Shops I Like: Photojojo

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Have you heard of Photojojo? It's a quirky photography shop for the everyday photographer (like me, and probably you!) I think they are pretty rad. I love browsing through their site and reading all their product descriptions-- it's all so witty. I wanted to showcase some of my favorite items from their shop! I'll let the pictures do the talking. I'm going to hopefully try out a product or two this summer!

Color Flash Filters  $15 - For some fun colors

                                                             Macro lens band $15 - For stellar details

iPhone Bolt Charger  $60 - For on the go

Instax Printer $220 - For fun prints!

iPhone Super Suit $79 - Everyone needs a super suit

Phoneography Starter Kit $30 - For the Basics

Oh, they have so much! And if I had an extra $9639.84 to kill I would buy one of everything they sell! 

On a related note, I'm doing a moments in June photography challenge on Instagram. Today I posted a picture of a trash can for day 8, so that's pretty exciting. yeah. 


All images belong to Photojojo




Model Status

Monday, June 2, 2014

New York City Parks are filled with huge rocks and I think they're the greatest thing ever. I love them so much I wanted to pose with them. Doing so I discovered that I might have a future in modeling. 
Hands on the knee is always a classic.
Rocking that head tilt.

Mixing it up and posing with a bridge
Pop that knee!
Preparing for childbirth maybe?
 Alright... modeling isn't for me.

Check her out! My friend Liz could definitely be a model. 
And I'm pretty sure this girl is an ACTUAL model. There's models everywhere in NYC. Yes, we're still in Central Park, and yes that is a waterfall. A filthy waterfall for that much. 

Sidebar: My entire outfit was thrifted
Another Sidebar: I love the way these bloggers model fun outfits-
Color Me Nana
SaidKelley
Writes Like a Girl
Casey Leigh
Check them out!

Feel free to share your link in the comments if you put fun outfits together! I would love to see what you got.

You're here

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Image from Naptime Diaries
June, you're finally here. I was dreaming about you in March. You seemed so far away, but now you've arrived. Summer is starting. School is almost ending. Change is happening. And that just makes me happy. Today was a beautiful day in the city and a true Sabbath day for me-- Especially after a long day of work yesterday.

What does the month of June look like for me?

  • June is my last month in East Harlem. In July I'm off to the Upper West Side for the remainder of the Summer (more on this later?)
  • June is the month of my birthday.
  • June is graduation month from City Year. June 20th is my last day!
  • I'll have special visitors this month. Aunt B and Auryanna, I can't wait!
  • I'm hoping this blog might pick up the pace a little more this month as well. In May I focused on friendships and work. I also went on a week long vacation, so the month just whizzed by.
  • Sugar fast: I hate it to say it, but I quit that. I made it almost a month, but then I went to Florida and I couldn't keep it up. I successfully made it through a 6 week sugar fast in 2013, but not this time. It was hard and I'm glad I kept it up for the time I did. 
What are you looking forward to this June?



Fun in Sun.

Monday, May 26, 2014

(I know how to rhyme?) 
Consistency on this blog would be great, wouldn't? It's Monday night, and I've been away from school for 9 days and it feels like forever! Last week was vacation and today was Memorial Day. I would like to say I'm caught up in the "sleep" department, but I'm not sure if that's the case considering I woke up from a two hour nap at 9 pm today. Sheesh. I went to Florida with my campus ministry, so I guess I'll share pictures from that. Pictures are fun. 








we're a fun group


Also, I would suggest you follow me on Instagram or just check my profile to see what I've been up to if you're the type who enjoys pictures. 

Well, I guess I'll keep peeling away at my sunburn and get some sleep, because real life kicks back in tomorrow. 

Grapefruits and Gold

Thursday, May 15, 2014


I'm trekking along on my little sugar fast. It's not going as well as I would like, but I haven't given up. I've decided that if I can avoid chocolate, ice cream, cake, and DONUTS until June 22nd rolls around, I'll be happy. I've cheated in too many little ways: a little lemonade here, some frosted mini-wheats there, a pb&j, and recently, a caramelized grapefruit and gold-leaf fruit tart. 

I love grapefruits. After a long day at work, there's nothing more satisfying than coming home and slicing up a grapefruit. I went to a restaurant with my friend and saw boiled grapefruit on the appetizer menu. We waited an hour to get seated at this restaurant and I was craving some grapefruit.  I ordered it right away, no need to read the description. The grapefruit did not disappoint! The only downside- it was boiled in sugar. I paid 6 dollars it and like I said, grapefruits are the B E S T. I went for it. Wouldn't you?


Incident number two
The time is 9:30 pm. I'm sitting at a fundraising table for our City Year Gala in Columbus Circle. I ate a wonderful and fancy meal at the gala, but the portion was lean-cuisine sized. I had to do a bunch of greeting, socializing, chanting, and setting up for this event, so I needed a little more than arugula salad and fancy cheese to keep me alive and well. The program was running late and then the emcee announced that dessert was coming out. 
uh-oh.
Out comes this beautiful thing:



I couldn't let it sit there in front of me. It was so beautiful. It had gold on it! And I needed a boost of sugar to keep me going after my looong day of work. Once again, I went for it. 

Restaurant: Jacob's Pickles (highly recommend)
What is City Year? Check here

Photo Hunt: Fire Escapes {CC 8/23}

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

As mentioned in this post about NYC, I have an attraction towards fire escapes. Fire escapes are all over NYC, and they come in many different shapes and designs. 99% of the time they seem completely unnecessary, but we all know they are vital to fire safety. Second bonus, if you get locked out, you may have a chance getting back inside via the fire escape. I know friends who have done it. Even though I don't have a balcony, I have a fire escape to chill on and that's enough for me.





Pictures were taken in SoHo and the Bronx.
On a related note, this plant-shelf from UO is awesome!!!


Check out other photo hunts in the blog world:

The Creative Collective

30 Things: New York City

Monday, May 5, 2014

A list of things that make me happy in New York City, in no particular order and all unique to me.

1. The Endless skyline.  
2. Winter is 10x less cold and snowy than it is in Minnesota (where I'm from).
3. The small spaces. It requires you to be creative with your space and purge your stuff. Hoarders are not welcome here.
4. There are lots of places to by plants. Most of the time you can find plants for sale on the streets, and sometimes you'll discover plant shops like this one:
5. I can afford living here. I didn't think that was possible before.
6. I don't feel lonely in the city 99% of the time and I have made some great friends here.
7. Pictures of James Franco are all over subway stations. I melt every time. He's on Broadway too! 
8. Redeemer Presbyterian Church and the Table Church.
9. All the parks that have the word "square" in them. Madison Square, Bryant Square, Washington Square, and Union Square! 
10. The millions of coffee shops and bakeries. Not including Starbucks. That's a whole 'nother monopoly. It's the city that never sleeps.
11. People I love in Minnesota are only a facetime or phone call away.
12. Art comes in many forms. A pool of grass? A Belly crawl? You'll find it all. 
13. There are some amazing companies, specifically start-ups, that are located in NYC. Some of my favorites are Etsy, kickstarter, Warby Parker, Harry's, Dormify, and Pencils of Promise. There are so many more. 
14. I can get cheap fruit everywhere. Like on every street.
15. I live right by the east river. In fact, I live on an island! How magical.
16. The subway system. I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, and not have to worry about gas or parking. When I'm feeling productive I can even read or write on the subway.
17. All the fashion. And I'm not even that into fashion! New York is an incubator for fashion design.
18. All the art! I think every famous artist that has ever lived has a piece of work somewhere in New York. The MoMa alone will overwhelm any art buff.
19. The fire escapes on apartments. I think they are the coolest thing. They're always the first thing I notice about NYC buildings and apartments. 
20. Elf was filmed here, and that's one of the best movies. 
21. People want to visit me... Even though I know their real motive is visiting the city ;)
22. Holiday festivities. There's currently a Big Egg hunt going on all over New York City and the eggs are beautiful! Let's not forget what goes down on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years!
23. The amount of NYC tourist buses I see go by. It reinforces that I live somewhere special.
24. The majority of really good slices of pizza cost .99 cents per slice. 
25. I've said this before, but the ONLY Target in Manhattan is two blocks away from me. Life is complete. It also makes NY feel a little more like my home in Minnesota.  
26. The smell of the Nuts 4 Nuts carts. I don't even like nuts that much, but the aroma of these carts get me every time.
27. Parks like this one exist. Those are two of my 6th grade students at Washington Park. Aren't they adorable?
28. A bunch of movies and shows are filmed here. It's pretty normal to find streets and parks closed down because of filming. 
29. All the bridges. Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg bridge. They are all beautiful. 
30. The culture and diversity here is like none other. You'll meet every type of person on this planet in this one city.

That was fun to write. Stay tuned for my next post which will be 30 things I hate about New York City.

Just kidding! What's there to hate about it?! 
And I certainly wasn't kidding about James Franco. 





10 Days?!

Sunday, May 4, 2014

I guess I started the sugar fast 10 days ago. I thought it's only been 5 days. Weird how that happens. I've been pleased with my ability to say no to so many foods. This week at work the desserts and treats kept rolling in. There were two birthdays, multiple potlucks, donuts for breakfast... my coworkers love their sugar! I still said no to it all.
What have I done instead?
Fruit! I bought 6 cartons of blackberries (sadly, I finished those 6 cartons in 2 days. I was desperate), tons of grapefruit, strawberries, mangoes, bananas, all that good stuff. I've made some yummy smoothies too. This morning I had an avocado-blueberry-banana-smoothie. It was creamy and sweet. 

I've been inspired by recipes from inmybowl.com. I definitely want to try making the green grapefruit smoothie and Peanutbutter Banana Smoothie.

The hard stuff:
I'm pretty sure I cheated when I started drinking lemonade and realized it wasn't sugar-free. 
I had dried clementines that tasted way too sweet. I looked on the ingredients and saw they had sugar in them. I guess dried fruit isn't always natural.
I had a little bit of sugar free dark chocolate. Is that cheating??? 

The other hard part about doing a sugar fast is filling the void. Filling the void looks like eating extra carbs or dairy. grrr.

Stay strong, Abby. 


Boston

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

I enjoyed a 3 day trip to Boston over Easter weekend. The East Coast is a great place for taking trips to other cities. Everything is so close! I stayed with my good friend from high school, Leah. She was a great hostess, and she took me everywhere!

The Democratic Donkey at Boston's Old City Hall along the Freedom Trail. I felt like Jesus on it...in a cheesy kind of way.


Wellesley College has a lot of spirit when it comes to Marathon Monday! Pretty much every girl comes out to cheer on the runners for hours and hours. Their motive? kisses. hundreds of kisses. This is an All Girls School after all. Notice the signs? There were all sorts of clever signs along what's known as the Wellesley Scream Tunnel. 

Ducks and bunnies. Both have marathon spirit. I thought Quack was quite charming.

Yes, that is a man hanging upside down by a rope. Rest assured, it was just a show. It wasn't a historical show either. Just a show.
Isn't that sunset beautiful? 

The good 'ole Freedom Trail. Red bricks or streaks of red paint run for 2.5 miles throughout Boston, representing the Freedom Trail. This city is a living American history book!

Together! That's us on a swan boat and that's us cheering at the marathon.

A camouflage tree at the Arnold Arboretum and the best ice cream I have ever had. I ate some on Saturday night and loved it so much we came back on Sunday night. worth it. 

Because this post isn't complete without pictures of us with a man in his underwear. a fake man. 

Well, that was fun! I got to Boston via a Greyhound bus. The ride was 4 hours and it cost about $25 each way. I stayed Saturday afternoon to Monday Evening. 







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