The Friendship Wreath and a Girl Scout Song

{photos by Leonel Medrano, who took our wedding photos, and post-processing by me}

I've been searching for a term to describe my group of friends for ages, but I've never been able to come up with a catchy catch-phrase.  I've considered "gaggle," "pod," and an analogy to a wheel with spokes that connect the inner and outer parts (don't know why that one didn't catch on...).  But these have only been successful in evoking images of geese, marine life, and cavemen.  What?  You don't get the caveman reference?  Well my inner dialogue is just weirder than yours.  Deal.

Anyway, my friend Caroline has gone and made my struggle look completely pathetic by easily and wittily coining the term "friendship wreath."  Meditate on that for a second because it's perfect.  It encompasses the connectedness, and how there's no beginning and no end (...I think that's from a Girl Scout song...), and it doesn't conjure images of the animal kingdom or prehistoric life.  And wreaths are just so festive.  So wreath it is.  Finally, closure to a pressing issue in my life. 

In case you're having trouble visualizing, here's a pic of me, Caroline, and Leslie being friends.  With one more head, we would actually be in wreath formation.

BUT WAIT.  It gets better.  Here's the Girl Scout song I was thinking of!!!  Oh, the good ol' days of competitive badge-acquiring and cookie solicitation!  I'm reprinting the lyrics here for your personal nostalgia.  (If you missed out on the Girl Scout experience, please imagine this being sung in a round by a group of gangly 10 year olds with messy hair and green vests for authenticity purposes.)

"Make New Friends"

Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other is gold.

A circle is round,
it has no end.
That's how long,
I will be your friend.

A fire burns bright,
it warms the heart.
We've been friends,
from the very start.

You have one hand,
I have the other.
Put them together,
We have each other.

Silver is precious,
Gold is too.
I am precious,
and so are you.

You help me,
and I'll help you
and together
we will see it through.

The sky is blue
The Earth is green
I can help
to keep it clean

Across the land
Across the sea
Friends forever
We will always be

Gotta love the two-unrelated-thoughts-followed-by-a-friendship-rhyme technique.  But really, what is up with that random plug for the environment in the second to last stanza?  I mean, I'm all about the earth being green and the sky being blue, but I've never associated eco-friendliness with friendship....

....Then again, I associate wheels with cavemen.

Nothing Rhymes with Orange but I Still Like it

Now that I have that off my chest, I have two light and happy posts for you today.  Get excited.  This one is about orange, the next one is about friends.  (I told you they were happy.)

LA has inspired a love for orange in me.  When I think LA, I think orange.  I'm not sure why.  (Maybe it's all the fake-tans?  JK.  Fake tans are not inspiring.)  Anyway, I've been drawn to the whole range of orange lately - from coral, to neon, to dusty, to burnt.  On side tables, on shoes.  It's just happiness.  So here is an assortment of orange-y pictures from my life.  Enjoy.

{Berkeley}

{SF Ballet}

{the strand, Santa Monica}

{my apartment}

{the GG Bridge}

{Barbara's Fish Trap, Half Moon Bay}

{Chrissy Field}

{Palm Springs}

{Aruba}

Happy Thursday!  Don't forget to come back later today for a groundbreaking post (just for me, really) about the "friendship wreath"!

A Letter to My Readers

{Santa Monica sky}

Dear Readers,

I realized the other day that I never really explained to you why I started this blog.  Sure, in my very first post I said a little about what I wanted this blog to be about.  But I never really addressed the why, and I feel like I owe you an explanation.

So why blog about my not-so-unusual life?  Two reasons: (1) it satisfies my otherwise repressed creative side that has been gasping for air since I started law school, and (2) what I've seen so far on the blogosphere is mostly not representative of my life, my point of view, and the things that I like to talk about.

The first reason is fairly straight-forward, and if you know me, which I'm assuming 99.9% of you do, then you know that I've spread myself thin trying to edge some sort of creativity into my life over the last three years, leading to an apartment strewn with half-completed paintings, forgotten sewing projects, and an overflowing drawer of costumes.  So this blog is my way of focusing that energy on photography and writing; a creativity funnel of sorts.

The second reason, though, is the reason that I chose this blog over another paint brush.  My journey in the blogosphere started when I was planning our wedding, a beginning shared by many women in the blogging world.  But once I moved beyond wedding-tunnel-vision, I realized that many of the blogs I read daily had not followed me.  So many of those personal lifestyle blogs (like mine) whose writers started off as twenty-somethings planning weddings just seemed to stagnate in the world of weddings and newlywedom, and as a reader, I was bored.  I wanted something more substantial to read everyday, something that inspired me, made me laugh, taught me something, or pushed me to reflect on my own life.

The thing that really got me, though, was this moment I had when I started to identify less and less with my daily reads and I caught myself wondering if I was somehow less of a woman and wife for not caring about "new recipes that your husband will love," or the chronicles of spending weekends indoors with "Hubby and puppy."  Luckily, that millisecond passed quickly as I popped the screws back in my head and realized that it's not me, it's them.  And then I knew I had something to say.

Now let me be clear - there are some blogs out there that I do think are an immensely valuable contribution to women in social media, and some of those are listed over on the right as my "blog crushes."  But considering the growing role of blogging in shaping our cultural norms and social expectations, that is a very short list.

So here I am, making my voice heard in this little corner of the blogosphere.  I'm here to add to that short little list, and to connect with women who value love and relationships and family, but who want more than a wedding, a husband, and a puppy.  Women who are excited about their careers, women who are curious about the world, women with a sense of humor about themselves, and women who value the adrenaline rush of newness more than the comfort of stability.  Women who are real, like you and me.

So though I may blog about the lighter topics in life (like fanciful vacations, delicious restaurants, random adventures, and pretty things), I want you to know that there is a real, thoughtful, why to this blog, and it's something I really believe in.  Everything I write is something that I can get behind, and I hope you feel that way too.

This is all a lead up to me telling you that today is the day Newly goes "public."  Maybe some of you didn't know that I have been trying to keep this site relatively private, but it's true.  I've shared this site with only a select group of people so far, maybe because of insecurity, maybe because of discomfort with exposing my life to the entire inter-webs.  But today, I've decided that there's a good reason to take that leap.  So thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy what I have to say (and now go tell your friends about it)!

Love and best reading, from my laptop to yours (yes that's a Paula Deen rip-off),

Ashley

Law School Goes Chic

{my gorgeous friend and fellow law student, Lisa, and her smashing new haircut by Lynn at L Salon, taken by me at UC Berkeley}

I'm into haircuts.  I love them.  I change my hair as often as it will allow (I only wish it would grow faster so I could fit in more hairstyle changes in a year!), and I am a firm believer that a haircut changes more than just how you look.  It changes how other people treat you, and it changes how you see yourself.  It challenges you to push through your insecurities and be someone you always wanted to be but thought you couldn't.  It's an easy, no-consequences way to reinvent yourself and to push the boundaries of your comfort zone.  And the best part is, it always grows back just the way it started.  (I bet you didn't know haircuts could be so profound now did you?)

So of course, when my friend Lisa told me she wanted to cut her loooooong straight hair and donate 13 inches of it to Locks of Love, I was all about it.  I helped her choose photos for inspiration (Mia Farrow, Kelly Framel, Katie Holmes, Audrey Hepburn), and set her up with an appointment at L Salon with the only stylist who has touched my hair for the last 6 years, Lynn (whose real name is Lisa, too, but let's stick with Lynn at least for clarity's sake).

And now look how chic she looks!!!!!!!

I am in love.  The big glasses??  So chic it hurts.

But a successful "after" picture does not a makeover story make.  Don't you worry, you can bet your bottom dollar (what does that even mean?) I was there to document the before and all the in-between of this transformation.  I'll be back with pictures from the salon, and Lisa will be here to tell you all about it in a few days!  A guest post of sorts, but really just my friend writing on my blog :)

A Red Dress

{at BART, on the way to the SF Ballet Opening Night Gala}

Just a little dose of prettiness to start off your week.

Sunset Snapshot

This one's coming to you from (where else?) the Bahamas.  I know this week I've inundated you with beachy Bahamian bliss (you see those alliterative skillz right there?), but I do hope it brought a bit of sunshine to your days during this almost-but-not-yet-summer time of year, and I do appreciate you letting me share the sidetracks of my life with you (not that you had a choice in the matter....). 

But my point is that everyday, I look forward to writing about the happiest parts of my life here, and I'm grateful if you stick around to listen.

{Nothing but ocean.  And a very pretty Tasha}

The real point of this post is that it's Friday.  So enjoy the sunset if you can, and go forth and celebrate the weekend!

Fill in the Blanks Friday

Friday means it's time again to fill in the blanks with Lauren!

1.   My favorite daily responsibility is,      responsibility?  What responsibility?

2.  My least favorite daily responsibility is,    see above.  But if I had to pick something I don't like about my life and call it a responsibility, I would say putting gas in my car.  It's so painful to watch how quickly the dollars exceed the gallons.

 

3.  My favorite cuisine to eat when going out is    thai food and Indian food because I could never replicate it at home.

4.  My favorite cuisine to prepare at home is     does dessert count?

5.  Andy Warhol said that everyone is famous for 15 minutes. My claim to fame is    my parents being on APW haha.  I came THIS close to my very own fame when I was interviewed on camera by HGTV one time at a furniture store for a living room makeover, but then they didn't pick me, so it was an overall fail.

6.  If I could have 3 wishes I would wish     for the power to grant wishes to whomever I wanted, whenever I felt like they deserved it; to have veto power over eliminations on all reality TV shows; to have the ability to see people's true colors as soon as I met them.  I could go on and on.  There are lots of things I want in this world.  Yes, I'm greedy.  No, I'm not ashamed by that.  Deal.

7.  My biggest pet peeve is       people who thrive on guilt.  That sounds a lot deeper than I meant it to be.  I just really dislike it when people try to push me into something by attempting to make me feel guilty.  It usually doesn't work because I'm pretty impervious to undeserved guilt having been raised by anti-establishment parents, but it just annoys me that people even have the gall to think they can exert power over my free will via unwarranted guilt trips.  

And on that note, Happy Friday!  May your weekend be gloriously guilt free! 

Brittany Meets Hermit the Crab

{I cannot stop laughing at this.  If you're not laughing, you might be suffering from seasonal depression.}

P.S.  I just wanted to point out that the three most frequently used labels on my blog right now are "beach," "sun," and "friendship."  Can we talk about how awesome that is?  I've joked before about how my life has peaked, but I don't even think it's a joke anymore.  Maybe I'll write a post about it.

My Peeps

For my birthday a few years ago, one of these girls (Ally) gave me a shirt with the words "Peeps Stick Together" printed over a picture of a peep of the yellow marshmallow variety. Now that, my friends, is love.  And that also has nothing to do with this post other than the title, and the love...so I guess maybe it has everything to do with this post.  Either way, here are some pretties of my peeps.

{aren't they the prettiest?}

And a group shot for good measure.

{please excuse my lack of heels.  so unlike me.}

This one is on its way into a frame.  So much love.

Best. Reyoon. Ever.

Pola-rized

What is it about polaroids that makes them so cool?  These pics are just post-processed to look they came out of an sx-70 (because film for the real deal is so darn expensive), but let's just pretend they're the real deal. 





{Oh yeah, did I tell you about my friend Brittany the rock star?  Yeah, she sings.  When she gets a record deal, this is going in her album sleeve.}

It's the Little Things...

...that are worth noticing.

Color Me Bahamas

A little vibrancy to brighten up your (rainy, if you're in the Bay Area) Wednesday!