Merry Christmas, One and All!!

In October we took a little road trip to Morganton to see Teri run her marathon. Once we congratulated her at the finish line we got back in the car and headed over to Asheville, which is pretty much the hippie capital of North Carolina. It's a really cute, artsy little town in the Blue Ridge Mountains that has lots of fun stores to peruse, including one that sells only antique belt buckles. Anyways, I'll have to post pictures from Asheville later, but on our way out of town we hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is this gorgeous scenic two-lane drive that has the most amazing fall colors. When we got up to the top of the mountain there was this crazy fog rolling in and we stopped to take some pictures. Even though it was only October we decided they would be our Christmas card pictures...even though they're kind of creepy.





Merry Christmas, and may all your New Year's dreams come true.

History of Photography - Final

So I've been a little busy lately doing stuff like this:













That was my final project for History of Photography, the interesting part anyways...I'm guessing nobody wants to read my 6 page paper about the artistic context of Edward Weston, who I "emulated", his photographic philosophies, and the similarities and differences between our work. I know 6 pages may not sound like a lot to people like Hannah, but writing is kind of a painful experience for me (I can already hear Brent going "kind of???" haha). Seriously, I almost started crying when he told me I had to rearrange the whole thing and write a new conclusion. But I did it. And it's done. And I got an A.


Also, doesn't the pepper kind of look like it has a bottom? And that ginger root made the BEST cookies....mmmmmmm....

Treasures

When Brent went on a cleaning rampage last night he came across two pieces of paper that, in the past, he might have just thrown away, but he has learned that I sometimes develop an irrational attachment to certain sentimental items and so he handed them over.

Item #1: A note handed to me by a little girl in my primary class...



I almost DIED. Seriously, how cute is that? Unfortunately we had plans and I had to decline her polite invitation.

Item #2: I'm not really sure why, but Maddie drew this while she was here visiting over the summer...



She loves Krispy Kremes and in case you didn't know we actually have the very first Krispy Kreme store EVER right here in Winston-Salem. Ok, maybe not the very first ever built but I think it's the oldest one that still exists. That's what the kid working there told me anyway. And I think the giant person on the roof is supposed to be Maddie.

Mmmmmmm...those were the days.

Why I love Delta.

Do they know me?? I can't think of any other explanation. I was laughing so hard I didn't even mind that they declined my request, then I got another email like 5 minutes later telling me that they were actually going to accept my request, and that email was addressed to "Ms. NcNaught". They just can't get it right.

Photo Shoot!

With my favorite models.






I had to submit a proposal for the final project in one of my classes this week, kinda crazy since the project isn't due until December! We had to turn in four photos that show what we think show the direction our project will take (I think I'm going to focus on "childhood curiosity"). Here are the four I turned in:



If you know Maddie, you may wonder how I possibly convinced her to lay down in tall grass. She kind of has a grass phobia, she refuses to even walk on grass without socks or shoes. I guess she loves the camera more than she hates grass and bugs...and it payed off! I think this is my fav.





And here are some more cool shots for your viewing pleasure.









I love these girlies, and it's convenient that they're so pretty.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception...

A cool name for a cool place.



The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (hereafter known as the Basilica) is extra cool because it's the largest church in North America and the eighth largest "religious structure" in the world!! And as a side note, it is also the tallest building in DC at 329ft (not to be confused with the tallest structure in DC, the Washington Monument: 555ft 5in, which we visited without our camera...tragic, it was awesome, did you know that you can ride an elevator to the top? I didn't. Or that the stairs are now off limits because too many people decided to graffiti the inside walls including the commemorative state stones?? True. Anyways, back to the basilica...).

We gave ourselves a self tour of the place starting down a long stone corridor with lots of little rooms with cool statues and altars in them. Including this guy who I think looks like the "Camerlengo" from Angels and Demons, played by Ewan McGreggor.







There are several different chapels inside the main Basilica building, each with it's own amazing artwork, most noteably incredibly large and intricate mosaics on almost every wall.







And this HUGE mosaic on the inside of one of the giant domes in the main chapel which I like to call "Angry Jesus"...somehow this just isn't quite how I imagine him...



Here's a picture of the main chapel, it was stunning, in a totally overwhelming and echo-y way.



And my personal favorite mosaic, Adam and Eve.



A note about the name of the Basilica...I wondered as I was walking around why there were so many different "Virgin Marys" of every race and nation depicted, including this puppet Mary and Jesus in a plastic tube hanging from the ceiling...



...then I read in the brochure that Catholics consider Mary to be "immune from all stain of original sin", in other words, they believe that Mary was free from temptation, and never sinned, making her perfect, possessing a "fullness of virtue". Anyways, the emphasis on her, especially in this Basilica makes much more sense in light of that information, since the LDS church believes that she was just a very righteous and special, but imperfect, mortal. The Basilica is amazing, and I highly recommend it if you enjoy beautiful artwork and incredible architecture. Go see it!

Last DC Post...

Just kidding! One more after this. Probably.

So, the National Arboretum. I think it might have been the hottest day of the year...other than that it was great! The best part (maybe the only part we saw...) was the Bonsai Garden. Bonsais are basically mini trees that live for millions of years in tiny pots. If not for my harp teacher's bonsai's that I had to water ocasionally growing up, I probably wouldn't have known what they were. Anyways, some of them acutally are really old. Like this one:





1625!!! I'm not the best at math, but I think that means it's like almost 400 years old. There were some that were pretty young too, it's hard to tell just by looking at them, but they all have little plaques, very helpful.









Just across from the Bonsai Garden is a collection of Columns that used to hold up the Capitol Building. Apparently they were getting kind of old and instead of sending them to the dump they brought them out to the Arboretum so people could appreciate them for all eternity. They're kind of cool/random standing up there not holding anything up anymore.



While we were standing up there Brent suddenly went ballistic and started jumping around and spitting...apparently something bit him on the tongue! Hahaha....he didn't think it was funny, especially since I was taking pictures.





The other cool thing at the National Arboretum is the koi pond. I don't know why koi are so funny, maybe it's because they're so gullible. All you have to do is stick your hand out over the water and they swarm immediately. FOOD FOOOOOD FOOOOOOOD!!!!









Ok last thing, they also had this really pretty pitcher plant, which you will recognize if you've seen Planet Earth (if you haven't you must see it asap). Pitcher plants trap insects and other delicacies in their "pitcher" that usually has a lot of water in it, the insects fall in and drown and then are dissolved and absorbed by the plant. Nature is so creative sometimes.

American History and Potomac Trails...

I know, I know, more DC, but there was just so much to do! One day we drove downtown by ourselves and checked out the American History museum which has a lot of cool random old stuff in it, including C-3PO!



And Brent appreciated the old medicine cabinet display which included a fine selection of "female bitters", the only guaranteed cure for female weakness:





We also looked through the First Lady gown collection which has pieces going all the way back to Martha Washington, and most of the recent First Ladys' inauguration dresses, including Laura Bush's sassy red number (which looks tiny btw, I wonder if some of them have the dresses taken in so they look smaller on display?? haha). Somehow we didn't get any good pics of the dresses, but here's me in the exhibit:



On the way home I told Brent to pull off the George Washington Pkwy to one of the scenic outlooks so I could try to take a picture of the river, which I did.



Then he saw a little trail that we thought might take us down to the river so we started following it but it was really scary, weird, muddy and covered in trash so we turned back! This picture actually makes it look kind of cool, but it wasn't.



However, the GW Pkwy itself is one of the most beautiful highways in the world if you ask me:



Later that night we actually did make it down to the river bank, on a much less sketchy trail that starts just about a block from the McNaught's house. It was a fun little walk and we made it to the river just in time for sunset.













For all you single ladies out there, Garrett is one fine bachelor ;)