Laurel's Life

A random post about yesterday

2012-02-24T08:37:00.002-08:00

I feel like my blog is kinda boring. I've barely posted anything for a week.I like to post pictures when I do post and I don't always have pictures. Is that a good enough excuse? :D
I actually was going to post this yesterday, but then I ran out of time.
Yesterday was a beautiful day. It was sunshiny, mostly, and warm. It was in the upper 70s. It was also windy. But it was nice.

In the afternoon, a few of us were sitting outside not really doing anything except drinking smoothies. So Boaz brought a blanket and Garrett out.

Of course, he didn't stay on the blanket for too long. At first, he wasn't sure what to think of the grass. He would touch it and then pull his hand back. But then, he really did want to crawl off of that blanket.

Since it was nice out, we did some work outside. :) Well, Abigail and I worked on the flower beds. Unfortunately we didn't get very far on them. We need more rocks to line them, and the way I wanted to get rocks was with the tractor. But it had a flat tire.

The other day Johanna took some really cute pictures of Garrett. Well of course they are cute! They were of Garrett! You can go to her blog to look at them.
And since I'm posting links, I was just looking at Elise's blog and she put up a really good post called, Every Girl Deserves.......

Mm, the sky was so blue. And the sun was so bright. But the trees are still bare. I had a conversation about that with some friends the other day. It was along the lines of the trees being immodest because they don't have any clothing on. I won't repeat the whole thing. :)

Ah yes, Abigail is playing with the dog.
We watched a movie the other day where a boy had trained his dog to play dead when he pretended to shoot at him. So, can you imagine what Boaz has been teaching Teyla? He points at her and say, "Bang!" and she lays down and rolls over. Its funny because she does it really slowly.

Friday's Favorite Quote

2012-02-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

"I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, then those of the United Sates; and I should be pained to believe that they had forgotten that agency, which was so often manifest during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."

George Washington

The winner of the giveaway

2012-02-21T06:01:00.000-08:00

Well, the giveaway ended Friday morning and Saturday morning I chose a winner.
The winner is.................
(drum roll)......................
............ Anne!

I hope you enjoy the purse Anne!

Thanks to everybody that participated in the giveaway. Thank you all for being followers!

Some more of my favorite old pictures

2012-02-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, here are a few more old pictures. But they are cool and I love them.

The first section of pictures is from..............when I was 11, maybe? I can't really remember for sure. But it was back when I loved to play dress up, and back when Levi played it with us a little. We were dressed up and Johanna decided to take some photos.

Will you look at that? Levi and I were actually the same height once. :) Not anymore. He's almost a foot taller then me now. Well, not quite, but almost. :D

That dress was originally mine.

Ah, isn't he cute?

ha ha.

And these pictures were taken at the beginning of the summer of 2010. They were taken with my awesome friend Rachel.

Me and Rachel

And, one last super awesome picture. :D This is one of my most favorite pictures ever. Rachel actually printed it and put it in a crazy frame and gave it to me on one of my birthdays. So I have it sitting on my dresser.

We cool! :D

Last Sunday, we took several more pictures together, so hopefully I can get some of those soon. And maybe post some of them. :)

Friday's Favorite Quote

2012-02-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of."

Benjamin Franklin

Old pictures

2012-02-16T12:04:00.000-08:00

I started working on a project that will require pictures. It is for my bedroom, I'll post pictures of it when I'm done with it. But I wanted some pictures that were a little older, so I got out all the old pictures. We have a bunch of CDs with pictures on them, so I started going through them on my computer. I took several that I didn't need just because. I thought I would share a few of them.
Some of these pictures are from quite a while ago, and some are from just a few years ago.

This is me. I think that I am about nine when this picture was taken. Quite a while ago huh? Oh, and just in case you are wondering, my hair isn't and never had been curly. I use to curl it a lot though because it holds a curl really well.

Oh wow. This one is old. It's Johanna and Boaz. Boaz looks like he is about two.

Ah, look. That's my cat (who I don't have anymore) and our awesome dog Crunch (who doesn't live anymore). Isn't he so cute! :) He was a Shar Pei, I want another one, but they don't live for very long. He was a really good dog though. And so cool!

ooooooo, That is my baby bunny rabbit. She was a wild bunny that we found and raised. Wild bunnies are the cutest bunny.

Okay, these pictures are just a little more recent.

I think this was taken in 2008.

ah hem, not the prettiest horse you ever saw. But, that was a cool hair do that I did on him. I don't have this horse any longer, a friend of mine bought him. I'll have to show her this picture.

This is my nephew Allen. This was one his second birthday I believe. He's five now. And I'm wondering how he got so big so fast. Isn't he just the cutest?!

I think Natasha is eight months old here. She's so little! Adorable!

Here is one last picture that I came across. If there is anyone who is reading this blog that doesn't think that Tennessee is a good state, I prove you wrong. Tennessee is the best state!

So beautiful!

Flower beds

2012-02-13T09:38:00.000-08:00

The weather was so nice this past week! Except for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Those days were probably the coldest days we've had this winter. But the beginning of the week was really nice. So nice that Abigail talked me into making some more flower beds. We have plans for lots of flowers this year. So far we have made four beds.

We were going to do a bunch of different shapes, we have a triangle, a square, and two circles. Gabriel gave us a really fun idea for flower bed shapes. I'll post pictures of it when we finish it. :)

Dig dig dig

Abigail putting the rocks in place.

It's nice to have a ten year old little brother who loves to haul things in a wagon. :) He helped me bring up a bunch of big rocks.

Boaz helped with the digging too.

Isn't the sky so lovely?

I'm studying to be supervisor. (Movie quote.)

I'm looking forward to planting the flowers now!

Also, I came across this really cool giveaway the other day. I love the prizes and just had to enter. You should enter it for a chance to win some awesome prizes.

Give-a-way!

2012-02-10T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is my first giveaway! Woohoo. I'm excited. :)
So, are you excited to know what I'm giving away? It's a hand made purse. This one is made from new denim. It has a draw string that gathers it up and ties at the side. Also, a cute denim flower embellishes the side.

I would normally sell this at a little shop in Franklin for thirty five dollars, but I decided to give it to one of my lovely readers. :)

It is rather cute, if I do say so myself. :D

I love the flower.

Do you want it? Well here is your chance to get it.

How to enter:
It is Mandatory that you are a follower of this blog. You may not enter this giveaway if you are not a follower.

One entry: Leave a comment letting me know that you are a follower.

Second entry: Leave a comment letting me know if you like hand made things, such as purses, clothing, jewelry, etc.

Third entry: Post about this giveaway on your blog and then leave a comment on this post letting me know you did so. Make sure that you include the link to your post in the comment.

A fourth entry: Facebook this giveaway or tweet about it. Leave a comment letting me know that you did so.

Please make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. Thank you!

This giveaway ends February 17th.

There you have it. :)

Friday's Favorite Quote

2012-02-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

"It is better to offer no excuse then a bad one."

George Washington

Seven Days in Utopia

2012-02-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know that this movie has been out for a little while, but I normally don't get to watch movies as soon as they come out. So my reviews will be kinda late.
But, this movie was really good. It was about golf (which I didn't know until I sat down to watch it) and normally I'm not a big fan of golf movies. I'm not a fan of golf anything in general. But I did like this movie. It had a really good message. Or messages (plural).
Winning the game is not that important. It isn't the biggest thing in life. Your relationships are more important. Especially your relationship with God.
It's not winning the race that is important, it's how well you run the race.
The whole movie was pretty scriptural oriented.

Lucas Black as Luke Chisholm This dude was the main character. You could have guessed that, right?

And he loves to play golf. Something which I will never understand.

Robert Duval as John Crawford I like Robert Duval pretty well. I think he is a good actor. (And he plays on Second Hand Lions. :D I love that movie and I love the character he plays in it.)

Deborah Ann Woll as Sarah Well, you can guess what role she plays. :D

Sitting on bales of hay watching fireworks. Hmmm......

I don't know why this picture looks blurred.

This guy? Well, how should I describe him. He's kinda a brat. At least half way through the movie he was. He was better at the end. I was glad about that. Oh and he looks much better with his cowboy hat on then without it.

I saw this picture and thought 'that's a pretty view.' :D

One thing I was glad about was that there horses weren't to bad looking and didn't act stupid. It seems to me like a lot of movies have bad horses. It drives me crazy to watch a horse standing there with someone on him and he's prancing around or bobbing his head. The horses in this movie were pretty well behaved.

Oh, one thing that I didn't like about this movie was that Sarah was a horse whisperer. When she said she was I was like 'oh boy, this is going to be really dumb.' But fortunately it didn't have her doing any nonsense. I did role my eyes when she said that her dream was to set horses free. Whatever!
All in all it was a good movie. You can read my moms opinion here.

Spring is oh so close!

2012-02-06T13:28:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy. The daffodils are blooming! Yea! They are normally among the first flowers to bloom, and I thought that they started blooming closer to march. But here they are blooming the first week of February. But that's okay with me. I can't wait for spring. And I'm thrilled that there hasn't been much of a winter so far and it doesn't look like there will be.
I like daffodils. Especially since they are some of the first flowers out.

Lovely lovely lovely flowers.

Speaking of spring. Does it make you think of anything else along the lines of sweet smelling beauty? How about lavender or mint? Well, if you like lavender and/or mint, then you are going to love this. My sister Elise, over at the Frugal Farm Wife, is giving away homemade lavender soap and mint soap. Go check it out.

Brown and yellow

2012-02-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

I made this several weeks ago and forgot to take pictures of it. I remembered last night when Johanna told me to get all my purses and handbags ready to go to the shop.
I could see this one as being used for a pretty craft bag or something like that. I would use it for my crochet.
Doesn't it look like something that you would put yarn and needles in?

Oh yes, one thing that I think would have improved it would be wider straps. But I had one little problem. I ran out of fabric. Oops. :)

This picture isn't terribly flattering. It makes it look rather flat.

I've never made fabric flowers before. This one is made out of a ribbon. It was fairly simple.

Here is a close up on the ribbon rose.

Well, I like it pretty well, but I'm not a 'brown and yellow' person. So I don't think that I would ever use something like this. At least not in these colors.
What do you think? Do you like brown and yellow?

Friday's Favorite Quote

2012-02-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamen Franklin

Lack of blogging the past couple of days?

2012-02-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

My apologies. But I do have a good excuse. We went over a internet bandwidth last week. (How did we manage that one?) So we had to shut our internet completely off until yesterday, February first. The beginning of a new month means the bandwidth starts over. Yea!
But even if I had posted I wouldn't have had anything very interesting.
Monday night when we went to bed, Levi said that he didn't feel well. In the middle of the night I woke up sick. By the morning every one but Johanna was sick. But she started getting sick in the afternoon. It was a stomach sickness too, so it was not fun at ALL. (Not that being sick ever is fun!) Even Elise and Gabriel were sick. The only one that was in a lively mood all day was Garrett. He had been sick the day before so he was feeling better by Tuesday. He didn't understand why we were all laying around on the couches and not entertaining him.
What was crazy was all of us being sick all at once. Mom said that she doesn't remember that ever happening before.
So Tuesday was a boring day. I ended up reading all afternoon, which, of course, gave me a headache. (Yes, I get a headache if I read for too long.) For me, the day ended at six thirty, which was when I went to bed. I woke up at midnight and lay there for a few seconds and then thought, 'hey, I don't feel sick anymore!' That was nice.
Well, sorry for this small lousy post, but that's the only thing I have to say for now.
I'll leave you with the ice skating video that Johanna took last Friday.

Also, one of my friends who reads my blog emailed me and asked why I didn't put up Friday's Favorite Quote. Weeeellllll, my only excuse for that is, I forgot. :D Sad that I would forget such a thing, right?

Ice Skating

2012-01-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went ice skating with several friends. I think that I have mentioned before how much I love ice skating. It's fun. The last time I got to go to go ice skating was two years ago. So I spent the first twenty minutes trying to get my balance figured out. And then I skated around just having fun for a while. But towards the end I started getting my bravery up and started trying to do something a little more challenging. Well, at least to me it was somewhat of a challenge. I tried seeing how long I could hold my balance while skating on one foot. And then I started trying to figure out how to spin. That was the part where I feel down for the first time. :P It wasn't a hard fall though. Just lost my balance a little and sat down. :) Oh well.
Anyhow, here are a bunch of pictures.

Boaz and Jordon

oo hi, are you taking a picture of me?

Levi and I

Boaz. He is very good at ice skating. He has really good balance. He was flying around the rink the whole time. I tried to keep up with him for a little while and ran out of breath. :)

Renee and Abigail

Levi

Grant and Levi

Left to right. Renee, Tori, Lydia, Abigail, and Abby

Mr. Stokes.

Lauren, Boaz, and Noah

The pretty Miss Lauren.

Boaz and Noah flying around. They were the maniacs.

Johanna

Elise

This would be me skating on one foot.

Levi with Jordon in the back ground. And I think that is Grant back there too.

Abby trying to show me how to spin. At the end I was actually able to spin about three times around. I don't know how graceful I was though. :D

Jordon

I'm not as nearly sore as I thought I would be. When I took my skates off I thought that I was going to be crippled for the rest of my life. But today I don't feel the least bit sore. Lets hope it stays that way. :)
When we got home we made pizza and celebrated TJ's thirtieth birthday. I'll post pictures of that on the family blog.

Johanna also took a video with her IPod. I'm going to try to get that from her.

Rambling some more

2012-01-25T19:33:00.000-08:00

I think Wednesday nights are going to be my late night. It's nine thirty and normally I'm in bed by this time. But, Wednesday nights are the nights that Chris comes over to practice Martial Arts with the boys. And I like to sit up and watch them. Or blog. :D
Watching is pretty interesting. Tonight they are mostly practicing punches. And a little wrestling.

So, what should I ramble about as I sit here? Garrett? Well, at the moment he is sitting on Levi's lap and for the time being he is fairly happy. He has learned how to clap his hands. Its very cute to watch him. He likes to play Pat-a-cake. An he is figuring out how to do it on his own. He claps for a couple of seconds and the he starts trying to 'roll em up' but that is where he gets a little confused. It's so cute though! It's amazing how he is starting to really make since of things.

So this week, or the rest of this week, is going to be a little busy. Tomorrow I have to make a dessert for my oldest brother's birthday. And of course it is going to be dirt cake. He has had dirt cake for every birthday as far back as I can remember.

Dirt Cake, so yummy!

Friday we are going ice skating and then, when we get home my brother's family is coming over to celebrate his birthday.
Saturday is Martial Arts class. So, Ice skating one day, class the next. I don't go ice skating very often and I always get sore from it. So I am sure that I'm going to be pretty sore at class. Oh well.

Oh yes, I think that dad is going to get home tomorrow. He has been driving through some really bad weather up north. Then he took a load down to Texas and there were terrible rain storms there.
So far the weather here hasn't been bad at all. A few freezes now and then but not much else. :)

Stormy Weather

So have I mentioned that I want to do a GIVE-A-WAY soon? Within the next week or two I hope. I can't wait to do that. I hope you just can't wait either. :D How about I give you some hints of what I'm going to give away? It not going to be small or cheap. It's going to be handmade, (how special is that? :D) Something that almost every girl has, and something that almost every girl likes. Does that make you curious? Excited?

Well, I think I'll close this post now. I'm getting a little tired. :) I know, I'm a wimp when it comes to not getting sleep. :D

(Found the pictures on Google. They aren't mine.)

Twilight vs Tangled

2012-01-25T13:39:00.000-08:00

The proper reaction.

I love this. (Click on it to read it better.)

Courageous

2012-01-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

Sunday evening we watched Courageous. I thought that it was a pretty good movie. It had a good message, was very humerus, interesting, had a touch of a mystery about it (just a touch), and a little sad.
So I'm trying to decide what I liked most about this movie. Maybe that it was a great relationship movie, but still had quite a bit of action. (I tend to like action movies. :D) Maybe that it was fairly realistic. In a couple other movies that Sherwood Pictures has made (like Flywheel and Facing the Giants), the main characters became Christians and trusted God and then everything turned out right and life was a bed of roses. (Pretty unrealistic huh?) In Courageous, God does turn their lives around and the movie ends on a good note, but there is still the imperfectness of real life. Like the deal with Fuller (I won't spoil the movie and tell you what it is), or the fact that the Mitchell's still lost their..........Oh wait. I can't spoil the movie. :D

So, the main characters are.........

Alex Kendrick as Adam Mitchell

Ken Bevel as Nathan Hayes Cool, calm, collected, and smart. He played in Fireproof and both characters that he plays are kinda similar.

Kevin Downes as Shane Fuller This guy is the funny guy. Don't let the serious look in the pictures fool you. :)

Ben Davies as David Thomson This guy looks a LOT like someone I know.

Robert Amaya as Javier Martinez This dude can be pretty funny too.

Spring dress

2012-01-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

Remember that dress I said I was going to make? Well, I finished it on Friday. I just haven't had time to take pictures of it until yesterday after we got home from church.
The sky was overcast and a bit too dark for pictures but I tried to take some anyway.
I like it pretty well, although I made it a little shorter then I intended to and I might have to do something about that. The pictures don't show the real length because the the camera is angled down. However, it comes just below my knee.
The skirt is pretty wide. I should have taken a pictures showing you, but I didn't. My 'photographer' said she was freezing so I just had her get some simple, quick pictures for me. It was rather chilly, although I was wearing a short skirt and short sleeves and I wasn't freezing. :)
(The flash was on for this one, that's why it looks so dark.)

This one was a little blurry so I tried to fix it. Still doesn't look right.

I love the sleeves. They were really easy to make too.

So, maybe I'm crazy..........

2012-01-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

But I think that this purse is awesome! I went shopping with mom today and found it at Good Will. I love it! It's not to big, not to little. It's orange. It's so cool! Don't you think?

Friday's Favorite Quote

2012-01-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

Anger is never without reason, but seldom with a good one.

Benjamen Franklin

Rambling.......

2012-01-18T11:54:00.000-08:00

My computer is a really OLD one. I don't know the date it was made or anything like that, all I know is that it is old and sometimes slow. :) It is so old that it has one of those ball point mouse things. If you don't know what I'm talking about let me explain a little. Instead of a track pad that you can move your fingers around on for the mouse, it has a little ball point in between the G H and B keys. You put your finger on it and tilt your finger which ever way you want the mouse to go. It was really hard to get use to at first but now I get along with it great. I actually had never heard of this sort of mouse before I got the computer. This computer was given to my brother and he didn't want it so he gave it to me. I am grateful for it too. Actually, the only thing on it that doesn't work is the battery. The battery doesn't hold any charge what so ever. It is dead. All the way dead. And I don't want to pay the money to replace it right now, so when I'm using the computer it MUST be plugged in at all times.
Yesterday afternoon, dad looked at the weather forecast and said, "We are going to get hit by a pretty big storm in just a few minutes." It did storm pretty hard for twenty minutes. But right when it started, the power blinked out. And my battery-less computer shut off. Grr. It didn't hurt it though.
We also turned the internet off for a while so that is why I didn't get to post on my blog.
So while it was storming, Elise and Gabriel came over. Gabriel and the boys practiced some Martial Arts and Elise made cookies. She made No-bake cookies which are a favorite around here. Only, she put more peanut butter in them then normal. And they turned out pretty peanut-buttery. But you should know, the Draper family LOVES peanut butter. Not just the Tim Draper family, the whole Draper family. They are obsessed/in love/addicted/crazy about peanut butter. There are a few that aren't as bad as the rest, but there is only one person who doesn't like peanut butter at all. Guess who. Yup, that would be me. I DO NOT like peanut butter. Weeeellll, I don't mind it in some (very few) things. But a lot of the people in are family will just eat it by the spoonful, and that is DISGUSTING. Gabriel likes peanut butter too. Only he likes crunchy, whereas the rest of my family (-Levi) likes creamy. But he does like peanut butter a lot. So they all loved the cookies. While eating them they were talking about the peanut butter addiction in that runs in the family. Dad says that his brother carries two cases of peanut butter around in his truck. !!!
Gabriel looked at Garrett and said, "He's going to be a peanut butter lover." He probably will be. My other nephews and niece are.
Well, I'm going to get back to sewing the dress I'm working on. :D

Guess what I'm making

2012-01-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I wanted to sew something. So I went out to our storage trailer with a specific project in mind that I thought I should work on. In my search for the project I found this fabric. I've seen this fabric before, I think Abigail wanted me to make her something out of it, but I never did. I haven't been real fond of the colors, but when I saw it I immediately thought of a cute dress it could make. Of course, the dress would have to be for spring and summer. But I decided that I wanted to make it right now anyway. I don't like making winter clothes. I'm tired of winter clothes and I want to sew something springy. Making clothes for spring and summer is always so much more easy and fun then for winter.

The fabric is really thin so I'm going to have to layer the dress. It also have a little bit of shimmer to it.
If I don't end up liking the way the dress is on me I can always size it down for Abigail because I already know that she likes the fabric. But I will post some pictures of it when I'm finished with it. I already have most of the top done. Yea! :D

Natasha

2012-01-15T06:19:00.000-08:00

When Natasha and Allen were here the other day, Jordon decided to make friends with Natasha. He gave her a ride on his shoulders, which she loves. She liked him for the rest of the day. She asked him for another ride every ten minutes and was always happy to sit in his lap. :) And she called him 'my Jordon'.
After he gave her a ride for the hundredth time he said that maybe he had gotten into something he shouldn't have. :D

Friday's Favorite Quote

2012-01-13T08:40:00.001-08:00

“Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.”

Author Unknown

Snow

2012-01-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

Wasn't I just saying that I hoped it wouldn't snow? Well, yesterday afternoon it started snowing. Of course, Boaz and Allen were excited about that, but I wasn't too thrilled. It didn't get very thick though. When I went out to milk this morning it was snowing lightly. But now the sun is shining and it is all melted off. I'm glad.

The ducks weren't sure what to think about the snow.

Just having a little fun. Enjoy!

2012-01-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't like camouflage?

2012-01-12T06:22:00.000-08:00

Tuesday afternoon Elise was here at our house and she asked mom if she could borrow the car the next day. She had a dentist appointment Wednesday. Of course mom said she could.
I thought, 'hmmm, if she's going to the dentist she'll need someone to watch Garrett. Last time she had me go along.'
No sooner had I thought that when Elise said, "Hey mom, can I borrow Laurel?" :) Yeah, kinda funny.
So yesterday I had the pleasure of watching Garrett for an hour or so while Elise was getting her teeth worked on.
And on the way home I got to hear my new favorite country song. :)
Yesterday evening, Chris came over to get some Martial Arts practice with the instructor, Gabriel. They asked mom if they could borrow our living room to practice in. It's the only place big enough to put Gabriel's mat down in. Of course mom told them they could so long as they didn't break anything. :) So I stayed up until ten watching them.
Then I slept late. Twenty minutes late. I don't have the option of sleeping in right now because I have a cow to milk. She's about to be dried off though because she isn't giving very much milk. I'll be kinda glad to have a break. Not that I mind milking, but I'm hoping that I won't have to milk in nasty weather. I'm very happy that the weather has stayed nice so far. It has been wet, like most winters are, but normally we get a fairly good snow by this time. It hasn't been supper cold yet either. I just hope it stays that way. Although mom said yesterday that the forecast is predicting that it will be in the twenties for the next couple of nights. :(
Sometime this morning my sister-in-law, Rachel is bringing her kids over to spend the day. Guess what that means. Fun. :)

Well, for now, here is 'my new favorite country song.'

"Camouflage" Brad Paisley

Kevin wasn't really all that popular in school
But I remember well the day I thought now that guy's pretty cool
He pulled into the parking lot and everybody cheered
Because he had gone and painted his entire Chevy Cavalier

Camouflage Camouflage it disappears when it pulls out of his garage
Camouflage-camouflage

I asked Jenny to the prom and her mom knew how to sew
So she made a matching tux and gown from Duck Blind Mossy Oak
We took pictures in the backyard before we went to the dance
And the only thing that you can see is our faces and our hands

Camouflage, camouflage
Camouflage you should've have seen the way it popped with her corsage
Camouflage, camouflage, ain't nothing that doesn't go with camouflage

You can blend in in the country
You can stand out in the fashion world
Be invisible to a white tail and irresistible to a redneck girl

Camouflage, camouflage
Oh you're my favorite color camouflage

You can blend in in the country
You can stand out in the fashion world
Be invisible to a white tail and irresistible to a redneck girl

Well the stars and bars offend some folks and I guess I see why
Nowadays there's still a way to show your southern pride
The only thing as patriotic as the old red white and blue
Is green and gray and black and brown and tan all over too
Camouflage, camouflage
Designed by Mother Nature and by God

It's camouflage, camouflage
Oh you're my favorite color camouflage

How to make some pretty tea stained stationary

2012-01-10T06:24:00.000-08:00

I have a friend whose birthday is today. I almost forgot to get her a present. Really, I didn't think about it until this past week. Pretty sad that I would forget something like that huh? Well, Abigail reminded me about a week ago.
What could I get for her? What could I make for her that would only take a few days to make? I couldn't even think of anything to make her that might take a while to make. I went shopping with mom looking around the store trying to think of something that I could get for her. Then an idea popped into my head. She's the type of person who likes to write letters and cards to people. She writes a lot. I could get her stationary or something like that. Well, I looked around the store and couldn't find ANY! So, I decided that I would try my hand at making some pretty stationary. I ended up really liking the results.

Here's what I did. First, using Gimp (I like it!), I created a neat design to go on the edge of the paper. When I was pleased with the design I printed it out onto 20ish sheets of white printing paper. I used a Laser printer, not ink. I don't think that ink would work very well with this.
Here is my design.

Then I tea stained it. How do you do that? It's very simple. I let two bags of regular ice tea soak in a quart of hot water. I let it soak for over five minutes. Then take the tea bags out.

Then, I put the tea in a baking pan. I added some more warm water, about a cup, then mixed it around. Now you put the paper in. Make sure you put it in one sheet at a time. You can't stack it together as you put it in because the tea won't get in between the sheets. I only put five sheets at a time too. I didn't time it, but I think I let it soak for almost ten minutes.
(The reason you don't want to use ink for the design is because it would probably come off in the tea and that would be a mess.)

Now the tricky part. Take the sheets out of the tea one at a time. Be very careful or you will rip it.
You might notice that I have towels laying on the table. I didn't want the soaked paper to lay directly on the table because that would be bad for the table. Don't use towels that are fuzzy because the wet paper will probably pick up the fuzz.
Lay each sheet of paper down on the towels and let them dry. I stained mine in the evening and let them dry all night.

And there you have it. Well, in the picture it doesn't look like the tea staining did a whole lot but it is much darker. If you want it even darker, you can do it over again.

I was pleased with it. What do you think?

Some things that I would like to accomplish this year

2012-01-09T06:14:00.000-08:00

* Read though the whole bible

* Study the bible more

* Finish most/all of my school

* Be able to take the GED test (even though I won't be able to get it for a few years)

* Be more cheerful in everything I do

* Read more

* Study history more

* Learn how to spin my angora rabbit's wool into yarn

These are a few of the things I would like to accomplish this year that I thought I would share with you guys.

Meet my horse

2012-01-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

This is Savannah. My favorite horse. She's great to ride. She's pretty. She's got some really good breeding too. I love her. But, I can't keep her forever. We have three horses at the moment and dad would like to sell them. It's not getting any less expensive to take care of them and I haven't been riding very much recently. So if you are interested in getting a horse or if you know anyone who wants some good quality horses we have three. One of them is not trained yet.

Anyway, this afternoon Abigail took some pictures for me. Actually it was this evening. The light wasn't the greatest so some of the pictures are too dark. Sorry. Oh and I'm also wearing sunglasses in all the pictures. That was sort of an accident. I should have taken them off.

I'm not actually kissing her even though it looks like it. I don't make a habit of kissing animals, no matter how much I like them. I know that to most people that sounds like I don't love her very much but I do. Just not one for kissing fur. :)

Hey look, she's posing nicely.

That's my girl.

Hi there!

Hmm, don't have a caption for this photo.

I like this one. We cool! :D

Ummmm?

Oh yes, you might notice that I'm riding in tennis shoes (or whatever you call them). I have a friend who would chew me out if she saw me doing that, so don't tell her. :D
I actually prefer to ride in shoes then in boots. That's just me though.

Friday's Favorite Quote

2012-01-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

“If you're reading this...
Congratulations, you're alive.
If that's not something to smile about,
then I don't know what is.”

Author unknown

I read this and can't remember where. Or who wrote it.

This little piglet loves his apples

2012-01-04T15:05:00.000-08:00

Garrett loves apples. I was holding him and I got an apple and started eating it. He got all excited. He wanted it. So I let him suck on it and it kept him very happy.
He loves apple juice too. When I had some the other day he tried to drink it all.
Oh, and he has finally started pulling himself around. He has been getting up on his hands and knees for quite sometime. Now he will reach forward and pull himself. That makes him pretty excited.

I've had my fill of sugar for the week

2012-01-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

Last night we had my brother's family over. And my sister's family, of course. They are here every day anyway.
Allen brought Rocket Balloons with him. They were really hard to blow up so I was nominated to do it most of the time. As soon as I would blow one up they would let it go flying around the room making insane noises. And then I would have to blow it up again. My mouth got rather sore. :-)

Allen tried his best to blow one up but he couldn't do until they had been blown up several times.

I don't think Natasha could do it at all.

Cut kiddos.

And for the food. Vegetables. I likey.

And lots of pizza. I love pizza. Who doesn't? A crazy person, that's who. And out of all these pizzas, there was one pepperoni and one supreme. The others were all meat lovers. It's a Draper thing.

Oh yes, and plenty of Dr. Pepper. That's a Draper thing too. There was Coke, but who likes Coke? Blah.

I just noticed that my plate looks like it is full of vegetables. I like vegetables. :-) I did eat meat lovers pizza though.

I made more candy for last night too. And everyone ate plenty of it too. My getting a plate of vegetables was to make my diet even. A plate of vegetables and a plate of candy. That's how it works, right?

Conversation

2012-01-03T05:49:00.000-08:00

Last night I was about to get in bed when I noticed that my sheet had slipped off one corner.
I said to Abigail, "You need to fix my bed for me."
Abigail speaks from the bed on the other side of the room: "Why can't you?"
Me: "Because I don't want to. Oh and you can also clean up the sewing mess for me, and my dresser needs to be cleaned off, and the bathroom, and my closet is a mess. You can wait 'till morning to do it though."
Abigail: "And why can't you do it?"
Me: "Because you need to have a servants heart. This is for your benefit. I"m teaching you to be kind and how to have a servants heart."
Abigail: "And what about you?"
Me: "I already have one."
Abigail: Little snort and laugh, "Wow!"

Don't take this wrong. I was teasing. I am going to clean up my dresser, closet, and sewing mess today. Although, I'll just get another sewing mess out. It never stays clean for long. :-) I have to many things that I want to sew.

2011 Review

2012-01-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

The year 2011 was a big year. It was full of fun and learning and it was way to short. Before this year, on New Years Eve, someone would always say, 'goodbye 20--(whatever year it was)' and I would always be the one to say 'Hello 20--(fill in the blank).' But this year I'm the one saying goodbye. I can't believe that the year went by so fast. Many of my friends agree that this summer just came and was gone before it hardly began. (I was so not ready for summer to end!)
Well, actually I do look forward to this year. I think that this year will be just as good as last year and probably better. Every year to come is always better.
So anyway, a little recap on 2011. I tried to find some good pictures of all the bigger events that happened this year. It was actually a very exciting year, but I don't have pictures of all the little exciting things.
2011 started out with getting another nephew. Actually Titus was born in December, but it was the end of December so it might as well have been just starting out the new year with him.
He was so little and cute. I can't believe that he is a year old already.

In January my Grandpa passed away so we went up to Illinois for his funeral. We have a picture of all the cousins from the Draper side of my family that we took while we were there. I wanted to post it but I couldn't find it. :p
My sister Elise and her husband Gabriel moved from Texas to Tennessee. They leased the property next to us and lived at our house for a while. You can see some pictures and read more about that here and here.
I also made these dresses somewhere around January or February. We never wear them but they were the first dresses that I actually made. They were fun.

Gardening. We did lots of gardening this past year. Yes I know, it looks like we are all sitting around in the dirt. But looks can be deceiving. We were planting onions.

In May, my dad started trucking. That was quite a change.
In June Garrett was born. Will you look at that. He was teeny tiny! What happened?

This year included having a lot of fun with friends. Tons and tons of fun with friends. And making a bunch of new friends. God has blessed me with some of the most awesome friends ever!

Levi and I

Tons of fun with crazy friends.

I turned sixteen this year. That's something big isn't it? Well, it was to me. :) And yeah, the picture isn't very good. But unfortunately we didn't have very many good pictures from that day.

In October my friend Patience came for a visit. I actually knew her ten years ago and hadn't seen her since. So it was great getting to re-know her. She's a bunch of fun.

November's highlight? Well, aside from Thanksgiving, I got Angora rabbits.

Yup, these are my nephews and niece. They are soooooooooo CUTE! I love. And no, you may not have them. They are all mine and I won't share. I already have to share them with my brothers and sisters.

More fun with more friends.

This is just a little of the wonderful year.

So, how was your 2011? Great? Wonderful? Excellent? Or not so much?

Hello 2012!

2012-01-01T06:25:00.000-08:00

It seems like the year 2011 has gone by faster then any other year. But it has been a very good year. Very good. I have been very blessed this year. I have a wonderful family, wonderful church family, wonderful friends in that wonderful church family; basically you could say that I have a wonderful life. And I'm very thankful for it. I'll post more on 2011 at a time when I don't need to go get ready for church. :D
Last night we had a New Years celebration with a bunch of friends from church. It was a really nice time. Though we didn't stay until midnight. I'm not a night owl and neither is dad or mom, so we only stayed until 9:00 p.m. We had great fellowship and eating and lots of singing and listening to some testimonies. And we watched an old movie called Scarecrow. It is a very old Disney movie and it was pretty good. Amusing. Its a little along the same lines as the old Zorro TV series. (Only I think Zorro is better. :D)
I did come home with a raging head ache but it was still a fun time.
Yesterday afternoon Abigail and I made a bunch of candy to take last night. All chocolate covered too. :) Coconut Bon Bons, Peanut Butter Balls, and chocolate covered pretzels. Yep, if you take something like that somewhere where there are a bunch of people (chocolate loving people) don't expect to come home with any left. :)

Very yuminy! (Yes I made that word up.) :D

Friday's Favorite Quote

2011-12-30T05:53:00.000-08:00

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, itis time to pause and reflect.”

Mark Twain

The cutest cowboy you ever saw

2011-12-29T11:32:00.000-08:00

This is my description of cute.
Garrett

He moves around so much that it is hard to get a picture of him smiling. He was bouncing up and down the whole time I was trying to take these pictures.

Most baby boys wear lots of light blue. Not this one. He is normally in camo. I'm glad that he finally got a cowboy shirt though. I think he looks good in western cut. :) The blue goes good with his eyes.

It's hard to believe that he is almost seven months old.

Tangled

2011-12-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

This is one of my top favorite cartoons. It is so funny. Completely hilarious. I laugh almost the whole way through it. We watched it for the third time the other night and we just kept laughing. It's very funny.
But.................... It is a Disney cartoon so of course it does have its bad points. For one, it kinda promotes rebellion. Yeah, sure, Mother Gothel isn't Rapunzel's real mother, but Rapunzel doesn't know that when she does exactly what she tells her not to. And of course, everything turns out all right.
Another thing is that it gives the message that every person, even those bad criminals, deep down inside they have good hearts. They have good dreams. Yeah, not.
Anyway, I'll stop picking the movie apart and just say that it is very entertaining.

Rapunzel

Flynn Rider. He's really funny, even if he is a thief.

Mother Gothel. She makes me laugh when she sings.

Pascal. He is very cute. And funny.

Maximus. This is the best character. The very best. HE IS SO FUNNY! He's cool because he doesn't like thieves and he saves the day.

Told you he was cool. Beat Flynn in a sword fight. :D

Real smart. Falling in love with a thief that you've only known for one day. Only in Disney does something like that work out.

All these pictures come from Swagbucks.

A Few of My Favorite Things.

2011-12-26T11:58:00.000-08:00

So, I thought that I would do a post on some of the things that I REALLY like. Some of these things I really really like and really want.
I found all of these pictures on the internet, using Swagbucks of course. :D
I love Dogwoods. They are my favorite tree. And we have quite a few of them around here. (Dogwoods come with spring, also one of my favorite things.)

Love 'em.

Those of you who know me know that I LOVE orange. It has become my favorite color. Actually, I think blue is better just because it's a little more subtle, but I love orange almost as much.
I like mustangs, the car, of course. I like this one pretty well. Not real fond of the black stripes though.

I'm not a big fan of Corvettes, but the color on this one was just too cool. And it's a convertible. I like convertibles too. :D
Hey, the water fountain behind the car is pretty cool too. :P ;)

I love lilies. And orange Day-lilies are some of my favorites. We get those around here in the summer.

So pretty!

You all should know this was coming. Boxers! My most favorite dog EVER! They are SOOOOOO CUTE! Brindle Boxers especially.
Look at the way he has his head cocked. He's so handsome!

How adorable is this? Super! Just too cute!

Oh yes. One of my favorite horses too. I think that bays are my favorite color for a horse, but this one is very pretty. She was a really good horse too. She was my sister's. She was a great barrel racer.

Very blocky. Which I love. Look at all that muscle. (Not to mention the fat. :D)

I found this dress online the other day and it has become my favorite dress. I want it! It's not just because it's orange either. But the orange does make it a lot prettier then it is in any other color.
I love it!
Very much.

Spring time. What else can I say? I love it too.

And ending with........................... Swagbucks! Yep. I love Swagbucks. :D

Mirror Pictures

2011-12-25T06:22:00.000-08:00

When dad got home the other day, the place where he normally parks his BIG trailer was full. So he had to bring it to our place and turn it around in the field and park it on our driveway. Well, it had been raining continually for the past couple of days so when he went to turn the BIG truck and BIG trailer around in the field, it got stuck. Very stuck. So he waited until yesterday to try to get it out. After trying to pull it out with the Chevy truck and the tractor we found that it was very very stuck. So we called our good neighbor with his big 4 wheel drive tractor and he pulled it out.
I'll post some pictures of them trying to pull it out on our family blog.
Anyway, as I sat in the BIG truck waiting on dad to drive to the house (because, of course I wanted to ride in the big truck,) I took a few picture in the mirrors. They are nice big mirrors too.
I'm not a photographer. My pictures don't come out very professional but at least you can see what they are.
Passenger side mirror.

This is a mirror that is over the top of the door. It was a very nice day yesterday. I wish all winter days were like it. Bright sky and sunny. That's why there are the shadows covering half of my face.

The boys are talking and I'm spying on them in the mirror.

Friday's Favortie Quote

2011-12-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

"How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays then commandments."

Benjamen Franklin

The tire swing

2011-12-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple more pictures. Most of these ones were taken on a their tire swing.
We tried to get a group picture on the tire swing. It was kind of hard for all of us to fit.

Don't know where Leesa went for this one.

Swinging

Swinging higher

Leesa

A day with the Elliot girls (part 2)

2011-12-22T07:58:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures of yesterday.
This would be Abigail standing there saying, "I don't like that idea."

This one was suppose to be goofy and it turned out a little more strange then goofy.

A group picture. Laurie, Laurel, Leesa, Abigail, and Amy. Funny how we have three Ls and two As.

Amy

Laurie and Laurel.

Laurel, queen of the stump. :D (That was Amy's title.)

This one makes me laugh.

So does this one. Only this one makes me laugh a little harder. It's not hard to get Abigail to give you this expression either. :)

Much better.

Leesa and cats, Pippin and Autumn.

I came up with this idea for getting a fun group shot. Well, it had to do with everybody squishing together, so you can imagine how hard it was to get them to corporate all together. It took us probably ten minutes just to get a good shot.

And this is the best one we got. But I think that it is my favorite picture of the sixty pictures that we took. Everybody is smiling and looking happy and a little goofy at the same time. Yup, it's a great picture.

By the way, my dad is coming home today. That means we are having Tacos for lunch. :)
I think he will be able to spend a few weeks here before he has to go back to work.

A day with the Elliotts (part 1)

2011-12-22T06:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Abigail and I had the fun of spending the afternoon with the Elliott girls. We did a bunch of different things, but I think the best part of the visit was taking pictures. I realized that I didn't have very many pictures of them and I diffidently didn't have very many pictures of Abigail and I and them together. So we a had a sort of photo shoot. Amy was our photographer, so there aren't a lot of picture with her.
It was a lot of fun!

"Let's all point at Amy. It's her fault! Something is, I'm sure."

The photographer.

This is me watching Laurie laugh. Yes, we have quite a few good laughs. You can't take pictures with out laughing. You can't take pictures with the Elliott girls without nearly dieing of laughter.

Abigail and Leesa on the tire swing.

Laurie and I trying to come up with some goofy poise to do.

Leesa and I

Laurie and I pointing at you.

Leesa, Laurel, Abigail, and Laurie. I think this is one of my favorite pictures.

Natasha and Titus

2011-12-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here listening to Boaz, Allen, and Natasha running around downstairs. Allen and Natasha are spending the night here so that their mom can get some things done before they leave for Illinois.
Yesterday we had TJ's family over to celebrate Natasha's and Titus' birthdays. Natasha turns 3 on the 25 and Titus is 1 today. It's really hard to believe how quickly they are growing.

My two youngest nephews Garrett New and Titus Draper and I. It's crazy how big Garrett is. He is six months younger then Titus and he's heavier.
Just because I had to put up a picture of Titus destroying the smash monkey cake I made him. He enjoyed himself!

Introducing.............

2011-12-19T13:47:00.000-08:00

Sir Charles Hops Alot

And
Lady Elizabeth Hops Alot
My English Angora rabbits. I've only had them for a few weeks, but I love them. They are so fluffy and cute! And they are fun to take care of, when they behave. :)
For those of you who might not know, Angora rabbits are a wool rabbit. They produce fine soft wool. And it is really expensive to buy. I thought it would be really neat to raise them and sell them. I would also like to sell their wool. And eventually I would like to learn how to spin wool to make yarn. That would be really cool if I could make my own yarn! Angora wool yarn!
This afternoon When I went out to brush them I asked Abigail to come along to take some pictures for me.
You have to brush them on a regular basis to keep their fur nice.
Me and Sir Charles.

"Cameras are very interesting," Sir Charles says.
The lady and I. She's not as lovable as the Sir.

I'm sure that I will post plenty more pictures of them! :D

Me

2011-12-18T16:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks Johanna!

Martial Arts and Cookies

2011-12-18T14:59:00.000-08:00

On Saturdays my brother in law gives Martial Arts classes to our church. He is a great instructor. He is really good at it and makes it look really easy. :D Some of it isn't that easy.
Just to clear something up here, some of you might think that the Martial Arts we are learning is like Taekwondo Karate stuff. But it isn't. Mostly what we are learning is self defense. At least that's what I'm taking the classes for. Some of the guys are taking the classes to learn how to fight better.
Yesterday was Saturday, so I was at Martial Arts most of the afternoon. Yesterday was an unusually small class, but we still had fun. I accomplished some things. But before I tell you what I accomplished yesterday, I should tell you what I've learned in the other classes. The first thing Gabriel teaches us is foot work. That way we know how to move with out getting are feet tangled up and keep our balance and be ready to move. Foot work may not sound like any big deal to you but it is.
I've also learned how to roll with out hurting myself. If I were to trip over something or someone were to trip me and I fell, he taught us how to roll out of it and not get hurt. It's fun practicing rolls. He also has taught us how to punch correctly, one type of kick that will take out a persons knee, wrist locks, and shoulder and elbow locks. I like those. And he taught us how to fall so that it won't hurt as bad and you won't injure yourself.
Yesterday he showed of how to do a good finger lock. And taught another kick. And he moved me up to a more complicated fall. Actually all I had to do was do a sort of flip in the air so that it would be the same as if somebody threw me, and then land correctly. It was a little hard for me, until I got past the mental block of doing a small flip in the air. It wasn't that hard after all.
Anyway, I love the classes. They are so much fun!

When we got home Abigail had a bunch of cookies that she made that needed to be glazed. And she didn't want to do it so, I did.

You might wonder why most of the cookies are hearts and LOVE. I asked Abigail the same question and she said, "Because I made them."

Yesterday and Today

2011-12-16T15:33:00.000-08:00

I would like to post on my blog quite a bit, but I can't promise that I'll be a be able to do it every day. As you can see, this is the third day since I've posted.
Yesterday I had a good excuse for not posting. Johanna and I went to babysit our nephew and niece, Allen and Natasha. We were gone all day. We had fun though, as usual. Babysitting those kids is always fun. We did things like; draw, play Hi Ho Cherry-O, play the Grouchy Lady bug game, make and eat lunch, read books, listen to music, and watch a couple episodes from the old Zorro TV show. And then on the way home we got a couple of milk shakes from Sonic to top off the day. Yum! We used coupons too. I LOVE coupons!

Today, we went shopping. Big time shopping. I like shopping, but by the end of the day my feet kind of hurt because I was wearing my cowboy boots. Not that they are uncomfortable, but they aren't meant for walking around in for hours and hours. But, I will continue to wear them, knowing that they will hurt a little after six hours or more.
Anyway, shopping is fun for the most part. I was happy because I found a few pieces of clothing at a thrift store that were inexpensive, and oh how I love inexpensiveness!
Being in Walmart did get a little boring after a while. After I did all the shopping I wanted to, (mom was still shopping) Levi, Abigail, and I had some fun. We didn't do anything bad or naughty, I promise. We were quiet and well behaved. :D First, we tried on sunglasses. We picked out the biggest and craziest ones we could find and tried them on in front of the mirror. From the big white ones that are covered in rhinestones to the orange and red bug eyed one. And of course the big black ones that cover half of my face. (Levi didn't try on any of the glasses that I just named, except the bug eyed ones. :D) After looking at jewelry we went to the hunting department. After a few minute of that, a few minutes at the electronics. Anyway, you get the drift. 'Window shopping' and fiddling around.
When we finally got home, Gabriel asked us to help him load a bull that is going to the butcher. Jordon, Levi, Boaz, and I all got on the four wheeler and went out to the pasture. We didn't want to get the bull upset so we tried to get him to go into the trailer gently. So it took us a while. And it was really cold. And I stupidly was only wearing a light jacket. Not very smart of me huh? Anyway, to shorten this up, we got him loaded and came home to eat supper.

And now it is time for me to go out and milk the cow.

2011-12-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

This morning I went hunting with my brother Jordon. We got out there at six. And the dog followed us out to the tree stands. Very annoying, but finally after half an hour she went back home. So we sat there for a couple of hours. And didn't see any deer. It wasn't very cold and Jordon said that it wasn't very good hunting weather. So we came back with no deer. I was a little disappointed because I've never shot a deer before and haven't really wanted to. But recently I decided that I would try to shoot one. But we didn't even see any this morning.

I've been thinking up some ideas for blog post. I haven't wrote any down but I thought that I should so I don't forget. So in no particular order, here are a few things I might post about in the future.

~My favorite bible verses

~A review on the book It's (not that) Complicated

~My favorite foods

~Movie reviews

~One Hundred things I want to do

~The ABCs about me

~My horse

~My rabbits

~Why I don't celebrate Christmas

Craft Show, Purses, and Rings

2011-12-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday in Leipers Fork, TN there was a Barn Boutique/craft show. My sister Johanna and my friend Rachel set up a booth together. I went along with them to keep them company and make the day more lively. :D
Johanna makes things like; beautiful bookmarks, fingerless gloves, children's character hats, and hair accessories. Rachel makes some really cute little girl and toddler dresses. They are darling.
There were quite a few other venders there selling a lot of neat things. I saw a lot of things I wanted to buy, but decided not to spend any money.
Although there was quite a few venders, there were not very many customers. We went last year and did sell some things. This year, they didn't make very much. I think that a lot of the reason was that in Franklin ( just a few minutes away) they were having A Dickens of a Christmas.
In Leipers Fork there is a little shop called The Laurel Leaf Gallery. (So of course I like it.) Johanna, Rachel, and I make things to sell there. I make purses and hand bags. I took a few to the craft show.
This is one a my favorites that I've made recently.
Or how about a book purse.
I like this fabric a lot. I am thinking about making a skirt out of it.
Okay, so I did decide to spend just a little money at the end. I bought this really pretty ring. I normally don't wear rings, but really like this one.
It's a little bigger then I like rings, but oh well. It's pretty.

Turning a pair of pants into a skirt.

2011-12-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

I have looked around for a while trying to find a simple slightly narrow knee length denim skirt. But I haven't been able to find one I like. So I decided to make one. This one is really simple to make. I made it out of a pair of jeans that I didn't like. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it while I was making it.
But I had a nice pair of brown slacks that I never wear. (I don't wear slacks!) So I decided to make them into a skirt too. And I did take some pictures of it.
Here's how it's done.
First, you take your seam ripper and rip out the seams inside of the legs. Then you cut them to length you what them, leaving room to hem it. I cut mine about an two inches below my knee. Also, rip the seam of the crotch out. On this pair of pants I had to go all the way up to the zipper.(Sorry, I didn't take a picture of this part.)
I did the front first. Turn the pants inside out and press the edges about a quarter of an inch over.
Then turn right side out and lay it down so that the legs over lap slightly. It should lay smooth.
Next, pin it in place and then sew it up.
Take one of the pant legs that you cut off and cut a section out of it. The section needs to be wide enough to fit in between the legs with a little room on the edges for a seam.
Pull the edges of the pant legs back and slide the section of cloth underneath.
Lay the pant legs down smooth.
Pin it and sew it.
Now for the back. Turn the pants inside out and press the edges just like you did with the front.
Turn it right side out and lay it down and pin it in place. On this skirt, I actually made a seam going all the way down instead of putting another section of fabric in. But you can put a section in just like you did on the front. (I did that to my jean skirt.)
Sew it up.
And then you hem it. I folded half an inch over on the bottom and ironed it. And then folded another half inch and ironed it and sewed it down.
And there you have it. All done. Wasn't that simple?
Here's what the front should look like. Sorry for the bad pictures. I took them in the mirror and they didn't turn out so well.
This is from the side.
Here is the jean skirt I made. You might notice that I chose not to hem this one. I like the raw edges on it.
And the back.

A little bit about me

2011-12-08T07:42:00.001-08:00

I thought that you guys might like to know a little about me, sense it is my blog you're reading.

First off, I am a sinner saved by the grace of God. It is amazing how He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins. I have done nothing to deserve it and never will or can do any thing to deserve it, that's why it's called GRACE.
I am a Reformed Credo Baptist. I believe in and am for; the Doctrines of Grace, pro life, modesty, homeschooling, freedom as one nation under God and Tennessee!

Secondly, I am a strange, weird, different individual! :) But don't be scared. That is what makes me unique. It would be boring if I were just 'normal'. Don't you think?

I believe that I am I mathematical sort of person. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist........... until something is taking to long to make perfect. :D

I am diffidently a country girl through and through.

And I am absolutely a Tennessee girl! I love Tennessee and hope that I never have to leave it. Tennessee is the best place in the world, I think.

I love spring and summer! I would so much prefer the heat over the cold. I don't like autumn and winter because that is when it gets cold and every thing dies. The trees' leaves fall off and leave the trees bare. The grass dies and gets all ugly. That means that the animals have to eat hay, therefore they aren't as happy and fat. People think that autumn is soooo pretty, and I'll give you that Tennessee is one of the best places for autumn because the trees are in such bright colors and you can see them well because of all the hills. But I still don't like it. The one good reason that I can think of for liking autumn and winter is that it gives you a much greater appreciation for spring and summer. :P

I'm a huge outdoors person. I do have a lot of things that I like to do inside and a lot of things that I have to do inside, but I prefer to be out in the beautiful world God made. There are a huge number of things that I like to do outside. Riding horses, milking cows, playing volleyball, working in the garden, going on walks, hiking in the woods, and messing around with my rabbits are just a few of the many things I like to do.
Inside I do things like; school, read, write, sew, crochet, cook, make desserts, and be goofy. I am goofy outside too. :)
One of my top favorite things to do however, is to be with friends. I love my friends, they are all the most awesome people in the world. They aren't movie stars and most of them aren't famous, but that doesn't matter. To me, they are the wolds greatest.

When it comes to reading, I have to admit that my favorite thing to read (besides the bible) is a novel. I do read history, in moderation. And I read some more 'serious' things. My favorite books are; It's (not that) Complicated, Laddie, the Little Britches books, and Pride and Prejudice.

I like to watch movies. My favorites being, National Treasure, Amazing Grace, Pride and Prejudice, The Pacifier, The Man From Snowy River, Second Hand Lion, Narnia, and Horatio Hornblower. And then there are my favorite cartoons movies. The Emperors New Grove, Tangled, Monsters Inc, and The Incredibles.

I have seven siblings. I am the fifth child, the third girl. My oldest brother is married and has two boys and a girl. They are all very adorable! My oldest sister is married and has a super cute little boy. I love my nephews and niece. They are the most adorable, cute, fun, beautiful little people in the world!

So there you have it. That's what I'm like. Well, at least some of what I'm like.

My new blog

2011-12-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

Hi,

Welcome to my blog!

Here in the beautiful state of Tennessee, it's snowing. I don't like winter and I don't like snow, but I'll try to be cheerful about it.
This morning as I sat on my bed with my computer on my lap I thought, 'I should start a blog. That sounds like something fun to do.' Then I thought, 'maybe I shouldn't because I already have so many other things to do.' But then, 'Why not? Life only gets busier as it goes, so I might as well start one now.'

So here is my blog. It's still under construction and I'm busy working on it, but I thought I would take the time to write out an opening post.

Plenty more posts to follow! Please check back!