sneeze.

photo by quinn.

Today I ventured outside. I haven't properly been outside in a few days, because every organ in my head hates pollen. My eyes itch, my nose itches, I sneeze, my nose runs, my eyes run, my throat itches! And then my brain tells me to run inside. :( But Zyrtec has helped a little... So today I tried it out. Still itchy, but I lasted longer than usual.

The day before yesterday I made a Lemon Chess Pie. As the recipe informed us, origin of the name is unknown! However, the pie was delicious...

Privet has bloomed. Did I mention that? Ugh. Allergies make me ashamed to be part of the human race which lives indoors for most of their lives. Surely we would have these reactions if we lived outdoors? We would be incapacitated for months! I should look it up and see what the facts are...

photo by quinn.

Next post I'm working on: Old family photos. I've been having so much fun scanning them in! I'm on 1986 right now... We were really cute kids. Of course, it'll be a few more days (weeks?) before I get to my baby pics. Anyway, I'm going to make a blog post of my favs. :) Then you'll know where our family got the photography genes from. Our parents took some really beautiful photos of us. 

Aja aja fighting!

- caroline

Note on what the heck I just said: I've noticed that in Korean dramas, people say "fighting" as a cheer, a replacement for "go [insert sport or name here]!"  "Aja aja fighting" is unique to the drama I just watched. :) Koreans are cool.

focus

I finally faced up to the SAT today. Well, not the real thing. College Board has a really nice SAT website with practice tests and the like. So after practice questions in each subject, I took the real practice test. I hesitated to share my result, but then thought, what the heck. It's not like I've bragged to be a genius or anything.

My first practice test score is 1820, as seen on the calculator in the pic. Or at least, that is the sum of the three test subjects? 660 in Reading, 690 in Writing, 470 in Math. Yes, 470. I know that is not good, however little I may know about the other scores. 

So... time for brushin' up on my sums. (So maybe Lark Rise to Candleford is rubbing off on me....) It was on my list of goals anyway. I shouldn't be so depressed about it - I was confident that I had absorbed very little applicable math skills in my algebra cramming sessions. I mean, I did remember some, thanks largely in part to Erin. I did get some questions right, and whatnot, but it just doesn't flow easily. So I'm going to practice more, but without the pressure of graduation being at stake.

How nice would it be to just easily solve mathematical problems? I love it when my brain works cohesively, when I can look at an algebra problem and go: hey, I know what to do with this. 

So that is what I did today, and it made me unreasonably mopey. But seeing as my cure-all is TV, Drop Dead Diva made me feel better. Hehe. I know, it's a silly show, but I can't help but like its supremely happy actors and general light-heartedness.

If you have any advice for me on taking the SAT or comments on my score and how high it should actually be, let me know. I'm pretty clueless. :P

Nighty night,

- caroline

goodnight, again.

My fluffy hair wanted to wish you a goodnight, as well. So, goodnight. <3

bokeh-mania

On Flickr, a fellow photographer (alyssakai) used a bokeh mask to make pretty heart bokeh in a few of her shots. I thought that was just so cool. I know this technique has been around for awhile, but I had never played around with it. Inspired, I set out to make my own masks.

Quinn and I decided on three shapes. Hearts, plus-signs and stars. Basically, you cut a small shape out of the center of a black piece of paper... You know what, I did a terrible job at following the directions, so check it out yourself here: DIY Create Your Own Bokeh

Since my bokeh masks were very lame, and held on by my own hand, there are usually some deep vignettes on the images. :P Kind of made me feel like I was using that fish-eye attachment on Griffin's old kit lens, which gave everything black corners. Bleh. But this was much cooler.

Sometimes the bokeh shapes aren't apparent. The next few pictures were taken without a mask - just regular pics, but all shot on 1.4/f. So pretty. :) I hardly ever shoot that low, but since you have to shoot on the lowest aperture with the bokeh masks, I thought I'd play around with it. 

Those big heart shaped leaves are violet leaves! There are tons of violet plants under the brush.

These white hearts are out-of-focus flowers. :)

Blue light leak up there in the corner. Hehe, fun!

Reflection in a hubcap. A VERY shiny hubcap.

Here are my silly bokeh masks. :P I literally just hugged them around the lens with my hand. It was all very make-shift! Anyway, there are my experimental pics. Enjoy!

Nighty-night.

- caroline

a good day

The good things about today:

- It was a chilly day, which I don't like in great numbers, but was nice for today.

- We made two different yummy treats.

- One was my own creation - mini apple tarts.

- The other was donuts!

- I don't even remember what we had for dinner, so that obviously wasn't something I thought about.

- Andwemayormaynothavewatchedtvalot. 

Now I feel rather bad, because I don't mean to say that all the other days aren't good, because they are. It was just that today was a fun, sit on your butt more than usual, watch more tv than usual, eat more treats than usual day. Not that I, personally, earned such a day, really, but nonetheless, it was awesome.

The willow was all tangled after last night's storm, so Quinn was sort of unwinding some of the branches.

So the mini apple tarts were a huge success. Remember the chicken pie? Well, I had all of this totally delicious pie dough leftovers from cutting around the dish, so I thought I'd use them up today.

Since I sort of made it up, I can share the recipe with you. And I do realize that I didn't actually invent this, I'm sure it's been done many times before, but here is what I did. Roll out your leftover pie dough, cut it into rectangles. Spread some butter on each piece, spread on some brown sugar, top with two or three thin apple slices that have been tossed with cinnamon. Make sure to leave an area around the edge of the dough free of butter or sugar! I didn't really do this, and I knew it would leak out in the over, but I didn't care. :P

Fold the rectangles in half and try to seal the edges by squishing them together and folding them. Place on a baking sheet, sprinkle with sugar and put them in a 350 degree oven for ageeees. I didn't have a timer, I just waited until they were the sliiiightest bit browned. The apples were done inside, but for looks, they could have been egg washed or stayed in a bit longer. I was starving, though, and these became my lunch. :)

Oh, also! I put apricot jelly in a few of the tarts and it was SO good. Definitely going to try some more jams next time I make them, but make SURE to seal the jam tarts. Butter burns a little in the oven, but jelly really burns and caramelizes like nobody's business.

We also made donuts, later on. Now I'm feeling piggy. :D They were a Cook's Illustrated "Lost Recipes" recipe. I'm going to have to say that the donuts were not as impressive as the tarts. They were good, but perhaps not light or fluffy enough. Still, it was very fun to deep fry them and roll them in sugar, and they made a great snack. :)

Oh, and as an afterthought, Happy Earth Day! I didn't realize it was Earth Day until rather late today, so it's only natural that I should wish you a Happy Earth Day after the day was over.

Good night!
- caroline

april's almost over

So, the bees had another tantrum today and attached themselves to the peach tree! Isn't that amazing? Can you click on the image to see it larger? If you can, do it! It's so amazing.

Erin came with Micah today and we had fun visiting with Micah. Actually, they are still here while I'm writing this! :) He's so funny! Such an energetic guy.

I feel like I spent most of today making a chicken pie. In reality, I spent it looking through cookbooks/cooks illustrated magazines and finding cool recipes. And then I made a grocery list. And then, far too late, I started making chicken pie. It turned out very good, but it was late by the time it was finished, so I only have a picture of the untouched pie.

Tomorrow I'll take a picture of a leftover slice. :)

I have been so tired! Not sleeping enough, which is silly. But I've been going to bed so late after blogging and posting to Flickr. It's silly, I should really just catch up. Anyway, hope you have a lovely night.

Talk to you tomorrooow,

- caroline

happy

There have been three straight days of beautiful weather. It's the kind of weather that makes you want to take off your shoes, wear earrings and lay in the yard with your toes in the grass. And maybe I did all of those things. 

Photo by Quinn.

I did read well into What Ever Happened to Penny Candy, which is Richard Maybury second book. It is all about the dollar, inflation and the such. VERY interesting. Did you know that the U.S. Dollar used to be exchangeable for one-ounce of silver? Before 1965, you could take a dollar up to the Federal Reserve and exchange it for silver. I honestly don't know if this is common knowledge or not, it might very well be, but I found it very interesting.

More on all of that tomorrow. I am so sleepy!

I also got to cut Griffin's hair tonight. Thanks of letting me try my hand at it and being patient with the long haircut, G. :) 

Oh oh, and as if today wasn't already beautiful, Netflix sent us The King's Speech today. So we watched it again, naturally. Beautiful movie. I love it, it is so pure. As Mom put it, there are no bells or whistles. And as I added, it's just a movie about people. And if Colin Firth happens to be adorable as well as drop dead talented, so be it.

Okay, official good night. Sleep tight, and such and such.

- caroline