dealing with loss

on monday we found out dan's aunt passed away from her battle with stage 4 melanoma. i didn't know her very well, but did know she was/is loved. since, i didn't know her very well i have been struggling with what i am suppose to feel. 

i have been thinking about loosing loved ones and how to cope with it. i have been fortunate to only have lost my grandma was i was younger. i don't really remember it. i didn't even go to funeral because my sister and i were to young. so, since hearing this news of dan's aunts passing i have been trying to find the way i can grief. 

everyone handles these things in their own way. though i didn't know her very well, i still feel sad she it was her time to leave this earthly world. i feel sad for her husband, her children and grandchildren. 

even though i feel sad, i am comforted to know she is no longer in pain and is with our heavenly father again. i truly believe families are forever, i know we can be with our loved ones again someday. since hearing this news i have been pondering how grateful i am for my family and my heavenly father. 

today is the funeral. this will be my very first funeral. i dont know what to expect. i do know, all i can do is be there for our family. 

this whole experience has been a testimony builder. i know the gospel is true, i know we can be with our heavenly father again someday. i know, he loves us and wants us to return to him when the time is right. i know families are forever. i love the church and my family. 

xoxo

pinterest love

here are some pins i am swooning over. can we talk about how gorgeous that maternity pic is? {my cousins wife val just did her take on it. im a little jealous} && i dream of having a porch like that and that burnt orange sweater i love. 

{photos: here, here, here, here and here}

the emmy's: fashion

let's be honest i could care less about the awards and only care about the fashion of the emmy's. i dont even watch them, i just like to google the red carpet looks the next day. which i did yesterday and i have put together my faves and not so faves.

best dressed: 

my girl zooey looked stunning, not sure who this is but i love it modest and gorgeous, gennifer looked amazing, clarie danes is stunning, love juliane hough's mermaid feel, one mad men lady succeed my exceptions, love emily van camp looked drop dead gorgeous, and not sure who this is but i love the color and detail. 

worst dressed: 

the rest of the mad men gals sure did let me down. i was hoping they would wear something cute but, nope and the last girl i have NO idea who she is but, not feeling that dress. 

wouldn't it be so fun to dress up and walk the red carpet? a girl can dream. :)

{photos via just jared}

shop my closet

i've decided to try this out. since it's the cool thing to do. {haha}

forever 21 top. size: large {fits like a medium} worn twice $5.00

forever 21 polka dot top. size: large {fits like a medium} worn twice $5.00

anthropolgie tank. size: large {fits like a medium-ish} never worn $15.00

{SOLD} mossimo striped top. size: medium worn once $3.00

tank dress. size: 8 worn once. $6.00

downeast basics black dress. size: medium worn once $10.00

floral dress. size: 8 $5.00

mossimo floral tank. size: medium $3.00

 romy skirt. size: large {fits like a medium} $6.00

sales will be made through paypal. all items will ship for $3.00. if you are interested in something please email me at abcde.the.blog@gmail.com with your paypal address and the item/items you want. if you order more than one item there is no extra shipping charge. 

xoxo

insta life

watching mumford & sons videos in bed//crafting with jennifer//he's gonna be a good daddy someday//yellow shoes//four eyes//sick day in bed//sun on fire//it's finally tea weather//sushi night//browsing barnes & nobles//yougurtland date//ikea run//daniel building our new coffee table//in love with it//new fake plant in the bathroom//celebrating a cool fall morning with cinnamon rolls in bed

what life has looked like via my phone/instagram. are we instagram friends yet? follow me @erykaann. hope you all have a happy monday! xoxo

i love it, i love it, i love it.

{photo via the lovely kenzie}

bring on the sweaters, scarves, boots, layers, pumpkins, color changing leaves, crisp days, sipping tea or hot chocolate, and snuggling weather. 

i love fall. i love it, i love it, i love it. {said in this voice. see here.} i love it all. to me this is the most wonderful time of the year. 

happy first day of fall loves!

xoxo

to read.

whenever i say "to read" i think of this scene {go to min 3:00} from the greatest movie.  so basically every time i say "to read" i say it her voice. haha. 

ok back to reason for this post. i have so many books on my "to read list". like it's not even funny. i thought i should share with you all, what's on my to read list. 

what to read next?! how will i choose?

divergent by veronica roth 

insurgent by veronica roth 

rise of nine by pittacus lore

delirium by lauren oliver 

perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky 

crossed by ally condie 

reached by ally condie 

gone girl by gillian flynn 

the fault in our stars by john green 

clockwork princess by cassandra clare {doenst come out til next march, so i have to wait!} 

you can see these titles on my amazon with list here. i made it that way, i can just hop on my kindle fire and know which one is next. 

im always open for more suggestions. i love me a good book. speaking of books....the lovely kaycie from redheaded memories and i are working on a pretty awesome book swap. keep your eye out for it in the next few weeks. 

have a happy weekend, loves! 

sponsor spotlight{part one}

this is the first of the sponsor spotlights. && these are two of my very best blogging friends! abcde is now doing sponsor swaps in 2 month intervals. so you will be lucky enough to see these ladies over to the right until the end of october! 

on the left we have the lovely ashley from absolutely ashley and on the right is the darling kailyn from wandering free. 

want to get to know a little about ashley? 

"i take a lot of pictures. do a lot of makeup. eat out. repeat." -ashley 

you can find ashley here: blog//photography//twitter//instagram//facebook

&& last but not least is miss kailyn {aka my b.davis}. 

"Hello ABCDE readers!! I'm Kailyn, over at Wandering Free. I'm twenty-something and madly in love. Wandering Free is a typical personal blog where I blog about, my life, love, random thoughts, super awesome link-ups, and some silly things as well. So jump on over and stay awhile." -kailyn 

you can find her here: blog//twitter//facebook//instagram//pinterest 

now go on over to their blogs and tell them i sent you! 

made with love sale

im getting ready to add a few fall items so i reduced the prices on a few items. you can also get 10% off your order by using the code 10OFF at checkout. 

stay tuned for new items in a few weeks. so hurry and get your made with love items before they are sold out. to start shopping click here.

xoxo

guest post: breezy days

Hi dolls today we have a pretty awesome girl taking over! Hope you enjoy getting to know Miss Bri, who is also a sponsor of this here blog. :)

Hello!

The name is Bri & I'm the girl behind the lifestyle blog, Breezy Days.

Wanna know something about me?

I love my birthday.

That is probably an understatement. Let's try this again.

I LOVE my birthday.

There is something about treating yourself for the whole week, embracing a fresh new year of life, and being able to yell "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY" practically all month long like a complete dork.

{My Barbie & Ken dance party pic with the roommates!}

Another thing about me?

I loooove throwing themed parties.

I've thrown: Halloween parties, Superbowl parties, a Barbie & Ken dance party, a Mexican Fiesta party, a 60's party, and so on!

This year?

I'm a 'lil stumped.

I'll be 21 this year.

Thus, the par-tay has to be the BOMB.COM.

If you got any good ideas, come on over to Breezy Days and I would love to meet you! :)

<3 Bri

P.S. Thanks Eryka for letting me stop by!

Isn't she darling?! I just love Bri oh so much. I to love my birthday. Too bad she is still young and only going to be 21, and Im turning 24 in November. Oh gawl. 

words

love this quote from sister hinckley. 

i struggle with this somedays. don't we all?! 

those carnies' are tricky, tricky

last night we headed to the state fair with our good friends the mcgee's. we had oh so much fun, we always have fun with kevin and megan. i even pulled out my real camera. i know, right. everyone but me rode the starship 4000 and got sick. haha. i will never trust those rides. they are super sketchy to me. guess what, i didnt indulge in a single treat there. i am so proud of myself. kevin even got tricked into playing a dart game and won us girls a stuffed animal. those carnies' are tricky, tricky. 

i hope you all have a happy weekend. 

xoxo

it's tumblr love day

1//2//3//4//5//6//7//8

remember tumblr love day? do you miss them? i do sometimes. 

here are my faves ive gathered the last few weeks. 

notice a theme? fall. :)

the luckiest

it's been a year and half since i put on my white dress. you put on your suit {and looked pretty hot too} and we danced to the "the luckiest" which was sung by this guy. 

happy year and a half babes. 

i love you. 

xoxo

nine eleven

{via}

i will never forget, what i was doing the moment i heard. i will never forget, how i did not quite understand the impact this would have on our nation. yet, i some how knew this would change things forever. i will never forget 9/11. you can read more of my thoughts here. 

i am so grateful for all those men & women who have served our country. 

i will never forget. <3

a sunburn, family time and revenge watching

was so excited about this pear, only to discover it wasn't ripe. sad day//little brothers football game, guess he's not so little anymore//swinging with the nieces on sunday//finally finished clockwork prince. amazing//got the worst sunburn on my chest area. it hurts so bad. so sunday i took a nap with ice on my burn//netflix is the best and added revenge. let's just say i stayed up til 330am on sunday watching//ugly light in our room aka the boob light//pretty mountains on our sunday drive

did you guys have a good weekend? 

do anything fun?!

xoxo

oasap review//me being awkward

shirt: oasap //jeans: aero//shoes: ross//necklace: high school

have you guys heared of oasap? let me tell you they have some dang cute clothes. they sent me this adorbs top to review for you guys. you can see it here. i love this shirt oh so much. its comfy and not to mention its gray and black so it can be paired with anything. im thinking some red pants next time. an added bonus is it has a stretchy middle/waist band so it will be a shirt i can wear when im preggers someday. score!

can i tell you how awkward it was having dan take pics of me for this post? so dang awkward. please excuse me and my weird poses. dan wanted to be included too, so he struck a pose. 

head over to oasap to see all their cute cothes. i have my eye on this, this and this. :)

a tutorial: picmonkey

remember how picnik left us all hanging dry awhile ago? well i was on the search for a new editing site and ta da i stumbled upon picmonkey.com. its better than picasa, trust me. 

so i got so many emails about this post. on how i made my pictures rounded in a collage so, i decided why not do a tutorial on it. because, honestly guys its so dang easy. are you ready to learn to make a circle collage?!

1. go to picmonkey.com. if you use a mac, just a warning i cannot access the site on google chrome so i have to open my safari browser. so anyways, go picmonkey.com. click on create a collage. 

2. once the new page opens it will look this below. now, click on upload photos. 

3. now that you have the desired photos uploaded. click the 3 squares icon. and select desired collage layout. to get collage like mine. i recommend using square deal. now that you have a layout. click auto-fill. 

4. it will add your photos for you, you then can re-arrange them as you like. now click the paint palette icon. the page will look like this. now, adjust your spacing how you want, now comes to circle part. drag the corner rounding dot all the way over to make it say 100% and ta-da circles! simply click save and you have your circle collage all ready. note: on the bottom on the collage you will see the dimensions that is where you can resize it. 

ta-da. super easy huh? now, if you want to add text. you will have to save it and go back to the home page and click edit photo. then edit it as a single photo. see below for screen shots of how to add text. 

hope this makes sense and is easy for you. if you have any questions feel free to email me. kthankss! 

have a happy weekend loves. :) 

blog crushes

so i have this new favorite thing to do....get outfit inspiration from some of my new blog crushes. lately i have been really into fashion and putting together "put together" outfits. trust me im not always put together. haha. below are some of my newest blogger crushes i turned to, for inspiration. 

cecilia from dearest lou//jenna from the life of the wife//kacie from kacie's closet//kate from the student's wife//and whitney from witty whitney 

now check out their blogs and swoon over the cutest of them! 

xo

{all photos taken from said blogs. to see photos click on each blog name}

our labor day weekend

this labor day weekend was so much fun. we didn't even go anywhere or really do too much but, it was so fun. full of family, food, laughing, sleeping, baseball games {where there was like a hundred missionaries. it was cute}, finally sucking it up and deciding it was time to sell my wedding dress. interested? see the ad here. oh and my new firmoo glasses finally came and im in love. such a great deal. they were about 7 bucks. all you pay is shipping. head over to firmoo and get your glasses! 

hope you all had a happy weekend. you can see these photos and others on instagram.  do you have one? let me know so i can follow. 

xoxo

a happy list: september

um, how is it already september? not that im complaining at all. one month closer to fall and its gorgeous weather. don't ask me why, but when the weather starts to change to cold stormy days i get a little happier. 

1. my hubby and they way he always makes me laugh

2. the gorgeous sunsets in utah. i love this state.

3. guys, the leaves are changing on the mountains. ahh!

4. fro yo. 

5. opening the windows and listening to the rain/thunder 

6. finally finding a chambray that fit the boobs. all my ladies know how it is. haha

what is making you happy this month? also be sure to check out the new sponsors over to the right! :)