Just a lovely photo

One of my closest friends, Katelyn McKay. I saw she put this photo on Picnik and I couldn't help but edit it and put it here. :)

{note: for the longest time I have been trying to write a post, and it just hasn't worked. It never sounds right. Check back this week, my dears.}

Guin's photo challenge

{there's a lot to update y'all on...but that will come later today!}

I'm entering Guin's first photo challenge with the theme "food"! This is an unedited photo I took at my sister's birthday a few months back. Lucky girl, she got chocolate Eclairs...

Guess what? The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is coming out in just a few days! I am soooo excited!!! I am Narnia obsessed. A few days I watched Prince Caspian, just to get into the Narnia mood. Gosh, I love that movie. And I love it more than the book. Yeah. So sue me--I like both movies better than their books. They're just much more exciting. Plus, I'm not one of those die-hard fans (I'm a die-hard, but not that kind) who will boycott the movie if it strays one line away from what C.S. Lewis wrote.
Anyways...
This is my Narnia necklace I got a while after Prince Caspian came out. It's good model, as is my vintage mirror. :)

Expect another post from me today or tomorrow! :)

p.s. my font is messing with me and insists on being very tiny. whatever.

Random ramblings and photography challenges

Good afternoon, my friends! Today started out incredibly dreary, so much so that I couldn't believe it was 8:30 when I looked at my clock--it felt like the middle of the night. It does not help that I am in no way a morning person. I wish I was. I wish I could jump up and greet the day and be full of energy and pep at 6:30 AM. But 6:30 AM is not my friend. I'm so a nightowl; I didn't go to bed until 11:15 last night. If I go to bed this late now, what will my bedtime be like during Nano?!

Oh, and some exciting-ness (don't tell me that's not a word)--tonight is tournament night! I'm very excited and can only hope the Cornhuskers do well. Not like last year. My old team, the Yellow Jackets, was eliminated in round 1. I don't want to "jinx" myself, you know, but I have high hopes. :) Wish us luck! (figuratively speaking, since I don't believe in luck/karma/superstition.)

Now onto what this post was originally supposed to be about.:)

The lovely Carlotta at Pastor Girl's Ponderings is hosting a photography contest with the theme "color". Check it out by clicking on the button above.
Color, I wondered? Hmm. I immediately thought of these photos I took a few months back of this...orchid/hisbiscus/whatchamacallit. I think I used a flash on it, but I hope that doesn't deter from the quality of the picture...
I love the eye-popping orange and passionate pink in this photo, and how bright it all is.


And secondly...

Allie and Amy's contest with the theme "eyes". I instantly knew which picture I was going to enter.

Doesn't Katelyn have beautiful eyes? :)

And there you go...photography for the day.

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I'm thinking of writing a Q&A post soon. Would any of you be interested in that? I know I would! Sometimes I run out of ideas to write about other than my writing and photography, and I want to know what you don't know...my favorite actor (*cough* I'm sure you already know that) and my favorite...um...why is this so hard? Well, like I said, you ask the questions, because I can't think of them.

But not on this post! This is not a Q&A post--I just want to see if you'd like to do that.

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I have a slight dilemma. If you would kindly glance to my sidebar and look at the followers gadget, you'll see I'm only 6 followers away from 100 (wha...what?! *faints in shock*). And I was getting pretty excited thinking about hosting a giveaway. A really big giveaway. Three weeks long with an event each week. But now, since Nano is...*counts on fingers* 5-6 days away, I'm afraid I won't have nearly enough time to be hosting a giveaway and judging various entries during November. Heck, I'm swamped as it is. Well, I mean, school is my number 1 priority in Nov., and after that, writing. I'm doubting whether or not I can take it all on (I'm still gonna go for it.) So obviously, I won't have any time to be hosting something.
I'm not sure why I said all this. Maybe to tell the person who first happens across my blog, decides to follow, and see that the followers list is at 99, to bookmark my page and follow me on December 1st. I dunno. What think you?
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Alright, I'm done. Have a happy day, my lovelies, and don't forget to think of the Cornhuskers this evening!

Ain't them red jerseys snazzy?

{all volleyball photos by my sister.}

farväl, mitt folk!
(we have a recent obsession with the Swedish language. Don't ask why.)

Photo blog hops

You know what this means! Lovely Photo Wednesday at Hannah's. (and yes, I'm linking up a night early cause I was too late last week.XD)
I love this little guy and the vintage look-surrounding him. Also, I'm really liking the contrast of his body against the water.

I think I'll name him....

Fredbob.

Check out these lovely entries:


And secondly-

I'm also linking up to Hannah's photo challenge, with the theme "Joy." I hope you don't have to be able to see the subject's face. :)


There's still a few days left to enter!

So wait are you waiting for? Go bask in some photo loveliness!

Caroline and Katelyn {a preview}

A couple of weeks ago, one of my besties, Katelyn, came over and we had a photo shoot. Here's a sample.:)

Now, most of these lovely shots, as you can see, were taken by Katelyn. You can visit her photography blog, Capture the Moment, here. (all edits were done by me.)

(most of them are of me...I'll try to get some more of Katelyn.:D)

Wow...I just adore this photo, especially in black and white.


Private eyes, they're watching you...following your every move...

Such a good model :)


The woods in backyard are the perfect place to pose. I always imagine Sherwood Forest, and if I just whistle, Robin and the boys will come running out of the trees...*faints*
Katelyn thinks I'm obsessed with Robin Hood. What would possibly give her that idea?;)


I love the color of her eyes.



This fan was an excellent prop. :D

This vintage looking one is probably my favorite.

Which do you like best?

Stay tuned for more!

It's time for LPW already?!

I took about two weeks ago on our day trip to the beach. I just love this photo (would I have uploaded it if I didn't?;D); I love the grayness of the sky, the cool color of the water, the people in the water, and the pier in the background. In short, I love the ocean. (which, if you've read my blog for any length of time, you should've already known.)

Now, go be inspired by some lovely photos!

Ocean Love

Last Saturday, this is where I went.

The day was perfect.

I spent a good deal of time getting pummeled by these.

The ocean amazes me. Strike that; it stuns me, plays with me, roars around me, and contents me. The surf comes in and wraps around my feet and I'm just standing there, letting it brush against me, feeling what to me feels like home.

Of course, at the beach, there's thousands of picture possibilities. Striped umbrellas are the bomb.

Because...this place does feel like home. It is home. I lived at the ocean for seven months. The ocean is in my family's blood. And I connect to it.

Oh, and I couldn't forget getting constantly bothered by these little buggers.

This was before I was burnt to a crisp.

It's big, beautiful, gorgeous, and the best part, made by God. Could this have evolved through centuries all by its onesies? How could such beauty just happen?

Ahh. The classic foot picture. I was determined to get a good one. Specially with the lovely nail polish from one of my best friends, Katelyn.

I thought this was cute. I think the couple the chairs belonged to were at the water's edge, and probably wondered why some stranger was taking a picture of their beach chairs. :)

Oh yeah! I forgot I did a different watermark on this one. I like it very much. What do you think?
The waves were sorta rough that day, breaking before they even came to us. Now, my personal favorite--other than boogie boarding and body surfing--is when a big wave that's just broken is coming, and I run towards it, dive under the water, and stick my face right up in it. It's like getting punched! It muddles my brains (which explains a lot of things, actually) and tosses me and and somersaults me through the water but I love it. Most of the time. Except when there's no air and I think I'm gonna die.

I love this little guy! I was following the birds around, chasing after them, trying to snap a good picture. Which probably granted me even more odd looks.

Good bye for now, my sweet ocean, my inspiration, my summer.
(did I just say good bye to summer? What? It's 90-something degrees here! Apparently summer never got the message that it is now FALL!)

Anyways.

Can you tell I love the ocean?

Nahhh.

the rose again... {photo wednesday}

There's a special twist today! Click on the button to see what it is.


:)

Lovely Photo Wednesday

I love skies. I really do. I feel like when the sun is streaming past the clouds against a blue sky, it's like I'm seeing part of the heavens.
Sound silly? Try it.
God is the ultimate artist...nothing we'll ever create is ever going to match up to his masterpiece of the universe!
He invented color, clouds, sky, water, roses, smiles.
So you've heard all this...
I'm just repeating it. :)

Click on the button to check out all of the other amazing entries!

*oh, and please do vote on my poll on the sidebar. I want to know what you want to see!*

Till next time, my lovelies.:)

Your heart is a rose

Today I'm going to touch on a sensitive subject.
Purity.
{you've probably heard all this before, but stick with me. I want to express my views on this.}

I don't believe the concept of purity itself is what's misunderstood. Nope, not the problem. (and anyone thinks it is, do say so.)
I'm talking about dating.

There is one thing, before I go on, that I would like to make clear. I do not date (at my age that's a little creepy, anyways) and I do not intend to. (Nor do my parents, haha.:) This decision, when voiced, always prompts the same question: "Well, if you're not going to date, what are you going to do?"
Ah ha! Here is where we introduce my good friend, courtship.
Because part of courtship (actually most of it) is still a mystery to me, and I'm too young for it anwyays, I shan't try to explain it to you.

Instead, I want to tell you something.
God has blessed with a gift, and that gift is called purity.
Your heart is a rose, a fragile rose that will crumble if it's pressed too hard.
Dating is messy. And there's a lot of heartache and messed-up relationships that come with it. I'm not telling you that all dating relationships are like that: just a majority.

You can't toss your heart out to just anyone. Because (and this scenario is for girls), if you hop around, dating one boy after the next, each time giving them one of your rose petals--a piece of your heart--eventually all that's left will be the stem.
Is your heart special anymore after it's been tossed around to so many different guys? Will the kiss at the altar be your first...or will you have lost count by then?
(Personally, I have decided not to kiss until my wedding day--but it's different for everyone, and there's no right or wrong answer.)
Once you lose that purity, that rose petal, it's gone. Forever.

{my personal purity ring-sorry it's blurry.}

Jesus will forgive you when you ask him, there's no doubt about that. But wouldn't it be better to avoid all the heartache in the first place?
Why play the dating game...
if it's going to break your heart?
Guard it, my sister. (and brothers.) That thing called your purity is one of the most precious gifts God has given you.
Treasure it.

Wordless Wednesday

My entry for Hannah's Wordless Wednesday. (me? Not so wordless, as you see.)

Click on the button below to join and see all the other entries!

I know, shame on me, it's been EIGHT days since I've posted. Life just suddenly...happened, you know? Anyways, with school, homework, classes, friends, volleyball, family, and God, (plus the lack of a computer much of the time...) I'll be posting and commenting less frequently. Never fear--I'm not leaving you for good! Just giving you an explanation as to my whereabouts. :)

Have a great afternoon, my friends!

Summer

All unedited, except for my watermark.
























Pics of my cousins from the family reunion:). I especially like the ones of Kimmie diving. Which is your favorite?