Emily Rachelle Writes

A note: since I changed my blog name and address, I had to create a new Facebook page.  Please go like the new page here:  http://www.facebook.com/EmilyRachelleWrites As you, my lovely readers, know, this month I celebrated my seventeenth birthday.  Therefore, birthdays and the things associated with them are forefront in my mind.  (I promise this is going somewhere one-word-related.  Hang with me.) {via} Kids a few weeks before Christmas or birthdays start to spend a bit less time outdoors or in a book or on a video game and instead sit quietly in bedrooms or on sofas, studying glossy photographs of the latest and greatest in the toy industry.  They dog-ear pages to come back to, circle or star favorites, write numbers to help themselves prioritize.  Once they've memorized the color options and included accessories of all their favorite toys, they pull out a piece of paper and carefully record the best of the catalogs in their neatest handwr...

Dear Emily, Happy sixteenth birthday! As a special treat, I’m going to repeat what everybody always says on teen birthdays—the whole “growing up so fast” thing coupled with depressing statements of irrevocable change and impending doom and then concluding with well-worn (though profound) assurance of how it won’t be so bad, after all. I spent most of my younger life studying upper respiratory infections in rats and bedding options for horses in hopes of being a vet/breeder/pet store owner. I planned on starting out the store in my bedroom, even had the floor plans all made out in my notebook, though I admittedly had some trouble squeezing in two bunk beds and four sisters between the guinea pig and ferret cages. Life made sense back then. The biggest decisions involved breakfast and what to name my new Littlest Pet Shop bobbleheads—quite a delicate procedure, I can assure you. I had my life planned before I finished elementary school. By sixteen I couldn’t even find square one ag...

Today we have a special double giveaway, specifically in honor of my sweet sixteenth!  :)  Actually, I don't turn sixteen for another week, but that's when the party ends.  I had to fit the giveaway in the party, of course.  Some of this stuff is freebies I've acquired, and others I bought for y'all. ;) I've got some great stuff here for all the ladies - older and younger - in my audience, so let's take a look! Prize Pack One: Perfectly Princess Princess Bellarina by Marilyn Obsuna The Rescuers by Cecelia Maria Hilliard Two adorable puppy figurines Prize Pack Two: Girly Greatness The Adventurous Girl's Handbook by Stephen & Lara Brennan The Pocket Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz Prize Pack Three: Pamper Me Pretty Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes Very Black Mascara Maybelline Pink Punch Baby Lips Lip Balm Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion Travel Bottle Japanese "Nail Fren...