I was looking through my hard drive to find post material for this week and came across the best photoshoot model I have ever worked with. I present to you Mila, who I miss dearly, as she does some snow adventuring 🙂
Tag: christmas
TOLAROIDS: anti-winter
Now that we got some snow photos I decided to take us to some warmer climate 🙂 I hope everyone’s holidays are going well and you’re enjoying the winter wherever you are!
Evolving Emotions: Not Very Merry
Why must the numbness set in?
Amidst the bountiful wreaths
The warm greetings
And a fireplace to match
Creeping into my mind
Infiltrating my thoughts
Manipulating my chest
Bleeding from my mouth
The eyes dull
The limbs lose concentration
The body stills
A blankness overwhelms
Focus settles
On the gleaming whiteness
Of the open air
Crispness envelops
The winter scene
Of snowy scapes
And a body on its surface
An icy chill works its way into the soul
There is no struggle
No escape
The bitter cold sets in
Solidifying the monstrous mind within
No matter.
Why?
As the children make angels in the snow,
The families rejoice in melodious activity,
And the merriment of all relaxes the world,
Am I here
On this Earth
Without a joy in my heart?
No matter.
Art Biz with Liz: Holiday Crafts
Throughout finals season, my inbox has become inundated with news about wellness events. Arts and craft sessions often fill up quickly, and with a busy schedule I decided to take up my own art projects.
While I’m sad at how quickly the school year has flown by, I’m looking forward to a break. I’m also looking forward to the holiday season! If you’ve kept up with my content, you know I love arts and crafts. For Christmas this year, my housemate and I decorated stockings for our friend group. Stuffed with candy and other goodies, the stockings looked great adorned in glitter glue. I also enjoyed making handmade ornaments. The snowflake ornaments still need ribbon, but the only materials required for these—besides the wooden base—were white paint, glitter glue, and sharpie. Handmade ornaments are a wonderful craft to give as a gift because of how unique, collectible, and personalized they are. They are more than decorations for a Christmas tree, as they capture meaning and memories. I messed up these last two, but the process was fun, and the recipients enjoyed them.
Making holiday crafts is a fun activity for people of all ages to enjoy. For college students, it could be something done as a break from finals or something to look forward to. Plus, it’s a great activity to do with friends in cozy pajamas. What are you waiting for? Turn up the holiday music, make yourself some cocoa or cocktails, and get to crafting!
Art Biz with Liz: The Arts and Christmas
Happy holidays and winter break, everyone! Hopefully the past week has been a restful one. Additionally, if you celebrate Christmas, I hope the day has been a safe and joyful one. For many, Christmas celebrations have looked a little different this year. Due to the pandemic, many are unable to see family members in person. Others have recently lost loved ones or their form of income. For some of us, it may seem strange to go through with joyous celebrations. For others, Christmas offers a sense of comfort during unprecedented times. As such, there are still numerous ways people have followed through with traditions and otherwise created a sense of normalcy surrounding the holidays. These traditions, along with other “Christmassy” things, owe a lot to the arts, as the arts are behind many of the ways we celebrate the holidays.
There are the simple, artsy things people participate in at home–decorating gingerbread houses and cookies, making handmade cards or ornaments, singing Christmas carols–but the different kinds of art we create, purchase, and enjoy during the holiday season is extensive. Film is arguably considered an art, and there is no shortage of festive Christmas-themed movies. Elaborate nativity scenes, wintery paintings, and Christmas lights are on full display. Small sculptures, wall art, and more are used to spread holiday cheer throughout homes, while decorative garland adorns small-town shops. The creativity and imagination behind visual arts are enough to evoke warm feelings and other emotions associated with the Christmas season.
The performing arts are also important to the holidays. Even if done virtually this year, watching a ballet such as The Nutcracker or a theatrical performance of A Christmas Carol is a staple tradition for some. Music, religious or otherwise, is undeniably another popular aspect of the holiday season (I dare you to turn on the radio and step into a store without hearing, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” or Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You”). Our ideas of the Christmas holiday and thoughts about the arts are not mutually exclusive, and our consumption of the arts during the holiday season aligns with deeply entrenched traditions. With the pandemic, many people may heavily rely on these traditions when other aspects of our lives have been disrupted, and Christmas would not be the same without the arts.
With that, I wish you, “A Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” (“A Visit from St. Nicholas”)
The Christmas Rom Com
During the holiday season it seems like the only things on television are Christmas related. Â Every other channel is running a Christmas movie marathon with all of the classics like Elf, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Home Alone. Â There are so many Christmas movies that there are genres within the genre of Christmas movie. One of the most popular genre is Christmas rom coms.
Christmas rom coms are very similar to normal rom coms. Â With a plot consisting of two people meeting, waiting a while to get together, a big twist and they break up, and then a big gesture at the end so they end up together. Â But Christmas rom coms have their own set of tropes that are different from other rom coms throughout the year. An example of this is that in order for them to be together they both have to be really into Christmas, and if one of them is not they will learn to love it by the end of the movie. Â Snowstorms keeping someone in a small town in another classic trope that makes the two main characters stay together and then fall in love.
Some classic Christmas rom coms are “Love Actually”, “The Holiday”, and “Four Christmases”.  All of these movies are constantly playing on TV. The most popular of the three is “Love Actually”.  The movie is different from other rom coms because it follows more than one couple throughout the movie, it has 4 different story lines instead of just one.  But each storyline still follows that same general arc as a typical Christmas rom com.
Netflix has been making more rom coms in the past year, and this includes Christmas rom coms.  The most popular Netflix rom com is called “The Christmas Prince” and it follows one of the typical rom com stories of a normal girl falling in love with a man who turns out to be a prince.  “The Christmas Prince” was such a big hit on Netflix that they have now made a sequel this year. Other Christmas rom coms on Netflix are “The Princess Switch” starring Vanessa Hudgens, and “Christmas Inheritance”.  These are only movies that are made by Netflix, you can also watch other Christmas rom coms on Netflix as well.
Christmas rom coms is a feel good movie genre that is meant to put people in the holiday spirit. Â Everyone in all of the movies are extremely kind and they always give to others, something that not everyone does in the real world.
