{liQuid sunshine blog party}

Favorite season, and why?
I think that this quote pretty much sums up this question with my answer in tow: "Delicious Autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." {George Eliot} I love the crisp air, crunching leaves underneath my leather boots, sipping hot wassail, hiking, photographing the mountains that I call Home, the smell of fresh office/school supplies, wearing my AE jeans, making fires in the back yard, watching the stars of an October sky while "camping out" in the yard, toasting s'mores, wearing cardigans that make me look preppy and casual all at the same time....ah, le sigh, autumn my very soul is wedded to it! 


How would you describe your personal style? 
I guess you could say that my style is casual, neo-victorian, earthy-boho-wanna-be. I'm not really sure, but I love to mix and match totally different artsy/earthy pieces together with some more casual classic pieces, add an interesting necklace and a cool pair of earrings and call it a day! Some may call me a "Plain Jane" type of a girl, but that is quite alright with me. I kinda believe, like Diana Barry said in Anne of Green Gable's "...being smart was better than being good looking." I'd much rather be smart than good looking. Heart and brain come before vanity in my world. I still like to look nice, and dress well, but my personal style is not what defines me. What defines me is My King and my heart and mind.



What's one weird thing you can do? (The stranger the better!)
I morph my voice. I can turn off my normal speaking voice and turn my voice on into the voices of Gollum/Smeagol, Jar Jar Binks, a weird little girl and a retarded reindeer (don't ask about this one, okay?) I can also speak with an British and Russian accent quite well. I love to randomly start speaking with a Russian accent in the middle of a conversation because it really throws people for a loop!


Rain or shine?
It really depends....my first response would be to say rain-shine! ;-) I love grey rainy days because they usually make great days for working on the stack of books that is laying beside my bed. However, the rain is not always my dearest friend, because I do love to get out there and go hiking and I love taking photographs, and well, the sunshiney days usually work best for those things.


Confession time... what's a flaw of yours?
Are we talking personal or physical here? Hmmm... If we are talking personal then I'd have to say my lack of patience. I am not a very patient person at all, and I struggle with my hard-headedness. If we are talking physical then I would have to say my thumbs. They are very different from anyone else's thumbs that I have ever seen...and anyone who notices them usually just "loves" to point it out to me that "they" are "extremely weird!" If you can't tell I am uber self conscious about my thumbs, and I usually hide them whenever people are around me, or when any photograph of me is being taken.



Favorite music?
Goodness, where to begin? I love anything from Classical to Hard Rock to Indie, and etc. Seriously, my musical tastes are all over the board. I can tell you what I've really been into listening currently though, I guess? Lately Shiloh's Mantra, And By Love, Thrice, Eisley, Paper Tongues, Red and the Tron: Legacy Soundtrack have all been stuck in my head and gracing my ears with their joyous sound infused ruckus as of late.


Have you ever made a decision you instantly regretted? What was it?
Black Friday. Biggest mistake ever! I don't care how many 'sales' are going on. This girl will NEVER be going to another Black Friday event ever! It was horrible. I mean almost getting run over by a mob of angry people wielding Gameboy's and flat screen tv's is not my idea of worth-while savings, or fun for that matter.


Who do you admire/look up to?
Family and dear friends aside...? Well, I'd have to say that Madeleine L'Engle (the brilliant authoress who has now gone "Home") has been the biggest influence on me as a person, and a writer. The way that she seemingly wove together the threads of my life within her characters (even before I was born!!) unknowingly and taught me valuable lessons about love and friendship through them...and good writing too...is what has most shaped me as a person. As a middle school aged girl I pretty much embodied Meg Murray. We were one in the same girl, Meg Murray and I. L'Engle's novel, A Wrinkle In Time, is and always will be my favorite book. I'd always been searching to know just who I was as an adolescent, and so did Meg. Madeleine taught both Meg and I to let go, to let love pour in and to find ourselves in the midst of any trials that we were both up against.


You've just won an unlimited lifetime supply of... what?
BOOKS. Having a whole library full of my own books would be fab! I'd probably cry if I ever got the chance to own and receive every book that's ever been on my wish list! This bookworm believes that knowledge is indeed power...so more knowledge in infinite amounts is what I'd want to possess for a lifetime.


If you were an animal, what would you be?
I'd be a Barred Owl. I am nocturnal. They supposedly have BIG brown eyes, pale faces and dark rings around their eyes and they're from the eastern United States, just like me! Haha! My brunette curls are crazy, frenzied and feathery just like an owl's wings are. Owl's are just so mysterious, as am I, as a person until you get to know the real me. I would love to soar over the mountains and oceans as they do!


If you knew you were going to die in a year, what would you do with your time?
I'd want to go travel through Europe with a journal and a pen by my side (or ::ahem:: in my backpack) to document EVERYTHING I experienced, stacks of books to read and to proverbially "take me away", my beloved camera to capture what I see and my loved ones by my side to share it ALL with.


You're now a gazillionaire...where do you go to spend your money?
First, I'd buy myself a beautiful mountain Home in Asheville NC with a large library and music room in it. Secondly, I'd be headed to the nearest piano distributor to buy a Steinway & Sons full length Grand Piano!!! Thirdly, I'd buy the best camera and lenses that money could buy and start photographing the WORLD for everyone to see! Fourthly, I'd start a Christian book publishing company. (I'd do a lot more too...perhaps I should post more about this at a later date?) =)



Classical music: love it or hate it?
I love Classical music! Gershwin, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Joplin (well, okay he is more Rag-Timey), Chopin, Camille Saint Saens...they are all brilliant composers and they are indeed worth having a listen to!


Phobias?
Fish (this is the BIGGEST one!!!) Elevators (I get vertigo really easily...and they are uberously cramped and enclosed usually!) Clowns (still don't like 'em!) Too many people surrounding me and my personal space bubble (talk about being claustrophobic! Phew!) Chickens (which is hilarious because my family and I will be getting some chicks in the very near future! Ha, guess I'll have to get over this one!) Mayonnaise touching my body or my tongue....Y-U-C-K!


Hop on a plane and go live somewhere for a year... where is it, and why?
I'd have to say.................Scotland. It is sparsely populated in the countryside, surrounded by lovely emerald green hills as far as the eye can see and not to mention some seriously mysterious lochs. I could definitely picture myself on the shores of Loch Ness with my camera, a quilt to lay out on, a picnic basket, a stack of books to read through, notebooks and pens to let my imagination drift away on whilst writing.....and it would be quiet! Hey, maybe I'd run into Gerard Butler ::swoon:: while there, or Nessie? I think Nessie and I could be great friends! (Man, now I want to go watch "The Waterhorse: Legend of the Deep!")


Are you an extrovert or an introvert?
Well, my personality is an INFJ if that tells you anything!? I am a very personable and huggable person, though I am definitely an INTROVERT! I am a shy young woman who loves taking long walks out in the middle of no-where-ville where there is just silence and next to no people out and about around me, and reading books and getting lost in them while cuddled up on my bed wrapped tightly up in one my quilt's, etc. Meeting new people kind of wracks my nerves a bit, but once I warm up to you and befriend you you'll probably wish that I had stayed silent and the wallflower that I normally am because I can, and will, talk your ears off once you're allowed inside my "Personal-Sarah-Bubble!"


Would you/do you perform on stage?
One year I got a small role in a Christmas play at the Church we were attending at at the time. My role was that of the Wiseman...yeppers...the one with the bag of gold! Let's just say that that "Christmas Play" memory is a pretty bad one, seeing as how I only had one line and I completely forgot it during our production. I am not an actor by any means whatsoever! This is known and very clear to me! ::disappointed sigh:: I've been in a few different choirs over the years though, and I have even been the keyboardist and lead female vocalist for a Worship band before (which I LOVED doing!)


If you'd like to join on in with the LiQuid Sunshine Giveaway + Blog Party and answer the fab questions above too please head on over to Olivia's blog: OfHorseFeathers!