I made supper!!

Tuesday:

We had our first Mops of 2014 today! We got a handful of new kids in our group. So it was a little more chaotic than usual, but the kids are great.

 

So it's Tuesday, right? And tomorrow is Wednesday.

I still have a bunch of homework to finish for CBA on Thursday and I can't work on it on Wednesday because I have to study for my quiz then.

So, I get home, Britney makes us cauliflower pizza sticks that we dip in pizza sauce.

The texture was...interesting to say the least.

Then, mom and I work side by side the rest of the day struggling to get my homework done.

It was around 6pm when I had finally finished.

Mom and Britney left to clean the church office and I stayed home to fix supper.

They weren't really expecting anything special...

but I got a maxi skirt on and a nice white shirt and lit beeswax candles and cut salad, a cucumber, poured water in our fancy glasses and set Lord of the Rings music on my computer for us to enjoy while we ate by candlelight.

 

 

(We joined a fast at our church happening for 10 days, it's amazing how healthy we've been eating!)

 

Mom and Britney were very pleased with their salad and how everything got so fancy.

Though at one point I said, "I think I may have cut too much salad."

And both mom and Britney said in unison that what I gave them was a perfect amount.

I shrugged and figured that if they could finish it, so could I.

Now....this wasn't a very good idea.

Because after I had downed by whole salad I casually asked them,

"So...what do you do when you feel a wave a nausea?"

Yes....it was just....awful.

I prepared such an elegant supper for them, just so I could loose it afterwards.

That ruins my 5 year strike of not throwing up.

*sigh*

 

I took another painting class!

I was really happy the way the wave turned out!

 

 

I've been sketching more lately.

And I've really been wanting to add more color to my art.

I usually just do line art, but color in itself is quite an art, there's so many different ways to do it.

 

I've been wanting to learn how to do pottery lately.

There's a place near us that offers beginner pottery lessons.

Hoping to maybe take some this summer....along with *shutter* drivers ed.

 

-Stephanie

 

 

 

The Sound of Music Live (and why I loved it)

My family and I hardly ever turn on the TV to watch regular television, but during the Thanksgiving Day Parade (which we watch every year) I saw commercials for The Sound of Music Live and decided that I would like to watch it.

 

I forget where we went that evening, but it was getting very close to 8pm on the ride home and I was worried we were going to miss the show. Thankfully, when I turned the TV on, Maria was only half way through singing "The Hills Are Alive"

 

I sat back, completely thrilled with it all, and turned up the volume.

 

Somewhere in the world, Carrie Underwood was singing it, live. And it was on my TV.

It was kind of crazy to wrap my head around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next two pictures are so fun to look at.

It's the actors, in simple clothes, practicing for the big day, and the second photo is them in character that aired live.

 

 

After the Sound of Music  Live was over I got on facebook and all my friends were making very negative statuses about The Sound of Music Live.

 

I noticed that everyone was comparing it very harshly to the original Sound of Music with Julie Andrews.

 

I think my friends weren't able to see what the Sound of Music Live was truly all about.

It was never intended to be greater than the original Sound of Music, it was nearly a play, that was put on live on the television and brought the theater live right into your home. 

 

The sets were exquisite, the outfits were charming, and I loved how it made me feel like I was sitting in the theater, watching this all take place on stage.

 

I think if people had that perspective on it, maybe they would have liked it better.

I don't know, but I thought it was wonderful, and I enjoyed every second of it.

 

I'm absolutely in love with the play, and I'm sure I'll be purchasing the dvd when it comes out.

 

Stephanie

 

 

In a hole in the ground....

My mom and dad got me a beginner's calligraphy set for Christmas, so a few days afterwards, I tried it for the first time, but I didn't do calligraphy, I guess. I thought I would get familiar to the pen first by going back to Bilbo's handwriting.

 

Also, I found my dad's old version of the hobbit that he had when he was younger and found a sketch of Smug in the back on a map, maybe drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien himself?

Anyway, I decided to sketch it out with pen, which is very difficult, since it can't be erased once you make a mark on the paper like you can with pencil.

 

 

But it turned out looking very much like his sketch.

 

Today I made room for all my new things. My faithful bookshelf now bares the weight of 52 books and four dvds!

(Now including: The Door Within Trilogy, A Pearl Among Princes,  The Kingdom Series, The Hobbit,and The Lord of the Rings. And Tangled...but that's a dvd)

 

I also did some maintenance on my aquariums, (water syphoning and new filter cartridges) but that's not very exciting.

 

I listened to the Magician's Nephew while crocheting this morning,

 

 

We got the audiobooks years ago, but I've never listened to them.

I enjoy Adventures in Odyssey (A Christian Radio Drama), and these audiobooks were done by the same company, Focus on the Family, so I like it so far!

 

I'm crocheting an afghan by the way, I've toyed with the idea of making my own blanket by crochet for a couple months now, and I decided to turn it into a New Year Resolution. So far, I'm doing pretty good with it! It's going to be stripped, with Woodland Heather and Off White colors.

 

I only had four New Year Resolutions this year,

1. Crochet an afghan before the end of this year.

2. Get in a routine of yoga or exercise.

3. Less computer.

4. More drawing.

 

In regarding Resolution number two, it's not that I don't exercise  it's just that I don't tend to do it in a routine, so I'm going to try and get better at that.

 

2014 is going to be a very exciting year. I'm going to be turning 16 in February, and during the summertime, I'm positive dad is going to sign me up for driver's ed. That doesn't exactly mean I'll be getting my license in 2014, but I definitely could, I suppose.

All regarding if I get 60 hours of driving in or not.

 

 

But I don't know. The age 16 makes me feel like I want to do more or I should be doing more with my life.

As I would rarely ever admit, the computer is a horribly terrible, yet wondrous trap that I get to get sucked into.

It's really only been in the last three years because before then we didn't have internet on our laptop, the only reason I would get on the computer was to play computer games, and even then it wouldn't be for very long.

But recently I've been annoying myself by realizing how much I've been on the computer.

Thankfully with it being December and holiday time, I pushed myself off the internet for most of the month.

And I'm going to force myself to only be on the computer for an hour a day.

Half hour in the morning, half hour in the evening.

 

I'm going to go read now!

 

Oh! My library is going to be closing for an entire month to do some renovating.

I'm not very excited for that.

I have 12 books out that I really want to read.

Now I have to return them!

So sad!!

 

Stephanie

 

Festive Cake

      My Aunt DaNita was having a Christmas party with her coworkers and none of them wanted to make or bring a cake to the party. And how can you have a party without a cake? So Aunt DaNita asked if I would make them a  red velvet cake, and they would reimburse us for the ingredients.
I haven't decorated a cake in a while, but I told her I would.

Words from my Nana echoed through my head as I said I would decorate the cake.
"You have to keep up with making cakes, or you start to forget how to do it."

And....the last cake I decorated was.....hmmm....back in June or July?

Sadly enough, I was really regretting having to decorate a cake for them. Everything gets so busy in December, and this was just something to add to it.

So at first I was just going to crush up candy canes and sprinkle that on the sides and the top of the cake.

But then I sat down and sketched out my own idea:

 

I kind of shocked myself that I came up with  a good plan in under 5 minutes.

 

I watched a poinsettia flower tutorial on youtube, and then made my own.

 

Ahh, I would say it turned out pretty well, being that I really didn't want to do this anyway!

It was fun to make and decorate a cake again.

 

 

 3 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

 

Stephanie

Oh, Christmas Tree

Saturday:

 

I knew the flea market was off to a really good start once I had gotten out of our van and was overcome by the freezing temperature inside the flea market building, it was so cold that my nose was attempting to fall off my face. Okay, well it wasn't that bad, but I was feeling rather numb. After our table was set up, I sat down in a chair behind our checkout table. In the spot behind us, the elderly vender noticed that I was vigorously trying to thaw my hands and offered me his warm winter mittens. That was so nice of him! I had my own pair of gloves, but I thanked him.

I really like how nice the people are at these farmer/ flea markets.

 

Once the flea market doors opened for shoppers to come in, mom and dad left Britney and I to manage the tables as they walked around. Which they took a good hour or more doing...haha. But once they got back, Britney and I ventured up to the farmer's market building, just a short walk away. It was snow flurrying as we went outside- so pretty!

 

The Booktail vender was there! I decided to finish up Christmas shopping for my family by buying each of them a booktail from him. I let Britney pick out her own since she was shopping with me.

I got dad a Holy Bible charm booktail, he doesn't really read anything besides his Bible, so I think it's a perfect fit, Britney picked out an owl booktail and I got mom an angel booktail. Horrah! His deal is buy 3 for $20. I had $25, so I had $5 left after I bought from him, so I found another vender with organic dog treats and bought Mandie two big peanut butter bones for $5.

 

I'm finally done Christmas shopping!!

Dad: 4

Mom: 5

Britney: 4

Mandie: 15

(Haha for Mandie I got:10 small organic pizza treats + a free one (Christmas special) , 2 large organic peanut butter treats  and 2 stuffed toys- I spoil her...I really do.)

 

I still had some money from my grandparents, so I went back to the Booktail vender and picked out three for myself-haha. He realized that I had already bought from him, and told me that after I buy 3 booktails, the price goes down to $5 for each. So I bought four!

A thimble( Peter Pan themed! I didn't realize it until after I bought it, but it's probably going to be my favorite!) A retro scooter, a teacup and a globe.

 

Britney and I made our way back down to the flea market building and walked through the vender's tables. We went to a table with crochet afghans. I saw a really soft pink one that I liked, but it was $15 and it was for a baby...so I refrained myself. I began to feel bad for the elderly vender lady, because she was unfolding and holding up each and every afghan that she had on the table. The very last one was really long and pretty, for $20, so I decided to get it from her. First, because I would have felt guilty for her unfolding all of her afghans for Britney and I to see and we just walk away,  and second, because I've been actually wanting a blanket/ afghan like it, or I've been wanting to make one, and lastly, I think it made her day!

 

Whew, I spent a lot. But most of it was Christmas shopping. I'm just not really used to spending that much, not even in a month, less likely in a day!

 

I also went walking around with my mom later on in the day. It was near the end  of the selling day and people were already regretting to pack up what they didn't sell, one vender came up to my mom and I and gave us a plastic bag, gesturing to his table he said, "I'll give you this back for a dollar if you fill it up with items from this table." I was really glad he did that, because I had just laid my eyes on a 7" by 12" ocean painting and was thinking it would be out of my price range. And I got it for practically nothing!

I wanted to get it because I could feel the paint on the canvas, meaning it was hand painted. And it looks easy enough that I think I could buy myself a canvas that size and follow that painting as a guide and recreate it!

 

Oh! That reminds me! I signed up for another Bob Ross class in January. It's an ocean painting...which is a little odd because it's still winter at that point, but it's beautiful none the less and I can't wait to take it!

 

Monday:

 

It's finally tree shopping day! We would have typically gone on a Saturday, but since we had a spot to sell at the flea market, dad took off work on Monday so we could get our tree then.

The day started by having to get dressed nice and warm. It called for cold temperatures, which didn't surprise me.

In the end, I felt like such a mixture of a hipster/ lumberjack.

I had on a slouchy, white, crochet hat from the thrift shop, a warm, crochet scarf my mom made me, two layers of jeans....well leggings, and then jeans anyway, a loose, black shirt and a plaid flannel shirt on top with boot socks coming over my jeans and my mom's old winter boots!

Goodness gracious! Haha

 

Our day had changed slightly. When we go Christmas tree shopping, we always go out for breakfast. We used to always go to this place in town called "Four Seasons" every time we went to find our Christmas tree. Much to our dismay, about four or five years ago, Four Seasons went out of business. And we've been having to go somewhere else for breakfast on tree shopping day.

 For over a year there's been rumors about a reopening and calling the restaurant "The Fifth Season"

and sure enough, it reopened late this fall!

Britney's last college class was rescheduled to Monday, so we moved our annual Christmas tree shopping breakfast to Christmas tree shopping lunch.

We treaded through the tree farm for over an hour until we found our perfect tree and arrived at home around 5pm. At this point, we still had to clean the church, and decorate our tree.

When was the Desolation of Smaug going to fit in?

Unfortunately, we all decided that it would be better to wait until Wednesday to go see it.

Tuesday night dad had Bible Study- which I haven't been to in over a month, and I had a CBA Christmas Party to attend.

 

Tuesday:

 

I had my last MOPS of the year today! It's been so great getting to know these wonderful little kids. Bennet, Marie, Waverly and William are just the sweetest.

Once the kids had left and we were all cleaning up, I was given my money and a gift bag, which had a card with sweet notes from the mothers of the kids we've been caring for, plus a small ornament and some Ghirardelli peppermint bark! My absolute favorite Christmas candy....ahh!! I was so not expecting any of that! 

I gave Shannon her mom's soap and gift tag order. Her mom later posted on facebook a picture of the tags and how much she liked them! So sweet!

 

Later that day, was the CBA Christmas party.

When the time came for the Ugly Christmas Sweater Fashion Show, I noticed that the CBA yearbook camera was on a tripod, unmanned. And the fashion show was about to start. I didn't sign up to do the photography for the Christmas Party, but somebody had to do it. I positioned myself to the best spot I could get. Everyone had already sat down and I didn't want to hit anyone with the tripod legs.

Mrs.Abbott noticed my struggle and told the CBA students to make way for me because this must be archived. I felt so important as people made way...haha. I actually had a minor Moses moment.  A clear path was made just for me! Aghh haha.

I felt really awkward being the only one standing and taking pictures, but I also felt kind of important. And I could kind of feel, pride beaming from Mrs.Branham, our Yearbook teacher because I took on the job of photography and nobody asked me to.

Once the fashion show had ended and the winners were announced,

I positioned the tripod back in front of the Christmas photo booth, which I took the pictures for as well. Mr. Smith came up to me and told me to tell the people going in to keep the door in the photo booth closed, because if they open it, the Christmas lights just fall down.

Woohoo! I felt so important gahh all the teachers were talking to me.

After about 100 photo booth pictures had been taken, a student called for a group picture.

I had a zoom lens on the camera, not the wide angle lens, so I had to back up all the way to the door!

I was starting to feel a little left out since no one was trying to figure out a way to get me in the group picture, when Christian came through the door. He graduated last year from CBA and was on the yearbook staff. Someone yelled from the group for me to give the camera to Christian so I could get in. I trusted him with the camera and they all yelled for me to get in.

I went over to the right side of the photo booth.

Jeremy was there and got down from the chair he was standing on and told me to get on because I was shorter. I didn't have time to argue because Christian was about ready to take it. But I wasn't fully on the chair because it was starting to lean forward, embarrassingly enough, Jeremy was standing in front of me, and I had to balance myself, so I held onto his shoulder for support.

Otherwise, I was about to be flat sandwich, Stephanie.

That was so sweet of him though!

 

Wednesday:

 

The only thought in my head today was, wow. At this time next week, it's going to be Christmas day!

Mom, Britney and I went out shopping for Nana, she hadn't gotten the grandchildren anything yet, so we shopped for her. That was fun, but we were out well until after lunch shopping!

Later we went to finally go see the Desolation of Smaug.

It was so good! I really liked it.

I would post so much more about it, but I don't want to spoil anything for those who might want to see it, but haven't yet. (;

 

6 days until Christmas!

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharpie Mug Tutorial

My dad never fails to be the hardest person to shop for when Christmas time rolls around. And this year I wanted to get him something he would never expect. (He's always asking for a new John Deere hat or tractor books...which I find boring to buy and give to him).

I've seen Sharpie mugs on Pinterest before but it was usually about Sharpie Mug Fails. I was kind of worried about trying it out. But it was successful!

I went to our local AC Moore which has a whole section of sharpie markers that you can buy individually- which worked perfectly for me, because I only needed black, golden yellow and brown.
Then my mom went to the dollar store and picked up a plain white mug for a dollar and I sat down and sketched out the doodle I wanted for dad's mug. Once I figured out what I wanted, I did a light pencil sketch on the mug and went over it with sharpie. I did two layers of each color, letting the ink dry between each time, and placed it in the oven and then turned the oven on to 350 degrees, allowing the mug to warm up with the oven, Once the oven hit 350 degrees, I set the timer for 30 minutes. Once the timer went off, I turned off the oven and let the mug cool down with the oven.

It's rather simple! And the design didn't come off when I washed it! I'm so excited to give this to him!
(It's perfect for his daily morning coffee)

 

 

 

I don't recommend dishwashing the sharpie mug, it should be handled with care and hand washed in your sink.

 

Just try it! There's so much you can do with this fun project!

Have fun!

 

 

-Stephanie

 

 

 

 

 

As a side note, I'm thinking about going to the dollar store and stocking up on these simple white mugs and doodling on them and selling them for $8 each at our farmers and flea markets! What do you think? I think they should go over much better than the cards and the bookmarks have been going. (Aka...not at all...mainly because no one sends cards in the mail anymore...besides me, and reading is going digital, so you don't really need a bookmark for that). The sharpie mugs should go much faster than my cards and bookmarks have been going. Though I think I'll keep up with the Christmas tags for next year. I got an order for 20 of them!

 

 

 

 

Snow, snow, snow! (And a little art)

Friday:

(The view out of my bedroom window)

 

I was away this weekend to New Life Bible Camp with my youth group for a "Fall" Retreat.

It was a very much needed time away with some good friends and my bible.

The bus rides there and back were the most exciting and scary!

As we were traveling to the large retreat cabin late Friday evening, it was  raining and one of the main roads we usually take to get to New Life was closed. We drove into a neighborhood and talked to a postman on a late evening route. He directed us into another neighborhood...but I don't think he ever took into account how huge the bus was...and that it was impossible to get in and out of the narrow road. At one point I couldn't see anything and the bus was leaning heavy to the right (I was on the left side) I heard people murmuring about the end of the road, and that we were heading off the road. I didn't know what was happening because I couldn't see. The bus kept jerking forward and I pictured the bus nearing the edge of a cliff. Thankfully, I later found out that it was just a steep hill with no guardrail and there were jagged rocks on either side of the bus. Next we drove up a hill, but there was a telephone pole straight ahead and a house on the edge of the road that we would run into if we made the turn. So we slowly jerked back down the hill, backed into someone's yard and made our way out of the neighborhood. What a stressful ride!

 

When we all woke up on Sunday morning, there were huge snowflakes cascading and swirling down from the sky.

This was very gorgeous, but made for a very challenging ride home.

We left an hour early (12pm) and didn't get back home until 6pm. (The camp was only three hours away from where we all live) Snow had piled up and was getting worse the closer we got to our destination. The highway was the worst part. Big trucks were stopped in the middle of the highway, cars spinning everywhere and we couldn't see the lines! It was chaos as the bus driver weaved us through all the cars and trucks. I was really surprised that the roads hadn't been pretreated.

 

Peter and Wendy

Princess Anna from Frozen

 

 

Tuesday:

It's snowing again today! I'm so super happy about finally having snow. For some reason, I can't get it through my head that it's Christmas time until a carpet of thick snow lays itself outside my window.

I'm so grateful for these days!

I was supposed to continue doing school until the end of this week, but mom talked with me last night and said that we were done. Focus for school has just left both of us, and we're both ready for Christmas break!

 

MOPS was cancelled today, but it was rescheduled to next Tuesday. I'm glad they have a makeup day. Because Shannon and Mrs.Johnson are the people that I carpool with and both of them have soap orders and also a huge Christmas tag order from Shannon, so I was just going to give them their order today, since they live so close we don't have to worry about shipping.

Also, the little boys and girls I work with are working on a couple Christmas songs to sing to their Moms on the last day!

I like how I get money from doing this, but I think I'm having more fun than the kids! I'm enjoying snack time, story time and play time with the little preschoolers.

 

AHH the Desolation of Smaug comes out in THREE DAYS!

We're going to watch it next Monday, the 16th. (Yay yay yay yay yay!)

 

Britney, Mom and I went out Christmas shopping yesterday.

All four of us get money from my grandparents on dad's side of the family. We go out and buy what we want, then give it back to them and they wrap it and we have Christmas over there a few days after Christmas.

I got a gray leather bound Lord of the Rings and a brown leather bound Hobbit.

I realized that my dad has them all, but I don't!  So when I move out, I would be without those wonderful books. But no worries now!

I'm also going to buy Tangled from them.

Can you believe just those three items are $20 each? Eeesh.

 

 

Photos from my walk in the winter wonderland:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm so, so, so ready for Christmas!

 

Stephanie