The Almost Free Puppy Hat

A couple of weeks ago we had a take it or leave it exchange at the church as part of an eagle scout project.  You bring your unwanted items and take someone else's castoffs home with you - for free.  I took a big collection of miscellaneous stuff to leave and was determined to bring nothing home.  I was doing great at resisting the call of some terrific treasures junk until the 3 garbage bags of yarn arrived.

With my renewed interest in crocheting, I have recently purchased yarn and I know how much it costs.  Free was sounding pretty good to me and I could hear those soft, fuzzy skeins calling my name - pick me, pick me, pick me! Cute little baby hats began to dance before my eyes.

I tried not to be greedy and did leave some yarn behind for others, but I came home with my fair share.

Luckily for me this large plastic tub was abandoned about the same time as the yarn.  Instant storage!

The same day as the yarn arrived in my house I spied this adorable puppy hat pattern online, for free as well.

Image from repeat crafter me

I knew I had found my first "free yarn" project.

Once the oldest daughter made a *magic ring* for me, it didn't take me too long to whip up this hat for Shad (who needs another hat like he needs more toys).

My almost free puppy hat - I did have to pay 50 cents for the button eyes.  

Shad may not need another hat, but he still managed to look pretty cute in this one.

He looks a little sour-faced because he is sucking on a lemon slice.  

I had some yarn left over so I started a newborn size hat while I waited in the airport for my plane to arrive tonight.  I even managed to make my own magic ring.  I continued working on it on the airplane and kept my seatmate relaxed with my constant motion.  She told me I reminded her of her grandma, who also has the ability to mesmerize her with her crocheting.

Now I just need a newborn baby with a cold head.
Or a dozen or more babies with cold heads.
I have a lot of yarn to use up.

Today I am thankful for

a fun visit with my California family (and some Arizona family too).

pima tacos made by the youngest son and daughter.

a plane that only ended up being 30 minutes late instead of an hour and a half late.

a husband to pick me up at the airport.

11/11/11 11:11 AM

Today we had a Relief Society activity to work on some of our unfinished crafts. It wasn't too well attended - way too many things to do on a day off from work and school, but those of us that were there enjoyed ourselves immensely. One of the sisters set her alarm to go off just before 11:11 so we could all make a wish. Here are the wish makers. I love all the intense thought that is going on.

I still had time to make my own wish. 11:11 does last for a whole minute you know. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of my thoughtful face.

This is the project I was working on today.

I bought this sewing at a thrift store before last Thanksgiving. I just think the children and animals giving thanks are so sweet. Now it is almost Thanksgiving again and I have not made much progress toward my goal of turning it into a pillow. Well actually, my friend's cat thought it made a perfect pillow just the way it is.

It has been awhile since I did any crewel like this and my eyes and my glasses had a hard time working together to do it. I find it is easiest to take my glasses off and hold it close to see, but then I get a big kink in my neck and I can't sew and watch TV with my glasses off. Getting older is full of so many challenges. Maybe by next Thanksgiving I will actually have this pillow on display.

Today I am thankful for

brakes that actually work on my van even though it took 9 months, 3 attempts, over $1,000 and 2 establishments to finally get it right.

women who know me and still like me.

Fall weather.

all the men and women who have sacrificed so much so I can enjoy life as I know it.

A Finished Project

I love to look at craft blogs and see all the fun things people make. Every once in a while I am so inspired that I even purchase the needed materials to complete one of the projects myself. Actually making the item, however, is a usually a different story.

Ruffle pillows are one of the crafts that have really intrigued me as I blog surf. When I found this one,

which even included a straight forward tutorial I was hooked.

During my next visit to DI I picked up a t-shirt for $1.00 in the perfect color to go with my new bedspread.

Surprise of all surprises, I even made me a ruffle pillow!

Now, the experience wasn't quite as simple as I had hoped. There are a few things I would do differently if I were to make another ruffle pillow (which I just might do , because I think they are so cute!).

First, I had this pillow form getting kicked around my house so I decided to use it instead of purchasing fiberfill. The curved corners were a little bit of a challenge for me and because I used the foam form I had to hand sew an entire side rather than just a small hole. I think next time I would buy the stuffing.

Second, the instructions said to cut the ruffles about 21 inches long. When I cut mine they ended up being about 26 inches so like the good doobie I am I trimmed each one to 22 inches and then kicked myself over and over again when I sewed the ruffles on and wished they had a little bit more gather. Next time I will make the ruffles as long as possible.

Third, I ended up making holes in my fabric in a few places either because my needle was too fat or my needle was damaged when I ran over the pins holding the ruffles in place. In the future I will use a needle made to sew on knit and I will move the pins rather than cruise through them.

Fourth, I had a really hard time spacing my ruffles and getting them actually sewn in a straight line where I wanted them to be. I'm thinking I might go as far as drawing some straight lines on the pillow top fabric to help with ruffle placement next time. The ruffle would cover the line up, so I don't think it would be a problem.

All in all, I am very happy with my finished project.

Now I just need to learn how to place my pillows so they look decorative and not dorky. I better go look for a blog about that.

Activity Day Girls Project - Pool Noodle Beads

A couple of months ago the other counselor in the primary presidency was released. The new counselor preferred to be involved with cub scouts and so my responsibilities changed to being the counselor over the 8 to 11 year old girls activity days (HOORAY!). I have enjoyed spending time with these girls. They have been working really hard to memorize all of their articles of faith the past couple of months and now they are great at reciting them and telling everyone what they mean.

Tonight they finally got to work on something different. The girls, and their adult helpers, made pool noodle beads to donate to the ward nursery. The activity day leader had a friend who suggested this project. I tried to find the original blog, to give her credit for the idea, but I couldn't locate it. Just know that there is a creative person out there somewhere that we benefited from and we are grateful.

First we took our pool noodles and cut them into 1 inch slices with a sharp kitchen knife. We used both smooth pool noodles and ones with bumps in them, which created the flower shaped beads.

Then we cut nylon rope into 2 foot lengths. I am not sure how thick our rope was, more than 3/8" though. It was probably a little too thick in my opinion and possibly cut a little too short.

Next, we cut a small x in the center of a cottage cheese container lid. The x just needs to be large enough to feed the rope through (Think of the hole in the top of a soda lid). This could also be done with a drill, making a circle not an x.

After the rope was threaded through the lid, the adult men in our group used a butane torch to fuse the lacing end of the rope. One of our dads had a very manly torch, but a hand held lighter (the longer kind with a nozzle look) would work just as well. The girls flayed out about an inch of the rope on the opposite end and this was also burned to keep the rope from pulling through the lid.

Notice the decorative heart that the "boys" felt the need to burn into the church sidewalk. It had rained and the sidewalk was wet, so there was no permanent damage done. I just think it's cute.

And ta-dah! Here is the finished product.

The girls are all looking forward to presenting their gift to the nursery on Sunday. Doesn't this just make you want to make some of your own? Too bad it's December and there are no pool noodles in any of the stores.

Today I am grateful for

6:00 PM, when the oldest daughter arrived to retrieve the grandson. He was being a stinker today.
getting to work with the activity day girls.
rain that cooled things off and made it seem possible that Christmas is only a week away. I have a hard time feeling motivated to complete my Christmas list when it is 85 degrees outside.

Family Home Evening Activity

I was hoping that our family home evening activity tonight would include my family all gathering around me and offering unlimited, extremely helpful suggestions for the girl's camp bishopric skit that I have once again been commissioned to write. Apparently my first skit attempt was successful enough to merit an encore. Unfortunately, I am facing a severe case of writer's block or in other words I have no idea what to write. No idea whatsoever and it was pretty much supposed to be written last week.
This exact situation is one of the biggest excuses I use for not writing the novel that I sometimes believe is lurking in my little brain. What if I wrote a book and it was amazing and wonderful and a best seller and the publishing company asked for a sequel and there was nothing else hiding out in my head. Absolutely nothing! What could be worse?
The only thing I can think of that could possibly be more horrible is if my amazing, wonderful, best selling book was so amazing that someone wanted to make it into a movie, but the film company felt that the way I had written my story wasn't quite amazing and wonderful enough for the big screen and they wanted to totally change the underlying theme that I had so purposely and painstakingly developed (as in the movie version of the Christmas Shoes) or wanted to completely change the ending of the book (as in the movie version of My Sister's Keeper). That is reason enough to never ever become an author.
Wow, this blog has totally gone off on a tangent.
Back to Family Home Evening - the male members of the family felt that a trip to the local theater to view the blockbuster film "The Prince of Persia" would be a much better use of their valuable time tonight. While the movie turned out to be better than I had expected, my mind is now full of visions of a bishopric brotherhood waving magic daggers and defying death while jumping off of amazingly tall buildings accompanied by a scantily dressed young woman and a suicidal ostrich who drinks diet Coke and eats buttered popcorn. At least I finally have an idea to build on and I'm pretty sure if I run with it there won't be a third skit to write next year.

Today I am thankful for

bonding time with my youngest son.
air-conditioning.
cheaper family night movie tickets at Cinemark plus free popcorn.

Righty-Tighty, Lefty-Loosey

I have a room in my house that use to be my girl's bedroom. When they moved out I intended to turn it into a craft room, but they left behind some stuff that needed to be dealt with first. I started moving all my scrapbook, sewing, needlework projects into the room anyway and quickly it became the home of anything in the house that didn't have a spot. The piles just kept growing higher and higher. Every once in a while I would make an attempt to dig it out, but with little success.

Fast forward a few years and one of the daughters has returned home and would like a bed to sleep on (there were actually two somewhere in the room) and a space to call her own. I became determined to clean out and organize my mess and not just shove it all to one side in a massive mountain. I should be determined to box it up and give it away, but I'm not quite to that point yet. Anyway, I have been working on this never ending project for a while now and am slowly making progress. I am finally ready to start figuring out where to put things away.

Today I decided to use my carpentry skills and assemble the shelves and other storage items that I have collected with the hope of someday being organized. I grabbed my screwdriver and my hammer and went to work. Lots of righty-tighty and a little lefty-loosey, to fix a few missteps, and then some bang, bang, bang with the hammer. I ran into a snag when my 6 cube shelf, that was purchased for $5.00 from a thrift store, was missing the hardware, but I went online and found some assembly instructions and then headed to Lowes for a dowel and some screws.

Now all that's left to do is to determine where to put them in the room and decide which of my choice items will finally have a place to call home.

The grandson thinks all my stuff is pretty exciting. Here he is helping to sort stickers.

Grandma's house may have a lot of "stuff" but tonight it was lacking an extra pair of clothes and a clean diaper. I guess it's time to restock some of the really important items.

Today I am thankful for

online assembly instructions.
our neighborhood Lowes with helpful employees.
a teacher who taught me my ABCs - attach A to B with 2 CCs would make no sense at all if she hadn't.

Wordy Gratitude List

Today I am thankful for

a son who feels and follows promptings that help keep him safe. The youngest son was driving home from school after he had dropped a friend off. He usually goes out onto a main road from this house to travel home, but today he had a feeling that he should go a different way. As he was driving past our church the car started blowing really hot air and suddenly died so he coasted into the church parking lot, parked the car and assessed the situation. He couldn't get the car to start so he called me and I went and got him. A few days ago a woman's car stalled on the freeway and before she could get out of traffic she was rear ended, her car burst into flames and she was killed. The son was sure he would have ended up the same way if he had been on a busy road. I'm not sure that the situation was that dire, but I'm glad he acted upon his feelings and that all turned out well -for him at least. We're still not sure what is wrong with the car.
happy surprises at the grocery store. Today I went to Safeway to buy some groceries. Cheese was one of the items on my list because they had their 2 lb blocks on sale for $4.49. When I got to the dairy department some of the cheese had a .30 cent coupon on the package. I was happy because that made them even a better deal. When I checked out they quadrupled the coupon to $1.00. 2 lbs of cheese for $3.49. Happy day!
one woman who works really hard so a lot of women can have fun being crafty together. There is a sister in our ward who loves to make wooden crafts so she has taken it upon herself to plan a monthly Relief Society Craft project. She cuts all the wood herself and collects all the supplies for us so all we have to do is show up, pay our money (cost of materials only) and create. She is also very willing to accommodate all of the out-of-the ward daughters who want to come with their mothers. It is always a fun evening. Tonight we painted, papered and decorated letters to spell the word LOVE. The sister's husband came home toward the end of the evening and announced that he was going to tell all his buddies in the High Priest's Quorum on Sunday that a whole bunch of Relief Society women came to his house this week and made love.

If the Stake President hears about this our craft nights might be a thing of the past.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered - It's Done!

HURRAY! HURRAY! HURRAY!
Tonight in the "Rain Storm of the Century" the youngest son and I FINALLY delivered his COMPLETED Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project notebook to the person in charge.
IT IS DONE!
Now he has to present his project to the Board of Review on Tuesday night and when they approve it he will be FINISHED.
Let me say it again - HURRAY! HURRAY! HURRAY!

Today I am thankful for

a husband who can quickly change the color ink cartridge in the printer and knows how to burn CDs.a cooperative son (at least every once in a while).
a little sunshine on a rainy day.

I'm not sure that ASU red and gold are his colors, but he can definitely brighten up any moment.

Hootie Hider

A couple of months ago when the oldest daughter and I were on our baby sewing kick we were discussing making a breast feeding cover, more commonly known as a hootie hider. The youngest son thought this name was pretty entertaining and wanted to know what it was and what purpose it served. A few days later he found a burp cloth that we were working on and decided it must be a hootie hider. Here he is modeling it for us. Umm, not quite.

The daughter found a great hootie hider tutorial online and I decided I was smart enough to make one. The girl and I went in search of some material we liked for the project, but didn't really find anything she loved. There was one fabric that she thought might work at the first store we visited. It was cream, green and orange and had birds on it. Of course, we couldn't purchase it without checking out our other choices though and then when we decided we liked it best we didn't want to drive back to the first store. A couple of days later (while the daughter was "lounging" in the hospital) I went and bought the fabric. However, somewhere between the car and the front door of my house it disappeared. I think those birds just up and flew away because I have no idea where it ended up. I searched and searched for it and then after several days I decided the best way to make it reappear was to go buy more fabric. I went back to the store to buy another yard and while I was there I found this really cute retro astronaut baby material. I felt this theme was quite appropriate since the son-in-law grew up wanting to be an astronaut and so I bought it instead.
I held on tightly to the bag all the way from the car until I was in the house and then I quickly sewed it into an adorable hootie hider. The hubby thought it was quite entertaining that I kept walking back and forth from the instructions on the computer to the sewing machine. That was definitely the most challenging part of the project. I did have a little bit of trouble threading the boning into the casing but only because I sewed the casing a little to small. This was a really quick, easy project.
Here is the daughter and the grandson trying it out.
I wish I could say that it worked wonders and that the baby now is completely converted to the idea of nursing, but unfortunately that's not the case. He drank too many bottles in the hospital and knows that he shouldn't have to work that hard to get his meals. He can be pretty stubborn when he doesn't get what he wants as quickly as he wants it.

Oh well, the hootie hider still turned out great!

ABC Book of Advice for the New Mother

I decided it would be fun to make an advice book for the oldest daughter for people to write in at her baby shower. I wanted it to have an ABC theme since that was kind of the direction the shower was taking. I spent a while looking for paper and alphabet stickers that I liked for the pages and was really happy to find a book of paper by K and Company that had one sheet with the letters A through Z all with a baby theme. It was also 40% off at Michaels which made it even more attractive.

I cut the paper into letter squares and then my friends and I glued each letter to a pastel paper page that was cut 5 1/2 by 8 1/2. We made two covers using chipboard and paper from the paper stack that I bought. Then we bound it with a metal binding using a Zutter binder (owned by one of the friends). It took all 5 of us to figure out how to make the machine work.

I added a computer generated title and some ribbons on the binding. It was a super easy project (once I decided what paper to use). I think it turned out cute and the advice is really fun to read and hopefully will be helpful.

If any of you have some good advice you would like me to add just put it in a comment and I will write it in. We still have a lot of empty space on some letters.

Today I am grateful that

my husband doesn't stay home from work every day. Even though I like having him around I get more accomplished when he goes to work.

the oldest son was well enough to go to work today.

the oldest daughter came to dinner so the hubby and I didn't have to eat all the food by ourselves.

I have helpful friends with fun toys.

One year ago today - Canyon Colors, Eeewww! Gross!

The Pin Cushion

The oldest daughter and I have been working on a lot of sewing projects this week. I am not usually a very particular seamstress and I don't really believe in using pins (my fingers work just fine at holding things in place and I am better at removing my fingers from the path of the needle than I am at removing pins before I sew over them). I do happen to have a lot of unopened packages of pins though (since I can't resist a bargain). A few of the projects we have attempted have required the use of pins. I opened a package and pulled out the required number of pins, but then I didn't know what to do with the rest of the pins. I grabbed a Ziploc bag and dumped them all into it. When I pulled the pins out of the projects as I sewed I didn't want to stop and put them in the Ziploc so I would just lay them down on the table and then they would end up on the floor and then in some one's foot. After this happened a couple of times, I dug through a few drawers and came up with a heirloom pin cushion that I inherited from someone - I think my mom or my Aunt Ruby. When the son-in-law came to pick up the daughter he was bothered because some pins were in the pin cushion and some were in the Ziploc bag, where they could injure someone. He very nicely stuck all of the pins into the pin cushion for me.

As I have continued sewing today, I have spent some time pondering the origins of this obviously homemade pin cushion. It is constructed out of a metal film canister, painted white, and a knee high nylon, stuffed with a piece of cotton. At first I thought it was just a piece of the nylon, but on further inspection I discovered that it indeed the complete nylon.

There was no skimping on this creation. What I am curious about is who created this useful tool? Was it a Homemaking project for a group of frugal Relief Society sisters? A Cub Scout created gift for a mother? A requirement fulfilled for a Primary bandelo jewel? or perhaps a summer project for a bored child? I probably will never find out when or by whom this item was created, but it has been fun imagining all the possibilities.

Today I am thankful for

an inquisitive mind.
a daughter to be creative with.
no more drippy faucet in the front yard.

One year ago today - It's Official, Happy Pioneer Day!

Pillowcase Project

The oldest daughter and I have been frequenting a lot of fabric stores lately looking for cute fabric to make fun baby projects. Today the youngest son decided he was going to go to the cloth store with us. He decided a few days ago that he wanted to sew himself a pillow case and so he wanted to come and pick out some material. We looked and looked and looked at fabric for him - fabric with basketballs, skulls, phoenix suns logos, pirates, patriotic, tie-dyed - all sorts of fabric and finally he made his choice.

We came home and got busy at the sewing machine.

He was a little nervous that he was going to sew over his finger, but he managed to finish unscathed and he sewed it all himself.

The finished product.


Testing it out.

Do you think someone might be a little worried about losing his place as the baby of the family?
He says he'll give the pillowcase to Elmo (the grand baby) when he leaves to go on his mission in two years.
Today I'm grateful for

a son who's not afraid to be a kid.
laughter.
a mom who taught me how to sew.

One year ago today - The Sudoku sickness has spread.

Bishop's Night Skit

The other day I got a phone call from the bishop. He was working on the bishopric skit for bishop's night at girl's camp and wasn't having too much success. I guess he asked his wife for help and she suggested that he call me to see if I could be of assistance. Well, he called me and asked me to write a skit for them (his wife insists this isn't what she meant). Since I have always been told to say yes to the bishop, I said, "of course I would do that for you". The idea they had was the bishopric get together in 25 years and talk about what happened to members of the ward, specifically this group of young women. Along with the idea, they gave me a list of 5 things about each girl. The list was brief and pretty general ie. her favorite color is blue and she likes Rocky Road ice cream or extremely vague ie. she owns a peg-o-corn trophy. I think the least they could have done was ask what each girl wanted to be when she grew up to give me an idea of a direction to go. I ended up having one counselor be deaf and hear everything wrong and respond to what he thought he heard, the other counselor was blind but had a great memory and the bishop was senile and thought it was still 2009 instead of 25 years later. I am glad that this was a relatively small group of girls because it took me quite a while to come up with a future for each of them. It ended up being a lot of fun to put together though. One of the counselors called me after he had read through the completed project and told me that he felt I had missed my calling in life. I should have been a writer. I wanted to tell him that if I didn't have so many church callings (that he had personally called me to) I would have the time and energy to pursue my true life's calling, but I didn't. Actually, I am a writer. I write on my blog. I got a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts for my efforts. That might entice me to keep writing.

One Down!

If you are a reader of my blog, by now you probably know that I have been reading the Old Testament for awhile. One of my goals this year, before I turn 50, is to read all of the standard works. Well, I am happy to announce that I have finished - the Old Testament that is. All 1184 pages. Done!
Hooray for me!
Now if I could just remember and apply all the important things I read. Oh well, that's for my next visit with the Old Testament.
I asked my oldest son what he thought would be a good celebration for completing the entire Old Testament. He told me I should participate in some begatting - lots and lots of begatting. I was shocked. Hopefully my begatting years are behind me. Now, I know that Sarah was blessed to be able to conceive Isaac at a ripe, old age, but I don't need a baby in my old age. I need grown up children to take care of me and be a comfort to me. At least that's my plan.
Maybe to celebrate my accomplishment I will partake of some of those Bible wonder foods. Now if I could just remember what they are. I think maybe honey is one of them.
I now have just under 3 months to complete the rest of the standard works. The hubby and I are reading the Book of Mormon together every night, so I think that one is covered. I'm starting on the New Testament tomorrow so that sounds doable also. The trouble is with the Doctrine and Covenants. We are suppose to be reading it as a family, but we are not making too much progress. We decided to read it at dinner every night, but for some reason we don't seem to eat dinner together that often and when we do we usually have company or don't remember we are suppose to read. I may be in for an all night reading of the D&C on my birthday eve. Oh, and lest you be concerned about the Pearl of Great Price, I read it when I was reading Genesis because that is where it seems to fit in to me.

Today I am grateful for

a fun lunch outing with my friends.
libraries.
ancient prophets who wrote in their journals.

One year ago today - Glasses, Happy Hour(s)

Boy oh Boy!

Today was the big day!
The oldest daughter
and the son-in-law
went to the doctor
and found out the sex
of their baby.
Even though I voted
for a girl on her blog
I am excited to add
a little boy to our family.

The daughter brought this bib
in a yellow bag to announce
the big news.

I'm sure he'll be a very charming child.

I've already been informed
that we need to start working on
a little boy quilt.

Today I am thankful for

a friend who motivated me to clean out my freezer and a working air conditioner while I did it. (This needs a little explanation. My friend called me today to say that she was cleaning out her freezer and found two, unopened packages of cream puffs left over from my oldest daughter's wedding. She wanted them out of her freezer so she brought them to me. I didn't have room for them in my freezer and couldn't just throw them away, even though they have been around for a while, so I cleaned my refridgerator freezer to fit them in. This was a project that has needed done for a while now, so I was glad to get it completed. The reason my friend was cleaning her freezer was because her AC hasn't worked for 3 days and she was looking for a way to cool off. I personally would have just gone and checked into an air conditioned motel.)
new scout pants for the youngest son that I didn't have to pay for.
an ultrasound with only good things to show.

One year ago today - Summer Reading Program

Pink and Black Skull Quilt

My youngest daughter is a fan of the colors black and hot pink, especially together, as well as designs which include skulls, so when I saw this fabric, a couple of years ago, I knew I needed to buy it and make something for her.

I had wanted to make a rag quilt for quite awhile, ever since someone demonstated how to sew one in an enrichment meeting, and I decided this fabric would work well for this project. I couldn't just have one fabric however, so I bought a variety of other fuzzy materials and cut a bunch of squares. Each square had to have a skull block attatched to the back with a sewn criss-cross then the squares had to be put into rows and the rows finally combined into a lap quilt. Once all the blocks were sewn together, with the raw edges showing, those edges had to be clipped to make fringe. This fringe frays and curls when the quilt is washed and makes it look cute and fluffy.

I had no idea how long it would take to clip all those squares on all 4 sides. It took FOREVER. Then when that was done I realized I had no idea how to edge the quilt, so like so many of my projects, it got put away in a cupboard for quite awhile - maybe a couple of years.
When the daughter got accepted to BYU-Idaho I decided a warm, fuzzy, flannel quilt would be just the thing for her to take with her and I pulled the project out again. I just sewed a binding on, with the raw edge showing on the top, and did some more clipping, which went alot faster this time. Then I washed the quilt, to get the fluff, and ta-dum...
Unfinished project #2 - FINISHED and delivered.


Perhaps I'm on a roll here.

My Mother's Daughter

Every once in a while I see my mother in me.
I hear her voice in my head when I bake
and when I sew.
"All it needs now is a bow."
"Everything tastes better with a few nuts."
I see her influence in my finished projects.
Although I have no where near the skill
that she has for making quilts
when it was time to bind our Spring Break Quilt
I couldn't bring myself
to just fold the fabric over and sew it.
"It would look so much cuter with a nice binding."
That's how I ended up folding and sewing
lots of little white, pink and green points
around the edge.


In my defense, I already had most of the squares cut.
I do think it turned out cute.
Now we just have to wait
and see if the baby-to-be is a girl
or if the quilt gets put away again for a while
even though it's finally truly and completely DONE!

Today I am thankful for

sons (one leader, one participant) who happily go to their young men activities.
a daughter who gave her brother a ride home from school for me.
only one 100+ degree day this week.

Cherry Chip Cake with Cherry Frosting

My oldest son was very sad that he didn't have a birthday cake yesterday with candles to blow out. Since I am a nice mother I decided to make him one today. Better late than never I always say. This son's favorite kind of cake is Betty Crocker Cherry Chip cake with Cherry Frosting and it is what he has requested at least his last 10 birthdays. I am also a fan of this combination, but every time I make his birthday cake I think "this cake certainly doesn't look very masculine." I have attempted coloring the frosting a different color on occasion, but then it just usually ends up looking gross, not masculine. Today I decided to just go with the pink look and not care. However, I thought a 9 x 13 cake was kind of boring. When the girls and I took the cake decorating class I'm pretty sure I bought 2 round cake pans, but of course I couldn't find them today. I did find some small round pans that my friend had given us for Christmas one year to make individual pizza cookies though. I decided I could make a tall, small round cake. The cake ended up being 5 layers tall. It would have been fine, but I didn't have enough frosting to put it together so I decided to put some pudding in between the layers. I didn't feel like leveling the layers since that seems like a waste of good cake to me, so the cake was a little precarious. The pudding was too slick to hold the layers in place and ran out the sides and mixed with the frosting and that made the frosting too runny to stay on the cake as well. The cake ended up resembling a pink volcano in a pool of lava.
The oldest son, however, was happy that he had candles to blow out and the cake tasted a lot better than it looked.

Also, in the dark you can't even tell the cake is pink. I'd say it was a success!

Today I am grateful

that I don't have to make a living selling cakes.
that my oldest son is easily pleased.
for birds that collect spiderwebs from my window sills to pad their nests. It makes me feel like I am helping a fellow mother rather than just feel lazy for not cleaning the windows.
for a surprise phone call from my mom and sister.

Tying it Together

The oldest daughter and I decided to continue to be ambitious during her Spring Break so we borrowed some quilting frames and tied the quilt that we finished Tuesday.

We didn't want to just work during her "vacation" however, so the other daughter and the roommate-girlfriend came over and we went to lunch together.


I chose to take them to Iguana Mack's.

A fun restaurant that my visiting teachee introduced me to that has a reasonably priced lunch menu and some really funky interior decor.


We had a lot of fun. The youngest daughter enjoyed taking lots of random photos and the oldest daughter got to drink rootbeer "shot right out of the gun".

It's nice to have a quiet day and take time to smell the "roses".


Today, while we still had the quilting frames we put together some other fabric I had lying around and tied another baby quilt.


This one was to appease the baby if he's a boy. Plus it has little airplanes on it in honor of the son-in-law.




Now we just have to get them bound and they are done!

The Evolution of a Quilt

Way back a long time ago
when the eldest daughter
was still living in Flagstaff
and attending NAU
she was in the JoAnn's Fabric store one day,
saw a quilt book full of baby quilts
and decided she wanted to make one.
She chose her favorite quilt
called Rainbow Sherbet

and purchased the book,
a variety of colored fat quarters,
a fabric cutter,
a ruler and a cutting mat.
Then she wasn't quite sure
what to do next
so she put all her purchases
away for a while.

Still a long time ago
the daughter moved back home
and one boring summer day
she decided to get out her quilt making supplies
and see if she and I could figure out how to proceed.
We cut all the colored fat quarters
into little squares


with the help of the fabric cutter,
the ruler and the cutting mat.

Then following the pattern in the book
we put all the little squares
into their proper positions
on the floor and stepped back.
We both really hated what we saw.
The squares didn't seem to blend together nicely
like they did in the picture in the book.
They all seemed to be fighting with each other.
We decided perhaps if we found a nice fabric
to go around the edge
it would tie all the blocks together
and we would like it better
so off we went to the JoAnn's Fabric store
to purchase a rainbow print for the border.
We looked and looked and looked
and couldn't find anything that we liked
to finish the ugly quilt.
We came home with this instead.


We took the green squares from the original quilt
and added them to some new pink squares
and white print squares
and some larger frog squares.
We really liked this quilt a lot better!
We sewed and sewed and sewed
little squares together to make bigger squares
and then sewed and sewed and sewed
the squares together to make rows.
As we added squares to rows
we discovered that we were short
one dark green square
that we needed to finish the quilt.
One silly little square.
So we put the quilt away again for awhile.
For weeks and months and years
we searched every JoAnn's Fabric store we visited
in Arizona,
in California,
in Utah,
for a green fat quarter that matched
the missing piece.

Fast forward to today.
The daughter is actually expecting a baby,
is on Spring Break,
and feeling crafty.
We pull the quilt out of the closet
once again.
We look at it and decide if we rearrange
a few squares here and there
we don't need that one little square of green fabric.
We unpick,
we rearrange,
we sew,


we unpick,
we rearrange,
we sew.


We even do some ironing in there
and TA-DAH...


We have a quilt top all sewn together
and it only took 5 years.