What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

You're welcome.

Love,
Scout

2012 Soundtrack

Can I just say...I have great taste in music. ;)

Love,
Scout

2012 Books

One of my New Year's resolutions this year (and basically the only one I actually did) was to read two books a month. There was one month where I only read one book, but overall I accomplished my goal of getting back into reading. Here are the books I read this year. The italicized ones are ones I've read before 2012 and the underlined ones are my favorites from the year (some of which have been added to my all time favorites).

1. The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
2. That Was Then, This Is Now - S.E. Hinton 
3. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
4. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
5. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
6. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
7. Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer
8. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (x2) - Jonathan Safran Foer
9. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
10. Tex - S.E. Hinton
11. Knight's Castle - Edward Eager
12. Look Me In The Eye - John Elder Robinson
13. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing - Melissa Banks
14. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - Ishmael Beah
15. The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham 
16. The Journals of Sylvia Plath - Sylvia Plath 
17. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky 
18. Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie
19. Endless Night - Agatha Christie
20. Ordeal by Innocence - Agatha Christie
21. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
22. Flipped - Wendelin Van Draanen
23. The Giver - Lois Lowry
24. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
25. Tomorrow Will Be Better - Betty Smith
26. The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
27. The Hollow - Agatha Christie
28. The Well and The Mine - Gin Phillips 
29. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
30. My Life in France - Julia Child
31. The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick
32. Culture Shock: France - Sally Adamson Taylor
33. The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
34. Nancy Drew, the Secret of the Old Clock - Carolyn Keene
35. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams
36. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
37. Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie
38. Pride and Prejudice (yes, again) - Jane Austen
39. So Long and Thanks For All the Fish - Douglas Adams
40. Fahrhenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
41. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
42. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
43. The Pleasure of My Company - Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin)
44. Rumble Fish - S.E. Hinton
45. Flickering Pixels - Shane Hipps
46. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
47. Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane
48. The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie
49. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
50. Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams
51. Theater Shoes - Noel Streatfeild 
52. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

I would recommend every book on this list, though some of them do have adult content. What was the best book you read this year?

Love,
Scout

Playlist: Misc. Zooey

Love,
Scout

My New Exercise Routine

I'm not one for exercise, but I think I might have found something that I'll be able to stick with.

Love,
Scout

This House Is Falling Apart

Love,
Scout

Texture Like Sun - One Great Prize

I love everything about this. It reminds me of the park scene in Benny & Joon. 

Love,
Scout

Snapshots

Last weekend (breakfast, Dunkin Donuts, Arrested Development). New camera strap (from this Etsy shop). Les Miserables (halfway there, baby! Woohoo!).

Love,
Scout

Ideal Bookshelf

I absolutely love Jane Mount's Ideal Bookshelf series. This particular one is James Franco's (found here). Someday I'm going to have one of my own. These are the books I'd put on it so far:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Peter Pan
Harry Potter
Howl's Moving Castle
The Poetry of Robert Frost
A Beatles book (just about any will do)
The Journals of Sylvia Plath
Pride and Prejudice
Life of Pi
Les Miserables
The Outsiders
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Winnie the Pooh
Agatha Christie (again, any will do)
Farenheit 451
A book of Norman Rockwell paintings


Other potentials include: Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Dracula, The Man Who Was Thursday, My Life in France, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. These books all meant something to me at some point or other, but I'm not sure if they'd still be on the list.

What books would be on your ideal bookshelf?

Love,
Scout

Engagement Shoot

This past weekend I went to Virginia Beach to take my friends' engagement photos. It was so much fun! We ate doughnuts and wandered around, laughing and taking photos. I met Justin and Meghan in college and love them both so much. They are so hilarious and an incredibly photogenic couple. I couldn't have asked for a better photo session - we had so much fun, and it was nice to have their permission to get up in their grill and take all the pictures I would have wanted to take anyway :)

Love,
Scout

Snapshots

Reading. Sewing. Used book stores. Weird Starbucks coffee cups. Voting. Virginia Beach. Friends. Photography. Crazy dogs. The Royal Tannenbaums. Tea, doughnuts, coffee. Shopping malls. Arrested Development..

Love,
Scout

Live and Die

Love,
Scout

I Voted

Today: Massage. Sewing. Les Miserables. Editing photos. Law & Order reruns. Moonrise Kingdom (woot!). Voting!

Love,
Scout

Snapshots: October

I was definitely slacking in the blogging department last month. Oh well. Here are some pictures to catch you up!

Blurry rides to work (sadly, those colors are no longer there - Sandy blew them away). All that jazz. Books, books, books (Life of Pi is also on that list). Autumn colors. Pumpkin Spice. Game nights.

Love,
Scout

Hurricane Sandy

I've lived on the east coast my whole life and I've never been through a hurricane. I mean, I was around during hurricanes, but we only ever got rain. Thankfully, things weren't bad for my family this year, either, but we did get a small (small, small) glimpse of what a hurricane is like. We lost power for about 8 hours and had tons of wind which knocked down several of our huge pine trees and our neighbors roof! I took refuge in the living room because a) my room is the loudest when it's windy (one time it was so windy that I was expecting to see Oz when I opened my bedroom door) and b) there's a huge tree in our front yard that is definitely going to destroy my room when it falls. I didn't want to take any risks.

Wind. Activities during the storm. Candles. Knitting. Camping out in the living room. Life of Pi. Watching the storm. Reading by lamp. The aftermath.
Did you guys make it through the storm?

Love,
Scout

Happy Halloween!

Today I finished reading Life of Pi. That book blows my mind. It's disturbing, but it's so amazing.
Ellen dressed up as Sophia Vergara for Halloween.
I am trying to convince myself that I can, in fact, conquer Les Miserables. Watching this trailer helps.
I'm probably going to watch It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (I love Peanuts!), and maybe a spooky movie, since, yanno, it's Halloween and all. Maybe I'll try to summon the spirit of a dead ficus.

What are y'all up to for this Halloween?

Love,
Scout

Things That Are Nice

Showers.
Clean sheets.
Not working (not to be confused with "not having a job").
The smell of roasting garlic.
The taste of roasted garlic.
Re-reading a book you love (and avoiding any guilt over all the books you should be reading).
Not setting an alarm because you don't need one the next morning.
Autumn.
Not having bug bites (I happen to have plenty).
That Capt. Jas. Hook will be on Once Upon a Time tomorrow.
Not having a presidential debate on the night of my favorite television shows.
Jazz music - Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Buble, Julie London (thanks, Sarah!), and Blossom Dearie (who can tell me what else she's in?).

Love,
Scout

Morning Music: Howl's Moving Castle

After listening to this, you all need to go to your local Amazon/Paperbackswap/library and read the book by Diana Wynn Jones. You can thank me later.

Love,
Scout

Hiking

(Doesn't this remind you of Fern Gully?)

I went hiking on Sunday. We just walked along a local trail, but it was still really nice - the weather was especially gorgeous, and it gave me a chance to take some more Autumn photos.

Love,
Scout