Royal Wedding



{Photo Credit: That 1960's Chick}

                        Well, it happened! They kept the world waiting for eight years, and now it will go down in history as one of the most elegant, intimate, and beautiful weddingsever. And as I stayed up all night and watched the whole affair unfold  on my TV screen I couldn't help but feel an immense sense of excitement, and hope. Excitement for Brittan, for the people, for the Windsors, of course for Will and Kate (whom I should probably refer to as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge now), and even for Canada. I was filled with hope for not just for Brittan, and Canada, but for the entire world and its future. Many people laughed when I told them I was planning to stay up all night to watch the posh affair and exclaimed how silly it was for people to be all worked up about the marriage of two people who have no direct link or effect on their lives. However I can tell you that though I have no direct political or other connection, correlation, or link (besides being Canadian) with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Royal family or the Middleton's, I felt as though I did as I watched the Middleton's hand over their daughter not only to William but also to the entire country and the Commonwealth.   

{Photo Credit: That 1960's Chick}

                 And probably like every young female who watched the wedding, I was filled with hope and excitement for the day when my own wedding rolls around. And when Kate stepped out of the Rolls-Royce and we got the first look at her dress I was reminded of an experience that happened to me just last week. I had went with a very dear and close friend to pick up here grad dress at a local bridal boutique. As I stood outside the dressing room waiting for her to try it on I looked around the shop at all the gowns and was overcome with the just how amazing it was that I was there with a friend I had known since birth getting her grad gown. I was sure that we had thought of this day many times when we were younger, I remembered dreaming with her about one day going to the same school. And as I watched dreams from my childhood take form, I looked around the shop at the wedding gowns and started to think about the occasions that were to come in the next seventeen/ eighteen years of our lives... high school graduation, university, graduation from university, marriages, and children. I was overcome with the prospects of the future, and how quickly the last eighteen years have flown by. Her dress was (is) lovely, and as we left the store, garment bag in hand I said isn't it crazy to think that likely in the next ten years we could be back looking for wedding gowns?

{Photo Credit: ACTUStar}

So anyways that was my moment of reminiscence. The Royal Wedding was beautiful and if you didn't watch it live early this morning, I would strongly suggest that you try and catch one of the replays of it later today!



{Photo Credit: abreakingnews}



~Adrianna



 And they all lived Happily Ever After ;D

{Photo Credit: Getty Images}



Things I Love Thursday



{ABT Photo Credit: Ricof3 flickr- not original source}



     *New Summer Employment Opportunities *  The Royal Wedding being just six hours away * The fact that I have started this blog * Middle of the night Tea Parties with my mom and sister * Finally getting a new clear retainer * New Yoga Pants, Shirts, and Skirts * When Dances Start to Look Like Dances *  Dapper Haircuts * The fact that it is days away from May... that means weeks away from the end of the year * Greek Yogurt and Kashi cereal * The Canucks * Making Plans for summer (already) * Listening to students delve into political debates... (even though they aren't old enough to vote) * Finally filling picture frames that I have had for several years with photos * Running into a good friend that I hadn't seen in weeks * Jaffa Cakes * Marmite * Orchids * Starting to consider different Universities * Hearing about friend getting Scholarships * Enjoying in weird Quirks that my sister and I both share*

    

~Adrianna

*Inspiration For "Things I Love Thursday"

Tribute Tuesday

So today I came across these Nike adds and of corse started thinking...

How much influence has Nike had on the women poweress in sports?

Answer: A LOT 

They made it respectable, cool, beautiful, even sexy for women to be involved in athletic pursuits. I respect this so much, and in the past couple of years (since about 2006) Nike has really been making a case for dance as a sport, (which makes me respect them even more). So as a dancer and a general lover of athleticism here is a tribute to Nike's support for Women!

Visit: Nike Women Homepage

Set Backs for Saturday

So this is an interesting story... I will probs not be blogging much, as I fell down the stairs this morning... I know that sounds ridiculous someone of my age falling down the stairs, you would think I was a two year old who was just learning to walk and my parents left the gate to the stairs open. No though I know how to walk but if you get a running start to my stairs you are going down on the corner where the last few wrap towards the basement. Anyway so long story short I fell down the stairs and broke my pinky finger and strained my right hand; so as you can imagine typing hurts, as well as many other things! Anyway so this is my written excuse for why I will likely fail at my goal of frequent blogging over the weekend!

Hope you have had as interesting a Saturday as I have!

~Adrianna

P.S. Vancouver is awesome we just got back from a long walk down by Brighton park and the Ocean; beautiful! Once my finger is feeling better (hopefully soon) I will post some photos of the beauty, and the cherry trees in bloom!

Early Saturday





{Vancouver Skyline: Dave Rogers}

 

                          Yay, finally the highly anticipated long weekend! I personally am quite enjoying the fact that Easter long did not fall over spring break this year, extra vacation time is always welcomed. My family and I are headed west to the big, rainy, city of glass for what is sure to be a fam jam with the firsties, (some of whom recently returned home from a whirl wind trip to Asia, which I am so stoked to hear all about!).  Well amidst all the celebrations, family, delicious food, chocolate, rabbits, and eggs I am hoping to keep up better blogging habits than I have the past couple days. We will see what comes of that goal. Anyway I leave at 6:00am this morning and I have yet to pack so I best be getting some shut eye. I am sure as the rest of this wonderful Saturday unfolds I will update this post so check back!  

And I will leave you with something fantastic to start, (or finish) your day off with...

                                                                    {Sarah Lamb: Princess Flourine}

A Single Friday's Goodness



{Forgiven ~Thomas Blackshear}



Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

~Luke 23:46

When I was about 9 or 10 years old my dad had this photo in book mark form. I used to love flipping through his bible just to smell and feel the thin, onion skin pages. On one ocasion I came across the book mark and was completely enchanted with it. Thomas Blackshear manages to caputre in a way that a 9/ 10 year old can understand the complexity of the smiplicity that is devine forgivness. So I hope that this photo speaks some insight, as we prepare for the celebrations of three days!



{Lead me to the Cross ~ Brooke Fraser}

I love this song, and of course all the more at this time of the year!

~Adrianna 

A Perfect Monday

Strive for excellence, not perfection.

~H. Jackson Brown Jr., O Magazine, December 2003



{Bolshoi Ballet}
{Photo Credit: Helix}



  When I first glanced at this quote I was initially awestruck by its apparent genius. As dancers we often think about excellence as being an outcome of perfection, perfect lines, perfect feet, perfect turn-out, so I was attracted to the thought/ idea that they could actually be separate terms with less correlation then I always thought.
 However when I really started to think about  the difference between perfection and excellence I got a little flustered, so I turned to my good'ol friend Mr. Dictionary for some advice...

Excellence: the state or quality of excelling or being exceptionally good; extreme merit; superiority

Excellent: exceptionally good; extremely meritorious; superior

Perfection: the state of quality of being or becoming perfect

Perfect: conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type

At this point I thought I understood  the difference between the two, but then I looked up their synonyms...

Synonyms of Excellence: arete, class, distinction, eminence, excellency, finesse, goodness, greatness, high quality, merit, PERFECTION, preeminence, purity, quality, superbness, supremacy, transcendence, virtue, worth, eclat.

Synonyms of Perfection: accomplishment, achieving, acme, arete, completion, consummation, crown, ending, entireness,evolution,exactness, EXCELLENCE, excellency, exquisiteness, faultlessness, finish, finishing, fulfillment, ideal, idealism, impeccability, integrity, maturity, merit, paragon, perfectness, phoenix, precision, purity, realization, ripeness, sublimity, superiority, supremacy, transcendence, virtue, wholeness.

And now I am even more confused then when I began. The definitions suggest that Excellence is being the best within ones own limits, and that Perfection is being the best within a certain ideal. The synonyms however suggest that they have the same/ very smillar meanings. I sat and thought about this for quite sometime, and I have come to this conclusion....
 As people we all judge ourselves by some standard, a standard that we see as being perfect. A person might look to a movie star, or their older sibling, or maybe as it is in ballet a person might judge themselves by an abstract idea of perfection that is ultimately unattainable. Poeple so closely correlate excellence with perfection, that it is not possible to think of something as being excellent without it being near to or perfect. Anyway that is my psycho-babble for this Monday.

On that note here are some things/ people I consider to be the absolute embodiment of perfection....





{Splendid Isolation: ABT.}





{Overwhelmed Aster Dress: Anthropolgie}





{Audrey Hepburn}
{ Photo Credit: Listall}





{Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir}
{photo credit: Myra Clarman}



Sunday Showers




Photo Credit: Megan Anderson

¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”~ John 4:14 

I came across this photo while perusing my facebook, and it seemed to somehow capture all that is glorious about spring. Rivers full to the brim with cold renewing, refreshing, water that seem to blur all the lines that winter has drawn. Flowers start to stain colour on what has been a bleak canvas for several months. Peoples toes starting to show rainbows as they bravely slip on a pair of gorgeous open toed shoes in hopeful expectation of the warmer days ahead. So as April Showers continue to drown us as spring is here is full force. I let them wash away the gloom of winter, quench my thirst for spring, and water the seedlings that will turn May into a bouquet of flowers.


Happy Puddle Jumping
~Adrianna

 

Starting With A Plie.




Photo Credit: http://site.e.K.Clothing.com



    For  a while now I have had "the blog willy nillies", (I've been wanting to start blogging, but my lack of  free-time and ideas has left me somewhat unsure of how to begin). As I type my way onto unfamiliar territory today I have chosen to commence from a very familiar starting place; a plie. 

In ballet the plie though rudimentary transfers across all levels and styles. Upon thinking about the plie, I tried to compile a list of like things that pertain not to ballet but rather to life, (although for me a plie could probably be on that list ;D). In doing so I realized the reason my life has been a big mess of stress is because my "plies" are not there to support me when I leap into life's "grade-jetes". With this epiphany at the forefront of my brain I "went back to the barre" and came up with a plan, (and yes this blog is part of it).  I wrote up my standard weekly schedule, and aloted time to focus on all my "plies", (school work, relationships with family and friends, myself and my health). Things that I have not spent enough time on in the past. I looked all this over and set my main goal for the remainder of this year; DISCIPLINE.

 So as I explore new things, develop new opinions, and squeeze every last bit of zest out of all the lemons life gives me, I hope this blog will serve as an outlet to share with you my journey.

~Adrianna