new adventures just beyond the horizon

Ah, February.

I enjoy February. It's the Humpday month of winter. December and January are behind us, March and the beginning of April just beyond our reach. 

To add to your February enjoyment, I'm thrilled to announce that Lavender Honey is getting a new website! Wohoo!

Over the weekend, when we weren't running errands or finally getting around to taking down our Christmas lights, I was working on a list of goals and forming a plan for this fresh-faced Lavender Honey. 

I have zero experience building websites but what does that matter, right? I would normally turn to Chris for such a tech-savvy venture - he could build a website whilst sleeping, ill, and/or drunk - but he's slammed at work so I'm on my own. 

For what it's worth, I did have to code once for an architecture course. 

The assignment was to code swarming behavior. You know, like bees or ants. I chose moths and now that I think about it, I'm not positive that moths swarm at all. All I know is that those ugly, brown, beady-eyed bugs swarming around lights at night was the first thing I thought of that day.

I decided that I would call my final project "Like Moth to a Flame" and I would somehow code moth behavior in a program called Processing. Based on my observation of general moth behavior, there would need to be three different kinds of moths:

1. Busy Moth: This  moth is, well, just busy. He flies from light to light acting as a normal moth should.

2. Lazy Moth: This moth is one of those moths that just sits on the light and does nothing. He may fly from one light to another, but he comes to a halt. 

3. Crazy Moth: You know this moth. He's the one that doesn't slow down. Instead, he flies around and around and around, making you dizzy just watching him. I thought about calling him Yeyo Moth, but Crazy Moth is more professor-friendly. 

Check it out, they don't bite.

Here are the key codes to play:

Click on the lights and drag them around.
Right click to toggle the lights on and off. The moths are only attracted to lights that are on.
Press the space bar to invert the lights.

Press the 'd' key to kill some moths.
Press the 'b' key to add a busy moth.
Press the 'l' key to add a lazy moth.
Press the 'c' key to add a crazy moth.
Press the 'x' key to add a red busy moth. This contrasting moth will allow you to see the individual movements of the busy moth more clearly.  

Stick around, this new website thing could get interesting!

Click here to try out the moths, or just watch this video of them in action:

Like a Moth to a Flame from Erin Bolton on Vimeo.

image{s} of the week

Berry Spoon

camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi

behind the lens: me

Happy Friday everyone!

WedWed - Wedding Wednesday {4}

Reader and friend, Tanya Wetzel, sent me this collage that she made using our save-the-date and color palette! How cool is that?!?

images: dresses via Jovani, necklaces via Real Weddings, sea foam flower via Gracieluv, coral flower via Jamie Clouser, and earrings via adornyou  

The pom-pom necklaces are delightful - and how about those vintage earrings? The girly-girl in me is emerging and by the time the wedding planning is finished, I will have bookmarked, screen-shot, and browsed thousands of shoes, accessories, make-up techniques, and hair styles. I'm not sorry either.

The impetus for Tanya's collage was this image of a beaded dress worn by Ashley Olson:

I never considered beading for my dress but Ashley's dress along with the two pictured in Tanya's collage have my attention. If I hadn't already found my dress, I'd want to give one of those a try. Wait, did that just slip? I'm horrible about keeping these kinds of things to myself!

I did indeed find the dress! In fact, it was the first dress I tried on and we bought it right then and there. More on the dress next week.

Thanks again, Tanya!

image{s} of the week

smiling eyes

camera: iPhone 4
setting: HDR enabled
behind the lens: Chris

I keep this photo of the Gataface Killah on my desk should I start to take myself too seriously.

Why I write

Preface: You all have been extremely generous with your encouragement and kind comments. Thank you, sincerely! Truly!! I couldn't help but notice that writing was cited as a reason why some of you like visiting LH. I also couldn't help but notice how shocked I have been to hear that. All of which got me thinking a lot about writing...

There has never, ever, been a moment in my life in which I longed to be a writer.

During high school, I loved photography and the school newspaper gave me a place to develop my photojournalism skills. Only you had to write. So I did. They gave me an opinion column junior and senior year. The first year my column was called, "Craziness," and the second, "Everyday is Monday." I hated having the entire school read my random thoughts about life because I was sure every person in the entire school was judging me, or worse, laughing at me. Chances are neither of those things happened as often as I surmised.

In college, research writing was my focus because it came with a formula and I knew that I could meet all points on a grading rubric. In research writing there wasn't a whole lot left to interpretation and, so long as I had the evidence to back up my claims, I could ensure I'd receive an A.

By the time graduate school rolled around, I had developed an intellectual inferiority complex likely due to being rejected by my top choice graduate school. I didn't trust my ideas anymore and, as a consequence, writing became even more difficult.

There was (and is) nothing more frightening than a blank Word document staring me in the face, mocking my inability to put together a coherent thought. I'd sit and peer at the monitor with a wide-eyed bewilderment. Actually, bewilderment is the wrong word, it was more like fear.

I'd write a sentence. Hit command+a and then delete on my keyboard. I'd reconsider, then hit command+z to bring back the sentence I had just deleted. I'd read it again, add some kind of clause or perhaps throw in a different preposition. I'd still hate it.

I performed that writing dance for entire days the first semester I was back in school. Writing had never come easily to me, that is true, but this paralyzing perfectionism I had developed was exhausting.

Toward the final weeks of the semester, my friend and classmate, Monica, started asking around the college for volunteers to write for our school newspaper, The Daily Nebraskan. She wrote me a Facebook message explaining that the DN was short opinion writers and wanted to know if I was interested. Who knows what the hell I was thinking, but I stepped up. And, just when I began to avoid her in the hallways so as to not have to write my first column, she cornered me and held me to my word.

The year I wrote for the DN was emotionally draining. I was certain, once again, that I would be judged and laughed at. My fears came true - I was judged and I was certainly laughed at. To my surprise, however, I didn't spontaneously combust when someone disagreed with what I wrote. It was good for me to learn how to shrug it off (among the insults hurled at me, my all-time favorite was "Houseplant Bolton").

I continued to stare at blank Word documents and wrestle with the fear of putting myself out there. Eventually, I began to see that I needed to write. It was important for me to wake up, put together an argument, and publish it. The fear never went away but that crippling perfectionism did. I found out that, should I read something I published a week prior and find it misguided or perhaps even idiotic, I ought to simply consider it progress and keep writing (that advice came from Monica too).

I started this blog in large part because I wanted to keep that going. That do-it-because-you're-scared-shitless thing, that's why I write. 

Please check out Fear.less magazine, if you haven't seen/read/heard of it! This month, in particular, was special because one of my favorite authors, Steven Pressfield, is interviewed.  Pressfield's book, The War of Art, is a must-read for anyone wanting to confront and overcome fears holding them back from publishing, creating, etc. 

Fear.less January 2011