Are you ready for this?

My photo class meets once a week from 2-7:45....yeah, in Liberty. A little town that should be about 15 minutes from the University, but a road closure makes it more like 25ish... or at least it feels that way. I am doing two projects for this class, one I am teamed up with a student from the local high school and we need to make a narrative together. She wanted to do something surreal and dark and creepy, I said we could do that. The only big obstacle was figuring out where to take the pictures. If the environment isn't perfect it would ruin everything. She fixed that problem.

This is the old opera house. An old man has owned it for several years and has done nothing with it. He usually refuses to let anyone inside, he is allowing us to use it because it is for an art project. We can go in whenever we want, all we have to do is let him know. We have the use of the buildings on the corner all the way to three doors down.






LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!! PERFECT!!!!!

They are better then the normal ones.

We had our first Reese's pumpkin today. It is officially fall.

Yes Mr. Thill, if only

Stephen Colbert has made an amazing move in his campaign for presidency is the Marvel Comic Universe. He has now teamed up with Spidey to save the Earth.

Ned+Chuck= True Love

Pushing Daisies comes back on in exactly one week! I can't wait.

Spending the rest of my life in college

We have been messing around with my argoflex and d80, I am not sure I have the right lens to get these to look right. Although, there is something I like about these fuzzy bright scenes.

This is my bag filled with portfolios that need to be graded.

Today concluded my first five week beginning photo class that I have been teaching this semester. I was asked if I would like to teach it right before the school year started I said yes and didn't have much time to let it sink in.

The teacher roll is not my most comfortable one. I am just settling in to being an art student, the fact that I now know enough that Miami University would trust me to teach their students is ... I don't know. Part of me feels like I am tricking them, they think I am qualified and I am playing along.

Before my students left today I asked them to write down somethings they liked about the course and somethings that they thought I could improve on. I don't know what I was expecting to get back. The consensus seemed to be that I had explained everything clearly and they really liked the one on one instruction I gave if they didn't understand something right away. Which immediately made me feel better. My biggest fear the whole time was that they had been politely nodding while I was showing them how do develop and print, but when I turned my back they were looking at each other mouthing "WTF"?!

Before the class started I had never thought about teaching photography, when I was asked to teach I thought maybe this was the beginning of a new career path. During these past five weeks I had so many doubts about my ability to explain things clearly and lead the class in a organized and fluid direction I decided I was never going to teach again after this semester. Now that I have a stack of papers telling me otherwise who knows?

I Spy

Can you spot the little guy who got himself trapped in my car today?

I can't believe she has the time.

How stylish are blogs? So stylish that Martha has one.

TvF

While Donna and Jim were over for the weekend we stopped in an Amish Furniture Store just to have a look and ended up finding one of the best antique shops I have ever been in. In the store we found a Argoflex camera. Surprisingly I had enough will power to put it back in the case and let the women lock it up, even though I was thinking of all of the amazing TvF photos I could take.

Apparently while I was off looking at old post cards sneaky Donna bought it for me. When we walked about of the store she asked if I wanted to see her purchases and unwrapped it from a handful of paper towels. My first ever TLR. Now not only can I shoot medium format film, but I can also take real TvF photos instead of faking them.

The only thing I wasnt looking forward to was building the contraption that connects my digital camera to the Argoflex. However, tonight while I was still working on my outline for African Art History Mark sat down in the middle of the living room and started building one for me.





I love him.

This is a first

Thanks to huricane Ike most of Ohio has been with out power since Sunday and they are saying that some could have to wait until the weened for the power to come back. I really hope that this is the closest we ever come to being in a huricane.

It's weird but I never wondered what it looked like behind those millions of meat packages in the grocery store but when I noticed all of the meat was gone today I was incredibly interested. I don't even want to think about all of the food that has to be thrown out because of all this.

Oxford, Oxford, Oxford

At the end of the third week of class I came home and passed out for five hours last night. While this has to my best semester yet, it is full of classes that are a lot of work. Much more conceptual than classes in the past, so when Friday gets here my brain is done. To give it a break I decided we need to watch a movie. We watched The Darjeeling Limited for the first time. Not my favorite Wes Anderson movie, but very Wes Anderson.

We watched a extra about the making of the movie, and when they were walking through the real train they bought to make the movie in I realized I like his movies so much because of the sets he creates. They are like another character, a very surreal, very beautiful character.

Something I like.

1. Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
2. Dada
3. Bull Dog Clips

Update

Not really. We ran out of transparencies to print out our designs on and can't make anything new until we get some of those. Sooooo, I don't know when that will be.

We went home today to pick up my car. Dad apparently worked on it a bunch because it is driving way better than it has in a couple of years. We also had a lovely meal with Donna and Jim at PENN STATION.


Oh. Also. When Mark and I went to Kroger yesterday to pick up some apples and caramel a bat was flying around in the store. I noticed it when it almost ran in to my head. We watched it fly up and down the frozen isles and then around in the pharmacy section. When it flew past the registers employees noticed and sent a guy with a plastic bag and a broom after it. That is the last we saw of it.

Favorites

Look how pretty my flickr favorites look lately.

PERFECT!

I needed chatter teeth for a project I am doing. I went to the Dollar General, Meijer, and WalMart in search for some. I would have gone to a party store but there aren't any around here for enough miles that I didnt want to drive there.

So last night I settled for using an image off the internet, and of course it didnt look at all how I wanted it to. But I still had a week to work on it so I knew I would figure something out.

Today when I walked in to class my professor told me that people in his other drawing class had bought chattering teeth over at Shriver. I would have never, ever thought to look at the place that I am around all day, everyday of the week.

Getting home conversation

"Yay! The harder part of me week is over!"

"It's Thursday"

"I know."

Where its Greener

We visited GreenField Village while we were in Michigan. Apperntly Henry Ford decided that he wanted all the buildings of his childhood in one place, and then kept on with it and bought other things like Thomas Edison's Menlo Park. This Mark demonstrating what he would have been like as a teacher in the 1700s. This is me standing in front of Robert Frost's house.

A night in Defiance

I watched this storm come in in forever the night we visited Grandma's for a little bit.

If we win the lottery I am buying this.

Kelgwo's Thick Wool Knitten Coat

Newest TealTown Desgin. Now we just need to get it printed on something.

Yeah. Thanks Time Warner Cable

One of the two rainbows we saw on the way to Michigan today.

UPDATE: One of three rainbows

Grandma's Cooking

We took Grandma to the bank, and the farmers market this morning she bought tomatoes of every color. For dinner she made me some fried green tomatoes, they tasted like summer at her house.

The Summer of Constant Traveling

Headed up to visit my Grandpa who is sick, but getting a little better everyday.

Then we're off to Michigan to house sit my aunt and uncle's lake house, it's going to be horrible.

And we thought they couldn't get out of Cleveland soon enough.

Adam and Kendea drove off into the sunset today, not really it was more like the early morning sun. I know when they get there and get settled in this will all seem normal. Until then it's a little weird.

A Day in the Life

Last Thursday at 11am Kendra had to turn in her apartment keys and we had no place to be until 11:45pm when we had to pick Adam up from the Cleveland air port. So we were determined to entertain ourselves for those 12 hours and 45 minutes. Kendra had the idea that we should document our day for Adam. Our pictures start at 11am with us leaving the apartment for the last time and end at 8am the next morning. We ended up getting a hotel room, Adam's flight was canceled, and he couldn't get back until 9am and he would be arriving in Columbus. Sooo we had a lot of pictures to take, if you want to see them I uploaded all of them on to my flickr account: Sick of Cleveland's Ass.

Purty

We tried on Kendra's earrings last night while we were waiting to hear from Adam.

I love Mark!

Today exactly one year ago Mark and I finally got married! After all the years and all the planning the wedding was there and now it has passed us by. In the end it was totaly worth it and I wouldn't change anything. It doesn't seem like it was a year ago but it was and we had a great year.

We are celebrating by helping Kendra move out of the apartment while we all wait to hear from Adam in Arizona who has spent all day taking the bar exam. We couldnt think of a better way to spend it. Plus, they got us CAKE! Can't get much better than that.

A fresh new look, for some fresh tees

TealTown's newest model, Annie, was kind enough to let me take a bunch of pictures of her today even though it was way to hot outside to take pictures and we were all feeling nasty before we even started. And then to top it off none of us had any cash for after photoshoot Coop's Snow Cones. I think the pictures turned out pretty sweet. And the shop is well on it way to being close to looking how I want it to.

Make Over

Today I sent out a survey to Tealtown's biggest fans, our family! I asked if they preferred our shop photos to be outside with some fancy background, or just a white wall with the focus on our t-shirts. Not only did all of them get back to me super fast, they all unanimously agreed that the fancy outside ones make for a more interesting shop.

So I guess what I will be doing this weekend.

Thank you to everyone who responded! I really didn't know which way to go and your opinions really helped.

The Word

Second Best Present Ever.

The Wii. This one was also from Donna and Jim. After many months of searching one was finally found and Mark's 2006 Christmas present was complete.

I have been playing Mario Galaxy and Wii Fit lately. Aside from The Disney Princess Game I think WiiFit is the only other game that I have bought for myself. It was the first thing to come out on Wii that I was more excited about than Mark was.


I always feel bad about buying things. Even though I had been reading about WiiFit and counting down the days until it was released, the day it did come out I was unsure if I should really spend that much money on a game. I always do that, I feel guilty about having the privilege to be able to buy something even if it is something I have wanted and put some money away for.

In the end the thing that made me but it was my recent health kick. As of now I think it is more than just a kick and I am hoping I can turn this in to a permanent life style and part of the reason I think I have made it this far is WiiFit. Knowing it is going to hold me accountable for that second whatever totally helps. While I don't play the games as much as I did when I first got it, weighing in everyday it has made me aware of my weight and that helps a lot.

LIvinging In Oxford

"What should we do today?"

"Same thing we do everyday..... try and take over the world."

"Got to WalMart?"

"Yup."

A combination of two things I love.

If I had a coffee table this would be sitting on it.


Henri Cartier Bresson: Scrapbook
Mr Bresson on Wikipedia.

Best Present Ever.

Donna and Jim got us a Weber grill as a engagement present, we were excited at the time but if we had known all the awesome things that we were going to make with it we probably would had done cartwheels.

As soon as it got warm we started grilling out. Steaks, salmon, hamburgers, chicken wings. But then we got in to a rut where we were grilling the same things over and over again even though they were delicious every time we wanted something new.

A couple cook books have been inspiring us this week and we had the best dinner that has come off the grill yet.



Grilled Shrimp
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon garlic powder pepper blend
Jumbo Shrimp, peeled

Put everything in a zip lock and let the shrimp marinate in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes. Then throw the shrimp on the grill until they look like they are done.

Grilled Pineapple and Watermelon
Drizzle some honey of the pieces of fruit and throw em on the grill. Mark says to take it off when the char marks appear. The pineapple was awesome, the watermelon was watermelon, you cant really mess that up.

Asparagus
Cover with Olive Oil and season with salt and pepper, then throw them on the grill until they are done how you like them.

Emma

Emma wanted to sleep with Mark and me while we were at Grandma's last weekend, but there was no way that all three of us were going to fit in a bed so she begged and begged to sleep in the crib that was in the room.

This is her realizing that I am taking a picture to post on my blog.

Kit-teh

My aunt found this little guy on the side of the road. They named him Lucky. This is him big compared to what he was when she found him. He is obviously way to young to be away from his mother but he is still very sweet and gentle. While we were there she asked me if I wanted him and if Autumn and Conner weren't so attached to him Mark and I would totally have a new little kitten to play with.

Baby Mania

This weekend Mom, Mark, the girls and I went to Defiance, or as we like to call it home. The weekend was full of babies. Ridick, who was eight days old was there. I didn't get to see him that much and I decided to enjoy my time with him instead trying to get that perfect picture.


Sunday was Brody's, the two month old, baptism. It was a lovely ceremony. It was a little weird to watch Barney and Alyssa with their little baby standing up there in the exact same place I watched them get married two years ago. Change is always weird I guess, but at least some change is wonderful.



We also got to spend the weekend with my niece Jane, who is almost six months old already. We all had a great time with her, her mom, and her grandma who also came to visit with everybody. Her Mom and I talked about getting together so I could take some pictures of her, and I can't wait.

Finally!

Today is Mark's 21st. If i remember correctly the first birthday of his that I celebrated with him was his 15th. He has stayed pretty amazing through all of these years. I am very excited to be celebrating this years as his wife. I can't think of anything that makes me happier.




Happy Birthday Markie!

Making Nindento even better.

This is the only thing that has ever made me want a Gamecube.

These are way more interesting than emails.

I wish we still sent Telegrams.

It all starts in Michigan

Well, we started out in Ohio but we needed some music to help us make it to Michigan.

I don't think that is native to South Ohio

This is a real bug thing we saw outside of a little antique store. No one knew what it was, or had ever seen one before.

My Dream Scooter

Before Mark got his scooter he talked about scooters and all the cool things he could do if he had a scooter like ride it to class, put blades on it and cut the grass, sleep with it. All those things sounded pretty cool to me, and I thought scooters were pretty awesome but I never really wanted to get one of my own. Until he started talking about planning a camping trip and using the back roads to get to some place pretty. Then I got really excited until I realized that either I couldn't go with him, or I would have to drive by myself in my boring car. So I did something stupid and started looking at scooters and I thought both the Honda Metropolitan and Yamaha Vino were pretty cool, but then I saw that the Vino is coming out in this color this year and I think my heart might have skipped a beat.

Now all I have to do is wait three or four years when someone wants to sell their used one and I have a job.