4:365

Mischeivous.

3:365

Glass art.

2:365

Inside an oriental willow:






































Some of my favorite colors:







































And then... a self-portrait. :P

1:365

Thanks to Kristin's suggestion of participating in a photo-a-day post idea, here's the first day.

Summer = fresh strawberries. These are from my town's farmers' market. Mmmm...

And this is Bethany, my gorgeous best friend who modeled for me earlier this week. Isn't her smile amazingly beautiful??

More tomorrow, as I'm heading off early in the morning to the Toledo Botanical Gardens for their annual art show. :)

of college towns and amateur photography.

I love college towns. At least, I love the ones I've visited. I live just outside of Bowling Green, Ohio, which has always struck me as being a funny little town (it's the home of the regionally populous Bowling Green State University). The downtown is gorgeous- art deco and gothic architecture everywhere, a thriving arts scene, unique shops, etc. But it's surrounded by flat farmland and dull machinery once you're past the campus borders. Flat, flat, flat... and yet the downtown is so striking and energetic. Strange.

Anyhow, I'm going to rummage through the different lighting and shadows of the town tomorrow on a shooting outing with one of my best friends, who kindly agreed to allow me to test my amateur photography skills on her good looks. We'll see if my results mar her natural beauty or not... hopefully a few will turn out.

I love pink. And jewelry, though I don't wear much that often.


And roses (how cliché).


I feel as if I should say something edifying and spiritually mature, but I lack the words and the depth that I know should exist. To be honest, lately I've felt so dry and emotionless... and that's not how God needs me to feel and exist. So I'll try harder and pray harder and seek harder. I know He's waiting for me to discover some important truth. Many exist; I just need to grasp them.

Maybe writing some music will help. Hmm. I think I'll try that.

life without facebook?

Well, it's actually quite nice. A close friend and I are beginning what we've deemed to be a feat of strength and self-control: a Facebook hiatus contest. I know, it sounds like something completely unnecessary, but the fact remains that Facebook is a major life-controller.

I have several things listed in the "life-controller" category for myself, and most of them aren't beneficial in any respects: coffee, social networking, and shopping are the main three. So, I'm attacking Facebook first. It just takes up too much time out of my already-tight schedule, and now that I'm working an office job and maintaining a performance major's practice routine, I can't let other important things slide. Things like sitting outside on my screened-in porch and talking about gardening with my mom. Like reading an engrossing chapter in Little Dorrit by Dickens. Like wrestling with my Wacom tablet on my Macbook. Things that build you up, and don't tear you down... like watching for status updates from frustrating people who don't care if you're looking, anyways. Things like that don't matter in the long run; they only tear you down and keep you from focusing on reality, which can actually be quite blissful.

Yesterday I played for a wedding, which also happened to simultaneously occurr during my brother's graduation party (thanks to my mother's absent-minded announcement that she had ordered my brother's invites, and would I please remember to be free on the 20th? Um... no, Mom, I'm booked for a wedding on that morning...). It was simple and slightly disorganized (a few things were different than the ceremony had been rehearsed the night before), but it went well and brought to mind the fact that I am a very, very sentimental female. 'Nough said.

I'm looking forward to autumn. My classes are all ones I know I'll enjoy immensely; all but one revolving around music. Being a performance major (on harp) is wonderful because I can completely immerse myself in music. I love academics, but honestly, music is my first love. I'll have plenty of core classes to complete during the summer, anyhow. I'm hoping to take European history this fall, but as far as academics, that's it.

But for now, I can sip my iced caramel macciatto and read Dickens and enjoy the sun. Because it's summer, and school doesn't start for another 2 months. 2 months of friends, work, practicing, reading, and more work. And then I can finally sink into reality.

another blogging beginning.

I have a bad habit of leaving things incomplete, which includes my previous blog. Perhaps the problem was that my posts were mainly expositional in topic, rather than more personal and private. That's why I created this blog... I guess I just felt the need to write from inside my heart versus solely my mind. And I wasn't getting the journal "vibe"... it was as if I were writing for an audience, which took the necessary fun out of blogging. So, let's begin anew, shall we?

If you don't know me already, check out my bio on the sidebar. But for now, let's just say that I'm a musician, artist, and writer in need of a means of verbal expression.

More to come soon...