you’re like an angel in the snow.

You’re like an angel in the snow

I knew you’d come but soon you’ll go

You have to leave but believe 

You’ll be frozen in my mind and back to life

Come winter time

-Chris August, "Winter"

The snow falls. The snow lingers on the ground for a couple days, reveling in the love it has for the ground. The snow then says good bye and melts. The snow stays away for days, then the uncontrollable urge to come back strikes . The snow falls again, and the whole cycle begins yet again.

That has been the story of snow and winter's romance has been lately. If you ask me, it isn't proper behavior on winter's part.

I normally don’t care about the snow, but it’s almost the middle of January and we have a maximum of 2” on our lawn.  I am now longing for the return of the “snowpocolypse” we had last winter, and tons of beautiful, untouched snow to longing to be captured by my camera and lens.
I am really afraid this slow winter will lead to a cold spring and summer- which would be torturous!

My favorite thing about winter and the cold weather has to be all the layering opportunities, mostly because I love to layer my clothes on, it's juts part of my style! So to have a whole season where it is a must to layer- is perfectly fine by me!

See? Those white straps, they are called suspenders and are one of the best understated fashion accessories ever. Seriously, they are awesome!

Click on the photo(s) above.

No, nothing is wrong with the (darkened) photo, it is just a small way I can help to protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), these bills, if passed, can and will destroy the internet as we know it. It will destroy businesses, blogs, social networks, search engines, and sites with valuable information. 

On Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 the US Senate will vote whether or not to pass the internet censorship bill, and we need to tell them to vote NO. 

You can sign a petition here, help the fight against SOPA and PIPA.

-Josie

christmas 2011.

Yes, yes, I know that it is January & I'm writing about Christmas, but I finally got around to going throught & editing pictures from Christmas..yyyyeahhhhh.

Like every year, my family went down to Indiana to the family farmhouse. I actually have never, ever spent Christmas Eve at my house, neither has any of my siblings, because we've always been down at the Farmhouse. Which I think is awesome, I love the farmhouse so much. The farmhouse has been in the family for over 100 years. My great-grandmother was born there & died there. It's the central place where we see our whole family, make memories, eat delicious food (the back porch where we keep all the food is filled every year with mouth watering leftovers), & just have a great time with each other.
I dread the day were we'll have to say good bye to the farmhouse.

We love to take naps, it's almost always low key in the afternoons (prime nap time!)

                                             Walks are another classic Farmhouse activity.

We walked over to my uncle's Christmas tree farm on Christmas day & everyone found a tree they loved & then stood next to it to have their pictures taken... It was fun, especially when people wrapped their tree up in scarves, hats, & someone put a coat on theirs.

The rows of trees

Tree hugger :)

A Charlie Brown tree- hehe

We opened presents after our walk...

My Aunt Lora & Aunt Carole

My cousin Holly

Uncle Chad...

My dad & Aunt Carole



My Uncle John can be somewhat of a clown at times

Aunt Carole making Christmas dinner

Announcing the casting of the annual Christmas pageant

Then the day after Christmas, we left the Farmhouse & went to my Grandpa's house for Christmas there (yeah, we have 3 Christmases altogether. 1 at our house, 1 at the Farmhouse, & 1 at my grandpa's house)

I gave my Grandpa a framed print of one of my pictures, I was excited for him to open it!

I had an amazing Christmas (even though, it wasn't wight- at all.)& I'm glad I finally shared it with you!
How was your Christmas?

Days 7-8

7.A picture of your most treasured item:
My camera :)

8.A picture that makes you laugh:
This is Michael Tait and I, for more info, scroll down....

We went to the Winter Jam tour in  Grand Rapids on Sunday... It was my first ever concert and it was AH-MAZING!!!!! Whoa! What a night.. But the above picture is of me asking Michael Tait of Newsboys if I could touch him... I wasn't able to while he was preforming so i waited 1/2 hour in line to meet him. Let me say, it was worth it! My hand smelled like the Newsboys for awhile after... *sigh* It was amazing!

I loved it all and want to go back next year!

Here's a pic of Chris August and I

When I went up to Chris August to have him sign me Winter Jam shirt, this is what happened:

Me: You were amazing! I love your shoes!

Chris: Thank you! You know what? I love *you*! Wait. That sounded wierd. We just met!

hahaha, it was awesome! :)

We where in the 4th row from the stage and even though my camera lens' zoom was awful, I got some awesome pictures! Below is my fav one of Michael Tait preforming "Way Beyond Myself"... Don't you just LOVE the Newsboys? hehehe But they preformed allt he songs I hoped they would, I loved everything.... :)

Love,

Josie

The Awesome Necklace I LOVE!

Have any of you heard of *Ruche*? If not, you are missing out on some big time drooling!!!!! That store is almost as bad as Etsy in the terms of you are bond to find a whole bunch of things you *love* yet can't buy... The problem w/ me and that store is that the dresses are GORGEOUS but too short for me, I've been blessed with being *very* tall. :) I love being tall but finding storebought dresses that actually are long enough is awful!

But, my mom got me a adorable necklace that I loved... You can see it *here*... Well actually I wasn't supposed to know about it, it was going to be a Easter present, but the box came while she was away and I knew she got something from Ruche and I had a hunch it was the neckalce but I wasn't sure soooooo, I did what you probably would: I opened the box and saw the necklace and tried it on and I loved it all over again... Here are some pics of it I took ;)

Here it is again {below} with some of my bracelets.... :)

Bubbles

We had a gorgeous day yesterday... Sunny and 35*... *sigh* it was lovely. And everything is starting to melt and I got this interesting picture while taking a long walk... I love the perspective of it! :)

Can you see me? :)

I love the simplicity of this shot....

A Magnificant Love Story...

The kind of love story I described in the tittle is not a written story by a human author, well He is an author, but He has written *your* story in detail, I'm talking about our heavenly Father... He has written each of our love stories and they are more amazing than each of us can imagine.

My dear friend Brittany has been an very close friend the past 3 years even though there is a 6 year age gap between us :). I have watched her go from a recent home schooled high school graduate, to a college student, to a stay at home daughter who teaches piano and riding lessons, and finally a newlywed wife. I've watched her love story unfold just as God had written it...

She has just written a "Part 1" of what has happened in her love story, it is quite amazing! I actually was with her the first time she saw John {who is now her husband} after the event when they first met. I actually didn't know what to think about him. I mean he was nice, very outgoing and he was very funny! Pretty soon they became serious and I didn't know how to feel about it... And then they became even *more* serious and I got confused and kind of upset, and then they got married. I was definitely not that excited right after I found out, it was a big change with a friend who had always been a constant in my life. But now, my eyes have been opened and I'm soooo very excited for them! :)

Here is "Part 1" in Brittany's love story, I'll share "Part 2" as soon as it's posted!

Please check it out!

Love,
Josie

*below* I took this picture of my sister's horse {yes, we now have a horse, I don't like it that much :/} and layered a picture of a page of my journal over it, I like how it turned out... What do you think?

Love...

I've been reading through the New Testament in 90 days, it's gone well so far... I'm learning so much from just reading and mediating on God's word. Lately I've been reading 1 Corinthians and here are some of my favorite "love" verses that I've been reading:

"Love is patient and kind: love does not envy or boast: it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, endures all things..." 1 Cor. 13:4-7

"Love never ends..." 1 Cor. 13:8

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love..." 1 Cor. 13:13



Tattered and Worn

Those shoes were my Grandma Cindy's... She wore them for a highschool dance and since then they have been well loved...I have loved stomping around her house wearing those elegant shoes, brings back alot of good memories of my Grandma Cindy, I miss her sooo much :(

I remember the shoes were kept in a toy trunk at her house... I would peak into the trunk and see them, beckoning for me to try them on and play...

The dress she wore with the shoes was a silver grey with red crinolin undreneath, it must have looked gorgeous, the colors of the dress have to be left up to my imagination beacuse the only picture we have of it is black and white. But leaving it up to my imagination makes it more exciting and elaborate...

Is there anything that you can only imgine about it? Do tell!
Love,
Josie

I'm a Canon Girl...

As of today I am a Canon girl... my camera came and it is AMAZING!!! Wow! It was totally worth the wait! :)

I'm Trying.....

I'm having a *very* hard time convincing myself that even though I check the tracking info for my camera's travel home to me more than is healthy, it will still come at the same time.... Aaagh!! Why can't it come sooner, but it says it *should* be here by the end of tomorrow, eeek! :D Uber exciting!! Well, mainly for me, but I'm sure y'all are tired of hearing about my babie :P I'll shut up now... hehehehe... But you will all hear *more* about it when it arrives, brace yourselves ;)

*VERY excited scream* AHHHH!!!!

OH MY WORD!!! I am so excited right now....I just ordered my camera that I have been saving up for, it's taken 6 mo. but the day has finally come when I ordered it. :D It's a Canon Rebel t1i and it will take up to 10 days to get here :(  But, the shipping was free ;) So I will keep you all posted on when it arrives and I will be sure to post pics... I can almost hear the shutter open and close now....hehehe

Here's two I took with a friend's Canon EOS 50D {an amazing camera...btw} and I *really* like how they turned out

Also...I have a acoustic guitar I am looking to sell, if you know of anyone or are interested, shoot me an email! :)

Here's two more I took recently and love how they turned out. ;)

<3 Josie

Favorites

I have favorites, lots of favorites.... Favorites in the stores I love stores, favorites in what restaurants I love, favorites in blogs I read, and favorites in pictures I have taken. I know I might have posted some of these but I want to post them again, partly because on some of them I've played around with in editing,and mostly because I love them so much! So take a look....

<3 Josie