Paper Quilling

As I look online at all the other blogs that I am following, it occured to me that only one other person I follow is actually updating their post. I just thought that was pretty weird.

So I am spending the first few days of summer, warmth, and freedom in Connecticut. At my grandparents. Whoopee. Now, don't get me wrong, I really love my grandparents and their puppy dog Nellie. I just kinda wanna spend my days of summer lazily lying on the couch watching Looney Tunes and only eating when I absolutely feel hungry. Since I just said that I would rather not be here, allow me to back that up with a bunch of positive things about spending time here:

• They have a swimming pool (although their pump was currently chewed out by a chipmunk, who wanted a place to store his food)
• They have their puppy dog Nellie, and are watching over their friend's dog Nick.
• They have a cat named Abby who reminds me a LOT of a mix between Willow and Simon (surprisingly, she doesn't have a lot of Hazel in here. By the way, those are MY cats)
• They live on a nice, quiet little street
• They often buy me whatever I want (like grandparents do so well)
• In the morning, there are always HUGE breakfasts waiting that fill you up until dinner.
• I am learning how to make my grandmother's chicken with a bread crumb outer layer today

And so on.

I think the biggest reason that I am not completely happy right now is that I am not here with either of my brothers or even my dad. As my mom once said, the house never feels complete if one of us are gone, no matter what we are doing. If we aren't together in the same house, it just isn't complete. She's right, of course. I always felt that way. I can even sense when someone new has entered our house, like one of our friends or perhaps our handiman Tom.

Handiman Tom. That's a nice little nickname. Although I mostly just say Tom our handiman. Oh well, either way works, I'm sure. He has done wonders to our yard. It looks beautiful. We have three little flower pots just sitting on our steps. They've been there for years, so that it seems like they just came with the steps. One day, I was leaving the house through the front door, when I looked at the flower pots and saw, much to my amazement, flowers inside each one of them. Red and yellow flowers. Our backyard looks a little neater, with the patches of dirt filled in with healthy green grass that looks like a comb has been run through it, making it neat and untangled. Our rosebush has even decided to bloom a little early. Or maybe it's not early. I can't be quite sure. I don't know much about the life cycle of a rose. I always thought it would be nice to have a rose garden, with all the wonderful smells and colors blending together. A flower garden does involve a lot of maintenance, depending on the flowers. I don't think I would be up for that, no matter how gorgeous the results.

In the newspaper yesterday, there was an article about a woman who did this thing called Paper Quilling. It is an art that takes a lot of patience. Basically, she makes pictures like flowers, unicorns, and dragons using only paper. Here is a picture of a fish that somebody did using Paper Quilling:

Isn't that amazing? All of that is paper! I don't think this was done by the woman who was in the article, but this is a very good example of what I was trying to describe. I would like to learn how to do it, but, like I said, it involves a whole lot of patience. It sure does look beautiful.

Here is a picture of a three- dimensional tea cup that the woman from the newspaper article, Pat Caputo, I think was her name.

Again, fantastic! I went down to the library today with Grandma, and saw this for myself behind a display case. Even that little spoon thing is paper. I don't know how it is done, but it is absolutely fantastic!