i have not forgotten

about you! i will be doing a book review soon on the book i'm currently reading - "where am i wearing". it's a very interesting book, and i must say, i wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is. i'm about halfway through with it so far. the author raises some interesting points...

in other news, my summer ceramics class is in full swing. i only have about 4 or 5 weeks left, and so much that still needs to be done. i am making a dinner set - 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 mugs, and whatever else i have time for. the shape is definitely japanese-inspired, but i haven't decided what the surface decoration will look like yet. my teacher thinks i should go towards a low relief carving on them, but we'll see. i'm bringing my camera to the studio tomorrow, so hopefully i'll get some good shots of my work in progress.

next time, i'll write more instead of a pseudo-post. ;)

longest hiatus EVER

it's a brand new day! well, the day is actually on its downhill stretch...but play along with me.

it has almost been a YEAR since i blogged last. insane, huh?? in that time, i have moved to charlotte, got a new job, am continuing going to school to finish my associates, and living with a friend. oh, and as you can see, chopped my hair off! i had it cut last august, and i absolutely love it! i highly recommend a pixie cut, and forget about gathering up the courage - just go do it. you'll be so glad you did!

i want to get back into blogging, but i want to brainstorm a little on what i'm going to focus on. or maybe i'll just write random musings on anything and everything. i definitely do miss writing. and i am going to try to stay away from the emotional posts - gosh, i hate going back and reading them. haha! i am thinking of gravitating towards something artsy to focus on...surprise, surprise! we'll see... i'm going to try to come up with some sort of plan first, so that may be awhile. no worries though - it won't take another year!

and if you're wondering what the new name signifies -

i have recently been loving this song .

it's a david crowder song & it's called 'how He loves'. i love the message behind it - it's so powerful, speaking about how intensely God loves us, and despite our constant regrets and failures, He still showers His Grace on us. we're sinking in it. hence the name.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way that

He loves us,
oh, how He loves us,

---images from weheartit.com---

If it's the beaches' sands you want Then you will have them

side note: if you haven't caught on yet that i love the beach...then you probably haven't been reading this. haha :)

Because I like lists, that's how I'm rolling today.

~I worked out today, & my new favorite machine now is the rowing machine. Exhausting, but it works your whole body basically, especially your arms. I realized that I adhere to the "no pain, no gain" school of thought. If there isn't some sort of pain/muscle soreness/exhaustion, then I feel like I didn't have a productive workout.

~I've been thinking about my future a lot lately, what I want to major in when I go back to school, what kind of career I'd like to have, etc. The other day, the thought kind of just hit me - work with soldiers/those affected with PTSD using art therapy. I don't know yet if this is something I'll get serious about, or just an idea to maybe get my thoughts turned in a different direction (God has a tricky way of doing that sometimes ;) ). I've thought about doing art therapy before, but I don't know enough about it to make a good decision yet. I've found a few websites that might be of help to me, and I should probably go check out some books or something. And maybe talk to an art therapist to get a better understanding of it. I was thinking maybe having some sort of studio where soldiers about to be deployed or just returningcould come for workshops/classes/studio time. The whole idea behind it would be that making art could help them deal with all the trauma & stress & everything else going on in their particular situations. And perhaps if they're returning, and they have PTSD, this could be a way to just help cope with it. I also thought about how it could involve the families, their spouses and kids. I don't know, just some ideas. I don't even know if this kind of thing is needed though, or if anyone would be willing to do it. I know soldiers and their families have access to free counseling through the military, so this would be an extra service that most likely they'd be paying out of pocket for. And I don't know how many people would be willing to do that, especially for art therapy. But then again, out of all the counseling available free of charge, I bet art therapy is not included, much less available (or if it is, probably rarely). I need to do a lot of research on this...

(If you're still reading, high-five to you! haha)

~I've been reading "Long Day's Journey into Night" by Eugene O' Neill, and I'm actually enjoying it. Didn't think I would since it was written in 1940, and I'm always skeptical about reading older works because I'm not sure if I'll like it. Especially plays, I usually don't like reading them, but this one's good. I suppose I tend to underestimate how much people have in common, even if they lived in two separate centuries. That's the great thing about reading, you get lost in another world, and authors have this magical way of weaving parts of everyone's personality into their characters, so that anyone could relate.

I should be the host of "Reading Rainbow: Revisited." :) Gosh, I loved that show - Levar Burton, you rock.

~I saw Avatar. And I liked it. I thought it was really good, surprisingly. I say surprisingly because I thought it would be one of those movies that didn't live up to the hype, but it actually did (with me at least). I thought the artistic quality was amazing - the colors, the graphics, everything.

~Last, but not least, I've discovered The Avett Brothers! I've heard of them, but never listened to their stuff, until a couple days ago. One of my favorites, thus far:

If it's the beaches

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See you tomorrow for weheartit Wordless Wednesday!!

Mazel tov!

Mambo Sawa - "life is good"

Hello again!

Even though I posted a few days ago, I feel like I've been away from my blog for a long time. I'll give you a rundown of the past few weeks.

*the 8th was my 22nd birthday! (I feel too 'old' to not have accomplished something magnificent in my life yet. I'm probably just way too hard on myself. Or maybe I have accomplished something, and I don't realize it...hmm...) I celebrated it with my family & my good friend Jenna (we were roomies my sophomore yr. of college) was here for a few days. Like I said in my previous post, we painted pottery, ate out, even played some Scrabble. haha We're Scrabble dorks. It's okay; we've come to terms with it. Oh, and we saw "The Last Song" which was disappointing, coming from Nicholas Sparks. His movies used to be good! Jenna & I pretty much made fun of Miley Cyrus' facial expressions the whole time. haha Mature? Oh yes. She cannot act, by the way.

((making fun of Miley))

((Jenna & I at the 'Shroom - I don't know what was going on with my eyes that day. I looked like I had morning face all day.))

*the 9th-11th I was at the beach! Kure Beach to be exact - as beautiful as ever. I went with two other good friends from college, Brit & Sarah. I only wish we could have been there longer than a weekend. We laid out on the beach (even though it was chilly), attempted at some frisbee, took a bike ride Sat. morning (I love bike rides at the beach!), ate out Saturday night in downtown Wilmy, & of course, had a few photoshoots. ;) haha (Oh, & got harassed on the pier. Nothing serious or anything, but it still pisses me off so much when guys/men make ridiculous comments & catcalls at girls/women. It's so degrading, and it really really riles me up. I always ignore it, but still. I wish I had turned around and snapped back at them with some comment.)

((Sarah, Brit, & yours truly in downtown Wilmington))

((I love this picture! & that dress - it's soo comfy))

*Let's see...oh yes, after that I was house-sitting. A little extra $$ for my bank account certainly doesn't hurt - after I get the check from house-sitting, I'm going to buy an iPod! I know, I am waaaayyy behind the times, but I want one. I have an older iPod shuffle, but it can get annoying because you can't see what songs are playing, and not a lot fits on those things. I had a few adventures while house-sitting, but the whole story's so long. It involved down power lines, their power being out, candles, dog crap, cat trying to escape 3x, car not starting, looong AAA wait, and crying at the end of it all. Stressful day, but I made it out alright.

*&...not much else has been going on, except that I'm now looking for a job in Charlotte. So if anyone has any sort of connections, let me know please!! I'd really like to find a job there (at least) for the summer, and live down there with Jenna. And then, if that worked out, come fall semester, we could get an apartment and I could go back to school! I've already looked into what kinds of art classes the community college down there has, and they have a lot more variety than the one here. I really hope it all works out, because I feel like I just need this change. I kind of feel stuck in a rut here at home, with my job, and not going to school. I also have hardly any friends around here, which can be hard. So, prayers (& connections) would be much appreciated for this!

*Oh, & today I planted flowers. Can't wait for my babies to grow. :)

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Thanks for all your awesome comments on my posts. They make me happy!

P.S. weheartit Wordless Wednesday will resume next week.