Happy Birthday John Lennon!

Today is John Lennon's 70th birthday! Go look on Google.com to see the cool looking tribute they have for him. And click HERE for the link to one of John's best songs "Imagine"... just ignore the weird video of Yoko opening windows...

Here are a couple of my favorite photos of John

John's famous doodle of himself: in Primary school, John was famous for his cartoons

John in High School, during the periodn when he started his first band "The Quarymen"

Headshot taken by the same photographer and same day as the famous cover for the almost "With the Beatles"

One of the shots for the cover of "Hard Day's Night"

Lennon/McCarthy song writing duo

Shot during filming of "Help!"

Side note: John wore glasses since High School, he only refused to wear them until he was in his late 20's

Iconic John

Yoga

So I've been going to yoga regularly. Three times a week for the last three weeks. I can tell that it's really helping me out with my flexibility and my balance has improved. I'm sore most of the time but it feels like a good sore.

On tuesdays and thursdays the class is taught by a guy, which is a new thing for me. But he's really good and he works on positions that cause muscle toning, the girl who does wednesday's class is kinda pathetic and sappy. But one thing I like about the guy's class is that every class at the end he gives some kind of inspirational quote for us to think about while we meditate. Last night he gave one that really hit home for me:

1st Principle in Yoga: "Suffering is not caused by outside forces, but by our own misunderstanding of our purpose in this world."

Rodney Yee- My favorite Yogini

Future Halloween

My future children are really going to hate me. Especially since I've already picked out their Halloween costumes before I've even met their father haha.

But look at them!! Could you just die?!

This is my absolute favorite!

An LGM (Little Green Man) from Disney's Toy Story

Jeremey Messersmith- Tatooine

This is an awesome still-motion done completely with paper. And of course, it's Star Wars. But the song my Jeremy Messersmith is awesome. Click HERE for the link to the video.

The Newest Addition

That's right, we have a new addition to the Hallmark clan...

My brother Joe and his wife Stacey just had their newest little boy. Flynn Elis Hallmark. Born September 23rd 2010. He's adorable and he looks just like his big brother Luke.

Both have New York inspired middle names. Luke Hudson. Flynn Elis.

And both have Geek-movie inspired first names. Luke- Luke Skywalker. Flynn- Flynn from Tron. I take pride in that. We Hallmarks are just too cool.

I look forward to the day when he grows into the Hallmark Mellon. Aka the HUGE head that all Hallmark babies develop and continue to have until high school when they finally grow into it...

Stephanie

Stephanie is my roommate. She's 18 (barely) and from Blackfoot, ID. Meaning Rexburg is a huge city to her and she says things like "Pell-o" for Pillow and "Melk" for Milk. She's very cute but has no idea about the world. For example, she knew NOTHING about the Beatles... literally... NOTHING. And she seriously lacks knowledge in all things Movie or Disney related. Bless her heart though, she's adorable.

We make fun of her a lot. It's all in good fun and she knows it. She joins in it a lot. But half of the things she says seriously kills me. For example:

Allison (roomie): Check this out, (showing a picture) it's a park where half of the year it's under water and half of the year it's a normal park! You can scuba dive through trees.

Stephanie: I've always wanted to scuba dive in Austria...

Holly: Stephanie, you can't scuba dive in Austria... it's land-locked. This is Australia

Me, Jill (my roommate), Lauren, Allison (aka. Fresh), Stephanie, Jessi

Shoot Me... Cameras and other cravings

So I'm kind of on this camera thing presently... I'm totally itching to buy a Nikon FM (below). It's a film camera that Nikon still makes and it's electric so it's got the nice smooth functions of an SLR but still that same awesome film quality of actual prints. I think I'm now a Film person. I love the quality and the romance about it. And not to get all weird on you but a dark room is incredibly sexy and getting an actual print out of it is heart-stopping! But alas, I being the responsible college student that I am cannot afford one of these until a much later time... But isn't it beautiful?!

I recently, ok 20 mins ago; went on to Amazon.com because I had to buy a camera bag. Since I'm carrying around more than one camera at a time for my photography class, I can no longer risk putting my SLR in my backpack. So I found a nice 3 slotted camera bag for only $14.99 online and a new lens cap. *My old one tragically threw himself off a bridge during the excitement of Harry Potter's Wizarding World in FL* And then I found these ingenious lens straps so never again will I lose another lens to the same fate. But THEN(!) while I was looking at other accessories I found the idea of strap covers, so I went on to Etsy.com and found TONS! But below are some of my favorites. I'm holding off on buying any, but what do you think? I'm afraid some of them might be a tad too girly for me...

By Tracyjoy

Maybe too girly

By missprissypants

*This one is my all time favorite with the mustard yellow underneath*

By missprissypants

By Eclecticwhatnot

I really like the lavender

By Eclecticwhatnot

But I've always loved red!

By Eclecticwhatnot

Ok the Zebra print is a HUGE risk/stretch for me but I love the black and green

Lists

I love to make lists. They help keep me sane and organized. I need a bit more organization in my life so here it goes. Just a list of things I love in life in no particular order...

-Coloring books

-Borders

-Starbucks

-Victoria Secrets (no reason not to feel pretty on the inside and underneath)

-Disneyland

-Plastic cameras

-Old suitcases from garage sales that smell like old ladies

-Vinyl records

-Record players that sound like transformers (Magnavox!)

-Socks with sandals

-Earle Grey Tea with Milk

-Curing hiccups with Peppermint tea

-Bright colored vehicles (yellow car/ orange bike)

-Down-comforter blankets

-Rediscovering lost music on your iTunes

-Thick rimmed glasses

-Apple Products

-iPhone

-Beatles

-Alyssa Chudleigh

-Making lists

-Smell of pencils

-Making foot imprints in yoga mats

-Writing in a journal

-Strumming a ukulele

-Drinking a ton of water after being thirsty for a long time

-Cold pillows

-Perfume

-Black hair

-Winter

-Typing really fast!

-Polaroid cameras

-Twisting a lens

-Opening cans and victoriously shouting "I don't need no man!" afterwards

-Naps

-Showering in the dark

-Going to movies alone

-Red

-Laughing really loud never in the same way

-Men in sweaters

-French music

-Writing letters

-Receiving letters

-Ceiling fans

-Busy cities

-Rain

-Star Wars

-Animal's with weird names

-Telling people my embarrassing stories and watching them laugh

-Being in the passenger seat

-Seeing lots of stars

-Being cold

-Pippin

-Scott, Susanna, Luke and Flynn - Kids who aren't mine but I love them more than any child on the planet!

-Long showers

-Dressing to make yourself feel pretty

-Beatle shirts

-Meeting Chewbacca

-Sitting on a subway by myself

-Brushing my teeth

-Collecting clips from design blogs

-Finding new Indie bands

-Finding oldies

-Movie Quotes

-Dominoes

-Papa Murphy's Pizza

-Writing papers

-Pajama shorts and tall socks

-Cranberry juice

-Closing eyes when your tired

-Sketching strangers in airports

-Celebrity crosswords

-Netflix

-Nikons

-Teachers who are deceptively older than they look

-Homework you think will take long then doesn't

-Rereading old blogs

I could go on for SO long but my roommate's going to sleep and my eyes hurt. Happy conference tomorrow!!

When we were young...

Remember this?

This is the product from one of the many rediculous and sleepless sleep-overs that I shared with Gabrielle Murphy. I found it going through old files in my computer... Of course when you're friends you have to lay down the line of who claims who... these were ours...

I would just like to bare my testimony... I know this church is true... and I really love my roommates... *sniff sniff*

But no seriously...

I have the greatest roommates ever. Ever.

I recently moved my new record player (a vintage MAGNAVOX! ... you have to say it with a booming voice) into the livingroom. We don't have a TV so I thought it was close enough. But my roommates love it. We listen to it all the time, especially Beatles or Coldplay's Viva la Vida. We get a lot of compliments on it and a lot of wandering men asking if it actually works. I'm not gonna lie but it totally throws the whole apartment together. We've got this whole, moody artsy love-dungeon feel going on and I think it fits us well.

But tonight after I came home from the gym with my cute little Ecuadorian gym-buddy (she's barely four foot and MAN can she make you run faster... need inspiration to work out? Get a feisty Ecuadorian girl! She's adorable), anyways, I come home and I'm sweaty and shaky but I fall on the floor to do my crunches before I take a shower. Suddenly my roommate Allison (Aka: Fresh... I don't know why we call her that) turns on the record player, only I don't recognize the album. So I stop, sit up.... "wait... what is this?! Who's is this?! This isn't mine!" And they all yell "SURPRISE!.. Happy late birthday!!" I was SO excited! It was totally unexpected but they went online and found my favorite Regina Spektor album in an LP.

It was so awesome. We're totally listening to it now, but I can't put off a shower anymore. I love late birthday presents! They're not even family and they gave me a gift, I don't even care it's late. It's just nice to know they care. I was feeling a little down because close friends and family members didn't even send me a card. But hey, I'm older now. So birthdays aren't as important right? Ok, I'm rambling, time to hit the showers!