I really love where I live. 

Some things to mention...

We've been cleaning the house before family comes to visit this weekend. I love cleaning. 

There is something about the curves and angles of a messy bed... It's so attractive. 

Found a stylish mystery novel at the library. 

I picked a million tomatoes last night, and there are still many more to come.

I passed my math placement exam, getting a 74 when all I needed was a 40 to pass.

Admittedly, I'm a little excited about taking classes.

And last but not least, Misfits is awesome (I couldn't have a blog post that doesn't mention TV, now could I?!)

Adios,

- caroline

just right

The weather has been just right for the past three days. Not at all humid, a steady breeze, in the low 70's. We've pretty much been sitting on the porch for two days straight. Today I read nearly a whole book, which felt so good. It feels like I haven't finished a book in years (that's not true, though). 

We could even open our doors and windows, shut off the awful air conditioner and revel in the cool - naturally cool - air. I wanted to take pictures to capture the loveliness, but I found it really difficult. Here are my attempts...

Photo by Quinn.

That is the birthday card I made for Mom. :) In honor of last movie, of course. It's really just a bunch of Potter-ish things painted with watercolors. :P

I hope you have a lovely night.

- caroline

Open publication - Free publishing - More 2010

This is one of the books I designed this week. It's just a collection of personal photos from 2010 - most of which you've probably seen on my blog. I'll post my Montana book next! :)

p.s. sorry for all the updates to this post! The viewer wasn't working right...

four five six seven

I sort of went on a blogging break didn't I? I try not to do that, but sometimes it just happens. This weekend was a very busy one! First, I took the SAT early Saturday morning. The night before I kind of freaked out (I may or may not have ripped an SAT ad into shreds in rebellion against the system), but by the time I woke up ridiculously early, I was cool. Didn't even feel nervous at all, before or during the test.

It's actually quite silly. It's long, yes, but the test administers just read verbatim out of an SAT guide, repeat themselves, and you fill in little circles. I mean, all that hype and it's really quite lame. But then, most man-made things are much lamer than everyone makes them seem.

Here's something most of you probably don't know. I've never taken a test before. :o Not a timed, officially administered test by any educational institution - minus a funny little test I had to take at home when I was like 10 to prove I was home schooled. Anyway, I guess the SAT is as good as any to be my first, and since I'm not aiming to get into Princeton, I'm not worried about it.

It rained during full sun the other day - it was so pretty! And on the same day, Lucy played in a washtub of water. She is so funny. You'd think she would be pretty tame to look at her blue eyes and tiny little face. But she splashes like a banshee, laughing even when Henry violently splashed with her.

So, right after I took the SAT, Mom picks me up and we go straight to a catering job in Madison. It was hot, I had been up since 6am, and for the first part of the morning I felt really lightheaded from the heat. The wedding was okay - lame reception with no alcohol - my feet were killing me by the end and I had drunk five bottles of water just to keep up with the amount of liquid I was sweating. But again, not complaining, I enjoyed it all! :D

We get home - luckily dry receptions end EARLY and we got home not too late. Four to five hours of sleep later and we head out to the Red Dress Boutique's summer fashion shoot! It was really fun. Luckily we got to shooting straight away and managed to all but beat the hot sun. We shot from 6:45 or so til 11:00, pumped out over 30 outfits, split between 5 different girls. Logan shot primarily, while Sara did hair and make-up as snappy as possible before joining us. The girls were so lovely, the garden (owned by Magdalena Williams of European Floral) was so beautiful - everything went so well!

Believe it or not, we were out of there by 1pm. After the girls were finished, we took some time to take off-body shots of outfits and jewelry, then headed home. It was so cool. I was exhausted, but when we came home we watched Doctor Who (holy crap I haven't stopped thinking about that fantastic episode since I watched it) and Justified (gonna miss me some Raylan Givens over the summer). 

This is last night's sky. It went from stunning, to even more stunning, to wow stunning.

So, I'll be working on the pics from the shoot for a few days - maybe you'll get a few that I shot on my blog. I didn't shoot many. I meant to shoot behind the scenes, but the fact of the matter was that I wasn't really behind the scenes much. I sort of dashed back and forth between Sara and Logan, answering questions and keeping track of everything. So there isn't much that I shot, but perhaps you'll see something... :)

Oh! Speaking of not taking pictures - I wish I had brought my camera with me tonight. I left it home because I thought I'd be holding Micah all night. Logan, Erin, Micah and I went to Shakespeare on the Lawn at the Ashford Manor. It was so cute! I only got to see the first act, so I want to go back Friday.

Have a lovely night,

- caroline

P.s. I'm too tired to spell-check/grammar check. For that I do apologize (Boyd is rubbing off on me).

what i've been up to

What have I been up to for three days? All absent from the blog? You'd think I'd be doing very distracting things. Not so much. First there was the crazy storm, during which I knitted by Ugly Betty Blanket. Mom named it. It is simply a blanket made of squares and rectangles of scrap yarn in different stitches. I've been knitting it while we watch Ugly Betty - and really, it's kind of mismatched and odd like her. :P

There was a beautiful early morning that I caught - for some reason I woke up around 5 am and saw this sky out my window...

Then that morning I made French toast from the Cook's recipe. It's sooooo good. You wouldn't think that this lumpy bread:

Would turn into this gorgeous breakfast!

Then for the past two days I've been painting. I got the new Anthropologie catalog and was inspired. The photography was really top-notch in this issue, and I especially liked the cover, and the first page with the old red convertible. So classy.

And here was my watercolor interpretation... I was not aiming to replicate it, just base my painting on it. Left is at the end of day one, right is at the end of day two (today):

Quinn kept me company while I painted outside on the porch. The weather has been lovely. Quinn is carving a mask out of cedar wood. It smells awesome, though reminds me of hamsters. ;)  And no, those are not hand tattoos. Just ballpoint ink. 

I picked up three Agatha Christie novels today at the library. I'm excited to read them. Griffin leant me The ABC Murders and I really enjoyed it, plus I love the Poirot TV movies, so I thought I'd give the real text a shot. :)

Oh oh oh, also, we made a really yummy Kale and Green Onion Tart for lunch today. I found the recipe from The Granary and it is so good. Here is the link if you're interested in making it --> The Granary Blog: Kale and Onion Tart

Okay, time for bed. Probably gonna go practice parallel parking again tomorrow. I find it difficult. Grr. 

- caroline