Long, long journey

Hallo again, everyone! I'm back! Heavens, it feels like I've been away forever. I can't believe it's only been four days!
 Everything went well, or as well as it could{I hate that 14 hour drive} and we got a lot done for my grandma. Since that almost sums up the trip and because I'm also writing up the drawing tutorial, I'll tell the rest through photos :)

This is Lucy, one of the three dogs my aunt dropped off at grandma's while she goes on a trip. Lucy was very shy at first, but eventually warmed up enough to jump on my lap every time I sat down.

Daisy Mae is the latest edition to my aunt's fur-children. She is quite a ball of energy! Good grief, if she wasn't pestering the older dogs she was climbing over the sofa and/or me. But she is sooo cute! It was very hard to get a decent picture of her, though, because she was eternally dashing about.

... Then she sacked out by my feet. :)

Lucy and Sadie guarding the door. Anytime the doorbell would ring or a car pass by they would come running and barking and they don't obey "Hush" or even "QUIET!!". It about drove me mad! Especially in that house - it echos.

The drive home offered several photo ops. Too bad we were in such a hurry to go there/get back, I had to take them all from the car window. To see more, go here.

I'll be back to post the drawing tutorial soon!

-Gwyn

Céad slán!

Céad slán ag mo chairde! {Farewell, my friends} Tomorrow I leave on a travel trip to my grandma's for two days. Originally we had planned to leave today, but for reasons yet unknown to me, we've postponed it. It's safe to say I'm not exactly looking forward to this trip, not with so much I need to do here at home{and Roanie hasn't been ridden for a week and a half. *gasps and dies* Ooh, the shame!} But, Mum needs me to go since Da has work to catch up on and can't. It's only for four days I'll be gone, I guess, not an extravagant sum. *shrugs* Anyway, I haven't seen Grandma in a year.
 Okay, the moral of this story is I probably won't be posting on this blog until maybe Monday. However, I do have a virtually empty day today because I did everything yesterday, so here's what I want to do with it:

• Ride
• Read
• Relax
• Go to the movies with my friend that's going away. It'll be the last time I see her until next summer :'(
• And do Little Fun Things: Drawing Eyes edition. I've pushed it back waaaay to long. Sorry guys! I'll do it ASAP.

What are you going to do with your day? Is yours a "nothing of importance" day as well?

 I'll be see'n ya :)

-Gwyn

From my epic day hike

My epic, epic day

Yesterday was one of the best — probably the best — day this year! My day started with getting up at seven am and loading up the family to go for a hike in the hills. A beautiful time of year for it.
 I'm not sure what it is about taking long walks in a forest, but an exhilarating feeling rushes over me when I look on a new piece of Creation, one I have not yet explored.
 Naturally, I took the camera {how could I not??} and took... Are you ready? ... A whopping 238 photos.
Gulp.
 Imagine editing all of those! Well, for you, my friends, I'll only show you my best photos of my adventure, which is still a lot! So bind up your hiking boots and lets get going...

Mr Snail and Mr Wormy

Take only pictures, leave only footprints

A faerie bath?

My personal favorite

A deer path

Our destination

This hymn kept repeating itself in my mind over and over as I walked. It would seem wrong not to post it.

-How Great Thou Art-

O Lord my God,
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
The works Thy Hand hath made,
I see the stars,
I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout
The universe displayed;



When through the woods
And forest glades I wander
I hear the birds
Sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down
From lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook
And feel the gentle breeze;

Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!

We saw a few chipmunks and squirrels, but most of them were too fast to catch with my camera. Okay, make that all of them were too fast. But all the same everything felt perfect. Our hike was only about 3 miles, but since I was taking a billion pictures every two feet, it took us me three hours to walk the whole way. By that time we decided to grab something to eat before heading home to wash up and go to my friend's going away party. She is going to a convent in Wis. and possibly in a year or so, to one in Poland. That's a sobering thought. My (older) brother and I grew up with her and her sister, we had a string quartet together for, gosh! Five years?? Okay, now I feel old!  It's going to be hard. *sigh* But God is calling her and that's a good enough reason for her to go for me.

To top my awesome day off, at eight o'clock sharp the most amazing sold out concert of all time began:

Celtic Woman

Songs of the Heart

Omigoodness, there are no words to describe the experience to it's fullest. I could use words like breathtaking, stunning, awe-inspiring, staggering, fantastic, beautiful..... But in the end, you just had to be there.

 Music touches me emotionally like nothing else on earth. I'll make it clear now that, being half German as well as Irish, I am not overly emotional — at least I don't show it. But music breaks down any barriers I may have, it opens my heart. And live music with drumbeats that resonate though my very being? ... An incredible feeling. Oh, and when the three of them sang Oh, Danny Boy, my grandmum's song and one I have not played since her funeral, I was crying. That right there is proof of their wonderful singing.

 Cloë was extremely personable, talking to the audience like we were all good friends, telling us about her {quote}"Typical tourist" day. She said the whole group went out and bought tee shirts and post cards and mug and key chains, all sorts of souvenirs from our "lovely and charming" state.

Though I didn't get a picture of her, Máiréad the fiddler was there. She reminds me of a sprite dancing and leaping with her fiddle, she was incredible. If I'm ever able to play one tenth as well as she, I'll be content.

 The entire group was _____!!! {I'm running out of adjectives}

We got home really late and had to go to early service at church this morning so that my eldest sister could catch her plane back to school. So now she's gone. *sad face*

 Today is also Mum & Da's anniversary, so here's a Happy Anniversary shout out to them!!!

Now I must bid you all good night: it is late here and I am super tired. *snors* Huh? Wha? Oh! I hope you enjoyed my "epic post" :)

 G'night! 

-Gwyn

Be prepared...

...For an unbelievable amount of photos in the post(s) to come!!

 But for now, here are pictures I got of the Cutestpupyintheworld! He was really excited so the photo quality might not be the best.

Love, love, love him!! I wish I could have kept him for my own :)

 My next post is going to be full of pictures of my awesome day yesterday -- your computer might be slow loading!
-Gwyn

A day at the fair

Yesterday was day one of fair week; the day when you show all your projects to the judges.
 As usual it was very hot and humid, and in the huge and ancient pavilion where all the judging is conducted, the heat and humidity are multiplied ten times. The lines to the photography judges was unbelievable -- I was in line for a little over an hour. One little girl had 18 different photography projects to show. There has got to be a limit of five next year. Life is tooooo short.

Ribbon color code: Purple = 1st place :: Blue = 2nd :: Red = 3rd :: White = The worst! It means that you could have done a lot better, or just "you failed."

 If the ribbon is a top purple it means the project should go to the State Fair. If it's a top blue, then its exemplary. 

 Aside from the long lines, however, I did have a good time. My two photography projects got a top purple and a top blue! My hanging basket I weaved for church got a purple as well as my drawing, and my antique college they wanted to take to State! But I said no, since the photos and letters were originals and could not be replaced if lost.
 My bread I got a blue on — big surprise there! The judge was really tough and my poor bead was heavy and dry; yet it got a blue! My little brother's bread was better and he got a red. Is there something I missed?
 My necklace also got a top blue. I don't know why I didn't get a purple, though. She said everything on it was wonderful — and then handed me a blue ribbon. ??
 I don't have pictures of my projects to share with you, as they are all down at the fairgrounds still and will be until Saturday night. But, I do have several pictures of our cool old fair buildings :)

Inside the pavilion, looking into the rafters over three stories high. Make you dizzy if you look at it too long.

Quilts for show on the second floor.

Looking out at the 4-H hall where my club's booth is.

Outside the pavilion

This is one of my favorites.

Lunch for me was... Coke and brother's purple ribbon brownies :)

On the way home...

Oh, I just have to tell you! I saw the cutest little puppy in the world yesterday! Omigoodness! A little brown and white Australian Shepherd-Corgi mix{yes, that's what Hammie is too}. Goodness gracious he was so cute! Giant brown eyes, floppy ears, big Corgi feet, and a tiny little body. And he wuves meeee... *sighs*

 I cannot believe I did not have the camera with me. That is the worst no-camera situation I have ever, ever, ever been in.

Now I must dash in a hurry, dear readers.... because I forgot about some chores I have to do. Oops!

-Gwyn

Busy, busy! Dreadfully busy..!

Anyone remember that VeggieTales song? I can't believe I do. :P But it's true none the less; my week has been packed with a capital "P". I think I mentioned in my last post that my sister who moved far away for college is back in between her semesters. We've been doing some fun stuff, and yesterday was my other sister's birthday {I'm really just going to have to name everyone - it's getting confusing even for me! I can't imagine what you guys think. I'm crazy, right?}. She is so hard to shop for so I ended up beading her a really cool necklace. I almost kept it -- almost.

 Shopping has been almost daily. Ugh. Once and a while I like it, but right now I would welcome never seeing another clothing dummy. Ever. Again. And today we went to the Big City far, far away to hit the mall to stock up on clothes. I've never been a fan of fashion trends, tending to create my own thing, and this Fall is no exception to my taste.  I was glad to see that the girl's clothes are slowly becoming more modest, pulling away from the deep cleavage that used to be so "in" awhile back, and now going more for scoop necks -- some of them aren't great, but better.
 I cannot believe some of the colors in the young men's section: pastel purples, barbie pinks, and lady-looking blue hues -- heeeellloooo! These are for guys, people!

 Alas! Areopostal(sp?) failed me this day by taking out their clearance rack. Nooooo! I loved their clearance and got many a good bargain on tees. I even got my favorite pair of jeans for $10 on it. And now it's gone. *sad face*
 I bought a bleached purple jacket there that I really like, and of course jeans. I always need jeans. :)


Great news!! The camera is functioning again! That means I'll be able to do another Little Fun Thing tutorial soon. I'm thinking of doing one on how to draw realistic eyes... Any thoughts?

 Also, this week is Fair week. I'm kind of excited -- yet not. My 4-H group is very "community service minded", i.e. that's all. we. ever. do. Cleaning up highway ditches, selling hotdogs at grungy gas stations {eep! Never do, people! Never do!} and the like at least once a month. It wouldn't be so bad if we did something fun too, but we don't. So, I'm thinking this is my last year. Heck, I've been in 4-H for 11 years!
 Anyway back to the fair... I'll be showing three necklaces - two beaded{and soon for sale!}, and one horse hair; several photographs; breads; drawings; the basket I made in weaving class at church; and... hmm... something else...? I'm sure I'm missing somethings...

 So there you have a full update on the goings on in my life. How do you like the colored text? Is it a keeper? And about the how to draw eyes, would you be interested in learning that?
 I'll try and keep in touch.

-Gwyn

Wooow. I feel honored!

I saw this writing analyzer on Ellyn's blog and thought I'd give it a go. I didn't know what to expect, but not this! :D

I write like
J. R. R. Tolkien

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Could it be true??

Must dash! My sister came home to stay with us for ten days before her next semester starts up so stuff is happening round here!

-Gwyn