Smalls and WOO HOO!

All who are Lord of The Rings fans and geeks congregate now!!!

This my friends is the first look at Martin Freedmen as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit!

AAAAHHH!!

I am so Excited!

Don't be shy, just let Your feelings role on by

It has been a rather long time since I have written about what has been making me happy as of late. My Happies posts I have neglected. I am sorry for that. Some might say "Why does she think anyone would want to know what is making her happy? That is stuck up." Well, yes it is a little bit, but think for a minuet. What are blogs? They are pretty much dedicated to the writer and their opinions. Duh!

I think that it is an important thing to share what your opinions and thoughts are. If we do not we will get rather lost, among people and within ourselves. So share, share, share! There are people who care! Hey, that rhymes!

So sit back and see what you think about what I think *wink*

#1 happy - SUMMER!!!!!!

Summer what, you ask? Summer everything! Summer food, summer activities, that thing we call the beach, summer clothes, summer summer summer!

Even though it is not endless I wish it was. Endless evenings buzzing with warmth and watermelons. I love it!

#2 - Cream Cheese Brownies!

A batch of these just recently sprang out of our oven and I have been in dessert bliss! My two favorite things are combined: chocolate and cheese. All is well is the world when this is the case.

!!YUM!!

#3 - Words

We take our utterances for granted almost every time we open our mouths. Why we do not love the oddly shaped things more is becoming a subject I think about more and more. This summer I must take tutoring for the impending SAT Test in October and have been memorizing words upon words and my happiness in them is growing quite a bit.

Did you know that 'compliment' does not have anything to do with giving someone a nice comment? It only says that it is something that completes a person. With that in mind I am thinking more before I saying anything in case it comes out as flattery(which is insincere praise). See! don't I seem clever!

Pay attention to what you say, I often sound like a dumb blonde if I am not careful.

#4 - Water Color!

I have been instructing myself on the art of water colors. With this book perched precariously on my knee I have been bent over my desk working out washes and detailed brush strokes. It is going slowly but I am having the time of my life! With music playing I could live in The Turret(what I have dubbed my room)happily for a while.

Dreamscapes by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

One more! #5 - Cat Stevens!

Surly at some point in your life you have heard the sweet folkie tune of "If you want to sing out, sing out." Either from the radio or the movie Harold and Maud or the more recent movie Charlie Bartlett. Well, I have just acquired an album of his and am in love with it. The sounds from his guitar are quite nostalgic and loverly!

Well, thats all for now. I am happy to be posting again and I hope everyone enjoys it too!

-All my enthusiasm, Tallie Raye

Dark Lights Rising

I have been away away! A week it has been since I last gazed into my glowing computer screen and thought "Oh! What joy it is indeed to write down the thoughts of my mind and submit them to inspection on the cyber net!"

Truly, my friends, it is a joy. I have so much fun blogging about my little hum-drum life. I hope you enjoy my flights of fancy and serious thoughts as much as I enjoy sharing them. I may do review or critiques now and again or simply post a favorite poem but I do most enjoy writting about art, fashion and life.

So to send a little love note to you all here is an artist that I have discovered. Think of Disney design art with a dark twist to it. Haunting yet full of life, serene yet moving, beautiful yet twisted. Oh yes, Krista Huot is a great artist. Enjoy, my lovelies!

Of scales, fur and evil hula hoops

Do you remember a time when you saw something scaring, disturbing, bad, horrible, and wretched?

Oh yeah! When you saw X-Men: Last Stand. And then again when X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out. These movies sank through the legions of bad films to settle at the bottom as some of worst in history(I must admit I would much rather watch these then say, Master Of Disguise though). All hope for future X-Men movies was left in the theater chairs that audiences had gladly vacated.

What, then, happened to the new X-Men movie?

Why am I asking this question? Because X-Men: First Class is great!

The mutants that had grown dull and clique are re-vaped in this deliciously action packed prequel. Director Matthew Vaughn, I tip my hat to your success.

Set in 1962 the mutants are not yet discovered and lie mostly under the radar. Charles Xavior is a charming and X-Tremly(I am so sorry, I just could not help myself) smart collage doctorate who uses his unusual knowledge to charm women. James McAvoy does a tip-top job of playing the idealistic professor. Michael Fassbender plays the tortured holocaust survivor Erik Lensherr, the future Magneto.

The two mutants banned together along with other young mutants including Jennifer Lawrence as a flirty teenaged Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as the beastly genius Hank McCoy and Caleb Landry Jones as the high flying super sonic Banshee, among others. All to defeat the war mongering Dr. Sebastian Shaw who's power allows him spew fire and explosions fit to match his diabolical character.

To keep Dr. Shawsevil plot from becoming a reality the good band of mutants, joined by hot C.I.A. agent Moira MacTaggert, must ultimatly stop the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Sure, there were a few story flaws and cheesy lines but it just added to the fun factor of this movie. Things like how Xavier ended up in a wheel chair will be revealed in the thrilling ending. When the angst-y Magneto calls out "Who will come with me?" I jumped up in the middle of the theater and called "I will!"

This fresh fast-paced film will leave you cheering and saying "Who needs the other stories? I just want the prequel!"

I wish I was a Mutant.

-All the enthusiasm I have, Tallie Raye

The Jasmine in my mind...

Can you feel it? The warm breezes, the clear skies and muggy air?

I can feel it. It is at the tips of my fingers and edge of my tongue!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have just one more day of laminated class rooms and suited teachers then I am free! Just like a bird!

Oh! I can not wait for the days to come!

You know when you hear a word and immediately an image or memory pops into your head? It is happening to me right now.

I see watermelon and lemonade on the front porch. I see sweaty teenagers lounging on grassy hills and hiking up dusty trails complaining of the heat. I see the beach. I see shopping. And I see art!

I will share some the things this summer holds for me.

This summer is packed full of trips:

1. Portland, Oregon. My mom and I are taking a trip up there to visit my uncle and his girlfriend. We are gonna go berry picking! I have never been Berry Piking before.

2. Palm Springs. I am taking a trip to the balmy palmy city with my life group! I am so ready for some girl time by the pool!

3. Lake Shasta. My youth group is heading there for a week of splashing and worshiping God! Not to mention hanging out with awesome friends and celebrating my good friend Mariels last year in High School! I will miss you, girly!!

Things I am looking forward to:

1. 4th of July! My favorite holiday(besides Christmas)! I love the sound of fireworks, how they resonate in your rib cage. OOOOO! I love it!

2. Art! I will have so much more time to spend at my art desk doing whatever the heck I feel like!!

3. Reading! I want to do a lot more re-reading of my favorite books this summer as well as new ones.

4. Swimming! Whether at the beach or in a pool I would much rather be in the water then on land.

5. Last but not least: Friends!! So many loverly people to hang out with! YAY!!

Throughout the summer I will have to be taking tutoring for my SAT test in October *Shock face!* yes studying in summer, bummer...

It is a minor payment for all the fun I will be having.

There you go,

All the excitement I have, Tallie Raye

Love and looking...

This is a poem I read aloud once. I found it the most simple and pure expression of love. It is just a woman plainly saying she loves watching this man when she is around him, and when she is not she wishes to be around him. Please read and enjoy.

To Don At Salaam

by Gwendolyn Brooks

I like to see you lean back in your chair

so far you have to fall but do not--

your arms back, your fine hands

in your print pockets.

Beautiful. Impudent.

Ready for life.

A tied storm.

I like to see you where your boy smile

whose tribute is for two of us or three.

Sometimes in life

things seem to be moving

and they are not

and they are not

there.

You are there.

Your voice is the listened-for music.

Your act is the consolidation.

I like to see you live in the world.

Don't put another dime in the Juke Box

This is one of my first fashion posts! Yay!

I have discovered that I love any sort of clothing that looks remotely vintage-y. While that really is not a surprise because, lets face it, vintage blows the worlds mind, I wanted to add a little taste of something else to this outfit. I was feeling creative and rebel-ish so...

...Presenting what I call my Penny Lane outfit!

In this earlier post I expressed my absolute-kind-of-obsessed-love of the movie Almost Famous, so consider this my Band-aid look(If you have seen the movie you will understand.)

Earrings I made myself out of shriky-dinks. That weird plastic stuff can be very useful.

I liked how my messy room kind of added to the preppy rebel vibe of the pictures. Don't judge my lack of organization, usually my room is very clean.
Bead necklace I got from American Eagle. Coin necklace is from a booth at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Plastic beads are probably from a frilly kids party from my past.
Fur vest I got for Christmas. Lace top and skirt I got from a thrift store. Gotta love the thrift stores because they are amazing!
I want to call special attention to these beauties! They are my shoe love. I love them. Very much. They are Doc Martins. I now want every stile of Doc Martins out there, thats how perfect they are! Comfortable and well made.

This is me screaming about how much I love Still Water(another A.F. reference.)


I did not actually wear this skirt in public because of it's length, or should I say, lack of length. My mom would have killed me!

Me with Baby Jack Skelington. Completely out of context for the pictures but I couldn't help it :)

Well, there you go!

Have a fun Thursday!
- Tallie Raye

I'll Follow The Sun

There are things I wish to write that are impossible to develop past the interior of ones mind. Great things that would prove I am deeper then I appear to be, yet my failure to be able to speak what is in between my ears proves just the opposite. I wish to say things about life and what I realize about it; all that comes through my lips are misplaced words. Yet it seems a waist not to try.

"Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you."

-Emily, Our Town.

I believe Thornton Wilder was on to something when he wrote Our Town. He seemed to explicitly understand the limits of the time allotted to us upon this dusty orb. So many small minuets just rushing by us leaving outlines and vague imprints, but so often never a lasting impression.

I do not want this post to melancholy so I will get to the point. Life is brief yet it is exactly the time we need. If we stayed any longer we would grow weary of living on a place that limits us more then the lack of time. But I do not think it would be right to yern always for heaven and the glories it brings. No doubt we should look forward to it but we are here for a reason. Hugh Ross say the earth was created for us perfectly. Why waist it? There are resources for us on the earth designed to give glimpses of heaven and improve us. I see absolutely no reason to waist this planet by not enjoying it.

I make a pact now. I will try to my upmost abilities to full fill the pact.

The Living Pact: I promise that to the upmost extent that my body, mind and heart can stand, I will live. I promise I will never only exist but be alive wherever my feet or moving transportation device carries me. My mind will inquire after the unusual, my eyes will see, my feet will never be static when moving is required and my heart will burst with feelings for everything and everyone.

From this day onward, it will be understood, that this pact may never be broken.

You are invited to make this pact with me. Just assume any pact-making-position you deem necessary, like spitting or crossing your heart or standing on your head, and recite as written above.

And if you need to find me, just look among the living. *wink*