And I'll Be The Poet

"And I'll be the poet who sings your glory - 

and live what I sing every day." 

Psalm 61:8, The Message

I came across this verse in this version the other day and was enchanted by it. It grabbed my heart and spoke to the writer in me, and has stuck with me for the past few days, a confirmation and a conviction. 

It also reminded me of the spoken word poem "I Will Wait For You" by Janette Ikz:

(which I first saw quoted on Miss Amy Pompelia's gchat status, then her blog, then the lovely Sarah Tisdale's blog...so I didn't share it with y'all right away even though I was a little -- okay, a lot -- obsessed. But it is so worth sharing, so enjoy it now!)

"And you will know me and you will find me 

where the boldness of Esther meets the warm closeness of Ruth, 

with the hospitality of Lydia as aligned with the submission of Mary, 

which is englufed in the tears of a praying Hannah. 

I will be the one drenched in Proverbs 31 waiting for you."

P.S. Y'all should also heck out "If I Should Have A Daughter" by Sarah Kay. Can I just say how much spoken word poetry intrigues and impresses me? I kind of wish I was talented enough to do that...

Alabama, Arkansas, I Do Love My Ma and Pa

I've loved this song for a good while, but I'm pretty sure I love it even more right now.

("One day I'm going to whistle?" ...1:37 to 1:50 is the best.)

P.S. It is both sunny and rainy right now. There's a little thunder rolling lightly through the sky, and that freshly-rained-on asphalt smell is coming in through my open windows, but it is still bright out. And I am still all sticky-hot. I wonder which way it will decide to go.

Haircut

Currently Watching: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Two Weeks Until: My sister gets married!

Cut most of my hair off today...sending it in to Pantene Beautiful Lengths tomorrow!

(also, I should probably stop taking pictures on my webcam and get a real camera involved...)

Starbucks + Woods + Proposal

Lyric Love: She smiled in a big way / The way a girl like that smiles / When the world is hers (from Dusk and Summer by Dashboard Confessional)

Some things I love include (but are not limited to):

1. Coffee

2. Love stories

3. Creativity

4. Being outside.

Therefore, when I came across this proposal, it blew me away, and I just had to share it with y'all. I mean, HE MADE A STARBUCKS IN THE WOODS. (Because they had their first date at Starbs, of course.) How awesome is that??

Check out the pics:

From the little details to sheer impressiveness of the whole endeavor...I'm in love. 
You can check out the full story and even more pics here.

Two Of My Favorite Things

...Would have to be discovering new artists and getting free music. Especially music of the new artist I have just been introduced to.

So when I saw that Josh Garrels (previously introduced to me - and you - thanks my fab Today's Letters CD) is offering his new (18 song!) CD, Love & War & The Sea In Between, for FREE? Yeah, that was exciting.

You can all download Josh Garrels' album here. 

(And then stalk his adorable family on their blog here.)

I'm still listening through it and have yet to figure out my favorite song...although I am kind of loving "Further Along." Which are your faves?

Given a Cape and a Nice Tiara...

Today, I had lunch with Zanna, who was my neighbor and good friend when we were about three. We had crepes, caught up on a decade or so of life, and wandered around some shops, including a secondhand bookstore and a store called Hello Bluebird that felt like I was walking into Etsy in real life.

There were all sorts of things I loved in this store, but in particular, these designs by Leigh Standley of Curly Girl Designs. I'm such a sucker for eclectic, mixed media designs and random, witty sayings. 

If I had some extra mula laying around, I would buy all of these in card form and send them to everyone I love. And then I might buy that top one to hang on my wall.

Love 'em.

And added bonus: there was a hand-written sign by a stack of prints in this store that read "With us, you can be that artsy-urban roommate!" (I took a picture but, alas, did not bring my card reader to Pennsylvania). ...HOW DID THEY KNOW??

P.S. My V key fell off my keyboard today. Thus, every V I've typed here has been a struggle. You are welcome for all that extra effort... :]

Remembering Egypt

Currently Listening To: All Things Bright and Beautiful, Owl City (especially loving: Alligator Sky and Galaxies)

Currently In: Reading, PA.

Exactly three years ago right now, I was in Egypt for a week with my best friends in the world. My class (well, 9/11 of us, plus three teachers) went for our senior trip. We spent a few days in Cairo, then went to the beach, then back to Cairo. We ate at a Pizza Hut with a view of the pyramids and Sphynx. We sailed on the Nile. We looked at a bajillion mummies. I got sick and lost my voice. We held lions and found starfish. We took naps on the beach and waded into the Red Sea -- so clear that even at shoulder-deep you could still see your shadow on the bottom. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and made up songs about the Khan-Khalili markets. We had fun interactions with forward Egyptian men ("Excuse me! You dropped something!...Oh, it is just my heart." ...what?). We surveyed Cairo's roofs and multitude of satellite dishes from the top of the Sultan Hussan mosque. And it was magical. 

I was just looking through the pics and getting a little nostalgic...

I miss those kids, and those adventures.

I'd Rather Be a Comma Than a Full Stop

Today I walked in the rain, church dress and all, 
and have had this song on my mind.

(See what I did there?)


[image by Linda Zacks, via Pinterest]
...and thank you, Mads, for having a Coldplay obsession.

Friday Five

I like weekend mornings because my fave blogs post lists of links from around the web that bring me into a happy oblivion of happy clicking around the beautiful/interesting/amusing things of the internet. Or something like that. I thought I could share that experience with you a little bit...so here are five friday links for you!

• Margaret (my housemate!) and Abigail are traveling around the country, taking pictures (Marg) and writing poetry (Abigail). No, I'm not jealous, obviously. You can check out their adventures here, and join me in being not-jealous...

• I always love a good tumblr. Dear Photograph is a wonderful one. (via A Cup of Jo)

• How to pack like you're traveling the world for 6 months.

• Pottermore. WHAT IS IT?? (Sidenote: I just watched the HP 7 part 2 trailer, and now I kind of want to reread the book in preparation. Even though I also reread it in preparation for part 1...)

• Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day is giving away a trip for 2 to Paris. Well, why not enter?

Enjoy, y'all.

Three Things on A Wednesday Night, Again.

Quote Love: "'Do you fall in love often?' Yes, often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, with friends, with complete strangers, with nothing at all." - Jeanette Winterson (from Gut Symmetries)

1. If, hypothetically speaking, you lost your phone for a few days and then your father found it in the yard apparently having been run over by a lawnmower, it would probably look something like this (hypothetically speaking, of course):

2. This is what I aspire to (the Busta Rhymes part, in particular):

I think I could learn this in two weeks. Anyone wanna hold me to that?

3. I just inherited this frightening absolutely spectacular item of clothing from my father's old pastor's wife. CAN'T WAIT FOR FOOTBALL GAMES! (ESPNU won't know what hit them.)

Happy Wednesday night, y'all.

Abide With Me; Fast Falls the Eventide

Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee.

On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

A Lil' Bridal Shower DIY

Quote Love: “Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason.” – Olive, from Easy A

So the main reason my family came to Hilton Head this weekend was because some good friends of my grandparents’ hosted a couple’s shower for Linnea and William. This reminded me that I’ve been meaning to share with y’all some things about the shower I threw for Linnea, particularly a quick and easy decoration idea :] (wait, is this about to become one of those blogs? The answer is, temporarily, yes.) (And by those kind, I mean the kind I stalk on a daily basis, wishing my life could be that party-perfect.)

I would have LOVED to go alllll out for my one and only sister’s (not) one and only bridal shower, but unfortunately, it fell in the middle of this week and I had work in the morning and a 12-page paper looming over my head (uggh), and I am only a poor college student (emphasis on poor). But I did still want to make it pretty and special. I love the look of pennant flag banners like these:

(So fun but simple, right? via Pinterest)

…and I wanted to recreate that look, figuring there must be an easy way to do itwithout any actual sewing or (much) time investment. Solution: twine and tissue paper. And double-sided tape. Then, literally, just cut out triangles from the tissue paper, fold the end over the twine and tape it.

I had originally envisioned these against a wall, with two lines of pennant flags –alternating with pictures hanging between each flag – and then another row of just twine beneath, where guests could pin up a note for Linnea. Because of the space, this plan was reworked just a little, but the end result – especially the space to pin up notes, which ended up wrapped between columns (bottom two pictures) – was pretty great, if I do say so myself.

Voila:

 

P.S. speaking of my pennant obsession, check out these invitations (which, yes, I realize are all for baby-related things) and these cake toppers. LOVE.

(A special thanks to Leah Stockstrom's photography skillz and documentation per my request... :] )

Friday Five

I love the beach. I really do. I love beach vacations where your whole family piles onto the sand with beach chairs and coolers and sodas and you spend hours out there. I love walking as far down the beach as you can, ankle-deep in ocean and keeping an eye out for treasures like starfish or horseshoe crab skeletons. I love standing still and squinting out as far as you can see and thinking about how vast and beautiful God is.

But the thing is, when I’m going to Hilton Head, I don’t necessarily think that I’m going to the beach, but rather that I’m going to Mama Kaye and Papa Joe’s house, and the beach – just down the path behind the house – as an added bonus. 

And so, today, here are five ordinary Hilton Head things that I can look forward to and are a part of the time I spend on the island:

1. MK and PJ’s house: MK and PJ have lived here my whole life. When I was five, the week before we moved to England, I split my chin open on the stairs in this house and had to get stitches. The house has been remodeled, and that staircase actually isn’t there anymore, but there’s the screened-in porch upstairs with a hammock swing, and the comfy chairs perfect for reading in front of the huge window (which you could see the beach from if it weren’t for the trees), and the ‘library’…and just being here is the best.

1. Bike rides: PJ and MK have these perfectly old, rusting beach riders – the kind that you backpedal to brake – that Linnea and I ride all over the plantation daily when we’re here. The sidewalks wind past golf courses, beneath trees dangling Spanish moss like forgotten scraps of lace and near ponds where you might chance to see an alligator. And today I fell off my bike. No further comment.

1. Dinner: MK always cooks meals like tuna steaks with blueberry mustard sauce. And they are always delicious. We eat late here, around 8, and all meander upstairs to the kitchen about half an hour before that and eat appetizers as we watch Mama Kaye finish up cooking. We sit around the dinner table for a long time, and have coffee and dessert there too. It’s lovely.

1. Kenny B’s and Coligny: The place Linnea and I always have to go when we’re on the island is a hole-in-the-wall N’awlins-style place called Kenny B’s, where we eat huuuge blackened shrimp po’boys and she-crab soup. (Although I believe I’ve told you about this before.) We usually head over to wander through the boardwalk –style touristy beach stores at Coligny. And it makes it even more typical when we drive Matilda, the twenty-year-old, formerly-brown-now-Kentucky-blue beast of a truck I often drive when I’m here…

1. TV: I don’t have cable at home – and I don’t want cable at home – but there’s just something about being here that means I spend a lot of time watching completely pointless television (like Say Yes to the Dress, which is on right now…), which I never would any other time. And you know what? It’s kind of nice to do that for a few days. And then return to my cable-less worlds.

And this is exactly a description of my weekend :]

Hilton Head!

...may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

- e. e. cummings

So glad to be at Hilton Head for a few days!

[photo of our beach, taken by Allie MacDonald]

The Truth

Wait, was this made specifically for me??

[Print via nelliev2's Etsy shop]

P.S. I'm sleeping in my new room for the first time tonight!

It's Not You, It's Me

Dear The B,

It’s been a good year together and all, but unfortunately I think from now on we’re just going to have to call it quits. I’m sure you’ll understand. I know you had some great things going for you – lots of cabinet space, a fireplace, 2 ½ bathrooms, a washer and dryer in the cupboard under the stairs just like Harry Potter, a parking spot for each of us, a curtained-off storage area we called Oz, a nifty brick wall still exposed from where you were built on the back of another house, and five spectacular housemates*.

But let’s be real, there are some things you might need to work on. For starters, you have no foundation. Sure, that meant kittens could live under you, but it just doesn’t bode well for the future. The kitchen sink, which you have tug to the left to turn off completely – what’s up with that?  And perhaps you could have been a little roomier and more soundproof, so we couldn’t all hear each other while each sitting on our own beds in our own rooms. We froze in the winter (until the repairmen came and turned a knob on the heating vent) and burned in the summer (until the repairmen came and…fixed the a/c). And then you went and burst a pipe right above my closet while I was out of the country. Was that really necessary, B?

I do love your quirks, but there comes a point when you have to decide which quirks you actually want to build a future with. So, The B, I think you can probably understand why I’m upgrading to something a little bigger and better. But I really hope we can still be friends.

Regretfully,

Caroline

P.S. Hellloooo, La Bamba

*four of whom, plus me, are pictured above. Liz had already gone to sleep.

Packing is Sad

I May or May Not Have: eaten gummy worms for dinner

Line Love: "The morning we drive up to Bitsy's house, the sky is heartbreak blue, question-your-existence blue, the kind of blue you look away from because, as much as you want to find one, there's no end." from Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch

I have looked at -- and slept next to -- this every day for the past ten months:

And I took it all down today. All that is currently left is the blue and green ribbon the pictures hung from. GAHHHHHH.

Let's just file packing under "things I don't like but find myself doing unfortunately often."

Elenowen

I head of Elenowen a while ago, but recently downloaded a few of their songs on briterevolution.com (if you like free, awesome music and supporting good causes check that website out). I'm loving The Storm, but right now I'm enjoying their cover of Falling Slowly (a beautiful song originally by The Frames). They sang this song on The Voice a show which I don't actually watch (seeing as I don't have cable and all) but apparently I should. 

P.S. They're married. Isn't that adorable?