Tag Archives: clothing

I think spring has sprung!

Hey peeps!

Get it? I’m calling all of you peeps because it is the day after Easter and you probably have a bunch of peeps sitting around going stale. Maybe you should just throw them away because we all know you’re not going to eat them!

I originally planned on posting this on Easter, but a few computer problems later and here it is- a day late.

Yesterday was not only Easter but it was also LDS General Conference. It’s a day that happens twice a year where LDS leaders and members gather for two days to give and hear talks. These talks range from church news and announcements to gospel doctrine stories and testimonies of Jesus Christ.

I love when General Conference falls on Easter because ultimately Christ is the whole purpose of Conference, He is our cornerstone and the ultimate example.

Like many other holidays, Easter can get turned from a day to remember Christ, to a day to remember candy, rabbits and colorful eggs. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoy Mr. Easter bunny and all of the delicious prizes he brings me. But I know that isn’t what we should be focused on.

Easter symbolizes the day when Christ overcame death and was resurrected. He gave his life and died for each one of us, and then overcame it all and rose again. I couldn’t be more grateful for His sacrifice and example. It helps remind me that we are not just here on earth to get rich or famous. We are here for a greater purpose- to learn, grow and get back to live with God again. We can only do this because of Jesus Christ.

I know there are people out there who don’t share the same beliefs I do. But I think it can do nothing but strengthen someone to try to live a kind, selfless life like Christ did. And the message of Easter- of hope, resurrection and new beginnings can apply to us all. We all go through trials and hardships; there isn’t anyone who is spared from occasional grief and heartache. But on the other hand, everyone also experiences at least a moment of happiness, love or success. We should all remember the message of Easter every day of the year. That there are great things to live for, and there are always new beginnings, fresh starts and happy times ahead.

So ultimately I’m not too upset I couldn’t post this yesterday on Easter, because everyday should be like Easter, really!

Along with it being Easter, it’s also spring. Waaahoooo! I’ve missed the sun, colorful plants, flowers and clothes. I hope I don’t jinx it though, living in Utah means it could start snowing tomorrow for all I know. It better not!

Here’s a little spring outfit I put together. I found this PrettyGuide jumpsuit while I was thrifting last week, and paired it with my favorite DVF sequin jacket. I mean, really… Best jacket in the world! My shoes were also a thrift find last year. I have a bit of an addiction… I might just end up completely turning my blog into a thrift site. Maybe I’ll change it from iamcodi to iamsavers or iamgoodwill. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me using their name right?

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So there you go, some springy stuffs.

So I know I haven’t been posting much lately and for that I am sorry! But also not sorry because I’ve been focusing on school, plus there are fun things coming after I graduate! Three weeks left, people. Then my trillion years of college will be completed. Someone please pat me on my sequined back! Thank you.

With Easter on the mind I thought it might also be appropriate to post my second part to my Loss Series. This is my Senior Portfolio Project, which for some reason I chose to make a photographic movie instead of do actual photos. I’m still sort of confused why I did this.. so don’t ask me why! But this video is Part Two out of three. (You can watch Part One here) It comments on loss, particularly the type of loss that we can’t control such as death, relationships, memories, etc. I started this project after my divorce and the passing of my grandpa when my life was in the middle of many big changes- I had lost a lot of people. I know everyone relates, because everyone goes through change, and change is a direct result of losing something.

 

My final video will be shown in addition to the two I have posted here in my Senior Exhibition. If you are interested in seeing them they will be displayed on the second floor the Marriot Library on Thursday, April 16th from 9am-2pm in study room 2103. If you’re up on the University of Utah campus for some reason stop in and see!

Thanks for reading guys! I’ll be posting a couple more posts before I graduate, and in a few weeks I’ll be really focusing on this little blog of mine! So keep checking back.. only if you want to of course.

Happy belated Easter! Happy spring!!

Codi

Not Too Shabby

Hey, I am back!

And I am going back in time.. to when I got home from House of DVF.

I am going to be honest- keeping up with a blog is tough stuff for me. Especially when I am writing on the past and reflecting back on things that have already happened.. and were also rough on me. It is also hard with my school projects and photo gigs that are piling up like dirty laundry! Eeeek! I need a life manager, anyone interested in filling this position?? If so contact me at codineedsmajorhelp@aintnobodygottimefothat.com, thanks!

So. I am going to go ahead and start with my outfit deets from House of DVF. Just jumping right in.


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I exited House of DVF in a whole lot of Shabby Apple goodness!

Sweater- Bielby sweater 

Skirt- Bloom Skirt (in mint)


Is it so wrong that I just wore this outfit again this week, in the cold winter weather? No, the colors make me too happy, go away winter, no one likes you!

Shabby Apple is great for so many reasons. 1. It is all super modest and fashionable. I don’t have to worry about wearing anything under or over any of my Shabby Apple clothing. 2. It is owned and run by the SWEETEST people. They are super professional, kind and just plain awesome! 3. Um. Just go take a look for yourself. I have an eye on the Athelia Skirt right now.. hoping to wear it to my next royal ball of course!


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Shabby Apple clothes have the tendency to make me feel like a princess..even when I am playing dress up in my room.

Necklace: Katie Waltman Jewelry


So go check them out and give them some love! Though I was sent home from House of DVF, at least I walked out in style!

Speaking of being sent home, I’d like to write a little love note to my girl Tiffani.

Tiffani went home on this last Sunday’s episode. I sure love this girl! I think we are soul sisters. I mean, not just because we were both grungy concert-attending teens at one point in our lives. But I also think we sort of have the same sense of humor. One of the times I was in NY to film I met up with Tiff one night to grab dinner. We went down to a little diner and talked about how we each had found out about House of DVF. Turns out we were the only two who found out about the opportunity from Craigslist and Facebook. So this must mean we are both very classy ladies.. or just very lucky haha! I think we are similar in the way that this opportunity was very unreal to us. From our upbringings, to where we live; I don’t think either of us had ever expected to get an opportunity like this in life ( at least not at this age). Something like this seemed almost unattainable, it was sort of like we had found a Golden Ticket!


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Love this girl like a sister!


As we sat at the diner eating, we started coming up with ideas of funny things we wanted to do. Ok, so whenever something crazy happened we were supposed to let the producers know so they wouldn’t miss any good footage. Tiff and I decided it would be wise if we set up a little skit. We were going to call them and say something along the lines of  “Woah, there is a huge fight going on right now on the 10th floor! Kier and Abs are having a legit sword fight. Brittany knocked Lenore out and Jinna is egging them on! Amanda is wrestling with Rhianna and Coco.. and we don’t even know why they are back.. and to top it off DVF is sitting in the middle of it all crying!!” Ok, maybe I elaborated that a bit.. but we were going to say something similar hahah. So then when the crew would come rushing up to the 10th floor of the hotel, Tiff and I would have a boombox set up playing some goofy song. And we would come out doing a choreographed dance in our footie pajamas. Oh my gosh, I’m still mad we never got to follow through with this plan. It would have been the best!! But let’s be honest, they would have cut the footage to make it look like we showed up to our first day of work in our footie pajamas, and it was super unprofessional of us. Then it would cut to a scene of me crying saying “Footie Pajamas are power!” I can just see it now!

After Tiffani and I ate we walked over to Rite Aid to get some snacks. We pulled around those funny little baskets and filled them with really healthy choices like chocolate candy and chips. We spent a good while looking at the cheap makeup and talked about life. I remember Tiff saying something about makeup, and she was going to make sure her makeup was flawless through the show so she could hopefully get some modeling gigs. Um, her makeup could be smeared all over her face and she would still look gorgeous! You New York people better utilize little Tiff’s gorgeous self for some modeling before she gets snatched right up by some big agency! If I lived in NY she would be my model of choice on the daily!


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Why is she so perfect??


Tiff is also an AMAZING singer. Would you ever have guessed? She needs to record her stuff asap. You would all drool over her voice. I guess it’s just not fair she got blessed with so many great qualities. She’s only 19, and Tiff is going to go far in life!! I am so proud of her, and so grateful I got to know her and now have such a great friend; the little sister I never had!

Tiffani really made an impact on me when we were in the middle of filming. There was a moment off camera when she came up to me and gave me a big hug. She said something like “I’m so glad you’re here. This whole thing is going to be really hard and stressful. It is nice to know there is someone like you here I know will be there for me when things get tough.” Just that sentence made my whole day. It made me feel needed and important. Tiffani is the perfect example of someone who is taking control over where her life goes no matter what set of cards she is dealt. She is such sweet, beautiful girl and I am so excited to hear about her new adventure working at the DVF store!!

Go read her departure blog here. You won’t regret it!

Tiffani was on my mind a LOT once I got home from NY and started going through the bumpiest final patches of my marriage, and the last days spent with my grandpa before he passed. Watching Tiff’s successes and growth, I knew I could get through my trials as well and come out on top. My next post will be on these very personal and life changing trials I went through (and some rad leather bags that you will want to snatch right up), so make sure to check back next week!

Thanks for reading, til next time!

Love, Codi

House of DVF Episode 2- Goodbye NY!

What a wild ride!

Once filming was done for Episode 1 of House of DVF the 8 of us went home for a while. We were told we’d be back soon for the rest of the program, and this time we would be in NYC for at least a month. Wow, I had to talk to professors and move my school schedule around. My husband and I also decided we would move out of our apartment so he could be with his family while I was gone, and then we could find a new place when I was done filming! So many big changes, it was an overwhelming but exciting time!

I got anxious and super duper excited as the date drew nearer to return to the Biiiiig Apple! I also felt anxious to leave my husband for so long, it would be the first time we were apart for longer than a week since we got married. But we ultimately knew this opportunity was for our better and would be something that would help me put him through the rest of his schooling. Little did I know how this really would impact our futures.


 

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Bye Utah!


I knew this would be a big turning point in my life, and I couldn’t wait to see where it took me! My whole family was thrilled for my adventure as well and naturally they wanted to come visit me in New York halfway through my stay. I remember asking the producers if my family could come and they vaguely replied “No, you girls will just be so busy, they will need to come visit you sometime in the first two days you are here.” Well.. that would be pointless I thought! What was strange to me was that none of the other girls were told their friends and family could only visit sometime in the first two days. I didn’t catch on. Silly Codi.

Our first day back we all were told to head over to the DVF headquarters. We walked up the big beautiful stairs and sat down at a table and watched Stefani pick clothes to display in one of the stores. She then came over and welcomed us to our first day! Diane then came down the stairs and boom, it all got real! We were assigned our first task by Michael Herz, DVF’s Artistic Director: to create inspiration boards! Can I take a moment to dote on Michael?? This guy=the ultimate coolest! I would truly love to follow in his footsteps in the way he has used his creativity and artistic talent in the fashion world. He is also down to earth and real, every time something weird or fake happened when I wanted to bust out laughing but I held it in; he would just laugh! What a cool guy, I seriously respect him and his talent!


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He might be my favorite. Sorry everyone else!


OK OK, back to the inspiration boards. Inspiration Boards?! I love the sound of that! Diane proceeded to tell us this collection we would be inspiring would be themed around Côte d’Azur- or in other words: South of France and the French Riviera. She went on to say it should be inspired heavily by Matisse, and color. Alright, this little fine art student could work with that! I didn’t know a whole lot about Côte d’Azur; but I did know a whole lot about Matisse, color, and pattern! I was excited to get back so I could start researching Southern France. I also knew quite a bit about creating inspiration boards, this was pretty dang similar to what I do every day for school! I was pumped, and confident, were all of the challenges going to be this great? The cameras then went off and Lenore and I were told we were going to go film our part first; so the other girls and crew headed back to the hotel. They took my board with them and it mysteriously “disappeared” into thin air later that night when I was done filming…hmm. So I went out in the wee hours of the morning after our day was done and secretly bought myself TWO boards just in case something went mysteriously awry again.

It was a rough night for me. It was really hard for me to just take all of these weird situations that seemed so not real and pretend I didn’t see right through it. Was all of this drama real? No, it so wasn’t. Did my board really just poof away into oblivion? No I don’t think so. I felt like Katniss! Like stupid President Snow was trying to fool me and I was like “I know what you’re doing,  Peeta and I are going to eat the berries.. we will do it I swear..!!”

That same night as I was on my way back up to my hotel room with some of the girls the elevator opened, and a man reached his hand through just before it closed. He grabbed my hand and I looked up surprised. It was one of the hotel workers, Omar. He said “It’s my best friend!” with a big smile on his face. ” I’m sorry girls, but I hope she wins! She has been so nice to me the whole time she has been here, she is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. She is my best friend!” and then the elevator doors shut and I stood there feeling a lot better than when I first stepped in that elevator . That was one of the moments where I thought if that is all I came here to do then I am happy with that. As corny as it may sound I do believe that is our purpose in this life- to be kind and make others feel loved and valued. There is a bigger purpose for us than to just live and die, this life is a test.


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So the next day we headed over to the studio to put together outfits for the look book! And wow the studio was amazing. We got divided into teams- Amanda, Lenore, Brittany and I. Then Kier, Abs, Jinna and Tiff. Honestly, this challenge was super simple. Is it really so hard to pick out outfits? No. Does it look like it was after some serious editing? Yes. Did they make it look like I did absolutely nothing? Yes. Did they re-shoot that whole clip of them judging our looks? Yes. Oh goodness the whole thing had me so confused. Not the actual challenge but whatever the heck they were trying to play out on the production side. I think I had a confused face on the entire time. I honestly wanted to laugh out loud! Both of our teams did great, and I think the teamwork was awesome. And of course I wasn’t going to make all of the decisions for our group..there was four of us, not one.

All in all, we did awesome and our group won! Sawweeet! So we had to opportunity to go to the actual look book shoot. Unreal. What a neat opportunity. Especially as a photographer I ate that whole thing right up! Just being able to be on set of a professional photo shoot for DVF, sooo cool! Then they “dropped the bomb” that the inspiration boards were due in an hour. Good thing I ran to the store in the middle of the night and got a new board! Two boards at that just for good measure.

The first board I made I went out on the streets and asked women what the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word “beautiful” is. And I took a photo of each of them and wrote their word under their photo. It was so neat. Almost everyone said something about inner beauty, or people they love. It really was so cool to hear. This board didn’t get shown on TV, I don’t even know if Diane got to see it, one of the producers took it from me and said we’d get it to Diane later.

So I went back to the hotel and put my photos on my boards. I was so rushed I didn’t think to take a photo of it, how dumb am I?? So here is my remake of it!


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Side one.


moodside2Side two.


The concept behind my board started when Diane said she wanted it to be inspired by Matisse. I have always been intrigued most by Matisse’s portraits. The Girl With Green Eyes popped into my head for some reason so I went with it. The rule with the boards was we were to use one of Diane’s personal photos on it somewhere. I chose a photo of tangled blue fishing nets (I found a similar photo above on side two of my board). I chose this particular photo because if you were standing close to it could could see all of the fine detail in the netting, but if you stepped back or unfocused your eyes the negative space and big shapes came forward. It was all in how you focused. Same goes for Matisse- I have found that there are typically many things to focus on in his paintings- so you must choose where or what to focus on. His color palette is also very saturated and I wanted to convey this on my board.


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Matisse

The Girl With Green Eyes


When I brought out my board everyone just stared at it for quite some time, and there was an awkward silence in the room. I didn’t understand what was going on. Michael then spoke up “This is the best board.” more silence… Diane stomped her foot a couple of times. There was some more strange shifting around of people and the crew. The cameras went off for a bit and Diane Michael Stefani and Jessica spoke to me about my photography complementing it. Diane said ” I would like a copy of these to hang in my office!” Um, OK Diane as you wish!! So cool! Michael loved my board and I was incredibly happy they liked my concept and felt it inspired them. But why was there a weird tension in the room? At one point Diane said “This is not fair!” I just thought.. what’s not fair?? I wasn’t catching on.

Ultimately my board was picked as one of the best! I was thrilled! It was then that Diane left the room and then came back and said it was time for someone to go home. What? We were all told we would all be here for a month and a half.. not two days! I thought I was safe- My group won the first challenge and my board won the second challenge. I hadn’t been told to do anything differently, or caused any drama. I had done all of the jobs I was given. I had stayed true to myself, and hadn’t talked bad about a single person. I had been on time to everything, hadn’t been told to change my clothes. Why would I be sent home?

Then my name was called to go upstairs with Abs and Lenore.

I honestly felt just.. peace. I wasn’t worried, I knew whatever was supposed to happen would happen. And then Diane kindly told me in so many words “You are such a sweet girl and amazing photographer, that is what you need to be doing is your photography.” And she gave me a goody bag and sent me on my way.

I honestly was not sad. I felt like it was right, I did my very best and just maybe I wasn’t cut out for “Reality” TV. I had learned SO much. I got to experience so many things I had never dreamed of experiencing! I got to meet so many amazing and inspiring people who will now always be a part of my life. I couldn’t be ungrateful. I was just being directed onto my next big journey and I had faith it was the right path and everything was going to be better than OK! But it was hard saying goodbye to the girls, especially because I was expecting to be spending the next month with them. I can’t tell you how much I love them all!


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I don’t think they were very sad I was leaving hahaha they were probably  just happy it wasn’t them!


So off I went back to Utah. Ultimately I know God’s timing was perfect. If I hadn’t have come home right then, I wouldn’t have been able to spend the last couple of weeks with my Grandpa before he passed away. I also wouldn’t have had the courage to stand up for myself in my unhealthy marriage. My next posts will be on those two topics, and the very pivotal few months I went through and how much I was blessed.

Something that has been tough for me to learn in life is how to take rejections in stride. I always saw them as a door closing, or a negative statement of my value or worth. At times, they are. There will be times in everyone’s life when you are “not good enough” for something (or someone thinks you’re not). Or when a door does close for good. But the truth is you are always good enough, it just may be something different than you expected. And there is always another door just waiting for you to open it, so you can set off on the bigger better adventure. Rejections truly aren’t rejections. They are merely the gateway through which we must travel to learn and to grow. They are actually one of the most beautiful things in this life. And they are God’s way of saying ” I love you, so I have a better plan for you.”

Now I welcome these “rejections” with open arms. Yeah, they still sting. And yes, they will always be difficult. But I’ve learned too much to ever go back to thinking they are not for the best, and I haven’t become a better woman because of them.

I know the woman I want to be, and I am well on my way to being exactly that person.

Diane- thank you. Thank you thank you thank you! What a crazy journey. And what a huge door has opened for me. What amazing people I have met, and what great friends I now have. I’ve become more independent, courageous and happy! My skin is a little thicker (key word, little) and I’m holding my head higher! My wardrobe is a bit more refined, and I’ve got more patience. My testimony in the gospel of Jesus Christ is stronger, and I am more grateful for the people and things that I have right now. Hopefully I’ve impacted others on my way and brightened someone’s life, at least just a little bit. That is truly what I wanted to do.


House of DVF - Season 1


So now my question for you, reader, is:

What are you focusing on?

Love, Codi