Just Add Watercolor book review

  Just Add Watercolor by Helen Birch is a great little art book; I really liked it. Each painting has a nice-sized write up explaining how each piece was made and what about it is unique. At the end of each page it also includes a painting tip. 

  The reason I liked this book is because reading it made me feel like I was going on an art tour. I really enjoyed reading about each painting and getting to admire so many pieces. 

This piece by Loui Jover is one of my favorites

I received this book for free from BloggingForBooks for my honest review.

I'm Graduated!

   Oh, wait. I just signed up for four more years...  hehe I'm excited for it, though. I'm going to be going to college with my sister this fall.

   If you'd like to hear all about my graduation, my mom did a full post here. Since she already wrote one I'll just send ya'll to her instead of rewriting everything she said. ;)

Cookie Love Book Review

   My sister Hayden encouraged me to join Blogging for Books recently and the first book I received for review is Cookie Love. 

    First of all, I feel like I should explain that I don't bake a whole lot. Cooking, yes. Baking, not so much. I love eating baked goods, but I don't have that much experience making them. It's something I've been wanting to do more of though, so I was really excited to get Cookie Love by Mindy Segal.  

   It's a wonderful cookbook! So far I've made two of the recipes: Milanos and Coconut Macaroons. 

Milanos I made

Coconut macaroons

   I love, love, love the coconut macaroons! They basically taste like Mounds bars.  The Milanos looked just like store bought. I made the filling from the homemade fudge recipe in the "Basics" section of the book. Though the cookie part turned out beautifully, the fudge wasn't quite what I'd hoped for. I thought the recipe had called for quite a bit of vanilla, but I went ahead and put it all in anyway. :p I think it ended up tasting like alcohol, but only half of my family could taste it too. My sister said it may have tasted that way because I was using pretty cheap vanilla. However the next day almost all of the aftertaste had vanished (my dad said the alcohol probably evaporated) and it tasted pretty good. So besides that, the recipes seem pretty trustworthy. :) Most of the cookies in this book are more unusual recipes than in your typical cookie book with recipes like rugelach and biscotti. I can't wait to try all the others!

   One thing I love about this book (beside so many amazing-looking recipes) is the photography. If you look at the pictures long enough you'll feel as if you're in a cozy cookie/coffee shop. 

   I also really enjoyed how explanatory most of the recipes were. The author explains not only how to make the cookies, but why you have to add certain ingredients, for example, why snickerdoodles need cream of tartar. 

   Overall, this was just a really great cookie book. :D

   I received this book for free from Blogging For Books in exchange for my honest review. 

Hidden Pearls is published!

My sister's book is now available! It can be bought here. To celebrate, she's having a release party on her blog, The Story Girl, which will include a giveaway for a signed copy of the book along with a bookmark illustrated by yours truly!

Congratulations Hayden! :D

A Story in Pictures and Gifs

This week I've been gardening and I have been having so much fun! I've been pretty much like this:

While I've been gardening I've also seen a bunch of squirrels. One in particular looked all cute and fluffy and he let me feed him a grape.

  

When I told my brother about it, he asked me if I wanted him to shoot the squirrel. I told him "no" since that cute little squirrel wasn't hurting anybody.

During this time my pineapple plant that I've had a few years actually flowered! I was so excited!

Here's a close up of what it looks like, though this specific picture isn't mine. 

I've waited years for it to do something and then it just decided to flower! So today I went to church and then saw the new Cinderella movie with some friends afterwards. 

Meanwhile at home.....

And I came back to this.

HE ATE THE FLOWER AND SHREDDED THE REST!

 

My beautiful plant was destroyed!!! 

And so I've been in the pit of despair.... But the movie was really good :) 

*sigh* But I'll be okay... I'll just go wait another five years for another pineapple plant to bloom...

And the next squirrel I see? 

Just kidding, I wouldn't want to shoot the wrong squirrel. 

Senior Rejects

    So today I had to write a short biography in third person for a program that will be at my graduation. I thought the first biography I wrote sounded great (though the first line may not have been entirely true), but my mom said she didn't think it would be accepted. However she and my sister thought it was pretty funny and encouraged me to post it here, so here it is!

    After being abducted by aliens at the age of five, Emily Wand has not been allowed to go places by herself; because of this, she mostly stays at home playing weird instruments in her room and creating suspicious creams and ointments out of weeds from the back yard. On the unlikely occasion she does leave the house, she mainly takes a sonic screwdriver to the theater to watch a new Disney or Marvel movie, but sometimes she just helps her mom go grocery shopping.  

    I ended up writing a more boring, though I suppose more professional (and accurate) biography. Which took me a lot longer to write than the first one.

    I also had to send in 3-5 pictures for a slide show. Here are a few I considered but decided against in the end.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone! I though I'd post my favorite Divine Comedy skit, "Brotherly Valentine". The first time I saw it my sides hurt so badly from laughing.... But then I am told that I'm easily amused.... Anyway I think it's pretty funny. ;D
Plus, if you're familiar with Studio C you should recognize a couple of people. :)

Oh, just so you know, the woman who runs in and gives Steven a kiss is actually married to him.  :)

What We Did for Christmas

This Christmas we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Wisconsin. Before we left, we saw the James Island lights which happened to be celebrating their 25th anniversary.

After we drove through the main lights we walked around for a bit to see the rest of the park and participate in some of the activities scattered about. Hayden and Joey rode the carousel,

all three boys tried rock climbing,

and I ate a funnel cake.  ;p

We also got to roast marshmallows! 

About a week after, we left for Wisconsin. After a long, but mostly enjoyable car ride, we reached my Aunt's house and were met by some very excited cousins. 

We also got to see my great uncle, his cousin and her daughter, my great grandmother, and my uncle Brad's family. 

Here's Sammy with Addy

and Hayden with Skylar. 

This year I got a very exciting present.... A banjo!

Yes, needless to say, I was very happy about that. ;D

We had a very blessed Christmas!