singing aloud

I'm in my office working on a few projects and listening to Adele. Yes, like many of you, I was thoroughly sick of Adele for a time, but today seemed like a belting music type of day.

It doesn't take long for anyone who knows me to realize that I like singing along with music...even though I (1) can't sing well, (2) usually don't know the lyrics, (3) don't speak the same language, and (4), often mix up different parts of the songs.

That doesn't stop me.

I'm singing in my office and occasionally get a little self conscious that my co-workers, or worse, people who come into the office for something, hear me. Five minutes later I forget and begin singing again.

This reminds me of a smattering of situations regarding this that I've encountered in the past few weeks.

1. While Latin dancing last night, my friend from Peru was belting out the lyrics of a song. I, of course, had to join him...even though I don't speak Spanish and don't know the song. He comments: "I really wish you knew what they were saying. It's a beautiful song...but that doesn't stop you, haha."

2. On Monday, I brought a couple of my new roommates with me to my ward's FHE activity. This is the first time any of us have been in the same room for longer than 10-15 minutes. While playing a grueling round of Phase 10, one line from a popular song became stuck in my head and, like I do, I kept singing that one line over and over again. (Annoying? Yes. I try to stop, I promise.) Of course I apologize to those around me and mention how I like to sing along with songs but don't usually know many lyrics.

My roommate then asks me, "Oh are you the one who sings in the kitchen?" Me: Uh...most likely. haha. (I like to play music on my laptop while I cook. Sue me.) Roommate: "Yea after my dad helped me move, he was taking a nap in my room and kept hearing you sing. He told me about it later."

Yea, that's not embarrassing...

3. While driving in a car with my date, he selects a Japanese pop song to share with me. Yes, these lyrics are entirely in Japanese. Do I know Japanese? No. One minute into the song, I'm singing along. TO A JAPANESE SONG. He kinda chuckles to himself and says something like, "You really do like to sing along." We may have discussed this earlier.

I think we'll stop this storytelling experience now. Although it is sad that it barely took a week to round up all of these examples. For now, I'm back to work. And back to singing along with "Someone Like You."

What was that?

Whoohoo, my body is sore today. I can definitely feel it in my legs and even felt that I HAD to stretch both in my bed this morning and by using my foam roller before I got on to brushed my teeth, etc.

Yesterday I attended the Zumba Toning class that I'm a sub for, taught my own Zumba Toning class in the evening, and then met up with a group of friends to go Latin dancing in the evening. I can feel it now.

Want to know what makes for an interesting situation?

Me, being a tad hard of hearing and needing people to repeat what they say to me many times. 

+ 

Latin friends who speak with strong accents, which usually take a second or two AFTER they've said something for it to sink in.

+ 

Loud, dark dance floors.

= 

Confused looks, laughing nervously, and a lot of what? what? Whaaaa? 

Between the Raindrops

Somehow I've been having trouble sleeping through the night. I've got to work on that if I'm ever going to stop walking around like an energy-drained, crazy person.

But since it was early Tuesday, that means it's a new music day, so I took my a few non-sleeping moments to listen to some new releases and decide if I want to use any of my free credits to purchase anything this week. (I currently have more than $30 of free credit.)

I don't get much time to listen to things non Latin or Zumba-related these days, but I LOVE this song and have already listened to it like 5 times on repeat.

Between the Raindrops by Lifehouse, featuring Natasha Bedingfield.

1, I love the song title. I love rain. I love the imagery this title presents. (I've actually thought about changing my blog name to "Dance in the Storm," which reminds me of this.
2. I love Lifehouse
3. I love Natasha Bedingfield.

Downside: They may use an incorrect "were" instead of "was" ... but I can't tell the lyrics clear enough to know/let it bug me.

Some favorite lyrics:

There's no one but you and me
Right here and now
The way it was meant to be

Hold on and take a breath
I'll be here every step
Walking between the raindrops with you.

Listen to a preview on Amazon.
You can also find an embedded streaming link on Tumblr.

Since this song was just released today (aka 4 hours ago), there is not yet a Youtube video with it. I'll probably embed one once it exists.

Modern Art Tutorial

OK, it's time for my tutorial! (Bet you didn't think I'd get this up this fast.)

I decided I wanted some new art to hang in my new apartment and luckily I had a few blank canvas in my craft supply that I could paint. I knew I wanted something graphic and modern, so off to Pinterest I went.

What I found was this piece from the blog younghouselove.com.

I decided this design would work for me. It was colorful, not too distracting, but still had enough interesting details. 

I headed to Home Depot to get paint (and a few small items I needed.) Thank you to Christianne for telling me a few projects ago that you can get a little sample of any paint color for $2-3. This will last a WHILE! 

I decided I wanted to incorporate some yellows and grays and found three colors I liked. After running a few other errands, I went back to my basement and set to work following the instructions on the tutorial. 

First, I used a pencil and straight edge to mark off the columns.

Then I used the corner of a 3x5 card to randomly section off the lines and create the pattern. I used both inverted and ... what is the opposite of inverted?? ... angles to add more variety. 

I started painting and decided I should probably decide what color would go where. So I put a dash of color in each section. And this kinda turned into a color by number project. Except there were no numbers. 

For the first round of painting, I didn't focus too much on the lines and being precise. 

I missed pictures of a few steps here, but after my first color (light grey) dried, I used painters tape to cover any overlapping sections of colors 1 and 2. I then painted and let dry.

After THAT paint dried, I removed the painter's tape and reapplied (yes, I reuse tape. I'm that cheap.) where the 3rd color would overlap with the others. 

I could have been a lot more precise with this process. (I watched two movies while I worked on it...while doing a few other things and waiting for paint to dry.) But I wanted to move things as quickly as possible and undoubtedly cut a few corners. 

A look at my setup while waiting for the final layer to dry. 

I wanted to have a bigger piece so I actually used two separate canvases and designed them to hang side by side. I would have gone even bigger if I had the materials on hand. Here's one finished and another in the works. I could have done them at the same time, but I wanted to make sure the process worked on Canvas #1 first.

I also used the yellow paint to cover the canvases on the sides. These were previously painted black with lovely swirls some say resembled DNA. :P Here's what they look like on the wall. The lighting is horrible.

Some tips and thoughts:

I used a mechanical pencil for my lines, but it ended up kinda dark, and I had a hard time covering the lead. I would think a soft pencil that was lighter would work better.

I think it would look cool with thicker columns. Mine are just less than an inch because that's the width of the stick I used to measure. I'd love to see it done with 2 to 2.5-inch rows. Plus that means less work!

Again, I would have loved to go even bigger with the canvas size!

Saturday is a special day...

"Saturday is a special day; it's the day we get ready for..."

If you ever attended an LDS primary, you probably finished singing that song in your head. 

It came to my mind yesterday as I contemplated if I did a lot that Saturday or if I did nothing at all. I'll admit that I didn't workout, shower, put on makeup, and now that I think about it, even change clothes...at all. Yep, I slept in basketball shorts and a t-shirt...and wore that all day. Haha, I guess that's how I roll. 

But while that might seem like a bum of day, I actually got a LOT done. (Not everything I needed to do, but hey, it's progress.) And while I didn't spend my Saturday exclusively getting ready for Sunday (that's how the songs goes, btw), what I got done is what will make my week so much more enjoyable and smooth. 

I finally unpacked my last box since my move! Yay! After my roommate moved out last week, I finally had the basement ready to do whatever I wanted with it. And that I did. It's actually feeling like home. Just a little over a month later. 

My FAVORITE thing I did was painting this lovely artwork. 

I got to the task of actually hanging stuff on my walls and wanted to switch up my color scheme a little bit. I admit, I'm addicted to all things black and it's hard to break away from that when I have SO much in that color. But I've been wanting to switch over to some softer hues and took this opportunity to paint something. 

I'll post my pinspiration and tutorial steps later. :) (Hello, Keep the Creative Juices Flowing blogpost!) 

Anyways, I'm once again falling in love with my little basement. Here are some pics of how it's come together so far. 

And yes, I will just sit on my couch and stare with joy at my bookshelves, artwork, and over all cleanliness and organization. I'm easily amused.

My lovely entertainment/bookshelf area. I have yet to figure out what to do with the space above my tv, and to hide the cord. Yes, I could mount my tv, but 1) I don' want to and 2) the outlets are absurdly high anyways. See the stack of things in the bottom left? Those are the decor I have yet to find a place for.

A look at my couch and new artwork. Yes, it still seems a bit bare. 

A view from the couch to the hallway and bathroom. Since my last basement, I'm a huge fan of hanging curtains as room dividers. What's behind this one?

My craft supplies! And behind that, the furnace room.

Tomorrow's Friday, right?

I was talking with my coworker in her office about the zillions of things we need to complete in the next week and a half. Near the end of my conversation with her, I sigh while saying, "Well, tomorrow is Friday, right?"

"Uh no, it's Thursday."

I look at her with a half smile because, well, I know she's kidding.

"It's really Thursday. Today's Wednesday."

Don't you love days like this?

What makes it even funnier is that yesterday (Tuesday) I was sure it was Monday. I kept getting excited about my Zumba class that evening before I would remember that it was actually Tuesday and I don't teach on Tuesdays.

This happened like 6 times that afternoon.

Monday to Thursday. Sounds like a pretty good week to me.

Good Friends

I just have to say...I have really good friends in my life. Today was a great day, and I'm extremely thankful for those people in my life who call me, insist I meet up with them, ask me questions about my life, offer insight and advice, feel excited to share things from their lives, want to make time to see me, offer compliments and overall, just care.

Sometimes I'm simply blown away. I'm the kind of person who just finds it comfortable to do my own thing. I don't naturally get that people WANT to see me. I don't get that people CARE if I'm around or if they've seen me recently.

I move relationships more slowly than most. I'm often baffled by how soon someone wants to share details of their life with me. I'm taken back when I realize someone thinks we are better friends or closer than I had previously thought.

And I appreciate it. I need that.

There is often a revelation moment where I realize, hey, we're actually good friends. I had a few of those today.

This weekend I also had a few moments where I let the weakness this causes to affect me. Because I move slower than most, I don't often FEEL welcome or comfortable in new situations where I should, in all actuality, feel completely at home and a part of something. But I hold back. I resist that conformity. I purposely remove myself from where I SHOULD be. I exclude myself. I then need to rework my way in. My timing and process finds the way to do this. Sometimes I'm able to pull it off. Sometimes my cautious nature affects that situation permanently. I've seen it happen many times.

But it's through the example of friends who work through my natural instincts and basically pull me into their lives. They inspire me to do better. They inspire me to work on not worrying what I think or how I feel and instead focus on helping others the way they have helped me.

And for that I am grateful. I feel the love.

So, thanks.