*sigh* insert title here

Everything in my last post was true. I have an unfortunate habit of eating excessive amounts of Twizzlers. I somehow always manage to spill pasta on the floor (first time it was half the pot). And this weekend I am so excited because we have Monday off and I am going to get so much done! *please note the conviction with which I speak* Today, Saturday, I woke up at 7 and finished reading my book by 9. It was a very interesting historical fiction book set in India in WWII. Then, I fried my brain on math homework for 2 hours--which was sort of funny because it involved mostly algebra, which I like. Oh dreaded be the days of graphing. Afterwards, I practiced my piano and then went on a walk with my parents, and then went and did my volunteer shift at the library. But get this, I drove there and back. Not only did I freak my mom out, but myself as well. She had me try and back out of a parking space at the library after my shift was over. Well, I've never backed out of any space really except for empty church parking lot spaces surrounded by imaginary red convertibles. Usually, I'd take out both convertibles to either side of me, but I have had some success. Now, I didn't hit anything in the library parking lot. It's just that you're so focused on not trying to hit the car to the left of you, or any poor pedestrians that happen to be behind, that you forget about the car to the right of you, and that's an unfortunate business. Luckily, my mom was there to yell stop a few thousand times. So, moral of the story, driving is terrifying. Even when everything goes quite nicely, I still can't stop shaking for nearly 5 minutes afterwards. I drove my mom to Palisades after she pulled the car out of the library parking lot, and this nice employee there offered us cheese samples. When I took the toothpick, my hand was shaking so bad it reminded me of math class, where we learned about something called simple harmonic motion or something something oscillating motion. Can't remember what the spiffy name is. But that's what it reminded me of. It's terrible. Then I got back to my house, and did some college research on naviance and such, which pretty much brings us to now. Yes, that is my entire Saturday in all excruciating detail. Poor souls. You deserve a girl scout cookie for reading through all of this. Samoas are the best, in my humble opinion.

Dear Amy, You Will Not Procrastinate

Dear Amy,
This month, you will not procrastinate. You will write a 4 to 6 page paper about your life story without sarcasm. You will not spill pasta all over the kitchen floor. You will not eat all the Twizzlers while watching Harry Potter. You will clean out your backpack. You will study for the SAT and learn a bunch of smarty-pants words that no one really uses in normal conversation except to sound smart, which really bugs you, but you will learn them anyways because they're on the SAT and you want to get into a good college. Honestly, why do people utilize the word "utilize" when they can just say "use"? Efficiency, efficiency. Okay, I admit that there are some pretty good words in there. SOME. And you will not procrastinate in learning them. You will not procrastinate at all.

Yours truly,
yours truly

Anyways, thanks for all the feedback on my last two concentration pieces, for those that commented! I really like this online critique business. I feel like I can express my thoughts more completely. And it also allows for an extra work day in class.

Oh! Does anyone happen to be taking AP physics currently? I'm trying to decide which science class I want to take next year and I'm wondering what it's like. If anyone could share their thoughts, that would be great. Thanks!

Done! Sort of....

J'ai fini! Just finished the last of January's concentration pieces! I'm not sure if we're supposed to post them on our blog right now for that online critique--guess I should bring them in tomorrow anyways. I can't say that I was super pleased with how this month's pieces turned out. but for the artist, it's the process that counts, right? right? ah, well. One of them is a bit of a stretch, I think, for my concentration. too busy. lacking interest. meh. ah well, I guess we learn most from our failures. I might work a little more on it later, to make it more like I imagined it. or accidentally ruin it trying to make it like I imagined it. anyways, here they are:

sorry about the upside-down one. not quite sure how to get the thing right side up. I'll go mess with it later.

As of last night, I have successfully given a title to every single piece of writing for my creative writing project! Triumph! Not that they're especially good, but still. I got it done. The entire thing is titled "Amy's Writing". Yes, wildly creative. Again, I take possession. It's just, I'm so bad with titling my artwork. It's embarassing, really.

Terrible with titles.

This weekend was going to be my super-productive, get-everything-for-school-done-before-finals weekend. Finish my first acrylic concentration piece. Get a story map for Huck Finn going. And what have I done? Stare at my concentration piece. Walk down to George Rogers park and gaze all googly-eyed at the waterfall along the way (yes, with all the rain it really is that cool). Oh, and something rather interesting happened yesterday. I was moving some finished works--acrylic ones--around the house and I took my Harry Potter one into the family room. Where the sky is normally darker blue on the piece, the paint looked a lavender color. So naturally, I freaked out and asked if anyone else saw obvious purple. They did. Then I took it into my room, and it didn't look purple at all. It's  really odd what lighting can do to a painting.

National portfolio day this weekend....

So. National portfolio day is coming up on Sunday and I have to admit that I'm actually really nervous about going around and talking about my work. Does anyone know if we can bring sketchbooks? Speaking of which, my sketchbook sets off the library beeper (or whatever you call it). Does this happen to anyone else? I wonder what it is....

3 days until school starts....

Well, Happy Holidays everyone! This winter break, I decided to spread the holiday cheer by making themed sugar cookies. And not just any sugar cookies, mind you. Human-shaped cookies. Where might this be leading, you ask? Well...(and here I take a moment to cackle)....to none other than Harry Potter character cookies! Actually, I managed to rip off no less than 4 major pop culture franchises in less than two hours with these cookies. And no, the Twilight series is not part of that esteemed group of 4. Anyways, I had quite a lot of fun making them--even if my cookie decorating skills make it a little difficult to tell who's who. It was, I believe, the extent of my holiday "food preparation" experience.





up close of voldemort and umbridge (wearing the horcrux)



Snape is right below Voldemort (my favorite) and Harry and Ron are right next to him. They're both wearing one of Mrs. Weasley's sweaters. Right next to Ron is Ginny wearing the Hogwarts uniform, which wasn't going to be Ginny until I messed the uniform up. There are also three cookies not pictured here, which is no matter because my brother ate one of them and the heads broke off of the two others.

Anyways, aside from cookies, my family just got back from Arizona this afternoon. I took some concentration/ watercolor stuff down with me hoping to finish a piece...but it didn't happen. I made progress, but I still have quite a bit to do. Actually, the first time I tried to start drawing, something rather horrific happened. I was in Las Vegas visiting my aunt and cousin, and we were driving down to Flagstaff, Arizona that day. Anyways, I brought my art stuff outside and was trying to find a dry spot to set it down and go get something else. Well, the only dry spot happened to be a pile of fake wood sitting near the pool. Out of nowhere, this big gust of wind came up and blew my watercolor paper pad open and my "mandrake heart" piece into the pool, along with the picture I was using as a model. Honestly, it was like watching a nightmare. So, of course, I jumped in after it. Thank goodness the steps at the shallow end protruded out farther than in most pools. Really, I only got my jeans wet up to my knees because it hadn't quite got to the deep end (I waded out on the steps). And thank goodness that it was watercolor paper. The regular printer paper that I was using for the model picture was destroyed, but it didn't really matter that much. It was all very exciting.