new

i launched my new website last night!  please give it a look and let me know what you think.  i haven't completed it just yet.  i still have some new images to add but have a lot of scanning to do for that so it might be a week or two.  i also am having a hard time deciding how to organize my polaroids but that is certainly coming as well!

www.azureewiitala.com

feedback, please!

hello blog!

it's been a while, i know.  school has started and has kept me very busy in a very welcomed way.  i am learning a few crafts this semester and i am very excited about all of them.  

i am taking a water color class, which i can already tell is not my strong suite in the world of art.  i don't expect much except that perhaps i'll be able to doodle some rabbits and creatures and perhaps make a christmas card or two this year.  already  i've learned so much.  i am also taking a piano class where i am learning how to read music.  this is so exciting!  it's insane to look at some notes written on lines and to know what sound they represent.  it is very exhilarating to sit at a miniature piano, look at sheet music and play it!  i still can't imagine how it is that people have songs in their heads and pour them out of their hearts and unto instruments though. i have no expectations of actually writing my own songs- i'm just happy to be learning how to play something beautiful with my own hands!  french is my next course of the day which is also very fun.  it is insane to learn a language.  i just hope that i am able to practice (ahem daniela!) and actually retain the information and then move onto french deux next semester.  last on my roster of classes is photography.  funny enough this is my least interesting class because it's one i've taken before. intro to photography.  you'd think this would be an easy a for me and i'd be happy about that but it is B O R I N G.  for example, in class tonight i'll learn how to load film into my camera. it's almost laughable.  anyways, i had to take this class to become familiar with their darkroom, so having access to a darkroom isn't a total loss.

in conclusion this semester is really fun!  i feel like a renaissance student learning all sorts of trades! i hope i can learn my whole life. i feel so alive when im in school or just when i dedicate myself to learning new things.  

winter is still here.  this isn't too disappointing because i think it's been much milder than last winter and we've had some really magical snow days.  but...i am ready for spring.  as much as i love my boots i am ready to wear some flats and flops and dresses.  

i have such high hopes for this year. i have such a great feeling that it's going to be a very good year for everyone i know.  already so much hope is in the air.

Everyone has made year end wrap up posts that I really love reading.  I want to write one too but I'm not even sure what to say.  This year went by so quickly!  It's all a blur.  Here are a few things that come to mind though.

Celebrating our one year anniversary (it's still hard to believe that I'm a married adult!), going to Denmark to see our lovely friends exchange some vows and to eat lots of schwarma and fries, enjoying the festival this year with friends, golf car rides, smiles abound and the cold instead of hot hot days, Chicago deciding to skip summer altogether this year, getting on the Deans list and being enrolled in classes for an entire year non stop, working hard to build up my photo equipment, going on tour with Christopher and seeing soooo many old friends and making new ones, standing in the rain waiting for Tessa in Union Square for hours and it totally being worth the wait, moving my mom to Chicago!, seeing how much Winter Park has changed in two years and how much people really do make a home, hanging out with Mel & Tiffany and having my heart swell up, really missing Daniela & Tessa!, being so glad for my friendship with Amy who lives 2 stops up from me!, craigslist really coming through for me with my 5D and my Frye boots, what seems like lots of fun trips to Hamtramck and always feeling inspired when I come home from Michigan, feeling at home in the apartment that we'd been waiting for and that we made our own, discovering Fifi Lapin, placing in a LeSportsac photo contest, so many fun girls nights playing scrabble and watching Sex in the City, watching my little niece get some real personality, watching Franny & Zooey get bigger and bigger and bigger and loving them so much (who would have thought animals could bring such joy into your life?!), watching my curls grow closer and closer to my shoulders and resisting the urge to chop it all off (although I can't make any promises that that won't happen this year), fondly remembering my brother and smiling more when I think of him, watching friends play as they come through town, getting to see Snoop Dogg perform (!), learning about Ryan Adams' disappointing marriage to Mandy Moore (haha), and taking a few stabs at cooking.

That is way more than I thought I'd write.  What does this year hold for Christopher and I?  I have no idea.  My hopes are for more touring, keeping up with my website more, well actually- launching my redesigned website soon, finishing up school at Truman, putting together a super awesome portfolio that will grant me admission to SAIC followed by a money tree sprouting outside of my window so I can actually go to the school if I get accepted, hopefully travels to see some friends, getting into a real habit of working out, drinking less soda, figuring out how to get my hair to look like Sarah Jessica Parkers, helping my mom become acclimated with Chicago, exploring the city I live in more myself, some serious bike riding if Chicago decides to give us spring and summer this year, learning to be a better listener, meditating more, getting all worked up less, more rabbits in my life somehow and perhaps keeping up to date with my besties better.

I am so excited for 2010.  According to my mom, we only have 2 more years before darkness consumes us in 2012 so we should really live it up!

Happy New Years friends!

i want to be..

...a good friend
...a great daughter
...a fantastic wife
...an artist
...a photographer
...a teacher
...a rabbit...

...when i think of all the things i'd like to be those are the first that pop into my head. i'm not sure where i stand with those things but the ones that scare me the most, that seem most unachievable are being an artist, photographer and teacher. as i have been going through hundreds of photographs for my new website (which i hope will be comprehensive collection of my photographs) it slowly has crept on me that i AM a photographer. if you want to look at it as i get paid to take photographs or i photograph therefore i am a photographer, i do both!

i just read on a blog that if you are passionate enough about something- just do it. don't wait until the time is right or a better opportunity comes along- pursue your dreams and you'll be what you want to be. that seems so simple but it was such a powerful realization that i am a photographer and im on the path to becoming a teacher (one day- probably close to retirement age! haha). now working on becoming a fantastic wife and a rabbit...those are the challenges!

sometimes i just find it hard to seriously consider myself an artist, and these fears can sometimes inhibit me from putting my work out into the world in an ambitious and real way but perhaps it's time for me to really pursue my dreams...

...we'll see what will come of these thoughts.

on another note- i don't know what to make of thanksgiving but i like the idea of family coming together and sharing a meal together so i hope that everyone has a lovely big or small family and friends gathering to eat green bean casserole, sweet potato and marshmellows and some kind of stuffing!

xo

AMAZING!

Oh blog. When will life ever give me some time?! School is all consuming. Not to mention I am trying to decide, print and frame photos for our apartment (which is WAY more time consuming than you could imagine), keep up with the shows my husband and I watch (a bonding time of sorts if you'll believe it), stay on top of school, not completely lose touch with my little tiny social life, help my mom move to Chicago....

...oh hey, did I tell you blog that my mom is probably moving to Chicago in less than a month? I couldn't be more thrilled. November is already proving to be a busy month what with school and all this planning and some birthdays to celebrate and school ending and thanksgiving and and and...

let me take a breath.

My mom gave me a little early present- a flickr pro account once again so I am trying to organize in my mind what photographs to post on there. I am also conceiving a new website up in my noggin and hopefully Christopher will help see that to fruition soon. I am really excited about this. Turns out I'm not great at keeping up with the blog and I just kind of want a formal website again. Sooo add that to the list.

It's been wonderful hanging out with friends though and knowing how gratifying friendships are when the friendship isn't just being upheld by one person. Who wants to always be doing all of the work? I think keeping up with friendship is definitely a form of expressing love for someone.

Okay I'm getting all mushy. Does anyone understand Geology and reading maps, especially when we're talking about topography? I'm taking an online Geology course that is kicking my butt this semester. I hope it doesn't ruin the pretty good grade point average I've managed to wrangle up but at this point I'm feeling pretty hopeless. I just don't understand these ideas. The text I get but the labs my professor posts seem absurd to me. I literally have no idea what they mean. I think this is because they are both a little unorganized and also I just don't get maps. Okay. I have google earth and google maps and know how to use them, what more do I need?! I am NOT looking forward to taking two math classes next semester. Let's not even talk about that.

Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. Oh yes, soon Peter and Sexy Nexy will endure Chicagos killer winter by my side. Soon I will be 28. Soon I will have some film developed and scan it in and post it on the world wide webbers for all to see.

This is a ranty little post, I know I know. My mind is overpouring with thoughts and ideas - it's just the time that I lack!

So much love blog.

xo

Franny & Zooey from azuree on Vimeo.

our c bunnies, franny & zooey attacking christopher's shoe for no apparent reason what so ever...and then being really really cute. and me having a bad case of the giggles.