Hello everyone, I’ve decided it’s time for me to start a new blog, so I will be posting on there from now on! The link is http://ordinarilybeautifuldreams.wordpress.com/ , I hope everyone will check it out!
This semester I’m taking a metal smithing class and I finished my first hand crafted sterling silver ring today!
Here’s another photo I took with my film camera at my Peaks Island house. My camera is slowing dying and every time I get a new roll developed the light leaks get worse. This photo ended up with a light leak in it but I think it kinda adds to the photo and I really liked how it turned out! Hope you like it!
Im holding a piece of broken glass from one of the windows the firefighters smashed in.
This photo I took with my SLR film camera of the caution tape in the doorway of my Peaks Island house that recently burned down.
The last time I posted I mentioned that there was a tragedy in my family and I want to share a little but about that. My family’s beautiful cottage on Peaks Island that I have been going to every summer since I can remember burned down this spring. Luckily nobody was hurt, but unfortunately pretty much everything inside was destroyed. The fire started in the basement at the electrical panel and came up through the floor and heating vents. It was one of those terrible things that happens to other people but you never imagine will ever happen to you. When I went into the house after the fire for the first time it was a huge shock, and quite emotional. It’s scary to see how quickly something as beautiful as our little cottage can be completely destroyed. Anyway, I want to share a few pictures I took in and around the house. (Sorry for the poor image quality, all I had with me was my iphone.)
This seems weird but I couldn’t find a picture of the house so I had to use this picture of a painting that was done of it a few years ago
the kitchen
the dinning room
the living room didn’t get too burned but there was a lot of smoke damage
our poor tv
melted light switch
burned sea treasures
I thought this design that the smoke and heat left on the wall was almost beautiful among all the rubble
This is getting to be a bit of a long post but I wanted to include a piece of writing I did about the fire for my English class last year. The assignment was to write a personal essay inspired from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, so heres mine. Hope you enjoy it!
The Things I Carried Out
I cradle the medium sized rock in my hands, gently tracing the heart shaped bulge with my fingers. I still remember the day I found it, all those years ago, lying in the sand just waiting to be discovered. It is a smooth, light gray and oval in shape, with a slightly raised white heart on one of its perfectly formed sides. Ever since that day, I have proudly displayed that heart rock on the kitchen windowsill. Now, as I clutch it tightly to my chest, it is damp and dusted with a fine black soot. Holding it is comforting, and it ignites a spark of hope in me that not everything has been destroyed. As I walk in a daze through the charred blackened house, my charred blackened house, I carry the heart rock with me.
I cautiously open the burned, warped cabinets, praying that the contents remained untouched by the furious flames. Relief floods into me when I see that the dishes I have eaten off of every summer for as long as I can remember are still there. As my eyes scan over the stacks of bowls and plates, I am overtaken with flashbacks: eating Half-Baked ice cream with my cousins from our lime and sky-blue ice cream dishes while we do a puzzle, and eating subs from Hannigan’s on my favorite plates with their colorfully painted beach scenes. I carefully store each soot stained dish, along with its memories, in a box and carry them out of the house.
Kitty Carter, my grandmother’s name, is barely visible in the corners of most of her paintings. Some canvases have been ripped right off their frames, others are singed and streaked with black, but a few may be salvageable. I have only ever known her through stories, photographs, and her paintings. My grandmother’s paintings are little pieces of her that will live on forever. I gently take the few that have survived the fire off the walls and, cradling them like a newborn baby, I carry them out of the house.
A glass dish of sea treasures sits on the tavern table in the living room. This part of the house was not touched by flames, but a sticky, black film of soot covers everything, and the smoky haze burns my eyes. The dish contains my most prized pieces of sea glass and sea china. Each piece reminds me of long walks on the beach, shoulders hunched, head bent, eyes searching the sand for hidden treasure. Now this precious collection is a smoky gray. It is hard to distinguish between what is burned and what is just darkened with soot, but I hope for the latter as I carry the dish out of the house.
My heart rock weighs heavily in my bag, bumping against my side with each step. Everything worth saving has been taken out, and it is time to leave. I slowly walk through the demolished house one last time trying to picture how things looked before the fire, but it is already fading from my memory. As I walk out the door, with my bag over my shoulder, I am empty handed. I carry emotions heavier that any material object. I carry sadness, anger, and fear; I carry the loss of the home I loved and the shock of complete and utter destruction. Despite the heavy weight of these emotions I am also lifted up by lighter ones. I carry gratitude that no one was hurt, hope that something good will come out of this tragedy, and memories that will last me a lifetime.
So I haven’t posted in a little while because last weekend there was a bit of a tragedy in my family. I’m planning on making a post about it, but it’s going to take some time. In the mean time I wanted to post something happy! The last few days it has been super warm and it feels like it should be summer already! Unfortunately I have 3 more weeks of school, but I’m sure it will go by quickly. This photo I took at the beach a few days ago with my iPhone. Sunsets on the beach are always so beautiful!
My safe haven, so to speak, is my room. I’m always hanging up new photos or adding something here or there to make it even more comfortable and homey. Since I love photography, and art in general, I love being surrounded by it and waking up every morning to be reminded of all the special moments captured in my photographs. I thought I would share some pictures of my room, because I think the things in my room are a good expression of who I am.
these photos I stung up with string and mini clothespins
this sign is made up of old license plates
some of my jewelry
my DIY necklace holder
more photos stung up above my closet
my desk and photo bulletin board
my amazing bookshelf (I love to read, especially fantasy)
So incase you didn’t know I play the violin. I love playing fiddle music, like Irish or cape breton, but I also play in my school’s orchestra, we actually have our concert tonight so wish me luck! I think I’ve mentioned this before but my idol in the fiddle world is Natalie MacMaster, an amazing cape breton fiddle player. If you’re into that kind of music you should definitely look her up on youtube! Anyway, the point of this post is to share a few photos from interesting perspectives that I took of my violin. Enjoy!
the bridge
strings
my bow
This photo was from the last roll of film I got developed, and I think it came out pretty well. I just love the grainy texture of film photography! I really like taking up close photos of ordinary objects and making them look beautiful. This one is of my favorite woodless colored pencils (if you’ve never heard of them look them up, they are seriously the best pencils ever)! I would love to hear your thoughts!
I think this week’s photo challenge, escape, is a really interesting one! There are just so many ways you can interpret it. When I hear the word escape the first thing that comes to mind is the ocean. My escape from the craziness of life is the beach. In the summer i just love going on long walks on the beach when no one else is around. I love how the ocean stretches out as far as I can see until it meets the horizon, and I love the salty smell in the cool sea breeze. Something about being new the ocean with a perfect escape when I need it, so hear are a few pictures of the sea!
A Colorful Fantasy 