I like to capture a colorful life but, I have to admit, I don't always live a colorful life on a day to day basis. How so? Well, my closet is mostly filled with black, gray, and lighter gray. I stare at textbooks with barely any use of color most of the day. And I sit at a desk or in front of a computer, soaking up as much color as I can to compensate for everything else. If this sounds like you too, I'm glad I'm not the only one. But maybe there's hope for us, right? There's gotta be. I've jotted down some quick and easy ways we can both start to put some intentional color into our every day. 

Thoughts | Caught in the Middle

Now that we are a few days into the new year, I can't help but notice how hard it is to let go of 2015. When I sign my name, my hand automatically scribbles down "1/5/2015" on the date line. When I look at my milk's expiration date, I happily smile to see "2015." But then, I luckily realize -- nope, that's expired. It's like I'm caught in the middle. Not completely past 2015 but not completely into 2016. Although difficulty adjusting into the new year happens, indeed, every year for me, I began to think a lot more about why this is so...

Travel | Follow that pink coat

This month I decided to celebrate the holidays a little differently. For the first time, I'll spend them away from home. I was a bit nervous about the idea at first. I absolutely love Christmas in California. It's warm, relaxing, and my mom always cooks a bombtastic meal. Every single time. I also get to wear my pajamas all day and not feel one ounce of shame about it. However, now that I'm married and living this whole adult life deal, I thought it was about time I expand my Christmas traditions. So, this month, I'll be traveling across Europe and spending the holidays with my husband and his family in the Czech Republic! The weather will be colder, the language harder to understand (have you ever tried to learn Czech?!), and possibly a lot more beer at dinner time. But life is an adventure right?! I'm ready to dive in.

In the meantime, you can follow my colorful journey as I trek across Paris, London, Geneva, and Prague! My unifying theme will be #followthatpinkcoat as I capture colorful sites wearing this perfect pink coat I found from Asos. There will also be travel posts on the blog for each city coming this month, as well as daily updates on my Instagam (@creativekipi). Let's go for a colorful adventure this season, shall we?! 

How are you celebrating the holidays? Feel free to share below - I'd love to hear! 

Life | Giving Thanks

Celebrating Thanksgiving is one of my favorite things to do -- how can you not enjoy a day devoted to family, friendship, food, and good fortune? Even though everything in life can never be perfect, this day urges us to reconsider why we should even wait for that to happen. I am so thankful for the love in my life, the progress I've made towards my career, and the creative outlets that inspire me everyday. Thanks for being a part of my colorful journey, and I hope the day felt like a thousand sunflowers! 

Travel | Santorini, Greece

A few weeks ago I had the absolute joy of traveling to Greece and experiencing, perhaps, the most pictured landscape around the world: Santorini! Although, understandably, this is a hot spot region for tourists particularly during the peak season (June - August), most tourists tend to stick to the most popular areas, namely Oia and Fira. However, with a little adventure you can easily explore the rest of the island in a couple days and find a plethora of private beaches and romantically secluded spots to catch the idyllic sunset over the water.

Keep reading for some of my top travel tips to Santorini...

UPDATE || HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. The time has come. Marjorie is officially back and ready to kick up some wicked sweet DIY projects again! I know many of you must be wondering where I have been over the past few months, and to be honest, it's nothing too exciting. Mostly it was a combination of starting this so-called 'real-life', working my first full-time job, studying for the MCAT exam (it is a life dominator), taking classes on the side, helping my parents with selling and starting a new venture, and blah blah blah. Essentially, I was stuck trying to get my life together. But let's get 'un-stuck', shall we? The summer sun is beginning to glow, the world's colors are poignant again, and the creative energy in me is dying to get out. Can't wait to share with you all the exciting projects to come! Now...what did I miss?

Update || Graduation!

I did it! I've tossed my hat (literally...and metaphorically) and I'm ready to head into the 'real world'! Sorry for the super silence around the blog for the past month. I've spent the few weeks either stressed out of my mind, sweating on horribly timed hot Boston days, or trying to regain some energy after burning through the end of the year. On graduation day itself, I was so exhausted from the heat and running around that I could barely savor the moment. Thankfully someone from my family kept tossing my camera around and we were able to get plenty of different shots of the whole fiasco. I chose just three for now (trust me, you don't want to see the whole album..theres maybe 500 at least!). The first image, with the cameras and the 2013 banner in the background, I think represents a lot about our time, what it means to 'live an event', and the use of photography as a means not only to document  realities but also as a means of capturing pride. Thanks to my dad for snapping that one - along with the thousands of other parents who were bunched around!

This second image I think captures a lot about Harvard and what these past four years have meant to me as an institution and a place of learning. The high beams, the richly vibrant banner flags, the old traditional vows to "Veritas" or "truth", and the honest reality that the resources I've had access to have 'suspended' me to much higher places I could have ever imagined.

And this last photograph needs little explanation. When it comes down to it, graduation was important because it was more than just an individual celebration. Time and time again I found myself fully embraced in the arms of my man, my friends, my family -- all of us saying, "We did it!" I can't even begin to imagine what my life would have been without the people I hold so close to me; to photography - I'm so grateful you can capture that pride.