Trip to KC

I saw Noah Gundersen live last night in Kansas City at the Record Bar. Here's what you really need to know.

Fantastic.

-Ashley

A Trip to St. Louis

This past week at lunch some friends and I got on the topic of St. Louis. They were bringing up all of the amazing things there were to do there and how pretty it was, etc. I pass through STL twice a year, but never stay long enough to do anything cool. I've always wanted to though. At lunch, we were seriously getting so excited for all the things to do--City Museum, Forest Park, shopping and a ton more. My friend Trinity lives in the St. Louis area and invited me to come and stay with her for 2 days! Believe me, I was stoked. It gets kind of lame when all you do is live in a small town and you're actual home is only 30 minutes away, and back and forth gets boring and routine. It was so great to go somewhere different and 100x more awesome than where I live. I don't know, but traveling is awesome. This weekend made me excited to go to every other cool place on earth.

First we were on the hunt for coffee and stumbled upon this sweet little farmer's market. I had to snap a photo of the pumpkins, because of…well, fall. And they made me happy.

While we were in St. Louis we went to the City Museum. Let's just say…it's my new favorite place. I don't really know how to describe it other than it's a giant play place for kids and grown ups. And not the lame plastic slide type of play place! There's a skate park but with no skates, so you can just slide down things and hang on ropes. There are a million slides and secret passageways, and there's a 10-story slide. And you can go on the roof. Even better--there's a Ferris wheel up there. And you can see the whole city of St. Louis. It's so awesome. We found this old, written on piano and Trin played some classy music, too.

We also visited an area called Forest Park. It was SO beautiful, especially with it being Autumn and all. Trin and I drove around for a good 30 minutes looking at the huge houses and scenery. We stopped on Art Hill to take some photos.

While we were there, we ate at a restaurant called Fitz's and they're famous for their root beer. We stopped at a record store across the street called Vintage Vinyl. Super rad record store. I purchased The Avett Brothers new album on vinyl! I also got a mp3 download of the album, so that was a plus. There's something about looking through all of those records and seeing my favorite artists on vinyl that makes me happy.

Our drive home may have been the best part. I always drive through STL in summer and winter to visit family in Ohio, but never in the fall. And man, were those landscapes beautiful. We kept pointing out little sections of trees that we liked all while we listened to the Mumford album and threw in a little bit of NPR here and there. Basically the best car ride ever.

Again, thanks for reading. I hope your fall is as swell mine so far.

Ha Ha Tonka - The post I never posted

This past Labor Day I visited Ha Ha Tonka State Park in Missouri with a group of my friends. I've always wanted to go there because I've seen pictures of how beautiful it is! And it truly is. If you ever have a chance to go and hike, or just to walk around with your friends, you should go. They have so many beautiful trails. There's also these really neat castle ruins that were the walls of a mansion built in the 1920s. It's a great place to take pictures, and that's just what I did :O)

These are only a couple, but they are my favorite ones. I loved hiking and hanging out with these wonderful people that I went with.

P.S. I just found this in my drafts. A month later. Did I mention I'm bad at blogging?! :)

A Summer/Fall Post

It's been way too long. I'm obviously not good at the consistent blogging thing.

So! Summer is already over. There it went. Now I'm back at school ready to take on Sophomore year. Pretty exciting stuff. But really, it's so weird to think that I'm already into my second year of college.

Anyways, my summer was crazy busy. I counseled 7th and 8th graders for two weeks and that was really great, as always. I've been going to the camp since I was in 3rd grade, and now to counsel there is a blessing. I helped with the 1st and 2nd grade campers as well, and I just love working with little kids. And working Vacation Bible School is always a fun time too.

I went to two awesome shows this summer - Death Cab for Cutie came to the Gillioz and it was one of the best shows I've even been too. Every time I listen to Death Cab now I think of how awesome it was to see them live. I saw Eisley in Springfield as well and they sound so great live.

Other than those things, I got pretty good at painting pottery, spent a large amount of time at Barnes and Noble, worked with the sweetest preschoolers everyday and taught them about Jesus, hung out with friends (a lot), tried to eat healthy, made new friends, went to Crystal Bridges Art Museum (YES), rode bikes, took photos and turned 20 years old in July. Woohoo! Not a teen anymore! Growing up! Ha! But, not really :o) I'm so thankful for all of my friends that came down to spend the day with me. They surprised me! I don't deserve such good people in my life. I got this awesome radio-cd-cassette-ipod-record player that I like a lot. Fun fact. :)

Also Batman, Dark Knight Rises? Did you see that movie? I don't know about anyone else, but I just have a huge appreciation for the arts. Especially movies. Man, I loved that movie. I could go on for hours. I also saw Spiderman. So good. Movies are the best thing. I saw Moonrise Kingdom, which was pure Wes Anderson awesomeness. I watched Fantastic Mr. Fox yesterday and have been listening to the soundtrack, so I've been in the mood to watch his stuff lately.

This is a very condensed version of my summer. Definitely one to remember! But I am so happy to be back at school. I hope your summer was swell just like mine!
Thanks fer readin' :o)
-Ashley

P.S. Some music i've been into lately -- Matthew Perryman Jones. Free on noisetrade. Get that. New Passion Pit album. Of Monsters and Men. And guys, I'm seeing Florence & the Machine in October. AH! Also, beyond excited for the new Mumford album on September 24th! So. Stoked. You too? Good.

A couple days ago I went to a local pottery painting place with my friend and snapped some photos just for fun. After painting, we ended up at a local dessert stand, Pineapple Whip.

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer!

-Ashley

I went and saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in theaters last Saturday. I had seen a preview while watching Sherlock on PBS and thought it looked worth seeing. Overall, I though it was good and I loved all the actors/actresses in it. Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, you know the drill. And they are all British. A selling point for me. :o) It was done by Fox Searchlight, and usually anything by them is the best. It was so cute.

There was a preview for the movie 'The Words' and it looks so amazing. I can't wait to see it. The way they filmed it, from what I can tell in the preview just looks nice. And they used an Imagine Dragons song (titled Demons) and that was awesome. I heard this movie was one of the best at Sundance this year.
Here's the trailer.

Also, if you haven't listened to Imagine Dragons, please do! They're really neat and worth a listen.

-Ashley

My last couple of weeks via Instagram.
    1. Cooking popcorn over a fire with some friends. A learning experience.
    2. Avengers premiere!
    3. Switchfoot comes to my hometown. That's Jon Foreman.
    4. A gloomy day outside. Me, inside.
    5. Waiting at the walk-in clinic, taking pictures of the wall art. You know.
    6. Finals.
    7. Studying on the broken bridge.
    8. Last day with my wonderful friends.
    9. Backdrop of a wedding that I attended. Beautiful.

It's been a while.

Yes. It's been a while.
All I have to say is that everything is going swell. My life is wonderful and I thank God for that. All of the blessings I have come from Him alone. I'm sorry that I haven't updated here! I can't even begin to explain the adventures I've had since last posting. I promise I'll keep up. I am so genuinely happy and just in awe of God's grace and mercy. And so immensely thankful.

So stayed tuned, if you will! I've gone from 5 followers to 3…what a terrible drop. ;)
Thanks for reading, as always.
-Ashley

A Very Long Post

I went to the midnight premiere of the Hunger Games movie with 5 other kids from my youth group last Thursday night! It was fun to hang out with them and chill in the movie place for 5 hours waiting in line. That's what I love about premieres, you get to hang out, just chill and wait for your movie. Plus you make a lot of new friends. Anyways, we were waiting and about 2 hours in, they sat us in another auditorium to get more people into the lobby. And while we were waiting, they just put on another movie! So we got to watch 2 movies in one night. We watched This Means War with Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine. The movie was basically perfect and really funny to me for some reason. It was quirky and had action scenes which is, you know, great. I like those movies. I'm strange and you probably wouldn't pick me for loving action movies…but I do. And then we watched the Hunger Games which was fantastic as well. Obviously the book was better, but the movie was such a great adaption. I thought I wouldn't like the actors they picked for each character, but it ended up to be very good. There is a very long list of movies I want to see…

Friday was relaxing and enjoyable. I went to lunch with one of my good friends who was my small group leader for 3 years in high school and also taught at my high school. I don't really know how to explain our friendship because she's like 7 years older than me, but we are really close. I tried Vietnamese food for the first time and it was surprisingly good! Later that night I didn't really do anything, but I did end up watching The Descendants. I don't really know what to say about the film, it was good, yet in a really simple way. George Clooney was great in it and I'm not surprised he got all of those nominations.

Saturday, I went antique shopping with two of my friends and we found the cutest bookstore. It had a ladder that slides to get books on the top shelves and we took (totally staged) photos. It was so much fun. And then later that day I worked on cleaning my bike--oh, did I mention I got a bike?! Yes. Its a vintage schwinn and its red. It's lovely. I think I'm going to name it 'Ruby.' :) Anyways, I continued working on it on Sunday because it was kind of rusty. The little neighbor girls that I am friends with came over and helped me out too. They are wonderful and I love spending time with them (they are 1st graders). And I'll get to be their counselor at camp this summer which makes me so happy!

The rest of Sunday was spent driving back up to school and catching up with friends. The drive back is always my favorite because I get to sing along and play whatever I want. No shame. Okay. Well thanks for reading this whole thing…I probably should have put some pictures in! I hope you are all having/had a wonderful spring break. :)

-Ashley

The First Day of Spring

I keep telling myself I need to write a post and here I am at 12:30am listening to LaBlogotheque's Take Away Shows on youtube (which are brilliant by the way). I really can't get enough good music.

I am still in Ohio at my grandmother's house. Sometimes it gets lonely up here because I don't have a lot of family, but I enjoy it because it's a different environment then the city. Yesterday my mom and I drove out to the farm that our family owns and just drove around and took pictures. I love going there. So many fond memories of when my great-grandmother lived there and when we would visit in winter and summer.

The pictures don't do it justice.

We also went to a little park were my my mom and family used to go when she was little. It was a quaint little spot with lake houses and a beach :O)

These were fun.
I hope you are having a wonderful spring break. I'm sorry I'm so short on words today, I don't know why this is. But I am thankful that you are reading :)

-Ashley

Words

Here is a quick post that I found interesting. Enjoy.

Words to keep inside your pocket:

• Quiescent - a quiet, soft-spoken soul. 
• Chimerical - merely imaginary; fanciful. 
• Susurrus - a whispering or rustling sound. 
• Raconteur - one who excels in story-telling. 
• Clinquant - glittering; tinsel-like. 
• Aubade - a song greeting the dawn.
• Ephemeral - lasting a very short time. 
• Sempiternal - everlasting; eternal. 
• Euphonious - pleasing; sweet in sound. 
• Billet-doux - a love letter. 
• Redamancy - act of loving in return.

Kites, among other things

At this moment I find myself sitting in the dimly lit home of my grandmother. It is spring break and I've traveled 12 hours to visit family. The car rides are my favorite because I don't have a problem of getting bored; I could sit and think, look out the window or listen to music for hours. The weather has been wonderful recently and I am also in favor of that. Yesterday the wind was perfect for kite-flying, so of course I took the opportunity to use it! My kite only got stuck in a tree once, but I am thankful for the ability to climb trees. :O) Here are some of my favorite photos from kite flying:

How awesome is this?

My friend got it to fly the highest.

I can't wait to share with you how the rest of my spring break goes because I know it will be fantastic. Also, I've discovered so much new music lately and I'll probably be sharing that in another post soon.

Well, this post was short and sweet. I'm not sure if I want this blog to just be about me and what I'm doing all the time or something else. I don't really know what I'm doing…I'm just writing I suppose. And I hope that you like it.

-Ashley

DIY Paper Hot Air Balloons

Here is all that you need for this project:

Scrapbook paper (or any other patterned paper)

Glue, scissors, thread and a pencil

The second picture above is what they end up looking like!

First things first: pick out 3-5 pieces of your favorite scrapbook paper. I bought this lovely set at Wal-Mart for about $4. It came with at least 50 pages so I can use it them over again!

Next, take one piece and fold it in half, and draw half of your hot air balloon. 

This way when you cut it out it will be symmetrical.

                                                     

Use this same shape as a template for cutting out your other sides of the balloon. 

Repeat so you have 5 hot air balloons cut out.

Fold each down the middle and start gluing one side to another. Don't use too much glue or else the pages will become wavy.
  

      

 Your balloon should end up looking something like this when you glue all of the sides together:

When you have let the glue dry, you can just leave or take it a step further and hang them from your ceiling. I used white thread to just tie it around the bars on the drop ceiling. You can poke a couple holes at the top of your hot air balloon and thread it through, making the thread the any length you want.

And that's it! As you can see I made all of mine different sizes and lengths, so I encourage you to experiment with the size. I hope this was an easy DIY and enjoyable do. Any questions, leave in the comments! :)

-Ashley

Hello friends!
Last night I watched a wonderful movie named 'Hugo.' It came out a while back but just recently on DVD and I've always wanted to see it. It is set in Paris in the 1930's, and it is about an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his clockmaking father and automaton. The cinematography is stunning and I just love that time period anyways, so it was simply delightful. I'm not surprised that it won so many awards. I also love Chloe Grace Moretz, Jude Law, Helen McCrory and basically all of the other actors in the film. I really want to get ahold of the book by Brian Selznick. If you haven't seen this movie….you need to.

On another unrelated note, I was up late last night and right before I went to bed, my friend posted a link to a blog post from a church. I clicked on it and it was a entry entitled 'The Word of the Lord: Wait.' It was actually just what I needed to read and it had wonderful scripture references about being sensitive to hearing and obeying the Holy Spirit's voice and timing. One stuck out to me and it was the passage of Psalm 27:14 - "Wait in faith on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart; wait I say, on the Lord."It mentioned many other points that made me step back and think. Our circumstances are to draw us closer to God. We observe other people's situations, but we should not envy them. It was a blessing that my friend posted that because those are the words I needed to hear. I see other people's situations and wonder what God's plan is for me and what will happen. But I just have to trust in Him and know that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."(Romans 8:28)

I hope you all had a great Sunday and had time to rest before your week ahead! I know mine is terribly busy. Thanks very much for taking the time to read :)

-Ashley

I always enjoy Fridays because my only class is at 8am and then I have Drawing at 11. The day is so laid back and I usually end up on youtube and listening to new music early in the morning. I took this photo on my way to New Testament this morning.

I love being on campus so early when there aren't many people around. It's really calming to walk across campus and listen to music with nothing rushing around you. I'm sad to say that I'm not a morning person, but I wish I was. I will become one though! Lately I have been setting my alarm earlier and making myself get up….and I love it. I love going to breakfast, it might possibly be my favorite meal of the day. There's a different crowd at Mellers for breakfast…I don't really know how to explain it! And I just like having time in the morning instead of running across campus at 7:57am.

Well, I hope that you are having a wonderful day and this post was very short and I apologize for that. More to come later. :)

-Ashley

Hello everyone!

Although I am not really new to blogging, I am new to blogspot and I'm not even sure what caused me to start one of these. My friend Trinity and I were talking about the "olden days" of xanga and myspace and she told me about how she had a blog. So I thought, sure, why not. And since I am a graphic design major and have every other technology/social networking site known to man, I should probably have a legit blog as well.

Today was a pretty great day. I feel like I hardly did anything except go to class and study for Government. But I also went to my Proverbs 31 bible study and that was a wonderful time. Tonight we just talked, shared about our lives and built our relationships. And then a dorm was holding a little coffee shop concert which was great because they sang one of my favorite songs by the Avett brothers.

After that, me and my two friends went on a spontaneous McDonald's run and I drove. See the thing about coming back to campus late is that there are no parking spots. At all. So I had to parallel park. And you know what? I DID IT. And it actually looks good. But I guess it helps that my car is really small. :)

Well, I suppose that's it for the first post. Now I guess I'll go back to studying and pinteresting.

-Ashley