It's So Black and White

I've been seriously lacking in the creativity department lately, haven't done much sketching and my paint brushes are never seen any more. But the medium I always fall back on is my ink pen. 

When I sketch something it looks so-so, the outline might be rough, or the shading uneven; but ink instead of shading with charcoal is so fail safe, it's hard to make it look bad. Of course the one bad thing about using an ink pen is that once you draw, it's there. There's no erasing anything. It can be good and bad. 

So this is my new obsession, and once I've drawn all of the Marvel superheroes I'll probably move on to sculpting or something. 

November Harvest

I just went out into my garden for the first time in probably the last month. Almost everything was dead, but I did find a few little plants still hanging on :). It reminded me that I never crossed off  "plant and harvest a garden" from my list, so I did that today along with "make the varsity soccer team" and "make a new friend". 

I had forgotten about the extra row of carrots and the green onions that I planted a little too late, the carrots were hiding under the zucchini plant leaves that got bigger then I expected.

 

Ghost peppers that hung on during Sandy and multiple frosts... I still have yet to taste one.

 And then there's the random hydrangea bloom amidst all of the dead stuff. Amazing.  

The only season I really love is summer, but fall definitely has it's moments. Like finding a flower that is still blooming. Or flavouring everything with pumpkin and apples (yesterday I had pumpkin waffles, this morning I made pumpkin French toast, and I'm just waiting for the right time to make apple stuffed sweet bread). Or drinking 5 cups of tea with honey and 2 cups of cocoa; daily. Or, my personal favourite, making a leaf pile with preschoolers while they run around singing "leaf pile leaf pile leaf pile!" (it happens a lot). 

I almost forgot, here are some pictures of THE BEST fall activity. :D

Caught Up? Nope.

Man, it's been a while. I know, I never finished the photo challenge. I failed miserably with barely a week to go. But I'm OK with that... It was fun while it lasted. 

Right now I'm swamped with school, soccer, and babysitting. Seriously, I don't ever remember a time I have been this busy; but sometimes I get more done while I'm busy then when I have a whole day to "catch up".

This is just a really short post to say I'm going to start putting more stuff on here, someday. I promise. 

For now, enjoy some pictures of my last 3 months. 

I spent a week in Jackman with my church, the teens ran a pirate themed week. 

Me and a besty chillin'.

 Ya know. Sometimes it happens.

 This is what I've been doing with most of my time for the last two months. It's been a challenge between ankle injuries and sciatic nerve problems and going to PT for it all; but I'm a left bench warmer for the Morse girls varsity soccer team, and a left defender for the JV team. Morse is currently #1 in class B western division. Playoffs start this week and I'm pumped to cheer my team on from the bench!! But seriously, I have a lot of team pride :).

 I went to DC for a week with TeenPact and had a BLAST. I saw some pretty spectacular things; such as a few Van Gogh paintings!

 But most of all, I've been fitting school into the cracks of free time I have. Lots of weeks that includes Saturday and Sunday nights.

July 14th-21st

It's been a weird week, it has felt busy but I don't think it really was... So most of my pictures were taken at night when I realized I hadn't taken as single photo that day. It's 9 PM and I still haven't taken today's photo; since there aren't that many topics left it is getting more challenging to take a good picture :/.

This cake pretty much describes my life. Last Saturday my rockin' friends threw me a surprise party for my birthday. My birthday that's in December. So I'm not actually 16, but I pretend.

One of the 'I need to go to bed but I haven't taken a picture' pictures.  My new TOMS :D (mirror shot!).

 I took this picture at about 11:30, so it still was technically on the 20th.

In case it's not obvious, it says love. Emily and I tented last night and decided to try writing words... This is the only one that is actually readable.

July 7th-13th

 This isn't my favourite picture, but the only other pictures I took that day were of fireworks :).

Bath Heritage Days! And I didn't even ride it. What's up with that?

I pulled out 25mm lense and tried it out for the first time on this picture, the aperture can go so low... It's amazing. 

Popham near sunset... Unfortunately the sun sets on the wrong side when you live on the east coast :P.

July 1st-6th

Here it is! 6 days worth of pictures. So far I have taken all of the photos on manual settings, and I've made it a goal to keep it that way. 

Sunday I went to a horse farm (which I now volunteer at!) with Kori and Avery, and I cannot for the life of me remember this horses name. I still have yet to ride a horse, but I think that will come pretty soon.

2.5 second exposure on a 12 second timer... It took me a while.

These cupcakes were striped red, white, and blue on the inside. Or actually hot pink, white, and blue. 

I took pictures of the 4th of July 10k my family and some friends ran, then later that night realized I needed a picture for the 4th day, so I picked my favourite and labelled it Summer. Classic picture of my brothers messing with their phones before the race. 

I was going to run the 10k, but a sprained ankle got in the way :|.

There were no fireworks around on the actual holiday, but on Thursday I got to watch them with Emily! 

3.2 second exposure, with no tripod. 

Rosemary focaccia bread for a bake sale tomorrow. 

July and... Summer?

I've decided that I'm going to make July "get better at photography" month. It's also going to be "finish sophomore year" month and "run your heart out" month, but I'm pretty sure taking pictures will be the most fun out of the three.

I have seen some pretty neat "picture-a-day" lists, but I thought it would be fun to make my own for the month of July. Note, I'm totally making this list up as I type. 

July

One: Plant life

Two: Something blue

Three: Colorful things

Four: Fireworks

Five: Sunshine

Six: Music

Seven: Flowers

Eight: Baked goods

Nine: Art

Ten: Abstract 

Eleven: Soccer

Twelve: Beauty

Thirteen: Unnoticed

Fourteen: Ocean

Fifteen: City life

Sixteen: In progress

Seventeen: Friends

Eighteen: Shoes

Nineteen: Black and white

Twenty: Water

Twenty One: Orange

Twenty Two: Frisbee

Twenty Three: Hair

Twenty Four: Words

Twenty Five: Animals 

Twenty Six: Lunch

Twenty Seven: Old

Twenty Eight: Bible

Twenty Nine: Handmade

Thirty: Summer

Thirty One: Myself

As you can tell the topics of the photos are pretty open to interpretation, which I'm sure I will appreciate later! The rules are I can do the list in any order; but can only do each thing once, and at least once.  I'll make it a goal to post a weeks worth of pictures every... week. 

On a different note; it just slammed me in the face today that summer is zooming right past me. Summer is my all time favorite season, and last summer pretty much rocked. Well, I think it rocked... I actually don't have many memories from last year; but when I think of summer '11, good thoughts come... So yeah.

As much as I would like to spend the whole summer chillin' at the beach or camping with my friends, there is still normal school year type stuff to do. 

#1 being actually doing school (btw I finished Chemistry today... :D). 

#2 being making some cash; there are so many things I could be doing... If I could just find some summer work. I'm also aware that if I had a job I wouldn't have so much time... It's a win/lose situation. 

I guess the only thing to do is enjoy every single moment, beach or no beach. 

^that was deep.

GO!

May 20th-26th  I attended TeenPact National Convention in Dayton, TN. It was a week full of long car rides, praising God, fellowship with friends, and growing in Christ. By now that was a while ago, I wrote most of this post a few weeks ago and then I just got distracted.

I have had quite a few people ask me how it was, and every time I have answered with "awesome". Because to really tell somebody how the convention was it would take a whole lot longer then the couple minutes they have to listen to me.  

With the help of my mom and Mrs. Field I organized a group of Mainers to take a road trip to NC, in the end there were 11 of us packed into a 12 passenger van. There was peoples purses, sleeping bags, duffle bags, pillows, and food piled on top of us, leg room was a foreign concept, and personal space unheard of. 

After 3 days of driving (8 hours a day) we arrived in Dayton at Fort Bluff Campground. I'm pretty sure we were all relieved to not have to drive one more minute :P.

The 6-7 days we spent in TN were packed to the max. Starting with Breakfast at 8 and ending with lights out at 11, it was exhausting and strangely relaxing at the same time. 

Every morning and evening there was worship led by various people. This was definitely one of my favourite parts of each day, singing with 400 other TeenPacters is not something you easily forget. 

After every meal was a session; the speakers included a lot of former TeenPacters that have gone on to do amazing things. My favorite speaker was a man named Matt Chambers, he spoke on the day when the theme was "Go Somewhere". It was very fitting since he is a missionary. One of the things he said really stuck out to me, and I'm sure to everybody that was there. He was speaking on Ephesians 2:8-10, specifically the line that says "For we are His workmanship...".
"But in the end, your whole life is a magnificent, beautiful, piece of poetry. 
Written by the same hand that formed every star, every planet, that traced every river, 
that formed every mountain. And it's read throughout the universe 
by the voice that created everything."

Throughout the week there were elections being held for 1 presidential ticket, 4 senators, and 9 representatives. I ran for rep with the perseverance party, but didn't make it very far. I had fun though, and am glad I did it! 

A Mainer ran for vice president with his running mate Danny Sullivan, and they pulled off a victory! It was pretty much fantastic. 

Of course a major part of NC is laughter. Below is a picture of the Harry and Larry Show; pretty much the most hilarious part of each day. The picture below that is No Directions singing there #1, Elect Me Maybe. Enough said :D.

All 500ish of us organized in what fields we want to pursue. 

There is so much more I could say about the experience; so if you care, ask me about it sometime!

Most photos credit http://www.teenpactnc2012.marvelousthingsphotography.com/

Travel

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Texas with some wonderful folks! I went as a surprise to my good friend Maggie, who had been in Southern Texas for the last 4 months. Suffice to say it was my first time being a surprise present, but Maggie is home in Maine where she belongs now ;).

We saw a lot of sights and had many a laugh; here are just a few pictures from the trip that a love.

A sculpture that I think France gave America at a World's Fair. 

 Me and a lovely little lady :)

 Me with Mr. and Mrs. Wright outside of the Alamo Cafe, where we ate on the first night there. 

 The river walk. It was beautiful at night! 

 Mr. Wright and Sheldon in the Alamo :)

We saw these Flamingos at Sea World, along with the killers whales, penguins, dolphins, puffins, pelicans, and sharks.

Maggie reluctantly getting her picture taken :D <3.

In two days me and 9 others will be in a van driving down to Tennessee! We are attending the TeenPact National Convention held at the Fort Bluff camp ground. So I'm basically going to be gone for the rest of May.
In other news, My tomato and jalapeño plants are getting very big! I need to transplant them pretty soon, but there is still no soil in the garden boxes...