Owl Cupcakes

 My brother Matthew is in a bowling league every Wednesday, and today they were having a party. Since everyone was supposed to bring something to eat, my mom made cupcakes that looked like Owls.

Aren't they cute?

I love all their faces. Okay, well anyways I thought I'd share these with you since they're adorable and they tasted delicious. They were almost too cute to eat ;)

*Brooke*

Sky At Sunset

I am happy, because it finally felt like fall today. It was actually cold outside, and this was the first time this season I found myself searching for a jacket.

For like an hour or so today, the sky was a pretty orange-yellow color. It made for great photos, and so I happily ventured into the brisk air with my camera. 

Wishing you a fantastic fall day,

*Brooke*

Basketball Practice

Today was my first day of Varsity Girl's basketball practice. It was maybe a little harder than I expected it to be, but still pretty good. It was terrible and fun at the same time. Yes, I know that sounds weird but let me explain. 

The terrible parts: After the first half hour I was convinced I'd throw up from all the strenuous work. 

I was the only girl on our team who has never played on a basketball team, and it was easy to tell. 

I was REALLY BAD at suicides. 

I was the only one who couldn't touch my toes. 

Sounds pretty terrible, right? Okay, well despite that it was really fun. 

The fun parts: I won a game of knockout.

My passes weren't half bad. 

Everyone on the team was really nice.

...and even with all the problems I just LOVE basketball and so it was fun. 

So yes, I am majorly out of shape and have a lot of work to do, but it was awesome. That sounds weird, but is true :)

*Brooke*

Complete Outfits

For this fashion post, I decided I'd put together two outfits from different clothing stores. So, which one is your favorite?

Or...

I love your comments!

*Brooke*

What's Better Than Infomercials?

The answer: Nearly everything...
...But don't they just fascinate you? You sit down on the sofa to watch some good programming on TV, and instead you find yourself spending a half-an-hour watching a corny infomercial for some product you know you never really will buy. That perfectly reflects me on some days, for example: today ;) Okay, well I actually watched infomercials online. Slightly strange for a teenage girl to be doing in her free time, but yes, I was doing it. The Magic Bullet was the one I used to watch all the time when I was younger, and so I watched that today, its sequel, and its third edition. Seriously, infomercials shouldn't have sequels! Well apparently this one does. Okay, so it's REALLY corny. All infomercials are, so I don't know WHY I decide to spend time watching them. Oh, and YES, I had too much sugar today ;) Oh, and yes, I also know this post is just really random :)

-Brooke

Britt Nicole Concert

My family and my friend Emily and her family went to a Britt Nicole concert!!! It was a blast... literally and figuratively ;) REALLY loud, but REALLY fun :) ha ha. Glad I brought earplugs since we were sitting right by the speaker in the 3rd and 2nd row. Still lots of fun though!

This is us in front of a tour bus

 In front of the stage before the concert

Britt Nicole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another great shot that's slightly blurry... ;)

After the concert, Group 1 Crew who was featured in the show was signing autographs, so my brother's and I got a picture with them.

Besides taking pictures, I also decided to put this video together. It's kind of blurry since it's blog-quality, but it's good enough to kind of see.

Okay, so yeah, as you can see it was really good! Since I haven't really been to any real concerts before, it was good to go to one from one of my favorite singers, and even better to go with friends :)

*Brooke*

15 Things Before I Turn 15

It's been 15 Days since our last update, and so it's time for my next update. :) 

Click here for my complete list and past updates!

4: I learned a new song on the piano this month, and am working on another for the guitar, so I now have learned 1 song

6: I made chocolate truffles (yum) and milkshakes, so I now have made 7 desserts

7: I've painted my nails a lot of the colors I previously had the last 15 days, so I only have 1 new color this month. I now have 11 overall now though!

11: I drew Brittany Hargest (as you probably saw from my earlier blog post) and so I've now drawn 3 people

13: I'm proud to say that after lots of tiring running, I forced myself to go 1.5 miles, and made it just under 15 minutes! YAY! THIS GOAL IS NOW COMPLETE!!! That makes me happy to know I've completed at least 1 as of now, especially since I can be kind of lazy when it comes to exercise. 

So that's how the last 15 days wrap up. 1 goal down. 14 more to go ;)

*Brooke*

Drawing People

I thought I'd give a short lesson for those of your who want to know what I'd suggest. I love to draw (although I don't do it very much) and would like to show you how to draw people.

What you need:
6B, B, and 2H pencil: These pencils are ranging from softest to hardest. The softer the pencil, the darker and easier to smear it is. The harder the pencil, the lighter it is. There are other pencils, but these are the ones I generally use.
Tortillons: If you don't have one, cut out a triangle from a piece of carstalk, and roll it up and tape it to make your own.
White Eraser
Electric Eraser: Yes, as crazy as it sounds, it's really helpful. You don't have to use one if you don't have one, but it seems to effectively fix arias of the drawing.
Drawing Paper: Use regular paper if you don't have any, but drawing paper makes it much easier to smear pencil.

Step 1: Find who you want to draw. It's easiest to draw from a photo. Also, don't draw from memory. You need a photo for it to look realistic. In picking photos, try to find someone where they're looking rihgt towards the camera instead of facing a different angle. That's easiest to do when you're beginning drawing. Today I'm drawing Brittany Hargest, a former member of Jump 5, and now a solo artist

Step 2: Start by drawing the nose in the center of your paper with the 2H pencil. Make a very basic outline. Come out from the nose and make the shape of the eyes and  at eye brows. At a light shadow leading down to the mouth, and draw it's outline right under. Remember, make everything very light.

Step 3: Start adding detail. Darken an outline for the eyes with the B pencil, and draw in the inside eyes and pupils. When going around the round section of the eye, use a 6B and smear with the tortillon towards the pupil. Add lashes by either drawing them, or smearing them depending on the way they are represented in the picture. Darken the eye brows a little more, and remember once again to smear. Smear out your nose lines, and add shadow between the top of it and the eyes.  Darken with a B wear needed on the nose, and shadow between the nose and mouth. If the mouth is closed focus on the lips, if the mouth is open spend more time on the teeth. You don't want them to look crooked, so draw them in naturally. Don't forget the gums, or shadows left by the teeth. Finally get to the lips, and shade while darkening the corners.

Step 4: If you can notice, I redid the mouth, and moved it up. Redo whatever part of the face you need, whenever you need. Add a little more shading under the mouth, and start with the hair outline. Try to make it flow like in your picture. Add the face line at the bottom, but draw it lightly for when you need to redo. I needed to redo mine at least 8 times since the face shape is one of the hardest parts of the face. You don't want your subject to look too fat or too thin, so try to follow the lines defined by the picture.

Step 5: In this step I redefined the eye brows a little, added her earring and shaded her hair. I loosely outlined the shoulders.

Step 6: Add more shadows to the hair, add color to the shoulder outline, touch up and shade anything you might need, and sign your name. Congratulations! You've now drawn a person! Mine doesn't look exactly like Brittany (this is my first attempt at her) but at least it looks good enough, and after a few more tries it's sure to look even better :)

A few tips:

Practice: It takes some time to perfect your people drawing skills, so do it a lot until you get your best one.

Patience: Drawing people can be time consuming, so make sure you don't rush through the process and take it slow. It's better for it to take an hour and look fantastic, than to rush through it 10 minutes and look just OK.

Position: Even if you draw all the parts of your subject's face right, you have to position them right to. It can make a big difference, so be very careful when deciding how far apart the eyes are, where the nose starts to bridge, where the mouth come in, and how the hair lays.

Hope you all have a great day!

*Brooke*

Dreaming In Color

So some of you may be wondering how my blog ever got this name. Since I haven't posted anything in a few days, I decided I'd post about this. Prepare for a short semi-pointless story! ;)

Okay, so in 2007 maybe I got a CD for Christmas (I think) from the singing group Jump 5. I sort of listened to them a little bit, but never really got into their music. 

Really early this year though, I pulled out the CD I got in 2007 from them and started listening to it a ton. One song in particular I really liked then was 'Dreaming In Color'. When naming this blog, I wanted it to be a name that was bright and catchy, and I thought 'Dreaming In Color' sounded like a good name which fit well. :) I actually narrowed it down the name to 4 Jump 5 songs, but just ended up going with this one. When I named my blog I was already kind of out of my Jump 5 faze though. To me they're not quite my style of music any more, but they're still pretty good :)

*Brooke*

P.s. This has absolutely nothing to do with the post, but last Sunday I saw people waltzing in the McDonald's parking lot. I started laughing as soon as we got into the car, because it was really weird. That's NOT something you see everyday. Ha ha :)

Dear October...

Dear October,
     I'm glad you're finally here. It's hard to believe we're already in the 10th month of this busy year, but yes... you have arrived.
     Coming alongside your month is lots of fun and lots of fall:
This month I start basketball. Still 2 weeks away, but quickly approaching. I've been practicing quite a lot, and am really excited about it since I've never played on any sports team before.
     Also in your month I get to go to my first concert since I was 7! I'm really looking forward to that as well... I've been counting down the days!
     What else is coming this season? Christmas albums. All of the ones I've been looking at are released within the next few weeks, and while I have no plans to listen to them this early, it's still nice to know that it's almost that time of year.
     While most October's are supposed to bring cold weather, you have still be giving us plenty of warm weather. Proof? We went swimming today... everyone in my family except me, that is, since I don't think it's right to be swimming in October! Let's hope it gets just a little colder soon maybe? Please?!
     Our house has been looking (and smelling) very wonderful lately. With an apple pie scented candle and lots of leaves for decorations, our house is fit for your season.
     Every October my family goes to a pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, and then to carve it... well, sort of. We're supposed to carve it, but it usually ends up rotting out before we can remember, so I've decided that letting pumpkins rot is our new tradition ;) We always do it every year along with many other seasonal traditions... like coloring Easter eggs on the Saturday before Easter, listening to Christmas music on the drive home from Thanksgiving dinner, and caroling the week before Christmas. Maybe this year we'll actually carve our pumpkin...
    In your month, I'm hoping to dig into reading. Once the several books I have reserved at the library arrive, I'm ready to fill my mind with lots of books. That seems like the right thing to do in October ;)
    Well, I think that's what my month looks like. So just some final notes to you, October. Please send cold weather, and please remind us to carve our pumpkin. Have a fantastic month!
          Yours Truly,
          Brooke

   

Fashion Friday

Hello. I love Fridays, don't you? School's now over for the week, and the weekend is just beginning. To celebrate this wonderful weekend, I decided to post some clothing I got this past week at Kohls. My mom got a 30% off coupon in the mail, and whenever she does we always seem to hit Kohls for new outfits :) Here are some of the outfits I got:

This one's 'SO' brand. Love stripes and the color!

Also 'SO'. Although you can't see it in the picture, there's a lot of sparkly thread on some of the stripes which caught my eye :)

This one's Mudd brand. I have no blouses like this, and it's in style so I decided to get one! I like the look with big sleeves.

Once again, Mudd. This one's just the piece on top, not the shirt under it. I found this, and it was so cute! I was sure I could wear it over some of the blouses I have, and it will be nice for once it gets cold here in Florida!

So that's what I got. I also got a pair of sunglasses I just love, and I also got a jacket. I can't wait for it to get cold so I can wear some of this! Sadly, here it never seems to get cold until November, sometimes even December, or January, so I have a while to wait. 

*Brooke*

Basket Weaving

 Last Friday I went to someone's house with some of my friends, to weave baskets.

 These pictures are of my finished basket. I never thought I'd make it to this point, as it was kind of difficult.

...It was a lot of fun though! Interesting since I though I'd never learn to weave a basket, but still pretty neat :)

Have a nice week everyone!

*Brooke*

Vlog Bloopers

I haven't posted anything in 4 days for 2 reasons. 

Reason 1, being I left my camera at someone's house, and won't see them until Wednesday... oops...

Reason 2, being I have no good things to blog about. 

Since I don't have much to write about, I decided I'd post a Vlog using my webcam!... then after my 31st attempt, I decided I'd do it some other time. Instead, you can watch the bloopers from my blog. Enjoy!

P.s., Since I'm filming on my webcam, the quality of this video is not the greatest

Okay, so as you can see, I need some practice. Maybe eventually I'll get enough practice to make a real Vlog... then again, maybe never. Ha ha ;)

<3, Brooke