four fun facts

I'm participating in the Planting Chums blog hop again over at Aspire...the theme for this week is Four Fun Facts. 

1} I have five siblings. Three you already 'know' (Jeremiah, MeMe, and Lilly) and I have two older sisters that live in Germany from my dad's first marriage.

2} I have weird toes. I'll spare you a picture, but seriously. Freaky.

3} Chocolate is my weakness.

4} I'm homeschooled (and partially online schooled).

Those are my four facts! Head on over to Aspire and link up with your facts :)

-carlotta

roses, clover & lilly

I was outside snapping pictures of all the lovely plants, like the stems of azaleas (whose flowers have since fallen off),

bushes,

and roses. Not paying very much attention to my surroundings, I was startled when this tiny person jumped in front of me (and my camera).

She had a handful of clover (the biggest ones I have ever seen), and was convinced that she should eat it.

I laughed and told her that she was a ham. "What does that mean?" "It means that you're silly." "Oh." 

Then I took some more pictures of the roses.

The end.

-carlotta

happiness is...

I feel like I should say something witty here "introducing" Happiness Is, but I'm at a loss for words. So I'll just start without an intro. ;)

Happiness is...

...seeing this (MeMe and her friend Anna).

...fresh strawberries with a bit of sugar. 

What are two things that make you happy?

-carlotta

raw(e)

This week's Raw(e) theme is red. I didn't have trouble getting pictures...on the contrary, I got so many photos that had red in them. My main problem was deciding which one to post.

Finally I decided on this one...

I think I could eat strawberries all day.

I would love to see your Raw(e) picture! If you would like to submit a photo, go here to link up...if you would like to learn more about how Raw(e) works, go here to the very first "edition".

-carlotta

weekend in pictures

I'm not so great at explaining things with words, so I'm going to show you pictures from the things we did instead ;)

On Saturday, our friends the Hintzes came over for a few hours. We hung out and then headed over to a local park.
Apparently it was prom night for a local high school...it was crazy as everyone was trying to get pictures. One lady shouted "Gentlemen, help your dates!" as they were all having trouble on the rock steps with high heels. I found that quite hilarious.

(brownies with fresh strawberries and whipped cream for dessert after lunch)

(a rose)

(Jeremiah, MeMe, and Lilly)

(the sky)

(Lilly and JoJo)

(a fence)

After church on Sunday afternoon we headed to another park. 

(MeMe making silly faces)

(flowers by a creek)

(Lilly swinging)

How was your weekend?

-carlotta

tagged

I got tagged by Moriah for the Stylish Blogger Award...thanks Moriah!

The rules are to post five random things about yourself and then tag five people.

1. I speak fluent German (My mom is German and my dad grew up in Germany...so pretty much all our family lives there and most of them don't know very much English).

2. I'm not very tall - I'm maybe 5"2 or 3. Even though my grandfather on my dad's side was 6"4, I guess the short people overpowered the tall people... ;)

3. I moved for the first time when I was almost nine..since then I have moved twice.

4. It is my absolute dream to go to Paris. Hopefully my mom and I will get to go when we go to Germany this September. I'm already going crazy thinking of all the pictures I can take....

5. Math and science are not my strong subjects. At all.

I don't know how I can pick only five people, so I'm tagging everyone who has ever been to Texas (I told you I'm still a Texan at heart! :)).

-carlotta

etsy love

{via}

doily clock

{via}

budding flowers


{via}

vintage button ring


{via}

flower brooch


{via}

the guinevere plate

What are some of your favorite Etsy finds?

We have some friends coming over in a little bit, so I'm signing off for the rest of the day.

Have a wonderful Saturday! 

-carlotta

et cetera

-carlotta

family fotos

I'm going to participate in the "Family Foto" Planting Chums bloghop over at Aspire today.

Being a photographer (can I call myself that?), I have so many favorite pictures. But while there are many, many pictures that are pretty to look at, not all of them have memories associated with them. Which is why I chose this picture...

I took this picture, of the road by our house blanketed in snow, after a mini blizzard in January. Being a Texan at heart (I was born and lived the first nine years of my life there...I still consider myself a Texan!), there's still a little piece of me that gets overjoyed every time it snows. Because we live in Oklahoma, snow is not exactly common, but in a typical winter it snows 3-4 times.
On Christmas Eve, it was snowing and sleeting so badly that we were unable to go to the service that night (the above picture was taken a few weeks later when it snowed again). While I was bummed about not being able to go to church, I loved how everything was shut down and we were able to curl up next to the fireplace with some hot chocolate.
There's something about snow, or any "sort of extreme" (I know a foot is nothing to northerners! :)), that people find slightly humorous.

In the summer of 2006 - while we still live in St. Louis - there was a bad storm that knocked the power out for 5 (very hot) days. Every night there were barbecues as people had to use up the food they had in their freezers and refrigerators before it went bad. Since there was no power, everyone just kind of hung out, as they didn't have the option of sitting in their air conditioned homes. Honestly, I was a bit sad when the power came back on.

I digress.

My point is, I love snow (I would probably feel differently if I lived in Michigan... :)) and everything associated with it. I love that people help each other out when the weather gets a little worse. And I love the memories I have of it.

What about you?

-carlotta

cinnamon coffee cake

Ever since reading this post at Everyday Musings, I craved coffee cake. That delicious blend of butter, cinnamon, and sugar...mmm. 

Yesterday I decided to satisfy my craving, and made a sour cream coffee cake using this recipe. 

(For future reference, half way into making the cake I realized we didn't have enough sour cream, so I used regular yogurt, and it turned out fine. So, while writing this post, I realized that I couldn't really call it "sour cream coffee cake", as I didn't use sour cream so I renamed it "cinnamon coffee cake".
The only thing I would do different in the recipe is reduce the salt. I just used a pinch...the 1/2 teaspoon they call for would be way too much.)

By the time it was done baking, the whole house smelled of cinnamon and sugar. I had to leave to babysit literally right as it was done, but it took everything in me not to have a piece right then and there.

I have since then tried it...I think it tastes a little like a snickerdoodle cookie in cake form. It's very moist and light, though.

Go make it. Now. :)

-carlotta

happiness is...

It's Happiness Is time again! And now, since it's Wednesday, there are only two days left until the weekend!! :)

Happiness is...

...rainy days. Ahhh :)

...blooming/budding roses (I think I'm unable to NOT include something that has to do with spring in my posts. Sorry.). 

What are two things that have made you happy this week?

-carlotta

raw(e)

It's Tuesday, which means that there are only three more days until the weekend! But it also means that it's time for Raw(e)!

This week's theme is water. I love water. It provides those wonderful rainy days, cools us off in the summer, quenches parched throats, puts out fires (that was totally random, but it does put out fires... :)). Anyway, water is awesome, so I was really excited to see that it was the Raw(e) theme this week.

Here's my picture...

I know...where's the water? It's right in the middle, in the smallest leaves. I thought it was so pretty, like a crystal in a natural jewel box...it rained here over the weekend and this little droplet was still there.

I would love to see your Raw(e) picture! If you would like to submit a photo, go here to link up...if you would like to learn more about how Raw(e) works, go here to the very first "edition".

-carlotta

did you know...

...that according to Bohr, the electrons for each atom are found in energy levels?

...that there are three isotopes of helium (H-4, H-3, and H-5)?

...that the mass of a proton is 1.7 x 1024 g?

...that all the elements, excluding hydrogen, in column 1A of The Periodic Table Of Elements are soft metals and are highly reactive?

...that the outer energy level never has more than eight electrons?

Yeah, me neither.

(Granted, there may be science experts reading this and probably know all this information. I am most definitely NOT a science expert. Which is why I didn't know this before science class today.)

The wonderful world of science. Although, the world of science can be quite evil, as it makes me want to pull out my hair at times (Oh, who am I kidding. It makes me want to pull out my hair ALL the time.).

Happy Monday!

-carlotta

giveaway!

Ashley at Lens and Needle is having a giveaway...go check it out!

-carlotta

guest post

Lilly loves you. MeMe loves me. Jeremiah loves Sarge. But Mama is a good cooker. I like putting nice pictures on the wall, but I like to watch movies too. I'm glad we have a good house. We bought a new room and Sarge too. I like pictures. 

I'm glad you were here and goodbye!
Love,

Lilly

(Lilly told me what she wanted to say and I helped her spell it. She was positively giddy about writing something for my blog...I love "But Mama is a good cooker." I didn't have the heart to correct it... -carlotta)

grey & rainy

I love the rain. I love curling up with a good book and some chocolate (in my case, chocolate covered raisins) while it drizzles outside. 

It's perfect for getting a few pictures too...

The rain is also a good excuse for not getting out of my pjs. It's past three and I have yet to change into something else...

What do you love about the rain?

-carlotta

random facts

Random fact #1 - I know what you're thinking...oh great it's another list...but I can't help it! I love lists:)

Random fact #2 - The first rose bloomed yesterday!!!! 

Random fact #3 - Exactly one year ago today we saw our house for the first time! I still can't believe it's been a year...

(Read how we got our house here)

Random fact #4 - MeMe (top picture) and Lilly (bottom picture) drew some rather...interesting people on the sidewalk...

Random fact #5 - We went to the outdoor mall yesterday after going to the dentist (no one has cavities!)...I found these blossoms extremely cool.

Random fact #6 - Jeremiah and my dad were shooting rubber bands in each other's mouths last night. Someone please save me.

(I have video evidence, but I'll spare you the interestingness of it)

Random fact #7 - Chocolate ice cream and frozen raspberries make a really good combination. Yum.

What are some random facts of your past few days?

-carlotta

PS What do you think of my new header?