New do!

Due to popular demand, here are some pictures of my new do!

1. My expression in this picture sums up how I felt about my hair. I thought, "wow my hair is way too long and blah, it doesn't hold curl like it used to, and when straightened looks gross". It actually was longer than it looks here because this was taken after sleeping in it with a pony tail, and going to the gym so it it got some volume from the ponytail bump!

2. After my visit to Hayley at Hairport 77

3. What you want to see how it looks curled? So did I! Now I'm thinking that I just can't curl my hair anymore, it's in a funk. I love the new cut but the curl is OFF. Maybe my rollers died when we moved to Greensboro? Oh and if you're wondering, I'm not eating something in this picture, I don't know why it looks like I have something in my mouth!

4. And for those of you who want to see what it looks like with one of my latest craft projects... the headband (one of 3 I made last week).

Next style for my new do will be curling it with a flat iron, wish me luck!

Do I look proud?

Do I look proud of the little heart wreath I just finished? Because I AM!

*edits to the tutorial, I got a smaller wreath, I think, about the length of my head or so, it was the "medium" heart at hobby lobby. It was much thinner than I would have thought from the tutorial pictures. I only bought 1/8 of a yard and have some left over and I think my circles were a little smaller (maybe). If you do any of these fun tutorials I'd love to see links to them!

More V-day crafts coming soon!

Productive snow day.

I refused to sit at home and take more pictures of water on Wednesday, so instead I headed to Hobby Lobby (never even heard of it until earlier that day), picked up some craft supplies and went over to Jes'. Well thanks to my friend, Jenna, who always posts her cute crafts and the tutorials they came from, I was able to make a super cute headband and my sister made a really cute necklace. The tutorial for the necklace Jesica made is here, within that link is the link to a headband similar to the one I made...I decided on a regular headband with three flower/pom poms/whatever you call 'em rather than one. This lady (little miss momma) has some pretty cute crafts/tutorials and is really cute herself. I decided to take pictures of my new craft but had a similar problem to the one I did with the water pictures, the lenses! I had 2 wide lenses, one was lost, another stolen (long, sad story) so now I'm forced to use my telephoto lenses which are WAY zoomed in so it makes it really difficult to try to hold the camera and take a picture of yourself at the same time. Now that I've finished my rant I have a disclaimer, of course. One, I'm not and don't proclaim to be nearly as cute as "little miss momma". Two, I will not be taking nearly as many pictures of myself as she does, I feel weird enough with these three. And three, the photographer in me needs to say this. I know the picture on the left makes my hair look a little purple, BUT the picture was dark, like almost completely black, so when I lightened it up enough to be able to see me, this is the outcome. The first picture I took in my living room fighting with my tripod to get me in focus and in the frame, the second two were in the bathroom. The lighting is quite different in these two places, obviously. Ok enough disclaimers, let's see the dang headband already!

PS- I think next time I'll do a little less flower, it's a little big. That could just be because I'm new to the whole headband thing and usually think they look terrible on me; however, this one is growing on me. I will be making more:)

To conclude, we also made and ate cookies on this productive snow day and went to dinner with friends. Wednesday was a success.

What do you do?

When you're cooped up inside all day due to the snow? This is what I did!

and if you were wondering, yes, I did get up and go outside at 7 in the morning with my tripod (still can't find my remote, darnit!) to take pictures in the snow with Carleton before he left for work that morning! Later after still deciding I was way too bored to stay inside I took my camera out and took pictures of the bushes and my car with the month and year carved in the snow/ice. If you're also wondering, Ashley what the heck are you wearing? Those are some old yoga/pj pants and I thought from a distance tucked into boots they would look like regular black pants and since Carleton wasn't wearing jeans...well you get the idea. TURNS OUT they look nothing like nice black pants, they're saggy and gross, hence the cropped picture to cover most of my poor decision up!

Later I was still SOOOOOO bored and Carleton, although the only one at work, decided to stay til 6, ugh.

That's right, I took pictures of WATER. Only a photographer would find this interesting in the slightest, and even then, it was borderline boring. If only I'd had a different lens to use for this it would've been a lot less of a hassle and probably would've yielded much better results!

After a few water drop pictures I decided to throw my rings in a champagne glass to see if I could get a cool ring shot, eh not exactly what I was hoping for, again if only...

As you can see, I get bored, will someone please come hang out with me?!

What's been happening in the Clauss House?

August/September:

Well it's official, we now live in Greensboro, NC (and have for 4 months- yes I'm that behind!!). Carleton has started his job, he's passed the bar, gotten sworn in and everything! We really like the area and the friends we've met...but we need to hang out with them more, because it gets rather boring here on Saturday nights! A month or so ago I said, "Carleton, I want to get dressed and do something" (I'd been in sweats all day since our run that morning) and he was like oh wait we don't have any friends we can call to hang out like we used to, sad! We were spoiled in Durham being able to walk practically next door to see our friends or call when we were already on our way....or on their doorstep:)

Here are Carleton's official attorney pictures, taken by me:)

Anyway, we've been busy with lots of things, we got the apartment all decorated the first week we were here, Carleton has been working a lot, but usually leaves by 6:00pm which is AWESOME! He already had his first business trip to Rochester, MN to meet with one of their clients, it was a very lonely 4 days for me, even though I stayed at my parents house. Speaking of my parents, my dad got called into the Durham Stake presidency and was released as Bishop of the singles ward on his 5-year anniversary. In other church news, the ward boundaries in the Durham stake as well as Greensboro have changed for anyone who doesn't know and is interested, in fact, another stake has been formed! I've been busy with shoots, working on pictures and getting my logo where I want it to be and getting up my website! If you haven't checked it out yet, do so and pass it on:) Introducing: Art by Ashley Photography. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I got a big L-shaped desk that I LOVE and Carleton came through with a beautiful office chair after I searched for months and kept coming up short.

October:

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary October 10th. Carleton got me fast flats for all those times I find myself wearing insensible shoes and start complaining, especially on those photo shoots where I buy new shoes for a wedding and they seem ok in the store, then when I wear them for more than 5 minutes I'm dying. He also got me not one, but TWO bags of "hint of lime" tortilla chips. We're pretty sure those are laced with crack, they're sooo addicting. I feel like there was something else, but I can't remember for the life of me at the moment. I got him movies 1-6 of Harry Potter.

Allison came to visit for a day while Ted was in Utah interviewing for summer internships, we must have been good luck because he got the internship, way to go, Ted! She then came up after I won a contest on her blog (winning the MOST AMAZING BROWNIES EVER) she is welcome to come back everyday of the week:) Kristin came up for a few days (twice) which is always SOOO nice to have her, I miss these girls so much, ya'll come back anytime;) Ben came up a few days later in time for Kristin's 25th birthday and the halloween festivities!

We had a little party with the young/newly married group and Carleton and I dressed as the princess and the pea. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of us together, and Carleton pinned his "peapods" on him while I wasn't looking so he was only partially in costume...he pinned them to a gray BYU shirt or something instead of his green one. Oh well, you can't win em all I guess. Ashley Ward, my amazingly talented friend who makes all my newborn hats, made his peapod hat SOO last minute, she never ceases to amaze me. She opened an Etsy site and you guys should totally look her up, her stuff is great and very reasonably priced! Anyway, Carleton won the costume contest, even with his gray shirt. Most people put princess and pea, but there was one vote for just Carleton, so he BARELY won;) It was fun to see all the creepy and cute treats people made. I wish I would've taken pictures before most everything was eaten, darn.

The outlet mall opened in Mebane and Jes and I took full advantage of her living so close, it's been a nice excuse to go visit her, at first I was going once or twice a week, yikes! I decided to get myself a few early birthday presents:) I would've gotten things for Carleton too but he's so tall nothing I buy ever fits so I need him to go with me, shucks looks like another trip is in the near future!

November:

I turned 25 on November 14th, and I had a really nice birthday weekend/week. Carleton got me tickets to the UNC vs. Texas Longhorns basketball game at the Greensboro Coliseum, and did the usual spoiling he does practically everyday, he's so thoughtful:) I told him that when it's my birthday it has to be even better than every other day, if he weren't so great everyday it'd be a lot easier for him.

I also read all the Harry Potter books so I could have them completed before the 7th movie came out, goal completed! I'd never read them but I'd seen movies 1-6 so I wanted there to be at least some surprises in one of the books I'd read.

Thanksgiving was such a treat to spend with Carleton's family. We went to Tennessee, which I always love, I didn't bring my camera though:(

December:

Jes and Phillip brought the kids over while they went to see Harry Potter. It was the first snow of the year and we had a great time playing with the kids in it.

The Holt's hosted another extremely fun ugly sweater party, it's THE party we look forward to every year, and this year, I won the contest for the best/cutest/most creative (I'm not really sure what the requirement was) food, yay!!! In case you can't tell I'm sitting here patting myself on the back;)

Here's a picture of the goodies I took to the Holt's party (reindeer cake balls) as well as the brownie reindeer for the Howard's party...I guess I felt like sticking with a reindeer theme this year!

Carleton's mom, Lana, came into town and unfortunately we had to leave her alone almost every night she was here:( First we had Carleton's Christmas party/dinner which was phenomenal. The food was exquisite and the company was great too, he works with some really wonderful people, and their wives (those who are married) are great too. The next night was the basketball game Carleton got me for my birthday and what an awesome and SOOO CLOSE TO WINNING game it was! The game wasn't decided until the last 1.4 seconds, I was freaking out. That was followed by another fun ugly sweater party, thank you, Howards! Here are a few pictures I snagged off their blog;)

I actually played this game (from minute to win it) at the Holt's party too, and I won. Here I went on for like 5 or 6 minutes, Carleton spanked me (figuratively speaking).

Carleton was very happy with our white elephant steal:

Apparently something Colby was doing was FUN-NY!

A few days before Christmas my mom, sister, the kids, and I all went to Old Salem and had a fun day together. After walking outside in the very frigid weather we came back to my place, painted toes and fingernails, drank hot chocolate and watched a movie. I'd say that counts as a successful day:)

Last week was Christmas and aside from people getting over the flu, others having the flu, and me getting the flu that night/and throwing up etc. all night and the next two days, it was great. What's not to love- Being with the family, counting blessings, being thankful for a loving Saviour who never ceases to bless us, and all the other wonderful things that come with "Christmas". It snowed, I feel like the world's worst photographer having not taken any snow pictures, but I felt like I was on my death bed:(

Last night, for New Years Eve, I sat on the couch and continued to work on this update. I had to re-update the Clauss House update since I started writing this post November 17th, UGH.

That pretty much sums up what we've been up to as far as I can tell...I'm sure that since I'm blogging 4 months at once that I've missed things but Oh well! Now that I'm caught up I'll post more as more things happen:) My new years resolution (one of them) is to keep up with it, so keep on me if I fall behind!