Awards, Projects, Clouds, and a Sorry

I'll start with the sorry: So sorry that I haven't written in the past 12 days (that's more work for me, but still, you might like a bit of an update more often), it's just been crazier than usual. On Friday I went out for my sister's last soccer dinner (since the season has FINALLY ended), then on Saturday we went to a friend of Mom's house, then on Sunday I had a party, then on Monday we had the Design expo (more about that in a sec), and on Tuesday I had a three- way conference (student, parents, teacher). I've also had more homework lately, since the term is ending (next week) and we need to get our design stuff done by then. Yes, we didn't have it finished for the expo. The expo was just for the parents to come in, see what we've done, and also to see what we have to do next. Since then I have (maybe completed the outlines of) a series or scaled drawings. Lucky for me, the stuffed animal I was doing is life- sized (which is about a page big), but unluckily for me (since it was life- sized) I had to scale down one drawing and scale up another two. Oh well. At least it's done. I still need to color them in and also finish researching my materials (rabbit fur, maybe?)!! So yeah.
I'll start with the awards now.
I don't think I talked about this, but in my school we had an athletics day where we did all the track and field events. The people in my school who were good enough to be at the top of an event went on to the next event, Districts. I went there for four events: Discus, Shotput, Relays, and 100 Meters. This was my only winning:

That day I was perfectly aware that there were very talented kids out there, and that I wouldn't get a ribbon in everything. This one was for the Relays, and technically it doesn't even count. Here's the story:
We ran the relay once, and got the fourth. We thought we were done by then. But no. One team hadn't run the relay. I don't know how or why, but they somehow managed to miss it. And there were six races (at least) before that! We were the last racers! I would have been okay with this, except for the fact that they were fresh, and the rest of us weren't. They got first place on the second run, while we got 5th. If I was a judge I would have flat- out disqualified them. The relays were the biggest events of the day, since there was nothing going on during them. Every single kid that was there was sitting on the stands, screaming. For some reason, those girls chose to ignore it.
So anyways. I had given my ribbon to the judges, so I couldn't get it back. But one of the girls from my team hadn't given it back in time, and gave it back to me. Thank you so much (you know who you are), it means a lot to me!
So yeah. District athletics did not go well. I At the end I was all sad and didn't want to talk to anyone until my friend gave me the extra ribbon. It cheered me up a little. But technically, it still doesn't count.
But that didn't last long. Here is what I got the next day:

You might be wondering "How did you get those ribbons? Didn't you only get a fourth?" Well, the fourth was for Districts. These are the ribbons from the school athletics. I placed in every single event, but didn't even know I placed in half of them. I remember my teacher was passing out the ribbons, he's like "Hey M2A, I couldn't even see your name on here!" and he hands me this sheet full of ribbons. I literally started bouncing around (I think I must do that a lot when I get excited). That really made up for the disappointing Districts.
I placed 1st in Shotput, 1st in Discus, Second in 100 Meters (by like SO little, I thought I got third then), Second in high jump (my friend stole that first!), Third in 200 Meters (I was first until my muscles couldn't take it any more, I think I might have tried a bit too hard), Third in long jump (I thought I hadn't placed at all!), and third in Triple Jump (I am no good at that, yet I still managed to get a ribbon on it). That was every single event. I never knew I was so good at sport!
Okay, on to the last award:

Yes, that is an oscar. I won it for the "Best Use of Props". No, not because I used a phone to "call the neighbors". No, not because I was pulling on some rebellious magnets. It wasn't any of that: it was because of my beard. Yes, you read that right MY BEARD. My hair is actually pretty long, and the film needed a dad. I had always imagined him with a beard. So, this is what I did:

Yes, really. You might be cracking up right now. I remember when they were showing my movie, and I stepped in, everyone literally cracked up. And they stayed cracking up for a whole five minutes afterwards.
I admit it, this wasn't totally my idea: I just had happened to remember from a few months ago how a bunch of crazy girls were running around the unit, wearing their hair as beards. I joined and mine was the longest of all. Yes, I am a bit weird. But people always are in some way.
Okay we'll get onto other things. It's just with me, silliness is inevitable. We'll get onto my projects.
#1:

This is the progress I have made on my "Ruffian" poster. She has got to be my favorite race horse (other than Black Caviar, you should know that!). Actually, that is the mold Black Caviar's model horse is on: the Ruffian mold. So. I guess you know what type of horse I like. Anyways, I started this poster literally months ago, and since then the box has been empty. A few days ago I resorted to starting to fill it in, and so far it is looking okay (I have progressed an inch or so since this picture, so yeah). I think it will actually turn out pretty realistic. I just really need to pay SUPER close attention to the reference picture, which is this one:

The only thing I hate when drawing horses is when they have tack on. I hate drawing tack. I will draw anything but tack. I think I only like drawing organic organisms. Electronics don't exactly appeal to me (in terms of drawing). So I'm only drawing her face. Without the tack. I'll figure out the rest when I'm up to that.
So that's that. Onto #2:

This is the new custom I'm working on. No, I haven't finished the other one. That'll come another time. This one I just started. My reason: Yesterday I suddenly remembered that some people customize their horses with a bit of colored pencil. Not entirely, and now I know why more than ever (you can't really see it in the picture though, grr), because there are just some little bumps you just can't get at with a pencil. I think the newer models are smoother, but still. There is always the mane. I'm lucky that I kind of realized this and started my leopard appaloosa custom. (ehem):
Yeah, that one. We'll see how the finished product looks, I'm pretty happy with him right now (despite the too many imperfections).

Onto project #3 (the images are not liking me today):
Yeah, I need to fix this. Maybe in a few weeks.
And, of course, the finished drawing that was done a few months ago that I just got back from my art teacher:

It's okay. I think my idea of just making the flowers colored was cool.
Now I guess I'll start talking about the clouds here in Melbourne. It might just be because I am closer to the ocean, where there are more hurricanes than on land, but the clouds here move so fast. Like seriously! They scare me! And usually the clouds are pretty small, until a storm comes in and they become HUGE. Like seriously. HUGE. I've never noticed clouds so much before. Oh yeah: now I know what books mean when they say the clouds "are purple". I saw that once, and today was pretty close. I just devoloped an irrational fear of thunder too. Not because it's louder. Just because.
Also: I have a b-day party tomorrow, and my actual birthday is on Tuesday (my party is on Sunday, me and my friends are just going to play around the park a bit and eat dinner).
So yeah! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this one, because it literally took me 40 minutes to write!
And oh yes! I almost forgot! THE RANDOM PICTURE!

This picture is titled "Kripton is my Baby". Because he is, especially when I'm carrying him around in my arms like that. I finally found a way to make him look cute. The only way.