Driving the Inspirations

As I mentioned early on in this blog, my buisness's name was inspired by my dad's 1955 American LaFrance Pumper truck. I decided that one day during my senoir year I would drive the truck to school one day, well that didn't quite work out due to some family issues. But today, my dad and I went out and I learned to drive the firetruck.

Valedictorian Speech

Many Roads, Many Choices

We are the one hundred and first class to graduate from Lenoir City High School. That means that one hundred others valedictorians’ have struggled as I have to come up with a speech and say something new, fresh, and interesting. Over the past few months, the class of 2009 has been overwhelmed with decisions to make. How many graduation announcements to buy? Where to go to college? Can I get a job somewhere? What to wear to prom? Should I wear clothes under my graduation gown?

As a class, we are leaving behind the safety as security we have always known. Many of us has lived and gone to school with each other since kindergarten while others joined us throughout our school years. For the last twelve years, our routine from August to May has always been the same. Wake up, go to School, Extra-Curricular Activities, Homework. This phase of our lives is now over.

Many us are leaving our friends behind. Although our friendships may be physically separated due to college or job choices, hopefully, we’ll be able to maintain our friendships. And even if our friendships drift apart, we will always have the memories we had made in high school – the sports we played, the games we watched, the tricks we pulled, and the trouble we should have gotten caught for…..

Robert Frost’s most famous poem starts with “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both”. The poem is about making choices, and some choices are easy and some are hard. Each of us must evaluate the paths available and select our own path, even if it means taking the road less traveled. Or, for some of us, where no path exists, we will forge ahead, and make our own road.

Up until this point, we’ve had many to help guide us in making the right choices, our parents and families, teachers, coaches, religions leaders, and more. But, we can no longer expect our parents to be there to guide us at every turn. We are now fully responsible for our actions. Our decisions are our own.

We start this next phase of our lives with a clean slate. The decisions after this moment will play a direct role in defining who we are and the world around us. What we must remember is that we can define our future through decisions we make over the next few years. Very often our paths will diverge; we will be faced with two paths. Sometimes our decisions will lead us in ways we never imagined. We must move on and live our lives. Despite how we try to control our world, we can never predict the exact results of our actions. In the end, all that really matter is that we work hard and trust ourselves. In the immortal worlds of Winston Churchill “Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.”

Long Delay

It has been a busy couple of weeks, between filling out scholarship applications and deciding on college, finishing school, and finally writing my speech for graduation

College Decision

After weeks of debates and running though many different scenarios, I have finally made a decision on which college I would like to attend. I spend several day and one sleepless night thinking about my options. I finally came to a decision that despite the increased cost in my heart I knew that I belong at the:

University of Florida

I am looking forward to getting out of my hometown and meeting a brand new group of people. I plan to get involved in the Sailing Club, inter-mural soccer and anything else that strikes my interest.

Its Official

I am Lenoir City High Schools Valedictorian.

Book Review

I have decide that I will start reviewing books that read seeing as I read one a week during most weeks.
My first book is Dean Koontz’s novel Life Expectancy. This book is about a young man is born on the same night his grandfather dies. Before his grandfather died, he made several predictions about his grandson. The most important of these predictions is the five terrible days. On each of these days, Jimmy Tock will face many challenges and a crazy family of clowns. The story has many twist and turns and always leaves you guessing.
Most of the humor is not for those who enjoy crude humor. This book is very good but Dean Koontz’s fans be warned, this book is very different from all of his other books.

Bad News

I had a major disappointed this weekend. My first choice college Vanderbilt University put me on their wait list. This was a big surprise supposing I am ranked number one in my class and have above a 4.0 GPA. My ACT score is not the highest but it is a solid 29. I was really shocked since Vandy's class average ACT last year was a 29 and my GPA is above last year's average.

Scholarship

As most people know scholarships are a great way to pay for college. I understand it is there money to giveaway but if your going to give out a scholarship at least have a better essay question than:

Why are you applying for this scholarship?
Why do you want to receive this scholarship?
What is your principle motivation for applying for this scholarship?

I hate these questions. They are dumb, and all have the same answer for everyone. People applying for scholarships WANT THE MONEY. Why else would people spend time applying for the scholarship.

Etsy Blogger - Blog Carnival

Spring is here (or almost here depending on where you live). What spring-y things have you been noticing lately? (Bulbs coming in, birds returning, Easter bunnies in stores...etc. )

I just love the arrival of spring. I absolutly hate cold weather, and look forward to spring because it gets warm again. I love the signs of spring such as the dafadilas.

I looking forward to my graudation in May, and finially deciding what college I am going to.

Featured EtsyBlogger - Design By Nora

Looking for some handmade purses or jewelry than look no further than Design By Nora. Design By Nora has been a etsy seller since January 2008, and has made a great entry into the etsy world.

Long Awaited Trebuchet

After have one stressful week, two major test and three projects due in one week. I survived. My groups trebuchet worked perfectly. It out threw all the boy’s trebuchets by a huge amount. Our max range was 70 feet and the project only required it to throw 22 feet.
Here are a couple of pics.

School, School, and More School

Well, I have been very busy the last couple of weeks. I have had to finish several scholarship applications. Call all my parents of the youth soccer team I am coaching, build a trebuchet for physics class and attempt to finish my homework every night.

I finally had time to pick my blog giveaway winner. The winner is KrazyFashion. I will be mailing her her prize tommarrow.

Check back soon, becasue I will be posting pictures of my trebuchet soon.

Featured EtsyBlogger - Donnapool

Donnapool has been an etsy seller since December 2006. She is a stay at home mom. She offers a wide range of products. She make custom buttons, pocket mirrors, ACEO's, and photographs. Her shop offers some great prodects if you get a chance check her out at her shop. Her blog can be found at http://ddpool.blogspot.com/.

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway. For more information on my blog giveaway click here.

New Product Line

As promised, I have launched my new product line. It is polymer clay pendants with custom pieces of art work transferred on to them. Theses pendant is made by using a special photo transfer technique. The graphics are a custom piece of art made my mother. She makes these works of art using an advanced computer program. I have watched her make them and it is a difficult computer program to use. I have a lot of respect for her skill and am very glad she “spends” (wastes would be a better word) lots of time playing in this program. I will only make 15 pendants with each graphic in each color after I have made 15 I will retire the color.

I have a special offer for my blog readers purchase any photo transfer pendant and receive a free ribbon necklace with purchase. In notes to seller include the following code FREENECK01. Code is valued until March 15, 2009.

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway. For more information on my blog giveaway click here.

Etsy Bloggers - Blog Carnival

I recently joined the Etsy Bloggers and well I have decided to answer the following question for my first blog carnival.

What made you open a shop on Etsy? What do you like about being a seller on Etsy? What don't you like?

I opened my shop because I need somewhere to sell my jewelry. I had come across Etsy months before I opened my shop. I thought about it for a couple of months and decide to start a shop because I can’t find a job.

I love the fact that my jewelry is seen by more people. I love the friendly community and great teams.

I hate the search function, and the tagging abuse. I also dislike the huge number of jewelry sellers undervaluing their time and pricing their pieces too low.

Blog Feature Audreys Country Crafts

1. When did you start your craft? My addiction started about 15 years ago. I was a stay at home mom and saw an ad in the paper for classes. Hubby suggested going as a way to get out of the house one evening a week for a while. He didn't realize that it would become an addiction.

2. Are you self-taught or did you take classes? I took the beginner Folkart painting class, but since then have learned on my own or by watching friends paint.

3. Why do you do your craft? Crafting keeps me sane. I keep telling hubby it's cheaper than a shrink!! I need to do something that is not hubby/kid related - that's just for me.

4. What is your favorite part of etsy? The forums are my favorite part. I've met some wonderful people on the forums and they have introduced me to some wonderful forms of art/crafts that I had not seen or heard of before.

5. What is the link to your etsy shop? http://audreyscountrycrafts.etsy.com/

6. Do you have a blog? If so what is the link? I have 2 blogs. One is for features, my crafts, or whatever I find interesting and want to post. The other is features and give aways.http://audreyscountrycrafts.blogspot.com/http://audreyscountrycraftsgiveaway.blogspot.com/

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway. For more information on my blog giveaway click here.

Product Testing

You know back in January when I said I was working on a new product well I have final figured out how to do transfer photos on to polymer clay. I have eight pendants in different stages of production. Yesterday, I finished my first pendant. Today, I wore it to school. The goal is to make sure they are durable and my fitting are secured. So far, it has held together and is very secure. I hope to have the first ones posted some time tomorrow.

Hint: All readers should watch for my upcoming blog post on these pendants. There will be a useful code in that blogpost.

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway. For more information on my blog giveaway click here.

Blog Giveaway

An 7 inch bracelet containing about blue pearl, royal blue, and black polymer clay that is on stretch cord. Each bead is hand rolled and is 100% unique. No two beads are exactly the same. This bracelet is unique and will looks great with any blue outfit
On March 1, 2009, I am going to giveaway the Black and Blue Polymer Clay Bracelet. The winner will receive the bracelet pictures a $20.00 value. I will ship the bracelet to the winner free of charge. There are many different ways to enter.

Giveaway Rules

1. Must provide a e-mail address. I will contact you for the address to ship the bracelet to.
   
2. Must respond to my e-mail with in 5 days or another winner will be selected.
   
3. Two entries for blogging about this giveaway and post the link here.
   
4. Two entries per purchases from my shop (Click Here for my shop).
   
5. One entry for following my blog (all current followers have an automatic entry).


6. One entry per comment on all February Blog Comments (limit one post per entry) **Note: You can go back and post on all previous entries


7. Blog comment entries must be more than one word.

Four ways to enter. On March 1st, I will enter the names into a spreadsheet and use a random number generator to pick the winner.

I Promised You This Treasury

I am so excited I made my first ever treasury. It was made WarmCountryMeadows. WarmCountryMeadows posted in the fourms and asked for shop owners who wanted to be in her next treasury. I posted I didn't actually think I would get in but I am really glad. I am really glad I am in the treasury. To see the treasury click here.

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway. For more information on my blog giveaway click here.

Very Cool Web Site

Yesterday, Someone in the etsy community posted the link to the website called Wordle. It made some very cool graphics based of words you enter or you can have it make of a website.
See some example of ones a I made.

This one was made using words I entered.

This one was made from the site pulling word from my etsy shop.

All these images were made by http://www.wordle.net/.

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway. For more information on my blog giveaway click here.

Blog Feature - Mopey Can't Swim

1. When did you start your craft?I have been sewing and stitching for as long as I can remember. However, I did not start crafting seriously until I was 19.

2. Are you self-taught or did you take classes?I learned everything I know from my mother! She used to sell her handmade creations when I was little, and now I am too!

3. Why do you do your craft?I adore plushies. They are soft, huggable, cute, and just plain fun! They make me feel better when I'm sad and help me sleep at night. I would just love for someone somewhere to be comforted and cheered up by something that I created!

4. What is your favorite part of etsy?I would have to say the community. I've met some absolutely wonderful people here, and I really enjoy being able to communicate freely with both sellers and buyers.

5. What is the link to your etsy shop?http://www.mopeycantswim.etsy.com/

6. Do you have a blog? If so what is the link? http://mopeycantswim.blogspot.com/

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway. For more information on my blog giveaway click here.

A great storm

I have decide to take a break from posting my Europe scrapbook, to tell you about the storm East TN had yesterday afternoon. It started off as a fairly pretty day, and late afternoon it started to get dark outside and about 3 seconds late it is pouring rain. Literary I was soaked by the time I walked the 20 feet to my car. I drove home and as I approached my driveway I found a big tree laying across the road and I could not get home. Finally my dad arrived and with this help the tree was removed from the road.

My Trip to Europe - Day 2

The TV screen shows that we are currently somewhere over France. I still haven’t realized that I’m in Europe yet. So far I have slept 5 hours and the flight attendants are serving breakfast. It is a croissant, a banana, granola bar, and orange juice. Overall I like breakfast better than dinner. So I am going to read my book for a while.
Two hours later our plane landed in Rome or Roma as it’s called here. I was looking forward to going through customs and getting a stamp in my passport, but apparently the European Union does not stamp passports so I was disappointed. It took 2 long hours for everyone to get their luggage. When we finally got our luggage, we walked outside the airport and met our delegation manager, LeAndrea. She seems really nice. We then took our first bus ride in Roma. Our bus is bright green and our bus drivers name is Bern but we can call him Ben. So we drove towards our restaurant for lunch. The bus can’t navigate all the way to the restaurant so we had to walk there. We walked right by the Coliseum. It hit me that we were in Rome at that moment. For lunch, we had pasta in a strange sauce. For main course we had June Fish and a salad with vinaigrette. For dessert we had something like pudding with chocolate sauce. I like all the meal but the pasta. After lunch, we met our tour guide. He was an archeologist who knew what he was talking about. He took us through the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. The guide was really interesting to listen to. We entered the Coliseum through the emperor’s entrance. He told us how the original marble was striped away when the Roman Empire fell. The Coliseum was impressive but with the marble it could have been overwhelming. After the Coliseum, we walked past the Arch of Constantine and Arch of Titus. Then we took a tour of the Roman Forum. We say the remains of the places and the other important buildings. We got to see two temples that had survived. They were spared destruction because they were changed into Catholic churches when the empire fell. The guide told us showed us a church with two doors one that you could walk up the steps and enter and another that was 10 ft. off the ground. This second door was built because over time the Forum was filled with debris so the ground level was higher.
After the tour, we had free time. Jackie, Hailey, Demi, and I wandered around the Forum. We say the spot where Caesar was buried, and stopped at one of Roma’s many fountains to fill our water bottles. After that we had to wander back and meet the group so we could walk to dinner. This meal had three courses. The first was mussels with a sauce. It made me want to throw up. For the main dish, we had two past dishes: one for vegetarians and one for the rest of us. Both dishes were really good, and made up for the first dish. The dessert was Flum, tasteless Jell-O like thing with a caramel sauce.
After one long day we arrive at the hotel, I got to room with Jackie, and Hailey. But when we got to the room, we realized we had 2 beds for three people. I drew the short straw so I got to move in with Demi and Hailey Ross.

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway.

My Trip to Europe - Day 1

As most of you know I started Firehouse Jewelry as a way to help pay for my trip to Europe. I did make enough to go on the trip and I had a great time. When I got back I decide I was going to make a scrapbook for my trip. I took over 3000 pictures in Europe and visited four contries as I started to make the scrapbook, I realized I need another scrap book. By the time I was done I had enough pages for three thick scrapbooks. I have my pictures broken out by day. While in Europe I kept a journal and I start each section of pictures with that day's jounral entry. So here is the first day's journal entry and its scrapbook pages.

Today is the day. Today I leave for Rome. I can’t believe I am on my way to Europe. The flight from Knoxville to Cincinnati is at 2:50 p.m., but we have to be there at 12:30 p.m. Finally, my parents and I leave the house, and so we got to the airport and check-in took awhile because my Skymiles card wouldn’t work. Finally it worked. After everyone who had checked-in Cathy gathered all of us together and told us that Megan’s dad had died. That was sad. I was really glad Cathy said she would still come on the trip even through she would be a few days late.
After this announcement and some final instructions for the parents, my parents left and Demi’s walked us to security. After going through security I had to talk to Rebecca because I used my license instead of my passport. Once inside security Jackie, Demi, Laura, Hailey M played BS. Finally it was time to get on the plane. I was sitting next to Hailey M. Our plane left 1 ½ hours late due to a mechanical problem in the air conditioning unit. So we got to sit on the plane for 1 ½ hours with no air conditioning. The plane was really hot so the flight was kind of miserable. Once in Cincinnati, I exchanged money and I didn’t feel like eating so I got a smoothie. While we were waiting to board the plane we met a 20-month-old girl named Camilia. She had fun pointing at things out the window. When we got to board the flight we showed our passports, once we were through the gate, Renee was collecting our passports. After she had all of them, she got on the plane. On the way to her seat, she said some of the other passengers wanted to know if she needed their passports too. Once at my seat, I found out I was sitting by Cathy. She made me sit in the middle. I had a strong feeling I was not going to enjoy the flight, but Thankfully Cathy moved up a seat so I could sit in the aisle seat. For a while I thought I was going to get a whole row to myself, but that fell through. I plan to spend most the flight listing to my iPod and sleeping.
I stayed awake until they served the in-flight meal, which as chicken in a gross sauce, sweet potato mash, and some corn. The corn was ok, and the potatoes were tasteless. The chicken was edible once the sauce was removed.
I can’t believe my next entry will be from Rome, so I leave off somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

P.S. All comments on this post count as an entry from my blog giveaway.

I'm Done

Well, the last two days have been kind of hectic I have had two projects to do for school. They were both very research intensive. My paper for physics took me about 4 hours. I am not sure why though. For those who are intrested my paper was on the Steppe Eagle and the Airbus 380. Though I am not sure how it relates to physics, but it was intresting. My other assignment was a brochure on Lupus for Biology II. I like that assignment more because I got to be creative with the design.

Let see, if you remember the other day I said my school had messed up my class rank. I am a straight A student (I have never made a B in high school) and before the fall semester I was tied with one other person for number 1. So when I went from tied for number 1 to number 9 and my grades didn't drop (though my oppent made two B's). Well, they made a mistake and they finally fixed it so right now as long as I don't screw up I will be valevictorian (note to self learn to spell Valevictorian).

Note - your first comment on this post counts as an entry in my blog giveaway. Click here for more details.

Product Review - Set of 3 Soft Merino Bracelets

I have decide that I spent far too much time surfing Etsy for other products then I should. I was using the Pounce feature when I found Easternsky. I immediately decide that I wanted one of her Soft Merino Bracelets. I kept thinking about it. Christmas was coming up and I decide that I would ask my parents if they would get me one for Christmas. Well, I couldn’t decide what colors I wanted so I had to buy three of them. I missed her deadline for Christmas shipping, but they still arrived very quickly. They didn’t make it for Christmas, but they were arrived about 3 days after Christmas.

The colors of my bracelet look just like their pictures and she didn’t lie when she said “So light and comfy you won't even know you are wearing them!” I wear these bracelets about 2 or 3 time a week. I plan to buy several more when I get some money.
Here are the three colors I bought:


P.S. All comments on this post count as entries toward my giveaway.

Good and Bad

Today, started out as a fairly bad day. I went out to my car and go to it to go to school and it wouldn’t start. It was 7:50 and I didn’t have time to jump start it. I had this strange feeling that I should have grab the gate key out of my car but decided not to. So I had my mother drive me to school, I got there on time but I did not get to go to Calculus tutoring. First block was fun, it is Senior Physics and there are 12 students in the class. After going over the homework we had a lecture on Newton’s third law of motion. Then, we had held a experiment on how the elevators motion can change the perceived weight of items as it moves. In order to do this we had to fit 13 people in our school elevator which is fairly old and not that big but the scale the teacher brought wouldn’t work. The teacher went back to the class room, and we decide to hide from him in the empty chemistry class room. The teacher came back and we were given away by the giggling boys well mostly one boy. We finished the experiment, class ended, and it started to snow.
A couple of scholarship deadlines are coming up and I went into the guidance officer to have my guidance counselor fill out some forms. One of the forms needed my class rank on it. She pulls of my class rank and starts to right ninth on the form, this immediately stand out to me because the previous semester I had been tied for first with one other boy. I got all A’s and he ended the semester with a B. So I wanted to know how someone managed to beat me when I have NEVER made a B in my high school career. She starts to look at it and realizes that they have to check the class rankings because they might have made a mistake. So now I can’t turn in the forms for scholarships until they strained it out.
Now for the best part of the day, as I said earlier that it started to snow all though Calculus it was snowing and it was collecting. We were all getting excited and hoping that we would get out. So when our principle got on the intercom and starts to make an announcement and we all start packing out stuff up because he dismisses school. This was good and bad. Great because of no school, but I was stuck at the school because I didn’t have a car. Thankfully my friend took me home and we baby sat her little brother. We had a great snowball fight with her little brother and his cousin.
So today was over all an ok day.

Blog Giveaway

An 7 inch bracelet containing about blue pearl, royal blue, and black polymer clay that is on stretch cord. Each bead is hand rolled and is 100% unique. No two beads are exactly the same. This bracelet is unique and will looks great with any blue outfit

On March 1, 2009, I am going to giveaway the Black and Blue Polymer Clay Bracelet. The winner will receive the bracelet pictures a $20.00 value. I will ship the bracelet to the winner free of charge. There are many different ways to enter.

Giveaway Rules

1. Must provide a e-mail address. I will contact you for the address to ship the bracelet to. Must respond to my e-mail with in 5 days or another winner will be selected.
   
2. Two entries for blogging about this giveaway and post the link here.
   
3. Two entries per purchases from my shop (Click Here for my shop).
   
4. One entry for following my blog (all current followers have an automatic entry).
   
5. One entry per comment on all February Blog Comments (limit one entry per day)
   
6. Blog comment entries must be more than one word.

Four ways to enter. On March 1st, I will enter the names into a spreadsheet and use a random number generator to pick the winner.

Out of Ideas

I couldn’t think of anything to blog about and I am out of snow pictures so here are some from my 2008 trip to the zoo.

Another Snow Day

Well, I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of my car in a ditch, because my dad’s way home he drove it out of the ditch. After he got home and changed, I got snow driving lessons and I am now fairly comfortable driving up and down our driveway (it’s a mile long and all gravel). Last night I got a text message from one of my friends stating that there was no school again. I was fairly surprised. The first thing I did was get on the internet and check to see if it was true. I trust my friend but as the saying goes seeing is believing.
Here are some more snow pictures

This is an intresting stump I found.

A bluebird house surroned by snow.

The half-frozen pond.

A intresting looking tree covered in snow.

The day in the life of a teenager – Snow Day

8:00 a.m. – Wake-up
8:01 a.m. – Go back to sleep
9:00 a.m. – Watch TV and take a nap
10:45 a.m. – I decide to go for a walk outside and take pictures of the snow. The dog, Maggie, goes with me, in reality I should say that we go walking in the same place. I walk around and she just ran all over and ate snow.
12:00 p.m. – My mom and I decide to go out for lunch. We have a mile long gravel driveway and I want to drive so I could get some experience driving in the snow.
12:05 p.m. – I am driving up the big hill and my car slides into the ditch.
12:20 p.m. – I walk home to get my mom’s car so I can go pick my mother up.
12:30 p.m. – I call my father and tell him I slid my car into the ditch and he laughed at me.

Here are some pictures from my walk, I will post pictures of my car tomorrow.

This is a picture of my house - it is really a log cabin in the middle of the woods.

This is snow stuck to a tree, I thought it looked cool.

This is the 1 acre pond, it is mostly frozen over.

This is my dog Maggie, she in NOT a Dalmation she is an Enlgish Setter.

This is my chicken Annabelle on our deck. She is the sole suvivor of the animal that raided my chicken house. She on lives on the front porch and eats cat food.