River Arts District

In the city, there is a place called the River Arts District. It is exactly what it sounds like, too. It's a little area that is filled to the brim with artist studios and galleries and old abandoned factories, right off the French Broad River. This is my favorite place in the entire world. It's covered with color. Even the houses in the neighborhoods in the area are bright purples and greens and blues and every other color. Even almost every shop has a mural painted on it. And there are a dozen abandoned buildings that are extremely old. One of my favorite parts of the River Arts District is this heavily graffitied spot where I took some outfit photos at one day.

I have a feeling you'll be seeing the River Arts District a lot on my blog. It's amazing.

Picnic On the Lake

Derek and I are enjoying the spring weather every chance we get. Yesterday we had ourselves a little picnic at a little lake in a small town we live near and it was oh so lovely. We watched little ducks swim around and be cute while we ate and enjoyed the sunshine. Then we took a ton of pictures together, while everyone in the (very busy) park had their eyes on us the whole time. A while ago, I would have never been able to handle that many people staring at me. But I've learned very well not to care what other people are doing and if they do watch then let them, because I'm a hardcore people watcher myself and I know people are just curious. I was able to block them all out and while taking pictures I felt like Derek and I were in our own little world. Yesterday has been filed under 'good'.

(His cheesy smile in this one cracks me up)

Also, the necklaces I won in this giveaway finally arrived! I'm wearing one of them in the photos. A post dedicated to them will be coming soon! ps, they're even more gorgeous in person!

A Day on the Lake

Today the weather was beautiful!! So my mom and I and two of her friends went to Lake Julian and rented a pedal boat! It was so lovely! It was also my first time every being in any type of boat. 

Lake Julian is a man made lake, and its purpose is to be a cooling agent for the local power plant. So unfortunately you can't do any swimming in the water, but you are able to rent boats for fairly cheap. Even though there is always that gigantic air-polluting energy plant looming in the background the whole time, the lake is a really beautiful place with nice parks and is plentiful in ducks and geese. You have to admit though, the energy plant does look pretty majestic against the lake.

These pedal boats are so neat!!

What a workout!!

The best part was when ducks began to follow our little boat around! It was so adorable! They were hoping that we had something yummy for them to eat but unfortunately we didn't think to bring bread along. Sometimes they had trouble keeping up but would catch up when we stopped, then circle our boat! They were so precious!

They were some very brave little critters. 

It was a very enjoyable day overall and I can't wait to go back!

Buzzard’s Rock

My best friend Andrew, who lives in Missouri, came to visit me in the mountains for a weekend. I think time might have spontaneously warped into super speed while he was here. It felt like he had to leave as soon as he arrived! We didn't waste a second, though. We had as much fun as we possibly could the short three days he was here. We spent some time country crusin' and we spend some time in the city. He got to meet my boyfriend for the first time, and I finally got to show him all the little diamonds nestled in these mountains that I have found since moving here. One of those being my favorites, Buzzard's Rock. We went at the absolute perfect time of day too. I had been there a few times and had never seen a more gorgeous sight than I did that day.
Exhibit A:

I took the majority of the pictures while he was here with my film cameras and haven't developed them yet so right now there's only one picture of us together from his visit.

Honestly, I laugh pretty hard every time I see this picture. Yes, he really is that tall.


Oh and what I'm sitting on in this picture is the actual rock of Buzzard's Rock. It's purple! How much more awesome did this place become?!

He'll be visiting again in the summer. I can't wait!! He's always been more like a brother to me. Oh, and I failed to mention him and I are telepathically connected, or we have incredibly similar thought patterns, or something like that because we're pretty much the same person I'm just the girl version and he's the boy version. Maybe I'll elaborate more sometime in the future.