Hey everyone! I may have had a rough day at work on Friday, but at least I was wearing a cute outfit. I also just got a new haircut and wanted to show it off. What do you think!?
There was a lot of funny stuff on TV this week. Did you catch President Obama on Jimmy Fallon slow jamming the news?
I think all news broadcasts should be slow jammed.
Also, 30 Rock did another live broadcast of their show for both East Coast and West Coast Viewers. It's full of tons of surprise cameos. If you didn't see it, I won't give it away. So, watch it now here:
I'm sure that all of us have some celebrity that we've had a crush on for forever. Well it's a little known fact that I've had a crush on Bush front man (and Gwen Steffani of No Doubt's husband) Gavin Rossdale.I'll even argue that I saw him first-WAY before Gavin and Gwen started dating, when I was at the ripe young age of 12. So I was super excited (I totally giggled like a school girl) when I happened to be watching ABC's Nightline and Gavin Rossdale was doing the evening playlist. But the nerd in me wanted to correct the Gavin Rossdale timeline when they said that Bush broke up the year before Gavin and Gwen got married and showed a picture of Gavin and the new Bush band, which has no original members, rather than a photo of the original Bush line up (with Robin, Nigel and Dave). Anyways, if you missed the episode of Nightline, you can view the clips below.
This week I've been longing to be at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California. There's so many great bands I'd like to see like Beirut, The Hives, Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, We Were Promised Jet Packs and Florence and the Machine just to name a few. But alas, my lack of travel funds, life, and employer vacation policy have prevented me from jumping on a plane this very minute. Luckily, I've been able to catch my favorite acts live (and after the fact) thanks to the YouTube Coachella live feed (click here for the link). So far I watched Andrew Bird's set and Florence and the Machine's set live. It was wonderful, and I didn't have to camp out, I could watch it in my PJ's and my view was probably 100 times better than it would be if I was at the festival...at least that's what I keep telling myself.
Anyways, last Saturday Gotye was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live (SNL). I didn't get to catch that performance when it aired live on TV because my programming was interrupted buy the News stations telling me to take shelter from an approaching tornado, but thanks to my Hulu Plus account I was able to catch the performance a day later. If you missed the performances too, check out the video for Gotye performing "Somebody that I Used to Know" below.
There was also a hilarious SNL short of Gotye Backstage with Andy Samberg and some other guy (Taran).
My latest completed knitting project takes it's inspiration from the Springtime season and its resemblance to rabbit food (lettuce). The scarf is made from 1 skein of Rowan Kidsilk Creation yarn which knits up super quickly but looks like it took weeks. In fact, that is exactly what the sales person told me which enticed me to impulse purchase the yarn (because I love me some instant gratification projects). I knit this scarf from start to finish during one episode of The Walking Dead. Just in time for Easter Sunday.
The scarf pattern was included inside of the yarn packaging and I followed it word for word. There are also several YouTube videos available to assist you with knitting this scarf such as the tutorial found here.
What do you think of my scarf? Do you want to see some photos of me wearing the scarf? Let me know in the comments below.
I know that I don't often share much about my personal life on my blog, but last Monday I put my boyfriend of 5 years on a shuttle van to begin boot camp for the US Air force. So, I'm officially a military girlfriend. If you would have asked me 5 years ago (or even a year ago) if I'd ever thought I'd be a military girlfriend, I would have laughed in your face. Even though I have many friends that have spouses in the military and my younger siblings both participated in the US Army, I had always considered myself more of a pacifist and never imagined dating a military man. However, early in our relationship, The Boy had told me that he very nearly enlisted in the US Air force immediately after high school, but instead opted to attend college (which I'm very glad he did, or else we would have never met). More recently, The Boy began to revisit his earlier aspirations of joining the Air force and began to discuss the possibility of pursuing it before he's too old to do so and because I love him and am secure with our relationship, I encouraged The Boy to pursue his dreams rather than live a life of "what ifs" and regret. Anyways, I'm very new to this whole 'military girlfriend' thing, so if any of you have any experience, information or advice on how to maintain sanity while your loved one is away I'd love to hear it.
Also, on Saturday, April 14, the storm prediction center kept repeatedly reporting that my city had an extremely high probability of large, long-range tornadoes. And as predicted, around 10:30pm an EF-3 tornado passed through my hometown, striking one of the neighborhoods that I work at and just missing my parent's home where I was taking shelter by 18 blocks. Needless to say, I did not get very much sleep all weekend long! Although many people lost their homes, received storm damage, and lost power that night, miraculously, there were few injuries and no deaths reported from the tornado in my area.You can read more about the tornadoes here, and if you want to know how you can help the victims you may contact United Way (here).
Hopefully this week is a little less stressful. How was your week?
I recently watched The Muppet Movie and I must say that if you haven't already seen it, you need to. It's hilarious! Check out this clip of the Oscar Award winning song that was written by 1/2 of the Flight of the Concords, "Man or Muppet."
Nearly 2 years ago, I shared that I had signed up to participate in The Art House Co-op's "2010 Sketchbook Project." The theme for my sketchbook was "My Life in a Yellow Submarine" so I re-imagined the Beatles film (and soundtrack) into a story about my life thus far. Although I missed the January 1, 2010 deadline for submissions, I continued to work on the project from time to time and finally completed the sketchbook in January 2012 and sent it in. However, I forgot to share my finished project with my followers. I've posted some of my favorite drawings from my sketchbook blew. You can view my full sketchbook online at http://www.arthousecoop.com/submissions/13068-my-life-in-a-yellow-submarine
This weekend, The Boy and I made a film together for the Art House Co-op "Adventure Project." The rules for the project were to create a 30-second video capturing an adventure (great or small). The Boy and I decided that we wanted to create a short film that recalls the sense of wonder that children have when their world view is suddenly widened. You can watch our finished product below:
The Boy and I tried to divide the tasks 50/50: I created our main character, illustrated his adventures and did the voice; and The Boy wrote the script, filmed, and edited the video. The video was filmed at the
Wichita Public Library and it all came together in a day.
Several week's ago my friend, Jon, asked me if I'd ever heard of a band called Foster the People. Immediately after I got home I looked up the band online and realized that I'd actually been listening to this band for weeks online and on The Boy's I-pod but I didn't know the bands name at the time. So, if you haven't checked them out(or even if you have) listen to Foster the People.
If you didn't know, Monday night was the NCAA Finals and my alma-mater, The University of Kansas (KU), played The University of Kentucky (UK). Somehow I managed to spend 4 years plus a semester at KU and never managed to attend a sports event or purchase a t-shirt for my college team, but I managed to find some crimson and blue in my closet.
Although UK was favored to win the game, I still watched and cheered for the home team from the comfort of my computer screen. KU scored the opening points and managed to make UK work for their win, but ultimately UK defeated KU with a score of 67-59. The game gave me flashbacks to when KU played the final game against Syracuse my sophomore year of college and lost the final game..and then I started to feel old. Better luck next year, KU. Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!
The deadline to submit my image for the 4x 6 exchange is April 2nd, so I sent off my first spring submission to the Art House Co-op this weekend. Since I was limited on time, I decided to send off one of my first drawings with the Plein Air Painters group- my drawing of the Delano District that I made for the 34th World Wide Sketch Crawl. So, some random stranger will receive my painting in the mail soon, and in exchange I'll be receiving a work of art from someone else. I can't wait!
The Adventure, Map and Limited Edition Sketchbook Projects are all due by April 30th, so I decided to get started on The Sketchbook Project: Limited Edition. My first drawing is a still-life line drawing of some items lying around the house. What do you think?
