Il pleut - beaucoup

What's on the forecast for this whole week? Rain.
At least it feels like spring and the blossoms are out.



This song is keeping me company, courtesy of Hello Saferide, on this rainy day as I try to get things done. It's actually kind of our house song after one roomie played it and we've all looked it up since. The video is kind of weird, but I like the song.

I can't wait for this semester to be over, though things will carry over. Finals and the recent weeks have just been kind of stressful with logistics and projects. If I can get through Thursday I can get through anything! It's been a crazy four months. Wow....

Happy Valley

One of my favorite things to do is shoot at night up on a mountain overlook somewhere. I love setting the long shutter speed and seeing what happens. All you need is a tripod, a long shutter, and a cool location.
Check out some of the pics from last night's adventure. Some didn't turn out quite how I imagined, but they're still cool. See if you can pick my ghost out in a few.

film kids and a spontaneous night

This last weekend was a grand old time. We were going planning on creating a cine-poem (copyright Morgan Asdel 2011) with a group of four, but then two couldn't make it, so J and I ran out and took pics anywhere and everywhere and tested the beautiful 50mm lens! Woohoo! Well, it was really just me taking pics of J and making him do stuff. Good times.

LOVE the wash hut!

Then we met up with some other film kids to hang out and waste away the night! Things got kind of weird - like this sketchy hand up the cardigan! Poor E!

Then G pretended he was a gangster. That could never be because the first time he did the sign he spelled it backwards.

Then we hit up Sammy's for some food. Sammy's has the best burgers and is in a little place where my dad said they would go and hang out while he was at BYU. It was a burger joint back then too! Sammy's also has some pie shakes. They blend in a whole piece of pie with some ice cream. Pie shake = heaven.

Me and K with our pie shakes above

Making some shakes!

And then we found out that K can really do the four finger spread. I don't konw what it's really called, but she concentrated hard and did it! So proud and a picture to prove it!


All in all a fun, random night. Film friends are the best friends.

ode to shoes

These are my shoes. I love them. Best $5 purchase ever and cheapest buy ever at Urban Outfitters. Besides the sweet sale price, what makes these babies special? They have a faint smell of nasty rubber. I wore them over the weekend with a skirt and tights and they made the outfit. In summer you can bet I'll be wearing these every day. I will buy my clothes to match my shoes. And now a haiku, created in 30 seconds:

My Dear Funky Shoes
Oh I should have bought two pairs
You bring sunshine here

biz-ness trip

I am headed on a business trip this weekend. A fun, fast business trip. We're headed here :

I'm so excited to get out of Provo even if it means I'll be driving for 24 hours within a period of 3 days. Saturday we've got a sound check early in the AM we'll have to shoot. Then hang out in San Fran for the day and shoot the show that night. Maybe we'll grab breakfast Sunday and then head back. It's business but not though because I like traveling, I like music shows, and I like filming.
I'm also excited because someone fun is meeting us out there and then driving back to Utah with us.
Should be a BLAST!

tune in

my old roommate showed me this musical couple. they have some funny, cute songs that maybe i would like even more if i was married, but i'm still a fan when i'm in the mood for some fun love songs - check out Tyrone & Elina


also, i may be behind the curve, but i love The Tallest Man on Earth - there's something about his voice and the melodies that i love. there's something about his tunes that feel earthy and beautifully rough. i've found his voice is the deciding factor, either loved or hated, so good luck and have a listen.

girls night!

first off - the reason the candy shoppe is called the candy shoppe (my roommate's) and it only takes real pennies - that's how we pay rent :)


SO...i had a fun girls night with a few married/one engaged friend. the husbands were both out of town and the fiance was studying, so they called for a girls night. i ran and met them for dinner and then we went back to C's apartment and made some awesome s'more cookies while we watched Say Anything, the best 80's chick flick ever made! It was a blast and they are my favorite people to hang out with!
Here's the gist of how it went:
start with a quarter graham cracker s'more, the marshmallow is cut in half

then you start putting cookie dough all around it.

progress of putting cookie dough around it. we used one tube for only 4 cookies!

when you put them in the cookie dough they look like potatoes

drank some of this while we were waiting - delicious raspberry lemonade. tastes like summer

toasty golden brown and ready to come out

callie and jessie - boo to the blur

miranda and her cookie

By the end of the movie at 11:30 we called it a night. i'm loving early nights more and more - i don't know how i survived freshman year or thought that it was fun to stay up late. i'm pooped by 10 these days, but i kinda like it

Things that matter.

Life has gotten crazy. Sometimes I just wish there was a pause button every once in a while until I get caught up. Partly though it's my fault because I'm such a procrastinator! When life gets crazy I get so caught up in the things that are immediately stressing me out and I forget what really matters.
I remembered last week one of my main goals - to own a little boutique/store or a hummus bar (genius right....you can't steal that idea) in a cool town that I LOVE living in! I totally forgot about that dream and I'm ashamed I did.
I also have a billion projects/goals I want to do come spring/summer and a few right now.
Here is kind of a list of things:
doc on my grandpa and the family orchard; doc on the backyard urban gardening girl; learn a few songs on the banjo; start a roommate blog; learn photoshop better; take awesome pictures; figure out lighting; silk screen a billion shirts; keep a better journal; go to bed earlier; etc.

Here are some things from recent times that have helped me keep my head on straight:

HUGE pazookies that have hearts in the middle.

sunday jams and new friends.

longboarding in winter?

wannabe boy bands.

this crazy art display makes me smile in the HFAC.

V-day candy

after i got back from the gym tonight, i ate some of THIS from our jar of candy. bad news... but it was roommate bonding. everyone was doing it.

New Directions (not glee style)

I've decided to take kind of a new direction with this blog if I ever get in a habit of writing.
Here's the deal. Once upon a time I was really shy. Really shy. My 5th grade teacher gave me some advice and wrote it in my yearbook. Let's preface this with, my 5th grade teacher was awesome. His name was Mr. C and he said he was born in the hospital elevator, which is maybe why he turned out a little crazy. What a way to start off life right?
Anyway while I was talking to my mom the other day, and as I've been trying to find my way through this crazy creative world, my mom reminded of Mr. C's advice. His advice to me was "step off the platform and onto the train of life".
I'm definitely not really shy anymore, but I'm definitely not a pusher and still need to learn to stick up for myself. So that's the new theme that I'm going to keep at the forefront of everything. I'm going to try and use this blog to help me be accountable to that every day.
So here goes...

Provo Tabernacle

When my roommate sent me a text with a photo of the Provo Tabernacle smoking my heart broke. We'd had stake conference there just a month before and that building has such a spirit by itself. That building was the work of the pioneers built between 1883 and 1898, but then remodeled in 1917. The wood work and architecture was beautiful. Inside there was a balcony and a gorgeous organ. Hopefully they'll rebuild it. It was the most beautiful building in Provo.

The tabernacle burning at night: click here

The day after, still smoking: click here

a little bite of the big apple

R.U.D.E.

Saw this posted on a friend's facebook that she overheard on our reading day.
Two girls were walking into the library next to a guy.

He says,"I don't hold the door for girls wearing sweatpants. If you're not going to try, neither am I."

Well rude guy, I'm not going to hold the door for guys with basketball shorts and sneakers or a five o'clock shadow. If you're not going to try, neither am I.

Then I found this comic, which applies perfectly:

Sweatpants don't usually complement the butt.

BUT WAIT... isn't holding the door just a common courtesy and not a decision based on how put together someone looks? A little bit of a selfish attitude there my friend. Only doing a little service if something is in it for him.

I liked one of the comments under my friend's original post. Something along the lines of how he's going to get stuck with a really high maintenance wife and a couple years down the road will hate his life. He'd deserve it.

Seriously, give the girls a break! It's finals week. I think sweatpants are a good sign right now. Don't you want a potential girlfriend/wife to care more about her education, during a time when it really matters like finals week, than looking good to try and impress whoever she might see in the library. I'm not saying you can't look cute and be studious, but don't hate on girls who just want to be comfortable.

After relaying this experience to guy friends I was surprised to see that any of them were on the rude guy's side.
What the?
But after explaining our reasoning they understood the situation and sided against him. Majority were already on our side, just fyi.

Then I said I was going to wear sweatpants for a month and they asked if I thought I'd get asked on any dates. HA! Every day I head to campus it's not just to try and get asked on dates.
Mrs. degree? No, I want a real one.

When a girl looks nice it's not just for you boys. It is partly for you, but it's majority for herself.
For example, if I feel like I spent time getting ready it makes me feel more confident to tackle my day, feel like my life is put together, and do things with more lady-like grace.

What's up with this BYU expectation that girls should look their best everyday?

That's it. I hope I run into that tool on campus sometime. Good luck with the ladies my friend.

warming winter

P is soon leaving for London and this weekend we went on 2 dates. First was just all over town trying on onesies, to The Chocolate and we got sugared out so we ended up at Sammy's to balance it out. Then the next night we went to our ward christmas party, which was a party up at the Aspen lodge and then I took her on a tour around Sundance. It's pretty chilly up there, but the lights are beautiful and so we took some pics. We really do love hanging out together, but it would've been 10x better to be on real dates after being surrounded by couples at the christmas party. Oh well...

I was just tagged in these photos from a fun date night for my birthday! S baked a caked cause there were actually 2 birthdays to celebrate. We carved ice cream (crazy right?) and it was so fun! You can see the JEEP we carved in the front right out of vanilla ice cream. It had the top down, seats, and even people, so it was no surprise we won first place. If you use your fingers to carve though they'll go numb....careful.

TMA 273 Video

Embedding test from vimeo for TMA 273:

The Festival of Lights from Lauren Merkley on Vimeo.

date night

So P and I really wanted to see the lights at Temple Square, so we decided to double it up one night. So it ended up being me, C, P, and J cruisin up for a little date night fun.
On our way there we stopped at a yummy falafal place P knew about just like 10 minutes out. It was so so good and we reminisced about Jerusalem and tried to remember our Arabic we'd learned while we were over there. I remembered a lot more than J, but they were all random phrases, like 'I'm not married'(I remembered that one).
The girl who ran the register was being really funny and didn't let J pay for dinner when he was trying to shove his card in front of P's. She was like "Oh no, I'm all about having the girl pay. I know how it goes." That made me wonder..."Wait, how what goes?" I don't know what she was talking about, I'm all about letting the boys pay if they offer. P and I were planning on paying since we initiated this and I think that's how it should go, for the record. She was nice though besides that weird comment.
So, weather conditions were not prime. Cold (always expected), but it was drizzly and wet wet wet too! It made me not want to take pictures out, but then I did and it was great.

We got there kind of late, so we snuck in one Visitor's Center, but then the others were closed right before we got to them.
They have the big nativity out on the lawn, with different parts lighting up as the biblical account is read and it's really cool. Then they have an excerpt from Pres. Monson at the end about remembering Christ and the real reason for celebration being the Savior's birth.

The lights and the temple are so beautiful and it makes everything seem so magical. This year I felt like we passed by TONS of teenagers on group dates too, which was really funny.
We finally found the best picture spot(see below):

P & J


Me & C

Post light-seeing we ran over to Gateway to look for mittens/gloves and get some yummy drinks at Starbucks. We parked by Urban Outfitters and ran in, but no luck on mittens. Starbucks was success though and we all got something different. P and J both got vanilla steamers with different flavored shots. I got peppermint hot choc and C got salted caramel hot choc. It hit the spot after the cold and wet.
Then we headed on home to P-town after a successful trip to the big city :)

Donde esta Santa Claus?

I love November and December.
There is just a good feeling around the holidays.
I especially love christmas lights.
Our house is the coolest on the block now and the brightest.

November is great.
The Sunday before my birthday I honestly forgot my birthday was coming up.
Good thing someone asked me about it.
We had a little shindig, so fun!

OH and HP #7 (first half) was SO GREAT! I loved it.
Went to see Inception for the 4th time. I'm writing a paper about it.

Thanksgiving is great too.
We didn't have a huge blizzard like they said we would.
Major let down. I just wanted to get my snowpants on. That's right.
Since then it just switched and now it's that nose nipping cold all day and night.
Our sprinklers weren't turned off yet though, so our whole lawn was frozen in the AM.
At first i was confused when it was only our lawn and then I connected the dots.

So since there was no blizzard we, some 192nd buddies, hit up a mexican restaurant.
This wasn't just any mexican restaurant.
It's one we've driven by a billion times, but never gone too because it screams "you'll have the runs for days".
It turned out to be quite good though.
We reminisced about Freshman year.
Oh those were fun times!
It's weird having the boys back, but so good.
It was so colorful inside. I loved it!

"Beans be with you 'til we meat again"(hopefully not)

Big plans for some onesies action, so we went on an adventure to purchase one.
Some were more excited than others:



I just wish it'd snow more.
I wanna get my snowpants on.