HOME.

As much as I love traveling and being out and about, there's nothing like being home. I love home! It has all my favorite things, and it's such a comforting, safe place. Lately I've been adding more plants to my indoor plant collection, and all the ferns and moss really brighten my day!

There's something fun about coming home to your house after a trip because you get to experience your house how guests experience it. It's fun to walk into the space with fresh eyes, and see all those things again that make you happy. I love seeing all my plants all over the house, and my two fish, Kristofferson + Mordecai, swimming about their tank!


I'm so grateful for my home, and for Salt Lake City being my home for the past (almost) 4 years. Thanks for keeping me safe, and happy, and feeling ...well, at home.


*Plants from the beautiful Cactus & Tropicals!
www.cactusandtropicals.com

And Paradise Palm:
www.paradisepalm.com
Bonus, you can save 20% on your purchase at Paradise Palm if you mention "crazyplants"!

I GOT LAID OFF. (for the first time)

I've never been fired or laid off from a job before. That was up until last Wednesday. My company decided to lay off all the photographers in Utah including yours truly. It's a weird feeling going into a corporate meeting with 15 other photographers and all be told simultaneously that we don't have a job anymore. 

In order to get my severance package I have to work until June 8th and I'm totally okay with that. I love the people I work with, so although it's weird going back to a job you know you don't technically have anymore, it's easy to hang out my co-workers for a few more weeks.

I weirdly feel at ease with all of this though. Despite everything being so up in the air, I feel a strange calmness about it all. I know I'll figure out what to do next, I know I have savings to float me until my next thing, and I know everything will just be okay ultimately. I've lived a relatively pretty easy life so far, so why would it be any different now?

On the silly side of things, I can now say I've been laid off. That feels like a real 1930s thing to me. 

I really don't know what I will do just quite yet. I'm looking for jobs currently, and trying to interview for an HR type role that just opened up on Friday, but who knows? Maybe I'll just take the Summer off and go travel and bum around for a bit. That sounds so delightful to me. :) That was the original plan anyway, but it's easier to plan it out than to actually quit and make yourself do it. 

Maybe this laying off was just the little push I needed!


 

A DATE TO WHEELER FARMS!

Jeremy and I went to Wheeler Farms for a cute fall date. They have the Farmer's Market there on Sundays which is always fun! I just really love farmer's markets; I always have.

We got tamales for lunch from one of the vendors and ate them on a bench in the sunshine. They were so good but oh so spicy! The guy misunderstood me and instead of giving us two chicken tamales and just one cheese and jalapeno, he gave us each a cheese and jalapeno and only one chicken. Neither of us can do spice very well, so I ended up eating both cheese and jalapeno ones so Jeremy could have the chicken one and that was just waaay too many jalapenos for this mild-mouthed lady! But a tamale is a tamale, and I will never turn down a tamale!

We bought little tokens to ride the wagon ride around the grounds which I really love doing! It's $2 for kids, and $3 for adults. It's just a cute fall ride around all the property along the river and by all the pretty Autumn trees. We may be the only adults to ride the wagon ride without a kid by our side, but I don't care! It's fun and it makes me happy so I do it every time I go!

 

 
I just love anytime I can just walk around outside in a pretty place and enjoy the trees, and the running water, and the breeze. And of course a cute little pumpkin patch, and wagon ride. I'm so happy pumpkins stick around another month! I get to leave all my pumpkins out and enjoy them a little longer before it's full blown Christmas! Let's be honest though, the pumpkin/Autumn things will probably only stay out like two more weeks before my Christmas decorations make their way out! :)

So here's to enjoying what's left of Autumn these next two weeks until I just can't contain my excitement for Christmas anymore! 

Happy November!

  

OUR FIRST TIME TO THE TRACY AVIARY!

I finally went to the Tracy Aviary yesterday after work and it honestly was so much cooler than I thought it would be! It was also a lot bigger than I thought it would be! I've walked around it so much, but on the outside, I didn't realize just how much of the southwest corner of Liberty Park the Aviary took up. 

My favorite thing in the Aviary was the flamingos! I just really love flamingos and I think they are so lovely to watch. If I had to be a bird, I would definitely choose to be a flamingo! They get to live in the most beautiful tropical areas, they spend their days playing in water, and they get to look so glamorous doing it!  

I also really loved the Rain Forest exhibit! It was so lusciously green, and gorgeous! The birds in that exhibit are free to fly around inside so that was fun to have them fly overhead and around us.

Outside the Aviary, there are fun little carnival type rides for kids and that's where the fun Ride/Camp sign is. It was such a nice day. I love getting to explore new places in this city.

SOLAR ECLIPSE 2017!

Okay, today was fun! I loved the solar eclipse but I think I especially loved how it brought everyone together! Everyone at work pretty much hung out outside for an hour today and didn't work haha. 

I thought about going up to Rexburg for the Eclipse but I think the idea of all the traffic coming back deterred me. Who knows, maybe the traffic won't be bad at all but everyone kept saying it would be. We got a 91% coverage here in Salt Lake City though and that was really cool! It was such a neat experience to see the lighting shift into a weird dim light I've never experienced before and to feel the temperature in the air drop.

It was also really fun just to hang out with all my coworkers for an hour and see all the other businesses around us with their employees outside together too. 
I mean just look at all these adults who gradually turned more and more into little kids in a matter of an hour! Everyone started putting the truck tailgates down to sit on and it just started feeling more and more like a little parking lot party in the middle of a work day.
 

Really though, nobody at our dealership worked for a good hour and that just felt like fun company morale! Jeremy even walked over and hung out with us during the eclipse since all of his co-workers were being boring and working during all of it.

I really loved the eclipse and I cant wait to see all the cool videos and photos that will come from it! Now to watch the movie Sunshine tonight with Jeremy! He's never seen it and it's such a good SciFi space movie! If you haven't watched it before, that should be everyone's movie to watch tonight in celebration of the solar eclipse!


Solar Eclipse 2017, you were so good to me!

APPRECIATING THE LITTLE THINGS

Lately, I'm all about the little things. The little moments that easily get overlooked, but strung together make up an entire life. 

Jeremy and I have been watching (or re-watching for me) Seinfeld from the beginning as we eat dinner after work. It's such a small thing but I always get so excited when we make our food, or more realistically lately, go out and get our food, and come back home to watch a little Seinfeld. It's the perfect summer escapism show and it just has been making us laugh so much! So as silly as it may seem, the couch, Jeremy, and Seinfeld have become a little happy place for me these past couple weeks and I couldn't love it more!

So here's to reminding myself to stop and enjoy all the little happy moments in life even if they seem as silly as eating yummy food and watching a TV show.

THE PRETTIEST DRIVE THROUGH BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON

The other day, Mama, Jeremy and I took a little scenic drive through Big Cottonwood Canyon. I always thought I didn't like Big Cottonwood as much as Little Cottonwood but something about our recent drive really changed my mind. 

We stopped by Silver Lake which I had never gone to before. It was overcast, just the right amount of chill in the air, cloudy, and so beautiful! I couldn't have asked for better weather to experience a place for the first time. It really was perfect!

We walked along the path out to the water, took some photos, watched the fisherman, and admired the pretty scenery. I really want to take a little picnic out there the next time I go and eat by the water.

We then continued on to Park City through Guardsman Pass which was another first for me! I've never driven to Park City that way, but now that's the only way I want to go! It definitely adds some time to the trip, but it's well deserved time added. It's just so fun to get to drive through Big Cottonwood and have all that scenery along the drive.

Every Sunday from 10:00am-5:00pm is the Park City Farmer's Market on Main Street so we walked around and looked at all the booths. I really love Farmer's Markets. I kind of always have ever since I was little and would go to all the craft shows and farmer's markets with my mama and her soap + candle business.

We had dinner at Blue Iguana, looked in the shops, and walked along the streets in the drizzling rain. We also shared a yummy pecan caramel apple from the chocolate shop which was the perfect little treat! No matter how much food I eat for dinner, there's always room for a caramel apple. :)

It was a perfect day, and now I just want to spend every evening in Big Cottonwood Canyon! 
 

A PICNIC IN LITTLE COTTONWOOD.

Saturday, my Mama made a lot of yummy food, and my family went up to Little Cottonwood Canyon for a picnic! We had good picnic food too! She made pesto, chicken salad sandwiches, and a couple of different kinds of a salad.

It was the nicest temperature up there and so nice to escape the heat for a bit! We went up to the top of Little Cottonwood to Albion Basin and found some logs to bring together to sit on and eat. We had our dinner and Jeremy gave pieces of bread to a little critter who kept coming by. I think he called it a potgut? He was cute whatever he was!

After we ate, we walked along the path up towards Cecret Lake. Jeremy and Forrest climbed rocks along the way, I took lots of photos, and picked too many wildflowers. It was just a really nice evening.

Sometimes I forget just how nice it is to go up the canyons. I always love it when I do, but sometimes I let too much time pass in between my trips up there. I'm going to make it a point to explore the canyons more and just escape the city a little more. I mean, this absolutely beautiful place is only 30 minutes from my house. I don't really have any excuses not to spend more time up there! 

I also really want to start utilizing the canyons more with my photoshoots. The wildflowers and pine trees are just so lovely and I want to do more shoots up there.

Forrest performing an Indian Paintbrush healing blessing.

Until next time, Little Cottonwood Canyon. :)

IT'S FRIDAY, I'M IN LOVE.

I felt reeaal cool today. And I have photos to prove just how cool I felt thanks to Jeremy and my friend Ryan. :)

 

Every Friday morning, we all go out to coffee before work and it's pretty much the highlight of my work week. Today we went to Publik; I got my mocha, and cinnamon sugar toast and had the peachiest little time. I love Fridays.

 

MOVIE TUESDAY: THE HOUSE

Last night we watched The House! It was really silly, but also really funny! I giggled a lot and my mom even laughed a lot, so it's even mom approved! Well, I mean it's normal, cute, open-minded mom approved. But don't take your uptight Mormon mom to it, she won't like it. haha.

While we were waiting for the movie to start I was thinking about how much Jeremy and I probably spend on our weekly movie habit and thought it must be a lot. Granted we don't go every single week (almost though), but if we went say 50 weeks out of the year that would only be $250 a year. That really isn't that bad honestly! I feel like I've blew $250 in way worse ways. 

I will gladly forever spend $5 a week to carry on the funnest Tuesday tradition, and to be able to see movies in the theater. :) 
 
It's just so much more fun to see all the movies in the theater! Plus I'm slowly adding to my crazy movie ticket stub collection that I will probably never do anything with. I have saved every single movie ticket stub since I was a freshman or sophomore in highschool. One day I'll finally bring them all together and do some type of project with them. Until then, they will continue to sit in a variety of little treasure boxes in Utah and California.
 

LET'S BE REAL FOR A SEC.

I got kind of chubby. 
I mean, this isn't really news to anyone. It all started right around my first year living in Rexburg. I blame it on moving away from home for the first time with a mix of an amazing cook of a boyfriend at the time who made me dinner every single day. Super delicious, but not so healthy food every single night. Who wouldn't get chubby?!

Anyway, I finally decided I want to get back into shape and to look how I did when I was 18, 19, 20. I was skinny and super in shape from swimming and I just miss those days!

I found a cool Sport Rec Center up by the U that has an indoor and outdoor pool! (Along with a full gym, workout classes, and an ice skating rink!) So last Thursday I bought myself a month membership to try it out and I've been just about every night since! It feels so good to start swimming again!

Without meaning to, I always end up there about 8:00pm to swim for an hour and just in the week I've been I'm starting to see the same regulars every night which is fun. There's a group of 3 older Russian women there every night to swim and then end the night in the sauna, and I just admire their friendship from across the pool and locker room.

My goal is to lose 15 pounds by my 25th birthday. If you're a health nutritionist look away because I already know that's an unhealthy weight loss goal for that time frame but that's what I'm shooting for!

Fun Fact: When I first met Jeremy, I lost 7 pounds in two weeks. My boss teased me that it was Puppy Love because I was never hungry and never felt like eating. I was just too happy to eat, I suppose. Crazy right? haha

For being chubbier, I still fit into my Junior year of highschool swimsuit!

So this is my goal! 

• 15 pounds weightloss by September 12th.
• Swimming or some form of good exercise everyday after work.  
• Eating healthier everyday. 
• Become more aware of those little sneaky calories.
  (I'm looking at you chai's and mochas!)

Starting Weight: 146
Current Weight: 139
Goal Weight:     125

Wish me luck! Losing weight is rough mcguff.

DATE NIGHT TO SPIDER-MAN! SWIMMING. TARGET SHENANIGANS.

This past weekend was FUN! 
Friday night I went swimming at the Sport Center up by the U by myself and it was so lovely! I swam 26 laps in 40 minutes which made me feel so good! 36 laps is a mile so I did about 2/3rds of a mile! I haven't been swimming in a long time so I'm still working up to how I used to be. I used to be able to just swim and swim but I just haven't kept up on it recently. I'm excited I'm starting again though! Here's to a healthier Olivia! :)

I went out to lunch Saturday with Mama and Forrest to Chunga's and got the most delicious pineapple drink with my carne asada burrito plate. That drink was yummy! Pineapple drinks always seem so refreshing on a hot summer day. 

Saturday evening we all went to see the new Spider-Man! I always really have enjoyed the different Spider-Man movies and I liked this one as well! Spider-Man always just seems the lightest feeling story out of all the superhero movies. We went to the 7:30pm showing which was nice and full which I love for a movie like that!

Sunday morning Jeremy and I went to The Park Cafe for a cute Sunday morning breakfast! We sat out on the patio which is only really nice this time of year! They have that area open in the winter with heat lamps on and it's freezing! But it was really nice this time, and it was fun to look out at Liberty Park across the street and watch all the joggers/rollerbladers/bikers go by. 

Then we went to Bath & Body Works because I ran out of some of my favorite perfume. And the best thing happened! It was on sale for 75% off so naturally I bought way too many!  When they're $3 a bottle, you naturally just have to buy a bunch. Right?

We went to Target not really for anything in particular, sometimes I just like to go "see what they have". We look at the same sections every time. I look in the dollar section for new birthday cards & note cards while Jeremy bugs me that I'm taking too long. We look at all the new stuff in the home decor section. Lately we've been looking in the patio section for backyard things. And 88% of the time I stop to see what new silly leggings I can get from the little girls section. The XL in Girls fits me and they're so much cheaper than women's leggings and way cuter! So far I have the pink donuts one, blue and yellow banana ones, and sherbert ice cream looking ones! I will proudly match all the 8 years old around. :)


I call this: "The coolest kid in the candy store."
Not really. I just made him stop and positioned him in the middle of the aisle for a photo and he naturally put on his sunglasses. Don't worry, we're not the terrible people who wear sunglasses indoors haha.

Blue Copper is our favorite coffee shop in SLC so we tend to end up there a lot. We go to a lot of others but at the end of the day, I think we just both really love the vibe in Blue Copper the best. For the summer they have the best Vanilla Bean Lemonade and it's sooo good!

FOURTH OF JULY 2017!

You guys, I LOVE the 4th of July! It's always been one of my favorite holidays ever since I was little. I love the parades, the red white and blue attire, the bbqs, the patriotism, communities coming together, the glitter parade floats, but especially the fireworks!

Oh how I love firework shows. 

 

This year we went to the North Salt Lake firework show the night before the 4th! That's one reason I really love that firework show; they always have it the night before so we essentially get two nights of the 4th of July celebrations! They had a ton of food trucks on the street and everything would have been so tempting if I wasn't so full!

On the actual 4th we woke up early to go to the Murray parade! We did that last year and it was really fun so we went back again this year. It's a cute parade and the best part is it's only an hour long! That's just my kind of parade: short and sweet. 

We had a bbq at home which was the yummiest! Mama made a lot of food and Forrest grilled ribs and chicken + veggie kabobs on the grill which were so good! We had Megan and Jordan (Jeremy's sister and brother-in-law) over for dinner also which was really fun!

After some rounds of Mario Kart, we went to the Sugarhouse Fireworks and this year they had carnival rides set up! Forrest + I went on a really fun spinning one which was so much fun! 

 

 

We ended the night with some little fireworks at home only to have the neighborhood crazy lady come outside to yell "No fireworks!". She really is so crazy, you guys. She once got mad at Jeremy and I for parking on the street in front of her house because it was "her spot". News flash, lady, nobody owns any spot on a public street. 

I'm now super excited for Pioneer Day so we can have another firework show! We always go to the one at Liberty Park so come be friends if you live in SLC! :)