I Am Graduated!!

I am graduated!  Which is news that is a week old now.. I graduated on May 11th and that evening we had our own little ceremony with presenting of my diploma and wonderful note from my Mom.

My tassel (I have no idea what side it is suppose to hang from ;).  We didn't think there was a real need to get a cap and gown, but that it would be fun to have a tassel for a fun memento.

And after our home ceremony we went to celebrate at Leann Chin's and Cold Stone Creamery - yum!

                         

I had a wonderful homeschool education and really enjoyed it, but now I am excited about focusing on my true interest!  I dream about starting my own shop on Etsy.com and although it hasn't happened yet it will be a huge dream come true soon!  I enjoy sewing (aprons, pillow cases, dish towels), card making, and I am also thinking about making up party favor boxes.  I had bought some berry boxes for my birthday party, but of course, they only came large quantities, so now I need to find a use for the rest of them!  At the beginning of this shop starting up it will take some experimenting of what will sell for me.

But in the mean time, I have found out that Etsy can be a great place for learning too!  The Online Labs have all kinds of videos done by the experts to help figure out how to do these sometimes foriegn things.  There is also teams & forums to find people with like-minded interests and learn or share with them!  This is what has been getting me excited lately! <3

Other things going on:

For Mother's Day Anna and I hosted our 3rd annual Mother's Day tea.  This year our Grandma was also able to join us and the weather turned out perfect for an outdoor tea complete with chandelier hanging above.

Back on the graduation theme: our main focus is on preparing for my open house - only twelve days away!  Yesterday we ordered my cakes, Mom has been very busy with my school scrapbook and I have been working on decorations and other little things.  Some great friends and family have also been baking cookies to supplement the cake - there could be 400+ people here, although we are expecting a lot less.

It has been a very busy but exciting time for me!

~Amber

Graduation Photos

Lately we have been busy planning for the brand new adventure of graduating, and just a couple of weeks ago we took my graduations photos.  Yes, in just two more days I will be a homeschool graduate!!  And in the beginning of June I will be having a open house, and that called for invites.  Thankfully my sister was willing to be my photographer and she did it beautifully!

So, we finally found a day that it wasn't raining (to much) and we headed out to the pasture to try and catch some good shots of Annie and I.

Now, first I will say what didn't really work out; this was one of our inspirations...



and this was how it came out....

I know it would need some photoshopping even if it did work out, but it wasn't really, so we moved on to other ideas...  But, if you're going to take your graduation photos with your horse, I would not suggest doing it on the first ride of the season (which is what we did!).  So there was a little bit of hippity hopping around by Annie (which was scarier for Mom than in was for me) but over all it went really well!  We also tried to get pictures of Annie and I giving each other kisses, but those things just can't be timed, thus those didn't turn out either.

So it takes quite a few shots to get a couple of good photos, but it actually came down to a hard choice for the top three that go on the invite.  Here are a few of the "honorable mentions":

                            

      Clambering up to get into the tree for some photos :)

To bad the lighting in the barn is so strange.

Here is a bike one for my Daddy, it almost made in on the invite (not really). :-)

After looking through a hundred photos or two we needed to put our top picks into the invite template, which Amy was so gracious to do!  It wouldn't have turned out without Amy and Anna's help!  We bought the template off of ChicDigitalDesign  I liked that it was so different than many of the other graduation invites and there wouldn't be many others like it being sent around.  And here is the finale result....

I am excited to become a graduate, but it will also be sad to be finished with my formal schooling which I have known for 13+ years!  To celebrate on Friday we plan to go out for dinner; maybe to Leann Chin's and Cold Stone Creamery?

Thank you for stopping by!

~Amber Nicole~