Showing posts with label Interests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interests. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

17 March - things I'm loving

Things I'm loving right now:

1. Great Impasta's Chicken Mexicana over rigatoni: On Scott's drive home from Palo Alto yesterday, he stopped in Danville to pick up some pasta & a salad for me. It was an incredibly delicious treat.


2. Horchata w/ ice
3. My Goodreads book clubs - The Next Best Book Club and The Book Addicts

Currently Reading:
At Home in Mitford, by Jan Karon
Next to-be-read:

A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray, A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick,

 Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Erghese

4. a tiny morsel of Inspiration Pictures that are currently making me happy & a little bit envious:
Domino

(I can't remember where I found the other pics.)

5. And of course, spending as much time as possible with Scott & William.

Monday, March 15, 2010

15 March - why Lavyrle, of course

When I was at my parents' last week, I really got into reading again (it's been a while since I've been obsessed with books). I finished the library book that I brought with me on the first night there & was ready for my next book. I asked my mom if she had anything fun to read, but she had just gotten rid of most of her books.  After searching the house, she finally remembered some books that my grandma has.  She went into my grandmother's closet & pulled out this disgusting, dirty book - it was a large print, used edition from the library with a mauve/pink shiny cover & a lacy pillow w/ a bouquet of flowers on the front.  If I were walking in the bookstore or library, I would most certainly pass it by!  It was titled The Endearment, was a Romance novel (which I vowed never to read), & to make it worse, the author's name was LaVyrle! Sorry to offend you if you know someone named LaVyrle, but my first thoughts were, "Is she an LDS author?," "What kind of name is that?" and "There's no way someone by that name could write a good book." Talk about judging a book by its cover!

(Honestly, would you pick this book up except to laugh at it?)

Well, my mom told me to just try it & kept saying that she remembered quite liking the stories. And to help me get past the author's name, she started referring to her as "Lovey" (it's a little better). Well, I was shocked when I was hooked from page one. I quickly finished the book & read another one, Years, right after. Both of the stories were really sweet - I loved them (although the first one had some racy scenes)! My mom then surprised me with two more of hers.  Who would have thought that I would be reading LaVyrle Spencer novels, let alone four of them within a week? And I definitely wouldn't classify these as Romance novels (at least what I would have expected one to be) - especially Years (which I especially liked). They are very sweet stories that show the importance of & love between families, point out the beauty in simple everyday things, & make you feel as though you're looking into the lives of very real people. If you want to get on the Lovey bandwagon with me, feel free.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

13 March - a lazy week plus photography class

I have spent the last week or so visiting my parents (more realistically, they've been watching Will for me while I've had the chance to relax a little & read four books!). It has been a great break for me & will hopefully help me get through the next section of Scott's school & work (poor guy - he needs the break even more than I do).

View from my parents' home - isn't it beautiful?

I've also been taking a photography class once a week for the last few weeks.  I drove into San Francisco today to do the lighting demos. 
This poor girl had tons of us surrounding her & taking pictures.  (I know this isn't a good picture - camera strap, shadows, person walking, bike . . . but I was mostly trying to figure out the proper exposure without feeling rushed or pressured to get the perfect composition.)

I got so nervous when it was my turn to take pictures that I just did it as quickly as possible to make room for someone else.

Afterward, a different group of us went to Nicole's "studio" (her apartment) to practice tabletop photography.
Tabletop demo - I loved doing this! Don't the berries look delicious? - Mmm . . . one of the many perks of spring and summer.

the setup - Nicole taking a demo picture for us, so we knew what ours should look like.

a blue horse bookend

I LOVE to learn new things, so this class has been a lot of fun for me.  Now I just need to practice like crazy!