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Thursday was a very special day.

It marked three years of dating, of loving, of doing life with the best person I know.

Brandon and I met through a friend at school, and I can still remember the very beginnings of our relationship like they happened yesterday. The first time I ever saw him, he was performing at the first ever Melodores concert. The first time we met, I still remember the table in Rand I was sitting at eating tortellini, and what shirt he was wearing that day. We have been reminiscing on a few of those early moments and how sweet they were, which is such a wonderful blessing to think about how much our feelings have deepened since that time.

I try really hard not to glorify our relationship too much. We are both sinners and even now we are still learning new things about each other, and new ways to love each other better. But I think that this is a lifelong process we're walking into and the fights we've had, the transitions we've survived, the time apart and the sweet time together I see as a testament to God's grace that he has allowed us to show each other. No one makes me laugh like this guy does.

He sent me flowers at work and took me out to the most wonderful restaurant in Chapel Hill, Lantern, to celebrate. And for us, it was perfect.

19/52 (because he's my other half)

I know God has some pretty amazing stuff lined up ahead for us. And I'm so excited to share it with this man along the way.

Lots of love from this corner of Chapel Hill,

Abby

gettin' it back. (the new normal)

How is it Sunday night already? Wasn't it Saturday morning about two seconds ago?

Weekends seem to go really fast when Monday morning comes so early, that's for sure. But you will never hear me complain about my job. I am eternally grateful for it and cherish the people there more than I thought I would after just two weeks of working.

SO MANY things have been going on lately! First, let me apologize for the abismal amount of posting I have been doing recently. It's a long story but my apartment still is internet-less and so every time I want to use the internet I have to go to Starbucks or Brandon's apartment. So please don't think to yourself, "Oh Abby, now that she's working full-time she is forgetting us." False. I miss this little space on the internet and plan to blog as much as I did when I was unemployed (if not more, because now my life is actually interesting). Things have just been a little crazy.

As a snapshot, in the past two weeks I moved into my new apartment, bought a car, traveled out of state for a wedding, and spent all of my work days training to take over my position at work from the girl who has left the position. There have been very very stressful moments in there, and I am so glad to be moving forward. Getting settled. Gettin' back into the groove of a new normal.

Here are some snapshots of my life the past two weeks!

boxes on boxes on boxes

garage sale finds! love this funky journal.

the messy bun is so awesome for weekends when I no longer care about polished hair (18/52)

And finally, some bare bones shots of the apartment! Soooo much decorating will be done soon. My awesome roommate's mom just so happens to work at an antique store so we are going to have all the goodies!

It's hard to tell, but my room is going to be cozy and very dark, so I have a feeling that my drafting table corner is going to be one of my favorite spots in the apartment. 

Here's to settling in and bed in half an hour. :)

xoxo. Abby

on living in a new city.

17/52

It's been four years since I've moved to a new city, started all over. It's only the second time in my life that I've ever had to do it, and so for the past couple of weeks I've forgotten what that feels like. I use my GPS to get everywhere because I'm still figuring out how to get places. I still kind of feel like I'm visiting a lot of places, not really at home yet. There's no freshman orientation this time, but there is a lot of meeting new people. There are a lot of wonderful things too. Discovering new restaurants and making a new list of the places we've gone to from the Chapel Hill/Durham/Raleigh food lover's guide. Finding a thrift store down the street where they boast nearly a collection of great vintage shoes. And of course, this time around, I have a really wonderful person named Brandon who is making this transition a million times easier than it is for so many who start over in a new place. And for that, I am humbled and oh so grateful to be here (even if I am still partially living out of my car ;) ). 

16/52 (A POST ON LEARNING TO WAIT)

16/52

The past year of my life has had its challenges. Being in a long distance relationship and trying to land my first job after college were two of the big ones. It's a big, wide world out there, but I was trying to find a job in just one little piece of it. That was the hard part. 

I didn't really start to worry too much about the job hunt until my second semester. By that time, a quite few of my friends had landed jobs at big corporations or had accepted positions at places they had interned. And there I was, looking for entry-level positions in a place where I knew only one person, and as I searched we were 500 miles apart. I applied, and applied, and applied. I sent my application out to places I was overqualified to work for, even as a new college grad, and plenty of places that were reaches. I emailed, I cold called, I followed up with anyone I ever knew who had a job or connection or family member in Chapel Hill. I promised myself, and Brandon, that I would definitely be employed by April. And when April rolled around, I promised myself, and started pleading with God, to be employed by graduation. 

When graduation rolled around and I found myself with no job yet, I was deeply unhappy. This job, wherever it would be, was in my mind the key to all of the pieces of my life that I wanted to fall into place. I started shopping for professional outfits I could wear to work. I browsed apartments online and thought about if I'd want a roommate. I looked at cars to see which ones would be in my price range. But none of that could move forward without the job. And the pressure of that fact grew larger and larger until the pressure of it nearly broke me. 

Vanderbilt is not an easy university to graduate from without knowing what is next for you. I know Vanderbilt graduates whose first job was at Time magazine, others who started making $80,000 a year the summer after they graduated. I felt like a failure going home after graduation. I was ready for my life to start, and I was mad at God for making me wait, for what felt like humiliation every time I had to tell someone (which was very frequently) "I'm not totally sure what's next for me." 

This past year and through all of the trials that I went through, I met with a girl named Molly every Thursday morning to catch up on life and study God's word. One scripture that she introduced me to, and that we studied together, was Psalm 27. It struck me as we studied this passage that my "one desire, the one thing that I seek" (v.4) was not the Lord, or to be in His presence. It was to have life move at the pace I desired, and to go the direction I desired. In so many areas of my life, I was finding it so hard to want that more than anything. 

"Wait for the Lord, be strong and courageous, wait for the Lord." (v. 14) 

But most of all, I was bad at the waiting. I felt like I had been waiting an eternity. I remember one night in particular, after I had come home from a trip to Chapel Hill for a few job interviews in May, when I got the call that I hadn't gotten a job. They had picked someone else. I think that that was my lowest point. My self-esteem, my self-worth, my identity were all so tightly wrapped up in that one person saying "Yes", that I found myself crying in my room, pleading with God to have mercy on me. To just deliver me already out of the loneliness of being home and being unemployed. I had made the ultimate mistake. As Beth Moore puts it, I had given "people the kind of power that only God should yield" over me. And at this point, I reached a point of total surrender where I was able to say, "Not my will, but yours be done."

"Wait for the Lord, be strong and courageous, wait for the Lord."

Well, I didn't wake up the next day with a job offer. Or the next day, or the next day. In fact, after this point, after my complete and total surrender to exhaustion, I went through what could have been the most personal rejections of the whole process. But in that place of surrender, of realizing that my identity was not in fact in what job I held, or who I was dating, or where I was living, or how many times people asked me "what was next for me", that I was able to withstand it, and be ok with the fact that if I could see what was happening and where I was being led from His perspective, I wouldn't be so dismayed. 

The day before I left from Chapel Hill at the beginning of June for another round of interviews, I got unexpectedly sick. I was supposed to have an interview that morning, and luckily, they were able to push it back to the morning before I left. Normally, that type of thing is frowned upon and I knew it probably wasn't scoring me any points, but I couldn't help it. And the interview went really well when I did finally get to go in. I ended up doing some very unusual personality testing for them, and waited all week to hear back from someone at the company. They called, and we set up a video interview for this week. Even though I was miles away in Orlando, they wanted to meet with me. Usually, not living in the area didn't score you any points either, this I knew from experience. And then the video interview went really well. 

That afternoon, they called and said, "We didn't want to make you wait. We'd love to offer you the position."

Wait for the Lord, be strong and courageous, wait for the Lord. 

Out of all of the jobs that I applied to, I know that God had this one picked out for me. He was the one who delivered it to me. This company wasn't even one I had heard of until they reached out to me through Linkedin. And I was so humbled knowing that all of the glory and the praise for landing this job did not belong to me at all, but to the one who is the good giver of ALL things. 

Writing these words, I breathe deeply, knowing that once again, my Savior has proved more faithful that I gave Him credit for, and that He has delivered to me something much better than what I could have achieved on my own terms. 

"I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong and courageous, wait for the Lord." 

Thanks for letting me share my heart a little bit today, friends.

Lots of love,

Abby

15/52

15/52

(My typical reaction to Florida humidity.) 

My room at home is on the side of our house that faces our back porch, so there are no windows, but an entire wall is the sliding glass door that accesses it. When I wake up in the morning and the blinds are closed, it is pretty much a cave, and I blame it for the very late wake ups I've been having the past few weeks. In that dark, sleepy cave, I often wake up and think "It's summer! I should go for a swim! I should ride my bike outside! Maybe I'll run to the Y, do some strength training and run home! Six miles is nothing!" Obviously, I am delusional in more than one sense, because as soon as I step out on that back porch...

WHAM. HUMIDITY.

And then I go and sit in my pajamas and watch Breaking Bad on Netflix for three hours. 

Welcome to my life. 

xoxo. Abby

**P.S.- If you've been counting, you probably realize we are more than 15 weeks into 2013, which means I'm about 9 weeks behind on these posts. I promise to try to not bombard you with a million selfies all at once but I just bought a new tripod so hopefully they will be a little more regular. Thanks for following along with me!

14/52

14/52

Sometimes it's good to be reminded that there are bigger things going on in your life than things that revolve around you. A good walk in the park will do that for you, especially the way trees grow around here. 

ENJOYING THE PROCESS

13/52

This week, I've been trying to learn to appreciate the process of what it is taking to get my life where it needs to be. It is, after all, what this blog is all about. Doing small things, detail things, process-y things, with great love, and great intention. Writing letters, editing on Photoshop, cleaning my room. It's these little things that are making up the important parts of my life right now, and I want to pay attention to them.

ALSO making another trip to Chapel Hill this upcoming week and hoping it will be my last until I am moved up there permanently! Lots of things still need to be figured out, but I am grateful, and hopeful. 

Wishing you a great weekend!

Abby 

12/52

12/52

About a year ago I became familiar with the "I Believe in Nashville" campaign put on by DCXV. Every time I drove by a similar mural in the 12 South neighborhood I kept telling myself I needed to go by and get some shots there, but I never did. It was under construction during this graduation week, but on the afternoon of graduation my parents, Brandon and I went by the mural at Marathon Music Works to get some final images from the day. It was so fitting for my last day in the city, and I'm so glad that I made it a priority. 

xoxo. Abby

11/52

11/52

This isn't technically a self-portrait, I guess, because it's not just of me, but it seemed more than appropriate. This photo for me captures everything that it means to be young and silly and free like we are, and have been blessed to be. I'm trying to savor every moment with these wonderful people in this wonderful place that we call home, even if it's just for a very little while longer. 

10/52

10/52

“As many have learned and later taught, you don't realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” - Tim Keller

Nine days til graduation. Two days to the beach. Thank you Jesus. 

9/52

9/52

A shot from my weekend at home the past few days. 

After almost four years of living in Nashville and falling in love with the city, it's funny how I can sometimes forget that I am first a Florida girl at heart. As much as I hate the humidity and the tourism, I will always associate home with the magnolia and palm trees in my neighborhood and Tijuana Flats. This weekend was a great reminder of that.

Happy Sunday,

Abby

8/52

8/52

On a lovely day a few weeks ago before spring faked us out I made it to Alumni Lawn, hammock in tow. As the weather continues to warm as April is officially here, I'm excited for more days like these. 

Wishing you a relaxing Monday,

Abby

HOLGA SELF PORTRAIT

7/52

Last night after a week of hellish midterms followed by a week in wonderful, windy Chicago, I made it back to Nashville. This spring break was absolutely incredible, and I have many posts planned about it already that I can't wait to share. ASB has now brought me two spring breaks with new traveling destinations, new relationships, and a new appreciation for service that is pushing me through the last six weeks of my college career (!!!!). 

While I was gone, my first development of Holga pictures came in the mail! Turns out it is exceptionally difficult to develop black and white medium format film locally nowadays, but the extra cost was definitely worth it and I can't wait to share those as well! Here is one I took one afternoon at the end of last month. Black and white photos just melt me. 

Lots of love from this corner of the world and happy Monday!

FISHTAIL

This morning was another one of those chilly winter days here (I'm starting to think that the groundhog lied to us). I woke up just in time to fix my hair before I went to Thistle Farms and suddenly realized that it just might be long enough to attempt a fishtail braid again after months of re-growing from its last major cut this summer, and I was right! I love fishtails. They're easy and bohemian and were exactly what I needed today.

6/52

Today marks exactly 9 days until spring break and I can't wait to spend it having the ASBest time in Chicago, IL, so I guess the new Chacos I got for my birthday last week will just have to keep on being patient for a little while longer. I know the summer will come soon enough here and I will be pining for cooler days like today.

Here's to contentment and lots of winter love. xoxo 

22

On Tuesday, I had another birthday, and thanks to Taylor Swift, many birthday wishes, and sweet gifts from my parents, I didn't feel quite as old as I thought I might.

I woke up early and had a Skype date with my mom and got to see my dad on her phone in Budapest! Technology rocks. The rest of the day was busy, full of class and homework, but I managed to find a few minutes to enjoy the day in between my hectic Tuesday appointments.

Downing Coke Zero floats with my roommate,

Accidentally blowing out my birthday wish...twice. And loving a little carrot cake.

And enjoying very fancy cocktails late on Tuesday with these beauties. 

On Wednesday morning a few friends and I continued a three year tradition of pancakes at Pfunky Griddle, which was just perfect. 

If this birthday was any indication of what the year ahead will be like, it is going to be amazing (and very very busy!). Thanks to everyone who made this day so wonderful despite its busy-ness. Here's to another year!

5/52

(PS- I officially cannot wait for spring! Hammock and chacos and Holga camera here we come!)

WINTERY RED

4/52

Wearing red on this snowy, wintery day in Nashville for women's hearts everywhere. 

FRIED CHICKEN & STARTING PLACES

This week has been all about two things: fried chicken and getting ready. The fried chicken part was one part craving, one part Publix making the best fried chicken of all time, and one part I've been too busy to sit down and cook. I think today marks the fourth day in a row I have eaten this chicken. And I have no regrets.

This week has also been about really getting into the semester. Spending time doing gross things like budgets and schedules, and also starting a lot of things in motion and thinking much more seriously about what Vanderbilt is constantly reminding me is in 100 days- graduation. The next steps. All that jazz that I am so excited and terrified about simultaneously. It's gonna be a great semester, and it is kicking off already so fast.

3/52

IN MY ROOM

2/52

This self-portrait was taken in my room. It's a messy place, often, a place where I've spent a lot of time being sick in this week, a place that I share this year with a roommate (holla). There are a lot of improvements that I would love to make to this space with the limited time that I have left this year, but for the most part I'm content with the fact that it's a work in progress. I love it because it is a place I can always go, and rest, and be. 

52

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately. As a new blogger of sorts, it's a great way that I've found to be inspired to be more creative with this space and to become a better blogger. One in particular that I've been following more closely lately is A Beautiful Mess. Elsie and Emma are both amazingly creative and make me more so, for which I am so grateful!

One thing that I have been thinking about a lot with this new year is working on a creative project that will challenge me to do more photography. Last year, I attempted a 365 project called "From Where I'm Standing". It was basically a shot of my feet, wherever they were traveling that day. It was a cool project (although it never got completed), but being in the stage of life that I am a 365 project just didn't seem right for this year. So instead, I have decided to do a photo project every week, which will amount to 52 weeks in total. And the subject? Me! (again). 52 self portraits in 2013.

My goal with this project is that I would not only be challenged in taking photos, but in being in photos.  I hope that being the subject of so many photographs this year will stretch me past my limits behind the camera.

So, for the first week in January, a self-portrait.

1/52

Happy creating!