Three Things Thursday

There's not much going on, hence the tiny amount of blog posts lately. I'm just chilling out waiting for my work permit to be approved so I can start working. We're going to Oktober Fest in Munich this weekend, so I'll show you that. But for now let's do Three Things Thursday!

Three things about...

what you watch.

1.    Only movies. I’d rather live my own life than watch tv. But movies are like heaven. A little escape from the world. I'll watch action, comedy, romance. Pretty much anything except horror (remember I get nightmares) and stupid comedy. I absolutely hate to watch a movie that makes me feel like I wasted two hours of my life. Sorry Mike Myers, your stuff is just dumb.
2.    I watch my favorite movies over and over again. Whether it’s to focus on the deeper meaning or to just veg out. Pixar is amazing. A few of their movies are kind of meh, but none of them are bad. Finding Nemo and Wall-E make it into my top ten list.
3.    I have pages and pages in my scrapbook filled with movie tickets from going to theaters.

(By the way, the dress Keira Knightley is wearing in that picture is the wedding dress I imagine for Liza in my novel Her Daughter. Also the picture belongs to Focus.)

So tell me in your own blog post about what you like to watch or tell me in the comments.

Three Things Thursday

I'm terribly sick this week, but I couldn't miss Thursday! So after learning what you're passionate about (or in my case what I write), I'd like to know what you read. I think what someone reads says a lot about who they are. What you choose to read for hours at a time must be something you truly enjoy. Tell me waht that is so we can get to know each other better. Write your own blog post and add it to the linky or tell me in the comments.

Three things about...

 what you read.

1.    Young adult novels give me a chance to sit back and relax and just breeze through a book. Every once in a while I will come across one, like Looking for Alaska by John Green or Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, that makes me sit up and pay attention.
2.    I truly enjoy literature. Some people find it boring and useless or say that it’s only for students. But I really appreciate someone who can write an entire book on normal, everyday life and make it mean something.
3.    Jane Austen is my hero. I hope to be just like her. Well, except for dying in my forties, and being alone…ok so I want to write like her: cynical, humorous, a true skeptic of society. Only I already probably have broader horizons than she ever reached being a woman way back when.

Portraits of My Niece: One Year Ago

Just before my husband and I left to sit in D.C. for a month and then move to Germany, we went to the drag races. I took the opportunity to take my niece's one-year photos. She was just about to walk on her own. (I think she took her first steps just two days after we left.) But she still had those chubby baby cheeks.

She would walk with help, but every time you took your finger away she would just plop down on that Wrangler butt.

Our Mustang (hee hee, my husband will laugh that I said 'our') and my brother-in-law's Camaro in front of it both cooling off between runs.

Chubby baby cheeks, I just want to squeeze them.

Pointing at 'Daddy's Maro' as she calls it now.

Three Things Thursday

Let's go a little deeper and see how you really tick. Think hard and tell me about what you do that you are passionate about. I'll tell you about my writing, but feel free to change that to whatever has a soft spot in your heart.

Three things about...

 what you write (or are passionate about).

1.    Whenever I attempt a young adult or fantasy novel it comes out very childish. My characters seem to be children whenever my brain places them in a new world. It frustrates me to no end. But I’m attempting a science fiction, singularity piece for NaNoWriMo, we’ll see how it goes!
2.    I don’t write sequentially, in fact I can’t finish something if I’m forced to write it sequentially. I have to be able to hop around if I get bored with a scene. If it’s all in order it tends to turn into a monotonous list of things the character is doing.
3.    I always know my ending before I begin. Otherwise I don’t know how I’ll get there. (Learned that from a screenwriting professor in college. It became the only way I can start and finish a full story.)

Pen your own blog post and add it to the linky below or tell me in the comments about your passion!

Married 1001 Days

My husband and I have been married 1001 days. Yesterday he surprised me with a special occasion to celebrate and a cute elephant necklace from etsy. He kept hinting that we would have a special occasion coming up, but my birthday is still a ways off and I couldn't think of anything else. So when I woke up he said, "Happy 1000 days!" (Isn't he just too adorable?) To go along with that I'll post some pictures from our wedding.

We were married on December 17, 2007. It was sunny and gorgeous, but crazy windy. (We got married on the side of a mountain in Colorado.) It was a complete family affair. My sister and I baked the cake. My best friend provided the flowers. Everyone helped make it happen. Chris Giles and Randy Barnes from Alpine Wedding Photography were the photographers.

It's been a wonderful adventure over the last 1001 days and even before that. Here's to the next 1000!

Three Things Thursday

Still working on the background of who you are, I want to hear about your teenage years. Supposedly they are the most tumultuous times of our lives. I don't entirely agree; mine were extremely fun. Yes I went through some hard stuff, but that happens every year of my life.

Three things about...

your teenage years.

1.    I played a lot of (American) football with my friends.
2.    I studied the bible, extensively. Now I just treat that as added knowledge. I’m not a crazy religious. But I feel like I understand myself because of all that God study when I was going through the 'tough' years.
3.    I home schooled…but I’m not one of those weird anti-social types. You wouldn’t know it if you met me. It just gave me a sense of purpose in life and the ability to work well on my own. I graduated a year early and then did college in three and a half years. I have a crazy work ethic, but that comes from my dad not home schooling.

So please add your own blog post to the linky below, or tell me in the comments about yourself!

Portraits of My Niece

My niece is turning two on the 23rd of this month. So I figured I'd catch up on the photos I took of her during her first year. I'm so jealous that I don't get to do her two-year photos, my friend Cora gets the pleasure of that as well as pregnant belly pics of my sister's second baby.

I really want to try to get into some portrait photography here in Germany. People are my favorite subjects. Buildings are cold and heartless, landscapes are too vast, but people are warm and loving and all so very different.

So onto the photos I took when Sam, or Squeaker, was nine months old.

My sister pregnant with Sam.
Sam when she was 3 months old.
Sam when she was 6 months old.
A slideshow of Sam's first year.

Labor Day BBQ and a Few Blog Awards

Karen from Coming Down the Mountain is hosting a blogger BBQ this weekend to get to know other bloggers. I'm bringing the napkins and plates, because I absolutely suck at cooking, even cyber cooking.

At the same time, Melissa from Melissa Getting Published gave me a few blog awards, and I thought they were a good way for the bloggers in the BBQ to get to know me.

The Versatile Blogger

Rules:
1. Thank and link back to the person that gave the award.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass the award to fifteen other bloggers.
4. Contact the bloggers and let them know.


Seven Things About Myself
1. I'm an American living in Germany, and I absolutely love it.
2. On this blog I write about photography, writing, reading, design, crafting, and life. It's rather versatile, so I was excited to get this award.
3. I'm a writer. I have online articles and am currently working on a few novels.
4. My dream job would be an editor for a big publishing house. I'm obsessed with books and have an annoying habit of correcting the grammar in everything I read.
5. I'm a movie fanatic. Whenever I like a movie I buy it, then proceed to watch it a million times until I can say the lines in my sleep.
6. I've ridden horses my whole life. I've really missed it since being in Germany.
7. I always have ten million things going on. If I don't I become lazy. So right now I'm starting a new job, looking at classes to further my German studies, and considering getting a masters at a University here. (As well as reading lots and writing and running my own small crafting business...see what I mean?)

One Lovely Blog
Rules:
1. Link to the blogger who gave the award.
2. Pass the award to fifteen bloggers you've newly discovered.
3. Contact the bloggers and let them know.






Goodness, that's thirty blogs. I think I might mix those together and just do a total of fifteen...then I'll attend the BBQ and find some new blogs to follow!

1. Hanna at I'll Name My Typewriter After The Moon
2. Andrea at The Lighthouse Keeper
3. Adam at Author's Echo
4. Christine at Christine's Journey
5. Jessica at The Alliterative Allomorph
6. Summer at ...and this time, concentrate!
7. Jen at Unedited
8. Jessica at Epheriell Designs
9. Karen at Coming Down the Mountain

A few people to receive the Lovely award:

10. Summer at My Inner Fairy
11. Meredith at Fairy Tales and Cappuccino
12. RaShelle at A No. 2 Pencil Stat!
13. Bethany at Ink-Splattered
14. Stu at Stu's Place
15. I feel very flattered to receive these awards, but awards also bug me. It's like a clique or an exclusive club. So if you feel that you are versatile or have a lovely blog, please take these awards.

Three Things Thursday

How do you sleep? And do you know what it says about you? This week I want to know

Three things about...

 the way you sleep.

1.    On my side curled up. What does that mean?
2.    I make ‘happy noises’ when my husband gets in bed after I’m asleep. Which are basically grunts to say that I’m happy he’s cuddling with me. It’s completely unknown to me, but it’s what he tells me.
3.    I have nightmares if I watch horror movies. (Usually I’m the main character trying to solve the movie over and over and over.) And sometimes nightmares make me talk, or when I was a child: walk.

So do you sleep on your back spread eagle? Do you have nightmares? Or how about multiple dreams a night that you remember vividly? What makes you you in the way you sleep?

Add your blog post to the linky below, or just tell me in the comments!

Free September Desktop Calendar

This is a farewell to summer with bubbly drinks and limes floating in them. Goodbye to hot summer days that make me totally lethargic and sluggish. So long humidity that makes my hair fluffy and leaves mold on anything that is mildly damp for twenty seconds. Bring on fall. Cold weather, hot chocolate, scarves, and cuddling. Ah yes, back to bliss.

Just click on the picture. When it comes up in its own browser window, right click and save the picture somewhere on your computer. Then go to that location, right click on the picture, and set as desktop background. Voila, you have a photo calendar on your computer! And please let me know in the comments if you use it.