Come see me this weekend!

Caffe Medici, 2222B Guadalupe St., Austin, Texas 78705

Confession #33

In high school, I took to wandering around the pasture that surrounds Mom and Dad's house. It's a pretty big one, so there were lots of treasures to find and different plants to learn about. I thoroughly enjoyed that pasture and still wander around it when I go home for a visit.

One time, I found a pair of charred scissors laying by the burning barrel and almost had a panic attack. "Burned scissors" doesn't sound that bad, but when the scissors look like your Mom's Gingher dressmaker's shears you would panic too. Those Gingher people know how to make a pair of scissors and make them up real nice. When I first came upon them, I thought their charred-ness was my bad. After much deliberation (a few days?), I decided to show Mom what I had done. Thank heavens they were not her scissors! Mom said they were probably one of our relatives' scissors, which had probably been out there for a few years. Now they reside on the wall in the laundry room, sheltered from further weathering!

But what I really want to tell you about is this glass jug I found one time. My BFF and I got out of school early one day, and for some reason decided to romp around the pasture. I saw something shiny in the bushes, and naturally, like a raccoon I went to see what it was. It was a half-buried 12" tall glass jug. The jug was a little dirty, but in perfect condition. There was a rock stuck in it for about 3 years, but Dad somehow figured out how to get it out! I think there was acid involved...

We weren't positive about what it was used for, but I just solved that mystery. It's a growler! How exciting of a name is that? A growler is, "64-ounce glass vessel[s] that look like a moonshine jug" according to this New York Times article. I'm not surprised at all that this jug was casually cast aside in the pasture, considering all of the hundreds of beer bottles/cans that magically appear in our ditch along the road by Mom and Dad's house. Now, it lives peacefully in my apartment by my collection of collections.

Easter Easter!

I love being in East Texas for Easter! Everything is booming, I get to see my family and it is a joyous holiday to celebrate. This was my first Easter in college to go back home, so I did it up right.

All of my siblings and other cousins abandoned the family, so it was just Boyfriend, the boy cousins and myself. The boy cousins are my favorites. All of them are very different from each other, but we all still get along really well. Nathan (on the left) is the oldest. He just graduated from ETBU and works for the city. He is working hard right now so that he can build a house on our family land! Excitement! 

Brian (second from the left) is my age and attends ETBU. During the summers, he works for Sky Ranch. This summer he got invited to work at their camp in Colorado and is pretty excited about it. One time he and some friends drove this old van to Colorado and almost didn't make it back, but you would have to ask him about that.

BenBen (who matched Boyfriend) is the baby of the family and is a junior in high school. He used to be really annoying, but has come a long way in the last few years. Apparently, all of the ladies at his school are catching on to this, because he has become quite the ladies' man. He is going to two of the local Proms and he asked the senior lieutenant of the dance team to his Prom. Senior lieutenants of the dance teams are forces to be reckoned with...

Mom!

Easter Disc Golf

Disc golf that I did not play. Instead, I took this time to wander around looking at plants and puppies and listen to Mom and Mrs. Laurel tell stories. Good times.

Players

Spring time!

Hole 3

Lewis being a retriever.

Red Maple

Hole 4

Little Lewis

Boyfriend scoping the next hole out.

The devil, I mean, fire ants.

This course is in Tyler, Texas at Lindsey Park.

Go See It!

I have a photo in this show!

Confession #32

Me teaching Roxy bad habits.

It baffles me why people think I'm a good babysitter. Sure, I can tell a pretty great story about a hamster taking a trip to Europe, but I also told some little girls about what scalping was the other day. Luckily, they were really into Native American history and said, "Cooool!" And also, I'm pretty sure the first baby I held was my niece, Roxy, when she graced us with her presence. So, I was 17 at the time? That means I have only had four years of rarely holding babies? Awesome. I've had more than four years experience of keeping track of blankets, but even with those years, I managed to lose a little baby girl's blanket on a walk the other day. Double awesome.

But, I am pretty responsible and have good decision-making skills, so maybe that is what the parents like in me. After all, babies aren't as fragile as they might seem and there are tons of blankets in the world.

Excellent

What an exciting weekend! Here is what happened:

I went to San Antonio on Friday to see Sisterfriend. Somehow, she managed to keep it from me until I got there that she got engaged! I'm so excited. We set right away to wedding planning. She and her fiance, Russ, are getting married in September, so we only have five months to get everything together.

On Saturday, I went to work with Sisterfriend and got to shred things. That was fun. Then, we went fabric shopping. We are going to make all of the dresses in the wedding, and started by getting her dress fabric. The fabric looks nice in this picture, but it is gorgeous in person.

 She is really excited.

After we got her fabric, she took me to a horse farm that a friend works for, and I got to meet two foals. I also met their moms and some other horses, but the foals were the cutest. They made me miss horses. I haven't had the opportunity to ride in a really long time.

 I don't know where Boyfriend came from, but I like it a lot. Without any convincing, I got him to go with me to the Texas State Strutters' Spring Show! It was really good. Their dances weren't as hoochie-mama as I expected, which is always good. I also got to see two girls who I went to high school with preform. Yay!

 After the dancing was over, we went to Valentino's for some pizza. It was ridiculously good as usual.

On Sunday, I went to the evening service instead of the morning service. Afterwards, I joined Boyfriend in his exam grading festivities. He had to grade one math problem on this exam, but that one problem had several (12 or 15) points that had to be checked. Multiply that by how many exams there were, and you get why we never see each other. I'm really good at math.

Secret Recipe: Buckeyes

1 oz. Cream Cheese (very soft)
3/4 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup graham crackers (crushed)
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
5 tbsp. butter (melted)
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. vegetable oil

1. Mix cream cheese, peanut butter, graham crackers and butter.
2. Gradually stir in powdered sugar.
3. Roll batter into little 1" balls.
4. Put those in the fridge while you make the chocolate dip. Multi-tasking!!
5. Coat chocolate chips in vegetable oil. Melt chips. I microwave them in 30-second intervals, stirring between.
6. Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate sauce.
7. Put balls into freezer for 5-10 minutes or in the fridge until the chocolate coat is hard.

These are completely delicious and everyone I have ever made them for loves them. For serious.

Teeny Tiny

Lately when I drive into San Marcos for school, there are "Pre-Leasing" signs plastered all over the apartment complexes. At first, I tried to play it cool and not look at places to live, considering I'm not moving until July or August. But then those signs seem to have multiplied over night, so I gave in and toured a few places to live. The apartments in San Marcos are more suited for students, rather than suited for young professionals like they are in Austin, so they are much smaller. My current apartment is 590 sq. feet, which I feel is an excellent size for a single bedroom place. The apartment I have pre-leased is 500 sq. feet and feels teeny. But people. I quickly changed my mind when I saw this video on Thought Catalog.



90. Square. Feet.
Well I'll be.

My Top Ways to Avoid Schoolwork

1. Paint nails even though I don't like polish on my finger nails.
2. Iron pillow cases.
3. Calculate how much fabric the next quilt will need.
4. Read about "Art Student Owl" and agree with almost everything he says.
5. Decide to read all of those classic girly novels, starting with Jane Eyre
6. Decide to get rid of all of my stuff and walk across the United States.
7. Nod along with this article on "The Real Housewives" Franchise.
8. Make bed.
9. Doodle in sketchbook.
10. Make muffins.

Confession #31

A few weeks ago, I began babysitting for this family that has three daughters. The youngest is 7 months old and is a pretty happy baby. One night while the parents were out on their date night, she cried for 30 minutes. After changing the diaper, offering the pacifier, and offering a bottle I still had a screaming baby. So, I called her Mom. She managed to not only calm her down, but also put her to sleep. Score! After baby was asleep, her Mom told me next time that happens to put her robe on and see if that tricks baby. What was the first thing that popped into my head?

Human panda suit!! Yes! This is a suit that panda researchers wear to trick baby pandas into thinking they are being raised by other pandas. While this is very entertaining, I hope I don't have to try out this trickery...

How To: Give a Lamp a New Life

1. Find a lamp labeled 'free' on the side of the road. Make sure it works before you begin working on it!

2. Gather supplies. I used some super-cheap acrylic paint and the lampshade was in the clearance section at Target. Score!

3. Paint paint and paint! 

 My lamp took three coats.

4. Celebrate your feat of craftiness!

Yaay! 

Samantha French

I never seem to like all of the paintings in a painter's portfolio, but this painter (paintress?) is different. She's so great! Samantha French is a graduate of MCAD and currently works in New York. Here are a few pieces from her "Open Swim" grouping of paintings. I love the colors, style of brush stroke and each of the scenes. They are classic and modern at the same time. I think we can all think of a few memories from the scenes painted here.

Syncronized, Samantha French, 2010

Poolside Bathers, Samantha French, 2010

Samantha French, 2011

Looove this one:

Samantha French, 2011

Surfacing, Samantha French, 2011

Deep Dive, Samantha French, 2011

Samantha's Etsy

Samantha's Website

JCM Proudly Presents: Photography I Midterm Portfolio