Tuesday, July 9, 2013

4th of July Recap


Finally all the 4th of July photos have been posted! I took all the photos except for the ones that I'm actually in, those are credited to my friend Shanda. 


















There were also some epic Harry Potter wand fights.



I had a pretty awesome 4th of July. Friends, booze (although I did not handle the Old Latrobe), good food, pool sesh, and sparklers. What more can you ask for?

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {July 7}

Big surprise that this week's scavenger hunt focused on 4th of July. Here is a sneak peek from my 4th of July festivities, the rest of the pics should be coming up shortly.

Red, White, & Blue

My friend's super cute bathing suit for the 4th. Note that she even committed to painting her nails in the same colors.

Stars

The sparklers we got were so cool, they literally looked like sparkling stars.

Sparkle

Mike really enjoyed his sparkler...


Saturday, July 6, 2013

Hummingbird Central

In the late afternoon, a barrage of hummingbirds appear in my backyard. They are so cute and fun to photograph and I wanted to share my favorite photos I've taken of them so far.




And this guy is always hanging out...


Friday, July 5, 2013

Liebster Award

Doing something a little different today on the blog as I wait for all the pictures from 4th of July to trickle in on Facebook. I was recently nominated for something called the Liebster Award from not just one, but two different bloggers! Both Heather of All Things Heather Lee & Hannah of Squidoodles & Oodles nominated me so I have twice the amount of questions to answer. Consider this a get to know you session with yours truly then.


The Rules:
You must link the person who nominated you.
You must answer the 10 Liebster questions given to you by the nominee.
You must pick 10 bloggers with under 200 followers to be nominated for the award.
You must come up with 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
You must go to their blogs and notify your nominees.

Heather's Questions:

1. What is your favorite thing to blog about?
Photography would probably be my favorite thing to blog about. I love sharing my photos and seeing appreciation for my work.

2. What inspired you most to start your blog?
When I started my first blog, I was engaged at the time so I did it to kind of record what was going on and share with friends everything that was happening. Even though that engagement didn't work out, I realized I really liked writing online and sharing things that I liked or were important to me so I scrapped my old blog and started a new one.

3. Do you have a favorite time to write your posts?
Not really. I don't schedule posts unless I'm going to be out of town or away from my computer for a long period of time and I don't have set days on writing either. I write when I feel like it or when an idea comes to mind. I think it's a more organic way of going about it.

4. When did you realize blogging was something you wanted to pursue?
If it's something I enjoy then I'm going to keep doing it. When I realized how much I like doing it, then I started being active with it. 

5. Do you have any hobbies outside of what you write about?
Besides photography, my biggest passion is animals. I love horses more than anything and I've been jumping at a local stable for over a year and a half now. 

6. Does your family support you in your blogging journey?
This may sound weird, but my personal blog is something I don't share with family and friends. I consider my blog life separate from my real life even though real life is constantly on my blog.

7. Do you enjoy supporting other bloggers in their journey?
Absolutely. That's one of the best parts of blogging, connecting with other bloggers.

8. Do you have any advice for bloggers with less followers than you?
Be patient and keep writing about what you want to write about. If you started trying to fit into a certain niche, you aren;t going to connect with the readers you really want. Also follow the 3 A's system: Advertise, Advertise, Advertise. Sponsoring or blog hops is how I found most of my followers. 

9. What is your favorite way to connect with your readers?
I use to be adamantly against Twitter. I HATED it. I recently made one just for my blog only and I love using it now to connect with my readers. It's the easiest way to connect!

10. Do you enjoy doing "guest posts" for other bloggers?
I love it! I may even enjoy it more when another blogger gives me an exact topic to speak about rather than given free range but it's fun to talk to a group of readers that might typically not know who you are. My most recent guest posts can be found here & here.

Hannah's Questions:

1. If your best friend was asked to describe you in one sentence what would they say?
Crazy. I'm pretty positive that's what my besties would say about me.

2. What is the best book that you've read recently?
A few months ago I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower and it's one of the best books I've ever read. Another favorite of mine is Into the Wild, I love both the book and movie.

3. What is the worst present you have ever received?
When I was younger, my dad's parents lived in Arizona and my grandma would give my brother and I the worst gifts possible that she would find at Mexican flea stalls. The worst ones were a scorpion paperweight, the ones that have a real dead scorpion in them, even though I'm terrified of scorpions and my little brother got a bronzed dead frog kicking a ball on a piece of wood. I really wish I was joking. 

4. What is your pet peeve?
I hate being hung up on more than anything. I have a few pet peeves that one pisses me off the most. 

5. If you were stranded on a desert island what one item would you take with you?
A Starbucks. As long as I can get my coffee, I'm good. 

6. What would you describe as your perfect date night?
I love doing so many things that I can't narrow down a perfect date night. As long as we are having fun and laughing, I consider it a great night.

7. What is your favourite quote?
My all time favorite quote is from Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy says "The hardest thing to do in this world is live in it" right before she sacrifices herself to save the world. 

8. If you had to recommend one thing to a friend right now what would it be?
Start watching Community because it will make your life a million times better.

9. What is your favourite blog (other than yours) to read?

10. Why did you start your blog?
I started Mocha Fox because my last two blogs never really quite fit me and what I wanted to write about. I wanted my new blog to be mostly about my photography and everything in between that I loved to do and share while staying true to myself and that's what it's become fortunately.

Thanks for the award you guys. The following are my blog nominees as well as your questions.

Ashlie @ That Love Rush
Leona @ Oh Leona

1. What are you most afraid of?
2. Describe a typical day in your life.
3. What is your most embarrassing moment?
4. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
5. What would your dream job be?
6. Who is your biggest influence, blogger wise?
7. If you could go back in time, is there anything you would do differently?
8. What is your motto to live by?
9. What are your top three favorite bands or musicians? 
10. Any advice on starting a blog?

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Happy Red, White, & Blue!

Oh 4th of July, you are right around the corner! I'm pretty sure BBQing, swimming, friends, and fireworks will all be in order on Thursday and hopefully I won't be feeling lazy and will actually bring my camera with me. I'm also trying to get last minute workouts in so I don't feel like a bloated whale in a bikini. Fingers crossed people.

As everyone knows, we celebrate the 4th of July because of our Independence from Great Britain. However, I LOVE ENGLAND. I wish we had never been separated and drank tea and ate scones and all the American men would have British accents.. So while I still rock the red, white, and blue on the 4th... I rock England colors. Don't get me wrong, I love the USA. It's my home after all! This is just what I prefer!

In the spirit of things, here is a mashup of some British & American things I'm lusting over and wish I could wear to show my spirit!

red white & blue!



I also just have to say that I'm totally jelly of Emily's red, white, and blue look. You know her best from the Freckled Fox. Seriously when I'm pregnant some day, I hope to look half as good as her. I'm dying for that shirt so I had to share!


What are you wearing to show your spirit on the 4th? 

And because the 4th of July always reminds me of this guy..

"You're gonna stand there, owning a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistling bungholes, no spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hüsker düs, hüsker donts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistling kitty chaser?" - Joe Dirt


Snakes & Sparklers y'all! Have a Happy 4th of July!

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {June 30}

Tools
Watering can.

Motion
It took a lot of patience to get this shot of a hummingbird taking off.

Sweet
This is a pretty sweet shot at sunset.

Dots
My new favorite bracelet. 

Stripes
A zebra snow globe Kris got me years ago. 


Friday, June 28, 2013

Checking in

My brain is mush after midterms this week and I can't come up with an inspiring blog post for the life of me so instead I just wanted to leave a quick update with some awesome things going on.

1. You guys, my tribal session is being featured on Beyond the Wanderlust today! Take a look! I'm so happy to be featured on a blog that I greatly admire.

2. I'm giving away ad space in a fun summer giveaway hosted by Crissy @ Candypow. She makes these super adorable plush animals and you can win a little plush fox! You know how much I love foxes.... Hurry and enter now! I also have a little feature over there as well so go say hi to Crissy!

3. Speaking of ad space, I still have plenty of space for July. Use the promo code SUMMERFOX for a $5 off discount. Find my Sponsor Info here.

4. Thank you to everyone that knew I was having a rough day and sent me stuff through email and Twitter to make me laugh. Between you guys and watching Community all day, it totally worked. You guys rule. 

5. .....It's pin up Robert Downey Jr.