The sweet little girl that I wasn't

I'm currently at home in Corvallis, visiting for a family reunion, a best friend's wedding, and to see my brother, Matthew, for the last time before he leaves on a mission for Brazil. I found these old family movies on my mom's computer and so I had to put a few up. This first one is me when I am four and I am singing a song. The lyrics are especially amazing, so be sure to listen to them. I'm sure you would never guess that I made them up all by myself and on the spot.

So, if you know me and my brother, Matthew (the one about to leave on a mission) you will know that we are very good friends and there is no one that can make me laugh as hard as he can. But our relationship has not always been the way it is now and these next two clips will reveal the relationship we used to have. To defend myself, here was my perspective when I was little: I was the only child, I had had the attention of my parents all to myself for three whole years and now this boy decided to invade on my perfectly wonderful life and steal away the attention of my parents. Before I even set eyes on this boy we were not off to a good start. My mom says that she would sometimes hear me arguing in the next room but no one else would be in that room with me. I would be saying things like, "Stop taking my O's!" (cheerios). So she would ask me "Who are you talking to?" and I would tell her "The Boy is trying to take my O's." I wouldn't even call him by his name, I called him "The Boy" for a long time! After he was born I told my mom that I was ready for his mommy and daddy to come out of her tummy and take him home. Basically, it was my responsibility to fight tooth and nail to prove my parents that I was by far their favorite child and that Matthew was not welcome. These next two videos will show you how hard I tried to achieve these things.

In this next one, notice how I send sweet smiles and giggles in the direction of my parents and try to disguise the slaps I am aiming at Matthew. Every time I start trying to beat Matthew up my Dad calls, "Let's see some beautiful dancing!"

Some proof that Matthew and I are, in fact, friends now:

The Haunted Theater

Yesterday, this cute blond-haired, blue-eyed boy asked me to go on a picnic with him at the park

So we did.

We had sandwiches and soup and pretzels and chocolate mousse. Getting soup out of a thermos with a spoon can be hard:

And we played frisbee:

And then we saw this very cool building across the street that looked like a very old movie theater that had been closed down for many years, even decades:

There were even very old movie posters in the window, faded from the being in the sun for so long. We went over to investigate the building. Maybe there would be old movie theater seats in there, or old ticket stubs from movies viewed in that very building during World War II. Or maybe old popcorn tubs or old movie reels of films that starred Gene Kelly or Audrey Hepburn. Maybe the place would even be haunted!

But when we went to investigate, we were ridiculously disappointed to find out that the whole place was just painted to look like a movie theater. The ticket window and the front door aren't even real! Inside are sound system parts for cars. Now, we probably should have figured this out before we went over to look in the building, because the name of the supposed last played movie there is "Sound Advice," and really, it's kind of small to be a theater. But how much cooler would it have been if it was an old shut-down theater that was haunted? Much cooler.

Perhaps I was so anxious for it to be an old shut-down building with hidden treasures because of a story I heard recently on the talk-show This American Life.

I listen to This American Life while I am doing artwork, or cleaning the house or making dinner and I love it! Throughout each episode they tell all these interesting stories about all these random, unheard-of individuals in the U.S. It is fascinating! All the stories are connected in an episode by a similar theme. And you can listen to it for free on the internet. Here is a link. The true story I heard earlier this week was about these two kids who stumbled across this boarded up house, and decided to break in and look around. Inside the house they find a newspaper on the table from 1938. There are clothes strewn throughout the whole house, even a fancy dancing dress hung in the closet of what looks like a teen-age girl's bedroom. They find the wallet of the father with money still inside of it, on his bed-stand in his room. There's food in the cupboards, old letters and bills. Everything is still in the house as if something disasterous happened and the whole family had to flee. Throughout the episode they try to find out what happened to the family, but it's hard because no one in the small town will talk to them about it, they tell the kids to mind their own business. Anyway, it's a fantastic show. Here's the link to that episode, if you are dying to find out what happened to the family.

My uncle Moki, the photojournalist

I have an uncle named:

(We call him Moki)

Who is married to the most beautiful girl from Chile, named (her name is in the picture, in case you didn't catch that):

And he travels around in a vehicle called the Gypsy Rose, with fairy seat-covers, outer-space curtains, and a piano in the back:

And he is a photojournalist, and he is VERY good. He travels throughout the whole world and takes incredible pictures, like this:

Check out his website here.

And now, onto far mushier things:

So I have had this favorite color for maybe three months now, that greyish greenish light blue color I’ve mentioned before. I really love this color and try to somehow incorporate it in any art piece I can. Well, the other day I was talking to that cute boy I got married to and I was staring adoringly into his eyes (I know, this is getting wonderfully cheesy!) and I suddenly realized something that I had completely missed for months-- my favorite color right now is the color of my husband’s eyes! I am sure that that is not a coincidence, I am sure staring into his eyes for all this time has made me fall in love with that color, but I have no idea why it took me several months to realize that his eye color was the same thing as my favorite color! You are probably dying with how insanely sappy this all is, but isn’t that cool? It’s cool, even if you don’t want to admit it, it’s very cool!

My current favorite, for right now

I think if you ask any art major what their favorite color is, it is highly unlikely that they will give you a solid, straight answer, like "blue." It is more likely that they will say "I don't have a favorite color" or "My most recent favorite color is..." or "I like this kind of greenish blueish grey color right now, and also this orangy red, like a poppy red, and also this avocado green, and also..." Asking an art major for a favorite color is like asking a parent who their favorite child is; art majors work with color every single day and have unexplainable passions for certain colors. It's also the same if you ask them who their favorite artist is. I think it is rare for an art major to have just one artist that they love (correct me if I'm wrong, which I might very likely be). They kind of go through fits passion for whichever new artist they have just discovered. My latest love affair with a particular artist's work is with Lisbeth Zwerger's work. I LOVE her work! She illustrates a lot of fairy tales. I love the patterns she uses throughout her pieces and the whispy look of the hair, and the small heads with the huge bodies, and the queen's castle and tree crown in the sixth picture down. And I love the colors in the last picture with the poppies because those colors in there are two of my favorite colors right now!

The Bride's Cafe

Although I have been married for almost 10 MONTHS now (holy cow!), I still find myself addicted to TheBridesCafe.com. The weddings they show pictures of are so classy, and I love classy! Here are some things I've seen lately on their site that I kinda love:

Thou shalt not covet- um...too late

Here is what I am currently coveting from Anthropologie. Plan: make a piece of art that sells for a million dollars and then go buy something from Anthropologie (pretty sure the first sweater pictured here costs $98- slightly out of a college student's budget). I am in awe of the talent possessed by the people who design the stuff sold at that store.

Bird cages

I have this thing with bird cages right now. I'm not sure there is an explainable reason. But how cool is this bird cage umbrella? I cannot remember where I found this online, but is is so cool.

These I found on Etsy.

The girl who made this necklace makes all sorts of jewelry out of hand cut paper! So beautiful! You can see the rest of her stuff here.

Oh, update! This is so cool! Laura Tait sent me a link to a blog post about using bird cages in wedding decor. This looks so elegant and classy! Someone getting married soon should definitely use this in their decorations- so lovely! Thanks, Laura!