life lately: august

August was a month for golden hour photoshoots, reading your favourite books, dance clubs and drunk IHOP with your best friend, lots of coffee, girl's night, trips to my favourite patch of woods, my first class of 2014 shoot, kitty cuddles. August was a month for celebrating.

Other things I've been loving this month: The Great Gatsby soundtrack, Quilts Coats & Colors by John Lucas, Clueless, gathering apartment ideas on Pinterest, HGTV, digital scrapbooking, re-watching Grey's Anatomy, bidding on ugly shirts on eBay, and the re-addition of my Naked2 palette back into my regular makeup rotation.

Fall is just around the corner... I can almost taste it.

anniversary celebrations

Justin and I took a hike around the quarry today to celebrate our one year anniversary that was on Sunday. We took pictures (obviously) and Justin tried to capture a snake. He brought a can of Code Red with him and a hornet tried flying in it and then allegedly ended up halfway in Justin's nose! After our little hike, we had to go grocery shopping and then stopped for Mexican food for dinner. All in all, it was a very quiet celebration, but one I'll always look back on fondly.

confidence boost

Shirt: Walmart, Necklace: Deb, Shorts & Sandals: Kohl's

Today I did something that seems like no big deal... I wore shorts that are shorter than my knees out in public, for the first time since 2011. Granted, all I did was traipse around in the woods and take pictures and then go home, but I still feel like I've jumped a new hurdle. It was 96 degrees out and I couldn't find any of my skirts so shorts it was. I FEEL SO LIBERATED.

one year

*arrow & let love grow stamps by elise joy

This is a page from the scrapbook I made Justin for our anniversary... all the little things that make me happy. 

One whole year. It seems hard to wrap my head around. So much has happened in the past year, and I mostly have Justin to thank for all of it. We're not celebrating today because we both have to work, but I'm sure we'll do something fun for Tuesday or Wednesday adventures this week.

lunch date

My aunt and uncle are in town this weekend and we went out for lunch today. This restaurant might look familiar because it was in the background here. My uncle told me about Little Fat Gretchen's before I even moved up here and I hadn't had the chance to check it out until lunch today.

It's a cute little restaurant, combining a retro diner feel & the coziness of a cafe/bakery. Little Fat Gretchen's reminds me of the cafe I always used to get smoothies and hot pretzels from in Savannah.

The food was good, but my one recommendation is to absolutely save room for dessert. I had a slice of caramel apple pie... the crust was flaky, the apple slices were huge, and the caramel was sweet. Accompanied by a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, and I was in heaven.

If you're around Waupaca, WI you should definitely try out Little Fat Gretchen's.

Zach Serpe, Class of 2014

Golden hour, guys, and guns pretty much sums up this shoot.

Zach's mom and my mom are friends, so naturally I don't think he should be a senior yet.