SnowDay.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver / Little Broken Hearts, Norah Jones / Born To Die, Lana Del Rey / Babel, Mumford & Sons

Oh, yea. It's a snow day. The bank is closed, so I lock myself away with the elixir of the morning, a good pair of sweats, and the company of my dear musical friends. Oh, yes. The creative juices have started flowing. It shall be a glorious day. 

And don't even get me started on the Harry Potter marathon that shall commence in only a few hours.

#GodIsGood.

-Blessings,

C.

The Artist Lego.

My best friend/roommate, Jon Eick, and I are kids at heart. Adventures, Super Hero movies, and Kraft Mac-N-Cheese still excite us. Legos are another thing that excite us. One of Jon's Christmas presents from me this last year was a tree house set of Legos, which we are of course planning to build together sometime soon. About a month ago, Jon and I went to Portland for a weekend and on our way home Jon stopped at this massive Lego store. We walk over to a display case filled with all different sorts of Lego people. Jon asks the store associate that he'd like to buy "The Artist." He pays for it, hands it to me, and tells me that it is a birthday gift for me from him. One of the best gifts I've ever received.

I recently bought a shadow box for the little guy and some letters to put in there with him. As Jon intended, he now hangs on the wall as an encouraging reminder of what I am: An Artist.

-Blessings,

C.

Creator of the Roses.

January 10, 1989. My Birthday. Today I turn a quarter of a century old. The big 25. I'll be honest, I know 25 is still really young, but it's been a scary one for me. I feel like no other age has made me feel like I'm saying goodbye to my youth as much as 25 has. Like I said, I know 25 is still young, but I also know that I've already lived out most of my youth. This has created all kinds of thoughts in my head. It has made me think of all the things I haven't accomplished. All the things I didn't do that I wanted to. All the things that I missed out on. All the ways that those losses will affect my future. Not just that, but all my mistakes, all my regrets. I ask myself, "If my life were to be appraised, what would the tag say?" I've also had an irrational fear of getting old. At the bank, about 60% of our customers are elderly. I admit that being witness to their struggles on a daily basis has made me more fearful of growing old. I realize that once you get to a certain age, your abilities to function in ways that have become too familiar to you slowly and painfully fade away. Again, I ask, "Am I living my life to the fullest? My youth is slipping from in between my fingers, but am I doing the most I can?" Today, God whispered to me what the purpose of a rose is. It is to bring joy, beauty and delight to the observer. As well as every person, a rose is born. It first is a bud for a while and then it blossoms into an incredibly elegant and enchanting living creation that with even the best efforts cannot be duplicated. It exists and serves it's purpose. And even when it comes to it's age of withering, if you have the right heart about it, it's beauty hasn't left it, it has only changed. Each withering rose tells you that all things, even the most beautiful things, one day come to an end. To cherish those things while you have them. And, most of all, that that rose is fulfilling God's design for it. To me, that's beautiful. Friends, we are all roses. We are all observers. And the greatest observer of them all is the Creator of the roses. The rose does not exist for itself. The rose exists for it's Creator. The rose exists for those around it. After God wished me a happy birthday today, my fears of aging faded away and thankfulness filled my heart. 25 is a blessing. How many people out there didn't get to see 25? 36? 48? 62? 79? Each year is a gift! Each one is special and beautiful. Each one is given so that you can be a rose. For Christ. For others. Don't dwell on your past or your future. Live today.  For my birthday, My dear friend Amanda Baker shared an inspirational quote from a daily calendar she has. Today's was this:

January 10:

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I am thankful to say that I know that what lies within me is Christ. And that is everything. My prayer to each one of you reading this is that you would live selflessly and fully. That you would be a radiant reflection of the Light of the Creator. That your heart would be filled with joy and thankfulness, even in the most difficult of circumstances. And that you would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE ALL who you encounter, regardless of how they respond. All my love to you, Roses.

-Blessings,

C.

Jake Likewise 3D.

Jake Likewise. This man right here is one of the best and most amazing friends anyone could ever ask for. He's very quiet and serious to most, but when you know him as well as I do, you'll realize that he's the funniest goofball ever. Jake makes me laugh so hard. If you don't know him, you also need to know that he's an athlete. You'll never see him without a fitted baseball cap on his head or without basketball shorts and a t-shirt. I asked him to let me pick out his attire, fix his hair, and take pictures of him. This is the outcome. He cleans up pretty well, huh?

Blessings,

-C.

Be You.

Lately, I've been struggling with the idea that "being me" isn't the greatest. For some time now, I've been feeling that who I am and how I'm wired hasn't been so easily embraced by my some of my friends. We're very different to begin with, but I haven't been able to stop beating myself up with the thought that it's my characteristics that drive us apart. This occurrence with extremely significant relationships has made me very self conscience with all of my relationships. These last few weeks, I've had to step back and just pray about it. I've finally come to a place where I can no longer allow myself to believe that God did not wire me to be who I am. Who I am isn't for me anyways. It's for Him. It's to love and bless others. If I have that mind set, how can I really go wrong? It doesn't really matter how people respond to it. I created this little graphic with a photograph I took as a little reminder of this truth. Each new day that comes, I don't know how to be anyone but me. As should you, in humility, "be you."

Blessings,

-C.

All Eyes On Kylie.

  

Every girl needs a pretty dress. And although Ms. Kylie Dalton has more than one fabulous dress hanging in her closet, she always wears each one like it's the best one she owns. Kylie graduates next Saturday from Oregon State University and bought this glamours number for the occasion, which she accompanied with a festive necklace. Naturally, she wanted to share her new ensemble with her Shimmer Me Pretty readers. Yesterday, I had so much fun shooting photos of Kylie. Let me tell you though, walking through Downtown Corvallis you couldn't help but notice all the heads that turned. One guy even stopped his car to tell Ms. Dalton, "You look beautiful." As you can see above, it's not difficult at all to end up with lovely photos when you're model is lovely. The work is pretty much already done for you! These shots are my favorite from the shoot. I hope you enjoy them too! And don't forget to visit Kylie at Shimmer Me Pretty.

Blessings, 

-C.

I Love L.A.

Los Angeles! My home land. This is a photograph I took from a plane while it was landing. I was visiting my dear friend, Priscilla Enriquez, and captured this scape. It has become one of my favorite shots I've taken. Enjoy!

Blessings,

-C.

Coach Carter.

Carter Davenport, ladies and gentlemen. This here is my good friend and fitness trainer. An Oregon State University Graduate with a bachelor's in Sport and Exercise Science with an Option in Nutrition, Carter continues living out his passion for athletics by helping people obtain their goals in physical health. Carter and I started training last week with intentions of going for 60 days. My start weight was 204 lbs with hopes of reaching 185 lbs. I have since seen a 2 lb difference, not to mention muscle gain. It has been exciting and exhausting. But mostly exciting. Carter is the perfect trainer. With a kind heart and an upbeat spirit, he motivates and pushes you to go beyond your perceived limits. It's been so fun getting to know Carter. He is an athlete to the core. His biggest passion is running, but he does it all. He's especially a sucker for basketball and anything involving the outdoors. I think the greatest thing that makes Carter the perfect trainer is he wants to obtain your goals just as much as you do, maybe even more. It's so easy to feed off of his excitement. I'm excited to continue training with Carter and to see the results. I'm excited to continue sharing our adventures with you. And if you ever need a trainer, I know a guy.

Blessings,

-C.

Worry.

This is a photograph I took in 2010 while on a mission trip in Mexico. This was a garbage dump where people would wait for the arrival of garbage trucks to rummage through them to find things to sell, things for themselves, or things to eat. 

It’s a funny thing how you can worry about the smallest things to the point where they blind you of the bigger things around you. Big things like the air you breathe. The beats of your heart. The vision of your eyes. The steps your feet take. Being able to get up from where you sit, walk over to the refrigerator, and grab something to eat. Being able to sleep warm and safe in your bed at night. We even become blind to the blessings that come from things such as going to your local Starbucks to get coffee. We get so wrapped up with worrying about money, relationships, our appearances, school, careers, and what others think of us. All these things distract us from thanking God for the air we breathe or for our beating hearts or the vision we have or our ability to walk. All these things distract us from realizing that we are so rich. So ridiculously rich. We have Jesus. We’re so busy being focused on small things in our lives that we don’t see the ones who are really in need around us. God gives us so much power in being able to show Jesus to people. We’re too worried about money to bless someone in need. We’re too worried about that one or two relationships that we miss all those who are crying out for love. We’re too worried about the things that fade away that we forget to ask God what He wants from us. We forget who we really are. We forget whom we’re meant to live for. We forget that each minute that goes by, our lives on earth are coming closer to their ends along with those who don’t have Christ. As Christ followers, do we not realize the severity of the consequences of that? Do we care enough to do something about it? Or do we continue drowning in our worries? What does our worrying about such things say about our God? Doesn’t make Him look very good or powerful, does it? My prayer for us is that we would let the Lord take worry from our lives. It is that we would choose Christ. It is that we would choose thankfulness. It is that we would find rejoicing and satisfaction in our Lord. It is when we choose Him each day that we can be aware of how rich we really are, of how we have nothing to worry about, and of how much power there is in us, through Him, to show the world the beauty & love of Christ. He calls us to love and to give. Let’s stop worrying about the little things and start thanking God for the big things. If it wasn’t for Him, you might not even have been able to read this.

Blessings,
-C.

Happy Birthday, Jon!

Today is my close friend/roommate's birthday. Jonathan Eick turns 24 today, and in honor of that I am posting a couple of photographs I took of him. They are a few years old, but are honestly some of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

Blessings,

-C.

Anyway.

Yesterday, I had breakfast with my good friend and Albany Young Life Area Director, Jeremy Ito. The day before that, I had lunch with one of my closest friends, Mattea Williams. Coincidentally, both times we were eating some tasty food and both times the reality of our wealth and the poverty of others struck us. Naturally, Mother Teresa came up on both occasions and we began discussing about how she truly understood what love truly is and what a gangster she was and all. All that later reminded me of this awesome quote of hers that I just love. I made this simple design over a photograph I took in attempts to celebrate it. Its a couple years old, but I think someone might still appreciate it. 

Blessings,

-C.

Kylie's Passion For Fashion.

Alright. So here's something really new for me. I have this fabulous and dear friend named Kylie Dalton. Kylie has been going to Oregon State University for Interior Design and graduates this June. An amazing quality of hers is that she is super passionate about fashion. Although Interior Design and Fashion are slightly different, they are both amazing ways to express one's self and that is something Kylie is extremely gifted in. She has an eye for all that is glamourous and chic. All that sparkles and shimmers. She has started a blog called Shimmer Me Pretty on which she offers her readers relatable advice on what's hot to wear and how to make your wallet happy on the way. I have been blessed to be able help her by taking photos of her outfits. This last Thursday was our first shoot, and of course, Ms. Dalton looked fabulous as you can see in the photos I took above. I really believe in my friend. She has a gift. I am excited to see her succeed and am thankful to have the ability to help her in this small way. Make sure to check out her blog: shimmermepretty.com

Blessings.

-C.