10 on the 10th: Carrie's Guest Post

Hi friends and fans of Rinda! My name is Carrie Rosalind and I blog over at Rosalind Revival about all the stuff that happens in my awesome 23-year-old life. Every year I make a list of things I want to do before my next birthday, and since my 24th birthday is right around the corner, Rinda so kindly offered to let me check one of the items off of my list and do a guest post on her blog. We both like to participate in Shimelle's 10 on the 10th prompt, so today we're pulling a "Freaky Friday" (er, Thursday) and switching ages...she's talking about her life at 23 on my blog, and I'm gazing into my crystal ball and predicting what I will have done by 50.

10 Things I Hope I've Done by the Age of 50:

1. Get married to my Prince Charming. As Snow White said, "Someday my Prince will come." He hasn't ridden up on a white horse for me yet, but I think he's saddling up somewhere right now.

2. Be on TV. It's a not-so-secret recent goal of mine that I want to be on The Bachelor. Yeah, yeah...I know, criticize me all you want. But I've always had an urge to be on either a reality show or a game show. I'll let you know when my episode airs! ;)

(picture taken at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - one of the coolest things I've ever seen!)

3. Ride in a hot air balloon. I seriously have been talking about doing this for years, and if I haven't done this by 50 I'll be mad at myself. 

4. Have a kid. Maybe one, maybe two, no more than three. I'm an only child and plural scares me.

5. Travel to Greece. I fell in love with Greece after reading the book Traveling With Pomegranates, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since.

6. Attend another 20 Jason Mraz concerts. It's no secret I'm a huge Jason Mraz fan, and I've got my tickets in hand for my 6th Mraz show this October. I plan on seeing him every time he comes through Phoenix, and perhaps even making some road trips.

7. Become a published author. Be a New York Times Bestselling author. Shoot for the stars!

8. Be a rockstar. Okay, maybe not really. But I've just started playing guitar and I'm a little obsessed with it. I'd love to write some of my own songs and maybe even perform at an open mic night sometime...or ya know, opening for Jason Mraz would be pretty cool too.

9. Have a bookshelf full of scrapbook albums I've created. I've seen Rinda's bookshelves, and they are phenomenal. SO many scrapbook and art journal pages to be flipped through. One can only dream to rival her someday.

10. Be happy.

Thanks so much for letting me take over your blog for a day Rinda!

xoxo,
Carrie Rosalind

Wordless Wednesday: Shot on Goal

Linking up (for the first time ever) with Wordless Wednesday.

Prom 2012

Henry and his girlfriend looked beautiful as they headed off to their prom. I really enjoyed taking a few photographs. I had taken some notes from this tutorial on posing couples, in order to come up with this pose:

It would have been nicer if they were actually holding hands, but Henry was not really interested in me giving instructions. So, I settled for a few candid shots:

And, a group shot of the boys. Most of the group are soccer players, and they asked me to take their picture (which kindof annoyed Henry), but I didn't mind.  Because even though Prom is often about the girls and their dresses, I have a soft spot in my heart for these boys.

Maybe I'll grow into taking portraits of girls, but, for now, I prefer the boys. What about you?
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p.s. Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday for Storytelling Sunday. I was busy today, watching my boy's soccer team win the Nor Cal State Cup:

So, I haven't had a chance to visit your blogs. But I plan to do that soon!

A Tale of Two Tuxes: Storytelling Sunday

Last night I took Henry to try on his tux for his Junior Prom, which is being held tonight. 
It reminded me of the last time he wore a tux - when he was the ring bearer in my brother's wedding.

When I looked at the layout which accompanied this picture, I noticed that the journaling read "Henry enjoyed wearing his tuxedo. He called it his 'good pirate' costume, as opposed to the 'bad pirate' costume he was planning to wear for Halloween."
Sigh. 
Little boys grow up. 
And their mothers' hearts ache with both sadness and pride.
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This story (in pictures, and just a few words) is presented as part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday, Year 2. To join in and read more stories, go visit this link.

PPF: Clothesline Redux

I'm not sure why, but there's something about clotheslines which speak to me. This watercolor art journal page reads: "This is the clothesline of my inner athlete." It's not the first clothesline I've done. I've posted this plaster pieces before:

And this art journal page:

And one of my all-time favorite photographs which I took in Venice:

I have no clue why I'm drawn to this motif, but I am.  Just like I'm drawn to houses.  Weird.
Are there recurring motifs to which you are drawn and you don't know why?
I'm posting this to Paint Party Friday.  To see more painterly goodness, click on this link.

Classes in Progress (A Confession)

I received an email from Strathmore today that the "Force Drawing" class in which I am enrolled is set to begin.  It's a free class, and you can learn more about it at this link.  I'm not quite ready to start it though. Why? Because I haven't finished the earlier free Strathmore class  ("Watercolor Sketching") in which I am enrolled!  I've finished the first two lessons in the watercolor class, but there's still two lessons to go.  I looked at the lessons and decided that I really do want to complete that class. There's a third free Strathmore class - Doodling Unleashed with Traci Bautista.  I haven't even looked at that one, and I'm not sure I will before the classes expire in August.
Anyway, this got me thinking about the other classes I have "in progress," and I was chagrined by the length of my list.
In the mixed media realm, I am almost done with "The Art of Wild Abandonment," for which I did the art journal page up top.  There are about three projects I want to finish before I declare that class "done."  I want to do that fairly soon, so I can post a class review before I forget what I learned in it.
At the end of last year, I signed up for a Katrina Kennedy photography class called "Exposure." I never managed to start that class! I did, however, just locate the class materials online, and I will print it out soon.  Also in the photography field, I need to do some refreshing on photo shop. I bought permanent video access to Kim Klassen's Skinny Mini class, and I want to go back and work my way through the videos again. I also bought a Jessica Sprague photo editing class called Good-to-Great. I started the class and then my hard drive died. Sadly, I never got back to it. I'm going to figure out whether I still have access to those class materials.
Finally, on the scrapbooking side, I recently won the class "Collect and Create with Amy Tan" from the Ali Edwards blog.  I need to sign up at Two Peas and figure out how to collect that class.
That seems like plenty to keep me busy through the summer!!! It is very unlike me to sign up for or start a class and then not finish it. Please someone poke me if I even hint at signing up for something else until I work my way through these!
So, there you have it - my  "classes in progress" confession. I'm willing to bet that I'm not alone in having a list of classes "in progress." I'm curious. What's on your list?

Stamp Winner, Blogger Blooper, and More . . .

A little mid-week pretty for you today to go along with my ramblings . . .
First, congratulations to Alison for winning the flower stamps from yesterday!  Email me (rinda1961@yahoo.com) with your mailing address, and I will send them off to you.
Second, I made a blogger blooper.  When I was uploading a post the other day, I got an error message that I had exceeded my storage capacity on blogger! I had never heard of this before.  Being too cheap to buy the upgraded service being offered, I went into my google blogger picassa album and deleted some images and my post went through. Unfortunately, now some of my posts are without images! They've been replaced with an ugly black box filled with an exclamation point (you can see it in my sidebar where my "wings" collage used to be). I'm not sure what to do about this. I think I have two problems - one is deciding whether to go back and fill in pictures (probably will not do this). The other is what to do going forward. Have any of you encountered this problem?  And what did you do about it?
Third, a reminder that Sian's Storytelling Sunday is due up this weekend. Looking forward to it, but I need to figure out the story I want to tell . . .
Finally, tomorrow is Operation Speak Out Thursday, sponsored by Abi.  The idea is to stop lurking and comment on every blog you visit. I did this last month and really enjoyed it. I hope you consider joining in!