365: days 176-200

I have decided to stop using the weeks as a way to mark this project because I was getting ridiculously confused - this can be a VERY confusing pastime if you aren't organized. Which I'm not. Ever. But I'm trying to get better!

For instance, I have my photos! I've been doing the project, but I stopped posting them and editing them because of work, life, etc. But I am working on catching up! So here are some more summer photos to remember one of the best summers ever, the summer of Austin, of new roommates, of pool parties, of river floating, and dinosaurs.



176/365

On my way out of the city, after a tearful goodbye to my mother and a trip to Trader Joe's to pick up their entire stock of pomegranate limeade, I saw a food truck selling donuts. And I impulsively slammed to the left to grab me some of that. I came back to the car with a chocolate donut filled with cake batter and a donut topped with brown sugar, grilled bananas, and honey drizzle. Check out Gourdough's, if you are ever in the Austin area!



177/365

My beautiful, loving, selfless mother in front of a colorful wall. I love the contrast between her dress and the graffiti.



178/365
Beautiful blooms in Austin.



179/365

Austin is known for its street art; we saw it everywhere. It makes the city even more colorful and warm, if that was even possible.



180/365

I am obsessed with these dinosaur planters, found in a boutique along South Congress street. I fully plan on making some of my own, and SOON!



181/365

We celebrated the FIFA U.S.A women's soccer game (so many words) at our favorite taco place. Such a lovely place, such a lovely face...



182/365

Stewie dropped off a mad amount of fresh basil from the learning gardens where she volunteers. She prompted me to share them with Laura, though I definitely forgot and never did. Later on Stewie would ask her about it, to which I would leap into their conversation and exclaim that there was no reason we needed to talk about that, there was never any fresh basil, etc. They both shot me dirty looks.



183/365

The first half of the year is over; it is the thick of summer and the air is heavy with humidity and possibilities. It was my Monday and I was lacking creative focus, so I laid my treasured collection of feathers out on a skull-print cloth: a whispery soft feather from Brutus, a small, scrappy feather from Kogi, a long and elegant tail feather from an unknown pheasant from the Minnesota wood, and an eyed peacock feather from a proud male strutting the aviary grounds.



184/365

I got a bunch of awesome postcards from the Museum of the Weird in Austin to send to friends! I want to start a habit of sending more postcards in life; they're just so cool and easy!



185/365

Kogi says, "Let freedom ring!". Happy Fourth of July!



186/365

Zeppo being crazy during an outdoor session.



187/365

It's so easy to just take photos of my beautiful animals; I'm around them constantly and there is never a dull moment when you train creatures. Here is Nacho showing off her jump, jump, jump!



188/365

Roommate dinners are one of my favorite things; combined ingredients, usually a concoctions of pasta, cheese, vegetables, and meat, plus one of our favorite movies or TV shows=perfection.



189/365

This was clearly not a photo taken by me, but I love it. It's a famous mural in Austin on the side of Jo's Coffee. I wanted a photo of us next to it very badly, especially since it captures my feelings about this trip; about this roommateship in general.



190/365

An amazing urban art playground, The Hope Outdoor Gallery. People constantly add to it, take photos, and climb atop the structures in the baking sun. We didn't stay as long as I would have liked due to TRAGEDY (I dropped my phone and it cracked. AGAIN).



191/365

This is one of my favorite photos I've ever taken, I feel. THIS MURAL. I am having a love affair with this mural. And Elise just looks perfect next to it.



192/365

One of our friends has an adorable puppy, she is like the inverted version of Earth.



193/365

I got this adorable owl skeleton for Andrea since she loves skulls and hates owls.



194/365

Hanging out with Manny Calavera and reading a book.



195/365

Next door to a brewery we like to frequent is a wooden shack covered in ivy. I think it's beautiful, especially in evening light.



196/365

While in Austin, Elise and I waited for the Congress Bridge bats again. Instead of being up on the bridge, we sat on a dilapidated dock that was crumbling into the water and played "would you rather" as the sun set. Unfortunately we never were able to see the bats since a boat was BLASTING TERRIBLE MUSIC underneath it! Those poor bats!



197/365

We saw THIS DARLING PUPPY outside of the burger place we went to for lunch in Austin. OH MY GOD IT WAS SO CUTE I CANNOT EVEN.



198/365

Jackie with a bit of lunch still on her beak.



199/365

Zeppo trying to be sneaky.



200/365

A glimpse of the beautiful turquoise waters of Hamilton Pools. It was one of the most MAGICAL places I have ever visited; unfortunately we went right around noon so the lighting was atrocious for photos. I love how this photo captures the color of the water though.


I still have a lot of catching up to do, but here is a big dump post filled with beautiful photos (if I do say so myself)! For now, it is Halloween and I'm trying to shake off feelings of negativity to instead enjoy my favorite holiday and month :) Also, in exciting news, Megan visits next week! Basically I am so excited to PARTY and also to be a killer unicorn for Halloween!

365: weeks 23 through 24 through 25

168/365
I was pretty sick at this point, so this is the best photo I could come up with :( Tea in one of my owl mugs.



169/365
Making charms for friends' birthdays. Unfortunately, they blew up in the over a little bit later >:( Oh, life.



170/365
Up close and personal with Chiquita.



171/365
A pretty kitty who stalked me through the grass, begging for pets and mewing as I walked to my car. Sometimes, I like cats.



172/365
Mam came to visit and we went out to dinner!!! Mommy and me cocktails.



173/365
Elise showed Mam and I the new Common Octopus, Flo. She is so beautiful!



174/365
Mam was only here a short time, so we used most of it wisely and went to AUSTIN! I didn't realize that a wonderful, colorful, eclectic city was just a three hour drive away! There is stuff like this everywhere: art, pictures, food trucks…oh it was magic.



175/365

Mom and I waited patiently on Congress Bridge the first night, excited to see the famous "Congress Bridge Bats" erupt from their perches beneath the architecture and swarm into the night in a perfect, bulbous form, on the hunt for insects. During our wait, we saw a beautiful, contrast-filled sunset (and you all know how much I love contrast!) It reminded me of the Twilight in "Twilight Princess", the Zelda game most popular to me because you could turn into a wolf.


I've lost track of the weeks, I think I have been counting them incorrectly, ugh. That's one of my downfalls with this project, remembering dates that correspond with numbers, and on top of that I am adamant about this week thing for the titles of posts. It doesn't really need to be said; I am behind. I have most of the photos (once again, I have my off days and the days where nothing seems to happen), but I also have patches. I am still doing this, but I must catch up. Now that my epic summer is over, it's time to hit the floor running with work projects and attempting to catch up with this, edit all the photos, post the summer ones, make my summer video I've been itching to create.

My biggest news is I just got back from a two week vacation where I went to Burning Man for the very first time and then to Salt Lake to visit my family, friends, and mountains. Oh, it was amazing. I have a lot to say about it. That is definitely for another time, and I really want to post pictures and transcribe tales (I have yet to do this at all, I have just sung about them to my friends). I will prevail! For now, here is most of June, or up to week 25 (apparently).

365: 3/4 of week 22

163/365
Flying the boys in Eagle Pass.



164/365
Elise and I went out for milkshakes; the perfect summer dinner.



165/365
Someone at work got me a donut!



166/365
SO THE BEST THING EVER HAPPENED: we found baby possums!! We were doing hurricane prep (we've got a tropical storm on its way) and were setting up an area for Sonora the coati to hang out in away from the wind and rain. We looked inside her heat box to find seven pairs of eyes staring back at us. The mother was nowhere to be found, and since there was a storm coming, we took them to a safe place and will be giving them to rehabbers once the storm passes.



167/365
Tropical Storm Bill sends his regards.

I've been sick lately so this is all I can muster :( I have several more photos to upload and edit, I just haven't gotten to it yet. For now, more tea, Gilmore Girls, and bed rest.

365: week 21

156/365
My BFFL Megan created a program for her camps this summer called "Nature's Superheroes". She asked if I would be able to make illustrations for it and I said YES! When it's all said and done, we're going to try to maybe get it published as a children's book!



157/365
I LOVE watermelon, I have been eating at least one a week (the personal-sized ones) since June started. They are the quintessential summer fruit.



158/365
Cleo (Swainson's Hawk), despite being approximately one million years old (aka 23), laid a perfect egg. Last summer she became egg bound and the egg literally rotted inside of her, so we were worried about her egg laying tendency this year. Luckily, this seems to be her last one.



159/365
I love the greenhouse down the street. Ever since I adopted a little plant to put in my planter from Spain, I've visited every couple of weeks to just be around so many green things; it's an instant mood lifter.



160/365
I am moving next month to a new apartment complex and the area is GORGEOUS! It's right on the bay with a small wooded area next to it. As I explored, this beautiful butterfly landed on a patch of flowers in front of me. I then spent the next couple of minutes stalking it, trying to get a good picture.



161/365
My new favorite snack.



162/365
Andie recently got back from Germany and brought us Kinder surprise eggs. For those of you not in the know, they are chocolate eggs with plastic toys inside of them. I got this little purple hedgehog creature, who now resides on my windowsill.


My first hurricane season was cake, we had no hint of a hurricane or even a tropical storm. However, this hurricane season has started off with a bang. We got word that a tropical depression was hovering, gaining strength over the Atlantic ocean. I FREAKED. OUT. We had no supplies at our house and no where to go if we were evacuated. Fortunately, I had a lot of people assuaging my fears and my amazing roommate went out and got us some supplies. And then, AFTER ALL THAT HYPE, today was totally fine. There are still some rains heading our way, but the storm moved more north and will instead be affecting Galveston/Houston. I do hope that the flooding won't be too bad for Houston though, especially since just a couple weeks ago there was so much water. Here's to surviving Tropical Storm Bill, Texas friends.

remnants of spain

I still have a couple more of my favorite photos I took in Spain to share, now almost halfway through the year. A lot of these last shots are of the little things that I enjoy, I miss, or I just plain am enamored with.

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I love the narrow streets flanked with tall buildings on either side. Vertical space is important here; they fill the otherwise empty space with rainbow lights, vestiges of Christmas or Navidad, and tenants above shops lean over the balconies to watch the passerby on the sidewalks below




On New Year's Eve day we travelled on a bullet train to Toledo. The entire city was beautiful: cobblestone streets, towering rickety apartments lining tiny roads, courtyards filled with beautiful turquoise vespas, and this lone cat sauntering away from us up the alley.




Toledo was at first slightly irritating, we were hungry and cranky and tired, but we soon found a market where they were giving out free soup and wine. We ate our fill, explored the many levels of the mercado and ate fresh jamón, cheese, eggs and chorizo, and drank. Drank A LOT. We explored the rest of Toledo's brick-laden exterior with our beer-goggles on (more like rum/wine goggles) and at one point decided we all really needed to pee. Like really bad. So Dad and I all chose different corners of a courtyard and did our business while Mom, being too classy for such shenanigans, kept watch. Gabe decided at the last second that he needed to go, too, so we left him to it while we started walking away. Suddenly, a young couple crossed our path and started to head toward the courtyard. In a panic, I shrieked, "CACAW CACAW!" hoping to signal to Gabe that people were coming. Dad LOST IT. I love this photo I snapped of him so much, because it reminds me of that fantastic adventure with my family and my Dad's true laugh



I love that face. Taffy will forever be my little marshmallow fluffernutter girl



And my other baby, Mr. Winston. I fell in love with him immediately when I saw him at the adoption event and knew we made a good choice when he ran into our legs countless times his first walk, drunk with affection. Now he lives in Spain with a dapper haircut and a smart, striped sweater (that matches the couch, no less). Here's to my little protector with his big-boy bark and his teddy bear face



Café con leche a staple for this trip and a testament to the little sleep I got in my explorations and jet-lag



My parents live in an adorable apartment above a shop that sells hip hop inspired clothing. It possesses modern architecture along with some of the original wooden load-bearing posts and archways. I love it, especially since they decorated it minimally with colorful woven mats (to shelter bare feet from the freezing cold floors), framed Charlie Harper postcards, and a couple of treasured trinkets



This mat was clearly an amazing backdrop for both of the puppies



This trip was peppered with dog walks, since the parentals live in Madrid and the dogs gotta do what the dogs gotta do. I loved the walks, it was a great way to explore the neighborhood and take photos of everyday Spanish life



My ginger-bearded, mountain man of a brother



Christmas markets are a popular fare in Madrid during the month of December. This carousel was center of one such market just up the street from the apartment. If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for carnival rides lit up at night



The rooftops on the sectionals of wall surrounding the ancient city of Avila were overgrown with moss, lichen, and other greenery. I absolutely adored it, the textures and colors were amazing




Moon guardians

I can't wait to go back. Or go explore somewhere else ♥