Sometimes I'm girly.

Sometimes I paint my nails fun.

Allison's

left hand with tape

 {watch video for instructions.}

pretty stellar if you ask me.

with the tape still on.

betsy decided that she spinning in
circles would help her nails dry faster.

one of my hands. i just need to clean them up a bit.

sometimes we're clumsy when doing nails...

Sometimes I do my hair curly

And sometimes my make up doesn't last all day...

Sometimes I put a cute lil' bow in my curled hair

sometimes i wear pearl earrings and a pearl necklace

Sometimes I'm jealous of all the girls who look like babe's at the gym when they're done working out. I don't know how they still look like girls when they're done. I am not one of the fortunate ones.

Sometimes I just want to be a domestic goddess 'cause I feel very crafty. Like tonight. I'm doing fun designs and sayings in photoshop and indesign for Valentines day! But, I'm not putting them up till after V day. Sorry.

Sometimes I wish Orem and Logan were best friends. {like next door neighbor type best friends}

Sometimes I hate being a girl. and sometimes i love being a girl.

Tonight is one of those nights that I both love and hate it.

College is a pretty spectacular place to have fun and try new things.

Need a good laugh? Or good pick me up? Look no further.

Sometimes I don't feel very stellar. And I need a good laugh.
and then I found these gems.

For Allison.

this is how all the how to draw books are!

reminds me of Lauren

hehe 

ha

this is soo true! For PAPA anne.

never more true.

I love the salads i make lately!

6 girls in my apartment=six different colors of luffas. 

Conversations on Facebook like this.

LOVE! in case you people are incompetent,
this is photoshop done in a cool way. :P

Clearly it goes over.

Well, i don't really fit that description at all...
but still, facebook thinks i could be a nun!

may or may not be true. Mint and chocolate
go together like the peanut and jelly,
like bert and ernie, like rain and bows. 

this happens to me all the time!

Also, I need a good pick me up.

Here are some quotes i like lately from church, institute, conference talks, margins of my scriptures, and devotionals. {i didn't write down where some of these came from.... :(}



"the best relationships are based on faith and forgiveness" -elder holland

"True change only comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ"

"be okay with who you are no matter the circumstance"

"Be loyal to the best within us regardless to opposition and temptation" -Elder Holland fireside last night.

"Joseph Smith is the supreme witness of Christ in this dispensation." -Elder Holland

"When you feel the Holy Ghost, it means the atonement is working in your life." -Henry B. Eyring

"When we choose to believe a sin is not a sin, it's still a sin." -President Ezra Taft Benson. "Valiant in the Testimony of Jesus."

"Satan is a master of making us forget who we are."

"When you get an answer to a prayer that you can make the decision, it means that God trusts you. God loves all of his children, but he doesn't trust all of them"

"Look for a man that will think of you as the girl of his dreams every day" -President Faust

"Human Nature is to avoid pain at all costs, but, our sprit needs it to grow."

"Faith in God means faith in his timing."- Neil A. Maxwell.

"if you don't live by the letter of the law, you can't live by the spirit of the law."

I love quotes lately. :D

p.s. I'm going home this weekend!! I get to see my family.... And Taylor!! :D I decided I can't wait 3 more weeks for that. 

soo.... 2.5 days till then. 

And another pro- I can do my laundry for freeeeeee :)

Also I think Marjorie is the cutest lil lady there was. I want to be like her. 

President Hinckley chose a great woman. 

p.s. "Marjorie" is now added to my baby names list. I should probably blog about that again one day. And my kissing list needs updated too.

well.... i should probably go memorize my introduction speech for public speaking.

but first- Some good news! My first class was cancelled for tomorrow! Which means i get to procrastinate my homework some more! :D

OH! more good news!!! I get to go to the Frankfurt, Germany temple this summer!!! And I'm crossing my fingers for the London, England one too. :D

2 Decades Old

I have officially reached the age of old.

I can't wait for the first time someone asks me how old I am so I can answer proudly, "I am 20 years OLD" :D

Quick! Someone ask me that question!

I woke up this morning with 8 texts saying something along the lines of "happy birthday" It was fantastic. :) haha

{HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GRANDPA DICKERSON TOO!!}

I called my mom about how i'm buying my ticket to europe this summer!!

I went to a meeting {sad to do that on my birthday, but gotta be an adult sometimes}

I came home and Allison says, "I neeeed to go to Hobby Lobby. Will you come with me?"

I said, certainly. I had nothing else to do till a lot later. Well, ya know, minus skyping with Taylor before he went to work. But the bum hadn't even texted or called me that morning yet! {which is actually a lie because he called me at exactly midnight and sang me happy birthday. He was happy that he was the first to wish me a happy birthday and to sing to me. haha}

So we end up going to lunch and then to Hobby Lobby. She got the one item she needed and then said, "I think we should look at this whole store!" So we wandered around for like half an hour and I was done with the store. I said, we should go before you end up spending more money and then she said, "let's look at the stickers." haha. so then, we looked at the stickers and more things and then out of nowhere, two hands cover my eyes from behind me and I had absolutely no idea who it would be. I thought it'd be someone I knew from school but this person let go, and I turned around and Behold Taylor, in all his handsomeness. Both he and Allison said that my face was priceless. He told me like 7 times at least! I didn't expect that at all!!

He's told me since Christmas break that he wouldn't be able to come up for my birthday because it was inventory time at work!

He said, when he told me that he wasn't coming the very first time he was lying and was planning on surprising me but then it really ended up being inventory but he told his boss that he was taking the day off no matter what. Cute, no? :D

So, Allison took a picture of us and I really like it. It was just on my phone so I could send it to the whole world to show how amazing he is. Okay, more like 5 people.
Betsy responded this. {I thought her reply was funny. She obviously was in cahoots with him} "Oh my stars ethel! k, so here's the thing. you guys can do all of the stuff you were gonna do next weekend today. i told everyone to buzz off so you can be with him, so don't worry about hanging out with allison or lauren or whoever. the only thing you have to be with us for is dinner tonight. okay punkin? So you two just go and do whatever and don't worry about anyone else."

I liked that reply. like a lot. :D
and that we did.

except the thing i wanted to do the most when he was going to come next weekend we couldn't do because there isn't enough snow! :'( maybe next time he comes there will be.

OH! and then i bought my plane ticket to Europe this summer! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! CRAZY!

But, clear back beginning of november I took some film pictures of him and we developed the film, but we never got to enlarging them. So, we went to the darkroom and Did just that. Definitely not my best work at all, because we weren't taking our time cause time was not something we had a lot of today. But it was fun. And we had the advanced darkroom to ourselves because it's still the beginning of the semester.
we took some pictures in there when we were done. here's two-

He thinks he looks drunk in this picture. So we
went for like round 5. but i liked my smile so i put it up

this is the last one we took. and i think it's great. haha

It was so fun. At least, I thought so. I am a fan that he enjoys letting me show him what I love to do. He even did some of it on his own. One day, after we practice a little more, he'll be a dandy darkroom assistant to me. :P

then we went bowling. We attempted to bowl a few different ways {even though Taylor reeeaaaaaaly doesn't like to do that at all.}he says, "I take my bowling seriously." haha. But that didn't work so well because Taylor could get strikes on even the weird bowling positions.
p.s. He won. {but, if you remember from last time we went bowling, I beat him BOTH games}




Taylor's mom called me and wished me a happy birthday too. It was sweet. :D She's so nice.

We had a litttle bit of time before we were meeting the group and we decided to go to the fun antique store. It is a great store. I asked the owner if she'd let me do some photo shoots in there and she said she wouldn't mind at all. It was probably Taylor's keen people skills that made her say yes.
{have I ever told you how this kid get's jobs??? Here's the shortened version- Hi, I'm Taylor, are you hiring? person at store-no we're not. Taylor-blah blah blah blah etc. person at store-would you be interested in being my boss?? Taylor- when can i start? It is seriously not fair at all.}

Then we went to Olive Garden. yum. It was really fun! I love how birthdays bring friends all together. Dinner was great. I filled up on salad and breadsticks and only ate around 1/3 of my actual dinner....
the waiter was kinda funny. Also, Taylor felt picked on because he forgot about him the entire night. haha.

We left and came back to my apartment where my roommates had a little party.
There were cupcakes and a cake! haha. and there were going to be waffle cake too but we decided we'd do that for breakfast instead. lol

allison is too creative. :D

Melissa Q Whipple Hansen IV brought her wii and just dance. The best dance there was was the power ranger dance. all four that did that one were awesome! I really am awful at this game! I got 2 stars i think. At least i'm better at it than Taylor... he only got 1 star. :D

Lauren. I love the Camera. haha :D

Well, because Taylor's a real grown-up with real bills to pay with his real job he had to leave relatively early because he has to be to work at the disgusting hour of 5:30 am. sigh. I tried to postpone this goodbye for as long as i could. But the time came. We walked to his car. And said our goodbyes, errr.... cya in 3 weeks! {but hopefully less!!}.  To which details will be written in my journal and not on this blog.

I came back to my apartment after calling my seeeester Ashleigh. And now I think I'm deaf from how loud all my GF's can scream. Kevin {the only other guy besides Taylor that came over haha} totally was freaked out by it. haha. what a trooper.

Also, at 10:10 P.M. {the time i was born} We had a little celebration.

I talked to my daddy and mommy cause they called and left a message and thought i'd  better call them back. and called my little sister. {we shared a little secret. She's a cutie. i miss her}

And now, after everything died down,  am writing this blog and in my journal about the very day i turned 20. A day I don't think i'll forget. And one i'll probably tell my future children about one day. haha.

Well, I'm sure I missed some details like every were. Like-how awesome my friends are, and the work they put into today.  Amongst a lot of others.

But, now i'm going to bed.

So,
XOXOXOXO
-Bri  {the one that is 20 years of age.....and other such things}

Old Main Hill sledding

Old Main Hill sledding is a must when you're an Aggie.


there really is no excuse for one who lives in Logan who has never been sledding down Old Main Hill.

i found this on google image search.
i want to do this so bad!

none.

It's fantastic.

I've seen people take mattresses and sled down on top of them. and a couch once. McKenna used a garbage bag and poked 2 holes in it and wore it like a diaper {click here to see pictures},
we've used cookie sheets, broken sleds we've found there, and most recently-new sleds! :D Not many people came this time. It was kinda a bummer. But it was fun still!


Another pro of sledding down Old Main is that you seriously get your workout. It is a big and steep hill.

so you can get a little idea of the steepness. 

i love this hill!

Yesterday we did a train sled. the Sled eric and I were on totally came out from underneath us so we were being drug along with nothing underneath us. even though we were wearing snow pants, we still got soaked!

Last night we tried a few new ways of going down.


and betsy and i went together a few times....we never made it very far.
it was really funny though.

snow!

a- this coat makes me look pregnant {i'm most definitely not}
b- Erick was not supposed to be in this picture
c-betsy and i are precious. 

the best was when i wrapped my legs and arms around her and we went down and fell off. we rolled down a little and stopped with her face in the snow and i was on top of her but couldn't get off because my arms and legs were stuck under her body so she had to push herself up so i could untangle myself. We were laughing so hard.
When we get to heaven, this is a video i am going to request to watch.

Eric and I beat betsy and Jake going this way. 

the train 

I'm pretty sure this

never stops anyone.

we came home, drank hot chocolate, and then watched a sad movie {I don't even know why we chose a sad movie....} called 7 pounds. I like Will Smith. eric said, "does

Oh yes. and I went with Annie and a few of her friends to
clean the sink at Angie's on Friday night.  :D Is she
not a babe???

A few quotes, cooking day, snow!

If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn't, then it was never meant to be. 

~Anonymous 

{I can't remember where I got this one.}

‎"A woman's heart should be so hidden in God, that a man has to seek 

Him just to find her." -Maya Angeloux

 {Thanks Lauren}

"I am a part of the "Fellowship of the Unashamed." The die has been cast. The decision has been made. I have stepped over the line. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.

My past is redeemed, my presence makes sense and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, love with patience, live by prayer and labor with power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable and my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up or slow up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up and spoken up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My banner is clear: I am a part of the "Fellowship of the Unashamed."  "


I found that last one on my friend Kelsey's blog. :D

"If you thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that's exactly 

where it came from." -Brigham Young. 

{this was on my friend, Annie's mirror.... whether or not Brigham really said that or not.... your guess is as good as mine. but it sounds good!}

I wish it would have turned out spicier. 

also, I have been cooking ALL day. wanna know what I made??

Red beans and rice. mmmmm southern dish. It takes nearly 4 hours to cook.

Corn bread

dark chocolate peppermint cookies. {for the getting fat is fun party.... that sadly got canceled because the host is sick! :'( }

I haven't had this in forever! When i
make a southern dish, i usually will
 make jambalaya. not this time. :D

I sometimes am too lazy to use my dslr camera
to take pictures after i cook.... I need to change
this. because these pictures aren't cutting it. 

it feels so good to cook a full meal!! I haven't cooked/baked in a while. well.... 2.5 weeks since Taylor and I made cookies. But those are a piece of cake....err cookie. 

This, this is what it is supposed to
 look like in Logan in january. 

In other news- IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to go sledding tonight. :D

The collodion process, and random fact about today.

First things first- did ya'll know it's National Popcorn day??? Go eat some popcorn pronto! you only have a few hours left.

This is Joni while shooting for her Surf Land collection

At the University right now we have a visiting photographer, Joni Sternbach. She's pretty much a 19th century photographic processes genius! She and her husband the past 2 days have been teaching a bunch of us photo nerds how to do the collodion process. Which, if you don't know anything about really won't sound that cool to you. But, trust me, it's WAY COOL! Ever since my first photo 1 class as a little itty bitty 15 year old sophomore I have thought the history of photography was pretty fun to learn about. But, It is even more awesome to actually be able to create a picture in a way i've only read about!


I'm not going to really tell you step by step how to do it, because it's not like anyone who reads this has access to all the chemicals you need and what not, but i'll tell you about some fun parts.

Beth pouring her collodion

pouring a plate- in other words, putting a chemical on the piece of glass or tin. but not really "putting it on" you pour a puddle of the collodion in the middle and slightly tilt the plate to cover the surface evenly. When Joni showed us how to do it, she made it look super easy


Not that it was super hard, she just made it look easy to not have the chemical drip off the plate in all directions. After one gets collodion on their hands, it doesn't like to come off. It kind of looked like dried on honey and smelt like 4x stronger than nail polish remover. {I think i finally got it off my hands after washing them 4 times or so.} I had to leave the room a few times because it got so strong!

The silver bath sensitizes the plate so it will react to the light exposure. you're supposed to wear gloves for this part because 1-silver isn't that good for you and 2- it stains your fingers the color dark brown and makes it look like you have poo all over your hands. I wore gloves for 2 of the 3 plates i did. the 3rd plate, there were no gloves left. and i am lucky enough to have brown stains on both my hands. Don't worry, Joni's husband said it'll only take a week for it to go away. So, if you see my hands, don't think i'm a dirty person, i promise they're clean..... they just look really gross.

then you literally run {well... more like speed walk so you don't look quite so dumb} to the location where you're taking the picture

Heidi developing in the helper tray.

after taking a picture {our exposures ranged from 2-6 seconds which after seeing Joni's reaction made me think they were usually longer than that} you speed walk {run definitely sounds better} to the darkroom and pull the plate out and develop it. {and pray that it hadn't dried yet... which, the edges of all of mine did a little bit}

developing it was the hardest part to me. I couldn't ever get the shot glass of developer to cover my
picture evenly so i ended up with oystering pretty bad on one. but i think it makes it look older. :D

developing takes only a few seconds. at this stage, it looks like a film negative. after pouring water on really quick to stop the developing it goes into the fixer. Where, miraculously it turns into a positive!

nicole fixing hers

while in the fixer it's crazy cool to watch it change from a negative to a positive. the image does this weird thing that makes it look like it's almost not even there and looks super weird {one girl said it looks like your soul is leaving your body haha} and then you rinse it, then you varnish it.

i liked varnishing it. It involved fire and lavender oil. So it smelt really good!


and then you get to admire how cool they look!

the fire for varnishing.

i didn't take pictures of them after the varnish because they apparently take 2 weeks to dry completely. and these pictures aren't very good of them because it's with a camera phone. but, you can get the idea.

my tintype. it looks so awesome! I really like it. most everyone did serious faces...
but i just look mad with a serious face.

everyone's tintypes.

so you can't see it very well, but this is my negative. 

one of the drying racks.

ambrotype on black glass.

the group picture. {i'm on the left middle row}

I really want to do these again one day!

p.s. It's the middle of January. {like you didn't know that...} But this is how it looks outside my apartment-

there is NO snow. it's gone. A week from tomorrow is my birthday! and I can't remember a time since I moved to utah when i was nearly 10, that there hasn't been snow on the ground on my birthday. WEIRD!

me and snow have a love hate relationship. I love it because it's pretty and you can have a lot of fun in it. But i don't like walking all around campus and life in it and freezing to death just walking a few feet outside to do laundry. Regardless, there is no snow and it's different.

Random countdown time-

7 days left of being a teenager
14 days Taylor comes to visit!!

and here's a random picture from the day before i left .

2 days till my friend, Heidi's, "Getting fat is fun" party.
1 Month till I'm going home for a 4 day weekend. {Feb 16-20. mark that on your calendars people!}
~82 days till I embark on my European photography summer study abroad!
2 months and 7 days till Ashleigh is due!


Well, I'm off to hear a lecture given by Joni herself! :)

XOXO
-Bri