Category: ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge – F

handicraftsowl

Francophile

I am a huge Francophile, which means I love all things French. The language, the food, the country, the culture. I have always had an affinity for France, even before I found out that I had French ancestors.

I remember in Junior High, we had an assignment to make a coat of arms and to fill each quadrant with something that had meaning to us. In one quadrant, I put a painter’s palette because there are several artists in my family, one quadrant had a stack of books because we are avid readers, one quadrant had some gardening tools because my grandpa was amazing and could grow just about anything. And in the last quadrant, I put the French flag because I thought our family was French. I got an A on the assignment and was so proud to show to my grandmother. When I did, she asked me why I had put a French flag on it. I told her it was because we are French. She asked me where I got that idea and told me that we weren’t. I was devastated because I was sure that we were. Fast forward about 20 years and I found my French ancestors while researching our family tree. Ironically, they were on her side of the family. I don’t know why, but I felt vindicated.

Not the original, but it looked something like this.

It turns out my French genes are strong. I spent a summer in France in a French immersion language program. I had only taken one semester of French before I went, but I tested at the beginning of the second year on the placement exam. I felt so at home there. Within two weeks, I was dreaming in French, and was even mistaken for a local one day while I was shopping. That was a great feeling.

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge – E

handicraftsowl

Extrovert

Extrovert word cloud

I am an extrovert. I am a talker and I enjoy being around people. I am always striking up a conversation with strangers while in line at the bank or supermarket. I smile and nod at people when passing them in the street or in the hallways. In school, I always sat at the front of the classroom, and never had a problem participating. Because of this, I was teased and called the Teacher’s Pet.

There are a lot of perks to being an extrovert. I find it extremely easy to meet new people. I even ended up getting a promotion because of it. I was commuting on the train to work and started chatting with another passenger who happened to worked at the same VA Hospital I did, though she was in another department. We became friends and one day she told me about a job that was coming open soon. She even gave me pointers that helped me get the job. I never would have known about it if I hadn’t talked to her that day.

Although I enjoy being with people, sometimes I need alone time to recharge. And I don’t always need to be talking with someone, or be up their butt all the time. I am content to just be in the same room with them. Though I usually do talk a lot, LOL.

Extroverts come in all flavors. Some of us are shy, some love to read, and some are very artistically inclined. I came across this really interesting article on psychologyjunky.com about the different types of extroverts. Click here if you are interested in learning more, or even finding out your own personality type.

ENFP: Extroversion, iNtuition, Feeling, and Perceiving

I am an ENFP, which stands for Extroversion, iNtuition, Feeling, and Perceiving. ENFPs are team players, insightful, innovative, adaptable and think outside the box. We are creative, a jack-of-all-trades, and we excel in those things that interest us. But we sometimes stress out too much, overthinking things, and can be disorganized and messy. This seems to describe me pretty well. What about you?

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge – D

handicraftsowl

Daydreamer

Daydreams are fantasies you have while awake that distract you from reality. Most people daydream when they are bored. I sometimes daydream on purpose, just to see where my thoughts take me.

Most people equate daydreaming with laziness or a lack of focus, but studies show that daydreamers are intelligent, creative, and have more efficient brains. When I am talking, my brain is going a mile a minute. My family thinks I am so random!

Some people look at me in amazement and wonder how I came up with something. But I can always explain the link between my thoughts, kind of like that gameshow, Chain Reaction, where you start with Crochet and end up with Goat.

I think daydreaming is a good thing. It’s fun and lets you think about all the possibilities life has to offer. It is great for problem solving and stress relief. Sometimes, when you take your mind off the problem, your subconscious will take over and come up with the solution for you.

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge – C

handicraftsowl

Creative

I have been creating art and handicrafting for as long as I can remember. The earliest thing I remember making was in 3rd grade. It was a little monster made out of clay that was painted and fired. We each took a ball of clay and stuck our thumbs into them to make a bowl shape, then we decorated them to look like cute little monsters. After that, I was hooked.

My parents were very creative, too. My Mom was an amazing seamstress. She sewed clothing for us and I remember my Barbie dolls being the best dressed dolls around. She also crocheted and she taught me to knit. My Dad was the artist. He was a photographer and painter. He even painted his own backdrops for his photography studio. So, you see, creativity is in my genes.

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge – B

handicraftsowl

Blue Eyes

Everyone in our family has blue eyes. All my aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings and children. Everyone except for my one nephew, who has brown eyes. We jokingly call him our changeling!

Our blue eyes are very striking, too. Some people call them electric blue. I call mine “mood ring eyes” because they change color depending on what I am wearing. They don’t actually change color, they just reflect the color of my clothing or even my eye makeup. I often get asked if I am wearing colored contact lenses.

picture by Brett Hayward

Some interesting facts about blue eyes:

  • Only about 8 percent of the world’s population have blue eyes and they are typically people from nationalities found near the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe.
  • There is no blue pigment in blue irises. Blue eyes have less melanin than brown eyes and get their color the same way water and the sky does — they scatter light so that more blue light reflects back out.
  • All blue-eyed people may have a common ancestor. According to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, a genetic mutation in a single individual that lived in Europe between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago led to the development of blue eyes, and is therefore the likely cause of the eye color of all blue-eyed people alive today.

So, if you have blue eyes, we may be cousins!

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge – A

handicraftsowl

This is a scrapbook page I did for my ABC Book of Me. I am definitely an Ancestor Detective. Doing genealogy is like solving a mystery. You start with just a few facts, you search for clues, then you evaluate the evidence you find.

Ancestry.com is my hero and I am not getting paid to say so. My parents had both passed away before I was ten years old, so I didn’t know much about my family. I started my family tree with only my Mom and Dad, my Dad’s parents and siblings, and my four cousins. I didn’t know much about my Mom’s side of the family at all, and nothing beyond my paternal grandparents. But it can be done. As of today, I now have over 4300 people in my tree and have even met some of my long lost relatives.

So far, I haven’t found any criminals, pirates, or other scoundrels. But I have found a lot of pioneers and patriots. I have tracked several of my lines going back to Revolutionary War veterans and some of my Pruyne ancestors were early settlers in the colony of New Amsterdam, which later became New York state.

Proud Veterans

As a veteran myself, I was very happy to find my family has a long history of military service. I served in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm, my parents were both in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. I have ancestors who served in WWI, and WWII, fought for the Union during the Civil War and several ancestors who fought in the Revolution. And the tradition continues as my nephew is currently serving in the Army.

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge – Intro

handicraftsowl

Well, as I said in the last post, I have resolved to post at least once a week, and since there are 26 weeks left in this year, and 26 letters in the alphabet, I decided to start a new challenge called the ABCs of Me.

I came across this idea while scrapbooking and thought it was interesting. Each day, take a different letter of the alphabet and pick an adjective that describes you that starts with that letter, then post it on your blog.

Some letters are harder than others. The easiest way I found to do this is to google “adjectives that start with the letter ___” and then see which one describes you best.

Are you up for the challenge? Here are my simple rules.

  1. Write a blog post for each letter. It can be as long or as short as you wish. It’s up to you.
  2. I prefer to do them in alphabetical order, but it isn’t required. Just try to do as many of the letters as possible. Can you get them all?
  3. Have fun. Add pictures, videos, songs, poems, whatever you like. It’s your blog.
  4. Leave me a comment below, along with a link to your initial blog post.

Again, I want this to be fun. No judgements. If you comment on someone’s post, please be kind. Alright, let’s go!

ABCs of Me Blog Challenge

Happy New Year!

handicraftsowl

Just Kidding! Well sort of. Today is my birthday and I have now completed 55 revolutions around the sun, so it is the beginning of a new year for me. And what does everyone do for the New Year? Make New Years resolutions! I officially resolve to post here at least once per week for the rest of this year.

Where do I start? Well, there are 26 weeks left in this year and 26 letters of the alphabet, so I think posting the ABCs of Me would be perfect. You simply take each letter of the alphabet, pick an adjective that starts with that letter and write about how it describes you. Easy Peasy!

Feel free to join me in this fun challenge! I am going to be doing mine in alphabetical order, but that is not a requirement. You might find it easier to write out the letters and choose all the adjectives first. I did an internet search for “adjectives that start with a” and so on, and then picked the ones that I felt described me the most. You can also take one adjective and look for a synonym that starts with a different letter. The letter X is a hard one, so many people use words that have the letter X in them, like eXasperating or eXhausted.

Then you can write a sentence, write a poem, tell a story, use a photo, or a combination. Just have fun with it. I know I will.