Summer Break Has Begun

Knowing you and your Frozen obsession, you've probably already seen this! Haha but I thought it was cute to post anyway (:

Happy EARLY Birthday, Olivia!! =D

Whew. I haven't posted in a really long time!

Welp, I'm officially done school for the summer. And I've really been enjoying being outside and not feeling so magnetized to my computer.

I've been keeping busy though! CBA's semi-formal was two weeks ago!

I had Rachel and her sister come down from Pennsylvania to get ready at my house. 

>We're pretty normal, but one of these people might always remain a little odd.<

After Semi-Formal I had Rachel and  Dolores come back to my house for a sleep over with pizza, and chick flicks. Amanda and Noelle came as well and brought Just Dance for wii.

We played for quite a few hours.

This was our favorite dance. We couldn't stop laughing. I played the pineapple.

At the point where they turn and clap hands, I was saying "Watermelon!"

"Strawberry!"

"Watermelon!"

"Strawberry!"

"Watermelon!"

And Amanda is just like "Uhh, Bannana!!"

I laughed so hard. Probably because we were so tired.

It was a good night! And a little bit more fun than Semi-Formal itself.

I've been keeping up with my nature journal. I'm not adding to it everyday, and it's mostly flowers for now, but it's so much fun!

And this is a doodle on the back of an envelope going to a very special penpal (:

(The letter isn't finished yet, but the envelope is!)

And I'm still having fun with lettering!

A few more succulents and an inspirational quote has been added to my window sill.

And I put a teacup with birdseed in it on my window sill outside.

It's been so much fun watching birds come up to my window to get some nourishment!

One morning a blue jay landed on my window sill. I was so excited! I usually just get sparrows!

And this morning a little chipmunk came up for a visit.

Thank goodness for Summer because now I have time to read!

I just finished up "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green.

I'm not really sure how I feel about the book. I don't think I recommend it.

There was more foul language than I like to slip by, so just for that factor, I don't think it's worth reading again. 

But I'm reading "Dream Treaders" By Wayne Thomas Batson (finally!)

It's super so far!

(Even though  I didn't like the book that much, it's excellent for pictures...haha)

Last week I went outside to be with Mandie (our dog) and as I made my way towards her, my heart rate jumbled as I saw a long green thing laying in the grass.

A snake!

Mom came outside when she heard me yell and said there was "red" in my voice, so she could tell something was wrong. While mom was coming out, I stood very still and held Mandie back, watching the snake's tongue flicker. I had no idea if he was dangerous or not, I just knew to stay still and move cautiously. 

Dad was away at work, but our elderly neighbor, Mr.John is a boy scout leader and was sitting on his back porch enjoying the nice morning.

Mom yelled up to him asking if he felt comfortable taking care of a snake for us.

He came down the hill with a stick that was split and jabbed it just before the snake's head and lifted the snake up. It was a Gardner snake....so it wasn't poisonous.

He took the snake up the hill to his yard and let it loose in the trees.

Hopefully it won't come back!

But to thank him for his masculine bravery, I baked an apple sauce raisin cake for Mr.John and Mrs.Brenda the following day (it's their favorite) and walked it up to them when they were on their morning walk the next day.

They were both pleased and shocked and said it was very sweet of me!

I changed my profile picture on facebook on Monday and I was blown away by 79 likes and 14 very sweet comments. We just had a church message about love languages and mine is words of affirmation, so I felt very loved after reading those comments!!

What's your love language?

Take the quiz here by clicking the gray lettering that says "Discover your love language- click here to begin"

http://www.5lovelanguages.com/

Have fun!

I'm going to make Swedish meatballs for supper tonight.

There's a rule in this house that if you make supper, you don't have to do the dishes.

Yippee!!

Have a great evening!!

Stephanie

New Things and Crazy Dreams

About a week ago my mom drove me downtown to a Firehouse Pottery building and signed me up for a 6 week course of wheel throwing! I'm so excited to try something new. I get 25 pounds of clay to work with and I get an hour or so of workshop time to come in on my own to paint what I've created. I'm told to bring a towel to throw over my lap and to wear clothes I don't care about and to have a good hand lotion waiting for me because my hands will be very dry. I can't wait to get my hands messy!
I've been wanting to create my own little bowl, or my own little mug, or even my own little flower pot!

I got a text from one of my friends on Wednesday night asking if I could go bowling the next day with her and two other friends that I know from CBA. So I had to ask my parents, but I got to go! I normally don't go for last minute, let's hang out stuff. But I was free and I hadn't gotten to see any of them for a long time.
Thursday morning I got a text from her again telling me that it was her birthday and to not feel pressured to bring a card or a gift. So...then I threw something together for her.  My mom makes natural homemade soap that she sells at farmers markets, so I put a bag of soap, a soap scrubbie my mom crocheted and homemade chapstick together for her. And made her a homemade card:

Not bad for last minute, no?

We were the only ones in the bowling alley and when we came in they put on an old fashioned "Sweet 16" song just for her! We put our bowling names down as: Sophi, Mandi, Kenzi, and Steph. Haha

Amanda and I were practically tied the whole game, we took a break halfway through our bowling game to make the time last a little longer by getting some ice cream and popcorn and joking about yearbook and how that's all going to go next year. Hey! Yeah! All four of us that were there were in yearbook together! Haha

Anyway, after our break, I lost my infinitive and had some low scores and Amanda rolled past me on the scoring board, I was very last on our very last round and got a strike! Whattt? None of us had gotten one the whole game! And when you strike, you get to roll 2 more times.

Yes. I won the bowling game. Whoooa it was intense!

And I haven't played in forever!

Do you guys like bowling?

Stephanie

5 Seconds of Creativity

 GOOD MORNING!

For the longest time I have dreamed of having a cottage on the beach, with large majestic mountains in the distance, and my own personal pond with a kayak roped to the pier, and a small shack holds my fishing gear near the pond. Around the back is a garden in full harvest and near there, a chicken coop with a hand painted sign next to the mailbox saying "Eggs for Sale". A large pasture lies beyond that with my horses and sheep and a large barn to keep them safe from the weather. Inside my cottage, I have a room dedicated to my aquariums where they fill the room, there's a small rocking chair that I can sit in and relax, listening to the water from the filters. Out the screen door of the kitchen is the greenhouse full of plants, hanging from the ceiling and creeping up the walls. There's a fountain in the middle with a bench around it that I can sit on when I'm too tired to continue watering the plants. Next to my bedroom is my art room, in one corner lies a potter's wheel next to a  shelf bending with the weight of finished clay projects, mugs, bowls, plates, and more. In front of the window is a large white desk with a light hoovering above it with artist supplies everywhere you look. And on the front porch is a swing where I can sit and enjoy the early beach sunrise and sunset when I'm not on the beach collecting seashells.

*sigh* Isn't my dream house a wonderful dream?

Oh! I bought a little plant today! It's living in my window sill now. It's so cute!

Some artsy-ness I was playing with last night.

So fun!

I'm kicking back up a nature journal.

I found a small mixed-media sketchbook just lying in my dresser, so I'm using that as my nature journal.

Britney was getting rid of this bag, but I figured it was perfect to stuff my sketchbook and my pencil sack in when I'm ready to go outside and sketch.

When I woke up this morning I looked out the kitchen window and saw a wild rabbit sitting near our bird feeder in the backyard. I didn't have my sketchbook, so I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen to sketch him, but he hopped away by the time I got back.

That's the tough thing about nature sketches....Some of the subjects won't stay still long enough for a decent sketch!

I was digging through my old art and found this from back in 2012! Haha...must say this is some of my better work from then.

Mom recently discovered that Dad tossed our good kite, so mom went to a craft store and bought a cheap $3 spiderman one.....hahaha.

Anyway, Dad was away this past weekend and it was very windy, perfect for kite flying.

So after about an hour of Britney and I flying it, Mom said we should just try letting it go and see where it lands, and we'd go find it and get it back. (Pure homeschool thinking here)

Britney was afraid to do it. Soooo I did.

We were in the front yard and it flew free for like 5 seconds before it grabbed hold of the top branch of one of our pinetrees in the front yard. It was doing soooo well flying from the trop branch!

The tree was better at flying a kite versus Britney and I!

We had to get out the ladder and a large pole to attempt to get the kite down....haha.

I'm so grateful to be enjoying warm weather activities again.

I brought my bike up from our storage barn and biked yesterday until my legs were sore.

And I thought I was all out of energy until I saw Britney pumping up our basketball on the front porch, and we played against each other until supper time.

Now it's raining and it's supposed to be raining for the rest of this week.

April showers bring May flowers!

Whoop whoop!

Stephanie

Fun with watercolors

HE IS RISEN!

 

 

On Monday morning after a history quiz and a couple Bible lessons, mom and I decided to head up to the craft store. I had received some money recently and finally decided to purchase the Winsor and Newton watercolor set I had kept my eye on since Christmas. The great thing about craft stores is the 40% off coupons! Sadly, the day we went up they only had 25% off your entire purchase. But when I checked out the lady pulled out another craft store's 40% off coupon and saved me $14 off my watercolor set! (How nice of her!)

That evening I sat down and played with the new paints.

 

I first tried a mushroom (and got artsy with a mirror)

 

And then just doodled.

 

 

Watercolor is lots of fun!

 

I've been keeping up with outside chalk work.

It seems whenever I put chalk down, it decides to rain that day and washes everything away.

 

 

 

And I'm still doing my random doodles.

 

My problem with art is that I want to get it done. But I want it to be done in a reasonable amount of time, and I want it to look good.

 

I'm starting to force myself to not speed through art.

And made sure I spent a good amount of time on that watercolor mushroom....haha.

 

Yesterday, Mops was canceled. But I didn't find that out until I was dressed and waiting for my carpool. I quickly changed into my CBA volleyball shorts and we took a trip with Nana ( from my mom's side of the family) to a lilypond garden to pick up some water treatment for Nana's pond.

Would you believe that a gallon container of treatment cost a whopping 80 bucks?

I couldn't believe it!

 

We picked up Burger King for lunch and ate on her back porch, watching the mucky fish pond.

Right after we finished our meal, it started to rain. Never the less, I put on mom's rainboots and got in the pond and started scrubbing the algae away. The water got so dirty that I couldn't see the fish anymore and got surprised a couple times when I brought the net up from scrapping the bottom for leaves and gravel that a fish had decided to hop in as well.....mmm yes. I may have screamed once or twice.

I'm happy I'm getting the chance to help Nana with her pond. I wanted to do it last year, but got so overwhelmed when I tried to read up about ponds that I decided I was way in over my head.

We siphoned water out of the pond and put water with water treatment back in.

It isn't clean yet, because we weren't able to get all the scum out.

Mom ordered a solar fountain for Nana's pond and a scum sucker thing from Amazon to add to Nana's pond.

 

I'm going to be taking my goldfish over there this Spring/Summer. They've gotten far too big for my 5 gallon aquarium. And did you know that goldfish are the dirtiest fish you can buy?

I didn't know that until I bought them.

They may seem like the most reasonable fish to purchase. But I recommend purchasing guppies. They stay small and are more simple to take care of and need less water changes....

Uhm...sorry. Inner fish geek surfacing.

beep. beep. beep.

 

Welp, I'm off. Talk to you later!

 

 

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

 

 

Sick Days and Movies

Britney has been dealing with a cold/ allergy thing for the past three days.

Yesterday when she came home from college we went downstairs, grabbed a jar of homemade v8, split it and watched movies!

 

First we watched Pirates of the Carribean, Dead Man's Chest.  I was kind of tuned out of the movie because I was reading while cuddled up in my large, crochet blanket (It's cold in the basement without a fire in the stove!) And Britney slept through most of the movie.

 

And then my eyes got tired from reading.

So I took webcam selfies...

 

Yay for awkward pictures. Haha

 

 

The next movie we watched was 'The Quest for Camelot'

Have I mentioned that I love that we still own a VHS player?

And that most of our cartoon/ Disney movies are in VHS tapes?

 

 

I had only watched it once or twice before....but watching it again, it's a very silly movie and doesn't make much sense! I couldn't help but laugh through most of it.

Britney was awake for this one, so we basically made fun of the evil guy every time he popped up on the screen.

 

 

I'm going up to meet Britney after college today so we can go shopping for an Easter dress for church service. I hope it'll be fun, but it's getting hard to find sweet, modest dresses anymore!

I had to sew straps on my Easter dress from two years ago.

 

Are you guys excited for Easter?

Do you have family you go meet up with?

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

Small Advenurings

 Thursday

 

My sophomore year at CBA is officially over!!

Now all I have to finish is Bible, Math, History and Language Arts.

Biology was overwhelming most of the time. But my favorite part was doing the dissection lab reports because it was required to draw the subject.

 

My fellow classmates would come up to me with their stick figure drawings and be like "Whoa, Steph, how did you do that?" Hahaha the bad part is that these are rushed drawings....taking only about 5 to 10 minutes to complete.

 

 

Friday

 

I love waking up early and knowing we're heading the direction of the beach.

My family and I have a good friend that help our family with taxes.

Mom, Britney, and I go along for the ride and shop while dad does taxes.

It's always a beautiful ride, perfect, flat, farm land, bridges, and ocean water.

 

 

The Pastel Beach Houses

 

And while we're so close, we drive through the abandoned beach city to the outlet and walk along the rocks, taking it all in.

 

 

I just belong there.

 

I found this little gem in the sand on the way back to our car and figured out that an open mussel  shell kind of looks like lungs.

 

Therefore, The Lungs of the Sea.

 

 

 

Saturday

 

My family and I traveled up to a herb show. My favorite parts was seeing the carnivorous plants (Venus fly trap...etc), drooling over the handblown, glass terrariums with air plants, and the oil paintings.

I didn't think the herb show would be much fun, but it actually kind of was!

And we stopped at a huge flea market on the way home.

Britney pointed out a scarf with anchors on it...and well...it was calling my soul and I had to buy it...haha.

 

 

It was 2 scarves for $5...so I got two...and a gorgeous notebook I'm thinking will be my new journal.

 

And dad bought mom an adorable little solar butterfly!

It flutters around in circles almost like a real butterfly when the sun hits it.

It's finally getting warm here and that means sidewalk chalk and ...BUBBLES!

 

My chalk artwork:

 

Mom's chalk artwork:

(She drew each of our little solar buddies. Pogo the penguin, Ellie the elephant, Bella the bee, and Beatrice, the butterfly)

 

 

 Britney's chalk artwork:

 

And the bubble maker is out and about!

 

 

I'm kind of enjoying these warmer temperatures.

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to my Fandom....

I feel so bad because I've been at such a lost at what to write about on my blog lately....*sigh* here it goes!

 

The Lord of the Rings may just be another story to some people, but to me, this story has become a part of my life. When ever the Fellowship of the Ring comes up on my TV and The Shire music begins to play, I feel as if I've finally come back home.

 

 

 

 

" This is it, Mr.Frodo. If I take one more step it'll be the farthest away from home that I've ever been."

 

 

 

 

“Arise, Arise, Riders of Théoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!”

 

 

[I can never help but cry in this part]

 

 

Randomicity:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie