7 Days of Driving

This Friday my brother and I are taking a 7 day roadtrip. I know, I know, I just told you about (half of) the destinations for my drive home, but this trip is really getting me pumped. We're hitting up a bunch of National Parks which I have drooled over for years, and never seen. This also means it may be really difficult for me to post during that week, but I will try to at least get some pictures up for you!

The plan is to make a stop at each location, collect a post card, mail it to myself, and then create a book like this one from Curiosity Contained. I plan to do this on my solo trip to Ohio as well. Hopefully it will make for an awesome memoir. . . I really only wish I had found this idea sooner and had done it all summer.

From Curiosity Contained . . . of course theirs is from Paris . . . rude

Why I travel: Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white. – Mark Jenkins

Independence Instagram Photo Day

Happy Independence Day! Doesn't it just make you want to watch a movie with aliens in it with Will Smith? Maybe not.

Here are a few of my favorite Instagram photos of my own. I really love the app and believe that anyone who enjoys photography should look in to it. I will put one disclaimer on this suggestion though: if you mostly enjoy photographing your face, please don't expect me to follow you back.

Even though I do not enjoy the full fledged iPhone version of this app (I have an Android system), I still love the features that come with mine.

Thoughts on photography: A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into. - Ansel Adams

Ninety And Nine

Last night I got some much needed crafting time. In all honesty, it was a craft-athon. I worked on a few birthday gifts, made bracelets, decoupaged notebooks, and even did some design work on a wallet I recently acquired for a dollar.

I probably would not have done so much (and stayed up until 4am) had I not been completely obligated to go check out Texarkana's new Dollar Tree. My sister-in-law and I went to town there. She was a bit more responsible than I, since she had a list of projects and supplies she was looking for, but when you go to a dollar store and spend $40 on supplies, you're in for a night of making.

I got the idea for my wallet from …Love Megan, the bracelets I found on Pinterest, and of course the notebooks weren't that hard to think up so really they were an opportunity to just apply style. I will show you how I made the bracelets, but let me warn you, there has to be a better way.

these turned out a lot messier than what I had hoped, but sometimes you just can't hand-make something and not have it look handmade (and sometimes, that's the point)

the crafts of the night, minus the birthday gifts, of course

so I guess I'm set for the upcoming semester... (minus the dreaded books)

my new wallet couldn't look as though it belongs with my things any more than it does

Thoughts on making things: The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true. - Edgar Allan Poe

Dead Armadillos

I got a new bike for my birthday! Hooray! My mom bought it for me for my birthday and I immediately took it out for a ride yesterday. Other than the front wheel needing a little tightening, everything about the bike is a million times better than my old one, which I have had since middle school.

My new bike

However, on my first ride through Arkansas I had some seriously interesting experiences. First of all, all of the roads are crap. I was so thankful 2 minutes into my ride that I have a mountain bike. About a quarter of a mile in, a dog started barking at me. Now, normally this wouldn't phase me. In my head I thought 'it will stop running at me at the property line'. Nope. It ran out onto the road, and it was a really really large pit bull. I just pedaled a bit faster. On the other side of the road. Then further on 2 more dogs ran out toward me. While these dogs were much smaller, they followed me a lot longer and got a lot closer to my bike. I may not take this route again. I'm not scared of dogs, mind you, but I'm just used to them stay on their owner's property.

The route wasn't a long one, but it is far more hilly here than in Northwest Ohio. I went a measly 6.3 miles but I've got some new routes in the works that should be really challenging.

Anyhow, here are a few sights I found along the way. I unfortunately didn't take pictures of the armadillo and coyote carcasses I also passed, but I'm hoping you will settle for these!

Pink abandoned house

PHill'S AUTO REPAIR

On bicycling:  The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. - Christopher Morley

'All I Am Is All I'll Ever Be, And That's Just A Boy From Texarkana.'

Yesterday I made a journey which I have taken countless times since the age of 6. I drove from Findlay, Ohio down to Texarkana, AR. The drive, which Google says takes exactly 15 hrs, took me 13 hrs and 10 minutes. What can I say? I drive well.

This drive was horribly uncomfortable though. A few months back my car's heating/cooling system stop allowing me to turn it off, and more recently it stopped allowing me to choose what temperature it spits out. The whole way down my car blew hot air on my feet and up my windshield. It would have been fine with me to just roll down my windows for the trip, except that temperatures were upwards of 90 almost the entire second half of it. Needless to say I am now dehydrated and taking in as much water as I can.

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

Other than my almost fainting, the trip went really well. I didn't hit major traffic in any of the cities and only was stopped in Arkansas for road construction for 5-7 minutes. The best views of my trip were definitely the bridge over the Ohio River, Memphis and the bridge over the Mississippi.

You're the only 10 I see ;)

Obviously not my picture... Hernando de Soto Bridge Memphis

This coming Sunday I will be traveling to Miami, FL with my mother and throughout the week we will be going up to Hot Springs! I am so excited to get to spend some time here and am looking forward to all of the awesome projects my sister-in-law and I will accomplish (we already made our first trip to Hobby Lobby today).

Plus being down here means I will finally get to do a bit of shopping with my ladies. I already scored this awesome fringe purse:

From my favorite author: Not all those who wander are lost. – J. R. R. Tolkien

Pilot Episode: The Plot

It is hard to begin a blog about nothing, or what feels like nothing, but really I want to write about everything and don't know where to start. The easiest topic to begin is one of the hardest to end: explaining myself. In effect that is what this entire blog will become, but what makes a better story than character development?

I am Whitney Goller. I was born in Texarkana, Texas, have lived in Ottawa and Findlay, Ohio, as well as Melksham in Wiltshire, United Kingdom. In my spare time I am a shieldmaiden of Rohan. Currently I attend The University of Findlay and major in studio art. I grew up believing I was anything and everything. After years of people telling me differently, I have finally come to understand that I still am anything and everything. More specifically though, I am an artist, a designer, a thinker, a reader, a writer, a scientist on a small scale, but most importantly I am not a dreamer. I am a believer. I believe in God, in myself, in you if you will let me, in a greater purpose, in individual freedom, in change, and in making things.

This is a lot to put in to few words, but I am hoping you will listen to my explanations as the days go on. I intend to post my art, poetry, thoughts, pictures and maybe even some ideas. I am giving up most of my social media sites for this endeavor of explaining myself without limitations, but in case curiosity gets the best of those reading these words, here are my sites: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. I sell my artwork on both Etsy and Society6.

Oxymoron to think on: Act Naturally