the weekend.

The weekend started off with a movie night. With Thor being the movie of choice. I'm a pretty big superhero fan and Thor was the one movie I hadn't seen out of the avengers, so naturally, I had to watch it! Saturday was filled with shopping and blog designing. Sunday was just the normal trip to the library and church. 

I really love the weekend. It's that "break" from the week that you really need. It also rained most of the weekend which I loved. It made for fantastic sweatshirt weather. 

How was your weekend?

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ON THE DESIGN:

I've been working on my brand/style of my blog for a few weeks now. The recent changes were results from that. Post on this coming up later this week. 

spring favorites

tiny kittens | lemonade | driving with the windows down | spring mixtapes | eating outside | flowers | colors | birds in the morning | cool breezes | the world coming to life | the end of school nearing | bits of summer popping up | farmers in the field again | wearing flip-flops again.


Don't you just love the spring is in full force? Is anyone else getting super excited for summer and freedom? I know I am. 
What are some of your favorite things about spring? 


ps. thanks to my sister, megan, for giving my blog a whole new design! Check out her design website & blog.

Real.

I am a firm believer in being real. Sometimes on blogs I think we forget that. We forget to be real and then  people get this image that we have this perfect life. This is far from the truth. I've had many conversations with friends and my sister about being real. Its important. I cannot tell you any better than that.

This started out as a journal entry and turned into a post. So this is me, being real, with you. As well as another piece of who I am.

My room is rarely clean. I have piles of papers and notes everywhere. CD's and books shoved on shelves is a chaotic order. I do not dress in the most stylish fashion. You can find me in jeans and a t-shirt on most days, hair in a messy bun with wisps hanging out every which way. My makeup is simple. I don't wash my face everyday.

My diet isn't sugar free, gluten free or vegetarian. I like my desserts, meat and bread. I don't work out everyday and when I do, it's a battle with myself to get to it.

I'm not the best drawer, writer, blogger or photographer. I've gone a week with out touching my camera. I have thousand of unedited photos. I'd rather be behind the camera than in front of it. My blog has suffered from neglect in past years. I often struggle with putting words together to form a paragraph.

I listen to more music and watch more movies then maybe one person ought to. I laugh easily. I bust into song often. I have to many stories to tell and I talk with my hands. I don't do a lot of texting. I'd rather talk face to face then over the phone. I'd take a cup of coffee over a bottle of pop. I don't really like soda. I tend to ramble. I procrastinate. all. the. time.

I tend to get stressed and go crazy.

I don't read as much as I would like to. Math is not my strongest subject. I'm a terrible test taker. Sometimes, I forget about my morning "God time". I'm not always happy - despite what people think. I'd rather be on twitter than facebook. Four times out of five I'll choose to listen to music that is deemed "non-christian" and sometimes that music has a more meaning that any christian song.

I stay up to late and get up to early. I watch to much crime shows, comedies and food network. I hate hot weather. I love cloudy days. Autumn is my favorite season.

I spend to much time on the internet and not enough time hanging out with my siblings.

I don't journal everyday, sometimes its a month before I pick my journal up again. I'm not crafty and probably never will be. I like weird things, such as the beatles and graffiti.

I don't like shopping for clothes. I own about three pairs of shoes, because lets face it- I dislike those too.

I write down to many quotes. I say things like "yo" and "dude" in the same sentence. I sometimes take to long to answer emails. I'm even worse at answering letters.

My blog may not be the most popular or exciting. But I love sharing stories from my journey as a person. I am just me, Marissa, and thats who you will find on this blog.

p.s. --- Great minds think alike. Hannah over at Aspire, a dear friend of mine, just did a post about the messes of life, go read it. I love seeing other bloggers being real. 


p.s.s. --- a BIG thank you to the three lovely ladies who guest posted on my blog the past two weeks. You are all awesome and your posts were spectacular! Be sure to check out their blogs folks! 
Kimberly // Abby // Megan // Jocee.

to journal {guest post by jocee}

i've always liked writing. i've always liked making up characters and situations and places and things, and penning them down in a notebook, or typing them up on a computer. but when i get a case of writer's block, and nothing seems to be going the way i like, i step back, close my fiction, and write about real life. my life. journal.

i like to put down my thoughts. i like to carry my notebook with me everywhere i go, so if the urge hits me, i have my materials to write it down. most people i know think that writing, all types, should be kept in the school classrooms. but for me, writing should travel the world.

to journal is like turning your life into a story for people to read years and years later and imagine it as their own. to journal is saying things that you can't say for real. to journal is the many ramblings, musings of your mind and putting them to music. to journal is to relax. journaling is me.

jocee: dark amber brown eyes, brown hair, dreams with emerald green eyes, sees life in the color vintage, cupcake enthusiast, lover of British accents, left-handed, traditional coca-cola bottle lover, lavender vanilla bubble baths, sea shell collector, avid believer in Narnia, Wonderland and Middle Earth, dictionary reader, quill and ink writer, supporter of chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream, profound quote creator, despiser of capital letters, your personal imagination station, inspired by rainy days, aspiring photographer, bubble blower. blogs at cupcake dictionary. sleeps on rugs.

Bunting cards (guest post by kimberly @ amusing)

The first time I saw fabric bunting, I was in love. The triangles, the string, and the fact that they can be put anywhere had me smitten. One of my favorite cards to now make involves bunting. Not only are they easy, but they are adorable! All you need is some string, paper, and lace to make the bunting.

Cut out the shapes like diamonds and then fold them in half and glue them on the string to make triangles. You can finish off the cards with a pinwheel or some fun typography.

I also like to make a matching envelope to go along with it. Glue a pinwheel to it a there you have it. The perfect card for any occasion. It's fun to play around with color combinations and different textures. I choose lace because I had a scrap of it on-hand; but if you've got some neat wrapping paper or fabric, use that instead! With bunting, the possibilities are limitless.

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Hello there, the name's Kimberly! I love writing, L.M. Montgomery's one of my favorites, and my camera Perry is my first love. Hawaii is my home, and I'm planning on leaving soon and going to college. In the meantime, I'm usually having a smashing time blogging and working tirelessly on my etsy shop.
blog: amusing // etsy shop: fildee

Through words (guest post by Megan @ Borderless)

Maybe it's an
escape.
Or maybe
for just a moment
it's a chance to find
yourself
through the life of
people
who only exist
in our minds;
on the pages;
through the words.
© megan kristine

Late into the night, the pages turn, one after the other. And when I reach the back cover, the story over and the heart pounding done, it's like I've lost something. Sometimes I wish I could go back with a fresh mind to read it all over again. Because when reading a book for a second time, it's like remembering a good adventure -- not experiencing it again. I'm not rushing to see what happens the second time, and I'm not hanging on to the edge. But whenever I find myself wishing to read an old favorite like it was new, I just have to remind myself of all the millions of books I have left to read. The millions of books just waiting on the shelf. Waiting to be picked up. Waiting to become my new favorite. A story that, once read, will never leave. And books really are my favorite, not because for a moment I've stepped into another life and another place, but because sometimes, through the stories, I'm able to find myself and define who I am. Like I define who a character is. Through thoughts and reactions. What one experiences while reading I very nearly impossible to explain.
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They call me Megan. Fourteen years old. Writer, photographer, artist, and reader. I'm either hopelessly uninterested or entirely obsessed. I like afternoon light and large piles of books. You'll never see me without my camera. I love being outdoors. The best part of my life is Jesus. Find my blog here: BORDERLESS.

what photography is (a guest post by Abby @ Follow God)

Photography is a big part of my family.  I've always loved taking pictures.  Capturing places, people, memories.  You get to capture a certain feeling and hold on to it forever.

Photography is emotion packed in to pixels.  Every person who looks at your photo should feel something.  Maybe not the same thing you felt when taking the picture.  But they should feel something - happiness, sadness, excitement, nostalgia.

When I pick up my camera, I feel all different things.  Mostly, I feel privileged to be the one capturing this moment.  I feel excitement and bliss.

I see photography as capturing life.  True life.  Not the picture-perfect life so often seen in photos.  But the messy, imperfect, wonderful life.

 

E.L. Doctorow once said:

picture via Megan Madison @ Borderless

I love to write, and this quote is one of my favorites.  But I like to use it for photography too.  Photography should make you feel as if you're right there laughing with people, sitting in a field of flowers, on top of the highest mountain, or in a creepy awesome house.

You should not just see it, but feel it.

What is photography to you?

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 I'm Abby.  14 year old homeschooled girl.  I sing in the shower.  I'm really short - 5' 1".  I love to capture simplicity in my writing and photography.  Going to Hogwarts is at the top of my to-do list, and so is meeting Flynn Rider. Happy endings are the best.  I love to make people smile.  Come visit me sometime.

follow God - every day

   

on the dock

I've always loved the water. Living in Michigan for five year helped arouse this love. Beaches, waves and sand between your toes. Its a wonderful place, a place near the water. I miss being by the water.
Iowa is not the place to come if you love the water. Fields and prairies fill the land like no other state I've ever lived in. There comes a time when you just need to see something different for a change.

My friends have this lovely little pond in front of their house. I love this place because when you sit on the dock, you get just a small feeling that this isn't a pond, but a lake, and just for a moment you can pretend that you are actually seeing water for miles and miles with no land in site. It's a darling place to spot tiny frogs and take a ride in the paddle boat. This pond gives me that little taste of a water mass that I need. This little dock is my favorite.

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p.s- Due to the fact that in two weeks I will be taking the ACT test, I decided to take a two week break from blogger. But, I did line up some awesome guest posters for the next two weeks! So be on the look out for them! See you in two weeks!