2013 // 2014

     2013
Overall, this year has been a huge stepping stone in my life. I feel like I've grown quite a bit emotionally and mentally as well. I've learned a lot about myself, I have a plethora of never-ending deep and philosophical thoughts that I rarely ever talk about with others. Sometimes I fear that people make think I'm shallow because I don't outwardly share these things- but then I realize that I really don't care. I myself know that I'm an intelligent and extremely sensitive and loving being. I have no need to prove that to anyone despite this day and age of sharing everything.

Last year my goals were to eat more healthy and exercise more. I actually feel like I did a really nice job of doing that. I educated myself further on nutrition and cooking and I've been pretty good at cooking from whole foods/making things homemade. Reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan was one of my favorite things to have done regarding that subject. Here are some other things that happened this year:

• I completed my nursing degree, graduated from college, passed my nursing boards on the first try and started my first nursing job as a home care nurse for a pediatric client.
• I watched my husband graduate with his Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and supported him as he began his journey through grad school.
• We got a beta fish named Finn. We had him for about 3 weeks before Tanner accidently killed him because he made his water too warm after changing it.
• I became an aunt to the sweetest little darling, Annabelle.
• I went to our family cabin a couple of times and spent some quality time in the sun and the water that I'm now longing for in this subzero Minnesota winter.
• We went to an apple orchard in September on a warm autumn day.
• I've sat around a numerous number of bonfires throughout the year.
• We went sledding at night with our best friends and laughed and screamed and smiled. 
• We went camping with our cousins and Tanner and I shared a cozy little tent as it was unusually chilly for July.
• I went trick or treating on Halloween night with my client.
• I've gone back to Elementary school for the second time in my life (as a part of my job).
• I started a blog.
• I began sewing and crocheting again.
• I cut over a foot of hair off of my head.
• I traveled north with my honey and drank in the snowy evergreens and bluffs.
• I opened many a gift and given many a gift as well.
• I've given an unknown and excessive amount of hugs and kisses to my loved ones.
• I've laughed a thousand times with them as well.

There are so many more amazing things that happened last year that I can't think of at this moment. This year I plan to keep a little jar that holds small notes that I will write of lovely and happy things that have happened throughout the year. I keep a journal, but it will be fun to open this jar on next New Years Eve and reflect on the wonderful year that will have been 2014.

     2014

I hope that 2014 is another beautiful year for me and for my husband.

I hope that we will find a new place to dwell as I feel stifled in this apartment.

I hope that our family will grow- as in I hope that we get a puppy. First we need a new place to live.

I look forward to our trip in May to the west coast- Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington.

I hope to even better my eating habits and to join a gym so I will be even more motivated to exercise.

I will do at least 20 minutes of yoga on the days that I don't do a more intense workout.

I'm turning 23 this year and it's the youngest that I'll ever be again. Each day I grow older and I appreciate that I can acknowledge that fact but it also scares me. So I want to be the healthiest I can be while I'm still able to. I want a healthy body that will take me through many more years of this wondrous life. I want a healthy mind and a healthy spirit that brings me peace. I don't want clutter in my head or in my home. I want to continue this journey of being a nurse, a caregiver, that I have started. I want my marriage to be even better than it is now. I want to become more selfless. I want to possess less and appreciate more. These are my wishes for the coming year.

A Quick Note on this 26th of December

     Christmas has come and gone already but we still have more celebrating to do. I will be on a little blogger hiatus (although I know I only post once a week anyways) as we are having our little mini winter vacation starting tomorrow. So far its been a lovely couple of days with family and over eating and lazing about and I expect the next week to be pretty similar. Here are some things that will be included in the coming days' activities:

• Snow shoeing
• Snowmobiling
• Snowy woodsy walks
• Eating delicious food
• Watching HGTV
• Watching Food Network
• Playing with kitties
• Seeing my baby niece
• Photographing snowy Minnesota
• Mini road trip to Northern Minnesota
• Having drinks with Grandma and playing Mexican Train Dominoes
• New Years Eve celebrations with best friends

SO it's probably going to be a pretty fun week off of work. I'm hoping everyone is having a fantastic holiday and I'll check in with lots of photos next week! Also here's the best picture I've ever taken of my niece:

Christmas Break?

     Now that I'm officially an adult and no longer a student, "Christmas Break" isn't really such a thing. I got extremely luck with my first nursing job in that I don't have to work on major holidays like Christmas Day and New Years Day.. etc. I was able to get 6 days in a row off the starting the Friday after Christmas and I have a nice little mini-vacation planned for Tanner and I. Starting with snowmobiling and staying at my parent's house out in the woods to going up north to Silver Bay to stay with Tanner's grandma and hopefully do a good amount of exploring, snowboarding and eating ridiculously good food. I've had the travel bug bite me and I'm eager to explore. We have a nice little trip in the works for next May as well. But anyways, we go up to Silver Bay almost every year after Christmas/around new years. Here are some photos from Christmas 2010/New Years 2011 that I shot (or Tanner shot of me) with my Pentax 35mm film camera. I hope everyone has a warm happy place to be this year and people they love to enjoy it with.

Vintage Glasses Galore!

     I have this vision of my blog being awesome and flawless and featuring all the cool things in my life and my clothes and what not, and then it doesn't happen. I want to do these things but it's difficult living in an apartment (not a cute one at that), not really having anyone to take photos of you during daylight (which in Minnesota now a days is 8am to 4pm and both my husband and I work), and being lazy contributes to the mix as well. I have a lot of cute things to show you guys but I am a perfectionist and a very picky photographer when it comes to myself.
    So today I was looking through old pictures for inspiration, and I came across some photos from last April. My great-aunt passed away over a year ago now, and last spring her kids were getting the house ready for sale and invited the family over to see if there was anything we wanted. I found a lot of vintage treasures there. One was a beautiful old mirror that I absoultely adore. I found a lot of vintage fabric and scarves. Also a dress from the 60's era that I have yet to alter for proper fitting. But what I was going to show you today were these lovely eye glasses from the 1950's/1960's era. My great-aunt had kept these since then, they had her name and phone number on them in case they got lost!

The blue background is actually the dress that I got from her:

The dress is hanging from the lovely, lovely mirror I found. I ended up painting the frame black this summer which makes it just perfect for me. It's probably one of my favorite- and most frequently used- household items. I did a blog post all about it here.

Natural and Organic Jewelry: The Wolf Wife Etsy shop

     Through mutual friends I've met this wonderful lady, Kyrie. She makes natural and organic jewelry from materials such as bones, shells, etc that she finds and sells them in her etsy shop, The Wolf Wife. I just wanted to highlight her craftsmanship and share with you all these beautiful little treasures. All of the items are ethically made, as she describes, "All natural materials for my jewelry are ethically sourced, meaning no animal was harmed or killed to make my jewelry. I find (or friends find and give me) animals that have died of natural causes, or I stumble upon old bones and shells, and I respectfully repurpose them."

Bird ribcage hoop necklace with feathers and leaf charms.

Hip socket bone necklace

 Vintage silver locket necklace with shells

 Jaw bone necklace

 Last but not least, my favorite, Tiered crab claw necklace

     I strongly encourage you to check out her Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/thewolfwife. Seeing as the holiday season is here, one of her pieces might make a lovely gift for the forest nymph or siren in your life! Her other artwork/photography can be found at http://www.kkotlowski.com/. Thank you for supporting local artists! 

All images are property of Kyrie Kotlowski, owner of thewolfwife Etsy shop.