little un-valentines

dear headache: frankly, you were not the valentine i wanted to wake up to this morning. but that was cute of you to try.

dear motivation to get stuff done: you stood me up, man. were you today?

dear good intentions: thanks for being there--so many of you vying for my attention--though perhaps next time you and motivation could have a little chitchat so we could make something happen.

dear teen girl squad valentimes episode: i will always love you.

dear valentine cards: maybe i'll make you tomorrow. .. . ..but maybe not. i promise--it's me, not you.

dear valentine's day: usually i try to make you into something awesome and personal -- about loving people in general, regardless of whether or not i have a "valentine". well. there is a first time for everything and this year just wasn't our year. i sang a bunch and warmed my fingers up to those steel strings again but didn't really put smiles on the faces of anyone like i wanted to. my night was headed downhill--but i will have you know, i gussied myself up anyways, took a picture to prove it, marched to the grocery store, bought two ingredients and marched myself right back home again, probably passing most the social gatherings i was planning on attending. some years you just don't feel it. luckily, you're an annual sortofa holiday.

dear desiderata: you were the perfect read to end my wearisome night. you'll probably get your own post later for that.

believe it or not, this photo actually underwent fairly little editing. it was a great night for moodily lit self-portraits.

and then to my dismay

on saturday afternoon, jeff put it perfectly: it's as if there are so many thoughts trying to crowd onto the stage of my mind, that they're all just crammed in the wings so none of them even stand a chance of debuting on stage.

i was planning on articulating some thoughts over chocolate, which usually works, but the words didn't form like they usually do. so it was a more silent, photography-filled chocolate this time around.

and the cazookie was ridiculously tasty.

but i left with still too many thoughts and not enough thought-space in my head, with no pensieve in sight.

that night i was still meh-feeling and made a last-minute decision to attend a concert. that's where things changed. it was as if i'd given these bands all of my unorganized thought fragments -- of confusion, joy, worry, ache, melancholy, excitement, grief, wonder -- and asked them to process and synthesize them for me. and then, if they would, to please spit them back out into something beautiful. 

and they did. without me even asking.

even now, i'm still reflecting upon and soaking in the after-goodness.

chocolate photos are unedited and were shot on jeff's amazing canon powershot s90, which is rad.

concert details to come later. be very excited. 

a photo for your monday

hi.

i tend to write posts with layers of meaning, but not this time.

i just wanted to show you this neat baby mutant carrot i found earlier today in my tiny carrot bag.

it was the last one.

oh, and i guess i wanted to say that it's hard holding and focusing a camera with one hand, taking a picture of the other hand. but it can be done.

and...when times get bad, it's a nice thought: "well, at least i'm not a mutant carrot."

...that's all.

enjoy your monday!

fake plastic trees

i was originally going to post this may 16.  instead, i felt like posting them today.  just, you know.  random holga photos. pretty, eh?  though the plants are dry, and they need to drink.

i'm starting to love that camera for more than one reason.

summit

after two hours of intense hiking yesterday, i didn't have as much time as i would have liked on the top of the mountain, but i did manage to write this: 

i can't recall seeing anything so beautiful as my own home town from this new perspective. oh, what we miss when we don't see properly. 

confession.

among other things, i have been taking lots of pictures recently. so i figured i'd post some from a totally  unintentional photoshoot after lunch a couple weeks ago. these particular ones go along with a theme...can anyone guess it?

hint: think hannah. hannah hillam.
now think...hipster.

at least educate yourself with chapter one.
and then skip forward in chapter two to the photography part at the bottom.

and now compare that helpful guide with these:

notice any similarities? almost embarrassingly so? ...that's all i really wanted to say. so right here, i'mma just break up the pictures with text. it looks better that way. and, because i am in an apathetic mood at work, i will fill this space with words and such.

okay. that looks better. way better. because the last one is my favorite. 

confession: i'm part hipster.

wait, go.

i feel like i haven't posted in forever. but you should be oh-so-very excited about what's coming next. 

...k. it's nothing earth-shattering. just a bunch of photographs.

photographs made up of pure awesomeness.

meanwhile, have you recently checked my art blog? you should. stuff will be happening there soon, too. 

oh, and in case you're wondering (and i'm sure you are) -- i've been listening to both this and this all day. what the random combo?!

view from the back yard

this morning, my friend texted me to check out the sunrise.

so. glad. i did. it looked something like this:

i was using another friend's camera, so i wasn't quite used to it but didn't want to miss the sunrise to mess with the settings* (silly nikons!). i was so grateful she had lent it to me last night for a project, so i could at least capture something of this wonder.

yeah. the sky was completely on fire.  i couldn't believe how breathtaking it was.

it was a nice reminder that every day is new. and because literally ten minutes later the sky was completely bland and gray with no trace of what i'd witnessed, it was also a reminder to savor the beautiful moments in life. sometimes, they're what keep us going.

in other news, i'm in the middle of finals week. pretty sure my friend hannah captured my feelings perfectly.

*the iso was something like 1600 and i couldn't find out where to change it fast enough. and the color balance is off, but i have no time to mess with it now....finalssssweeeeeeekk.......

december 1: snow!

it was beautiful today! we weren't able to paint for our 8am plien air painting class, but we did walk around campus and dave instructed and directed us on how to paint snow, as well as pointed out some way cool observations about snow and atmosphere. this is the stuff i love learning, because it incorporates the use of the left side of my brain (which i dearly miss at times!).

it was too--meh--to paint well today, but excellent for photography. i brought my camera to take reference photos, but ended up taking pictures of my classmates as well because the lighting was so pretty! so...enjoy these chilly morning pictures (unedited - no time!) while i finish my gratitude list and try not to fret about my overload of final projects. :)

it's fun to take pictures of pretty classmates/friends. :) my classmates and professors have been one of my favorite things about this year. i'll sure be sad to see some of them leave.

i may or may not post surprisingly soon.

oh, twicia.

since i've been back from new york, i've been doing a lot with one of my very best friends, tricia. the reason?

she got married on saturday. i took their engagement picutures and designed their wedding invitations. it was lots of work, and lots of fun!

here's what she and her boy logan look like when they're together.

...and i couldn't be happier for them. {by the way, their engagements were such a blast to shoot! probably because tricia and i are pretty much the same person, so we ride the same wavelength. in so many ways.}

her reception was friday, july 31, and the next morning she and her man got married in the salt lake l.d.s. temple at approximately ten a.m. i was her maid of honor, photographer, and best friend. so, i felt honored and happy to be a part of it! both their families helped out with everything at the reception: her mom did all the flowers, his sister did the cake, her dad and a brother did the food (and it was a meal!), his mom was there to help direct, her brothers helped set up, his groomsmen helped set up...regardless of the chaos that always occurs during wedding times, it was a wonderful two days.

i haven't edited all their pictures yet, but the reception had lotsa dancing, so....

if you won't tell her i showed you, i won't. jus' sayin.

a letter to my hair

{preface: 1. this was originally written may 15th...the day it happened! 2. there are approximately a billion photos of me in this post. i'm feeling sheepish posting so many of them, but zach is getting good with the camera and i wanted to take photos of my hair before i did anything. they turned out really well (thanks zachary!) and i have fun editing stuff that wasn't client-related. as i explained my hesitation of posting them to jeff, he said, "we photogs don't get to be in the front very often so, yeah, i totally get your excitement." i know a bunch of you requested photos, so here they are. forgive me this one time for the excess. maybe it makes up for my current lack of NY pictures...heh.}

dear long hair,

we've been great pals for years now. in fact, i haven't cut you since 7th grade (when i let that lady who didn't speak english...bless her heart...cut you...i've never let any shears get you past my shoulder since). i've loved you and cared for you.

i like you in ponytails, pigtails, straight, curly, and wavy. up, down, this-and-that...those days you make me look like rapunzel (thanks, sara =D). it's especially fun to flip you around or feel you blow in the wind (especially while i run or in the car with windows down!). we've had good times.

before i knew it, you grew to be about 28 inches. however, you were kind of heavy (no offense, hair, i know you take pride in being thick) and i'd get headaches. i got super busy and i didn't get to trim you often or make you super pretty. although when i did, i loved doing it.

i talked about cutting you for a long while, but people kept talking me out of it. pretty soon, no one took me seriously about cutting you. but that was okay.

i had heard about locks of love. i found out that they take donated hair and make wigs out of it, specifically for children 18 and under, who don't have any hair due to disease and other health-related problems. it says, i saw the before/after photos of the recipients of the kids. it says,

 "The children who receive these hairpieces have lost more than their hair; they suffer from a loss of self. Many children have been teased by classmates and/or embarrassed by the attention they receive because of their hair loss. They often will withdraw from normal childhood activities such as swimming, going to the mall or even playing with their friends. While wearing a hairpiece is certainly not a cure for these children, it can help restore some of the normalcy to their everyday lives that most of us take for granted." (via here.)

with my new york trip coming up, i didn't want to have to worry about you in the mornings, and felt this was a very worthy cause. so, i decided that i'd do it. i know that it was scary for us both, but i think we were excited.

...

so, hair, i gave zach the camera (so thank him for the great photos!) and was expecting a before/after shot. but he decided to document the entire process! so here's how it went down, in picture form:

1-- i wouldn't have just trusted anyone to cut you this dramatically. so i got natalie. she. was. amazing.

2-- so, hair, with locks of love, you need to be a ponytail or a braid, so she just cut that off first.

3-- halfway through cutting, she had to get a bigger or sharper pair of scissors because you were so thick. that made me happy...you should be proud. :)

5-6 -- between these, i walked to the sink and could not believe how much lighter my head felt!! it was incredible!

7--  natalie was so great. about three times, she gladly cut the entire length of my hair shorter upon my request. (if anyone is thinking of cutting their hair, they should talk to me and i'll recommend her. she even gave me a two-week policy where i could go back and have her fix anything i didn't like. for awesome!)

11-12 --  she then styled it and taught me fun tips and tricks on styling techniques. these photos don't even show how high she got my you, hair...i looked like jon bon jovi. rock on.

i really wish these photos blew up more; they're great shots.

*author's note: there are many more 'before' photos than there are 'afters'. i figure that because it's what i look like now, so 'after' is now 'current' and ... yeah. you get the idea. (?)

...
and here are the official "after" shots (see above note). in addition to that note, i didn't really have time to take after photos- i cut this just days before my trip to new york. i didn't tell a lot of people previously to cutting you, just so i wouldn't get talked out of it and to add a fun surprise element to seeing friends before i head(ed) to NY. i'm sure you understand.

so. thanks, long hair, for willing to be donated. i'm sure you'll make some little child very happy! and i'll see you again, i'm sure. short hair is pretty fun, but i'm blessed to have the option.

sincerely,

*kristin
(you know. the person that was underneath you all those years)

why i celebrate

forgive my lack of posting; it's been a ridiculously busy month. on the upcoming 'to-post' list: tally hall, fall '09 classes, winter/spring '08 classes (wow, i'm behind), holidays, other such fun stuff

watch for 'em [hopefully...relatively] soon!

...but for now, i'll just let you know that Christmas was amazing. i hope you are all enjoying the holidays. for those of us who celebrated Christmas, let's remember the reason we have it, eh?

{these photos are brought to you by my camera and my mother's lovely house.}

to see another Christmas reminder, go here.

as my friend britta put it, Christmas = Christ + mas ("more" in spanish). so,
more Christ.

(i agree)

my online portfolio!

check it out! i've been putting together an online portfolio, mainly so i can force myself to digitize pieces and get ready for 'the real world'.

it's definitely a work in progress, but so fun to do!

find it here.

i would LOVE your feedback, so just write under the 'thoughts' section of this post.

to reward you for reading my blog, you may have seen a lot of the things in there before. however, you may be surprised at others. and others that are already on there are forthcoming blogs...so it's kind of like a sneak peek.

or a box of chocolates.

mmmmmm.....chocolate........

salt lake sketchventure!

{{sketchventure}}
goal: find awesome neighborhood filled with cool-looking homes and narrow streets. draw/paint/photograph said cool-looking homes and architecture. and each other, when least expected.

[i think my personal theme was 'color'. i love love loved the colors we saw that day, and laura and zach were wearing fabulous colors to match/complement their surroundings!]

[note: i'm still obsessed with typography.][the picture below is a cool shot taken by zach. he was a fast learner and after a quick photography lesson, he was banging on all cylinders]this was my first drawing that day.[this was my first house i painted with using laura's awesome water color pen and my tiny paint set!]

love this one. such great personality.

[coolest things to paint with: tiny watercolor sets and awesome watercolor brush pens]

mission accomplished.

{{the after-party}}
goal: go to the gateway, find zach cool new shoes with to buy with his birthday money.

varied actual results: cool shoes too expensive, affordable shoes too ugly. instead, the three adventurers found a cool store with cool stuff and took cool pictures. please see laura's blog for further explanation. really. you will not regret it...unless you're not awesome.

ps. shout-out to laura, or Sister Smith: samara's about to get even better. i'm so excited for you to be a missionary. i'll hold down the fort...unless i end up joining you. in which case we will rock sketchventures and sketchisodes around the world.

until we sketch again! :)

* all images copyright kristin gulledge, 2009