Top Tuesdays: Holland style!

 

Today was an important day for the Netherlands (also known as Holland). Not only was it Queen's Day (a holiday for the country) but Queen Beatrix, who has been queen over the Netherlands for 33 years, abdicated her throne. Her son, Willem-Alexander took over as king. He's the first king Holland has had in a century!

In honor of this, I've been wearing an orange ribbon in my hair all day (you can also see my new glasses!):

I've been decorating everyone in the house with pieces of orange yarn as well (because orange is Holland's color. The royal family is "the House of Oranje" (the House of Orange).

 

 

Rosey was not very happy that I tied so many things onto her fur. But they are all still in and it has been a few hours... she must have forgotten about them.
I was also inspired to do a Holland-themed photoshoot with Kirsten.... but more on that at the end of the blog post.
First, my top nine things that come from Holland!

8. Hans Brinker (or the Silver Skates).
A children's book about Hans and his sister who skate in a contest to win a pair of silver skates. I read a condensed version of this a few years ago (I didn't know that it was a condensed version) and need to pick up the adult version, which is sitting on the bookshelf.

7. Stroopwafels (and other delicious goodies).

 

Mmmmmmm.... Two thin layers of batter with syrup inside.

6. Windmills!

 

 

5. Cool names.
Such as Jaap, Engalina, Luitzen, Jan, Pieter, etc...

4. Tulips!

My favorite flower.

3. Corrie Ten Boom and her book The Hiding Place.
This is a wonderful book. It tells all about how Corrie trusted God when she was brought to a concentration camp during WW2. A true story and a wonderful, wonderful read. I highly recommend this book.

2. GOUDA!!!!!! (Pronounced gow-da not goo-da. Or, if you want to say it in Dutch, how-da.)

 

The best cheese in the entire world.

1. My Grandparents and all my other family members/ancestors that have come from Holland.

 

 

 (My Grama)

 

So there you have it! Now a few of my favorite pictures from the photoshoot I did with Kirsten. Her dress is from a second hand American Girl store which I think is in Iowa.... It is a traditional Dutch dress from either Gelderland (where my Grama is from) or Groningin (where my Grandpa is from).

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Reading from the Dutch cookbook... which is in Dutch.... therefore, we can't actually cook out of it. Maybe someday.)

 

 

 

(Dutch shoes: klompen.)

 



 

(With a book of Psalms - in Dutch!)

 

 

(Dolls in Trees! And Rosey all ribboned up.)

In other news, I finished Camp NaNoWriMo last night! I wrote 4,500 words last night just to finish... I hit the 50k mark just before 10:00 and then spent the next hour writing the ending - which was only 800 words. Hip hip! I'm finished! Now I don't have to look at it again for 10 years.

And finally some exciting breaking news.... Next jaar sometime mijn oma, mijn vader, mijn moeder, en Ik, zal bezoek het Nederland! (next year sometime my grama, my dad, my mom, and I, will visit the Netherlands! I only had to look up one word. =D)



Lang zal ze leven! Hiep hiep hoera! (Long may she live. Hip hip hurrah!)



'Tis the season....

....to torture your dog.

She hates me. But I don't care. I love her anyway. =)

Tonight I have been watching the live premier red carpet of The Hobbit in New Zealand!! It started with a band playing a bunch of music and ending with the Song of the Lonely Mountain (which their lead singer wrote). Then to the red carpet where the actors and producers and things began to appear! Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman, Elijah Wood, a whole bunch of the Dwarfs, and even John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)! They have been interviewed (some of them several times) and so far my favorite has been Sylvester McCoy who is playing Radagast the Brown wizard.

Yes, Miss Jack (and John), that IS a hedgehog! =D
Sylvester McCoy played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who and that is not the only reason his interview was my favorite (though he did mention Doctor Who! He said that Peter Jackson has his costume). Sylvester McCoy is quite a character. He was really funny and just sweet. He had a super cool jacket as well. It was all stars and timey wimey. And he had a fun hat. And he actually mentioned hedgehogs in his interview! I thought of you, Miss Jack (and John too!). He said something like, "I was allowed to do some improv... go save this bird! Help this hedgehog!"
I also loved the guy who played The Great Goblin's interview. He was nice and sweet as well.

And now (since it is STILL going on!) Andy Serkis is running all the way back down the red carpet (which is really long) giving people high fives. Andy Serkis is one of my favorite actors, as I've mentioned before.

Anyway, The Hobbit is going to be a fantastic movie. SO much work has been put into it and SO many wonderful actors in it. I am getting seriously excited for this movie. It will be the best movie of the year. I bet it will top even the second Twilight movie.

Sadly Benedict Cumberbatch isn't at this premier. Oh well, I suppose he doesn't have a big enough role in the first movie.
Speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch.... the synopsis for the next Star Trek movie has been released! As you may know, he plays the villain. The synopsis is very vague and really doesn't tell much at all - but it is still a synopsis!

While I'm at it, NaNoWriMo is going well. I hit 46,000 words today and it is looking like my novel will hit 50k after all! Huzzah! Huzzah!
My bad guy has finally been introduced in person.... He is now grappling with one of my main characters. I've left all my characters sticky situations tonight.... And I've accidentally told my invisible audience who my bad guy is which isn't supposed to happen until the fifth book....

It is now nearly 10:00. I have been watching this premier for 3 hours and it still isn't over! The official speeches are to start soon and I'm not altogether sure my mother will let me stay up and watch it.

None the less..... I really want to go re-read the Hobbit for the second time this year. I need to finish the Two Towers first, though.

The great Tolkien himself, with his ever present pipe.

And now the official Hobbit speeches are starting and I should really be going.

Let sleeping dogs lie: a day in the life of Rosey.

Between 8 and 9.... Quietly sleeping on Abbey's bed. Wait! Wait! Is that Mom I hear shifting in her bed down the hall? MOM! MOM! MOM!
Unfortunately to the still sleeping Abbey that sounds like, "YELP! YELP! YELP! WHINE! BARK BARK!"
Rosey then procedes to spend the rest of her day napping under various items in the house.

Under the coffee table....

The star chair....

Under the OTHER coffee table....

Play with me!

Protecting the backyard. Rosey likes to sit outside and just look. Though in the past few weeks she has caught a killed two young possums. That's my fearsome fluffball!

Pretending to be in the depths of depair because Mom went to the dentist.

"Why does Abbey do this to me?"

Under the computer desk.

"Me and my giraffe are just going to ignore you." In her dog bed....

In her kennel....

On the sofa....

"Oh look, a bone."

Under the table....

And the days ends back on Abbey's bed, fast asleep until tomorrow.

A dilemma. And Rosey.

People have been inquiring after Rosey lately so I thought I'd post a picture.... She's doing well. When she's not sleeping she's glaring at me or playing with me or whining for no apparent reason.

Now onto the dilemma.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month AKA November) is coming up soon. I have the perfect idea that I have been planning for months. The plot is ripening; the characters are more developed than any characters I've ever come up with.... and I haven't even written about them yet!
There's two problems.
One: I still haven't finished last year's NaNo novel and I promsied myself I wouldn't do NaNo this year. I am confidant that I will have last year's NaNo novel done sometime in the middle of October.... The second reason is more pressing.
Two: Time. I don't have time to do NaNo. As well as having a good plot and characters, this novel will require research. I don't have time to do research.... And I don't have time to write for fun every single day. I'm kicing myself over this becasue the idea for my novel is just so good! The characters my own! But I can't do it. Sigh.
I could do my writing in the evenings - when I usually watch Doctor Who or Star Trek or play board games with my dad. But is it worth it? Would I really have enough time?
So there's my dilemma.

Live long and prosper.

Rats!

No, really, rats.
The fallen apples from the trees in our backyard have been attracting rats, although we only found out for sure tonight.
For the past few nights Rosey has been going crazy when she's let out. We figured it must be rats who like to eat the rotten fruit (Mom wonders why they don't eat the nice fruit off the trees. Dad replied by mentioning Templeton the rat from Charlotte's Web who likes garbage).
Tonight Rosey was going particularly crazy so I went outside and watched her snuffling under an old board. While she was at one end, a rat about the size of my hand (despite being a piano player, my hands are pretty small and it is impossible to keep my fingers curled when playing an octave) darted out of the bushes at the other end, ran across the grass and stone walk way, and behind the shed. Rosey didn't notice and I didn't wait around to see if she would pick up the scent. I dashed inside as fast I could go and relayed the tale to my parents. It was followed by many an "ew."
So about an hour later Rosey still hadn't come inside so Mom went out to find her because it was her dinnertime.
Suddenly, "Abbey, Abbey! Get the camera and come!"
So I grab the camera and head outside, followed by Daddy.
Our backyard is mostly grass, with an apple and plum tree in the middle, a garden off to the left, another apple tree to the right, and a shed in the back right hand corner. Behind the shed is another gardeny area which is home to weeds and a pile of rocks. Also back there is a compost bin. Rosey had somehow managed to climb inside. This is what happened....

Now my little ratter is "sleeping" underneath the coffee table, although I can promise you that if there is any scent of a rat or danger, she will be awake in a moment, ready to defend the house. Too bad Westley and Buttercup from The Princess Bride didn't have Rosey with them when they entered the Fire Swamp....

Now on to day 13 (I believe....) of the 30 day challenge which is, "You favorite picture (or five or nine)."
This is one of my most favorite pictures:

However my current desktop background is:

My favorite Van Gogh combined with the TARDIS. How perfect.

I also really like this picture of Allied paratroopers in 1944 dropping from their planes into a Germany-controlled Holland in an attempt to liberate the Dutch. It was called Operation Market Garden and it failed, sadly.

This is also one of my favorite pictures. I love Zoot. Mostly because of his saxophone and also because he is quiet. And I love his hair and sunglasses.

Continuing with the jazzy themed pictures.... The Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra). I get the feel from this picture that someone just made a joke and while Sammy Davis Jr. (middle) is laughing his head off, and Frank Sinatra (right) is laughing as well, Dean Martin (left) is making a witty comeback. Of course, I don't know if that's the truth... But I love Sammy Davis Jr.'s look.

And staying with the theme of music... Here is George Harrison from The Beatles holding a kitten. This is one of the most adorable pictures ever, if you are a Beatles fan.

And now two pictures from "The Hound of Baskervilles" done by Sidney Paget. I absolutely adore these pictures. The first one is of Watson and Sir Henry Baskerville when they see the silhouette of Holmes against the moon on the moor at night.
"....the figure of a man upon the tor."

The next one is similar.
Sir Henry Baskerville has gone to ask Beryl Stapleton to marry him, not knowing that instead of Stapleton's sister, she is, in fact, his wife.
Watson, who was instructed to watch Sir Henry at all times lest he should be attacked, has followed Sir Henry but stayed at a distance so the man can do his wooing in private. Watson isn't the only watcher though. Mr. Stapleton is nearby and comes rushing angrily in to break up the couple.
In this picture, you can see everything I just described and in the far background, the silhouette of Watson watching. I think that it is SO funny and odd that out of all the other scenes in The Hound, Paget choose to draw this one. I also think it is very funny that he included Watson! Can you spot him?

Now one final Sherlock Holmes picture from the TV show Sherlock. It makes me laugh every time I see it. This isn't how the scene goes in the show... I think this version is funnier.

Now I will leave because pictures are another thing I could ramble on and on and on about.

Live long and prosper and have a great week!

Birthday Party!

My party yesterday was great! As I said before, I only had two friends and their families (brothers, moms, dads, and dogs) over. They've been my homeschool buddies for 8 years and we've been in co-ops practically that whole time together. We had been planning to get together sometime in April to watch the Tintin movie (because my friend hadn't seen it yet) but that kind of fell through.... So I decided to have a Tintin birthday party with them to play games, eat food, and watch the movie!

On Wednesday night my dad and I hurriedly made some pictures to decorate the house with.
Here is what I came up with:

My dad drew this one and I colored it in:

This is a picture I drew in 2010 that we hung up:

And one that I drew last year that we hung above the TV:

The first sight that people saw when they walked in, was this:

Nestor-doll greets you, with Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock.

In the background, all my Tintin books:

And Snowy (a beanie baby) with the XFLR-6 rocket:

We played Apples to Apples and Monopoly. Then it was time for dinner! Yummy bacon-cheeseburger pie (thanks for the recipe Grama! Everyone loved it!), potato salad, corn on the cob, and fruit!
Then the movie!

My friends liked the movie!
Then the cake!! My mom really outdid herself this year. Nearly every year for my birthday I have had a cake, made by my mother, that has some sort of shape to it. I've had a Daddy cake before and a Bichon cake. This year, I asked for a Tintin cake. This is what Mom came up with:

Isn't my mother amazing???!!
First, she baked a rectangle cake, then my dad drew Tintin on a thin piece of paper, mom cut out the face from the paper, stuck it on the cake, and cut out Tintin's face! This is definitely the best looking birthday cake I've ever had! It tasted pretty good too, =D The frosting was made with food coloring mixed to make the different colors.
I got to eat Tintin's quiff!!

Slowly, piece by piece, he disappeared....

One lucky guest got to eat Tintin's ear. Van Gogh anyone?

The dogs had fun as well.

Rosey and Davie love to play with the fox toy, while poor, destructive, lovable, lab puppy had to stay in the backyard.

A day full of family, friends, and fun. Not to mention Tintin! Now that's my kind of party!