I'm Moving Out

Dear Blogger,

I really like you. You're fun, organized, upbeat, and you let me be my creative self. But, the thing is, there's another host in my life. And now that I've had to choose between the two of you...well...you understand right? Don't worry! I'll still come back to visit sometimes! I've already exported all of my blogposts. So I guess this is goodbye.

If you need to talk, I'll still be around. 

You can find me here: kateisit.com

Regards,

kate

A Fraction of the Whole

  "People are always saying that a person's character is unchangeable, but mostly, it's the persona that doesn't change, not the person, and underneath that changeless mask exists a creature who's evolving like crazy, mutating out of control...Honestly, anyone who says a friend of theirs hasn't changed in years just can't tell a mask from an actual face."

Alive

The times.

They began with an idea at supper.

And they ended with the sun rising on my still-working hands. 

I think those times are back. 

Get ready for some changes.

Beauty consists of its own passing, just as we reach for it. It’s the ephemeral configuration of things in the moment, when you see both their beauty and their death.
...Does this mean that this is how we must live our lives? Constantly poised between beauty and death, between movement and its disappearance?
Maybe that’s what being alive is all about: so we can track down those moments that are dying.

-The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Scott Mutter

"Hanging chandeliers in the sky, 

we would once again experience 

the wonder of the night"

Dottie Angel

The pristine queen of all home-made things dripping with adorable. Her cuteness is unrivaled, and her clever fingers have mastered a plethora of crafty challenges. Like a British Snow White, I'm absolutely sure Dottie Angel could charm small forest animals into eating from the palm of her hand and wear hand knitted, polka dot sweaters. I first discovered her blog while I was spending a semester in Ireland, and I was immediately fascinated by her unique "alternate reality" take for her blog. Click on photos to see her blog/etsy shop/etc.

I found the perfect place

to watch the sunset

The Great Hush

The end of a chapter has come. I am in the last page, walking slower and slower, afraid of the finality of the end, the blank space that will fill the end of this page.

This is the part of the story where…I don’t know. The part where self-reflection is a spot of blue sky and everything else has become a series of stratus clouds constricting the blue and stretching away. This is the part where I need to catch a breath. This is the part where my romantic self notices again the things that make life beautiful. Fragile and beautiful. The swallows that follow my car, the smell of thunderstorms,  The children next door (they are human sunshine), the simple white coffee cup in my hand, the excitement of a good book, nighttime sounds in my ears, stars above my eyes, cool grass under my feet. This is summer. This is the sigh, the exhale, the great hush to separate me for a moment from this moving, spinning, leaping, consuming life.

Big fan of This.

Call a jack a jack.

Call a spade a spade.

But always call a whore a lady.

Their lives are hard enough.

Phrases like Weeds

Sometimes I will read a phrase, and it just gets stuck in my head. I will often mouth it to myself unknowingly as I think about it, my sister catches me at it. Here is one that has stuck for months, I think it came from an Emily Dickinson poem.

"This weedish angel of boggy shade"

Not even a full sentence, but I often think on it. And now, maybe, it's stuck in your brain as well. Like a weed, you may never root it out completely again.

Summer Ambition

Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn

The Principles of Uncertainty, by Maira Kalmon

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

A Fraction of the Whole, by Steve Toltz

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss

A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

This random conglomeration of books is one of my many summer plans. I hope I can finish all of them.

The Count Of Monte Cristo

"I don't believe in God"

"It doesn't matter; He believes in you."

Love this movie.

Hello Summer.

{Photo by Tim Walker}

Blur

It's almost over. Almost. 

Jolly Good

Well folks, a beautiful brunette named Kate just married a prince. 

My only question is, how could this NOT be the greatest day?

Rumi

The minute I heard my first love story,

I started looking for you, not knowing

how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,

they're in each other all along.






(photosource)

Junior Year Reflections

Breathe. Just two weeks left. Less than that really. I'm at the stage where I realize how all the things in my peripheral vision that I wanted to do this semester are now impossible. Ah well. 

Finals week reminds me of steaming milk. (Yes I know, I frequent coffee shops a bit more than what is healthy) You begin the semester with fun and games-with big bubbles. Then the milk really begins to froth, but everything is under control. And then gradually, but faster and faster, the thing gets hot. And right when it's too hot to touch and you can't hold on; it's over.

Done. Semester completed. Latte ready on the counter.

But in all of this, in all of the lattes, art projects, coffee dates, non-gender neutral dorm supplies (thanks a lot, Target), missed classes, school events that I usually avoid, nose piercings, semesters spent abroad...I've learned a few things.  

1. Don’t be selfish with your time.
2. Think twice before you steal a mug. You might want to make it a habit.
3. Double filter what you say. 
4. Go on great walks, with or without people. Find fields of flowers to think in.
5. Make friends with the librarians.
6. Eat salad.
7. Own sturdy slippers. (I've worn out three pairs already)
8. Keep your secrets. Leave some things to the imagination.
9. Take your vitamins.
10. Pray. A lot. Every day.

And there you have it. The wisdom of a 21 year old. Go.

Realizing 

how little 

I know 

&

 finally 

admitting it 

has never made me feel 

so 

free

Daily

Several things have happened in the space of a couple days. I swam in a triathalon, my first. And maybe not my last. But I'll definitely train for the next one. 
I miss racing, though I am not overly competitive. 
I just love to be around other people that love to swim.
My sister's dance group put on a fundraiser/awareness program for social justice. 
It was beautiful. She was beautiful. Dance is such a powerful tool. [that's her below]
The program gave me inspiration for a body of work. 
This summer may see the birth of something. 
Something beautiful, and gutsy. 
And heartbreaking. 
Fingers crossed.
Finals are in the forecast. Stress waters are rising. I repeat this verse to myself daily:

Be anxious for nothing

but in everything through prayer and supplication

let your requests be made known to God.

Cloudy Day Pick-Me-Ups.

What are those little things that you turn to when the view from where you sit turns gray? You know the ones, the days when you're so introverted you don't even notice that you haven't spoken to a single person. Except to order the latte.
Here are some of my pick-me-ups:

Grimm's Fairy Tales. Bon Iver. Lord Byron. Iced Breve Latte. Red Nail Polish. Fun Scarves. Facial Masks. Pride and Prejudice (BBC version). Late Night Baths.

Best of This Sunday's Secrets

I Thank You God For Most This Amazing

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-e.e. cummings

A friend recommended this poem to me, and I've read it several times in the days preceding this one. Today is my birthday, I am 21. I don't feel any older or wiser, and I'm beginning to finally understand that I probably never will. Life is still confusing, people still are selfish. Hurt people will hurt people- compassion should be (but still isn't) our priority and strength. 

This may sound depressingly pessimistic for a birthday post, but for me it isn't. Understanding human nature and that life is hard only puts a stronger contrast to how beautiful the good things in life really are. When I realize how little I deserve, I am so much more thankful and optimistic about my situation. 

So, I thank you God for this most amazing day. I am 21, healthy, happy, blessed, and life hasn't finished with me yet.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

.Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Old Banners. Old Friends.

Astronaut and firefighter dreams are put away as we mature. But some people still grow up to do amazing stuff. There's this band called Old Banners, and I know two of the members from childhood. Drew and Daniel, I fought and played with them often. I think I even had a crush on Drew sometime in elementary school. It's an interesting thing to lose touch with someone and then to find them living in your car's CD player.  It brings back so many good memories.

listen to their stuff! [Old Banner's Facebook Page]

I Have This New Job

And I don't have much time. But I'm enjoying it all the same.

A lover's a liar,

To himself he lies.

The truthful are loveless,

Like oysters their eyes!

A little blurb from my reading. 

This week has been a blur, I have inspiration for everything except blogging.

Dearest Spring Break, 

I have only just survived a year without you. Let's become reacquainted. 

Last year we saw the Chicago sights, this year I propose we relax in a house by a lake. A little boating, a little fishing, a little swimming. A lot of reading and a lot of sun.

I'll put my phone and computer away if you promise fair weather. 

Well now, I'm just about packed. 

Shall we go then?

In the bookbag:

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

Ishmael, by David Quinn

And Pride and Prejudice. 

Desk Portrait

A desk can be as much a self portrait as a painting. 

  Spring has returned.  

The Earth is like a child that knows poems.  

-Rainer Maria Rilke

These daffodils were growing in a nearby and obliging field. They were too pretty to leave alone. Spring and break are almost upon us, it is time to transfer the dust from the floppy sun hat to the textbooks.

My beautiful sister modeled for the latest photography assignment. 

I don't know what I would do without her.

Hindsight

    “Kate, there are three different kinds of attractive girls. There are hot girls. There are cute girls. And there are just beautiful girls. You are a beautiful girl.”

Three years ago, when this was said to me, I actually took offense. Back then, I thought that when someone called me beautiful it was because I was too fat to be called hot or sexy. Beautiful was the cop-out word people used when they were thinking something else, when they were skating over the reality.

Back then, I didn't know anything about value. Or truth. 

It’s amazing how much we can change in three years. I am so thankful. 

Present Flavor(s)

With inspiration from:

una bella vita

&

things organized neatly

The Fragrance Bible

Michael Edwards released the 27th edition of his “fragrance bible” Fragrances of the World 2011 in January. The new guide lists approximately 8000 fragrances (with over 900 new additions) classified by fragrance family, and includes over 900 niche fragrances from 60 perfume houses. The reference book is used by numerous retailers to help customers find fragrances they might like based on the scent(s) they already know and enjoy.

Also included in this year’s edition: images of scent notes provided by Givaudan. The book is $195 USD.

Who would like to give this to me for my birthday?