seventeen. july 31, 2010. "mangolicious!"

i went to a craft fair today. that's another thing i like about nashville. it's filled with creative people of all kinds, not just musical. this picture is from my friend's booth. she makes soap, and chapstick, and laundry powder, etc. i have a bar of mangolicious soap, and i LOVE IT. check them out on http://www.etsy.com/shop/strousemade. a couple cool jewelry booths i visited were http://www.curlypearl.etsy.com/, and http://www.bybella.com/. she told me she takes trips to uganda and some of her stuff is made by them, and some of her profits go to them. so that's extra neat.

my reject pictures were extra disappointing today. i took a dozen or so, and these are the few that don't make me want to claw my eyes out. outside of the fair, there was this store that apparently sells...benches. awesome, colorful benches. they looked so cool out on the lawn i wanted to get some good pictures. but i just couldn't. i'm hoping i get better at this as i go along.

sixteen. july 30, 2010. "eery."

RIGHT???

fifteen. july 29, 2010. "berry good."

i was still a little hungry after dinner tonight. so i threw this little treat together. strawberries and blueberries "covered" with melted dark chocolate. i don't know what word to use. it's not a "sprinkling" of chocolate. or a "smothering." it's not "covered" either. i'm not sure what a "smattering" would look like. i just decided not to care. fact: i used a white bowl just for the purpose of this picture.

this is the first picture i've edited at all. not fancy-pants edited. i just cropped it. there was this little black spot in the corner that was driving me crazy. i stared at it, and stared at it. and decided to take it out. but when i did, that made the picture less centered. which is now driving me crazy. so, here's the original.

i'm kind of a purist. i guess that's the right word. i only like to eat fresh mango. i don't like it turned into other things like "mango ice cream."

and i also don't like to edit photos.

fourteen. july 28, 2010. "outrageous pigs."

i just noticed that it says this is a "fairy story." whaaaat. george orwell is a genius. a genius, i say. there's not a thing about fairies in this story.

but it is a story that everyone should read. it's only 139 pages. very short. very interesting. it's a mockery and criticism of government. i think it's supposed to be about communism, but i was surprised by how many comparisons could be made to other forms of government as well...

here's a couple quotes to convince you to read it.

"Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball. If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say that Snowball had come in the night and done it, and then the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it in the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal."

"The animals were thoroughly frightened. It seemed to them as though Snowball were some kind of invisible influence, pervading the air about them and menacing them with all kinds of dangers."

hmm...

ten to thirteen.

ten. july 24, 2010. "this moment was really captured forever in time."


i knew this would be the photo of the day as soon as it was taken, because i laughed for two minutes. i also knew they might not be pleased with my selection.

eleven. july 25, 2010. "heat advisory."


twelve. july 26, 2010. "asparagus!" (series: what's in my colander?)


this was my first time to ever make asparagus. ever. i especially enjoyed how the ends snapped off right where they are supposed to. one of nature's little magic tricks. i want to go around snapping asparagus now.

thirteen. july 27, 2010. "PICNIC."


picnics make me think of summer. so do roller coasters and kool-aid squeez-its. (whatever happened to those???) but this is a picture of a picnic.

nine. july 23, 2010. familiarity.

this guy from scotland is in town. i don't know him. his name is mark, i think, but they call him vandal. anyway, a bunch of my friends from college know him, so they travelled from far and wide (mostly from here, except emily), to hang out with him. and i joined. he was there somewhere. two ex-roommates (we parted amicably), a belmont staffer, and a sweet doctor. a lovely evening indeed.

one to eight.

well, here is the beginning of my "picture project." i didn't actually want to call it that, but my first 10 ideas were already taken. by the internet.

i wanted to do something creative that didn't involve a canvas or a mess. or money. so i'm going to try to take a picture every day for a YEAR. a year of my life. some of these are terrible. but it's kind of nice to have mundane things documented. things that are easily forgotten, but part of life. it's weird how sentimental i can be with pictures, because i am something of an emotionless robot about everything else.

shrug.

it's been 8 days, and i haven't had to resort to any self-portraits just to have a picture to add to the collection. so...so far, so good. i hope i don't become a person that people avoid, because they don't want to be part of my picture project collection. you know, "hey, i really like your ears, can i take a picture of your ears?"

anyway...

the first eight.

one. july 15, 2010. "fully plate, full belly."


it's kind of a shame i started things off with that one. b-o-r-i-n-g. it was my delicious dinner. whole wheat pasta, pesto, chicken. green bean salad: green beans, red onions, tomatoes, feta cheese. forgot the kalamata olives that night.


two. july 16, 2010. "an unspoken agreement."


i haven't killed it. YET. as long as it remains perfectly still as i enter and exit the house, it lives. one show of aggression, it dies. i think it understands that there will be no baby spiders, and its web remains where it is, and its borders cannot increase. this is the agreement.

three. july 17, 2010. "the best of three worlds."


be outside: check. hear live music: check. read: check. feel sad: uncheck.

four. july 18, 2010. "lace me up."


my running shoes are now worn more than my other shoes. i somehow became one of those people who stretches in public, and runs errands in workout clothes.


five. july 19, 2010. "okra!" (series: what's in my colander?)


perhaps i should have a weekly okra monday?? i like the sound of that. it's happening.

six. july 20, 2010. "surprise cookies!"


me and my roommate were surprised by a delightful friend this evening. she brought us cookies for no reason at all. we accepted them.

seven. july 21, 2010. "my first chaucer." (series: the book i just finished).


i have been working on this for a month. a tale here, a tale there. it was mostly uniteresting. there were only 2 or three i liked. but it wasn't as bad as moby dick. nothing could be that bad.

eight. july 22, 2010. "water day."


every thursday we have water day at work. sprinklers. water hoses. buckets. pools. it's madness. we have to hang up their bathing suits to dry, so their parents don't get mad that their bathing suits are wet. read that last sentence twice so you understand what i'm saying.