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."

GIRLS GUSH...thoughts on Instagram comments and the like

A few days ago my brother mentioned how irritating comments girls leave on Instagram are. And I'll have you know that at that point I ran to hide in my closet. Um, i leave those comments? And um, I like those comments! On the one hand, I see it. Especially from a guy's point of view, for them it would be weird to say "You are so pretty!" and the 10000 variations that stem from it, all of which I can never remember when I'm leaving a comment so I'm just like" umm...you look nice." Awkward.

But then on the other hand, I totally get it. I get that every, single, day, girls need to be told they are beautiful. In a world full of models and photoshop (that's the worst one.) ,  it's hard to feel like you are anything special at all. I believe that every day girls need to be reassured that they are wonderful, whether it's their heart or their looks or their passion for life. Heck, I need to hear it all the time! And sometimes it's the encouragement from friends or affirmation from a stranger that helps a girl stand a little taller and feel for, even just a second, that she's wonderful.

And I don't know about you, but I'm all for girls knowing they are beautiful.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Do you find the comments annoying or uplifting? And n the spirit of this post, here's a selfie! You know what to do....

On being an authority

I think it would be very nice to be an authority, don't you? To have a little something where you just KNOW and people know you know. Maybe not a worldwide authority, but at least in your neighborhood or in your own home. And then what would I be an authority of? Certainly not anything involving wisdom, math skills or any kind of thinking since that is pretty much the last thing I'd ever do.

At this point in my life I'm probably the household authority on pink, notecards and the proper amount of whip cream for cocoa. See, I just KNOW these things! So I guess I am an authortiy of sorts.

Come to me with all your cocoa concerns, I'll be happy to help a girl out!

Greetings from the random department + other un important matters!

Hiya!

Let me try that again.

Hello there! How are You! I'm fab! Use exclamations points for the rest of your life! Okay!

Notice, I said un important.

The bulk of this post will be me telling you things of which I am very excited about. Which might be kind of be the story of my silly little life because I was nearly giddy over a one dollar gift bag from Target. HOLLA! Target has this magical way of leaving the closets full and happy and the wallets oh so very empty. And Target stories make for fine insagram hashtags, but that's all I'm gonna say about that.

 ▲▲ SO! EXCITED! FOR! FALL! This fall we are planning all kinds of lovely things including seeing pretty tree's in fun places. It's pretty much set in stone! Which for this family means we are actually considering it. But that's about as close as we come until' the night before, so I'll take it.

▲▲ And these triangles? Are they not so rad? And now I can make hearts! ♥♥ See?! I do love this.Oh, and here are some music notes, let's dance. ♪♫♪ (can you tell what song that is?) (it's crazy love.)

▲▲ Did you know I have a flamingo? Well his name is fred and he is one fine flamingo if you ask me. He's been a good sport about all the dressing up I've done to him (he'd look preetty dang good in a suit I'll bet!) and ALLLL the photos. Thanks instagram for making Fred my favorite subject. A special handy dandy hashtag is sill in the works for fred....if you have a lightbulb-flamingo-hasthag-moment, be sure to alert me! And tell me what you came up with, of course.

▲▲ summer time is sweet sweet sweet. I do love splashing in the pool almost more than anything else. Seriously, I am smiling almost the whole time I am swimming. I feel as though that could be a great joke in a cheesy movie - but what do I know?  I've only watched like 12 billion cheesy movies. So not much.

I'm done blabbing , your life may resume now. Random department, OUT!

▲▲ After trying for about 80 years for a decent picture, I gave up and decided to go with the blurry one. And eat some cookies. They were quite soothing. 80 years though!

▲▲ And tropical fred, yet again! He's quite a hunk. Totally pulling off the lei trend like nobody's business.

▲▲ And I swear she gets squishier every day!!! Look at those cheeks...err, furr?

I'm done blabbing, your life may resume now. Random department, OUT! Have a great day kids!

NEWS FLASH! Cheeseball caves for instagram!

 One thing I hate is when people are like "I am SO not doing yada yada!" and then 2 seconds later they are doing exactly that.

Well, thankfully I waited a bit longer than 2 seconds to change my very made up mind about instagram. I caved. I feel somewhere in the middle of ashamed and YEAH!

The real reason I didn't like instagram was all the stupid pictures of I'm not really sure what (yogurt containers come to mind?) in the ridiculous Nashville filter (which I used to be OBSESSED with back in the day.)But apparently, there is a very artsy side to instagram which is a little more inventive than bathroom mirror selfies and duck faces. I'm taking it more as a project.

The last straw (I always want to say spaghetti noodle!) was/ is all the fun and dandy projects/hashtags things. #4picsinwhite and #popsicleproject and #organizedcolor really sent me over the edge - finally something worthy of all the time I give instagram!

Well, not totally. But I can  justify popsicle's better than yogurt, just saying.

thegirlkryn is my username - it's full of cheesy goodness! (I hope!)

New York, New York

New York is just one of those cities that makes you bubble for no particular reason. Other than wildly amazing flowers and the rad skyline, of course. We hit New York this past weekend and walked a ridiculous amount and saw all kinds of crazy good things. And also some equally weird things, but that's the city for ya! I tell ya, I can't get enough of this going new places. It's quite invigorating!

Just like watching House Hunters! Nothing gets your blood pumping like a case of "This one has the fab pool, but that one has the postcard view!"

Somehow, all conversations lead to House Hunters.

Anyway, this is probably the first of many New York posts, so prepare yourself for the feet pictures and city pictures and the pictures of me looking like I would rather be swimming with alligators than having my picture taken. Sometimes seeing a photo of yourself is the worst form of torture.

Other than missing an episode of House Hunters, of course.

Fauxgrams for a cold and rainy Wednesday.

Also known as the most discombobulated post title ever. 

But seriously! Isn't saying faux so fun?! It makes a girl feel like a fancy lady , one who wears a fur stole and a flapper dress with Mary Jane's, frolicking around New York City with her Yorkie in tow.

I said faux a lot today and unfortunately I didn't feel anything like that. No Yorkie, no fur, no NYC. More like rain and yoga pants and brillo pad pups. Faux real!

But anyway, here are my fauxgrams, meaning this is what my instagram would be full of if I was hip enough to have one. I got hips alright, but not insta hips. Totally different things I imagine.

Happy Wednesday to you!

Hi and mini-goodbye

Hi. Hello....Oh wait, BONJOUR.

I guess we bloggers periodically fall off the face of the earth. We're just so outta this world! But I really wanted to pop in and say that I might not be blogging much lately. It has become clear that I need to devote more time and focus to other areas of my life instead of  blogging. Though, I do love it so, so, so much....but then again, less is more? Quality over Quantity? Absence makes the heart grow fonder? I'll try my hand at it.

I would tell you that you could follow me on instagram to keep up with my adventures,
but I don't care for instagram so that one is out of the question. I think we'll just send smoke signals instead.

Effective communication is my thang.*

*read in dorky teenager/teeny-boper / wannabee it girl voice. thanks

I ramble.

We all have those weeks when we are VERY busy (in my case with self imposed stress.) Our room looks like a category 5 hurricane blew through, multiple times perhaps, and our hair/outfits don't  exactly deny it.

WELCOME TO MY WORLD.

I really feel like there could be a song with that as lyrics. Thoughts? If not, it might be time to bring back my song writing career.

Oh, and I should have mentioned that "THOSE weeks" often come with side effects of switching subjects at embarrassing rates and never being able to remember what you were talking about approximately 2.3 seconds before.

Moving on.....

- being VERY sweaty while running and passing a mailbox with dew on it and thinking,  "Even the mailbox is sweaty!!!!"

-singing to someone about chubby (Sophie) and them thinking I was talking about them.

- crying in the car and simultaneously praising my mascara for not running, only to walk in and find myself a vampire.

-  trying to paint this, and instead painting a very disproportionate clown with wings.

- my attempts at spelling disproportionate. Very unsettling.

I know there is probably 50 majillion other things I've done that deserve a round of awkward applause, but for now I can't remember any....I told you it was bad.

How has YOUR week been?

Instadud

Okay, fine. I'll admit, I'm a total dud when it comes to Instagram.

First of all, I just don't get it. I mean, ALL STARBUCKS COFFEE CUPS ARE THE SAME. And for that matter, we can't taste your great salad or cheer you on when you run a mile, I might not think your selfies are so cute, and my, what an awkward #OOTD shot you've taken.

Then there's the name. I was at one point trying to be an instagram-aholic, but I couldn't get any name for my account that wasn't something silly like ihearticecream1059 or girlwithglasses214. I'm guessing unsocializedhomeschooler008 wasn't taken, but at that point, Instagram had broken my heart.

Well anyway, the whole point was that here are a few pictures from my (fake) instagram. (Read, ipad/iphone photos.)

And goodness, I really should have titled this post "InstaTub." Cause we all know who'd be gracing your instagram feed every 1.4 seconds....You got it.


Sincerely,
unsocializedhomeschooler008

#theonlyproofyouneed.

Just a little list...

I can't quite describe how excited I am for 2013. I have a feeling that it's going to rock! (As if you could not tell by my 10 million goals, this year might be the death of me anyhow.)

-I got a blazer and I feel unqualified to wear it. Maybe it's the fact that blazers seem like politician wear, and that dream of being a senator was thoroughly demolished about six years ago. Or maybe it's because it is from the kids department? I don't know, you tell me.

-you know you're in a homeschool family when your mom get's you an algebra book for Christmas.

-Aaaaannnndd, you know you are a homeschooler when you are EXCITED about the algebra book you got for Christmas.

 -telling everyone about Ouagadougou and saying "It starts with a YO!"

-eating poptarts for breakfast, lunch AND dinner. Total health food guys.

I've decided that I lead a very interesting life. Mostly because I'm a dork. But hey, we have our fun! 
What funny things have happened to you lately?

XOXO 

(Christmasy stuff, in January? I know, sorry. I don't mean to break your heart)

2013 (and ten million goals)

I seem to be a little bit in shock that uh, 2012 has ended? Writing 2013 in my journal today made me absolutely giddy (dork alert!) 2012 was good to me, but that certainly does not mean it came without challenges. I feel like I've grown up a ton....

Yet somehow I still feel like I'm two years old. (??)

I guess one thing is that two year old don't make goals. I, unlike them, have about 50 million for this year. And no, lip gloss is NOT on the list. (last year was a bit of an embarrassment, but I accomplished ALL of them!!! So, of course the natural response it to make 15 million more. Let's not get in the way of nature, okay kids?)

Anyway... without further ado, let me introduce you to 2013's slew of goals! (I've even categorized them! Woo hoo! Not alphabetically though, you have to remember I'm related to sloths. Which just means I'm lazy. We don't really have much in common other than that. So never mind.)

_____________________________________________________

General:

Be diligent with school and music

Complete a photo a day challenge

CONQUER ALGEBRA!

Read one classic a month

Continue reading through the bible

Pursue my gifts

Wear more (modest!) skirts

Master the register

Give meaningful gifts

Do more random acts of kindness

Be in shape(ish)

Grow out my hair/bangs

Give the pups baths once a month

Expand my vocabulary

Be thrifty

Write 100 Letters

SEND BIRTHDAY CARDS (!!)

 

Creative:

Make homemade beauty products

Send a party in a box

Use my handwriting for a graphic

Sew 3 dresses

Sew 3 skirts

grow flowers

Try outfit remix

Learn A LOT in photoshop

Learn more about coding

Make a gif

Hone in on my style

Go six months without buying anything from B&BW

Own a velvet dress

_____________________________________________________

                                                               

Yep, that's not definitely not overkill. I've added almost 20 just since writing this post. I'm a dreamer, what can I say? 

And so, do YOU have any goals for 2013? Surely your list is more reasonable! Hopefully....

xoxo, 

Let's hope I don't add anymore.

I WAS GOING TO POST BUT LIFE GOT IN THE WAY

I've been meaning to post for, I don't know...FOREVER? We'll just skip all the "I'M SO SORRY!" gab (which I must have a thing for) and move onto the fact that Christmas is WAY to close and I'm terrified. In a good, bad and happy way.

Some things I've been up to of late....

-Curling my hair like crazy. I may be in love with our curling iron. It certainly was not love at first sight, but we got through it and now we're madly in love. Some people fall in love with boys....and some with their curling irons.

-pouring apple juice up my nose. (um....)

- having and impromptu Christmas concert with this girl for her neighbors, and getting applause. (you have no idea how awkward we sound when we sing.)

- Telling mom, "I'm having an obsession with antlers!!"

- Listening to music....a lot. (someone help me.)

-our family came to town and I was mute. Literally. It was almost like last year.

- Ice skating at my dads work. It's certainly not the way to get introduced to your dads co-workers. "Hey, nice to meet you. Excuse my while I fall flat on my face."

-hearing someone say something really funny and spending the next 10 minuets planning how I can use it in upcoming conversations.

I don't think I'll be making December goals, because I keep planning ones for 2013. And so now you must tell me, what have you done in my absence? Anything fun?

Apparently, I felt like chattering with you all. Hey, good thing we are friends!

XOXO,
Chatterbox forever.

PS: Thank you all for your sweet birthday wishes!! You all are the bomb.com. And I mean it.

Things that say a lot about people.

"things that say a lot about people:
the way in which they treat the waiter/waitress
how they feel about the weather
whether they dog ear pages or highlight in books
fingernails
and hands in general
their preferred creative outlet
how much they dread/enjoy talking on the phone
whether or not they drink coffee
if they ever forget to eat
how honest they are with themselves (and others)
if they correct your grammar
and whether or not they get nervous before haircuts."
by this person

1. I'm usually fairly friendly, but not BFF-y I'm not really at a restaurant to make friends. I just like ladies to wait on me. Please, gimme the girls.fact.

2. Weather does not really affect me. I love sunny days and cloudy days and cold days and (for the most part) hot ones. Rain makes me want cocoa, and that's a fact of life, friends.

3. I only underline/highlighting in my bible.....mainly because I don't read books very often (at all.) I think the last book I read was maybe 4 months ago. I personally see no point in underlining in a novel or something.

4. Simple. I like pink nail polish occasionally. I don't bite mine, but I ALWAYS trim them to short because....ahem, I like trimming my nails. I always wish I had more fingers and toes because I think it's FUN. This is weird, I know.

5. I'll admit, when it comes to the phone, pretty much the Apocalypse would have to happen before I'd call someone.  I think because in general conversation, I talk about what's around me or something. I don't know. The bottom line is I'm a wuss and before I turn 80 I should probably get over it.

6. Working with my hands is the best. Writing letters, making things, baking. I don't know. It's all so cliche, but it's what I love. (and I don't really mean WORKING, Dad. I mean more sitting around and doing dainty crafty things. Of course.) Oh, and I LOVE HANDS. You should see me shopping, Everything in that store is gonna have my fingerprints ALL over it.

7. Umm.............I do not drink coffee............for good reasons.........it's icky. I once did and I almost spit it up on a french man. FRESH FROM FRANCE. It was not a good day.

8. I think I'm pretty honest. Maybe blunt? Never! I'm usually the person to say what everyone is thinking (but NOT saying, I always wonder why.)

9. I don't correct grammar, because mine stinks. I say "boughten" all the time and I don't pronounce half the dictionary right. I'm pretty sure it adds to the whole "cute factor". Cute as in, did you just dye your hair blonde?

10. Not really, I get nervous AFTER haircut. Here it goes: Days leading up to haircut, excited. Day of hair cut, really excited. Day after haircut, complete hatred for hairdressers. 2 weeks after haircut, "I LOVE MY HAIR!!" Every time, without fail. As you can see, they're few and far between. Mostly because my family doesn't like how upset I get over it.

And now you must tell me, what did you learn about me? Nothing scary right? Good, I'm so glad I'm normal.

and an awkward photo of me....

Really, I have no shame.

Blog(ing) Free

My intent for this week was to not read blogs, but apparently it morphed into not posting here, but whatever, I'm okay with. Apparently not reading blogs seriously reduces your gusto for posting on your own.

So yes, I didn't read one blog, didn't eat one dessert and didn't do any online shopping for one week. And let me tell you, today was like Christmas morning. Although, and just like Christmas morning, it was a tiny bit disappointing. "only TEN new outfit posts? Sheesh!" you'd think I'd only been 20 seconds, but no really, it felt like 20 centuries.

If you feel like you read blogs too much, you should totally try going blog free. My only suggestion would be to make yourself a few rules before you start. And you might eat to warn your family on your first day back....

You may or may not look like a zombie after staring at the computer for 8 hours. After all, you deserve it.

Right?

Real Bloggers?

Blogging always raises questions for me. I always wonder about popular bloggers, are they really real?

(really real? That sounds so....never mind.)

Being real AND a blogger, to me, don't seem to go hand in hand. A blog is an image. It's the parts of your life you want to display, to show the world, to define you. But life is icky and nasty, and which blogger wants to show THAT? How much do bloggers refine and define their life, till really, we don't know what it's like at all?

(this is how I personally feel some bloggers portray their lives, so naturally, I've added my own peanut gallery comments.)

I have a perfect life (not even close, I only share my favorite stories) I always eat nice food (except those 5 thousand peanut butter and jellies) I love my family crazily (but that doesn't mean some days I'd like to strangle them.)
I always take amazing photos (wow, this is a joke) I look amazing any time (except from 12 AM to 12 AM.) My faith strong and I always do what's right (oh really, does anyone.e?) Basically, I'm amazing (or that's the impression I'm trying to give.)

Any thoughts you'd like to add? How do you stay real while blogging? I'd love to know.

And to end these profound thoughts, I'd just like to point out that I used the word Jellies and I think that is very cool.  End of story.

Thoughts and flowers (of course)

You know, those grass is greener on the other side days (or you camera is better than mine in this case.)

 I'm having one of those days.

I have a good camera. So how come I never use it? I think I'm just afraid things wont be perfect - That it will be a teeny bit blurry or a tiny bit out of focus. Which it probably will be half the time, but who cares? Even on some of my favorite blogs, I see blurry pictures and I go "That's SO cool!" And then when I get one (accident or not) it's not quite as cool. Or really not cool at all.

 I remember back to when I was using our old excuse for a camera. I took pictures of EVERYTHING. And I loved it. I wasn't afraid if it would be blurry or not and half the time the pictures were and I didn't even notice. I just loved it too much.

I thought it would be very fitting to use flower pictures for this post. It's so cliche! And black and whites of flowers? Man, you didn't see that coming.

(Dear October will be up tomorrow....fyi)

Swim MEAT

Well I first typed Meat without even noticing. Clearly, I like pigs and pork and such so it was obvious for me to write meat. But of course, I know I didn't attend (or for that matter) participate in a swim meat. I didn't watch cows swim laps, although I was just about as graceful as a hefty heifer. The swine weren't cheering for me and certainly poultry weren't mistaking the pool for a birdbath.

I'm just so weird.

So anyway! I went to a swim meet, I swam, I freaked out, I flopped like a cow, I got a sun burn, My collection of bruises increased, and I decided I never want to do anything hard again. When I'm on the block and they call "Swimmers Take your Mark." an absolute terror goes through me. "I can't go in!" (Yes, I talk to myself even while facing a life or embarrass yourself to death situation.) "The water is too hard!" I then go through all the possible excuses for me to not swim, all in about the 3 seconds before the horn blows. Of course, then it blows and I have no choice but to suck it up and flop on in.

Although, the great thing about swimming is you don't sweat. Well, you might sweat at meets because all you do is stand around. But for the majority of the time you are in the water (duh!) so sweating is pretty much non existent. For the record, I hate sweating. It's gross and icky and ruins a good hair day.

I compare swim meets to swine and poultry and cows. Sheesh, I'm cool!

Sincerely,
Swining out

PS: I literally patted myself on the back for that one. Please tell me you didn't roll your eyes.

The Addicting Screen

 

As of late, I find myself spending more and more time on the computer. I'm sure you've all had this problem - it can be so addicting at times! One day as I forced myself to turn it of, I was faced with the thought "What am I supposed to do now?!" I sat down right then and wrote down everything I could think of. Silly Random things and normal things and nice thing. Anything to happily get me away from the glowing screen of the computer. Have you noticed that computers sort of have heartbeats? Okay, I am official weird. But you've maybe caught onto that? Lets face it: We spend way to much time on the computer. Lets turn them off and enjoy life. And I totally love the irony of this - I'm telling you we should get off the computer...as I sit at it. Oh well, I'll be taking my advice in a minute.

So that's my list, what would you add?

xoxo, Kryn

PS:

I was pretty much cackling hysterically when I saw this. The truth can be painful. And very humorous.

Obscure Location

Right now I'm somewhere totally different that where I usually blog. Wait for it....I'm at the kitchen counter! Woah. I know its crazy. Yes, I'm feeling okay.

Lets get on with it. Its national Tourist day! I actually thought today was tomorrow, and tomorrow is No Socks day so I was prepping (and being sock less) for that. But I'm ahead of the times, as always and now I've got to go on about being touristy. Thankfully I'm a pretty good national tourist. I am hoping this year we can take a North Eastern trip and cover all the states I've missed. I've been to mount Rushmore, the Alamo, Chicago, seen Mexico, The golden gate bridge, DC and I've been to 38 states total. But what I really want is to be a worldwide traveler. I want to see the Eiffel tower and the Louvre and Big Ben. I also wouldn't mind hanging out at a cute little French Bakery and gorging myself on croissants. But that might come later.

 Thanks and goodbye. The kitchen counter has been good to me, but I'm finished now.

Sincerely,
Or I could just go to NYC.....(mother!)