Take-Out Photo Monthly Special: Foreground

My French professor, Marc Olivier, has a photography blog that dedicates each month to a different aspect of photography. This month was all about foreground, so I found a few pictures from my Paris trip that fit the bill

Andrew Bird comes to Salt Lake

Andrew Bird is a classically-trained-violinist-turned-folk-singer who I started listening to this year. When I found out he was coming to Salt Lake, I was worried I wouldn't be able to find anyone who would want to go with me... meaning I was worried I wouldn't have a ride to Salt Lake. But randomly enough I found out Leilani likes him too and she wanted to come with me. So Wednesday night we trekked over to Salt Lake.

I was so impressed by his versatility: he sang, whistled, and played the violin, guitar, and glockenspiel (sometimes all in the same song.)

this is the best picture I got of Andrew playing the glockenspiel

Martin Dosh. His drum kit was really sparkly

We got pretty close to the stage (maybe three people back) so we had a really good view (once this giant guy with a fro moved out of our way). I took tons of videos, so here's a little sample of the concert:

Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

Oh No

I loved when Andrew would just talk to the audience and joke around. I'm still amazed by how good he is live.

how I survived winter

When you grow up in a place as beautiful as California, is can be difficult to spend upwards of four months with no sun and tons of snow. The only way to counteract the depressing effects of a Utah winter is to constantly do fun things. I can't say I always succeed in this, but I try, so I thought I'd show a few of my recent attempts to survive winter

My friend RT helped me make Crème Brûlée. The best part was when we got to use a cooking torch to caramelize the sugar on top. They turned out surprisingly good (considering my last attempt at making crème brûlée tasted like pure egg yolk)

The MOA (Museum of Art) typically has some cool exhibits. Currently there is an exhibit by Dan Steinhilber. I went to the reception with Alyx and Allison, and we got to meet the artist. The artist had some BYU students (mainly art majors) help him set up all his pieces, so Alyx and I both helped work on this one which is made up of balloons

This piece is made up of hundreds of packets of duck sauce. I thought it looked like a tile mosaic. The color was amazing.
When Ryan went to California for his volleyball tournament, I had the car for a week, and we definitely tried to make the most of our time with the car. We went thrift shopping in Salt Lake and then had lunch at the Bakery (which has the most amazing food). I got a turkey and avocado sandwich with French onion soup.
...which I devoured.

And of course we got dessert: you can't skip dessert at a French bakery.

We found an old phone booth near the bakery and had fun taking tons of pictures in it.
Allison brought me Valentine's Day cookies. I thought the cupid one was hilarious. Alyssa and I made tons of sugar cookies, and had a semi-party with people from my ward.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Provo has been receiving ridiculous amounts of snow this week. Is this pay back for enjoying such good weather in California over break?

Bounce House Birthday

This post is a little late, but I really like all the pictures we took, so I thought I'd post about it. For Allison's birthday we rented a bounce house, and it ended up being a completely worthwhile expenditure. We had at least 10 people in it at all times, which meant it was in a constant state of collapse.I love that I am trying not to sit on Allison's face. This picture kind of sums up the whole night: someone was being squished at all times.
Trying to balanceAfter we finished bouncing, Allison, Alyx, and I decided to sleep in the bounce house. Here is a depiction of all five layers I wore to keep warm.It was FREEZING cold and everyone said we wouldn't be able to do it. Alyx ended up getting too cold, but Allison and I were champions.Happy Birthday Allison!! (a month late)

'Tis the Season... almost

My roommate Marissa is probably the biggest advocate of Christmas spirit that I have ever met. We've been talking about how excited we are for the Christmas season since... September. Being Christmas connoisseurs, we decided that this past weekend was the perfect time to put up our temporary Christmas Tree (after talking Alyssa into it, of course. She didn't want Thanksgiving to get overlooked but we assured her that Thanksgiving is a very friendly holiday and wouldn't mind sharing its space with Christmas). Our apartment was already in the process of its Christmas transformation (garland, a wreath, and lights had mysteriously appeared above our fireplace. I won't name names), and then Sunday, after ward prayer, we pulled out the tree and stockings.Overall, we're pretty satisfied with the results.After Thanksgiving break we're planning on getting a real Christmas Tree.

Pre-Halloween Halloween Party

While I was at JoAnn's I found a sewing pattern for a little boy's Robin Hood Halloween costume, and I decided I could make it work for me (even though I am definitely not a little boy). I used the BYU sewing lab, which was convenient, and I think it actually turned out decently. I added ears and a tail so I could be Disney's Robin Hood (the fox), which was probably my favorite part.
I went with Allison, Alyx, and Luke to a ward Halloween party, which ended up being a lot of fun. Allison was Hermione and Alyx was Ron.
Their Bishop lives a half hour up the canyon in the middle of nowhere. After the party we were amazed by how bright the stars were, so the Bishop let us lay on his trampoline which made it a lot easier to look at the stars. We saw a bunch of shooting stars, but no satellites.
Here are some pictures of my full costume so you can see my cape and tail.