2015 + a video

photograph by austin schmid

i hope you all have had a wonderful holiday. i celebrated mine with a trip to the west village (shot in the video above). there's been a lot of resting, reviving, creating, and laughing in the rael household. it feels great.

as 2015 nears its close, i decided to share a few of my favorite things:

1. favorite songs that i've listened to this year

2. favorite photographs taken this year

3. favorite youtuber that i found this year

4. favorite video that i found this year

5. favorite music video that i found this year

6. favorite blog of the year

7. favorite tumblr post of the year

8. favorite shop of this year

9. favorite source of inspiration of the year

10. (one of many) favorite photographers of the year

you can listen to the playlist of my favorite-songs-that-i've-listened-to-this-year below.

that's all i wanted to share this week.

have a wonderful day everyone.

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Posted on December 28, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under i share stuff, videos!!! and tagged videos.

found artists: joji baratelli

this is joji ('s work).

joji is a teen photographer with a great eye for detail and contrast and texture and color. last summer, while i was in LA, we met up and traveled around santa monica and photographed what we saw. what resulted were various hues of greens and blues–– typical for los angeles.

i wanted to share one of my favorite projects of his: paper. this series (which completely caught my eye) was shot entirely with an iphone and processed in VSCO. i think what really drew me towards these particular shots was light in contrast with shadow, two elements that i like to play around with in my own work. his high-contrast photography is my personal favorite, but all of his other photos are taken just as skillfully.

i also really respect joji's street photography. i've always been a little discouraged when asking to take people's pictures, resorting to taking faceless portraits instead. joji is pretty dauntless in this field, and for this reason (and many others), i really admire him as a photographer.

you can take a look at his work on his VSCO, his vimeo, or his instagram.

joji is definitely a creative to watch out for.

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Posted on December 17, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under this was found and tagged found artists.

a sonnet

By and by we find ourselves afraid
of losing that with which we contemplate:
our mind, our form, our soul, our self, our shade
So easily set free with time and fate
We are the gale that crashes to the rough
Distressed that our opus dissolves beneath
We are afraid our time is not enough
to breathe our breath through lustrous tempest teeth
From technicolor hues to black and white
Our minds do wilt as herbs do in the sun;
Why is that what we fear what we not bite,
For our mind's end we wish not know undone.
We must exist as though we have none left
If time is of the essence, then time bereft

a shakespearean sonnet (capitalized and everything!!) for my romantic poetry unit at school (+ a new-ish video that i thought kind of embodied the sound of the poem).

have a lovely thursday, everyone

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Posted on December 10, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under blah blah blah, videos!!! and tagged blah blah blah.

what i'm thankful for + VSCO

i have a lot of things to be thankful for. i am thankful for my family, my friends, my home, my education, and my entire life thus far. i'm thankful for VSCO.

how i got became involved with VSCO is too long of a story to even begin to explain; but, i think what i wanted to point out in this post is how far they've driven me into the art universe. (and for this, i am eternally grateful).

the relationship that i have with the people at VSCO are ones that i hope will continue for a very long time. they are kind, intelligent, fashion-savvy, honest, and all-around brilliant people. they've opened so many doors for me in the photography world that i would never have the chance to open myself. i'm doing projects with other awesome companies, i'm helping design things, and i'm being introduced to all of these exceptional opportunities. i have no words to express my gratitude other than "thank you." VSCO helped me get here. their message as a company and as a community helped me form my own ideals and morals about life and creating art.

i am honored to be a part of such an inspiring body of creatives. to know that i have the support of all of these people is such an amazing feeling, and i often forget it. believe me when i say i am thankful for VSCO because i really mean it. truly.

have a wonderful, joyful, and extraordinary thanksgiving, everyone.

with love,

izzy + the raels

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Posted on November 25, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under blah blah blah, videos!!! and tagged blah blah blah thanksgiving.

q's birthday

if you're an old reader of mine, then you know that i have a brother. his name is Q. i like to tell people we're pretty close, which isn't a lie, but i think as the years go on we'll continue to grow closer.

two days ago, the 19th of november, my brother Q turned thirteen years old. it's going to be a big year for him. he's going to have to learn to be more independent, to keep himself motivated, and not completely break down from stress (like i do).

he doesn't really know it because i don't tell him ever, but i love my brother a lot. he's a cool kid with a lot of talent, but he's shy when expressing it to people. we don't really fight unless it's over who has to set the table, but other than that we're pretty good siblings.

in honor of his thirteenth year of life, i made a short little film and/or vlog (because it's not that good) about finding him a gift and celebrating his birthday. i hope you enjoy.

have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

happy birthday, q.

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Posted on November 21, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under videos!!! and tagged videos vlog.

say yeah + sunday ' 1

it's been awhile since i last made a video. it's been awhile since i last wrote a post. so i decided to make a double-double post and introduce two super cool new things to you guys.

i recently got a new little point-and-shoot to begin to more easily take videos again (i would rather not carry my DSLR around everywhere i go). 'sunday' is a short test of my new camera and a documentation of my late sunday mornings. i'm still working on my "what am i doing?!!? what do i need to set when i'm manual settings?!?!" skills, so forgive me for the graininess for the low-light shots at the beginning. just like, skip over it or something. yeah, that's better.

so... in addition to my super cool video, i'm introducing a super cool new post category! snippets. snippets will be a "summary" of what i did and how i felt on a certain day. they're an extension of my moodboards; more or less being an abbreviations of previous posts. i'm introducing snippets so that you can get a more clear insight into my life as a young creative, and how i incorporate art into my every day teenage-school-life. so here it is. my first snippet (denoted by ['{snippet #}]) :

+ i haven't made a video in a long time, so it feels good to work on my (very much developing) videography skills

+ i'm pretty worried that i wasted my time making this (very much not good) video when i could've written my history paper or studied for my chemistry test

+ i think it's worth it

+ i think art is worth it? i think relieving stress through creation is worth it?

+ it was valid procrastination, though (i keep telling myself this)

+ it's okay. everything's okay. i'm okay.

+ let the term be over already

have a wonderful sunday evening, everyone.

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Posted on November 15, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under moodboards, snippets and tagged moodboards snippets videos.

found artists: rebecca martin + blah blah

AlphaCruxis_SS15GemWallet2_RebeccaMartinstyling_1000.jpg

the bold + the brave.

for the past couple of weeks, i've been really swooning over vivid, minimalistic portraits and shots. i stumbled across rebecca martin's work and i really thought i'd share with other modern-art-fanatics. the simple shapes, the contrasting colors, the clarity of her work is so fascinating to look at and easy to admire.

i've realized that good images (in my opinion) are not complicated. they are not overthought or complex, but distinctive and original. sometimes i have trouble applying these values to my work, and it's difficult to switch mindsets when i take photographs or create art, but i learn (with lots of time, unfortunately).

on a very irrelevant point,

i've also realized that i have less and time to write here. i find that i am struggling to find things to write about, what to say, what is interesting, what is not so interesting. i'm not saying i'm giving up here, but rather that i want to apologize for the not-so-in-depth words and not-so-foodie-centered posts. i know you all like those. so, sorry for not posting that many recipes. i'm busy. i'm busy all the time. i'm stressed. i'm stressed (most of) all the time. however, what's most important is that i am still in love with what i do. i am carving out precious time and brain cells to pursue it and propel myself further into art.

i love it and i hate it at the same time. i love it one day and want to write every day and want to paint and go out and explore and see sights and close my eyes and forget about everything. then i remember everything that i have to complete and finish and write, and all of those creativity color splatters kind of get painted over with thick, black acrylic.

i guess i just wanted to blah blah blah away. i guess that's what this is for.

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Posted on October 27, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under blah blah blah, this was found and tagged found artists blah blah blah.

hey there it's hal

hello izzy's fans, its Hal here - her super cool english friend from a little rural corner of an already little country - she has asked me to write a blog post for her which ofc i said i would because i love her work aaaand shes super rad. it won't be easy however sticking to her consistent format of inconsistent punctuation but i'll give it a shot.

so yeah i'm an englishmen living and working in england amongst fields and trees and sheep etc etc which sounds pretty boring i know and.. well it is frequently uneventful but i find ways to pass the time. for example i post to instagram a lottt (@ha l_ellis_davis) and because i'm super cool i usually have art and photography projects lined up to fill up my time. (to give you an idea just how cool, i am currently wearing a herschel cap backwards and drinking black tea and listening to red velvet so .. can you even deal).

i'm a freelance photographer but recently i've been keeping my commissions to a minimum as i have just started university *pokey out tongue emoji* which is very exciting - last week i made an post modernist installation of defaced frank lloyd write books and fabric vegetables - university is what you make of it right?!

anyway the maaaaain subject of my post is that i am finally leaving the confines of europe in two weeks, something i haven't actually done before! and i'm not just going anywhere i'm coming to N Y C !!! superrrr pumped of course. not just because new york and the steam system but also i am spending the whole day with miss rael and also also it's halloween! so below are some examples of what i hope to see and do whilst in the concrete jungle (where dreams are made of) with some inspo photos i've swooned over these past few years.

1. go up the rock. for obvious reasons. its pretty cool.

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2. shoot the might of the brooklyn bridge.

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3. die inside the apartment by the line, or stake it out, i haven't decided which yet.

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4. catch an autumnal NYC sunset.

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5. grab some lattes or teas or smth at Happy Bones.

images via trotter mag / stefan karlstrom

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6. check out chinatown from the manhattan bridge.

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7. admire the west village in a decorated halloween-ey state.

and then number 8 was a photo of central park in autumn but it was taking years to upload and also my mum wanted to use the computer and also also it wasn't my favourite photo of the leaves anyway. ANYWAY i can't wait to get to new york and see izzy and see all this cool stuff and take photos of it.

peace out, Hal

x

Posted on October 17, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under travel, blah blah blah, i take photos and tagged henry photographs nyc.

when you're freaking stressed out

/ illustrations that stress me out + by the great mouni feddag /

hey ho hi there. as you can probably tell from the title of this post, i'm very much stressed out. today marks the (second to) last day of our first full week to my second full year of high school. i've been in school for approximately 104.3 hours and i am already stressed. like woah, i need to take chill pill and just eat a bag of ice or something.

and the worst part about it? i have no idea why the heck i'm stressed out. i feel like i'm tripping and falling over myself a hundred times. i feel like my brain is not grasping the information that it needs to grasp in order to succeed in the tenth grade. oh yeah, i even forgot that i'm sixteen now because i'm so stressed out. and on top of that: for some reason, i chose to do so many extracurriculars this year! hurrah! yeah! homework! stuff! writing! studying! stressing more because you know there's no such thing as too much stress!!

i hate to write stuff like this here, but i feel like its necessary to do so in my vigorous efforts to de-stress (current status: not really working yet). if you're a visual learner and need some visual representations of me right now you can go ahead and click here. if you want to see how i'm currently studying for english, read on.

writing about my problems here is a catharsis for me. classical tragedies were a social good because they caused an emotional cleansing among society. venting is my emotional cleansing; however, artistotle would not like the tragedy that is my life because it is way too long and not really a tragedy at all because i haven't died yet for my unintentional wrongs. the end.

don't stress out, kids. stay un-stressed.

your friend,

izzy

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Posted on October 1, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under blah blah blah and tagged blah blah blah.

for the minimalist in me

as you probably know from my tumblr, i absolute adore minimalist, copenhagen-styled homes. bright spaces, beautiful furniture and fixtures. like serge mouille fixtures. i mean, i grew up with two design-centered, selective architects, so it's pretty clear why that i'm this way. there's something really satisfying about minimalist spaces and i can't really explain why... but you get what i'm saying right? i thought i would share these spaces with you to spread the minimalism-home-love around. you're welcome.

on another note, i'm on my ninth (and counting!) day of school and i'm pretty much done. i'm starting new projects within school (a magazine!) and starting to finish others (my book!). but you know what? i am so incredibly excited for the events and cool stuff that's going to be thrown at me this year. college tours (already!), starting an internship (maybe!), learning new stuff (you betcha!)– just doing all sorts of new things and being completely busy, but completely organized at the same time. i'm so excited (and petrified!) for it all.

i'm going to leave it at that. goodnight.

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Posted on September 23, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under blah blah blah, i share stuff and tagged places and spaces.

an evening at photoville 2015

a wonderful night spent chatting away with the VSCO team, eating avocado sandwiches and watching people explore and be fascinated by this year's p hotoville. this week(end) will be great.

have a great day, everyone.

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Posted on September 13, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under i take photos and tagged photographs nyc photoville.

cookie dough for breakfast

life has been good (without the reoccurring thoughts of the fact that school is fast-approaching). i've truly enjoyed this summer. the trips i've taken, the food i've eaten, the things i've maken– i mean made.

i think that this is the best summer i've ever had. and that's really saying a lot.

i woke up this morning craving cookie dough. simple enough, right? you just sporadically get those aches for that buttery, chocolate-y goodness that can at times make your stomach hurt from the raw egg.

but cookie dough? in bar form? without making your stomach hurt? ha, i have the perfect recipe for you.

while not the healthiest of recipes i have created, it's most definitely one of my most beautiful works.

trust me on this one, you most definitely don't want to skimp out on these + they're no bake HA!

GO ALL OUT.

01. combine flour, salt and sugar in a bowl

02. melt coconut oil and combine with almond butter, almond milk, and vanilla extract

03. pour wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix (with hands, if necessary) until dough is formed

04. mix in chocolate chips and chopped squarebars

05. press into tin (or roll out until 1/2" thick) and refrigerate for 3+ hours

06. cut into squares/bars and keep refrigerated

1 1/2 cups AP flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 tablespoon almond butter

3 tablespoons almond milk

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1-2 chopped squarebars chopped

let's do this!

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Posted on September 3, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under i make food and tagged vegan cookies.

scandinavia

the cabin at the treehotel, northern sweden

the morning of our departure from northern sweden

a live art piece. good thing they had clothes on... — a live art piece. good thing they had clothes on...

i didn't really realize how far behind i am on my summer school work. it's okay i guess– i can figure it out, but i'm trying to enjoy the summer as much as i possibly can. quite easy for me to do at the moment.

we've been in scandinavia for about a week now with one week left in copenhagen and stockholm (again). it's been a pretty amazing experience. my mom, q and i have found such cool things just walking around these tremendously beautiful cities. i did not want to bombard you, reader, with so many photographs at once; however, i have uploaded all of my favorites to my portfolio:

stockholm day 01, stockholm day 02, northern sweden day 01, northern sweden day 02, and helsinki

for those who live in these areas or who are thinking of traveling to scandanavia, i compiled a list of places that we went (that i hope you can check out + enjoy) (list will be updated when we visit copenhagen!):

stockholm–

moderna museet (museum of modern art)
pärlans (homemade caramel shop)
järna (flower shop @ hornsbrukgatan 24)
talent gallery (print shop)
arkitektur och designcentrum (architecture/design museum)
hammarby sjöstad observatorium (water landscape)
gro (small, set-menu restaurant)
lilla ego (restaurant)
oaxen slip (restaurant)

helsinki–

urban a (clothing store)
vitra store (furniture [!])
pino (modern trinkets)
plootu (coffee shop)
formverk (furniture)
pastor (asian fusion restaurant)

happy summer, everyone.

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Posted on August 23, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under travel, i take photos and tagged photographs travel europe.

while i'm gone

[shots from plant food and wine]

the past couple of days have been spent relaxing in los angeles. emphasis on the relaxing. i've been enjoying it tremendously. we're home for about 31 hours before we make our connecting flight to london and then to stockholm early in the morning. there are no words to describe how much i'm looking forward to our scandinavia trip; however, i'm a little tired.

it's always worth it though. traveling.

this was a small check-in before things start picking up again. you'll hear from me next in europe!

have a great thursday, everyone.

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Posted on August 13, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under travel, i share stuff, i take photos and tagged LA travel photographs.

summer breakfasts + a spiel

i don't remember the last time i posted a recipe, it's been that long. it's kind of incredible how busy i have been in comparison to last summer. i've been working on my VSCO artist initiative project (as i am sure you are all aware). i actually think it's safe to say that i am close to the stage where i get to design the book. i'm closer than i think i am.

i started the project last august, taking time here and there during the school year to photograph recipes and curate my pictures of new york. it was difficult, but i'm quite proud of the fact that i was able to manage it while being almost entirely stressed and focused on school. from this, i'm both anxious and exhilarated about the book. i have this new eagerness to finish what i've started and to publish the best work i possibly can. i love the feel of it.

as i am sitting at the dining room table, sipping matcha every few minutes, i realize how incredibly fortunate i am to have been given this awesome opportunity from such an awesome company. i know i am kind of getting off the subject of the recipe i'm supposed to share, but you, my reader, have no idea how supportive and motivating every single individual of VSCO has been. although i've met only a few of the company's employees (and/or co-founders), i feel like i have a whole team silently cheering me on as i continue my project. i love that feeling too.

my (soon-to-be and soon-to-be-titled) book has a message. one that i hold very dearly; however, i don't think it's the time to reveal it quite yet, but know that it is coming.

so, onwards (and back on topic).

this summer has been somewhat brutal– the heat, the days, the pile of books that i have to read (staring back at me as we speak). many of you know me for my pictures of food, also knowing that my favorite meal of the day is breakfast. for the majority of the year, i love to eat warm meals: oatmeal, pancakes, french toast, that sort of thing. when it's in the upper 90s, those types of breakfasts aren't as satisfying (*note: this is completely my own, weird opinion, i know you guys are like "izzy, pancakes everyday! who cares about the weather?!" i get it, but still).

the other thing is, i'm incredibly lazy during the summer, even though i have more hours in the day than usual. the past couple of days, i've been throwing together a simple bowl of raw oats, fruit of the season, buckwheat (for crunch) and cold almond milk. i guess you could just call it a "lazy" müesli. hm, that works. i'm not really sure if this lazy müesli really needs a recipe; just throw some stuff in a bowl and bam. breakfast. eh, i'll write one up anyways.

these are only a few of the photographs i took. if you would like to see more, go here.

1/3 - 1/2 cup oats

handful cut strawberries

handful raspberries

1 cut banana

buckwheat cereal

3/4 cup almond milk

01/ get a bowl

02/ put oats at bottom

03/ "plate" fruit on top (so you can instagram it)

04/ drizzle almond milk

05/ sprinkle buckwheat cereal

06/ eat and probably get a second bowl

tgif.

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Posted on July 31, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under blah blah blah, i make food and tagged food vegan breakfast.

things i've learned + jazz camp

unfortunately, i didn't take many pictures at campus, so you're going to have to deal with more portland photographs (disgusting, i know...)

i was pretty weary of going to camp; but, what's new? i'm pretty weary about doing anything.

so that small worry that started on monday grew like an epidemic until wednesday and most likely caused all of the innumerable health issues i had this week.

i don't even know what i was worrying about. probably stuff i shouldn't be worrying about... like always.

but despite the fact that this flaw pretty much f*cked up most of my week, i learned some things too.

and trust me, camp was in so many ways more awesome than it was stressful (as i believed i've accidentally implied above).

i've learned that (music-wise + life-wise)

...practicing for 15 minutes every day can get you places (even if that is all you can fit into your terrible high school schedule)

...worrying = terrible thing to put yourself through. don't do it.

...at the end of day (literally at the end of the day for campers), you just have to let go and some of your best sounds and music will become of it. (reiterating the "stress = bad" logic)

...the people that you meet now could be the people you'll encounter (probably in new york city) later (and you'll probably have to host some of them. i'm getting ready now!!)

...listening to depressing music at dinner can make you feel like crap for a few long minutes, but can actually urge you to play better throughout the night (who knew?!)

...talking to new people = fantastic

while all of these things pretty much apply to me and jazz camp, if you take them out of context, they are relevant to every-day-social-life-things-you-should-be-doing-anyway qualities. so this applies to everyone.

so to wrap this all up, i'm going to share my favorite albums and selective songs from the slowly rising jazz world for all of my new camp followers out there (and to my already existing ones, of course). au revoir for now.

songs from the analog playground - charlie hunter quartet

favorite songs/ mitch better have my bunny, percussion shuffle, creol

fact finding mission - trichotomy

favorite songs/ strom, fact finding mission

the gentle war - trichotomy

favorite songs/ chase, wrestle, cute

t he house that trane built - various artists

favorite songs/ stolen moments, alamode, hard work

have a great week, everyone!

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Posted on July 26, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under travel, blah blah blah, i share stuff, i take photos and tagged blah blah blah summer stuff.

farms + portland

i am currently in portland, oregon for two weeks to visit my grandparents and go to jazz camp! to celebrate this absolutely wonderful summer weather, my grandmother, grandfather, aunt and i went to sauvie island farm to pick (a TON) of berries. i, out of nature, was tempted to film little details of the farm, so i did and i made a video out of them.

so yeah. berry picking + good music + sounds of the farm = bliss.

enjoy.

have a marvelous week everyone!

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Posted on July 16, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under videos!!!, i take photos and tagged videos photographs.

found artists: martin wehmer

a couple of evenings ago, i was app hunting when i stumbled upon artsy, "the art world in your pocket". artsy isn't really the app that you think it would be, but rather galleries and shows of artists (renown or not) and their works available for purchase.

upon discovering artsy, i also found new artists. one of whom is martin wehmer.

i think what strikes me most about wehmer's work is its obvious bold style: minimal palettes, prominent strokes of paint and simple subjects.

it's incredible that such heavy strokes can be perceived as having such fine detail (or for me anyway). how the paintings are rough in texture yet smooth. i just love looking at them.

i'm definitely keeping a close eye on wehmer. i can't wait to see what he creates next.

have a fantastic week, everyone.

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Posted on July 7, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under this was found and tagged found artists.

your very own book

ah! i'm so excited about this. you can make your own instagram book (for free) and get it shipped to you. i explain how to do so and give you a peek into what it looks like in my little video.

why wouldn't you want one?

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01. go to http://chatbooks.com/
02. click "make a book now"
03. click "create an account now" in the pop-up
04. create an account
05. you will be directed to http://app.chatbooks.com/books – click "+ create new book"
06. select instagram series + "create"
07. name your book + log in to instagram via the "login to instagram" button
08. once pictures load, click "+ subscribe" button, then "confirm"
09. enter my code "MINIM785" to get a free book delivered to you!

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Posted on June 25, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under videos!!!, i take photos and tagged videos.

questions and answers

after many weeks of putting this off, i finally filmed, edited and published my q+a (and you get to see my new youtube intro!!)

thank you so much to everyone who asked questions– unfortunately i wasn't able to get to all the questions because of the high quantity of them (i wanted to keep the video as short as i could)...

p.s. thanks to my gorgeous and awesome friend julianna for being my assistant

have an absolutely fantastic week, everyone!

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Posted on June 16, 2015 by izzy rael and filed under videos!!! and tagged videos.