*Sigh*

This weekend I was hoping to do some fun stuff. I.E. sewing, crochet, a few more recordings etc. but was overcome with homework from dawn til dusk all weekend long. My homework consisted of reading the story of the life of Mary Jemison, practicing piano, writing an essay, blah blah blah blah blah. Complete with more blah, blah and blah.

Though my homework was exhausting, I felt I should say a bit about The Narrative of the Life of Mary Jemison. I really enjoyed it. The book is a first person account of a woman of Irish heritage and her life as an adopted Seneca woman. Unlike many captivity narratives, she portrays the Native Americans as a lovely people and culture rather than a barbaric cult of savages. It was a long read for me was very good and enlightening, despite the time it took from my other interests. I do encourage those who have not read it to do so if they get a chance. I read the latest edition, with an introduction by June Namais, which also helps keep in perspective what is elaborated upon and what is from Jemison herself. I really do encourage you to read it... and lucky for you it's not an assignment

And now, I'll give you some cuteness to counteract the lame of my post

Joel!!!

Me Playing Piano!

I found time to record for my grandmother. She lives an hour away from us and doesn't have a piano, thus making it a very rare occasion when she does hear me. Because of the vast interweb resources at hand, I am going to utilize Youtube so she is able to listen whenever she wants and of course share the videos with you all!

I beg you, please ignore the stupid looks on my face, the seasick-inducing movements, the poor sound quality and slight lag in the video. I recorded these via Webcam on my laptop and plan to record again when I have better equipment.


 The Sailor Song was born my sophomore year of high school with a friend who was in my Music Theory class. It was first composed with drums and bass along with my piano. It was a bit more "funky" and  had some J.S. Bach interjected at points. I have since made my own version of the piece, adding some movie themes for substance. Very early on, my friends fondly declared it "The Sailor Song".

The first 3 melodies you hear in this song are from the following soundtracks:
The Secret Garden by Zbigniew Preisner
King Kong by James Newton Howard
Black Beauty by Danny Elfman


 Pirates of the Caribbean Composer, Hans Zimmer, is one my my all time favorite composers. I think I've fallen in love with each and every one of his soundtracks. This is my rendition of my favorite theme from POTC, Davey Jones. I made my own sequence of the piece through different moods from the latter two movies, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. The first is the main melody played in a high register. Second is from the Musical-Heart of Davey's. Next is a more agitated Davey and the last bits being what I consider a call and response between the ill-fated lovers, Calypso and Davey. This has to be one of my favorites of my renditions. I hope you enjoy it as much as I like playing it :)


Nameless doesn't have a real name, so I call it thus. It is simply a song that I came up with while learning Chopin's Nocturne in F minor. I would play this when I got tired of practicing the Nocturne. That's really all I have to say about it.

SnorgTees Girl Competition

Of my latest happenings, one of the more exciting is a modeling competition I've entered hosted by SnorgTees. They're looking for a new model and is open to all women/girls regardless of previous modeling experience. Well, I have a SnorgTees shirt and love it, so I figured 'What the hey? Free entry for cool prizes?? Yes, Please!!!!'  I also want to buy more shirts but I'm a poor college student of the theatre, music and history departments... I have a bit stacked against me.

The winner is selected from a panel of judges and a separate competition is for the model with the most online votes. Both have really cool prizes, but the official judged part is what gets the photoshoot. If you feel like voting for me, you're welcome to! Just click the link below !!!

Explore Modeling - SnorgTees Girl: Amber Mendenhall

Thanks for reading!

Highschool Artwork: Paintings

Sometimes I feel like there is nothing to blog about. Then, while being in a completely random place I find something to blog about. Today's topic is going to be part of my highschool artwork, Paintings. There are a few different types of paintings, watercolor, acrylic, etc. These were all done 2005-2008. I thought I would share them with you.

First ever watercolor painting
Beginning Art Class

I'm certainly not a "gifted" painter but I paint better than I can sculpt. So, when working with my paint I prefer to have a bit more control. Watercolor just gave me anxiety. Since we were getting graded on it, I had to have my painting perfect. It didn't come out that way and isn't even close to the rain forest photo I used for inspiration.

3D Painting
Beginning Art Class

I really enjoyed working with acrylic paints because I had more control. The above painting was a completely original composition, the only direction given was 3D. I instantly thought of a beautiful neck with some huge jewelry decorating it. I loved working with the chocolate tones. So warm and comforting. I used wood for the larger pieces, beads for the smaller, and the circles are from an 80's bracelet with spiraling copper wire. For some weird reason my canvas was cardboard and is now extremely bowed. :-\ And still, although not anatomically correct and missing some beads, this remains one of my favorite pieces.

"Chicken Dumplings"
Favorite Foods Challenge
Advanced Art

Terrorized Chickens.

My mother's favorite composition, "Chicken Dumplings" is from my junior year Advanced Art Class. Each quarter we were given a challenge, this one being Favorite Foods. I remember one person did a sculpture of Tacos (from Taco Johns) at war with McDonald's foods (background being that on one of our roads, the two restaurants are across from eachother). Everyone came up with some good ones. But back to my piece, it took me an hour to think up, compose and finish, the night before it was due. Felt tip pen and crayola watercolor paints (thank God my mom had daycare art supplies) and viola! A!!!

Wacky Sun
Advanced Art

This piece was out of boredom, and you can tell. It's got a lack of composition and the black is far too much of a contrast with the very pale, creamy, yellow of the sun. Done with acrylic, I like the reds and oranges and the dark red dots emphasizing my brushstrokes.

"Dream Flower"
Advanced Art

The "Dream Flower" was just that. I had a dream with this form in it and promptly sketched out the shape on the nearest piece of paper I could find. It ended up being a really neat piece. Acrylic paint and 2 weeks of class to finish.

"Henna Kokopelli"
Advanced Art

My favorite piece I ever did is my Indian henna inspired kokopelli. He took a great deal of time to do and I had to wittle down brushes to get a really fine line. Done in acrylic. This is the only picture I have of him, which is really unfortunate. I sold the painting to a teacher who has since moved and I have no way of contacting her for more pictures. I hope to recreate this painting so I have my own copy.

"Henna Chair"
Advanced Art

The best detail shot I could get

 Although not a painting per se, but along the same lines, is my "Henna Chair". I was offered to use an old chair of my art teacher's for a project and was delighted. Done right after my Kokopelli I ran with the same designs. The original plan was to cover the chair entirely with the white details but the chair took 2 months to get as far as I did. My eyes were starting to go crossed by the end of the two months, so I decided to call it quits and hand 'er in. My teacher was pretty impressed (at least he seemed to be) and insisted that we enter the piece into an art competition and my chair went to finals! I didn't win anything, but saying that my piece made it to the state finals was pretty fun.

Haircut!!!

This past week, on a kind of whim, I decided to cut my hair much shorter than normal. And I must say, I. LOVE. IT.

Didn't my mommy do a fabulous job?

My hair is rarely above mid back, normally falling right above the waistline of my pants. I've only had it cut "short" twice since I was little. It's amazing how free you feel after having 8 inches cut off. That's right, 8 inches. I swear, I weighed myself after the ordeal and I had lost 2 lbs. I don't know if it was actually the hair's weight or just my excitement prevented the scales from picking it up.

The most recent pic of my long hair.
(It was longer than this, but you get the idea)

2 lbs of hair.

 I am in love with my haircut, if you couldn't tell. I also want to thank my mother for being creative and awesome enough to handle such a job, as I don't trust anyone to cut my ridiculously thick hair. Thanks mommy!

Sewing Room

I have wonderful news!!! I have a functional sewing room!!! BOOYA!!

My parents are redoing our TV room and decided to get rid of the Entertainment Center. Upon looking at the large piece of furniture, we had a vision:

As you can see, this room does double duty as a music room, too

 Viola! Sewing Center. It's very functional, as I have bins for most of my notions and fabrics while being within an arms reach. I don't even have to get up from my sewing chair to get them. I love being lazy.

The room is not yet decorated or painted, but I think I'm going to go with the color scheme of the bins I have.

And as the icing on the cake. I made some pretty filigree-ish labels for my bins. I have labels for different colors of fabric, different projects, and alterations. Of the labels, the "Patterns" label is my favorite. Maybe it's the scissors? I'm not sure. But I like it. C'est la vie :)

In Progress: Late 1790's Bodiced Petticoat

Well, I'm not entirely sure that it's 1790's but the overall outfit will be. I started this project on Monday and have spent many many many hours in my sewing room trying to finish it so far. It is made out of a bedsheet from a hospital:

kinda spooky...

The sheet cost me $1.50 from a thrift store and had more than enough fabric to do the job. The bodice is a modified stays pattern, lined with the same bed sheet and is entirely hand-sewn. The skirt is attached only with pins at the moment...

Front Bodice

The best pic of the side I could get

It will have a waistband, to bring the bulk of the gathers down a bit, for a smaller waistline. I also didn't notice that the bodice of my petticoat is smaller than my stays until looking at the pictures for this post. :-/ Oh well I guess. Anywho, that's my progress!