365 Photography Challenge || Week Four

// Sunday //

 I've picked up drawing, and I forgot how much I enjoy it. I also discovered that I quite enjoy drawing with a pen, as I get perfectionist with pencil.

// Monday //

More drawing, and listening to a great audio book on Catherine the Great.

// Tuesday //

Legooooooooos.

Medieval Lego's are my jam.

// Wednesday //

What do you do when you're sick (as I have been all this week)? Play Skyrim. I'm off adventuring with Lydia. Not sure why. I like Rayya and Jordis much better.

Galloping through the shrubbery in my new favorite armor. The horse however is not mine. I think I stole it at one point.

Chilling outside an abandoned Dwarven structed while Lydia fights a troll. You go Lydia.

Also, a little glimps into my life. Pretty sure the Windows 10 update messed my computer up in the long run. Tommy's in for a complete system reset because the internet cuts out five to ten times a day and the only way to connect again is rebooting! ARG.

// Thursday //

I left Tommy upstairs so I brought the Chromebook because I was lazy and it has better battery life. I have many long lists for when I get better. So much to do.

// Friday //

Sereina made a cake. Alina is happy.

// Saturday //

Annnnnd I missed this day. I know, another so soon. But in my defence, I've been running a temperature for over a week now and I needed the day off. Not to say it did me much good. I'm not better really. My body aches from sitting on the couch. It's a bad couch. Anyone wanna trade?

365 Photography Challenge || Week Three

// Sunday //

"I don't know what to photograph, ooo a wall that'll do"

// Monday //

NOOOOOO. I missed a day HOW COULD I? I knew this would probably happen. I feel horrible, it's not going to be a perfect 365. And yet, now if I miss a few more days in between, I hopefully won't feel as bad. Dang it.

// Tuesday //

My ever present struggles to clean my room. So. Much. Stuff. I'm tryna purge, but some things I'm just not sure about. I don't really want it, but I don't really wanna get rid of it, feel?

// Wednesday //

One of the many books I am currently reading: A Lifelong Passion. To all history and/or Romanov lovers IT'S SO GOOD

#bookselfie also first selfie of the year. Tis not the best photo, but I had to show my excitement for THIS BOOK that I actually haven't even read yet. Ya should'a seen me in the bookstore when I found it #gem

Ma dancin' shoes at an interesting angle. I dunno, somethin' came over me and when it finished this was here and I thought "I dunno, maybe if I keep this up actual art will happen"

// Thursday //

I directed my first film ever and I had THREE ENTIRE PAPERS to keep myself on track.

// Friday //

A random photo from film prep.

// Saturday //

Chilling before filming, day two.

Ballroom Dancing

"You make me sing ooh la la la

You make a girl go ooh I'm in love, love"

Current mood: Random fits of happy giggles and unable to stop smiling

No, I'm not kidding about the giggles. Every few minutes I'm incapacitated by the extreme urge to GIGGLE. WHO HAS POSSESSED ME?

I just got back from my first group ballroom lesson. There were only four couples, including the instructor as there was one extra girl. It was MAGICAL!

Okay but seriously, I cannot stop smiling and giggling right now! I have been watching Dancing with the Stars videos for months. All through the holidays, patiently waiting for the new year so I could finally start taking lessons. Does it take a financial toll? Yeah, maybe a little. Is it worth it? HECK YEAH.

First off, everyone at the studio is super nice. I mean, it's a bunch of old people, so what do you expect? Oh course me, being in a hurry to finish cooking dinner, forgot my punch card, or even a wallet to just pay for a lesson. Luckily Sereina lent me some money, and Natasha even let me pay the cheaper rate (she's so nice and conscious of the fact that I be #notrich).

Everyone introduced themselves, and basically every time we went around changing partner's we'd reintroduce ourselves because learning new names is tough sometimes, ya know?

Of course I was a little apprehensive at first. Not exactly nervous, but I wasn't sure what to expect, right? Well, because it was my first real lesson, Nathan (the instructor) made sure to go over the basic steps. Then slowly we went move by move, learning a short piece of choreography. It was all so fun, and everyone there are such good dancers. It's very comforting to dance with someone who's really good. Every time I danced with Nathan I was like

Everytime he explained a new move, I was like "oh great this is the one. I'm going to trip on my heels 'cuz I ain't danced in them before and imma make a fool of myself" but I actually didn't do too badly. Some of my partners even helped me figure out some things that I was tripping up on (like a turn that I keep adding a step too. Oops).

Though I'll admit, with social dancing, it takes a little bit to get used to each partner. Some guys took really small steps. Others, like Nathan, took REALLY BIG steps. The first time I danced with him I was like "OPE HERE WE GO"

One of my favorite things about the night is, I've finally been lead in a dance. I've never danced with a professional before. Usually it's with my friends, and we're stumbling together and trying to learn the dance and having a grand old time. But now I understand what it's like to be lead, and it makes dancing 3295879374% easier.

Overall, it was one of the funnest things I've done. It's my new obsession. After the lesson was over, Nathan offered to dance it all through for people to video if they wanted. And of course he asked ME.

*whispering* and suddenly I forget every dance move on the planet

I only stumbled once, starting on the wrong foot. I'm quite proud of myself. One of my dance partners was very surprised to find this was my second lesson. He says I'm a natural, which only confirms what people have said about my dancing (but those were mothers, and as someone looking to be a well trained dancer, it's nice to have input from someone who's danced a while).

And, before I had a chance to exit the dance floor, I was asked to dance it through one more time with one of the men from the lesson. In every dance situation I've been to, I'm never really asked to dance (a bummer really. Feel free to ask guys, I LOVE dancing), so being asked to dance was really nice and I appreciated it a lot.

Now to just write up everything I learned, and practice it every day. I'm trying to make it a habit of going over my dancing notes and practicing every night before bed. It's a really good warm up, especially when I practice the Cha Cha Cha moves I learned in my introductory lesson.

Next week starts off two weeks of Viennese Waltz lessons! YEEEEAH!

365 Photography Challenge || Week Two

I've done it, two weeks completed! Dang, doing this everyday without all the photos being the same is tough. But now that Sereina showed me that my ISO was stuck on one setting, the quality has drastically improved. *cheering*

As you will see through my photography, I don't have much variety because #HERMITLIFE

// Sunday //

Chilling with the bro. It's his first time playing through this game, and I'm here for witty comments. I also have to suppress many a hints and "oh heyyy look at that suspicious paper on the ground" comments because I've played all these games so many times and I simply cannot seem to forget any details. Ug.

*sigh* I love my piano. Unfortunately, my bad form has caught up to me. The latest song I'm learning has pushed me in ways I never did before, and because I've apparently been using horrible form (I didn't think it was that bad, but alas) I've developed pain in my wrists when I play. Don't worry though, a good friend is willing to help me and critique my technique so I'll be back at it soon (I hope).

// Monday //

These two photos exist because I didn't feel like doing any photography so obviously I took them from my desk chair

// Tuesday //

I never want to forget this view because I can trace memories through my entire life relating to this window overlooking our driveway

// Wednesday //

Look at me tryn'a be all artsy and be all "look at my messy workspace." Haha, no. When I work, everything I use gets spread around everywhere. So basically this is the "I've made a creative mess let's photograph it" posed stuff. #art

// Thursday //

You now what this frost means? My water system for the coop is frozen solid. Makes my job harder. #thatchickenlife

The fabulous Wyandotte hens, Peregrin Took (best known as Pippin or Pippy) and Lani Minella

Yeah it's blurry, but she be look at the camera so it's a keeper.

Entrer Cat Grant! Yeah I know. Weird name for a chicken. But she's a great fictional character.

98% of photos taken of chickens look like this

Isn't her beard fabulous?

Look at my pretty girl Bianca DiAngelo!

#modelstatus

WAIT NO HOLD STILL DANG IT

 ...diva.

*happy sigh* Look show sharp this image is (for my camera anyway). Having photos actually turn out good makes photography 100000x more fun

My poor blueberry plant...

// Friday //

THESE are real life photos. They had to be broken into two pictures because it was all a heaping mess around me.

// Saturday //

This is my WAIT IF FORGOT TO TAKE A PHOTO picture. These be my new dances shoes. Actually, my first pair ever. I've never bought heels before. Suddenly I understand why wearing heels makes the feet sore. It only took a little dancing around my room and I just KNOW my feet will be dead after my first lesson with them. #noregretstho

Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier || Such a Blubbering Mess

You know what? I have no idea why I'm reading these books. Yet here I am, having finished the second book, and will be moving on to read the last book soon.

For some reason it sucks me in. Not with good writing, or character development, or an enticing plot. I guess I'm just along for the ride because I'm a sucker for anything related to history (even if the inaccuracies are numerous).

So here we go, my thought on the continuing story of Gwen Shepherd, over emotional and ennuyeux time traveler.

Let me start off by saying, Gwen has gotten even more annoying in this book than the last. In the first book, she was a normal school girl. She had a best friend. Her favorite pastime was watching movies with her best friend and gossiping. Gwen did not care about school, education, and lest of all history. The strangest thing in her life was the ability to see ghosts, and the fact that her cousin Charlotte would someday time travel.

Now, little time has passed since she discovered that she was the time traveler. Okay, not enough time to be well versed in history so as not to make a mockery of herself when going back in time. But if she would just apply herself, she could quickly be on her way to learning important information to keep the timeline intact. But does she?

No. Not even slightly.

You know what Gwen does do? Get nervous around Gideon, wanting to kiss him because she loves him. He's rude to her one minute and kissing her the next. It's so confusing to her, that all she can do it blubber on about how she hates him and cry when she's not around him, only to instantly have her heart race and want to be kissing him the second he walks into the room.

Meanwhile, her allies (and others) are being practical and cool. We have:

• Charlotte. She can be a little rude, but that's nothing a good redemption arc couldn't fix. She cares about keeping time intact (even if that's play off as her wanting to humiliate Gwen), and has a passion for history (or at least she applied herself to learning it and seems to enjoy it) and the job she that was taken from her. Why isn't she the main character?! ARG.
• Lesley. Best friend of Gwen, researching everything. She spends countless hours learning everything she can to help Gwen,. Basically the history research buddy I long to have in real life.
• Xemerius. Gargoyle demon. Awesome help to Gwen, able to spy for her and help her out. Totally in agreement with me that Gwen should forget Gideon and move on because he's annoying (and quite frankly she only "loves" him because she thinks he's hot).
• Lucas. Gwen's grandfather whom she meets in the past. He's totally adorable, and helpful to Gwen. Though honestly that conversation they had was entire unnecessary (if you've read the book, you know what I'm talkin' about).
• Giordano. I know he's written as annoying, but I like him simply because he cares about keeping history intact. Otherwise he was kinda mean and a horrible teacher.

Basically, this book was a mess. Never, and I mean never would I allow my children (future children) to read it without talking about the whole thing first. There are so many things that are not okay.

First off, Gwen gets drunk. Extremely drunk. Maybe the author thought that was okay, because it was during a visit to the eighteenth century when that okay for teenagers to drink (but on a side note, people did also drink water and ale and such was made differently and far less alcoholic than today, contrary to popular believe. So children drinking ale was not actually as bad as it seems). But no. I can see how the whole scene was amusing, but mostly it was a horrible thing for children to read. It is never okay to drink because 1. you are uncomfortable 2. it's what everyone else is going 3. the guy you like is flirting with another girl. Basically there's no good reason, and Gwen is basically on the way to becoming a drunk in her later life. Not to mention the only repercussions the author mentioned was "humiliating herself by singing" and "a horrible headache she dulled down with a bunch of aspirin."

Secondly, what this author calls "love" is not love at all. Do not be fooled. Gideon thinks he's "in love" with Gwen because all he wants to do when he's around her is kiss her. Gwen think's she's "in love" with Gideon because everytime she's around him, her heart races and because she think's he's hot. They've known each other for less than a week, and they've kissed and fought and it's just not okay.

Thirdly, even back in time, it's is ABSOLUTELY NEVER okay for a man to grope you. Even if it's under the pretense of plucking a hair off of you, you slap his disgusting face. Not only did Gier put this in a children's book, but she did not go on to say that this was not acceptable behavior. It was played off as "annoying" and that was it.

Don't even get me started on the adults in this book. Gwen's mother is mysterious and not telling Gwen things purely for the sake of mystery, all the adults are either entirely rude or too kind (but still keeping Gwen in the dark only for the sake of the readers suspense). None of them feel real, and they're severely lacking from the story to keep these immature teenagers in check.

As for the plot, it's entertaining enough. It's really not all that special, though I am curious as to what closing the Circle of Blood will do. Though it's obvious that Lucy and Paul are not the villains of the story. I wish Gier would have made that less obvious, so I'm not screaming at the characters for not trusting them and thinking ill of them for almost no reason.

Overall, I enjoyed the book in some areas. Even if I was mostly screaming at the characters in annoyance. And hey, the cover is pretty (I'm speaking more to the background), even if it is a bit cliche.

Rated PG-13 for mild language and sexual themes