Little Things in Life

These photos were taken on January 19th 2017. And other than the fact that these are film scans and taken by cool friends, these pictures are really hard for me to look at. The girl in these photos, bless her heart. I felt so so small, so young and so incapable for months. Turning 19 really took a toll on me, for whatever reason. An awkward in between, an age of limbo that teeters on the brink of adulthood.  Despite the pristine choice of footwear (in my opinion, of course),  I couldn't find my footing in life.

In the passing months, so much has changed! 

(sadly including the weather, which means I can't wear my booties anymore.)

Here are some little (but actually big) things that made these months so good....

THE GREAT CHOP

The one thing (besides math) that I'll never understand? How girls get attached to their hair.

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority or the majority or if anyone actually cares, but it's always confused me. There are girls who can't imagine anything other than long, luscious locks and other girls who are  at peace with pixie cuts. And while I threatened to shave my head for a good long while, (drama queen), I ended up with a mild, mid length chop that feels just right and only slightly rebellious.

I've been growing my hair out since I was fifteen for the sole purpose of having a drastic haircut. Talk about desperate for attention!  My hairstylist, bless his heart, commented on it, "I've never seen someone so excited!" And every time he thought he was finished, I'd have him cut off more. It was incredibly thrilling (and oddly cathartic) to see what had once been my sweaty pony tail or my dutch braids in a pile on the floor.

So if your life is ever stressful, forget the long walk on the beach or the relaxing bubble bath, go get your hair cut off!

The first documentation of my new, improved, and much less dead hair was at the local art museum. The museum, though ambitious for our sleepy town,  was kind of a flop because we do not live in an artistically inclined area of Florida/The USA/The World and it was also at least 1083403 degrees outside (and inside) and I wore jeans.

But we had fun face-swapping with the pieces and pondering what deep emotions the artist was trying to convey through the comical and perplexing portraits that graced the gallery walls.

But mostly face-swapping.

THANK YOU TO....The random local artist for so 

many incredible face swaps and a killer snapchat story.

THANK YOU TO...Matt, my hairstylist, for doing his best to 

set me up with the cute boy in the chair across from me.

THANK YOU TO....Mom and dad for the $$$ so I didn't

 have to wing this haircut and pull a midnight-youtube-tutorial-fueled chop.

THANK YOU TO....Sarah for documenting this adventure and for 

enduring such an interesting and haunting museum with me.

AND FINALLY....Thank you to Jesus for not making me be attached to my hair. 

Life is way to short to fall in love with split ends. 

Amen.

Three thoughts on creativity.

CREATIVITY...

it can't be faked but it can be forced.

(This is my take on the ambiguity that is creativity. This is not scientific. Or backed up by astounding data. Just the thoughts of an 18 year old who enjoys coloring and baking cookies. And a few other things.)

I've always considered myself to be creative,  since the days of coloring books and massacred crayons to the present (still coloring, but now I use gel pens!) Being creative isn't always easy. Sometimes its frustrating and incredibly annoying and you just want to not care about every little minute detail,
but you can't. Because that's who you are. And gosh darn it, but I don't want to spend a second on this earth being anyone other than who I am supposed to be.

(Unless I have the option to be Beyonce)
(Pre-Lemonade Beyonce)

Life is busy. There are emails to be read (or ignored, your choice.) People demand your time and vice versa. There are grades to strive for and goals to be reached and when you're a creative kid, it can be seem like a waste time to make time for the things that fuel you. So, three tips! Some I've learned the hard way.

#1 CREATE SOME CRAP
That sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it? (and not very lady like, sorry mom.) But in the process of being creative, no matter your craft, I believe a fair amount of crap is in order. You will make and make and it will be horrible. Don't stop there; Make and create some more and all of the sudden, it will be magic. I've never stumbled upon magic without a little crap first, it comes with the territory.

#2. TOO MUCH ART? NO SUCH THING.
This is one I believe 100%. Even if you're busy and you physically don't have time to create, make sure you're consuming a fair amount of art daily. Consider it like calories, you need them in order to live. So eat your protein and drink your milk, artistically speaking. On busy days it could be a quick scroll through a curated feed or given more time, a documentary on your favorite artist. Visit museums, browse online galleries. Consume Art in all forms! And don't skimp on this one; none of that non fat nothingness for us.

#3. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT BUT PATIENCE HELPS TOO.
Be patient with your artistic journey. It's great to set goals and even better to achieve them but sometimes life throws a wrench (or two) (or five) in our plans. And that's okay too. Relax, drink some tea and celebrate where you are and be encouraged by the possibility of where you will go. And then drink some more tea.

This post was brought to you by emotions, feels, finals procrastination and viewers like you. Thank you.

BACON ME CRAZY

I don't care if your valentine is a boy, a girl, a puppy or 10 seasons of your favorite show, Valentines of all shapes and sizes deserve to know that they are as loved as a large 3 topping pizza

Merry Coloring to all and to all a good night!

Did you know that like, coloring is cool again?

I for one was so excited to find out that coloring was trendy again. Mostly because I hadn't really ever stopped coloring, but now it's just socially acceptable. And of course, it's a more grown up thing than broken crayons and ripped up books. This is like, art.

Which basically means I feel really important while coloring....when actually it's just like preschool all over again.

(Which I am very much okay with, for the record.)

Let's learn to color! (...in case you were absent that day in preschool, I'm here to fill you in.)

1. ACQUIRE IMPRESSIVE COLORING BOOKS.

 Shoutout to my friend Kayla for setting me up with the perfect coloring supplies. She also included a bottle of nutella, which may be optional for you but I find it to be pretty essential. But anyway, books! I have this one and this one, and The Winter Magic book and this genre of books in general, are already in the amazon cart. (thanks mom!)

2. FIND THE PERFECT PENS.

Friends! It's 2016, so say sionara to crayon stubs and dull pencils because gel pens work 100000x better. And while I don't actually own these yet (keyword: yet) they are the BEST PENS EVER! Thank you to Angela for sharing them with me...or at least not complaining when I steal them. ;)

3. CUTE CHRISTMAS CANDLE (def not optional.)

Because when is a delicious smelling candle NOT appropriate or helpful for coloring inside the lines?

As you can see, coloring is a great sport as well as stress reliever. It's one the rare few sports that be played at home, on the couch in your pajamas! And isn't that the best kind of sport anyway?

RIJKS and for once I spelled it right.

I had a little epiphany in the Rijksmuseum a few days ago. And while that epiphany is probably better suited for a journal or a diary or maybe a piece of paper to be crumpled and shoved under my bed (you should see the stash! Actually, you shouldn't.) But, it was an epiphany that made me happy and bubbly and left me that way for a few days...and it was nice to have that little epiphany to think about when the Flu came to say hi (bonjour actually!)

Also have you ever written about an epiphany because that word is addicting. Epiphany this, Epiphany that!

A MONDRIAN!!!! We almost didn't go to that wing, but, wow. Mondrian has been my favorite for forevvver. Now it's time to make this, because who doesn't want to eat their favorite piece of art?

As you can see, the Rijks was quite dreamy. Both from the perspective of taking in art and creating your own, if you could call it that. To each his own! Van Gogh painted a selfie for pete's sake! There's probably a hashtag on the back or something....time to go back to Amsterdam. You know, just to check.

(also for a million other reasons.)

ON BEING A MAKER

Some number of years ago (like, maybe one) I was reading a blog (how rare!) and it wasn't anything special. Then the words flew of the screen and hit me soundly and it was like I was finally able to vocalize something that I always knew existed, but couldn't find the words for.

In other words, I'm dramatic.

It was something along the lines of....

I AM NOT A MUSICIAN, BUT I MAKE MUSIC.

I AM NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER, BUT I TAKE PHOTOS

I AM NOT AN ARTIST, BUT I DRAW AND PAINT.

I AM NOT A WRITER, BUT I WRITE ALL THE SAME.

And to me, that is so perfect and so so true. I am a maker through and through. I make messes. I make people laugh. I make jokes (some epic, some equally not.) I make cakes and cookies and paper flowers and strum lame versions of over the rainbow.

I am a maker.

That alone changed my perspective on art and photography and napkin origami, everything! Because I realized that a perfectly honed skill isn't my goal. It's creating and getting messy and all that wonderful jazz.

So then, my art! You wonder where that puts me. Let me inform you, I'm somewhere in between happily dysfunctional / two year old let loose with crayons. Does that make any sense?

Here's to creating our best work, Whether you be an artist, a maker or a dedicated selfie taker.

"I found that I could say things with color 

and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - 

things I had no words for."

..........ART CLASS!!!!

With just a few weeks of school left, it was about time for an honorary blog post dedicated to our art class.  Granted, my painting skills have actually diminished over the year, but probably because I spend more time dancing, singing or generally expressing my musical side than my artistic side. (What can I say, oldies get to me.)

▲▲ So in case you are yet to get the memo, our teacher is a self proclaimed pirate. And the nautical nonsense in our class can not be topped, what with Mr. Dan supplying the nautical-ness and Emily and I doing our fair share of nonsense. And the poor other girls in our class....they may never recover.

▲▲ And while we are on the topic of  general happiness, so grateful for my fun friend Emily. Even though we are INCREDIBLY weird when we are together, (and equally so when we are not!) there are only so many friends you have in a lifetime that you can call demon and make ungodly noises in front of and never feel a bit guilty. If you have a person like that in your life, keep them close, very close!

 

I also have an amazing video from Art, but I'm a old person apparently and can't get in the post. Someone send me a technologically advanced young person to help this granny out! I pay in warm cookies and cheek squeezes.

 

Art class, Over and out! And on that note, TEQUILA!

 

(For those of you sheltered folk alarmed by my casual alcohol reference, see this post for explanation.)

The Stylish Flamingo

This was going to be a post about how I am obsessed with changing my bulletin board, but after seeing these photos I decided that we needed to talk about flamingo's wearing scarves.

I mean, doesn't everyone?!?

After weeks of wanting to paint it and never doing it it, I decided to give my feathered friend a try. And while this is most certainly not Louvre quality, it definitely deserves to be displayed on my  beloved bulletin board. Naturally, only the finest and most stylish flamingos belong there.

And that concludes our wildly exciting chat about flamingos with scarves. Next session we'll be discussing the importance of frogs with fairy wings. Don't miss it!

Hey, I'm all artsy.

Welcome to a post where I hope you don't notice all the photos are blurry and I try to convince you my art is not horrific.

For the record, I'm really not a very good liar.

 Last week I started art. And FYI,  It's WAAAAAYYYY better than track. First of all, it involves sitting. Not on a couch, but I can handle chairs. Second, it involves watercolor, which is basically just coloring for grown ups (and dorky teenagers).  You see, track and art really don't mix which is exactly why (hey mom!)
I should stick with just ONE.

I'm gonna let you guess which one I'd pick.

(hint......the one that involves sitting.)

Dug

Today in Church, I drew a Dug. What's a dug? It's a duck/dog mix. And maybe its partly alien, because he's pretty creepy.

First I was trying to draw a man with a mustache. But it didn't work out so I made it a dog head. But I thought maybe it was more duck-ish so I made the body duck like. Now I'm not really sure what it is at all.

But one thing I do know is that I'm not much of an artist.

What are your church doodles? Or am I the only teenager who doodles??

This conversation is not inspiring self confidence.

Yes, there's more.

I know. More Architecture boringness. I'm sorry. Okay, I'm actually not. I'm having so much fun with this project, you might as well hear about it.I LOVE this. First off, the flower is absolutely lovely. And then the font! I tried a different font. I fell in love. I think it is incredible. Its simple. Classy. Way too cute.


So I continued with the different font for the my museum page. I used vintage style words and a white background like the last page. I like this one too. I am not sure about the yellow however. Any thoughts?

Pardon

Pardon me for not putting up today's holiday. In my opinion, it is rather lame. I couldn't find any other thing to celebrate, so we are stuck pardoning today.

My primitve painting is so primitive. It is just divine. It is this lovely red house, with a brown streak down one side, and a grassy field. It's a fall scene, but I didn't have time at Emily's to finish the trees. But, it is very, very, very, primitive! I am even making childish art look childish. Meanwhile, Emily is blending colors and creating this lovely Paul Cezzaro print, with two lovely pears. I have a house with a field. I really love art, but as far as doing it myself, I despise it.

With that, I finish. Please pardon me for having nothing to say on the subject of pardoning.

Sincerely,
I'll leave art up to the professionals