Found: Lovers, by Jarek Puczel

Source: saatchionline.com via Katie on Pinterest

This oil painting by Jarek Puczel has stayed with me since I first found it on Pinterest.  I love everything about it--the tones, the way the lines and faces blur into each other, and the slightly mysterious aura it seems to exude.

The artist's caption reads thus: "When we love, we think constantly about each other."

That is the true difficulty and treasure of love, to think constantly about someone else (and not always consciously, either).  You are somehow fully (or even more fully) yourself and yet it becomes impossible to tell where you end and your beloved begins.

Made: a photobook

The idea was simple enough: make something for Valentine's Day unlike the things I've made before.  That idea then stretched a little--make something that isn't just for Valentine's Day, but something that can be special every day.  That's a nice tall task.  Still, the idea took on a form.  I would document my day, those little mundane things of my Monday to Friday life, print them, and put them in a book I would make myself.  Then my husband, when he's at work all day for the long hours of busy season, can find a picture of what I'm probably doing at that moment, and in a little way, I am with him.

Supplies:

decorative paper (for the cover), heavy paper (for the pages), masking tape (mine was 1/2 inch wide), printed pictures (mine were printed on regular paper so they wouldn't be too thick), scissors, glue, cardboard or chipboard (for the cover), ribbon, stamps, and embellishments, calligraphy pen

Steps:

Print the pictures.  Glue them to the heavy paper in chronological order.  Use the masking tape to bind the pages to each other.  Cover the chipboard or cardboard with the decorative paper, then use the masking tape to bind it to the pages.  If you want to attach a ribbon to tie the book closed, glue the ends of the ribbon under the decorative paper on the inside of the cover.  Once the book is put together, you can stamp and embellish to your heart's content.  You might want to label the pictures, too.

On Love

"To love--that is to say, to love someone 'for what he is'--always means to find oneself with a 'ridiculous object'...But it also means to continue to see in this object the 'something more'...To love is to perceive this gap or discrepancy, and not so much be able to laugh at it as to have an irresistible urge to laugh at it.  The miracle of love is a funny miracle."  

Alenka Zupancic, "On Love as Comedy"

Until Then

Source: ffffound.com via Katie on Pinterest

My husband is in the middle of busy season and has long days at work for at least another month or two, and rarely knows when he'll get done until early afternoon.  These words seem right for any parting from a loved one, whether it lasts for hours, days, weeks, longer, or even an indeterminate amount of time.

Saying "see you later" or "see you then" makes later and then seem a tiny bit closer, I think, and to imagine you might see them before makes it a little bit more tangible.  But what I really like about these few words, "until then if not before," is that they don't say "until then if not later" or "until then unless it's later."  These are really hopeful words.

shift

Source: artyulia.com via Katie on Pinterest

Sometimes your dreams change shape.

It was a tearful goodbye, but I said it.  That dream, the multiple degrees, the academic career? I don't want it anymore.  A good-sized part of me never really wanted it.  Once I finally recognized that and believed it, I felt a wonderful sense of peace and calm, so different from the uncertainty that plagued me from August to December.  One semester of graduate school made me realize that I want to teach.

So this new year is bringing changes with it.  I am leaving my current program, taking a semester to work and save and read through my monstrous stack of books, and enrolling in a teacher certification/master's degree program in the summer.

Changes come, but they can be so good.  This is one of my steps toward a joy-filled life.

Image by Yulia Brodskaya. 

Busy

Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

It's been a crazy two weeks and next week is pretty packed, too.  My mom and I are off to Wisconsin to bring my little sister home from her first semester of college.  I'll be back with a post on Thursday...maybe.

Have a great week!

Celebrate!

Source: peachygreen.com via Kristin on Pinterest

I mostly survived this week.  Two finals and one short paper stand between me and less-interrupted reading time...But that's not the reason for that title.  That title has a much more exciting reason.

My husband just got his score on the final section of the CPA exam.

He passed all four in the first round with ridiculously high scores.

This is BIG, guys.  It's time to throw a party.

Gifts

Source: onethousandgifts.com via Katie on Pinterest

I read this book about a month ago.  I didn't have time for it, really, but I made it, and I am glad I did.  Ann Voskamp was dared by a friend to count one thousand gifts.  She did, and found well beyond one thousand gifts.  She found a deeper faith, a fuller life, even when it was not easier--especially when it was not easier.  Voskamp is part poet, part mystic, part theologian, and fills her pages with imagery that will call to mind the Romantics and Transcendentalists and syntax that throws your attention around, grabbing you, engaging you, making you read twice to get just what that line is saying.

Starting today, I'm going to keep a gratitude journal, my own list, hopefully to one thousand, hopefully beyond.  And I'm going to try to take photos of the little things, the tiny things, because it is so easy to forget how much they matter--the sky in all its wonder, the dappling sunlight when you're up early, a quiet dinner at home, even something as simple as a clean, clear glass of water.  These things are worth remembering, worth appreciating, worth our gratitude.

One Thousand Gifts was a gift for my birthday in September, and I am so glad it was given to me--I never would've picked it up for myself, as I don't really pick up books from Christian publishers anymore (I burned out on them years ago).  This one surprised me.  I should add that if it's not your faith, you may not feel quite the same way about it.  Still, Voskamp's poetic prose might get you anyway...

A Quick Smile

It's lovely around here in the fall.

It's perfect weather for digging holes next to the house...

...and spending the next day bumming around because you are so completely exhausted.

It's rough being a dog.

Smarty Pants

Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

I'm pretty sure I've posted this card before, but I have a reason to share it again.  Cory's got a beard and glasses.  He also happens to be quite clever: not only did he pass the first two sections of his CPA exam, he did so with some incredibly high scores.  I'm pretty proud of him.

I gave Cory this card for our anniversary in May, but I think I'll rephrase it now: behind every clever girl is an exceptionally clever guy with a beard and glasses.

I think we're going to have a great weekend.

Enjoy yours!

Why I Love September

September is one of my favorite times of year.  It's full of things I like.

Source: flickr.com via Maddalena on Pinterest

School begins to get interesting but is fresh enough to not be annoying yet.
I celebrate my birthday (this Sunday).
And a few chillier days temper our hot, humid, sticky summers a bit and hint at what's to come.

Source: coverbrowser.com via Mizz on Pinterest

I can't forget the sad things about September, but I must take an approach that I can manage: I remember, but I don't dwell.  

Changes

My little sister isn't quite so little anymore.  She's nineteen and she's going to college.

In Milwaukee.

Tomorrow.

{Elm Grove, WI, 1999, the last year we didn't have to wear uniforms}

Who said you were allowed to grow up?

Wednesday, Part Two

Today, my husband is taking the second test of his CPA exam.
After today, we're* halfway through.

Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

I'm pretty darn sure it'll be fine.  We are going to have a ridiculous party when he finishes all four exams, because it is quite an accomplishment!  I would not want to trade places with him at all.  It's a good thing he's crazy smart.

*Cory is the one taking the tests, but I feel like we're in this together.  He studies and I try not to pester him when he studies and make sure he eats and things like that.  

hairchop.

voila!

I planned to grow my hair long and donate it next time I cut it, but split ends + breakage are not what Locks of Love or Beautiful Lengths, where I have previously donated my hair (at 16 and 19), are looking for.  So I went for an easy-care shoulder length trim.

Oh, this is a wee bit of a boring post?  Yes?  How about taking a look at this, then stepping over to the Strikes Our Fancy archive, where I found this beauty by MorBCN on Flickr.



I do think that's the perfect shade of blue.  Have a nice week, loves.

trending: white rooms

It's the thing.  I once heard that Audrey Hepburn kept her home with all white walls.  I see it everywhere.  Design*Sponge featured a white themed round-up.  White rooms always show up on SFGirlByBay, like this one last week.  While I was browsing a post on Decor8, C. commented that the space featured was "too white."

In spite of how much I liked the project created in that post, I had to agree with him that time; a lot of light space is nice and airy, and that home is gorgeously decorated, but there's something about a less bare space that I like.  Somehow, in spite of liking the clean feel of modern spaces, I find them cold.

{"strange room" by Mazzuk on Flickr}

When it comes to lightness in a space, I prefer something along these lines (also from Decor8).  Off-whites, yellows, soft greens, classic blues, all those colors are really what I love in a space.

{from Domino, found via The Domino Magazine Files on Flickr}

Someday, hopefully in the near future, C. and I will be moving into a real house, a home, and we will be painting and decorating and creating a space that is ours--this time, one that we don't have a security deposit that we may not get back if we put too many holes in the wall.  It'll be ours.  It'll be a whole lot of work and time and commitment, but it's still quite fun to think about how we can create the space that we will live in.

What do you think of white spaces?

a little adventure

On Sunday night, I made a trek to E-town to have dinner with my best friend while she was driving back to her university.  We had not seen each other since the summer, which should never happen again (you hear that, Kat?).  Well, we never found Starbucks and wound up eating our five-dollar-bread-bowl-soups at a Panera instead.  Getting back to the interstate was a great adventure in the dark because I drove north instead of south twice...but I digress.  Not only did I enjoy a quiet dinner with Kat, but on my way there, along the stretch of road I've driven a hundred times by now, I saw this herd of deer, ten or twenty of them, grazing in the snow.



It's not something you see every day, is it?

interruptions :: family time

I spent today doing something very rare for me--in fact, I haven't done it since, I don't know, my freshman year of college.  I went to a high school football game.  Yes, me, totally-not-a-sports-fan-me.

See, my little-brother-in-law is a pretty good football player.  Not only did he score the game-winning touchdown against my high school (ok, so that's not impressive, but funny), but he was selected to participate in this year's Border Bowl.  The Bowl is a match-up of all star high school teams in Kentucky and Tennessee located in cities along the I-75 corridor.  So my little-sister-in-law came down to hang out with us for the weekend, and together, we three trekked to the University of the Cumberlands to watch some football.

(he definitely caught that throw)

I will have you know that this is probably the first football game I have actually watched from nearly start to finish.  The little-brother-in-law made some pretty sweet catches, too.  Kentucky should have played him more, we all believe.  Then they might have scored enough to win.  Either way, good job.

My little-sister-in-law is staying with us until tomorrow and might teach me how to purl stitch.  If she is successful, then expect some knitting adventures to come in the future, sometime between working and taking a phonetics class at the graduate level.  Here we go!

so you want to have a wedding...

A few friends of mine are getting married this summer, and I've been asked what resources I used in planning.

{image by K L Phy Photography, who was fantastic!}

Now, I wouldn't necessarily recommend my way of planning--scatterbrained messes that took over my room at home--and my mom was largely responsible for organization, but I found loads of inspiration, advice, and encouragements all across the internet.

So here, I have a little list for you, with links to my favorite sites.

I think I got on weddingbee every day for a few months, and loved the boards, where I found lots of honest talk from brides-to-be and veterans of wedding planning.  I sought inspiration from Once Wed and used a couple of their DIY tutorials.  Snippet and Ink is still a favorite read, because it's full of inspiration for all that is girly and stylish, regardless of whether you're planning a wedding or not.  When it came to organizing, the planner I got when setting up a registry at JC Penney (which I never used, in the end) was pretty useful.  Overall, though, my planning was mostly contained in a spiral notebook and binder, with dividers and pages pulled from the JC Penney planner.  My mom used what I think was an older version of this planner, but I'm not sure.  Either way, the books that have lots of space to write in as well as lots of pockets are the best.  Martha Stewart Weddings has a lot of good online wedding planning resources, including an account you can set up.  For purchasing, I frequented Goodwill (glasswares), Etsy (accessories, paper tape, etc.), and Hobby Lobby (paper supplies).  My mom also found ribbon in the exact color of the bridesmaids' dresses on E-Bay by searching for the David's Bridal colors by name (we picked Mermaid).

I have my journal of planning and all the fun things along the way on my old blog, so head over and read up if there's more you'd like to know.  Here's a super-sweet post from our photographer, Kathy Phy, as well.

Happy planning, girls!

a little snow, a little sun, and a lot of fun

This week has surely been a busy one!  We took a trip to Lexington for the good old yearly doctorly check-ups, and C. went to a UK game with my dad, sister, and cousin, while I hung out with my mom.  We hit Joseph-Beth, Target, and my favorite Coffee Times Coffeehouse, and had lots of chatting over tea and coffee and Moe's burritos (not all at the same time).



I caught a pretty bit of snow outside my window at work, when it was falling fresh on the trees.  A cluster of robins filled the trees, and I paused from sorting through ten year old files to enjoy the stillness--and snap a little photo.  If it weren't for privacy concerns, I'd probably bring my camera along to work to catch moments like this.  Cold air may sometimes seem to leak through the corners of these old windows, but I do think the pretty little view, limited though it may be, is worthwhile--especially when I have the space heater turned on.

Have a beautiful weekend~

no thousand words needed

because this picture aptly summarizes them all...

{click for source}

1. I'm into the MA TESOL (master of arts in teaching English to speakers of other languages) program at the school I work for.  Now I get to figure out how to make sure a)it won't mess up pursuing my degree at U of L when we move and b) how to get it paid for and c) how it'll work with my jobs.

2. Spending all day with a whole bunch of paperwork and files then spending two of five hours at a movie store doing inventories makes for a very sore brain and, oddly, a sore back.

3. Sometimes macaroni and cheese made by your husband is the nicest meal you could want.