life lately

The past couple weeks have been good.  I've been enjoying warming our chilly home by cooking hot food, taking walks in the rain, and trying my best to be productive even though lately it's usually been a losing battle.  Overall, though, I'm happy and am excited for this month.  November is a good one.
Anticipating... Election season finally being over.  Everyone is just so emotional and salty and frustrated and I think it's been seeping into my life because I've been eye-rolling about everything lately.  I filled out my ballot and mailed it in, though, so at least I've done the deed!  Have you (American) guys sent in your ballots yet?  I've never done a mail-in ballot before!  Back home we just went to the local school and walked into the booth things, which I always thought was so cool.  I would feel so grown up and official walking out and getting my "I Voted" sticker!
Thinking About... How our 1 year anniversary is tomorrow.  So crazy to think that one year ago I was crammed in my tiny house with four other girls, trying to figure out how to do rag curls (hair experiments are a fun thing to do for your wedding!), and being oh so excited for the next day's activities.  I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by.  The next year seems so full of promise, I can't wait!
Reading... This past week I found this article via a musician friend.  I was struck by how similar the problems with the music industry are to that of the clothing industry.  People these days expect to pay next to nothing for both music and clothing, but they should be expensive. If they were produced and distributed ethically, clothes and music would cost much more than what the average person now considers an acceptable price, simply because sites like spotify and companies like forever 21 can give them quickly produced, inexpensive clothes, in quantities that would've been unthinkable just a few decades ago.  Instead of buying things that are high quality that we care for and, in the case of clothing, mend when they start to show wear, we just go out and buy more low quality clothing because it's cheaper than repairing the original item.  Stores like Forever 21, Target, and H&M can pump out truckloads of trendy new clothes constantly, which fuels our desire to have more clothes.  Plus, independent musicians and clothing designers/producers are getting screwed because people now consider their prices to be "outrageously high", when really that's just what their product should cost, when produced & distributed ethically. Do you guys have any thoughts on this issue? I realize that many of us are poor college students/20-somethings, but I'm increasingly seeing that as a bad excuse for rationalizing this unethical practice.  I'd really like to get a copy of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion.  I read the excerpt they had on Amazon and was really interested in this issue, especially as a personal style blogger.
Working on... Insanity!  I just started about a week and a half ago and so far I'm really liking it.  It is indeed quite insane, but in a good way.  I've been trying to work out consistently the past couple months, and before Insanity I was doing this video (which I love) by Erin O'Brien on a regular basis.  Most work out videos kind of annoy me, especially if the leader is too peppy and bubbly, which is why I prefer Erin and Insanity.  Erin's video is shot in her living room, which I particularly love, because that's probably where anyone who's working out to a video will be doing it, including myself.  I'll go back to doing her video after I'm done with Insanity and I'm looking forward to seeing if I have more stamina when doing her workout after completing Insanity.  I mean, I almost definitely will (right?), but it'll be cool to actually feel more fit.
Looking forward to... My parents are supposed to be in town this week, so I'm pretty excited to see them, if only for a little bit.  I think they're going to be off doing other things, so I probably won't have a bunch of time with them, but it's always nice to catch a meal or just hang out for a bit.  I'm so glad SeaTac is so close (relatively speaking) to Anchorage.  Just one flight away, no frustrating and time-consuming layovers.  
Obsessing over... Whether or not to cut my bangs.  I'm trying to grow them out, mostly because they're already down to below my nose, and I haven't been sans fringe in many years, so it'd be interesting to see if I like it.  But I have to get past the point of having the obnoxiously-too-long bangs before I can really determine if I like having no fringe or want to cut them in again.  A silly debate, but they're at that stage where they seriously can drive me completely bonkers.  Too short to tuck behind my ears, too long to style, and I'm not a fan of how I look with them pinned back.  I need to hide all the scissors in the house.  One of these days I'll just pop up on the blog with red hair and bangs, you never know!!
Missing... Ice skating at home!  Every once in a while the lake will freeze over completely before a big snowfall comes, so you can skate down the whole entire lake!  Once it snows, people will plow their own personal ice rinks, but this is the only time you can skate the whole lake from one end to the other.  It's pretty magical.  Here is my Mom being too cute for words in her puffy coat, skating with my Dad.

 
 
 
 
 
fall walks with my love // fall staples: herringbone, tights, boots // faux updo made with a wig professor dan on halloween // chai and writing // avocado toasts, an essential fancy early anniversary dinner at Asado // The Physics concert downtown! // breakfast date apple, blackberry, peach smoothie // rainy outfit shoot essentials
Here are some fun links from around the web that I've enjoyed lately:
Ellen DeGeneres on why you don't ask a feminist to hawk your sexist product.  HI-larious.
One of my favorite film clips/songs of all time.
Speaking of that song, this mix has been playing all the time in our house lately.  Killing it.
I love this lady's outlook on life.  So positive!
This just makes my mouth water.
I feel like this applies to pretty much anything in life.
Enjoying this pretty, new-to-me blog.
Oh!  And you can still get 20% off INDIE for one more day by using the code IM-NEW, and/or get 50% off the second month when you buy a 2 Month Small Ad using the code NOVEMBER.  Both expire tomorrow!