our first christmas in los angeles.

thanksgiving in utah : in photos.

palisades park :: santa monica, california :: november 2014

Luckily, Zeke never reads this blog, but this last photo makes me laugh a little bit. It doesn't look like him at all and the casting of shadows makes it look like he's wearing pants straight out of Aladdin with some slippers & "tassles." I can't stop laughing. The top photo is my absolute favorite though. That will be a photo that I will love to show my children and have hope that it will be passed down for generations and generations to come ; like the photos I have of my great grandparents and their ancestors. 

My friend Sara was so kind to take our family photos in one of my most favorite places in Santa Monica, 'Palisades Park.' This park is basically our backyard, since we don't have one being in an apartment, but its right behind our street and is truly beautiful. It's filled with large succulents, palm trees & this plant that looks like Dr. Suess designed it for one of his storybooks. See it above in our Aladdin photo? I love that plant - its so abstract to me and so creative in design. I always think to myself how Heavenly Father is the artist of all artists and how His creativity is beyond anything we can even imagine. What a beautiful world he has created and has given to us. 

Palisades Park is a park on a cliff that runs along the famous 'Ocean Avenue' overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean. It's beautiful and Zeke and I love to spot it on tv in commercials and tv shows. There is always a film crew on site. I love to walk to the park and read a book or have a picnic under the palm trees or by the rose garden. The park has a dirt path filled with runners, so so so many runners. I have never seen so much outdoor activity in one place at a time- and this is the place. Dogs are everywhere too which makes it even more fun. The tail end of the park that we live across from is more quiet and charming as it's further away from the tourist end which takes you to the Santa Monica Pier. This is the best place to go for sunsets over the Pacific Ocean. What a treasure to have this. 

I had asked Sara if she could take our family pictures for a Christmas card that we never ended up sending out. I did the math and figured out that it was going to cost me an arm and a leg and it's only Zeke and I. If we had kids, it would be different. So I feel bad that we dragged Sara along to do this, but she has captured some of my favorite moments in a place where we live and will have so many stories to tell our kids. So thanks Sara for capturing one of my favorites spots with the one I love. And it was the most perfect night in November. 

fall in los angeles, 2014

My adventures keep continuing, and I don't think they'll ever end while living in Los Angeles. There is so much to see & do and EAT. It's been a lot of fun trying new places every weekend. I love when I find a spot that I fall in love with and add to my list of favorite places to eat. It just makes me that much more excited for when visitors come who aren't familiar with Los Angeles

playing catchup.

(disregard zeke's dirty feet. whoops!)

I'm playing catchup with my blog and I'm starting clear back to October of 2014 and Halloween. First off, I went private with this blog yesterday. It felt good to go private. Truthfully, this blog has become my 'dear diary' if you will, but not to the point where it's too personal that I can't share it with my close friends and family who aren't near by anymore.  

I'm an old soul in the sense that I have an on-going battle with technology. There are so many perks to it but at the same time, I'm the one buying the book to hold in my hands as I read and then preserving it on the bookshelf once I'm finished, rather than deleting it off my Knook, or printing out my photos and putting them into photo albums or photo boxes and labeling who is in the photo, the date & location so I can physically hold and touch and go through these memories with my future children and their children. Or keeping somewhat of a journal where I can jot down my thoughts and memories and have it recorded in my actual handwriting rather than something typed up and printed from a computer. 

Although I will say, as one who is a perfectionist, I am all about detail and writing in my journal takes me a couple of hours to cram all my thoughts in there because I HAVE to get it all in there. I go crazy if I don't. Sometimes my mind races faster than my hand can write and I've noticed that my blog entries are loaded with a lot more detail and I have more information and memories jotted down and I know it's because I can almost type as fast as I can think. So... I'm back on this thing and I am also private because truthfully, I don't need to have people I don't know read about my personal business, my life at home, how I decorate my home, what we did for the holidays, the vacations we took, and so on so forth. I'm not out to gain fame, which has become the craze these days (and not that that is wrong, it's just not the road I'd like to take) and I don't feel the need to impress those I don't know with my so-called "lifestyle." I just want to focus on myself, and I want to jot it all down for history's sake and to keep in touch with those who matter most in my life. 

I plan on going private, slowly but surely with most social media outlets in my life sooner or later and I thought it would be best to start with the blog. Life is too short to spend your time caring about who liked what photo of yours, or who commented on what or who followed you today, or who unfollowed you yesterday and then compare your statistics to the girl next door. I admit, I've caught myself getting caught up into that whole crap and I didn't love the person I was becoming or the dumb thoughts that were beginning to consume my mind. 

I want to keep things safe and healthy. To live in the world but not be of the world. To live like I'm off the grid, but still stay connected. Basically, just not revolve my every day life around social media. I love to post, don't get me wrong - and I still will but I do try to be as genuine by posting my memories and photos with friends and family and photos of traveling, food & things that I am most passionate about - and that's okay too. I don't know where I am going with this but... I guess I'm just going to keep it more simple. 

Especially once kids roll in - everything is going private. And I do have some ideas up my sleeve concerning my artwork that would take place of the non-private areas of social media. 

But for now, here are just some photos of October of 2014 and Halloween. 

20 new abstracts for sale

Inspired by my very own color palettes, I have created a new series of 20 abstracts available to purchase on my site! www.rachelanne.bigcartel.com

Be sure to check them out, and check it out quick as they are originals and only one of each! You have the choice to purchase the artwork as is, or you can purchase the artwork matted and framed in white! Details on the site!

Enjoy!