Scariest Seven Minutes of My Life

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Alright so despite being a female teenage driver, I have always been a very safe, law abiding driver. I’ve never gotten a ticket, never sped (At least, not too much) and I’ve never been pulled over. Well, until yesterday.

You see, yesterday I was supposed to be taking my little brother Jesse to a goat farm. (We never actually got there but that’s not important.) The instructions were vague to say the least and I got confused and turned around and ended up passing the road I was supposed to go down. So I drove down the road for a bit, looking for a good place to turn around. I finally did, signaled, and turned around behind a normal car and in front of a cop car.

Now, when anyone sees a cop car, you immediately start driving five miles under the speed limit, you make sure your hands are at the ten and the two, you use your signal three miles before you have to turn, and your mind goes “OH GOD PLEASE DON’T LET ME SCREW THIS UP.”

So we drove down the highway for a few miles and all of a sudden, I saw the lights flashing in my rear view mirror. My brain froze. You’re supposed to do something when the lights are flashing, my mind feebly recognized. Finally my brain started up again and I quickly pulled over.

The cop got out of the car. Those moments when he was walking up to the car were absolutely nerve-wracking. My heart was jackhammer-fast and my mind was racing. I wasn’t speeding and I’d signaled when I turned, right? Wait I can’t remember. Oh no, what if he thinks I kidnapped my little brother? I’M GONNA DIE! (I think in capitals when I’m upset. Don’t judge me.)

So as it turns out he was stopping me because one of my brake lights was out, and I had no idea. Also I think I screwed up some other law but I don’t know what I did and he didn’t really explain it too well. I’m pretty sure he thought I was an idiot because I couldn’t speak properly at all. The fact that Jesse was in the car saved me from getting a ticket and I actually think he was going to arrest me if not for Jesse. But that could just be the adrenaline talking. Cops are terrifying.

After giving me a warning he went back to his car and I spent a few moments having a small heart attack in my seat. Then I started up the car. The goat farm was the last thing on my mind so I ended up just driving home and curling up in the fetal position in my bed.

This Post Will Probably Be Boring. And About Fruit.

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You are forewarned. Dad said I needed to do a post, but to be honest I have no idea what this post should be about. So I’m going to talk about fruit.

It’s something I miss about living in Florida. You could always get oranges, and they pretty much always tasted good. It just seemed like there was more fruit in Florida. Maybe we just ate it more. But it was just a part of my childhood. We’d always have oranges or pineapple or bananas or cantaloupe in the fridge.

Another place that sticks out fruit-wise was Hawaii. I had some really weird fruit but it was really good. I had some dragonfruit, lychees, and something called a rose apple. They were all weird looking but tasted great. To give you a visual reference, here’s a dragon fruit:

dragon fruit purple

Crazy looking but delicious

And here’s a lychee:

lychee fruit

Inedible looking but suprisingly good

And some rose apples:

rose apples

Also crazy looking. But really good.

Also, I’m obligated to tell you that in the shop we have a full line of fruit fabric. Which isn’t really important, but if you DO want to see it, click here to see the fruit and veggies.

Also, we’ve been trying to find a good shave ice syrup to use for Gus’ Best Ice Cream, which will probably be opening in a few weeks. I’m currently working on a few t-shirt designs, one of which is fruit related.

banana manatee bananatee gus best ice cream

It's a bananatee.

Major Life Decision *cue dramatic music*

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So I’ve been giving some serious thought to college, mainly what I want to study and where I want to go. I took a year off from formal schooling in order to decide what I wanted to do with my life, and the end of that year is coming close.

One of the main reasons I didn’t want to go to college right away was because of the cost. I’d be paying my way myself and I didn’t want to commit to that until I knew what I’d be studying. While some may argue that you don’t NEED to know what you want to study during the first two years, I’ve had plenty of friends who dropped out because they didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives and I don’t want to go through that too.

Another major reason behind my delay was because honestly, I have no idea how to survive without my family. I have literally been packed in the same apartment with them, day and night, for four years. So there’s that anxiety.

As I mentioned before, another reason I took a year off was because I really didn’t know what I wanted to study. I have a lot of things I’m good at (And I’m not trying to brag here. I’m good at a lot of things but not really amazing at any one thing.) and since I have so many interests, I had no idea which one I should pursue. At one point I considered going to an art school, but the money problem reared its head. At one time I thought about being a literature major, but nothing really turned up.

The thing that really made me want to try college was my voice teacher, who, upon hearing that my one true dream in life is to sing on Broadway, told me that if I really wanted to be on Broadway, I needed more training. And as I am right now, if I went to New York I think it would be a bad idea.

So right now I’m looking at the University of Wyoming, which she recommended and which is supposed to have a good music department. I’m looking into studying musical performance. At this point in time, all the scholarships have already been given, so I may wait a while before applying. Also, since I was homeschooled, we need to find all my transcripts and I need to take the SAT and actually take a chemistry course. (I took science for the required amount of years and I tried to do chemistry but it was all math. Math and I don’t get along.)

While I was worried that my parents wanted to talk me out of it, my dad has been pretty supportive and I’m really glad because I have NO IDEA how to apply for college or how to write an essay or how to figure out a course schedule or even what a course schedule is and I think I might freak out a little bit but that’s okay. Because this is something that I really want to do.

Hey, You’re Artistic, Right?

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These four words, when spoken by anyone, fill me with equal parts frustration, pride, and dread, because there is one, and only one, reason behind someone saying this to me.

They want me to draw something for them.

Now, normally, this would make me feel flattered, but the fact of the matter is I usually hear this phrase from my mom when she wants me to draw something quilt-related. And she (as well as everyone else who wants me to draw something for them) seems to think that “artistic” is a catchall term that basically means I pull drawings out of thin air based on a vague description they give me. (I need more than “He has brown hair and blue eyes” to draw a person, people.)

The thing that really frustrates me is just because I’m artistic it does not mean that I know how to design a longarm quilting pattern. Or that I want to design templates. Or that I know how to draw a robotic panda with laser vision. Or that I like quilting.

That’s just the way it is. Sure, I’m artistic. But I’m not a walking drawing request.

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Oh yeah, and my dad said I have to say something about fabric so here’s some fabric that isn’t too terrible. It’s pretty cool. For fabric. This is part of the Australian aboriginals in the shop.

 

Jackhammer Alarm Clock 2: The Wrath of Khan

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Well the alarm clock arrived the other day. Dad tested it out in the shop and was supremely disappointed that it was not as loud as he had expected. I think he was expecting a sound akin to a jet engine roaring out from it. It’s not that loud, but it’s loud enough that I think that it would wake up a heavy sleeper. I still despise it.

Apparently, you can adjust the tone of the buzzer to the exact pitch that will grind on your ears in the morning. Dad kept fiddling with it and eventually we all yelled at him to shut the stupid thing up. He did, but not before he fiddled with it a little more.

He hasn’t hooked it up in my room yet , but I know it’s only a matter of time. Blah.

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Time for another installment of . . . .

Things My Mom Says Chapter 2

So a few years ago my family was at a Christmas concert at our church. We were close to the front, so we had a good view of the harpist. My mom leaned in and said:

“Hey, look at that, it’s like playing the piano with your hands.”

After a half-second of thought, I replied:

“Mom, you do play the piano with your hands.”

This has been Things My Mom Says.

Jackhammer Alarm Clock

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I’m not a morning person. Not by a long shot. I’d prefer mornings to start at around 11 am. This doesn’t sit well with my dad, who wakes up every morning at 5 am like a crazy person. I’m a very heavy sleeper and I usually sleep through my alarm for at least thirty minutes, until I realize that the annoying beeping sound is not part of the awesome dream I’m having about fighting werewolves with a brick attached to a belt. To counteract my tendency to sleep through my alarm, I set it early so that my brain has time to recognize it. However, this just looks like sleeping in to my dad, and apparently as a last resort, he bought an alarm clock that he said, and I quote: “Goes off at 110 decibels, louder than a jackhammer, and comes with a special pad that will shake the bed when it goes off.”

 

I’m still mad at him. This is approximately the expression I made when I found out he had bought it on Amazon:

furious cat

This is also how I feel most mornings

 

It hasn’t arrived yet, but when it does, he shouldn’t be surprised if I bring it up one day in pieces and I’m like “Oh no, it broke. Dang.”

 

All right, enough of this boring quilt business

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It’s time to talk about important stuff, like how much I loathe cold weather.

I don’t deal well with cold weather. I’m like one of those orchids that only thrive in a warm environment. You know, like FLORIDA? Thanks a bunch, Dad. Anyway, I get chilly really easily, so I keep my heater going from about mid-September to early April. As such, my room is probably the warmest room in the house, which I like just fine.

Now I’m not saying I don’t like winter. I think snow is beautiful and skiing is really fun. I just wish I could do the stuff I like without the whole my-eyeballs-have-frozen-in-their-sockets factor.

This winter’s been pretty mild so far, though, which should make me happy, but instead it freaks me out because I can’t help but feel that one day I’ll walk outside and BAM! It’ll be 50 degrees below zero and there’ll be ten feet of snow and I’ll have to ride a mammoth to the grocery store.

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On another note, I’ve decided to start a weekly sort of series of the strange and silly things my mom says on a fairly regular basis. Here’s the first installment:

Things My Mom Says Chapter 1(There will be a lot of these.)

So this last Christmas it was decided that we weren’t going to give “useless” presents to each other this year. “Useless” as defined by my parents included video games and other such electronic things. The conversation at the dinner table went a little something like this:

Dad: Alright, so we’ve decided that you guys aren’t going to get any stupid presents this year.

Kids: Define stupid.

Mom: No video games. Just ask for stuff you need. For instance, I need mascara.

(Kids’ eyes dart around table. Snorts of laughter ensue)

So it’ll be stuff like that. I’ve got a hundred of these things.

A new ice cream shop with SHAVE ICE!

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Christine wouldn’t like to brag, but she’s a really good illustrator.  We’re opening a new ice cream shop here in Hot Springs–next door to the quilt shop.  It’s Gus’ Best Ice Cream.  Who’s Gus?  What’s Shave Ice?  Well, you’ll have to check out the website when we get it up.  Here’s a couple of Christine’s illustrations for the logo and t shirts.  Can you guess who Gus is?  You can see why we covet her working here in the shop

 

Gus' Best

What a mascot!

Elephants+Peacocks=Peaphants? Or Ele…never mind.

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Timeless Treasure Peacocks

Some Beautiful Peacock Fabric

Okay, so, I know I said I don’t really like quilting, but this new fabric here is pretty cool. The birds are bigger on the fabric in person. Peacocks are my favorite birds ever, and apparently other people like them too, because it sold faster than you could say “Elephant.”

Speaking of Elephants: Here’s another new fabric that I think is really cute. It’s a bunch of little elephants with pretty designs all over them. My mom made a really cool quilt with it, and she put a little extra batting beneath the elephants so they poof up a bit. So yeah. They’re pretty awesome, come check ‘em out.

elephant quilt karavan

The Elephant Quilt

Cute Lil' Elephants