Hockey and Christmas - Can It Get Any Better?

Ok, time for a much-needed update. :P

The game I went to was great! The Pens won 6-3. You can read all of the details here, if you like. ;) Though the majority of Blues fans weren't impressed with their own team, apparently Sidney Crosby was, LOL. That's good to know. :)

A couple of days before the game, I received my "Roaming Penguins" in the mail. These little guys are so cute! You can read all about them here, and about a special project that they're a part of here. And, if you click here, you can see what other Roaming Penguins are up to. One Marc-Andre Penguin has actually met his human counterpart, Marc-Andre Fleury! I have a Sidney Penguin, a Geno Penguin, and a Marc-Andre Penguin (so far! :D).

My dog, Bunny, with Sidney, Geno, and Marc-Andre Penguin. They're all so cute!

And yes, Marc-Andre is actually sitting on Bunny's back. :P

A couple of weeks ago, Lizzy surprised me with an amazing drawing of Sidney Crosby. Now, i must take a minute to brag on my friend. ;) I showed her an icon I made using a picture that I found and mentioned that I would love to have a drawing made from it, but I would need to find a bigger version of it as this one was on 250 pixels. She said that if I found one she would try to do it for me, so I went to Google Images and started hunting. We were talking on Windows IM while I was looking, and I was sharing my results...some were quite interesting, and I found several good pictures (I probably added at least 50 new pictures to my rather large gallery :P)...but not the one I was looking for. About 50 pages into my search, Lizzy informed me that she found my picture. Quite amazed, I asked if she could send me the link. She said no, and sent me a file on IM. I was completely speechless - It was a drawing! She drew it while we were talking and I was searching. Isn't she wonderful? :)

This is the picture that I showed to Lizzy, and have yet to find a bigger version of.

I made a wallpaper using her drawing, and added a poem I wrote to go with it. I love how it turned out. :)

Click the image for a full-size version

Voting for the starting line-up of the NHL All Star game is now open. Somehow Canadiens fans have managed to cheat and get their players tons of extra votes...if it weren't for that, I do believe that Pittsburgh's own Crosby and Malkin would be in 1st and 2nd place for the Eastern Conference. None of the Blues' players have made it to the leaders' board yet. :( We're trying, though...

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Moving on to a different subject (one that I'm sure my readers will be much more interested in! :P) - Christmas is coming! One of our local radio stations has already switched over to playing Christmas music, and another one will tomorrow. I've also started some of my shopping. :D This year, I'll be knitting as many gifts as I can. I have the yarn for three scarves...I have no idea who I'll be giving one of them to. :P And the other two I'm making using Lion Suede. I really love how the first one's turning out. I'm going to have to get me some later to make one out of. :D I'd also love to be able to figure out how to make socks before it's too late...and my Mom has requested leg warmers. The pattern I have for those has some unfamiliar stitches in it too. :P This past weekend, I invested in the Knitting For Dummies book, so I'm hoping that it can help me. :P

I still have yet to decorate my room. I hope to have it done by Thanksgiving. :) My sister won't let it not be. :P We have twice as much this year than we did last year...it should be fun. We even have lights to put up this year. :)

Also on the subject of Christmas...I'll be playing the part of a cow in a Christmas play at church. Yes, a cow. :P My mom volunteered me. Excepting the narrator, the cow is the largest part. I guess that's why she wanted me to do it...

My sister is drawing the animals that we'll use for the play, and I'm colouring them. You'd be surprised how hard it is to colour a sheep. :P

Ok, I think I'm done. :P Is this the longest post I've ever made? I think it is...

Now I have to go and locate all of the links that I need to add in...:P

Preparing for the Big Game...

What big game, you ask? A hockey game. :D

From a previous post, you now know that I'm a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they're coming to play our home team this year! *happy dance* It's this Saturday. It seems like it was just yesterday that my brother and I were counting down the months until November 1st. :P It was the beginning of July when we found out that the Pens would be coming here. With them being in the Eastern Conference, and us being in the Western, they'll only come here once during the season, if that. Unless we're one of the three Western teams that they play twice next year, they won't be coming here at all next season. So this is a big event for us. :)

So I decided to "Pensify" (a new word I created :D) my camera bag that I'll be taking to the game.

I found some cute little penguin beads at the store, and decided that I could do some neat things with them. So I got a few, and then headed toward the letter beads. I used one of the penguins in the key chain with the letters. End result:

(My favorite player is Sidney Crosby, and he's #87 :D)

The things on the side are neat little things I made with some of my home-made beads. (Have you noticed that I have no idea what to call some of these things? )

And the other three penguins I made into neat little chains:

I also bought some gold hockey player and goalie charms and hung them on the side of the bag, and used a couple as zipper pulls (I guess I didn't take pictures of those, because I can't find any! ).

My favorite are these cute little guys that I made out of clay.

I hung them on some leather cord like I did all of the other things and put them on the side of my bag:

Aren't they cute?? :D

I'll probably make a couple more key chains with player names on them after I visit the bead store again. I only had enough money to buy the stuff for one this time. :)

Lastly is a thing I made on my bead loom. I plan to make another one after I buy a bigger loom. :P I didn't have enough space to do this very well...so it looks a little stretched. I took a picture of the Pens' logo and copied it onto graph paper, and then made it out of seed beads on my loom. :)

5 1/2 Chip Cookies

Ok, I did something the other day that I've never done before...and I will probably never do again. :P

I gave a friend of mine a coupon for a batch of cookies for his birthday...and from past experience, I knew he'd try to pull something funny with it. But I never expected something like this! His request was chocolate chip cookies with no less than 5 1/2 chips per cookie...but no more than 5 3/4. He must have thought about that one for a while...making so that I'd have to cut the chips!

Well, I did it...

Do they look funny or what? :P

Six Random Things...

I've been tagged by Lizzy. For this one, I'm supposed to post six random things about myself...

So, here we go....

1. I'm getting contacts! Yay! On the 20th, to be exact. No more glasses. :D

2. I'm extremely cold-natured. I'm known to wear jackets and long sleeves throughout the summer.

3. My screen saver on my computer is a really cool slide show of my dearest friend Lizzy's awesome drawings. :D

4. I'm addicted to Gatorade. My favourite is a mixture of Orange and Lemon Lime.

5. I have more than 10,000 pictures saved on my computer. Seriously. :P

6. I found this to be very difficult....apparently I'm not very random. :P

Ok, I tag Elf Girl, BC, and Erin. :D

Wallpapers

Ok, for those of you, my beloved readers, who haven't noticed it yet...
I happen to be a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL hockey team. :D

This past week, a project was introduced on a blog that I frequent, The Sidney Crosby Show (Crosby is the Captain of the Penguins). It was a project to submit your favourite wallpapers of the team, either one's you've found or ones you've made. So I started making some. :D

I thought that I'd share with you all the ones that I submitted:

And a final one was added late:

The bottom quote is by a fellow follower of TSCS, Mer, and we had to wait for permission from her before posting it. :) I made this wallpaper in celebration of the awesome win that the Pens had in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals 2008. In that game Talbot scored the tying goal only 30 seconds before the game was over and the Red Wings would win the Cup. That sent the game into overtime where their goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, was amazing. And Sykora after calling his shot in the 2nd overtime, scored the game-winning goal in the 3rd. Unfortunately, they went on to lose Game 6 and did not win the Cup. :(

Of Birthdays and Satellites...

Ok...long time, no post. LOL. Well, not that long, compared to previous times. :P

But lots of things have been going on.

Last weekend, my brother and I had a birthday. Anyone who reads Lizzy's blog knows that already, though. ;) Or, at least, you know that I had a birthday. I actually share my birthday with my younger brother. I like it that way. :) I can't even imagine what it's like to have my own birthday...I only had one, and that was my 1st, which I don't remember. :P

Mom and Dad got us an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (yum!). You would think that they'd choose icing for the lettering that matched the icing already on the cake...

Yes, a red, white & blue cake with neon blue and yellow lettering!
Well, at least they spelled my name right. The past couple of years they didn't...
But, with a name that's not spelled the 'common' way, you get used to it.

Let's see...what else can I tell my dear readers? :)

I've been sick since Thursday evening...I can't even remember the last time I felt as miserable as I did on Friday. *Glares at Danny* :P Yes, it's his fault. LOL. But we won't dwell on that. It's not a very pleasant subject...

My sister and I have been choosing projects out of my bead magazines to make. We've done two so far, each taking a few days to complete. The first is probably my favourite bracelet that I've made so far. :D It took a long time to link all of the rings together. I'm going to get the supplies that I need to make another one. This time with 2 colours of blue crystals, smaller rings around the edges (but the same size for the centre rings), and rather than alternating the crystal colours as I did in the one pictured, I'll stack the crystals of the same colour, one on top of the other so that they match. I'm not sure if any of you will understand that...but there it is. :P I'll post a picture when it's done...whenever that will be. I'm not sure when I'll get the bead store next, so it may be a while. Or I may just order the stuff online...I don't know yet. :P

The second project we did was a bracelet using the Russian Snake Stitch (a variation of the daisy chain). This took a while because there are three steps that you go through stitching seed beads together, which is very time-consuming. But I really enjoy this type of work, so it was fun. :) I should have taken a picture after each step was completed (I will next time). Really, we could have stopped after any of the steps and ended up with a really neat bracelet. :P

The highlight of this week, though, came last night. We now have satellite Internet! *Does a happy dance* It's awesome! For those of you who didn't know, we had dial-up (for 10 years!). Living in a rural area, most ways of getting high speed Internet aren't available. But now we finally have it, and it's so nice! :D

Craft Project!

Ok, I'm just barely getting this posted today (didn't you know that that would be the case? :P)...

My sister and I made some really neat envelopes using magazine and calendar pages. I got this idea from one that some beads I bought were put into. They're very easy to make. :)

Personally, I will be using them to put my jewelry into that I sell, rather than using bags.

The majority of the envelopes are from regular magazine pages, so they are thin. Not something you would want to send through the mail. But some of them are made from thicker pages, like from magazine covers and calendar pages. (There's something you can do with old calendars!) We had a couple of old ones with floral pictures on them that we used.

Here's a pattern for making them that I made! :D You can print this up, cut it out, and then just trace around the edge onto whatever paper you want to use...then follow the instructions on the pattern. ;)

Click here for full size.

Don't ask me why you can't click the image this time...I still haven't figured it out myself...

You can change the pattern to fit the pictures that you want to use. If you've got one where the main part of the picture doesn't end up in the center, just adjust the pattern to fit it. ;) I've done it with a few. Also, we've made smaller ones so that we could use pictures that didn't take up the majority of a page. :)

If any of you decide to try this, I'd love to see pictures! :D

Look, A new Post!!

Wow, is August almost over already?? Where have the days gone?!
LOL, I know it's been forever since I've posted anything...
*Looks around to see if anyone's still here*
I wouldn't blame any of you if you gave up on me long ago...
Anyway, if anyone does happen to stumble back here hoping to find something new...here it is at last! ;)
Now, what could I possibly have to say? Well, I have some pictures ready to go for a couple of posts showing some things that my sister and I have been making (One of them complete with instructions and patterns on how to make some yourself!). All I have to do is get them all together and type up something to go with them. :P But I promise that they'll be on here soon...and if they're not, you have my full permission to hound me until I get them done! ;)
Oh, and did anyone notice that I did actually redesign my blog? I finally got around to doing that. I had been wanting to for a long while... I still have some more things to do to it...but it's pretty much done. :D
Ok, well...Mom needs me to slice some bread for dinner...Dad and Danny will be home any minute. So I'll go now, and will be working on one of those posts I mentioned tonight. ;)

Happy (Belated) Independence Day!

I know, I'm a day late...but you can't tell about what you did to celebrate until the day is over! :P That's my excuse, and I'm stickin' to it! LOL. ;)

We went to our friends' house and shared a meal together, and visited with the baby goats. :D I got some more cute pictures to share. ;) Gracie is sweeter than ever! She even gives 'kisses' (she puts her nose up against your cheek). After enjoying ourselves outside for a bit, we went back in and had some cake and ice cream, and then the men (including Danny) shot off fireworks. Danny (who now gets a paycheck every couple of weeks) provided at least half of the fireworks, and there were four people providing! :P He does a great job at picking them out, and provides quite a show!

I was trying to get my videos to work, but they won't. :( So I'll just post the links.

Danny's Finale

Danny's Fountain from last year

Baby Goats!

On Tuesday, I was able to see the birth of a baby goat, and just missed the birth of his two older siblings. Friends of ours have a farm with chickens, guineas, goats, and bees. One of their goats gave birth to 2 does (Hannah and Heidi) last week, and another had 3 (1 doe, 2 bucks) on Tuesday. Their names are Gracie (I named her! :D), Gilligan, and Gideon. On Wednesday, I helped bottle-feed the three youngest ones, because their mother is making a fuss about feeding them herself. :( She is getting better about it, though.

I have some pictures of them to share! :D Beneath each photo are some links to more pictures of them. :)

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Hannah, about 1 week old:














Photo 2

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Gracie, 1 day old:
















Photo 2, Photo 3

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Gilligan, 1 day old:













Photo 2


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Gideon, 1 day old:










Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4


More photos:



Gracie and Gideon, 1 day old


Gracie, about 1 hour old ~ Photo 1
Gracie's unsuccessful walking attempt at about 1 hour old


Gilligan tries to stand at about 1 hour old

CHEF Conference 2008 ~ Part One

Well, with it being so long since I last posted, I have a few different things to tell about now. :P
Last week was our annual home-school conference (Monday through Wednesday, June 23-25), and I have several pictures and videos to share from that. :) The first batch will be of the actual conference and convention center that it was held in, and later when I get the photos fixed and uploaded, I'll post some of the hotel that we stayed at. The convention center and the hotel are both one building combined, so all we had to do was go through a door and then up an elevator to our room. It was great!

My parents are the home-school leaders (for CHEF [Christian Home Educators' Fellowship], the larger home-school group of several surrounding areas combined) for our area, so we help out with the conference. We were there early to help set up, and we help clean up afterwards. Also, during the conference we help out at some of the speakers' tables selling their merchandise for them when they're speaking or need breaks. We'll also help out vendors who are short-handed, or work at the registration table. We have fun. :)

I think this is the second year in a row that I haven't actually attended a class. We're usually busy working, and when we have free time we like to walk around the curriculum hall looking at books. I got a few really good ones this year. One is about a drummer for the Confederate Army during the Civil War called The Orphan and the Beaten Drum: A Tale of the Invasion of the Confederate States by Bryce A. Chandler. He was actually at the conference (and signed my book!) in costume. Every once in a while he would go into the foyer and play either his drum or his fife. It was great. I have a few videos, which I will upload when I can. (Uploading videos on dial-up isn't easy. :P) He also has another book that I wish I had the money to buy called A Courier For Stonewall that looked really good. I picked up a flyer from his table that has a couple of links on it: Southern Cadence Press, the Publisher, and Slice of Bryce, his blog.

There was one 'class' that I wanted to go to this year, and would have, but our Grandma showed up for a visit right before it started, and stayed until after it was over (she lives near where it was). It wasn't exactly a class, LOL. I don't know what you'd call it. :P The Burns Family was showing a preview of their newest film Pendragon:Sword of His Father and talking about how they produce God-honouring films. My sister had a nice long talk with the youngest of the Burns boys (while I was busy working a table and couldn't join, of course! :P) and told me all about it. It sounds and looks great! You can view a trailer of the Pendragon moviehere. And here's the link for the Burns Family Studios site.

There was also a class that started when that was over that we would have liked to attend (but Memaw was still there) by Kevin Swanson. We became friends with him while talking to him during the speakers' dinner on Tuesday. He and his son Daniel sat at our table. He's a lot of fun to talk to! There are some photos of his table in the album. :) 16-year-old Daniel was almost always there, and handled most of the work there...I hardly ever saw Mr. Swanson there. He trusts his son to handle it all. Isn't that great?

My sister and I helped out at Visual Manna's table most of the time. Mrs. Jeffus is very nice, and has been close with CHEF for a long time. She lives in the area. Next to her table was Genevan Foundation for Cultural Renewal. They're also from this area. A very nice family...with lots of kids! One of the boys, I believe his name was Ben (who was working the table along with his sister most of the time), could juggle. He did it often. It was fun to watch. I got a video of him in the foyer after the vendor hall closed on Tuesday evening, but I wish I had one from when we were sitting next to him. The man who was helping out Mr. Swanson (whose table was next to theirs, and it seems that they were friends) could also juggle. They would do it together sometimes, and once in a while would try tossing balls back and forth to each other. That was fun to watch, because they obviously need to work on that stunt some more! :P Sometimes others would stop and juggle with him, too. That was fun. They also have a blog, The Serven Clan.

Here's the photo album for the 24th Annual CHEF Conference :D

LOL, did you all notice, I've figured out a new way to put links into my text? I've been trying to figure it out for forever! Figure out how to get my own HTML code to work for them, I mean. All I had to do was click the 'Edit Html' tab at the top...duh! :P

What we do when it's nice outside...

We've had a couple of nice days in a row here weather-wise. The humidity level finally came down today. :) I began re-staining our front porch today. I got about 1/3 of it done. I'll probably end up going back out tomorrow evening, and Thursday evening to finish it. This will be the 3rd time we've had to stain it since we built it 8 years ago. I'll bet that was a very interesting tidbit for you all to read, LOL. :P

Yesterday morning we went out and got some very-much-needed weeding done. Ahnnah came across a little ring-necked snake. We have lots of them here.

Even more exciting news: My Hollyhocks are blooming! Two different colours of pink ones have opened so far. I know I have some purple ones planted too. I love my Hollyhocks. They're so pretty. :D

And check out this awesome sunset from a few nights ago!

We have a kingdom of ants in our yard. See all of the brown...those are all ant hills. It's probably a good two feet wide and 4 feet long.

There's also a birds' nest on our patio. The same birds come back to it every year. There are baby birds in it now. I'm working on getting a picture of them. it's so high up that you can't see them from the ground. But I did get a picture of the mother bird when she flew into a nearby tree. :)

We also had a turtle decide to cut through our garden a few days ago...

I guess that's all for now. :) Oh, btw, if you click on these pictures, you can see bigger versions of them. ;)