The Berlin Wall, Chapter 1:

May 24, 2015June 25, 2015 | Allison

I’ve decided to post a story I wrote awhile ago on my blog. I will post it one chapter at a time, sort of as a serial story.

Now, I have to warn you, this is supposed to be a historical-fiction sort of novel, but I think it is a bit exaggerated on a few of the main facts, such as when the guards wouldn’t let people go through the wall anymore, so heh heh, it’s not too historical.:) Anyway, just have fun reading it for the story, but don’t hold me to the facts! At the end of the whole story, I will tell you which parts and facts I know are true, but I won’t spoil the story by telling you now.

Enjoy Chapter 1!

*********************************************************************************************************************************************

It was August 12, 1961 in Berlin, Germany. Germany and Berlin were split up into East Germany and East Berlin, and West Germany and West Berlin. I was twelve years old at the time, and I lived in West Berlin. My cousin and best friend, Maria, who was also twelve lived over in East Berlin. The Soviet Union controlled East Berlin; and the United States, Great Britain, and France controlled West Berlin. Sure, I knew that life wasn’t as good in East Berlin as it was in West Berlin, but I never knew just how bad it was until that day…

My cousins and my sister and I were planning one last sleepover before school started. We were so excited that we kept running back and forth to each other’s houses every hour or two to see how the other family was getting along with the sleepover preparations. Our houses were very close to each other, but my house was just inside the border of West Berlin, and my cousin’s was just inside the border of East Berlin.

“Can’t you wait?” I asked my cousin excitedly on one of the trips over to her house.

“I can hardly stand it!” she replied.

“We’re going to have bratwurst and sauerkraut for supper – mmmm!” I said. “You had better have something better for supper than bratwursts and sauerkraut, or I’m not coming!” I teased. We were going to switch houses: Joyce, my cousin who was the same age as my sister, was going to our house for a sleepover, while I was to sleep at my cousin Maria’s house.

“Oh, don’t worry about that!” Maria answered. “We’re having bratwursts and sauerkraut too!”

I laughed. Our families were so much alike we were even having the same meal without knowing it! “OK,” I said, faking reluctance, “I guess I’ll come.”

Just then my sister Korrie ran up. “It’s time for lunch, Greta. Mother says we can’t have the bratwursts yet because we have to save them for tonight, so we’re having cabbage soup.” She made a face. None of us children liked cabbage soup.

“I’m coming.” I said reluctantly. “See you tonight, Maria!” I called over my shoulder as I ran down the path to our house.

Finally, after several long hours and four more trips to see how the other family was doing, it was time for the sleepover. Joyce came over before I had a chance to get all my things out the door, and she and Korrie were giggling and whispering together as I plodded out of the house with my load of sleepover luggage.

“Goodbye, Greta!” called Mama and Papa as I trudged towards Maria’s house.

“Goodbye!” I shouted without bothering to turn around. Later I wished I had turned around. Later I wished I had never even gone to this sleepover, for this sleepover would change my life forever – and not in a good way.

**************************************************************************************************************************************

And thus ends Chapter 1. Bye for now!

***Allison***

Would You Rather…

May 22, 2015May 23, 2015 | Allison

Here’s a fun little poll post:

These polls were really fun to make, and I hope they were fun to do!

***Allison***

Forest Terrarium

May 22, 2015June 5, 2015 | Allison

I love making terrariums/ fairy houses/ miniature gardens, and I got some cute little forest animals for my birthday from my friends, so I decided to make a forest terrarium with the glass tank we have. I’ll show you mine so you can get an idea of how to make one, and then you can be creative and make your own!

——- I used ——-

-succulents (which I also got for my birthday)

-a random little bushy plant from the woods

-a stump thingy from a miniatures store

-miniature forest animals (my friends said they were from Target)

-soil

-moss

-quartz crystals (from around our farm)

-rocks

I planted the shrubby things along the back of the terrarium. Most of the succulents I made into little gardens with crystals in the two front corners of the terrarium. I always think moss adds a nice touch, especially for a woods. My favorite animals in their habitat are probably the wolf howling from the rock, or the skunk on a log. Which are your favorites?

***Allison***

Bee Tree

May 17, 2015February 14, 2016 | Allison

So from the poll results in my last post, I should either keep doing my blog the same or do more crafts. Unfortunately, no craft tutorials can be found currently in my brain, so I’ll stick with “keep doing it how you are” for this post. 🙂 Which means… you get to see pictures of a bee tree! I was so excited when we saw this fallen tree in a woods on our farm with bees swarming around it – and honeycomb inside! Here she is!

What amazing little creatures God created! You could almost call them cute, but definitely fascinating.

What is your favorite insect?

***Allison***

Guess What? (And a Poll)

May 12, 2015December 2, 2015 | Allison

I got a new bunny! I still have Honeybunny, but she is not very nice to hold or cuddle with, (sorry Honeybunny!) so I got another bunny to be a better pet. Thank you Grammy and Granddaddy for giving me the money to buy her with for my birthday!

My sister had just bought a rabbit after her rabbit Rutabaga died, :(, and I bought the sister bunny of Megan’s bunny.

Lily is a red New Zealand rabbit with caramel-colored fur and big dark eyes. She is absolutely adorable, and very sweet. She is much nicer to hold and cuddle with than Honeybunny, and her fur is very soft. Lily’s sister, Mango (Megan’s new bunny) is a lot bigger than her, even though they are sisters. This is Megan’s bunny Mango:

And this is my bunny Lily:

Do you want a bunny yet?

***Allison***

P.S – I have so many pictures and photo-shoots I want to show you, but that can sometimes get tiring. You can vote on what kind of posts you would like me to do more of below.

Cute Photo of the Day

May 7, 2015February 14, 2016 | Allison

— My sister Carmen and our dog Maggie in the freshly mulched garden. Are they not adorable?!!!

Tassel Doll Tutorial

May 3, 2015February 12, 2017 | Allison

allison-tassel-doll-025

This cute little gal is fun to make and very customizable. I think it would be cute to make several of these with different hair/skin/dress colors and create a little house or village for them to live in. These dolls can also be used as dolls for your other, bigger dolls (like American Girl Dolls).

So let’s get started!

You will need:

**************************************************************

Yarn in several different colors: skin color, dress color(s), and hair color

Scissors

Needle and thread or fabric glue

******************************************************************

1. Choose your yarn colors and separate them into hair, skin, and dress colors. I used two colors of yarn for her dress, but you can use more or less as you choose.

allison-tassel-doll-014

2. Wrap the dress yarn around your hand several times until you have a nice thick bunch of yarn. You can vary the amount of yarn to vary the fullness of the dress.

allison-tassel-doll-015

3. Snip the yarn from the yarn balls and carefully take the loops of yarn off of your fingers. Use the skin color yarn to tie a knot near the top of the dress. The dress yarn above the knot will be the head, so size it accordingly.

allison-tassel-doll-016

4. Wrap the skin color yarn around the loops of dress yarn above the knot to make the head. Snip off the end of the yarn, leaving a tail.

allison-tassel-doll-017

5. Tie a knot around the head with the tail, and cut off the extra yarn.

allison-tassel-doll-018

6. A little down from the head, tie a strand of skin color yarn for the arms. Tie some knots at each end of the yarn for hands.7. If you like, you can tie a strand of dress yarn over where the arms knot in the middle to hide the knot.

allison-tassel-doll-020

8. Great! Now for the hair. Take your hair color yarn and unravel the ends, like so.

allison-tassel-doll-021

9. Once you have unraveled a few strands of yarn, wrap them around your hand like you did for the dress. This time when you take the yarn off, tie it in the middle and cut both ends.

allison-tassel-doll-022

9. It probably works best to attach the hair by sewing it on, but you can try gluing it if you really don’t want to sew.

allison-tassel-doll-023

10. Ta-daa! You’re finished!

allison-tassel-doll-024

Here are some pictures with the finished doll:

allison-003 allison-001 allison-004

I hope you enjoyed making a tassel doll! I know I did!

***Allison***

Spring Birdies

April 27, 2015June 18, 2015 | Allison

My dad called and told us there were some baby killdeer for us to see. I brought my camera, of course, and took some pictures. My sister and I even got to hold one of the fluffy little babies. So cute!

Here is the mother killdeer with her baby:

And here is the baby up close.

I also got pictures of a robin eating a worm!

***Allison***

The Beauty of a Dandelion

April 15, 2015October 7, 2016 | Allison

People often think of dandelions as pesky weeds – and they certainly can be. But if you really look at them, they are beautiful. When they first bloom they are so bright and sunny, like happy children; and when they mature they look pretty too, but in a different way. They look fragile and delicate, like elderly ladies with snow-white hair.

*************************************************************************************************

I had a lot of fun with this photoshoot, and I hope you enjoy it too!

If you pinch the flower off of the stem and set it in a bowl of water, it looks like a little lantern floating serenely in a little pond. The reflection of the seeds in the water looks amazing.