5 Not-So-Bad Things About Having a Cold

5. Kleenex won’t go out of business. Isn’t that a relief?  Although half the time I use alternative things like paper towels, TP, etc.  But don’t tell them that….

4. You can threaten people invading your personal space by merely saying,”Don’t make me breathe on you!” (Even if you aren’t contagious, this one normally works….unless they can’t understand you because you’re incredibly hoarse or starting every word with a ‘B’ because your nose is stuffed up)

3. I *thought* having a cold might exempt me, or at least lessen the necessity for me to answer the phone at my job.  I was mistaken.  And in addition to that, the phone was the busiest it’s been in a long time.  Sigh….Murphy’s Law for sure.

2. Colds normally make you cold.  Or at least not-warm.  What do you do to fix that?  Wear warm clothes.  Guess who has lots of warm, knitted accessories….. Me!  I won’t complain about an opportunity to wear my knitting.  Even if I can’t see it because my eyes are watering so much.  

1. I appreciate being healthy so much more after I get over being sick.  Maybe I’m just an ungrateful person, but I have a hard time thinking that I’m only one that does that.  Anyway, getting back to normal feels so good after being sick.  

Bonus points: You can’t smell.  You might think this isn’t a benefit, and any other time I would agree.  But my lack of that specific sense saved me from something everyone else in the office yesterday got the “privilege” of smelling. 😉  I’ll spare the details.  

If it wasn’t obvious, I’m getting over a cold. Thankfully, typing isn’t affected by a stuffy nose.  

Flattered Friday- Sunshine Blogger Award

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Hannah for nominating me for the Sunshine Blogger Award.  I don’t feel like my blog has been particularly “sun-shiny” recently….It seems more like it has been hiding behind a tree or something!  All the same, it was very sweet of you to nominate me.  And coincidentally, if you all go to Hannah’s blog, you will see that she was nominated by yet another Hannah, so I almost have a secret challenge- to find another Hannah somewhere and nominate her blog!  We’ll see how that goes…. 🙂 Here are the rules-

1. Thank whoever nominated you(Hannah!)
2. Answer the questions set for you
3. Nominate eleven other bloggers and set eleven questions for them

Now to the questions-

1. Do you generally prefer the book or the movie? And why?

I think I normally prefer the book to a movie- there is just so much a movie normally misses!  But, books take longer….so I’m not going to say movies are always a bad thing either. 😉

2. What is one thing you like best about yourself?

Can I just skip this one?  I don’t like to pick favorite qualities about myself- it makes me feel weird.

3. Are there any kinds of foods you will not eat under any circumstances?

I really, REALLY try to avoid mushrooms and fish, but end up eating them sometimes anyway.  Unless I was starving to death, I think that there are a few things I wouldn’t eat under any circumstances like squid, liver, etc.

4. Are you a cat person, dog person, neither, or maybe some other (for example, fish or snake) kind of person?

It’s interesting that you should ask this question, because I happen to be cat-sitting this week!  My family has a couple dogs(I like dogs a lot), but we can’t have a cat because half my family is allergic to them(I am not).  So, I’ve been enjoying my week with these cats and thought maybe when I have my own place, I’d get one that doesn’t shed, because the cat hair EVERYWHERE really gets me down.  Then I had to clean out the litter box.  I’m now having second thoughts about owning a cat in the future, unless it is trained to go outside.  In summary, I would not say I’m any particular type of animal person.

5.When you watch movies in the theatres, do you get popcorn?

My family does sometimes, but I don’t normally eat it.  First of all, I’m not a *huge* fan of popcorn(yes, I am an American, even if I don’t like popcorn!). Secondly, it makes you sooooo thirsty!  I think that’s a tactic of the movie-people to get you to buy over-priced water/soda, but don’t tell them I said that.

6. If you could be instantly fluent in another language, which language would it be?

There are a lot of languages that I would love to just instantly be fluent in, but I think Spanish would probably be the most useful.

7. Do you believe in love at first sight? Why/why not? Or friends at first sight, maybe?

I don’t know, I think I only believe in it to a certain extent because so much of a person(personality, goals, beliefs, etc.) can’t be seen at “first sight”.

8. Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? Or introverted extrovert or extroverted introvert?

Good question!  I am trying to become an extroverted introvert, but it’s a slow process…..

9. Do you like smoothies?

Not really.

10.How about milkshakes?

Yes!!! Especially any type of chocolate milkshake.

11. If you could meet a younger version of yourself, what would you tell them?

I would try to convince my younger self that it’s not so scary to be a little more outgoing, and to actually talk to people.  They aren’t really that scary, in fact most of them are quite nice! 😀  But, I probably wouldn’t succeed in convincing myself-  I was painfully introverted.

Now that you made it through all those questions, here are my nominees-

Hannah  Haha!  Yes! I found another Hannah. =D And….

Anna!  I just feel all over it today- I found a Hannah AND an Anna.

Benedicte

Rebekah

Ruthie

Phew!  Almost half way done….

Renee

Queen Aej

Teddy

Tiegan

Benji

Sophie

Those are all great blogs(very sun-shiny too) so check them out if you have the time!

And to all the bloggers mentioned above, here are your questions!

1. What is your perfect day, weather-wise?  Sun-shiny?  Stormy?  A little bit of both?
2. If you are feeling down, what do you do to make yourself feel better?
3. Do you ever go through dry spells with blogging?  Please tell me that I’m not the only one….
4. What was the last book you read?
5. Are you the type of person to strike up a conversation with a stranger?
6. If a stranger strikes up a conversation with you, what is your first thought?  Is it “Hey, a new friend!  I’m so happy right now!”  Or “Why me???”  Or none of the above?
7. Did you go on vacation over the summer?  If so, where did you go?  If not, we have something in common. 😉
8. Are you a big city person?  Or a rural country person?  Or a small town person?
9. Blue or red?
10. Are you a tall person, a short person, or somewhere in between?
11. Why are there 11 questions?  Why couldn’t it be 10?  10 is such a nice number.  What is your favorite number?

So….there.  Now I have a solar-powered blog post. I hope you are having a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

An Open Letter to Writers Everywhere

Dear Writers Everywhere,

Something that I’ve had on my mind recently is writing.  By “recently”, I mean in the past couple weeks(when I haven’t been blogging….), and by “writing” I mean blogs, newspapers, books- all the different forms, but especially the book part.

What has held my fascination for so long is my admiration for fictional story-writers.  All other writers are great in their own right, I am not saying fictional story-writing is the only good sort of writing by any stretch.  It’s just the one category that I find particularly enamoring because it’s the one I feel completely incapable of doing!  I’ve done pretty much every other kind of writing I think- research papers, poetry, speeches(very few of those, thankfully), and even short stories.  But whenever I try to do a full-blown chapter-after-chapter story, I find that I am without material.  Call me unimaginative.  Maybe it just means I’m not a very good writer.  Either way, it can’t be done, so I have a deep appreciation for fictional story writers, especially the ones who write well AND have a good story.

I think for most people, writing takes at least some effort.  You can tell me if you think I’m wrong, but it’s my opinion.  At the very least, it takes some thought.  Research papers take research and a lot of time and thought.  Poetry takes rhyming skills, imagination, and time and thought.  Speeches take at least some boldness to speak them to the crowd(and some time and thought- otherwise your audience will be disinterested).  Short stories take time, imagination, and more thought and more effort!

Now with fictional stories, you don’t have a limit on how long your audience will listen to you speak(although it’s a good thing to keep their attention!), and you don’t have any history/facts to use for your writing material like there is for a research paper.  There’s no rule for rhyming the words….You are pretty much all on your own creating content for a story.  This is what fascinates me….

It’s fascinating that you can keep all your character’s personalities straight as you write the story and keep them true to character.  It’s fascinating that you can write one chapter at a time, focusing on the “now” of the story, while still keeping in mind what you will need to accomplish for the twists and turns later in the story.  It’s fascinating that you have the imagination to come up with a story so different from anything else out there that it is worth reading versus some other story.  It’s fascinating that you don’t get bored with the story after a while, and give up).  I think that’s what I’ve done with pretty much every story I started to write- I came up with what I thought was a BRILLIANT beginning, but had nothing to follow it. I’m obviously just fascinated. 🙂

So thank you to all writers out there for being who you are.  I promise I appreciate all your work, whether it’s fictional, poetry, biographical, or one of the many other types of writing!  Reading your writing makes life more interesting.  Thank you so much for putting your thoughts, imagination, work, and time onto paper(or a computer screen).

And then there are editors and illustrators…..But I’ll save that for some other time. 😉  Have a wonderful rest of your week, and keep on writing!

It’s Just June….

Hello!  How would you like to hear how crazy my June was?  And it’s not even over quite yet…. I knew June was going to be busy, I guess I just didn’t understand the full extent of it!  This is my fourth “What Happened? Week”, for anyone who’s counting, and here we go.

Actually before we jump into June, I’m pretty sure I have a little left of May to share!  At the very end of May, the day after I posted on my blog of course, I had an interesting weekend.  My family and I went to a birthday party for my aunt, and the day before my dad went shopping for her before he came and picked me up from work.  Due to that fact, I got to stand around and talk to the security guy of the building for a good 15 minutes.  We covered a wide range of topics- I am not even kidding.  Before I get too long-winded here, all you need to know is that we discussed how I work part-time.  Ten minutes later, I talked with a lady(who the security guy had talked to) who expressed an interest in hiring me on the days I don’t already work!  Now that makes it worthwhile to stand around and wait for a ride home!  The only thing that has happened with that this month is I talked to the lady again and she said they are definitely looking for someone.  Maybe I’ll have something exciting to share in July…. 🙂

Anyway, back to June.

• My sisters and I had our dance recital!  It was great.  The week before it we had two nights of recital-run-through where we met at the studio, without costume and just performed our dances.  Both nights went pretty well!  I also got myself a fan club by hanging out with the 5-6 year old class.  Apparently I’m pretty popular with that age group!  They are just the sweetest things….Back to the recital, we had the dress rehearsal Friday night and it went quite well too!  I drove home that night thinking “This is not right….Nothing ever goes perfectly all three nights before the recital….”  You can call that my Miss Clavel moment.  Sure enough, Saturday morning comes, day of the recital, and one of the advanced dancers who is in a lot of dances AND has a solo, is sick with the flu.  Our dance teacher went into full-on stressed-out mode, and she’s normally emotional enough at these things….After a half hour of feeling sick myself about what was going to happen, a decision was made- our dance teacher was the only one who knew all her dances, and she fit in the costumes….so our dance teacher did them!  After that got resolved, the whole thing came off pretty well!  And we had QT Frozen Hot Chocolate afterwards to celebrate. 🙂
• That same weekend, on Sunday, my sister’s graduation party was held in the afternoon. It was a rather hot day, but at least it wasn’t raining.  Rain would’ve been fine too, other than that we had at least 20 cars parked in our yard….   That evening we crashed on the sofa.  After all that had been happening for the past couple weeks, we were all worn out!  So we sat around and ate chip dips and cupcakes(of which there were plenty) and watched tv.
• The strawberries slowed down a lot!  We enjoyed them while they lasted….Now our zucchini are starting to come in.
• The Luna Moth Shawl is finished! And I really like it.  I began the next project last night- I’m trying to knit a baby dress. We’ll see how that turns out- my experience with knitted clothing has been limited, and hasn’t turned out the best.  But I’m determined to succeed!  Maybe someday a sweater will make its way on my needles….
• The week after our crazy weekend was pretty mild….but then things started to pick up again.  And I honestly don’t remember most of what happened, up until last week. I hope I’m not forgetting anything too terribly exciting!  I’ll probably remember it right after I hit “publish”.  😉
• This past weekend we had a choice of about 8 social events we could go to, and we went to a lot less than that.
• Last Friday I had a spur-of-the-moment outing, which I rarely ever do- I went to a play with friends.  It was “My Fair Lady”.  I really enjoyed what I saw of it, but I didn’t get to see that much of it.  It was an outside stage, and the seats were outside too….and it started raining.  So everyone put up their umbrellas and got cold. My little group almost had a full-blown shelter due to our abundance of umbrellas!  However, I still managed to get wet.  After only having seen about an hour of the performance, and having sat there for at least that long, our group decided to leave.  One of us had to get up and be at work at 7:00 the following morning, and some of the others were hungry….So we went to Steak ‘n Shake, had a jolly time, and observed all the interesting people that come out after 11:00 p.m.
• Last Saturday, my family and I went to a graduation party and an ice cream social.  Both were quite fun!  After a week of rain, it was sunny and hot- exactly what I would want for an ice cream social.  I don’t like to eat ice cream when it’s not hot, because then I just get cold….
• Sunday was Father’s Day(I hope you all remembered!) and we just had a stay-around-the-house day.  It was quite nice.
• A couple days ago we attacked our garden with hoes.  We didn’t actually have to get that aggressive because the ground was still wet from all the rain we have gotten. And now our garden looks beautiful and mostly weed-free!
• Yesterday I held a 5-year-old in my lap while she slept…..It was sooooooo nice.  I love children.  It was wonderful.  The only sort-of downside was that I couldn’t do very much work other than answer the phone, and a few other things.  Yes, I was at work, but the little girl happens to be the daughter of my boss, so….I wasn’t too, too concerned about it.
• My little brother found a Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar.  I’ve done Monarchs and Eastern Black Swallowtails before, but not Spicebush, so I’m kind of excited.  It is in a chrysalis now, after consuming many Sassafras leaves.  It’s name is Mr. Spicy Pants.  I like the name Sir Spicebush better, but I didn’t find him, so I don’t get to name him apparently. I must concede though that it is a fine name- I like to picture a caterpillar wearing pants with a little Jalepeño print on them. 🙂
• In a couple days, my friends and I are planning to do something.  We don’t know for sure what yet, but we have considered 1.Hiking 2.A game night or 3.Biking at night    I’m kind of hoping for one of the first two since my bike isn’t in working condition.  I so wish it was…..I love bike-riding. Originally, we were just considering hiking, but that’s been up in the air since….
• The river started flooding. The Mississippi River has had a lot of water flowing through recently.  So much so that it couldn’t contain it all.  We aren’t stranded or anything. It has caused some interesting detours on our trip to work, but that’s about it….so far.
• I got to play volleyball again.  This time I got a bruise AND I hit the ball so hard backwards that it flew into somebody’s fenced-in yard.  One of our players was a good sport(more so than playing with me, haha), hopped the fence and found the ball.  But in throwing it back over, he managed to get it stuck in the electrical lines.  We have exceptional skills, I would just like to point that out. 😉  We got it back out without doing harm to the ball, the lines, or the players, and we all played happily ever after.
• I’m trying to get back into my exercise routine- I stopped before the dance recital because I was afraid that something would happen the week before, like I’d pull something, break something, you know, and render me incapable of performing.  It could happen!  But I haven’t done such a great job jumping right back in, but I’m working on it.
• I remembered!  Do you recall that thing I said waaaaay back at the beginning of my post?  The week I forgot?  Well, I remembered- we went to a ball.  It was a Summer Ball where we do English Country dancing.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s the type of dancing that they do in Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, etc.  Regency Era style. 🙂  That was a lot of fun.

I think that’s about it!  Like I said, it was just June.  I’m ready for a little less excitement in July, but that may or may not happen.  Bring it on!  I survived June, I can survive July.  🙂  It really wasn’t too bad, I’m just used to being a home-body, and I’m fairly introverted, so partying can be really draining.  Anyway,  it’s been fun!  Did you do anything exciting in June?  I’d love to hear about it.  Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of this lovely June!

I’m Creative?!?

The rules for this award are:

• Nominate 15-20 blogs and notify all nominees via their social media/blogs
• Thank and post the link of the blog that nominated you
• Share 5 facts about yourself to your readers
• Tell the nominees these rules

Thank you so, SO much to Teddy’s New Bear for nominating me for the Creative Blogger Award.  I am very flattered this Friday. 🙂

Five facts about me:

1. I am knitting a shawl for myself.  It feels a little indulgent, since I am supposed to be building up my stock for my Etsy shop, but I really wanted to do it….so I did.  I’m using the Luna Moth Shawl pattern and my yarn is royal blue so it should be really pretty when it is complete!  For a while I got stuck in a green-hat rut, where I just kept making green hats….Different styles and different shades, but they are all green and they all go on a head.  I didn’t even realize it until I had three green hats sitting around my room looking bored because nobody wants to wear cozy green hats this time of year.  It’s not easy being green(and warm), you know….
2. At 5:00 yesterday morning, I was attacked in my sleep by a beetle.  Just one pass wasn’t enough.  It happened several times before I woke up.  Then it got caught in my braided hair.  By this time, my sister had woken up, but had no idea what I was doing.  I just looked like a flailing maniac to her.  Mr. Beetle died later that morning, and it was not of natural causes.
3. My pen-pal and I have been writing letters to each other for over 10 years!  Not the most regularly(I’m pretty bad at replying quickly), but it’s still 10 years+.  That’s a lot of snail mail.
4. I love the mini-series “Pride and Prejudice” with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.  My family has watched it together for years.  So many years in fact that when I was little and we watched it, I would only watch it for the part where Colin Firth would jump in the lake.  I was young enough that I had no appreciation for the amazing dialogue.  Sad but true. So the lake scene was my favorite.  Weird.            4.5 I can’t juggle. *Heaves a heavy sigh*
5. Lastly, I would just like to point out that I don’t think I have ever been called creative.  Crafty yes, creative no.  Kind of sad if you think about it!  I have now though.  Even more flattered-ness to my Friday!  And I will leave you to wonder if I’m crafty in the “arts and crafts” sense, the “cunning and devious” sense, or both!

That was  lot of “I”s, but it was supposed to be 5 facts about me, I guess.  And now I have to nominate people.  Another fun fact about me: I’m too lazy to nominate that many people.  Here are the nominees-

• AMBient
• Future Stella I Love You
• Hann
• Benedicteaadland
• Single Family Asylum

Well, that’s five….  They are all great blogs and I highly recommend checking them out! Nominees- your rules are at the top of this blog post. 😉  Thank you again to my nominator,  she has a pretty cool blog that should be explored as well!

Have a terrific weekend, and be creative!  If possible, that is.  Speaking for myself, it can be kind of difficult…. but I’ll try!

Tag….You’re It!

I have inadvertently gotten myself tagged, thanks to Glaiza.  She has a lovely blog, Glimmer of Happiness, and at the end of her Love-Hate post, she tags everyone who read it.  Obviously, I had to follow through!

I’ve seen tags before, but never done one.  This particular tag looks fun!  It will most likely consist of me sitting in front of a computer for an hour trying to come up with 20 things I either love or hate.  How hard can it be?  Well, if you know me very well at all, you know have a terrible time making decisions.  But I’ll give it a go anyway.

Rules: Share 10 things you love and 10 things you hate, then nominate up to 10 blogs to do the same.

I’m going to do it a little differently though, and start with the hate.  That way, I get to end on a positive note and tell you all the stuff I love.  Saving the best for last, in other words. 🙂

Stuff I dislike, but don’t really hate, because there are very few things I really hate, and it’s a very strong word…..And here they are:

1. Wasps.  I think it’s fairly safe to say I actually hate wasps
2. Spiders.  Definitely not my favorite either, but not as bad as wasps.
3. Being late.  I can’t stand being late.  And it can’t even be called “fashionably late” because I’m just not that fashionable.
4. Eating fish.  Shrimp are about the only seafood I like, other than salmon in one particular dish that my mom makes.
5. Plucking chickens.
6. Being the center of attention in a large group, and having to utter words.  It’s the worst.
7. Other people wearing my clothes.  It’s fine if they ask first, but if that hasn’t been done I really don’t appreciate it.
8. Being cold.  Especially my hands and feet, which are always cold.
9. Having a fan blowing on me.  There is something about the inconsistency and the cool air together that really bugs me.
10. Being unsure of where I am driving.  This is why it is best to have a GPS.  I have my sister instead, and believe me- she’s much less annoying when giving directions than any automated person is.  There is also my iphone, which is muted in such cases as to avoid being bossed around by….it.

Thing-a-ma-bobs I love, in no particular order:

1. My family
2. Knitting!!!! And knitting!!!! And knitting!!!!  If you haven’t seen Peewee Herman….never mind.  I love knitting.
3. My room.  It’s my favorite place when I get to knit and listen to music, or have a nice talk with someone.
4. Music.  Have you heard the phrase “Life without music would B♭”?  Those are my sentiments exactly….
5. Chocolate, especially M&Ms, but chocolate in general.
6. Spring.  The flowers are blooming, the weather is beautiful, and spring fever sets in.
7. Getting messages( be it email, text, or real mail like pen and paper stuff) from friends for no particular reason, just because. 🙂
8. Being with my good and true friends.
9. Snuggling with little kids.  Pretty much doing anything with children, actually!
10. Butterflies.  I love butterflies.

And there ya go!  Hopefully you weren’t bored reading those.  I know some of them are fairly obvious, but maybe you were surprised by some of them.  And following Glaiza’s example….If you read this, tag!  You’re it!!!  I’d love to read what you mildly detest, loathe with your whole being, kind of like, or just really love.  I didn’t want to have to follow the rules and pick just 10 bloggers….So I picked all of you! Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

May and the Musical Appliances

Here are all the occurrences from May!  Nothing too, too exciting,  but hopefully nothing boring either.  😉  Quite a bit of this happened last week because my memory just doesn’t remember the previous weeks that well.  But I’ll get started, as I am sure you are dying with curiosity what I did with my month, and how it relates to what I mentioned in the title of this blog post!

• We got musical appliances, giving a whole new meaning to the name SamSUNG.  We have owned a Samsung refrigerator and dishwasher for a while now, but just recently replaced our washer and dryer.  They are both quite the musical performers, for appliances anyway.
• As our dance recital gets closer, the dance studio where some of my sisters and I take classes had a picture night.  We had to dress up in our costumes, do our hair, smile, be blinded by the camera….all the while being suffocated by sparkles, sequins, and hairspray.  I’ve danced a long time, and love it, but I still have no regard for sparkly stuff whatsoever.  I guess it’s just not meant to be!  By the way, our dance recital is next month, so more on that later!
• I got to play volleyball for the first time this year- it was great.  And I got a lovely bruise on my wrist from hitting the ball too hard.  In the wrong direction.  Multiple times.  Needless to say, I was not the MVP.
• We celebrated Memorial Day by going to the oldest Memorial Day parade in the country.  It started in 1868.
• I had a friend over for the holiday.  Friends are just the best. 🙂
• Our truck decided to break down on Memorial Day, but everyone made it home safely and our poor, old truck is getting repaired….
• I tried a Frozen Hot Chocolate smoothie from QT.  I should have tried it sooner!
• We had young friends stay over with us for almost a week- that was fun, and it’s always interesting adjusting to having different people in the house
• We are preparing for one of my sisters’ graduation party.  In trying to make our house presentable to our general acquaintances, it’s turned into a slight renovation of the house.  I’m only exaggerating a little.
• Our meat chickens made a change of residency- they went from the garden to our freezer, with a little work in between.  But I’ll spare you the details, just know that I was stuck plucking, and dread the day I shall have to again.
• Our strawberry patch started producing earlier this month, and has yet to stop.  Our table that had been covered in small plants and dirt is now covered in beautiful, sun-ripened, delicious strawberries.  I had forgotten how good they taste!  My family had a strawberry patch several years ago in our garden, but were replaced with vegetables.  Last year we turned one of our hills into a terrace-type thing called a swale, and planted a ton of strawberry plants.  We are now reaping the benefits, plus some.  I do believe that today we begin the making of strawberry preserves….
• In addition to the graduation party we are having, I have already been to one this month with more to come.  It’s typically fun to go to those and see the baby pictures, socialize, and eat cake.
• We got more chicks.  This time they are egg-layers, and much cuter.
• On my way to a dog-sitting job, with two nine-year-old backseat drivers, I saw baby foxes!  They were just hanging out by the road, but thankfully not on the road.  Did you know that a baby fox can be called a kit, cub, or pup?  At least that’s the story that Google is telling, and they’re sticking with it!
• Our garden has been slowly coming together.  There will be some planting, and then it will rain, then more planting, then more rain.
• My sister and I began a thing called oil-pulling.  We swish coconut oil around in our mouths for 20 minutes every morning.  It’s not the most pleasant thing in the world- who would like a tablespoon full of coconut-flavored oil in their mouth?  It’s like shortening with coconut flakes in it.  But that’s only for the first half a minute or so.  After that it melts.  Our respective motives for doing this odd thing actually vary.  The oil-pulling is supposed to pull bacteria out of your mouth.  In doing so, it can have the added benefit of whitening teeth, and better health for teeth(like cavities and such).  My sister is interested in the teeth whitening, I am very interested in reversing a partial cavity I have because going to the dentist is not, by any stretch, something I enjoy.  We’ll see if we each get our wishes…. Another added benefit is that our teeth feel clean and glossy all day.
• Lastly, I have been knitting.  I have been working on an eternity scarf/cowl.  It has checkers of a caramel color and a chocolate color.  I like it quite a bit, but being that I don’t wear a whole lot of scarves, it’s going on  my Etsy shop.  So look for it on there soon, if you want to see it anyway….  🙂  Or I might put a picture of it on Instagram- @Hannah__Abell I’d love to know what you think!

I’m thinking that’s about it!  Like I said, nothing too exciting.  But then again, you can’t say I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs either.  I hope you had a wonderful month of May!  I’d love to hear what you did.  🙂  Thanks for reading, and have a lovely weekend.

Don’t Read This Until Friday!

Don’t read this until Friday!!!  That’s supposed to be my award day, but I didn’t want to wait….So, I’m doing my Sisterhood of the World Blogger Award today.  I hope you don’t mind.  You have a couple choices- you can just pretend it’s Friday or you just ignore the fact that I said I was going to do awards on Fridays.  I chose to do the latter….

Anyway, thank you so, so much to Benedicte for nominating me! 🙂  That was very sweet of you! Everyone should go check out her blog….

Her questions for me are:

1) Where is the best place in world you have been?

Home is probably the best place I have ever been. 🙂

2) What was the last thing you ate?

M&Ms!!!!! They are the best, and my favorite candy.

3) Which animal do you compare yourself with?

Hmm…Maybe a puppy?  I like to think I’m cute and cuddly, haha.

4) What is your favorite candy?

If you don’t know already, I don’t know what to tell you…. (psst- it’s M&Ms!)

5) Have you ever been in Norway?

No, I haven’t.  I’ve actually never traveled internationally, but it looks beautiful based on the picture I’ve seen!
6) What’s your nickname?

I have quite a few different nicknames that people call me… It’s kinda nice. My top three are Hannah banana, Little Hannah, and Nan.  I actually really only dislike one nickname that I have ever been called, and that was Hannah Montana. Ugh.  My favorite is Nan.  It’s what my mom calls me. 🙂
7) If you could choose, would you be a female or a male?

I’m normally pretty happy with being a girl….
8) What do you do for study or job?

I work as a receptionist/secretary, and I’m trying to have a regular knitting business- To Knit or Knot on Etsy.

9) What’s your favorite quote?

My favorite quote is by Thomas Jefferson- “Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”
10) What’s your party trick?

Sadly, I don’t have a party trick….But I don’t go to that many parties, so I guess I’m okay with that.

Okay, so Benedicte’s questions being answered, I get to come up with my own and select the nominees….Hehe!

1. What is the best thing that happened to you today?
2. When telling a story, do you express yourself using words or body language and facial expressions?
3. What is your favorite movie/TV show?
4. Sunny day or rainy day?
5. Do you have a favorite famous person?
6. When do you do your best thinking- early in the day?  Or late at night?
7. What are you passionate about?
8. Where was the last place you had fun?
9. Why did you start a blog?
10. Where would you go, if you could go anywhere in the world?

And now those lucky people that get to answer have to put up with my questions are:

Missy’s Crafty Mess

College and Me

Semper Fidelis

Discovering Ratchet

Hann

It’s not imperative that you answer my questions, but it’d be awfully nice if you did!  I look forward to your answers, nominees.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week! 🙂

Real Neat!

The Real Neat Blog Award, thanks to the Real Neat Renee. 🙂

Well….As you know, Thursday is my “normal” post day, and Friday is my award day. sort of. officially, now that it’s been decided by a very indecisive individual(me).  I’ve decided to start “Flattered Fridays”, when I’m so flattered to have an award to post. 🙂  If you have any better suggestions, feel free to share them!  I’m also thinking that maybe the last week of the month will be “What Happened?” Week (kind of like my March Madness post).  I’ll just let you know what happened in my life for the past month.  Unless it was really boring, and then I’ll probably skip it. 😉

If you don’t have a calendar in front of you, or for some reason forgot that it’s FRIDAY, let me remind you- it’s Friday.  Hence, award day.  This is partly because I missed my regular post yesterday due to a visit with a good friend, and partly because I thought “huh, award day is a good idea- it’s gives me a routine kind of thing”.  So be aware that I am starting a ritual.

This time I was nominated by Renee, who has a very neat blog herself and seems to be a big fan of Boba, whatever that is. 🙂  It’s the Real Neat Blog award- how neat is that!  So here we go….

The rules are:

• Put the Award Logo on your blog
• Answer seven questions by the person who nominated you
• Thank the people who nominated you, linking to their blog
• Nominate any number of blogs for the award, linking to their blog
• Let them know that you nominated them for the award

Renee’s questions for me:

1. Favorite animal?

Do butterflies count?  Butterflies are my favorite! 🙂

2. Favorite place to travel and why?

Well, my experience with travel has been limited, but Chicago is a fun place to go. I like to go there because it’s so different from how and where I live-  I come from a very rural area, and it’s a super-duper huge city!

3. What kind of person do you aspire to be one day?

This is hard.  But I would say, I want to be a blessing to others. That’s the kind of person I want to be.

4. Best book you’ve ever read and why?

I have a tough time picking favorites, but the first one that comes to mind is ‘Pride and Prejudice’.  I probably have some other favorite books, but that one is such a classic and so good. 🙂  It’s so fun to get lost in the language….Yes, that is a direct quote from “You’ve Got Mail”!

5. Best movie you’ve watched?

Hmm….Pride and Prejudice? 😉  The BBC version, but that’s really a mini-series….I told you I wasn’t so good at picking favorites!

6. Why did you want to start blogging?

I started blogging as a way to promote my Etsy shop- To Knit or Knot

7. Favorite song of all time?

I don’t have a favorite song….But here’s a good one to listen to!  Favorite Song by Tobymac.

For the Real Neat Blog Award, I nominate:

Hannah Brencher

Witty ‘N Pretty

The Captain’s Speech

I Lost My Lens Cap

Glimmer of Happiness

Scarlett Curtis

There are many more really neat blogs out there, these are just a few I thought of….

And my questions for these Real Neat bloggers are:

1. What is the most interesting thing that happened to you this week?

2. Did you become who said you wanted to be when you said “When I grow up…”?

3. What is the weather like today?

4. Red or blue?

5. Are you dealing with Spring Fever?

6. What is the nicest thing a stranger has said/done to you?

7. Would you prefer a compliment or a hug?

And I apologize for not posting a something about knitting like I said I was going to- getting together with my friend came first.  I know you’re terribly disappointed, but I hope you understand. Thanks again to Renee, and everybody have a Real Neat weekend! 🙂

The Liebster Strikes Again!

If you normally read this blog, you may have noticed that I normally only post on Thursdays….or maybe you haven’t, no problem, I just thought maybe….  Anyway, something happened- I was liebstered twice in one week!  So in order to keep up here and not have two Liebster posts two weeks in a row– I’ll just do two in one week!  Isn’t that considerate of me?  I’m only thinking of my marvelous readers. 🙂

Summary of the ramble above: there will be an extra post this week. So here we go…

I would like to thank Renee, from One Sip at a Time for nominating me for my second Liebster.  I greatly, super-really, hugely appreciate it.  It would be extremely nice of you all to check out her blog(hint, hint….)  Thanks again Renee! 🙂

The rules are:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you

2. Answer the 11 questions that they set

3. Nominate others with less than 200 followers

4. Let them know about the nomination and the questions

Here are Renee’s questions for me:

1. Favorite color?

Blue, but I also really like pink.

2. Favorite season?

Spring!

3. Do you have a hidden talent?

If I do, it’s still hidden. 😉

4. Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate all the way!

5. Do you have any pets? If so, what are their names?

My family has two dogs, 2 pigs(for now), lots of chickens and we just got more chicks this morning!  Our dogs are Buttercup(an English Mastiff), and Thea(a dark chocolate Lab).  The chickens don’t have names for the most part, and the pigs are still pretty young- they don’t have official names yet. 🙂

6. Do you collect anything? If so, what?

Skeins of yarn….Memories….Chocolate….(but that doesn’t hang around for long!)

7. What inspired you to blog/create your blog?

I started blogging as a way to promote my Etsy shop-  To Knit or Knot?

8. What is one thing that’s on your bucket list that you absolutely want to do in your life?

I’m not sure if there is one thing that I absolutely want to do.  Although a goal in my life(or maybe better put- the goal of my life) is to glorify God. That is the absolute goal.

9. Favorite TV/Netflix series/why?

Mork and Mindy- it’s old-ish, but worth looking up. 🙂

10. If you could travel to any place in the world, where would you go and why?

I would love to go to Scotland because of it’s scenery and history.  Other than that, my second choice would probably be Hawaii or the UK in general. 🙂  Anywhere with beautiful scenery makes me happy though.

11. Favorite pastime?

Knitting for sure!

I nominate these blogs:

A Taiwanese Girl

Semper Fidelis

Conquering My Own Castle

Dainty Little Secrets

And here are my questions for you lovely bloggers!

1.Do you have a favorite day of the week?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

4. How did you decide on the name of your blog?

5. What is your favorite memory?

6.Would you rather listen to a song that you intensely loathe 10 times, or a song that you love all day?

7. Who is your best friend?

8. Roses or Daisies?

9. What are three things that fill in the blank for you- “I love….”?

10. When is your favorite time of year?

11. If you had to live on an island with only one food, what would that food be?

So there is my second Liebster!  I hope you enjoy it, and have a nice weekend!!! 🙂