happerly ever after

guest post & fun friday!

Hello Happerly Ever After readers!
I am Melissa, the gal behind the photography + design lifestyle blog, The 25th Hour. My blog focuses on making time and capturing the raw, organic moments in life while finding your "25th hour" to feel inspired. One of my favorite things to share on my blog, and in real life, is music. I find music to be one of the greatest of inspirations and this is where I get my fuel for creativity.
You need nothing more than a good playlist, good company and good intentions.
Every Tuesday, I have a "Tuesday Tunes" blog series where I share my favorite tunes or artists of the week. When Ali asked me guest post, I knew exactly what I wanted to share. Down below is a [small] compilation of my favorite songs. They have either picked me up, gave me company when I was down, gave me hope, or touched my heart. I hope they do the same for you!

Here's the full playlist:
1. Mexico - Jump Little Children
2. Apologies - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
3. Seeing and Believing - Wild Sweet Orange
4. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5. Below My Feet - Mumford and Sons
6. Never Let Me Go - Florence + The Machine
7. Your Hand in Mine - Explosions in the Sky
8. The Great Estates - Freelance Whales
9. Let Her Go - Passenger
10. Warning Sign - Coldplay
11. The Heart of Life - John Mayer
12. I Don't Want Love - The Antlers
13. Idaho - Down Like Silver
14. Boats and Birds - Gregory and the Hawk
15. Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
16. Welcome Home - Radical Face
17. River Flows in You - Yiruma
Thank you Ali for letting me post on your blog today! I hope all you readers have enjoyed the playlist and hope you stop by my blog to say hello or share some tunes :)

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Let me tell you that this girl is the real deal. She's lovely & fun & ambitious. I love her playlists & this one defs does NOT dissapoint. Lots of these songs have memories attached to them for me, I love how she put them together.
Hope you have time to enjoy these jams sometime this weekend, HAPPY FRIDAY PEOPLE!! 

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fun friday >>>

the best of the city & the country roads.

This week my man-jam & I are in his homeland of Kansas.
Let me tell you that we've been here two days & it's been fan-freaking-tastic.
More coffee than my body should handle [don't worry..it's been balanced by fresh juice & lots of walking] & my eyes have feasted on open country roads. 

Some photos to share for now, more will come later.
& we've been documenting with video & will make a little vid for ya'll to [maybe] enjoy. That's up to you really...


[hubs gets credit for that ^^ bad boy. he's a freak.]

[I am like, completely ashamed, yet absolutely not, that this was our first stop. nate has been waiting MONTHS for this. poor kid.]

[dinner & this was the cheque book. how creative. inside were original pages, but scribbles of love notes & names from people who ate there. it was amazing. it says 'a house full of friends']

[shopping & late night walks.]


[my fourth coffee in two days. good thing I wont have any for a couple days.]

[#whyilovethecountry]

[#WHYILOVETHEFREAKINCOUNTRY]


So yup. We're loving life right 'bout now. Hugging family, about to babysit some adorable babes tomorrow & baseball games, bonfires, wedding, family photos & so much more for the rest of the week. Follow me on instagram [ali_happer] for more adventures!

Have a fun filled Wednesday beautiful people!

Archilla Family

A couple weekends ago, I had the priviledge of photographing this beautiful family for a Mother's Day present! It was so fun to just capture them as they are, full of energy & love for each other.
This was my first ever family shoot & I am glad they were my first!
Here they are, The Archilla Family! 

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Between shooting these photos & editing them all I could remember was when I was younger & I wore those jelly shoes that had a little bit of sparkle in them. I can remember running through the streets in Long Island & that reminds me of the ice cream man who drove on our street, Vinny.
Seeing Emma run around with her gold shoes on, brought up those old memories. I can't wait to experience all those fun memories with my daughter one day! 
Or wait..I can totally wait. Very patiently..

What's your favourite memory from childhood?

a birthday celebration ::

Today is my husband's TWENTY FIFTH birthday!!!
So to bless all you lovely people, I'm going to list 25 reasons I love this kid.

1. he is a straight up country boy, who loves the city.
2. he's nice to people that most people aren't nice to.
3. he encourages me & challenges me everyday [more than I'd like sometimes]
4. he has a heart for creativity.
5. he pushes the boundaries [even when I'm cringing in the corner]
6. his family is just the best, I married into a good group of people
7. his sense of adventure is inspiring
8. he doesn't every stop learning. & yet somehow retains all that he's ever learned ever before.
9. he dreams bigger dreams than I'd like to admit. it terrifies me.
10. he comes off as intimidating or stand-offish, but his heart is a teddy bear. promise.
11. when I'm sick & he can't do anything to help me, he rubs my back.
12. he teaches me things over & over & over, and is so patient
13. sometimes I'm just doin my own thing & I'll get a novel text with a sermon about Jesus & creativity.
14. he supports me in everything I do. 
15. he gives me '60 seconds of unconditional hugging' everyday. it's supposed to be uninterrupted, but one day he used the word unconditional & now we say that instead. silly.
16. he makes me a smoothie every morning. he's a smoothie master
17. he watches the tv show nashville with me. enough said.
18. he listens to great music. always finding something new.
19. he takes delicious photos & always pushes me to be better.
20. the boy just has style.
21. he doesn't ever settle.
22. he drinks/makes coffee with me.
23. he adores me. makes me feel like one in a million.
24. he lets me sing along to every song in the whole world.
25. he loves me, my country, spelling favourite with a u, & living this crazy life with me.

I LOVE YOU SUGA.
happy birthday.


[our first date. sat on bondi & got caught in the rain. it was perfect]


[he was a kid with a pony tail & I was a girl with a smile]


[bondi beach, australia. our place.]


[on the wheel of brisbane, brisbane australia]


[coffee caramel milkshake @ le paris go cafe, bondi beach, australia]

[one of my favourite photos rose bay, australia.]

[he took me out on a boat & asked me to marry him. surprised me with a party of all my friends.]


[brought me to my first Kansas City footbal game.]


[got married in the country fields of canada]


[continue to go, hand in hand, wherever the wind blows us] 

love you babe, wouldn't change a thing for the world. 

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one fine day in may.

life & all the in betweens

advice from me to you.

when you dream about pizza for ten days.

like I said yesterday, I went ten days drinkly only [okay..mostly] juice. 
& many nights I'd lay in bed and tell Nate I was going to make pizza.
Thankfully I didn't, but let me tell you...our first dinner together was a yummy delicious scrupmtious filling pizza. & as I sit here and munch on the leftovers, I'm going to share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:
1 can tomato paste
3 tbsp pesto
1 cooked chicken breast
spinach [as much as desired]
mozarella cheese [we used teese as our non-dairy cheese, which we LOVED..and I like realllllyyy love cheese]
sprinkle red pepper flakes [if desired[
balsamic vinegar to drizzle on top [if desired] 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
On a well floured surface, roll out pizza dough [as thin or thick as you'd like it]
Mix together tomato paste & pesto, and spread out onto floured dough.
Add chicken, spinach, cheese. Sprinkle pepper flakes and drizzle with balsamic.
Cook for 15-20 minutes [or until it looks crispy] and slice!
Enjoy!!

Happy Thursday everyone!

a recap.

I'm going to be straight up & say I'm not doing today's challenge. I've already done that here.
so yup.

Moving on!
I am going to tell you about something my husband & I challenged ourselves with for ten days.
We drank juice. Juice for breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner & dessert.
A couple weeks ago we watched a popular movie called Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. To be honest, even if you never want to juice anything for the rest of your life, still watch this. It taught me so much about my body & about eating healthier.
I'm not even gunna lie right now, I watched it twice in one night. It was that good.

We saved & planned & last Saturday we began.
We made juice every morning to last the day, & then again for dinner. There was only one that I sipped & gagged. We [Nate] were adventurous & tried to juice a red pepper. Let me give you a little advice right now. Don't. Just don't. I almost never want to eat a red pepper ever again because that fear rises up in my throat. It was bad. BADBADBADBAD.

Day three was bad, but all in all, I enjoyed it. Heck, on day seven I sat in a room of 100 people eating chick-fil-a & didn't crack. OH WAIT...
just kidding, I didn't. Not that day at least.
I ate a rick cake with peanut butter & another day I ate popcorn at night. I didn't even care though, it's not like I was eating a tub of ice cream.
The last day we had smoothies & I ate a salad for lunch. Dinner we made corn tortillas [at home! yumm] and ate those with hummus.

All that to say I'm not perfect [although my husband pretty much is, he ONLY ate on that last night. gosh he's good]. I feel GOOD. Like, really really good. I don't want to eat a bunch of crap food [not that I really did all that often before anyways..] and I want to be a better me.

Half way through I thought to myself 'I should be documenting this more..' but my focus was so much on 'GET THROUGH THIS!! YOU CAN DO IT!' and not on 'let me take a photo of this pretty juice!' because let's be honest...that juice doesn't look good unless you are one of the few people who have drank spinach, pear, apple, carrot, pineapple, ginger juice before. 
So here is where I bring you the ONE photo I have. To which you're saying 'omg he totally thinks that is gross!!' but promise, he was 'tasting all the tastes' [direct quote].


The thing I missed the most was chewing food & tasting things. Fruits & veggies are delish, but tasting the same thing over and over for ten days was hard for me. I guess I'm a bit of a baby. 

Nate dominated, which is amazing to me because I literally had to beg & convince & almost cry to get him to do this. I am so proud of him it's insane. AND Monday while we were grocery shopping he stopped me in my tracks when he said 'yes..get the whole wheat kind' and then AGAIN when he reached for the hummus. AND THEN AGAIN when I was chomping on my salad & he said 'that looks so good'.
Let me just go ahead & tell you that when we first started dating three years ago, he ate NO vegetables. No peppers, no celery, no cucumber, no broccoli, nothing. Potatoes were his vegetables. I could have cried, & serious.. I wasn't sure how we would work out.

But here I am, telling you that I watched him juice a beet & almost had him drooling over a salad.
All my dreams have come true in him.

If you want to read another post of tips & rambles, Maddie posted a great one about her journey. I would ditto everything she said. [& she has pictures that make the juice look appetizing..]

If you read all this, give yourself a pat on that back & go celebrate with some juice. 
You'll like it, promise :)
 

ten things that make me happy.

1. laughter
2. really delicious food
3. discovering a new place 
4. taking photos
5. singing in the car with the windows down
6. knowing I've helped someone in some way
7. seeing the waves crash on the shore
8. flying to a new destination 
9. seeing someone else be happy 
10. spending time with this girl [which I did for a few hours yesterday!]



The best thing I can do is make a list of things I'm thankful for.
It brings perspective & reminds me how good my life is.
Happy Tuesday everyone, tell someone why you're thankful for them.

in honour of my sweet mother.

Well, we all know it's Mothers Day today. 
& I'm going to gush about how much I adore my sweet mumma. 
She has taught me so much throughout the years, even when I didn't want to learn.
She has shown me how to love others & how to be confident.
She has displayed strength in her business, in her marriage and in our family.
She has been one of my best friends, my go-to for late night chats & my helper when I'm sick
    [which let me tell you..she answered about a billion middle of the night 'mooooooom' calls from me.] 

She is all this and much more. I love spending time with her, I miss her when she's not around.
I'm proud to call her my mumma & I love her so very much!! 

1. mum, me & reva at a bridal shower. laughter is our medicine
2. mumma & I on my wedding day. soooo...always laughing.
3. grannie, me, sista & mum on my sister's wedding day. the generations & the love.

I hope YOU have someone to celebrate with this Mothers Day. & if you don't [and you're a girl...] go out and celebrate yourself. You deserve it!

At this moment in time, I'd say I miss my mumma. & all these ladies pictured. my family. 


Happy Sunday everyone, hope you have a beautiful day. 

fun friday >>>

I made a little live/acoustic playlist today to share with you kids, 



[*note.. i realize the biebs song on there is going to make people say what the *%@&?!?? but..he's my guilty pleasure..so..yup]

As I sat here pondering what my most emarassing moment would be, I read the line I wrote above & thought 'Is that my embarassing moment!?'. It may just be.

I've never had any moments of indecet exposure.
I've never fallen in the middle of a crowded street.
I've never peed my pants.

BUT.

One time, in 12th grade, I was called down to the office because my car [which I had forgotten to put the emergency break on] had rolled out of it's spot & was blocking the end of the row. I proceeded to get into my car & move it into a parking space while people stood & watched. The worst part was walking into class & overhearing a girl talk about 'some lazy idiot who parked their car at end of the row'.
I just kept my head down pretending that I had no idea what she was talking about.

Hope you all have a great Friday, I cannot WAIT to see what embarrasing stories I come across today!

 

                                                         

suga style & a thought from today.

Mondays are our day together. To go where we want & find something new.
This monday we drank coffee, sat by the water, ate dinner on the beach & people watched.
Anytime we spend together is to remind us that we are loved & should love others in return. 
Simple, but it's what refreshes us. 


Hubs: 1/shirt.urban  2/pants.levis  3/shoes.converse
Me: 1/shirts.gap  2/jeanshirt.urban  3/pants.cotton on  4/shoes.dsw  5/necklace.gift



Today while I was reading I was struck by this line
      'You are free. You just don't know it yet'

I think that's something that we all can relate to. Something we all need to learn & remember.
Freedom isn't just something we feel, but it's something we know. 

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