and went kayaking, which was super fun, even though I did get super sunburned xD
No, like REALLY sunburned...It was painful to move my legs for a couple days. But the kayaking was super fun! We went in tandem kayaks, so it was never boring, and we went to all these cool little islands, and it was such a gorgeous sunny day (hence the sunburn!)
I hadn't been able to go kayaking since last fall, so it was really fun to be able to go again--and boy is it ever an arm workout!
Plus, I just love the feeling of being outdoors, in the sun, water and wind...I'm a nature girl like that :)
I've also been a very HUNGRY girl lately...its seems like I eat every two hours....and I am WAY too old for a growth spurt. It seems like I'm hungry all the time..it's kind of driving my mom nuts.
I moan all the time about being starving, and she's like "HOW on earth are you not a giant blimp!! You eat all day long!"
And I honestly have no idea how to answer her.
It's quite disturbing...I mean where does it all go??

Look at the intricate veins...God is so awesome, that even a tiny leaf like this could have a complicated inner design.

Man, I just love this one..the colors, the lighting..yum

These flowers are from my neighbor's garden..I was watering for them while they were out of town for spring break. My neighbor also happens to be my piano teacher, and she is one of the sweetest ladies ever to walk this earth. I think she knows me better than alot of people, and she helps me so much :)

I don't know why I love taking and editing pictures of flowers so much, it really is my favorite type of photography. They take so many different shapes and forms, and they all show such beauty.

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I did shooting and editing them :)

That silly USB cord was missing for so long, I nearly forgot how great it is to sit down and edit a bunch of great pictures. I had so much fun with this,,I hope you guys do too!

Love and lots of hugs,

Ari