cold-front

Today was really cold. :( The weather has been so teasing, lately, first warm, then hot, then cold! Truly cold! See, I have on my shapeless warmish clothing... Usually I'm all gray - gray tee, gray sweatshirt, gray leggings, gray sweat pants. That's the usual uniform on cold days. 

This is a lifestyle blog, right? Well, here's a lifestyle fact about moi. I hate cutting my nails. It gives me the creeps - my finger tips are all sensitive and give me chills for a whole day after I clip them. So I tend to wait too long. This time, the quilting needle I use on my blanket actually put a groove in what my mother calls my "claw."

Breakfast was yummy this morning. Flat egg on British muffins. We always called them English muffins, but Trader Joe's things they are British. *shrug* Oh oh oh, also, this green juice from Trader Joe's, which is really just spirulina and a bunch of fruits. It is so good!

I have a confession. I have never had to write an essay before. Not a proper one, anyway. This is the first proper essay I have had to write, and I think it's okay. Compares and contrasts Rochester from Jane Eyre and Conroy from "The Dead" to a Byronic hero. For anyone who does know what a Byronic hero is: A Byronic hero is a type of hero based on Lord Byron and the protagonists of some of his works. This type of character usually suffers from a dark, mysterious past, has issues with morality, is arrogant and moody, and yet somehow ridiculously attractive. :) The best kind. Some argue that the Doctor (of Doctor Who) is a Byronic hero. Kind of lacks the arrogance, though, don't you think?

That's a watercolor that I really need to finish. I quite like it now, though at the time I felt that the tentacles looked like vomit. They are still a bit shady, but I think with some help, I could make it work...

Quinn kept me company while I did homework today, working on a big drawing of the Invisible Man. He's listening to the book, by H.G. Wells. 

Lunch... salad & Italian sausage. Dinner: Oatmeal and cinnaraisin toast!

Oh, and I am very interested in reading this book! Mom got it from the library, and it is chock full of pictures and interviews... Very cool.

My goal is to be finished with both of my last exams by tomorrow night. That means half a World Lit exam and some last minute edits to my essay. Hehehehehe. *giddy*

the string

'Are you anything akin to me, do you think, Jane?'

I could risk no sort of answer by this time: my heart was still.

'Because,' he said, 'I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you -- especially when you are near me as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly.'

 - Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre

l'omelette

This post is dedicated to Logan, because now I can make omelettes that I actually enjoy eating! It really took me long enough to stop and watch how its done, but now I have one almost every morning, and not just when I'm at Logan's. So thank you! :) 

There is something I've noticed about taking pictures of food: it forces you to make pretty food. I wasn't going to put spinach or peppers in my omelette this morning. But how pretty is that! So I had to, and it was all the yummier for it.

Okay, this cheese is called Wisconsin Sharp Cheddar and its from Trader Joe's. If you go there, make sure and pick up a chunk, because it is amazing cheese. Sooo good.

The picture on the right is my bathroom window, which I really love, and since I had nothing to pair with the omelette... ;) Okay, now for Jane Eyre. Seriously.

Wish me luck!

- caroline

school is almost over

Guess what I should be doing right now? Yeah, it's not blogging. BUT! I am officially finished with French - it's a bittersweet celebration, because I really loved French, and now there is nothing to keep me learning. I should go find some French classes.

I am at TWO exams left to go and I really should be reading Jane Eyre. Which I love, by the way, it is such a fun narrative. Despite being all rigid and moral, Jane is a really imaginative character, and of course, Rochester... Mmm.

The summer clothes are out, and I got rid of a HUGE trash bag full of clothes. Now I have a reasonable amount of clothes - and bought these three new tanks! Aren't they cute? 

Okay, one last post to go. :)

exploratory

The other day, me and Quinn were walking the property and I said we should go to all the places we don't normally go. I only made a few new finds, but I like the photos that I got.

Speaking of going places you normally don't go... I have a new idea I've been thinking about. Since finding this very nice site, www.issuu.com, which hosts PDF's, I've been pondering starting an online magazine, which one day, might be printed, even. It would be an exploratory magazine, which would find new things in art, music, fashion & lit that I could share with people. It would be very simple, and all about presentation. So, would you read a short, pretty publication online?

The idea is still in progress, so while you wait for me to cognate... :) Here are the rest of the pics:

catching up

I seemed to disappear there for a bit, didn't I? Well, to catch up, I must tell you that the Red Dress spring shoot went AMAZING-ly. It was so, so cool. When we were out there, it was like walking through a magazine. I've only been to a few shoots like that - one was Andrea & Ryan's wedding - you walked around and you just felt like you were in this big, beautiful production, and that no matter what you took a picture of, it would contain a beautiful location, a beautiful person, beautiful clothes and beautiful light. The intense wind and chilly temperature was a bit challenging (okay, fine, I'm romanticizing the day slightly), but that makes me all the more proud of the photos.

So the fashion shoot was a success, I would say. I am really looking forward to planning the next - I should probably get started on that pretty soon! :) Hehehehe! I am going to post some behind-the-scenes photos from the shoot soon, possibly on Sara's blog.

This is what post-production looked like for the shoot. So messy.

We took over 3,000 images. Yes, we know that's excessive. But I am so glad we did, they are so beautiful. Logan, Sara, you took absolutely amazing images. 

Okay, I have about three more blog posts lined up. So, stay tuned for the next few minutes while I post. :) Then I'm going back to posting everyday!! 

À bientôt!

- caroline

YIKES

Tomorrow morning is the shoot! Okay, off to bed for me...

pizza & friends

Hahaha, no, not ordering pizza and eating it with real live friends, silly! That's what normal people would do. I'm talking pizza from home and friends with a capital F.

Pizza:

And Friends:

Say what you will about Friends -- it makes me warm and fuzzy inside. I was just exhausted at the end of today, which I feel bad even writing out loud. But seriously, I did! I know, it's lame, I don't work a full time job or have babies to carry around, but heck, I wasn't that exhausted. Just moderately exhausted. So much phone talking to plan this fashion shoot, my voice was disappearing.

I got to shoot the website images for the Red Dress Boutique today (Logan had to work) - it was quite fun, really. Then I took a short walk in the drizzly weather to Dynamite, which is this vintage/used clothes store down the street. I'm looking for a new apron. My red polka-dot one is really slowly ripping to shreds. Which, you know, isn't conducive to protecting my clothes... Unfortunately, Dynamite only had two waist aprons and a painting apron. I need to check Agora and Minx...

Okay, well, I'm going to go to SLEEP. Yikes, only ONE day left until the fashion shoot. Did you hear? It's going to rain. And be generally cold and wet. Of course. >.< However, we are going to stay positive, shoot indoors and deliver a fantastic lookbook, nonetheless. :)

Good night!
- caroline

dusk

I was determined to take pictures at some point today, but first there was a boring breakfast, then a shower, then a trip to the library (but I drove, so no pics), and then homework and fashion shoot planning and re-planning. And lots of phone conversations and thinking things out with Mom. A boring lunch, and a REALLY delicious bowl of Fresh Apple Crisp with whipped cream -- I will post about this tomorrow!

Well, it wasn't until dusk that I was picture inspired. :) I love this time of year. The mix of dead plants with new plants, the mix of the golden setting sun and the cool colors. 

Quinn made a mustache for my computer. It started with making a mustache for his computer - his mustache is black and curled - I will make sure to take a picture tomorrow. :D He thought mine should be orange. It's appropriate. ^.^

DUDE. I am addicted to these honey roasted peanuts. When we watch at night, I can eat them and eat them. It's kind of a choice: Do I quilt or do I eat peanuts? Because I can't quilt AND eat them, they are so messy. ;)

The trip to the library was to get a copy of Jane Eyre. My last exam in British Lit is to write a three page essay on some question or another about a book. I had a few book options, one of which was Sense and Sensibility, but how can you not choose to prove that Rochester is an example of a Byronic hero?? He's like the PERFECT Byronic hero!

The only copy the library had was this tiny, tiny book with bible paper pages and that cool ink drawing on the front. Kind of cool.

Did you know that Charlotte Brontë wrote under the pen name "Currer Bell?" In fact, all three Brontë sister's used pen names, men's names, so that readers didn't know they were women. Charlotte was Currer Bell, Anne was Acton Bell, and Emily was Ellis Bell. In their time, women writing literature was so scorned that the easiest way to be published was to assume a man's name.

Good night! Going to go make a pumpkin pie. Might post pictures later tonight.

- caroline

P.S. Why is this song coming up on Coldplay radio??? Really love your peaches, wanna shake your treeeee. Ugh. It's only the catchiest line of innuendo. Ugh. Now it's just stuck in my head.

early morning

Today I got up hours and hours before my usual time - like at maybe 7am? -_- We were supposed to go to Tucker Plantation to see the pond before the fashion shoot, but like a dummy, I didn't string together the HUGE thunderstorm the previous evening to what a mud-hole the road to the pond would be. So I tossed and turned from 4am to 5:58am, trying to go to sleep but dreading the alarm clock, alternately starving and having to pee but ignoring it. I seriously don't know how you people do it, the ones that wait for an alarm clock every morning. I would be physically sick every day and eventually keel over and die.

Of course, by 5:58 (that's what my watch said, by the glow of the flood lights Dad left on, shining through my blinds and curtain), I could finally fall back to sleep. Like, really to sleep. I was a groggy mess when the my iPod alarm shrilled its Old Telephone tone at me, but it was so pretty outside... I had to take pictures. Then, I realized - Duh, there would be no pond tour today. Woke myself up enough to play a tiny round of phone tag with April at Tucker Plantation -- then I was too hungry to go back to sleep. Must find Mom and tell her not to wake up. Which is hard to do without waking her up. (I say that as if I didn't know where she was. Correction: I knew where she was.)

So, I ended up waking Mom. Then we were both hungry. Oatmeal, I said, I want oatmeal. Nice executive decision, no diddling over options like eggs or cereal or... what else do people have for breakfast? I go downstairs while Mom takes a shower and see the previous night's coffee cake on the counter - ohhhh, cake. But I should have oatmeal.

I had to go out while the oatmeal was bubbling away. At first, it was gray, and the sun that was filtering through the clouds was white on the grass and porch. But then, all of the sudden, the clouds go away and everything goes gold. There was this beautiful contrast between the dark rainclouds and the yellow sunlight.

Can you see how the tree is covered in moss? It's so pretty.... And, to cap off my story, Mom came downstairs, and I told her that I really ought to have made eggs and had eggs and cake, because you can't eat oatmeal and cake. She thought eggs and cake sounded weird - wasn't sure about that. I think eggs and cake sounds lovely.

Moral of this story? Don't set a flipping alarm without purpose unless prepared to turn that purpose into a blog post with pictures. :D

Epilogue:

I took a nap. My brain was all fuzzy. I would be a useless person in the corporate world, the educational world, and all of the other worlds that require early rising (yes, I acknowledge their existence!). Absolutely useless.

Fin.