2014 in Review

Hey y'all! With first semester over and college applications behind me, I'm finally a second semester senior. All I have to do now is wait for the decisions, keep my grades up, and enjoy my last 8 months at home! I thought that I'd go ahead and do a recap of the year for y'all to know what I've been up to since August, as well as reflect a little bit on the lessons of 2014. (warning: I didn't align my pictures but yolo).

January/February: 
These two months were a blur of enjoying school and getting super involved with my blog. I was on a cooking high, and churned out recipes like no one's business. My personal favorite is still my Healthy Cookie Dough Dip, which I plan to make tomorrow :)

March/April:
I ran for student government at school and won! I have to say this has been an incredibly fulfilling experience thus far, although trying at times, and I wouldn't give it up for the world. Thank you to all of you for being so supportive, even if you couldn't directly vote for me.

May/June:

I finished the #100HappyDays Challenge! Even though the thoughts behind it are nice, I realized that I didn't like being forced to push all my happiness into a picture, every single day. I wrote more about it here!

I also finished my junior year and dove into a summer full of art class (I took it at the community college to fulfill a requirement), working at my lab in San Francisco, and early morning gym trips. OH, and college apps. Lots of those. 

July/August:
I continued to enjoy my summer and actually met Cassey Ho, the creator of Blogilates! (As I type this I'm sore from her new Extreme Abs video- oh the irony). I also did some traveling, with a family vacation to Crater Lake and some college visits. I started off my senior year, which meant lots of schoolwork, in addition to writing my life story for college apps.

September/October: 

A big couple of months- I got my license, turned 17, went to my first concert (Neon Trees, American Authors, Lindsey Sterling, and Matt Nathanson) and participated in our school's annual Homecoming celebrations, a week so big that I broke my blog hiatus to recap it. More info here!

November/December: 

I fell in love with Taylor Swift's 1989 (Is it bad that this is in my highlights of the year?), got into the Christmas spirit (I made my Christmas playlist November 1st!), and Lynbrook won 1st place at our district-wide Olympics, IDC Fantastics. I finished college apps, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I started watching Grey's Anatomy, which is literally the world's most addicting show (On Season 6 and will hurt anyone who tries to spoil it for me). Christmas was amazing, and I got a really cool trio of iPhone lenses (fisheye, macro, and wide angle), and some books. Last weekend, we went to Tahoe, so I got to ski for the first time in 4 years, and play with my new lenses!

And with that, we're out. Cheers, 2014! Happy New Year to all y'all, and let's make 2015 our year :) See you soon- my blog break is officially over!

xo, Hima

Recap: Homecoming Week!

Hey y'all! To any first time readers, HI! To everyone else, I know I said I'd be on a blog break until I finish college applications in December, but this past week was just too amazing not to be documented. This post is very very photo-heavy, so sorry for how long it is. Big shout out to Ian Pearman, Roger Chen, and Dara Jovkar for photos.

Last week was my high school's annual homecoming week, and as a senior, it was my last. Essentially, each class takes one day and transforms the school into whatever their theme is for that one day. We have a gauntlet before school, skits and dances during break, and a schoolwide rally and football game on Friday, as well as a dance on Friday. We start making decorations and working on our performances at the beginning of summer, so it's definitely a labor of love. Oh, and it's a class competition.

this was our backdrop from the skit, completely hand painted. I'm literally obsessed with it. 

The Lynbrook staff is absolutely phenomenal, and they take part in all the fun too! Their theme was travel through time, so my friends and I decided to hippie it out. Believe it or not, the guy in the middle is our wonderful Spanish teacher.

I'm actually really on board with headwraps now. I think it's time to bring that back. 

The freshman theme was pirates, and they were just so cute! Since I'm in student government, I went early to help them out with their gauntlet, and I had a lot of fun.

I borrowed the foam sword from a teacher for a while, but it got too annoying to carry around oops. 

The sophomores were ancient Japan, and they did a wonderful job. Their skit was the best I've seen among all the classes in my four years, so I'm really proud of them. Some of my leadership girls and I got to intro their skit, and we definitely worked some Iggy Azalea (from LA to Tokyo!) in. We even tried to be the Japanese flag hehe.

The juniors were ancient Greece, so what other than toga party??? As usual, 2016's decorations were gorgeous. After school Wednesday, we started setting up at school for senior homecoming on Thursday, and ended up pulling an all-nighter to finish up.

The senior theme was music through time. On Thursday morning, we had our gauntlet, and having had 0 sleep I lost my voice almost immediately. It was definitely worth it though. My stats teacher was a total homie and gave us time to nap in his class- I was out cold for a while. I was in the skit, playing Tupac, and although my shirt was about 7 sizes too big and my bandana fell off immediately, it was tons of fun. I got to introduce the skit again with all the other senior ASB officers.

pretty much the least intimidating Tupac ever but that's okay.

The Rally on Friday was incredible. I was in the skit as our school rival, but sadly there are no pictures of me doing so. My friends and I dressed up in the senior colors and spelled out Seniors XV (15, since we're the class of 2015), and that was a ton of fun.

Friday night I went to the homecoming game, and although we lost, our boys gave it their all, and it was a fitting end to homecoming week with all of my favorite people.

Although I had very little sleep, and was at school pretty much 24/7, I know that this was one of the best weeks of my life, and one of those high school memories that I'll cherish forever! Love you all!

xo, Hima

Instarecap + Blog Announcement

Hey y'all!
I haven't written a proper post in several weeks, except Monday Melodies, which is basically the easiest thing ever, so let's just say that unless you follow me on Instagram (shameless plug teehee), you have no idea what I've been doing for the past million years. And yaknow since this is a lifestyle blog, I thought I might write about what I've been up to, because those are some of the posts I enjoy most on my bbffl Marla's blog. I have a really big announcement today, so if that's what you're interested in, just scroll to the bottom of the post (:

On our Crater Lake trip, we stopped halfway, in Redding, CA, and got ice cream at the cutest little place ever! They hand make all their ice cream each day. This is 1/2 birthday cake (because I am OBSESSED with all things birthday cake/cake batter), and 1/2 chocolate chip.

Sundial Bridge, again in Redding. This bridge spans the Sacramento River (I think), and at night it's all lit up, and local musicians come out to play and people bring their dogs and it's pretty much the best thing ever. 

Lake sunset at Diamond Lake, Oregon while roasting s'mores. Best night ever? I think yes. 

Ahhh looking at this right now, I just want to go back to Crater Lake. Such a beautiful, and honestly surreal place. When you're looking at it, it's hard to believe how blue it is! Also there's some snow there that still hasn't melted, and we took Bella to experience it- funniest thing ever! She kept jumping around and kicking it into our faces. 

The day we got back from Crater Lake, my mom and I headed cross-country to visit friends/family and check out some colleges. I'm always that kid with the window seat with my face plastered to the window on planes- I just can't get enough of the views!

One of my favorite things to photograph is cathedrals. They just have such a serene symmetry and subtle opulence that I love. Also it makes me feel like I'm in a castle which is always fun (:                                     

My mom and I were still touring, and I started to really miss my younger brother, and I started thinking about what is going to happen when I go off to college next year. I was gone for two days and I missed him so much, so how am I ever going to last two months? He truly is my best friend and confidante. He also gives really great advice for a 10 year-old!

We stopped in Houston to visit my favorite aunt, which was lovely as always! And yes, I'm wearing a Disney Princess shirt. It says Royals. I hope to join their ranks some day. 

I hadn't baked in a while and I missed it. Chocolate chip cookies are always a foolproof recipe right? And yes, they tasted as good as they looked!

Okay, so on to that big announcement I keep talking about. I'm a senior in high school this year, which means I'm doing a whole lot of applying to colleges this semester. That's a lot of writing, and editing, and work in general, so I want to put my best foot forward. While I love blogging, it doesn't necessarily have the same importance in my life as a successful college career would have, so I've decided to take a blog break for this semester. I'll still be on Instagram and definitely can be reached by email (himahearts@gmail.com), but you likely won't see anything on this blog until December. So until then, bye everyone (: Wish me luck! 

xo, Hima

My Honest Thoughts on #100HappyDays

Hey y'all! So this post has been a long time coming. I finished the challenge on Instagram 2 weeks ago, and wrote my final recap last week, so check that out if you haven't already! I've also decided to intersperse my text with some of my favorite photos from the challenge, so enjoy!
I'm not going to lie, I did not get as much out of this challenge as I wanted to. According to the website:

       "People successfully completing the challenge claimed to:

        - Start noticing what makes them happy every day;

        - Be in a better mood every day;

        - Start receiving more compliments from other people;

        - Realize how lucky they are to have the life they have;

        - Become more optimistic;

        - Fall in love during the challenge."

I did notice what made me happy, but that was only because "Oh, crap, I need a post for today." I'm a really competitive person, so I was more worried about being one of the few people to finish the challenge (Shoutout to Marla and Shruthi for finishing too!) than actually finding things to be happy about. It really stressed me out when it was 9 PM and I hadn't posted anything for the day. 

I'm also a total perfectionist, so my photo had to be like-worthy, so not just a last-minute selfie, or poorly photographed food. Good composition, beautiful lighting, and not-obviously filtered (although I broke this rule a few times). Remember that I started this in March, so I was doing this all through AP tests and finals. Because of this, I turned to my 1500 photo camera roll/Facebook to look for throwbacks. I'm no even kidding, at the end of the challenge, I ran out of pictures to post. I'm pretty sure I posted 3 or 4 photos from my school's grad with different people. 


It's not that I always hated it. I loved taking the time to write a couple of thoughtful sentences about a friend whom I really appreciated, and it was truly an honor to be in another friend's post for the day. With the whole being happier thing, I'm already a pretty happy person, so that wasn't exactly my goal. 

The effects of #100HappyDays? Posting every single day means lots of notifications, so nowadays, I don't post everyday (thank god- it's WAY too much work), and I don't have as many notifications now, which was a little weird at first, but I've liked settling back into my regular routine of posting whenever I feel like it.


Do I recommend trying the challenge? Sure! It's definitely a challenge, and you'll feel accomplished for getting it done, and who knows- you might see the effects the foundation claims people see. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you. No harm in trying :)

If you've done the challenge, what are your thoughts on it? If not, would you consider trying it? 

xo, Hima

100 Happy Days | Days 88 - 100!

Hey y'all! So it's been a few days since I finished the #100HappyDays challenge on Instagram, so I thought I should get around to writing my final recap. I'll be doing a post on my experience later this week, or early next week, but until then- yay for hella pictures! (hi marla).

Day 88: Throwback to grad with my IDC partner Hana! Hana and I are weirdly alike, from being Mindy Project obsessed to randomly dressing the same- our advisor constantly gets us confused! 

Day 88 (pt. 2 I guess): So over the course of 100 days, I was bound to mess up the numbers at some point. I guess this was supposed to be day 89, but whatever. Another throwback to the county fair 12 years ago with someone I couldn't imagine my life without!

Day 89: OMG WHAT?! Yeah, you read right. I wrote a post about this a couple of weeks ago- here's the link. 

Day 90: So I'm learning to drive, and on my first day of highway driving practice, I was blessed with this beautiful sunset! And no, I did not take this while driving. 

Day 91: Spent a glorious Sunday at the lake with my family- hiking, biking, and kayaking!

Day 92: Throwback to 1 year ago, when I started working as a teacher with Breakthrough Silicon Valley! Check out my post on my experience here. 

Day 93: This stuff is amazing! My favorite ice cream flavor is mint chip and this did not disappoint. Also, the original photo wasn't this saturated; I'm not sure what's up with blogger. 

Day 94: Looks amazing, doesn't it? I made my first ever smoothie bowl, and shared my experience and recipe here!

Day 95: I went to the art museum on a field trip with my art class last week, and I could not get over this beautiful painting from India! How amazing are those colors!?

Day 96: Apologies for the grime on the window, but the Caltrain was stuck for about 15 minutes, and this view definitely made things better!

Day 97: My favorite thing about summer is hands down the fruit. I would survive on berries and nectarines if my mother let me. 

Day 98: Beach days filled with dolphin sitings, boogie boarding, and reading books are always the best!

Day 99: We received this adorable note and biscotti from our fabulous neighbors. What's not happy about this? Sidenote: I love my neighborhood- everyone is so nice and helpful ALL the time!

 
Day 100 (!!) A beautiful sunset right outside my house. Yes, I was standing in the middle of the road. No, it doesn't matter because hardly anyone comes down our street!

Okay, before I sign off, two things:
1. Sorry for the sometimes abysmal photo quality and resulting irregular image sizing and random white spaces from putting landscape photos on Instagram.  It drives me nuts too, but the challenge is over, so we won't have to worry about it anymore!
2. I hit 250 followers on Bloglovin' yesterday! I just wanted to thank all of you for reading on/commenting on my blog- it means more to me than you could know! Y'all are the best :) LOVE YOU!

xo, Hima