Matisyahu!

This is the crazy-yet-cool stuff I've been addicted to lately. =]

You've probably heard of Matisyahu. Well, you gotta love Hassidic Reggae, so enjoy!

Upbeat


Uplifting

Valentines approaching!

I've been looking around online because I'm super stoked for Valentine's Day. I found a few cuties, and thought I'd share! (Click on the pictures to go to the site, a few of them have templates!)

Cell Phone valentines!


Snazzy Mailbox

Definitely want to be a bit more creative here, but I'm so making one.

Forget-me-not Elephants

(Candy is taped inside, and their ears are hearts with love notes written on them!)

And my personal fave....

Only change the words to say, "I'm e-kernel-y yours!" Totally doing that for Zach. =] My dad's popcorn recipe is one of his favorite things he gained from joining my family. =]

ALSO for Valentines Day, I am working on a small, quilted wall-hanging. It's on pause for now (school), but it won't take much longer! I found an adorable pattern from this awesome blog. I'm going to use her tutorial for a full-size polka dot quilt this summer, but in the meantime I've satisfying myself with this smaller project:

Sorry for the bad picture. I can't find my camera, so this is from my phone. =] It's gonna be 4 square blocks, probably. XOXO. I'm considering applique-ing hearts to the centers of the O's using the background fabric, so they look hollow... what do you think?

Hooray! Gear up for Love Day!

Ezra Pound and Me

I was looking up one of my very favorite poems, "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound:

"The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals, on a wet, black bough."

Then I found an incredible essay written by the poet himself! It explains so well the way I see the world! (See my last post for proof.)

Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

"Since the beginning of bad writing, writers have used images as ornaments. The point of Imagism is that it does not use images as ornaments. The image is itself the speech. The image is the word beyond formulated language."

"[Quoting a Japanese hokku:]

'The fallen blossom flies back to its branch:
A butterfly.' "

"The 'one image poem' is a form of super-position, that is to say, it is one idea set on top of another... In a poem of this sort one is trying to record the precise instant when a thing outward and objective transforms itself, or darts into a thing inward and subjective."

Evolution

I saw the top picture, and it reminded me of the bottom one.

I guess not all of us evolved from the apes. =]

Carved Pumpkin...Pie

So Zach and I worked most of Halloween weekend, so we made our pumpkin pie jack-o....face.... on Tuesday.

I told you it would be epic! I know his face isn't quite centered. But I was so excited to cut into him that I just dove in without really planning or spacing it out. =]

This is pumpkin carving at its finest: you can eat the guts with whipped cream!

Also, I don't think I ever posted this picture, did I? It's from earlier this month:


Brownies for the neighbors. She's my visiting teacher, and she was having a hard time. Also, I wanted to do a homemade Halloween food-pick. =]

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month!!!!

Goal: 50,000 words by November 31st.
Stipulations: No editing! The month of December is set aside for proofing, editing, etc. The novel must be started and finished all in November, no finishing of old drafts.

Prize: If you make the 50,000 words in Nov, you win. If you can finish editing in December, they'll print one free copy of your novel.

ANYONE can do it, ages 13+. Here's my page, or check out my widget on the right to see how far I've gotten (not very).

Give it a shot!!!

Must be Halloween

I went to make berry syrup for my pancakes, and got this:

Looks like a scene from an evil scientist's kitchen, eh?

I lit a candle to make the house smell a little better (our warmer's lamp burned out) and got this:

Pretty oozy, huh?

I cleaned out the fridge. I'll spare you the picture, but it was perhaps the scariest thing I'll see this Halloween. Spooky.

Also, I just realized I've been calling today Halloween, because tomorrow is Sunday. Silly me.

Tomorrow, for real Halloween, Zach and I are carving pumpkin pies.

That's right. You heard me. Carving PIES.

I'm so excited.

P.S. For anyone interested, the recipe that caused my Halloween Microwave Horror:

Best Ever FlapJacks

Mix the following ingredients:

2 eggs

1 c. buttermilk

1 1/4 c. flour (I used white wheat flour, YUM)

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 TB sugar

1-2 TB oil

Cook on a hot griddle. I like to add a little butter to the skillet/griddle when I cook them instead of buttering the pancakes later. I usually eat them with that berry syrup (frozen berries + sugar to taste + microwaved until hot) and top them with whipped cream. DELISH.