speaking of seattle,

tomorrow, i'm going there!

to see her:


emily, one of my best friends is getting married in about a month. her bridal shower is on saturday, and i am going to go to it!!

and maybe i'll get over to the cupcake royale and have one of these:



it is a strange feeling to help a good friend prepare to be married. especially since she is a few months younger than i am.
she is absolutely bursting with excitement, and i am so happy to see her so happy.

the road not traveled

i've been thinking today about how different my life would have been if my family had not moved to southern california when i was 15.
while it's impossible to know, here are some thoughtful predictions:

-i would be graduating from Seattle Pacific University this May. my dad taught there for about ten years up until we moved, and the tuition break was pretty substantial. both of my older brothers went there, and even though i swore to myself i wouldn't go there (a youngest child's act of rebellion), there is a good chance i would have ended up there. Not to brag, but did you know my great-grandfather gave SPU a sizeable amount of land upon which to build the university? It's true. Hill Hall was named after my family, and the land under the president's house and Ashton Hall and I think even under part of the library was ours. And yet I am not offered a free ride...hmmph

-i would be pursuing art or journalism or maybe theater. Those were the areas of study which interested me most while I lived up there. it's likely that time changed that more than location, but you never know, do you? Would I have experienced similar things that would have also led me to abandon those pursuits for the love of literature and writing? who knows. I had some wonderful english teachers my junior and senior years of high school (in california) that certainly fostered that love.

-i would want to leave seattle. i think. either that, or i'd have settled immediately and then been silently remorseful the rest of my life. as it is now, i've been allowed a broader view of life, and given a glimpse of the possible lives i could potentially create in different cities. i'm not so afraid of moving somewhere where i don't know anyone. i learned to give things time. friends, relationships, jobs-- everything takes time.

-i wonder about the level of spiritual depth i would have at this point in my life if i had not moved. moving was the best and hardest thing that happened to me. then i met a boy and fell in love and had my heart broken and trampled on and then THAT was the best and hardest thing that had happened to me. i'm sure i would have gone through other hard things if i hadn't moved, but the things i DID go through shaped me into the person i am today.


all that being said,
i would be a completely different Blythe
if i hadn't moved to california when i was 15.

i didn't know disneyland could make me so happy. honestly.

i went to disneyland last week with shannon and donny and a few of donny's friends.
i was worried it would be crowded because we went on MLK day, but it wasn't bad at all. the overcast weather might have kept some people away. BUT NOT US!
here are some pictures from our fun day:

this is a confirmation, i like taking really cheesy pictures.

but why not

my best

and donny, one of my newest friends, and quickly climbing the chart of favorites

shan kept pulling out fresh fruit. apples, pears. she is a walking farmer's market.


i think this is funny...

my new favorite place: the beast's library. amazing! how have i never been there until now?!

so. i really love Dale.

a LOT,

you make me feel so young!

donny in the background...funny

and here are a couple pictures i think are rad that i took as an experiment with my new lens...

someone encouraging

my friend carrie spoke at the women's bible study at my church last week. i was really encouraged be her words. not only does this girl love the lord and have a passion for helping other women grow- she's also good at it! she did a great job up there- it seemed natural for her, and she was even funny at times.
she spoke out of Matthew 14- when Jesus walked on the water and told Peter to come out to him- (one of my favorite moments in Jesus' life), and related the passage to peace.
a couple of years ago, this passage held extra significance for me as i went through something really painful. i would read this and feel the Lord telling me "keep your eyes on Christ, and you won't drown in the storm," and i felt the peace of God.

all this to say, great job carrie!
congrats on getting asked to speak at Biola's "After Dark" Chapel next wednesday- i'm going to do my best to try and be there!

those vines! that bark!

today, i went on a little walk around my neighborhood.

spacepilot & my pet saddle @ the knitting factory

my friends adam and jordan (who are also brothers, but not mine) are in a band called spacepilot. they played a show last saturday at the knitting factory in LA.
due to circumstances out of their control, they were only able to play a couple songs, but at least i got some good pictures.




the lighting was so dramatic, which was really awesome for photos.



adam was trickier to catch- he kind of hid in the back a little. although, in retrospect, it was a really small stage...and he didn't have anywhere else to hang out, really.





i did take a few of their three bandmates...but it's just a lot more fun to photograph people i know, if i have the option. also, the ones i did take of the others didn't turn out as great as the ones i took of adam and jordan.



then, the band my pet saddle played.
i also know someone in my pet saddle. so that was fun.



my friend miguel:

photo final from fall 07 semester

i made six 11x14" cyanotypes on canvas.
(for non-photo people: cyanotypes involve painting a photo chemical onto a surface, and then using a large negative that looks like a transparency sheet [called an ortho litho print] to make a sun print)
on paper, these exposures took roughly 15 minutes in the sun to be fully exposed.
on canvas, they took roughly an hour and a half.
(you can click the images below to see them larger)

STILL


FOCUS


VOICE



thanks to my friends who helped me out with this one!
melissa, greg, chris, jono, simone, frankie, pam... and everyone else who talked me through it. definitely you too shan!

oh and i forgot!

i made the most incredible discovery at rutabegorz when we went for lunch-
there is a "build your own pita pizza" option, and when i saw that CRANBERRIES was one of the options, i went for it!

cranberries and bleu cheese and mozarella and tomato sauce.
you'd think it might not be that great, but i'm telling you,
it
was
brilliant!