“One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl. I wear colors that I really like, I wear makeup that makes me feel pretty, and it really helps. It doesn’t have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see. Your body is your temple, it’s your home, and you must decorate it.”

- Gabourey Sidibe

I am absolutely in love with the above quote. As I've grown, I've grown to really love my body and cherish it. When I stop to think about the human body and all the magical, wonderful things it can do, I'm amazed. When I'm feeling down about myself or when I'm picking out all the flaws I may have, I find it's important to remember that I've been blessed with a healthy, strong body and that is all I could ever ask for. I was lucky to be able to do dance for 13 years and to have a body that never failed me once (besides a wobbly knee, but that's a story for another time.) I definitely think of my body as a machine and I'm a big fan of the concept that my body is "my home." I mean, my body is the only one I'm getting, so I might as well embrace it, right?

I took some self-portraits to play with light direction for Photo. I also really needed a new Facebook profile picture. I used to hate black and white images, but I've been going through this phase where I am really drawn to them. I'd love to get my hands on some black and white film. I think that film grain on a black and white image is just so yummy. I love it.

Also, this song has been playing on repeat these last couple of days. I can't get enough of it. I am so excited to see what Andrew McMahon has up his sleeve in the future.

a rush of blood to the head.

It is freezing here in Concord and as excited as I am, I'm equally terrified of going back to school at Asheville. I am going to die this winter. Everyone keeps saying that it's going to be a cold one this year.

In other news, being home this time around has been weird and not what I expected. It's been wonderful, though, let me stop myself before I sound misleading. I just stress out about coming home because I feel like there's so much to do and so little time. So I end up giving up, vegging out, watching TLC and cuddling with my dog (by the way, Breaking Amish is surprisingly wonderful. so entertaining). I guess there's really never enough time. I'm looking forward to Christmas this year more than ever. I'm so excited to have a month off of school to be home and surrounded by family and friends (and also a month away from mountain winter weather!).

Things start changing when the leaves do, and I'm hoping that will be a good thing this year. I'm excited about spending fall in a new city, especially in Asheville. Fall is definitely the most gorgeous of all in the mountains. I'm excited to head back to the farmer's market and go apple picking. I also really want to find a good pumpkin patch to go to. Halloween is so close and I'm doing everything I can to get in the spirit. I was lucky to be home in time to at least help with the decorations. Halloween is a big deal in my house. I make sure of that.

I was playing with self-portraits and only liked them in black and white but I decided to include them above anyway. After my age old 365 project, I don't take pictures of myself anymore and I'd like to have at least a new facebook profile picture every now and then. Nothing majorly fancy here, just enough to document myself as I age.

The rest of the images are from a trip Samm and I took downtown back in September. They're not my favorite pictures, but it was a good day and I wanted to include it.