Monday, August 19, 2013

My Artwork

I draw sometimes....so here's my art!
A mask. 
A minotaur.  Actually, it's probably Aldon, but my mom is the only person who knows who that is.... 
A girl! 
An unfinished drawing that will probably be unfinished for forever.... 
My hands. 
My left hand  
A duck...or my graaaaduataaan picttaaaah....but only Karen, and Brenda get this. 
Friends of God enemies of the world, Friends of the world enemies of God.  
A heart is like an onion. 
Anything worth having is worth fighting for. 
Kissing people. 
Lovin' my book.  
This is a wonderful drawing that I will someday be turning into a book.  
An unfinished drawing...mostly because I got sick of drawing cobblestone.  
A girl on a horse. 
This is a drawing of my fictional character, Jasper.  Ignore the thing about Jamaica, and Minnesota. 
An unfinished farm 
This was supposed to be a drawing of a girl smiling with her mouth open, but instead she looks like a creepy alien. 
A girl in a blue dress.  
Left to right: Giant, centaur, Aslan, driad, dwarf, minotaur. 
Girl in a green dress. 
And I draw the sometimes super loneliness that comes with being the only person around without a significant other. 
This is a girl in a blue dress, who looks a lot like my fictional character Mari.
A girl in a purple dress. 
A purple dragon.  Can anyone tell what I forgot to give it?  Wings.... 
I demonstrate how a mask works. 
A rather bad portrayal of the game stretch.  
What will someday...possibly...be the coverart of one of my books. 
Or this one. 
Or this one....
Okay, well, lemme know if you like them, and which one your favorite is, and stuff like that....
~Katie :)

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I start school, tomorrow, I wish it would go away!  Okay, so maybe I don't want it to go away...but I'm so nervous.  It's going to drive me crazy!  What if I'm not prepared enough?  What if I'm TOO prepared?  Is it possible to be too prepared?
I have 4.5 binders and 3 pencil case thingies that go into the binders, and one that I could just carry around....  I HAVE to have one of the pencil case thingies in my math binder....but then, it would also be wise to have one in my Bible binder, because if I don't, and I forget pens or pencils, Miss. Montgomery will KILL me.  Figurtively speaking...but...yeah....  Then I should also have one with my English binder....this is so not cool....and I'd need one in the one I put everything in....it was much more simple last year when I only had two binders....and idk, maybe I should scrap the .5 binder which I was going to use for computers class, and use the one I would use for everything else?  And if I did that I would have 4 binders instead...I really didn't quite understand if I was supposed to have a separate binder for math either....  And I could always scrap the binder I was gonna use for English...but then what if we get a lot of story handouts?   I suppose I could always take my "English binder" home, and just take the stories home too, and put them in the binder there, and I would only have three binders like I started out with....
Yes, these are the pre-school (not preschool like little kids, pre-school, as in before school) things I wonder and stress about.
And honestly, this will be the first, "first day of school," I've ever had because I was homeschooled, and I came to school late last year.  Only a week late...but late anyway....
And then there's the whole the-seniors-graduated-taking-with-them-most-of-my-good-close-friends....  I mean, I seriously have only one close friend left at school...and I can't exactly talk to him about guys....I mean, well, I could...but he's a bit of a big tease.  He's still one of my best friends though.  And then there's the whole, "oh wow, now there's gonna be another girl in my class," thing...which I don't know if I'm thrilled about this or not...I mean...how do I know if she'll be nice?  What if she's snobby?  Honestly, we have ENOUGH snobby girls at my school, we don't need more.  And then, what if she's not snobby, but just really mean?  Oh, and someone can be popular without being snobby.  I think it would be safe to describe Travis as popular...and he's not too snobby.  He can be a bit mean sometimes, and a bit of a know it all, and if I was more myself at school I think Travis and I could get into some wonderful arguments.  I like arguments.  But I'm a bit lost at school.
You know, I go from one topic to the next so fast, I don't even know when I should make a paragraph break!  It's horrible...especially sense I'm supposed to be an author....
Well, if you'll excuse me...I shall go stress elsewhere.
Farewell my loyal readers!
~Katie :)

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Countdown....3.....

Can you guess what I'm counting down to?  That's right!  School....  I know I've said this before...but I'm both excited for school, and...bummed about school....  I'm a bit nervous....  I mean, I like some of the teachers, and I miss some of them, and I miss some of my classmates, and a few people from the other classes...oh, I guess it's just the principle of the thing...you know, sitting down for hours, being under the control of people who aren't my mom, and a bunch of work that I have to do.
And, I've been working on my updos some more....
Meet the ballerina bun.  It's done by making a ponytail, then taking little pieces and twisting them super tight and pinning them up so it looks awesome like that....
Okay, you see how complicated this looks?  Guess what...it's not complicated at all!  I didn't even realize how hard it really looks until my mom took a picture for me.  What you do is...yes, you make another ponytail, and then you make a twisty braid.  If you don't know how to do that, here's a link: Twist Braid
Just don't wrap any hair around the ponytail holder....  Then you just twist it around in a circle and pin it.
This is just a normal bun....I prefer different buns :p
Well, I gotta go now...and leave the wonderful world of blogging, online hairdos, and Lizzie McGuire. Lizzie McGuire
G'bye.
~Katie :)

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

My Quest

I'm on a quest to find writing competitions for teenaged authors.  If you know of any, TELL ME.
Thank you!
~Katie :)

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!!

Okay, so to start with, (no, you don't get your pictures right away, hang on, and you'll get some) while at camp I got a job.  You can either be a server, a waiter, a bathroom cleaner, or a dishwasher, and I don't know if you get paid for being a server.  Anyone want to guess what my job was?  I was a bathroom cleaner!  And yes, I unfortunately had to clean the guy's bathroom too, and it was DISGUSTING.  So disgusting.  Plus there was a point in time where I was out of the foamy cleaner stuff, and I had to use bleach.  I almost passed out because of the fumes.  I hate bleach.
Anyway, I got paid 50 dollars.  5 of which went to tithe, and 15 of which went to paying for the room I shared with my cousin, and best friend, and the rest went to school stuff.  Pens, pencils, binders, paper, erasers, and new boots.  Although, I didn't have enough for the boots, so my kind wonderful, loving cousin helped me out.  He said it was my birthday present, although my birthday isn't until November.  It was awesome.
And I found out that I'm related to one of the board members, which is pretty crazy!  See, he's my dad's mom's cousin.  Pretty cool, huh?
Anyway, I've also been preparing for school by figuring out some updos I can do that won't give me a headache, and are fairly easy and fast to do.
To start with, here's a few pictures of my new boots:
 That picture was kind of dark, so I took another one.
See, you can tell what color they actually are there.
There's a picture of them on my feet.
And there's a picture of the kind of outfit I would wear to school.  I have to have sleeves below my elbows, my hair up, a long skirt below my knees, and closed toe, and heel shoes.
This is my new dagger in its sheath.  I love it.  A lot. 
This is my dagger out of its sheath.
Me holding my dagger, smiling hugely, and looking cheesy and creepy. 
This is me looking less creepy and cheesy, but loving my dagger none the less.
This is me with my hair wet. 
This is my hair up in a new hairstyle I came up with. 
A semi better picture of it. 
I redid it, trying to keep it from slanting up.  It looks huge right there.
A sock bun, however, I see that the sock is seen.  Bummer....  I need to work on making the sock unseeable. 
Another picture of the sock bun. 
The updo I'm practicing for today.  I kind of like it.  If you want to know how to do it, what you do is you take your hair, and put it into two ponytails, then you braid your ponytail into several different braids, of different sizes, then you just twist it all together, and around the base of your ponytail, then you pin it up like a normal braid.
And there is a rather blury picture of my mommy :) 
You know how I said I bought new binders?  Well, here's the one that I had last year.  Yes, I decorated it all myself.
This is my schedule from last year, all up close and personal. 
And this is a close up of the hand I had on my binder. 
My English class binder for this year. 
The title, "English" on my binder. 
A close up of one of my favorite quotes. 
I figured that this would be a good Bible verse to put on a school binder. 
\
My Bible class binder. 
A close up of one of the sayings I put on my Bible binder.
This is a quote that they have in the back of the tabernacle at camp. 
A close up of the title, "Bible" and John Three sixteen. 
One of my favorite scriptures.
My name, which I will be putting on my locker :) 
And this is my schedule for this year!  See the difference?
We've even got three new teachers!  My friend Lee's mom is going to be teaching first and second grade, because we had first and second grade teacher problems last year, because the teacher had to leave after the first semester.  Sad huh?  And then they had two first and second grade teachers for the last semester.
Then we have a new 7th and 8th grade teacher, and the former 7th and 8th grade teacher is going to be teaching English, and the former English teacher is going to be teaching Bible.  However, she's still going to be teaching Computers.  BUT she won't be teaching Journalism.  The former Bible teacher ran off and got married, which is really upsetting.  She also taught Heath/P.E., and Evangelism   We no longer have an Evangelism class, but, our other new teacher is going to be teaching Psychology, and I think Business Math.
I would have taken Psychology, but Mr. Brewer doesn't like me, so he decided to put Choir and Psychology at the same time.  I'm taking choir again this year, because I don't want to have to take Art. Not that I have anything against the art teacher, it's just that I can teach myself to draw just fine by myself, and I like to sing.
I'm also going to try to join a deputation group, because I...um, again, I like to sing.  I just hope I don't end up with a bunch of people I don't like.
And apparently we have a new girl in my class.  I should be super excited, but I'm not really.  I mean, for one, what if she ends up being one of those annoying girls who only thinks and talks about boys, hot actors, clothes, and hair.  I mean, I talk about that too, but I also talk about cats, and dogs, and horses, and movies (the actual movies, not the actors) my dreams, my books, see, I have much more to talk about than them.  And what if she's not quite like that, but she's snooty?  And, besides, now that she's here, I'm less unique!  I mean, seriously, how many non-homeschooled people can say that they're the only girl in their class?  Not too many.  And now I can't either.
I can't wait to see who the other new students are though.  It'll be really exciting.
I'm actually pretty nervous though, because I haven't had a first day of school before.  Because my last first day of school, it wasn't really my first day, because I came late.  I was about a week late.
If anyone has any updos that they could recommend to me, please let me know, because I really want to have different hairdos, but I'm not too good at updos....  Anyway, I must depart.  Farewell!
~Katie :)

Monday, August 12, 2013

Camp, School, and Randomness

So, I went to another camp, but this one was a general camp, you know for people from 1 day old to 201 years old, and I bunked with my cousin and one of my very best friends, and got super hyper.  On the first night, it was only my cousin and I that were able to stay, and we wrote this amazingly wonderful thing...it's known as THE STAGES OF A SLEEPOVER...and here they are.
THE STAGES OF A SLEEP OVER
  1. Excitement--Attendees to the sleepover become extremely excited, and many squeals of delight, as well as giggles can be heard echoing throughout the area.
  2. Preparatory--Actual preparing for the sleepover begins.  Snacks and other needed supplies are bought, and packed.
  3. Show and Tell--upon arriving to sleep over, new items belonging to the attendees, as well as gifts from one attendee to the next are brought out and discussed.
  4. Boy Talk--Discussion of boys, cute and otherwise ensues.  Shockingly, much teasing goes on during this stage.
  5. Bedmaking--Beds are made, and we go into Preparatory II
  6. Preparatory II--Ordinary everyday clothing is exchanged for PJs that should NEVER be worn to WalMart.
  7. Emergency Survival/Snacks--Room is made more comfortable with the aid of T-shirts, and blood sugar is raised (so you understand, we had one room with an airconditioner that had huge gaps on either side, so we stuffed the T-Shirts in there, and my cousin is a diabetic and her blood sugar was at 46 which is bad)
  8. Storytime--Random stories from our lives are shared, and giggles are uber abundant.
  9. Heart to Heart--Nothing like mouth to mouth, but where personal stories, feelings, and dreams are shared openly.
  10. Boy Talk 2--Not unlike #4, but attendees discuss boys they have strong dislike for.
  11. Giggaloza--Generally takes place around 2 or 3 AM.  Giggles follow giggles, follow giggles, for no apparent reason whatsoever.
  12. Creativity--Giggles are still abundant, but are less noisy.  During this stage attendees are struck with inspiration, and tend to write songs, poems, stories, and draw pictures
  13. Joking--Attendees to sleepover ask each other jokingly if they will ever go to sleep.
  14. Peter Pan--We realize that delirium has hit when Peter Pan appears at our window, and reminds us not to grow up...we then realize that we are nearing stage 15.
  15. Decline--Activity is calmer, and yawning, droopy eyelids, and nodding heads are abundant.
  16. Resistance--Sleep is banished in favor of seeing how tired we can get before turning off the lights.
  17. Lights out--Lights are turned off, but whispers about *cough cough* boys *cough cough* continues.
  18. Hey!--Whispers are still there, but they no longer involve boys, but rather consist of, "Hey...are you still awake?"
  19. The Evil which is Sleep--The darkness claims us, and we no longer speak of boys, but dream of boys.
  20. Pounding--A loud knocking ensues and through blurry eyes, and sleepy ears we see and hear the adults/alarms asking if we're awake, even through we just went to sleep 5 minutes ago.
  21. Mental Hangover--We wish we had skipped the sleepover in favor of actually sleeping, but instead we sing Christmas carols loudly
  22. Scolding--All involves are scolded for their late night carousing, and loud, unladylike, immature behavior.
  23. Repeat--All stages must be repeated as often as possible until every attendee has either a hotflash or a husband.
The end!
And school starts in 8 days....  I'm also trying to get a job at Braum's so I can make money and get my own things!
Anyway, I gotta go
~Katie :)

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Dragon Pics

Due to my book, (Adventure of a Lifetime) I am in a dragon-y mood, and am therefore going to "steal" pictures from google images, and show them to you.  They're dragons....
I absolutely love this dragon.  It's beautiful.  I'm gonna see if I can get pictures of dragons that look like the ones in my book.
Aside from being an older dragon, this dragon looks about like Seven. And this dragon's eyes aren't golden.
If this dragon had golden eyes it would be Rajo perfectly.
This looks a lot like Rosko.  Even down to the green eyes!
This one is gorgeous too.
Isn't that just adorable?!
Baby dragons are adorable :)
This just looks good.
Dragon egg!
Another dragon egg.  I just love all this.
Beautiful....
Gotta have a few angry dragons!
I love that dragon eye!
RAWR!!!
Like I said, we gotta have some angry dragons too.
Well, I think I'm going to skidadle now....  Maybe next time I'll do some unicorn pictures!
~Katie :)

ATTENTION!

ATTENTION!!!  I have had this blog for a little over two years.  It's amazing.  My last blog I think I only kept for a year...crazy huh?
I am wearing a sock as a headband, and it looks pretty great.  It's a bright, neon orange, knee high sock.  It makes a better headband than one would think!  I might even have my mom take a picture or two of it!
And I will definitely make sure to get pictures of the three pictures I have drawn for the cover art of Sword of a Princess.  I would like you guys to vote on it.  Maybe.  If you feel like it...which I hope you do...because I am woefully challenged in the area of decision making.  Well, with those kind of decisions.  And food.  But I'm pretty good at deciding who I want to be my friend and who I don't really care much about being my friend, although I will still be nice to them.  You know unless they're like a certain guy from my school and I end up having a major feud with them for the rest of the school year and stuff like that.  But normally, if I have the choice I'll just avoid the person altogether.
Okay, great new news!  The Unnamed Legend (my book) finally has T-Shirts!
Unnamed Legend T-Shirts
I need to sell 20 before 21 days is up, or the shirts will never print, but you won't get charged for a T-Shirt unless 20 are sold.
And while we're on the topic of my book....
The Unnamed Legend Paperback book on amazon
The Unnamed Legend e-book
Please, do not hesitate to buy a copy!  I know that there are grammatical errors, and they will probably never be fixed, but I promise you that the next book will not have all those errors.
See, here is where I give aspiring authors some advice: Do not spend all your time when the book is done, editing, and re-editing it yourself.  You know making different drafts.  Make your first draft, then make a second draft, then give it to someone else to edit, then go back through, and make the necessary changes, and edit it yourself several more times until you're sure all the little grammar mistakes are gone, then this is where you give it to someone who is really good at grammar, tell them, "Don't you dare change anything but commas, periods, semi-colons, and other things like that, because that's already been done, and I like my book just fine how it is." let them run ramped fixing all those errors you thought you'd gotten rid of, then you go through it one last time, make sure there are no more grammatical errors, don't change a bit of the dialogue, then publish it before you get cold feet.
In short: DON'T EDIT IT A MILLION TIMES BEFORE GIVING IT TO AN EDITOR!  The reason for that is that you will get sick and tired of it, realize you DON'T want to memorize your book, and not want to spend the necessary time fixing minor errors that wouldn't take much to be fixed, but just need to be found.
Comprende?
Okay, now as we're on the topic of books, I think I'm gonna go write in this one book that doesn't have a name yet, but I'm sure is going to be awesome.
~Katie :)