Victoria's birthday party

So, my little sister Victoria recently turned 13, and we had a heck of a time at her masquerade party. My family has a tradition of having very large 13th parties. I mean, it's sorta a milestone, ya know?
A whole lot of work went into pulling this off....
We started the night before, sewing hundreds of little triangles into streamer things. (You'll see in the pictures.)
We also made cake pops and oreo truffles (Which were a HIT!)

Here's a picture of the birthday girl:

 

Group shots!!!

 

Part of the success was everyones participation! Doesn't everyone look so gorgeous?!? <3

Katie and I spent like 30 minutes hanging these streamers...I think it was worth it though :)

That ring in the middle? Spray-painted hula-hoop :)

 

One of my favorite parts was the dance we all made up...Each pair of girls made up a dance for 8 counts of Taylor Swift's Love Story, and then taught it to everyone. bit by bit we all learned the dance....I think it turned out really cute :)

Pretty girls :)

 

 

 

We made almost all the decorations. As a matter of fact, a lot was inspired from pinterest. You can find the party's page here! :)

Sooo...yup. Awesome party. Totally exhausting. Couldn't have pulled it off without my bestie Katie,  my Aunt Becca, and the whole family pitching in :)

P.S.....You can expect a post soon on a new project I've been working on!! ;)

Summer Update

Wow....

So, it's been a  RREEAALLYYYY  long time since I've posted anything...I've sorta forgotten and/or been lazy.

BUT, I'm happy to say that I'm back, and I have been busy. I have not been sitting on the computer all day, every day. Mostly.
I went to an amazing orchestra camp and learned how to play viola, because I'm switching from violin to viola. I met a ton of the sweetest girls EVER there, and hope they go back next year, cause I already miss them like crazy!! :(
I finished fixing up my pink tandem bike with help from my wonderful daddy, who spent a lot of time and money fixing it up for me :)

Here's my baby <3

I have done an awful lot of baking and crafting/sewing, with about 50% of it turning out the way I planned :)
I spent a weekend with my amazing Uncle Daniel, riding my newly remodeled pink tandem bike and showing him around town ♥♥
I dyed my hair blue again (Don't worry, this time I used real dye, so it washed out, as opposed to the dye I used made from chalk. More on that here)
I made masks for my little sister's upcoming masquerade ball  :D
 

And lastly, if you've read my blog before, you know I planted a small garden/nursery at the beginning of the summer, and I'm proud to say that my cucumbers are growing faster than I can pick them :)
So, what did I do with all these cucumbers, you ask?

I. Made. Pickles.
I'm sure you can tell I'm super proud ;)
Its actually as really cool process, and I might do a post on it later, when I get back home.

At the moment though, I'm staying with my super-cool Uncle Branden, who lives just a little ways away and it taking me to this cool engineering day-camp every day :)
We've played with liquid nitrogen, toured a Little Debbie factory, and visited lots of university engineering labs ( SO much fun) I also met some friends that go to a neighboring school district, and they're tons of fun to talk to. Lovin' it :)

School starts in just a few weeks!! Excited/nervous about high school....

Elmo and Nay-Nay

So, Lauren (A.K.A Elmo) and I had TONS of fun today....

What did we do you ask?

Lauren!!

Layed in the grass at the park.....The sky was so BIG today!!!



Used the bottles we got at the 5&10 to make pretty colored water? idk why...lol

Made coke bottle cap bracelets (Lauren's broke)

• We got snow cones at the Frozen Tung  (Silver Foxes)
• Went to the splash park! <3
• Got old fashioned Dr. Peppers at the 5&10
• Ate ham at the square
• Rode the car kiddie ride for 10 cents each
• Blasted taylor swift and sang along whileswinging at the park
• Spontaneously bought a package of cupcakes (NO we are NOT sharing!!)
• Almost burned Alfredo twice



Covered our hands in wet green chalk



             We decided to go on a road trip for the day to scope out possible wedding venues for Mama and my...uh, stepdad. It's complicated. ;)

We went to a tiny town called Altus, Arkansas (about 2 hours away from where we live in NW AR.)

It was a GORGEOUS drive down there. Got to go through a tunnel...that's always fun :D

When we got to Altus, our first stop was a winery called Chateau Aux Arc The adorable (but definitely not small, atleast by Arkansas standards) winery is run by Audrey House, who started making wine at the age of 13 and founded Chateau Aux Arc. Still a senior in high school, she bought the land in 1998 (the same year I was born!) and began working the land. The vineyard officially opened 3 years later in 2001.

"Chateau" is the French word for "A house near a vinyard," and "Aux Arc" is the French word for "Ozark" and is pronounced the same.

  
 The tasting room is very pretty and rustic, with a combined gift shop that features handcrafted recycled glass rings, unique aprons, plantable greeting cards just like these that I've been DYING to make, wine glasses, and of course, wine!
Mom and John got to sample wine while we wandered the gift shop.

   




 Quite possibly the highlight of the entire trip, we met an adorable, friendly yellow lab while we were there, that I guess belongs to Audrey, or one of the employees...

     
       That wasn't the funny part though. We looked around at the cute picnic benches with trellises above, admired the view of the vinyards, and took lots of pictures. We said good-bye to the sweet puppy and tried to get in the car to leave, but apparently, he had no intention of staying in Altus. He hopped right in the passenger seat of the car. It took about 10 minutes of coaxing, pushing, and scolding to get the dog out of the car. Instead of helping to get the dog out, I was taking pictures of the whole incident and laughing at the others attempts. :)

After that it was on to the next vineyard, Post Familie.


I liked this place best because it had non-alchoholic grape juices that my sister, Victoria, and I could taste. We tried a Red and White Muskadine juices, Altus Grape Juice, and Concord Grape Juice. I liked the red juices best (much sweeter). The white Muskadine was a tad too bitter for my taste. I ended up buying the Concord...But I meant to buy the Red Muskadine, it has a much more unique taste. The Concord tastes like a fancy jug of Welches juice. Bit disappointing, but I get to use the pretty glass bottle for some crafty thing! *excited* :)

We also got to go on a tour of the entire wine-making process, which was VERY cool. There were alot of machines involved, and the tour guide was so friendly. Southern hospitality for ya ;)
What's cool about this place is that it's the oldest winery in Arkansas, and was the 8th winery in the nation to be legally allowed to sell alchohol. It's run today by the 5th generation of the family. Pretty cool eh?



For lunch we stopped at Rivertowne BBQ on the Altus town square.

 Their pulled pork sandwich is to DIE for!! It is rather large though.....

I swear! It's much bigger in real life.

On the way home we stopped at and up-and-coming winery called The Tontitown Winery just to check it out. If you ever are in the area, you should stop by. The people who run it are pretty cool, genuinely nice people. They offer free wine (and grape juice) tasting!! Every other Friday they have live musicon the back patio.

P.s....Don't try the white grape juice. Just don't. ;)

Fun day!!

 Bonus: Chicken Gnocchi for dinner (italian dumplings)

<3

Here's my New Favorite John Mayer song!!!!
Its gorgeous.
I have taken the liberty of copying and pasting the lyrics from this website here for you, my very esteemed and most special blog follower :)
You REALLY gotta listen to the words!!

"Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967"

Walt Grace, desperately hating this whole place
Dreamed to discover a new space and buried himself alive
Inside his basement
Tongue on the side of his face meant
He's working away on displacement
And what it would take to survive
Cause when you're done with this world
You know the next is up to you

And his wife told his kids he was crazy
And his friends said he'd fail if he tried
But with the will to work hard and a library card
He took a homemade, fan blade, one-man submarine ride

That morning the sea was mad and I mean it
Waves as big as he'd seen it deep in his dreams at home
From dry land, he rolled it over to wet sand
Closed the hatch up with one hand
And pedaled off alone
Cause when you're done with this world
You know the next is up to you

And for once in his life, it was quiet
As he learned how to turn in the tide
And the sky was aflare when he came up for air
In his homemade, fan blade, one-man submarine ride

One evening, when weeks had passed since his leaving
The call she planned on receiving finally made it home
She accepted the news she never expected
The operator connected the call from Tokyo
Cause when you're done with this world
You know the next is up to you

Now his friends bring him up when they're drinking
At the bar with his name on the side
And they smile when they kid, as they speak of the man
Who took a homemade, fan blade, one-man submarine ride

We're painting the top of our bottom deck (or the bottom of our top, whichever you prefer) an aquamarine color :)
Its a dry brush job, so it looks weathered...I really like it, but its soooooo tiring!!!

My theme for this week's creations is......*drumroll* HULA HOOPS:)
Ya know why?

Haha I've actually found TONS of cute stuff to do with hula hoops, so I made my lil sis come on a tandem ride with me down to dollar general, and then made her carry the hula hoop in the back of the bike( Cause the person in the back doesn't have to steer)
Be sure tp check back in at the end of the week! :)

Haircuts with my Katie :)
Isn't she gorgeous?!
Don't really have much else to say, haha :)

Don't ya just LOVE water balloons? Haha they're all fun and games until one gets thrown at you. Even worse, a sneak attack!!! So my crazy girl Katie and I biked (tandem biked to be exact!!) everywhere to find water balloons, and spent 45 minutes filling them, getting soaked in the process. Apparently, the temptation to throw a huge green pear-shaped balloon at my back was too great...
Gotta love Summer!!
Speaking of wwhich, we made a summer bucket list!! This is DEFINITELY not all of it, but its a good start:

SNAILS!!

I don't know why, but they're even on the roof....

So on Wednesday, one of my besties Madi and I are biking around  the aquare, and we go into this one shop called the Pasiley Place. We are only in there 10 minutes tops, and when we get back to the square, what do we find? GAINT PINK SNAILS!! They're hollow, but heavy plastic, and weighted down with sandbags. I don't know how they got put there so fast. It was interesting, cause everyone's first reaction was what? Take pictures of the darn things!!
Ya know what they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do!!

Hair chalking!!

So, I was on Pinterest, and I found this super cool hair dying tutorial....

Basically, you mash up chalk and add water to make a paste, which you rub through your hair and then brush it, and voila! Colored hair :)

Its super temporary, so I only had to wash it once...and condition REALLY good afterwards, cause it dries out your hair. Just thought I'd share :)
Here's the link if you wanna be adventurous and try it yourself, this method calls for just rubbing chalk into your hair, but it seems to work just as well, if not better. If you do try this way, you should comment below and tell me how it went :)
http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/01/chalk-it-up/#more-5255

Annnd....btw, all credit for this goes to my bff Katie, who spent probly about an hour smearing blue chalk in my hair, getting it ALL over herself in the process. Love ya girlie!