home status

soooo i went home this weekend with zachary and here is the weekend in pictures. 

(note the many pictures of our new kitty, levi!!)

i'm a cat lady now obv.

lunch with friends at cheeesecake factory

love these two boys

romantical dinnnner!

love love love

two more things

1. my parents are THEEEEEEEEEEE GREATESTTTTTT in the world. ever. hands down. i got so lucky
2. i am becoming a cat lady. oh no. except not because i love cats and i'm not ashamed of them one bit. but seriously...............i need more catz in my life

somethin that i'm learning

soooo in church on sunday, pastor britt talked about where we put our identity and our joy and it really got me to thinkin (as pastor britt often does) and i have always had a preetty hard time with identity and finding it solely in jesus christ and nothing or no one else. but something he said was like a oh-yeah-that-makes-perfect-sense moment. he said that if you put your identity and your joy in money or people or things or relationships then when hard times hit, you will experience loss in a big way. but if your identity and joy is in jesus then when sorrow and pain comes, you will be driven closer to the source of your identity and joy. and that just makes sense you know. and so i have been thinkin of things that have been my identity in the past, other than the God of the universe: my family, money, zach, cute clothes, attention, music. and thats WEIRD. because allll of those things will eventually fail me in one way or another. so why not make it something thats eternal and that will love me and protect me and pick me up constantly?
but. as most things are, this is a lot easier said than done. but its what i'm working on and learning right now. and its hard. and i feel like a failure. but its happening. and i'm thankful for this hard stinky lesson i'm learning.

also another wonderful thing about today
i got to wear my bow boots and also a scarf because of the chilly morning air! what a wonderful day.

who even knew!?

guess what, 6 am is still a real time of day!

how did i, of all people, end up awake at this time you ask? well i will tell you. i accidentally didnt go to sleep last night. i know it sounds crazy but my sleep pattern is all over the board and i just didnt go to sleep. so i am deciding to be extra productive and apply myself in every way possible.
also i am drinking coffee. both of these things (me being up at this time and me drinking coffee) have not happened in over a year. (well once i woke up at 5:45 to take steph to the train station but i went right back to sleep as soon as i returned home.)

anyways. its a very eventful day for me already and its just started!!! i have like a majillion more hours! yay.

i really want to work at a flower shop or the cute downtown bookstore. i am willing to work anywhere that will hire me but thats where i really reallllly wanna work. so i'm applying at all the boring places online first and then as a treat for my productivity i will go downtown and inquire within both of those two places! yippeee!

ps. one thing i have noticed is that there are happier people around in the morning. notice i didnt say 'people are happier in the morning' but rather there are happier people around in the morning. they are lively and glad to be alive and i really love that.

ps again. this is the best white chocolate mocha i have ever ever ever had in two years

so excited for this tonight!!!!!

family to the max!

my heart is so happy

also

the weather in santa maria is the most fall-like weather i've been in all year!! windy, chilly, leaves everywhere--its just wonderful!! praise the lord for today and for my dear zach and for zailey and banana oatmeal blueberry pancakes and for traditions and best best best friends and love and lovely weather and sisters and christmas music!!!! just praise jesus okay!!!!!!!!!!

three cheers for tradition

so last night zach and i established our fall holiday/early november traditions.

and they are as follows:

-get a $25 itunes card somewhere

-go to starbucks for a grande carmel apple spice and a grande pumpkin spice steamer (the steamer is a lot better than the latte, let me tell you)

-go to panera for broccoli cheese soup & bread

-download one or more christmas music albums from itunes (with the itunes card. obv)

-go to trader joes for maple cream cookies (they are the cutest, they're shaped like maple leaves!)

-go back home to make some peppermint tea and eat said maple cookies while watching whatever movie we wanna!

aren't traditions the greatest?? zach and i have a lot of traditions. its just fun to always do the same thing with the same people.

one of my most favorite traditions is thai tea club, which was established this summer.

these 3 people are some of the greatest most exquisite people i've ever known and i am SOO thankful and blessed to be able to have a friendship and this tradition with them!!

hip hip hooray:)

oh my darlin

soo glad he's back:)

this is so cute.

i love this video, its soo adorable. 

from the blog Rockstar Diaries, which is also quite adorable.

this is pretty.

preetttty floral arrangement

pretty wonderful wedding

pretty cute paper boat

pretty rustic looking house

pretty crunchy leaves which pretty much mean fall is here!

pretty adorable illustration

pretty delicious looking cupcakes!!!!!

pretty much can't wait for christmas

pretty cool carnival

pray for daisy love

website

i'm not tryin to be a baby or anything but i really want zach to come back to america.
i talked to him yesterday for a total of 13 minutes and today for a total of 1 minute and 14 seconds. and i just miss my best friend. and i miss knowing whats going on in his life, what he's strugglin with, what God's teaching him. i just miss him a lot. and i'm allowed to whine a little bit okay!!!!!!!


but he is coming home in one week from today!! hooray!!


even though i do miss him a lot, i am very thankful first of all that he is safe. and also that he got this opportunity to travel the world and be with his dad and see things that i've never seen so he can tell me about them! 
he's an extraordinary person. and i know i've done like 52899673410 posts on how amazing he is. but he really is. and i am truly the most luckiest blessed girl in all the world. he's a living breathing testimony of jesus christ to everyone. he genuinely cares about people. he sees the best in them. he sees the best in me! he makes me feel like the most beautiful person in the world. he cares about little things. he's just wonderful okay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can brag. i'm lucky. he's great. 

praise the Lord for love. <3

britt merrick is probably the best speaker i have ever ever ever heard. he's convicting and challenging and encouraging and refreshing and the worship is amazing.
i never wanna not go to reality ventura.


akljsdhkalsjhkasd
alsfkdghioasughilasdhgiaursdfjkghisueryt87294iruwefkjsdfhgisdhf!

i can't even explain this. church today was soo refreshing! (i cant stop saying that word.) i've never ever felt that way after going to church. i've felt encouraged before, maybe even a little convicted. but neverrrrr like today, ever. i am soo thankful for God's word and reality and how they convey it and how they love people.
i love church.
i love today.
i love jesus.
i love the bible.
i love fellowship and people.
i love love.

love! aisudgyiosu!

wonderful

yesterday was just wonderful.

we were grocery shopping for about 76 hours trying to find the ingredients for our perfect dinner. (and also carmel apples!!!!!!!)

soo we went to the mexican market, which i've never been to. i thought it was going to be a dingy, dimly lit little thing with just fruits and vegetables and maybe cow intestine or something. but no! alas, it was a huge grocery store with just realllly good prices!! and so bright & colorful.  then we went to the 99cent store and someone backed into jaqui's car....... i was sitting in the back and pretend i got really bad whiplash and also i pulled out the ketchup from my back pocket and squirted it all over me. just kidding, none of that happened except jaqui's car gettin backed into, that really did happen. but it wasn't even bad!!!

after that we hit up fresh & easy and then we wwere home and started making our delicious dinner of mushroom chicken & steamed vegetables & cornbread with honey butter. such the housewives we are! 

ALSO we made carmel apples, which in my opinion is the best fall treat snack of them all! 

(ariel and i kept stealing the carmels and jaqui was like 'girls dont steal anymore carmels or we wont have enough!' but then as soon as she left the room we'd steal more and it was JUST like when i was younger and my mom was cooking something with carmel. it was a fun little part of it)

also we juiced a MILLLIIIIOONNNN apppples. soosoosooooo good.

twas a lovely day indeed!

yay halloween today!

ohhh friends.

tj, carl and colleen came on friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well first of all, our friday was started out with delicious breakfast sandwiches. and also, searching for change in our apartment for like an hour just so i could have money for the $3 movie theater (yes, i am that broke).
but. when they finally got there, they found a bloody knife in the door and ariel and i, laying on the floor with BLOOD ALL AROUND US!!!! except not. it was ketchup and we were laying on plastic grocery bags. we think we're so funny. but we are.
then we had some sweeet tea and played a few games of copy-that-sound! which was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. sometimes you can make noises that you really doubt you could make...andnndndnndd its just the funnest.
and then we saw despicable me at the $3 theater!!!!!!! i've already seen it but its still the funniest kids movie ever, i love it.
after the movie, we started craving every food item that was in the movie. pizza, donuts and cotton candy. so we hit up little caesers and KD donuts (we didnt know where to get cotton candy!).

it was such a perfect day full of soo much laughing!!! i love friends, soo much and i have been blessed with the best of the best!
:)

encourage

"you must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy" 

--john calvin

this is pretty.

ohh wonderful day.

today is just plain great.
love, ellis (check out the link) is a FOR REAL THING! we brought some of our things to Love Fox Vintage store downtown and the girl there, Faith, really liked them and sooo pretty much we get to sell it there. no big deal
also we decided that the organization we want to give part of our profit to is going to be the Baptist Haiti Mission!!! really excited about that.
also my sister mallory is going to make some stuff and be a part of it as well!
THEN jaqui's grandparents took us to the pumpkin patch, a real like pumpkin patch!! it was very cute and the weather was perfect for it!!

this is just a very exciting day. i never thought that something i could make would be something anyone would want to buy! and making stuff is like therapeutic for us, its the funnest.

i think it soo wonderful that God gave us creativity and that we can make money and possibly help people by doing stuff that we love to do. ariel and i are certainly very thankful for a creative God.

hooray and amen.
we are two very thankful excited girls.
:)

P.S. i just registered to vote! yipppee:)

our official business!

ariel and i have officially made an etsy and officially named our business, its all very official.


love, ellis is the name of it and we sell hair accessories--headbands, hairclips, beanies etc. and other things like coin purses and wallets and possibly jewelry!


hooray!


(P.S. i will post the URL to our etsy once we have things up and running:)

temper trap

temper trap is my favorite band. move over frightened rabbit and ray lamontagne.

weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes with the morning--psalm 30:5

i am blessed beyond belief.

i am having a hard time.
i don't know why God has me where he has me and i know i dont get to know everything but i feel very discouraged and useless and i just am disheartened lately. well not lately, i guess just today.
and i know this is all part of the stretching growing, feel-good-kind-of hurt but today it just stinks.
boo hoo.

may the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from eachother-- genesis 31:49

this is pretty

blessings up the wazoo

heavens to mergatroid!
God is really into blessings. and by that i mean blessing me. in soo many ways!!!!!! soo many ways. i'm so excited for the things He's workin on in my life cause theres a lot going down. & while its real hard and stretching, its like a good kinda hard. its like when you have really sore muscles and you push on them and then they hurt but its the good kind of hurt cause you know that its helping. its like that. and its exciting and painful and wonderful and messy and emotional and reassuring. and i know my God loves me and i know my God is bigger than anything i can ever encounter. and that is the greatest encouragement i've ever known.

this weekend

was soo lovely. in like a million jillion different ways.
first, was the neverending roadtrip to hume for paul & sarah's wedding!!! we got there like ten minutes before it started and i got to see my mama! she was up there the whole weekend for the womens conference. so that was fun. and also i got to see a lot of joshua people that i havent seen in a long long time and we got to actually sit down and catch up! i cant even tell you how wonderful that was. and the outdoor wedding was beautiful, with the incredible backdrop of the lake and mountains and the pretty leaves. and paul was the happiest looking person in the entire world! it brought tears to my eyes. soo happy for those two!! i also got to meet a bunch of the new joshua class! (and we gave a few of them a ride up the hill:)
but i really think that God knew that i really needed encouragement and i got soo much of it this weekend from almost everyone that i talked to. soo great.
then we drove all the way back and didnt get to zach's til like 1. but it was soo fun keeping eachother awake and talking about everything and getting rando mcdonalds fries at midnight. and then the next day we got to hang out with tyler and kaleb and whitney and OLIVER. (who, if you don't know, is the cutest little chubby baby ever.) and then TODAY we ate fake meat, washed my car, changed the windshield wipers on my car, finished the love languages book, and had theee best dance party ever. like ever. i cant even explain it. it was just a really good time with my best friend.
plus i get to go home this weekend! & zoei is coming with!!!
God is so good. and i am soo blessed & i'm reminded of that every single day.

thank you Jesus!!!!!!!!!!

weee

so i'm sort of getting into the swing of things, as far as vegan stuff goes anyways.

on wednesday i made a cilantro lime tofu dressing and i had it on a delicious salad and yesterday me and ariel made homemade french fries and i figured out how to make tofu alfredo sauce! and it tastes just like real alfredo. fancy that!

soo thats been pretty good so far!

also last night hilary was here!! and we went to the donut shop and almost got kidnapped. 

and then in the craft department, this is my latest creation!

its a head band. i'm pretty excited.

mostly we've just been making lots of yo's (which are those things on the headband) and flowers and we're going to make a bunch of headbands and hairclips to sell to Love Fox Vintage!

yay yay yay.

and this weekend is the wedding of paul and sarah at hume! 

weddings are the loveliest.

a day of firsts!

well, it was my first official day of being a vegan............
it was weird.

i had a donut (zach said my veganism doesnt start til 9 am. so i went with it. but thats the last of my giving in!!!!) i also had strawberries. and a really good salad with avocado and carrots and peppers and appples. but it was still weird. i kept craving a steak burrito from chipotle and animal style fries from in n out. i mean, COME ON, it has the world animal in it!!!

but i wont give in! i refuse. there are too many people who told me i couldnt do it and i am determined to prove them wrong. people said i couldnt be a vegetarian but i was for a year! ha! pish posh to you. just you wait

also, today was the first day of the october dress project! basically you have a dress that you wear every day for the month of october. and YES you can wash it, obviously. but its basically just pro simplicity and pro creativity. plus its a challenge. so i'm using a gray dress, its pretty plain but its really cute and it will be easy to accessorize and pick different combinations with what i got. soo yep! thats pretty exciting too!

it was a good day.
plus i might be getting a nanny job that pays $350 a month....... but it also might be a creeper scam. soo who knows. i'll keep you posted.......

its the best day ever.

but really, it is. God is soo faithful. and maybe these all seem like really little things, but every single good thing comes from God. and so i praise him for this day.
1. Camille went into Love Fox Vintage, this little vintage store here in ventura--its the cuutest store ever--they sell vintage clothing for very reasonable prices. they also have for sale handmade pieces by local artists. and so Camille talked to the girl who runs it and we are going to get to sell our things in her store!! they've been wanting more things by local artists & basically we bring it in there and they see what they'd like to sell and then give us moneys for it!!!! and people will be buying our headbands and bows and hats and cards and ALL OUR PRODUCTS FROM THE MILLIONS OF CRAFT HOURS! its very exciting business.
2. Kirsten found zach's ipod that i lost!!!!!! his silver classic ipod, which was in my possession for some reason, disappeared at home when i was there for a week. and we couldnt find it ANywhere. and today, i got a call. and my baby sister kirsten found it deeep in the depths of the couch. yippee!
3.things for our party on saturday are coming together very nicely!! we've gotten almost allll the groceries for it--tomorrow we start baking and making. its going to be lovely!
4. steph and sammy are coming tomorrow for the whole weekend!!!
5. zach gets home in 5 days!!!!!!!!!!
6. i have a phone date with rowland, the man from academy of art university in san fran tomorrow!!

oh life. praise jesus for little things that create happiness.

first day of autumn!!

its the very first day of autumn, why not welcome it in with some crafts!
crafts crafts. my favorite thing.
i am working on the following:
-a garland made out of fabric pinwheels
-a tie for zach to match my skirt/dress for paul & sarah's wedding
-cupcake toppers for our party on saturday!!!!!!!!! boooyeaahh

hahahhahahahahaha

this made my day.

6 days:)

last night

was soo great! stephanie and dominique came alll the way from temecula just to visit for a night!! we got donuts and made cookies and watched the royal tennenbaums and reminisced about everything. and me and steph stayed up til 4 am talking about everythinggggg, it was soo needed and just wonderful!!!!!

plus today we got lunch at nature's grill, de-lish-us.

and now i am going to go make somesing at home.

praise the lord for creativity and expression.

love love love

++

paranoia in b major--the avett brothers
when u love somebody--fruit bats
little secrets--passion pit
you've got the love--florence + the machine
we could be friends--freelance whales
lloyd, i'm ready to be heartbroken--camera obscura
timshel--mumford & sons
everyday--vetiver
hello, i'm in delaware--dallas green
older brother lio--pepper rabbit
5 years time--noah and the whale
dog days are over--florence + the machine
home--edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros
gold canary--cloud control
eyes wide--local natives
the house of god forever--jon foreman
tighten up--black keys
can't stand the rain--the rescues

look at this guy:)

he's the sweetest.

(the best friend i ever did have:)

known

psalm 139 has been huge for me ever since 2 years ago in joshua when rachelle ferreira told me to read it every single day. but its been really prevalent the last few days.
the crazy thing to me is that God knows me and knows what i worry about and what i stress out about and what makes me happy and angry and excited and doubtful and frustrated and content and crazy--he knows all those things, he cares about those things and he provides.
the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE cares that i get stressed out when my gas tank is running low. the God of the universe cares that i really really love good friends and good conversation. the God of the universe cares that i worry about everything all the time. 
the God of the universe.


asljdgahlsiughailwugrhliuweahfliurh!
is that crazy to anyone else? 


my family was watching planet earth tonight (so rad!) and there are over one thousand different species of birds in the amazon rainforest alone.  one thousand!! and each of them is unique to their own kind. there are also over forty thousand types of plants. think about what kind of creativity God has in order to create over a thousand types of ONE kind of animal. and forty thousand types of plants!
and that same God, the one that created all that crazy intricate wonderful stuff, created YOU and knows YOU and cares about YOU.


and that is soo wonderful. oh, how he loves us.


so my advice: read psalms 139 every day; read it and believe it. 

today

is just one of those days. one filled with prison break and 100 layer cake and craft hour.

(ps you should check out 100 layer cake--its wonderful!)

alabama, arkansas

what happens when you add 11 people, southern california, communal music philosophizing and a fixin for creating music reminiscent of the 1960's and 70's?

if you dont know the answer, i'll tell you, its edward sharpe and the magnetic zeroes!

the perfect blend of folk and fun!

john cusack+kate beckinsale=brilllliant.

serendipity--a fortunate accident

they are both so charming!

this movie is just plain heartwarming!!!!!!!!!!! i love it so so much. 

my parents are the most wonderful people in the world.

i found this picture of me and my daddy and it just made me start thinking about how blessed i am to have the parents that i have; they are soo great--they both love Jesus and live like it. they encourage all of us girls to follow him as well. they are wonderful examples of Christ's love and always point us back to him. they are passionate about God's word. they have always had our best interest in mind, no matter what. they are fun to be with and funny, each in different ways. they love eachother, and that has been a great example for me. they care about things i care about, just because i care about them. i can pretty much tell them anything.

and after having lived a little while, i realize that not everyone has been as lucky as me. and i am so thankful.

thanks mom & dad, you are the best people i know <3