Sunday, February 28, 2010

creativity challenge: update


So far so good on my vow of daily creativity!

Mostly I've been sketching, painting and drawing to fill up my daily quota but I'm going to try to incorporate more photography (I just finally got a lookbook after all!) writing and filming, too.
So far, I've:
-finished a painting (it's a present for Brendan, for our 1 year so I cannot reveal the subject here)
-finished a pastel portrait (posted on deviantArt under 'little blue')
-started a pencil portrait of Kaya Scodelario
-planned out a painting of The Little Mermaid for my sister's birthday present (shh don't tell)
- and I still have my painting I'm working on at school for my art studio class

I think having written my creativity-promise on this blog, it makes it more official and I feel more obligated to do it, oddly enough (even though like, two people read this blog anyway)...there's a slightly absurd pressure associated with actually writing out goals, you know? Like now that it exists tangibly in some form, I will be ashamed if I don't follow through. It's a slightly silly thought, but effective nonetheless!



On another note: it was sunny today so I went for a 4 mile run with my sister around town (and while I say that casually, I assure you I'm TIRED) and the blossoms are really starting to come out now. I could just SMELL SPRINGTIME which I love. Sun and spring in itself make me more excited about everything. I just want to go outside and walk around and enjoy my day instead of staying holed up inside, wasting the daylight hours.

It also makes me excited about fashion because springtime/early summer is my favorite time for clothes. I lvoe floral dresses and sandals and light sweaters and...and...everything. I can't wait to go thrifting on Friday with Brendan to find some cheap and unique springy things!


<3


recently:

watched: I Heart Huckabees
-This is one of the zaniest, funniest movies I've seen in a while and I really liked it. Jude Law is fantastic and my god, it made me adore Jason Schwartzman even more if that were possible. I really liked the light tone it had despite the deep existential questioning it addressed. All in all, a great film that I recommend!
listened to: Another Sun by Malakai
-I've had this song on my ipod forever (I think it was on a LSTN download?) but I relistened to it today and remembered how much I loved it.
and Tonight by Smith Westerns
-I love their lo-fi sound and their studio recordings are ALMOST as good as seeing them live was.

xoxo

Wednesday, February 24, 2010


I have spontaneously decided to set a daily goal for myself. and that is to be directly creative in some way every day, no exceptions. Be it drawing, sketching, painting, collaging, filming/editing video or writing for my long-since-forgotton Nanowrimo "novel"...I have to do SOMETHING. I've been wasting so much time online or lazing around my room after school lately. I need a turn around!

all for now,
<3

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

of baths birthdays and frogs


So, it's Tuesday and my eighteenth birthday is in TWO days. Whaat? I'm slightly not ready. Even though every year, it usually takes a couple months for my new age to really set in, I'm still feeling very much like a seventeen year old. And to be honest, I'm not ready to let this age go yet! Seventeen was probably one of the best years of my life. So much happened, so much changed and I had so many firsts. How can 18 possibly live up to that? But maybe I'll just take it in strides? Sigh.

In other news,
today was hot. I mean, not nearly as hot as it gets in the summer. But definitely warm. And cloudless. And blue. And clear. And it smelled like SPRINGTIME outside. I was on a run around the neighborhood and I caught the distinct wafts of blossoms, grass and general non-winter-ness. I cannot fully express how giddy this makes me.
I have a very hard time surviving winter without frustration an
d longing for sunshine. And I don't even live where it snows or gets colder than what, like 35 degrees? But this January was torture, it rained so much. And February has been mostly the same. The only reason I usually tolerate February is for its shortness and abundance of birthdays! Mine, three of my friends and at least four of my relatives. I always love a good birthday party! (Which reminds me...I have no idea what I'm doing for mine?)

I count down to spri
ng/summer once the new year hits. This winter, I've been going particularly insane stuck inside and compiled a playlist of summer songs in preparation for the months of heat to come. I know, typical me. Making playlists for therapy! If you're interested, I'll attach the list to the end of this post.*

So I have an anecdote I've been dying to share somewhere.
It involves baths. And frogs.
I love baths. I take them whenever I have the time & energy (is that not just the laziest thing in the world? Being too lazy to take a BATH?) I love me a good basin full of hot H2O, some tunes playing on the iHome, bubbles and I even throw in a cute little r
ubber ducky when I feel like it. It's the epitome of leisure to me.

So this one particular instance, I was laying there in the steaming water, just
thinking and soaking. And I recalled this one time when my sister told me that to kill a frog, you must first place them in a pot of water and slowly heat it up, because if you try putting the frog directly in boiling water it will, quite logically on the frog's part, jump out immediately. Now I have no idea if this in fact true but laying there in the tub, I thought how much this was true about me, sans the...death part.

You see, when I take a bath, I lay in the tub as it is filling up with
very hot water. If I do it the other way, letting it fill up and then stepping in, I can't stand the heat. I don't know why its different but it is. It's my process. For example, this one time I turned on the tap and was about to step in as usual, but I got distracted with finding a good song on my ipod and by the time I walked back to the tub, it was half full. So I dipped my toe in and retracted it instantly in horror as my poor little curled toes stung and turned bright red. Yeah. So not gonna happen. So I was forced to combat the hot water by turning the tap to the blue side, adding more cool water and slushing it around to try to neutralize the heat, which really didn't work at all. Now the bath water was an awkward, uncomfortable mix of both. So I gave up, drained it and showered instead. Patience is my virtue, yeah?
Yeah. I think the moral of this story if that I am a frog
(my Animagus, perhaps?) and if you want to boil me alive, do it gradually!

<3



I've decided to attach a fun little segment on the end of my blogs now, entitled:

recently:
read: The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
-This book was every bit as riveting and affecting as I expected. We were reading it in my AP Language class, and I have to admit that it's the first book in a while that I've read completely without any "ahem* "summary resources"...*coughSPARKNOTEScough* I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the US immigration conflict.
watched: Food, Inc.
-This documentary has made me consider vegetarianism more seriously than I had before. And has made me want to boycott supermarkets and live exclusively off my own grown crops from a personal garden...neither of which will probably actually happen but STILL.
listened to: Go Do by Jonsi
-I adore Sigur Ros and am ecstatic Jonsi's solo act is living up.
and Lover's Carving by Bibio
-I cannot express how much I love this song. There's something so whimsical easygoing and sunny about it.
created: three new artworks! see them here!




*my summer/spring/sunshine playlist is as follows:

golden skies =
Summertime // Girls
Suicide // The Raveonettes
When I'm With You // Best Coast
Summertime Clothes // Animal Collective
Unforgettable Season // Cut Copy
Lessons Learned // Matt & Kim
Pulling Our Weight // The Radio Dept.
Lust For Life // Girls
Young Adult Friction // The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Your English Is Good // Tokyo Police Club
Two Weeks // Grizzly Bear
Edge of the Ocean (Duotone remix) // Ivy