Long time, no post

Due to my hectic last few weeks of high school, my summer laziness, and starting college. I have severely neglected this blog. As a freshman in college, I had no way to continue Firehouse Jewelry, so it is on a temporary hiatus until after I graduate. On to the good news, I am doing well in college and got a summer job. My job is located in Mount Rainier, Washington. In honor of this job, I have started a new blog for this experience and the rest of my high school career. The new blog is called “Thoughts of Paradise” and can be found here.

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.