Snapshots

Working lots. Making crafts for an upcoming craft fair. Reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Finally watching NCIS and Once Upon a Time (woohoo!!!). Toasting new opportunities.

Love,
Scout

Morning Music

So, obviously, I have been on a Bastille kick lately.
It's totally worth it.

Love,
Scout

Kitty Portraiture.

Jay kay. I don't actually do cat portraits (yet). I just happened to catch perfect lighting.

Love,
Scout

What's In My Bag

Hey, guys! I'm guest posting today on The Dessert First Way. It's a "what's in your bag" post. Check it out here!

Love,

Scout

Morning Music: Take 3

Maybe I've only shared this song once before, but it's the third version I've heard, and it's very likely my favorite. I love piano music.

Love,
Scout

Guest Post: Lindsay on Internet Friends

Hey, guys! This post is by my friend, Lindsay. Everyone say, "Hello, Lindsay!" Lindsay and I met in college. We didn't really become friends until after that, but she did let me borrow her copy of The Village once! And that definitely got her good marks in my book. Lindsay blogs over at A Log of My Life where she shares stories from her life in Korea (read my favorite story here). I asked her to guest post for me - just for kicks and giggles - and this is what she wanted to share. I hope you like it!

(Lindsay is the one on the left, in case you weren't sure).

Hello! My name is Lindsay. I live in Seoul, Korea where I teach little children English. I try to get them to sing and dance along with me as much as possible, but sometimes they look at me like I’m crazy. I love playing music and the color green, and I think sticky rice goes with everything. I’m a friend of Scout’s from college (more on that later), and I’m so humbled and pleased to get to write for her blog! Thanks for the opportunity, friend!

---

I met Scout a long time ago in college, but we didn’t have much chance to get to know each other until we started following one other’s blogs long after our meeting. With friendships being harder to come by outside of school, I’m especially thankful and partial to these special ones the internet brings. They may be few and far between, but they’re so much fun. Also, because I live in Korea now, I’m 12 time zones away from many of my favorite people, so I’ve come to rely on technology for nearly all of my relationships. In the midst of this reality, I have some happy stories to share! Two new friendships have sprung up in quirky ways recently, and I want to tell you about them.

The first started on facebook. It might be a little complicated at first, but stick with me as I explain. I was on my friend Rey’s facebook page when I saw a picture of one of his friends. This girl was really pretty, so I clicked on her profile. (Don’t judge: I’m pretty sure you’ve done it before, too.) From her profile, I put this girl’s pretty name, Roxanne, with her pretty face. I saw that she also lived in Korea, and I thought that was cool, but then I went about my business. A few days later, she popped up on my screen again while I was on a completely different site.

The coincidence caught my attention, and I went back to Roxanne’s facebook page. This time, I noticed that she lived in Busan, a Korean city I would be visiting in a few weeks. I decided to drop her a message about Busan and ask if she had any tips for where to eat and such. She sent me a friend request, answered my questions, and invited me to her church!

I was able to go to church there in Busan, and I was delighted when I saw Roxanne walk in and sit behind me. Now, it makes me very, very happy when I get to hug someone when I first meet them. It means there’s a little history there, a lot of love, or both. Both things were here in that moment.

Roxanne has now moved to her home country, but we keep in touch and still follow each other’s pictures and adventures. Yay!

The second friendship also started online. I’m taking a short trip to Boracay in the Philippines soon, and I’ve been researching Google for whatever local information I can find. (I admit. Again, I wanted ideas on where to get good food.) Boracay is a very small area, but I was surprised to find only one blog that looked promising. Thankfully, this one blog stumble turned into something awesome.

Gretchen blogs about her family, their adventures, and being a missionary on Boracay. She had a hard-to-read story about needing to shut down her organization’s food kitchen due to lack of funds. I wiped away a few tears at the end of reading her post, and then I pounced onto the comment thread. I all but blasted her with “Hello, my name is Lindsay! I want to help you! I’m coming for a visit! Here’s my Email! Here’s my blog address! P.s. I’m not a creeper!”

Surprisingly, she wasn’t weirded out by my exuberance! In fact, we’ve exchanged quite a few emails by this point. Gretchen’s said she will show me around the island, and I’ve asked if I can do or bring her anything special. As per her request, she’ll soon be getting a care package of Kraft mac and cheese, cloth band-aids, and hopefully some simple English books for her school. I can’t wait to give the package to her with a hug and a really big smile.

It’s amazing to me that I would have never known these girls without the good things of the web. Friendships born online can be sweet and special even if they never blend with real life, but I’m very happy that I will have physically met and hugged both of these girls. Thank you, internet!

Check out Lindsay's blog here. Check out Gretchen's blog here.

Love,
Scout

Snapshots: Catch Up Time!

So, I haven't done a snapshots post for, what was it, two or three weeks? Luckily for you, I kept out a ton of the photos I took, that way you weren't overwhelmed. Anyway, these past few weeks have included Sunday afternoons with friends (hence the lack of Snapshots posts), work, a weird mix of summer and fall weather, lots of coffee, pumpkin pies and lattes, super hero movies, reading, and bouquets of sharpened pencils received in the mail.

What have you been up to lately?

Love,
Scout

Morning Music: Ella Fitzgerald is Old Fashioned

Love,
Scout

Currently...

Listening to these songs, making French flash cards, and not wanting to get up early for work in the morning.

Love,
Scout

Artist Spotlight: Bryan John Appleby

Autumn: The perfect time for light folk music and flannel shirts. Well, I can at least help with the first one.

Source

Thanks again to Today's Letters for introducing me to Seattle based Bryan John Appleby. Appleby is a folk musician with a very light sound and lots of smooth picking. When he does have more music behind him, he has his friends in the background banging on mason jars and pots and pans. He has two albums that can be heard here.

Check out his website, Bandcamp, and Myspace.

Love,
Scout

Morning Music: Timmy Curran

Love,
Scout

DIY Decorated Coffee Mug via ABM

I know just about everyone saw Elsie and Emma's post on decorating a coffee mug with Sharpies. Just to recap, here's what they said:

1. Find a coffee mug and sharpies.
2. Decorate your mug.
3. Bake your mug for 30 minutes at 350.
4. Handwash only! 

Well, I tried it. I was slightly stressed one day and needed a creative outlet - something that wasn't my usual creative outlets. So I grabbed some Sharpies and the one white mug I had and got to work. I free handed a bunch of triangles and colored a few of them in with two of my favorite colors (which are probably only my favorites because they were so trendy this summer).
As you can see in the above picture, the Sharpie didn't stick. It came off as soon as I started washing it. So I decided to try it a second time! I got out my Sharpies again and traced over all of the outlines again - I didn't re-do the colors because I didn't think they needed it. I baked it a second time, and it came out looking much better - the colors were much sharper.

The second time I washed it, I accidentally put it in the dishwasher (rather, I asked my dad to put it in the dishwasher, forgetting you're only supposed to handwash it). Fortunately, it didn't wash off! There were a couple smudges in the colors, but the black outline was basically the same as after I baked it the second time. So, I don't know if it would stay that well for everyone, but I definitely recommend drawing/baking your design twice, to help ensure that it sticks.
Update: Basically, the more you wash it, whether it's in the dishwasher or hand washed, the more your design is going to fade. It's probably best if you hand wash the inside and gently rinse the outside.

Let me know if you try it! I'd love to see your designs!

Love,
Scout

Tattoo Pt. 3 - The Reveal

Here they are! The one on the left is a quote from Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man. It says, "and but for the skies there are no fences facing." It's my favorite line from my favorite Dylan song, and totally fits the meaning I wanted. It's also in my own handwriting!

Now, as you can see, this tattoo is blurry. That was not supposed to be the case. The tattoo guy said if my font was too small, it would get blurry with time. Mine was blurry from the start. I'm hoping that it doesn't stay this way, but we'll see. It would suck, of course, but I'm actually not too upset by the fact that it's blurry. I still know what my tattoo says, and it was for me in the first place, so if other people can't read it, it doesn't make much difference. What would upset me most is if I changed my font size (I actually wanted it much smaller!) and the tattoo guy didn't tell me it wasn't large enough - if he let me get a blurry tattoo.

The second tattoo is a bird silhouette. Don't ask what kind of bird - I don't know. I just picked a shape that I liked - one with it's wings spread wide. I'd been toying with the idea of a bird tattoo since I started thinking of getting a tattoo at all. I finally decided to go with it because it has meaning to me and it went well with the Bob Dylan quote. I knew I wanted a tattoo on each wrist, and I knew I wanted them to go well together, and these two ideas that I loved worked perfectly.

Read part one.
Read part two.

Love,
Scout

Artist Spotlight: Edith Piaf

Lately I've been looking up ways to get to France (and I don't mean flights). Yesterday, when I was feeling especially excited about the hope of someday going to France, I decided to listen to Edith Piaf. She's French and she's a jazzy singer - could there be a better combination?

Yes. The answer is yes. Listen to this song, and tell me that you aren't so much more excited about her.

I freaked out a little when I heard this song. Do you recognize it? Do you know what it's from? If you don't, you probably won't be very excited. Sorry.

Edith Piaf is a French nightclub singer from the 1930s and 1940s. She is known for the songs La Vie En Rose and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (the one you just listened to). Also, if you like random facts, Marlene Deitrich was her matron of honor for her second marriage.

Read more about her here.

Love,
Scout

Visit to Old Town

Last weekend I went to Old Town in Alexandria, Virginia. We went to the Torpedo Factory, ate croissants at their little cafe, listened to street musicians, and wandered around taking photographs. Good times!

Love,
Scout

Morning Music

Love,

Scout

Tattoo Pt. 2 - The During Photos

Here are some pictures my sister snapped while I was getting my tattoo.

Read part one.
Read part three.

Love,
Scout

Tattoo Pt. 1 - The Story

For my 21st birthday, I decided to get a tattoo - something I'd been thinking about doing for several years. I found a tattoo guy through someone at church, made an appointment, and worked on narrowing down the five-ish ideas I really wanted, the main ones being a Beatles lyric, a Bob Dylan lyric, bird silhouette, something photography related, and a W.H. Auden quote.

A week before hand, I knew I wanted a camera sketch. About three days before hand, I knew I wanted a camera mode dial on the inside of my left arm. The day of, I had no freaking clue which tattoo I wanted to get. Fortunately, I had been thinking of ideas for at least two years so I knew I would like whichever one I actually picked - it was just a matter of actually picking one, and since I'm terribly indecisive about what meal I want to eat, it was really hard to decide which permanent tattoo I would get.

In the hours before my tattoo appointment, I kept going over all of my ideas. I realized I needed to pick which thing meant the most to me now. Photography definitely means a lot to me - it reminds me to look for beauty - to remember that life is beautiful. But that's not what I wanted right now.

I've always looked at tattoos as a way of remembering and reminding. I always knew I wanted a tattoo that would remind me of what I wanted to be. I had considered a verse from Isaiah 58, "Pour yourself out for the hungry." I strongly considered a line from a W.H. Auden poem, "You shall love your crooked neighbor with all your crooked heart" (this is at the top of my list if I ever get another tattoo).
I also really liked the idea of a tattoo to help me remember things - specifically a photography tattoo because it's something I really love and it would serve to remind me that life is beautiful.


The day of my tattoo, though, I realized that what I need to remember now is to not allow my fears or insecurities to cage me in. The closer my appointment came, the more I took everything everyone said to heart - at least, all of the bad things. I was afraid that it was a sin, that I would regret it forever, that I'd get the wrong thing because what I wanted was different from what everyone else wanted.

In the back of my mind, though, I knew I wanted one. I knew I wouldn't regret it - at least not for a long time. I knew I had to go with it, mainly because  if I backed out now, I would never do it, and I would regret letting my petty fears dictate my choices.

Thinking about my fears made me realize that that is what I want to learn right now - how to take chances, do things I want without being afraid of what other people think. I don't just mean when it comes to tattoos, either. There are other things in my life that I want to do - things that seem impossible. I have this tendency of putting myself down, saying, there's no way I could ever be that good. I act like my dreams are a joke, like it's ridiculous for me to try to do something radical.

But it's not. As I recently learned in Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, "What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do."

Read part two.
Read part three.

Love,
Scout

Snapshots

Apricot tea. Harper's Ferry. Work. Eating a fig for the first time every. Family time. Playing "Big Booty" with French kids.

Love,
Scout