I won an award!!! :D

Ya know what, I'm not even going to comment about how pathetic I am about posting on my blog.

And yes, I know that that was technically a comment about how pathetic I am about posting on my blog. But I don't care! BUAHAHAHA!

Anyways. SO, I was tagged in a blog award so I figured now was as good a time as any to post something again!

I was given this award by "Aaliyah" over at Ramblings Of A Writer, and it is called the Liebster award. As I am going to quote for Aaliyah's blog, "The Liebster Award is given to up - and - coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is German for "sweetest," "kindest," "nicest," "dearest," "beloved," "valued," "endearing," and "welcoming." "

And now for the rules:

1. List 11 things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions that the nominator has posed for you.

3. Nominate 11 up and coming bloggers who have  less than 200 followers.

4. Create 11 questions to ask the nominees.

5. Go to the page of each nominee  and tell her about her award.

11 Things About Me

1. I can be extremely shy, but all you have to do is say "hi" to me and I'll perk right up!

2. My favorite color is blue. But it's more of a turquoise/aqua blue. But I also really like dusty rose, bright red, and deep purple. Actually, I think that all of the above listed colors are tied for my favorite. ;)

3. I play the piano, the flute, and now I PLAY THE ORGAN!!!!!

4. I PLAYED THE ORGAN IN MASS TODAY FOR THE FIRST TIME AND THE WORLD DIDN'T EXPLODE!!!!! :D :D :D

5. I love dressing feminine, and really wish I had a cute, flowy, summer-y, flower-y dress to wear casually.... but alas, I do not. 

6. I love to read. I'll read just about anything with a good storyline, but my favorite stories are medieval stories. And fairy-tales! But my all-time favorite books are Regina Doman's Fairy Tale Novels (You can find them HERE!! <---).

7. I have done NaNoWriMo! And finished it!!! Now I just need to start editing my book.... and finish the book....

8. My sister is five years younger than me and our hands are the same size. :P

9. I have been saying that I want to start an Etsy shop for a year now. I've created an account, but I HAVEN'T OPENED THE SHOP YET! I'm close though! HOPEFULLY this spring!! So keep an eye out!

10. I knit. And make jewelry. And have even picked up crochet recently. I should post a picture of the crochet owl hat I made for my cousin's baby shower! :)

11. I'm going to be EIGHTEEN this summer! EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD!!! *runs around screaming like a crazy woman*

11 Questions I Must Answer

1. What is your favourite pastime? Hmmmm.... knitting, probably. At least, that's my favorite PRODUCTIVE past-time. :P Otherwise it would probably be reading or getting on the computer. :P
2. How many wonderful people follow your blog? A grand total of 8!! I'm so popular!! ;)
3. Do you have a special place where you love to spend time by yourself? Not in particular.... I spend a lot of time by myself in my room, but I wouldn't say it's my FAVORITE spot.
4. What is your favourite prayer? The Memorare. "Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known, that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided...."
5. Do you enjoy swimming? Yes, I do! I mean, not professionally or anything, but I enjoy it. :)
6. What is your favourite season, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter? Why? I believe, the springtime. Everything is beginning to grow, the grass is becoming green, the snow is melting away and it's starting to be warm again, but it's not too hot!
7. What is your favourite pastime? Hey! This question was listed twice! Tsk, tsk, Aaliyah.... ;) :P
8. Have you ever gone bowling, skiing(water or snow)? I have gone bowling, but I've never gone skiing, water OR snow. ;)
9. Is there a singer that you enjoy listening to when you are down? I guess it depends on the particular down-ness of my mood. I like listening to Taylor Swift. I LOVE Britt Nicole... and I also like Jack Johnson and Nickel Creek. :)
10. Who is your favourite saint? St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Has been ever since I was little! I also like St. Maria Goretti.
11. Which do you like better horses, cats, or dogs? Why? I like cats cuz they're cute and cuddly and they purr!

Nominations for the Liebster Award

Kathleen at The Messy Desk of Me

Raewyn at My Spare Oom

Una at Petticoats and Muckboots

Mae at Imaginations of a Princess

(Yes, I know that's not 11.... but it's SOME, right?!?)

1. What is your favorite color and why?

2. If you could choose between a flying monkey and a singing hippo, which would you choose? And why?

3. Where do you go when you want to be alone?

4. Are you a creative person?

5. Why did you start a blog?

6. Do you post on your blog very often?

7. What is your personality? 

8. Do you like fairy-tales?

9. Are you girly or a tomboy?

10. Do you have a large family? (Immediate or extended family)

11. Would you rather travel to Oz, Narnia, or Middle-earth?

Sometime this week I shall post a picture of the knit beret I'm working on! And tell you a bunch of stuff! Maybe if I say I'll do it I'll really do it! :D

A Giveaway and other random things that may pop into my head.

Hello all!

Okay, so first of all I guess I'll post about the giveaway. Nooo, it's not mine!

The eShakti {Spring/Summer Makeover} Giveaway is being hosted by Michaela over at Like Pearls slipping off a String (though the url is "The Last Rose of Summer". The link is to the giveaway post). CLICK THE LINK! You won't regret it (I hope)!

eShakti is an online clothing store with a wide variety of clothes, from dresses (which I think are the most popular, at least in this giveaway) to jewelry. The best part is, the clothing can be adjusted to fit modesty preferences! If you don't want such a low neckline, or want that dress to be a little longer, you can customize it. Some items have more limitations than others, but for the most part you're able to change quite a bit of it while still getting the same clothing item! I especially love this because I know whenever I'm looking at something in a store, I usually say "Oh, that is so cute! Too bad the neckline's too low" or "Omigosh I LOVE this dress!.....if it were just a little longer." :P So I fell in love with these clothes pretty quickly. ;) eShakti has quite a few pieces to choose from to suit a variety of tastes.

The amazingly lucky winner of the giveaway will win ANYTHING on the site, with any customizations they so choose, FREE!!! Which is super duper awesome! I mean, the prices aren't bad compared to a lot of the same type items anywhere else, but who doesn't love to get something for free? ;)

The giveaway is open until May 31st. I know, I'm sorry I'm not giving any of you readers much time to enter. Sorry 'bout that. But at the very least, you will see the site and hopefully fall in love with a few of their items! :D Mandatory for entry is liking eShakti on Facebook and on Pinterest. Sorry for anybody who doesn't have either of those... but if you don't have either of those, you should still check out the site. :)

Now that that's over with....

Well, things have been pretty busy lately around here. End-of-the-band-year Spring Band Concert...

                                                             A fellow flutist and I after the band concert.


The band picnic the day afterwards...

                                   My mom talking about my epic flute skills. ;) (No seriously, she was!)

Barn dances...

My cousin's graduation party...

                                         I had to get proof that my dad did, indeed, go to the party. ;)


A friend's graduation party...

                          Me playing volleyball. I don't know why I play it at these things. I'm lousy at it. :P


And Memorial Day!

                                          Us visiting and praying by my younger brother's grave.
                                                 We still need to get a headstone...

                                                                Sanjay's grave, closer up.

Later that afternoon, we had friends over and had hot dogs and pork loin and chips and potato salad and a bunch of yummy foods. :)

And, well, I guess that kind of sums up what I've been up to these past few weeks!

Besides school and chores, of course. :P

Happy Sunday! :D

Well, hello there! Just warning you, I am feeling pretty unimaginative at the moment so this blog post may end up being pretty rambly. :P

I hope you all had a great Easter! Mine went pretty well - I sang in the choir at the Easter Sunday mass, and we sounded really good, if I do say so myself. ;) I had been going to practices for weeks and it was great to see all that hard work pay off.

After mass was over we went home and got ready for a bunch of relatives coming over for our annual Easter family gathering. We had less family than usual because some aunts and cousins couldn't come (including most of the cousins that are my age, which was kind of disappointing) but we still had a bunch of fun. And since we didn't have as many cousins and had only like 3 little kids, us older kids were forced (forced, mind you!) to join in the plastic Easter egg hunt outside. ;) My cousin and I split our goodies, which was really fun. I'm definitely not too old yet for a good old Easter egg hunt!

My cousin and I also went for a walk in the woods by our house, and my cousin had the amazing luck to see four deer bounding across the path ahead of us! She pointed, and I got to see the last one. So that was pretty great!

Since then I haven't been very busy - at least, it hasn't felt that busy to me. I had Monday - Wednesday off school, and on Wednesday I went to help out at the funeral of a good friend's older brother. I didn't do a whole lot, but it felt good to be there for her, and I got to talk to her for a bit and she was being really brave about it. Sadly, since I was helping with preparing for the meal and everything I didn't get to go to the actual funeral. I'd heard that they had a 21 gun salute, which I think would have been really cool (in the sad way... you know what I mean?) to see. But again, I'm happy I was able to be there for her in any way I could.

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day! I did a bit of weeding in our garden outside (and found out that I'm not much of a gardener. :P) and went on a bike ride to my cousin's house (who only lives about 10-15 minutes away by bike). I actually ended up meeting her about half way, which I found really funny because I had been thinking earlier "What if I met her on the way".... :D She said she was only taking a quick jog because she had to get ready for church, but I got to ride with her and we got to talk, and I rode back and we went inside and cooled down and just hung out for a bit - not very long at all because she had to get ready. But it was really nice.

And today, it is cloudy and rainy and dreary. I've even heard a bit of thunder rumbling! I actually kind of like it though!

And now, for my random picture.

                                                               Meet Humpty Dumpty!

On Good Friday, we colored Easter eggs. I got the idea (from Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe) to use Sharpie markers on a few of my eggs. My older brother, my sister and I each got to color a dozen eggs, and of COURSE they left me the egg that cracked while it was boiling. *rolls eyes* So, I wasn't going to do anything to it. I was planning on just eating it after I was finished coloring all the other ones. But then I got the brilliant idea to draw it into a Humpty Dumpty! I'm rather proud of my work. :D

And he tasted good too. ;)

Excited!!!

I'm so excited!!! (Though you probably guessed that from my post title... :P)

So, a week ago I was doing research on Angora rabbits (which are rabbits that you use their wool for spinning yarn) for a homework assignment I was supposed to do (and I didn't even end up writing about Angoras after all...), which got me thinking about Angora rabbits again. I had been wanting rabbits for over a year now, but we've never found anyplace that had them, or we found places that looked promising but weren't selling a litter for another YEAR, or places who hadn't updated their websites in a while so we didn't even know if they DID that anymore... well, after I told my mom this, she looked up Angoras on the internet, and found two places a couple of hours away from us that looked pretty promising. So we looked into one of the sites, and they updated their blog recently, and they had a litter that was just born....so, pretty promising! I e-mailed them sort of asking for information, and they replied back quickly saying they'd love to help me choose and just get a good rabbit. We really couldn't go above $30 per rabbit (and we were thinking of getting two) and she said that she'd be willing to sell us two of her rabbits from a litter due at the end of this month for $50 total. And we're most likely going to end up buying them! After a year of searching, and researching how to CARE for rabbits, I'm finally gonna most likely get some! :D

Also, I sent in an application to go to a week-long girls camp that's at the end of the summer, and yesterday I found out that I got in! So, two things to be excited about!

And one of my FAVORITE TV shows, Once Upon A Time, is on in 20 minutes! THREE things to be excited about!

And here is a pretty picture I took AGES ago of a part of a Christmas tree.... because I felt like it. :)

And now I am back, after neglecting my poor blog for nearly a month! *waits for applause. Hears nothing but crickets chirping* Aw, nuts. :P

So, things that have been happening lately.... well, I've been super duper uber busy, what with going to band on Wednesdays, and having my online computer course classes at home and writing classes going to a homeschooling friend's house both on Tuesdays, and then all the homework for those things, and knitting projects, and eating, and sleeping.... and reading and being lazy. Sometimes I know I am super busy, or anyways I am supposed to be, but I put off doing things so I'm not really busy. That is, until I do things last minute. Rather a bad strategy....

Yes, I am babbling. I apologize.

I really don't know what to say now. So I guess I will tell more about myself.

About band.... I play flute and this is my 6th year of playing flute in the homeschool group band. It is a ton of fun, although the songs this year are a real challenge. But, I do enjoy a challenge! One of the songs is a five-flute ensemble piece of "Over the Rainbow" with four of us more experienced flutes plus our band director who's taking on the fifth part, and I have a solo! Aaah! But I've already got it down, and it's such a fun piece, really jazzy!

Another instrument I've been playing for quite a while is piano. I started playing piano a year before I took up flute. I remember when I was younger and I wanted to learn flute, but I ended up learning piano first. :P But I absolutely love playing the piano. I love being able to pour out my emotions into it; whether I'm angry and so playing a really fast flying-fingers type piece, or maybe sad or thoughtful and playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". Or feeling happy and bubbly and just playing whatever comes to mind.

Well, that is all I can think of for now - not particularly interesting - so, au revoir!