Paris Vicarious

Switchover to the new Blog!

2011-04-15T16:04:00.000-06:00

Okay, friends... it's done. :)
I've exported both the Thursday Night Supper Club blog and Paris Vicarious over to my all-in-one blog, called

Cabinets of My Curiosity.

Add it to your Google Reader, RSS, or whatever you use to keep up on blogs, because I'll no longer be posting here.

30x30x5

2011-04-14T16:02:00.001-06:00

After work today I changed things up a bit.

Grey pants: Wal-Mart (who knew Wal-Mart had cute clothes?? I didn't until a week ago)

White shirt: Wal-Mart

Grey flats: Target

Necklace: No idea whatsoever.

Bangles: Mix of Target and Forever 21

30x30x4

2011-04-14T15:56:00.000-06:00

Today I wanted to wear something I normally wouldn't... so I knotted a silk scarf I got in Paris a bunch of times along the length of it and turned it into a bracelet. I like.

Dress: Target

Shirt: Wal-Mart

Shoes: Kohl's

Earrings: Target

Silk Scarf/bracelet: Dawali in Paris

30x30x3

2011-04-14T15:46:00.000-06:00

Yesterday after work, I changed into something a little more comfy for dinner out with friends.

Cardigan: Target

Tank: Target

Pants: Target (der...)

Necklace: Target

Bracelet: Wal-Mart

Shoes: some store in Paris I can't remember the name of. I loooove these shoes.

Ready, set... export.

2011-04-14T14:49:00.000-06:00

Hi, friends! I am getting ready to combine two blogs into a single (third) blog.
Paris Vicarious (a.k.a. the silly english kaniggit) and the Thursday Night Supper Club will be combined onto one blog. Coming soon. :)

So, if anything gets messed up in the meantime, don't mind me. And if I accidentally delete it all, heaven help me--I'll be bawling for days.

Mwah.

30x30x2

2011-04-13T16:54:00.000-06:00

Here is day two. My lovely co-worker took these pictures out in the gardens at work.

Wow... my legs are so white...

Black ruffle skirt: Nordstrom Rack

Black cardigan: Target

Coral ruffle tank: Nordstrom Rack

Necklace: Target (most likely)

Bracelet: Wal-Mart (who knew?)

Awkward poses: That's all me, baby.

Could I be any happier? Maybe, but not much.

2011-04-13T16:49:00.000-06:00

Okay, Kiwi Fresh'ins should pay me for how much I am going to talk up their shoe inserts right now.

In Paris I bought a similar product--a disposable shoe liner--to wear in all my ballet flats that I didn't want to wear socks with.

I have wanted to buy them ever since I've come home, but never found them in the US. Well, today I found them online at Kiwi for Women!!

Seriously, if you like to wear shoes without socks, and you hate the tiny footie socks (since they fall off half the time anyway), you should get some. Find them here: Kiwi Fresh'ins (a.k.a. every girl's lifesaver). They are only $3.99 for a six-pair pack.

I haven't tried this particular brand before, but I think they would have to be seriously unfortunate to disappoint me.

Hooray! (And you're welcome in advance.)

St. George and Zion National Park

2011-04-12T18:49:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago some friends and I went to stay at my parents' condo in St. George. I went down a day early and spent some time in Zion National Park. Deeee-lightful.

We stopped by the temple for a few minutes, and then drove up above the city to catch the glow of the sunset on the red rocks.

Beautiful, no?

All pics by me.

30x30x1

2011-04-12T18:17:00.000-06:00

Here is my first 30x30 ensemble. I wish I didn't look super awkward in that first picture, but what can you do?

Cardigan = Target

Tank = Nordstrom Rack

Pants = Target

Shoes = DSW

Earrings = Target

30 for 30 (Attempt #2)

2011-04-07T11:24:00.000-06:00

So, with the upcoming financial change I'm going to experience as I go back to school, I think it's more appropriate than ever for me to do a wardrobe remix project. I never ended up doing it the first time, so I'm going to start now (well, soon).

I am going to pick my 30 items this week, and then next week I'm going to start the remix. The 11th will be day #1.

Things I already know about the remix:

I am going to focus on creating more variety in my casual outfits--since I'll be going back to school and won't have to dress up for work, I want to look more polished while wearing comfortable clothing.
I am going to have a hard time picking which shoes to include.
I am still going to be really grateful that accessories don't count in the 30 items.
I will be completely over taking pictures of myself every day.

So, here goes nothing...

Dreams - Sewing Machine to Vacuum

2011-04-07T10:46:00.000-06:00

Recently I've been having very detailed dreams. Very detailed, and very random.

Last night I dreamt that I went to a small appliance store. I wanted to buy a sewing machine (apparently I'm already making plans in my dream for my at-home tailoring), but when I grabbed a sewing machine and turned around to show my mother, it had turned into a vacuum.

The end.

Back in 'Business'

2011-04-07T10:41:00.000-06:00

Image Credit

So, I may be starting up the Thursday Night Supper Club again. But it will be on Fridays, since I won't have Friday classes during summer or fall semesters (nice, right?).

I'm excited to get back into the kitchen and start experimenting with new recipes again.

How to Be Poor

2011-04-04T16:06:00.000-06:00

Oh, dear.

At the end of this month, I'm leaving the company I've worked for since December of 2003 to go back to school.

I'll be working part-time and focusing on school, which means I am going to be POOR.

Really poor.

Haven't-had-so-little-money-since-I-was-a-freshman kind of poor.

I think I'm going to be bad at it.

Considering the upcoming belt-tightening, I am going to incorporate the following changes starting now:

Way less money for eating out = more cooking at home (maybe a revival of the Thursday Night Supper Club?)
Fewer new clothes... (and more learning how to sew so I can attempt to tailor my own clothes) (oh, scary. I can barely sew a straight line.)
No more buying jewelry (at least not at my current rate...)
Checking books out at the liiiiiibrary, or camping out at Borders and B&N to read new books (raise your hand if you've camped out and read an entire book at the store. No shame.)
Packing lunch every day to eat between work/school.

So, those are the big things that will have to change in my budget.

I would be lying if I said I knew what I was going to do. But I'm happier than I've been in a long time, despite the uncertainty.

Any tips on how to be poor? I know almost everyone has been there at one point or another. What is your biggest money-saving tip?

Starting Over

2011-03-14T12:51:00.000-06:00

What with all the changes going on in life right now, I feel like I'm being handed a blank slate, and I have the opportunity to do whatever I want with it. I am starting out at a new ground zero, in the best possible way.

I've spent the last 21 months (!!) since I've been home from Paris thinking about what I wanted to DO with my life--thinking about how to move forward, how to make my mark on the world. There is something in me that can't be content simply living my life without giving back and trying to make the world better.

I've gone back and forth between so many things--things that I really do love and have an interest in, but ultimately realized aren't the best fit for me:

Art History - working as a professor has its perks, I'm well aware. But I don't know that it would make me happy and excited to go to work every day. I think Art History is just a great hobby of mine, not a passion that will translate well into a job. I do still think it would be fun to do museum education, but I think I'll do it on a volunteer basis, rather than as a job. I was mistaking my wonderful sister Amy's passion for Art History as a deeper interest than I really had. Does that ever happen to you? Someone is so passionate about something, that just listening to them makes your heart beat faster, and makes the subject far more interesting to you than it might otherwise be? I feel that way when Amy talks about art. And silent films. :)
Literacy Education - I feel so strongly that education is crucial for every person--man, woman, boy, girl--regardless of their station, religion, access to technology, etc. Everyone should be taught to read and write, learn basic math skills, and learn a trade or attend university. However, ultimately, I don't think I want to be a teacher, and I don't think an administrative position would be very satisfying for me. It's too hands-off.
Fighting Human Trafficking - This is something that I have been thinking about for the last few months. It's something I feel really strongly about getting involved in--I think it's atrocious that there are people on the earth that still think it's okay to buy and sell other human beings for their own benefit. Again, working in this field means I would probably be in an administrative position behind a desk somewhere, which doesn't really appeal to me. I would rather be involved on a volunteer basis or donate money to an organization I believe in.
French Masters, PhD. I love French. I love France. I love francophone literature. But, like I mentioned above, I don't want to be a teacher. I don't really want to be a professor. I am satisfied to just love French and continue to develop my language skills. And go back to France as often as humanly possible.

I have always wanted to be an artist, and for years I thought about graphic design, but beyond knowing that graphic designers made "pretty things," my knowledge of the profession was pretty limited, and I didn't know that it was very possible to make a living as a designer. I thought being a graphic designer would be more along the lines of the "struggling artist," which I didn't think I could handle. Now, after having worked really closely with the graphic designers at my company for a few years, I have a much better understanding of the different kinds of projects graphic design involves, a little bit of the process, the back-and-forth with customer/company expectations, and the crazy hours that the designers often work leading up to a huge deadline. And also how much they make, which isn't the deciding factor, but a comforting reassurance that I wouldn't be destitute doing what I loved.

I think for a long time I did French because I loved it, and for a long time I kept doing it becauase I was good at it. Once I realized I didn't want to be a teacher, the career options seemed really limited.

But here's the realization I had a couple of weeks ago, when I sat down to think about what really makes me happy:

If I didn't have to worry for one second about my personal financial security, what would I want to do all day?

Paint. Draw. Create.

So that's what I'm going to do. I am going back to school to get a BFA in Art and Visual Communication, with an emphasis in Graphic Design (and a second emphasis in Fine Art - Painting, if they'll let me!). When I realized that creativity is what really makes me tick, everything fell into alignment for me: it felt way more authentic than Art History (for obvious reasons, mentioned above), it felt more marketable and more like something I would like to do for a living than French, and it's something I am geniunely interested in and want to develop skills in (and have wanted this for years, without daring to do it).

And here's the best part: I can do all of the things I mentioned above! I can continue to love and learn French, I can be involved in Literacy Education, I can help fight human trafficking, and I can support cultural and museum education/outreach, all through graphic design. I can have my cake and eat it, too, without changing my qualifications every time I turn around. Talk about the best of both worlds.

I got accepted to school on Friday, and I start in May.

I can't wait.

Visual Nocturne, Musical Nocturne

2011-03-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

The last little while I've been really inspired by this painting by James McNeil Whistler.
It's called Nocturne in Black and Gold : The Falling Rocket.
It's an impressionist piece depicting fireworks and the resulting smoke lingering over the Thames.

Also, this website will create a reproduction in any size starting at about $150. Hello. If I had any money, this would be on my wall. ANd I would stare at it while listening to this:

Fake goals

2011-03-02T10:20:00.001-07:00

Today I officially deleted my 101 Things in 1001 days page. I still want to do all of those things at some point, but I don't want to worry about achieving something that it ultimately insignificant just because I put it on a list and gave myself a random deadline.

I would rather make thoughtful and meaningful goals for myself and work consistently toward those achievements, rather than 'achieving' things that really don't matter (like making 10 kinds of cookies successfully. Who really cares if every time I make cookies they turn out gross? That's what pre-made dough is for.).

I feel like that's all I have to say on this particular subject. Goodbye, fake goals. See you on my bucket list.

Paved with Good Intentions

2011-03-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm going to ignore the fact that the beginning of the well known proverb states that it's the path to Hell that's paved with good intentions.

Instead, I choose to believe that the path to a happy future is paved (a.k.a. awkwardly cobbled together) with good intentions, half-starts, mistakes, and refining moments, which eventually become less and less messy and lead to calm, authenticity, and joy.

I dropped out of school. I love art history, but I don't want to DO art history. I know. You can mock me. I pick something I want to do and I am gung-ho for a while, and then change my mind.*

In other (very much related) news, I have come to a mutual decision with my boss that I'll only be at my current job until April sometime. I'm not happy here, and we both know it. He wants me to be happy (and so do I), and he needs someone in my position who is passionate about it (which I am not).

So, lots of things to think about in the coming weeks. Lots of prayer, trips to the temple, self-reflection, and a lot of facing my fears. The things I think I would love to do for a living are not really that stable (painting, designing jewelry). The only exception to that is graphic design, which I am currenly considering. It's creative, which I love, and it also gives me a skill that will allow me to work for companies and organizations that I really believe in (UNESCO, art museums, anti-trafficking organizations, literacy organizations, etc.), without changing my qualifications every time I turn around.

Here's to getting a second Bachelor's Degree. Oy. At least this one will be marketable. :)

Wish me luck!

*And I reserve the right to keep doing so until I've found my happy place.

Closet cleanout and repurposing

2011-01-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

I've been cleaning out my closet lately, trying to get rid of the things that are unflattering, don't fit, or that I just don't like. That's partly what inspired the whole 30 for 30 thing.

On what seems like a totally unrelated note, I've been wanting to find some little cloth shoe bags that I could put shoes in when I travel so my shoes don't get my other clothes dirty.

So I'm going to beg friends and family with sewing machines to let me come over and use them for an afternoon, and I'm going to chop up my old clothes and turn them into my travel bags.

But I've got to do it soon. I'm so over 'someday' projects and having piles of stuff that 'I'm going to do something with' lying around gathering dust.

30 for 30

2011-01-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

I recently started reading a fashion blog called Kendi Everyday, and she occasionally does what she calls a 30 for 30. Basically, you pick 30 items from your closet and you can only wear those 30 items over the next 30 days in whatever combinations you can come up with. Accessories and jewelry are not included in the 30 items (thank heavens) but shoes are.

And here's the kicker--what really makes me want to do it. The other 'rule' is that you can't shop for those 30 days. So as you're mixing and matching what you've got, you will get a sense of what needs you have in your closet, rather than just buying random things.

I've been thinking recently about how many items of clothing I have in my closet that 1) don't look good on me and 2) I don't wear that often. So I thought this would be a good exercise so I could get a feel for what basics I'm lacking and what items I would really like to add to my closet--just the selection of 30 items seems like it will be pretty revealing.

The 30 for 30 is supposed to start Feb 1 and go for 30 days. So... we'll see what happens.

(And can I just say again how grateful I am that jewelry is not included in the 30 items? If I could only wear jeans and a black or white t-shirt for 30 days I still think I could get 30 looks out of my jewelry alone. Does that mean I'm cheating already?)

(And does it mean I'm cheating if I have things I want to buy before the 30 days start?)

Goals for 2011

2010-12-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on finalizing my goals for 2011, but here's the list as it stands now.

Start a business (any one of the 4 ideas I've got swimming around in my head).
Be in the best shape of my life.
Study for and take the GRE with satisfactory results (so... I'm thinking two to three rounds).
Narrow down the list of grad schools to 5 that I'll apply to for 2012 enrollment.
Complete my first 10K.
Complete my first triathlon.
Write in a journal daily.
Have personal prayer and scripture study every day (I've become very bad at this).

Lots of these coincide with my 101 things, which I'm still working on...

Happy New Year!

Research Proposal

2010-11-15T14:22:00.002-07:00

For my research proposal, I decided to compare and contrast The Return of the Prodigal Son as depicted by three different artists: Rembrandt, Tissot, and Chagall. I'm going to talk about their religious backgrounds briefly so there is some personal context, and then I will address their artistic style and a few formal elements--most likely color, lighting, and perspective.

Fun, right? :) You probably don't think so, but I am actually really looking forward to seeing how the paper turns out. My rough draft is due tomorrow, so I'll be spending a few hours on it tonight and polishing it up over the next few weeks. The concept of a rough draft is weird for me--I usually just sit down and write it out in one sitting or two straight from beginning to end and then have a couple of people look over it. This will be a new adventure in disciplining myself to just getting the general ideas down and getting the structure and flow together without worrying about my exact word choice and whatnot from the get-go.

These are the paintings I'll be discussing:

Tissot's

Chagall's

Rembrandt's

Ooh, they just give me chills.

Time

2010-09-16T22:00:00.001-06:00

An incredibly old clock at the Cluny (Museum of the Middle Ages) in Paris.

There's never enough time to do all the things I want to do...

I want to start a business. (Not just any business, mind you. I've got two or three specific ideas in mind. Jennifer Johnsen, I'm blaming you. You're the one who got the wheels turning on the first idea, and it has just progessed from there.)
I want to go to culinary school.
I want to learn silversmithing.
I want to go hiking.
I want to learn Arabic.
I want to learn German.
I want to learn Italian.
I want to keep making jewelry.
I want to paint more often than I do.
I want to have perfectly organized belongings and surroundings.
I want to make healthy meals with fresh ingredients.
I want to go to the farmer's market every Saturday morning.
I want to read more non-fiction.
I want to learn how to take care of my car without having to ask my dad to do stuff for me all the time.
I want to understand politics.
I want to tell people how much I love, admire, and appreciate them more often.
I want to learn how to can food.
I want to learn how to sew.
I want to learn how to throw things away that I don't actually need.

In addition to all of the things I have to do... which I will not list for you. (Think work, school, working out, sleeping, etc; i.e., all of the boring things in life [except school, which is fascinating and awesome])

Wanting to do a million different things + having a generally impatient personality = some serious ADD.

I'm trying to learn how to put projects on the shelf that can wait, and focus my time on the things that I can do simultaneously (like developing business plans slowly as I work my way through school for the second time).

L'embarass du choix. I'm telling you. At some point it's got to stop.

I'm not Dead

2010-09-13T15:05:00.000-06:00

Hi friends!
I'm not dead, I promise... just busy.

Right now these are the things that are taking priority over blogging:

work
school
re-organizing, filtering through all of my stuff, and throwing away/donating a bunch of it. Too much stuff.

Mostly I'm doing this because I moved home and right now my stuff is hijacking half of my parents' living space. But it will be good to just clear out the junk.

my attempts to exercise more

So, at some point I will return. I think I'll try to post a bunch of new earring photos this weekend. I've almost finished all of the photographs (of ALL my earrings--yes I have officially finished the "wearing" stage of that project), so it's just a matter of getting them all posted.

Be back soon with some more updates, photos, and thoughts about my upcoming research papers...

For My Next Birthday (in 6 months)...

2010-07-01T16:50:00.000-06:00

... I'm giving myself the gift of being in the best shape of my life. 'Cause that birthday's a big-un. And because that's a far enough--but close enough--date (to motivate me to reach my goal, but give me time to see a significant change).

I registered for the Freedom Run 5K today, so I feel like that's a good place to start. A celebratory kick-off of my journey to a strong and healthy body.

Research Proposals

2010-06-30T16:53:00.000-06:00

Since we've met a total of three times, it only seems natural that I would already have a research proposal due today for my art history class. Right? Because a week is definitely enough time for me to know which art objects in a span of 20,000 years I'd like to research.

All sarcasm aside, the real problem I face is narrowing down the things I want to research. My three possible topics were:
1. Comparing funerary masks of various cultures and the meaning/power that was attributed to them by that civilization.
2. Discovering (for myself--not all of humanity--obviously) what kind of link there is between abstraction in Mesopotamian art, and abstraction and pattern in Islamic art.
3. The iconography (meaning of the symbols) of Egyptian jewelry and cultures it was influenced by/influenced.

The second topic came to light because I asked a question last class period that my teacher didn't have a definitive answer to, so he said, "That would be a great research paper."

The third topic, though... is much more interesting to me. Hmmm, I wonder why...

So, I'm printing out #2 and #3 and taking both of them with me to class.

(Really, I'm turning in the Egyptian jewelry proposal, and keeping the Islamic art proposal as a backup in case my professor doesn't like my first submission. Wish me luck.)

I forgot

2010-06-21T16:04:00.000-06:00

that at the beginning of the semester I would have to get a new student ID card.

Ew. Should have thought to pause and re-apply some makeup.

With Both Feet

2010-06-19T15:10:00.000-06:00

A while ago I posted about all of the different options I was thinking about for school.

Well, I made a decision, and I start classes on Monday.

I'm currently going back to BYU as a Post-Bac/Evening student, taking prerequisites to get into the Art History and Curatorial Studies MA program. My end goal is to work in Museum Educational and Family Programming, and I would also love to teach part-time (maybe full-time eventually. We'll see.).

So that's it.

At least for now. There is the one hurdle of actually getting accepted to deal with. GRE, here I come.

On Being Normal

2010-05-05T15:01:00.001-06:00

Have I ever shared my theory about normalcy with you, friends?

Here it is, in all of it's profound glory:

Everyone is awesome.
Everyone is average.
Everyone is awkward.

I'm convinced it's simply a matter of what situation they are placed in. There's a painfully awkward kid in all of us, there's someone who's boringly mediocre in each of us, and there is an all-out rock star in each of us.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're ever feeling awkward or non-descript, remember that you're truly awesome. (And remember that when you're talking to someone who is showing their awkward side just a bit [or a lot], that given the right stimuli they could blow you away with how brilliant/funny/kind/etc. they are.)

Sometimes I have a hard time remembering this.

Just food for thought.

Staying Positive

2010-04-21T15:34:00.000-06:00

Wow. It's so easy to get bogged down in the cares of life, isn't it?

These days I'm trying to really focus on a few things:

1- Why people are awesome
2- Why my life is awesome
3- Making progress--however I can make it happen

The end.

(And I think it's really time for me to change my blog name and header pic, don't you?)

Last Week I Helped an Old Man and His Wife

2010-04-08T16:55:00.001-06:00

They were bringing a 20-year car out of winter storage and the battery had died, so he was using a mid-size SUV to tow the car with her behind the wheel.

Well, no power steering + aging muscles and joints = difficulty making the car turn sharply enough to make corners.

As I drove down the street I take to get home from work one night, their towing difficulties were causing a slight (okay, total) roadblock. There was no way they were going to make the turn through the intersection without making it a 3-point turn.

Which I assumed meant they needed some help backing the car up so they could complete the remaining 2 points of their turn. So...

1) I pull over and hopped out to see if they needed a quick push backward.
2) The husband says his wife was just having trouble getting the wheel turned enough without the power steering available.
3) I, thinking "Yay! I'm helping old people!" jump into the driver's seat and give the wheel a good crank or two until the car is straightened out in the road. I prepare to stop at any moment and hop back into my own car.
4) The old man keeps driving down the road.
5) I start to panic because--thinking I would only be needed for about 30 seconds total--I not only left my car unlocked, but running. With my purse inside.
6) I watch anxiously in the rearview mirror, just knowing that some 14-year old kid is going to come steal my car.
7) The old man stops, gets out of his car, and explains how we wants to maneuver getting the car into their carport. He is not in fact taking me to the nearest mechanic and leaving his wife to fend for herself as I feared, but is simply towing the deadmobile to their house which is only another few doors down the road.
8) I can't relax until I am back to my car and can confirm that, yes, it is exactly where I left it and yes, I am able to get back in it without calling a locksmith.

True story.

Change

2010-03-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

I like change. I crave it. It's refreshing and renewing to me.

My college roommates used to joke about me being pregnant all the time because I always wanted to move our furniture around in different configurations. When I owned a house, the artwork on the walls changed about every 6 months.

So. Why bring this up? Well, I just realized today that it is an important factor to consider as I'm weighing different career options.

My most recent career decision is Museum Studies. And I happen to think it's a perfect fit for me.

For the past 6 months or more, I've been trying to decide between art, education, and public administration.

Museum Studies combines them all. I decided I would really love to be the education director of a museum--coordinating workshops, seminars, school tours, creating curriculum based on permanent and temporary exhibits.

Think about it: I would be involved in education (check), surrounded by art and constantly thinking about/researching/talking about art (check), and the content I develop would change regularly, as would the people to whom the information is presented (check). Art, education, public administration, and change.

It's been a long time coming... but I feel really good about it!

So, to help get some experience under my belt, I am volunteering as a docent at both the Springville Museum of Art and the BYU Museum of Art. I'm really excited.

(I just hope it doesn't mean another 4 years of undergrad studies before I can do a Museum Studies Certification.)

Keep your fingers crossed for me! ('Cause I'm going to do it all while working full time.)

Spring Break 2009 Mosaic

2010-03-09T14:07:00.001-07:00

Just messing with Big Huge Labs' Mosaic Maker today. I rather enjoy mosaics. I also quite enjoy Europe.

(Sigh)

Seen in My Backyard...

2010-02-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

...a few days ago.

Nice, right? There were two additional deer to the right a little more, but they were hidden from the camera by a little tree in the backyard.

They just sat there and chilled for an hour or so.

SOLD! (or, 17/101)

2010-02-05T23:51:00.000-07:00

So, last night I sold my first paining ever! It was #17 in my list of goals to accomplish before fall 2011, and now I can check it off the list!
Jessica saw this painting hanging around in my room, and offered to buy it outright. She picked it up on Thursday when she came for dinner.

Thanks, Jessica!

Fugliness

2010-02-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

So, my best friend has a supremely unflattering picture of me as her profile picture on Facebook. (Well, she's in it, too. But still. SHE looks cute.)

Yep.

That's all.

If it's there come Monday, we might not be friends anymore.

(Kidding.)

(Kind of.)

Thursday Night Supper Club--The details and this week's menu

2010-01-25T15:45:00.005-07:00

Alright, people. Thursday Night Supper Club is officially on!

This Thursday's menu is:

-Broiled Chicken Provençale
-Quinoa Salad with Dried Apricots
-Lemon Crème Brulée or Chocolate Tuiles with Vanilla Custard

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll get the update there, too. But if not, here are the details:

-If you know me and trust me in the kitchen, you're invited. :) Bring a friend (or spouse, o' course) if you feel so inclined.
-I'll make dinner every Thursday and you bring a few bucks to help pay for ingredients and whatnot.
-The cost will NEVER be more than $8-$10 per person, and I'm hoping to keep it more to the $4-$7 range.
-I'm NOT going to make money off of you--promise. The cost will be evenly divided among everyone who comes to dinner, including me.
-This isn't some weird self-promotional thing and I'm not trying to sell something to you.
-You don't have to participate every week (obviously).

I'll send out the menu every week by Monday, you let me know if you're coming by Tuesday night, and I'll have a seat and a plate for you on Thursday night. :)

Let me know if you want to join in!

If you're not interested this week, let me know if the general idea appeals, and I'll put you on my list of people to include in my weekly menu email.

Woo hoo!

Bookbinding

2010-01-22T16:38:00.002-07:00

Today I found a bookbinding tutorial online. I can't wait to try it out to make my own unlined journal.

I'll report back soon on how it went. Wish me luck. :)

10/101 - Read one (auto)biography every six months

2010-01-22T13:28:00.005-07:00

I have read the following autobiographies to fulfill item #10 of my 101 things.

1) Actually, the first one I don't even remember. I don't remember the title, and I don't remember who it was about. But it was funny.

2) Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman.

3) Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman.

I actually read the Lincoln biography last night. It's a children's book. Yep, that's how I roll. I'm really loving the Eleanor Roosevelt book by Freedman (also a children's book), so I might end up reading another biography or autobiography on her life. That's actually why I decided to read the Freedman books. They were short, so if I found someone I was particularly interested in through reading his books, I could go find some more in-depth materials.

That's it for now! All in all I will be reading 6 (auto)biographies before the end of the challenge.

Test Kitchen/Dinner Group

2010-01-20T20:36:00.004-07:00

To help me resolve my little recipe problem, I decided to start a weekly dinner group/test kitchen combo.

Basically, I'm going to make at least one recipe from my (ahem) archives each Thursday and invite all of my Orem/Provo peeps for dinner every week.

I was thinking I would send out a weekly email with the plan for the main dish, a side-dish sign-up list with a couple of slots, and then let everyone else know to bring $3-$8 to help pay for ingredients, depending on how exotique the ingredients are. (So... if it's lobster, everyone brings $8-ish. If it's tortilla soup everyone brings $3.)

What do you think? Is it tacky to ask people to bring money? Should I just have them bring ingredients? If it were you, what would you prefer?

Would you participate in something like this if someone else was hosting?

Sibling Inspiration: Amy

2010-01-19T16:21:00.003-07:00

Amy has started running.

I used to love running, but not so much anymore.

I want to love running again. Come to find out I have not only diabetes in my family history, but a history of heart attacks at an early age.

For months I have had this couch-to-5K running plan saved in my external hard drive and eventually posted on my wall.

So today I put each week's workouts on a 4x6 index card so I can easily prop up an outline of my workout on the treadmill at the gym.

It's a nine-week program, and I'll be running indoors only until the spring. (I don't do inversions.)

The idea is to not only lose weight, but to increase my health altogether and have an established running habit before I (potentially) move away to graduate school.

Wish me luck. Join me if you'd like. It will do your heart good. (Mine, too, since I'll know I'm not doing this alone.)

Another goal I've set for myself that's inspired by Ames: Journal keeping. I'm only good at it when it's require for getting good grades in school. Lame. Amy is great at it. So, I'm going to buy myself a new little journal that I can carry with me wherever I go and see what happens.

Get Cooking!

2010-01-19T16:10:00.003-07:00

I got "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman. I think she was the one who said she learned to cook by just cooking her way through his book, and it inspired me.

Not only am I going to learn how to cook "everything," but I am also going to become a creative cook and ingredient-combining guru with the Ingredient Bible, which I bought for myself because it's my birthday.

So, if you would like to be a guinea pig, let me know and I'll invite you over for dinner, lunch, breakfast, or brunch.

L'embarras du choix

2010-01-03T19:02:00.002-07:00

At a ward activity with my church in Paris, there was a potluck with some of the most delicious-looking foods I've ever seen.

As I stood before the buffet-style setup trying to decide where to start, a member of the bishopric came up beside me with the same "Where do I start?" look of hesitation on his face.

"Ahh..." he says, "L'embarras du choix." Roughly translated, that conveys the idea of "overwhelmed by my options" or "spoilt for choice."

And that's the perfect description of my life right now. Really, where do I start?

I've been thinking a lot about graduate school, but for the life of me I can't settle on one program over another. It's kind of distressing, mostly because the deadlines are all coming up soon, and I'll need to get cracking on the GRE for some of the applications.

I feel pulled in several different directions. These are the programs I'm thinking of applying to:

-French studies
-French Teaching
-Language Acquisition
-TESOL
-MPA
-Literacy Education

If I did either of the last two, I would want to do both and end up working for a non-profit with a focus on literacy education (either K-12 or adult ed). But I also feel like I should work in that field for at least a year or two to determine whether that's something I would want to do as a full-time career.

I think with French Studies or French Teaching it's almost a no-brainer that I at least apply, but the catch with that is I don't think I would want to teach secondary, so I would have to also do a doctorate. Yowza. I'm 28. You do the math.

They're all sort of related, having to do with literacy, teaching, and language... but they're all different enough that they don't really overlap. Except maybe Language Acquisition and TESOL. Those probably have some significant overlap in the theories I would study.

So, I'm not gonna lie... I think I would love them all. I'm not really making salary a part of the decision, because choosing a career based on how much I would make is a recipe for disaster (based on previous experience).

That's all. Just needed to get it off my chest.

More Earrings

2009-12-30T14:13:00.011-07:00

In the past couple of months I've started making earrings. Sometimes I make something because I can't find what I want in stores, and sometimes it's just a matter of wanting to do something creative that is also practical. It's also a cheaper way to feed my addiction.

Getting to the point: I gave earrings to all the girls in my family, as well as my friends, for Christmas.

Here are some of the earrings I've made in the past little while:

Hope you like them!

Flashback: Missionary memories

2009-12-30T11:16:00.005-07:00

When I was 21, I left to serve a mission for my church.

I didn't have a digital camera on my mission, so I just recently had all of my negatives from that 18-month period scanned onto CDs. Going through them brought up some great memories. Two of which I will share with you today. They're not very specific, and they're not long, so don't be afraid.

Memory 1: In my last area (Spencerport, NY), while at a dinner appointment with an older couple, the husband gave me this awesome hat. I'm sure you can guess why. Isn't is a great hat? I wish I could say I still had it, but it probably didn't make the cut to come back in my two suitcases. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate, even as a missionary. I'm pretty sure I mailed two or three boxes home, too!

Also notice my super-classy plastic watch.

Memory 2:

In my second area (Fairport, NY), I was put in a companionship with two other sisters, both of whom had been called specifically to serve at the historic sites in Palmyra and the surrounding area.

This is a picture of me at the E. B. Grandin building in Palmyra. This was one of my favorite times on my mission because I got to spend the entire day bearing my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith's role as a prophet of God. Most days I spent tracting, knocking on doors, hoping someone would take just a moment to listen. This was a nice change of pace for just a few weeks.

Many of you already know...

2009-12-30T10:52:00.004-07:00

... that I'm a bit obsessed with earrings.

Well, a week or so ago I counted my earrings, just out of curiosity. I discovered that I had over 175 pairs on my earring storage/display racks, and if I'm going to be honest, I tend to wear the same 20 or 30 pair over and over, if that.

So--shallow as it may seem--I decided that I would challenge myself to wear every single pair of earrings I own once before I can wear any of them a second time. I'm also not allowing myself to wear any newly-purchased earrings until I've gone through the existing stash.

Some of you may care, some of you may not. But I started a blog about it so I wouldn't end up posting them all here. It's called the Earring Appreciation Project, and it's all about earrings: the ones I own and wear, the ones I wish I could afford but can't, and the ones I discover in different places (on people, online... wherever).

If you're interested, hop over and take a look. If you're not interested, feel free to mock me. (I'll only be somewhat offended.)

Blogger is annoying

2009-11-29T19:37:00.003-07:00

and won't publish my posts when I tell it to. So, I'm not going to bother reporting on the summer in chronological order. When I find pictures, I'm posting them. I know the dates are irrelevant to you, anyway.

Cheers.

I've been home

2009-11-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

from Paris for as long as I was there. It seems like it was a really long time ago and it's so far removed from my daily life now.

So... I'm getting ready to post about some of the things I've done since I've been home. Some you've already seen. Others... not so much.

Later.

Roberts family reunion!

2009-10-29T19:40:00.000-06:00

I don't remember the exact dates, but pretty quickly after I'd arrived home, the Roberts extended family had our annual festival of fun, food, and fire.

Well, the fire part isn't really annual unless you count a barbecue grill. But this year there was fire.

Anyway.

In what seemed like no time at all, I went from this to this:

And I'm not gonna lie... If I had to give one of them up permanently, it would be a pretty tough decision. I love the mountains. The trees, the crisp air, the wide open feel.

The reunion was at the Heber Valley Camp, and they had a lot of different activities that we could participate in, as well as a huge pavilion where we could hang out and enjoy each other's company. My favorite part of the reunion was the zipline on the challenge course.

I love the mountains, I love the rolling hills...

The End

2009-10-25T22:14:00.003-06:00

I have to double and triple check my picture files, but it looks like we've come to the end of my Paris pictures.

Sad. It's like re-living the end of my stay there all over again.

Dancer in the St-Merri Cathedral

2009-10-24T09:09:00.005-06:00

Remember this cathedral?
I visited it on one of my first nights in Paris.

It's on the west side of the Pompidou Center, next to the Stravinsky Fountain.

The Tuesday before I came home, a small group of friends and I were walking around and decided to stop into this church for a second. This is what we saw.

This particular parish seems to really encourage participation in the arts--they often have different installations hanging overhead. And it seems like almost every cathedral in Paris offers free concerts (as well as some concerts you have to pay for).

Eglise St-Eustache by the Forum des Halles

2009-10-23T17:36:00.004-06:00

I had never heard of the Eglise St-Eustache until some friends took me there after Institute one night.
I think it's really beautiful.

The cathedral is behind Les Halles. If you explore back behind all of the trees near the Chatelet-Les Halles RER or the Les Halles Metro stop, you'll find the church.

And the best part?

The cool little plaza out in front of the church that houses this cool sculpture.

You can't see it in the pictures, but to the right and behind where I was standing there were tiered rows of grass where people would lay out and read, make out, walk their dogs, or have a smoke and chat. I think it's a great spot.

Also Seen at Hotel de Ville: IUFM of Paris protest

2009-10-22T23:41:00.003-06:00

The plaza in front of the Hotel de Ville was also used several times as a "call to action" center for manifestations (protests) and collecting signatures for a variety of petitions.
The students below are professors in training (I don't know if they are in training to teach secondary school or at a University level--my guess is the former) who were protesting some changes to the way the teacher training programs at the University were being organized and administered.
Protests are not very effective. They happen way too often in Paris to have much of an impact.

Musee D'Orsay: The exterior

2009-10-22T22:36:00.002-06:00

I think the Musee D'Orsay is really pretty on the outside. Like many, many buildings in Paris.

Filipino cooking

2009-10-22T22:25:00.003-06:00

So, remember waaaay back when my Relief Society in the Paris ward had a Filipino cooking class? Well, before that we had a great Thai cooking class.
Here are the pictures.

This may not look delicious (since it's raw), but the spring roll-y things we made with it were AWESOME.

The Seine

2009-10-13T20:20:00.004-06:00

These are the pictures I took during this walk along the banks of the Seine.

Rainstorms

2009-10-13T19:37:00.003-06:00

I woke up at 3 this morning to a loud thunderstorm. It reminded me of this storm I watched out the window of my apartment in Paris.

Music at Place de la Chatelet

2009-10-13T19:23:00.003-06:00

While I was waiting for a friend at the Chatelet metro stop, this was going on near the fountain.

This kind of stuff is one of the best things about living in a big city.

Chillin' with the Sistas

2009-10-13T18:52:00.005-06:00

While in Paris I spent a lot of time with the Sister missionaries. I volunteered to go with them to a teaching appointment one week, and it turned into a standing weekly appointment.

These are the two sisters, Sister R and Sister O, that I started working with. Then Sister O went home, and Sister H was transferred in. (Sister H is the one below eating raclette).

Here we are in front of the Church on rue Saint Merri near the Pompidou Centre.

Sister R, me, Sister O

On the night before I came home, we had one last teaching appointment with E and her two daughters.
The Sisters surprised me with an awesome dinner before we went to teach--raclette!! I had never had raclette before, so it was fun to see how it works. And it was soooooo good!

So, basically you have a raclette pan with spaces for all of these little dishes to sit in. You put a slice of cheese in the dish, slide it under the heating element, and then make a little open-faced sandwich.

This is me with E and her girls on Mother's Day at church. Love them! Miss them.

On my last night, at E's apartment. Love these girls. Aren't they just beautiful. They're little sweethearts, too. Let's just ignore how pasty I look next to their gorgeous skin.

Le Petit Nicolas (Young Nicholas)

2009-10-11T18:40:00.005-06:00

At Hotel de Ville in June there were two exhibits: one about Gustave Eiffel, and the other about Petit Nicolas.
If you're not familiar with the Young Nicholas stories, they're stories about Nicholas, a young school boy, and all the mischief he makes at home and school with his friends. They're really cute, and they've been translated into several languages.

From Wikipedia:

The humour of the books derives from their unique story-telling style: the adventures of Little Nicolas are told in the first person by Nicolas himself. On the one hand, the books are a parody of the story-telling habits of little children; for example, the author makes frequent use of stylistic features such as run-on sentences and employs an egocentric, naive point of view. On the other hand, adults are the targets of the books' humour when the straightforward and uncomplicated worldview of the child narrator exposes the flaws of adult perception. The subversive element in the Petit Nicolas thus made it an early example of modern children's literature that is centred around the experience of the child, rather than an adult interpretation of the world.

I used a little collection of Petit Nicolas stories for a couple of my French conversation classes at BYU, so it was fun to learn more about the inspiration behind the books.

Caveau de la Huchette

2009-10-11T15:57:00.005-06:00

Another reason I will always love Rue de la Huchette is that it is the home of the very first Jazz club I went to.

I wish I would have gone sooner, but I'm glad I got there before I left, at least. (And barely. I went the night before I came home, just after a teaching and dinner appointment with the Sister missionaries.)

If you like music and you're visiting Paris, this was a lot of fun. (Please also note that it is item #46 of my 101 in 1001.)

Rue de la Huchette

2009-10-11T15:49:00.003-06:00

Rue de la Huchette is a total tourist trap.

And I love every bit of it.

Actually, in the off-season, you'll find just as many French people enjoying lunch there as foreign visitors. There is Greek, Chinese, Indian, Italian, and I don't know what other kinds of food offered on Huchette and the small streets winding off of it.

This street is just off of the Place St-Michel as well. (I'm not lying, it's a great area).

I spent a lot of time in this area because it was right by the school where I took grammar classes 5 days a week.

But I would never get a hotel room on that street. Way too noisy late at night. Just get a hotel nearby, and then you'll have access to the St-Michel Metro and the St-Michel/Notre Dame RER stops. You can pretty much get anywhere from this part of the city.

Institute Dances in Paris...

2009-10-11T15:14:00.005-06:00

... are basically the same as church dances in Utah.

Except in Utah practically everyone is white.

There is line dancing...

...and girls have to dance with each other if they want to swing, because there just aren't enough guys to go around.

I loved making friends at Institute. It was such a relief to know that whatever happened during the week, I could go to Institute and feel (somewhat) normal.

The best friend I made in France. He's the bomb-diggity. He's also learning English, and he understood me better in English when I faked a British accent. (I'm glad he stayed friends with me, even though I squashed his dream of serving his mission on Temple Square when I told him that mission is really only "staffed" with Sisters.)

A blurry goodbye picture. Should have turned on that flash. :)

Drinking Fountains in Paris

2009-10-11T14:55:00.004-06:00

In Paris you will rarely find a regular drinking fountain. The one pictured below is on the Place St. Michel, about where the Metro symbol (M) is on the map below.

But of course, there are always these fountains if you've alread got a bottle handy.

Promenade Plantee

2009-10-10T22:51:00.004-06:00

I think it was the Design*Sponge Paris city guide that pointed me toward the Promenade Plantee as something worth visiting. I had never even heard of it, but it was a beautiful escape from the crowded, noisy sidewalks. I spent at least an hour walking along the promenade, which is built on an old viaduct that used to be the home to a set of elevated train tracks.

Some of the things I saw as I walked:

(My sad attempt at capturing myself on the Promenade. Let's be honest--this picture could have been taken anywhere. But I had to try.)

The Jardin de Reuilly park. A total hidden gem. (Well, not totally hidden, as you can see. But not packed by any means.)

If you visit Paris and have an hour or two that you'd like to escape the city for a while, this is definitely worth your time. I enjoyed it a lot, and I decided I wouldn't mind living in that area--it seemed pretty cool.

To access the promane plantee, take the Metro to Bastille, and you'll find the promenade plantee behind the opera building.

The Pompidou Center

2009-10-10T22:40:00.003-06:00

I spent a lot of time at the Pompidou Center during my time in Paris. And a lot of time in their bookstore.
I rode these escalators many a time to check out the exhibits. The views of Paris are not too bad from the top floor, either.

The Eiffel Tower through the window (and the rain).

Another great thing about the Pompidou Center is that the bookstore and the bathrooms don't require entrance to the museum. You just have to go through security. I'm not gonna lie--I totally took advantage of that a time or fifty.

Home Sweet Parisian Home

2009-10-10T22:08:00.005-06:00

I don't think I ever gave y'all the grand tour of my apartment. Here's a quick look at the place I called home in Paris.

My room. I think I showed a picture before when I was showing you the sad and cratered state of my mattress.
This was the day before I left, so it looks like a hurricane swept through. But you get the idea. It was actually really large, which was great since there was no storage.

A quarter view of the very skinny kitchen.

The kitchen. That white appliance between the stainless counter and the stove? The one with the platter on it? That's the washing machine. If there is anything wrong with this apartment, this is the one thing that (although it had problems) was very, very lovely. I don't do laundromats. I did get used to doing dishes by hand, though, since there wasn't a dishwasher. I still forget about the dishwasher sometimes, which puts me at the receiving end of some very curious looks.

Our 'balcony.' Really just a way to get to the garbage chute.

The shower. Please note:

1) There is no permanent shower head. Each day I had to insert the hand-held shower head into the pipe sticking out from the wall. Weird. But whatever. It was set up that way on purpose, probably because when the building was first constructed no showers were planned as a part of the plumbing.

2) The only real problem I had with the shower was that there was no curtain. That's right, folks. This means I had to wipe down 1/3 of the bathroom every day because I sprayed water everywhere.

Notice the drying rack in the back of the bathroom. I also sprayed any and all clothes that were out drying in the morning as I showered. That's right, I'm amazing.

The entry. You can see the front door just to the left of the bookshelves. My room is the open door you can see on the right. The kitchen is the doorway you can barely see on the left edge of the photo.

My landlord's room was on the right just out of the frame, and through her room is the entrance to the bathroom.

The water closet is out of the frame to the left, past the kitchen.

I'm estimating that the whole apartment was maybe 800 square feet.

This is Alfred Roll street, where I walked every day to the RER and Metro.

There were two teensy grocers within 30 seconds of my front door, as well as a Chinese take-out place, an Italian restaurant, a cafe/bar, pharmacy, and of course the lovely farmer's market one block behind my apartment complex. And underground parking right below my complex, as well.

All in all, a great location.

Playing Catch-up

2009-10-10T22:01:00.002-06:00

I'm trying to get caught up on all of my posts from Paris, since I've been home almost 4 months now. (Ah!! I've been home almost as long as I was there!!)

So you'll be hearing a lot from me over the next few days.

Montmartre

2009-10-10T21:52:00.004-06:00

I wandered around Montmartre one sunny day and took a few pictures before enjoying a banana split at an extremely touristy joint that looks onto the big square full of artists.

I think the Sacre Coeur is a gorgeous building.

Palais de Tokyo

2009-10-10T21:32:00.003-06:00

I went to the Palais de Tokyo.

It was disappointing to say the least. I think maybe I missed most of the museum.

Maybe not.

When I got there and pulled out my money to pay, the cashier asked me if I was a student. I said yes, but I was older than 26, so I don't get the discount.

"Are you sure?"

"Uh, yep. Pretty sure."

"And you don't qualify for any other discounts?"

"I don't think so."

"You're sure? You're definitely older than 26?"

"Yep." (Seriously??) (Although, apparently almost everyone in France though I was 23, so I guess I can't blame her.)

"Well, okay then. It's 10 Euros."

I should have taken that as a bad sign. If even the museum staff doesn't think the exhibit is worth the entrance price...

This was the coolest thing in the museum. And it was in the gift shop.

This is the cafeteria.

This is a piece by Jim Shaw called "Heap." It's a big pile of McDonal's Happy Meal toys turned into a creepy sea monster with resin, green spray paint, styrofoam, and metal rods. This was the next most interesting thing in the museum.

In the background you can see the security guard. I was the only person in the museum. (Yet another clue.) When I asked if I could take pictures, he said, "Yeah. You can also stay here and flirt with me for a while if you'd like."

I just laughed like he was joking and went on my merry way, trying to get pictures in the ridiculously low lighting.

Don't know who did this or what it was called. But it was built to look like it had smashed through the wall of the museum.

So that's it.

Disappointed?

Well, I'd be lying if I told you I was surprised.

Musee de l'Armee

2009-10-10T21:19:00.003-06:00

I think I already mentioned how on the first Sunday of each month all of the state-owned museums in Paris are free of charge.

So one of those Sundays I decided to check out the Army Museum. Not something I would pay for, so I figured I would at least make the effort to check it out when it was free.

The main thing I wanted to do was see Naploeon's tomb... but (classic) that was the one part of the museum that isn't free.

So I decided to just quickly check out the chapel in the complex and call it good. (I then proceeded to get lost in the neighborhood because by this point I wasn't in the habit of taking my map with me anymore. Woops.)

Les Macarons LeNotre

2009-10-10T14:22:00.005-06:00

I, sadly, had never experienced the loveliness of a macaroon until I went to France.

So, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to make up for lost time.

The best macaroons I had were from LeNotre. Wow. They were so good. I don't remember what the flavors were, but believe me when I say they were a-ma-zing. And pretty, too.

Elles @ Centre Pompidou

2009-10-10T14:00:00.000-06:00

So, this post is one of the reasons I even brought up the cookie story.

I went to the Centre Pompidou one last time because there was a Kandinsky Exhibit I wanted to see before it or I was no longer in Paris.

While there I noticed that there was also a new primary exhibit in the Pompidou Center. "Elles @ Centre Pompidou."

Elles doesn't have a direct translation in English that makes its meaning apparent. It could be translated as they, but it loses its inherent meaning, because elles is the third-person plural, but strictly feminine. So, I guess you could translate is as "the female they" or "the women" (though "the women" would just be les femmes).

So the exhibit is essentially "They (females only) at the Pompidou Center." Got it? Good.

I thought maybe it was just a special exhibit focusing on the existing art in the Pompidou by female artists.

Well, I was kind of right.

Take a look at some of the things I found in the exhibit.

At the entrance there was this display that featured the names of prominent male artists, but the names had been changed into a feminine version of the name (La Corbusier, Annie Warhol, Jacqueline Pollock). I thought that was pretty clever.

Barbara Kruger

Sylvie Fanchon

Sylvia Bachli

Lee Bontecou

Koo Jeong-A (An example of contemporary art that I doesn't appeal to me. Everything else I took pictures of I really liked).

More Barbara Kruger. (I love this, by the way. Maybe too much. I think it's really funny.)

Helen Frankenthaler

(I don't know who the artist was here. Just liked the look of them.)

Marthe Wery

Details of a Kristin Baker painting. Her subjects (inspired by car racing) aren't really my thing, but her technique is really cool.

I don't know who made this, but it was kind of interesting--a dress all covered in light bulbs.

Vera Molnar

I found a lot of pieces that I really loved in the exhibit. And then I saw this (you might want to click on it to see a bigger version):

This really annoyed me. I can understand that the curators probably wanted to make a point about how women artists were just as good as men. But here's the thing. I think you can do that without coming across as whiny little kids who are basically saying, "Hey, look at me, too!"

Why not give the exhibit another title, and then once everyone has gone through, have some sort of big reveal at the end that tells them how all of the works in the exhibit were by women?

Anyway. This was just one of the pieces of art, but it was at the beginning of the exhibit and I felt that it set the stage in a way that kind of tainted everything else that was featured.

It was still a really great exhibit, and I discovered several artists that I had never heard of whose work I really liked.

Feminist? Or just a Product of my Generation and Family?

2009-09-24T19:45:00.003-06:00

A little story for you: (it will give you some context for my next post)

Several weeks ago, I was hanging with some friends at the home of an acquaintance-friend. (Mostly acquaintance, but I'm friends with his friends... you all know what I'm talking about, right?)

So, earlier in the day this guy had purchased two containers of chocolate chip cookie dough from some little kids peddling it door-to-door. Their dad was out of work, and they were selling cookie dough to try and help bring in some money. So he bought two. Sweet, right? I thought so.

A little later that night, we're all hanging in the basement playing a game, and someone mentions that those cookies were sounding pretty good right about then. The problem? They were still in dough form in the containers they came in.

So this guy leans back and smiles like he's really proud of himself, motions to the door leading upstairs where the kitchen is, and says, "Ladies?"

Do I even need to finish the story at this point?

So, apparently the look I gave him was pretty expressive, because another guy friend who was there reacted pretty quickly to my reaction. The gist of what he said is, "Whoa. Sarah looks pissed."

Well, no kidding.

First of all, who's making the assumption that just because someone is female they are automatically at home in the kitchen?

And secondly, where the bleep did his manners go? I can guarantee to you that if he had made the same assumption (that we could all bake cookies well) (incorrect assumption on his part--I can't bake a cookie to save my life), but at least phrased it more appropriately, I would have been happy to head upstairs and bake the freakin' cookies. But what on earth makes him think that his 1) ignorant assumption and 2)smug presentation would make anyone want to go bake him cookies?

Let me be clear--it's not like I threw a fit about it. I don't remember if I even said anything (verbally). My face just conveyed my feelings for me.

I don't consider myself to be a feminist, but I do get annoyed when guys say idiotic things like "The man is the prince of his home and shouldn't have to help clean. When he gets home from work he should just get to relax. He shouldn't have to help around the house or with the cooking or the dishes." (A semi-direct quote. It was said in French, so... you know. But you get the idea.)

So, this leads me to wonder... would you say that makes me a feminist? Is that something that just comes from growing up in the family I did? Or does it just make me a product of this generation?

Would you say that you are a feminist? Or a champion of women's rights (men, if you're not okay with calling yourself a feminist.)

Le Jardin Ephémère à l'Hôtel de Ville

2009-09-24T19:02:00.006-06:00

So, since arriving in Paris January 21st, I had seen the square in front of the Hotel de Ville turned into an ice skating rink and a tennis court/arena. So, truth be told, I shouldn't have been surprised to walk out of the Metro and see this:

The Ephemeral Gardens at Town Hall

Featuring...

Scarecrows

Grass you can actually sit on!!

Planter "boxes" that I wanted to steal (along with so many of the other things I'm going to show you. It made me want to garden).

This took my breath away. Clever and beautiful. Art made out of terra cotta pots drilled to a wall. Who'dathunk?

And the ever-present statues keeping tabs on everything...

I like to call these "succulent paintings." They are hanging on a wall, just so we're clear. This isn't just a really awkward shot of succulents in planter boxes on the ground.

Close up succulent painting. Nice, right? Is it weird that I think I might want succulents to be included in my wedding flowers? Maybe? At least they're hardy and would last through all of the festivities...

Because grass is often off-limits in Paris, even in public parks, there were signs posted on the patches of sod that had been lain for the exposition. "Pelouse Accessible" let everyone know that they could kick back and enjoy...

This was another display that just took my breath away. Who comes UP with this stuff?

More plant artwork. I absolutely love this idea.

And they covered an entire wall with it!

Wide shot

Hotel de Ville

Whoever originially had the idea to bring all of these different things to the Town Hall square is brilliant. Brilliant, I tell you.

French Open at the Hotel de Ville

2009-09-22T00:32:00.005-06:00

During the Roland Garros (French Open) there was a mini French Open set up on the square in front of the Hotel de Ville, complete with first-come first-served tennis courts lined with sponsorship banners and a huge projector screen showing live action from the courts of the real French Open.

While lost one day

2009-09-10T18:59:00.003-06:00

in the 4th Arrondissement, I saw the Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville de Paris. (The Historic Library of the City of Paris.)

It's beautiful, n'est-ce pas?

Yeah, I know it would be more beautiful if it weren't crooked. I can't seem to fix my "horizon" problem... I always seem to tilt my camera a little to the right...

Bastille

2009-09-10T18:50:00.005-06:00

The Bastille area in Paris has a lot to offer. (Except the Bastille, since it no longer exists.)

I spent a very small amount of time in that area, though. The Sister missionaries lived near the Bastille metro stop, and the Promenade Plantee (which I am just now realizing I haven't shown you) is just behind the Bastille Opera.

The Place de la Bastille now has a monument right in the middle of the roundabout, and that's pretty much it. :)

You could always go to the Carnavalet Museum and see a model of the Bastille prison, if you really had a hankering to. (Free, pretty interesting, and it had that cool art nouveau room that made me swoon.) (And for some reason I can't find that post, either. Maybe I didn't share that yet, either?? Yikes.)

Paintings

2009-09-09T09:10:00.000-06:00

Did I ever mention how most of the paintings I did in Paris got ruined on the flight home?

Yep.

Except for like three of them (don't worry that there were probably thirty).

But, not to worry* I have repurposed them into new collage-style paintings.

I took the ruined paintings like the one below

cut them into strips, and stuck them to an unfinished canvas with varnish.

Ta-da.

This is one of several I am going to make that are all the same size, but the collage elements will be different shapes.

And I finally got around to finishing Happy's 2008 birthday painting.

Here it is. This is the actual color. So, basically, one main color with tons o' texture. She wanted a blue painting--and that's what she got. :)

A detail.

And two more detail shots in bad kitchen lighting. The painting wasn't this yellow-ish, though there were some purple splashes throughout.

I love modeling paste. :)

Another detail I added which you can see in the main photo is some split reeds that I affixed to the canvas with modeling paste.

I was really happy with how it turned out--so much so that I almost didn't give it to Hap for her bday.

But I did. And she loved it. (Which is good, 'cause I would have absolutely taken it back and just given her earrings if she hadn't sincerely loved it.)

Oh, yeah. And my dad told me he wouldn't let me leave the house with it unless it was signed. I resisted at first, but then figured I could compromise. Signing on the front of the canvas seems arrogant to me since no one really cares. So I signed on the frame on the bottom right corner.

*Well, "not to worry" may be a little generous. I was pretty stinkin' upset.

Traveling Man

2009-09-03T20:52:00.003-06:00

While on vacation, we brought along a little friend, and sent back pictures for an elementary school class.

Anyone recognize this little guy?

(Ummm, not the statue. The paper dude.)

Back in Paris

2009-08-23T10:28:00.000-06:00

After a decent night's rest, we packed up early and drove into Paris, hoping to avoid too much traffic and get the car turned in to the rental agency on time. We stopped at my apartment and dropped off all of our stuff first. (It was really convenient to have a parking garage just below my building for that.)

Then we went bak to my apartment, picked up Mom and Dad's stuff, and headed to their hotel. We spent the week doing a handful of different things, but the pace was much slower than the rest of our trip (or any of our previous trips to Paris). Here's what we did:

Arc de Triomphe

(After, of course, climbing the 5 billion stairs involved)

Pere Lachaise Cemetery (yep, that would be my 3rd visit.)

But we did see Abelard and Heloise's final resting place.

Oscar Wilde's gravestone

We also went to the very interesting (and free) Carnavalet Museum. It's all about French history, so if that doesn't float your boat, skip it.

A model of the famous (and now non-existent) Bastille.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man

And a gorgeous Art Nouveau room.

The Louvre (of course.)

La Defense

The Luxembourg Gardens

This random (but pretty) restaurant east of Notre Dame.

as well as the Orangerie Museum to see the Waterlily paintings, and I frankly can't remember what else.

It was nice.

It was relaxed.

My parents let me sleep in and meet them downtown at noon.

Love my parents.

Love Paris.

Not going to cry.

Trier

2009-08-15T10:35:00.005-06:00

After Dresden we drove back toward Paris, stopping in Trier before driving to Tinqueux and grabbing whatever hotel room we could find.
Trier is a small-ish college town, and it's really charming. (Just like every other town or city we visited on our trip.)

Roman amphitheater

St. Gangolf Church

Ruins of some Roman baths

Trier Palace

Constantine Basilica

Trier Cathedral (also known as St. Peter's)

St. Gangolf Church with a lovely row of houses facing out into one of the main squares in the city.

The Porta Nigra

This was the last real stop before we got back to Paris, and by this point we were all a bit tired. So we drove until we found a hotel with an available room and passed out until morning.

Dear Arizona:

2009-08-13T21:16:00.001-06:00

Thanks for sharing your monsoon season with us. You can take it back now.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Inspiration

2009-08-11T17:22:00.004-06:00

Today, while going through my blog reader, I came across this post, and the quotation (by George Bernard Shaw) pretty much changed my life.

"Life is not about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself."

(Emphasis added)

So, now I'm just trying to decide which version of my life I'm going to set about creating...

Drawing Lessons (and a painting studio)

2009-08-07T17:16:00.004-06:00

My art lessons are going MUCH better the second time around.

I'll show you my sketches soon. My teacher is fantastic and really laid back, which helps me to not feel super self-conscious and even more critical of myself than I normally would be in an art class. (Perfection is usually possible on the first try, right?)

This week I learned about value and shading. Fun stuff!! It makes such a big difference in the feel of a picture.

So, anyways... just thought I would check in and report on how that's going.

I also bought the most amazing book about acrylic painting techniques, and my dad is helping me turn my mom's old office into a painting studio, so I might be able to actually use some of the techniques soon (more on that later--including the title of the book, which is currently flitting around the edges on my conscious mind, but refusing to actually enter).

Decisions, decisions...

2009-08-07T17:08:00.002-06:00

So, since I've been home from France I've felt like I should go back to school.

[Insert me whining here.]

I'm secretly (or not so secretly) looking forward to learning all kinds of good stuff, and I'm very openly annoyed about being a poor graduate student living in a crappy basement apartment in Madison, WI. Even though I haven't even applied to the program yet.

Shall I share with you my master plan?

Go to school and get my Master's. (Right now looking at PFMP at Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison and French Pedagogy at NYU)
Get a job at a university or junior college.
Use my faculty/staff benefit to take fine arts classes and become a famous painter, quit my day job, and move to the French countryside where the most difficult decision I will make each day is if I should do plein air painting or use my awesome studio.

Good plan, right?

I know. If you need any help formulating an awesome plan of your own, just let me know.

Name That Blog

2009-07-20T13:26:00.005-06:00

So, I think I should probably change my blog name and my header picture. Sad.

If only I knew what I was going to do with my life at this point, that might help the whole situation. Unfortunately, my future is wide open and I have no idea which direction to go. Remember how I'm 28? Yeah.

Oh, and did you hear about how I started to cry yesterday during church because I miss Paris, going to church in French, cheese, bread, public parks (not that there aren't any here, but still...), public transportation (gasp!), and all of my wonderful friends there?

I have problems. (Not to worry, though, it wasn't like anyone saw or heard me--it was during the closing prayer. Just a little bit of "homesickness." If you can even BE homesick for somewhere you only lived for 5 months.)

There is a word in French that I can't find a good translation for in English, but it sums up perfectly how I feel: dépaysée. The closest translation I can come up with is "uprooted" or "a fish out of water" but the root of this word is pays, which means "country". Then you tack the "de-" on the front and the "-ée" on the back, and you've got "un-country-ed." I feel like a person without a country. Not to the extreme, really. But I feel like I don't really belong where I am, and I didn't really belong in France either.

I'm a wierd sort of Franco-American cultural mutt. Heaven help me.

Dresden

2009-07-20T10:00:00.001-06:00

After Meissen we went to Dresden to see the city and spend some time with our good friends, Rainer and Heike. They found us a great hotel right in the center of downtown. And I'm pretty sure they got us an incredible deal, too.

I got my own room. This is it. Pretty, right? It's completely my style. Very minimal, but really comfortable.

The lobby. Completely digging the textured concrete walls.

It was a gorgeous hotel, and their breakfast was amazing. A-mayyy-ziiiing. (Is it wrong that I care so much? German breakfast is where it's at--I'm telling you.)

I don't remember the names of anything, so I won't even pretend. Maybe once this is posted I'll pick my parents' brains.

The partial building on the right pictured below is the Frauenkirche, which was just recently restored. Actually, most of Dresden has been rebuilt since WWII, and it was rebuilt purposely to look already aged. So even though the buildings look all sooty and weather-worn, they're made to look that way so it seems more like they never got destroyed.
I think the architecture in Dresden is really beautiful. It's a really gorgeous and charming city.
The Frauenkirche again. Our hotel was right on the square this church is the center of, so I took plenty of pictures...

I love the colorful buildings that surround the square.

Let's not forget Mr. Luther, shall we?

Inside another church (not the Frauenkirche).

The Zwinger Palace

The picture above is one of my favorites. It's of one side of the Zwinger, and it was taken through some old-school glass in a window on the other side of the palace. Cool, right?

After leaving the Zwinger, I snapped this photo of the city framed by greenery. No idea what the buildings are.

It's okay... you can make fun of me for taking a picture of the ground. I thought it was really pretty, though. Much better than asphalt or plain old cement.

Rainer and Heike treated us to a boat ride along the river that ended at Pillnitz castle.

The river banks were beutifully green, and the Dresdeners (??) were out taking advantage of the gorgeous day, beautiful scenery, and accomodating river. We saw kites flying, lovers... ummm... loving, runners bounding, and kayakers going towards the city. And I can't blame them--it was really a beautiful day, and the riverbanks were wide and covered in beautiful, inviting grass.

I'm not going to lie... I would totally live here. (If I were loaded and spoke German.)

Or here. Actually, I like the colors on this one a lot better.

Oh, look! Here are the kayakers I was talking about.

Pillnitz.

The grounds at Pillnitz were really beautiful. There was, of course, the greenhouse:

The Chinese garden, lake included

And plenty of woodland- and foresty-looking areas that looked like they were plucked right out of a fairy tale.

On the way back to the boat I decided I could handle this view from my front yard...

...which means I would have to move here. Dang. I guess there are just some sacrifices you have to make to get a gorgeous view. :)

Back in Dresden.

Just off the square that houses the Frauenkirche all kinds of buildings are being renovated. The construction crew ran into a little surprise when they were digging to lay a foundation for some new buildings... and their little 'surprise' has indefinitely postponed construction until they can figure out what the ruins are from.

Next, it was off to Stolpen, the countryside prison for the king's outspoken mistress, Anna Cosel.

Then we went to the beautiful Saxon-Switzerland National Park. Look familiar? Except for the color of the rock and the fact that there were trees, I could have sworn I was here.

The river above is on one side of an outcropping. The valley of rocks is on the other side of the outcropping. And ON the outcropping, in medieval times, there was a whole community living among carved-out staircases, using a catapault to sling huge rocks at passing ships who didn't have permission (or fork out enough $$$) to pass through.

The park does come complete with rock climbers. Of course. What self-respecting National Park doesn't include rock climbers?

The sun set, and we went to dinner inside a restaurant atop the outcropping (which had AMAZING views).

Back to Dresden (sorry, these are not quite in chronological order). :)

The wall of the monarchs. The Kings of Saxony (which is the 'state' of which Dresden is the capital).

In front of the wall of monarchs there was a man dancing on the sidewalk. I thought it was really interesting. Everyone else thought it was weird. Whatev.

And that's a wrap people. Dresden is amazing. You could see pretty much all of the 'sites' in just a couple of days, but if you wanted to relax more and take your time to just enjoy the atmosphere, you could spend a good solid week here. And why wouldn't you? (I would, anyway.)

Make New Friends...

2009-07-20T10:00:00.000-06:00

...but keep the old. One is silver, and the other gold. (Or platinum. I don't like gold.)

I love making new friends, but I really love getting together with the friends that have known me forever and know all of my history.

I had lunch last week with some of my best friends from high school, and I loved it. We are all in different situations and have different lives, but sometimes you come across people that you will always love and care about--no matter how seldom you actually get together or see each other-- because knowing them made you who you are.

Do you guys have people like that?

Weekend Warrior

2009-07-17T16:38:00.002-06:00

This weekend I don't have any plans, which means I've got a TON of plans. (Read: I don't have plans with friends, but I do have a mile-long to-do list that I'm hoping to make a major dent in.)

I am hoping to get the following things in:
-organize my room
-clean out my closet
-paint (of course!!)
-de-clutter my bathroom
-make a new jewelry holder (because... well... I came back from France with too many earrings. They won't all fit on the one I made a couple of years ago. I know. It's a problem.)
-finish turning the scrapbook room/library in my parents' basement into an art studio. (Wahoo!)
-ride my bike
-play tennis

Goal 21/101 : Donate to a Charity

2009-07-09T13:05:00.004-06:00

Goal #21 out of my "101 Things" is to donate to a charity I believe in outside of my church.

I am not sure where I fist heard of Kiva (could have been here), but I really love the idea. I'm thinking that this might be the charity that I donate to.

Do you have any charities that you donate to on a regular basis? Or that you volunteer for?

I'm open to suggestions of charities you may have worked with that you can vouch for as being on the up-and-up. If you have a favorite, or one that you have enjoyed working with, please share!

Back to that Easter Vacation: Meissen

2009-07-08T19:02:00.008-06:00

Before leaving Prague we dropped Amy off at the airport so she could head home and get to her awesome spa retreat.

Just before getting into Dresden, we stopped in Meissen to look at a cathedral. We didn't do much else there. The cathedral was pretty, but there was a lot of construction going on in the square leading up to it, so its surroundings were less than charming.

The view was quite charming, though. Sigh.

Drawing Classes: Take Two

2009-06-29T14:45:00.003-06:00

I just found someone to take drawing lessons from in Provo. I signed up. I think this time it will go much better than it did last time.

Why is that, you ask?

1) It will be in English.

2) It won't take me an hour to get there.

3) It will be in Engligh and it won't take me an hour to get there.

My lessons start on the 16th--can't wait!

Institute Closing Social

2009-06-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

This past Saturday was the Institute closing social. They handed out the diplomas, we ate Mexican food (yes!), and then we danced all night. Well, until 11, because it takes everyone at least an hour to get home...

But they also had a little "portrait" area where Sylvain, one of the great Institute teachers, took pictures of everyone. I thought it was a great idea, and I loved the frame that they brought as a prop.

Filipino Recipes

2009-06-23T08:00:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday a Filipino couple in my ward taught an international cooking class to the Relief Society (we had a Thai class a few weeks before that).

Here are the recipes we tried (they were all delicious!).

Beef Afritada
Ingredients:
-1 kilo beef
-1 medium to large carrot
-3 potatoes
-1 green bell pepper
-1 can green peas (or the equivalent in thawed frozen or fresh peas)
-5 cloves garlic
-1 onion
-1 cup grated cheddar cheese
-beef broth as needed

I don't have the directions, so I'm guessing it goes something like this: Brown the garlic and onions. Add the potatoes. Add the carrots. Add everything else. Cook. Enjoy. (Yeah, I'll have to get back to you on this...) I do remember, though, that they boiled the beef separately before cooking, and then they just added it towards the end so it could soak up some of the flavors. That way it is much more tender.

Chicken Adobo
Ingredients:
-1 kilo of medium-sized bone-in chicken parts (legs, thighs, wings, whatevah)
-5 cloves garlic
-1 onion
-1/2 cup special filipino soy sauce (you can use regular soy sauce if you don't have a store where you can find filipino products)
-1/4 cup vinegar (any kind except basalmic, I think they said. I think they used red wine vinegar)
-1 tsp. pepper

Brown garlic and onion. Add everything else, cook until done.

Chicken Curry
Ingredients:
-1 kilo chicken, sliced into 1 by 2 inch strips (roughly)
-grated ginger (maybe 1/3 cup? they didn't write how much down as a part of the recipe)
-1 onion
-1 can coconut milk
-1 cup chicken broth
-1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
-1 tsp. cumin
-1 tsp. turmeric
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. pepper
-1 tsp. chili oil or hot sauce
-1 tsp. ground cinnamon
-1 tsp. dry mustard (yellow)

Brown onion, add ginger. Add everything else, cook until done.

I know. It's very precise. Regardless, they were ALL really delicious, so if any of them sound good to you, maybe try searching for more exact recipes on a recipe database site. Or just Google "Chicken Adobo."

Enjoy. 'Cause I sure did. Yum.

YSA Activity in Versailles

2009-06-22T10:30:00.000-06:00

Les JA (YSA's) from the Paris-East stake got together about a month ago for an activity. It was fun--a singing competition (Rock Band style, but minus the band--I don't know what the games are called that just involve the singing aspect) and dinner.

It was fun--and sweaty after everyone started dancing and singing.

Found in Front of the Pompidou Center

2009-06-21T09:15:00.000-06:00

I saw a couple of these little color wheels painted onto the ground in front of the Pompidou Center.

In the center is the PC's logo, cemented into the ground like a cobble stone.

Yum.

2009-06-20T08:30:00.000-06:00

I ate this at the Jardin de Luxembourg.

By this fountain.

That's one thing I'll definitely miss--grabbing a bite to eat and enjoying one of many great parks in Paris.

Right Now...

2009-06-19T11:45:00.001-06:00

I'm probably eating Cafe Rio.

And panicking that I'm going to have to start driving my car again. I'm afraid I'm going to run over someone by accident. Is that weird?

All My Bags Are Packed... I'm Ready to Go

2009-06-18T12:30:00.001-06:00

'Cause I'm leeeeeeeaviiiin' on a jet plaaaaane, don't know when I'll be back again.

Goodbye Paris. Hope to see you SOON.

If everything is running on schedule and as planned (i.e., my flight isn't cancelled), I should be in the air right now.

See you on the other side. (of the Atlantic.)

Sunset over the Seine

2009-06-17T03:00:00.000-06:00