The Art of Random Blogging

Valerie, just shy of 2 years old, speaking better French than English!
Don't you just love her giggle?


Evan in Jack's Halloween costume, Fall 2007


Lesley and Myself, Summer 2007


Valerie and Myself at graduation, Spring 2006

Recipe for a blog:
First make your content completely pointless
Add just a pinch of relevance
Mix in photographs for evidentiary support
Let stand for 3 months to share with the world

There you have it folks-
umm... Looks Tasty



London Study Abroad, Spring 2005


Ashley and Myself, Summer 2006


Jack and Myself on Halloween, 2007
(disclaimer: this is not his costume because his brother was wearing it!)


Video I made at Harewood House, Yorkshire, Summer 2006

Grad Park 2007

Lately I've been lackadaisical when it comes to my blog. I've had it now for 2 years and I feel like I have nothing to say on such a forum. Happily, my sisters have posted and reminded me of why I have a blog.

This is a poster that my BFF Ashley made over the summer. Apparently there is a program online that allows for making your friends into "South Park" characters, so Ashley made one for all the graduate students in our program. Guess which one is me?



We (Ashley, Megan, and I) went to Las Vegas the last weekend in September. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, gave a significant boost to the economy when we went to Sephora, and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Here are some photos of that much needed fun-filled break from our demanding life as graduate students.




This last photo is from a magazine of Modern Design. It is a 1960s cover photo with some of the top designers of the day. Charles Eames and Eero Seranin are my two favorites.

Lightning for Incubus: 7-17-07

A Hard Day's Night

Me in St. Ives, Cornwall, England


I know, I know. I have not posted anything in the longest time. I am actually rather embarassed as to the reason. When Blogger switched over to Google, I had to get a new username and password, which is swiftly forgot what they were. After several failed attemps at cracking the code of blogspot, I finally remembered what my login is- yeah!

Now an update on the past 4 months. I went to London for the first 10 days of May to do research on my Master's Thesis, I got a new nephew born on May 30, 2007 (Jack Donovan Powell), I moved out of my apartment in Orem and am now apartment hunting in Provo (any one need a roommate?!) and I started working at Eat-A-Burger part time to help my brother out (Fridays and Saturdays if you ever want to come). Pretty much that is it, so I'll just upload some photos, b/c that is the best part of a blog anyway!

London:











Blowing out the candles on our 23rd Birthday


Valie and Ashley


Valie, Ashley, and Jaiden

Home Sick

Life Is Like A Rock Concert

Ponder that for a moment. Let it marinate.

Being in general admission at a rock concert is scary, powerful, andlife changing if you will. You can do either one of two things.

You can fight the crowd, hold your stance, be determined enough to not let any one else get infront of you, and miss out on actually listening to the music.

Or you can go with the flow, letting your heart beat along with the pounding of the bass in your ears. You must become one with the crowd as you collectively bask in the awesomeness that is Incubus (or insert your favorite band).

If you are too stubborn and driven, you miss out on the whole experiance, the whole reason for going.

It is a lot like life- I'm leaving this ambigious so you can make your own connections.

Rock on!

Christmas Time Is Here

Pictures of Mom's Festival of Trees tree: Stafordshire



Today marked the begining of the last full week of classes for Fall Semester 2006. I have so much to do that I'm not doing anything, sort of like a deer in the headlights. I have a presentation on Friday, AHA Christmas party on Saturday. Then I have a paper due the next monday, and 2 more before that week is out. Plus I have to administer a final and grade term papers and exams. I'll most likely being comming home the 23 or 24th- yuck but yay.
In the spirit of the season, here are some pictures that I thought would be fun to share.



Me and Ashley decorating the Christmas tree in our apartment.



Happy Christmas!

Too Busy To Post But I Still Love You All

I am taking a short break from writing about the fantasy in a Chippendale chair and I'm posting to say that I don't have time to post. Happy Thanksgiving!

Versaille & Marie Antoinette

We went and saw Marie Antoinette last night with a group of friends from art history. I don't really know about them, but I loved it. The culture was spot on and they included all of the things that we've been discussing in our feminism seminar: Chinoiserie, issuse with nursing, embracing everything English (which is partly why the French did not like Marie Antoinette), the Hamlet and Petite Trianon escapism, Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, etc... It was just wonderful. I really liked the superficiality of the film because it mirrored the superficiality of the late 18th century.

One of film's strengths, which may be a weakness for the critics, is that is avoids all of the historical 'text book' aspect of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. The movie ends with them leaving Versaille and does not go into their arrest or execution. It lets the story be its own thing and does not bring in all of the historical baggage of the Revolution. Plus, it really shows how isolated the aristocracy were at Versaille- there was no hint of outside problems in the film and when the mob came, it really was shocking and scary.

Now on to the reason of this post, the movie was shot at Versaille and it was insanely exciting for me to see the grand interiors put back into the 18th century with the costumes and lots of people buzzing around. Plus, we were just at Versaille last summer on our study abroad, so I'm illustrating this post with some of my photos.


Going through my Versaille pictures, I've sadly realized that they are severely lacking, but I'll put them up anyway. We had a wonderful time there and Versaille is always a hightlight of any trip to Paris. One of the pictures was a part of an art project where I got people from the group to pose as statues- so this is from the Apollo grotto follie at Versaille.


Moral of the Post: Go see Marie Antoinette if your in the mood for eye-candy, but not for deep plotlines and drama. Enjoy!

Red, Yellow, Orange, and Green... Oh My!

We went driving up Squaw Peak this week and the leaves were stunning. I have never seen such beautiful fall leaves ever. I wish the pictures could capture the amazing optical display but sadly fall leaves, like sunsets, are not photogenic whatsoever. Here are a few of the favourites for every one to enjoy. Happy Fall!

The Alpine Slide

We went on the Alpine Slide in Park City last Saturday. Cameron and Vickie invited Ashley and I to go with them and thier friends Jeff and Jade. Valie rode with her mom and we all had a blast riding the chairlift and going as fast as we could down the mountain. Ashley and I "raced" but she totally had me beat from the very begining so it wasn't much of a race. It was so fun to feel a chill in the air and see the leafs that have already turned spectacular shades of red, orange, and yellow. Thanks Cam, it was great!

Crossing the Bridge

I really like this picture of Lesley and myself that Ashley took. Les is in Finland right now with our parents and she has moved out of our apartment. It is kind of sad and strange and I'm in unfamiliar territory with out Lesley's things all around. My whole life, especially while at Waterford, people have told us that we need to be separate and independent from eachother. They would ask us what will we do when we separate and we always told them that we'll cross the bridge when we get to it. Now we have crossed that bridge and I feel like I've lost a part of myself. No worries, I know the feeling will only be temporary and all will be well in no time. I had a big bed all to myself last night and I have to admit that I really liked it, although it took me about an hour to find a comfortable spot; I slept right smack in the middle and did not move till morning. Life is good and I am so excited to officially start graduate school. Love to all!
ps: Ash and I got extremely bored last night and cut bangs. Just an FYI.