Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes has a new album coming out! yay! Helplessness Blues will be released this Tuesday, but you can listen to this song and then go download it for free right here.

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (not the video) from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.

The Royal Wedding

I apologize for doing two posts in a row related to weddings, but the Royal Wedding cannot be overlooked. It was epic, and Kate was stunning.

Isn't she lovely?

I think one of my favorite parts of the ceremony was when Kate finally arrived to William after walking down the aisle. If you watched closely you would have been able to read his lips, telling her that she looked beautiful. It was a quick and very special moment.

Love and marriage

With my wedding coming up shortly, I thought it might be fitting to share with you some of the more inspiring photos I have come across lately.

What I love most about browsing through wedding blogs and wedding related things is the individuality of each couple and the way they choose to express their love to the world.

Creativity.
wonder.
uniqueness.
love.



















This gives me such joy.

Prints.

Prints I like, found on Pinterest.
Enjoy.

Can you tell that I am drawn to neutral and pastel colors? I seem to like beige these days, and shades of beige and tan and cream. And always white, I really like white.

Looking at creative prints like these always gets me in the mood to make something, but it's almost midnight here in Ireland and I should really go to bed.

Tomorrow is our "talent show" night, and a group of us girls are performing Thriller! We have been practicing so hard and I absolutely love being a zombie. Can't wait!

night :)

Reflect.

I'll be flying out of the Dublin airport in 10 days, back to the sweet land of the USA. I am ready.

My time here has gone by so quickly, but yet sometimes I feel like I have lived here in Ireland forever. It is home to me now. But I guess the concept of home changes every so often, doesn't it?

This semester has been full. When I reflect on everything I have done, seen, tasted, and experienced here, I really can't believe that it all fit into only one semester. I mean...I have traveled around the entire country! What?! At the same time, I feel like there is so much that I still have yet to do, and probably never will get the chance. But that is okay, because I can at least say that I lived here, studied this country for three months, and also learned a lot about myself and "what makes me tick" as our wonderful Irish friend Jen would say.







This country is small but extremely rich, and it is an impossible task for me to capture the essence of it in a blog post, picture, or word. I am still learning every day about this place, and mostly I have learned how to fully engage in a culture for an extended period of time; going beyond a week or a month of a short term snapshot. My view of Ireland is no longer romanticized like it used to be, and I am so thankful for that.

sex and spirit

A man named Richard Carson came and spoke to us a few weeks ago during one of our weekly chapels. He said some things that I really agreed with about sexuality and everything that comes with it. His ideas were similar to what Rob Bell talks about in his book Sex God, a great read if you haven't picked it up yet. I was refreshed and inspired, because the more this topic comes up, the more I want to tell everyone about it. The old way of thinking needs to be thrown out. We need a transformation of the mind and soul.

I'm going to give you some of the highlights from the one hour chapel that day.

First of all, we have to get rid of the default assumption that all Christians are going to marry. Marriage is elevated falsely in the Christian world. What if we thought of this differently?

Marriage is wonderful and a great way to glorify God, but it is not the only way, and it is not necessarily the best way for everyone.

singleness does not take away your sexuality. You are sexual. but sexual does not equal the act of having sex.

It is so so much deeper.

“Conservative churches have only themselves to blame that
they failed to communicate a biblical vision for sex to post-war young adults. It takes a quite extraordinary degree of skill to take a vision of satisfying, wonder-filled sex, and the possibility of intimate committed friendship and make it all sound miserable. But that is precisely what many pastors, nuns and youth workers somehow achieved.”
(Mike Starkey in God, Sex and Generation: A Search for Lost Wonder)

What a great quote! Sad but true.

Richard talked about the link between sex as body-mind-spirit.
Sexuality--spirituality. They are extremely close to being the same thing.



wait ----------------------------------- reorder/redirect
abstain ------------------------------- adventure
starve --------------------------------- live
stay pure ----------------------------- become pure
purity=absence of sex -------------- purity=presence of life
wedding is the end ------------------ wedding is the beginning
celibacy is asexual ------------------- celibacy is sexual.
Jesus, sexual? what?! --------------- Jesus is the most sexual person ever


see the difference in these two perspectives? On the left we have the standard way sex is taught in the church, which humorously is more of a Buddhism method of suppression. But on the right we have a radically different view that parallels with what Christianity really is about.

sex is a perfect gift saved for marriage, or sex is a journey during marriage?

Sexuality can't be reduced to sex.

nails.

Have you ever seen nail polish as stylish and elegant as this? I sure haven't. I think latte is my favorite. You can find these Megan Miller beauty's at Anthropologie.

Highlights.

This week was full of beauty. We had our last overnight trip - a six day adventure in the west of Ireland. We traveled everywhere and stayed in three different hotels. I saw more cows and sheep than I ever have, I ate dinner at the best Italian restaurant, and I saw the most amazing landscapes in the whole country.

Here are some of my favorites from the trip:

Kissing the Blarney Stone






Boat ride to the Gap of Dunloe, with a challenging 3 hour hike to follow





The Muckross House, beautiful decor and furniture inside!



The Dingle Peninsula, better than any other site in the country



Cliffs of Moher



The mint chocolate chip ice cream on the Aran Islands



biking around Inis Mor Island



and one of the more thrilling experiences - looking over the cliff at Dun Aengus

lambies

Probably one of my top five favorite things about Ireland - the little baby sheep.

We see lambs everywhere. Sometimes they're jumping around the field, sometimes playing lamb games with each other, and other times just sitting in the grass looking cute. But I always melt when I see them, and so does every other girl in our group here. These pictures don't even compare to how little and adorable they are in real life.







I'm hoping that I will get the chance to hold or at the least pet a lamby before I leave Ireland.

Two Great Things.

Two great things happened recently.

1. We found a Pizza Hut in Dublin
2. WE HAD FREE REFILLS

Some of you may be wondering why I am absolutely ecstatic about refills and pizza, but this is a big deal. You just don't find free refills in Europe everyday.














We were happy.

cozy home

Lately I have been imagining how I am going to decorate our little house in Marion. It's tough to decide, and I really haven't gotten anywhere yet. I know that a few trips to IKEA will provide some useful inspiration and a bit of a shove in the decision making process. But right now I can only dream about my cozy white kitchen, fluffy white bedding, and the natural soothing vibe I want to feel when I enter each room of the house. I'd say that is a good starting point for now.

And my home wouldn't be complete without a little kitten baby like this guy. Let's hope that eventually Jordan will let me have one :-)