Merry Christmas, from the Hughes!

No Christmas snow for us Appalachian mountain-dwellers, but it has been a wonderful Christmas, nonetheless.  I am just now sipping down my first cup of egg nog this year, sitting at my grandparents computer, and kicking myself for not making the little "Merry Christmas" message video I had planned on.

After my little sister woke me up this morning, attempting to lure me out of bed with promises of "tons of presents" and "this big one for you," we opened our gifts, ate the breakfast of spinach quiche and cinnamon rolls that I had prepared yesterday, played a game of crazy eights, and went to church.  I got The Hunger Games trilogy, a Union Jack shirt and music shirt from Delias, and.....an ukulele!!!  I've been tuning it and messing around with it all day.  Methinks some serious song-writing will be occurring this week.

Anywho, it's been a good day spent with the family.  Now, for the Facebook swappy thingie (I'm sorry, I just have a thing about calling it that).  As you may have guessed from the post title, my last name is "Hughes." But, there are a lot of Caroline Hughes-es out there, so, I may have to temporarily change my profile publicity so you guys can ack-chellay find me.  Also, if you have any trouble, you may want to try narrowing the search by typing "Parkway Playhouse" for work.

Can't wait can't wait can't WAIT to chat with you guys!

Merry Christmas!

Happy DBF-iversary!

First of all, I would just like to say....

One whole year.  I'm so glad we kept it up; Kellie and Megan, you guys have been such a blessing to me, and I'm honored to be part of this unique friendship.  This is another one of the many reasons why Narnia is just all around awesome ;)

Right, so, on to the celebrations.  I thought first I'd list the quirky cool words, plots, terms, and Skandarisms we've created over the course of the year (remind me if I've left some out)

DBF (dear blogging friend)
ack-chellay
Skedmund
The Potter Plot
Skandarific
Blunderkind
The Epic Battle of the Hair
Skantastic

Here is the Blunderkind I promised.  The quality is kind of meh *scowls at Windows Movie Maker* but I'll type the plot underneath so you can get the idea of it:

So glasses dude is hitting on Susan and asks for her name.  Susan is already in a relationship with Caspian, and so lies about her name. Peter, however, is still trying to get back at Caspian, so he keeps exposing Susan's lies.  Susan gets fed up, calls Caspian, and kisses him in front of glasses dude.  This doesn't really discourage him, so Caspian threatens him. Thu End.

Not the best, but practice makes perfect, eh?

Of course I had to go back and read the comments from that happy day the three of us decided to comment on Narnia Web.  I must say, I was a bit immature, or overzealous, perhaps is a better word, but whichever word best describes crazy little 16-year-old me, I thank you two for putting up with me lol.  I did say that I would post "Changed" and so now, one year later, I shall, even though my inner critic is giving me a fit. Shut up inner critic. You're a jerk.

Changed

V 1
Well here we are once more,
Right where we were before.
Circumstances are still the same
Here on the other side of the door.

Take a look back now
At what we've just come though;
That whole wide world behind us
Has made a difference in me and you.

CH 1
And now we've got the strength to make it here;
Our lessons learned to overcome our fears.
Though the wonders, victories, and pains,
I know that we've been changed.

V 2
The journey may've seemed long,
And at times we were wrong.
But what brought us here in the first place
Has been guiding us all along.

It's getting stronger now,
That calling deep within,
And though our quest has been fulfilled,
I have a feeling we'll go back again...

CH 2
Because we don't know what the future holds,
But promises have been fortold.
No, life won't stay the same,
And we may yet be changed.

BRIDGE:
A little bit braver,
A little bit stronger,
A better sense of purpose...
A little wiser,
A little bit kinder,
More willingness to trust.

Yes there were wonders, victories, and pains;
And life won't stay the same;
Yeah this is why we came,
All was for this change....

We've been changed.



Ta-da!  I apologize for the absence of musical accompaniment, but if I waited until I got that together...well, you guys know the story lol. Which reminds me of a delightful thing I found on facebook that I wanted to share with you guys:

Well, while I'm posting facebook pictures, I suppose I'll go ahead and throw this one in here:

Last Tuesday, I was out Christmas shopping with me sisters and mom and grandmother, and Earthbound in the mall had all these wonderful masks.  So naturally we tried all of them on.  It was jolly good fun, and I wish you guys could have been there. Anyway, I put the pictures on facebook, and made this one my profile.  Here's another picture of me, unmaksed, as Lady Caroline of Rohan:

Welp, there you have it. Caroline Autumn ______ (to be announced on a later date)

Okay, I believe I've rambled on quite enough now.  You guys are awesome and I love you and I thank God that I came across Narnia Web.

I must close this anniversary post with our signature sign-off:

<3 DBF OUT! <3

In which I splurged my little sister in the face and laughed maniacally

Christmastime and theater: they'll keep a girl from her blogging, that's certain.  But, I managed to find this little time slot here on a rainy day between decorating the Christmas tree and performing a musical tonight.  Both of my little sisters and I were in Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity, which ran last week.  I was a musician, playing my mandolin, singing harmony and two solos.  Pretty fun...until I got a sore throat. Thankfully, it healed in about two days.  However, I didn't allow myself enough recovery time, because I was hoarse the following two weeks.  Which meant singing in front of a live audience songs in which I have to shoot into my head-voice with raspy vocal cords.  But, I managed to make it through with relatively few embarrassments (upon returning backstage after singing a particularly tough song, Olivia came up to me and said encouragingly, "Your voive only cracked twice!" Ah, little sisters; gotta love 'em.)  All in all, it was lovely.  Here's a picture from the Noah's Ark scene:

I also wrote, directed, and acted in the Christmas program at church this year.  It was somewhat difficult trying to work with people who aren't as passionate about theater as I am to put together a play, but it came together alright in the end, and I'm glad I did it.

Tonight and tomorrow night the youth drama group that Olivia and I are in is performing Bugsy Malone, a musical about kid gangsters who shoot each other with whipped cream guns called "splurgers."  Our stage manager spray painted toy guns and taped cans of silly string to them, and that's our splurgers. I play a character named Bronx Charlie, who basically goes around "splurging" people.  And at one one point I get Flash Frankie, played by my little sister.  And there's lots of singing and dancing throughout, and it's really, really fun.

Aaannddd, aside from theater, I've been trying to get in some schoolwork and figure out a celebratory post for Christmas....the facebook swapping thingie day!  Just nine more days....wow.  Time flies when you're an artistic human who knows awesome people.

Anywho, once Bugsy is over, hopefully I can get around to making this Blunderkind video I've been thinking of for months. Until then...

DBF OUT!

At last I post my new room!

Pictures of my new room, that is.  I reawly wikes it.  My friend Hannah said it's a perfect writer's room; I agree.  Surprisingly though, I haven't done much writing at all since I've moved in. O.o (which reminds me, I said I was going to do the NaNoWriMo challenge, and then I didn't. Fail. Me so fail.)  Right, so, now, the pictures!

You can't really tell in the picture, but the little light next to the bean bag chair has a castle on it :)

I had to make this picture bigger than the others because it's the memory board that I made (even the buttons) and I'm really proud of it and it's possibly my favorite part of my room. (Note that the pink tag in the corner says "Candies" and I have Logan and Ben and Skandar on the board ;)

Hahaha, it's my robe, painting/ticket to Narnia, and half of me in the mirror!

Unfortunately, I did not paint this one lol. But it's one of my faves.

My "prettying-up" station and Owl City pandora station (on my laptop lol)

Dis be da hat I crocheted :)

 Okay, that was kind of a lot of pictures, I know.  Sorry if I bored you.  In the news for my corner of the world, it snowed today. So much that rehearsal was canceled.  So I went outside and took pictures. This is the only decent one I got:

Beneath the Mallorn Pine Tree ;D

DBF OUT!

In which it has been simply too long....

I always miss blogging.  So, here goes:

College applications=major time-eater.  Appalachian State made me write FOUR ESSAYS in order to be considered for their chancellor's choice scholarship; UNC Chapel Hill asked for a boatload of information (along with two essays); and then there's Mars Hill, Elon.... BUT, after taking the ACT and SAT again, I have raised my scores!  ACT was a 27, SAT was 2050.  Hopefully this will help me get some good scholarships.

Happy late Thanksgiving! I hope you guys had a good one.  We stayed at my aunt and uncle's in Raleigh over the weekend, hitting some malls and such on Black Friday.  I bought some pretty cool stuff (a union jack t-shirt!) and then at around 9:30 we ate at P.F. Chang's.  INCREDIBLE CHINESE!!!  Eggrolls cooked to perfection, lettuce rolls, lo mein...ahh.

At long last I have finished reading the entire Inheritance Cycle (aka the Eragon books).  It had a bittersweet ending, but I had expected more twists in the last book.  Overall, though, it's a fantastic series, and I'll likely read it again in the future.

My friend Hannah is coming over for the first time tomorrow, and I'm really excited.  She likes to write songs, like me, and we both love chocolate, to name but a few of the many things we have in common.  I got a hot chili chocolate bar for us to share tomorrow, but I couldn't wait and had to nibble. Imagine rich dark chocolate, practically melting in your mouth. You swallow, and then this spicy aftertaste rolls over your tongue. This is my kind of experience. (;

Here's a song I heard on a Disney dvd advertisement. I loved it, looked it up, and listen to it all the time.  I do seriously feel this way sometimes:

 

And I finished crocheting my hat, which I wore yesterday and today, and I am working towards getting some pictures of my new bedroom up.  That for a later post. Until then, so long my fair DBFs.

My first dress

One of my goals for this year was to make a medieval-style dress.  I finally bought a pattern in September, and yesterday, I stitched the last stitch. It was fun, but I'm rather glad to be finished with it now; this newfound confidence in my sewing has produced a whole list of pending projects.

The funny thing about this dress is trying to put it on by myself.  I laced many a dress like this during Robin Hood, but when the dress is on ME, and not an actress...well, it's kind of, Tangled.  Anywho, I hope you DBFs are having a great November, and I can't wait to see more of your lovely blog posts. I'm off to crochet a hat now.

Oh, AND one more thing: I bought Inheritance yesterday! 50 pages in, already loving it. Methinks the year-and-four-month-wait will not have been in vain.

Okay, now I'm done. DBF Out! :D

The Three Musketeers: The Lermaniac's Analysis

First off, this was the first Three Musketeers movie I've ever seen, and I don't know the whole story (though I'm more than halfway through the book) so I have little to compare it to in that respect. That being said, I shall post my thoughts on it.  It was of the lighter, humorous sort of adventure movies (think a step down from Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl); the preview sets the tone for the actual film very well.  I found it very entertaining (what? Logan Lerman? No, he had nothing at all to do with it. Nada.), though there weren't really any twists in the plot or edge-of-your-seat moments. Well, except for D'Artagnan's rooftop duel with that bad Cardinal's captain dude whose name escapes me. And I loved the airships. The last movie I saw with one of those was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, so it was refreshing to see some again.  Milady's ninja-ing was pretty cool too.  It was kinda hilarious to see Orlando Bloom, whom I'm used to seeing do all the epic stunt stuff, wear ridiculously colorful, poofy, ornamental costumes and be all "I'm mister proper guy. Don't contradict me or my guards will kill you. Now, time for tea."  And then there's D'Artagnan. He's so cocky (but "only on Tuesdays, and in front of beautiful women"), especially when he comes to Paris, that I was laughing out loud on multiple occasions. His sword-fighting skills are, I must say, quite attractive.  Alright, I shan't bore you guys with anymore details; just "go to the cinema, yeah" and then we can discuss our favorite scenes and all that jazz.

I must apologize to Skandar, for I have been posting about Logan quite a bit lately. But, in my defense, I would certainly post more about him if he'd do more movies! Having said my apology, here is Logan on the Ellen show...

I loved the hair extensions bit. When he saw that picture, his "oh my" was pretty cute.

Finally, here's his Teen Vogue photo shoot:

 Lovin' the hair.

Well my dears, I now conclude this longish post. Thanks fo readin'. :)

DBF Out!