Pharty Time!!!

About six months ago my roommates and I decided we would host a photo party at our house. This consisted of us setting up an area of our living room to be the set, everyone was to bring a random prop and we were going to have a photoshoot with all of our closest friends. Let's just say it was the best idea ever and it resulted in some epic photos... everyone picked on as their facebook photo for at least a little while (that's how good they were). Lucky for us one of the masterminds behind this operation was not only one of my roommates who is a brilliant photographer, but she had thrown a "Pharty" before - so it was fairly smooth sailin'... once people got over their stage fright.

So next time you're not sure what to do with your friends, go ahead a throw your own "Pharty"... you don't even need a professional photographer - and drinking alcohol is not even necessary for "Pharties" to be fun. The following photos are proof:

**All photos courtesy to Alex Creswell

the life of a college zombie

I realize that by reading this blog one would be inclined to assume that all I do is eat food because it's all about food I've cooked/baked, but I didn't take up cooking or baking until this summer. It's amazing how peaceful having free time is... if I could wish for anything right now, free time would definitely be at the top of that list. I know that I took my free time for granted over the summer, yet I was experiencing the most relaxing period of my life so far. I could do whatever I wanted, almost whenever I wanted. Now my life is 100% structure, even my weekends are fairly structured because I've been traveling with friends on the weekends and there's always an event that we have to be at next. Four months ago I believed that structure was necessary for my survival because it was all I knew, but now having so much structure in my life makes me feel like I'm in restraints - stomping through life as a lifeless zombie from one daunting task to the next; class, work, class, meetings, eat, homework, procrastination, homework, nap, repeat. For anyone out there who has excessive free time on their hands, embrace it now! Carpe Diem! Go out, have an adventure without predetermined plans, do whatever your little heart desires...

List of things to do with free time:

• surf
• dance party!!!
  
• photography
• paint
• run
• walk along the beach
• watch random TV shows
• hangout with friends
• visit the friends I miss
• find new music online
• clean my house
• fix the broken things in my house
• clean/organize/dispose of junk from my past
• read fun books
• research ways to improve the world
• have an adventure
• try new restaurants
• cause a ruckus in the world
• cook/bake
• play with my doggies
  
• there are probably other fun things I can't think of at this moment... :)
  

As the new year begins...

It has been a little over a week into 2009 and it seems to already be flying by. Hopefully that means there is a lot of fun and excitement ahead. I kicked off the new year with friends – we spent 4 days hanging and bonding at a friend’s house while doing activities like: hiking, crafts, going to a giant trampoline place, broom ball, dance parties, and a photo scavenger hunt. My favorite parts of this trip, besides becoming closer with everyone, were playing broom ball and the photo scavenger hunt in downtown Santa Cruz. I was also excited because I got a few really cool photos from doing the scavenger hunt.

This photo was used as our "creative"/tie-breaker photo. While we were wondering around we came across this giant green shed, with some mail boxes that were also painted green next to it. I took this picture from the street while everyone else climbed up. I love how this pictured turned out because I didn't even need to alter the photograph at all. When we showed our picture for the judging of the scavenger hunt contest everyone commented on how it looked like a posed band photograph.