it IS true!

I know it's not Wednesday, but I just had to post. I've got so much on my mind and in my heart that I had to share with all of you lovely people.
First, the Gospel is real and true ladies and gentlemen. I now have no doubt in my mind that the Lord really does look out for us and answers our prayers and questions. The reason I am writing this is because a non-member friend of mine is currently investigating and is on the road to baptism and it is SO COOL to see how her life is falling in place because she has opened herself up to the Gospel and let the light of Christ into her life. Not only is this helping her know it's true, but me as well. I was having some doubts about if I knew that the Gospel was absolutely true, but now I know for sure. It is true, and it is amazing.

Second, I just wanted to say that art is a great stress relief. That's all :) Sometimes I just need to calm down, so I'll pick up my pencil and drawing pad and start drawing. Today it was hair. I like drawing hair.

Anyways. The Gospel is true and amazing. Have a great day!!

i'm still here

Sorry for not blogging last week I was busy getting ready to go home for the 3 day weekend.
I have come to the decision that Wednesday will be my blog days, because it is my least busy day. So, keep a look out for new posts every Wednesday :)
So, recap of the past two weeks. Valentine's Day was on Friday. Nothing exciting there, except that I was driving the 3 hours up north to where I call home :) Nothing really that interesting happened last week. I think I need to go looking for interesting things so that I have more things to blog about. I feel like my blog is kind of bleh. It needs more.
There was ONE awesome thing that happened last week. A friend of mine started having the Missionaries come and teach her. I can't even start to express how excited I am for her taking this step in her life. They were over twice last week (I missed one of the meetings), and again tonight. I really enjoy the lessons as well. I've been having some doubts, but between the missionary lessons and the missionary letters from my best friend, it's all coming together and I am starting to figure things out. And in doing so, I have noticed that I feel better about everything. I am happier and less stressed about school and life and all around just awesome :)
I am no longer a teenager. As of the 16th, I have officially started my twenties..... Yup. I am now 20, the big Two-Oh, two decades. But really, the only difference between the evening of the 15th and the morning of the 16th is that all my social media profiles now say 20 instead of 19. That, and according to the current wedding trends, I am due to get married..... Or not. I think that 22-23 is a good age to get married. Maybe i'm just a little old fashioned, but I think that you should be able to support yourself and have a general direction of where your life is headed before you start thinking about getting married.  Oh, wow, I've gone off on a tangent. Oops.
Anyways, long story short, there needs to be more exciting and interesting (free) things going on around here. Where's all the fun?

Random question/thought. I was thinking (very dangerous) and I was wondering where all of my readers are from. How far does my little blog reach? Just a thought.

"You were given THIS LIFE because you are STRONG ENOUGH to live it" - Unknown

photo copyright jessikalloyd photography

wednesday, wednesday, wednesday!

I bet you read the title in an announcer's voice. It's okay to admit it. This is a no judgement zone.

Is anyone else sick of snow yet? I think it's dandy until around mid January. After that, it's just a bother. Not to mention it's way to cold. Isn't it close to summer yet? Well, in the states. I'm sure the weather is great over in Australia right about now. Anyone up for a little winter vacation?

"Life is like a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving." -Albert Einstein

photo copyright jessikalloyd photography

just another manic monday

Hello there!
It's Monday. Which would normally be just an okay day for me, except there was something waiting for me in my P.O. box when I came back from a long day of ever so lovely college classes. Any guesses?? I'll give you a hint. Actually, I'll just tell you because I was (and still am) super excited about it. It was a letter from my best friend who is serving an LDS mission in Oregon. I always get excited when I get letters, but today was different. I've been stressing a lot over a few things, and today wasn't the best of days. So when I opened my P.O. box not expecting to find anything, and found a letter, that frown turned upside down. It is amazing to know that God knows exactly when we need a little pick-me-up, and mine was in the form of a letter from my best friend. And then I read the letter and all of the stress I was feeling seemed to disappear for a moment. I love that I can always rely on those letters to lift me up and make my day, and week, better than they were without them. I am ever so grateful that I have such amazing friends who know exactly what I need to hear and when I need to hear it.

That's all I really have for today.

photo copyright jessikalloyd photography

i'm back

I really need to be better at keeping this updated :p Sometimes it's just hard to remember, but I am going to try my best to be better. The thought occurred to me while I was watching Julie and Julia about a week ago, does anyone actually read my blog? Or am I just posting things to the internet just because? I hope people read this. I know it's been kind of a journal for me, but I am going to start changing things up. I am going to try my very best to post something everyday. Maybe something interesting I learned, or something funny I heard/saw. I'm still going to talk a little about my life and my adventures as a poor college kid and other important or interesting things that happen, but this is no longer going to be an online journal, I have a very nice one that is longing to be written in. Since the name of my blog is A Photo A Day, I will post a photo of the day everyday (or everyday I make a post) until I run out of photos. (If that point ever occurs, I will take some more.) Every Wednesday will be the day I post a quote. It may be inspirational, it may be funny, but it will be posted. I may or may not assign other things to the other days of the week, stay tuned. But, there are going to be some changes around here :)

We have been doing a pinhole photography project in my intermediate photography class. It blows my mind how you can make a working camera out of almost anything. I made mine out of a venti sized Starbucks cup. I've gotten some fantastic photos so far. I had to duck tape the crap out of the outside and spray paint the inside with black paint (around 4 layers), but it works really well. I am very proud of my little coffee cup camera :)

So, interesting thing saw on the internet somewhere. I saw that you could make a grilled cheese sandwich in a toaster set on it's side. Of course I had to try it. And it just so happened that when I came back to school after Christmas break, my dad bought me a toaster. Perfect :) My roommate and I decided to give it a try. It worked rather well in my opinion. Mine got a little burnt, but no biggie. I think I might try making an open faced sandwich next time and use Velveeta instead :) I think the reason mine burned was that my bread was thicker and shoving 2 slices in a slot made for one was a bit much for  my little toaster.  

Well, that's all I really have time for today. I've got a bunch of Web Design homework to attend to.

Since today happens to be Wednesday, I shall start the quote posting.

"Don't waste your minutes, life waits for no one." - Unknown

Copyright Jessikalloyd Photography

my summer adventures thus far :)

So I know that I said I would try to be a better blogger, and so far, I seem to have been failing. Life's crazy and sometimes there just isn't enough time.

I figure I can at least stay up on what I'm up to this summer.

First things first, I sent my best friend away on his mission to Oregon. I'm gonna miss that kid like crazy, but I know he's doing great things :)

I am working for the summer as a graphic designer for a company called Viral Events. We put on the Run or Dye color 5k events across the country. I LOVE working here. Not only am I working in the field that I am studying, I also get to travel to various states to help work at the events. I've only been to 2 events so far, but am booked for 4 more next month. The first event I went to was Reno, NV. That was super fun.  The car ride there was probably the most enjoyable car ride I've ever had. We stopped at the West Salt Flats on the way, and I snapped a few pics. I had never been to the Salt Flats before, so it was a cool new place for me.

After the race on Saturday, my family snatched me up and we went on a week long vacation in Trinidad, CA and the Redwood forest    ( after we stayed a couple days at Lake Tahoe ).  The hotel we stayed at in Tahoe was right on the lakefront, so we spent some time on the beach :) It was slightly colder than I would have expected, but not nearly as cold as Trinidad.  Northern Cali is a LOT colder than I would have liked. In my mind, when I think of Cali, I think of Southern Cali with warm sand and sun and just all around warmth. I imagine that the Northern California coast looks a lot like the Oregon coast. Very green and foggy.  But it was very very pretty.
We also had the chance to explore Eureka, CA. So many Victorian style homes! All so pretty.
And I found an old phone box and just had to take a picture in front of it. So many things to love about phone boxes. Too bad it wasn't blue..... :)


I had the amazing opportunity to work the San Fransisco race over the 4th of July weekend. I'd never been to San Fran, so it was super exciting to be there and see everything. Since Thursday was the 4th of July, we only did packet pickup till 1, so we had time to go out and see the city we went and saw the Golden Gate bridge, walked around the Piers and watched fireworks by the bay.

Our event was at Candlestick Park, where the San Fran 49ers play. And the drive there was past one of the bays. The early mornings were so worth it just for the view :)
I was put on store duty the second day of packet pickup, and my work attire was.... well.... a little strange. But it was the best! How many people get to play dress up and get paid for it? :)

That's not the last of my events though. I'm going to Atlanta, GA on 8/3, Cleveland, OH on 8/10, Abilene, TX on 8/17 and Chattanooga, TN on 8/24. August is going to be a super busy month. Oh, and I move back down to Cedar for school 8/25, and school starts the 26th. So I'll be on my feet a LOT, but it will be worth it :)

Yesterday, I went to my long time friend's farewell. Kels and I have been friends for 16 years now. She's going to be leaving to Texas here in a few days. I am so glad we've been friends since we were 3. She's been such an amazing example in my life and she will be AMAZING in the mission field.



Well, I will try my hardest to stay updated, but no promises.

i've been way to lazy with this....

I have GOT to get better at doing this more often. It's been THREE months since my last post..... oops. Anywhoo, to continue with my adventures.... :)

Well, to finish off with the month of love (aka February), not too many super exciting things happened. There were 3 earthquakes on the 7th, I guess that was pretty exciting. The biggest one was like a 3.5 or something like that. I  went to see SUU's production of Chigago the musical with my roomies :) That was super fun :) My family sent me a Valentines box because they love me :) There was another institute formal on the 15th, but unfortunately for me, it was boys choice, so I didn't go. :( But my family DID come all the way to Cedar for my birthday! I have the bestest family EVER! They even brought the dog :p We went swimming at the hotel, and then went to Sizzler for dinner. And my roommates "heart attacked" my room with zebra printed hearts, and made me a "college student birthday trifle", which consisted of crumbled up cake, frosting globs, chocolate syrup and cool whip. Pretty good day if I do say so myself. I went home the weekend of the 23rd for my lovely friend Brady's mission farewell. It was also his birthday the 23rd, so there was a group of us that went and hung out. It was me, Brady, Stephen, Katelyn, Shannon (Katelyn's roommate), and Michael (Stephen's brother). We went to Peaks in Provo to ice skate, but the rinks were rented out to a singles ward down there, and it just so happened that a friend of Katelyn's was there, so we crashed their activity. :) It was super fun!! We played broom ball. Now THAT is a brutal sport, especially when played with a singles ward :P haha and Michael was flippin HILARIOUS! Just sayin.... :)

And on to this month...... yeah I've been waaaayy too lazy :P The RHA ( Resident Hall Association) held a black light dance. That was fun :) Corlissa and I had a little too much fun with highlighters.... :) I went to see Les Mis for free because the school was showing it for a student activity. I freaking love that movie!! Spring break was fantastic ;) I went to the temple on Wednesday with Annekke, Matt and Katie Jones. It was so great to be there. I needed it a lot. Then last night, I went to Skyler's ( Austin's younger brother) house to watch him open his mission call. Canada Vancouver, and he leaves on his birthday!! Super cool. Friday was just a party plus some. I'm not going to go into detail but I'll just say that I had fun hanging out with friends till 4 in the morning :)  Annekke got me some freaking cool socks. And Sunday was a friend of mine's farewell. The most exciting thing that happened recently was my bestest friend in the whole world, Austin, opened his mission call last night. Eugene Oregon. He leaves ten days before Skyler does. I was freaking out so bad I was shaking. And this Saturday is the Holi Festival of Colors so that should be fun :)