Friday, May 29, 2015

fabulous friday : Printed Photos [lesson learned]

So if you've kept up with me, back in February I ordered photos for the first time since getting my dslr (which was two years ago.) As I've spend time messing with them over the past few weeks, I've learned a few helpful tips for next time. Don't make the mistakes I made when ordering pictures!

1. Make sure the "auto-color" is turned off.
This didn't effect most of my photos, but there were a couple that had funny tints on them. Not un-usable, but not me, not how I had edited them. Turn auto everything off, in fact.everything.

2. Make sure that they're the right size.
We've always gotten the same size (like 5x7, I think,) so naturally that was the size I ordered. Unfortunately that didn't fit in the journal I had wanted to put them in. Next time, I need to check the measurements of the scrapbooks/walls/journal I want to put it in and order prints accordingly.

3. Spend [enough] time really deciding on the right photos
I have a few too many useless photos I will (probably) never use. I like them, I really do, but I probably won't do anything with them.

4. Order from Costco.
Like, no really. I'm not just saying this. Their color is amazing, plus they have the cheapest print cost besides shutterfly (who's color/quality is awful.)  Really, actually, read reviews and find out who you really want to order from before jumping the gun!

Happy Friday!



Thursday, May 28, 2015

21/52 (part two) - May 23rd : Airplane!

Last Saturday my scout troop went to a airstrip/port thing and flew in some of the cutest planes! My sister even got to steer hers!! It was wonderful. If you ever get a chance to do it, do! It's so amazing! Since I flew for the first time (that I really remember, I flew once when I was five. The words, "bugs bunny" sum up my entire memory...oh, also those little airplane wing pins.) back in September I've been itching to get up in a plane, so I jumped on this one. It was very exciting!




 So, tell me about your first (memorable) trip in an airplane! Love it or hate it?

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

21/52 (part one) - May 21st : outside

so my brother lost his two front teeth last week and I went outside to take a couple pictures of him. my youngest sisters love outside, so I got followed by them, and it turned it to a mini-session. We had a lot of fun, and it was nice to get a few pictures of them, just playing and interacting with each other. I love how comfortable they've become in front of the camera (though naturally they do still need a little work. :))



My summer goal right now is to get my pictures (all of them) edited or deleted, and organized. What are your goals?

Friday, May 22, 2015

Fabulous Friday - On Books (part one)

 Books. There's a lot going on here. So lemme break it down. real quick, like.

Books {That made me cry, love, and see the world in a new light.}
 (disclaimer: these are all from literature, there have been other books that have effected me, that I am not including for various reasons, e.g. the bible,  the shining company, etc,  but that does not mean that they have not effected me.)
part two//part three
Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
   If someone asked me for a good book to sum up The American Dream, I'm pretty sure I would hand them Johnny Tremain.
   When I first time I read Johnny Tremain, it was read out loud to me. I was probably ten or eleven, and honestly, I just didn't like it that much. A couple years later when I reread it I cried the whole last chapter, or just about.
   There's something so sad and upsetting about it all, even with the hopefulness at the end of the book. The last line was so "WOW!" to me, though. So much american dream there. Definitely to be filed under my "favorite last lines" right there under A Separate Peace. To me that line made the book. It was already a great story, with great character development, but the last line really tied it all up, made it complete in all it's wonderfulness. Will forever be a classic in my mind.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
   I first read David Copperfield the summer I was eleven. Honestly, I only really cried when his mom died (awkward thing: My sister was reading it out loud to me and I was actually in bed like weeping. yep, that's me.) I totally didn't get that he and Agnes were perfect for each other, to show you how much I missed. I reread it last December (instead of taking me all summer I got it done in a month! yay!), and absolutely loved it. I cried all over it. The themes are so strong. The characters are so stark. Even his descriptions as a small child are so nicely done. Giving enough detail to fill you in, yet leaving enough out so you feel as though you are that child. The themes that stand out again and again are so subtle and so real and bold. 
How did it impact me? *coughcough howdiditnot?* Basically his character the whole way through was so...Inspiring? Honestly, I'm not really sure... He's just so amazing. How he grows is so great to me. Also his trust in everyone and his desire to see good in everyone is so, so Bingley-like.  *cue cute picture of crispin bonham-carter

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
I first read this when we checked it out from the library, I don't know, three summers ago? I was about twelve. My oldest sister had checked it out from the library with a big stack of huge books and cried really hard when she read it. So then she gave it to my second oldest sister to read and Jess was like, "yeah, that's pretty good." and it was short and I was like, "hey, why not?" And oh my word, the prologue! The Prologue ties the whole story together with beautiful language weaving everything together. And I was pretty hooked.
I cried as soon as Jesse comes to get her & cried til the end. Actually, I still do when I read it.
There was something so impacting of not wanting to live forever and why, and Natalie Babbitt conveys it in such a short children's book, it makes it that much better. It was one of the books that just kinda haunted me and I couldn't stop thinking about it.
So now every August, when it's in those first months of summer, and we're at the top of the ferris wheel, I take out Enya's A Day Without Rain and curl up and read Tuck Everlasting.
So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We let them come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever?
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever?

A Separate Peace by John Knowles
I'm hesitant to put this one on. Just thinking about this feels like ripping a scab off. A scab the size of Great Britain.
I read this a couple weeks ago for school. I cried for most of it, but heaviliest (is that a word? it's giving me the red snake...) at the very end. The last page was hard to read, not just because I've always had difficulty reading, or the fact that I was crying to hard...It was just painful all around.
Side note: I finished the day after my birthday and two days before christmas. Stupid, much? xD
I don't think I can honestly say how it effected me, without spoiling the book. I realized how true the end was as I looked around me...also I had the biggest book hangover I have ever experienced in my life. fact.

To be continued...

Thursday, May 21, 2015

20/52 (part two) - May 16th : Lazy Saturday

My saturdays are usually pretty busy, but every once in a long while I have one of those gem saturdays, like this one. I just relaxed and read When You Reach Me and drank ice tea (oh, yeah, you can get that recipe here.) Also a camera. I also had my camera.


 So this week is my last week of school (yayayayayay) and I need some summer goals...or my parents will give me some (they actually have had some of the most awesome ideas for what to do with my summers. This year my mom is pushing me to get a society6 account and upload some of my pictures. I'm kinda thinking I'll maybe give it a go.) Ideas, anyone? I work three days a week (five hours a day), so I don't have a ton of time, but I am interested in video stuff, so maybe something involving that kind of thing. I have a list of music videos I would love to do. But that's still a dream. Anyway, I'm putting my thinking cap on. What plans do you have for summer?

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

20/52 (part one) - May 15th : my work

I know I've mentioned it before, but I babysit three days a week, every week. I call it a job, but it's my first, so my wording is loose. Honestly, it's very close to perfect, though. They live a couple blocks (five, to be precise) from downtown and people are always walking by. I've taken the kids down for ice cream in the wagon, and it's so much fun. I feel like a grown up. well, a grown up babysitter, at least. It's kinda one of those small town things that has been on my subconscious bucket list for a long time. I love it.


I made my first box mix cookies and look how well they turned out. (I know they look gay. They're supposed to be tie dye not rainbow.) They took me a full (flippin) two hours. THEY WERE FROM A BOX!!! after making five swirly ones I gave up and just smashed all the colors together and baked them.
 another bonus about my job is that I get a lot of time to ponder deep and meaningful things. like shoes.

Aren't his vans darling? Eeek, dying over here! What are your favorite things to ponder? favorite shoe brand? Have a great week!

Friday, May 15, 2015

Fabulous Friday : back in the days of b&w

Don't get me wrong; color is my friend, but it's almost easier to create a picture in color. It's like the picture is all right there, but with black and white it has to be eye catching. So, I also love black and white. So here's a collection of black and white. enjoy.





Also, let's be upfront here. b&w covers a multitude of photography sins. Am I right?

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

19/52 (part two) - May 6th : If everybody had an ocean

Surfin' USA is seriously on my personal top forty. Top Forty beach boy's songs, that is. I only know 32. Unless you count their christmas albumn (which I'm not except for that one song called Little Saint Nick. Which is pretty sweet.)
So here's our third (and last) day at the beach. enjoy!




 We even got a kite (which was a lot of fun to fly, even though I didn't.)

^ one of two photos of me taken the whole trip...Except for a couple selfies. (:

Summer is almost here, you guys!!! Any plans? I have one week left of school, so I need to get on it. Suggestions?


Tuesday, May 12, 2015

19/52 (part one) - May 4th & 5th : Vacay time!

But it's still okay (hey!) 'cause I'm on vacation!!! (< this song is at the very top of my favorite rhett&links.)
Every time we go on vacation we have an official song and a secondary offical song. The first year (2012) we went to Kitty Hawk it was Smile On (Anthem) with a runner up of Imagine Dragon's On Top Of The World. The second year (2013) was Jump Right In (Zac Brown Band) & Melody (Kate Earl). This year it was Geronimo (Sheppard) and Vacation (Rhett & Link). Other favorites included (but were not limited to) Walk On The Ocean (Toad The Wet Sprocket), Forever Young (Alphaville), 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (Train), and Budapest (Heck, I don't know. Google it.) We really have a crazy collection of songs.  (:
So after a eleven and a half hour drive (yikes) we landed in Kitty Hawk (Outer Banks), North Carolina. It's beautiful (more on that later.) We arrived about six (we drove out of our subdivision around 4:05 AM), and kinda crashed on the beach. It was lovely.

So Tuesday we went miniature golfing. Which sounded a whole lot funner than it really was. Mostly it was hot. A small bit was fun. A very small bit.
 The first night we were there (Monday) my brother lost his glasses in the ocean. We kept hoping (praying) they would wash back up, but alas. So, he is still glassesless. (This is the brother who is legally blind in one eye. His other eye is fine, but it was still pretty lame to lose your much-needed glasses on the first day of your vacation.) He was a sport, though. He didn't complain at all.

 So then we climbed this little tower by the kite store (kites are their thing there.) The view was awesome.
 I got two fabulous shirts at the life is good store. They are quickly becoming my favorite.


Then we headed down to the beach for a long day of gorgeous. Fun thing to do: Let a wave hit you and then flop back and let it pull you up the sand. It gets pebbles down your back but it is so dang fun!!