It's a Wonderful Life

I had to watch the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" for English class. I had attempted to watch this movie before when I was younger but I could never really follow the plot, because I thought it was boring. However, after aging a few years and becoming smarter, the movie now makes sense! The plot is kind of slow at times and some of the lines in the movie are very cheesy. But, other than that, the movie is very good. If you haven't seen this movie, you should defiantly watch it. The message the movie portrays can be summed up by this quote from Clarence, the angel:


"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"


What kind of an impact have you made on other people's lives? What have you done to help those around you and touch their lives? What will you continue to do to bless others?

➳HAPPY VALENTINES DAY♡

Fun Fact of the Day: There is a Disneyland in Paris!

The weekend- thus far.

Yesterday night I went to the Rock and Worship Roadshow tour concert at the Sears Center. The Afters were there, singing my favorite song "Light Up the Sky." My other favorite Christian artist, Matt Maher, was there. Mercy Me was headlining the concert; I realized they are pretty good. The concert was wonderful! The tickets were only $10- which made it very affordable for college students. A group of us from school went together. Afterwards, we made an epic trip to McDonalds in the school van and ordered food for nine people, drive-through style :)

Today I had to work in the Photo Studio for a bit. I planned to accomplish some homework after that, but I was not in the mood. Instead, I spent my time researching websites ideas for an online portfolio. As a working artist I learned that I should have a portfolio to display all my work. I was told that a good goal would be to have a website by junior year. So, over the next year and half I will be working on that. Another design project! Yes!

Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory

7:14am- I wake up slowly and see the sun shining outside my window.
7:15- My alarm goes off (look at the timing there!)
7:15-8:00- I get ready, and get everything together for my day. I pack all my books and food.
8:00- Breakfast with Jenna.
8:30- I walk to the computer lab in the art building; the temperature outside is -6 degrees. Brrrr!
8:30-9:00- I take my English quiz online and then check my email before class starts.
9:00-10:50- Digital Media class! I work through chapter 9 of my photoshop tutorials book.
11:00am-12:20pm- Art History class!! (my favorite class) The professor lectures on Modernism and the first Impressionists painters. I learn about Eduard Manet and Claude Monet. I eat my lunch during class.
12:30-3:00- Sculpting class. I get together with my group, two other girls, and we work on our inflatable project. We label a beanie baby and then Melissa rips it apart with a seam ripper while Deliah and I make a 10' by 10' grid on large sheets of brown paper.
3:00-4:00- I sit in the gallery, which is where I work; I have a one hour shift. (The girl that was supposed to be working texted me at 11:30am to see if I could cover her shift for her. I said I would.)
4:00-5:00- I attend the Student Design Organization meeting. While at the meeting, I volunteer myself to design the layout for a school magazine (only because no one else raised their hand). One other kid will be collaborating with me to come up with the designs. I am also told to come up with a design for another set of posters. 
5:00-5:15- Meeting with the design professor to go over a logo that I made. She helps me work out the minor problems.
5:15-5:30- I go to the Cafe to hang out with my art buddies; they are finishing up class.
5:30-6:00- Eat dinner in the caf. with my friends. 
6:00- I arrive back at my DORM room!! (excitement :) I waste an hour procrastinating, like I always do.
7:00-9:30- Jenna and I go to the Cafe so she can eat dinner and I can do my "homework." I end up working on design ideas for a wedding program. Emily comes by and I talk to her.
9:30-10:00- Jenna and I attend the Student Leadership Expo; we learn about ways to get involved.
10:00-11:00- Praise and Worship! A time of glorifying God with our voices.
11:00pm-12:00am- More procrastination (more like not knowing what to do). I decide to blog.
12:00am- Back to bed. 

Love In Action

Since Valentines Day is coming up, why not focus on LOVE? I'm not talking about romantic love here, but the love we are to show everyone as followers of Christ. Displaying love means that we put others needs about ourselves and help those in need around us. We must humbly serve, following Christ's example.

^{Romans 12 (NIV)
9} Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³ Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

 ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

^{(Message)
9-10}Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
 ^11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
 ^14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

~Finished~

I finished my sculpture project this past weekend! I worked on it Friday night and Saturday afternoon, a total of seven hours. Here are the pictures:

What an interesting day I've had!

For starters, yesterday my Grandma and Grandpa came to visit me! That was exciting. They brought Jenna and I to some stores and then out for dinner. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! I got a few Eiffel Tower items at Hobby Lobby while we were out. The Eiffel Tower is probably my favorite architectural structure. And Hobby Lobby is probably my favorite store- crafters paradise. These are the new additions to my room:

Bookends- way cool!

Colorful poster!

Secondly, the Big Blizzard is here...or something like that.

Chicago gears up for storm of 'historic magnitude'


Batten down the hatches, Chicago. A big winter storm is blowing our way.


Chicago Blizzard of 2011


or, my personal favorite- the Facebook event...


SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011
Meteorologists are predicting an ice storm of epic proportions followed by a somewhat-less-epic snowstorm. Schools are being canceled, candles and canned food are flying off Walmart's shelves, and people are pulling out those ugly Christmas sweaters in fear that their Aunt Dorris' awful taste in outerwear may be the only thing that stands between them and death... you know what this means...

SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011 IS UPON US!!! LOAD YOUR GUNS AND STOCK UP ON BAKED BEANS... WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!


So I highly doubt we are going to die, but the weather is pretty nasty. The maintenance guys drive the plows around campus every couple of hours to clear away the snow. And the snow is blowing all over the place because it is terribly windy. 


On the plus side- CLASSES ARE CANCELLED ON WEDNESDAY. No school tomorrow! The night classes were cancelled tonight too. This means that I have all day tomorrow to do my homework and all night to have fun. Right now Jenna and I are watching a movie; I might play Settlers later with some other friends. 


Third, my sculpture class is going pretty well so far. Over the weekend we had to make 15 sculptures out of scraps of wood. The sculptures were supposed to be about the size of a half gallon of orange juice. We cut out pieces of wood and glued them together with hot glue. The figures had to be abstract as well. I have trouble creating abstract art work; this project was kind of difficult. It was hard to come up with 15 different ideas.

Everyone's pieces- 105 mini sculptures

Today in class we had a critique. The seven of us in the class set out our pieces for everyone to see. Then we had to vote on each other's pieces, which one of their 15 we thought was the most interesting. We now have to take our best-voted piece and make it out of cardboard, four times larger. This requires math (great!) because the professor wants our pieces to be almost exactly to scale. The piece my peers voted as my best was this one...

I have to take this piece and make it larger by next Tuesday. I'll keep you updated!

Church Day

An Incongruent Life, an article from The Banner...written by Michelle Gallagher:

"But more than my lack of direction, my life is completely incongruent. All the many things that I like to do and have to do on any given day seem completely unrelated to each other and irrelevant to the grand and glorious calling that I simply must have as a child of God. I am overwhelmed with the sense that I am somehow missing the point, missing my purpose. Unfortunately, this is one table that I can't get up from and shout, 'I'm out of here!' 

Of course, I've got it all wrong, and surprisingly that realization comes with great relief. My purpose as a child of God is not to figure everything out or to always have an explanation or a tidy slot for every element of my life in some grand, comprehensive scheme.

By God's mercy I will wake up each morning and submit all pretense of control to the One who really is in control. I will put my hand to tasks that are sometimes enjoyable and sometimes drudgery, but most often mundane. I will do things that do not make sense and that do not directly advance my career or social status or sense of accomplishment. And every day I will put myself aside so that I may both love the people around me and profoundly experience the love of God. This, all of this, is the point."

If you interested, you can read the full article by clicking on this link. 

http://www.thebanner.org/departments/article/?id=2780

Melissa, Jenna, and I before church.

Live a little.

Last night I watched Inception. This was a campus event- movie night. Our school's Student Activities committee put the event on and provided popcorn, drinks, and candy. The movie was just as good the second time!


Then, I hung out with my new friend, Melissa, who is a junior. She is in my sculpting class and health class this semester. We played hide-n-seek with all her friends in one of the dorm buildings. After three rounds we ran out of places to hide. So we sat around talking for a couple hours because nobody could come up with something else to do. 


After that Jenna and her cousin came back from Chicago so I hung out with them for a little while before we went to bed. We went to bed at 2:30! I sure felt like a college kid...I rarely stay up late, so this was huge!! And then, and then....we slept in till NOON! I have NEVER EVER slept in that late in my life! This was also huge! I was shocked when I woke up and looked at my phone, only to see that it was 12pm. I went for a 5 mile run outside because the weather was nice. Later in the afternoon Jenna and I went to the men's basketball game; they won! Go team! :)

Feeling Artsy?

Every once in awhile I get into an artsy mode where I need to make something.  I get sick of always designing things on the computer; I like to use my hands to create things.  I was feeling creative over break, so I worked on a few projects.

I painted the picture frame on the left orange, and then added the words, "Other things may change us but we start and end with family." I bought a vase and painted "Smile" on it. Then I made the picture on the right for Jenna. 

Study buddy :)

I found a pattern for this owl online the other day, printed it, cut it out, and glued it together. Isn't it cute!

Life Is Good!

This week has been AH-MA-ZING! First of all, on Sunday Jenna and I went to a different church than we have been going to. The church is pretty sweet; they use objects during the sermons to help people better relate to/understand the message. This past week the sermon was about the Lord preparing a table before us (Psalm 23). So, during the sermon a woman came up and set a table. She put bread, water, plates, knives, forks, spoons, bowls, and cloth napkins on the table. She set everything perfectly. Then she lit a candle in the middle of the table. The pastor set a little white table up on the stage, as well as a box of macaroni and cheese. He said that often times we settle for the quick, easy route, macaroni and cheese, instead of waiting for God's table. God has so many good things in store for us. We just have to be patient.

Monday I had class in the morning and then we figured out Jenna's schedule all afternoon. She had to switch her schedule around because of other conflicts. Then we ate dinner with Danielle, Emily, Jonathan and Tyler. We had really funny conversations- and I was running low on sleep so I was in a weird mood, which is probably why everything was so much funnier.

Tuesday I had class practically all day (till 3:00). After class Jenna and I did homework. Rachel, Jenna's cousin, came from Calvin around dinner time. She is planning on staying with Jenna, in my room, until Saturday. Jenna had a soccer game that night, so Rachel and I played Apples to Apples with a bunch of people. Apples to Apples is always a great game.

Today, Wednesday, I went to class in the morning. I decided that my English class is going to be awesome! The professor is so funny, technological savy, and organized. I like it when teachers are organized because I am an organized person and it makes me feel comfortable. If that makes much sense? Also, I like it when the teachers use technology. One teacher I had last semester was against technology and it was frustrating. But this professor uses powerpoints, takes attendance on his ipod, and has the course schedule online. Pretty sweet!

Jenna and I did some homework again this afternoon. I started reading my art history book. I like this subject quite a bit I'm realizing. The reading facinates me as it did last semester. Only now, I have a different art history book that goes into more detail about artists and each era of art. Even better! But we'll see if I still like this subject as the class progresses and gets harder.

Tonight Jenna, Rachel and I attended youth group at the church we went to on Sunday. They have a post-high youth group for 18-30 year olds. We met together and watched a Nooma video by Rob Bell and then split off into groups to discuss the video. Tonights video was about love. After that we came back to my dorm room and ate chocolate ice cream! Now we are watching "Eat, Pray, Love." As if I have nothing better to do..I should be sleeping because I have an early class tomorrow. Such is life.