White Oak Canyon Pictures

It's raining all week and all I want to do is ride my bike to work. Ugh.

So this weekend was lovely and very busy. Here are some pictures from my hiking activities on Saturday. We went to White Oak Canyon in the Shenandoah Valley and my calves are still sore! I need to hike more.

Blue Trail

(Magazine cover no?)

An Afternoon in the Kitchen

I love spending time in my new kitchen. I thing it's absolutely darling. Tiny, quaint, just the right size for me and my new roommates. I love them. One girl who is only living with us this summer is a little odd but her "favorite chore" is doing the dishes. And sometimes mine. Pretty neat compared to last years batch of lazys. 

I have this special place in my heart for mason jars. I think its because my parents and I used to can pickles and peppers in mason jars for a few summers when I was a teen (not long ago honestly haha). But now I find myself not being able to throw away a single jar and instead keeping fresh fruit in them. They just seem so much more aesthetically appealing than plastic ware. I ate the rest of my strawberries for the week and cleaned up these blackberries yesterday to put in my fruit jar.

I'll be starting a garden at some point this summer when I have more money. For now however my garden consists of these two tomato plants from John and this teeny pot of basil sprouting on my kitchen windowsill. 

We also have a TON of eggplants sprouting on another window. I would like to grow a few more things. I don't need much honestly. My friend John is growing a bunch of veggies on the other side of town too and we decided to trade. I'm ready to dig my fingers into some dirt but first we need to clean up the poison oak that is apparently running all throughout our yard. Great.

And finally I must share this little piece of the internet I have stumbled upon. The other night I found this band, The Mural and the Mint and then found that they were giving away a free download of their album. They are a completely legit band that I have fallen in love with. Especially the song "I Never Knew." Check it out.

Transplant EP release by Justin Andrew

One of my favorite people/musicians, Justin Andrew, who used to be Pillars, is releasing his EP titled "Transplant" this coming Wednesday, May 13. If you're in the Pittsburgh area you should stop by Brillobox and join the party. I wish I could go. Transplant will feature some songs that are new to me and some sweet album art by Jesse Best.

Check it out if you haven't already:

Printed Photo

My design final today consisted of turning in a bunch of work and printing this photo out. Its my first professionally printed out work which will hang above my bed in my new place. Yay!

The photo was taken in Mali on my Sony Cybershot DSC-H10. I almost threw it out but then thought it looked really cool focused on the window of the bus instead of the sunset outside. It took three proof prints in CMYK mode on my professors professional printer before we gave up and printed in RGB. I don't understand how to make all that work yet. The print is drying in his office right now but when I get it and get it framed it's 17"x22". Quite large!

:)

If I think about it tonight I'll link to the large photo.

May Day

Its late at night and I am wide awake. Which is handy because I have much to update.

It's finals week and I have finished my first short film. Entitled "Somogow" which means "family" in Bambara. The assignment was easy - learn Final Cut Pro and create a five minute film. We had to write a script, create a story board, and think about our lighting ahead of time. Being forced to create something, I didn't really know what I wanted to do for a long time. I learned Final Cut a week ago and only had about two hours of footage to work with when all the shooting was finished. A lot of scenes had to be cut because I couldn't wrangle people to shoot for me. All my friends are conservatory students and take about 8,000 classes each. I've been getting very good feedback for the most part. I'm already sick of watching it but this is the final product:

"Somogow"


This past weekend was Apple Blossom in Winchester. Here are some pictures from working with the film crew.

Poor Elephants, they still look happy even though they have to walk around on the road.


Proud lady and her pooch


Clowning around! Check out that dog!


Lonely princess


Buy some stuff?


"Working"


There you go. Apple Blabble. I, of course, did not get to party too much because I had to work and was usually exhausted afterward. Being tired and trying to party results in:



I'm so glad my friends were able to catch that elusive photo for me.



I've been playing a lot of guitar late at night the past few days. Mostly because of Priscilla Ahn:



Her voice is absolutely enchanting. I wish I could do so many things at once. Guitar? Okay. Sing? Well, I'll give it a shot. Play harmonica and use a pedal too? Oh geez. No. She is my inspiration this week to finish finals so I can move into my new house and play guitar all summer.