pinecone-cotton owls - happy thanksbirthday - rainbow spewing inspiration

 I have some catching up to do, hence the mother of all post titles. I hope you all had a turkey-stuffed Thanksgiving and not too many fires were started as a result.
My Thanksgiving was a little hectic. Heh, a little.
 Poor dear Mum was dreadfully ill thanks to a new prescription with "possible strong side affects". Possible? Are you kidding me??
 Anyway, the short version is that for the day before Thanksgiving, Mum was confined to her bed and could only have dry bits of toast and weak tea. So it was up to me to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for eleven people. (can you see where this is going?)

 Little Brother of course avowed his help at the start, but after I made him wash a few dishes he quickly disappeared from the Kitchen War theatre. And what a battle took place!
The pie crusts (bane of my existence!!) put up a stout fight, refusing to fit the pans correctly and tearing when stretched. But I over came and filled them with the purée of my other enemies, Pumpkin, Pecan, and the easily surrendering (canned) Cherry fillings.
I burned the crusts (surprise!) and I didn't melt the butter for the pecan filling quite right, so some people may of may not have had sudden bursts of butter (hurray!).
 I had to get creative with the cherry's crust as I had not made a double crust or 'lid' for it. Fruit pies generally need these to disguise the ugliness that occurs when the fruit is baked and turns kinda squishy and a not-quite appetizing color. Or that's my theory anyway. (Baking to me is like philosophy: I don't even try to understand it.)
 So what was I to do? Well, I scrounged and scraped together the very last scraps of dough, rolled it out in a pathetic little mat, and cut out an equally pathetic tic-tac-toe pattern that more or less did little to hide the after-baked cherry ugliness. Everyone told me it was good, though, and who was I to argue? it was canned filling so there wasn't much I could do to ruin it. Besides burning the crust.

The rest of the baking and cooking went miraculously well, and I don't recall having any real major cancel-the-dinnerparty! crisis. But then, I don't remember a lot of Thanksgiving Day, so perhaps I have amnesia. Mum was well enough by then to help me with some of the bigger dishes that required miles more experience than I'll ever have.

 This year we invited our sort-of 'adopted' grandparents and our neighbors and had a grand time stuffing ourselves to the usual Holiday benchmark.

LB and I made these little owl-creature-things for the centerpiece the night before and I also took several hours of my life to make stenciled and embossed place cards. The owls on the other hand might as well be called the lazy man's craft. Because seriously, if you have pinecones, cotton balls, and some basic craft supplies, you have these weird and cute little birds.

 In the title I mentioned the word 'birthday', so yes, it can be safely guessed that I had my birthday last week. My 18th. At the time I said nothing of it on here, because I really did not wish to (my birthday was the day before Hammie was hit). But it was a lovely cozy sort of day where I got to read non-school books (yay!), and the weather was nice so I went out and visited my now wooly horses. Then I got to spend a few hours over tea with a dear friend (shout out to L.Pevensie, my dear! ;) where she pretty much allowed me to relive my Charleston trip (my word, I can't believe I haven't posted about any of that yet! I haven't even edited all the pictures I took. gah!).
 Back home my second biggest sister came out and I had a lovely birthday dinner of steak and baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows (and an obscene amount of sugar, cinnamon, and butter), and a two layer cake baked by LB.
 My family was amazing with the gifts this year, too, checking several things of my wish list :) Like a headstall (one that can fit Piggy's odd sized head at last!), music, books, an awesome camera bag for Jack (THANK YOU, Biggest Sister!), an I (heart) (heart) Doctor Who t-shirt from LB, and a new camera lens! I'm over the moon for my 55-250mm! To see the product of this new lens (below being just one of them) click here.

Now for the inspiration bit to wrap things up. Can I just say I owe Andrew Lloyd Webber so much for creating his amazing score/musical well known to all of you, I'm sure, The Phantom of the Opera (if you just sang that, you are awesome.). Long have his songs and lyrics dance with my imagination and inspired day dreams of all the possibilities for characters living in an opera theatre.
 I spent some of my music money on tPotO soundtrack and while listening today was slapped up-side the head with the perfect lyrics from my favorite from the track, Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. And since written words never do the actual music justice, here's a link to hear it yourself.

...

Wishing I could hear your voice again

Knowing that I never would

Dreaming of you won't help me to do

All that you dreamed I could

Passing bells and sculpted angels

Cold and monumental seem, for you the wrong companions

You were warm and gentle

Too many years fighting back tears

Why can't the past just die?

Wishing you were somehow here again

Knowing we must say, "Goodbye"

Try to forgive, teach me to live

Give me the strength to try

No more memories, no more silent tears

No more gazing across the wasted years

Help me say, "Goodbye"

Help me say, "Goodbye"

This will fit Cilla so well by the end of book one. I'm trying so hard to convey her struggle with her traumatic past that to have her practically sing how she finally faces up to it and finish her arc (for book one) and at the same time write the end scene is.... unbelievable. This is the kind of rare gem that makes writing worth it. There's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in writing, as many of you know; it's never a picnic or a 'hobby'. So to have a song or picture impact you, perfect almost in every way for the situation, that practically writes itself, is an absolute dream come true. You can't ask for much more as a writer.

And now I really must close. Kudos to every/anyone who read the whole thing!
xGwyn

I return from the 'relative' dead

"Hullo hullo hullo!" to quote Prince Rhun{Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain}.
 Sorry I disappeared without a word, I was rather knocked for a loop by the flu last weekend and didn't feel at all like writing of any sort, plus it was my birthday weekend to boot. So my 'sweet sixteen' really wasn't all that sweet though I was recovered enough to enjoy it from my invalid's chair :) While it wasn't quite what I was expecting, I shall always remember my 16th, all thanks to a little virus :)
 Six days later I'm still awfully tired all the time and a little weak, though I'm getting stronger. But it's really not surprising since I lost nearly six pounds in two days. Wowzer, I think that's a new record! Not a great one, since it completely undid my entire workings for my New Years resolution to gain ten pounds. I hit seven last month making me a whopping 108lbs! *then dramatically* But no more.
 Well, I guess pile on the turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas, wot? Haha!

But enough about me. How fares everyone else in the bloggy world? Still plugging away you NaNos? I confess that mine has barely stirred since the *gulp* 9th. But I did receive two awesome writing journal bookies! A beautiful blue velvet bound one, and a pink tooled leather one that I think I shall keep in my purse/bag-of-many-things to jot down ideas, sketches, etc in when I'm away from home... and peering at observing interesting people from behind a National Geographic. 

 Ooo! I must tell you! I also was given the first series of BBCs Robin Hood! Even though my inner historian screams and writhes at the almost complete inaccuracy of the period, {Greek fire? It's gunpowder you ninnies!! Greek fire is waaaay different! And black powder was invented by the Chinese, not the Saracens..!} I have for the most part accepted it just as a jolly good swashbuckling kind of show, telling my historian to close her eyes for the length of it lest she have a breakdown of sorts. It's not easy, it is my favorite and most studied era after all. And after the last episode she was just muttering to herself things like "Tudor houses...1192...flip-flops...ninja swords..."
*shrugs* Whatever. I'm enjoying it :)
It snowed here, as you can probably tell by all the photos I have up, and Hammie and my little brother are defiantly enjoying the wet white stuff. I am too -- photo ops!! Ugh, these last few weeks everything has just been dying yellows/greys and all the leaves have gone so there was nothing to photograph except indoor stuff and that's no fun.

 Mum and I went into an adorable little shop when we were in town yesterday. It the kind of shop that has antique style boxes, candles, lights, clocks, teapots, and all things delicate and yet cozy. You could spend years in there and not see every little thing. They're all decked out for Christmas, and the moment you open the door the warm scent of ginger bread and cinnamon fills your nose. And now I'm all Christmassy too :) Already I've dug out Enya's Christmas cd and been playing it, waiting for the angels, as it were. I'll leave you now with my favorite one...

-Gwyn

A week in which much is accomplished

Hello again! I've been off for quite awhile and was, as the title suggests, very busy. Many, many, things are going to be happening and so we are preparing now as well as getting things done while we still have time.

 First and foremost, we finished the hay! Whoop! Mathematically, we got about 110 round bales{6 feet tall} per 15 square acres. Can you believe that?? We usually only get around 50! We have stacked 51 bales in our stackyard for us to keep and the rest we are selling. This grass is really good too - good enough to feed the horses this winter - so we might not have to buy loads of hay from others this year like we have in the past when our hayfields were full of pigwheat and other weeds only fit for cows to eat.


Mum and I took a day and made strawberry jam that is to die for.

There is nothing quite like homemade jams and jellies.

I have been rearranging my room just about every day, trying to get it the way I want it. I went crazy and bought a load of picture frames to put my photographs and artwork in, but I'm running out of room on my walls! My art-and-writing nook is yet to be completed. I still need to put up my gigantor corkboard. And I'm in the middle of organizing my artwork. Not an easy project!

Sunday was my little brother's 10th(!) birthday{I still can't believe he's that old! I remember turning ten!} and a few days before his was my Da's birthday. I'll be nice this time and not mention his age... :D

The second week of August is the County/4-H Fair! and things are CrAzY. This year you have to pre-register all your entries by Aug. 2nd for some incredibly vapid[new favorite word there :}] reason. They{the fair guild} don't seem to understand that, on average, each participant doesn't even know what they're taking until the night before. So we have been scrambling to get all our projects in order by... good gosh! MONDAY?? *yelps*
 I'm in all sorts of categories ranging from Breads to Educational Posters. I don't have pictures of everything, but I did take one of an antique photo collage wall hanging I did for Home Environment:

Hmm... This one turned out blurry. Drat.

The letter that makes up the background was written by my great-grandfather while he still lived in Germany!{Yes, that means it is in German :)} It's dated July 16th 1910. And I found it on... July the 16th 2010!! How cool is that?

You can see my grandpa with a friend on the far left. The faded sepia next to it is my great-uncle when he was about 3 chasing the chickens in the barnyard. Next over is the team of draft horses my grandpa's family shared with other homesteaders. And on the top is a picture of my great-aunt as a child, playing in the hayloft.

I love all things old fashioned, but photos are the best.

On top of all those things, I'm going to open an Etsy Shop for my jewelry. I have been planning on opening one since last November when I first heard of Etsy but never got round to looking into it. My Etsy has a cause behind it as well, something that has been on my mind for for a long while. I never had the answer until now.... I won't tell you more until I've fully set up everything :)

Harvest has begin with the picking of baseball bat sized summer squash. I don't know if we're going to get much more than gourds this year - the grasshoppers are worse than terrible - but I'm crossing my fingers for a few tomatoes.

Briefly, some highlights:
 We've got a big pack of coyotes nearby at the moment and they screech and holler to high heaven every night. O_O It is very hard to sleep.
 A pair of foxes had kits up in our neighbor's high pasture and omygoodness! They are the cutest things alive!! I've only gotten to see them once while I was riding up there and I sorely wished I had my camera!
 Shyanne pulled a tendon in her left hind leg so I can't ride her at the mo.
 Hooey rolled on some cactus - I had to perform "surgery".
 I plan to have another Little Fun Thing soon, but at the moment the camera isn't working so I don't know when exactly "soon" is. Hang in there!
That's what has been happening in my life.... What's going on in yours?

-Gwyn

Ooh my aching back....

Yesterday, from 9:00am to 9:30pm, we moved my Grandpa into an Assisted Living place -not to be confused with a nursing home, an assisted living pretty much gives you a mini house attached to an expensive hotel lobby, fancy and healthy meals prepared by chefs, and a nurse on stand-by round the clock in case of needed assistance.  The "lobby"/living room is complete with over-struffed couches and armchairs, a ginormous fireplace, a concert grande piano{!} that anyone is aloud to play{Me. :D}, and a patio/garden out back.
  All-in-all, pampered living :)

I know it was really hard for Grandpa to leave the old house; the one where he and Grandmum had lived for 16 years together until a month ago. Many, many memories surround that house on the edge of town.
 My Grandmum was an amazing painter, she taught me oils for several years, her art used to decorate the walls back at the old house, and now hangs in Grandpa's new abode along with around twenty other pictures of grandchildren, his parents, and old family portraits taken before grandchildren ever came along, and of course the Crucifix on the wall above one of the windows.

Then we moved in the furniture. I said this many times yesterday but I'll say it again, old furniture is heavy furniture! His favorite chair is an old electric massage chair, and let me tell you that thing must be close to 200+ pounds. Oi. Thank heavens their weren't any stairs.

Grandpa didn't really want to move at all because of the house, but he needed more care than we can give. I was praying all that he would love his new place and have yet to hear either yea or nay.

 I'm setting up a deal with the head ladies at the AL to maybe come in once a week or so and play violin and piano for the residents and staff. It would mean digging up more old songs and learning new ones, but I should anyway. Maybe it will also make Grandpa want to stay a little more. I guess I'll just keep praying :)


Tomorrow is Mummy's birthday! And as a treat I think we're taking her to a resort in the Hills. And hopefully we girls{my cousins, aunt, sister, Mum, and I} can go to the place where they take professional 1870's photo shoots! They have all the old fashioned clothes and hats and fans and what-not, as well as a variety of different sets{ a parlor w/ piano and tea things, an old bar :P, etc} Should be completely awesome! I'm very excited! But I need to go...

~Gwyn

~Birthday~

How old am I? A lot of you were close!! {Earwen, you might be right ;D lol!} I am now 15. *starts singing the Taylor Swift song*

Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone!  I see I'm not the only one with a Nov. birthday! So, Happy Birthday to the rest of you!

My grandparents came out and we had pizza for dinner followed by an enormous chocolate cake!! De-lish! And then, the best part, (in Lucy P.'s voice) presents! Here's a list of what I was given:

• My fav! A field watercolor/oil easel with paint box!! Whoohoo! From France too! Fancy stuff! ;D
• A new drawing pad Just in time; I was out of paper!!
• A huge drawing pad I'm talkin' 16.5" x 18.5"!
• Bamboo goat hair paint brushes The fancy kind you have to hang up to dry!
• A gift card to Maurices (sp?) Yay! I can get clothes without having to spend my money on them! :P
• About 8 strings of beads for necklace making I'm really into that right now! Post about it later....
• The Kingdom of Heaven director's cut! Need I say more??
• 15 pennies from my lil brother :) 
• A purse Okay, I am not one to rave about purses(I usually just jam a couple bucks in my pocket when I go shopping) but this one is cute!! It's orange cloth and.... I'll just have to post a picture later! along with my easel :)
• Beautiful horse folders to put my drawings/paintings in
• Watercolor paper
• Eragon's Guide to Alagaesia I'm not a huge fan of the Inheritance Cycle but this has got fantastic illustrations!!!
• Ink for my calligraphy pens
• $100 total from my grandparents Saving up for that violin...!
• ...And the traditional Birthday Socks: purple fuzzy things :)
  

And that's my Special Day for you;) I'd better get cracking with all those art accessories!

Tally ho! ~Gwyn

WhooooHoooo! It's ma Birfday!!!!

The title pretty much sums it up! Yippee! This week has taken forever to get to Friday! Speaking of which, I've had a lot of people remark on my birthday being 'Friday the 13'. Personally, I see no reason to be unhappy about it; I like Fridays! Last day of school for the week, you can stay up late and no house chores! What's not to love? And the #13? It's actually my lucky number ;D Maybe I'm just a counter-weight person! lol ;D

  Interesting fact about the No. 13: The reason it was widely known as an unlucky number is because there were thirteen people present at The Last Supper and one of them, Judas, later betrayed Christ. 

 I never knew that. I always did wonder why 13 was supposed to be unlucky; well, now we know.:)

Returning to my B-day:

I shall post all about it tomorrow after its happened, and, in the mean time, can anyone guess how old I am now?

A FULL weekend

After 23 weeks two of our hens have finely started laying! My mum was ecstatic! It was hilarious; she opened the coop door and let out this loud "WHOOOP!!". She never made that noise before! She's usually quite laid back....

Anyway, after that she and I went to town to put my name on my 4-H group's bank account because last month I was elected Treasurer and Secretary. The whole switching over names and info took an hour, and I got to know "June" pretty well.:)

 Along the walls of the bank are big framed pieces of leather with lots of area ranch brands burned into them. I stared at those a lot as June straightened the records. There were some I knew and most I didn't. I tried deciphering them too. Brands are like a whole language of their own: There's the Walking J, a j with little 'feet'. The Triple C, three c's stuck together. The Flying E, or Lazy E, an E on it's back with 'wings'.    And those are just a few...! (the ones I can explain :P) Many of them I couldn't begin to read. A heart on a stick, the odd squiggle-bar-letter, and so on.

{{Can I just say right now that I love living the Western life? Just 'cause I really do! ;)}}

  

  After that it was off with my brother(who plays cello) to play at a special Mass for a friend's parent's anniversary. That went very well and I'm quite happy with my performance, if I do say so myself:) Yeah, I really enjoyed it :)

Sunday was the big violin concert. The very one I have been dreading. The one where... the Youth Orchestra plays! Ahhh! We were soooo not ready...! And yet... by some miracle we pulled together at literally the last second and sounded fine! Whoo! God is great!! I had been worrying a bit. Just a bit. O.o How fruitless it was! And I'm glad it was(:D

Em and I played The Lover's Waltz again and afterwards got asked to play it at a wedding, a concert, and a talent show! And almost every parent at the concert came up to us to say we did real well. That felt really good. I get a warm fuzzy feeling thinking about it:)

Yes. 'Twas a good, if packed, weekend.

I had regular violin lessons today and I discussed getting a better violin. The one I have now is good quality and good for starters, but now that I'm getting really, seriously into fiddling, I need one with not just good sound but great sound. I'm saving my money up and I hope to get one *maybe* by Christmas or later... Cross fingers! The one that I would really like is $9,000, but I don't think I can afford that so I'm shooting a bit lower. Okay, way lower. Like, less than $1,000. We'll see!! My birthday is coming up *gasp!* next week?? That snuck up! Yup, next Friday! Yay!! I'll have to stick one of those count down clocks up...! :D

~Till the next exciting thing!~Gwyn~