The Memory Jar

On this day last year I decided to do a little project. The Memory Jar.

For a whole year this little jar sat on my desk. Every few weeks or so I'd scribble on a piece of paper and toss it in there. Every day this jar would wait to be opened; but I wouldn't empty it until January 1st of 2014.

Today (I'm a little late, I know) I opened the jar. I read through the memories. Some of them I had completely forgotten, an old, faded, photograph; but others were fresh and colorful in my mind.





All the memories are different. Some are connected with others. Some are separated. Some are ripped, torn, and wrinkled; others are nicely folded into little squares. Some are in pen, some are in pencil. Some are in Minnesota, some are in Indiana. Some are good memories, some are bad memories. Some are old and some are new. Some are little some are huge.

I decided to read every memory once again, but this time I separated the ones I remember vividly and the others I remember faintly.

I had a handful {literally} of memories that are blurred in my mind.

All these faded memories all have something in common.

They're all from Minnesota.

I honestly am astonished at myself. That I would forget something so important, so dramatic, so life-changing.

I forgot everything that happened where I lived for two years, for just a moment.

For just a moment everything was in Indiana, for just a moment I had never moved. For just a moment.

And once I was done with these memories, I threw them away. Every single one. Because what happened in 2013 is not what's happening. It's like a medal dated "2013" and when people look at that and say "Wow! You accomplished so much!", and I think "What am I accomplishing?".

The year is young, one has 365 days to complete a goal. Only 365.

What are you going to do?

~Anna

Soft Pretzels, Lenses, and Meh

So.

This week.

Interesting, to say the least.

My friend and I were having a conversation when all of a sudden a thought took over my brain.

Soft pretzels.

So I wrote this two paragraph thing on how my friend is the soft pretzel to my life. And ended up drawing this.

I mean... He always smells good and he kinda looks like a soft pretzel...


And I also wrote this little word to describe my week so far.







It has been an incredibly interesting week but I have had the sudden desire to do nothing at all.


What really topped this week off was when my glasses broke. Like, actually broke. Not like that one time I was trying to get my sweatshirt off and the stem snapped. They actually....

Yeah.


'TIS STORYTIME.


OKAY, SO, I WAS AT THE GYM. Shooting around and stuff. I left to retrieve my ball and I come back and BANG! A ball hits the side of my head and little bits of plastic that I recognize to be my glasses are lying on the ground. I hear my brother yell "HEY! THAT'S MY SISTER!" as I blink myself back to reality. I pick up the pieces and face an apologetic voice "I'm so sorry, I am so so sorry.". I tell him numerous times that I'm alright and I give him a thumbs up and a bro-fist. My friend, Mattie, grabs my hand and tells me to head to the restroom to clean up some minor cuts on my face. I rip my hand away and charge to the ball I had set for shooting, the net snaps and I smile satisfactory. "Okay, now let's go clean all this blood up." I say, she grabs my hand and leads my blurry vision to the bathroom.

THE END.


That's basically what happened.

I thought I had only found one lens, but I found the other today in my bag.

And what did I do?

I had some fun with them.










Lenses are pretty cool. A little piece of glass can give you the ability to see the world like never before.

Eyes are so underrated.


I mean, think about it. There are these little orb-things IN YOUR HEAD that make you see things. They give you perspective and colors and art and mountains and grass and smiles and OTHER EYES THAT THEY CAN SOMEHOW COMMUNICATE WITH.

Eyes are cool.

~Anna

Water Color

Remember a few days ago when I said drawing would come back?

It came back. In a sorta different, simply complicated way.

But it came back.

And I still like it.


I've had water paints for about forever now. And I finally decided to bring them to some good use.

It cost me three, three, three pages to get this right.


Totally worth it.

Water painting is so much more fun than just coloring with pencil. It's more swift and spunky. Make a mistake? Just cover it up with more paint. And I make a lot of mistakes in drawings so this will come in handy.

I've been wanting to draw this since I saw my childhood favorite movie "Robin Hood" last week. When I was little this was my main movie. Robin Hood was *cough is cough* my future husband. I always looked up to this brave little fox and his partner, Little John. (Okay, hold up a minute. His partner is Little John but he's like, a ten thousand pound bear...I never understood that...)


And of course, no Robin Hood drawing isn't complete until it's topped off with an "Oh-De-Lally"! (Featured on the drawing above because that's just what I do)


Forever escaping to my paints and pencils,

Anna

The Lost Desire

Sometimes I get bored.

When I get bored, I do stupid things. {Like sleep on piano benches}

Last night I got bored and did something not-so-stupid. I found an empty sketchbook - it was a miracle that I found a blank one - and decided to draw.

Usually when I draw I aimlessly wave the pencil around hoping it would create something of great artistic ability. But I decided to draw with care; and the fun was raised tremendously. Whenever I would draw something hastily I would be disappointed with the outcome. But, surprisingly, I was slightly satisfied with how this drawing came out.

There comes a time where one's memory of how simply splendorous something can be starts to fade. And when the memory is freshened, boy, is it good.

I guess I just started a journal of art. Art journal, art diary, art book. Whatever you want to call it.

And quite frankly, I like it.

It's odd how even the little things can remind us how rejuvenating life is.

Drawing became this old hobby that was in the past. But now, I think I'll be drawing a little more often. :)

Oh, how wonderful it felt to have the pencil gently dancing across the page. The tension of tracing the led marks with pen. The joy of coloring and adding the finishing touches. And most of all, adding a little signature on the bottom declaring that I have done this, I did something that meant a lot to me, I created something.
Instead of an actual signature, I decided to draw a fox in honor of the pencil fox that was originally drawn on the page but was murdered by the eraser. You will be forever remembered, little fox.





I drew this picture of 'The Bluekele" in honor of my old, dusty, blue ukulele. I haven't played it in months. My fingers can barely find the chords anymore. The strings are incredibly out of tune; even my dogs are scared of the sound.

The ukulele and the drawing have one big thing in common.

They're both coming back. :)


And, in the inside of my new Art-Journal-Thing I decided to declare my artness of the art-journal-thing by writing a little note of my thoughts on the cardboard.






P.S The last l in 'will' is not a b, I promise.

It feels so incredible to do something new for a change.


This, this is good.


~Anna

Tis the Season!

Tis the season.

Tis the season to eat.

Tis the season to smile.

Tis the season to live.


Alas! It finally is the season where everyone can be happy at the same time!

Oh wait.

Shouldn't that be everyday?

We treat Christmas time like this sacred time were everyone needs to be happy and joyful all the time. Life is perfect along with every strung light-bulb  and snowflake that falls.

But once Christmas is over.

Blam.

Spell-check is judging me for typing 'blam'.

Well. BLAM. Ptthhsbbsth. Deal with it.

Anywho.

Once Christmas is over everyone goes back to their grumpy faces and store away the masks for next year.

Why can't it be Christmas all year round? Yeah, the lights won't be up and snow won't be falling. But why are we so tight the rest of the year? Why are we so tight living our lives? Why are we so afraid of living?

A friend of mine from Minnesota, let's chit-chat about her for a bit.

One day a lack of contentment blundered over her. Living in a small town wasn't her desire and her job was too bland. She snapped her fingers in wonderment as a brilliant idea sparked in her brain. "I'm gonna live with my cousin in New York City".   So, she talked it over with her cousin. She sold everything she owned and moved to New York. No job, no place to go back to if her plan backfired. She had nothing but her life.

The view from her window.

She has a job now, plenty of friends and a never-ending adventure of living in New York.

On November 11, 2012, an adventure happened.


She still lives there, she's as happy as ever.


'Living' is an understatement. It's not just breathing, it's so, so, much more.

It's trying new things, doing things you're terrible at but enjoying it anyway, striving to beat records and setting goals. It's dreaming and wondering and learning and speaking and feeling and hearing and having your breath taken away by the amount of pure, enjoyable, living.

If we all could live a wondrous life, if we all could love life as it should be loved...

It would be Christmas all year round.


~Anna

Something Different

This weekend has been quite different to the previous ones.

There was no soccer involved. :O (Okay, maybe a little...)

But, alas, the season has ended. I need to turn in my jersey tomorrow, along with the memories and victories my team had accomplished. We placed #2 in Nationals and #1 in State, now it's time to do our very best and try again next year. The old has gone the new is coming.

Now, back to the actual weekend I planned on writing about before my mind went potato.

I invited a friend over, she needed a ride to a retreat and she decided it would be easier for her to drive herself to my house first.

I practiced soccer outside as I waited for her, I didn't want her to get lost (Which she probably would have ;) ).

As I was juggling something caught my eye, something flashing.

I lifted my head and saw...


Superman.


A rather old, Superman.


Riding a three-wheeled scooter.



With a flashing belt.


I guess you're never too old to be 'super', being super is a never-ending quality that anyone could accomplish.


Now, I mentioned a retreat, right?

The retreat was marvelously fun and awkward in a not-so-fantastic kinda way.


We had to meet people. *Shudders* Luckily, I was picked by someone else, so I didn't have to pick anyone.  I had to be blind-folded and we played tag, I was the tagger first. I had to listen to this random dude's voice, and we did pretty well.

Then he had to be blind-folded and I had to give directions....And quite frankly, I'm not good at giving directions...

But, we never got tagged, we just went around the room until the time was up....I guess I didn't do too bad. :)

Although I'm not too fond of meeting new people, I broke out of my little fear-shell and talked to some new people; and it was pretty interesting to hear some of their stories.

I've met a lot of people since I moved back to Indy, and their stories are pretty fascinating.

One of my friends, amazingly talented at soccer...

But he barely spends any time at home. He spends his time at the gym or at his Dad's office, his Grandparents take him everywhere. If I wrote a story about him, I'd have him desire to have his Dad as a best friend; to be present at all his games and see his game-winning goals and his victory smile as he makes his team proud.


Now, this is interesting to me...

My best friend before I moved, I thought I knew everything but I only knew a fraction.

She writes stories, amazing stories. She creates movies in her head, she blurts out ideas that pop up and she fits them together like a piece of a puzzle so they all make sense in the end.


I never knew that knowing someone could change perspective on certain things...

There's a lot I don't know.


So much to discover, so much to remember....

It's a job for a Superman - of any age, size, or shape.

Time to get my super-flashy belt on and make a fashion statement and become famous.

JK.

I just want to meet a not-so-fictional character.


A job fit for a person with a super-flashy belt.



-Anna

*Bloop* Photo Memory!

*Gasp* Double post!! :O I have too much free time and way too much to write! Enjoy this while it lasts, it won't be happening often. ;)

Yesterday someone asked me about my week. I would usually respond "Good" or "Fun" or "Busy", but this time I thought I needed a little more description.

"This week has been amazawesome. It was filled with dinosaurs, sweat, and misspelled medals."

Their eyebrows raised and their eyes widened.

"Wow."

Yep. This is my life.

  I have pictures of every day of the week to help me explain.



Monday: October 14th, Fall Break, Creation Museum.


Even though I've already been to the creation museum when I was seven, it was great to see the structures again, it was almost as if I were seeing an old friend!

Reading interesting articles....

Waiting in line...





Tuesday, October 15th: Soccer with friends and a college soccer game.

Unfortunately the only pictures I have are these to selfies... Or as my friend likes to call them, ussies.

And yes, both of the guys I took selfies with were in college. Yes, I do know them both. These were taken at a restaurant near-by from where we play indoor soccer, this was the only opportunity I got to take pictures.

The college soccer game was rather disappointing. The concessions were so expensive, I couldn't even afford a candy bar!

Oh, and our team lost.

But man, I was hungry.

Wednesday, October 16th: Colored Converse

Wednesdays are my free days so I decided to do the colored Converse DIY.

Thursday, October 17th: Practice. No pictures. :(


Friday, October 18th: Semi-Finals

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19TH: STATE CHAMPIONSHIP.
After a hard, thrilling and spine-chilling game. We won. We're titled State Champions 2013. Or as the medal says "State Chamionship"


On Sunday my youth group had a bonfire, I told my friends about the game and also explained how they spelled "Champion" wrong.

It's funny, it's Indiana homeschool soccer.


Clearly.


We eventually found ourselves singing "We are the chamions, my friends..."

It has been a good week, a rather adventurous one. A week fit for a 'chamion'. ;)


~Anna