some grainy photos to prelude a voyage

These are from a little zine I got at the library for 50 cents. They are accompanied with french poems. They are exciting me for Europe. (Not like I needed a whole lot of assistance).
I've decided to take my camera. I do want to take pictures. Not snapshots, though. Good pictures.
My backpack is about half-packed. I'm excited to live on this meager amount for a whole month.
The last few days, (as much as I love it here) I've kept saying "I wish I could just get away from this for a while," (this being my routine, my house, my town, etc.), completely forgetting that it is exactly what I'm doing. It will be so good to live out of a backpack and see wonderful things and stumble around in foreign languages...
I am so completely totally hundred-per-cent pleased. Let's do this, eh?!
See you in a month. Love.

Begin: Summer

Bizarre. The first day of summer.
Our annual sleep-out was really awesomely perfect.
I like Alaska so much right now that I don't want to leave for a month.
But I'm going to Europe. I just haven't really realized that fully.
I want to make an inspiration wall for writing songs and paintings and writing.
I need to write a list of things I want to do this summer.
But I'm leaving for a month! A Month! I've never been away that long.
I hope I change over that month. I am glad to remove myself from ordinary life for that long. Maybe I'll come back a totally different person.
Just read Phantom Tollbooth, reading The Catcher in the Rye, both suggested by Ava. Should I bring books to Europe? Will I want to read? I just got Vanity Fair and I still want to read the rest of Les Miserables. So many summer books. Feeling tired and weird, maybe will sleep.

Well. Dancing is important, that's for damn sure. I am feeling slightly woozy after 2 days of AP testing, sitting in rooms and filling in bubbles. But tomorrow I go back to school. Honestly, I am planning on being such a baby, my brain is tired from testing.
So, after the test today, I made cookies. Specifically, "Lemon-Scented Olive Oil Cookies with Almond Glaze". I know, I know, olive oil cookies? Ew, right? Wrong. I made them vegan, altering them from Joy the Baker's blog, so I was ready for some pretty nasty specimens. But they turned out well.

There are only 5 days of school left. And then Europe. Can you believe it??

mother's day (a little late)

I realize, my mom is the cool baker I met hiking, with the bangs and the long braid. Only she's not a baker. She's an artist, and she hikes and cooks and adventures, she's really cool. Seeing old pictures of her is about the coolest inspiration ever. Those are my genes.

a saturday excursion

morning

A vegan cooking bonanza is what it seems like around here. Here is a prettier picture of the cupcakes I made last night, finally. They are from Joy of Cooking, they are vegan, and they are made with orange juice. I can't actually tell you how they taste, I have yet to try one, but according to my mother, they are tasty. And below are the vegan-apple waffles I experimented with this morning, from Post-Punk Kitchen's recipe. While not aesthetically pleasing (they stuck to the waffle iron most unpleasantly) they turned out good. "Lacey" is the term we used, since they were a little crispy and crepe-like. Outdoors-wise, I am head-over-my-heels in love with Alaska, almost to a point of ridiculousness: jealousy of my friends going on a 2-week camping trip, and I can't go because I'm going to Europe. That's silly. But anyway, I drove up a long road into the valley which I had never been to before, and passed houses with llamas in their yards and imagined living in these cute little houses and decided maybe I would come back here after all.

(This is not from my drive, but from hiking last weekend. We ran into some moose, and more excitingly, a woman who was a baker in the Valley. I want to be a baker in the Valley. She had short bangs and a braid and reminded me of exactly how I want life to be.)

cranky cupcakes at night

More tomorrow...

flickr loveliness

1. Untitled, 2. road through the andes, 3. fly away, 4. Untitled

I so want to get a nice camera and travel and take pictures.

twice-baked bread

Ooh I love days like today. All constructed from reading on the porch in the sun, sewing things to give to people, doing the crossword and drinking tea from a cup I made, and lastly, Food Not Bombs, once again.












I didn't attend this week, but helped send my brother off with some bread. The original loaves were found (in large quantities) in the dumpster behind the Wonder Bread factory, their defect being slightly under-baked. So, now they live in our freezer, and we baked 5 loaves today until they were no longer doughy but bready and good.

Now I'm off to A's to do some math and watch a movie and have a nice evening to a nice day.

I want to uproot everything and start anew.

I need something to CHANGE.