tonight I did something I never do.

I took a bubble bath.  For two hours.

It was my first day of vacationing at the beach, and the tub in the bathroom attached to my room is spectacular, very deep and white with a big silver faucet.  It was heavenly.  The water was just the right temperature, and the bubbles were almond-scented and light.  And who doesn't feel quietly glamorous lounging under mounds of foam, hair in a bun, with the water loosing wispy curls at the nape of the neck?  It feels like being in 1960s photograph.

I haven't felt really, truly happy very much since losing my dad.  Mostly I feel like I'm wandering around in a haze, not really aware of my surroundings, floating along in the hopes that someone's going to shake me awake and tell me that of course everyone's okay, I was just having a bad dream.  But tonight, alternately reading one of my favorite magazines (thank you so much, Taryn! ♥♥♥) and blowing loose suds at my exposed knees, the heartbreak wasn't nearly gone, but I did at least feel closer to being aware of the present.

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday

via the little things we do

1.   My favorite color is : blush pink, or cream, or pale violet... or mint green... pretty much anything pastel.  I also like deep, pretty blues.

2.  My travel destination of choice is: Venice or Paris... sigh.  someday.

3.  My favorite  food is: anything with chocolate and peanut butter, but I'm trying verrry hard to trick my body into thinking it likes fruit better than sweets.  Varying degrees of success on that one.

4.  My happy place is: my big blue chair, when I'm at school and my dorm room is all set up, especially if it's snowing and I can watch out my window.  The High Line is a verrrry close second.  It's impossible to go there and be unhappy.  The first day that I'm back at school, when we get out of RA training I'm going straight over to check out the second section.  So excited!

5.  My favorite saying is: "The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."  --Anais Nin

6.  My dirty little secret is: the reason I always have fresh flowers in my dorm room is because I buy them for myself.

7.  Something friends might say about me is that I: am a perfectionist and a workaholic.  Which is kind of true.  ...Hey, all you friends out there, what would you say?

♥

you're a wizard, harry!

spoiler alert! spoiler alert!  this post is about the latest Harry Potter movie, if you haven't seen it you probably don't want to read this.

unless a) you're not planning on seeing it, b) aren't interested in Harry Potter at all and thus won't have a clue what this post is about but won't actually find reading it detrimental, or c) don't mind being spoiled.  in any of these circumstances go right ahead and read on.

Just some observations and opinions about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  Marissa and I spent a verrrrry long time discussing the movie after seeing it, so most of this post is actually our collective thoughts on the movie, not just mine.  So here we go, in no particular order.

• Overall, it was pretty good.  The acting was believable for the most part, and the sets were lovely, as they always are.


• Buuuuut the first half of this movie kind of undermines most of the previous movie-- if Harry can just sense the Horcruxes, why bother with all the camping and roaming around looking for them?  We were also disappointed that none of the backstory of the Horcruxes was explored, it took away a lot of the impact of.....


• Voldemort's past!  Where'd it go?  I know there are time constraints, obviously, but in this last film of the series, Voldemort was made into a simple representation of evil.  The audience never learns about why Voldy is so anti-Muggle (because his father was a Muggle and abandoned him, although I'm sure Voldemort's bad attitude in general didn't help anything).


• And then we've got the mysteriously pastless Dumbledore.  In the same way that Voldy-voldy-voldemort became simple evil, Dumbledore became simple good.  One of the aspects of the seventh book that I found most compelling was Harry's struggle to come to terms with the fact that someone he thought was truly without faults actually wasn't.  It seemed to me like that moment when kids realize that their parents existed before they themselves came along, and that they're as capable of misstep as anyone else.  Since Harry was an orphan and Dumbledore was the closest that he had to a parent by the seventh book (boooo, bring back Sirius!), that was part of Harry's painful decision between clinging to childhood and blind faith and learning that people weren't always as he knew them.  The Dumbledore-Grindelwald-Aberforth storyline was important to me because it showed the struggle between greatness and goodness, much like the conflict between Harry and Voldemort.


• Speaking of Voldemort, what's with all the yelling and freaking out all the time?  Part of why he was so creepy in the books, in my opinion anyway, was because he was so completely emotionless and cold.  It also undermined the force of his hubris-- like in mythology, the character who falls because of his own inability to see any possible weakness, Voldy's demise was sudden and unforseen, because he himself could never believe it could happen.  I thought the idea that he could feel a Horcrux being destroyed undermined his ego because it meant he acknowledged his own mortality, if not humanity.


• Luna was totally adorable, and the Grey Lady was perfect.  Yaaaaay!  I totally want to be a Ravenclaw.


• Shirtless Ron is way cute.

I think that's all for the moment.  I've out-nerded myself.  Accio pocket protector.

I'd love to hear what everyone else thought of the movie!  Was it hard to follow if you hadn't read the books?  If you have read them, how did you feel about the translation to film?

♥

blah blah blog

It's been a bit sparse on the blogging front over here lately... and that's because I have got a whole lot of nothing to say.  I do pretty much the same things every day:

• do the next chapter in my Illustrator textbook-- I didn't feel confident using Illustrator and I like hand-drawing flats, but I want my portfolio to look professional and to show proficiency, and I already feel much better about it, yay!  I've finished all the tutorials and now I'm building up my trim and detail libraries for this next semester.


• yoga-- one of two 45-minute DVDs and maybe another half-hour at night before bed.


• crochet-- I'm up to over 200 flowers finished on my Field of Flowers blanket, that's almost 10%, wheeee!


• try to persuade my cat to sit on my lap


• get scathing looks from my cat


• do some watercolor work for something which will be up on my etsy shop soon.


• complete four or five lessons in rosetta stone French


• putter around the interwebz


• watch Mary Tyler Moore with my mom and inevitably fall asleep on the couch.

See what I mean?  Not really a lot to say.

So naturally it stands to reason that I started a tumblr today.

Because since I have nothing to say, I really need more places in which to say it.

♥

summer songs

summertime makes me want soft, mellow music.

notebook lust

Confession:  Sometimes I just stare at these notebooks with my eyes glazed over.  Sometimes I just leave them open in a firefox tab so I can click back to them throughout the day.  And sometimes I add all of them to my cart so I can pretend to buy them before x-ing out the window.

Surely at least one could count as a necessary back-to-school purchase, right?

notebooks from kate's paperie.

horrible bosses

I saw 'Horrible Bosses' tonight.

Dwight=the rest of the audience, Jim= me.

take me out to the ball game ♥

My mom and I spent the afternoon at a vintage baseball double-header.  It was so much fun!

Basically, vintage-style baseball teams play wearing the uniforms and following the rules of a time in the history of baseball-- 1864 and 1898, in this case, and since the rules were different during those two eras, the first game was played in the earlier style and the second in the latter.

It was pretty intense!  In the first game none of the players wore gloves, and the smack! of the ball hitting their palms was audible even from across the field.

...Plus their uniforms were way cute, although difficult to run in, I'd imagine, since there were no knit fabrics involved (hey, I'm a fashion student, these are the things I notice).  And I won the 50/50 raffle and was presented with sixteen dollars-- goin' to Vegas for sure!

There was lemonade, and sunshine, and cracker jacks, and it was a really fantastic afternoon.

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

via the little things we do

1.   One of my happiest moments ever was: in elementary school, when a speaker came in with a big tent and set it up in the gym, and it turned out to be a little planetarium.  I love planetariums to start with, but there was something so magical about turning a mundane space, like a squeaky-floored gymnasium, into somewhere mysterious and beautiful and quiet.

2.  Summer is wedding season and weddings are: nice to think about, in an abstract sort of way.  They're also a really good excuse for Marissa and me to run around the wedding department in Macy's as though we belong there. 

3.  This summer: has not been so great.  It is lovely to be home, though.

4.  My summer food(s) of choice has been:  golden raspberries and chanterelle mushrooms!  The berries in our garden are prolific this year, to the point where we'll have enough golden raspberries (which are usually the least fruitful variety) to make at least 4 jars of golden raspberry jam.  Yum.  And the mushrooms are so, so delicious (particularly in scrambled eggs), buuuuut I'm not telling where they came from because they are mine, mine, mine.

5.  My summer uniform has been: shameful lately... usually I'm all about the sundresses, but it's been so hot that if I don't have to go out, I've been sporting light cotton pj shorts and camisoles.

6.  If I could spend the entire summer in one location I would choose: Cape May, NJ.  It's my favorite beachy town and I could endlessly amuse myself walking around and napping on the beach (under an umbrella and covered completely in a towel, of course, since I'm so pale that I actually rival the sun for brightness) and sketching and reading.

7.  My summer anthem is: 'Constructive Summer' by The Hold Steady, or 'Asleep on a Sunbeam' by Belle and Sebastian.

♥

♥

i love these paintings by Kelli Murray...especially the one with the kitty.

♥

downward-facing whaaaat?

Remember when I bought this DVD during finals week last semester?  I wanted to wait until I'd done both workouts a bunch of times before reviewing it, so here we go!

Bottom line:  this is a fantastic DVD.  The first workout, 'The Joy of Yoga,' is a lovely advanced-beginner level session: refreshing and relaxing, with good explanations of what the poses should look and feel like without getting too dragged out time-wise.  The instructor, Sarah Ivanhoe, is friendly and encouraging without being too cheerleader-ish (which is actually why I chose this DVD, I'd tried her 'Candlelight Yoga' DVD on Netflix streaming and really liked it).  It does get a little repetitive, there is a lot of downward facing dog, but that's almost become a resting pose for me at this point, so it's a nice breather.  Of the two routines, this is the one that makes me feel like I'm working more on flexibility and lengthening muscles, but it's not so intense that it wipes me out completely, and at about 45 minutes long, it doesn't take up a major portion of my day.

Now for the other workout on this DVD, the 'Fat-Burning Yoga' section.  I am not a naturally sweaty person.  When I was in fife and drum, we did long, hot parades wearing polyester uniforms and wool hats, and I'd maybe be a little dewy at the end.  But by halfway through this workout I am actually dripping and sweating from places I didn't even know I had pores.

...Aaaaand now you know me a little better.  Ew.  Anyway.

It's a pretty intense yoga session, with a cardio bent to it, but it's rejuvenating, not exhausting.  This is actually the one I do when I'm in a lousy mood and need to do something physical to get rid of it.  It builds on the poses from the 'Joy of Yoga' section of the DVD, so I'm glad that I did that first, but after the initial demonstration, the pace is much faster and the vinyasas are more complicated.  I really, really like this one. The music is energetic yet soothing, which is lovely, and there's a brief but effective series of relaxation poses at the end.  It's true that the DVDs in the Crunch Fitness series don't have much focus on the mystical elements of yoga (for lack of a better term), but honestly, the fact that I'm exercising without muttering profanities the whole time is pretty mystical to me.

Does anyone else do yoga DVDs?  I'd love to know what ones you use and how you like them!

♥

milky way

I had the loveliest dream last night about the Milky Way being very bright and clear.

♥

dream cottage

just some snapshots of my new home...

okay, not really.  but someday.

♥

1.2.3.4.5.6.7

fill-in-the-blank saturday

via the little things we do

1.   I am a (morning, evening, middle of the day person): morning person!  It's when I feel most productive, so if I have a project coming due, I'm much more likely to go to bed at 10 and wake up at 6 instead of staying up late.  If I don't have to do work in the morning, it's my favorite for going for Highline walks and West Village roaming.

2.  My favorite Pandora stations are: A Fine Frenzy, She&Him, and Yann Tierson.

3.  3 of my "must-have" songs for a road trip playlist are: "Party Pit" by The Hold Steady, "Good Weekend" by Art Brut, and "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence and the Machine.  Marissa and I are actually going to be making a road trip playlist tonight!

4.  My favorite pattern is:  little florals.  As though there was ever any doubt.

5.  My favorite perfume is: my beloved Miss Dior Cherie.  It's so light and pretty and sweet without being cloying.

6.  Rules are : generally in place for a reason, but sometimes taking a risk can be a good thing, too.

7.  My most overused phrase or punctuation is: hmm... probably 'lovely,' but I still like it.  I also use a few too many exclamation points every now and again.

♥

tea time ♥

from here and here

♥

speaking words of wisdom

Even though I could count the number of times I remember being with her on one hand, I've always really liked our family friend Eve.  She gave me some advice the other day that's really stuck with me while I'm trying to begin to comprehend the loss of my dad.

"You're going to have good days and you're going to have bad days, and it's okay.  You're going to break down in the middle of the A&P and you're going to be in the most sad situation and start laughing, and none of it is wrong.  There's nothing you can feel that's wrong.  Whatever you feel, it's okay.  It's all okay."

♥

In other news, I'm being serenaded by the peeping of these three little guys...

hope everyone's having a lovely summer sunday

♥

 

fill-in-the-blank friday

via the little things we do

I debated whether or not to do a fill-in-the-blank friday post this week, but I think I need to, either as a distraction or as part of a routine, just to make me feel like there are some things that are orderly and predictable and make sense.  So here goes.

1.   My plans this summer include: being home with my mom, seeing the last Harry Potter movie and going to Six Flags with Marissa, crocheting, and hopefully babysitting.

2.  The best summer I ever had was: when I was maybe fifteen or sixteen, the summers of lots of fife and drum trips and the family vacation to Cape May.  Those were the summers when I started feeling independent, and they were so much fun.

3.  Summer is: strange because I never know what day of the week it is and it ends just when I'm getting used to it.

4.  My favorite summer food is: tomatoes with basil and olive oil.  (Unless the insides of the tomatoes are squishy, I hate that.)

5.  The best way to quench a summer thirst is with: water or a pineapple-orange-banana spritzer.

6.  My summer uniform consists of: sundresses, sundresses, and more sundresses.

7.  The best thing about summer is: doing all the projects that I don't have time for during the school year.

♥

celebrating my dad

Thank you so much for all of the support and love during the past few days. The viewing for my dad will be on Thursday 7/7 at Hessling Funeral Home (428 Main St., Honesdale, PA 18431) from 10 a.m. until noon. The service will be at Grace Episcopal Church at 1 p.m., followed by a celebration of his life at my grandmother's house (1708 East St.) at 4 p.m.

"Whoever is open, loyal, true; of humane and affable demeanour; honourable himself, and in his judgement of others; faithful to his word as to law, and faithful alike to God and man....such a man is a true gentleman."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

♥

dad

love you forever, Dad.  the world is so much better because you were in it.  you'll always be in our hearts.

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

via the little things we do

1.   The best news I ever received was: getting into FIT-- my whole family came to the cafè that I was hanging around at that day and gave me the envelope.  It was very exciting.  ...Either that or the day that Marissa sent me a facebook message saying, "Want to go to Disney World with me?"  Heehee.

2.  Something I'm looking forward to is, on that same note, going to the midnight show of Harry Potter on the 14th and going to Six Flags with her a few days later.

3.  Something I would never do is: use a tanning booth.  I just find them completely unappealing.

4.  If I could choose someone to be my life coach (famous or not, living or dead), I'd choose:  not a clue.  I find the whole concept of 'life coaches' to be very strange.  ...Does Dumbledore count?

.  If I had to put a label on my style it would be: sweet.  I'm all about sundresses and pastels and soft knits.

6.  One should always: be considerate of others.

7.  I want to: sip tea and knit for the rest of the night.

♥