A Perfectly Magical Winter Break

I’ve been back in school for a week now, and I’m already hardcore missing winter break. It may have something to do with leaving the mountains, or returning to school work, or the fact that it is way to warm in Raleigh to feel at all like winter. I also had quite a long winter break (over a month!) since I didn’t have any final exams (perks of design school) so getting back into the daily grind and constant work work work has been a bit tricky.

So while I should be writing code, learning about shape grammars, and researching inclusive design, I’ll take a minute to share my winter break with all of you.

My whole goal of winter break was to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Since the full effect of cold winter weather hadn’t fully settled in yet, I found myself on the Blue Ridge Parkway almost once a day. Since both my siblings were still in school and I didn’t have my usual hiking buddies, I spent a lot of time alone which was actually super refreshing. I’m the kind of person who actually enjoys spending time by myself so having afternoons on the trails with only my camera and my thoughts was nice after a long grueling semester.

WNC had been suffering from a drought so it was nice to have some rain when I went back home.

I have about 100 photos like this from break. I’ve fallen in love with my little adventure mobile.

Julian Price Lake became a favorite hike of mine.

At the first mention of snow, I made my way up to Roan Mountain to see the white fluffy stuff for myself. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for just how cold it was up on the mountain, so I didn’t make it very far.

I usually travel south on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but I’ve found a new love for the Grandfather Mountain/Banner Elk section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I’m realizing it now as I look through the pictures that I took over break and realized that I didn’t actually take too many photos. I found myself leaving behind my camera on several occasions and just going off for a drive and stumbling upon a trail to explore. It was a challenge to try to get nice shots on my phone, but I made do with what I had available.

Somewhere in the midst of all this hiking and outdoors stuff I managed to drive over to Nashville, Tennessee. My best friend is currently part of Nashville Ballet’s second company, and was performing in the Nutcracker. I haven’t missed one of his Nutcracker performances since we became friends, so the five hour drive surely wasn’t going to stop me now. Looking through my phone, I realized that I have absolutely no photos of Nashville, which sort of upsets me. Ah, oh well. I’ll just make him dress up like the grandfather when he’s home again and get a photo with him. Peyton, you down with that?

I also went exploring with the fam-bam and we all shared some of our favorite hikes with each other. While I enjoy the solitude of an hour on the trails, its nice to share the scenery with other people and discover new places in the process.

Rough Ridge had been on my list for a while, and I was not disappointed.

My mom sure has instilled a sense of adventure within all of us.

When you go to a place like Rough Ridge, you just have to take the cliche photo.

My sister joined me on a cloudy snow day to Roan Mountain, an all-time favorite of mine.

A good friend of mine endured the 6:00 wake up time and the cold wind to catch my first ever Roan Mountain sunrise. We even ended up being models for some other photographers with our same idea.

I took my brother and his girlfriend up to the Green Knob Firetower for a super windy sunset.

We all have a major love for snow skiing, so we made a ski trip a priority on our winter break list. We met up with an old family friend (not in this photograph) and had a fun filled weekend of snow tubing, decorating Christmas cookies (which we’ve been doing since I can remember), kids vs. parents games of Heads Up, and a day of skiing. It was a perfect day of skiing with 50 degree temperatures and sunny blue skies.

Probably the most exciting part of winter break was having the company of my aunt, uncle, and Oma for Christmas. They made a last minute trip to North Carolina to spend the holidays with us. It was such a treat to have them here for a few days. It was Oma’s first time to North Carolina in roughly ten years. It was like a true family Christmas.

My aunt insisted we get a photo with the saxophonist in the background even though it meant looking directly into the sun.

It is a Dutch family tradition to have this special Sunday meal, so my mom tried to recreate it as best she could.

Oma got a little bit lost in all of the wrapping paper on Christmas day.

Funny family photo.

I had to show off a bit of the parkway to Oma, so we stopped at a few overlooks for some fresh air and beautiful views.

During the last few days of my winter break, North Carolina got a mini monster of a snow storm. It started on Friday morning and by the time I woke up on Saturday morning we had a good 6 inches on the ground. On Sunday, the snow still hadn’t melted but I packed my car up and got ready to go back to Raleigh. I had just hit the road to go back to school when I got a text informing me that my first day of classes had been cancelled, so I got one extra day of break. It was a nice little surprise to have one last home cooked meal and a few hours more with the parents.

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2014 Favorites

I’ve never done one of these favorites blog posts, so I thought I would give it a whirl. I know that most people usually do favorites posts about their favorite beauty products, but I didn’t want to discriminate. I put a bunch of my favorite random things in it. Enjoy!

This first item in my favorites is my polaroid camera. I got this for Christmas and I just love it. There is something really special about having a picture being permanent and not being able to delete it, or edit it.

This next product is Not Your Mother’s Lock Luster Oil Treatment. My hair gets pretty dry at the ends so I put a little bit of this in my ends every morning. It smells great, and feels really good in your hair. The argan oil makes your hair soft and silky and also tames frizziness. The Omega 7 in the macadamia oil nourishes and moisturizes your hair while being lightweight and non-greasy.

This is a tee-shirt that I made in art. I made the design and then silkscreened it onto a plain white tee. I also made this shirt in green. Its definitely one of my new favorite shirts! 🙂

This pair of sunglasses I got fro DEB and I thought that the side band was very cute and summery. I think you can see for yourself that they are just adorable.

If you didn’t know, giraffes are my absolute favorite animals. When I found these sneakers from H&M I had to buy them. They are really comfortable, and I wish I had enough outfits that matched so that I could wear them every single day. What is better than walking around with your favorite animal!

I got this make-up bag from H&M. It is the perfect size and very plain while also being elegant. It is a tan color with a slight peach undertone and a gold material behind the cut-outs. 

 

I’ve had these pens for quite some time but I never seem to lose my love for them! The are very true to the colors on their caps, they don’t bleed, and have a very nice tip.

Okay, I had to include some beauty products too. I got these creme eye shadows from Hema in the Netherlands last year. They add a nice shimmer to your eyes and just in general brighten them up! And I use the darkest one most often… as you can tell.
And the last favorite of this blog post goes to a lipstick that I found and thought was very summery! The photo doesn’t quite display the color accurately, but it is a very hot pink. I can’t quite remember where I got this, but if you have it, or recognize the packaging then feel free to leave it in the comments.

So, thats it I guess. I think that I need a little practice with these type of posts. Thanks for bearing with me!