It's Not (entirely) My Fault!

Yes, I know.  It has been almost 4 months since I have blogged.  And for the first half month I didn't blog, I was being just plain lazy.  I didn't want to write any blog posts.  So I didn't.  But around the middle of May, our computer broke down, and didn't repair itself.  We sent our computer out to a church friend to fix it, but so far, that hasn't happened.  We could never figure out the real problem.  It is still being worked on, so right now we are borrowing a laptop from another church friend.  It will get the work done until our computer decides to wake up from it's deep sleep.  (Not having a working computer was a real pain during the school year.  All my homework was to be done on the computer - even study tools for the finals were online!)

As you have probably guessed, I am done with school for the year.  We got out almost two weeks ago.  It hasn't really sunk in that school is over yet, because I am still working my butt off - all day, every day.  A lot of my friends' (and familys') birthdays are around this time of year, so I have been struggling to finish their presents.  4 of my friends are having their birthdays around this time, so I made them each a small gift.  For three of them, I made a small little purse and card.  I stupidly forgot to take a picture of one of them, but here are the others. 

                                    

I also forgot to take a picture of the cards I made that went with these two purses, but I do have a picture of the card I made for my other friend, (the one that I didn't get a picture of the actual present.)

So that is 3 out of 4.  The last present I made was for my friend who loves acting and mostly producing.  During the school year, she put together kind of a drama club, which she called the Perpetual Motion Pictures.  There, she and several other kids would make movies and short films during lunch period.  I didn't think that a purse really fit her personality, so I struggled to find something she might actually use.  My mom was looking through a quilting magazine, when she spotted a picture of the Three Little Pig Puppets.  She, jokingly, asked if she would like these.  To her surprise, I shouted, "YES!  Those are PERFECT!!!"  I know my friend doesn't usually use puppets, but they fit in the general category.

The magazine wanted me to buy a pattern for 13 bucks, but by looking at the picture, I knew I wouldn't need a pattern.  I drew out an outline and used felt to make the basic pig bodies.  (I got my artisitic dad to design the wolf for me.)  I made the first pig, and added a little bow. 

I then realized that I could make special changes to give the pigs different personalities.  The second pig was a nerd.  Duct taped glasses and buttoned down shirt.

I was trying to come up with an idea for the third pig, when my dad drew a picture of a pig with an Elvis hairdo.  I loved it!  My dad helped me to come up with a pattern for the hair, and then we worked on the outfit.  A huge V-Neck and collar with gold everywhere.  Then for the final touch, we added a little chest hair.  This was definitley the hardest one, but also, the best, I think.

This project wasn't very hard, but it was really fun.  I loved the final product so much, that I was seriously thinking about keeping the puppets.  This resulted in 3 pigs, 1 wolf, and a carrying case.

I didn't keep the puppets, however, I did start a new set for myself.  Oh, and here's the card that went with the puppets.

So, I am now done with making presents, for now.  But, I am having a sleepover party tomorrow to celebrate my birthday, which means lots of straightening up the house.  I worked on that pretty much all day today, so now I am almost ready for that.  But I'm not done yet.  Every summer, I have to complete a summer reading program to turn in next year.  So far I only have one book done.  I really need to read more! 
Speaking of reading, in these past 4 months, I started and finished the Twilight series.  I had always believed that Twilight was a really stupid series, but I was wrong.  The only reason I agreed to reading Twilight was because the only way I could get my friend, Katie, to read the Hunger Games, was if I read Twilight.  So I did - and I loved it!  It was far more interesting than I ever thought it could be.  As soon as I was done, I just HAD to see the movies.  I LOVED Twilight - I thought they did a really good job putting that one together.  But New Moon was awful.  I was groaning along side my dad, who wouldn't for one second believe how good a series Twilight was.  Eclipse was pretty good, but Breaking Dawn part 1 was TERRIBLE.  A whole bunch of scenes were in the movie, that were NEVER in the book.  I won't go into details about all the things they got wrong, as I wouldn't want to bore those who haven't read the books.  (But you really SHOULD read the books.  wink, wink. nod, nod.)  Even though I hated part 1, I am still really looking forward to seeing part 2.  Hopefully it's way better than it's first half.

I don't want this post to be TOO long, but I'm sorry I kept you guys waiting.  Hopefully I'll be able to stay caught up in the future.