pre-emptive defense

we miss you, katie! hope you're having fun with your fam! loves.

fambly

gotta love that face.
my cousin Hathaway was at our house this year for christmas. it was the most delightful little present to have. she is the cutest, and smartest little girl ever. she made us laugh, she made us nap and she had us eating out of the palm of her hand. classic twenty-one month old. anyway, christmas was wonderful, and now my oldest bro from NY is here. we got errrbody. and werr gettin tipss.

up at 5:37 and a little hungry actually

so, i've been packing and cleaning literally all day. i am sorta past the i'm-so-tired-everything-is-funny phase, and moving onto the what-on-earth-have-i-done phase. all day drive tomorrow. and by tomorrow i mean in about 30 minutes.

i'll be home for a while. leaving provo is most definitely bittersweet. i can't stand the thought of leaving lauren here all by her lonesome. hence neither of us have slept tonight. and my dearest chelsey cried in our hug. tears have been integrated into my finals week. pretty much broke down when i had to write about the prompt i didn't study for in art history. but, thats not the point. the point is, i only have control over my life. i get to put my life on hold for a year and a half, and nobody else has to. thats not fair. but its also not fair to miss someone's wedding. that someone you've told about every crush, that someone you planned your crushes and weddings with at 13, that someone who has always always been around and willing to hear you vent, that someone who is in every one of your good memories from the last 8 years. its not fair to miss those kinds of stepping stones in other people's lives. not at all fair.

but LIFE isn't fair. but it is adventurous. and i am about to set off for what is quite possibly the most adventurous thing i've ever done. i look forward to a lot, and i'm nervous about a lot. but i know that i'll have company, and i'll learn more than i possibly could in a year and a half at school. so, here's to the Christmas season and being thankful. thank you for the sweet goodbyes. i have to say, provo will miss me. 18 months isn't THAT long anyway...

believe it or not

i have cut yet another of my fingers. yeah, i am a little slow. i was feeling the edge of my friend jeremy's pots with my pointer finger on my right hand, and i felt a sharp pain. i looked at my finger and said, "oh you've got to be kidding me. seriously?!" i cut right into the pad of my pointer finger. i couldn't believe it. it was no where near the magnitude of my previous cuts. however, it stings like mad. and seeing as my whole life revolves around the use of my hands, i feel a little useless. BUT! i am on the mend. i just find it ridiculous that my last 3 posts have been about my studio mis-haps. i will be writing something about the temple later i think. but i really want to sit down and think about that one first. too busy finishing my last week of school for a year and a half. booya.

dumb thumb dumb thumb

yeah, i cut it again. it was really really dumb. i was headed down a set of stairs and the first step came sooner than anticipated. therefore i was surprised and grabbed the banister. which was unfortunately covered in chicken wire and it cut my thumb right open. yes it was painful, again. and yes it was bleeding. not quite as bad as before though. just very upsetting. because my nerves are again exposed and they hurt like a mother. good-bye use of right thumb for the next week and a half.

happy t-givins

loud loud families are the best. i love mine. my little sister is loving college apparently and it was great to just be at home. poor josh had to put up with a decibel level he was not accustomed to. and we have officially learned that we do not deal with empty stomachs very well. the missing fuddruckers was quite upsetting. but always good memories for me! my family is affectionately coo coo in the ko ko.

ps- my dad is a riot. video coming soon.

my thumb got chopped off.

okay so, i haven't been telling the story over the phone to anyone, but here's what happened. i was in the studio late saturday night with my roomie lauren. i was fixing up the slip and there was one bowl that was being stubborn. it was essentially just a big mound of dried clay, and it wasn't coming out of the bowl. i guess i just don't know my own strength. i was holding the bowl with my right hand and pulling on the clay with my right. the bowl broke and i was really surprised, then i took a look at my hand that was probably going to be sore or something, i wasn't expecting much. there was just blood everywhere. i had caught a blood vessel. i had mikey hold the paper towels on it while i sat on the floor getting my head on straight and lauren called the paramedics. they told me not to go to the emergency room cus they wouldn't do anything. and there wasn't anything to stitch seeing as mikey had kindly thrown away the piece of my thumb left sitting in the bowl of clay. i'm now missing about a quarter of the pad on my right thumb. quite the night. its on the mend i guess. its going to get ugly so they tell me. and i will be half as productive in the studio now. wo to me. but i guess i've got my pride.

my vice

i don't know why, but i am addicted to looking at wedding invitations.

i am nowhere near getting married, nor do i run an invitation business. but finding websites like this make me want to start one! i absolutely cannot help myself. it could be my sister-in-law's obsession with stationary. but it could also just be my desire to look at pretty things. let me just say, there are some fugly invitations out there. and let me follow that up with, "don't be that guy!"

here is my advice, as an aesthetic snob:

-the simpler, the better
-earthy/muted colors only, do not go bright, you will damage eyes
-be reasonable with size, nobody likes getting a 6 by 6 inch square with someone else's name on it
-stick with one-two fonts, if you don't, people with start thinking they're dyslexic.
--fonts: not too loopy, make it legible
-put your parent's[or whoever raised you] name on there okay? they deserve some sort of recognition.
-be classy, do the double envelope.

nuff sed.

what the hey!?

opened my mission call tonight. get the whole story here, she writes better than i do. i'm calling the church office building in the morning to see whatsup. i'll be sure to keep everything updated. basics are as such: i thought i was going to cleveland ohio, then i realized i was actually going to new jersey. now i'm trying to figure out what language i'm speaking... CRAZYTOWN, USA! i leave february 11, 2009. its gonna rock. i am out of my mind excited.

may he rest in peace

though i did not know him well, sam fogleman was an intricate part of my elementary school life. and became more so in high school when i became friends with his sister shayna. Sam had a degenerative muscle disease and passed away this week. my heart and prayers are with the fogleman family and especially with shayna for the difficulty of what may come. i love you forever, shayna. sam will not be forgotten.

as i said...

as promised. the pics of the bronze casting. just so you are aware, bronze is liquid at about 2500 degrees. it was blazing!!!

lifting the bronze out of the kiln. setting it down in order to pick it up with the other tools.

locking it in place. making sure we don't kill anyone by spilling yellow hot bronze on them.


actually pouring the bronze. i had the stable end, brian did the aiming. thank heavens.


finished sprews with cooling bronze. they should be ready in a couple hours or so.
note the boots, chaps, jacket, mittens and face shield mentioned in prior post.

fambly times

i was looking at pictures on my hard-drive and found these. some old trout lake pics that are pretty great. a good one of brad and liza [pre-liam].
is this not classic jojo[sitting on my lap]?! how great is that? and abby[far right with little H on her lap] is just sorta funny with her little chubby face.

and i like playing with my cousins. H and i had a good time playing airplane.
note: these pictures are about 4 years old. crazy town.

every girl likes a wink

so, at work today...
this guy came in and bought a bunch of paper. seemed to be stocking up. he said he was traveling and needed a box. so i offered the boxes we get our shipments in. they are massive. anyway, i took him and his friend back to take a look at them. they seemed pretty excited about the box and they decided to take it. i, trying to be nice, turned and gave them the box, the one buying the paper then turned and WINKED at me! SWOON! getting a wink is maybe the highlight of anyone's day. thank you ridiculously handsome artist man for winking at me today. i needed it.
ps- i was maybe a little starry eyed afterwards. just ask brittney...

my fave

i knew i liked this movie before. but i recently re-watched "run lola run" for my international cinema class. it is truly an amazing film. i love it. and this picture of franke potente just happens to be on my ic button. officially an ic addict everyone. don't love it til you try it.

ps- german is surprisingly easy to understand.

i am awesome.

we did bronze casting in my sculpture fundamentals class. i volunteered on the first day to help "pour". whatever that meant. on thursday he told us if i screw up, people die. yeah. so, i got all dressed up yesterday in my welding jacket, thermal jacket, thermal chaps, brian draper's old leather boots[one size too big] and tied my hair back with angela's extra hair-tie[shout out to you angela]. i then put on my face shield, and big leather mittens. with brian's help, lifted the liquid hot bronze out of the kiln, and we poured it into the sprews* everyone made for their pieces. needless to say, i have the COOLEST major on the planet! i love my classes.


*for those of you unfamiliar with casting, you create your piece out of wax, then you attach it to a "sprew" in which there is a cup and ventilation system so you can actually pour the bronze in. you then cover all the wax up with "slurry" and roll it in sand. repeat multiple times. then you melt out the wax and paper cup in another kiln, and you're ready to pour. oh jargon.