Forgotten Short Story

I was just searching through my documents and found this short story I had forgotten I had written. So I'm sharing it with you! Enjoy!

The door was locked, and I couldn't find the key. Some strange, mysterious person must have carried me while I was sleeping into this dimly lit room, and locked the door on the outside. Of course on the inside, there was a keyhole. And that darn key wouldn't show itself. I'd been feeling all over the floor and had found nothing. All there was in the room was a small wooden chair, a dark dresser, and a frail cot. 'Not many places for a key to hide,' you may say. Well,

unfortunately I discovered many wide cracks in the planked floor that the key may have fallen through, and that fact made my level of hope drop down a mile.

I decided to look in the dresser drawers. I started at the top, and in the first four drawers I found nothing but lint. But when I got to the last drawer, I reached to the very back, and felt something small! I wrapped my fingers around it, and pulled it out slowly. I turned my head, and looked at what I had found. It was–- a baby flashlight. Not quite what I was hoping for, but it could be useful. I started looking in between the planks. I looked down into one of the wide cracks, and shined the light from the tiny flashlight onto what looked like metal. 'That's funny,' I thought. I pushed my fingers through the crack and pulled up on the plank. A small, foot-long piece of it came out! There below was an open tin box, and in that, was a tiny wooden chest. I opened it up, and saw a little, decorated key. My heart started beating fast. I stood up, walked over to the door, and inserted the key into the keyhole. I turned it, opened the door, and heard, “APRIL FOOLS!”

The End

More

More

I love you more than drinking coffee.

I love you more than reading books.

I love you more than playing guitar.

I love you more than singing Christmas songs.

I love you more than watching my cat.

I love you more than writing stories.

I love you more.

 I love you more than performing after long weeks of working.

I love you more than laughing.

I love you more than being warm when it's cold.

I love you more than you loving me.

I love you more than love.

I love you more than life itself. 

I love you more.

Cafe Granita

Cafe Granita

Condensation drips off of the clear plastic cup. You pick up the chilled vessel and put the straw between your lips. Drawing in the cold beverage, a sweet, yet robust flavor dances on your tongue. A smooth, velvety whipped cream mingles with the java concoction, and makes your taste buds shiver with excitement. You let the frosty drink go down with a smile from ear to ear. The mixture in the cup is so heavenly, it whispers in your ear to have more. Sip, sip, sip. Swallow. The napkin is soaked with condensation, and it's almost gone now. One more sip is left. You stare at the bottom of the cup, think that maybe you should save it for a bit later, ponder on the thought, then dismiss it from your mind and drink it anyway.

DIY Craftiness: Comfy Casual Cover-up

This tutorial was inspired by this video, I watched it but couldn't really pull off any of the ways with the scarf I had, so I took one idea, and tweaked it (inner DIYer) to suit my scarf. So this is going to show you how to make a CCC (Comfy Casual Cover-up) made with just a large rectangle scarf! I've been wearing this over and over again because I love it so much. (By the way, I recommend getting a scarf with fringe; it really adds a nice touch to the finished product!)

Start off by lying down your scarf flat on the floor or table.

Find the middle of your scarf and pull it up so you can see where it is.

 Bring the upper left hand corner to the middle.

The cute feet of a certain black feline.

And tie the corner and middle together to make a knot.

Look! You have your first armhole!

Take the upper right hand corner...

Bring it to the middle...

Bring it up through the sleeve and tie it. You don't need to knot it.

And voila! You have two sleeves!

The front.

The back.

Enjoy wearing your new CCC! I'll bet nobody will guess you made it out of a scarf.

By the way, comment if you want a nail tutorial for the nail design I have in these pictures!

Good luck!

No Worries

  I did a devotion/bible study a few days ago, and it was just about the best bible study I had done myself like ever. I had a lot on my mind about my siblings, myself, school, other people other than family, various controversies around the country and the world, and just my future life in general. I really needed a Godly pick-me-up, and so I pulled out my old No Boys Allowed devotions book from my dusty bookshelf. (Okay, my bookshelf is not dusty, I'm just trying to sound dramatic) I asked God to lead me to the best devotion for the time I was going through. I closed my eyes, held the paperback book in my hands, and opened it up. I let my eyes open, then looked at the title.
  Worry About Nothing. Pray About Everything.
  I felt amazing. I thanked God about ten times before I actually read the devotion. Here are some of my favorite parts from it:
 "You will find dozens of opportunities to worry every day, if you choose to. You may have personal troubles: your upcoming test, a sick parent, someone mad at you at school. You may worry about the state of the world: tragedies seen on TV, or a parent overseas in the military. Just remember: every opportunity to worry is also a chance to involve God in the matter. Since he's all powerful, what better person to be involved?"
 "Don't be worried, concerned, anxious, troubled, or uneasy about anything; instead, talk to God about everything. Tell God what you need - He wants you to - but don't forget to thank Him for what he has already done for you."
  I read the verse that it said to explore; Matthew 6:25. And the base verse; Philippians 4:6: Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.
  Right then and there, I just overflowed all that was on my mind, and all that was worrying me to God. I also thanked him for all that He had done for me, being particular. It helped me remember that when you talk to God, you don't just need to focus on the big "important" stuff, i.e., sad thing: someone dying, happy thing: getting to go on a trip, etc. But you also need to focus on the little stuff, i.e., sad thing: not being able to talk to your friend, happy thing: having a clean room, etc. Because God works in everything. When I was talking to Him, it felt like talking to a best friend, spilling everything out, and not regretting or feeling guilty about anything you said.
  Worry about nothing. Pray about everything.

DIY Recipe: Pancakes from Scratch

You know that feeling when you wake up to the delightful smell of pancakes and sausage cooking in the kitchen? Of course you do, everyone does. And that feeling is priceless. Walking into the kitchen in your "pajamas" ( I don't call them pajamas, I call them night clothes, but tomato, tomata, I don't really care) and have a wonderful breakfast of fluffy pancakes and juicy sausage. Well, I'm going to show you how to cook these delicious things right now. Once again, tie back your hair, and grab your aprons!
(By the way, we doubled the recipe, because we have a family of six, but you can probably pull off the regular recipe)

Ingredients:
(original)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted shortening or butter

All of the ingredients!

 Trusty helper, Skittles.

Measure out your flour and dump it into a large mixing bowl.

Cute measuring spoon! Getting tired of seeing him, huh? Well, maybe next time I won't show him and you'll miss him. You just wait and see. Put in your salt. Yes, he has only one eye. He's a war spoon.

Guest Blogger, Erin!

This is the big cute measuring spoon. He fortunately has two eyes. Dump in your baking powder.

And your sugar.

Now set your big mixing bowl aside, and pull out a slightly smaller bowl. Just get a medium-sized bowl. Crack open the egg.

And beat it.

Measure your milk, and pour it into the egg.

 And the melted shortening.

Make a well in your dry ingredients bowl, and pour in the egg mixture. Stir until it looks somewhat like this.

Now pull out your griddle and grease it. Yes, I'm so old-fashioned, I have a real griddle, not an electric one. Turn the heat to medium.

Get a ladle and spoon out batter onto the hot griddle. You can test to see if your griddle is hot enough by sprinkling water on it, and if it dances, you're ready.

Wait for bubbles on the batter before you flip the pancake. You can start to see the bottom edges get dry too.

Look how lovely that is!

Yum......so fluffy and delicious. I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Happy breakfast!

       Oh, and this is what I ate for lunch. Pork loin, Swiss cheese, and tomato toasted sandwich with tortilla chips and fresh home-made salsa, and rootbeer. Jealous? I thought so.

DIY Recipe: Crawfish Boil - In a Pot!

We went to a a crawfish boil last night, had lots of fun, and then brought the fun home with us. This afternoon, my sister Casey and I gathered the leftovers and threw this together for a Crawfish Corn Sausage Potato Soup.....aka, Crawfish Boil - In a Pot!

Okay, so we had a gallon-size Ziploc bag full of whole crawfish, and when we peeled them, it looked about 2 or 3 cups of tail meat, but just peel as many as you have.

Finely chop 1/2 of an onion, and a stalk of celery. We'll get to the garlic later.

Melt 3 or 4 tbsp. of butter in a big pot. Go ahead and put 4 tbsp. Remember to smile as you melt it.

Throw in the onion and celery into the big pot.

And stir. And stir some more.

Now finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and dump it into the big pot, so it can make friends with Mr. Onion and Ms. Celery.

                 

Cut the kernels off of your corn cobs and start dumping it into the big pot.

Like this. (Or you can use frozen corn, if you don't have corn cobs)

Here are all of the kernels.

Here are all of the cobs. 

Now dice your potatoes, slice your sausage, and dump them along with the crawfish into........yep, the big pot.

Guest Blogger! My beautiful sister, Casey!

Oh, doesn't that look absolutely wonderful?

Now pour five cups of chicken broth into the big pot. 

Now add about a tbsp. of Paul Prudhomme's Seafood Magic seasoning, 3 tbsp. of sugar, and one big bayleaf, or two little ones. We are LEAFing this up to you. My sister and I are so punny. (budumbump CYMBAL CRASH!) Now cover the big pot and let it simmer so it can mingle, while you mix up a batch of Angel Biscuits to accompany your soup.

ME!

Now it's time for......Angel biscuits. Aw, yeah, it is.

Click on the picture above for the recipe, if you can't quite read it. If you want a giant batch of Angel Biscuits, follow this recipe. If you don't, half it as we did. Peace out.                                                                                  

Oh, wait I can't peace out! I forgot to introduce our helper, Skittles. He smelled everything to make sure it was alright. Now, you can look at the pictures below for the Angel Biscuits.

 Me and my sister! Big Chef, and Lil' Chef.

   Dump two and a half cups of flour and the rest of the dry ingredients in a big bowl. My cute little measuring spoon had to make an appearance.     

Now cut in about a third of a cup of vegetable shortening.

Pour in the buttermilk and yeast mixture.

And mix, mix, mix!

Cover and put the dough into the fridge until you are ready to use it.

When you are ready, pinch off a biscuit-sized blob of dough and place it on a lightly-greased baking sheet.

 And do the rest.

Imagine these are baked. Use your brains.....because I kind of forgot to take a picture of the baked biscuits.

Now pour a steamy bowl of....Crawfish Boil - IN A POT, with a warm BAKED Angel Biscuit slathered with creamy butter, and enjoy your meal! TA DA!