CHEAPER THAN THERAPY

i'm all about happiness and stuff like that, but lets be real, sometimes life gets a little bumpy and you find myself in little depressing funks that you can't get out of simply by smiling 24/7. this past semester particularly has been bit emotionally rough, primarily because, well, i'm a flipping teenage girl with estrogen, duh.. but also because a lot of hard changes.. :-) let's just leave it at that.

although i'm sure it works wonders, i've actually never been to legit therapy nor do i really need it. (i'm going to count that as a blessing). and since i have no money and there's no way in heaven i'm going to free group therapy at the rec center, so as the thrifty gal i am, i have found several cheaper alternatives.

+ skiing. 

actually, i take that back, it's probably not a cheaper alternative, but there's just something about mama nature and good company and going really fast down hills with the occasional yardsale that makes me forget there are any problems in the world. hmu if you wanna shred sometime... i got a season pass and a condo ;)

+ music.

it fixes everything. i'm not joking. the right song can make me feel really happy, even if i'm actually not feeling that sunny. artificial emotion, you could say. 

and other songs work like little bandaids, with their catchy tunes and magical lyrics, to heal any emotional wounds or other dramatic-sounding stuff like that.

+ quotes. 

you know when you're just scrollin through pintrest having a jolly good time on your couch when a little gem of words hits you like a ton of bricks? ya, well that happens to me a lot. and then i end up sitting on my couch for another hour having an even jollier good time reading a bunch of quotes that make me laugh so hard, not because they're funny, but because they littttterrreaallly are my life in words. it feels good to have someone/something to relate to. even if it's just a cluster of pixels formed into words that resonate with my life profoundly.

+ people.

people like people. well, sometimes people hate people, but i like people. people distract me from other people that make me almost dislike people. i just said "people" a lot, whoops. but i like being with human beings on rough days because then am distracted from my baby issues and instead having a jolly good time with my people.

+ art.

and here is where i would leave the link to my etsy shop cause i'm a super successful artist. psych. by art i mean i like to decorate my room and take pictures and play the violin and make films and press flowers and make prints and fun stuff like that that technically counts as art. 

wow much artsy wow. 

+ fam.

nothing like some good family time to make you grateful for your friends. HAHA JK. love ya fam. you're my rock. you rock.

i'm gonna stop now before i get into things like disney channel and shopping and pizza that make me sound like a total white girl. 

it's a great day to have a great day, even if you're not having a great day yet… have a great day.

your therapist?

kp

i'm a survivor

my room flooded,

 my sister's fish is suicidal,

i failed my physics final,
i need to have a funeral for my 4.0,

 and i may have post traumatic stress disorder after this week… but 

WE MADE IT EVERYBODY. IT'S CHRISTMAS BREAK.

santa clause is coming to town.

'tis the season.

and everything is flippin merry and bright.

now i can finally sit back and relax and watch every hallmark christmas movie created and read everyone's costco-formatted christmas cards (i find it amusing how everyone tends to use the same card layout lol) and make sugar cookies and christmas mixtapes and go ice skating and scramble to find presents and put a wreath on my car :-)))
i may be a bit overexcited..
i also may be the type of person who starts listening to christmas music in october...

also enjoy these random yet sick pics that i took with dylan after we filmed "on edge"

wishing you and yours a wonderful stress free holiday season,
katie jane

SYD IS SIXTEEN

recently in my life i have really come to appreciate the constants in my life. yes, i like change.. but only when i initiate it. constants such as family, a happy home, and even simple things like dinner routines and traditions have kept me afloat through the whirlwind they called junior year, oh and then there's 

SYDNEY FOOTE.

she has been my bff for as long as i can remember. so many friends have come and gone throughout my life, but not syd. syd is always there. (maybe cause we're cousins but heeeeyyy, i'll take what i can get lol)

today sydney foote turned 16 and so i thought i would take a moment to remind the world that sydney foote is beautiful and funny and stylish and perfect aaaaannnd my best friend.

and also that we had the best childhood in the whole wide world and that it needs to be published on the world wide web.

we were penpals... like the kind where you literally mail letters.

we played "house" occasionally, but the game we played nonstop was "pioneers" #mormonprobs. our moms helped us sew our own little pioneer outfits and then we would treck up and down st. james lane with our dolls in our "covered wagon" (a wagon with noodles bent acrossed it with a white towel over them.)

we were convinced our bitty babies and american girl dolls were "real" (like in toy story) and wouldn't neglect them for a second. we even fed them yogurt and stuff... or at least attempted. 

we would watch and rematch "the parent trap" because our relationship was exactly like lindsey lohan's and linsey lohan's.

we would do shenanigans of our own creation like dressing up like a grandma and grandpa and riding our bikes around the hood or doorbell ditching cute boy's houses and then taking off on her purple moped. 

we would get all dressed up and then hike up the hill behind her house to take photos on her mom's iPhone 3. 

when we got older i would spend weeks at her house going to orchestra camps or tennis camps or sewing camps or whatever we were feeling, really.

we baked chocolate chip cookies literally every night, and even typed up our own recipe in cute courier font and made a cooking video. 

we would text neighborhood boys and meet up with them at the "swings" or the "bike trails" where we proceeded to stare at each other awkwardly for 10 seconds, say something like "hey" and then dramatically scoot away on our razors.

we stayed up waaaay too late every night watching cheesy movies like "the prince & me" or "princess diaries," and then we'd stay up even later once "lights were out" just talking or giggling or dancing or whooo knows.

we would start projects like parties or kids camps or blogs (a wannabe-mommy blog, we even used code names LOL) and then never finish them. 

we would plan extensive workout routines, and do maybe half of it the first day...maybe. but hey, it's the thought that counts.. right?

now, we still have just as good as a time as we did when we were kids, except we get in trouble for evvvveryything. lol. whether it be ditching out on thanksgiving dodgeball (whoops) to go shopping at DI and take pictures in snow canyon, or just sitting at home literally doing nothing, someway somehow, we'll get in trouble.

baylee forbes, syd and me.

^^it all started the christmas of 2000. i got this dope stroller for christmas and syd was super jelous and kept fighting me for it, and so her mom finally just caved and went and bought her too.

and then we had matching strollers, and i mean, you're just automatically bffs if you have matching strollers. duuuuhh.

matching outfits were our jam

our boy benny

just thought i would leave this here

oh, and we went to NYC together, so that was really a friendship solidifier. also, let's please note the, once again, matching outfits (and hats woot woot)

and that my friends, is sydney foote.
cousins make the best best friends, amiright or amiright??

xo
katie

lifestyle

i think it's cool how people can just do whatever they want with their lives, take an occasional sick pic and call themselves the very official-sounding title of "lifestyle photographer."  

i'm not a lifestyle photographer, let alone a photographer at all,
(i'm i'm more of just a white girl with a nikon... )

but these are some of my favorite pictures i've taken recently.

THANKFUL FOR..

because first and foremost, i'm grateful for mah fam

i'm late, yes, i know, i know.

but hey, everyone listens to christmas music before thanksgiving (admit it) so i don't feel thaaat bad for still being thankful for stuff in december.

so here it is. this is a list of things i really and truly am grateful for. in fiji, one of the most important lessons i learned is that we should never overlook the small blessings in our lives… so these are some of the small, sometimes unnoticeable things that i think deserve a proper shout-out.

+ the rack of $1 cd's at DI. i find myself  digging through this rack almost weekly and have found gold every time. we're talking everything from random people's mix tapes, to jack johnson, to britney spears first album. it's good stuff.

+ sandra bullock. i connect to her on a spiritual level. like, you know when you have a really deep chat with one of your close friends and you just leave feeling like the stars are aligned and you have your life all together and stuff? that's how i feel after i watch a sandra bullock movie. 

+ DISCOVER WEEKLY. no, it's not a newspaper, it's actually a super dope playlist of 30 songs that changes every monday on spotify. i'm pretty sure whoever puts together the playlist is very spiritually in tune because 90% of the time it is exactly what i need to hear.

+ a car with seat warmers. it makes all the difference, especially now that it is -793 degrees when i leave in the morning and patiently wait for my windows to unfog, (or just drive down the street with my head out the window, it depends on the day lol).

+ cousins. they are the hot shiz. every single one of them. they are my permanent bffs whether they like it or not :-) i am very blessed in the cousin department.

+ this blog. WHAT LOL. now lets see if i can finish typing this before my pinky finds the delete button. but for reals. our computer has been acting up a bit, so i've been having a lot of losing-all-my-picture scares, but it's so relieving to know that my favorite memories will always be safe and sound on my little corner of the internet.

+ birthday party blue bunny ice cream. every[girl]one has their go-to ice cream and this is mine. it has been there for me more diligently than any human ever has. they only sell it in mini cups, but recently i found it in cartons and lets just say i was a bit more excited than i should have been...

+ my flip phone. you heard me. well, technically its a slidey phone, but if its not an iPhone, who really cares? but i am truly grateful for it. it is COMPLETELY DISTRACTION FREE. it is social media free, group message free, and so therefore, distraction free. it does what a phone is meant to do, text (slowly lol) and call. it is an understatement to say that it has taken me a while to realize this blessing, but i love that little black brick.

don't worry, i am grateful for my family and my friends and my house and my car and all the things that come to mind as far as gratitude, but personally, the little things make a big difference.

kj