"Pascal's Halloween"...yes, as in Blaise Pascal

This is a story I wrote in like 3rd grade that I just found and which I vividly remember writing after learning about Pascal's Triangle.

It was Halloween and Bobby's parents were at a party (deadbeats). Bobby was getting ready for trick or treating when he got a call. He heard a low deep voice on the other line (why did he answer the phone when he's home alone?!). "You got a F in math, right Bobby." After a while Bobby forced himself to speek. "Yes" said Bobby in a high shaky voice. "Who are you?" Bobby asked. "I am Blaise Pascal." "But you died along time ago." "I know." With that knews Bobby hung up (I knews it!).

After a couple of houses Bobby saw a man dressed from the 16 hundreds, but he wasn't a man you could see right through him (hold on, what?). Bobby knew who it was. It was the triangle wiz Blaise Pascal (The Wizard of Triangles!). Bobby ran to the next house when the door opened Bobby saw Pascal behind the man at the door.

After two hours of seeing Pascal in every triangle he gave up, and went home.

As soon as Bobby walked into his room he saw Pascal. Bobby ran to the door but he was too slow (shouldn't he have been at the door already?). Pascal grabbed him by the arm opened the window and flew out (Ghost of Christmas past?!). Right after Pascal grabbed Bobby he fainted (wimp).  When Bobby woke up we was in an old mansion with ghosts all around him. Then he saw Pascal. Then Pascal introduced Bobby to the group of ghosts. Then Pascal took Bobby by the arm and lead him to a room with a table and a chair. Then for one hour Pascal tought  Bobby all about math (WORST Halloween EVER).

The next day Bobby got a B in math (I guess Pascal couldn't get him an A...). After school Bobby went to his room where Blaise Pascal was waiting (creeper). Bobby thanked Pascal then he vanished (Bobby or Pascal?).

The end, and you're welcome.

Songs of the Last Six Months

Here are the songs I either couldn't get enough of, or couldn't get away from in the past six months.

Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain and Tennille. This played at the end of every Scapin. Good memories.


I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred. This also played at the end of Scapin. We'd finish David's change then dance party with Matt and Kristen. Also good times.


Dynamite by Taio Cruz. This ALSO played at the end of Scapin. Kristen'd throw Matt's cassock at me  every performance at "hey-oh, Galileo!" then I'd dance to this until we got house when I was upstairs getting David's hat.


What Makes You Beautiful by One Directions. Literally listened to this on repeat for 4 hours of pie making, and also other times.


Prima Donna by Marina and the Diamonds. I saw Marina and the Diamonds on The Graham Norton Show at the beginning of the summer and listened to them for a solid month. She's a great performer.


Send Me No Flowers by Nellie McKay. Introduced to Nellie this summer. I love this song.


Babel  by Mumford and Sons. This was a M&S fall for me. I love them, they are note and wordsmiths. I heard Babel from their new CD on SNL and I LOVE the drive of it!


Some Nights by Fun. Talk ab drive. I also discovered Fun. this summer, like everyone else in the world. I listened to Some Nights on repeat yesterday during my 14 hour drive. It just gets me going! The whole album is great.


Hey Ho by The Lumineers. Heard this in the gym way back when I went to the gym before fall build pooped on my dreams of fitness.


Trololo  by the Trololo Guy. This was dressing room #1's anthem. That or anything early 2000 boy band.

Best Ever Movie Kisses

Rewatched Persuasion 2007 and the awful kiss at the end and was reminded of this entry and made me want to do a reverse entry.

BEST EVER MOVIE KISSES (part I probably):


North and South
Woof, best. kiss. ever.
Four hours, Pride and Prejudice in industrial England, brooding John Thornton, shirt sleeves and a trainstation. SO much build up, SO much! I tried to explain the significance of this kiss to my ex once and he just didn't get it. We're looking at 18 months of Victorian angst culminating in the most perfectest kiss. Richard Armitage's jawline and stubble and lips and hands. Read the book, s'even better!


A Room With a View
There's opera playing and a wheat field in Italy and Julien Sands looks like an Arrow model. Uggs. Kiss at 1:10


Dear Frankie
This one's rather awkward leading up to it, and DVD extras tell me the actors' faces were exhausted from trying to get it right, and they did. Again, it's about the build up, which there is plenty of.


Penelope
Word around the watercooler is that James McAvoy is the best kisser in the bizz. What a high honor, and how lucky is Anne Marie Duff? You know you're a good kisser when you can make snogging a hog look so good!


Gone With the Wind
There's a soldier in the South who loves you, Scarlett, Wants to feel your arms around him, wants to carry the memory of your kisses into battle with him. Never mind about loving me, you're a woman sending a solier to his death with a beautiful memory. Scarlett! Kiss me! Kiss me...once...*om nom nom*


Northanger Abbey
This one was also on the awkward list. First kiss, young passionate pent up angsty love, into the shrubs. Yes. Start at 1:15


Some Kind of Wonderful
It's just, uuuhhh...
Sound's off, but s'ok.

Almost kiss:

Mansfield Park
Science says the moment of most sensation is right before your lips touch. Tell me about it!

Special thanks to Allison and Tricia for their input. 

Video: What's my type?

Answer, I don't have one.
Mormon and Temple-worthy covers all the mandatory bases.

I also forgot to mention I like thick waists...it probably has something to do with my being tall and feeling man-sized, but if the fella has a thick waist I feel better about it :)

Porn Star Name Generator

I've been sorting buttons for days and while I've used this method many times to determine my optimum porn star name last night after a double full of buttons this was HIL-arious.

First pet name+street you grew up on=porn star name

Clown Face Sequoia

The appropriateness of this name for me is astounding, because I'd wear a lot of make up, and I'm tall. Comedy explained. 

favorite pictures: South Bank

I love the South Bank. I love Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare's Globe. Its walls are made with cashmere, woof. When I got back from two weeks on the continent and was all alone in London the first place I went was the Globe, just to sit. It has a relatively good ice cream van, a lovely shop, a public(ish) restroom with Dyson airblades and some of my best memories of London are getting off at St. Paul's, walking across the Harry Potter (Millenium) Bridge and sitting around the South Bank. Said area also includes Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral, the Clink, the Golden Hind, and the Tate Modern. Seriously, one of my favorite places in the world!

view of St. Paul's from the Globe. 

If I had a time machine....

#1 April 13, 1993: Opening of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard at The National in London, starring Rufus Sewell as Septimus and Bill Nighy as Bernard, directed by Trevor Nunn.

I love this play, I love Rufus Sewell, I love The National. I can't even imagine how great this production was.  Life list in general includes seeing this play and/or designing it. It turns 20 next year...pretty please!! If said time machine can't make it to the opening of the original cast I'll take the opening of the 2009 production with Dan Stevens.




I know I've made a list somewhere in my mind palace of more dates to go back to, but nothing is coming to mind. This'll have to be a series. 

A new addition!

To my art family!

Introducing the Yarka sequel set! 24 new Russian watercolors in such lovely shades as Quinacridone Rose, Blue Lake, Claret, Azure Blue, Quinacridone Lilac, Naples Yellow and Indigo! I've had the original 24 set since I was in fourth grade with my art mentor. They have been my dear friends for nearly 14 years. I just hope they don't get jealous of the new guys.

A new set of paints is like an empty journal. It makes me anxious and giddy; anxious because it's too clean and pretty, giddy because soon it will bear the marks of many many good times.

new colors are big swatches, old colors are between

one big happy family of 48 beautiful children :)

ALL my colors!

Video: I don't like summer

Here's another about me!

And a bonus: Changing over to Hamlet. I move Claudius' clothes. I say Polonius, but I was obviously on crack and didn't know what was coming out of my mouth :P

Conversations with children about my love life

I stopped posting on my other blog, but was looking at it the other day and came across these gems: Conversations I had with my niece and nephews while I was living with my sister Ashley last year. Priceless.

Emily (7): Aunt Shelby, why don't you have any kids? 
Ashley: Bc she doesn't have a husband. 
Me: Bc I'm not married. 
Emily: Why don't you have a husband? 
Me: Bc I haven't found a guy to marry yet. 
Tyler (5): You haven't found a guy that's cool enough? 
Me: Yep. 

At breakfast. 
Tyler: When are you going to fix you hair? 
Me: After my shower. 
Tyler: You haven't showered yet?! 
Me: No. 
Tyler: Bc your hair is all...weird and poofy...my mom has one of those things that makes your hair flat. Do you? 
Me: Yes, but I don't use it very often. 
Tyler: oh. 

While looking at facebook photos of some guy friends. 
Owen (3): Which one of those guys are you going to marry? 
Me: None of them 
Owen: Bc you hate them? 
Me: Sure. 

Conclusion? If you're not cool enough to marry me I hate you.

Published!

I've been waiting to blog ab this until my friend posted the links himself.

I recently completed a portrait of my friend Matt for the cover of his book. Matt's wonderfully talented and I was super happy to do a portrait for/of him. Check it out. It's on my website, but here are some process photos as well. I hadn't done a portrait in YEARS but it was like riding a bike, only like I had extra BMX powers or something. It was interesting to draw a face I'm very familiar with in real life, as I'd only done celebrities to this point. So here it is in process, and the finished product, all property of me of course. And a link to Matt's book, Edible Origami.

I had a picture to look off of, of course, but it's not mine so I haven't posted it. I used an art grid on the piece of paper underneath which is SO helpful and I'm sure why it went so well. By putting it underneath you don't need to worry about erasing it. For a thicker paper I'd prefer to have a light box, otherwise I'd have to draw it directly on. For canvases you have to. You can see the grid a little on the first couple, and I put hashes where the intersections are to keep it in line, which of course are erased later. I got brand new art pencils and erasers for this and was giddy when I got them! I haven't bought new pencils in probably 6 or 7 years!

still start with the eyes like
Mrs. Claus taught me

paper towel to keep my hand
and the paper clean

put in the hair line,
 then decided we liked it better unfinished

I'm a big fan of the shadow that the
hairline left.This is it more or less
finished. I cleaned up the white, pumped
up some shadow, and signed it of course.

I love taking process photos bc it shows how I've tweaked and futzed. Rarely am I 100% happy with any of my projects, but this is as close as I've come. I'd say 95%, and that's just because if I was 100% happy I'd have nothing to aspire to for next time!

Blame Jack

What if I cut my hair like Yelle?

Answer: I'd always do my make up and I'd never get married!!!!

Oh the places I've been!

Last year I had 18 travel days with the longest stay between them being 3 months and the average being about 3 weeks. Needless to say when I got a 6 month contract I was more than happy to be in one spot for awhile. However, this one spot is living and working with the same people and I love them dearly, but as happens with this kind of contract I think we're all ready to get going. That being said I'm ready to travel s'more! First stop Seoul, South Korea! After that I've got my baby brother's wedding in California, trips to grad schools and to top it off a trip to NYC in the spring to visit my bestie and other friends. Then I'll be back here, :)

BUT, where was I last year? and the years before that? In the past two years I must say that I've been quite the traveler and I love it!

Met Toby Stephens in London 5/10

 Met some horses in London 

 Went to Bath

 Moonwalked at Stonehenge

 Went to the London Temple

 Saw LOTS of lakes in Grasmere, England

 Kenilworth Castle

 Blenheim Palace (with matching Richie)

 Grumpy times in Oxford, also hit up Stratford-upon-Avon

 Times in Paris for research

 Stop off in Bern, Switzerland

 Swiss Temple, hit up Germany as well

 Back to school for my Senior year....

L.A. in 2/11

GRADUATED 4/11

Southern UT Summer of '11

USF 50th! 

St. George Temple 6/11

 Illinois 7/11

Nebraska 8/11

USF fall build 8-9/11

Worked at BYU, lived with Marth 9-11/11

Disneyland/L.A./San Degio/Orange County Thanskgiving '11

Worked the USF educational build in Cedar 1/12

Lived with my sister in Payson 2/12

Competed in Ogden 2/12

Visited friend Colette in Boise 3/12

Saw Sister Lamb in Omaha 3/12

 Went to Washington DC 4/12

 won some stuff at KCACTF

Then I lived with my sister for like a week then came back down to Cedar.

How many places can I visit in the next six months?! You know, with the gobs of money I have...

Project: Navy pencil skirt

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be working on my stripey dress, but I got some navy stretch for another project and I remembered I needed another pencil skirt :).

I've got my sloper that's just for me so this one was flat patterned. I've been in love with the idea of a longer pencil, closer to high shin. For more specialness is comes up in the front and down in the back, has seams instead of darts and a weird pocket shape but not a pocket for the other darts. That's right, 11 pieces in a pencil skirt. Deal. I guess I could combine the center backs and do a side zip, but eh. Haven't decided yet. Also will probably be higher waisted. It's pretty tapered. We'll see if I can move...

Video: talking about my hair mostly

Because I always talk ab my hair.

I debated redoing this video w/o the intro which I would type instead, but I'm pretty sure this is funnier. Anything longer than a minute takes FOREVER to upload so you're going to get some short funtimes videos!

Backstage Blacks

I've had a rather large dearth, yes dearth of creativity this summer. Recently I've resolved to do something creative/artistic everyday and have been doing ooooooook....I sewed some clothes, wrote some poems, carved some pumpkin, even had a portrait commission (soooo adult it makes me feel). I hope this all picks up when I go home and am not wearing black everydays. I mean when I was in high school I'd shut myself up for entire weekends and come out with a magazine collage of a Winterhalter portrait, or a new portrait of Josh Groban or the like. What happened? Art as homework happened, wah wah. Grad school's not going to help that, but I digress.

I mean to talk ab what I've been wearing for 4 months and why it sucks my soul out. Blacks. Neck to feet black w/ long sleeves and all that jazz. At the beginning I felt cool, hadn't had occasion to wear blacks for awhile...

first dress of Scapin, ready to GO!

During the summer I liked to try and look cute. Never as cute as the hair girls that wear straight up blouses, but I at least tried, for Scapin at least, Les Mis is a monster and I quickly decided it needed the full attention of my black yoga pants every performance. One day this summer my friend Krissa did my hairs for school and I put in my feathers and it was fun....

Then crossover started and we began build for fall and then the summer people left and we just ran Les Mis and I got in a big ol' rut and yay I got to wear black everyday! So, here's a sporadic collection of blacks. I still try to look nice for Stones bc a girl's got to try sometimes. Yoga pants and giant USF shirt for Les Mis...

fun lipstick is the only color we're allowed really, so I try my best for Stones.

 Me "trying" at Les Mis, not very hard though.

 I felt cute this day for sure...

 Then my hair started weighing 500 lbs.

 and I went completely mad....
This is a different day I swear.

Anydoctorwho....There it is. thesoulsuckers. I haven't worn my hair up in like 2 weeks in hopes of shaking off my tension headache, but s'no good. CHOP CHOP!!!

New Website!

Here it is! I feel like I want a launch party with cocktail attire, but I doubt that's feasible. Anyway, it's about time I got my own professional website. I've been working on it almost nonstop since friend Kristen showed me the site she uses for hers, super easy and free. I'll buy my own domain once I go to grad school and get a Mac with iWeb. Take a look around! Let me know if you find any glitches etc. I really want to change the homepage banner, but have yet to make a new one.

http://shelbyluke.weebly.com/

My dad's the coolest

This beauty is what my dad's been working on for years. It gives me the shivers! Great childhood playing in WWII planes.



News story here

Faces I Love

Friend Jack and I were talking last night at work ab attractive people. He's very picky, and I can appreciate a symmetrical face, but at the end of the day I like the faces I dwell on to have character. As luck would have it I have a Pinterest board for this very topic! It's mostly of men bc duh, that's what I'm drawn to, but there are some ladies as well. I could post some pictures of some of my friends but I don't want to embarrass them :)

Alan Rickman
just Alan Rickman

John Krasinski
guy next door adorableness

Stephen Fry...
Jack knows how I love a good crooked nose

Patrick Dempsey...
Can't Buy Me Love
the original Neville Longbottom transformation

Paul Newman, duh

JJ Feild...
his ears are HUGE and stick out
Love them.

Steve McQueen...
basically average, except for you know,
ALL THE COOL!

Russell Crowe....
I don't want to hear it Nick
or from anyone else, he's mmmm

Anthony Hopkins
so much character in his face

David Tennant
weirdly alluring

Hugh Laurie
has DEFS gotten better w/ age

Jason Sudeikis
I made him into a jack-o-lantern
of course I love his face.

Yul Brynner
Russian masterpiece

Martin Freeman
maybe the best face ever, such a Watson

Cate Blanchett
I think she's beautiful

Tom Hanks
you're unAmerican if you don't like this face

Kate Winslet
always stunning and classy

Tina Fey
My hero, it hurts bc I'm not her best friend

Winston Churchill
such a great mug

Emma Thompson
Goddess

Peter Lorre
one of the most interesting faces 

Consuelo Vanderbilt
tragic beauty

Rosemary Kennedy
the most tragic beauty

Benedict Cumberbatch
arresting