lets go couch surfing!

when i stumbled upon this website the other night i instantly felt the need to experience it. Couch surfing is a network that connects travelers to the communities that they visit. on the site you can search for available couches by city, state, country, etc. hosts offer a free couch, bed or maybe just a nice floor space to travelers looking for a place to crash for a night or 2. who doesn't love a free place to stay paired with meeting new faces?! i want to be a hostess and a traveler so badly! i think its such an awesome and different way to meet so many new people and personalities! i was a bit weary when i first read about the idea but all the reviews are very positive :o) can't wait till i get the chance to become a part of the couch surfing community!

randoms...

• i have an irrational fear that whenever im in traffic, the person behind me is going to rear end me. [its only ever happened once, nothing happened to either car. but i never fail to hold my breath when i look in the rearview mirror.]
• i love the smell of incense.
• i suck at sports, but im pretty fabulous at card games and board games.
• i majored in nursing for a year and a half. made it through one semester of clinical before i decided nursing just isn't the career for me. i liked it instead of loving it.
• i was supposed to be born blind, deaf and limbless. [my mom had chicken pox when she was pregnant with me. the doctors gave her the option to abort. prayer works miracles.]
• i have had stitches 7-8 times.
• i have had surgery 3 times.
• when i was little i dreamed of being a figure skater.
• i love the smell of campfires.
• i love math, hate english but love reading, adore art and don't understand politics.
• me and my sister like having dance parties in our rooms when we're bored.
• i have received a reindeer for my birthday every year since i was born.
• i would love to model.
• theres no way i could pick a favorite movie, book, color, song, band. they are forever changing.
• i could live off of cereal and pasta.
• i really want to travel to greece or italy.
• i loved my senior year of highschool and wouldn't trade those memories for the world.
• i love wedding photography. [theres so much hope held within those captured moments.]

photo: feels.like.flying by ~PatriciaD

i have a thing for eyes. when i get the itch to draw they're usually what ends up coming out of the tip of my pencil.
the thing is, i usually only draw one eye, or one side of the face.
im not sure if its just a mental thing, or if when i do draw both eyes/both sides of the face they end up coming short of the expectations i have for myself.
so, after a while i just kind of came to the conclusion that im just not cut out to draw a complete face.
until tonight.
usually i have to be in the right mood to draw, or else everything that comes out onto the paper just doesn't seem right at all. tonight was one of those nights where i just felt like i had to draw something, get it out of me.
so i sat down and grabbed the rolling stone from the coffee table and started drawing the front cover, who just happened to be brad pitt.
his first eye came out so great i figured, hey why not just keep going, try drawing the nose.
it didn't turn out too bad so i thought to myself..hmm do i just leave it like this? one eye and a nose, like so many other sketches ive done? or do i dare attempt the other eye...

so i went for it. as i started out i was thinking i made a mistake and ruined a perfectly good looking half done brad pitt. but then as i put more detail in, shaded a little here and there i was completely surprised to find that i had just completed a set of eyes and a nose that look like they all belonged to the same face!

here is the sketch..im not sure if i dare push my luck any further by finishing it..

today while shopping at one of the local shops in town i stumbled upon this amazing lotion by Camille Beckman.
i absolutely fell in love with the fragrances, especially the 'persian turquoise'. it reminds me of a little hippy shop in new hope that sells incense and cool blankets and jewelry, which could be why i love it so much. not only do all the products smell lovely, they leave your hands super silky! i came home hoping that they would have a website so i could share my find, and thankfully they do, here!

birds can dance! this video of 'Snowball' may be changing the way we understand the science behind dancing. Dancing was thought only to be a human trait, but Snowball may be proof that humans aren't the only ones that enjoy a good dance session! Read the full story, plus some other interesting ideas of the year, here.

johnson city pagoda

this past week my classmates and i had to do a project detailing the move of a historical building in the area. the historical building was the pagoda pump house located in johnson city. the building used to sit alongside the endicott johnson manufacturing plant, where it provided water for the facility. although the factory and many of the other buildings are long gone, the pagoda still stands but had to be moved in order to make way for a shopping complex [ughh].

so why spend so much time and effort to move the pagoda? why not tear it down? because this is no ordinary pagoda, nor pump house. this building was constructed by the workers of the ej factory sometime around 1920, completely out of scraps. the building walls contain such things as old gears, chains, scrap metal, a fire extinguisher, a bowling pin and even 2 pistols [one of which is missing!]
isn't that fantastic? that the workers themselves constructed the building? and out of recycled materials none the less!
i never knew the building existed until this project came along but now that i know about it i can't wait to go explore it for myself.

makes me wonder...what other treasures are hidden in my area that im not aware of!?

in case you wanted to waste some time...

since i'm so good at procrastination i thought i could share some of my time-wasting gems with you.
although some parts of neave.com are a little too trippy for me, other parts are just crazy enough for me to waste my time looking through. the 'flash earth' section is pretty amazing. the photographs of earth just leave you in awe. the 'television' is wayyy out there, although i have seen the 'rejected cartoons' channel before. i wish my laptop had a microphone so the 'bounce' and 'light' sections would work, they seemed to have potential :o) check it out!