After a wonderful birthday I gained three pounds, and eight days after my party (my birthday was actually on the 23rd, but Saturday was the partaaaayyy) I finished one of the video games I got, wonderfully given to me by my sister. She was so peeved that I knew what she had gotten me, but I swear I didn't snoop around! I just knew. -grins-

With that wonderful gift card I received, I trotted to town and had a complete hayday at Hobby Lobby. My mom had gotten me a cute book full of crocheted doll patterns, so I knew exactly what I needed to buy. Turns out, the Hob Lob didn't have any size 1 yarn in a solid color, so I had to get crochet thread instead. I'm going to have to improvise on the patterns, I know, but I'm pretty good at taking a pattern and kind of making it my own when I don't have the right materials to work with. I was also able to get my fingers on some itty bitty hooks that were on sale for 78 cents, perfect for the six skeins of different colored thread I bought. =3

I hope to be updating more soon, but this next month is going to be quite busy, seeing as I'm graduating soon. Then I'll be learning how to drive the lovely stick shift my parents bought for me, writing my novel through the summer, getting a job most likely in the near future, and going about semi-adult life.

I'm beginning to wade into the waters of the world, and it's times like this that I am glad to know God is with me, holding my hand so that if I fall, I will not drown.

Today was the perfect day for going hiking. The sun was shining quite warmly and would have been enough to roast me if the wind hadn't been cool and nearly constant. After a long hike through a field and along a river, I had a wonderful picnic in the shade with my mom and little brother and sister. We sat there for the longest time just enjoying the cool breeze and being in the shade of the many large trees surrounding us. A ways back I spotted what I thought was a raccoon and freaked my mom out, but it turned out to be a fat groundhog tottering along to goodness knows where. The little cutie. I wanted to squeeze him!

Even though it's two days early, my birthday is going to be celebrated over the weekend. I am quite looking forward to that. Everyone is betting on which gift I will like best and all I can do is sit and smile because I have no clue what everyone has gotten. I can't even guess. xD I didn't ask for much this year so everyone would have had to use their imaginations when buying gifts. -insert evil laugh here- I must say I am very curious and can't wait to get my hands on the little wrapped packages...!

A Merry Unbirthday~

Some very wonderful (early) birthday presents from some very wonderful friends of mine. I had a very merry unbirthday today from this pleasant surprise that came in the mail.

The most adorable journal I've ever seen with uplifting quotes about angels and God with accompanying Bible verses on every two pages, and then a small but packed-with-punch $25 Hobby Lobby gift card from my bestie of six years. =) Awesomesauce. I've been running around the house in a gleeful tizzy all afternoon and evening, my dress following me in a streak of fluttering red, green, and yellow.

Aren't surprises wonderful?

And the flowers were happy, too....

A Natural Hobby~

I'm not exactly sure when it began, but when I was young I found it hard to find something to do around a campsite in the afternoon on the day before checking out. The main attractions of the vacation had already been visited during the previous days, but the day before leaving was sometimes dull for a little kid around dinner time. My family always had lots of fun things to do, but when the parents wanted to sit around the campfire and talk, we had to find ways to entertain ourselves. While my sister colored in coloring books and picked flowers, I began what is now one of my favorite things to do: building little houses.

I vaguely remember my first stick-house, and the campground I first built it at has been misplaced in the memory banks, I'm afraid. But what I started then turned into a campground tradition.

First, I would look for a place on the campsite that was ideal for building. Once found, I would gather up materials, such a sticks, stones, fallen bark, moss, grass, pine needles, all that jazz, and settle down on a rock or plastic bag. Then would begin the building process. My techniques developed quickly throughout the many years of camping, and in one case I even built a cute little adobe hut beside a lake. Someone had left pistachio shells on the shore, so I made a big batch of mud and made the foundation, building up the walls with the shells as support. My grandma said she saw a couple staring down at my finished house the next morning, smiling.

The houses grew more elaborate as not only my imagination flew, but also as my skill skyrocketed from one house to the next. I would build gardens, lay intricate stone pathways, I even made stone floors on the insides of the houses sometimes. The houses even stood up to the weather. The house pictured here, built under a tree here at home, stood for about two years. It was flattened when gardening needed to be done, but I gladly redecorated it for whichever season it was while it stood. These are the first pictures of it after it was built.




Being at home let my full creativity flow out with endless materials at hand, and I still consider this one of my masterpieces (the other being the adobe by the lake. I wonder if it still stands or if the lapping waves slowly washed it away...?). I built it as a lean-to with several thick sticks, all snapped at the right size. I then built a walkway with pea gravel and some slate chips from the driveway. Next came the gardens, for which I happily uprooted several clumps of grass and flower, made a fence, added in rocks for decoration, then firmly stuck twigs and sprigs of plants in for trees. The roof was also "thatched" with clumps of the same little flowers.

I was quite proud of it, seeing how it lasted, mostly in tact for those many months, and through many downpours that I thought surely would have washed it away. It still stood proudly, beaten by the elements, but standing nonetheless.

I've never been able to build a house at the same park twice, but apparently it doesn't matter if I'm home. In February, during some freakish warm weather, I built the first in my series of homes. One rather tropical in style.







I was running on a just-finished-reading-an-amazing-book-and-am-now-feeling-creative rush when I began building with apple branches. It quickly turned into an adorable creation, so I ran around my yard in a happy frenzy collecting things I thought I would need, carrying everything back under Maggie, the very large and old magnolia tree. My little sister watched in awe as my hands worked, knowing exactly what to do and how to do it. Years of experience made them quick, and soon the vacation home was finished. Upon completion, I found I had a slight sunburn across the back of my neck, but it was worth it. It has always been worth it to make things like these.