so long, farewell...

I'm spending my New Year's Eve on the couch, cuddled up in blankets, surrounded by snotty tissues.  Hot, right?  Despite the crappy end of the year, it was a really good Christmas.  I got to hang out with these kids and spend hours on that giant sectional in my grandmother's living room.  That sectional saw a lot of my behind this Christmas, but we finally turned off Gator Boys and Cajun Pawn Stars (quality television programming) to play a hotly contested round of Balderdash.

We take board games very seriously at Granny's.

That's my sad little purple piece way in last place.  I'm normally much better at these games.  Kristi and I even beat the venerable team of Dad and Granny last year at Password.  (It was really big deal, trust me.)

Even without a Balderdash victory, it's been a really good year.  I graduated from college (Hook 'Em!); I made plans to start my career and move to the big apple.  I spent time with the very best friends in the world.  I loved; I lived; and I laughed.  I designed some pretty rooms and watched some funny movies and ate some yummy foods and listened to some gorgeous songs and made some beautiful music and read some perfect books and laughed and laughed and laughed.

2013 is going to be a big scary year of change.  Some of the plans are still brewing in my pretty little brain and a few have the wheels rolling already.  I know New Year's resolutions are a trite and pretty meaningless thing, but for an all-or-nothing person like me, the idea of starting the year fresh and on track is an appealing one.

We'll see where this year leads, but I'm sure it'll be genius... obviously.

So Long, Farewell from Iain Gall on Vimeo.

I got a brand new camera!

It was totally meant to take pictures like these.  Ok, maybe not...  Though my siblings are pretty good gloves-scarves-and-hats-that-we-get-every-year-from-granny models.  Is this a viable career option for them?

Oh, and don't think I'm a horrible sister for putting a picture like that of my brother on the internet.  He poses, he deals with the consequences.

I have been wanting a new camera for forever and my stepdad and mama generously graduation/christmas gifted me the perfect one.  Now, I don't know what I'm talking about, but my research showed it had everything I was wanting in a dslr, with the tiny size and portability I needed in a point and shoot.  It's beautiful.  Even though I've only had it for one day, I've had so much fun taking photos of the fam (and the new baby second cousins!)

My father would like you to know that there is a very high chance he'd just said something quite profound to Hannah in this photo.  He's very profound.

It's been a fantastic couple of days.  That hottie in the photo above suprised everyone with a last minute trip home for Christmas.  I got sweet and thoughtful presents (that were exactly what I wanted) and have spent every minute of it with family.  I got to show off my stick horse making skills to Granny and lay around on the giant sectional with everyone and show her our favorite apps.  (My grandmother is quite the techie.  There is nothing she likes more than a cool new app for her ipad.) We facetimed cousins in Arkansas, watched babies play with their new toys, and napped.

(Arkansas cousins have the best accents!)

Willis and Silas (Kristi and Cliff make cute babies.)

I miss her.

Now, these were all taken in a dark living room from the same spot on the couch on my first day of owning the camera, so hopefully it'll go up from here.

what I'm loving right now.

These gorgeous photos Evane took of Hannah's room at our old apartment.  I love that wall of concert posters more than anything.

This (blurry) shot of my genius mama walking across the stage to receive her nurses pin (I think that's what it was.)  I couldn't be more proud of her; she's the only one I've ever called when not feeling well and the best nurse I know.

I finished the last episode of Freaks and Geeks the other day and I'm sad.  Seriously, people... this show is amazing.  Funny and touching and full of people you know.  I spent the whole time going, "Oh! That's that guy that's on that show!" or "She's on this?"  Watch it.  Now.

Loving this shot from my old living room.  The brass, tarnished silver, white ceramic, hobnail glass, old wood and screws, and the patterned wool rug...  Love.

Every year when the kids get together to decorate my mother's Christmas tree, my brother puts random things on it.  He wasn't here this year, so I did a bit of guerrilla decorating for him.

no more sappy, I promise.

Just pure gratitude to the family and friends who drove for hours here and back to east Texas, bought plane tickets, re-arranged finals, adjusted family Christmas and birthday celebrations, and spent their precious holiday weekend to come and see me walk across a stage for 4.5 seconds.  I heard their cheers, crossed my fingers again that I wouldn't trip on my uncomfortable shoes, held on to my too small cap (Yeah right, one size fits all!  What about my giant head?  One size fits all normal-headed people.), smiled at the man I'd never met but evidently runs my school, and took the rolled up piece of paper that said, "Don't fail your finals or you won't actually get the piece of paper that we're pretending to give you right now!"

It was so worth it.

I wore my little blue shawl/scarf/stole thing all day and had the dumbest, giantest (that's a real word; trust me, I'm a college graduate) smile on my face when everyone asked, "Did you graduate today?"  I got a free strawberry lemonade out of the deal, so the whole tuition thing is almost evened out.  The family and friends all went to lunch at the group of food trucks on south Congress.  It was delicious (salted caramel creme brulee!) and as I sat there with a bottled Mexican coke and a fresh squeezed lemonade (as would be the theme of the day, It's my graduation and I can have both if I want!) I stared at all the people who loved me and realized again just how lucky I am.

After a mid afternoon siesta and a more comfortable shoe change, Hannah, Katrina and I headed over to the east side to meet up with Matt and Bri.  We had yummy tacos and margaritas at Takoba and more tequila shots and Hendrick's at Shangri La.  It was the perfect go-out-and-party-it-up night for a girl that never goes out and parties.  Despite my frustration at the EAST SIDE KING BEING CLOSED BY THE TIME I GOT UP OFF MY LAZY BUTT TO ORDER, we ended it at Lucky J's on 6th and Waller.  Chicken and Waffles!  Katrina and I split a cheese steak from a neighboring food truck; the star of the evening, however, was the chicken and waffle with bacon, swiss cheese, syrup and hot sauce.  I believe that's what's known as magic.

Those photos?  2 AM is the best time to take use a photobooth.  Fur-hur-shure.

I started off this post by once again being crazy sappy about people I love and ended it with descriptions of food.  So, pretty much life as usual.

sappy time (part 2)

I know I already got weepy last week about my family, but it's gonna happen again, people.  I'm just really lucky.  I'm sure some of you think that you have people who love you, but compared to me, you're all Oliver Twist and "please sir, I want some more (friends)."  (That's really confusing punctuation, so I'm just gonna leave it like it is...)

Most of my family is coming from across the country to see me walk across the stage for 3 seconds.  I'm just waiting for all the yells.  (I didn't get the only loud Corder genes!)

Behind the scenes info: when this photo was taken a few Christmases ago, a random lady relative called us "a bunch of hussies."  I think it wasn't meant to be an insult?  Also, be grateful girls, I was gonna put that picture of us doing ANTM in our Christmas snuggies.

Little known fact: that photo of Evane and Campbell is of the only time they've interacted without bloodshed.  :)  ...Skunks!

My family is precious.  You don't get to pick your family and I really lucked out with this one.  Nobody does group texts and That Thing You Do quotes like us.

You do get to pick your friends, however... I did a fantastic job with that one.

I will never not love this photo. Note to self: always have red lipstick, red nails, a glass of wine, people who love you.  Also, I love how Loryn looks like a blow-up doll in the top left photo.

My friends are as good at making faces as I am.  (What? You don't have photos of you and your friends  with crazy hats?  You really should.)  These people love me, even though they know all the sucky, not-so-pretty, wanna-hide-the-skeletons-in-the-closet, icky stuff...  Do you know how special that is?  They make me better and let me love them.  Life is good, people.  It's good.

Anyways, graduation.  This Saturday at noon, it's on.  Party time!  I know my instagram followers are going to be disappointed at the lack of late night "I'm studying in a coffee shop/library" shots.  No more photos of my laptop, coffee and homework... Here's a small sampling to make up for your future loss.  

it's so genetic

The whole "we make good faces" thing?  It's not just limited to my brother or the old roomie, this is a family-wide trait.  See?

I love this.  I love Evane being a model while the rest of us are being as ridiculous as possible.  I love that we're all squished in together as only family can be.  I love Hannah's face and how Larisa and Campbell have the same raised eyebrows.  I love us.

How could you not love these people?  This is late night self-portrait taking at its finest.

As I sit here in class, refusing to listen to my South African music professor (who is objectively the worst educator I have ever encountered), I'm starting to get a little teary...  I have the best family in the world.  The kids in these pictures are not only amazing people, but they love me in a way I can never deserve.  It's the best feeling in the world.

I can't wait to see what husbands and wives join this classy, classy group of individuals.  Wouldn't you want to be a part of this? Hannah, Evane, Campbell and Larisa... You'd better pick well, because I'm not letting just anybody steal you away from me.

It got even better when, at 20 years old, I gained more siblings to bother, laugh with, and blame for starting fights.  (I mean... to love).  When I was about 9 and I really wanted a big brother (I don't know exactly how I thought I was going to do that) I didn't realize that I'd have 2.  Terry and Danny, thanks for being as obnoxious as every older brother on tv was. :) Thanks for marrying beautiful, amazing women like Tiffany and Esme - they make our family so much better.  Grace, you're hot (you know that, though) and funny and such a great addition to these sisters of mine.

Of course, I love all of you new sibs, but I'd pick Justin over every one of you.  (You know you'd do the same!)  Having a nephew is so much fun, but I never knew there could be a little boy as loving and affectionate and sweet as this one.  Everyone else needs to start having kids so I can do this more often. You and your kids should live in the same city as me too.  I'd like that.

So, all that to say, I love you guys.  Thanks for making my life better.  Thanks for setting the gold standard in good face-making.  Nobody contorts their facial features quite like you kids.

Also, thanks for overwhelming my ASL professor when he asked me to name all of my siblings when we were learning the signs for family members...  It was really funny and he never picked on me again while practicing that lesson.

thanks-lazing.

how my iphone saw the day...

Thanksgiving was fantastic.  I went all Julia Childs with Larisa and made a delicious dinner on Wednesday.  (My mother's Thanksgiving plans for Thursday were cancelled, but we went ahead with Thanksgiving a day early)  I refused to do anything on Thursday but lay around and take naps.  It was glorious!  Mama and I played Rummikub while Larisa made fancy hot chocolate.  We played old standards and sang "Someone to Watch Over Me."  (She has the best voice...)

It was all I wanted in a vacation.  For future reference, if anyone wants to impress anyone with their culinary skills, feel free to use this menu: slow-cooker turkey (I was super happy to have one less thing to schedule the oven for), HEB's pecan praline spiral-cut ham (the best decision I made), macaroni and cheese (from scratch!), roasted garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry-pomegranate sauce (A: why would you ever use the canned stuff when this is so easy? B: mine turned out a cranberry-orange-apple sauce 'cause I forgot the pomegranate juice), green bean casserole (nothing fancy, just the recipe on the can of fried onions... don't judge, it's my favorite!), and those magical canned crescent rolls with some rosemary-garlic butter.  

My favorite dishes (beside that fantastic ham) were the whipped sweet potatoes with coconut milk from The Kitchn and cornbread stuffing with sausage and apples from The Pioneer Woman.

this is what it would all look like if I was a professional food photographer...

via pioneer woman and the kitchn

The last two years I made Bobby Flay's pumpkin bread pudding with spicy caramel apple sauce and my brother said it was the best thing he'd ever eaten... So there's that.

dude, I'm so helpful (the not-so-helpful t-shirt pillow edition)

When my future-interior-design-business-partner sister Evane left for college a few years ago, she was concerned (and rightly so) about how to make her dorm look less dorm-like.  We found comfy gray bedding and ruffly white blankets at Target and IKEA, but went lazy diy on the pillows.

I call this a not-so-helpful "dude, I'm so helpful" because I've got no pictures of the process.  We did this years ago, but there are a million different tutorials online how to make a pillow (ruffled or not) out of a t-shirt.  (This one is great.)  However, you don't need any (badly-lit) photos from me to do it yourself; it's so easy.  Now, if you need to make a bunch of pillows, you could go to the regular fabric store, but the thrift store is full of shirts (which are inherently shaped perfectly for pillow-making.)  You can find funky old designs/prints and if you go on a sale day, you can go super cheap-o.  I love the soft jersey of a washed-a-million-times t-shirt.  (So many dashes!)

Evane and I started out with neutrals (duvet, blankets and sheets), so we walked into the thrift store with a pretty open color palette. She loved a floral t-shirt that ended up as that pillow in the back, so we started there, finding different t-shirts and a few button ups in great bright colors.  We used IKEA pillow inserts for $3 a pop, but if you go to a thrift store, they have dozens of cheap (and ugly!) throw pillows if you need a different/larger size.  Don't worry about the heinous print on the fabric, just choose one that's smooth (something super bumpy will show through a thin cotton or jersey cover) and that doesn't have piping (makes your edges weird).  You don't have to only look at the x-large shirts, but if you're doing ruffles, the bigger (more fabric) the better.  Look at a couple of tutorials or pinterest for inspiration; get a little creative and go!

Thanks Evi, for the (much better than usual) photos

when half your family has moved away...

It's really great to spend your birthday talking/texting/face-timing with everyone you love... Thanks for the presents and calls and songs.  Love you guys.  (Sorry you look so weird in this shot, Stephen)

update: it's a corder thing

Remember how my brother and I make really good faces?  Well, as he said, it runs in the family.  The roomie makes pretty good faces as well.

the bro.

The day of this adorable exchange:

my brother Campbell and I decided to have a little waiting-in-the-car-while-Hannah-takes-forever-to-change-her-clothes-for-Campbell's-graduation-ceremony iPhone photoshoot.

My ability to make really good faces is obviously a genetic trait.

You're welcome.

the perfect way to start my day

Did your dad leave flowers on your porch "just because"?

Cause mine did.  Finding them was the perfect start to the day, especially after a weekend spent sick in bed.  But... I did wake up without a fever, so if I stay at 98.6-ish all day, I get to return to the land of the living tomorrow.  Yeah!

seesters...

I live with one of the seesters, but I got to spend the day with the others yesterday.  The littlest one is sick and since the padre and the brother are off on a manly man road trip, I've stayed with her a bit this week.  The other sister is off gallivanting across Europe (What? Do I sound jealous?  Does it seem like I am bothered by the incredibly amazing trip she's having to places I've never seen?!?!?!?!?! I'm totally not.  Why would you say that?) Anyways, we got to facetime for an hour or so (god love technology) and talk about how she's doing and future plans and how I miss her and all of the sister catching up things you have to do when your siblings are on far away continents.

It was good.

Evane (the Europe traveling one), Me, Larisa (the youngest) and Hannah (the roomie)

Finally! A picture with the brother.

We get even bigger!  (Minus Terry, Esme and Justin - the cutest nephew that ever lived!)

Don't let this photo of Justin and Hannah having fun fool you, he totally loves me the best.