My Life in Misc. Photos

We just returned from a trip to Indiana to visit my brother and see his senior holiday show with the Purdue Glee Club (on the header photo, my brother is second from the right in the second row with the glasses!).  It was a wonderful walk down memory lane as at one point in our childhood we lived in West Lafayette.  This time we didn't stop to see the old house, but it looks so different these days, I wouldn't have recognized it anyway.  I have tons of photos to edit and post and a few cute local places to blog about if any of you end up in the area!  The only bummer is I picked up a bit of a head cold... sore throat, congestion... all those lovely things.  It was so rainy and chilly this weekend!  But the cold is worth all the warm fuzzies of seeing my baby brother, traveling with Bear and my parents, and seeing my Oma, Opa, great Aunts, and Aunt Carol for a little bit!

How was your weekend?

Musical Monday

So, I have been obsessed with The Bird and The Bee for a while now, and thought it would be fun to share a video or two of their insanely awesome tuneage.  You can thank me later!  :)








xo!

Photobomb Friday: MDRF

Well, the college was closed yesterday and apparently all state parks are closed due to major flooding as well, which gives me a four-day weekend.  We have major sinkholes eating up parts of the main highway, and our little road is basically washed away, but so far the house itself hasn't sustained any damage. I hope our luck holds seeing as we potentially have another three days of torrential downpours to look forward to!  Honestly, between the earthquake, Irene, and these storms and flooding... I am beginning to wonder if I should start making religion a big part of my life again!  It's possibly the end of the world, and all I can think about is how I'm going to go crazy if I am stuck inside much longer!

Anyway, today is a photobomb of our Sunday at Maryland Renaissance Festival!  We met up with a group of friends and had a pretty terrific time!  Usually I am talked into buying something handmade and expensive, often a corset, which I then never wear.  I like to breathe too much, I suppose.  This time, Bear and I invested in these gorgeous wooden mugs that I cannot stop using!  I am drinking my tea from it right now... as I type!
























I particularly enjoy the Trekkies.  Random!  I didn't take very many pictures this time, but we'll be back.  As always, you can see more photos on my Flickr!  You can get there by the button on the right sidebar!  I just redid those buttons to go with the new fall theme!  All three pictures were taken with my iPhone 3GS and edited on the Instagram app.

Well, the rainy days have done a few good things.  One, we are catching up on sleep!  Two, we watched the extended edition of all three Lord of the Rings movies, which I haven't seen since they were in theatres.  Three, we plan on doing some cleaning, and I also hope to have time at the piano!  So far, it hasn't been too bad.  Just wet, humid, and not very friendly to the roads.

I hope you are doing well wherever you are!

Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope I will be back on Monday!

xo

PS- Be sure to click the "Blogging Worldwide" icon to the right to visit Mary Rebecca's blog and see the list of other bloggers around the world who participated in her round up!  You may find someone you really like there... I already found two or three new bloggers I am interested in learning more about, and I haven't really had a chance to check them all out yet!  Not to mention she's still working on putting up all the lists!  I think the States were the first country posted, so there is definitely a lot more to come!

Film Friday

Here's a couple favorites from around the internet!  Have a wonderful weekend!

A clever stop-motion animation involving stencils and light by Pahnl on Vimeo:


Nowhere Near Here from Pahnl on Vimeo.


The world's biggest stop-motion animation!  Don't know what I mean?  Watch the making of it!  Not enough to blow your mind?  It was shot on a phone!



It's time for Burning Man again in the desert (Bear and I have always wanted to go but never make it).  Lauren Lemon's video compiled of thousands of photos from Burning Man '08 always makes me smile!



Hope you enjoyed those!  See you on Monday!

xo

Movie Monday

Taking a break from overloading folks with Etsy gear, today I bring you Movie Monday!  Hopefully, this will be an installment that occurs every month or so...

This is a film I made compiled of footage I took from our trip to Point Lookout, MD. I made a Photobomb of the stills here already, but never got around to doing anything with all the footage.  I had just purchased my Nikon D90 to shoot a wedding that fall, and wanted to familiarize myself with the new camera functions and lenses, and it was the first DSLR I owned with video capability!  Some of the footage is kinda shaky, but the moments are priceless!

I also forgot to credit the song I used, which is a huge no-no and I can't believe I did that.  So, here is the credit for the music: the song is called "Mr. Blue Sky" by the Electric Light Orchestra!  Epic fail on my part as an editor, omitting credit.  Oops.

Enjoy!




This past weekend was awesome, I shot a beautiful wedding, had a wedding planning party with my girls, and edited a TON of photos!  More on that on Wednesday!

Have a wonderful Monday!  xo

The World of Half Understanding

There are so many things in this world I only half understand... if I even get that close.  Some of them will never be resolved: why do people always have to find some reason to start a war or judge others based on exterior appearance?  Why do we continually hurt the planet- the one home- we have, when we are capable of nurturing it?  Why does it cost so much to afford higher education, yet to procure a decent job a degree seems to be necessary?

There are vague half-answers on the peripheries of my mind, but never a full understanding.  It's the philosophical way, I suppose.

Then there are the small mysteries that pertain more to myself personally.  Trivial things that complex me all the same, such as, why do I struggle to read music when my mother is a music teacher?  Why can't I learn languages when my brother adapts so easily to different tongues?  Why is math equivalent to Chinese for me, when my father understands it so effortlessly?

I don't want to make a huge philosophical post, so I am concentrating on my weird half-understandings of music and language.  Maybe somebody out there will commiserate.

I have studied music for most of my life in some form or another.  I took piano and was always involved in some chorus or musical theatre.  I sang with the All-State Choir my senior year of high school, but still, when I see sheet music, the notes elude me.  I know if the pitch goes up or down, how long to hold a note.  I know what the tempo should be, if the notes follow a natural progression or lilt in half steps caused by sharps and flats.  But I have no idea what key signature I'm supposed to be in, and often have difficulty identifying the sharp or flat note unless the marking indicating it as one or the other is directly next to the note itself.  I know it when I hear it, but not necessarily when I see it.  I learn by ear.  I can harmonize almost anything, but I have the worst time reading it.

Same with languages.  I can understand the tone and intent of a writing in Spanish, German, French... I can even understand the meaning of certain Gaelic phrases... but I can't say for sure what the subject matter is or anything else specific.  Just the mood.  I love watching foreign films without subtitles, because I half understand the plot but I can also use my imagination to supplement the story.

But I can play music by ear; play me a tune and I can probably repeat it again.  I know vowel sounds of different languages, and the peculiar prefixes and suffixes that modify the words.  I just don't fully understand it all.  It's a little mystery of life.

And the mysteries that don't hurt anyone or cause animosity, such as my music and language peculiarities, are what make life interesting.  What little mysteries do you have?

Thanks for indulging my sidetrack into the philosophical!

Have a wonderful Thursday!

xo

Photobomb Friday: Saturday Shenanigans... & The Wailers!

As I mentioned previously, Patchie and I attended the Uncle Sam Jam at the National Harbor this year... and saw The Wailers!  As in Bob Marley & The Wailers... minus Bob Marley, of course.  They were better than good... they were amazing!  It was incredible to see all these people swaying and singing "One Love", like we were all interconnected in this one moment.

There were lots of other things going on as well, although The Wailers was definitely the highlight for me!  We bought a couple drinks (which were ridiculously strong!) and some food, a couple delicious cupcakes and a ton of water!  We escaped into the AC for a while visiting such stores as America! and the Peeps superstore.  We watched people try to run on a rotating log thing and climb the protruding appendages of the installation art piece "The Awakening".  We also inhaled a ridiculous amount of spray sunscreen.  Ew.

 And after The Wailers performed, we got to meet some of them!  Life = Made.

Have you ever met an idol or someone you really admired?  I would love to hear about it!  As silly as it is, having your photo taken with someone famous is really intimidating and awesome all at once... I was definitely shaking!  haha

xo!

Spotlight on Jade, Local Musician

Happy Tuesday!  Today I would like to introduce you to a young friend of mine; Jade.  Jade is finishing up her junior year at my old high school this year, is a member of my old thespian troupe, and an active member of our Local Theatre.  She's a very talented, sweet lady who has been writing her own music for some time, as well as playing some covers of other artist's work.  I had no idea just how talented she was until her seventeenth birthday party this year, when she serenaded us all!  I knew I had to feature her here, and the time has finally come!  So, without further ado, here she is...

Jade singing at her birthday.  iPhone photo, sorry about the lousy quality!

How long have you been writing your own music?

Well I wrote my first piece when I was in the eighth grade, and I still have it, it's a piano piece. I actually wrote it for a project in my band class, but i'm still pretty fond of it. It's floating around the internet somewhere. So i guess about four years? But I picked up the guitar in the beginning of 2008 and didn't start writing songs with lyrics that were actually good and guitar that had any substance until probably late 2009, which is when I wrote "Tripping" and a song called "Beautiful and Broken" came in early 2010. That one never actually was seen by youtube or anything, I never even recorded it. It's somewhere in with the rest of my music. I don't know that I'd record it even if I found it though. It was sorta between me and the person it was 
written for I guess.

Jade.  via: heather bartlett art & photography

What artists influence you most?

I have a lot of them. Jason Mraz & John Mayer are big ones. I like to surf YouTube covers because some of them are really fantastic and give me some great ideas. I really love Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson, Lenka and Adele; I guess they remind me of what I'd be like if I ever made it big, haha. Before writing this song I had actually been listening to "New Letters" by Company of Thieves, and had picked up the guitar with intentions to write a song like that one. Even though that didn't end up being the result, I'm pretty happy with what the result ended up being.

Did you take lessons on guitar or teach yourself?

I started generally teaching myself, but with a kick start - my step dad taught me "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd, not the solo but the chord part, and I took off with what I learned from that. I did take a couple months of guitar lessons but I don't think that they really helped me. I took about four years of piano lessons though, and played the flute for about four years as well. I've taken about 6 or 8 months of voice lessons and had to stop for a while, but I plan on going back soon.

Jade.  via: heather bartlett art & photography

Where do you get inspiration for your lyrics? How about your melodies?

Anywhere, really. Sometimes someone says something that starts it. Sometimes I see something written on facebook. Usually it's from other music, though. Other people's poetry and styles are generally what spark it for me. But sometimes they do just come on their own. If I have pent up emotion and really need to write a song, then I sit down and start plucking on the guitar and sometimes it just happens. As far as melodies go, I get those largely from other music, the inspiration at least. But with the musical composition it's also very much about the guitar and the words, and what I can do to make them work together. I was an instrumentalist before I was ever a vocalist (even though my voice is what i'm most comfortable with) so sometimes it's entirely about what I have to do to make it work. When I write a song, I generally don't know what I want it to sound like before hand because I don't always know what it's even going to be about. I just let it happen.

Jade.  via: heather bartlett art & photography

Where do you see your music taking you in the future?

I have no idea. I've been trying really hard to juggle and keep up both on the acting route and the music route, because I figure if I can get my foot in the door for one, there's generally an easy-access hallway leading from one room to the other. There are a lot of stories of musicians becoming actors and vice versa. I'm not all about making it big or anything (though it would be nice), in fact that really has nothing to do with it, I'd honestly be happy playing in clubs around DC and New York and making money off of it that way. But it is the artists like Lenka and Ingrid Michaelson and Regina Spektor that give me hope on making it somehow, if not simply because my music style is generally similar to theirs, but because they did make it. I'm not sure where I see it taking me because I'm still not sure what I want to do. But I do know that if i could write music and make money off of that for a good chunk of my life, I'd probably be pretty happy.

Where can people find you online to learn about your latest musical endeavors? YouTube, or do you have your own blog or a Twitter account?

I have a YouTube that I don't keep up with, haha. I think my last upload on that was a cover uploaded in 2010 during snowmageddon. I think I signed up for a blog that I never used and I don't have a twitter. I think I'll go do all that when I'm done here. Check back with me in a week. :)

Jade & friend Deana.  via: heather bartlett art & photography

What advice would you like to give to other aspiring music artists out there?

To practice practice practice, and then just let it happen. As far as writing the music, like I said earlier, not once have I sat down to write knowing exactly what I was going to write about or what it was going to sound like. Sometimes I have an idea that I hope will end up taking some sort of shape over the 30 or 40 minutes it takes me to write a song, but I just let whatever happens happens, and songs like this are what come out of that. Even though i didn't write what I'd initially wanted to, a song that needed to be written far more ended up coming from it. And that's usually what happens. Honestly, it's usually the forced songs that come out the worst. And as far as performing it goes, practice practice practice. Nothing is more important than confidence, so that even if you do mess up, you can know where you're going and look like you know what you're doing while you're getting there.

Anything else you would like to say about yourself?

Uhhm...I honestly don't know what to say haha.

Jade.  via: heather bartlett art & photography

While her sound is definitely evolving and reminiscent of other artists, particularly those she draws inspiration from, I have no doubt that she will come into her own soon enough!  If anyone ever had drive and passion, Jade is it.  I can't wait to see more from her as time goes on!  Be sure to listen to a couple of her videos, it just may make your day...


And original song Jade for Bobby (his story is here):







An earlier original song by Jade (I love the cat cameo and dog barking!):






As you can see, all Jade's photos were done by Heather Bartlett, who happens to be Jade's mom.  If you readers are interested in more features of the local artists I am lucky enough to know... I smell a sequel...

Thursday Treats

So, clearly we've been up to some stuff in our kitchen.  I am a bit obsessed with the renovations.  It's all I do right now.  I wake up in the morning and begin painting.  I go to sleep at night and consider where my salt and pepper shaker collection will reside.  I anticipate where shelving for my elephant collections should go where cats won't get to them.  I dream about a fully functioning kitchen and baking cupcakes in a room with a real floor and counter space!

Anyway, here's a little of what we've been doing...

My Dad has been coming over to help Bear install the new flooring (it's not blue carpet!  Hooray!).  I've been painting cabinets to look like some fancy high end ones we saw and liked.  I am rather proud of how they are turning out, but you will have to wait for a great unveiling!

In the meantime, I want to take a moment to direct your attention to a couple locations on my blog.  On the right hand sidebar is a list of blogs I read, and I would recommend taking a moment to check some of them out!  There are so many creative, passionate people around the internet!  On the top bar, I have a tab entitled "Blogs I Love" which are blogs that had buttons I could grab to link back to them.  If you have a minute, check those out as well!  Some of them are the same blogs as ones I have listed to the right, but some are not.  All the blogs I follow have some truly unique voices!

A lot is going on in my life right now... but I am most excited about finally reaching one of my lifelong ambitions, and I can't wait to get in on that project... being in a band.  I have always wanted to front a band.  I was that kid jumping on the bed singing "No Doubt" into my hairbrush for a wild and crazy audience of stuffed animals.  I may still do that...  Anyway, I have been asked by a friend to start up a band and I am stoked!  We're both really super busy and it will probably be a while before anything comes of it... but I am so excited I can barely contain myself!

Well, be sure to stop by tomorrow... I have a ton of photos and a video for you!  Get pumped!!!