monster on the horizon

It's winter break! After four months of slaving away in school, we finally made it! Ella and I are always determined to make the most of our breaks by doing "something fun" every day, whatever that means. Our many activities during school breaks and weekends include (but are definitely not limited to) bowling, ice skating, mini-golfing, rock climbing, swimming, pottery painting, and, much to our parents' dismay, shopping.

On Saturday, we decided to do some art! I painted a cup, and Ella made a fused glass plate and painted an ornament. Because of my meticulous painting style, pottery painting is always a big time commitment, but this was an extreme case. This was probably the longest I have ever spent something... It took about six hours over the course of two days!

I think I may have been too ambitious with my design: a sky background, clouds, an airplane with a "BEATRIZ" banner, extremely detailed buildings, and an adorable monster! The most time consuming part was definitely the buildings. I first painted three coats of light purple and three coats of light gray, waiting for each coat to dry in between. Then, it took me forever to scratch out the windows and doors on each building. Here are pictures of my piece from all angles before it was fired in the kiln. You might notice an advertisement for The Trizzle on one of the buildings!

Ella did a fused art project. She glued a bunch of small pieces of colored glass onto a large glass square to make a checkered rainbow pattern. When they fired the piece, they made it into a plate by folding the sides up! Time passed so quickly. Before I knew it, Ella had finished her fused art project, my parents were getting really bored, and the store was closing. We had to come in the next day so I could finish, and my sister painted a cute penguin ornament!

blogging runs in the family

all things swell
as some of you may know, i have a 9 year old sister named ella. i've even blogged about her a few times, which she loves. anyway, she just recently started her own blog called all things swell! she was really excited about the idea of her own blog, and wanted me to help her with the design right away. as ella puts it, her blog is all about "ella's thoughts on the world." ella is completely hilarious and equally clever, so make sure to check it out!

click the link below
all things swell
click the link above

second winter break!
2009-2010 school year: the year we got two winter breaks! the 55.6 inches of snow got us to miss school from the middle of friday, february 5 to the late morning of tuesday, february 16! i guess this makes up for the horrid power loss.

you know, without school, it is really hard to know what day it is. monday? thursday? who knows. honestly, it was getting quite boring at home. and, from the looks of facebook updates, my friends agreed. but, now that i'm back at school, i wish school was still canceled. why must my mind work like this?

pump up the balloons

i need to keep you updated on the latest ella obsessions, since she starts all the new trends...

we just recently went to my mom's friend's party. he gave us a pack of long balloons and ella loves it! i made some animals for her... (from left to right) there's a: butterfly, bichon frise, mouse, giraffe, and dog. those all came with instructions, except for the mouse and the giraffes, which i came up with myself.

after ella first made the dog, i thought to make a giraffe. when i told her, she said, "OH MY GOD!! CAN YOU PLEASE SHOW ME HOW TO MAKE ONE??" my answer: "you just make the dog... with a longer neck..." she looked sort of disappointed. "oh..."

i spent a ridiculously long amount of time making that balloon hat for ella. first off, it is much more difficult than it looks. and second, in the process of making it, the balloon popped two times. after that traumatic experience, ella asked for a sword; she'd always wanted one, so i thought, why not. so there she is: the balloon pirate! she says, "they're just gonna think i robbed some clowns."

don't you just love ella?

elany funtza booba

ella is developing this very interesting language called "ella language." very creative name, i know. she has made up three words with their definitions. the first word she came up with was:

elany n. a special word in ella language that means poop

but then, she thought about it...
ella- what if that is someones name? maybe we should change it to ello or something.
bea- but that's really close to ella
ella- ...ok, i guess we will keep it as elany
bea- you're just making up words!
ella- yeah, that's just how ella language goes. hmm... can i tell you another word in ella language? wait a sec... i'm a lil rusty, even though i talk to myself in ella language.

funtza adj. that means very cool and awesome. synonyms: ella

when ella read the blog above before i published this, she says, "i'm only rusty because i have to talk in normal language. my family thinks i'm unsocial, but really, i'm very social in ellaland when i'm speaking ella language."

by the way, i just sent this blog to my friend amanda while writing, and when my friend amanda called ella an elany... ella adds the word booba to her ella language dictionary in order to say "booba elany."

booba adj. giant, big, and enormous

beatriz atsavapranee

p.s. i have a feeling that ella only made up this "ella language" today

the many things you have yet to learn about ella

hey everyone!

the blog you are about to read is all and only about my very interesting 8-year-old sister, ella. here's what she has to say about being on my blog.



here is what ella is all about...

1. corkyland

i bet ella's cork collection can beat all the cork collections out there, and she would like to give a big thanks to our daddy for contributing all those corks (with a few corks worth of help from our grandpa). yesterday, during dinner, my dad gave ella another cork, so we decided to dump all the corks out of the bag and count them. strangely, the one day we decided to count them, there were exactly 300 corks. she's planning on making a raft out of them, sooner or later.


2. her favorite phrase

ella's favorite thing to say is "back off!!" it's not so much aggressive, as it is funny. the first time she ever said that, was when our whole family went swing dancing for the first time. first, we took the class before dancing. and ella explains her aggravation at someone trying to help her with her dancing. you should hear her explain it.



3. material girl

ella, i must say, is a complete fashionista. for those of you who know her, you already know this. i mean, seriously... look at that pose with the sunglasses! everything she is wearing in that pic, and almost everything in her closet, is from her favorite store: justice.

and today, when we were out at marshalls with my grandma and grandpa, she saw this jacket, and she made this face which you just have to see for yourself.


4. camerama

ever since ella got one of those polaroid cameras for christmas, we occasionally turn on the camera... and see 20 pictures of our cat, violet, in as many different poses as ella can force her into. usually she takes pictures (this is straight from the source) until "violet runs away, or [i] need to go to the bathroom." and she still uses that polaroid camera, that's in the picture, even though she could use the digital one. she likes that "it has a pretty frame kind of, and it's fun to pull out the picture." watch this completely candid video of ella fighting with her camera, as ella says, "in a totally not weird way." (turn your sound up all the way, and listen very closely at the end... it's the best part!)



5. "i'm feeling the yo-yo ma-ness!"

so ella likes cello. i'm not saying that she has ever touched a cello, other than in the shop, but she still likes cello. ella says "cause it's close to ello and ello is close to ella." she contemplated what instrument she wanted to play for a long time. she didn't want a "blowing" instrument, so she chose from strings. not only does she like cello, but she also likes yo-yo ma. a lot. we had one of his cd's, and she would listen to it over and over again. eventually, we had listened to all the songs way too many times so my mom offered to get her some new cd's. when she turns up the yo-yo ma music (very loudly, i must say) she always says "i'm feeling the yo-yo ma-ness!!!!"

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a few of ella's greatest moments, well at least the ones caught on camera:

1. the newest addidion to the jets

a while ago, we were watching the movie, "west side story." my mom and ella thought it would be fun to snap along with the jets, just to torment me. you see, i can not and never will be able to snap (or whistle). ella can do both, but she can't wink and i can! check out ella's amazing impersonation of the jets.



2. random cracking up

today, when we were at the chinese grocery store, on errands with my grandma and grandpa, ella randomly started to crack up.



i hope ella gave you some good laughs... :)

beatriz atsavapranee