hello: my name is awkward

Having my wonderful husband take pictures of my daily outfits for my Frocktober challenge has brought me to a startling discovery:
I am unfit to belong to the human race.

WOW. I am so awkward.

I had a 10 minute daydream about what in the world they would say to me, if I was in front of a camera for America's Next Top Model. It wouldn't be pretty, guys.

"What are you doing with your arms?"
"Why is your tongue sticking out?"
"Do you always do that with your hips?"
"Why do you walk like your left toe is broken?"
"What's happening with your eyebrows?"

At one point, Dustin had this great idea of having me walk naturally, so that he could take pictures of the natural flow of my garments.
Sounds poetic, right?

In looking at those photographs, it was as if every mirrory illusion I had about my poise and womanly nature was shattered.
What was happening? Why are my legs so far apart? Why is my arm way out there? What am I doing!?

"Oh my gawd, Dustin, why in the world have you never told me I walk like a Neanderthal? Whatever could have possibly persuaded you to marry me? Was it my man-voice, or my thunder thighs?"

I was at the bottom, ya'll. You ladies know what I mean. The point when you've stared at yourself too long in the mirror and you start to wonder why people don't tell you every day that you look like a middle-aged munchkin man.

But then, something magical begins to happen. Those beautiful souls that love you most in life, despite all those physical flaws they pretend to ignore, begin to compliment you.
They say nice things like, "Sweetie, the camera adds ten pounds."

After a while of friendly healing from confidants, we begin to mend.

And then we begin to say, "Oh, phew. Wow. You're right!"
And our little mind begins to compensate for all of those bad feelings.
Wow, the camera DOES add ten pounds. 
I'll bet that sneaky little mirror has been adding ten pounds, too. This whole time. 

And the cycle is reversed, and we become completely disillusioned once more about our appearance.

Overall, we're just a never ending danger to ourselves.

Normally, I would say that ignorance is bliss, but in this case I think I'll gravitate towards a healthy medium.
If I need to work out more (Caitlin, say it: you need to work out more) and eat better (Taco Bell is on my list of healthy restaurants) then I should be able to recognize it, and be alert to the status of my health.
I also should not allow myself to become so preoccupied with the way I look, that I become pompous or unrealistic or obnoxiously vain or unkind.

That being said, I need to go for a run. For a long, long run.

But first things first: how is a human supposed to walk!?
I've been taking baby steps all day so I don't look like a monster, stalking its prey.
Any advice would be great.

In love,
Cait

My Funny Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Even to you naysayers out there, I am happy to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day :)

This year, Dustin and I (but mostly I) wanted to do something fun to spread the love to some of the couples in our lives that have been influential on our views of love, and have made a huge impact on our relationship.

We went out on a particularly chilly afternoon and took some fun pictures outside of our apartment!

With our handy dandy new camera that we got for Christmas, it has been really fun experimenting with pictures! I love it.

I decided to print a few wallet-sized pictures, and make up a homemade Valentine to show our love to our family (and a few friends!).

I also got a Cuttlebug for Christmas, and I've been dying to try it out in cardmaking. I have absolutely zero experience in cardmaking....so I really had no idea where to start. For this project, I wanted to keep it simple. I vowed I would only use things that I already had in my apartment, a.k.a scissors, glue, sweetheart paper (that i had gotten years ago for a scrapbook project), a "delight in the little things" stamp, stickers, cream cardstock, and the plain white letter envelopes that we already had.

(Of course, that all went out the window when I saw some adorable glittery hearts and rhinestones at JoAnn's the night before I sent these out!)

So anywho. This is what I came up with! I had to do a thin rectangle card to fit in the boring envelopes, but I actually like the way they turned out. I hope you do, too!

They were all just the slightest bit different.

I finished them up by adding a pink ribbon with a little XOXO tag :)

They were a lot of fun!

I look forward to many more cardmaking projects in the future! :)

Our agenda for today is simple and fun, with lots of good food!

We're heading to Dickey's Barbecue Pit for lunch (Fried Okra, here I come!) with a mystery destination for dinner. I'm thinking it's somewhere we've never been before, so I'm excited! There's a lot of uncharted food territory for us in Lynchburg still, so it's fun to check great places off our list, and compare them to our favorites!

I really love food.

After dinner, we are debating between seeing The Vow and The Woman in Black.

Should we go for Romantic, or Scary?

It's a tough one.

After all, we did watch the entire Die Hard series on our honeymoon -- so we're a little unconventional.

Anywho!

I love you all and hope you have a fun-filled day, single or not, to celebrate the love that is in every relationship that we're blessed to be a part of :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

In love,

Cait