"And the Results are Pouring in now..."

(c) heh

*There is something to be said for spell checking and looking over a post before posting it as final! If you saw this post before 6:00pm today (1/15/11) I deeply apologize for all the spelling errors!

I am really enjoying watching the results coming in on the polls on the side!
It looks like (so far) this is the consensus:

• I should either name my Etsy shop Ruffle Stuff(s) or Wren Row, to match this blog.

These two are good ideas actually! I liked Ruffle Stuffs and Wren Row the best too. Although I did wonder that no one cared for the other sweet name concoctions, i.e. 'Lovetopia' or 'Curioso' ? lol :)
Also, it was neat to finally get feedback on what exactly people would buy from me (or from Etsy sellers in general.) These were tops:

• sewn items (bags, pillows, purses, jackets, clothes, dresses, satchels, knitted/crocheted things, etc.
• paper "stuffs" as they call them: books, journals, organizational stuff, stationary, etc.

Those are my favorite things to make, so that's real handy. :) However, I did actually forget to put my *favorite* thing to make in that poll: miniatures. Yes, I love miniatures! specifically the 1/12 scale. I can't get enough of them, or making them. :)

Also, it looks like the most commonly agreed upon amount of money someone would be willing to spend at my shop/ on Etsy in general is:

• $15-$20

Hm, interesting! That's actually heartening, really. And it's a fair price for most of the wonderful things sold on Etsy, too! So, dear friends & readers, I would like to say thank you for voting! The feedback helps a bunch. :)

Here's to new starts in the new Year!
~Hannah
- - - - - - - - - - - - - *Isn't God great?*

Hey, Today Is the Day!

Just wanted to say right now:
I am very excited!
About everything!!
About CHRISTMAS, and living, and cleaning my room, and starting college again next month, and.... just everything! :)
It's a funny, but nice, feeling.

Also, I want to list things I am thankfully to God for
(because remembering everything He does for me is very important!)
My beloved chum, Caroline, always inspires me to turn my thoughts this way. :)

~ my sister Lizzie.
~for playing dress up again( see picture above)
~ being able to find yummy non-dairy food to make & eat!
~the sound of the classical radio ....playing all day long. :)
~Mom's amazing-super-industriousness! If only I can learn to be so awesome. ;)
~the Bible. Yes, wow, really.
~the promise of getting together with friends & family more this month!
~the possibility of SNOW~!
~my little brother. He is so creative, he's building a huge model airplane right now!
~ribbon!
~cookies.....yum!
~books (just finished a re-reading of The Scarlett Letter, and I'm working through Debt-Free U still. Both amazing!)
~God's grace.
~having things to clean! Really, it's interesting. I may complain about doing it, but the very fact I have a home, a room, and a room of my own is a huge thing.

This is the picture of a Scarlett Tanager I started late Monday night!

I think I am highly attracted to color & solid black lines. ;)

 

 

Here's our beloved Maxi! <3 What a sweet poochie!

He likes napping on my bed. :) And he's almost 7 years old now!

Here is the room damage before! There are two huge piles (winter & summer clothes) taking over my bed!!!

If I'm ever going to get those Christmas cards out, or gifts made...this desk has to get clear as well!

Here we (me, myself & I) are half-way done! Whew...now to attack the closet and the stuff under the bed!

I am using Ashley Skabar's Dairy-Free Cooking site on About.com to make some sumptious things for the family! Her recipes are delicious and invaluable to us as a family, what with 3 of us needing dairy-free foods!
Here are a few recipes that I'm working on right now (and need to get back to ASAP!):
Deviled Eggs
Roasted Garlic Hummus
Yellow Cake
Dijon Caramel Chocolates

(c) http://www.papaspantry.org/2008Pg/Classes.htm

That last one is sounding really yummy....

When you read this, try to think of what being alive as a child of God really means. :)
It's positively a MIRACLE.
Love,

Karl, Silence, and Friends

K-a-r-l

We might be selling my car, Karl.
[insert sobbing]
I can't believe it, but it's true...this may be happening in the near, unforeseeable future!
It feels a little like sending your kid off to an orphanage! (Mom says I exaggerate here; I might be.)
But I was raised in that car, practically! My older sister, Victoria learned to drive in it, and so did I. It wasn't my brother, Josh's style so he got a VW Fox. Which was pretty cool too....but still. Nothing compares to driving my Karl, a powder blue 1986 Dodges Aries station-wagon. Thus named "Karl" for the plastic, meaningless, blocky little 'K' on the side of the driver's door. He also has this odd quirk of accelerating faster than you want to. ;) There is also absolutely no winder-shield washing fluid (the reservoir cracked and leaked ages ago), and the mice like living in the warm heating ducts. >.<
But! It's still works! Some of the time. :)
Time to let go, I tell myself.
*sniff*
And looking at the new one that will replace him (shhhh) I don't feel too bad about it anymore. ;) Who knows, maybe some artistic hippie will find him, fall in love with him and paint him psychedelic colors like I always wanted too! Wouldn't that be funny seeing the old car you sold, being driven around town like that? It'd be funny, indeed.

S.i.l.e.n.c.e

I was laying in my bed last night, trying to force myself to sleep, trying to drain the day's worries and consciousness of all the mistakes made and trying to just be quiet. Enjoy the silence. It was hard. Sometimes I feel like I am not living unless I am talking, or hearing someone talking at least. Maybe that sounds extreme. Maybe it's not though. Reading about Richard Wurmbrand, and how he spent years in solitary confinement created a gratefulness in me that hasn't gone away--a gratefulness for speech, for talk. Yes, there are times I just want to yell, "Would you all just SHUT UP!" to whoever is talking their heads off. However it is, at other times, that the comforting sound of Mom talking with Dad, or of Lizzie explaining something interesting to Mom and Jon, or the sound of a good friend's voice on the other end of the phone makes me all happy and tingly and sunshiny inside! :)
You know the feeling don't you? It's that feeling that says, "I am alive, I am human! Breathing, living, loving, hearing humanly alive!" What an amazing thing, God. (He talks too, you know.)

But silence is important at some crucial times; say, when you need to decide something. Often, if I really examined why I was talking so much, so fast I would find that I was doing it to drown out something. The other person, my heart, the situation, others' opinions,or maybe even...God Himself. :( It's true.
Silence leaves everything to the imagination.
Silence leaves room for those bottled up things in the corner of your consciousness to blow up, or diffuse.
Silence opens up an audible way for God to get to you (finally.)
Silence can be scary.
And yet, if the Lord helps you fill the silence, and helps you sort all the knots out, silence could turn out to be a good thing. A tool to open up, to grow, to humble yourself. And that, that...is wonderful thing. :)

F-r-i-e-n-d-s

My sister Lizzie, is doing a informal survey of those around her based on the question of what things are important in a friend. What must they be, to capture our hearts? At first I admit I thought this ground had been covered already, but then...when she asked me what three things I thought were most important in a friend, I had to think. And even then, the answers I gave ("a good listener", "cares about you", and "love you") seemed okay, but cliche and 'fluff' answers.

So, she got me thinking, with that survey. :) What is a friend? Or, more importantly for each of us to stare in the face:
What kind of person is a friend for me?
Who draws me, sticks with me, loves me for who I am and never leaves?
(Were the friends that drifted away even 'friends' in the first place?)
How can I be that person to someone, or several persons?

I feel like these questions (and more) are so important to answer, at least for myself, but I am definitely going to need a lot more silence around here to find some answers.

Here's to Life, and It's Questions,
~Honnah

To Ohio & Back: Part III

{As yet more happened!}...

Saturday: Canoeing, Park Day & Dancing
8am~ Despite the ungodly hour we were up at the night before after that late night scavenger hunt (and prank-pulling on the guys by a few of the girls!) we still had to get up early and leave for the canoeing/rental center by 8am-ish.

Before we went, we donned the new (first-ever-official!) CP! T-shirts we had received the night before and took groups photos in the morning sunlight.

 

Snazzy, no? :)
Collee Plus! Dayton, Ohio Event group photo
Left to Right: Rebekah, Bethany, Marie, Morgan, JD, Hattie, Brittany, Mac, Emily, Alex, Derek, Noah, Nate, India, Benjamin, Merry, Steven, Amanda, Marissa, Lisa, Atalie, Hannah (me), and Leah.
courtesy Brittany Wellvang



Goofy picture! Love this one. ;)



 Did I mention I loved the car/van rides that went on during those four days? :) It was one of the best parts of this event! How can one not have a blast being squeezed in with a bunch of other people in a vehicle and talking/singing/gabbing the whole way to your destination? ;) It's just fun.

9:30am~ We arrive there, pay for our canoes & life vests, and team up into pairs of 3-a-person per canoe. I, lucky girl, got to canoe with two of my favorite people: Ben & Hattie! :D We made a good team, if I may say so myself. ;)
10ish~ The rental center helped us find vests and bundled us into their big 15-passenger vans, over to the launch site, four miles upstream. By 10:30am, I think everyone was on the water of the creek/river. It was funny watching everyone try to grab enough oars for themselves, steer the canoes into the water, and get in without tipping over! Of course, it's funny until...it's your turn. :) Ben, Hattie & I got in fine.

Did I mention that that was my first time canoeing? It was! :D I've kayaked before, but never canoed.
I loved it; a great first experience. And Ben and Hattie had done it before so I was in good hands all around. Ben took the rear/steering, Hattie the middle, and I at the bow/front. Let me tell you, canoeing really builds arms muscles! ;)



Our canoe is the red one all the way to the right, a three-seater.
We were one of the first canoes to finish too, I believe. :)
Picture by Steven.



It was a gorgeous warm (but not hot), sunny day and the woods and surrounding areas around the creek were very pretty. I truly enjoyed this CP! activity. Kudos to whoever thought of it (the Sanders family most likely. :)

11am~ We all made it down the stream, four miles in total, with only one canoe capsizing. (I will leave those folks to anonymity. Everyone in that canoe was fine, just wet.) Thankfully, the creek was down in water capacity considerably, so the water wasn't too rough, fast or deep. :) I will look forward to trying tougher canoeing later, but in time. In time. ;)

12:30pm~ Merry, Alex, (who else? I can't remember.) went to the Waynesville grocer to pick up somethings for the picnic happening at one. That was fun too. :) The grocer reminded me of the old, old Kennie's Market we used to have in town here. Water, soda, chips, hot dogs, and...to the park!

1pm~ Park Time
Another wonderful way to spend some time hanging out and getting to know each other. :)
It took a while for everyone to get there, but eventually they did. We had a superb time eating lunch & talking and got to meet some new people too! We prayed and ate and swung in the swings, and hit balls around, played Frisbee (and Ultimate), blew bubbles, shot tiny squirt guns, laughed, talked , lounge din the grass, played four-square, explored the park, and generally had good, no GREAT time. :)

Group picture at the park!
(Noah's photo)

Nate, Mac, and Alex. Doing....what they do! :)
(Brit's picture)

Benjamin getting some serious air on those swings!
(Noah's photo)

JD & Brittany, rocking those crazy shades that got passed around all weekend!
(Emily's psychedelic ones, left; and Brit's Gucci's, right.)

~ People under the pavilion. ~
(picture credit: Steven)

Swingin'...
(Photo credit: Steven)



Leah and I, with the watermelons. Contemplating how to slice them
and enjoying their big, roundedness? I guess! ;)
Picture credit: Steven



And believe it or not, the day wasn't over yet! I'll have to save telling about the rest of this day, and Sunday, until the next post.
I'll be back....
:)

To Ohio & Back, Part II

The continuing story....

Thursday- Arrivals & Bowling
Ah, yes! The rest of Thursday I can't remember much about, except a lot of "Hi, Hello, What's your name?"s and lots of laughing & talking & settling in. Several other people showed up in the afternoon that day as well I think(?) Hattie, Amanda, Lisa and Mac, was it? :) Anyway, the more there were, the merrier! :D I could tell that it was going to be a wild, fun 4 days.



Breakfast at Grandma's again. :)

 9pm~ Bowling! That night, after pizza at a local, yummy pizza parlor, we all went over to a bowling alley for games! Only $1 per person per game, $5 for the shoes. I was on a team with Leah, JD, Steven, and Emily. I think we did really well! The guys were in contest and I was just trying to stay OUT of the gutters. :) My final game score was a personal best: 121! But even for those who didn't score high (like me, the first two games :P ) we all still had a lot of fun. :D My favorite try was throwing my pink bowling ball under my legs with Marissa and getting a strike! Leah also bought me fries which I restrained from organizing. ;) *cough*cough* Barely.

Bowling!

11pm~ We also had a late night Walmart run, whilst Leah and I found *cue music* DIET, CHERRY, VANILLA Dr. Pepper! And Skittles & Sour Patch Kids, of course.

Friday- Work Day & Movie Night.


Car ride over to the church for the work day!


10am~ Everyone up and dressed & fed, ready to head over to the Sanders' church. They were in need of some cleaning, painting and repairs. So...what better way to get it done really fast than call in a couple dozen young, able bodies? :D JD gave us a pep-talk, Leah and I made sure that we had plenty of 'fuel' for our day, and we signed up for the various teams.
The Moving/Lifters
The Cleaning Ladies
The Painters (They had the most fun, it sounded like!)
...and then there was Brit, flitting around with the camera. ;)

I was one of the cleaning ladies, as I ADORE cleaning. :) We did a complete scrub-down and organizational tornado in the nursery! Lots of windows to clean, chairs to scrub (with magic sponges) and toys to wash. Those magic sponges really worked, but they wear themselves out doing it. *boohoo* lol. I also discovered lots of dead spiders and grime in the kitchen windows.  The painters had a blast singing while painting... Brit recording it all on film. :P :)
1pm-ish~ Lunchtime! Merry and Rebekah (I think?) worked on making a sumptuous chili for all of us! It was delicious. :) Everyone chowed down, while I discovered that there is a strange chemical reaction that happens when you put soda + Skittles together. (They turn rock hard and the soda loses its sweetness! Strange....) After lunch, people started finishing up and doing whatever.

2-4pm-ish~ Me and a couple others headed back to the house to take showers that couldn't be gotten in any other time while Merry and Beks hid the balloons for the BIG scavenger hunt that was to happen later that evening. :) Balloons allllll over the yard! It looked hilarious. Then, back to the church.
Turns out, the rest had a great jam session/hymn sing while we were gone! :( Sad to miss that, but it was nice to get cleaned up.


Brit & I! <3

6-9pm~ Cleaning up the church areas, moving the furniture back in, rearranging stuff. I finished the toy-cleaning and paint roller washing with Mac. We all watched The Emperor's New Groove (which I never saw before, but is a hilarious movie!!)

10-12pm~ Back to the house for that scavenger hunt! We divided into five teams and went out. it turned out to be a lot trickier than we thought, because several of the balloons popped and it just wasn't that easy seeing the balloons! The winning team had garnered around 500+ points from the balloons they found, which included a black one (100 points.) :) Way to go people!
1am~ Crash time! I was T-I-R-E-D. Made a call home and then went right to bed. :)

To be continued...