it's a fish!

... is what my cute roommates would say.
somehow, shortening "it's official" to "it's a fish" is just way too much fun.

i know i'm a little late.
did you ever expect me to overcome my procrastination habits?
even as an adult/married woman?!
... yeah, me neither.
BUT, with that being said, i would like to announce something special:
as of last week, i am "officially" ashley marx.
anywhere and everywhere.
for time and all eternity!

so long, ashley barnes.
it was nice knowing ya.

the final hurrah

ew.
another summer has come and gone.
it's hard to accept the fact that in 1 hour, it will be monday.
as if mondays aren't hard enough already, tomorrow is my first day of school
and the busiest day of work imaginable.

... "first day of school" is not as thrilling as it used to be.

awkwardly running into old friends,
seeing old makeout buddies,
being overwhelmed with homework,
trying to remember how you know people,
rolling your eyes at everyone else's excitement,
paying for tuition,
popping pills for the headaches,
having 0 hours of free time,
it's just not fun anymore.

so scotty & i tried to make the most of our last weekend of summer.

yesterday we had a beautiful night up at city creek and visited with my aunt cathi and uncle kris who were up from arizona. it was a blast! we laughed, gossiped, and ate until we couldn't move. (and then after we stuffed our stomachs full, we ordered a slice of cheesecake)

we love them and we are so glad we got to enjoy their company for a few hours!
today, we went to church. the usual.
then we came home and i whipped up a lovely fruit pizza to take to a little dinner date in provo.

we spent the whole night with our dear friends jen and tony castagno!
we love them!
i am so freaking happy they finally moved back to utah.
we mourned over school starting, we talked politics, we surfed pinterest, we ate, we watched half of a documentary on mitt romney, we talked books, we shared stories, and on top of all that, we almost beat two worlds on super mario brothers.

talk about a successful night! 

let's hope this week runs as smoothly as our weekend did, 

and that we'll survive the chaos! 

bring on the books. 

sunday craft-day

you know what's so fun?
not being in school. 
... seriously.
some people fantasize about cars, maids, jewelry, etc.

all i want is the chance to be a stay-at-home-pinterest-craft-making person.

and since i am not in school until next week [EEEK], i will do whatever i can to enjoy myself while i still have the chance.

so in the past few days, i've made two fun crafts!
both super easy, and suuuper cute.
if you've been to our apartment, you are well aware that we love our faces. people make fun of the fact that our walls are plastered with engagements, bridals, canvases, and frames galore. people think we are obsessed with ourselves. both of these crafts just fuel that fire.

1. the family: a proclamation to the world
i've seen this on pinterest a few times and i looooooooooooooove it.
i wasn't sure how to go about doing this. but i talked to one of our friends, who happens to be a art design major, and she gave me some ideas. basically, you have a picture of the proc. to the world, and a family picture and combine them.

i couldn't decide between a bridal or engagement photo, so i made one of both.

still deciding which one to frame in the apartment.
cute, right? i love it.

2. silhouettes.
i've wanted to do this for FOREVER!
and all of the necessary ingredients have conveniently fallen into my lap, so i couldn't say no. we have left over black paint from painting our table, my mom gave me two blank canvases for a "pinterest starter kit" (she's so cute), and okay i guess that's really all you need. we had paper, scissors, and i used an old make up brush for painting.

the hardest part of the whole process was getting a decent profile picture. we had all sorts of obstacles! laughs, bad posture, weird smiles, glasses, duck lips, etc. but those were overcome and we went with these two beauties:

i simply cut out the faces, and painted them black. don't judge my improv ponytail. i plan on having these silhouettes for a very long time, and my short hair for a very short time. they will match one day.

 laid them out overnight to dry.

got my canvases out.
died of anticipation.
and modge podged the crap out of them.

i am so happy with how they turned out. 

what do you think?

good gone bad.

life just doesn't make sense sometimes.

you think something is fine and going great, then BOOM. 

disaster hits.

and i get a little anxious when i'm not in control.

because let's be honest... i make great decisions sometimes.

what i'm trying to get to is this: if i ran the world, things would be so different. 

1. this freaking disaster of a haircut would not have happened.

listen miley, i know you "feel so free" and "have never been this happy" and "feel the prettiest ever" ... but that's a shame, because 7 billion other people in the world disagree and think that you look like draco malfoy... but uglier.

 2. this freaking disaster of a song would not have happened.

taylor, taylor, taylor. what in the world is going on? i feel weird listening to this song. in fact, i even feel weird calling these few minutes of you talking and whining a "song." the awkward little voice inserts are too much for me. go back to where you came from and sing the cute, upbeat, happy songs again.

3. this freaking disaster of a pin would not have happened.

straight up ruined my day. 

how cute is this backpack? 

... right? so i ecstatically click on it with the intention to buy it. talk about a perfect way to cope with summer coming to an end! what could get me more excited about school starting than this darling backpack? so i click on the link. it's a dud. i hate when people pin from tumblr or, even worse, just upload a random picture. i have no way of backtracking it! i investigated for a few minutes, and found some that were close but just not the same. i also found one extremely close, a darker color, that is no longer in stock. awesome. 

------------------------------------------------------

thanks for letting me vent. 

can i be in charge for a week or two? 

finding the inner hipster

last week, scotty and i deviated from our normal "come home, eat dinner, go to bed" nightly ritual and took a night out on the town. 

... p-town. 

one of scotty's favorite mission companions is in a band, so we went to muse music cafe to support him. it was almost out of my comfort zone... i usually don't like singers who aren't justin bieber. 

but... we LOVED it! the whole night was so fun!

it was very authentic; hand stamps and everything.

lots of sweat, loud music, crimped hair, and big glasses.  

unfortunately, no one informed us about the "plaid" dress code. we were the only ones who weren't sporting some plaid item of clothing. now we know for next time! 

something i found fascinating was a brick wall covered in sharpie. people signed their names and drew pictures. i couldn't stop looking at it! 

who knows how long these signatures have been here?!? it was so interesting to see the diverse ways people chose to leave their marks. one drew her name and a flower. some sandwiched a first name between two hearts. some professed their love for the world to see. others just drew a picture. some an indecipherable signature. everyone gets ONE chance to leave something noteworthy and significant that will permanently stay on this brick wall. 

what would you write? 

i'd probably go with a traditional 

"A + S = LOVE"

maybe in a heart.

on a tree.

or maybe one of my signature stick-figure portraits.

next time we'll bring plaid shirts and a sharpie. 

dimpled & famous

one of my dreams in life is to be followed or retweeted by a celebrity. 

yes, it's really that important to me. 

i try to talk to them all the time and i never get a response.

oprah winfrey, justin bieber, miley cyrus, and sometimes even ann romney. 

none of them give me the time of day and it's really depressing. 

the most exciting thing on my newsfeed is being followed by a dimpled chin account: 

how they found me, i have no idea. 

but i guess my chin is pretty prominent in all of my pictures... 

at least someone appreciates me!

next up in excitement is a clipping from this week's BYU newspaper:

every week, they have a segment with byu-related tweets.
my memory problems are classified as "entertainment" now!

i guess it has to start out small with newspapers and random followers,
soon the time will come where my celebrities recognize me.

utah is pretty sometimes

when the amount of pictures on my iphone exceeded 1500, i decided i should probably do some clean up. it was hard. i grow pretty attached to my pictures. "i might need to look at that again one day!" or "i don't want to forget that!" etc. etc. etc. and whilst flipping through the photos, i had some time for self reflection.

i realized i have a pretty bad habit. 

i wasn't even aware of it until now! 

i take lots of pictures while driving.  

 but look at these clouds! the sun!

 hot air balloons! 

 and i'm a sucker for green. 

i'd say it's not as bad as texting while driving... 

(doesn't require as much concentration or time) 

but still bad. 

i promise i'll try to stop.

olympics 2012

i don't know of anyone who doesn't enjoy watching the olympics.
how could you not love the fact that countries come together and celebrate talent from all over the world for 17 days straight? earth seems smaller knowing that millions and millions are gathered around their TVs watching the same thing that i am. we have different languages, lifestyles, meals, and attire, but we one thing we all share is the olympics.

personally, i hated the opening ceremony.
stupid as crap.
but that didn't stop me from watching my favorite events!

my two favorites are womens gymnastics and swimming.

gymnastics because i think every single part of the event is just fascinating.  the girls are so strong and so flexible! plus, i love the glitter, make up, glitter, and the leotards. and there's always so much glitter.
i love it. and i was never brave enough to do flips, cartwheels, or anything as a child. even on a trampoline.  so i live vicariously through them.

swimming because...

not sure. i guess it's just a fun event to watch.

although, i will say that there is one downside to the olympic season.
these two weeks make me feel like the laziest, fattest, slowest creature on the planet.

"MICHAEL PHELPS HAS JUST BROKEN THE ALL TIME MEDAL RECORD!"
*ashley sits on the couch with a dr. pepper and a box of sweetarts*

cheers to one more week!

mini

my mom loves miniature things.

so naturally, i like them too.  

my coworkers think i'm crazy for squealing over this mini 6-pack of orbit gum. 

CUTE! 

and every time scotty and i are shoe shopping, i have to look at the little mini baby shoes. 

CUTE! 

and i really, really, really, want this little mini book of instagram prints. 

CUTE!

you get the point. 

so when i found this idea on pinterest for "mini pizza muffins" i about died. 

mini pepperonis. 

mini chocolate chips.

 bake at 425 for 10 mini minutes and viola: 

mini. pizza. muffins.

CUTE! 

i'm in love!