Miss South Dakota Teen USA 2009 - Fallyn Patterson

Another gorgeous beauty queen is Miss South Dakota Teen USA 2009 - Fallyn Patterson. There must be something super interesting about teen queens because my traffic sources come from people googling pageant queens' names.

After Teen USA, she competed in the Miss division for the 2011 title (1st runner up) and 2012 title (semi finalist). She attended Black Hills State University after graduating high school (she was an honor student and member of the golf varsity team), and is currently pursuing nursing at Central Wyoming College.

Hopefully she makes a comeback to the pageant stage. I oh so love this Stephen Yearick gown on her!

More gorgeous pics -

Source - Facebook, Future Productions, Solberg Photography

Things to love about your life

While I'm still in the mood for blogging, I thought I'd create this to infuse some positivity into my life, and maybe yours. This has been in the back of my mind for months, but in the end procrastination got the better of me. 

I downloaded the background here simply because I don't have Photoshop on this computer, and Paint didn't really help me create a background with 2 different colors (that or I haven't figure out how). To create the words and rotate them around, I found this. It took me around 10 minutes to create it all and present it here.

Some achievement, no?

Try it on your own. Once you've listed all your favorite things, this shouldn't take long.

Miss Tennessee USA 2011 - Ashley Durham

Out of all the beauty queens I have seen and watched on TV, Ashley Elizabeth Durham from a small town called Adamsville, Tennessee stays at the top of my list. Never mind if she didn't win Miss USA 2011 and that I do not know her personally, but her photos just radiates humbleness, dorkiness and a gorgeous person inside and out. I just love how she can go from a model portrait to making funny faces - some beauty queens just can't pull that genuine look off. 

I even created a Wikipedia page for her =)

Oh, and she accepted my request for MySpace back in the day, lol.

Back in 2005, Ashley won the Miss Tennessee Teen USA 2006 pageant and was a sure shot to win it all for me. Her trademarks are her dimples and the all American girl next door look. She was an honor student at her high school, doing community services and President of her class - what's not to like? Or maybe I'm just partial to the beauty with brains concept.

Ashley then went to University of Memphis, majoring in journalism and fashion merchandising and pledged Alpha Gamma Delta.

And still took time to continue modelling for Tony Bowls.

And then in 2010, Ashley made a comeback to the pageant circuit and subsequently won Miss Tennessee USA 2011. Never mind if she was surrounded by 50 other gorgeous contestants, including Alyssa Campanella, Ashley was my pick to win.

Ashley became Miss USA 2011's 1st runner up, losing to Alyssa Campanella but it's all good. After graduating from college with honors, she became a face for Ford Model Miami and Chicago and New View Management agency.

Now, why isn't she a gorgeous thing?

More pics - 

Source - Facebook, Tony Bowls

Pastel love

I just love pastel colors - it gives you a calm and serene feeling and it allows you to blend it with other darker, rustic colors. Throw in a variety of textures with your pastels to make the place livelier or bold colors to make specific products in the room to stand out. Having your furnitures and walls in the same color will make the place just boring.

Source - Pillows from St.houzz.com, Cabinet from Pottery Barn, Blanket from Pinterest

Lake District

During our visit to the Lake Districts in the UK back in 2009, one of our highlight of the day was trekking up to Easedale Tarn. And I caught a sight of this lone herdwick sheep seemingly smiling down at us. This goes down as one of my favorite photos captured ever because everything just worked out so well - the sheep nested amongst nature and staring at us.