until 2009

OK, after a missing passport scare (found in my underwear drawer!), I'm off to sleep for an hour or two before heading to Ecuador on a humanitarian trip with Ascend Alliance and my family.

Peace out for a week. Don't do anything too crazy on New Year's Eve without me.

fosters dance the charlie brown christmas pageant

Mindy told me that mimicking the Charlie Brown Christmas pageant dancing from A Charlie Brown Christmas is a Foster tradition, but this was the first year that I'd heard anything about it.

it's 4:52 a.m. and i finally packed to leave for ecuador in 2.25 hours.

Her sweatshirt says, "'Tis The Season To Be Squeezin'."

Grandma learned how to play Catch Phrase.

Hope you all had holly, jolly Christmases.

PEACE

on Earth, good will to men.

cinnamon graham crackers

Hooray for

friends

and roommate gift exchanges

and cinnamon graham cracker houses
(even collapsing ones)

and especially for pink frosting and red sprinkles.

Merry Christmas Eve.

nights this week

Vivid dreams lately! Don't know why.

Sunday: I was at some university in Portland that didn't look like Portland, except that it was. There was a big, full tree growing large cubed caramels. I was throwing more caramels up to try to make them stick to the tree caramels that clumped together. Some of the ones I threw fell back down. Someone showed me a series of ladders that I could use to climb up onto the tree and walk along the slanting trunk through and around the caramel. I wondered if the caramels melted in the summer.

Monday: He was around again after all this time, liking me and taking me out. I wondered why, but it seemed so normal as if it didn't matter that there had been too many differences before. I wouldn't have been OK with this had it been real life. Plus, he's married now, although he wasn't married in my dream.

Tuesday: Shoot. It just left me. Funny how dreams slip away so quickly after I just had them. And I almost have them for a few minutes, but there's no chance in ever bringing them back all the way.

little lights make things pretty

Christmas lights at Temple Square.

So cold.

So pretty.
Merry Christmas.

gingerbread house contest

Who's the gingerbread house 2008 winner?

Moi.

Check out that sour candy scalloped roof and the stained-glass windows.

Um...not my best, but Round Two on Tuesday will have improvements.

Danny boy.

He threw on as much candy as he could for snacking purposes.

Rachie Rach.

I didn't get a proper shot of her with her house, but A+ for attitude.
Plus she made a cool wreath.
Don't mind the strange bangs. The straightener took a little toll on her hair.

Stephanie.

Round of applause. Good use of green.

O HAI MOM.

Here is the church and here is the steeple. Way to outdo us.

Mindo.

Nice icicles. Nice pose.

Joe Joe (aka Jared).

He ditched out and didn't make a house, but here he is anyway.

little gingerbread men

After professional family photos on Saturday (Bleh. But the photographer did let us take boy band pics in the snow against a cinder block wall, so there's that.) we made our annual gingerbread houses.

Real gingerbread this year—go Mom. Such an improvement from graham crackers.

Oh, and I got new tires before driving home to Salt Lake. Now me and my bald tires might not be a hazard to the world.

half-frozen tuesday

These photos are pretty relaxing. I need some relaxing. No more drama, please.

I've never considered myself a pushover. It's not a good feeling, feeling like one.

love: this song

This song came on KRCL last night, and I remembered how beautiful it is.

Bon Iver - Re: Stacks



/Everything that happens is from now on/This is pouring rain/This is paralyzed/

/This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization/It's the sound of the unlocking and the lift away/Your love will be/Safe with me /

high school christmas choir concert

"On a scale of one to five, what would you rate this restaurant?"

"Um...two?"

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking."

Oops. We accidentally got there 40 minutes early. Photo time.

She has some of her friends convinced that she has a lazy eye,

then she makes this face to help her case.

Photo of Grandma, taken without her knowledge or approval.

For posterity's sake.

I don't think returning to high school 5.5 years after the fact is something I'd recommend to anyone, unless of course you're going to watch your sister sing in the Christmas choir. Well, even then it's still pretty weird/bad.

hues of silver and light

I would paint your portrait
over the clouds,
the sky,
the stars that wished on us.

tuesday

• big blue sky came back
• still need to catch a snowflake
• can i record people's words to have/replay?
• mustard scarf, canvas boots
• love the purple skulls in my pockets, Precious
• long, thin hands
• favorite pen gave up the ghost, wastebasket funeral
• snow peas, spinach, dried cranberries, raspberries, red grapes
• creatively uninspired/fill me up/want that bursting feeling again
• quite looking forward to my tortillas
• i've very nearly given up on you/i'm very nearly gone.

the inside pockets of my new black jeans are covered in purple skulls.

And I think that's pretty great.

my hidden camera

Robert and I went to this production last weekend, and The Ririe-Woodbury Company put on a good show.

It's important to me to see other forms of art than the kind that I'm surrounded by daily. Doing so helps me remember that there are many other ways of expressing yourself, and that even I don't have to stay inside a particular mold.

lone star taquería

I found my new favorite place to eat Mexican food.

Or maybe just my new favorite place to eat.

If I could, I'd live in a land of Mexican food for the rest of my days. (umm, Mexico?)

2265 E. Fort Union Boulevard, Holladay, UT 84121

vroom.

Yesterday's just-after-sunset clouds looked like giant trucks had driven back and forth across the western sky. I made some sound effects.

Days are much more fun when the sky is interesting.

wish i could say

My Moleskine yesterday.

on originality and creativity

There are so many blogs floating around that only recycle recycled content that has been created by someone else. I'm getting tired of this. It doesn’t make sense to me, although I myself have been guilty of it. In an attempt to combat this, I've recently been trying to post content that I write, photograph, and/or design myself. At the very least I’ll try to formulate a personal opinion about something that someone else has done.

Aren’t blogs about offering something new to the world? Suggesting a new perspective on things perhaps? Sharing a part of yourself? It seems a waste to spend time on the internet looking at photography, graphic design, home décor, and fashion when I could be spending that time creating something that I can call my own. Well, I actually do spend time looking online at photography and graphic design, but should that stop? Not necessarily. I think it helps to keep me up to date, but that doesn’t mean I should turn around and re-post it on my own blog.

Blogs are so much more real and interesting to read when they contain original and personal content. Not that I’m claiming that my blog is real and/or interesting. I only wish it could be more honest. The bad and somewhat contradictory thing about keeping a blog is that I try to write for myself as a sort of expression or whatever, but it becomes harder to do so when I know that people I know read it. I wish that didn’t change things, but it does.

But this is something I know. Everyone can be original. Everyone has something different to say. Everyone can be creative in their own way, it's not necessary to be an artist to be creative.

holidate '08

18.5 couples (1 husband in San Francisco).
Remote cabin.
Party dresses.
Appetizers.
Place settings.
Paper crowns.
Dinner.
Photos.
White elephants.
Dancing.
Chatting.
Dessert.
More photos.
Sparklers.
Soundtrack party favors.

Holidate '08.

saturday is a special day

Holidate '08 food prep:

marinara, alfredo, pesto

Costco purchases:
garland with flickering candles, poinsettia

Christmas décor acquisitions:
tree, lights, ornaments, star

Christmas is well under way.

return of the harris fine arts center

Meredith's BFA final show, Correspondence, opened yesterday. For the show Meredith designed and printed a couple hundred cards and mailed them out to family and friends. The family and friends were supposed to send back a card, letter, handmade or not (some were quite creative), and include part of the original card from Meredith.

Her show displays every piece of mail that she received back and the blank squares which represent people who never responded (I responded). Also in the show are several other prints with elements of the envelopes and other media.

Anyways, it's a really interesting show. It'll be up in the BYU Harris Fine Arts Center until January 9.

We missed you K8. Your correspondence was the best one.