yogi training

When I was a freshman in college my sisters and I took a community yoga class offered at BYU. We went every Tues/Thurs for the whole year. On the side Andrea and I would do Bryan Kest's Power Yoga video and that year began my love for yoga. Which has just barely blossomed (just like the lotus flower) into a semi-obsession.



In May I started taking a yoga class twice a week from Kim at the Orem Fitness Center. It was different/better than any other yoga class I have ever taken. She told me it is called Anusara Yoga (read this definition of Anusara yoga:

Anusara (a-nu- sar -a), means “flowing with Grace,” “going with the flow,” “following your heart.” Founded by John Friend in 1997, Anusara Yoga is a hatha yoga posture system that unifies a Tantric philosophy of intrinsic Goodness with Universal Principles of Alignment™. Anusara incorporates a "celebration of the heart," philosophy that looks for the good in all people and all things, and uses precise physical alignments to open the heart physically (an open heart is part of all yoga traditions but in the western world this focus is often lost and John Friend has re-emphasized it).

Don't you want to do it too?!?) and she personally includes rapid eye treatments and Kundalini meditation. It is amazing! I feel sad whenever I miss a class, wish the classes were longer, and hope that one day Kim produces a DVD with all her varying classes. She focuses on a different Chakra every month, giving us the essential oil that accompanies that chakra and teaching us all about the power we hold within ourselves as we open up to the energy and life force and release fear. I'm so into this right now and could talk 'yoga' for hours.

If I am every in Orem on a Tues/Thurs at 10am you know where to find me.

one may's work: the wedding dress

I finished Bryn's wedding dress and she put it to the test. She's married now and it worked out fine. Here's some photos of me with my friend and our creation. Congrats to Bryn and Jesus.

i can't say stop

Its impossible to say, "No" to good Swede pop. Enjoy.

story(grand)slam

Tonight I went to a StorySlam. It is an event that my friend Laura invented. She gives a theme and people show up ready to tell and listen to stories. I decided to just go and be an audience member, but my friend Madison kept suggesting that I tell a story. The theme of the StorySlam was "Shot through the heart: stories of beaus and arrows."
I'll admit to having my fair share of heart breaking stories--so finally I decided to tell the story of a younger me who never shared what I felt with the guy I was in love with and obviously, he broke my heart. It was a true shot to the heart.
Lo, and behold, I WON! My story won the slam. I never expected that kind of success, but it felt good to walk away a winner. In August, all the winners from the previous Slams will have to tell another story to see who wins grand prize. Let's cross our fingers and hope something crazy happens to me between now and then, so I have something to tell.




Here's a photo of me with my winning certification.

oh no, snow.

If I lay here long enough
still
the softly falling snow will create a casket around me
filling in each crevice
making my cocoon
an envelope of stillness
cold cold white.

Houston, we've had a problem.

Here I am at the Houston Hobby airport waiting to get on a standby flight to Las Vegas. We were supposed to be in and out of here, but our original flight was canceled, we rebooked, then when we checked into the airport this morning at Tampa we found out our connecting flight from Houston to Vegas was canceled too!! The only available flight was at 9:25pm, so we booked that and headed to Houston. We've been here for 4 hours and hope to get onto a flight at 6:35...but we'll see. Cross fingers.
Otherwise we'll be waiting for 3 more hours and I'll have nothing to do BUT homework. I'm not ready for spring break to end, but I'm also not ready to set up a home in Houston*.


*one bonus was going to lunch with Lauren. She picked us up from the airport and we hung out for a couple of hours.

What good is it to sing helplessness blues?

My trip out to Denver this weekend was wonderful. I had my interview on Saturday and I am wondering if I even want that job. So I may be back at the beginning of my search for "what do I do when I graduate?"

All I really can do it listen to this song, over and over.

my own time young

This past weekend, amidst the anxiety of finishing all the work for my final show, I decided to go to San Francisco. My friends were all going and there was space in the car for one more. We left Thursday and drove through the night, slept a few hours and then headed out to explore. I spent most of my time with Susan and Jesse. I haven't seen them in a year and they took me to a lot of wonderful new places in and out of the city.
We drove through the countryside, ate cheese by a duck pond, went to the old bath house (by the Cliff House) and the Musee Mechanique.
Susan loaned me her camera and I captured our whole adventure in hipstamatic style. Thanks for the great weekend!

just wondering

I can't stay in one place longer then a year. When did I become such a nomad?

Standing For Something

I am finally getting around to reading Pres. Hinckley's book. I couldn't even get through the first page without wanting to blog about it. Here's the first sentence, "Love is the only force that can erase the differences between people or bridge the chasms of bitterness." WoW! That's exactly what we need.
I really miss that man.

God bless us, everyone!

I wanted to send something special to my parents that they could open on Christmas morning. So the day before, Aaron and I made this video. We sent them an email that said they needed to check their email Christmas morning for Santa's surprise.
We hardly had time to practice and know it's not perfect, but the true meaning of Christmas is there: a big present and lots of bows!

connect

I love to analyze the energy/spirit people bring into my life. Each person provides a different atmosphere, phenomenologically speaking.

the greatest dad.

This weekend I reflected a lot on how wonderful my family is. I spent a lot of time with family as I stayed with Vanese's kids while she was at the hospital. I don't think I have given enough praise to my father and I would like to dedicate a paragraph or two to him...right now.
My dad is one of the best men I know. He was a wonderful father who took care of us in so many ways. He was always willing to tickle us, play creative games (like the rhino, CHARGE!!!), throw us around in the swimming pool, go camping, take us to the beach or to grandma's, and in general be there for us.
He is so generous with his time, talents and finances. He is willing to help anyone and has a sincere love for ALL people around him. Almost every night of my childhood Dad would come home and we would pray and eat together. He would ask us about our day and tell us funny stories about his. He always had a good joke to share and we would laugh together and then read scriptures. He would hug us and kiss us and carry us to bed if we fell asleep in the living room. (Sometimes we would pretend we were asleep so he would have to carry us anyway--we loved that.)
Some early mornings before seminary he would make us breakfast and share thoughts for the day. During my brother's last year of high school, in the morning he would read books to him out loud that would prepare him for a mission as my brother walked around the house getting ready for school.
He wanted to prepare us for life. He wanted to give us all the necessary knowledge we would need to be good citizens, people and saints. He truly taught us how to be happy and helpful in a world full of negativity and hate. My dad is honest, trust-worthy, smart, lively, positive, energetic, happy, unique, sincere, humble and vociferous.
He taught us how to garden, how to weed, how to work, how to play, how to eat healthy, how to practice, how to dance and how to gain a testimony and live the gospel.
He showed us how to be thankful and appreciate the bounteous beauty around us. So many nights and mornings he would pull us out of the house to see the sunrise or sunset. He would hike us up mountains so we could be on "top of the world" and lead us down canyons, through rivers and forest to show us his love for nature and all of God's creations.
You good-looking bear, don't you ever die. :)

oh so vogue

Tonight I drove into las vegas. I will always love descending into the valley at night. Here's a cell phone image of the scene:


I called up my sister to tell her I was on my way and she said my nieces were so excited to see me. They were telling her all the cool things we do together and how much fun we have. They told her we go to the park and play outside and do art, etc etc. But the 4 year old said that what makes me the best is because I am a good dresser. The 6 year old agreed that I am a really good dresser. I'm glad I could impress those girls.

let it snow.

we will just build castles.



love twin shadow.

Y O Y O Y O Y

seems like guys these days just want a fan club, not a help meet.

back in black

i love halloween.
here i am as a viking from denmark...give it up, because it's all holla's eve!

Svenske Sveske

The month of October has been different from the previous two I have spent here at Guldagergaard. I am finally getting the chance to learn Danish because the house is full of Danes! Before there was only one Danish speaker, so she rarely spoke Danish, but now they speak together all the time and I am getting more and more used to the language. I made my first good Danish joke this week when they taught me that "prune" was a term of endearment, like "pumpkin" in English. I remembered that Swedish sounded kind of like prune and thought it would be funny if you had a Swedish boyfriend to call him your "Svenske Sveske" (plus another arist came this past week, Gustaf from Sweden, so we call him that sometimes...)
Karen Lise said it gave me one gold star and that she hopes I can earn more gold stars with more good jokes in Danish.
We drove to Copenhagen this weekend. I decided to spend my last weekend in the city. I toured around by boat and on foot, went to a house-warming party for Katrine's friend and met up with my friend Caitlin's sister, Brittany who just moved here from the states because she married a Dane.
This weekend was a photo finish.

burning leaves of autumn

Denmark is shedding its leaves and leaving me solemn.
This October is more crisp then those I've passed before.
and I have recently discovered that the leaves are not more orange on the other side of the pond.
They are the same. Somehow I need to keep that fact present in my mind.
I went on a walk today around the lake and took some pictures of me falling into the light of autumn.

this week in ceramics

Like The (Potter's) Wheel.

This past week has been interesting at Guldagergaard. We have been working so hard this past month all together and this week 4 artists have packed up and headed back home. They were only staying for a month or two. So now I am at a point where I feel like I should be packing up, because I have worked just as hard, but I still have 3 weeks left here.
Now I am trying to refocus and think of things I want to do for my remaining time here. I made paperclay from some royal copenhagen slip casting clay. That was something I had never done before, but Claire and Merja were working in paper clay and they taught me how. I spread out layers of it slowly on big plaster slab and when it was thick enough I hand-built some tableware. They just came out of the bisque this week, so I am excited to glaze them. See below!
Last night I wrote out some goals so that I could manage my time well. Jody sold me her nice china porcelain clay for a reclaimed price, so now I can try to make some little sculptures that will be able to travel home with me.
Jody and I went to the post office yesterday because we decided mailing stuff home was the best solution. I bought a box and will mail stuff later this week. All of my sculptures are in an exhibition now, so I won't be able to mail them...I will just have to take what I can with me in a carry-on bag I bought from the second hand store last week and give the rest away as presents.
I am getting really excited to visit my parents in Romanis, finish school, graduate,and find a job...in that order. Von has been sending me info on different universities that are hiring ceramic professors. I feel like there are quite a few. That is good news for me.
Other good news is that there is an artist/designer working here, Rikke Hagen, who lives in Copenhagen and comes out to Guldagergaard a couple of times per month. I was feeling like I had too much time on my hands and she offered me a job being her assistant last week. So I will work for her a couple of days a week and get paid. Hopefully I can offset my living costs a little.
And in other good news, Mette offered me a job working their NCECA booth in Tampa this next March. I wasn't planning on going to NCECA, but wanted to be able to see Richard and Mette again. Then she told me I could have a free badge and she could pay me a little. WOW! So here I come Tampa. I've never been there before and I look forward to a new adventure. I will love to tell people about this place. I love Guldagergaard.