New Blog

Hello hello!
I move on from thing to thing very quickly (that's what she said).
Therefore, I have a new blog! Here's the link: Link!
I hope you like it...and yes, that's about it. And maybe follow it? It really means a lot.
I'm going to use it more than this one. I might not even use this one at all anymore. We'll see!

Art!

I finally got around to photographing my recent art projects that I did at school.
I'll share a few:

Relief sculpture; plaster, acrylics

Unity study; colored pencil 

Drawing with our Profile; colored pencil

Cupcake study; colored pencil

Self portrait mixed with an animal (giraffe); conte crayon

Nature study (daffodil); colored pencil

Pillow drawing; conte crayon

Abstract Study; watercolor

Hope everyone has a good day!

Changes, Changes!

I was getting tired of how this blog was looking. 
So I made some changes and jazzed everything up a bit.
Thuper duuper exciting. At least for me, it is.


I also changed the title of my blog to "Emerging". 
There were 3 things wrong with my other title:
        1. Too long
        2. Old
        3. Not meaningful enough
And after flipping through my Thesaurus for a while, I landed on "emerging". 

To rise, to arrive.

I feel like that's what we're all trying to do in our lives, to emerge. To rise. To finally arrive.

        Emerging from your shell?

        Rising out of your past?

        Arriving at a destination? Who you are and who you want to be.

I'm also going to be treating this blog differently. It'll be more...whimsical? Maybe? Who knows, we'll see.

Things aren't going to be as proper. I'm not all that proper. That isn't a word that I would use to describe myself.

Forget paragraphs, forget being orderly, that's all going into the wind.

I'm going to use spaces when I want to! Make lists! Have fun with this, mostly.

Enjoy.

Happy Day!

Today's a happy day!
After looking for weeks and weeks, I finally got a job! So stoked!
So I figured I would share the happiness and give you all a funny picture:

Found here!

Makes me giggle, hope it does for you, too.

Yay happy day!

Have a good weekend!

The Fabulous Life

I just finished watching an episode of the television show Million Dollar Decorators.
Usually I don't care for these kinds of shows; the ones about rich people who cause drama and get plastic surgery and such (cough cough all of the "Real Housewives of..." shows).
But this was fantastic.
These people are a bit dramatic, yes, but they're not gossiping, crying, or throwing drinks into each other's faces. They're doing something they're passionate about for high-paying customers. 
It was really fun to immerse myself into their lifestyles for an hour. They have fancy birthday parties for each other. They all seem to have english accents. They all have an array of dogs at their feet. They're able to walk into businesses and actually think about buying $30,000 items.

My friends dragged me into a Coach store, once,

 just to "look around" without the intent of buying anything.

I was so uncomfortable and felt like if I touched any of 

the merchandise, then someone would come throw me out

since all I had in my purse was $20 and a melted tube of ChapStick. 

I looked really suspicious, looking at a purse and then slowly looking behind

me to see if any of the salespeople were watching me.

And they were. 

For the wrong reasons.

Anyways, it just got me thinking about how cool a "fabulous life" would be. 

Even working for someone living a fabulous life would be really cool. Just to be there, in it.

I guess it's all about your attitude in life, really. You can call your life fabulous, no matter what you have or what you do. If you believe it, others will, also.

Some days it's just fun to pretend. 

Memorial Day

I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day!
My family and I went to a parade this morning. I wasn't too happy, I don't particularly enjoy parades...
Now we're spending the rest of the day relaxing around the house and doing things outside. 
It's beautiful outside so I decided to take pictures!

My mom was gardening

This is my dog, Dillon

He makes me very, very happy

Rolling around in the grass (I joined in, after a while)

Enjoying the sunshine

I love it when warm weather just makes you feel undeniably happy. 

Summer, it's about time you showed up.

Vincent

Today my mom and I went to visit my mom's friend who recently got a new puppy.
And so, I introduce you to Vincent, the 3 month old golden retriever.

He's a very playful little boy.

At one point, he got himself wrapped up in his leash and attempted to walk across the yard. It didn't work out very well. 

Some Sunday Inspiration

For anyone who celebrates Easter, happy Easter!

For anyone who doesn't, happy Sunday!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic day. 

Have you ever visited the website called DeviantArt?

It's awesome.

Artists can display their work online and it can be commented on, critiqued, and liked. People can buy and sell artwork and it's just a really great place. I mainly use it for displaying my own work and finding inspiration from other people's art. 

And so this post is dedicated to one of the artists whose work i adore. 

Here's a gallery of her work!

I find her work incredibly inspiring and interesting and just all around amazing. 

So please, take a gander and let it all soak in.

Song of the Moment

I've been listening to this nonstop for the past few days.

It's just one of those songs that makes you want to drive fast and with the windows down. 

Or spin around your room while only wearing a shirt and underwear.

Or just sit at a desk and reflect upon your life for a bit.

"So here I am." 

Small Fish

Today was disappointing.

I knew this realization would come, I just didn’t want to see it and embrace it. I wanted to keep it as far away as possible.

I’m no longer a big fish in a small pond.

I’m an art kid. And in high school, I was one of the few main art kids. I would spend my lunch hour up in the art room. At the end of my senior year, i got the award for “Excellence in Art” and the school bought one of my paintings to hang in a hall. Everyone knew me as the artistic one, and that’s how I knew myself, too. I had worked up to that status.

I was a big fish in a small pond.

Now in college, I’m in art classes with people better than I am. I look at what I’m doing, think it’s pretty good, and then look over at the person next to me and see that my piece looks like an elephant sneezed on it, while theirs looks like a masterpiece and might as well be framed and sold for thousands of dollars. 

I’m no longer known as one of the best at what I do given the selection of people.

I’m just “kind of okay”.

I’m back to being just a small fish in a big pond. 

I’m not used to it, and it makes me really sad.

Have you ever gone through this same kind of thing? How did you deal?

Photos

Just some pictures I’ve found on the internet that make me smile.

I don’t own any of these photos and if by some chance you see this blog and one of your photos is on here, shoot me a comment and I’ll credit you for your work!

LOOK AT THIS DRESS. I'd love to see someone actually wearing it. I am in awe by how stunning it is.

This picture is just so peaceful. I love how it can portray quiet, raw love between people. 

Yay rainbow feathers!

This just makes me laugh whenever I look at it. Dogs are wonderful.

Jumping lambs are wonderful, too.

Love the colors and the focus.

An example of someone's really great Photoshopping skills. 

Hammer, represent.

Again, love the focus.

Yet another example of how wonderful dogs are. This is just precious.

Have a great Thursday! 

You've almost reached the weekend.

Lessons Learned in College

Since the school year’s almost over, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much things have changed from the beginning of the year to now. Being a freshman in college is a roller coaster. But out of all the things I’ve learned, there are two lessons that, to me, are most prominent and have taught me the most. 

1. Don't drink to get people to like you.

Partying taught me a lot about myself and about other people. My roommate is an avid “partygirl”, and she insists that she’s made so many friends at parties. I’m fine with her choices, her life is her life. But I can’t help thinking, is she making real friends? She’s meeting people while she’s drunk and when they’re drunk. They usually remember each other, but can she really consider them “friends”? If she needs help, will they help her, while sober? Can she go to them when she needs to talk about things that are troubling her? Not that I can see.

You need a support system at school, especially as a freshman in college. To me, party friends aren’t the same as supporting friends.  

2. You will eventually turn back into the person you are.

Yep, when I came to college, I started growing a tail, some fur and kept barking at people. But now I’m back to human form, no worries.

Bad joke, my bad.

But this lesson is the biggest one for me.

First semester, I thought that I was living the life of a college student. Going out every weekend, thinking drinking was great, making friends with people that I really didn’t like but tolerated because I thought that’s what everyone did. I also didn't take the time to realize how homesick I was because I didn't want to be the baby who missed her mommy. But once we went home for winter break, everything changed. My life had been going going going since school started and it finally all caught up to me. I realized that the person I was being wasn’t who I wanted to be. I wasn’t, had never been, and didn’t want to be a partygirl and I didn’t enjoy the company of other partygirls. So second semester, I came back to school with my sketchbook and with my collection of good literature. I talk to my mom every day and I'll admit that I am sometimes so homesick that I'm brought to tears. I’ve only gone out about three times in the past three months and I’ve become closer to the people that stay in on weekends and get good grades, i.e. the mature kinds of people that I’ve been drawn to my entire life.

And now everything finally seems to be in place. 

You will get back on track.

Back

Here are some pictures I took while on my photo walk.

It was exactly what I needed.

But now I’m back at school; back to dining halls, wearing flip flops in the shower and having a roommate. 

At least it’s getting warmer.

Rough

Today was rough.

There’s a lot on my mind and there’s a lot going on.

I need to find a job. Now.

My dad was crying today.

I haven’t done any of my spring break homework. Now I need to crank out SuperLiz to get it all done.

My depressed ex boyfriend was telling me how he feels about life.

I found out the guy I’ve been trying not to be attracted to was talking about wanting to talk to me.

My mom’s sad and cries because she’s trying to better an old woman’s life and people don’t cooperate.

Whenever I’m sad or angry, I visibly show it. I shut people out and don’t smile, etc. 

Therefore, I’m trying something new; a “smile even though your heart is breaking” kind of thing. If I’m down, nobody needs to know unless I tell them. Passerby will just believe I'm happy as a clam. I have to try and stay happy and optimistic on the outside. 

And in turn, hopefully that’ll tweak the way I’m feeling on the inside as well. Which is always a good thing.

I want to be seen as Liz the happy or Liz the cheerful. Not Liz the moody, scary, creep.

I need to go out and take pictures tomorrow.

To relax and such.

What do you do to relax? To take your mind off of everything? I'd love some suggestions.

And until then, here's a picture. I'm imagining myself here right now.

I took this on our last trip to Ohio. I think it's very calming.

Let's Focus On...

I'm really into two things right now.

1. Goodwill 

Being a broke college student, anything being sold at a low price is greatly appreciated. Therefore, Goodwill is appreciation station. People donate whatever they don’t want, and Goodwill will shelve it and sell everything back for much cheaper than it was originally sold for.

You will find the stereotypical thrift store commodities: flower-print turtlenecks, corduroy ankle-length skirts, sequined vests, denim anything, and all of these can be found with or without shoulder pads. But if you look hard enough, you will find those gem items that you could find on the clearance rack at any high-priced store, such as American Eagle Outfitters, Anne Taylor, Charlotte Russe, and Banana Republic. The catch is that they’re all in the price range from $3 to $6. Total deal.

I’ve recently scoured the racks of local Goodwill stores and have found so many deals. Items that would’ve been priced at $25 I found for $5. I’ve added about so many new editions to my closet, and it all cost me so much less than it would have if I had bought it all at the original stores for their original prices.

So add this store to your list of stops the next time you go running errands. I guarantee it’ll be worth it. Find one in your area here!

2. Adele

For the past few days, she’s all I’ve been able to listen to. Her voice is so perfect, her lyrics are poetic and meaninfgul, the music as a whole is so relaxing. 

You’ve heard her on the radio with “Chasing Pavements” and her new “Rolling in the Deep”. 

Adele is so talented and inspiring; she’s already won 2 grammys and she’s only 22 years old. Can you smell success? I can.

One of my favorites by this fantastic woman, “Make You Feel My Love”. Enjoy!