Before I Die

First of all, I absolutely loved reading all of the things you searched for on "The Color Of!" And naturally, I had to try many of them out myself :)

If this is utterly confusing to you, then refer to the comments from the last post.

Needless to say, it's been a busy week with very little sleep. Since I am leaving in a little over FIFTEEN HOURS for Heritage Day weekend at Camp Bethel, and since I've turned in five papers (yes, FIVE) already this week and still have one more to finish by tomorrow, I do not have a plethora of fabulous doodles or fascinating life updates to share.

Instead, I'll leave you with images of what may potentially be my most favorite urban art project of all time: the "Before I Die" project created by artist/designer Candy Chang. Candy took an abandoned house in New Orleans, painted the side of it with primer & chalkboard paint, used some spray paint & stencils, and... voila!

Before I Die

Wait, here's the cool part!

She left chalk in a little bin attached to the wall...

...and individuals were free to fill in the blanks!

(I particularly love this picture because the bottom left says "Hike the Appalachian Trail," which is totally what I would write as well! I've looked through tons of images from this project, and have yet to see anyone choose "Meet Regis & Kelly," which would be my close runner-up.)

Isn't it one of the neatest things you've ever seen?! I've been obsessed with it for a while and felt rather selfish keeping it all to myself, so I just had to share. There are a billion other photos on Candy's website -- there were way too many good ones to choose from, so check it out!

What would you write if you stumbled upon this downtown?

I've already shared mine: "hike the Appalachian Trail" and "meet Regis & Kelly."

You think I'm kidding about the second one, but I'm not! If I think of any more, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, leave a comment about what YOU would write :)

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Delightful Diversions

Because sometimes... we all need fifteen minutes of procrastination.

My most recent time-guzzling obsession? A website entitled "The Color Of."

I love this! Type a word in the search bar -- absolutely anything -- and the website will overlay more than 50 random Flickr photos that are tagged with whatever you enter. The results are gorgeous!

You can find "the color of" actual colors:

or elements of nature:

or relative concepts:

or contrasting ideas:

Anything, really:

I am fascinated by:

1. How aesthetically appealing / canvas-like each of these images are. As in, I want to cover my room in them. Gorgeous. Apparently, you'll be able to order prints from the website soon.
2. How humans (or maybe it's just me) relate colors with words, ideas, people, etc.. and how some colors just seem to fit & are universal, while others are associated so differently.

So now that you're equally as enthralled as I am by "The Color Of" (you're welcome), head on over to their site & try it out for yourself! Leave a comment below with some of the words you searched -- what were your favorites?

And simply because I promised a birthday shout-out:

:)


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Everything I Must Do

The countdown madness has begun.


Heritage Day is hands down - without a doubt - the best Camp Bethel staff reunion of all time. I wrote a pretty epic post leading up to it last year that you can read here. And now, an entire year has passed & it's only five days away! Can. Not. Wait.

However, I have a billion things must get done in those five days, and I was determined to cross as many of them as possible off my list this weekend. Going to the beach with my church last weekend was great, but I felt like I spent much of this past week making up for all the work I did not get done. I certainly did not want this upcoming week to be a repeat of that, so I buckled down on Saturday night and dove head first into papers, articles, readings, assignments, etc.

And after working diligently for a few hours... I took a step back and absolutely cracked up at my study alcove:

It sure is a wonder how people ever got any work done without multi-tasking on a laptop AND an iPad...

Ridiculous.

In my defense, I was able to cross a good amount off the "Everything I Must Do Before Heritage Day" list, which just makes it that much closer to Friday afternoon!

As far as my art project sneak peak from last Friday... I've actually had it completed for a while, but couldn't reveal it because it was a birthday present for a friend.

But birthday weekend is now over, and a certain individual who has been asking for a flower painting/artwork since the day we met is happy.

Tada!

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control" - 2 Timothy 1:7

:)

Now it's back to the six papers I have to write before I depart for camp on Friday. Needless to say, I might not be around blog world too much in the upcoming week. No worries, I'll undoubtedly have lots to post whenever I pop back in!

Another World

[via]

A Little Bit of Life

I don't Friday Phone Dump every Friday, simply because I don't take that many pictures on my cell phone. However, I've stored up enough in the past month and figured it was time to share.

Row 1:

a. My first official "tada-I-got-a-haircut" picture (because someone wouldn't quit nagging me for a pix message the morning I chopped it all off. You know wh00 you are..)

b. My cousin and his wife are having a baby! I actually received this picture last month... best secret keeper ever :)

c. New dorm common room furniture - trivial, but super pretty! I want it...

d. Early Childhood Education class: I love when we break up into groups & I get to draw/write on the whiteboard. My professor says I need to be a teacher based on my "perfect whiteboard handwriting" alone.

Row 2:

a. Seasons 3 & 4 of One Tree Hill :)

b. Doodling on the chalkboard table at work

c. East Campus bridge (I'm not responsible for the design or painting, obviously, but still love me some Southgate!)

d. Carpet burn on my elbows & knees: I think I learned my lesson about wrestling in the dorm...

Row 3:

a. Sleepy Jerren while I was on call one weekend

b. Sleepy Katherine at the beach

c. Sleepy Christian while we were supposed to be studying for our Psych exam

Whew!

You may notice that baby blog experienced some changes over the past few days. (Definitely why I could never get a tattoo - I can't settle on a design that I like enough to keep permanently!) I had a lot of fun doodling the header in Photoshop while at the Coffeehouse the other night - not that I didn't like some of the designs I had in the past, but I feel like this is a lot more "me."

I also revamped the "Blogroll" page --- check it out here or click on the tab above :)

Other fun news from the past week:

My friend Megan & I signed up to perform in the final act of Awaaz (Duke's biggest dance production of the year): the senior bhangra. Do I have the slightest clue what this entails? Absolutely not. But the email was super convincing -- lots of capital letters and exclamation points and reiteration of phrases such as, "Show your senior pride! Show how much you love the class of 2012!" and "you need ZERO experience" and "it's A LOT of fun.. A LOT of fun!" Phrases were bolded. Words were written in/highlighted with different colors. I really had no choice.

I'll let you know how the first rehearsal goes..

I began working in the Durham Public Schools this week as part of my education courses. Twice a week, I'm in a 10th grade classroom at a School of the Arts, and another day, I'm in a Montessori primary class (pre-K and Kindergarten combined). The more I learn about Montessori education, the more I love it, and I can't wait to continue experiencing and learning. I'm super excited to spend the semester with these precious 3-6 year olds (my favorite!), as well as at the School of the Arts.

I actually don't enjoy writing, which sounds incredibly bizarre seeing as how I narrate this blog. But writing-writing, drafting papers for class and filling 80% of them with superfluous verbose language to fulfill the ten page minimum... not my thing. I doubt it's anybody's "thing," actually, but I'm still stuck in the 8th grade where a two-page assignment consumes my entire afternoon. (Then there's my best friend, the English major, who can bust out ten pages in an hour and then gets frustrated because she's already at the maximum page limit, but could easily write ten more. Le sigh.)

Anyway, given my love for the written word, it's no surprise that I postponed BOTH of the writing credits necessary to graduate until my senior year. I'm currently enrolled in "Documentary Writing" where we're studying (& writing our own) pieces of literary journalism & creative/narrative nonfiction. My professor is a literary genius (degrees from Cornell and Northwestern, and also a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine), so I was a little nervous to receive comments on my first paper this week. However, I couldn't be more thrilled:

"Excellent! The piece, so clear and evocative, makes me want to know more... Great work!"

What a glorious start to the weekend :)

Speaking of the weekend, I'm eager to get mine started, so I'll leave you with a super sneak peak of my latest art project:

Torture, I know. Check back in on Sunday & I'll show it off :)

Happy weekend, lovely blog readers.

You Are Here

This past weekend, twenty-eight women from my home church traveled to Cherry Grove, South Carolina for our 4th annual women's beach retreat. When I was growing up, the ladies would go to the Women of Faith Conference every year, but the conference started selling out a year in advance. Our solution? Purchase the Women of Faith Conference DVDs, rent a house at the beach, and have our own retreat :)

The theme of this year's retreat was "Amazing Freedom," based on John 8:32, 36.

A note to my Whippoorwill girls from this summer:

please check out my mosquito bite scratching-in-my-sleep scar on my right foot...

"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free...

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

In addition to the wonderful Women of Faith speakers, I enjoyed spending time with my family...

my sister, Katherine

mama & two of her girls

Katherine, mama, Maw-maw (mama's mom), & me

Aunt Melissa

...and spending time with friends...

...and of course, nightly trips to Painter's Ice Cream.

playing with the blur filters on my camera

"You know you're going to have to call this blog post 'You Are Here'..."

- a reference to my sister's not-so-bright moment while shopping at the Tanger Outlets.

I also thoroughly enjoyed late night cooking sessions while dancing to some old school Patti LaBelle/Diana Ross and taking an extensive trip down memory lane.

I absolutely love the church that I attend in Durham, but I feel so blessed to still be a part of my church in Winston... connected to such a wonderful group of women that care about me and teach me so much. The "multi-generational" small group that I've started attending at the Summit consists of individuals in their 20s AND 30s. (Crazy, I know.) The group of ladies that I spent the weekend with is a bit more multi-generational... and I genuinely appreciate the life-experiences everyone has to offer.

I also think it's really funny that the generational line is drawn right down the middle of the table...

In addition to the conference speakers & fellowship & food & shopping & puzzles & laughter, I also enjoyed an afternoon of quiet time on the beach, accompanied by a cup of hot chocolate (who knew the temperature was going to drop so drastically this past weekend??) and a little bird friend... as well as long walks with my mama & sister.

I enjoyed a pretty sunset from the roof of our house while the weather was still warm and clear.

And... I enjoyed chasing the sea gulls. Lots and lots and lots of sea gulls :)