Eleven

Sarah here. Well, so much for keeping this up and running. So anyway, we started watching a new show, erm... recently...kinda, probably around...Februrary, so actually quite a while ago, guess which one?

Ta-Dah! My favorite Doctor.

Doctor Who, for those of you who aren't familiar with this face. Now I cannot draw like this simply from memory, I have a fair memory but I can't hardly do that. No, I used a picture I set up on the computer as reference. I had a LOT of fun drawing him. Seriously, he has a fun face. After several episodes of watching the eleventh doctor I kept thinking how much fun he would be to draw. He is always SO excited, laughing, scowling, grinning awkwardly, frowning, and pretty much making all sorts of faces. His face is also rather unique and distinguishable, so whee. My favorite part to draw was the eyes for sure. The hardest part to draw was his mouth, ugh, I mean, how are you supposed to draw a male characters mouth, realistically, without making it too feminine. Very difficult. I'd love to know what you think.

Sketch dump #2

Post time! This is Sarah. I actually didn't really plan this post. As I was send a friend some drawings of mine I figure I'd do a kind of a sketch dump. These are really more of finished pictures for me but they aren't edited like the last sketch dump was. Hannah said I don't really need to narrate a sketch dump so that's all and I hope you like them!

Also do you guys prefer sketch dumps, digital art (photoshop) or...something else?

The Sunflower Award

 Sunflower Award

What up, y'all. First we get nominated for the Sunshine Award, then the Sunflower Award. We're just some sunny, sunny folks. Yet again we have Ajax Cochrane to thank!







Ajax Cochrane at
21st Century Renaissance Man

• Share eleven facts about yourself (if there’s another eleven facts about me that I haven’t already mentioned)
• Answer the questions set by the blogger who nominated you
• Nominate bloggers
• Set seven questions for nominated bloggers

Eleven facts about myself:

1. I am the second oldest of ten children, five girls, five boys, in that order. Funky, eh?
2. It has taken me almost two months to get around to putting these facts up. Much to the dismay of sister #2.
3. I'd really love to act, and my dream movies would be The Incredibles 2, The Silver Chair, a live-action Wonder Woman movie, or a Ranger's Apprentice film adaptation.
4. If I can't act, I want to direct.
5. My official nickname is Hannah Banana, because when I was a toddler I ate a banana with the peel on it.
6. My hair is currently about 2 1/2 feet long.
7. Since February 2012 I have been keeping a list of "Things I Never Thought I'd Say", which is just strange things that have actually been uttered in our family. For instance, have you ever felt the need to say, "Truthfulness is a blue lion throwing a piece of bread at someone's face"?
8. I am almost always cold. Socks are magical, and jackets are my friend. Seriously, I have my everyday jacket, my everyday formal jacket, my formal jacket, my leather jacket. Then there's my trench coat, my weird Russian coat, etc...
9. My favorite shoes are combat boots. I also have an everyday pair and a formal pair.
10. Do you want to drive? Cause I don't want to drive, and my driving test is in 31 days.
11. I memorize things really well. I can recite Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, and Ballade of the duel at the Hôtel de Bourgogne Between de Bergerac and a Boeotian (from Cyrano de Bergerac). Not to mention movie quotes galore.


1. Who is your favorite dwarf in The Hobbit? Hmm... that's tough. In the books my favorite was Balin. But in the movies... Probably Bofur. I'd say Thorin, but I have issues with his attitude, and I'd say Kili, but I don't like the whole deal with Tauriel (I mean, seriously, it's a perfectly good, internationally well-loved novel with NO romance... do you really have to add the romance? I doubt it would ever be a box office failure, I think you can assume that from the get-go. And who goes to The Hobbit to see a romance? It's a epic fantasy period war film.)

2. What is your opinion of All Quiet on the Western Front? I have no experience, so I have no opinion. Sorry.

3. Favorite pre-1980 movie? Pfffttt... I am not very familiar with pre-1980s movies. I had to look up the top box-office hits before the 1980s to see if there were any I recognized, and of those, I'd say probably Fiddler On The Roof. Back when we had only five girls, my dad was going to get a personalized-license plate that said TEVYE (he's the guy in the movie with five daughters: "This is mine, and this is mine, and this is mine..."). But then five boys came along, so that went out the window.

4. If you were only allowed one CD to listen to, for the rest of your life, which singer/ band would it be? I'd say Maranatha singers. I know all their songs, they're worshipful, and I grew up on them.

5. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? I am both and neither. Comfortably settled between the two.

6. What subject are you most knowledgeable on? *hysterical laughter* I really can't say. It would be easier to find things I am not knowledgeable on, like math, cars, Apple products, public school, the manual option on a Canon camera, fashion, subtlety, etc. But apart from these things, I am fairly well-informed for a teenage girl. My parents have done a wonderful job of making sure I'm prepared for life.

7. Chevy or Ford? Note: This could affect your standing as a blog follower here LOL. Chevy. Just Chevy. Because Chevy homeschooler vans.

And Sarah's answers, and also her eleven facts:

1. Who is your favorite dwarf in The Hobbit? Ohh, my. Yeesh, this has been a conundrum for some time cause in the books (before the movie) it was Fili and Kili, and then in the movies they made them all different and younger looking and gave Kili a bigger part because of the end (hint hint), I still like them, but less so because they're popular now and EVERYBODY likes them.Although one thing that really irritates me (and I'm gonna add this just cause I feel like it) is everyone thinks that Kili is younger than Fili  but in the eighth chapter of The Hobbit, Bilbo says that Fili is the youngest,and according to Wikipedia Ori is supposed to be the youngest. I still think Fili should be the youngest.
2. What is your opinion of All Quiet on the Western Front? None, same as Hannah.
3. Favorite pre-1980 movie? I don't know, probably a Disney movie.
4. If you were only allowed one CD to listen to, for the rest of your life, which singer/ band would it be?Hmm. Can I choose a composer? Maybe Tchaikovsky or Beetoven.
5. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Very much an introvert, but I sorta wish I could be more outgoing.
6. What subject are you most knowledgeable on? Probably cats and animals. We have three cats, one outside and two inside. Over the past year or so they've each had some sort of infection or something and I'm always the cat doctor, giving them medicine and everything. I do a lot of animal research for fun and pick up queer bits and pieces. Oh, but I'm a total nerd about art. It's kinda hard for me not to completely gush over all the drawing books, sketch books, paints, paintbrushes, ceramic figurines, canvases, and other awesome things in the art store.
7. Chevy or Ford? Note: This could affect your standing as a blog follower here LOL. I wasn't sure till I read Hannah's answer, I'd say Chevy but I'm not very automobile-minded I suppose.

And for my eleven facts:

1. I'm not very good at talking to people, in real life or through the internet. And I'm really shy.
2. I love music and animals.
3. I can draw well, but I have bad handwriting.
4. I don't like when people show-off.
5. I am the third oldest child in my family.
6. I am the second tallest in my family, much to the dismay of my older sisters.
7. My favorite food is spaghetti.
9. I don't like being mainstream, like everybody else.
10. Other people's opinion changes what I think very much. Like, if everyone in my family tells me my painting is great but someone else who I hardly ever see doesn't like it I get really sad.
11. This little section of facts has taken me almost a week to finish.

Grace Anna Rose at Dreams Of A Narnian
Joannah at Writers Who Need To Talk To Other Writers
My (other) sister, Emily at Our Fantasy Stories

Just three today, folks, unless you'd like to do it. Then consider yourself nominated.

And here are our collection of questions (slightly saner than last time).

1. How much time do you spend writing in a day?
2. Pencils or pens?
3. Is the internet your friend or your arch-enemy? (Lookin' at you, Pinterest.)
4. If you could live anywhere other than Earth, where would it be?
5. Would you consider your music preferences main-stream or hipster?
6. If you could only have one book besides the Bible, dictionary or thesaurus, which would it be?
7. And last of all...



<---- Chips or crisps?

You Are My Sunshine (Award) [Updated]

Hello, again, 'tis Hannah! Long time no see. While we've been gone, the art projects have been building up unblogged about, and time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' by since the blog was attended (that was a 70s/80s reference... Fly Like An Eagle by the Steve Miller Band).

Suddenly, out of the blue, while we were fiddling around with our personal life, someone awarded The Sunshine Award to our blog!

Because we are shiny. I guess.

The rules for the Sunshine Award:

• Thank the person who nominated you
• Answer the questions they asked you on your respective blog
• Nominate another batch of bloggers (eleven being the standard)
• Question them (evil chuckle)
• Notify them that they have been nominated
• And post the award image on your blog

Thanks to

Ajax Cochrane of 21st Century Renaissance Man

(cue opera singing at full volume)

Check one. I like to do things big hereabouts.


Here are your questions:
Do you prefer cats or dogs? Cats. They're clean, smell good better than dogs, and seldom drool. I have never had a dog, but we have had around fifteen cats at our house over the years (pretty much only three or four we wanted, the rest just showed up). We have a couple of long-haired house cats that have been with us for nearly ten years, their "official birthday" being this Monday.
What is your favorite outside activity? Walking around. Taking movies. Carving snow sculptures. I don't do sports, and I don't much care for outside work. Walking around outside gives me a chance for some quiet time. Update: Swimming and inner-tubing behind a pontoon boat on the lake are also enjoyable for me. No oceans 'round here, or I'd consider surfing.
If you got to meet one of the presidents, who would it be? Ronald Reagan would be my first choice. I've met his personal secretary (from after he was in office), and I heard that he was God-fearing, Constitution-believing, upstanding man. If not him, then George Washington. Then I might be able to tell people first-hand exactly how the Founding Fathers intended this country to be.
What is your favorite fantasy series? Aw, dang. That's tough. I'd have to say The Chronicles of Narnia.
If you had been Peter Jackson, would you have changed the name of the last Hobbit movie to “The Battle of Five Armies” or stayed with “There and Back Again”? Definitely would have kept it as "There and Back Again". That is such a poetic title, and it couldn't have been better if I had thought it up myself.
What is your favorite time of the day? I'm tempted to say whenever I'm asleep. But apart from that, 6:00 to 8:00 PM. That's when the light is most beautiful outside, and in the spring it's right before sunset, just past that super-hot time and into the cool, shady, loverly atmosphere before dark. I believe that's around the time photographers call the magic or golden hour.
Are you from the North or the South? South, my whole life. *sprinkles Tony Chachere's everywhere*
Who is your favorite character in Pride and Prejudice? No clue, never read/watched it. My dad prefers us to avoid the chick flicks for at least awhile longer.
Are you homeschooled, public schooled, or graduated? Homeschooled, but graduated-ish. I'm not old enough to graduate yet, but pretty much all my schoolwork is done. I guess the last thing I need to do is get my driver's license and do the GED. Not too excited for either of those.
Any plans for college? I'm not doing college. As I told someone recently, my whole life has been Home Economics. And I just finished my early morning "Botany" class for the day.
What is the last thing you were doing before you began answering the questions? Sprinkling Perlite on the Manhattan Euonymus and Arborvitae in our family nursery. See? Botany.


Sarah also wanted to answer the questions, so I'm turning the mic over to her.


Do you prefer cats or dogs? Oh, cats, quite a bit, although they're are several species in the dog family that I'm particularly fond of even though we don't have any dogs.
What is your favorite outside activity? Probably swimming. But I can already think of a couple other activities that might top that.
If you got to meet one of the presidents, who would it be? I'd probably have to say Ronald Reagan because I'm not really... politically-minded and Hannah has some pretty good reasons for why she'd want to meet him.
What is your favorite fantasy series? Wow. There are just so many awesome ones. The best one I can think of at the moment is the Twelve Dancing Princesses series by Jessica Day George.
If you had been Peter Jackson, would you have changed the name of the last Hobbit movie to “The Battle of Five Armies” or stayed with “There and Back Again”? Oh, conundrum. I don't know, "The Battle of Five Armies" sorta spoils it for those who haven't read the book, but "There and Back Again" is a bit vague, and yet it's an actual alternate name for the book, though I still don't know how big a part The Battle of Five Armies is going to be in the movie. So I suppose if The Battle of Five Armies was going to be a huge part of the movie, I'd choose that title, but if it isn't, I think that the original one is appropriate.
What is your favorite time of the day? Afternoon. Between about 3:00 and 8:00 I think.
Are you from the North or the South? South, I assume because I've always lived with my sister.
Who is your favorite character in Pride and Prejudice? I don't know, never read it or seen it.
Are you homeschooled, public schooled, or graduated? Homeshooled.
Any plans for college? I'm not going either. So, no, no plans.
What is the last thing you were doing before you began answering the questions? Eating Chicken Divan.


Let this award make us feel guilty about abandoning our blog and steer us away from tergiversation and general faithlessness.


Now to nominate eleven nine other bloggers:

Siani Delaney at Writing & Wanderlust
Ashley M. at Inky Wings
Ashley T. at Cheery-O
Pretty Much Anyone at Ravens And Writing Desks (excuuuuse me, there are several bloggers and the Bible says don't pick favorites)
Sarah Faulkner at Inklined
Bekah Joan at Found and Cherished
Anastasia Elizabeth at Every Stinkin' Page
Aili at Aili's Adventures
Nessima Tavariel at Arda Nessimava

And the interrogation. *eyebrow wiggle*

• Which number (1, 2, 3, etc.) is the best, based on it's personality and morals? (Example: 7 is best because of his wise and patient personality.)
• Fruit-flavored candy or chocolate?
• Under what circumstances would you jump on a shark's back?
• Would you rather grab a handful of cow poop or drink milk straight from the cow?
• Batman or Iron Man?
• Fantasy or sci-fi?
• Three years of famine, three months to be destroyed by your foes, or three days of the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of the land?
• Favorite season?
• Is the Lochness Monster real?
• Death by fire or death by ice?
• Out of any animal, what would be your dream pet?

So there you are! I'm off to notify people. Auf Wiedersehen!


UPDATE: It seems some people are confused about the questions. You can skip number one if you don't understand it (I assumed everyone assigned personalities to numbers... when I gave the above example, Trinity walked by and said, "Seven's not wise and patient, he's a jerk. Cool, but a jerk.") Also, the seventh question is a reference to 1 Chronicles 21, when God gives King David the choice of having the three aforementioned things happen to his land as punishment for numbering the people of Israel when He told them not to.

To God be the glory,

Hannah

Snow Leopard

Here am I, Sarah! Moi first post! I did this picture solely on Photoshop Elements 7.0. And technically, weeelll, the second picture you see here was entirely my work, but I did happen to take...

               

...this snow leopard picture from Wikipedia.com and took a sample of the fur tones from this picture and "painted" over the first picture (on another layer), until it looked  more or less like this.

                           

 I had some difficulty making it look like fur instead of an oddly colored fur less cat. I added the spots on  his head and neck with I think a soft round brush and then used a chalk brush to make his spots look furrier and direction to his "fur".I also had to use a spatter brush on his nose because it used to be just a solid color, I used the spatter brush on other parts of his fur using alternately lighter or darker colors depending on which color patch I was working on, to give him ticked fur. I did " burn" some parts where there was shade to make his fur darker. By then I was pretty satisfied with how it turned out because I could hide background layer and it looked like a complete picture...except for the background which was non-existent. So I gave him a dramatic night sky background and changed the lighting to a more suited night time lighting and came up with this! 

                                                                               Voila!

And I'm extremely pleased with the results. The entire process took three days I think, though I didn't spend the whole day on the computer for three days in a row. Maybe, three hours a day. Today's included post writing, profile writing, background creating and signature editing.

Thanks to younger brothers who are constantly encouraging and God for allowing me so much free time.

-Sarah
P.S I changed the eye color because I think that this blue is prettier. :)

Easter Project 2013

'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, it's 'Annah h'again.

It's been spectacular today. So relaxing.
Today is a celebrated day for the children in this family. Why? It's not anyone's birthday or anything. I didn't know until Sarah told me last night.  All she did was ask: "What's tomorrow?"
So I answered "Tuesday" like normal people do.

The normalness did not last long, as she kept on asking: "And what else?"

My very confused and desperate list included -

- The 2nd
- Tuesday the 2nd
- The second day of the month
- The third day of the week
- The first Tuesday of the week (seriously?)
- The day after April 1st
- The day after April Fools'
- The day after the Weasley Twins' birthday
- The day before the last-quarter moon
- A week before next Tuesday

"WHAT IS IT?!?!"
"It's the day of A Thousand Names."
"Did you just make that up."
"I didn't just make it up, I made it up, like, a minute ago. Also, it's a rest day tomorrow."

Now if you don't know what a rest day is, I'll tell you. We're home-schooled, the lot of us, and have a home business and live in the country, so we often have a lot of work to do. Not too much get-up-early-exercise-that-mind-until-late-afternoon-like-public-schoolers stuff, more physical, get-up, get-dressed, clean-the-kitchen, fold-the-laundry, stack-wood, move-plants, make-the-lunch, put-your-brothers-down-for-a-nap-so-we-can-get-stuff-done work. Our schedule isn't REAL tight, but sometimes, like this week, it's pretty full. We had Easter at our house this year, with, what was it... two... two... eight... twelve... five... four... around thirty-three people.
First, when we got up in the morning, at seven, to get all fancied up before we left, went out and had our coffee cake for breakfast, like we do for almost every special event. Then we got to open our Easter baskets (yup, we still do that, even though we've never done the Easter bunny), then we rushed to get ready for church. We had to drop by a friends' house first so they could follow our car (they were visiting our church for Easter), and we still managed to make it to the church almost on time. After church we had to speed home to meet our grandparents and cousins, who had already let themselves in.
That was only the warm-up. THEN we had fun. Fun that includes hauling a round of wood about two feet in diameter six feet in the air with chains, tow straps, and some creative T-stake work, all to make a big round target for us to THROW TOMAHAWKS AT.
No joke. We did the same thing for Thanksgiving. So far no one is dead. Except for the target, which we bedecked with an unclaimed trench coat and a milk-jug full of water for a head. That was fun.

That wasn't even the Easter egg hunt. That's the real challenge. The little kids' hunts are all the same. Not so with the older kids'.

Okay, this is how it works. Since the first time we've started splitting the hunts into older kids and younger kids, our parents and aunts and uncles have made it their mission to destroy us all. Their motto is, "If you still want to hunt eggs, that's fine, but we're not going to make it easy for you."
Even my seventeen-year-old sister is still at it, but the hunt has been getting harder every year. Let me show you what I mean.

Little kids:
The eggs are hidden across the yard, usually in pretty easy places. "Hard" for them means there's an egg above eye level. Then the kids get to go find them. The end.

As for the older kids. Ah ha ha ha. I have to separate this into sections. I'm trying to describe this, and it just sounds unreal. Our family is awesome.

Older Kids, prior to 2010: For awhile the eggs were hidden quite creatively. Once when we were on a church egg hunt, one got stuck in the hollow of a tree. I have no idea what happened to it ultimately. Around 2009, it got a little harder. The older kids' group was split into younger-older kids and older-older kids, and the older-older kids had to give the younger-older kids a head start. Torturous.
 Prior to 2010, there wasn't really anything special done to the egg-hunters, but from around that time to this, the eggs are hidden EVERYWHERE. Under a pile of mulch, on the roof, up in a tree, inside of the front porch light, up the gutters, in the adults' pockets. This is no joke. These are where the eggs are found. If you follow a random adult around without them noticing, they'll just meander around the yard, dropping eggs in places we've already checked.
Older Kids, 2010: Three-Legged-Race: The adults began to get more creative. According to the rules, the kids are randomly put in pairs, and have one of their legs tied to the other person's. Then it's just "Now get the eggs before anyone else does!" That year was quite interesting.
Older Kids, 2011: Marco Polo. There was bad weather that Easter, so for a while we all thought that we couldn't have an Easter egg hunt, or that we would only hunt eggs inside. The second part was true, but the parents stayed true to malicious form. The eggs were hidden in our aunt and uncle's cluttered garage The kids were randomly put in pairs. One person has a blindfold, the other one doesn't. The person who can see can't touch any eggs or touch their partner. The blindfolded person is the only one who can pick up eggs. And no, they weren't making it easy for us. Eggs were hidden from floor to ceiling and inside the bases of foosball tables. Eventually we had to take our blindfolds off to search for the last few eggs that none of us seemed to be able to find.
Older Kids, 2012: Relay Race. By now we knew something evil was coming, we just didn't know what. The adults went outside and spread the eggs around, then brought us outside to tell us the rules. You can only put your bag/basket in one place. You can choose the place, but once you put it down, it stays there. And you can only put one egg in their basket at a time. And there's over a hundred eggs scattered everywhere. So in other words, you have to run back and forth about fifty times trying to get your bag full. Up- and down- hill on tilled clay. Toward the end there was only one important egg left, and it was buried under a mound of dirt. Originally it had been buried somewhere near the surface, but when someone dropped a hint about an egg being buried there, everyone was up to their kidneys in dirt, tossing it this way and that way until the camoflauge-colored egg was completely buried. Eventually my uncle bull-dozed the whole pile with our Kubota, and my older sister (Trinity) got it.
Older kids, 2013: Disco Era. Present day, just as tough. Here's what they did to us. After the typical little kids' hunt, which we helped organize, we all had to wait till it was dark. Meanwhile, the parents put light sticks inside large eggs, sprinkled smaller eggs with lightstick juice, spread the eggs across the yard, placed decoy light sticks, then set us all loose. Then the adults walked around amongst us, shining flashlights in our faces to ruin our night vision.

Oh, and if that is not enough. Years ago the adults had the idea to raise the stakes. Monetarily. As in, they hid eggs full of money. Back in 2012, the "important" egg that my sister got, that was a money egg, which is why we were all so desperate for it. Usually the money eggs are enormous, partly transparent ones, but sometimes they'll put it in normal-sized eggs, just to shake things up more. 

Yes, that our Easter. I forgot to mention that between the tomahawk- and knife-throwing and the Easter egg hunts the majority of the kids went running around in our woods gathering ticks, playing tag, and dangerously reinacting The Hobbit in that Sarah and Darby climbed a tall familiar-looking evergreen tree with my younger sister and I snapping at their ankles. We also informed my bewildered cousin that his new name was Azog.

Oh, yes, I forgot what I was saying so long ago. When I go off on rabbit trails I really go off on rabbit trails. Today being a rest day was so special because the day after Easter, when we were all exhausted from aforementioned strenuous exercises, we had to go into town to do work for most of the day. Because of all that, Mama proclaimed today as a day of rest. No extra work besides the typical obligatory chores, and we could sleep in, which meant I was in bed until 9:30, and also that I have plenty of time to do a post. So that's how the opening sentences come full circle to this point. This point, which is also a good place to post something about my actual art subject for today. Sorry, I just like to talk a lot.

Easter Project 2013

The decoration of an egg. Voila to you all. This is a work of art to be marveled at, for those who dare to take upon the quest of squeezing the yolk of a chicken egg through holes the size of a pinholes and have doubtless wasted breath till they were red in the face, I salute you.

By the way, if you want to get a yolk out of an egg, both ends need a hole. Probably at least one the diameter of a pencil eraser. Then your family will cheer as you expel the yolk from the egg, but no, no one will eat it, not after it's been sitting at room temperature for a whole day. 

This was inspired by an almost-tutorial on Pinterest. (Pinterest takes up so much of life, these days, no?) 

Whoever did the original did it much better than I did, but I imagine they do it as a job. I took a few creative liberties, which were almost necessary, 'cause they don't actually tell you how to do it. That's what I usually do. I don't know when I've ever followed a tutorial exactly - I normally change it up at least a bit to make it my own.

I don't have any pictures of the process itself, since the almost-tutorial is so handy, and probably more effecient and sense-making than mine would be. But if you want to embark on such a endeavor, I can give you a few bits of kind-of-experienced information.

1. Rechargeable-battery-powered dremels take a long time to fully charge.

2. If you are using a dremel, there will be eggdust. Like sawdust, but made of egg shell.

3. The yolk will not obligingly drip out of pinhead-sized holes during the night. Don't bother trying.

4. Probably better not try to suck the egg out. Not from personal experience, but my parents and older sister, both very skeptical, warned that it was not a good idea.

5. It's pretty difficult to sand tacky paint. I don't know if the person who made the original used a different kind of paint, but just-dried fabric paint is close to unsandable. Try sanding Jell-O or something, and you'll get the idea. Not dry stuff won't flake away. It will uncooperatively crumble/squash.

6. Don't leave the egg down low! In a house of toddlers, this should be a given. Eggs are delicate and break. I kept mine inside of a bowl most of the time, except when I painted it with 3D fabric paint. At that point I turned the bowl over, set the egg carefully and firmly in a wad of poster putty so that I would have even access to the outside edge without the egg rolling over and messing up the paint, and shouted "Don't touch it!" at anyone who got too close. It's a miracle mine didn't break, in a house full of children under four feet tall.

Also, the advice that I gave earlier about having to make a hole on both ends. I haven't experimented over much with it, but the hole-on-both-ends thing is tried and true. Best option for now.

Oh, and:

7. Try to check your tools before you start the project. Don't pour your paint and then go looking for a sponge brush, which you may or may not have. I did not have one, and wish I did. I think the white paint job would have turned out more smoothly with a sponge brush instead of a bristle brush. (Those brushes probably have special artisty names. I have no idea what they are. One has a sponge on the end. One has bristles on the end. Why complicate things?)

So I hope this was interesting. Have you noticed I like starting paragraphs with "Oh", "So", "Okay", and "Anyway"? I also like lists. And I try to make dramatic/creative/memorable entrances. Keep that in mind, as I will continue to try to show myself up. Except on the oh-so-okay-anyway thing. Another habit to break, along with procrastination. I'll work on that later.

Any thoughts? Comments? Smart remarks? (That was the spiel from my dad's radio show a few years ago). Go ahead and comment, here or there, in a house, with a mouse, in a box, with a fox...

And Happy Easter, from both of us! Jesus Christ is risen!

Great cheesepuffs, that was a lengthy post.

To God be the glory,
Hannah