Random Chaos

There's this giant painting at the end of the long hallway of practice rooms upstairs in the music building, and I can't help but think about this every time I look at it (which is pretty much everyday since I'm always practicing something.)  It's kind of a mess - just splattered paint of every color - and I always see a faint outline of a girl's profile in that mess.  It's really a squiggle; the artist probably didn't mean for it to look like a face, but it does.  And every time I see it I think about how that painting is like this chaotic, noisy, mess, and that girl is just a shadow getting swallowed up *Schluump* just like that.

Well... that had nothing to do with anything really.  You just wasted your time reading into that.

Go do something better.

Pie Time

I ran out of steam with the painting project - it's at a good stopping place, and I have to go back to school this weekend anyway.

Today I'm making thank-you pies... Chocolate meringue and chocolate cream.  Mom warned me before she stepped out that I was taking on a challenging recipe that was unpredictable and often disappointing...  The only disappointing thing so far was the crust, which was store-bought because we didn't have enough butter. >:( I think most cooks like to be able to say that they made the entire thing from scratch...  It's kind of embarrassing really, to have to use frozen pie crusts.  Not even the roll out kind, but the in-the-pan kind (gasp!)  Yes, well, anyway, they got a little brown.  And cracked.  *Sigh*

[Picture I will take later >here<]

Someday I aspire to be "that old lady" at the church potlucks whose dish is empty before anyone else's and whose secret recipes are envied by all the other old ladies.  That shouldn't be a problem, since at the rate my generation is going, I think most potlucks will be a smorgasbord of fast food, deli salads and box cakes/frozen pies.

Go teach your children how to cook.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Remember the old nursery rhyme - "Mary, Mary quite contrary..."

In my garden are some of my favorites: Irises,

Morning glories,

And bleeding hearts (please excuse the missing light cover)

So far...

Go grow your own garden.

Making Progress

Okay, so you do get an update after all.  I only stop for very important things like eating and checking Holiday World's new ride announcement (WOO HOO!)

So here's a quick picture of the fence/lattice trellis that will support all the flowers to be added.

I'm starting with the lower ones - purple phlox first.  They have prickly little leaves that are really fun to paint.

That reminds me, I've been told that I'm handy with a brush, but it takes a lot more than a brush and the know-how to do something like this.  The tools I have/will use on this project are:

1. Okay, the brush
2. My whole hand/fingers/nails - I swipe/rub/scrape things all the time 'cause it's easier
3. A level/a ruler
4. Painter's tape for super-clean lines
5. A sponge and a very hard/crunchy paper towel for when you want to wipe something and leave marks behind.

I also have a really good book of flowers and my mother, the gardening expert to refer to as I choose which flowers to use, how tall they should be, etc.  I know that the old mural secretly always bugged mom because it had a completely unrealistic combination of seasons growing together (crocuses and sunflowers?!?)  She complains about Better Homes throwing together what must be an enchanted garden because they do the same thing (although not nearly as blatantly, I hope.)

So It Begins

Props to my dad for working on this for several hours between shopping/cutting/painting/nailing (my sister's in this picture too but she was just there holding the board for a bit.)  I got to use the jigsaw and the screwdriver which was quite exciting.

Now it's on to the actual painting-painting part.  I've pretty much decided what I want it to look like.  I'll do a picket fence to match the bed in my room and the flowers will all be from mid-late spring because my favorite flowers are irises and that's when they bloom.  

In the old mural I had all kinds of animals - some obvious, some hidden - but I think I'll just do normal things like birds and butterflies this time.  In one of my drawing from several years ago I had planned it out and put a full-size deer right amid the scenery...  I'm thinking that a. I would never be able to paint that and b. It would probably scare me to death every time I walked by until I got used to it.

If this is anything like my other big projects, I'll be eating all my meals in my room and certainly not stopping for pictures/blogging.  I'll keep my favorite music and iced tea handy. :)

On to Greater Things

I've been done with my summer job for just over three days and already I'm thinking I need to do something.

It started with a simple painting project over the weekend..

Then yesterday I got to looking at my bedroom wall, which has been like this since I was eleven:

I've been saying it for a while, but now I'm determined; it's gotta go.  So, I guess in the words of Phineas Flynn, "I know what we're going to do today, dad."

(Copied from my original blog on July 19, 2011)

My Pilot

I don't know why people have blogs.  They're just a bunch of silly ramblings tossed out into cyberspace, usually poorly-written and not even funny.  Ten years - no, ten days from now no one will care what anyone else said on here.  Despite that, I read and now write them...  It's like how we complain about how awful McDonald's is, but of course we still go.

I recently discovered that my little brother has a blog - who knows what he's going to write about.  He likes wearing brandname clothes, taking pictures of himself in said clothes, working out as much as humanly possible, "hanging out" with people and blowing things up.

Sooo, in the interest of keeping things even between us (and making sure he doesn't surpass me at being "gucci" as he would say - which we all know is impossible anyway since I taught him everything he knows), I figure I'll take a whack at it myself.

That, and the fact that someone told me the other day that they held my opinion in the highest esteem, or something like that...  If it was my mother she was probably being sarcastic, but I can't remember.

Whoever it was: look what you started.

(Copied from the original blog on July 18, 2011)