THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG

Graphic Design by: Alex Fisher

As simply put, the title of this blog "Heart of Confetti" stems from lyrics from the song "Old Friend" by Alexander (a side project from the singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros).

In the song he sings,

"My heart is confetti, I'm having a party I'm feeling good"

This song is beautiful already, but I've always really liked this line. Mainly because this is how I feel. I find myself always just wanting to play. I just want to have fun and do fun things. I want my life to feel like one giant, fun adventure. So far, I've been extremely blessed and I've been able to have a fun life. There are some nights when I realize the hardest decision I had to make all day was what to eat. If that's the hardest thing I'm dealing with I realize I have a pretty good life.

Sometimes I hear people say things like "Well, it can't all be fun and games" and I just think to myself why not? Granted, there will be sad/frustrating/bad moments, but really isn't it just how we handle those moments that really says more about us? I know I'm going to have tough days, and I know you can't truly appreciate the good without knowing a little bit of the bad, but for my own life, I'm going to try to focus on the good!

I seriously have so many things in my life to be grateful for. I have been blessed with an amazing family; fun, caring friends; and a healthy body that allows me to do anything I need it to. It's hard to not be grateful for the good when there is so much surrounding me.

If I can just continue to keep traveling, playing, and taking photographs all along the way, I will be an extremely happy soul! So here's to having a heart of confetti, having parties, and feeling good! :)

Here is the song if you care to listen. :)

EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY

“You have a whole life in the outdoors, you realize you have a sense of 

responsibility to protect these wild places.”

-Yvon Chouinard

As you're probably already aware, today is Earth Day! Really though, every day should be Earth Day. Making environmentally conscious choices 1 day a year just doesn't seem like enough to help protect this beautiful planet we live on.

To say I love nature is a little of an understatement. I grew up living 2 hours away from Yosemite National Park and would go on trips there throughout my life. I think my trips to Yosemite is what really sparked my love for nature, the outdoors, and the wilderness. I also spent every summer going up to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to go swimming in the Merced River with my family, and friends. Just like Yvon's quote on the top of this post, I really feel like when you grow up being connected with nature, you feel the need to do more to keep the wilderness wild.

These past few years, I've really got into watching a lot of documentaries. Particularly, I always find myself drawn to the ones about nature and protecting the environment.

These documentaries are both a blessing and a curse in my life. I'm no longer completely ignorant about how our consumption habits and mindless spending impact this earth, but at the same time I'm starting to really analyze every purchase I make, which can be exhausting. I'm really starting to cut back on what I purchase with the hope that one day everything in my life will be a necessity or have a useful function, and not just be clutter.

Useful questions I ask myself before buying something:
"Do I need it?"
"Is it high quality enough that it will last and I won't have to replace it soon?"
"Do I already own something similar?"
"Will I miss it if I don't buy it?"
"Will it benefit my life?"
"Okay, but do I reeeeally need it?" (This is usually the one that gets me.)

Although I'm much more knowledgeable now than I've been before, I still have a long way to go. Don't get me wrong, I still buy sodas in cans and bottles (because I'm a complete Mountain Dew addict), but at least now I feel bad about it. I have changed a lot of the ways I spend my money though and for me, that's a nice improvement. It's nice to be aware of how my own purchases are affecting places on this earth.


Some of my favorite quotes about protecting the environment and being a smarter consumer:

• “You have a whole life in the outdoors, you realize you have a sense of responsibility to protect these wild places.”  -Yvon Chouinard
• "Everything we personally own that’s made, sold, shipped, stored, cleaned, and ultimately thrown away does some environmental harm every step of the way, harm that we’re either directly responsible for or is done on our behalf.” -Yvon Chouinard
• "God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools." -John Muir
• “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ” -Franklin D. Roosevelt 
•  “Going back to a simpler life based on living by sufficiency rather than excess is not a step backward.” -Yvon Chouinard

Netflix documentaries that will change your life:

• 180 Degrees South
• DamNation
• (There's a bunch on plastic that will make you feel terrible about all the plastic you don't realize you use everyday, but right now I can't remember any of the titles)

Happy Earth Day, friends!
At the risk of sounding preachy... may we all do a little better to keep our mother earth in mind every day. :)

CONFETTI COOKIES

These confetti cookies are fun and delicious and perfect for every occasion, and best of all, they're super easy to make! 

What you'll need:

• 1 box Funfetti cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 stick butter (room temperature) 
• 1 package cream cheese (room temperature)
• Sprinkles! (I went kind of crazy with sprinkles, you use how much your little heart desires!)

Mix the room temperature butter and cream cheese together until it's a creamy blend.

Add egg and vanilla and mix together.

Add Funfetti cake mix and mix together.

After adding the cake mix, I added additional sprinkles but you can leave it as is. I just liked how colorful it looked with more sprinkles. 

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Again, I added more sprinkles on the top by dipping the tops in sprinkles, but this is optional. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 box Funfetti cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 stick butter (room temperature) 
• 1 package cream cheese (room temperature)
• Sprinkles! (I went kind of crazy with sprinkles, you use how much your little heart desires!)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, mix the room temperature cream cheese and room temperature butter until smooth. Mix in the egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix in the cake mix. (I find it easier to mix half the cake mix in and then the other half.) You can choose to mix in more sprinkles like I did at this point. After everything is mixed thoroughly, roll batter into 1 inch sized balls and dip the top in extra sprinkles. Place cookie dough balls on cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until you see fit. I always like my cookies much more on the softer side.

Happy baking, friends! :)

SNOW DAY

Today I woke up and it was instantly December again! It hardly snowed at all this winter in SLC but for some reason, mother nature wanted us to have a nice snow day on April 15th. Just yesterday it was 75 degrees and I was running errands around the city in a sundress and sandals.

It's fun to have such a random snow day but I'm scared for my flower garden. I put a lot of work into my little tulips and daffodils and they were all just starting to bloom and be beautiful. I don't know enough about tulips to know if they'll be able to survive through this snow. I sure hope so though! I was really enjoying my colorful yard this spring.

This is not a lovely photo by any means but it's just reference for how pretty all my flowers were. I took this photo yesterday.

Well I'm definitely taking advantage of this cold, snow day. Today calls for layers of comfy clothes, blankets, a Taco Bell run, eating leftover Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, and watching Interstellar special features with my brother all day.