Remember my doll, whom I decided to give a scarf, hat, and some new hair? Well, after Mom made my pantaloons for me for Christmas, I used maybe five inches that was left of the lace to make my dear girl some pantaloons also, matching and much smaller.

I just sewed them to her legs, so whenever she dresses, they will always be sticking out from underneath her skirts and dresses.

Also, since it is 3 degrees here and the wind chill makes it negative 20 degrees, and on Sundays we walk across the lot to church, I have finally made some changes in my attire. I have incorporated my boots into my regular line up of shoes. I actually wore them with my skirt in church this morning, and no one minded…that’s what I call a church family.

I swiped this tag/list from my dear friend Bluejane…I hope you learn a little more about my writing…

Do you prefer handwriting or typing furiously? I used to type because it was faster, but now I used ink and a dipping pen

How often do you get inspiration? Constantly

Do you get inspiration more in the early morning or late at night? Usually in the evenings, mornings I am too busy

Do certain movies/books/music inspire you? Absolutely

How do you incorporate God into your stories? I try to show my respect for my faith in my stories

Do you kill off your villains or make them repent? I try to make them see their wrong in some light, but occasionally a uncouth man will see his fate by the end of chapter 28

Is the majority of your characters magical beings, humans or halflings? Or something else? My characters are humans on a place called Earth, heard of it?

What genre of writing are you most comfortable in? If you were to step out of your comfort zone? I write life stories. I add romance, wit, drama, denial, betrayal, and many other genres into a plot

Do you work better alone or with someone else? By myself, I tried writing a story with my cou-sins, however I realized I am an independent writer

Do your stories make sense, or do they ramble wildly? I try with all of my pen to make them see reason, but occasionally my characters go off on their own and ruin the plot

Are your characters mostly Renegades, Peacekeepers or a mish-mash? all of the above

Are you a sucker for good grammar? I have to admit yes, but I am all for olde English

How is your handwriting? It is not that bad, I can read it

How evil are your villains? I do not make them demon possessed but sometimes the immorality of their sin nature will cause some destruction amongst their acquaintances

Are you long-winded or succinct? succinct in ordinary life, but long winded when speaking with my pen

Do you have typical writer traits such as ink stains on your fingers or a pencil behind your ear? right now I have ink stains on my fingers…look…

(It is usually a lot worse)

Do you write mostly poetry, stories, novels or a mixture? I have been getting better at poetry, I occasionally write little stories, and I am an avid novelist

Do your characters vary in accents, appearance and attitude or are they mostly the same? I enjoy English characters with good English accents, and adding some foreigners (to them) like Bohemians, Americans, Egyptians, etc.

Do real people and/or places inspire your writing? I base character qualities and faults that I see in others into my own creations. And if I see a nice picture of an English country garden or an ivy covered cottage I whip out my pen and ink and start scribbling

What is your favorite character? Or do you choose to remain unbiased in case of a revolt? Character, as in a book? I would have to say…Judah Ben Hur, but from one of my own stories…I would have to go with my dear Ada Livingston, an English lady who is blind and talented, and being blind she is able to see people by who they really are…through their speech and tone, and not have to worry about their dress or physical features

Do you talk to your characters? I will occasionally speak as if I was in my story, just to get a feel for the scene

Are you more comfortable with girl or boy main characters? I like women characters, and yet the male characters are not that difficult to write into the story

Do you follow basic overused plot lines with new twists thrown in or do you depart from the norm all the time? I use the plot lines that I like - from my own imagination, and if it so happens to be from Austen, Dickens, Stevenson, or Gaskell…so be it…they just used it a couple hundred years earlier than I

Do you feel God has called you to be a writer/poet? I believe that God has given me a natural DESIRE to write, but as far as a GIFT, I am not sure. I usually end up explaining twice what is going on to my family…but I just keeping saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

For years we have had trouble finding a place to put our dozens of Christmas cards that come flooding in from December the 1st. A couple of years we stuck them on the side of our windows, another year we placed them on top of the piano, but I was never truly satisfied on how we displayed them…me being the neat freak of the family. So when my aunt sent us a link to this we decided to give this new way of displaying C.C.’s  a try.

So we gathered a few small twiggish branches from our treeline (which had some natural colour) we then placed them into a ‘vahze’, and arranged them accordingly to where they would sit, which ended up on the piano for the moment. But they were a little bare so we added left over cranberries from the garlands into the ‘vahze’, and it looked much better.

Ours of course does not look like the photograph, but it has a country feel to it, and everyone else likes it so I suppose we can keep it. We currently have three cards upon it.

(Click on the picture to see it a little better)

I thought I would post these two pictures of our own Winter Wonderland

The leaf left behind.

Our six year old puppy Jenna Hope romping in the snow…and it looks like she is smiling.

For about a month or so, I have been cutting strips of fabric and tying them together to form a ball of fabric/string so I could crochet them into a bag, because Mom makes bags out cut up plastic bags from the store…a great recycle idea by the way. So after countless ’second tries’ I finally finished the bag…somewhat disappointed am I. The handles are a bit too long…okay they almost touch the ground on a short person like I, however it looks great on Mom, someone tall.

And, after my horrible experience with trying to see without my glasses, and a somewhat undesirable visit to the eye poofer/ puts the light WAY too close to my eyes/ doctor, I have finally got my new frames. I am still a little wary about them, but I guess they will do. At least I can distinguish my letters…it was horrible…like learning to read again.

These are the OLD frames:

These are the NEW frames:

After reading my cousin’s post about little crafty things to accessorize your little dolls and stuffed animals…I felt compelled to sit down and give my dear Marjorie something other than a dress. So I started working on a little knitted scarf and then decided to give her some hair. The poor little girl didn’t even have hair! Ugghh! What kind of steward am I to my poor creatures!

First I knitted her a very soft little scarf, to match her spring dress…which is her only formal dress at the moment. I also added tassels…for I must admit that I didn’t bind off very well. So I needed a distraction basically.

Then I gave her some hair…which is really some really fuzzy yarn that I sewed into her head. She had some hair drawn onto her for a few years, but then I decided she needed some proper hair.

It took me one day to completely cover her drawn hair…while Mom read to me during school…watching movies…free time. I think she looks adorable, personally, but I am probably biased.

And here she is with both her new scarf, and bundle of rich blond hair. I am now in the process of making her a little hat, and adding a few inches of lace to all areas of her dress.

And just a little note. The button that acts as a pin to her scarf is actually super glued onto an old earring, that holds the two pieces of the the scarf together…keeping her comfortably warm and stylish.

I am Feeling:

Creative

I enjoy dressing up pictures on our little cheap image setup, but it is fun, and thanks to my cousin, I can do a little more with fonts.

I adore the Jane Austen font, and I also like this picture I took of Emily Rose, so I combined the two together for a whimsical photo.

Then this one is of a rose, obviously, and I thought the phrase “May I?” had an old chivalrous tone to it.

And then this butterfly photo was too cute not to do SOMETHING with it.