Andrea’s Blog

I have three favorite memories from this school year. The first memory was meeting my new best friends, Lily, Lexa, and Bronson. I met them all this year and they have made this year so much more fun. This is how I met them. My math teacher assigned me a table with Lily. That day she made everyone introduce themselves to one another. At first it was awkward but after a few days we talked like we had been best friends forever. After hanging out with Lily a lot, she introduced me to Lexa since they have been friends in sixth grade. One day, Lexa and I were both late and all the seats with our friends were taken. So, we sat at the dining table together. Lily and Bronson were there and we all became best friends. My second favorite memory is, making the, “Titanium” music video in Video Production. The filming process was so fun. Elise, Milena, and Bronson were amazing actors. My Video Production teacher loved it and many of my friends did as well. Finally my third favorite memory is the first day of school. I remember looking around and noticing everyone got haircuts, wore makeup, completely changed their style, and got taller. Seventh grade was so different than sixth.

These six weeks flew by so fast. In fact, I remember the first day I started knitting so clear almost as if it was yesterday. This week was my favorite. My niece’s reaction when I gave her the scarf was so cute! She loved it. My cousin sent me many photos of her wearing the scarf, which I will be putting up on my trifold. Unfortunately, during the last step of the scarf process, I made the biggest mistake ever. So big to the point where I was about to start all over. Somehow a massive hole appeared out of no where and I started panicking. I had to find a solution quickly because my niece was coming over that same day and she was expecting it to be done. To add in, I had no more yarn, so I couldn’t just make a completely new one. However after many attempts, I managed to fix it. The scarf in my opinion turned out very nice. I want to continue knitting even after school is over. My family inspired me. Mostly everybody was very surprised I knew how to knit and begged me to make something for them. Giving people gifts has always had a special place in my heart.

This image has a strong message. The boy on the left has many toys to play with, like a PlayStation. PlayStations are expensive, so I can tell he is rich. Although he has everything a little kid could ask for, he is not happy. The boy is most likely a spoiled child who begs for more and more. The boy on the right however is over joyed with just one toy car. The car is homemade. The tiny house in the back leads me to believe he is poor. It is not required to have many toys, what really matters is the fun you make out of it.

Week five of my knitting experience has been exciting. I am so close to finishing my scarf! On Monday, I brought my knitting supplies to my grandma’s house and my three year old niece wanted to help, which I thought was so cute. I will be giving the final product to her as a gift. This is great because I’m running out of yarn and the scarf is not very long. Since she is small, it will be a perfect fit. To add in, I am planning to cover the holes in the scarf from week three with cute pins. If that doesn’t look good, I could also sew on some kind of fabric designs on it. My only struggle this week was, like said before, having to cut the scarf short due to the amount of yarn left. For a beginner knitter, I think I am doing pretty good. I am very proud of myself for not making as many mistakes as weeks before. Next week I will finish my scarf and show my niece.

In April, I read the book The Wishing Spell from The Land of Stories book series. The book is about two twelve year old twins named Alex and Connor. Their dad had recently passed away and they had to sell their childhood house. So, they moved into a boring apartment. For their birthday, their grandma gave them a storybook called The Land of Stories. The twins find out that the book is actually a portal to a fairytale land. Alex’s curiosity got the best of her and she ended up falling in the book. Connor then went after her and they soon realized they were stuck in the magical dimension. They befriended many new acquaintances throughout the journey of finding a way back home. They face many challenges as well. Fortunately, someone special helps them get back home.

What I love the most about this book is the amount of imagery Chris Colfer used. For example, on page eighteen it says, “Mrs. Peter was a tall, thin woman who always wore dresses that resembled old, patterned sofas. Her hair was dark and curly and sat perfectly on a the top of her head like a hat (and her students often thought it was). Through a pair of thick glasses, her eyes were permanently squinted from all the judgmental looks she had given her classes over the years,” This makes the reader have a perfect image of her in their mind. To add in, readers can tell she is a very judgmental and strict teacher.

My favorite character from the book is Queen Red (Little Red Riding Hood all grown up). Red is the brattiest character ever, which makes her so funny. In the middle of a stressful situation, Red says, “ ‘Forgive my hair, gentlemen… It’s been a rough day,’”. Although Red barely did anything to help out, she calls the day rough. Additionally, when she talks, it can be relieving taking a break from everything that is happening in the chapter . In other words, the setting may be intense, but she always manages to make me laugh.

My favorite quote is on page forty-four. On that page, Alex and Connor’s mom says to them, “ ‘You know what your dad would say if he were here?…He’d say, ‘Right now, we’re living in an ugly chapter of our lives, but books always get better!” I love this quote because the it shows how much of a sweet person their dad was. Their dad always helped the kids go through hard times. The quote also is true in the real world. Life can be hard but it will get better soon.

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The room in my home that is my favorite is my bedroom. My bedroom is like my miniature house. Since I have one of the three master bedrooms in my house, I have my own bathroom. To add in, I have a bunch of snacks in my drawer. I basically have everything I need to survive in there (not really). My parents hate how I stay in there for hours, but sometimes I just like being alone. My sister gave me a Mickey Mouse projector that lights up my room in rainbow colors. This makes my room very fun to be in. But besides the cool features in my room, my bed is my favorite part of my room. After school I am very tired, and it feels nice to just lay down for a while.

This week was wonderful! I am halfway done with my scarf. It is taking me a while since this is the first time I’ve made it this far in the process. It would be nice to say I did not make any mistakes, but me being me, of course I had to mess up somehow. I accidentally grabbed the wrong stitch for one of the rows and almost had to start over. That was the last thing I wanted to do, after all, it took me three days to get that far. So, I ended up figuring out a way to keep going. Thankfully, it worked and I went on. There’s a spot that looks wonky in the scarf, but it is not that noticeable. I really need to be aware of what I am doing to make sure I do not do this again. Next week I will attempt to finish the scarf (and hopefully no more big mistakes).

For week 3 of my 20% project, I didn’t really do anything. State testing got in the way of having work time in class. Because of having barely any time to work on knitting at school and at home, I did not practice like I planned to. On the days I did practice though, I made it a long way before I messed up. In other words, I am getting better at not making a mistake and having to start over. One of my biggest struggles is accidentally creating holes between the stitches and grabbing the wrong lope. Lexa and my mom taught me how to do it correctly on Friday and it is much easier now. It amazes me how fast Lexa is at knitting and crocheting, but she’s been doing this for years so it only makes sense. I’ve been knitting for about a week already and Lexa said it’s impressive how good I’m doing for this time period. I would say I am proud of myself. Next week I am going to practice way more and get as far as I can.

While working on my 20% project, I went above and beyond my goal for this week. My original goal was just to learn how to hold my needles correctly. Instead, I got excited and learned how to knit a small piece. Of course, I did have many failed attempts in the process. First of all, I got distracted and lost track of what I was doing plenty of times. Because of this, I had to start over. To add in, sometimes I would forget to knit one of the loops. I wouldn’t notice until I was done with the row and was surprised to see the holes in between some stitches. This would make me very frustrated, but I learned that you need to be patient and calm for it to go smoothly. Next week I will be working on making sure I knit correctly and try not to make any mistakes.

There are so many people I would want to invite to dinner, but these are my top three: Lily, Lexa and Rafael. These people are my best friends from school. Having dinner would be so much fun. Lily would help out with cooking the food and I bet it would taste delicious. Lexa has always wanted to come over to my house and most definitely help set the table. The table would look perfect since Lexa is good at everything she does. Finally, Rafael would make everyone laugh and have a good time. The dinner would take place in my dinning room with decorations everywhere you look. We would eat fried shrimp crunchy tacos with a side of guacamole and chips. Drinks would be horchata (a Mexican milk-based drink). For dessert we will have caramel brownies. I am looking forward to this dinner!