It's been awhile

It's been awhile and well, life has changed.  I am back home now after graduating from college...yay! here's me.

And so, after a summer of filling up my resume with random jobs, I have started a new adventure, teaching classes at Daymar college.   This seems like it will be a very rewarding job for both me and my students!

On the side, I have still been taking pictures like crazy.  I have had a couple of portrait sessions, mostly engagements that I will post on here asap!  Hope all is well!

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Don't look if you are on your way to my show right now, Brett Oliver!

This is it! Today is my senior art show! And for all you special ones that aren't able to make it, here is a sneak peek before the show even opens! I love you all and thanks for all of your encouragement! also, read my thesis statement, it will explain the pictures.  The accordion books on the wall are experiences that I have had in my hometown, good and bad, that I have learned from. Enjoy!

-Ada B

AHH it's nearing!

Hey guys! Sorry it's been awhile! I wanted to also take this chance to send out my invite for graduation! Okay Okay I know most of you won't come but just look at how hard I worked on the invitation! :)

It's been awhile and boy has it been busy.  Senior show is basically in two  weeks and I am wrapping up and finishing the final things.  I officially have a website now! www.adaemitchell.com is there but with nothing on it yet! lol. Sorry!  

Spring break was a blast. I had the time of my lives with the 5 greatest girls in the world! We had so much fun we promised that every 3 years we were taking a cruise and in the meantime, we will take smaller trips!  I cannot ask for any better of friends!

Only 5 more weeks til I graduate and I am back in good ole Scottsville for a little bit! So hopefully I can update more around senior show time to give a peek to those of you who can't be here! Love you all! 

Spring Formal 09....my last one!

So it was my last sorority formal this weekend! So sad, but yet fun! Above is a picture of my Sigma Kappa family! I'm on top as the Great Grand Big!
Some good friends that are seniors too! Mel could not even get off her phone for the camera!
And of course my handsome date! We had a great time eating at P.F. Chang's and then going to formal! Good weekend! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Random Day!

Just some of the engagement photos that I did for one of my sorority sisters that is getting married in May.  These were done in Georgetown, KY and in the fall.  I edited them and these were two of my favorite! Enjoy!

Random Art Day!

By the way, I am going to start doing a random selection of my art day! That way you can see some of the work that I have done while I have been off at school! Here's the first pick!  This is a digital collage of a picture from my father of the Grocery store that he lived in as a child. Mitchell's Grocery was the name! I added my grandfather in from another picture sitting in a recliner to this picture where he is sitting on the front porch on the bench next to my Uncle Mike who is already in the picture.  I then added in the beautiful vintage postcard of the Smoky Mountains in as the background for the store.  For my images that I was required to bring in from the internet I chose a red car and the Royal Crown coke machine! Enjoy!

I haven't posted in awhile

Well, to be honest there is no good reason that I haven't posted in awhile but I have had a lot on my mind lately!  First of all, I went home this weekend. I just love home, I can't get enough of the people and the normalcy of it.  We moved Daddy out of his apartment on Friday and thanks to my boyfriend and my good friends because I could not have moved some of those pieces! He's in Holland now and seems to be doing great.  Saturday I got a call from my Aunt to take pictures of Lily Claire for her 3 month portraits. I am really excited and I am trying really hard to think of some cute ideas that will be new and fresh to Scottsville's portrait selection.  Other than that, in photography world, I have 4 more people to interview and photograph from Scottsville for my Senior Show and also I am photographing my first band this weekend! Yes! An album cover! My friend Erin and I are very excited about doing this, we are trying to think of some creative poses and stuff! Super exciting!

In other parts of life, sorority busyness is wrapped up for pretty much the rest of the semester.  Even though the calendar I just got for March is full, Initiation and Pledging is over and no more late night things.  Exciting but yet sad at the same time as this was our last time as seniors to experience that.  I am about to give my office up because my term is about up which I am really excited about.  Less meetings to go to Brett!  But as all things are sweet, there is also the bitter.  

Spring break is in a week and half from today and I am soooo pumped! We are going on a five day cruise leaving out from Tampa on Saturday the 14th.  We are stopping in the Grand Caymans and Cozumel Mexico. Never fear about the drug wars, we have emailed Carnival to see what precautions they take in a situation like that, they have not changed the itenirary and we are on an island part and most of the wars are going on inland and close to the American border.  I am so excited I have never been on a cruise before and I have never been to either one of these places! I am that corny person that wants to get my passport stamped! :)

OH YEAH! I almost forgot.  Next Thursday we are going to Disney on Ice. Yes we are! There are eight of us girls going and we are dressing as the princesses.  I am Belle and super excited!  Tickets are only 14.50 to see over 60 Disney characters all on the same rink! You should come! It will be a blast!

As for getting prepared for life, I have a meeting with the Calling and Career woman on campus again today. We are meeting and looking over my resume so I can start sending it to people in Nashville! Also I am turning in my artist resume tomorrow which is really fun as well because it is so much easier to organize rather than a functional or any other type of resume! 

Well, I have left you with a lot of text, maybe I can find a picture goody to leave you with as well! 

This is a pretty Springy one that I was so excited to see up on the screen at church on Sunday! It always makes you feel good to see your artwork displayed!  

Have a fabulous day!

A little something I am proud of...:-)

So for my Experimental Advertising class, our project is to market a musician or band at a public transportation bus stop and on the side of the bus.  This is project is right down my alley as this is my dream job! So I just wanted to show you what I have come up with for my little friend, John Mayer! :) I'm working on two different designs and I would have showed you the other one but it didn't work but this one is better anyways! Enjoy!

Dreaming of Spring Break....3 more weeks!!!

Spring Break

Gulf Shores, Alabama 2008

Photos By: Ada Beth Mitchell :)


These are posted because of the snow that I woke up to this morning covering the ground and pouring out of the sky! AHHH! spring come already!

For the Guitar Lovers in my Life :)

Aren't these beautiful? I bet they are super smooth.

Gone to Nashville in My Mind

Well I decided last week that I wanted to start taking the steps to being a grown-up and made an appointment with the Calling and Career Center on campus.  I was really nervous but I took my pretty copy of my resume and headed there to figure out the next steps.  Come to find out, the meeting was not that bad! Robin made me feel like I was really worth something and I had accomplished something over the past four years of my life! I became really excited even with all of the changes I have to make to my resume... :-/ lol.

The question of the day though was the most interesting and I knew what my answer was going to be. "Is there a certain place you would like to relocate after college?" I smiled as she asked this question because this was one sure thing I knew. I want to go to Nashville and so I told her.  Nashville holds so much potential for me I feel.  I love the proximity of home in relation to Nashville and I also love the city! I am a music fanatic and also ready for design in a big city! My dream job would be to do album labels for a record company or music posters.  Nashville is calling me! 

So then Robin gave me hope by telling me she could help me in this area and we would start searching alums in this area for me to get a hold of and maybe try to get an informational interview with them.  I became very excited also when she gave me a packet on relocating to Nashville.

But as all good things are: they don't come soon enough and so now I sit and I dream.  I search diligently for jobs and sometimes I look at apartments.  Melinda and Lindsey have thought about Nashville as well so it is fun to dream of us living together in West End!  

So in the meantime, I am working very hard on my Senior Show.  I was very excited last night when I had another burst of brain power and more came flooding out of my head onto paper.  I am so ready for this to get rolling again.  I am going to be scheduling more interview/photo sessions next week with people from home again and I am very excited! While I am waiting for that I am searching for images and starting my accordion books that will be included in my show.  I am very excited for what this has in store for me in the next few weeks before Spring Break! Hopefully you are excited too! 

Annie Leibovitz: My Current Inspiration

Recently I had the great opportunity in London to see the photographic works of Annie Leibovitz, one of my favorite photographers who focuses on portraits of celebrities. I bought her book, "Annie Leibovitz At Work" and have been researching a lot on her works to get inspired for my Senior Show since I am doing portraits.

Currently, Annie works for Vanity Fair as a contributing photographer. Her latest work was a series of pictures of famous movie stars and their directors. This one was very intriguing considering that Heath Ledger and his director, Christopher Nolan, from The Black Night are not even in the same picture here. Annie used the power of lovely technology to include both of these wonderful people into one photograph to add to her collection. Guys she is amazing! Okay, so she added him in, I am capable of that, but her career and her work is out of this world.

I have been reading her book and it starts out, "When I started my first job at Rolling Stone..." I am in awe! How lucky would it be to be there when Rolling Stone began and see something like that grow? How lucky would it be to find a great job right out of school for my photography? lol.

But as I was reading today what it means to be a photographer through the mind of Annie, KET caught my eye when I saw Buckingham Palace on there, so I paused for a moment to see what was going on. It just so happened that it was the 15 minute photo shoot of Queen Elizabeth that Annie conducted! It was fabulous! I had no idea that the Queen got agitated at Annie when she asked her to remove her crown to take away some of the formality! She even stormed out! You will have to check it out on BBC!

But anyways, this is what is really inspiring me right now, so you will probably be hearing more about ole Annie Leibovitz!

So I'm Freaking Out..

So I really am because yesterday I sat in my Senior Thesis class and discussed what all had to be done before my art show in April! (April 23 by the way, everyone should come) and then after that, I went to a Senior Start Program where they told me I was a slacker because of all the stuff I hadn't done yet to find a job! Ah! The economy and finding a job at the same time is freaking me out! I think these senior things are not motivating me but making me realize that the next 6 months of my life are going to be really hard! I just want to enjoy them and enjoy this last year to really be carefree! But it's impossible! Everyone told me that I should go to college and that would help me get a better job but no one told me all of this other stuff! LOL. Okay, so really I am just lazy and scared but it is seriously a crazy deal for me right now!

I uploaded all my pictures that I edited from my London/Dublin trip today to get a grade in my class. You can check those out at http://www.flickr.com/adamitchell. Some are really exciting for me. I was a little disappointed in the way a lot of my pictures turned out and I can't figure out what went wrong... But anyways, I also added some pictures from projects I had last semester. The ones that I gave Daddy for Christmas of Capitol Arts and Fountain Square Park are on there as well for all you Scottsvillians. :) a little taste of close to home. Anyways, we had pledge party tonight and I am pooped and tomorrow night we are going to a hockey game. I know in a few short months I will be missing these nights so much and I feel like they are going by so fast! I DON'T WANT TO GROW UP!

By the way, I added a new blogging friend tonight! Ivana Clay! Thanks so much for the cute theme that was on your blog that I stole the idea of the place where you got it from! They are too cute! Plus, I love your blog, your kids are precious!

The Fruits of My Labor And Your Neglect...

RECRUITMENT IS OVER!!! That was a hurray shout from me for having the most stressful week of my life over! But for the best part of it, we got 24 amazing new girls who are so beautiful and precious! New babies to take care of and show them our love for this place! But anyways, on to the decorations! The picture above was our banner on Open House Night. This night we also do the ceiling in full out balloons in a rainbow stripe! It's beautiful and very catchy! The next night was Philanthropy night, which was Anchors Away with Sigma Kay! This was our banner and we served ginger ale this night! It looked very nautical and our outfits were so fun!

At each of the tables the girls made soap fish to send to Maine Seacoast Mission. The soap fish were bars of soap wrapped in saran wrap and then felt fins and eyes glued on to make them look like fish! Really cute!
Didn't everybody look so cute?!

Candyland night was my absolute favorite. It was such a good feeling to see my thoughts come to life in front of me. I kept telling people, "this is what my brain looks like!" It felt so good to finally see it come together but I had a very hard time delegating this night because I knew what it needed to look like from my head. But it turned out great! The floor was a really nice addition with the candyland board game trail going around it! Real fun and the skit was hilarious!

Queen Frostine in her corner...These were the table centerpieces that related with each corner of the room...

My lovely friend Katie Dean was Plumpy. She sat high up in her tree (coke machine) the whole party and people would just look up there and be like "Oh my! There is a person up there!!" It was quite funny to see everyones face with this realization.
Princess Lolly and Jolly and then Melinda. In the skit Melinda was one of the kids who traveled along the deserted rainbow road to find the Sigma Kappa Candy Castle!

This is how cute everyone was!Gramma Nutt was Mary Alice she was just precious! Isn't she perfect as her?!?!
Ms. Mint was played by Angela Vance...

And here I am with my loveliest of friends on Chapel Day ready to get our new girls. It was definitely worth all the stress and everything I went through (laptop breaking, car not working, phone not working, etc.). Enjoy!

A Beautiful Place

So I want to go ahead and apologize for not writing! Internet is 5 euros an hour here or 10 for 24. We finally gave in and bought the 24 hours. Anyways, the flight experience from London to Dublin was awful. The airport there was intimidating, going through security and all. I have a really funny story to share later about that. But also the airport was laid out terribly and when one gate was releasing people from a flight you could not get past it. We were gate 78. It took 30 minutes to walk through the airport to our gate. Once we got on the flight, I finally had a window seat but the driver was crazy!! He was all over the air and my ears hurt for the first time in awhile. I was glad to get back on the ground but so sad I had to wake up...I took advantage of that 1 hour plane ride.

When we got to Dublin, we immediately took tours all day. St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church, Trinity College, and the Book of Kells wason our list. I was so ecstatic about going to see the Book of Kells but when we got there, they were working on it so it wasn't on display...a photocopy was in its place! Boo!

Finally back to our hotel that night, we ate a meal at the restaurant in the hotel with the whole CCSA program. After that a couple of us went out to a pub for about an hour before we came in to sleep for an early night. We have gotten really close to some people in our group, I really like it.

The next day we went to Wicklow, Glendalough, and Bray. The Wicklow Mountains were gorgeous. This is where parts of P.S. I love You was shot. It was beautiful, so green and unique. We went to Glendalough which was an old monastic site next to two beautiful lakes. I don't think any other place could have been this beautiful even though it was raining!

Sack lunches for the day...and then headed to Bray, a seaside town with a beautiful beach. Here is a picture of us with some of our new friends. This is Lauren and Ashley, Lauren is from Kentucky and Ashley is from Washington. They are really fun!

Exhausted once again, we came back and went to watch Twilight. :) It was nice to see it again! Then we headed to Braisen Head, the oldest pub in Dublin and Ireland! It was so full of character! There was a live band there playing....a group of older men playing some rock and roll...we had so much fun! Everyone loved the American girls! We were finally accepted and received some hospitality, it was nice!

Then yesterday we had a day to ourselves to go around Dublin. We of course went to the Temple Bar area which is a small district of shopping and tiny streets. We also went to Grafton Street which is pedestrianized and lots of shopping. Really fun but also expensive here! The difference between prices on tags was about 20 units between euros and pounds. So buy clothes in London and not Dublin! After lunch time we came back and took naps and then had class at 5. After class we attended another play, it was terrible! It was "Playboy of the Western World" an Irish pastime. It probably would have been better if we would have known the inside jokes that the locals knew, but I wasn't impressed, especially after attending Wicked last week! :)

And this is where we went today. A beautiful seaside port called Howth. Oh my goodness it was beautiful. I broke away from the crowd today and got some time to myself. This was so nice. I took pictures, walked out on a beautiful pier, met an old Irish man named Bernard and his dog Woody...only after Woody ripped my coat! Don't fear! He was a nice dog, just really excited and jumping and playfully biting. Bernard pointed me towards a place where I could get the most breathtaking views and a cutting edge over the rest of the students in my class..an old radio tower up on a cliff. It was gorgeous!

Here was the view! I was very thankful to my new Irish friend! After this, we headed to Malahide Castle on the train. Once again, a beautiful place. I haven't downloaded the pictures from there yet, my computer is having hard drive space issues...

It was beautiful though sitting in a huge green park. We watched the sunset there and then headed back into town. After getting back we ate at the restaurant at the hotel again and I had lasagna, it was delicious! And I haven't been feeling well today so I came back and napped for awhile.

I have had so much fun on this trip but time and sleep are catching up with me! It will be so exciting to get back to the States and get some good home cooked food and sleep and see all of you all! I hope you all are well! See you in a couple of days!

All You Need is love....da da dadada

So today, I got everything finished in London that I wanted to do! I couldn't be more satisfied with my trip here! I started off the morning with meeting with my group to study for our presentation for class at 6. After that, me George, and Liz headed out to get our list accomplished. We went to Platform 9 3/4 and took pictures, went shopping at Camden, ate at some Chinese vendor, went to ABBEY ROAD!, and the Beatles store! We also went to have tea at Harrod's, the largest most extravagant department store I have ever been too! It was definitely an experience! After that we had class and then we went to this place called The Swan to eat. I had roast beef, potatoes, carrots, and peas. It was delicious! Although I figured out why I am getting sick and my throat is hurting after I eat...I am very dehydrated but it is definitely part of the culture to have very little drink with your meal. Water only comes in a small glass and no refills. I can't wait to get back to the states where I can drink as many glasses as I want. :) After that, me and Lauren, (a new found friend) had to go by larger carry on cases. Yes, I did by that many gifts for you and for myself :) of course, you know how bad of a shopper i am. And so we headed back to the hotel to sit around with everyone and talk. I am very happy with my time here. Love you all and talk to you in Dublin!!

Two Days Down and A Happy New Year!

Well, guys, I am so sorry that I have not posted! It has been a very busy past two days! Yesterday we woke up early to ride in a coach to Stonehenge and Bath. This was really cool. 1. Because we got to see two amazing landmarks in history and 2. because I got to sleep a couple more hours! I have never slept so well on a bus. The countryside was beautiful. It was freezing (actually the coldest it has been here in a long time, of course that would happen while we were here) and there was frost on everything. It was also very foggy and was really beautiful. When I woke up and looked out the bus window, I saw Stonehenge...really cool. :) By the way I know I look like an Eskimo in this picture, but do not make fun of me, for I was the only one in our group that was warm!

After Stonehenge, we headed towards Bath, an ancient city that looks like Rome because the Romans were the first to come to this country. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! We went to the Roman Baths were the people used to come and bathe for healing and just general purposes in the sulfur water. Yummy. lol. Anyways, it was very pretty and so was the town. Jane Austen used to live there and we met an awesome man who was standing outside of her house who told us that Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage both had houses there. I decided I wold probably be the 3rd Kentuckian to have a house there. :)

At Garfunkel's in Bath, England. This is Brenton Curry, Me, Cathy Frank, and Darrell my professor. The most normal food I had had yet..lemon and herb chicken, chips (french fries), and vegetables. Chips are served with everything and I am getting pretty tired of them!

On the way back from Bath was some of the best sleep. After we got back we chilled in our rooms for acouple of hours and ordered pizza from Pizza Hut...really funny while we are overseas...oh but no surprise it didn't taste the same. When we got ready to go out, we headed to Trifalgar Square which is kind of like Times Square. The crowds were so crazy, on the Tube and on the streets that we were like sardines. At one point we were walking on a layer of McDonald's fries and boxes. When we ended following the crowds, it had taken us to the Riverside instead of Trifalgar because of overflow. It was so crazy trying to get through but we finally made a mad rush when they released the crowd and got great seats to see the fireworks next to some high school students who were really fun to talk too. The fireworks were the prettiest I had ever seen. When the clock striked twelve, nothing really happened. lol. We wanted cheering and music but the fireworks just kept going, so we circled in a group and sang the new year's song (or at least hummed it) and felt pretty American.

After the fireworks was the most exhausted I had been for it took 2 hours to walk home. No tube or anything. And there was glass and drunk people all over. It was nasty and I was very tired. But after we got back we met up with some people in our class and hung out for a bit and then went to sleep. It was a good fun filled day and a happy new year! Mama and Daddy you would be happy to know that I told every English person I met last night that they should eat cabbage, hog jowl, and blackeye peas for health, wealth, and happiness.

And so this morning we didn't have class until 12:30 which was really nice because of the new year's celebration but after that we set out on our Museum day which was amazing! First we went to Tate Modern Art Museum where I saw Picasso, Monet, Rothko, and Pollock all in one room! Talk about overwhelming! I just told Brett that you would expect those to have a room to themselves but they were all there next to each other! I also got to see some Roy Lichtenstein and Paul Cezanne.

Then we walked to the National Portrait Gallery which made me so happy because I got to see Annie Lebowitz Exhibition was there!! It was so amazing to actually see her potraits up close and in such large form! If you aren't sure who she is, she is a famous portrait photographer who took pictures for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair for many years..such people as Demi Moore (maternity pics), Arnold Schwarznegger, Johnny Depp, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and many others are in her pictures, even Richard Avedon whom is another famous photographer of this time period which is really ironic she got pictures of him. It made me laugh. :)

But the best part of the day came after we ate pasta and headed towards the Apollo Theater where I saw Wicked for the first time!!! I LOVED IT! If you are a Wizard of Oz fan at all, you need to see this show! I was amazed at how extravagant the scenes and setting were and also the costumes! Plus I just downright love witch stories! You know I am a witch guru. :) This could have quite possibly beat out Hocus Pocus.And so after that part of the night was over, me George, and Liz headed to Big Ben to take pictures at night. Here is the picture I came over here for and I am very happy to have it now. Anyways, it is very late and I have to get up very early tomorrow! Hopefully going to see Abbey Road and other things such as. Goodnight and I love you all! Happy New Years! Eat some cabbage, hog jowl, and blackeye peas for me!