A post filled with water.

Hello, all! I am determined to get more than three blog posts in for this month... let's see if I actually do it!

So, yesterday we went to the lake for the day, at a cabin that my aunt and uncle are renting. It was fun spending the day there with my cousins, but it ended all too soon! We had fun batting a volleyball around, getting in the water, making sand castles on the beach, eating delicious food, and taking lots of pictures!

   
Seeing the sunlight shimmer and sparkle in the water and seeing the effect in my camera was really cool, so I tried to capture it. I wasn't able to quite get the effect that I saw on the camera screen (how is it that you can see it on the screen, and then take the picture and it looks totally different? :P) but I still think it looks pretty.

                        Like stars dancing on the water, or little fireflies or faeries or.... something.











I don't get to see these relatives very often. They live a few hours away from us. But we usually manage to visit them at the lake for a day in the summer, and we see them at Thanksgiving and such. It's always fun to be with them!

My mother will quite possibly punish me for posting these pictures. :P But her face at getting into the water was priceless!

I assure you, though, that I was making faces very similar to hers. They just weren't caught on camera. ;)

                                               And that was our day at the lake!

Modest Monday - the first one!

This is something that was started by a girl whose blog I read started, and I think it's a great idea! Here's her words about why she started this idea about posting a different modest outfit each week:

                                  "I believe you don't have to sacrifice fashion for purity.

Modesty does not = frumpy.

These are outfits I really, truly wear in my day-to-day life. I'm a girl determined to live a life of purity, modesty, and plenty of style.

So many girls feel the need to wear tight, clinging clothes to make a statement. After all...they have to be bold.

Be sexy.

Be different.

That's what the world tells them.

But what is different? Is it looking like every other girl or woman out there who happens to have the same idea? Are skinny jeans or wearing only a tank top for a shirt actually original?

Hardly.

I said last week that modesty is liberating - and this is true! When you are properly covered, you don't have to worry about shirts riding up, jeans/skirts sliding down, or the neck of your top gaping.

When modesty is your first priority, your outfit becomes something you can move with ease and comfort in. And when you're comfortable, your style shines through. You're not preoccupied with making sure your clothes don't start misbehaving. You can dress with as much chicness, cuteness...or attitude as you want."

So, here's the outfit that I wore today.

              (Please ignore the bleh which is my outfit-photogenicness. Emphasis on the BLEH. :P)

I've had this skirt for a few years and I didn't wear it much. The shirt (which is pink, in case your screen is really bright like mine and it makes the shirt look mostly white, but it's pink) I got for Easter a few years ago and wore it a few times, and then we moved and the shirt was packed away and somehow the next time I found it part of one sleeve was stained green. O.o So I didn't wear it much. But then I got the black shrug really cheap from Savers, our local "Thrift Department Store", and discovered this outfit! :D The shrug covers the sleeve nicely, and makes sure there isn't too much pink, and the pink of the shirt compliments the bits of pink in the skirt. It's colorful and really fun to wear!

I look silly here. But this is the next best picture I had of the outfit. :P

My usual style is pretty sophisticated, I think. I don't like looking really sloppy, and I like looking pretty and feminine. Shrugs and scarves are my favorite accessories to wear!

The hardest part about being modest for me is probably finding things that aren't too low in the neckline or too short. I'm constantly going to the stores, seeing something and exclaiming "Oh, that is SO cute! But it's too low..." or "Ohmygosh, I LOVE that!.... if only it were longer." I need to learn how to sew so I can make my own clothes. :P

I was too late to actually link up, but I wanted to do this, so I'm just going to post the link to Raewyn's blog post today. :)

My Spare Oom: Modest Monday Week One

And now, my traditional random picture. :D

One of our new kittens we got last Saturday (June 1st)! Since they're still so small but we're going to keep them outdoor cats, we set up a playpen to keep them in so they wouldn't wander away and get caught by a wandering critter or anything. The kitty looks like he's looking out of a jail cell or something! :P

And so you can see both of the kittens, here's a bonus picture. :)

The one one the left (who was looking out of the jail cell :P) is Ferb, and the one on the right is Phineas. Phineas and Ferb! :D Named after the two main characters of our family's favorite cartoon. Since these two kittens are both 7-week-old brothers, we felt we had to name them as a brother duo. :)

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. ;)

Happy birthday, sis!

Happy 12th birthday to my kooky...

Big-headed...

Sometimes obnoxious...

...yet loveable, sweet (when she wants to be) and BEAUTIFUL little sister!

I would post more, but I am tired, especially after playing Capture The Flag with my sister and her friends at her party today (in order to make the teams fair), my throat hurts, and my leg hurts, and I'm supposed to go to bed. :)

Yarn Along

Well, I'm working on quite a few projects at the moment... that hat for my uncle? Yeah... after having to start over numerous times, I gave it up because it was taking a long time, and now I'm doing a scarf.

This is definitely going better than the hat was, I'm just kind of bummed that the project has been taking so long. Especially since it's practically spring. :P

This next scarf I'm working on is for the Etsy shop I want to start soon, hopefully in April.

It's warm, yet open - a good spring scarf. :)

This NEXT scarf I'm knitting for my sister's birthday, which is on Sunday. I'm going to have to work hard at it to get it finished by then, but I love the colors!

For reading, I've been reading books with information about rabbits. I'm hopefully going to get Angora rabbits in late May, and though I read a lot about rabbits when we thought we might get them LAST year, I thought it best if my memory could be refreshed... so, yes. That's been fun!

And, since I seem to be in the habit of posting random pictures at the end of my posts, here is a picture I took of my younger sister today outside, since the weather was sooo lovely today! As you can see, the picture has been highly edited. I rather like it. So does my sister. ;)

Thanks to Ginny over at Small Things  for hosting the yarn-along!

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. :)