rainbows and books

 this art journal thing is pretty awesome.  i'm really enjoying myself.

found this quote on pinterest...turned it into my own work of art.  i like this...it's good to remember.  the hard times, the scary things, the unknown--they all lead to the good things in life.  new experiences, new people, new chances to learn.

another idea from pinterest--these are my children's hands.  optical illusion....they bring color and life and a thousand shades of emotion to my life.

and this one is just self-explanatory.  :)

anyone else out there use an art journal?

if pride and prejudice were on facebook

so my sister posted this on her bloggy blog the other day and i love it. so i'm stealing it. and even our friend eliza stole it for her blog. it's awesome.

"Pride and Prejudice" News Feed

Charles Bingley is checking out real estate in Hertfordshire.

Mrs. Bennet became a fan of single men of good fortune.

Kitty Bennet has a cough.

Mr. Bennet is tired.

Nine of your friends are attending The Meryton Assembly.

Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley are now friends.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is so over this.

Elizabeth Bennet is tolerable, but not tempting.

Mr. Bennet politely requests that, next time, Bingley sprain his ankle after the first dance.

Mrs. Bennet joined the group Insulted Mothers Against Pompous Paramours.

Elizabeth Bennet would streak Meryton before she'd dance with Mr. Darcy.

Jane Bennet is attending A Girls' Luncheon at Netherfield.

Jane Bennet removed "riding horseback in the rain" from her interests.

Elizabeth Bennet is walking to Netherfield.


Fitzwilliam Darcy likes what exercise does to the ladies.

Elizabeth Bennet is tired of social niceties.

Elizabeth Bennet poked Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Fitzwilliam Darcy poked Elizabeth Bennet.

Fitzwilliam Darcy added "feisty girls with crazy families" to his interests.

Caroline Bingley wishes the earth would open up and swallow Longbourn whole.

Lydia Bennet is SOLDIERS SOLDIERS SOLDIERS!!!

Mr. Collins is looking to change his relationship status.

Elizabeth Bennet and George Wickham are now friends.

George Wickham is a fan of slander, but he's totally not intimidated.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is attending A Ball at Netherfield.

George Wickham is not attending A Ball at Netherfield.

Elizabeth Bennet would have preferred streaking Meryton.

Jane Bennet tagged six of your friends in the note "How to Go Out in Public Without Humiliating Your Family."

Charles Bingley changed his relationship status to "It's complicated."

Mr. Collins thinks his cousin's modesty adds to her perfections, and is thus by no means discouraged.

Mr. Collins needs a new place to crash.

Caroline Bingley will not be looking back on her way to London.

George Wickham is making excuses.

Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins are engaged.

Jane Bennet thinks London might make for a nice change of scenery.

Charlotte Lucas created the event Please Visit Hunsford Before I Strangle My Husband.

Elizabeth Bennet is on her way to the parsonage.

Colonel Fitzwilliam wonders why Darcy is dragging him to Rosings.

Mr. Collins is *thrilled* to be dining at Rosings, bathed in the generosity of her ladyship's spirit.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh must have her share of the conversation!

Fitzwilliam Darcy's heart is arm-wrestling his common sense. And it's winning.

Elizabeth Bennet joined the group Consider Civility in Declarations of Love.

Fitzwilliam Darcy tagged Elizabeth Bennet in his note A Faithful Narrative.

Elizabeth Bennet just is.

Lydia Bennet is following the SOLDIERS to Brighton!!$%@#!

Elizabeth Bennet is touring Derbyshire.

Elizabeth Bennet became a fan of Pemberly.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is hopeful.

Elizabeth Bennet is uncomfortable.

Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are now friends.

Lydia Bennet changed her relationship status to hahahahaha-wheeeeeee!!

Jane Bennet tagged Elizabeth Bennet in her note Come Home!

Fitzwilliam Darcy joined the group Gentlemen Against George Wickham: The Sequel.

Mrs. Bennet is a fan of overwrought weeping in bedchambers.

Lydia Bennet and George Wickham are now married.

Lydia Bennet Wickham removed "keeping secrets" from her interests.

Mrs. Gardiner tagged Elizabeth Bennet in her note He's Not Just Doing This Out of the Goodness of His Heart.

Charles Bingley is headed back to Netherfield.

Mrs. Bennet wants nothing more than for Bingley to shoot her birds.

Elizabeth Bennet wonders why the silent, grave and indifferent bother to show up at all.

Charles Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy are attending Dinner at Longbourn.

Mrs. Bennet invites you to hang Kitty.

Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley are engaged.

Elizabeth Bennet removed "meddling aunts" from her interests.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh doesn't understand when people refuse to bow in the face of her awesomeness.

Fitzwilliam Darcy added "meddling aunts" to his interests.

Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy walked on without knowing in what direction.

Seven of your friends joined the group "Lizzy and Darcy are Getting Married!"

Mr. Bennet is quite at leisure.

then eliza, being the genius she is, added a few more:

"Jane Bennet fears other peoples remarks."

"Elizabeth Bennet has never seen a house so happily situated before."

"Mary Bennet removed public piano playing on her list of interests."

"Lydia Bennet is sure she would love sea bathing."

"Mary Bennet would prefer a book to Brighton."

"Mary Bennet wants to remind everyone that loss of virtue in a woman is irretrievable."

i'm also going to steal liza's question... :)

What would you put down for your Pride and Prejudice Facebook status?

alphab'art

i took the kids to the library last week. i love the library. it is a little difficult with the two kids, and i can never spend as much time as i'd like. the stroller is a bit awkward down the narrow aisles, and being "quiet" is pretty much laughable when you have a 5 1/2 month old and a 2 year old. they get impatient and bored after about 10 or 15 minutes. i usually have an idea of exactly what i want to get, go straight to it and get out. last time i went i picked up about four books in the kids section, all alphabet books, for little buddy. he loves his ABCs (and has known them all since he was about 23 months old...what a genius my kid is). i didn't even bother to open them as i knew i wouldn't have time. so we got home and looked through them.

one of the books i picked up was called alphab'art, by anne guery and olivier dussutour. i figured it would be some cool artsy type letters, based on the cover. i was wrong! i opened this book and immediately fell in love. the concept is this: for each letter there is a painting. a painting by a famous artists (and several of my favorites). the letter is hidden somewhere in the painting, and you are supposed to find it. at the end, there are the answers--along with explanations of what the painting is about, a bit of history, and little biographies of the artists. it is a beautiful book.
so as little buddy and i were reading it, and he was telling me the names of the letters, i helped him find them in the paintings. i then told him the names of the artists and he repeated them back to me. i have never heard a cuter pronunciation of "modigliani" before in my life.

so if anyone wants a great idea for a gift for me....this book would be a great one. :) it's for sale on amazon....hahaha!










(for those of you who know me in real life...i have a video of little buddy saying the names of the artists that i will upload to facebook. it's so cute you just have to check it out!)

the bell jar

since princess was born, i've been waking up in the middle of the night several times to nurse. at first i was keeping myself awake by playing brick breaker on my phone but i quickly got bored of that. so i decided to start reading again. i really missed reading but i definitely don't have time during the day, and at night i spend time with my hubby. so this was a perfect solution. i can read about 15 minutes or so every time i nurse. takes me a lot longer to get through books but at least i'm reading! i started out by rereading twilight and new moon. then i read the second and third books in the outlander series. (very good books, i've enjoyed them a lot.) finally i decided i was going to go to the library and read the books i have always wanted to read but never had the chance to. i read the poisonwood bible and loved it. currently i'm reading love in the time of cholera. but the last book i finished was sylvia plath's the bell jar.

i have to be honest, i have never read anything by sylvia plath before. i have heard great things about her, as well as a lot of comments about how depressing she is. my father in law loves her, but when i told him i was going to read the bell jar he told me it was one of the most depressing books he's ever read. so that's what i was expecting.

for those of you who don't know the story, it is actually a thinly veiled autobiography. it is about a nineteen year old girl named esther who seemingly has everything going for her. she is in the honors program at a great college, straight-a student, with a scholarship. the book starts out with her spending time in new york city. she has won an internship with a magazine, as she is studying to be a writer. after an attempted rape, and the end of her internship, she goes home and descends into the depths of depression. she stays in bed. she can't read, she loses her ability to write. in her head, her future becomes empty. she loses her desire to live and contemplates several ways to commit suicide. she sees a doctor for sleeping pills, who sends her to a psychiatrist followed by a botched session of electroshock therapy. following this, esther attempts suicide by taking the entire bottle of sleeping pills and hiding herself in the basement crawl space. there her mother finds her and she is taken to the psychiatric hospital. she is transferred between hospitals until she ends up in a private hospital, where she begins to recover. a friend from school also ends up in the hospital, and eventually she commits suicide. esther calls her depression the bell jar, where she "stews in her own sour air." she says that "to the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream."

i suppose to most people this book would be extremely depressing. i didn't find it depressing in the slightest. does that make me weird? sick and twisted? on the contrary, i found myself relating to esther greenwood in more ways than one. i understood what she was saying. i have lived in my own bell jar, which still descends at times. it was a positive thing to me, to read this book, to understand and relate. it was a positive thing to me to read esther's story, with her journey into and out of her depression. esther called it her rebirth. "There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice - patched, retreaded and approved for the road."

this is such a fantastic book and i will definitely reread it again. it's a book i'd like to own. if you haven't read it...i would recommend it. any of you read it? what did you think?

day fifteen: i am thankful for....

books to read.

i love to read. i always have. my parents instilled a love in reading within me at a very early age and i am so grateful for that.

one of the best things about reading (besides the whole learning part of it) is being able to lose myself in another world. the characters come to life. elizabeth bennett? yeah, she's like my bff. rodion romanovitch raskolnikov? i was right there, next to him, all through his psychotic break. i fell in love with becky right along with tom sawyer. i learned to fly on a broomstick just like harry potter. and don't tell anyone, but i secretly wished i could become a vampire just like bella did. (although my favorite vampire book would have to be interview with a vampire.)

when i read a book i can't put it down. it's almost like i become obessive. i have to find out what happens next, even if the book isn't really that great. i read in every spare minute i have. if i could make a career out of reading, i totally would. i'm one of those dorks who laughs out loud and cries when i read. i become a part of the story, a first hand witness, and i love it.

i've already mentioned a few of my favorite books: pride and prejudice, crime and punimshment, tom sawyer (also love huckleberry finn), those darn harry potter and twilight books, interview with a vampire. currently i'm reading the outlander series and i've really enjoyed that. the scarlet letter...sense and sensibility...walk two moons...beauty...little women...chronicles of narnia...shakespeare...to kill a mockingbird...the diary of anne frank...grapes of wrath (anything by steinbeck)...where the sidewalk ends...the odyssey...the book thief...oh how i could go on and on.

then you add on those great books full of page after page of art...my art history texts...

and the books i read to help me know how to be a better mom and a better person. the books that teach me about the world, about people, about nature, about love.

i am so grateful for the ability to read. i am so grateful for the abundance of reading material. i am thankful for my local library, where i can read a book without having to spend the $15 to buy it. i am thankful for great friends who loan me books. i am thankful for my english teachers who taught me to love books and to see beyond the surface of the words. i am thankful for great authors and playwrights who allow me to see into their minds and escape into their fantasy worlds. i'm grateful for my bookcases, full of beautiful books, hard bound, paperback, some of them dog eared and falling apart from being read so much. i'm thankful for the way books smell, paper and ink, excitement, anticipation, joy.

nothing better to write today...

puke, puke, puke. that is what i want to do. i hate being nauseated like this, yuck. although, i have not thrown up, (yet), which is a good thing i guess. with little buddy i wanted to throw up constantly and quite often i did. it seems to me as if i am not as sick with this pregnancy, although it is just getting started. i may just be remembering wrong. maybe i didn't get sick until later with the first one. hmm. my memory fails me.

today i started taking my new antidepressant. my dr put me on celexa while i am pregnant, a really low dose, with the hope and goal that i will go off of it during the third trimester to prevent problems for the baby. i am hoping it will help. the past few weeks have been harder depression-wise.

so there is a lady my hubby works with that has been lending me books. she's the one that lent me the twilight books to read. then she sent home eragon with my husband. now, normally, i don't care for those kinds of books. i did not like lord of the rings. this series is along the same lines. i read eragon and liked it okay, definitely not my favorite book, but not bad. then she sent the second one, eldest. i finished it last night. let me tell you, i really got into that one. maybe about a fifth of the way through i was thinking it was going to be okay, like the first. nope. way more interesting. i couldn't put it down! now i've got to wait for the third one, which i think is called brisingr. i honestly don't even know how many books are in the series. but the end of the second one left me kind of hanging and i have got to know what happens next!

tax return, tax return, tax return came today. hooray for paying off bills and credit cards....and for going out to eat on valentine's day! we weren't going to do anything but then hubby decided instead of running away to sea world (which is what we wanted to do) and blowing it all, we should go out to eat. so he is taking me to red lobster....YUM....because we both LOVE seafood and i think the shrimp there is fan-freaking-tastic. i love it when they do the all you can eat shrimp buffet. yesterday we went to wal-mart, split up and bought valentine gifts for each other. i'm pretty sure he'll like what i got him. :)

so my baby turns a year old in less than a week. i can't believe it. a year ago today i was begging my doctor to induce me because i was so uncomfortable and READY for that baby to be here. i wanted to cry when my dr said he wouldn't induce me until i was at least 41 weeks. but then little buddy was born the day before his due date--i was 39 weeks and six days along when he came into the world. oh man i'm going to cry. i better save the tears for his birthday on the 19th.

well i think i better stop rambling. i wanted to write something a little more heartfelt and serious today, but i just can't. i'm not sure if it's because i'm afraid to because i'll end up crying (stupid hormones) or if it's because i don't know what to say, how to describe what's going on in my head right now. maybe tomorrow something better will spew forth from my keyboard.