What is Art?

I’m taking a photography class this semester and it’s definitely one of my top favorite classes…ever. Today we were talking about what makes a photograph “art,” and my professor was talking about how he doesn't consider a lot of portraits to be art. I then started to think about what makes art “art.” Is it what you personally consider to be beautiful? Is it when a photograph follows all the so called “rules?” Is it when a picture is clear and not blurry?

But you know what’s awesome about art? The fact that it’s undefinable and such an individual thing. I love that one thing could be considered art to me, but if you looked at it, you might think it was absolutely 100% ugly. Or vice versa. Or maybe I think something is ugly and still consider it to be art, because I can do that. I can do whatever I want, and you can do whatever you want. That’s how life works, and that’s awesome. 

I went up to the mountains last week with my best friend (and roommate and snuggle buddy) and we took some photos for my photography class. I thought the pictures turned out really well (maybe even well enough to consider them “art”) so I thought I’d share them here.

Hope you’re all doing well. Find some art, create some art, be artful.

Thanks for reading!
ox
chloe

Camo Magic

The other day I was shopping around Boulder with my mom and brother. We popped into this cute little outdoorsy store and the woman working was wearing the cutest outfit. 

We’re talking a perfectly fitted white tee, a black baseball cap, camo pants, and some tan sandals. She was literally the epitome of casual chic. Effortless style. I asked her where she got her pants from (because she was totally rocking them) and she said from the boy’s section of Old Navy. They fit her so perfectly that I was shocked that they were from the boy’s section. 

There was something about the camouflage that made me want to try it out for myself. I decided to pull the trigger (heh, get it?) and purchase a camo hat from Urban Outfitters. 

I wore it with a little black tee shirt dress to a party the other night and got endless compliments. It was weird. I think there’s something about wearing camo that makes people feel invincible and confident. I don’t know what it is but we’ll call it camo magic. 

What trends are you loving lately? 

Thanks for reading! 
xox
chloe 

Veganism

My schedule this semester is pretty weird. I have no classes Mondays, which is absolutely amazing, and only one class on Fridays. 

As great as it is to have one class on Fridays, it happens to be during the prime dinner hours — 5 till 7:30pm. It’s awesome because I get to sleep in, but also super annoying because I’m sitting in class while all my friends are enjoying eating a nice fancy dinner at nice restaurants.

This past Friday my friends decided they wanted to continue their healthy streak and decided to go to a vegan restaurant that none of them had ever tried before. I was a little jealous so I asked them to bring me my food home so I could eat it when I got back from class. 

I left for my class when all my friends left for the restaurant, and I spent the next two and a half hours thinking about how much fun they were all having while I was stuck in a dull classroom on a Friday night. As I was walking home, I felt my stomach eating itself — I was literally starved. The first thing I did when I got home was run up to my room to drop off my backpack so I could eat my delicious vegan dinner as soon as possible. 

What did I see when I walked into my room? My two roommates literally rolling on the floor moaning in pain, sweat dripping down their foreheads, hands clenching their stomachs. They were in physical and emotional pain. Why? Because of the vegan food. Vegan food poisoning. 

It was like the bridesmaids scene when all the characters (except one) get food poisoning. It was bad news. I’m not kidding when I say that I stood in the doorway in shock, convinced that a prank was being pulled on me. I ended up being too afraid to eat my food and ate three and a half pieces of toast with cream cheese instead. Not the most fulfilling meal, but definitely better than rolling on the floor in absolute pain.

Moral of the story? Never eat vegan food.

thanks for reading
xox
chloe

The Keurig Experience

This is my first year living in a sorority house, and let me tell you, it is probably the best part about my college experience so far. I’m not going to lie I was terrified about living in a house with 60 other girls. All I could picture was the inevitable drama, the never ending estrogen, the competition. But I’ve been living in the house for two-ish weeks and none of these “pictures” that were in my head are a reality. The only drama that I’ve experience so far is when one of my sisters is telling a dramatically hilarious story. Obviously there’s never ending estrogen, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And competition? There’s absolutely none. Unless we’re having an improv dance competition, and in that case, competition is 100% welcome. 

I think one of the things I love most about the whole experience though is the fact that the girls in the house are literally my sisters, as cheesy as that sounds. We tease each other like sisters, we fight with each other like sisters, we laugh with each other like sisters, and we love each other like sisters. We also share and borrow like sisters. I’m pretty sure every outfit I’ve worn so far has included something from one of my sister’s closets. As I type this I’m sitting here in my roommate (and sister’s, obviously) sweatshirt. 

Recently, Keurig® sent me a ton of K-Cup pods and a Keurig® K250 brewer. Coffee is quite the commodity not only on college campuses, but within sorority houses. My K-Cup pods (especially the Green Mountain Coffee® Caramel Vanilla Cream and the Green Mountain Coffee® Classic Donut blend)  have been flying out of my room as quick as birds migrating to the south. A few of my sisters were hanging in my room just drinking coffee and chatting about our days, and I think it’s one of my new favorite memories. We started laughing so hard that my waterproof mascara was dripping down my face. Dripping. No joke. 

So sure, coffee is necessary for caffeine and your mental well-being while in college, but it’s the times around it that make it more of an experience and worthwhile. I’m so thankful that my Keurig® brewer is so compact and fits right in my room so I can have people over to just chat about their days. What's also great is the Keurig® Auto Delivery system so we'll never run out of our favorite K-Cup® pods or need to make a trip to the store when we want to relax and enjoy coffee time as sisters! How special is that? 

I have the Keurig® K250 brewer, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

Be sure to follow Keurig® on Instagram and Twitter 

Thanks for reading! 
xox
chloe

the beach, but not the beach, but the beach, but also not

The other day my mom told my brother and I that we were going to go to the beach. We live in Florida so it didn’t seem that out of the ordinary, but when I mentioned that rain was in the forecast my mom mentioned that it didn’t matter because it was an “indoor beach.” 

I was super confused, mostly because how does an entire ocean fit indoors (riddle me that) but also because my mom sounded excited about it and she hates the beach (something about sand ending up where it shouldn’t). 

I still didn’t really know what I was getting myself into until we ended up at the arena in my downtown area. We got in line and the people working there immediately asked my brother and I if we wanted free ice cream. I instantly knew I was were I belonged in life. We then walked into the arena and I was met with white everywhere. Like literally everything was white. The chairs, the floors, the walls, the corn hole, the “water.” 

Basically, the whole “beach” is an interactive art exhibit. The water is a giant ball pit and the floors feel like real sand. It’s kind of everything a beach should be (in my eyes), air conditioned, clean, no sunscreen needed, so bikini body needed, etc. 

Here are a few pictures, and definitely be on the lookout to see if it’s coming to your city any time soon. Or if any cool interactive art exhibits are in your area because 9 times out of 10 they are totally worth checking out! 

thanks for reading!
ox
chloe

why i'm single, a story about karma

I was just in the shower thinking about how single I am. I mean I’ve got to face it, I’m twenty years old, single, and there isn’t a boy in my life that I’d even consider myself “talking to.” So in the shower, like any normal person, I had to face the hard realities of life and consider my so called “single-ness.”

Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with being single. Sometimes it’s even nice (gasp). But while I was in the shower I was wondering why I’m single. I’m a big believer in karma so I was wondering what I ever did to receive this everlasting single life. I picked my brain for a while… we’re talking shampoo, soap, and shave, before I could think of anything I did wrong to a boy. 

And then it hit me. In the fourth grade, I went to sleep away camp for a month and totally ruined a boy’s life. Like I probably scared him of ever speaking to girls again. I figured I’d share this story with you all, not only because I feel like writing about it with rid me of any bad karma that’s still left in the air, but also because it makes for a mediocrely funny story. 

Here we go. 

I went to sleep away camp for the first time in the fourth grade. I don’t know why my mom thought a month was an appropriate time for my FIRST TIME at any sleep away camp, but she did. When you’re 9 years old, a month away from home is basically a century. Especially if you have trouble going to the bathroom in public… but that’s a story for another day. 

So anyway, I went to sleep away camp for a month. It was a co-ed camp, but in the fourth grade you’re still convinced that boys have cooties. Well, the kind of cooties where you’re like “ew boys are gross” to all your friends, but internally you’re like “heck ya, he’s bangin.’” You feel me? 

At the camp I went to you had to choose a “discipline.” I chose sports because it sounded like the best of all the disciplines. I think in the fourth grade I was still pretty athletic and could actually keep up with the boys, but if I were to go back as who I am now I most definitely would’ve been as far away from the sports discipline as possible.

So anyways, the sports group was made up of like 30-something boys and three girls including me. We spent like half of our days every day for a month with these people so I got super close to the two other girls in my group and I knew most of the boys (remember the whole “cootie” thing). There was one boy in my group who was a total cutie though, and we made awkward eye contact all the time. Like I would always catch him looking at me and then we’d both look away and then both look back and catch each other staring again. Cute stuff, right?

It was a Jewish camp so every Friday night was Shabbat dinner and a dance after. The older boys would usually ask a girl to “go to” Shabbat with them; meaning they would dance exclusively with each other and that was the extent of it. I had heard rumors of the eye contact boy asking me to go to Shabbat with him, but I was naive so I thought it was a huge prank being pulled on me.

But one day after we had been swimming in the lake, I was walking back to my cabin alone and I heard someone running after me and calling my name. I figured there was another Chloe somewhere nearby, because I was naive (again) and figured no one would run after me. I was wrong, it was eye contact boy and he was out of breath by the time he reached me. I was super confused, forgetting all about the rumors of him asking me to Shabbat, and asked him if he was ok (???). He said yes and said he wanted to ask me a question. I said, “ok, ask me,” and he continued to ask me to Shabbat. 

Because I’m an absolute jerk I told him I’d “get back to him” once I “though it over.” I didn’t say these things because I thought I was too cool for him, or didn’t want to go with him. In fact, I had a huge crush on him. You know why I didn’t say “yes” right away? Because I didn’t want my parents to see pictures of me dancing with him on the camp website. Because I’m dumb. I ended up not going to Shabbat with my camp crush because I was afraid of what my parents would think. Would my parents have cared at all? No, not even a little bit. I’m pretty sure they sent me to a co-ed camp because they knew how bad I was (and still am) at talking to boys.

I’m like 99% sure the boy’s name was Wiley and I still feel terribly for how I treated this boy that literally RAN after me to ask me to go to a dance that I was already going to because I was forced to by the camp. 

Moral of the story? Be nice to boys that are nice to you, and give them a chance. 

So Wiley (if that’s even your name) if you ever read this, which you won’t because I doubt you remember me let alone know I have a blog, I’m sincerely sorry from the bottom of my ridiculously single heart.

thanks for reading! 
xox
chloe