smiles all around.

Listening to: Joy to the World by Sufjan Stevens. 
Quote love: “That's the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they've been all along.” Madeleine L'Engle
 

I have a complete jumble of things that I want to say, and none of them really amount to their own post, so I suppose I'll combine them. 

Thing 1) One of my favorite weekends of the year is over, and I'm ready for Christmas now. I'm not really a holiday person, more of an inbetween person. I like fall and spring, mild, inbetween seasons. I could do with just a few weeks of winter/summer. But. This year is a little different. I'm looking forward to the holidays more than usual. I have a feeling this has something to do with the youngest sister announcing how many days until Christmas everyday. We're planning on putting up our tree tonight as well as the Christmas decorations. I've had my Christmas music playing all week, and now, I'm ready for snow.

Thing 2) Dear followers, I love you all dearly. I'm so thankful for you. However, sometimes it's difficult to find the links to your blogs and whatnot. This makes me sad because I love to connect to you, and that's hard to do when it depends on you commenting here, and my reply back to that. So please leave me your link so I can drop by and get to know you! 

Thing 3) I'm loving the weather around here. Today it's been rainy and wet. I love that. The rain, plus the Book Thief (I'm re-reading it; it's that good.) and a mug of eggnog-coffee makes a perfect day. 

Thing 4) In a few very short weeks (likely after Christmas; I'm still not sure about the timing.) there's going to be a Paperdoll blog party! I'll give more details in my next post. It should be a lot of fun.

Thing 5) How were your weekends? Restful? Crazy shopping? Good family time? I'd love to know! I stayed home for most of my five day weekend, and it was so nice to not have anything to do. Just a few more weeks of school till Christmas break!

the generic thing to do.

Listening to: Smile by Uncle Kracker. 
Quote love: “I like to think that if my life were a book, I'm in the part that's so good you can't put the book down.”

 

I'm thankful for my relationship with my parents. I'm thankful that I can sit down and talk about whatever is on my mind with my mom; I'm thankful for every time I kiss my dad goodnight and he tells me I'm beautiful. 

I'm thankful for my siblings. For my older brother, who I can trust with anything. For my younger sister, whose been my best friend for as long as I can remember. I'm thankful for my two youngest sisters, who give the best hugs. 

I'm thankful for my friends. I'm thankful for my youth group, for all the friends that I have there. 

I'm thankful for you followers, you mean a lot to me. I love knowing that someone reads what I write and takes time to talk to me about it.

I'm thankful for Starbucks coffee (Pumpkin spice latte). 

I'm thankful for grey Converse. 

I'm thankful for Darcy, my camera. 

I'm thankful for God, and how much he has blessed me.

I'm thankful for Switchfoot and their music. :) 

I'm thankful for all the opportunities I've had. 

I'm thankful for our fireplace on cold nights. 

I'm thankful for the stars and the rain: that two of the things I love the most are never visible at the same time. 

I'm thankful for laughter and smiles, even though my eyes will be abnormally wrinkly when I get old.

I'm thankful I spent 1/3 of my childhood in Europe. 

I'm thankful for fresh French-pressed coffee (also, alliteration).

I'm thankful for the many wonderful blogs that make me want to copy their content. 

I'm thankful for British adjectives, like brilliant and wicked. Words like that force me to bring out my English accent. 

I'm thankful for fall, that it gives me an excuse to wear boots and wool coats. 

I'm thankful for my creaky old Mac that's about to fall apart. 

I'm thankful for you!

I'm thankful for jeans that are so old they keep the shape of my body when I take them off. 

I'm thankful for school in my pajamas. 

I'm thankful for my library, small as it is. 

I'm thankful for the one pen that makes my handwriting look better than it really is. 

I'm thankful that iTunes offers free music on Tuesdays.

I'm thankful for stunning sunsets. 

I'm thankful for the brilliance of fall.

I'm thankful for my 30 pages of quotes, and how reading them makes me happy. 

I'm thankful for my life. For how much God has blessed me and how much he's doing in my life. And if you got to the end of the list, I'm thankful for you once again.

grey like fog.

Listening to: Look For Me by Decemberadio.
Quote love:  “November can rock some serious orange. And red and brown and stormy gray. November is the kind of month that starts out flashy-bright and ends with a sleepy winter sky. A definitive beginning. A sweet ending.” Natalie Lloyd, via.

Yesterday, we spent half the day pressing cider at a friend's house. I realized how much I love black and white photography, especially on foggy wet days. It's one of those things that remind me of England and the Netherlands.

blessed.

Listening to: Sing it Out by Switchfoot. 
Quote love: "The word pretty is unworthy of everything you will be, and no child of mine will be contained in five letters. You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative, pretty amazing, but you will never be merely “pretty." Katie Makkai

we roasted coffee beans last week. the coffee was better than the espresso.

I have a few questions. Some of them make me feel stupid asking them.

But. I need to know.

Could someone explain to me why all of the pictures I post look grainy?  Cause that's not how they look in iPhoto or on GIMP. I was scrolling down my blog earlier and realized how bad they looked. Is it just me? Or are they really that noisy?

Also. Does anyone know why I'm having trouble figuring out aperture/shutter speed. (besides, obviously, I haven't been doing this photography thing very long.) Here the problem. Let's say I have Darcy set on aperture priority and the aperture set on, say 4.5. Darcy sets the shutter speed to something like 1/125. The picture turns out fine. I program the same settings into the camera, the only difference being manual priority. The picture is underexposed. I don't get it.

I've been incredibly blessed lately. Sometimes things seem to work out perfectly without any trying. That's how I've been feeling lately. God has been blessing me.

my apologies.

My two weeks off were amazing, thank you very much. Even though originally, it was only one, I just couldn't seem to write anything.

I had a lot of extra time, full of good books (I think I managed 10 the first week-a record for me), lots of rest, and focus on important things like school and my lovely family.

I'm ready to get back into the whole blogging world and write real posts, take to do something more than a choppy list and a few pictures. Not writing for awhile puts things in perspective, what's important. I can't wait to jump back in.

What's been up in your life? I feel like I've been gone for a long, long time- I have been reading blog updates and whatnot, but without the whole commenting back and forth, it doesn't feel the same. So let me know what's going on in your life!