365: week 7

43/365
I made myself fish and vegetables for dinner, a feat I'm pretty proud of since my dinners are usually a box of mac 'n cheese and applesauce.



44/365
I won a postcard from sketchynotions on Instagram! I love it so much, it was just what I needed on this gloomy day (I also painted my nails!)



45/365
I celebrated Valentine's Day with my roommate, whose boyfriend is living on the east coast, at the moment. We got drunk on Moscato, ate Girl Scout cookies and vietnamese fusion takeout, and watched The Other Woman. Perfection.



46/365
A relaxing night in.



47/365
Packing for the IAATE (International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators) conference!



48/365
The city lights outside my hotel room in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina.



49/365
My conference swag. Our team, "You Gotta Be Falcon Kidding Me", won first place at trivia which is why wine is included in this layout (unfortunately, they don't hand out a bottle of wine at registration).

I was taking the pictures, but got behind with posting and editing for this project. I had an AMAZING time in North Carolina at the IAATEconference, which deserves its own post, and have since been spending my time back trying to catch up on sleep and things around the house (I got an average of four hours of sleep a night in NC, I didn't realize how hard people partied at conferences). A new work week is upon me (after a mixed bag of a weekend), but I'm ready to face it. I am excited for training prospects and am attempting to instill confidence in everything I do. Hit me, March (just kidding, please don't hit me, just tap me lightly). THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID. Okay I'm done.

365: week 6

36/365
One of my best friends knows I'm having a really hard time lately, so she sent me these lovely earrings. I'm so happy to have such great friends :')



37/365
Such drama, such flair.



38/365
I went to an artwalk downtown to support a new friend and saw this free coffee stand (who can say no to free coffee?). They were asking for tips to help out their needy cactus, so I of course obliged.



39/365
An Osprey seen outside of soundbooth! I love Osprey so much, they remind me of Minnesota.



40/365
A quirky corner of the soundbooth, our "office". It contains our jar 'o feathers, our canned owl, and Valencia the Peregrine Falcon.



41/365
Making charms. Do they look familiar?





42/365
I went for a walk on the beach since the weather was amazing. For being so close, I am appallingly bad at going to the beach right now, so I'm attempting to change that.


This past week as sort of been meh, but my weekend was FANTASTIC! I'm not getting ready to go to my very first conference for work! SO EXCITED.

365: week 5

29/365
Took a sick day due to my illness and spent a lot of the day crafting. Accomplishments: defeated the Pokemon League in Pokemon X, made a birthday painting for my friend, practiced with watercolors, took a glorious, healing nap, and ate delicious sandwiches.



30/365
Snapped a photo of my neighbors' pretty plants on a walk with Earth and the rookie.



31/365
Guess who won a superhero costume contest at the gay club? This girl! I won $50 that I then promptly spent on alcohol and snacks for the Superbowl the next day.



32/365
Making jesses on Superbowl Sunday.



33/365
My Friday was uneventful, in fact this is one of the only photos I took this day. Luckily, it's of Merlin being adorable.



34/365
Took my friend to the airport and got breakfast along the way. It's been a looong time since I've been out to breakfast and it was delicious, however it was also the start of a very terrible morning :(



35/365
A master falconer took me out hunting, which was FANTASTIC. We met up with two other falconers who flew a merlin and a gyrfalcon. This photo is of the gyr after he failed to grab a pigeon. He flew back toward us, hoping for some easier prey.


This past week has had its ups and downs, but I am so happy to have been keeping up with this project. I've been taking tons of photos, way more than I had last year at this time, and I am super psyched to be using them for something. Each day I get excited about what I'm going to document, and I find myself wanting to go on more adventures so that I can take better photos (ideally I should want to go on adventures for adventure's sake, of course, but lately that's not been very possible for me due to depression blah blah blah). So basically this makes me happy :) And I feel like things are getting better every day.

dinosaur trainer

So the newest Jurassic Park trailer came out during the Superbowl.



And I am basically frothing-at-the-mouth level of excited because DO YOU SEE WHAT CHRIS PRATT DID JUST THERE? DID YOU???

HE IS TRAINING THOSE VELOCIRAPTORS.

They are using training techniques on DINOSAURS aka basically my DREAM and the fact that Chris Pratt is a velociraptor trainer makes me even MORE attracted to him (if that was even possible).

Also when he is cruising through the jungle on his motorcycle and the raptors are "chasing" him (which is what I thought when I saw the first trailer), I actually think they are following him. Now that we've been introduced to the concept of him as a trainer, he might have trained them a follow behavior and they are all going to FIGHT THE NEW MUTANT DINOSAUR.

I am freaking out, why isn't June here yet???

favorites from spain

Dandelion seeds



The Royal Palace



I loved the murals throughout old Madrid, so beautiful



light and mist



sunshine child



dusk



a shot of my favorite street, Fuencarral in La Chueca (commonly known as the gay district). We explored the street devotedly, indulging in rum and cokes at kitschy, colorful bars and spinning under rainbow lights strung across the pedestrian walkway



jump jump jump



more shots of Fuencarral, crowded at 2 AM



I adore this shop. I want to write stories about the quaint flower shop nestled on Fuencarral deep in the heart of old Madrid. Despite the wintery cold, the flowers and plants flourished in their wooden crates outside the plastic barrier, and the greenery inside were coated with heavy, perfumed mist that smelled like lavender and thyme.

365: week 4

22/365
After two grueling weeks that felt eerily similar to finals, I bought a car! It's a beautiful silver unicorn, a 2009 Toyota Yaris. I am excited for our adventures together.



23/365
I got a belated Christmas package in the mail from Gir, one of my besties. A unicorn emblazoned charm necklace, mason jar shot glasses, and a blue infinity scarf; does she know me or does she know me?



24/365
I went to game night at a friend's house, where she showed me her new incredibly charming coffee table book.



25/365
Grace, our Bald Eagle, getting fed her delicious rat pieces.



26/365
Playtime with Zeppo, the Green-Winged Macaw. He was being kind of a twerp this day, but he was so cute during playtime. I loved this close-up of his feathers with his demure face in the background.



27/365
I was sick during my weekend, ugh, so on my Saturday morning I let the birds out to play while I lounged in bed. I've been really into Parks and Rec lately (obvi, it's amazing), so I like how this photo captured exactly what I was watching (Ron Swanson's pyramid of greatness) and Maeby being inquisitive.



28/365
Earth and I had the exact same idea about what we wanted to do with our Lazy Sunday.

365: week 3

15:365
Little treasures in my shadow box. I've been wanting a shadow box forever and one day I magically found one in a thrift store in Salt Lake City while visiting. I painted it blue and now my treasures from friends' weddings, Spain, my lab, and Mexico live there.



16 : 365

I went to TWO parties this night, one at the local watermark's restaurant where there was an open bar and a lot of cute, drunk coasties and one at Whiskey River, a Texas two-step dance hall where there are cheap drinks, line dances, and shitty music. It was an amazing night.



17 : 365
Charles, the constantly worried Min-Pin.



18 : 365
I was cleaning the Nearshore pond and found a pressed penny someone had thrown in. Their loss, I now have a 51 cent pressed penny with a stingray on it!



19 : 365
I went out to dinner with Andie the night before and so had leftover New York-style pizza to enjoy on my "Friday" night, complete with a mini bottle of wine.



20 : 365
Claire and I watched terrible horror movies and drank wine together over Skype; hands down one of my favorite activities.



21 : 365
I was drinking hot chocolate and realized that I have an impressive collection of mugs. Most of them I've painted myself or have been painted for me by friends, the Halloween mug was found at a thrift store, and the owl mug next to the Halloween mug was a gift from Disneyworld from my Dad.


This week I didn't take many photos during the actual daylight, so I want to try to change that up. I also was fairly sedentary in my activities this week, so I need to get up and start exploring again! To be fair, it's mostly because I still don't have a car with which to go on adventures, but hopefully that will be remedied soon!!