Joe’s Stradivarius Replica

My brother is pretty much the most talented person I’ve ever known, period.

He’s only been studying music for a couple years, and already in that time he’s made more progress than most people make in a lifetime. And he makes it look so easy. He’s got a true passion for the art and his enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. He’d been working on his same starter violin for the last year and a half, but he’d outgrown it a LONG time ago. It was definitely time for an upgrade. After a few months of searching for a violin that would suit him, he finally stumbled upon this Stradivarius Replica made in 1880. Its gorgeous dark tone beautifully shows off his ever advancing technique and musical subtleties.

I couldn’t be happier for him. And he was just over the moon in love with his new instrument.

We had to do a photo shoot. 🙂

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Winter Break with Hannah

Between the holiday festivities and work and moving, my winter break was jam-packed. Although I didn’t get to spend all the quality time with Hannah while she was home as I would have liked, I made sure to make some time for a Winter Break photo sesh with my baby sister. I just love taking pictures of her.

This girl has some serious style. I love how she puts together these adorable head to toe looks. Next time she’s home, I’ll have to make her go shopping with me! Miss you, Hannah! Keep kicking butt at school!

The lovely Autumn leaves down the street

Jordan ran off to go study this afternoon, but got sidetracked by some beautiful fallen leaves. They were  blowing about by the wind and the fence of the nearby elementary school provided an excellent catch for what came to be a massive pile of lovely leaves. Jordan came back to grab me for a spontaneous picture session. It was such a sweet thing to do. Jordan knows me all to well… It was the perfect thing to brighten up my day. And it was so much fun to play around in all that!

I have a growing list of posts that I’m behind on for the blog… I actually have been up to a few things in the last few weeks that I’ve planned posts for. Good blogging intentions only get you so far though eh? Sometimes I blog because I want to keep a running scrapbook of the “goings on” in my life, and other times like now I feel utterly anxious to post. Probably because these pictures were such a fun, spur of the moment thing that it really made my day special.  And of course, I think it’s appropriate that I use this opportunity to take a second to share what’s been going on with me lately.

Lately, I have been able to do a little cooking and have added a few recipes to my collection, which is always great fun for me. However, I still haven’t managed to give pumpkin spice a try yet. This afternoon, Becky told me I could use her leftover Halloween pumpkins for some experimenting, so I suppose I have no excuses left! I gotta get on it while those pumpkins are still good!

Paying for college out-of-pocket really gets expensive fast, as I’m sure many of you know. Just when I think I’ll have a break from tuition payments, another one is due. But I do seem to have come across a bit of luck and I’ve been able to go from part-time to full-time at my job! More hours=More money! Sometimes thinking about adding all those extra hours feels like I’m just getting robbed of my creative time, but for the moment at least, I’m looking at it in a different way. After all, having extra hours in your life is no guarantee of getting the things done that you want. Ever heard of the saying, “Need something done? Ask a busy person.”? Being as productive as possible during my days seems like living the dream in at least one respect. So my goal is to embrace my new schedule. 🙂

Jordan and I are hoping to move to Seattle after this school year. We still have a lot of work to do to make that happen, but every day I want it more and more. I think I’m a big-city girl at heart and I can’t wait to get over there and experience that kind of life for myself. I can’t believe that it’s November already. That possibility is getting more real with every day that passes. And hey, getting full-time employment is a huge step in the right direction towards making that dream a reality.

I gotta say I’m feeling pretty happy right now. Today has been a very lovely reminder that I’ve got a pretty great little life. 🙂

Enter the Red Dreadlocks

Hello again. 🙂

As you may already know, I’ve been dreaming of having dreadlocks of my own again for quite some time now. Although I adored my short and sassy cut that I got last year, I was anxious and impatient to return to my long glorious locks. Once again, my “all or nothing” behaviors have caught up with me and I refused to be satisfied by medium hair length. I waited it out as long as I could.

The last thing on the list to do before I could get the process going was to find a color match that would be close enough to my natural hair color to make the dreadlock extensions look natural. Without holding onto too much hope of a perfect match, I took a gamble on a dye and it paid off. I couldn’t be happier. As soon as I saw the color, I knew I’d finally be dreaded within a matter of a couple weeks.
So, for the last two weeks before my trip to the coast, I have been doing absolutely nothing in my free time other than work on my dreadlocks. That, and keep myself going on this tedious project with just stupid amounts of television. I’m a little bit disgusted with the amount of TV that I “watched” during this dreading phase. That being said, I don’t think I would have finished without the entertainment. I lost steam after about a week.

Thank goodness I was able to get them finished just in time for our trip. That would have been awful to get there with half-done hair! Many of my closest friends were so surprised to see me in dreadlocks because I’d kept it on the down low that I was finally making it happen. I had just barely gotten them finished and hadn’t even put any pictures up online. It was fun to unveil them to everyone. 🙂
As I saw that the dreads were getting closer and closer to being done, I kept feeling like this was right. It’s like I can finally be myself again. It may sound kind of silly to be so passionate about ones hairstyle, but I never wanted to give up on my dreads in the first place! I was forced into a year and a half hiatus from them. Having them back just feels right. 🙂

My Baby Sis is All Grown Up and Going to College!

Once upon a time there was a family with 5 daughters who lived on a small dairy farm.

My parents wanted a large family from the start and had hoped for some boys along the way, but after having 5 daughters, they’d almost given up hope that it would ever happen. But the day came that marked an end to an era and my brother Nathan was born, followed by my brother Joseph two years later.

So much of my identity was wrapped up in being one of the 5 Linde girls. And now, all of us Linde girls have grown up. And another end of an era has come. My youngest sister, Hannah, is no longer the little baby of the family anymore. She graduated high school in June and just last week packed up all her stuff and started a new phase in her life away from home. What started out as a family full of girls, is now a family with only two boys.
The night my parents came home from dropping off Hannah was somewhat of an emotional night for them. I could see in their eyes the intensity of this milestone for my mother and father, who started out their lives together with a plan to have all of us kids when they were young so they could still be young when we all grew up. I could see my mom on the other side of that dream and feeling the weight having crossed such a significant milestone. What a strange thing for a parent to go from a house full of girls to a house full of boys.

Hannah’s going to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah now. She is the second of the five Linde girls to do so. Now two of my sisters are an entire day’s journey by car away from me. Although I’m ecstatic for my sister, Stephanie, to have a sister in town with her, it’s somewhat of a bittersweet moment because it leaves one less sister for me.

The passage of time is such a scary thing. People just move on with their lives whether you want them to or not. Having my baby sister all grown up and going off to college and making life progress makes me take a closer look into my own progression. Left and right people are just moving on with their lives and sometimes I fear that I’m being left behind. It’s these moments that really put on the pressure for me to make something of myself and get what I want out of life. 

I love you so much Hannah! I’m so excited for this new phase in your life!

Charlie Time!

Jenny’s Bachelorette Party

What happens at the bachelorette party, STAYS at the bachelorette party… for the most part. 🙂

Cutting the Cake

I can’t help it… I was definitely rooting for one of those “Shove it in her face!” moments…

Just Married!

Congratulations Jenny and Taylor!!!

Roses

Despite the crazy heat we’ve had, I’m just loving the outdoors right now. Everywhere I look there’s something beautiful and I never seem to have my camera at the opportune moment (and my phone camera is a joke…:/). These Roses were so beautiful, that I made a special trip back to the park to capture them.