About the Blogger

Hey!  I'm Maggie, and I'm so excited that you're here!

For realz.  Look at that face.  I'm pretty excited.

Thank you so much for stopping by my creative nook of the internet!  Let's sit down and get to know each other a bit, shall we?  I'll tell you a few things about myself, and then you can tell me a little about yourself in the comments below!

My Faith
First of all, I want to tell y'all that I am a Christian, because that is what defines me, not whatever I talk about on my blog.  I believe that Jesus came to save sinners, and that one day He will come back to judge the living and the dead.  Because of Jesus, I have new life, and I don't have to worry about being dirty and sinful before God, because He has already paid the price for my sin.  My identity does not rest in my body, or my family, or even my crafting.  It rests in Jesus Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.  Hallelujah!

One of my favorite verses is Galatians 2:20, which says: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

I go to an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, NC.  Go OPC!

My Family
I come from a family of ten people.  Oh yeah.  Ten people living under one roof (though some have moved out now).  I have seven siblings, and I'm number five.  This how it goes: girl, boy, girl, girl, girl, girl, girl, boy.  ( I could say that ten times fast with my eyes closed.  ..."Nooo, really?")  Yep, that's right - out of eight kids, only two are boys.  It can get pretty crazy at times.  By the way, I'm not the only one in the Groover family to have a blog - four of my sisters have 'em too!  Check them out here, here, here, and here.

Now, here are just a few family pictures.  Because I like pictures.

In the first picture I was probably two years old, so it would have been 2001.  That's me in Daddy's arms.  Mommy was pregnant with the youngest bro in the second.  And I was six!  The third was 2013 I believe, around Christmas time.  Aaand, the last was taken this past June, at Katie Buff's gradiation ceremony.  Which was mucho exciting by the way.  The shadows are kind of weird; sorry about that.  And if you are perhaps wondering why I look a little...crazy, it was because it was super hot that day, and I was kind of squished, and I had been flipping my hair all over the place beforehand.

That's me!  (Not the bald one.)
(Oh.  We're both bald here.)

Daddy is an airline pilot, which I think is a pretty cool job, don't you?  Mommy doesn't have a "real job" like that, but she has been a homeschool mom of eight kids.  I think that's a good enough job.  Together, they've loved and nurtured each and every one of us until the ripe age of oldness, when it's time to move out.  And then they still do some loving and nurturing.

I also hope to be a wife and mother someday, in addition to blogging.  For now though, blogging will do just fine on it's own!

My Schooling
As you might expect from a family with eight kids,we were all homeschooled all the way through Highschool.

I am seventeen now, and currently the oldest one still in Highschool.  I'm not quite sure what I want to do after I graduate, but my hope right now is to blog full time and hopefully make an income off of that.

My Red Hair (Yes, It Needs a Whole Section To Itself)
The feature I'm most proud of is my bright red hair.  If you were to meet me for the first time, probably the first thing you'd notice is my hair.  Five of the eight kids have red hair, all different shades.  Mine is the darkest, and closest to real red.  You couldn't pay me to change my hair color!  If I didn't have red hair, I wouldn't take as many pictures of myself.  Heh.  It always makes me happy to see a stranger with red hair.  And then I have a little bonding moment with them.  In my head.  We got our red hair from Daddy, who lost his long ago.  Woot REDHEADS!

My oldest brother wasn't present for this picture, but you can see the five shades of red here.

It looks duper red here.  :)

Why I Blog

Here's a shell I drew in art last year.  I'm mucho proud of it.

So, you may be wondering how or why I got into blogging.  Well, I've been a creative soul for as long as I can remember.  Let's go way back to when I was six.  That's when I started taking art classes at the Sunflower Studio from Miss Linda.  I haven't missed one year since.  This year (2015 - 2016) is my eleventh year.  You could say that's what sparked my creativity (Miss Linda has certainly played a huge role).  However, I am inclined to think otherwise.

I remember two or three years ago, a lady at my church told me that I drew her a picture when I was about four, and she said it was good for a four year old.  Artistic talent runs in the family, so I must have picked it up at a very young age.
Anywho, I'm still telling you how I got into blogging, aren't I?  I started this blog in October of 2014, after family members kept telling me I should start one.  I wasn't intending, at first, to make it primarily a craft blog.  I didn't really know what I was going to do with it.  I only knew that it would feature my artwork; I didn't think that's all it would be for.  But, that's all I ended up writing about at the beginning, and I'm all about being consistent!  Just so you know though, I might throw in some posts on other topics too, every once in a while.

How I Got Into Cardmaking
I started making cards so that I could use them for writing letters, and never stopped.  I remember asking Daddy once why I never got any letters, and he told me that I have to send letters to others in order to get letters back.  I've never forgotten that.  Over the years, I've made innumerable cards and written innumerable letters.  With lots of practice, my skills as a card maker have steadily increased.

Things I Enjoy Doing Other Than Crafting

• Singing - It's an understatement to simply say I enjoy singing.  I LOVE to sing, just as much as I love to craft and make things.  You can see one of my videos here, if you like (still super excited about that).  The majority of my awake time I'm either singing or humming (sometimes during my asleep time too!).  I also just love music in general.  It is truly a beautiful thing.
• Photography - I don't own a fancy camera [update: I do now!], but I do like to experiment with my little point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix.
• Decluttering/organizing! - "What?  Decluttering is suppose to be for moms!"  True...hum, well, I feel like a mom in many ways.  You know, minus the kids.  I like things like that.  It makes me happy to have SPACE!  Ahh, SPACE!  I love it!
• Playing With Kiddos - So, even though I don't have any kids of my own, I do love kids.  So much.  Kids are my life.  I get so much joy from simply watching kids play.  They seem to flock to me, and I think that's because I'm still a kid!  In many, many...many ways.  Haha, just ask my siblings!
• Letter Writing - If there was an award for letter writing, I could probably win it.  Maybe.  I've been a real slacker at times.  But believe it or not, blogging has helped me get back on track.  It's so exciting to open up the mailbox after a long walk up the driveway and find a hand-written letter addressed to me.  Don't you feel the same way?

Random Interesting Things About Me

• If you know me personally, you may be aware that I have a hard time being photographed without making some wacko face.

• I love to improvise!  I'm also a cheapskate, so if I don't have something I need for a project, chances are I'll try to find some other way to get it done, instead of going to the store and buying stuff.
• Whenever I eat chips, I eat the broken ones first.  And of course there are always broken chips, so it doesn't even feel right to eat whole chips.
• I always save a Last Bite of salad (or anything else that has big obvious ingredients that are easy to set aside).  It should include one of each ingredient, except for the ones I don't like.  Mushrooms and olives, for example.  BLECH.  (Let me know if you do the same thing!  I love to bond with others on weird things we do!)



The Last Bite.  Dadadaaaaa.

• I am an avid talker to self!  Heh.  People think I'm crazy sometimes...
• I love odd numbers, and don't exactly take a liking to even numbers.  Some of my favorite numbers are 7, 11, and 13.  My least favorite number is 4.
• My favorite music genre is country.  I love old, sad, slow, and sweet country.  All that together, not separate, usually.  My favorite song is all of those things together (listen to it and thank me later).  *SWOON SWOON*  I seriously dislike most new country.
• I do not like cooking, except on those rare occasions where I find an easy recipe that I'd like to try, such as these delicious things.  Mmm, they were good.  I'm known in my family for drastically messing up a recipe, like when I accidentally put half a cup of salt in some chocolate chip cookies instead of half a teaspoon, or whatever it was.  Eheh.
• I love to make lists!  Currently I have twelve lists up on my wall by my desk, and more elsewhere.  They range from supplies I'd like to have, to books I'd like to read, to things I'd like to do when I'm old and retired!  (literally, that's the name of one of 'em.)
• SHARPIIIEEES!  I love sharpies mucho much!  As of now, I own 78 sharpies.  Seventy-eight.  And that's after losing some (including my favorite - extra fine gray-blue).  If you count each sharpie in the picture below, you won't count all 78 (er, unless you're really bad at counting...) because I only got a picture of the ones I keep in my sharpie bag.



I heart my sharpies.

• I absolutely love to just write stuff down.  I think it's largely because I like my handwriting, but also simply the fact that writing just feels so good.  By that, I don't mean writing a story or an essay (blech) or even blog posts all the time - I mean the act of literally just jotting down words - notes, doodles, ideas, lists, schedules, things I need to remember...you get the point.  I love to write.
• I am an outgoing introvert (at least I consider myself one) and my personality type is adventurer.  This is totally me.  What personality type are you?
• I don't like homework (well duh), but I tend to get mostly As anyway.   I'm a perfectionist, so it bothers me to not get the best grade I can, but man, do I hate it sometimes!

A Few Of My Favorite Things
A picture is worth a thousand words, right?  (Absolutely.)

My Pop Posts
In case you're new to my blog, here are my top five (most visited) posts for you to check out!

• A Few Reasons I Heartily Disagree With Gay "Marriage"
• Welcome To My Party! 
• The Little Green Bow 
• Chevron Hello 
• Let's Get Together 

 And just because, here's a list of five of the funnest (I'm going to use that word and you can't stop me) posts I've written.  I tried to make them in order of how fun they were to write, but it was hard to decide on which was my favorite.  Just go with the flow.  Dude.

• Spring Anemones: How I Did It
• Black and White Floral Thank You
• Out of an Abundance Of Tissue Paper Flowers
• Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge #6: Tic Tac Toe
• You Make Me Happy 

And There You Have It!

Yes, that's me!

Now that I've told you way too much about myself, feel free to comment your own thoughts!  Where do you resonate?  Where do you differ?  What weird things can you bond with me on?  I'll do my best to reply to every comment, so don't be shy!

I hope you've enjoyed getting to know me a little better.  Thanks so much for stopping by!