It has been an extremely difficult year for Amanda Bynes and her family, as the troubled actress not only became the subject of public mockery for her legal run-ins and bizarre behavior, but found herself in treatment to deal with unspecified mental health issues.

Now for the first time since leaving her rehab center in Malibu, Calif. where she was transferred to from UCLA Medical Center back in September, Bynes has been filmed by paparazzi while on a neighborhood stroll with her parents Lynn and Rick and their family dog in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Wearing a white "Gang$a Love" sweater, dark-wash jeans and black Converse sneakers, her face kept somewhat hidden with a baseball cap and sunglasses, Bynes was "coherent and accepting compliments from the paparazzi again...[sounding] better than she has in more than a year," TMZ reports.

The toned-down casual look is certainly a departure from some of her more outlandish ensembles over the summer, which featured her infamous collection of multi-colored wigs and cheek piercings (which it appears she has since taken out).

"Amanda and her entire family would like to thank everyone who's contacted them with good thoughts and wishes for Amanda's recovery," her lawyer Tamar Arminak told People magazine. "Amanda has completed her inpatient rehabilitation and she's feeling better every day."   

The 27-year-old star, as Arminak reports, has plans to attend college and study fashion design, and is "interested in creating a clothing line" as she's previously mentioned, and just as she did back in 2007 while in collboration with Steve & Barry's.