First Comission: Day 3-variable n.

Today, I admit a fault of mine- neglect.

It is because of this horrendous sin that I've failed to keep track of my progress on le portrait.

as a consolation, however, I did take pictures! Yeah? Yeah? :'D

This is when I started to look like my cousin. -3-

Took this picture today; the faces are getting lots better. (LOL, like my makeshift easel? ;D)

Close-up. I finally got the mouth right.

So guys, what can you tell me about l'amour?

*sigh* The hopeless romantic in me is a shattered wreck.

Doubt

An amazing film. Just to give a short synopsis of the happenings without giving away too much...

A sharp-tongued, xenophobic Catholic nun. A warm- hearted, open minded Catholic priest with a passion for compassion (hehe). Two completely different sides of the spiritual and religious spectrum clashing forces under the roof of a quaint Catholic school for young, pubescent boys and girls. The story takes place when, under the scrutiny of the said nun in charge of the school, the seemingly innocent relationship between said priest and a young and isolated boy is twisted into an act of blasphemy. And within the question of certainty of the situation resonates one word--doubt.

There were a couple valuable scraps of wisdom that I picked up from the movie; all of which were from the priest's sermons. Talk about irony when I can listen to sermons in movies, but not in real life. Heinous.

The first sermon was about doubt. Duh. But the one thing I picked up from it was something more along the lines of human connection. When you experience feelings of doubt, fear, depression, anxiety, it breeds isolation. But the point he made in his sermon was that anyone who was ever human has experienced these feelings too. This establishes a universal and unbreakable, but indirect bond between you and every single person on the planet, making isolation quite simply impossible. And I think that if we were able to completely understand this, more tangible connections like empathy and love would be so much easier to achieve; and feelings like pride and hate would be pointless. Why? When you can relate to a person, it's easier to appreciate them. When you call out a person for being angry just like you have been on occaision, what's the point? Maybe it's this concept of human connection that breeds the long sought-after tolerance that we all need, yeah?

The second sermon was so well told, that I felt it fitting to share it it word for word (SPOILER ALERT):



So, over all, this movie made it onto my summer favorites list. If I had a million stars, I'd give them all to this movie.... *sigh* :)

well, toodles, all~

First Commission: Day 3

Finally ready to paint!

I took the painting over to Lyndsey's because I was in desperate need of help with the faces. I liked the outcome, non?

IN OTHER NEWS:

The scarf is half way done (although I am in no immediate need of a scarf whatsoever. HEINOUS!) I'm proud of it nonetheless, and if anything, the knitting process relaxes me.

Also! I'm ready to read the next book on my summer reading list:

Hopefully some sagacious quotes will ensue. We'll see. ;D

Hmmm... I think that's about all worth mentioning.

WHAT ABOUT MY FIRST DRIVING EXPERIENCE? Shush.....it'll be okay, Julie.

"Julie, did you gain weight?"

Excuse me, Ms. Lady, CAN WE NOT?

My mobility... *crey*

Dumpling

Who's the best darn sister in the world?

So my sister is doing some kind of "for fun" group assignment for her class and she felt it was essential that she brought her friends over to our house. That means that Julie had to give up her morning cleaning the bathrooms, clearing the laundry and baking snacks. If this doesn't prove I love my sister, I don't know what will. HURR HURR.

But I enjoyed the baking part of it. If anything, it was incredibly therapeutic. Cleaning up after myself, however, was not.

(Here are my little babiez!)

Recipe for those of you interested!

Cookie Batter:
> 1-1/3 cups and 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
> 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
> 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
> 1/2 cup butter, softened
> 3/4 cup white sugar
> 1/2 egg (beat up one egg and pour half of it into the mixture)
> 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Cream together butter & sugar
2. Add egg & vanilla
3. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder in a separate bowl.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients.

I divided the batter in 3 because I made 3 kinds of cookies:

Cream Cheese Sandwich Cookies:

1. I added a few drops of red food coloring to 1/3 of the batter (just my preference)
2. Roll teaspoon-sized amounts of batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flattened them out a little.
3. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.
4. Take them out and leave them to cool in the tray for a little bit, and then move them to a cooling rack (I just used one of the oven racks hehehe...)

Cream Cheese Filling:
> 6 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
> 4 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
> 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
> 1 tsp vanilla

5. Cream together butter and cream cheese, then add everything else and mix until smooth.
6. ASSEMBLE: pair up the cookies and sandwich them with some cream cheese.

**NOTE: I had a shit ton of cream cheese left...for me to eat. Perks of the job. But feel free to cut the filling recipe in half if you don't want to make too many.

"Milanos":

1. Roll teaspoon-sized amounts to he cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten them a little bit.
2. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.
3. Allow to cool just like before.

Chocolate Filling:

> About a 1/2 cup of chocolate truffles (or any other chocolate)
> A little over 1 tbs of milk

4. Melt chocolate and milk for 20 second intervals in the microwave until there are no lumps.
5. ASSEMBLE AS BEFORE.

Snickerdoodles
1. Roll teaspoon-sized amounts again.
2. Roll the batter in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
3. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.

So in total, I made 8 of each sandwich cookie and 16 snickerdoodles, or 32 cookies. Unfortunately, I can't eat them *CREY*


IN OTHER NEWS:
My first driving lesson is today, and my first day as MENACE OF THE STREETS. *Vroom vroom!*

FML.

This thing. Was supposed to be an alarm clock. I took it apart so I could put batteries inside AND LO BEHOLD... IT'S JUST A DAMN DECORATIVE BOBBLE-HEAD FIGURE. JDAKLFJLADSDSAFJDLKA:JLAS.....

First Commission: Day 2

Well, progress is progress. I knew that the faces were gonna be the hardest part of the whole thing. Today I was only able to crap out a pair of eyes for each of the faces. *crey*

Did I hear "pictures"?

My mom says she can see the resemblance. I keep seeing Mona Lisa and the fuckin' Seed of Chucky. WHY, CRUEL WORLD?!

Just want to start painting, already! (Aww, look at my babies all lined up in a row! <3) IN OTHER NEWS...

Julie's been knitting again. IN JUNE. I DIE xDDD.

Well, 'tis all for now, folks. Toodles~!

First Commission: Day 1

My first ever commission and it was from my mom. LOL, I die. Alas, every opportunity to bust out paint supplies is an opportunity not to be wasted.

Not having that great of a day....

Maybe it's a bit too early to judge. I still have a good 12 hours left of the day. We'll see.