What to do

somedays don't you just wish a voice from heaven would come down in a beam of light and tell you what to do with your life? Today I wish a voice from heaven would tell me "Katie, you have potential, go to art school and be a photographer." or "Katie, psych would be a scary and long road, but it's your destiny." I think that would be extremely helpful of God to do. End transmission.

Clash of the Classes Contest

For NWCs big "Clash of the Classes" (to be said in a booming announcer voice of course), I was procured to take pictures for the sophomore class. It was my assignment to take a landscape and humorous picture. So, Friday morning I went out while the light was still clean and yellowish to take some landscape pictures. While on assignment, I found this sign that said "slow children playing." Thus a genius idea was born. Why not have that sign in the forefront of a picture of college kids playing around dressed in professional, office type clothing, we are here, after all, striking a balance between adult and child. I got some of my wonderful theater friends to help me out with taking the pictures and I think we got some pretty good stuff (of course birdy wanted to help out too, he adds so much color to all my shots!). Here's the best from both shoots and a video I made of the compilation of the humor shots.

My favorite tree.

For this shot I accidently set the focus wrong, but I liked the effect after all.

I got a perfect sunbeam of yellow light shining on this flower and it was majestic.

Hehe! I like little grasshoppers when they're cute like this!

The start of our journey into "The Little Rascals: Our Gang, All Grown Up"

I love being a kid.

Yeah, we're the slow kids.

On Saturday I said goodbye to Chance and moved into school all within 24 hours of each other which was terrifying. I have been so scared to go back to northwestern this year just because of everything that happened last year. Plus saying goodbye to Chance and not knowing when I'll see him next is probably one of the worst feelings in the world. But it's going to be ok....I hope. We'll see. Good thing is that I'm looking more forward to keeping in the photography groove and I got my parents to consider letting me go to the Academy of Art, so that's good news. It looks absolutely amazing over there and I want to go so badly! At least for today. I'm going to take this whole deciding my life path decision slowly so that way I live with no regret cause who wants that? But yeah, this decision has been weighing down on me for the past bit and leaving Chance is never easy. So, of course, I turned to looking at the pictures that I've taken in CA and that made me feel better. mmmmm....comfort pictures.

hanging with the boy

taking pictures with the girls

making sweet art

capturing a flower

eating a banana on the beach

studying light and texture

yay for the things that make me feel happy inside! I guess if life ever gets you down all you need is a few pick-me-ups for things to look a little bit better.

Duck Pond

So there's this duck pond like two ca blocks away from Dwight's house (ca blocks are like ia farm blocks). Langdon and I went there for a picnic the other day and he lived it up. We were there for about 3 hours and it was so fun. I finished up my photography text book and Langdon made friends with all the other duck feeders. It was so much fun that we went back again yesterday and stayed 3 hours again. He didn't watch tv all afternoon! Yes!!!!!!

all the ducks followed Langdon for a piece of his bread

feeding frenzy!!!!

feet of duck

I don't know if you can see it, but this face is classic.

I finally found internet! Yay! So here are some pictures from what we've been up to lately. Last week saturday we explored around 2nd street in long beach and it was so fun. I found this shirt that said "love youself is the secret." I really want that shirt cause I think too often I get caught up in trying to please everyone around me and forget to make sure that I'm happy first. Because when you really think about it, if you're happy, the people around you are going to be happy and be happy for you. Then it's a whole circle of happy! So, I kinda want that shirt.

cars in fish!

the outfit. Add some skinny jeans and we're in business.

long beach sunset

Then I taught Langdon some swimming lessons during the week and worked with him on multiplication tables. I love that kid, but he is slower than anyone I have ever seen when it comes to sitting him down to do his multiplication.

The dreaded multiplication cards- handmade cause we couldn't find his other ones!

classic Langdon face

I found some sweet coffee shops in Long Beach and so far viento y agua is my favorite. Everything is organic or better than fair trade. Tonight Chance and I are going to meet Lauren there for open mic night and listen to all the off the map people express themselves. Yay! I'm so excited. I love hanging out there.

Eden

So, the other day I was taking care of Langdon and I went to go get him over at the park. When I got there, he was pulling down big branches off the trees. Being semi-hippie, I started giving him a firm talking to. I explained that the earth is in an environmental crisis and that God's largest charge to Adam in the garden (after follow me and no fruit) was to take care of the creation around him. Impressing upon him this very important fact, Langdon said a startling thing. "Katie, I think I know why they haven't found Eden," he said, "I think it's all around us." What an interesting concept. While it might not be true, what if we started to treat the whole earth as if it was the garden of paradise. Would we start to appreciate the unique features of every landscape? Would we work harder to find less impactful ways to do things. Would we strive to stay organic and give back when we take? How different would the world be if we had tried to treat it like the wost wonderful thing and the most lovely paradise ever? What if the whole world is Eden?


As always, here's some pics from the last few days. I have so much to blog about! Except the picture uploader is not working at all. So I guess I'll just put up a bunch of pictures in a few days. Have a great day and enjoy the sunshine!

entry

So I was looking at this cute leather jacket online (cause I want to get a leather jacket to wear with lots of dresses cause I think wearing dresses all the time is awesome) and I stumbled on this contest to win a trip with TOM's shoes and Element skateboards. So I'm going to try my luck at this contest with this little essay. Read it and tell me what you think!

To begin, I want to divulge that I have no experience with skateboarding. What I do have is a passion for social justice and a passion for kids. After reading a novel about one abused girl’s journey towards regaining her life as an innocent child, I felt a need to actively take part in changing the lives of impoverished and neglected children. By giving a child a pair of shoes, a skateboard and some undivided attention, that child gains so much more than a toy and some kicks. The act of true giving mandates that the benefactor also give love and respect. When a child feels this love and respect it cultivates a love and respect of self; two invaluable tools for future happiness. Given that boost the can help a child grow mentally, emotionally and (and, of course) physically. TOM’s and Element’s partnership in generosity helps to provide this necessary boost. I want to be a part of this amazing project because I’m tired of the distance we put between ourselves and the world’s desperate need for help. Society has a problem with passively letting the needs of the world be contained to 30 second sound bites and bumper stickers. We are content to give a sad sigh and move on immediately. Instead of continuing this constant compartmentalization, I want to help solve the poorly presented, easily ignored problems that need immediate attention. Because, as I see it, one pair of shoes and a skateboard can take a child much further than just down the road.

Here's a pic that I took a long time ago that I put into my skies photo essay. I hope you like it. I love clouds cause they always remind me of the verse "the clouds are the dust of his feet." Even if you don't believe in God, I think the thought of someone tromping around up there, looking over things is pretty comforting. Ok, picture now.

Dog Walk

Living at the Dwight's has some certain responsibilities and some of those involve walking Lulu! She's a cute little puppy who's about four months old and she's definitely still got that crazy puppy energy (much to the chagrin 14 year old blind and deaf Sam). So now I take her on two mile walks just to calm her down a little bit. Here's some pics from the walk we took yesterday.

cliffs and street fairs

So, for our one year anniversary (dating) Chance and I celebrated by going to the cliffs with a grocery bag packed full of candles, chocolate, plastic wine glasses, and sparkling grape juice. We explored the cliffs all day and then enjoyed the sunset with our amenities. It was so fun. Next year we're going to top it by adding real wine glasses and real wine (since we'll be 21). Oh and no creepy man threatening to call the cops cause we had some candles and went over the fence. Note, it's not cool to threaten someone when they're already complying with your demands. Yesterday we went to 500 days of summer and then hit up locals night in huntington. The movie was very good and super artsy, the bacon wrapped hot dogs we ate were super tasty. All in all a great day. So here's some pics from the two days. I hope you all are doing well!

Favorite things from the cliffs:

I love sunset pictures and flowers.

Hermit Crabs!

interesting artifacts

little dandilions that dare to stand out

water rushing through rock crevices

big crabs

finding little flowers you've never seen before

surprising my boy with his favorite ugly doll

biting the bullet

taking a torpedo to the face

Here's the pics from last night. The sunset was so majestic, it made me feel so small and priveledged to see and capture with my little pink cybershot. No matter what, always go back to nature for inspiration. It's always more majestic than anything made by man.

I started reading a book called "Learning to Think Creatively" and so, as an ode to my
new teacher, I took this shot from the perspective of the worm.

I wish that we had cool looking mailboxes like this back home. It would make
sending snail mail so much more fun!

kiddos

Chance is currently sleeping and I'm semi bored, but not bored enough to eat anything, so I guess I'm blogging. I don't really have any new pictures so I thought that I'd post some of my favorite kid pictures. I babysit a lot and bringing a camera along has brought another joy factor to the whole experience. Kids are just so fun to photograph and often take better candids than adults, so the pictures end up beign really fun. Enjoy!

Nora on the run, as usual.

I love Tyler's big smile and squinty eyes. He and Nora always scream "hi katie" (often followed by "where are you going?" or "what are you doing?") at me whenever I leave the house. It makes me feel so loved and appreciated.

When kylie found this old camera and started imitating me, I just couldn't resist snapping a few photos. Honestly, she's the cutest with her crazy curly super blonde hair.

I missed the ideal time to snap a photo through kylie's playhouse window, but I'm still very happy with how the picture turned out. It was so fun to play outside again after the long winter.

I just started babysitting Reagan a few months ago and love it. She's so cute and adorable. I love how the fading evening light played up her hair.

Movie Monday!!!!!!!!!!

So I made some movies this morning and then guess what I posted them. I made them with imovie and turns out that apple rocks at everything. Hopefully tomorrow I can get out and get lots of shots since my camera died today, but I got some photography texts and books to study though! I hope that you really enjoy the movies! The first is called "Disappearing Jelly Beans" that Chance and I made in the basement where he stayed during the summer in the OC. The next one is called "For the Love of Arts and Crafts" this one I made while making a collage to give to Chance for our anniversary. Have a lovely day!

For the Love of Arts and Crafts

I'll be going to the cliffs with Chance in just a bit, but I thought I'd share a preview of a still frame movie that I just made in conjunction with making Chance's anniversary present. Love you all!


This is part of what I used to rig up my camera. Unfortunately it didn't work and then it broke the glass for my frame. Good times.

My lovely snuch (snack and lunch) of garlic humus and vegetables, minus my fritos.

mr. photographer man that I used for the collage

I love this quote! I found it in the book that I used to get all the fun things for my collage!