coronado heights

It's been sunny and warm and lovely out in Kansas, so Becky, Polly, and I went up a Kansas mountain!

And by "Kansas mountain" I totally mean a large hill. Because it's Kansas and while it's not entirely flat, it's definitely not mountainous. Polly and I were still in wonder though.

All the land is in winter right now. It's not white with snow, but it's brown and tan.

Except the spots where someone painted fake moss on the rocks.

Coronado Heights is just outside of Lindsborg, KS and supposedly Francisco Vasquez de Coronado [an explorer in the 16th century] went up this hill to survey the land looking for gold. It was all about gold back then, wasn't it? In the 1930s the Works Progress Administration built a castle and picnic areas around the hill. It was New Deal time and people needed jobs, yo. Since it was built it's been a place people went for school field trips, high school drinking parties [not me, of course] and summer time family fun finding horny toads [that's what I did].

I love adventures. 

2014 - I don't do resolutions

You may or may not be surprised by this, but resolutions aren't my thing.

My thing is a word or phrase to think about and bring into multiple aspects of my life. I'll tell you about some of the times my life brushes up against my phrase.

Do you want to know what my phrase is?

BOOM. I quite enjoy how I was able to incorporate my favorite profanity into this.

The only thing is you need to say it: Get-cho shit together.

Things I'm thinking about with this:
1. Food/diet
2. Exercise
[I'm such a sterotypical "I don't make resolutions" BSer.]
3. Men
4. Work
5. Homework/School
6. Creative Things

So, I have a post planned with each of these [at least as of right now, but we all know things can change - especially my mind] and I'll give you more information about the HOWs and the WHYs and my thoughts and where I don't currently have it together and the parts that I'm clueless about.

Let's delve.

Oh, and I couldn't decide which picture I wanted so I did two:

Two selfies and new glasses!


Selfies taken by me, which is what makes it a "selfie" on my iPhone. Words added in the Rhonna Designs App. 

my 12 favorite instagrams from 2013

I know the year isn't done yet, but these are my 12 favorites from every month in 2013. (-:

It was a big year! New city, new niece, new friends, old friends [love y'all], loss of a kitty [so sad], and a ton of learning.

I love life!

iphonography

I LOVE my DSLR. The only thing is that it's big, it's bulky, and it's anything but subtle.

My phone on the other hand is the epitome of subtle and is always with me.

This has probably influenced my love for Instagram...I've had a few friends ask how and what I use to add words on my pictures, so here you go!

Things of note:
1. I take all my pictures with the regular-comes-on-the-phone camera.
2. I crop, edit, and apply a filter in AfterLight. I loooooove AfterLight, it's the best $0.99 app I have. Love love love LOVE! 
3. Then I save the picture to my camera roll.
4. I open the app I'm going to use next. Either one to create a collage [I currently use Pic Stitch, but I don't love it because I'd like to make the borders between pictures smaller. Any suggestions?] or one of my writing apps.

I always save to camera rolls between steps because I'm anal rententive and I spend waaaaaay too long doing this. You don't need to judge me, I judge myself. (-:

The apps I use to write on pictures:

PicLab

PicLab has a fairly simple interface, which is a large reason I'd recommend it. The only things I don't like about the free version actually is that the PicLab logo is watermarked in the lower right corner of your final product. I like that you can add frames within the picture [the circle, hexagon, etc. although I add these in AfterLight] and that you can have more than one font by clicking in the upper left corner to add different layers.

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Typic

The free version of Typic doesn't have much. I loaded it to my phone to try it out. It's very basic and there are only these seven fonts available. If given the choice between Typic and PicLab, I choose PicLab.

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Typic+

The plus version of Typic costs $0.99 [I got it free from Apps Gone Free] and has many improvements over the basic Typic. In the upgraded Typic, you can add frames, there are 35 fonts to choose from, you can layer 2 captions, and there are elements you can add! The interface isn't my favorite to use because you have to nudge and resize from the different menus rather than directly on the screen. I also always seem to be forgetting that you can use the up/down arrows to get to more information.

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Over

I probably like the results of Over the best of everything...except it's SO FREAKING DIFFICULT TO USE. This is an app that makes me want to punch a baby [but not really]. This app costs $1.99, but again, I got it for free when it was listed on Apps Gone Free. FREEBIES! Holla! I really like the fonts, the artwork, and the ability to edit a non-square picture in this app. HOWEVER, getting there? BLECH. I can barely tell you how to make it happen because I feel like I'm learning it over again every time. )-:

What apps do you suggest? Do you like writing on pictures or do you think it's overkill?

xo

I wanna talk about food

Mostly because I don't want to think about starting school and being overwhelmed with all that's about to go down.

And the first thing I don't want to think about is the fact that I used the incorrect zip code when I ordered my books. Autofill, you suck.

This is summer special bruschetta at Venturi. You've never heard of Venturi? Well, it's a fancy-schmancy little place in Goshen, Indiana. The food is fresh. The servers are delightful. The atmosphere will make you smile.

I ate there and then decided that I can only be with a man who is willing to discuss the differences in the heirloom tomatoes, a man who will talk about the acidity added by the lemon-olive oil rather than a balsamic-olive oil, a man who will share all his food and will order two desserts because that's my favorite part.

Or I need friends to fulfill this need in me.

OR I can blog about it and force it upon you.

You're welcome.

This pizza took approximately 90 seconds to cook. I have no words besides all the ones I can say about wanting to eat it again: I want to eat it again.

Can we talk about dessert?

Tiramisu. Holy crap.

Nutella pizza. It's like they know my deep, dark, not-so-secret desires.

Americanos that taste like Italy.
Mozzerella [fior de latte] made freshly that day.
Crust to die for.
Tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, and torn basil leaves. 

A slice of heaven is in Goshen, Indiana. Who knew? 

Back to reality and worrying about textbooks and parking and uniforms and bills.

today I drove a Massey Furguson

I'm in Kansas for a few weeks. If you're here, holla at me! I've got a few things on my schedule, but there's always time for friends. (-:

I grew up on a farm. I've told you all about it, but I haven't done anything on the farm--work-wise--in, oh, about 12 years. So, you know, that's the lifetime of a 7th grader.

Today I broke my hiatus by spending four and a half hours discing a field.

It was a gorgeous summer day in Kansas!

 

I tried to make sure that I maintained my good looks while working. I don't make the duck lips on purpose, so don't judge.

Now, the real question...does everything look better though a filter? Because I fell out of the tractor [I have a very graceful way of dismounting] and the backside of my left arm looks like this:

That's going to leave a mark.

the herp from hades

In the past I've had a few days up to two weeks of allergies. They're mild, my throat is itchy and I move on. This year? 2013? My allergies were TERRIBLE. Itchy, itchy, itchy to the point of scratching my throat raw. My head was so filled with snot that I was literally leaking. And one day my eyeballs even joined in and assorted fluids were coming out.

It was super attractive.

I'm single, boys.

I went up to the lake for our annual family Get Ready for the Summer preparations and my head almost exploded. Then I got the herp. Some of you may call them cold sores, canker sores, blah blah blah, but let's be real: it's Herpes Simplex I. Above the waist. According to my microbiology class from last semester, over 90% of us have it, so we can call a spade a spade: I've got the herp.

The herp from hades to be exact. I blame my allergies for compromising my immune system.

This was the largest, most painful, horrifically scabby, ugly herp of my life. It was nasty y'all.

Don't worry, I photo-documented it.

Like I said, suuuuuuper attractive.

And if those photos weren't enough, it's on my driver's license for the next few years.

So, there's that.

it's only a picture

Taken with my iPhone on an early morning drive to the doctor in Kansas City with the parentals.

I made a book!

Yes, you know.

I'm obsessed with Instagram.
You know!

I should stop talking about it. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Well, I took my IG obsession and made a book out of it. True that.

If you follow me on IG you know what this book contains: the nephew, the niece, hank, friends, and selfies with friends. I kept the food to a minimum.

I found a coupon code for a free 50 page printing [I paid shipping and handling, this is the Instant Photo Books -->Instagram Book] from blurb.com. Google them, they run promotions frequently. I'm impressed by the quality [pictures from my phone can look like that in a 7"x7" book?] and I love holding pictures of the non-electronic device variety. 

Since I was taking pictures in the living room at my parent's house...here's Daisy. She's in desperate need of a haircut since she's a schnauzer that looks like a beast.  

She's hanging out with Bo-bo. He used to be Matt's [younger brother] favorite stuffed animal. As you can see, he's bigger than she is so when they wrestle, things can get intense.


love you people.
xo

TODAY!

GOOD MORNING!

I ate this GIANT, AWESOME cinnamon roll from approximately 8:30-10:45am. Yes, that's over two hours of munching. At least four mugs of coffee were also consumed and a few hours of conversation were had. As always, I sat in the corner of The Well that used to be The HearthRoom, history makes me happy.

New gallery space with this gorgeous stained glass at Clayworks.

I stopped at the grocery then went home where I found this little furball sleeping on the couch. There's a schnauzer under there somewhere. I think.

I made some treats for my dad's camp and recreation class that met at our house tonight. Browned butter cookies, chocolate whoopie pies with a salted caramel buttercream [I'm not linking to the chocolate part, I wanted them to be more brownie-like and wasn't terribly happy with what I got.], and an apple pie that was demolished in a few minutes.

I also roasted a chicken and some veggies. [No pictures.] Why am I single?

GOOD NIGHT!