twenty-two.

Well today's my twenty-second birthday. Which is just strange to type, I barely got used to being twenty-one! And now today I'm like an old fart, I'm 22. Ridiculous. So anyway, here are some highlights from the year 2011 / the year I was 21.

• The first full year that Trevor & I dated.
  We started dating August 2nd, 2010 and 2011 was the first year we were together for the whole thing. :) On August 2nd of this year will be our two year anniversary! And after that, hopefully many more. Over there is a picture of Trevor & I at the Thayer company Christmas party this year :)
  
• Got my violin fixed!
  My beauuutiiifulll violin which I got in like...2006? I think, broke on Easter Vigil in 2010. I was devastated - the bridge cracked and the soundpost was rolling around in the violin. I was really broke and the time and couldn't get it fixed. :( But my boss, Chuck, bought me a brand new violin to use in the meantime!! I played it all summer long but then finally decided to get my real violin fixed. I teared up when I first started tuning it, missed it so much. <3

• Went to Colonial Williamsburg!I got to go with my whole family (minus my brother Rob) to Williamsburg in Virginia, where we had a whole week full of history & fun :)

• Went on my first business trip :)I went to Toledo, OH to the headquarters of Spartan Chemical Company to learn about their program, CompuClean. Yes, I work in the janitorial supply business. But along the way Dulcie & I got to explore the city! We shopped and went to the art museum there :) Great memories!!! To the right is a picture of all the people at the seminar. Needless to say, I was the youngest. :P
• Turned 21!
  Ok this one's kind of obvious. Like, duh I turned 21. But what happened as a result of being 21 is that my tastes, as far as alcohol goes, matured greatly. I got really into beeeeer this year. Before I just drank whatever, whatever was cheap and available. I had no idea what a lager vs a pale ale vs a pilsner or what. So I learned a lot as far as that's concerned. The beer I had last year on my 21st was a Blue Moon Belgian White; that was first time I drank it and it's still a favorite to this day.
  
  
• Learned guitar (kind of)
  I always dabbled a little when it came to guitar, but 2011 was the year that I really worked on it. It's a good instrument to carry around with you so I'd bring it to the beach! It was a great instrument to learn because I found a songbook of Beatles and then a Simon & Garfunkel book in my mom's music, and brought them EVERYWHERE with me. This is one of my favorite pictures from this year, me playing guitar for my little cousins on my Grandma's deck.

• Became friends with 65 people?
  According to Facebook, I gained 65 new friends in 2011. That's not counting the people I met who I didn't end up adding on Facebook of course :) but this new timeline thing makes it really interesting to look back on the past year of your life!

Also, this is the year I started this blog! I've been at it for about seven months now, and it gets better every post I'd say.

So looking back on the year, I'm content. I've had a 21st year filled with family more loving and more fun than any I could ever ask for, friends who fill all my spare time with awesome memories, and a boyfriend who is always there for me, no matter what. And I am so grateful to have another year to spend with all of them :)
Happy birthday to me! Thanks for everything.

Bokeh In Advertising

I've gotten into adding bokeh into my photography lately, it's a nice effect and since my camera isn't usually able to capture it, I've been adding it in later.

duclie & i in toldeo

the very first bokeh edit i ever did.

whitney & julia :)

But it would appear I'm not the only one interested in the bokeh effect, because I've been seeing it a lot in advertising a lot lately. Do you use Pandora?

pic from my iphone

I work at a janitorial supply company.. here's an booklet for air fresheners we carry.

And some air fresheners we sell on our website.

Even McDonald's picked up on the bokeh trend -

my co-worker's morning cup o' joe

And watching television at my boyfriend's dad's last night, I saw quite a few ads with bokeh in them. Here's one for KIA:

So anyway I just think it's interesting that this trend seems to have exploded everywhere.

These are the thing my mind notices everyday. And I felt the need to document this. If it's interesting to me, it might be a little interesting to somebody else, right?

and don't forget!

Check out the colorful clare Facebook :)

I put an ad out on Facebook so it's getting a little more attention, now I need some ideas! thanks, everybody!

the new year post

It seems like time goes by faster, the older I get. Last night at midnight we rang in the year 2012 at my house with Dick Clark, party poppers and a champagne toast. (classic) We then proceeded to stay up entirely too late, acting more and more ridiculous with each passing hour. Today is the day we spend recovering from all the drinks & goodies we consumed last night.



I do want to talk about one thing we did, which is this board game, Quelf.

Maybe I'm behind on this, but I've never heard of it before and it was nuts! 

The game has you do some crazy things.

This is my cousin Liz, after she picked a card that said any opponent who messed up her hair got to move forward two spaces.

My brother Ben, and his character Mr. Lugnut.

Rob, who had to go find a tie, knot it in a square knot, and wear it for the remainder of the game or suffer the penalties (good thing he likes ties). Luke is in the background acting like a weeping willow because Rob rolled a four, the result of a 'rule' card Luke had drawn.

Me, and Trevor. Yes, I am wrapped in toilet paper. I drew a card which said I must be a mummy until someone rolled a certain number.

All in all, it's a great game that I'd recommend to anyone. The box says 12+ but I don't think it's possible to be too old to play this game! You just can't be afraid to be crazy.

And I happen to like crazy. :)

On another note..

In honor of the year 2012, here are some desktops for you to download :)

time & fireworks

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&

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happy party hats

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I hope you enjoyed your New Year's celebration :)

Don't forget -

LIKE!

Thanks, and happy new year!

-clare.

the big one zero zero zero

Wow. Apparently some people actually do read my blog. :) Today I managed to catch it at 1,00 0 views. Now, there's no way to be sure, but half of those could possibly be mine...

In honor of 1,000 views, I've launched a colorful clare facebook! (ok, no. I've been working on it for a week or so, it's not in honor of 1,000 views. but we can pretend) So if you glance over there to your right, you'll notice a like box. Please like me, check it out and give me your suggestions! I'd really appreciate it.

It's definitely a work in progress, but someday maybe it'll be something worthwhile. Until then, suggestions suggestions suggestions! please.

Also, I found this olllddd piano video from February 2008 on my computer. Just as a special bonus for all the views. haha. :) peace!

TUTORIAL: Elephant Glass Ornament

#5 - I've been making things :)

TUTORIAL:

Glass Elephant Ornament

What you will need:

# 1 - A cheap, clear glass ornament.

# 2 - Permanent Markers.

# 3 - Creativity!!

Step One - After I took some pictures of myself in the ornament for a while, I went on the internet and googled 'cute elephant'. Of course you could use this concept for virtually anything, but the person the ornament was for is an avid elephant fan. So anyway, I found the above image in a google search.

I traced the elephant onto my ornament with a blue sharpie, and filled it in. I had to go over the Sharpie at least two times, and I went over it three times in some areas.

After that I added the finishing details to the piece - a traced border around the elephant, some hearts and polka dots. I made sure all the spots were pretty filled in with marker, and thennn...

I decided it would look nice to fill the ornament with tissue paper :) So I did. I put the top back on and put some glitter glue around it. I wrote 'happy birthday 2011' on the back for the recipient of the ornament, wrapped it in tissue paper & gave it away. Voila!

So cheap, so easy, and so fun! I plan on making more of these for Christmas presents. Tis the season. Which reminds me of this video from my favorite movie...

autumn picnic

#4 - I've gone on dates with Trevor.


Trevor & I still like to celebrate the one month anniversaries, but when it came to our November anniversary I was at a loss for what to do. Neither of us had very much money so I thought - ah! A picnic!

I googled fall picnic ideas & found a lot of awesome websites. Here are some for you to visit!
- delish.com
- foodandwine.com
- howdoesshe.com
- the-picnic-site.com

After this, I was inspired. I went to the store and put together a gourmet picnic. I packed napkins, a blanket, and even some candles. It was chilly but not too chilly, the week right before daylight savings kicked in. (meaning the sun was still out when I got off work. Ha!)

 I got the stuff ready so that we could head straight to the park after work. I bought those Soup at Hand drinkable soups and microwaved them so we'd have something warm to drink :)

The lighting was beautiful and the temperature was definitely tolerable.

I'm all for ambience, so I brought a couple tea lights with. :D Heh, call me cheesy but I loved the way they looked.

We had chips, rice cakes with salami & provolone, deviled eggs, those soups and strawberry cheesecake for dessert. We played some music from my iPhone and watched the sunset.

Great memories <3

One tip I'd add - for any picnic in the fall/winter, BRING A BLANKET. We ended up just sitting on it but I think it really prevented us from getting cold. Although when the sun started going down more, the chill set in and we decided to leave. So I definitely recommend sunlight for picnics. :)

Your assignment:

HAVE A LIVING ROOM PICNIC!!

Show me your pictures!

ideas here :)

more fall photography

In case you haven't noticed already, a big part of my blogging is to show all the hundreds of thousands of pictures I inevitably take. Which brings me to another big thing I've been doing lately.

#3 - As usual, I've been taking & editing tons of pictures!


I'm working on a project called supermacro, which is exactly what it sounds like - supermacro pictures, closeups of anything and everything i can find to photograph. Here are some I've taken so far -

Things look so much different when you really stop and look at the details :)

Other photo project ideas I have are:

- take a picture of my accessories every day

- take a picture of a bunch of people's face, and then their choice in footwear

a while ago, I started a photo project called Pieces of Me. Again, the general concept is pretty obvious :) I'd like to add more to it, eventually. If only I had more time on my hands... or maybe I should be saying, "If only I used my time more wisely."

Let me ponder that for a while...

In the meantime, please give me some other photo project suggestions! Or even supermacro ideas. 

Please +1 if you liked this post!