grace loves the beatles.

top 6 blogging tips

2012-05-30T02:05:00.000-07:00

Now, we all know that I'm the queen of the blogging world.
Not.
And have most definitely have broken one or more of these rules in this past.
But I do have a few rules that if you break, I will come to your blog and leave a long, mean anonymous comment.
I'm kidding, of course. Nobody likes mean anonymous commenters.

These are not in any particular order, bee tee dubs.

1. no music, please.
Now this one is one that people might disagree with.
And it really depends on the music. Some music is relaxing and adds to the blog.
But when I'm relaxing and reading your blog at the end of the day and your blog decides to blast pop-y radio music when my volume is on full blast?
I'm not a happy camper.
And especially when I can't find the dang pause button.

2. pictures.
You don't have to have a $5,000 dollar camera or the fanciest lens ever to have pictures on your blog.
A point and shoot or even an iPhone would work!
(If you're going to use an iPhone, I would reccomend Line Camera (free) and Hipstamatic ($1.99) for your editing.)
Just add pictures!

3. word verefication. take it off.
Pleaspleasepleasepleasepleaseplease take off your word verefication on your comments. Everyone on the face of the planet will thank you.
Maybe that's a little much... but close.
Let me let you in on a little secret. I'm lazy. And so word verefication is just an extra step that I have to do when I'm leaving a comment on your blog.
Don't know how to take word verefication off?
Go to Settings > Posts and comments then scroll down to Show Word Verefication? and click NO.
Ta da!
Now I understand if you're the writer of this blog or this one if you want to use word verefication... but otherwise, it's just a pain.

4. stealing? not cool.
Being inspired by someone's blog is one thing.
But copying them and stealing their work is a whole other thing and it's not cool.
Not cool at all.

5. have a variety of posts.
This is another one that people might disagree with. Some people like blogging about the same thing all the time. Some people are strictly fashion blogs, and some strictly photography blogs.
But from what I have noticed, I like reading blogs with a little more variety better, and I also like writing a blog with more variety better.
6. stay true to yourself.
As extremely cliche as it sounds, it's true.
I have probably broken this one the most out of all of them, and I'll admit it.
I get caught up in trying to make my writing like someone else's blog, or my photography as good as theirs, that I read back on my posts and think, "Wait. This is not even me."
And that's not good! You want your blog to reflect your personality and your talents.

What is one of your blogging "rules"?
Hopefully I'm not breaking it.
That would be awk.

Happy Wednesday!
xo

blogs

2012-05-29T01:45:00.000-07:00

I guess I go through phases of reading blogs and not.
But lately I've been seriously reading blogs up the wazoo, and finding new ones too.
(I rhymed! Hardy har har)

Here's a few that I just started reading. And I love them. And you should check them oooout. ; )

Happy Tuesday!

weekend in bellingham

2012-05-28T16:20:00.001-07:00

This weekend was a great one I tell you. Actually, now that I think about it, any weekend that has another day is a great one. No matter what you're doing.
Wait... never mind.
Moving on.

This weekend, just my dad and I drove down to Bellingham to spend the weekend there while he rode his bike in the Ski to Sea, which is kind of a big deal in the Bellingham area.
Let's just all give a congratulatory applause to my dad, who got freaking 34th place out of 500 road bikers.
And ended up riding the last 20 miles out of 42 without water when it fell off his bike.
I know.

Here's a few fotografías from the weekend.
(Let's pretend I didn't have to use google translate to know what photographs was in Spanish.)

The whole team. They got 64th place overall!

happy monday & also, happy memorial day!
xo

POTD's//days 31-38

2012-05-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

day 31

day 32

day 33

day 34

day 35

day 36

day 37

day 38

Whew. Super busy week my friends. I posted a total of one photo to Instagram this week.

Follow along with my POTD facebook photo album right HURR.

grace

auntie clare

2012-05-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

My aunt Clare is beautiful, smart, and basically just an amazing person and I love being around her.
And she is moving to Texas in four days!
It's very bittersweet because she got an awesome job there, and she's going to have such an awesome time and I know it's going to be an amazing experience.
But I am freaking going to miss her!

All I'm going to say now is thank god for texting/facebook/skype/email.
I love you Clare! Have an amazing trip!

xo

I would like to point out that she is wearing some pretty legit heels in this picture and I am taller than her in real life. Just saying. ;)

awkward and awesome thursday

2012-05-24T01:54:00.000-07:00

awkward:

- Choosing to wear white shoes on the day that it's raining and you have to walk home.
Really, Grace? Really?

- Having your window open and there being a draft in your room so the door shuts. (Very loudly.) I jumped. Then investigated.

- Not having enough outlets in your room to fufill all of your geeky gadget charger needs. #nerdalert

- Your whole family eating a loaf and a half of banana bread in a day. (I don't know if this should go under awkward or awesome.)

- My braided top knot that kind of worked out?

awesome:

- Getting a ride to school, which equals a half an hour of more sleep for me. Waking up at 6:30 instead of 6? Glorious.

- I wore these puppies on Monday, then one of my friends were wearing some similar ones on Tuesday and then another friend was wearing them yesterday. What can I say, I set all of the trends at my school.

- The Secret Life of Bees. I started reading it because I really wanted to read the Help but didn't have anyone to loan it to me, so I wanted something similar. I'm not very far into the book but I love it so far! Read it!

- Re-organizing rooms!

have a fabulous thurday, loves!
xoxox

(super colorful) pinterest love

2012-05-23T00:55:00.000-07:00

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Everything is so colorful on my Pinterest boards lately!

I mean, I love color year-round, but I love it even more in the spring/summer time.

I even bought some hot pink lip gloss today.

Getting crazy, I know.

xo

p.s. Is your name Eva? If it is, you won the Forever 21 giveaway! Yay! Check your email, girl : )

currently

2012-05-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Loving: The My Yellow Sandbox blog! Her blog is an awesome hair/beauty blog with tons of hair tutorials and such. (My favorites are the boho braid and the braided messy bun.)
I'm always looking for hair ideas that don't require heat... A) because I'm lazy, and B) because putting 350 degrees on your hair everyday? Not very healthy. Her blog is super helpful! And I bought her ebook today & love it. :)

Smelling: Banana bread with cocount, chocolate chips and walnuts that my mom just made! It's in the oven right now. Ummm... yum.
I can't wait to eat that shiz.

Watching: Not a lot of TV. I really try to watch it... remember how I was watching Lost? I really want to watch one episode a night, but I just can't find the time! By the time I'm all settled and ready to watch it it's 10 and I have to go to sleep to get up at 6:30 the next morning.

Wishing: That I didn't have to wear a uniform to school! At my school you have to wear a polo tucked in, or a school sweatshirt, with jeans or kakhis.
Ick.
I'm going to have to be pretty fashionable this summer to make up for all of the sweatshirt-and-polo wearing this year.

Reading: Magazines! Seventeen and Teen Vogue came today! I absolutely love magazines. Especially fashion-y ones.

weekend in whidbey

2012-05-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

One more weekend trip, done!
It was a good one, too.
My Mimi & Papa have a beach "cabin" on Whidbey Island, where we went for the weekend.
(We use the term "cabin" very loosely. It's pretty much just a house. But, you know, sometimes you just gotta feel a little rustic.)
But this trip was sans madre! My mom went to Bellevue with her friend Heidi (they obviously had a lot of fun.)

After a long car ride Friday morning, we all went on a long walk up and down Double Bluff beach.

By the way, do you know how hard it is to run on the beach? I was testing it out to see if maybe my dad and I wanted to run there another time... but dang. I have killer calves from running 5 feet.
Moving on.

Then we came home, and pretty much just relaxed the rest of the day. Charlie had a little hot-tub time, my grandma & I went thrifting, and we had a delish dinner. See?

Saturday consisted of pancakes for breakfast, Charlie/Sissy bonding when dad went on a bike ride, reading magazines and chilling out, more shopping with Mimi, barbeque for dinner and s'mores for dessert.

Life is rough.

That's my weekend kiddies.

I didn't think it would be necessary to wait & post pictures tomorrow...

Becuase tomorrow is just going to be driving and sleeping and listening to the radio.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Happy Sunday, loves.

xoxo

a few random things.

2012-05-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's about to get random up in here.
Brace yourselfs children.

First order of business.
I started twittering.
(I know that people call it tweeting, but I'm just going to call it twittering. I hope this isn't a problem.)
I'm a baby twitterer but I have a cute background so whatever.
Follow me! @Grace Drechsel.

*cue the screenshot of my twitter.*

Secondly, I had a fabulous day yesterday.
These are the reasons for my fabulous day:
1. I got to skip school.
2. I did a waterfall-esque braid on my hair and it looked legit.
3. The drive to my beach cabin was wonderful. Charlie was perfect the whole time and my dad and I just got to talk for 2 hours.
4. I had an everything bagel & an apple for lunch on the ferry, which was delicious.
5. We all took a long walk up and down the beach.
6. I went thrifting with my grandma and bought 5 new books and a new skirt.
7. We came home and charlie went in the hot tub with just water wings and it was hilar.
8. My Mimi made homemade chicken strips for dinner.

Not to brag or anything.

And last, but not least.
Here are 3 hilarious things I found on Pinterest.

I don't know why this is so funny to me. Some things are just hilarious for no reason.

soml.

i just love this.

That's all I have in me right now. There were millions of others things I wanted to say in this random post, but I can't seem to remember them right now.

I will post all of the pictures from my weekend in whidbey island!

Eventually.

POTD's//days 25-30

2012-05-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

day 25

day 26

day 27

day 28

day 29

day 30

Yes, I know that this is only six days! I'm changing it so that I can schedule the post on Thursday night and not have to include Friday's picture, if that makes any sense!

Also, I moved my POTD's from my Flickr stream to my Facebook page! So now you can follow along at my FB album right HURR.

TGIF, beautiful people.

xoxo

things that are awkward and awesome on this fine day.

2012-05-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

Awkward.

- When it's dead silent in cless then every one starts coughing all in unison. Seriously, it seems like everyone at my school is contaminated with some nasty cough.

- Running down the middle of the street (in the neighborhood, by the way, it wasn't a busy street) then realizing that there's a car behind you, driving really slow and waiting for you to move.

- Laughing at your own jokes when no one is laughing with you.

- HAHAHAHA I don't know if this picture should be under awkward or awesome. He was being cranky all afternoon. But I guess me taking his picture when he was mad?
Kind of sent him over the edge.

Being two is so draining, I tell ya.

And now, on to the awesome stuff:

- Texting your dad, asking if you can get frozen yogurt after he picks you up from youth group, and getting a text back that says "OK".

- Skipping school on Friday to go to beach cabins.

- Funny wrong-numbers that don't make any sense whatsoever. I swear there are some crazy people in this world.

- Telling people to "Build a bridge and get over it". It's one of my favorites right now. I'm sassy, build a bridge and get over it.

- Compliments from old ladies when walking home. "You have such beautiful skin! So young!" Totally made my day!

- Actually just old people in general. They just make me happy. Please agree with me.

- The very large number of entries on my Forever 21 giveaway so far (88, for serious?) and all of the new follows today! I will hopefully get the chance to visit all of your blogs in the near future. :)

stay classy my little jolly ranchers.
(don't ask.)
xo

a forever 21 giveaway on a wednesday

2012-05-16T06:06:00.001-07:00

Have you heard of Forever 21?
LOL JK. Everyone and their mom has heard of Forever 21.
It just so happens that my F21 is the size of a Nordstrom's.
Which is at the same time, a blessing and a curse.

Anywhoo, so my mom and I were in Seattle, at Forever 21
(I don't know why she agreed to go in there with me, she hates that store with a passion.)
But I decided that instead of shopping for me, I wanted to shop for you!
Because I am so appreciative of you.
Do you know where this blog would be without you?
A whole lotta nowhere.

So I walked around the accessories section for a little bit and picked out a few things to give away! Here's what the winner will take home:

Fun, right?
I had to seriously talk myself out of buying 1 more of everything for myself.
It sort of worked.

To be entered to win, fill out the rafflecopter form below.
The winner will be announced on May 23.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck little chicadees!
And don't forget how much all of your follows, comments, facebook likes, emails, whatever, mean to me.

xoxoxo

instagram fo lyfe

2012-05-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

You guys, I don't mean to toot my own horn here or anything.
But I am an Instagram machine.
Ok, that kind of is tooting my own horn.
But really, who cares.

[1] charlie, shoeless at lefty's burger shack.
[2] gansta baby.
[3] pretty mother's day flowers from camden!
[4] good morning!
[5] seattle shopping.
[6] me and my momma on momma's day.
[7] i'm pretty sure i was half asleep when i took this yesterday morning ... but i like it!
[8] barbequed salmon!

Follow me, amigas.
@gracieisabel

Later alligators.
xo

weekend in seattle

2012-05-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

For mommy's day, we took a little field trip to the Big City. (and by Big City I mean Seattle.) We did this a couple of years ago and had fun, so we thought, "Well, we're not doing anything else this weekend." So we packed our overnight bags and were on the road!

Well not yet. First stop: Camden's ~~t-ball~~ BASEBALL game. (if you call it t-ball you will get a dirty look, and I know from experience.) Baseball does not concern me so basically I just pushed Charlie in a big swing.

Then we hit the road jack.

Charlie ate french fries for dinner on Friday, and lunch and dinner on Saturday.

Stop judging. It's not nice.

We got to the hotel, and luckily there was a dance floor.
(Sorry his feet are blurry. He's too good of a dancer. What can I say, he learns from the best.)

Next on the agenda? Shopping in downtown Seattle. We split up, so mom, Charlie and I went to all of the fun stores while Charlie and daddy-o went to Gameworks (?) I don't remember what it's called. Some arcade-esque place.

I bought a t-shirt (see below outfit) and some new summery flats from American Eagle that I love. (and I'll probably be wearing every day until Christmas Eve.)

Then, I went to a different store, and bought something that I'm going to be giving away sometime this week! So look out for that!

Then we met up with the boys again and went to the Cheesecake Factory with my Mimi and Papa.

The majority of us ordered off of the new "SkinnyLicious" menu, then ordered a large side of fries.
We class it up.

I got the Mexian Tortilla salad (minus green onions, because I'm a child and dislike onions)! It was delicious.

Next stop: hotel! Where mom put Charlie to bed and Dad, Camden and I all went to the Red Mango, because when I know frozen yogurt is within walking distance from my current destination, I must go there.

Sigh.

I want froyo.

I ate that whole thing.

No shame.

Then we headed home, and I showered and stayed up too late on the internet. Well, too late considering the fact that the whole family was up at 6:30 for Mother's Day BREAKFAST!

Breakfast = my favorite meal of the day!

Then we checked out of the hotel and drove down to Pike Place and the waterfront.

And I modeled.

I'm awkward. Sorry I'm not sorry.

shades: f21 // black tank: f21 // shorts: old navy // shirt: american eagle // converse: macy's

photo credit to my mother

Last stop: Chipotle! Me likey. We decided that we officially like Chipotle better than Taco Del Mar.

That's pretty much it... besides hearing Somebody that I Used to Know about 36 billion times on the radio on the way home.

And all I could think of was Blaine from Glee singing that, most likely in his questionably-purposely-cropped mustard pants.

Now we're home, and eating rhubarb custard pie in celebration of mother's day!

Mothers, I hope your children are being good to you today! And children, I hope you're being good to your mothers!

p.s. Do you like these kind of long, photo-dump weekend recaps? I'm doing more short weekend trips in the next couple of weeks.

happy mother's day!

2012-05-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

Happy mothers day to my crazy, hard working, and beautiful mom! She is such a big influence in my life and I honestly don't know what I'd do without her. I love you mom! Thanks for putting up with me! : )

Now go hug your mom! It is mother's day, after all.
xo

POTD's // days 18-24

2012-05-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

day 18

day 19 (probably my favorite so far!)

day 20

day 21

day 22

day 23

day 24

another week, done!

follow my POTD's daily through my flickr stream right HURR.

links to love

2012-05-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to think of something somewhat entertaining to talk about for the whole week now! But I just sit at the computer, drawing a blank. It's probably the four hours of essay writing I've been doing each day this week... gross, I know. Please sympathize with me.

Anyway, instead of thinking of something creative, here's a few links that I have been loving this week.

♥ I've been loving all of the 10 on 10 posts today! I'll have to participate next month! I especially love Kiley's, Hannah's, and Carlotta's.

♥ This is super awesome!

♥ I made this! You should too! Her post was so easy to follow!

♥ This vlog is the cutest thing ever! Harper is adorable.

♥ The real meaning of MPH. Good to know. :) I laughed so hard. And then I showed it to my dad. He did, too.

♥ Can't think of anything to post about? (AKA me this week?) This post would be super helpful & inspiring.

♥ Yum.

have a fabulous (rest of) thursday!
now if you will excuse me, I am going to go fold some laundry.
fun.

xo

manpri monday

2012-05-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I love to wear capris.

And so when the weather looked nice and I was getting Charlie dressed for the day,

I decided to get him on the capri bandwagon...

Or better yet, manpri bandwagon.

He loved it, but someone* said that they looked dorky and changed him out of them.

In other news, I have my big yearly testing tomorrow.
Bleh. I hate tests.

At least I have froyo.

happy monday, loves!

*probably my mother

spiders are no joke

2012-05-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

let me start off this post by saying that i'm really not that afraid of spiders. like, i don't like them or enjoy their company. but there was this girl in the third grade, and someone showed her a picture of this spider and she screamed and ran all the way upstairs. i'm not like that. ; )

ok, so there i was, taking my shower (like i do every night) and then, out of my peripheral vision i see a big black glob emerging from the ceiling.

and so then i do a double take at the said big black glob, and turns out is a ginormous nasty black spider coming out of the vent in the ceiling.

superb.

so i'm freaking out, and doing some weird jumpy and freaky out-y thing because that spider is no joke. and if that isn't enough, the spider then FALLS FROM THE CEILING. luckily, the vent is not directly above the shower, it's right next to it, because if that nasty thing would've fallen on me that would have been a whole new level of terror/freaking out. so then i proceed to make some weird screechy scream-like noise because again, that spider is no joke and it's probably coming to eat me at that very moment.

i turn off the shower, grab my bath robe and get the heck out of there.
my mom is standing outside of the door, wondering what was wrong, because remember the screechy scream-like noise? turns out it was louder than i thought.

then she makes a face like, "grace you are such an over-reactor it is seriously just a spider get over yourself". my dad comes upstairs to get the spider and i hesitantly follow behind him to see just how big it is...

it was probably the size of a quarter, if that.
not as ginormous as my paranoid mind made it.

he flushes it down the toilet (sucka) and i go on with my shower.
so it all worked out and in the end, i was not eaten by a ginormous mutant spider.

so the moral of the story, children?
.....
there really isn't a moral, haha.
except for spiders are evil.
and vents should not exist.

the end.

POTD// days 11-17

2012-05-05T16:53:00.000-07:00

day 11

day 12

day 13

day 14

day 15

day 16

day 17

sorry this is up a day late!

i hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. : )

follow my POTD's through my flickr stream right HURRRR.

my hurrrr

2012-05-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

i've been growing my hair out for probably about a year now. it's grown roughly 7 or 8 inches in that time. so, that's a couple of inches above average (yes, i googled that). this is the longest my hair has been in my life! there was only a year or two in my life that it wasn't shorter than my shoulders. maybe i just like change, but i love having long hair!

here's what i do every day:
- i shower and wash my hair with the herbal esscences tousle me softly shampoo & conditioner. i love this stuff! it smells so good. and yes, i do wash my hair every day. some people say that it's bad to do that but, whatever. it works for me.
- when i get out of the shower, i scrunch in some aussie catch the wave mousse & leave in conditioner. i just got this last week and i love it! this smells good too and it's only about $3. (and i don't do this all the time, but sometimes i'll spray this from garnier fructis in my roots.)
- if i want to have wavy hair in the morning, i will french braid it when it's wet, and sleep on it. then, i'll spray it with my garnier hairspray in the morning and take it out. boom! wavy hurr.
- if i want to have straight hair that day, i'll just sleep on it wet, and then in the morning, spray some tresemme heat tamer spray on it, and straighten it with my chi, which i bought on amazon here. it only takes me about 3 minutes to straighten my hair.

that's it! pretty easy! i try not to straighten my hair every day, since i want it to grow fast and putting heat on it every day might slow down the process. i probably straighten my hair only 2 or 3 times a week, and french braid it on the other days.

i'm definitely not a hair expert, but i would say if you're trying to grow your hair out, get a trim when the ends start splitting or looking damaged, and then use a heat protectant when straightening/curling your hair.

do you have long or short hair?
happy wednesday, loves!
xo

favorite lightroom presets [who is wolf]

2012-05-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

i use presets a lot on lightroom... i know you're supposed to not use them all the time or whatever, but they just speed up the editing process so much! for my POTD's, i've just been brightening them up a little bit and putting an action on them.

my favorites are the who is wolf presets (you can dowload HERE!) they are so fun & 100% FREE! a friend of our's, stephanie, (who takes amazing photos by the way, you should really go check out her flickr) told us (being my mom & i) that she loved these and we love them, too! here are a few of my favorites!

happy tuesday loves!
xo

banana muffins that you will love.

2012-04-28T15:54:00.001-07:00

fun fact for you: i love muffins! they are pretty much cupcakes that you are allowed to eat for breakfast. seriously, how could you not like muffins? my favorite are banana chocolate chip. yum. here's a recipe that i just made a couple of weeks ago!

Banana Muffins
makes 12 muffins

- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- optional: 3/4 coarsely chopped walnuts or chocolate chips

- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3 bananas)
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk together dry ingredients in an elecric mixer, then whisk together the other ingredients in a large bowl. Combine but don't over mix. Divide the batter up between 12 muffin cups. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

i know mine are a little freaky looking! i didn't mix the chocolate chips in, i just sprinkled a few on the top before baking. : ) you could double or triple this recipe and make a large batch, and then pop them in the freezer and microwave for about 30 seconds before eating. that's what i do, at least.

enjoy!
xo

POTD days 4-10

2012-04-27T21:38:00.002-07:00

day 4

day 5

day 6

day 7

day 8

day 9

day 10

first 10 days, down. woot woot!

follow my POTD's through my flickr photo stream right HURRR.