How Are Riddles and Tea-Sets Connected?

They aren't. ;) Hello! Okay this will sorta be a catch-all sort of post. Rachel and I have had a lot of fun these past two days, searching for and making up rhyming riddles! Some of them are very ingenious, if we do say so ourselves.;) I think this collection of riddles will be a fun addition to my hope chest.

Now, the tea set right here is one that I am going to get very soon!!! Mom and Dad have started a tradition where when the girls in our family turn 13 they get a tea set. Well, on my 13th birthday, they told me that they had ordered a tea set for me. When it arrived the next week, I opened the case to find.... That almost every single piece was broken and shattered!! :0

That was very disappointing, but I knew we would replace it. After contacting the eBay store we'd bought it from, the lady said that she wasn't selling that pattern anymore, mainly because it didn't ship well!

After browsing a lot of websites looking for a different set, we finally found one that I liked and was within our price range. Well, at that time we were in the middle of building our house and our finances weren't in the best condition, so it had to get set on the back burner for a little while. (wow! I didn't mean to tell the whole story, but I might as well finish it:)

When all the busyness had died down some, I realized that my preferences had changed since I was 13. The set was more whimsical, and I thought that I would probably want a more formal one, that I could use in my future home.

So, we found the tea set (pictured above) and I really loved the pattern and size, and price of it!!! A couple of weeks ago our good friend was showing us this website called the English Tea Store.

And on it we found the exact pattern (Lydia) of the set I'd picked out and it was sold as a dinner set for 8 people! It includes dinner plates, dessert plates, salt&pepper shakers, platter, vegetable bowl, and soup saucer things, along with the whole tea set! So that is what we should be purchasing soon! I'm really excited, because it's been 2 1/2 years that I've been waiting.

Well, anyway, I hope ya'll weren't too, too, too, terribly bored by that, but I thought I should finish the story I started. So have any of you guys thought of any riddles that you know of?

I Give Full Permission For Sarah To Trump This

Hey guys! This is really short, and slightly random- you know what I am fascinated by right now, and that I'd almost give my liver to procure? Antique butter molds!!! They are all over Ebay, and for pretty good prices! I have always wanted to make butter, and I found one that has a strawberry and leaves on it, just like Caroline Ingalls! So, if you are looking for something to give me for my much-distant birthday.... ;) Sarah will probably do a post later! This was just really quick! :) -Rachel

By Abigail's Request

Hey! Here is the "Companion Post" to the one below. This is the topic Abigail chose for me to post about. Her question: How do you come up with the story lines for your books and stories? Do you have them made up before you start writing?

I have to tell you- there really is little method to my madness! Usually, the topics are suggested by something I've been randomly thinking: take A Mother For The Seasonings: I was doing dishes or something and thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a family of children who were all named after herbs?" And immediately, the characters in my story were born. (Oh! You test people, we ran out of ink, so I'll be a tad late sending you your copy! Sorry!)
For my mystery I am attempting to write...it is turning out rather tragically. I don't mean the story-line itself- I mean, I am no mystery writer! For pity's sake! Everyone likes this story the best, and I can't keep track of all the details myself!
For that story, I wrote out a story-line. The problem? I made the villain a man who was pretending to be a man who was pretending to be a man. Note to other authors: NEVER DO THAT TO YOURSELF!!!!!!! My head spins every time I try to pick it back up. But I have made a promise to Sarah to finish it!
So basically, I model my stories after real life usually. Things I know about, and love.
It also helps that I am constantly observing people. Ask anyone in my family- when I go to a concert, I spend half the time looking at the people around me. So when we come home I'll say to Sarah, "You know that girl with the red dress and shiny black shoes with the scarf around her neck and the white purse? She kept smiling at us." Or something of that sort. I am a fairly observant person. Therefore, before I had ever heard Tim Hawkins mention this fact, I had found out that when people are gossiping, they always say, "Bless her heart" immediately after as if that makes it okay.
Another fun thing I have done is look in the phone book when choosing names for a character. They have the best ones! Some I've pieced together (last names from one person, first from another) are: Raleigh McBride, Bardwolf Becker, (doesn't that sound like a banker?) Opal McCain, Katherine Durrant, etc. (Isn't the last one perfect for a beautiful heroine? Don't go and steal it! :)
Anyway, hope that satisfies you Miss Abigail! ;) -Rachel

By Leanna's Request

Hey guys! Leanna won our contest earlier this weekend, so she asked me to post about Scotland. As most of you know, I love that country! (Although I have small hopes of ever getting there! :)

She entreated me not to do any research though, so I have compiled a list of the to 10 reasons I love Scotland....



1. The Accent! I can think of no accent I would rather listen to! So eloquent and lilting! I think of Rashleigh Osbaldistone in Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy who was ugly, but they said that a girl could fall in love with his voice if she had never seen him. I would love to marry someone who, if not Scottish could at least do a fine impression of the accent for me! :)



2. Their vocabulary- who can resist smiling at expressions like "ding me daft", "bonny lass" "gang gyte" "wee bairn" and so many others!



3. The history! So many, many things have happened on Scottish soil! And they have the best names for their historical people! Bonny Prince Charlie, Mary: Queen of Scots, etc.



4. The spiritual heritage: Have any of you read about the Scottish Covenanters! I am fascinated by that group of hard-headed faithful men!



5. The heroes: Who needs a better role-model for men than William Wallace? (Unless you wanted to imitate John Smith or someone equally as great and godly!) William Wallace was a giant literally and morally! If a young man wants someone to be challenged by, just look him up, and listen to the talk Little Bear Wheeler does on him! But watch out! He had the worst death I've heard of in many a day! :( Very sad. I think I almost cried when I listened to the story of it!



6.The landscape: Have you ever wanted to see heather? I do! I echo Emily Dickenson's idea that though she had never seen the moor, she knew just what heather looked like. I've never seen a picture of it, but I can nearly smell it in my imagination I have such a clear mental idea of it! :)

Then the highlands! Such a wild and romantic landscape, if rather foreboding in places!



7. The national costume. Who can beat plaid? I find it very pretty, though, if you are to wear a kilt, be sure you are a VERY manly looking man, like Angus Buchan or someone of that sort! :)



8. Shortbread and tea! I like shortbread, and I wonder if they invented the pretty shortbread pan I have?



9. The names of places there: all over Great Britain they have the most poetic names for places!

Like Stratton-upon-Avon (or something equally cute like that)



10. Their names: I have grown to have a great fondness for Scottish names like Ian, Angus, Duncan, Mary, Jenny, Elana, Fiona, Ellen, etc. (And according to my Baby name book Rachel is a favorite in that wonderful country! :)



Oh! I have a numer 11: Their music!!!! The old ballads and songs are the most beautiful imaginable I feel! And the dancing! That makes 12 I guess!!! Sorry! :)



So now, I hope you know why I am so intrigued by Scotland! The only thing that would slightly frighten me would to swim in Loch Ness! ;)

Who knows but there might be some lone Pleseasaurus (sp?) left in there or something!

Okay! So much for my part of this post! Now Sarah wants to post something!



Hey Everybody! Sorry I haven't been posting stuff recently.
Okay, as some of you know, we've been watching Emma (and even since before that,) I've been wanting to make a book for my hopechest of a collection of riddles! So, I don't really want to surf the internet for riddles, I would much rather do it in a more quaint, and old-fashioned way.
Now, if any of you can contribute one of these puzzling rhymes, I would appreciate it. So just leave a comment if you can, and I'll use it in my book! :)
Thanks! I just thought this would be a fun and interesting collection to do!
-Sarah

Flowering Quince and Emma

Hey everybody! Happy March! Around here, it came in like an absolute lamb, contrary to the old saying. I can only remember about 2 years when it came in like a lion! :) We girls have been enjoying watching the 2009 version of Emma made by Masterpiece Theatre with Romola Garai as Emma. It is so good, for two reasons: First, because Romola Garai (who played in Amazing Grace) is the ideal Emma, and second, but equally as great, the costumes are much more modest than some Regency Era films I've seen! Anyway, we've been watching it through Youtube.


Daniel and I have finally gotten old enough to start "remembering" things that are now considered old. Last night, also on Youtube, we watched a Merry Melodies short film called "Farm Frolics" that we watched as super little kids. One of my earliest memories is being petrified by the weasel that sneaks up on the little chicks! It was alot of fun to watch something I "endured" as a two year old! :)


The Walkers are finally about to be able to move out here in a mobile home while they build their house! They hired someone to clear the old homesite of all the brush and old bushes and trees, which is forward motion indeed. But....I am feeling a bit melancholy. The reason? Well, normally I am not sentimental at all about animals, but... there were so many birds nesting in the brush, and many of them have figured in my Bramblewood Hedge series. I feel halfway as if I had murdered them! :( Silly I know, but the poor dears! I meant to rescue a really pretty bush I have admired for several years, but it was buried under some big cedar bushes and even Dad and the hired man couldn't retrieve it! But Mama, dear thing that she is, inspired by some truthfully Divine impulse, somehow got it in her head that the bush was a "flowering quince". Now, who in tarnation ever heard of a "flowering quince"? I hadn't! But lo and behold, she went online when we came back, and that lovely mysterious bush is a flowering quince! Yay! Mystery solved, and we can probably procure one for our enjoyment now that we know what it is! Thanks Mama! Well, Justin Wright generously left us his really nice volleyball net for the week, so I'm going to get off now and see if I can rustle up the others for a nice game! See ya'll later! :) -Rachel