Feature Fun Friday - Blogoversay Special! If I Stay by Gayle Formwan Timelapse

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): The Downeaster "Alexa" by Billy Joel.





This is a very special FFF. It's my third year blogoversary! I can't believe I've been on this little blog for three years. It's kind of incredible. No, it is incredible, and the fact that you've been here for so much of it. Thank you. No really, thank you. So here is my blogoversary present to you. It's actually what I did to celebrate my second blogoversary (heh heh *draws line with toe*). Yes, I am terrible about timing, but I do everything I can to keep my promises. I asked what my followers wanted to see last year and of course they voted on a crazy antic. Somehow it got narrowed down and decided I would do a sidewalk chalk drawing of a book cover. (I felt like a kid again. It was awesome).

I decided on Gayle Forman's best-selling work, IF I STAY, because, 1. it is a well-known and emotionally powerful story and 2. most of the cover is in pastels. Which most sidewalk chalk seems destined to be produced in these days. *shakes fist at sidewalk chalk gods* I will let you know, I've never attempted anything like this before. This is pure diving in blind, right before your eyes. I don't think I'd touched a piece of sidewalk chalk since I was in elementary school. So this was doubly scary. And fun. On top of that, it was WINDY. I mean mega-where-is-Dorothy's-house kind of windy. Shingles were blown off roofs. A tree in my neighborhood was knocked over. But I'd planned it and by golly, I was going to do it. :) In all, it took 11 pieces of chalk (eight of which were blue) and a little over 3 1/2 hours. There are over 2000 photos shot.

The song is by the relatively underground Jenny Dalton, who was gracious and all kinds of wonderful, giving me permission to use it for this video. It is called "Snow Mazes of Norway" and was written for a 24 hour songwriting contest about her brother. It sings about Norway, but the tone and images felt so perfect for this story, considering the snowy day that changed Mia's life forever. And I loved how the repetition of the piano melody felt like falling snow. Plus her voice is just beautiful. So, HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY! And I'm just happy this fell just a week after Where She Went came out. ^_^






ETA: It is my two-year blogoversary. It spans from 2009 to 2011, but doesn't, you know, actually cover all three of those years. *blushes and hides*