A New Blog

Hello all you followers of this old blog.  In case you are still checking this (love you for that), head over to my new blog

livingsimplytogether.blogspot.com

it's awesome. i promise.  if you don't think so, i'll make you some hot cocoa.

giveaway!

giveaway on my other blog for some handmade journals so good!

click here to leave a comment and win!

i'm featuring a hopefully awesome simple living month over at my new blog, as well as some more artist interviews and giveaways!

check it out!!

www.agirlandherscout.blogspot.com

another giveaway and artist interview

over at my new blog www.agirlandherscout.blogspot.com

don't forget to check it out!

I've moved!

Hey all you loyal followers! So after graduating, getting married, moving, getting a job, and getting a puppy (yay!), I have finally started a new blog over at
http://agirlandherscout.blogspot.com
so please come over and be loyal followers over there! I would love you forever :) Hope you are enjoying the summer!

my apologies for the lack of posts recently. between final exams, wedding showers, wedding planning (it's in 12 days!!), the flood in nashville, and being a senior/ graduating in less than a week, life if a little crazy right now. i promise to come back with some posts probably after the wedding. i want to spend every second with andrew, my family and my friends. also since i will no longer be a "college girl," i'm planning on changing up the blog so check in for a new link post graduation, wedding, moving, starting new job :) love to you all! ~A

I'll let you in on a little secret...

If you don't know, there is this super cool art project goin' down that has gained quite the fame.
It's called PostSecrets.
The short of it- people write down secrets on post cards and send them into the artist who then publishes them in books and on his blog. See here. They are a bit of a guilty pleasure, but sometimes I really connect.
Like this one... I'm not as much into the feminist part of it (mostly because I already knew women's brains were bigger ;)- just kidding just kidding- equal sized) but I love the quote,
"People tell me that a Ph.D. means I'm smart.
I have never felt more stupid or incompetent."

I don't know if I would go that far, but the one thing that college has taught me
(I contemplate such things since I only have 2 weeks left!) is that
I really don't know that much at all and have A LOT left to learn.
After all, the world is a big freakin' place.

thursday things i love

1. I'm still counting down the days till the wedding. ONE MONTH FROM TODAY! Andrew and I both can hardly wait--- I'm trying not to wish away these next few weeks as they involve very significant and wonderful moments. But that said... i'm digging this hair-do. another possible wedding option.


2. On that note, one day soon I will be decorating Andrew and my apartment. Since it is an apartment (as opposed to a house), we don't have the ability to change too much, but I'm digging this kitchen with the white background and the little punches of color. We are getting FiestaWare which I think would look great with a neutral cabinet look like this!

[Il Duomo in beautiful Florence]


[Milano]

[My Brother, who I also love, sipping coffee in Rome!]

3. I also love traveling and learning other languages and have spent a summer in Hiroshima, Japan and a semester in Sicily though I had the fortune of also traveling to other places in North Africa and around Europe. Then I was able to return to Italy this summer with my brother, Mom, and Dad which was AWESOME. I am always in awe of and inspired by other people and cultures. I feel so blessed to say that I have great friends all around the world.

Must be the week for good quotes...

But we can always learn from the wise words of others. This one is my first lesson in married life (though I'm not quite there yet).

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves,

and not to twist them to fit our own image.

Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

~Thomas Merton

After all, we should be celebrating the diversity of life. It keeps things interesting :)

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

- John Muir

the Luck of the Irish

This weekend I chilled outside in the yard and stared at the grass all around me and the leaves in the sky.
It's one of my favorite things to do.
I also found this bouquet of four leaf clovers thanks to Andrew's yard.
Once I counted 28... I lost count.
My grandmother would be proud.
(We're Irish.)

Mail Call

Every morning I get really excited to check my mail because lately my mailbox has been filled with lots of these :)

33 days and counting...
can't wait

Free CD Download!

If you liked listening to Super Mash Bros.,
you can download their newest CD for FREE (and legally)
here.

My Brother is Famous

That's a picture of him I took when he was playing baseball on TV. awesome.

Rites to Spring

This weekend at Rhodes was our annual "Rites to Spring." Mostly an opportunity to letting all inhibitions go.... We have some awesome (most of the time at least) musicians come Friday and Saturday nights. Friday night I was introduced to the Super Mash Bros. I danced like crazy for the entire time they played. I LOVE THEIR MUSIC!! Seriously listen to this and try to not bob your head or tap your feet.

I was listening to it when I was typing this and almost couldn't stay in my chair to type. Seriously.

Things I Love Thursday

I want to start posting a "Things I Love Thursday" Post. Several bloggers I read post them and I am always creatively inspired to see what makes others happy and drives them to do what they do.

So... Things I love....This hairdo--- possibly for the wedding.

These peachy flowers. Love this elegantly chic look! Also love adding the ribbon on the dress for the reception... something that compliments the bridesmaids.

This super cute DIY painting/collage. It would make a wonderful gift for someone special and inspires me on so many levels. From Balzar Designs.

And my personal favorite, I love my fiance and his wonderful love, patience, and caring spirit. He's the best :) I might just marry him. Oh wait! I am 44 days from today!!

Wedding Website!

Check out this awesome cool website that my future hubby created for our wedding.
54 more days and counting till the big day!
andrewgossett.com/wedding

Awesome Blog Post!

Sorry for the lack of posts. Life has been a little crazy around here! BUT I did want to mention this awesome blog post I read today about "Kitchen Stewardship."
It was really fabulous so click here to read it.

Thank you also for all the prayers and thoughts for my mom. It really means a lot!
Peace and love.

Spring Break

I'm on spring break which has been pretty relaxing and wonderful thus far.
Small goals that have come to me in my rest...
(I'm not real good at being bored.)

1. I really want to learn how to sew. And I want to use that new skill. And I want to open an Etsy Shop. Not that it defines me as creative or not, I just like the idea of it for some reason. This may have been inspired by an awesome grab bag of fab fabric I snatched up at the thrift store last week.

2. I want to start running again. I've probably run 6 times in the past 6 months and for a former track/ cross country runner, I'm kind of ashamed. I need to get my lazy butt up and moving. If only the sun would come out, it would be much easier :)

Tomorrow is St. Patty's Day!! Being Irish by decent, I can't wait to celebrate! Don't forget to wear your green!

My New Favorite Hobby...

Going to esty.com.
Looking at the shop profiles of the artists of the featured items.
Looking to see if they have personal blogs.
Finding the COOLEST blogs like this onemundoflo.blogspot.com

Book Review: "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years"

I'm currently reading this great book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller.
It's an easy-to-read and very inspiring book about how Miller tries to create a "better story" with his life.
I am also teaching a Servant Leadership class on it at school. We meet once a week to talk about some questions that we I e-mail out to discuss and figure out how the lessons presented in this book can help us to become servant leaders.
If you're interested, I can post our curriculum.

Love!!

Wouldn't this scrapbook make the PERFECT gift for someone once you filled it with lots of little notes and photos of you and him/her/them?!? I might just have to make one over Spring Break---NEXT WEEK!

Check out the demo here from Balzar Designs.

YAY!!

I just received a $750 grant to teach an afterschool photography class at a local inner city school that targets kids that are "most likely to drop out of school before they graduate." CANNOT BE MORE PUMPED!

It's a high of 70 outside today!

The Words of My Heart This Morning

A Good Listener

Good morning, Lord,

Let me be attentive

today to those who speak to me,

the way I expect you to hang on my every word.

So often the sounds and syllables reach us,

but we fail to grasp the real message.

Good listeners are appreciated

Even little children brighten up and respond

when they see us paying attention to them.

Many times we say yes, or no, or grunt, or nod,

but our lack of genuine interest is transparent.

That's the bottom line: truly caring,

caring enough to listen with feeling

when anyone speaks to us.

We pray for this grace this day. Amen

From: Good Morning Lord by Joseph T. Sullivan

Lovlies!

I have the privilege of hanging out with these beautiful kids every Monday to teach them about the ancient Greek and Romans at their Marvelous Mondays after school program.

Emmett Stallings

My physics teacher from high school and her husband just found out about two weeks ago that he has abdominal cancer that has spread almost everywhere except for this bones. They have started a heart-wrenching, but also inspirational blog that chronicles their story of struggle against cancer, while holding tightly to their Faith. I encourage you to check it out here. http://emmetthascancer.blogspot.com/
And even more than reading the blog, I encourage you to pray for them both, especially Emmett as he struggles to keep down smoothies and start chemo.

Photo Project

This is my most current photography project. I took all of these photos in a Chemistry Lab on campus. It's a study of shapes and lines by photographing in the abstract. I will be submitting these and a few others. I print them out for exhibition so they always look a tad different (if not a lot). I would love your comments!

Me and Ellis Marsalis are Besties

Ellis Marsalis, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, taught my African American Music class on Tuesday.
Sweet!!
He was like an old cute grandpa with all of these great stories of his friends growing up except that his friends happened to be Louis Armstrong among others.

HELP!!

I just spent an excessive amount of time looking for wedding invitations without much luck :( Please help me!! If you have ideas, websites, etc, please comment!!

My new header photo was taken on a family vacation to Florence.
So beautiful!

Part II of the Weekend

Friday night continued on... I staffed the GlobeMed booth at The Vagina Monologues, which I also attended. The Vagina Monologues is a play that raises awareness about the sexual violence towards women that occurs in the world every day. It was very enlightening and very well written and performed in general so I suggest you go see it in your area if you get the chance. It spoke to the forms of torture during war that include rape and sexual assault of women in areas such as the Congo.

Saturday and Sunday, I woke up bright and early and headed to Peace Jam where hundreds of high school students gathered to hear from Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi of Iran and discuss how we can bring peace to our communities and the world. I had the privilege of serving as a "mentor" to a "family group" or high schoolers. We got to get down to the nitty gritty of what was going on. It was SO inspirational to hear these high schoolers speak to the passions in their hearts.

We also participated in a service project on Saturday. I painted signs like this with the word "Unity" in six different languages. They will be put out in a nearby neighborhood that really struggles with violence.

Got to hear about the ongoing service projects that the students at the conference were leading.

Saw an Iranian dancer and danced a little ourselves.



Did some free style rapping about peace and love.



Attended workshops... I went to one about the environment. I'll have to share what I learned soon!


Played some group games to build trust.


Talked about what we learned.


And left inspired, motivated, educated, and ready to take action!
(That's me with Shirin.)

Promising solidarity with Iran's efforts for peace.