His Highland Lass
• Dec. 19, 2009 - "What's worth the price is always worth the fight."
Posted By Pip
Someone should write a book of prompts for blogposts. I literally sat here for five minutes without rational musings or logical bits of brilliance leaping to my fingers. *wild laughter* I've read way too many blogs with dull openings; the first sentence should create an impression that represents the post as a whole. But enough of this blah. Due to the disgracefully un-recent date to the last ramble on here, I have decided to once again haunt the cyber public. *shoves on nerdy glasses and gives her Reader a toothpaste commercial smile with sparkles and a blast of classical music*
The past two weeks have been a whirl of activity; the Jack Tale Players have had multiple performances which all require rehearsals and lengthy trips in a very old van. The director has also been running several performances of his Christmas play and I was one of the volunteers he had serving in the 'dinner' section of the dinner theatre. I've never tried my hand at waitressing, so it was a bit WOOOOOoooh at first but I warmed up to dashing back and forth with coffee and iced tea pitchers. Both Camirryn and Dadsy were waiters at one time, so I got some pointers in that regard. December has also brought me a singularly thrilling/terrifying experience: movie audition. *watches the Reader fall over dead* Paramount is remaking 'True Grit', an old John Wayne western, and they were having an open casting call for the state I live in. I prayed about it and my parents and I eventually came to the same conclusion that hey, I might as well. So Dadsy drove me up to the theatre they were holding the audition at and we stood in line for, I kid you not, three hours. Two cups of coffee were consumed in those three hours spent hopping around to ward off the cutting winds, not to mention an actual alley stretching out from our slow-moving meander to the glass double doors and a ton of normal girls who could honestly care less whether they made a professional impression (which they didn't to us, the ever-innocent bystanders). They had me fill out a form, rant at a casting director about who I was and why they should consider me (the rant lasting for a grand total of thirty seconds), and then we struck off on the long, snowy road back home. Drive for three hours, stand in line for three hours, talk for thirty seconds, drive for three hours. It was an eventful day. But I had a blast, despite unexplainable breathlessness and shaky legs as we walked out of the theatre, my eyes still scorched from the casting director's stony glare. *grins* I'm glad I was able to try out; I can technically claim to have auditioned for the lead role in a Hollywood movie.
I was asked by Momsie last week about the topic of a persuasion paper that would address one of the cultural issues I found lacking in justice. Years of observation has shown me an extremely troubling truth, one of those nasty little details that modern culture strives to cover with weak arguments which, shockingly enough, had been embraced by the crushing majority. Call me dramatic but this is one of those things which lurks behind prejudice! I'm speaking of the immediate assumption people make that homeschoolers are stupid. Count yourself fortunate if you've never had this blatantcy tossed in your face. I once heard these obstacle aptly described as a cross to be borne. One doesn't think about preconceived notions against the value of home educating when they think of persecution, but think about it: Johnny is educated outside of the government-financed school systems, he's not accepting the generous educational standards offered by the public school systems, thereby obviously not getting the correct or sufficient education he requires/deserves/shouldhavehad, so Johnny is stupid. Nice logic, huh? Not. I'm not out to flame public school systems, only state my opinion because I believe it should be addressed. If I were to write a persuasion paper, this would probably be the topic because no good argument can thrive without passionate belief in your viewpoint. Personally, I think that unless circumstances are such that the parents cannot educate their own child, communication between family members and the standard of education would be higher if Johnny was taught by his own parents, learning their world views and building his own based on the biblical values so savagely discarded from mainstream education. We lose ourselves to the constant stream of what beneficial citizens should behave like and discover that home educating is generally discouraged. Because of course, Johnny would learn better in a big classroom surrounded by detached peers, taught by an impartial teacher with an 'approved' curriculum (approved by whom, I might add? Is it possible that these teachers and the writers of their textbooks have world views which might conflict with the world view Johnny's parents wish to install within his heart and mind?), drenched in the cultural norm day after day instead of staying home and developing good character and a strong relationship with his family. I've noticed that when a homeschooler makes some sort of mistake, blame automatically falls on his parents for having raised him in such a fashion, or on the fact that he was homeschooled. And then when a public schooled or culturally accepted person messes something up, people are quick to make excuses because he was shoved into the ever-encompassing Flow. I thought the world owes us nothing. Apparently conformity is owed much! Why is it that those who set their gaze on heaven, rather than earth, are the ones to whom nothing is owed? Homeschoolers aren't robots without emotions, that the norm may slap a label bearing 'STOOPID' on and then throw away for useless. This rant shall now be ended. On a fringe note for this segment, I'd love to hear your opinion on this. The Hideaway has been very silent lately; what are your thoughts? Is there such a thing as an ideal mind, a cerebral level that a 'beneficial citizen' might chase after? If so, is it reached by public school systems, personal soul-searching, homeschooling or something else? Feel free to bash anything I've said. Opposition builds determination, does it not?
Our plans to go Christmas shopping were dramatically altered when it began snowing early this afternoon...and never stopped. The flakes are coming down in lashing sheets! In the almost-four years we've lived in this house, we've never had so much fluffy, milky, beautiful snow! The Girls and I were thrilled, running from one window to another and squeaking with delight at how much the drifts had grown since our last window-check. Falling snow is insanely inspiring. Which is a good thing, because my writing has recently dragged me through a laundry wringer, then chained me to a persnickety computer and shoved a leaky pen into my weary fingers. Exaggeration? I think not. I get into these weird moods where I doubt I'm even qualified to call myself a writer, and begin begging God to either blast me away with mad inspiration or distract me so I will quit worrying. I seriously can't imagine NOT writing, seeing as how when I don't write much of anything for a single day (*gasp*), I get all scared that maybe the words will one day just dry up and my fingers will curl idly around the handle of my cup brimming with tepid tea. Lately my writing has really suffered, whether from lack of time/inspiration, or from sheer exhaustion in trying to glean words from a scene where nothing.is.happening. This book is...a tad slow. So I threw in a rather violent curve of plot, which seemed to help. I am back on track and happily banging away the hours, loosely following my outline (*frowns at the wild laughter from her Reader and ahems*) towards a twelve-year-skip-ahead. My satisfaction is fragile when it comes to this particular book; it's given me way too much trouble sofar for me to say I'm now on safe ground.
This wraps up my month-spanning summary. I could bore you with piddling details, such as the fact that I now own an actual black cloak (*pleased smirk*) that I'm soon going to freak Wal-Mart employees out with, or the fact that I've already done a year's schoolwork, or the pros and cons of being iced in for a couple days so that we find it necessary to walk down our very long driveway to the mailbox (pro being the beautiful scenery and a nice sister-sister talk with Katsy, con being there was no mail on account of the crazy amount of snow we got this afternoon)...but what is imagination for? I hope your own life is going as colorfully.
Merry CHRISTmas! |
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• Saturday, December 19, 2009 - Hoover Dam
Posted By Amy
Yesterday we got to go to the Hoover Dam!!! It was soooo fun. The panorama above is facing the water opposite of the dam. I didn't even think of getting a panorama on that side... To post all the pics I took I turned them all into collages... It's easier that way. :-) The first one is all the pictures (well not all... I got rid of some) that I took when we dropped my dad off at a bike trail. Sorry these backgrounds are white. I was having such a hard time not freezing up the computer any time I tried something that I finally gave up. :-p
 Then after that we went to the library. It was so nice. Every few inches there was another old book. I love old books and our librarian has admitted to us that our library keeps up with the newer books. :-p So I got a ton of them. This collage is random pics from the library. Somewhere in the mess of pics is a picture of a book quilt that was hanging in there. It was so neat looking!
After the library, we went to a small museum. The lighting wasn't the best for pictures so I didn't get very many good ones... I liked it because it was a hands on museum and you were allowed to touch everything. :-)
Then we stopped back at the bike trail, ate lunch and picked up my dad and we all headed to the dam. It's hard to see how big it is until you see the worker's cars down at the bottom. They were tiny! The bottom right hand picture here is a bunch of men in a cage hanging over the bridge being built. That bride is almost more interesting than the dam! To me at least. :-)
The trip ended with this last picture on the way home. Notice the for sale sign behind the bush on the right. Want to come live out here? It comes furnished! (see the chair?) We'd love to have you.
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• Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - Clouds and Projects
Posted By Amy
The other morning (I think it was Sunday) I went outside and got a few pictures of the huge clouds and the rainbow that showed up. It was a full rainbow but I couldn't get the whole thing in a single picture... The pictures weren't the best but who cares...  This first is the sunrise. Where we live, it is very hard to get a nice sunrise picture this time of year. There are too many power lines, houses, and other things... :-
Then there is a picture in the other direction.
And that rainbow. There is another annoying power line in the picture...
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• Monday, December 14, 2009 - Why waste time with titles?
Posted By Amy
I took this picture last week when Elisabeth was standing on her desk. (probably not a good habit...) She was pretending to be a model. I think she just needs to improve the look. She looks to happy. :-p Oh, and she isn't standing on her toes...
My new way of eating noodles is with butter, garlic powder, parmesan cheese and a handful or two of mozzarella cheese. It's soooo good! Another good way is to just put on butter and salt. I didn't think that way would taste very good so I didn't try it for a while but once I did, I enjoyed it. I suppose that noodles aren't a very healthy/filling meal but they're good anyway.
There isn't much news around here except that I've made quite a few more dolls in the past few days (except for heads and hats... I ran out) and that we finished our last Jonathan Park episode. Yesterday we listened to four or five and did the last one today... It's a good thing we can re-listen to them! :-) Oh, and we got to watch the Felicity DVD by American Girl. We borrowed it from a friend and couldn't wait till Mom let us watch it! I loved the behind the scenes!
Later this week we're going to get to somewhere that I've wanted to go for a loooong time! But you'll have to wait till later to find out where it is. :-) |
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• Friday, December 11, 2009 - Dolls
Posted By Amy
I got an early birthday present from my dad this week. I kept having to ask him if I could borrow batteries for my camera (mine had died) and he finally decided that he wasn't going to wait till my birthday to get me those batteries! We've used this brand before and we know they're really good. It's been great to be able to use the camera any time I want again! :-)
Next is my newest additions in the doll family. I had orignally heard about these dolls from Breezy Tulip who mentioned Salley Mavor's book, Wee Felt Folk. I checked it out at the library a while ago and I've made quite a few dolls! I think the number is around 27 or 28... Most of those were given away though so I only have about 11. I tried beads on their dresses and I like how they turned out! (sorry for the bad lighting, and the crooked pictures...)
The one with the blue jumper and red hair has two braids, and the other one has a really long pony tail. I can take it out though and turn it into braids later. On all the dolls that I made before, I used wool, for hair, but you can't play with them much when they are like that because the wool starts to come apart... So this time I used embroidery thread. I think that they are fine like that and will probably make myself a few more. You might notice that they both have red hands and red/green socks... I had gotten tired of black shoes and skin colored hands so they're wearing socks and mittens. :-) I also made a toddler/baby doll that was only about 1" tall but I didn't get a picture of her. Mom things she looks kind of like an ice skater because I gave her a really round skirt that's kind of poofed out. It's really cute!
The project that I mentioned last time kind of died.. I got stuck so I might post pictures of what I had completed all ready and attempt the rest later...
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• Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - Taste the Atmosphere
Posted By GraceElizabeth in Poetry
Just for fun!
Taste the Atmosphere
The sky revolves around the earth as I lie on gossamer turf
Just sipping the clouds. They taste like my dreams and a sunflower gleam.
With a sparrow-splash here and there, all blended as I smile and stare.
Spectacular is everywhere.
If you would open your mouth and your eyes
To taste the indigo sky
You'd fall overboard with your daydreams on the rise.
So top-heavy because they go to your head.
Your veins will rush with sunset flush instead.
And you'd never go back to bed.
Sometimes the sky gets tangled in the branches as they dare to tease
The wind who always wins. And the stars get stuck in a leafy hug.
Some of the dust brushes off. It floats down and makes me cough.
But it tastes like burning lemon drops.
If you would open your mouth and your eyes
To taste the indigo sky
You'd fall overboard with your daydreams on the rise.
So top-heavy because they go to your head.
Your veins will rush with sunset flush instead.
And you'd never go back to bed.
When you've tasted the atmosphere everything else begins to smear into something sublime.
A glorious water slide.
Just let yourself glide.
If you would open your mouth and your eyes
To taste the indigo sky
You'd fall overboard with your daydreams on the rise.
So top-heavy because they go to your head.
Your veins will rush with sunset flush instead.
And you'd never go back to bed.
Copyright © GraceElizabeth |
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• Monday, December 7, 2009 - Before..... and after!
Posted By Amy
• Saturday, December 5, 2009 - Crafts Part 2 & Yesterday's fun
Posted By Amy
I decided I'd better post these pictures soon because I've been busy making more! :-) First there are those felt strawberries that I mentioned earlier. Some of you are getting snow, but here our strawberry tree is just starting to give the juiciest strawberries ever! (yeah, I know, strawberries don't grow on trees!) You'll notice that one of the strawberries doesn't have any seeds... That's because I got bored of sewing them. I actually made 4 but only three got in the picture. The strawberries are actually bright reds and greens, but I set my camera for different colors.
What is this?
Would another picture help?
Now can you figure it out? We were driving home from church last Sunday and I saw a guy with a similar pillow on his headrest. I attempted to make one that afternoon and this is the result. I think I'll take it on our next car trip. It could also be used when you are in an airport. Strap it to your forehead and you can lean back on the wall comfortably. ;-) JK, I don't think that would be a very practical use...
And lastly, here is my new blanket. You take two pieces of fleece and cut a fringe around it. Then tie the two pieces together! It is a wonderful lap blanket, and it's just the right size to throw around my shoulders.
I'm trying to decide if I should spend $1.75 for the patterns for the project I'm working on right now... I've got most of it done without the pattern though so I don't know... But I'm not telling what it is until it's finished.
Yesterday we went the park to have an early birthday celebration for Elisabeth with friends. It was very cold and a little windy, but we all had fun anyway. here is Betsy with one of her presents:
And then last night, we met some friends at Sam's Club, (we don't have a membership so we have to meet them there) and ate pizza. Then we got one of the big flat bed carts and Mackenzie, Betsy and Emily rode on it while I pushed. We found many items in the toy section to covet after... :-) This horse is one of them. Here's Mackenzie as a cowgirl.
Well this post definitely got long! If I got rid of the pictures it would help, but the pics are the fun of the post! :-) Hopefully I'll get my other project done soon and be able to post pictures!
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• Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - This week's crafts
Posted By Amy
This morning I got up and took a very fast shower, (Betsy wanted to get in the shower at exactly 7 o clock) and then I did devotions and photography at the same time. I took my bible and camera (and a blanket) outside. It was very cold. But I wanted to get a photo of the sunrise and I was going to do anything to get it. It turned out that the sun is coming up in the wrong spot to get photos. We have a bunch of neighbors and telephone wires in the way. So I went to our porch on the west side of the house and got a picture of the moon instead. (it's full tonight! I'm going to attempt a picture of it rising) I did get one but I had to use digital zoom (more wires and houses) so it's not the best quality.
Then after breakfast I took pictures of all the things I made this week. First of all there is the cupcake. Will you join me at my tea party this afternoon? It didn't turn out as good as I wished, but it was a first try. Next time the frosting pieces will be smaller and the middle strip of cup cake will be smaller too.
Then we pause from the crafts to get a picture of our glorious marbles. ("but you only posted about one craft so far!" I can hear you saying it. Sorry!) They are soooooooo fun! Especially when you convince your older sister Alison to play with you. :-) We have tons of marbles around here but a few of us are talking about buying more...
I decided that even though I had a jar for my marbles I needed a bag too. :-) So I made myself this. Since the drawstring is ribbon, sometimes it slips through which results in a few marbles sneaking out. I have learned to keep it sitting upright. (the flat bottom of the bag helps with that)
I'm afraid that I'll have to save the rest for later because this is getting too long... Actually, it's good because I'll know what I'm going to post next time! I'll make sure you don't wait too long though.
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• Friday, November 27, 2009 - Trip, pics, and felt projects
Posted By Amy
Happy Thanksgiving! We are having our turkey dinner today because yesterday the turkey wasn't thawed out... We went to California for a few days this week. We got there Monday morning, and left Wednesday night but even though it was short trip, it was soooooooo fun! On Wednesday we had the big family picnic at the park. We've done that for quite a few years, and it's always really fun! This year there were about 25 people! Here is a collage with a few of my favorite photos from the trip. I think the only picture that was taken at the picnic was the group photo and the rest were elsewhere.
While we were on our trip I took over 300 pictures, 93 of them being at the picnic. But when we got home I deleted a few blurry ones.
On Monday and Wednesday my dad took Alison and me on bike rides along the man made rivers to the park that most of the above pictures were taken. Alison also rode on tuesday, which made her milage for the trip about 40 miles! I don't think I went anywhere as close. I was riding my grandma's bike though and it doesn't have pedal breaks--only hand breaks, so that can be interesting if you aren't used to them. :-) Thankfully only once I tried to pedal backwards, but no one got hurt.
I might post a few other pictures from our trip later but for now I think I'll go back to making felt strawberries. I found a really simply tutorial here and had to try it out. My other project was a felt cupcake, (tutorial here) but mine didn't turn out quite right... Someday I'll get around to posting pictures. :-) I love using felt! |
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This is the "dog".
Time for a picnic!
It's perfect for some fruit!
definitely needed to be organized. As you see in the picture below, I couldn't even shut the lid! So I dumped everything out on the floor and neatly put it back in. You can't really see it in the picture but w
hat takes so much space is a big box of wool... If that wasn't in there, the lid would always be able to go on right! :-) I must say that that finished product looks a big better... Even if the lid does bulge out a little. ;-) In that box there is two wrapped shoe boxes with beads and acorn caps, a lot of felt, a box with an unfinished sock money inside, a little basket with finished people, and many other misc things... That little yellow container has seed beads in it. I'm going to try embroidery with beads one of these days... I've seen pictures of it and it always looks really neat!
I had done m
ost of my desk yesterday and Saturday night so there wasn't much left. You can see many interesting imprints in the dust there. It shows that I haven't dusted my desk in... who knows how long its been! The picture on the left is the whole corner that my desk is in. The flower in the corner is actually on Betsy's desk but it stuck into the picture... 
