i had a crazy amazing dream last night.

i dreamed i was a weirdo cool artist and i lived above a bakery (aaah) and sometimes on weekends i'd just spontaneously decide to get friends together and have a concert in the alley behind the bakery, and i was friends with Feist.


it was cool. trust me. the coolest part was that it felt so real. for a moment after i woke up i wasn't sure that it had been a dream. fancy.

homework makes me hungry

Gigi Louise

This is my wonderful Gigi. She died 14 months ago... I don't think I'm over it yet, because I still cry when I see old women who look like her.

My cousin just sent me this picture, and it's perfect. This is how I see her in my mind. I don't think people are the same as she was... she just felt different. Somebody asked me recently about her home, Bailey, the family home... I didn't know how to describe it, because the way one usually describes places just doesn't work when describing Bailey... it was everything good, everything I miss. The light and the air always felt soft and heavy, the air smelled of clover, magnolia and sweet musty old pears. There was a garden in the back and soft wet grass, a porch of cold green peelypainted cement, and a train that passed by across the road. Nothing was hectic there, time felt irrelevant.

ahhhmazing weekend.

so, i pretty much had the best weekend ever.

i realised a few weeks ago that i hadn't had a free weekend since

AUGUST

and therefore got really excited when i saw this delightful workless rehearsaless planless weekend coming up on the calendar.

i started thinking, what, oh what shall i do with it?

and it was then that i realised. all i really wanted to do was bake.

or more like,

bakeandbakeandbakeandbake

so friday night was my amazing bookgroup, which went on for 6 hours - we always deviate from actual book discussion about an hour or two in, but any conversation with these girls is wonderful. plus they don't judge me when i confess embarrasing things about "sisterhood of the travelling pants". i'm always so uplifted to be around them, its good to be with people who are in the same place in life as you and are going through the same things, facing the same decisions and oh my aren't we all facing some decisions right now!

saturday morning-

BAKING DAY!

catherine and caroline, who are in my bookgroup and also the amazing pride and prejudice cast i'm a part of this season, came over and baked and listened to french music for a while

we made blackberry-apple kuchen, rarebit muffins, chocolate cake, and banana-chocolate muffins

can i make baking my spiritual gift please? =)

as the first step in making baking my spiritual gift, i took a red ridinghood basket over to dan and caitlin

that evening i had the place to myself, so i made a tasty omelette, had some cake and tea, and watched a short movie. it was one of those evenings that makes me feel better about my future. i always worry that i'll turn into a tvdinner girl who scrambles together meals, but the fact that i voluntarily used a dessert fork to eat my cake and took the trouble to put cinnamon on the whipped cream makes me feel a little better about that.

aaaaaand around 9:30 emily and ally decided to do a little spontaneous kidnapping, so they came and stole me away for the night. those girls are awesome.

"lets make crazy faces so they can't see how tired we look!"

i guess i missed the memo... ugh. nice havingaweirdface skills there =/


SO pretty much the best weekend ever. i should feel more rested than i do, but all i've felt like doing all week is hibernate. its awful. i think it's the weather, cold dreary grey weather isn't exactly energizing weather. hope you had a grand weekend too!

to hear with eyes

anyone know where my url title "to hear with eyes" came from?

anyone other than ethne, that is? (i just told her)



it's from my favorite Shakespeare sonnet, sonnet 23. sure, it's not one of the glamorized ones like 116, and shockingly few people have ever read it, but it's always been my favorite.


As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put beside his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart;
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharged with burthen of mine own love's might.
O! let my looks be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love, and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more express'd.
O! learn to read what silent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.


beautiful, right? he's saying that though his fear of saying too much or losing his love makes him silent, unable to tell her, dumb with fear, he hopes she can read his looks, hear him with her eyes.



(if you're wondering where "the heart of flame therein" comes from, go here)

love and happiness

2 things i've been thinking about alot recently.


this year i'm reading through Gretchin Rubin's "the happiness project"
and one thing she advises is

act the way you want to feel

which is SO true.

isn't that just the soul of optimism? it takes so much hope and optimism to think "i know i'll get to feeling and being that way soon, so i might as well start acting that way now"... really the most pessimistic way you can act is like now is all that matters, that your annoyances and trials at this moment are everything to everyone.

i am an optimist, i have learned... but what percentage of the things i say every day are negative? i think at some point i figured out that if i said all the things i wanted to say, people called me naive and a bit silly, so somewhere along the way i stopped saying the happy things i think. this must stop, it's just silly... and i think it ties right into that advice.


act the way you want to feel
speak the way you want to feel


i'm going to start telling people what it is i love about them. because that is a good thing to do. i'm always telling other people how much i like a person and what i like about them , but i very seldomly tell that person.

here goes for a start...

I LIKE YOU!

Currently Listening

Paris, Je T'aime Soundtrack
life's a dance we all have to do... what does the music require? people all moving together, close as the flames in a fire... we all go round and round, partners of lost and found...looking for one more chance. all I know is, we're all in the dance (feist)

Hem: Home Again, Home Again
As your hands breaking free i am holding on, i am holding on as you held on to me. and i don't know... is this the part where you find out i'm there for you?

Keren Ann: Not Going Anywhere

this is why i always wonder... i'm a pond full of regrets. i always try to not remember, rather than forget. the tide will rise and fall along the bay... and i'm not going anywhere. people come and go and walk away, but i'm not going anywhere...i'm not going anywhere

spanish moss, indeed. oh ho ho ho how funny you are.

look at these rather delightful trees!



they gave me some great ideas for my next picture book. or should i say the one after next, because whenever i try to sit down and sketch for this one the drawings turn into something completely different. i've finally decided to just go with what they're turning into and hold off on my current plans until later.

monolog asked if that was spanish moss... but sorry, i dropped out of random knowledge of fungii university.

...

i've looked up spanish moss now, and that certainly looks like spanish moss.

i can fly higher than an eagle with you as the wind beneath my wings!!

Tonight is the night I tell you about my hero.

She is funny, adorable, completely in love with life, and she has the most amazing voice in the world. She is a domestic goddess. She has the cutest personality ever, and lets admit it... she's just hot.

Did I mention she's 5'8? MY HEIGHT?

ITS A SIGN!!!!



I'm completely convinced that she has superpowers and can do EVERYTHING in the world.


Oh yes. That is who I'm talking about.

Nigella Lawson

She's so relaxed and happy and warm about life and everything. And she loves food and eats unabashedly, which is completely awesome.



So what do we do when we have a food-girl-crush? Obsessively cook through one of her brilliant cookbooks, Julie and Julia-style, of course!

I'm about to start with "Nigella Bites" and I'm completely enthused about the fact that the book starts with breakfast. Breakfast! My favorite! That's also a sign!

I am a little anxious about some of the weirdo English foods she cooks. She does cook some meats that I don't eat, like pork, rabbit, lamb, veal. And squid. cause squid is gross.

Enthused!

my shoes have pockets, how about yours?

look what i found in the mens shoe section of plato's closet.

yes, they're Roos, yes, they have pockets, and yes. they are hi-tops.


these were a HUGE fad in the 80's and 90's... i remember when i was little all the cool older kids had Roos


now i'm cool too!

Civil War Ball

I've finally got my pictures from the ball last weekend edited and pretty!

I know I danced one of those polkas, but I don't remember the fellers' name and we stepped in late so he hadn't written it in my dance card (above). That is one of the disadvantages of meeting so many people in one night!

"i weel have my glory day een the hot sun"

caroline, sarah and me

all in all a magical evening! the next morning we sat around the warm oven at the Browns and talked over the ball just like they would have done then, it was so fun!

we're nice people, really

A few weeks ago Sister Spud was here doing homework (she had come for dinner but stayed late in hopes of a brownie or two), and she was terribly terribly busy. Some people came over who she didn't have time to talk to (really. no time. she didn't even have time to talk to me)...

...so she hid under the table.



ah, i see we're taking the mature road. ok then.



they never knew she was there. it was awesome. i slid the camera under the table and this is the wonder i got:

deelightful.

Olympics

So obviously I'm not a sporty person...


!!HOWEVER!!



I LOVE THE WINTER OLYMPICS!!!!


They are SO way cooler than the summer ones. The ice skating, the crazy host country themed opening ceremonies, the skiing. oh yes. yes please.


I'm watching right now, and all I can say is...


INDIAN DANCE-OFF!!!! possibly the awesomest thing I've ever seen.

little letters

time for some little letters, a la rockstar diaries

dear sprinkled donuts,
oh you.

dear cadd9 guitar chord,
why do you hurt my fingers so?

dear snow,
i love you. that is all.

dear sad robot,
you are stuck in my head and you're making me sad! someone please love that lonely little robot!

dear awkwardness,
stop haunting me! i've had enough for one week!

dear new dress,
i can't wait to wear you saturday night, even if it is just to waitress at the valentines banquet.

dear cabbage patch dolls,
you smell so good, i still can't resist visiting your aisle every time i'm in target

i heart snow

even when it freezes my nose

even when it makes me slip and fall

even when it gets in my boots and feels weird

even when it slides off the roof onto my head and down my neck.. yeeeeeekkk!

Snow Day!

Well. Ok. Not really.
For some reason classes weren't cancelled today, despite the
SIX INCHES OF SNOW!!

After class we all went out into the huge snowy field and built snowmen!

Two snowmen, to be precise.


Actually... to be precise, a Snow-Pope and a Snow-Luther.


Yes.


I know.

Somehow we wound up taking teams, and Summer and I took the side of Pope Snowius III (because his name was so awesome)... and Snowius and Luther started an inevitable argument...

Seriously? You thought Snow-Luther and Snow-Pope could be in the same field together? no no no

Here's how it went:


Snow-Luther: Heyyy Snowius, you've got a huge bootie! (he did by the way... we could both stand on it) Oh and by the way I've got a hammer and some nails!
Snow-Pope: You get yosef away from my church doors! VANDALISM!!
Snow-Luther: Whatcha gonna do, hit me in the head with your potpourri holder?
Snow-Pope: Get back here Wormface! I send my legions afta you!

at which point Summer and I, being the Papal legions, tackled Snow-Luther, yelling "Counter-reformation in yo face, Lutha!"


If you have never tackled a snowman, you MUST. At some point in your life. It is one of the most rewarding experiences ever.

Also one of the dampest experiences ever... we were completely soaked afterwards. Brr!


After that the Reformation Minions tackled Pope Snowius III and the church leaders turned into snowforts for the massive 40 person snowball fight that ensued. It was pretty amazing.

Yet another of those amazing moments that would probably only happen with homeschoolers.

my life would be so awkward if i didn't like freckles, pt. 1

ok... now... wait for it... wait for it....

aaaaaahahaha

yes i found a button in picasa to darken all shadows. aka my freckles.

terrifying, ernt it?

attack of the noyings

today it was wet and grey and dreary.

i'm tired of winter.

i went to braums and sat in the parking lot eating orange sherbet, because orange sherbet tastes like summer.

to the ball, to the ball!

ok dearies, i'm headed down south for the civil war ball, gloves in hand and petticoats trailing beneath.

happy weekend!

i may or may not have watched this 10 times

late-night confessional

so i'm up doing homework and sewing... blaaaaah for not having time, blaaaah for deadlines, blah blah blah.

and i've got some things to say.

i HATE making eyelet buttonholes and El Greco.

i've made 19/28 of them.



aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!



my elbows hurt from accidentally being set down on sewing-pin covered tables. my back hurts from scrunching under a stack of chairs for a long time during rehearsal today, just so that i could enter on cue. i'm extremely creeped out because i stupidly started thinking about the sixth sense earlier. bad idea. ALWAYS freaks me out at night. and in the day. ok, just always.

but i've got good hummus and an endless supply of... water.

ok.

back to work, beatrice.

Beautiful Tuesday

ash
Originally uploaded by nirrimi

For this week's Beautiful Tuesday I'm going to direct you to nirrimi's Flickr feed... endless loveliness. Enjoy!

yeah, well, sewing machine, so's your face.

i'm sewing.


it's not going so well.


i actually just stooped to making up a stupid poem about it.

grant me the serenity to not stomp on the seams i cannot remove
the courage to rethread the machine when it runs out
and the wisdom to not kick the sewing machine in the face.

or ... in the... bobbin.



niebuhr would not approve.

Grace PBC Meeting, or, the inaugeral assemblage of the Tartarians.

seriously, could our faces be any more different? haha

So after church on Friday night, the 5 of us for many strange reasons compounded decided to hang out in the car until about midnight... in the freezing cold. We formed a club, based on our mutual love of tartar sauce.

Or something.

Best club quote?

matt: "they should make a movie about us"

logan: "yeah... like... Avatartar!"

me: "or tartarzan"

yourfacesarecreepingmeout fail!

wow. seriously? creepiest faces of the whole weekend, and there were some pretty creepy faces.

Ok, well thats just hilarious. I just noticed the Von Trapp family hands. Nice one.

jackson part 2 - 01/30/10

weird cheesy chip face there...

is it just me, or could matt and elizabeth SO be twins in this picture?

sacred harp time, yo! and yes, i AM wearing granny socks over tights with sneakers, your eyes do not deceive you. it was awesome and my legs were not cold.

My Family Is Super Attractive, Pt. 2

Ok... so... not so much attractive as... weird. Insane, perhaps.

Here is a video in which we discover Auntie Dear's webcam and find ourselves compelled to use it in whatever way we think of first.

My Family Is Super Attractive, Pt. 1

I've mentioned before how totally hot my family is... and I know some of you are skeptical. How hot can they be, really? you ask. WELL my friends, you are about to see.

The proof is in the pudding, so go get a sieve and strain it out, cause proof doesn't taste very good with pudding. Plus I'm pretty sure I forgot to disinfect the proof before I put it in.

PROOF THAT MY FAMILY IS SUPER ATTRACTIVE: