Birthdays and other Fun Stuff

Today is my oldest daughter's birthday.

She's 22 years young today. Seriously, I can't get over the fact she's only 22, because she's left home, gone to college, met her sweetheart, married and has 1 baby girl with another baby on the way. All in the short space of 22 years. Well, anyway, Happy Birthday, Jessie! I hope you have a good one today. I love you!

Today has started out as being pretty productive. It's only 9:30 in the morning, but I've gotten all of this done, so far.

An apron for January,

these bibs, for when Evie gets here later this week, (these bibs are back to back of each other.)

these bibs, also for Evie to use, (and any other, future grandbabies who visit my house),

matching Christmas pillowcases for my sweetie and me to use next year,

and I also sewed these bibs a couple of weeks ago. Evie will probably use them, too.

Yes, my girls will be here Saturday, and I'm excited to kiss and hug them both. It's been 7 months since we've seen them, and we know that Evie has grown and changed lots in that amount of time. I can't wait to snuggle and hug that little, tiny girl.

Here's a recent pic of her, though. Taken just last weekend...

showing off her four pearly whites and helping her mommy make their big announcement.

Fun times ahead!

Later today I'll cut out and sew a bathrobe for my sweetie to take to the hospital for his surgery. Pix of that later.

So Much Going On These Days

Yesterday was Christmas, and it was an absolutely lovely day. We rolled out of bed about 6:30 am and attacked the piles of goodies in and around the stockings. Santa was generous, as always. The kids and I got some lovely things, and we'll look forward to using them in the very near future--some of them are already well used and appreciated. Scott hasn't taken off the new headphones yet, and Hailey is looking forward to using her new DVD player. I have 1 more week before I can hang my new calendar, and the songbook will be fun to enjoy. All the smaller gifts and doo-dads have been oohed and ahhhed over and will be tucked away to use by this afternoon. I want to reclaim the living room, at least the seating portions. We are still anticipating our family Christmas gift exchange, so we still have our brightly lit Christmas tree with piles of presents beneath it. We still have our lights outside, until Tad, Jessie and Evie arrive. We'll have our family Christmas on January 4, so there is still excitement and anticipation.

After church yesterday, we drove down to Mom & Dad's, and had Christmas dinner with them. Lots of yummy food, mmmmm. Ham, baked potatoes, rolls, veggie plate, green bean casserole, acine di pepe salad, mmmmm. After dinner we talked and visited until Cheryl and her family arrived. We had a general gift exchange, and everyone seemed to appreciate what was given. Lovely things all around.

I remember, when I was a very small child, asking my mother what there was between Christmas and New Year's. She told me, "Nothing". Well, that's not the case for me now, as an adult. Now that Christmas is behind us, we have lots of busy days ahead. Life still goes on, even through the holidays, so there is house cleaning to do, cooking and menu plans to make, library books to return, basic shopping to do, sewing projects to start and finish. It feels a little like being in limbo, but with plenty to do to keep us occupied. I need to sew a bathrobe for Tad to take to the hospital, bibs for Evie to use while she's here, an apron for January. I've figured out sleeping arrangements for while Laura, Jessie and Evie are here, planned lunches and dinners to make sure everyone is fed, and I want to glean out some of our excess holiday decor. We've got WAAAYY more decor than we can actually use, and there's no point in keeping what we really don't need. That'll happen gradually over the next week, so that when we finally take down all the lights and decor on January 5, we won't have to store needless items.

We have a very nice family event which will be occurring on January 8. My sweetie will be receiving a priesthood advancement that day, to the office of High Priest. We will have family coming into town, and a family dinner planned for after church. That afternoon, we'll take Jessie and Evie to the airport, and then early, EARLY the next morning, January 9, Tad and I will drive to SLC to begin his preop tests and screenings for his surgery, which will take place January 10. He will have a 4-6 day hospital stay, and then will return home for a 6 week recovery. It is my understanding that the hospital offers rooming-in, so I'm planning to stay with him. That's a big thing, mentally and emotionally, so there is much planning to do, in conjunction with staying there with him. We're looking forward to this, though, because, as far as we understand, it will be the end of Tad's illness. It will be a long process, but will be the end. That is such a relief to us, both mentally and physically and emotionally. This has been a rough ride and we're looking forward to the end of it.

We have also received some other, very joyous news over the last few days and weeks. Our dear daughter and son in law have given us the happy news that we are going to be grands again, in July. We are very excited about this. Also, my dear little sister called yesterday with the news that her sweetie surprised her with a lovely diamond ring for Christmas, and they are engaged. That is so exciting, too. So many positive things to look forward to in the next year. By next Christmas there will be at least 2 new members of our extended family. Also, my next youngest sister has given us the delightful news that she and her husband and daughter are moving from Las Cruces, NM back home to Idaho. They will be moving in with our parents, to help take care of the place, and the parents. This causes much happiness and rejoicing. That puts 3 of us sisters within 15 miles of each other. Lots of opportunities for sister togetherness. We're already scheming about how to get little sister and her new husband closer to home, too.

So much good news, so much to look forward to, we are definitely feeling very blessed and watched over by a loving Father.

So Close

Christmas is three days away. I know, right? Today is a day when there is much that can be done, but nothing HAS to be done. We will probably spend today reading books, making cookies, doing a little house cleaning, spending time together. It'll be good. I love that Hailey and Scott are home right now, and that Jessie will be here next weekend, baby Evie in tow. My sweetie is out on rotation, but he will be here next week, too, so when we are all together next week, we will ALL be together. (We will be missing our wonderful son in law, Todd, but he'll be here in spirit.) As a result of this togetherness and apartness, I will be celebrating a small, quiet Christmas with my 2 kids, then my wonderful parents have invited us over for Christmas dinner after we all get home from church. It will be a fun time, and I have a feeling that my sister and her family will also be joining us later in the afternoon. We will  have our big, Christmas blowout when Tad, Jessie and Evie are here. It'll be a big, long, extended celebration. It'll be wonderful.

I'm so grateful to a loving Father in Heaven for his many gifts to us. We are so blessed, in so many ways. Words seem so inadequate to express how I feel, but I am truly grateful for the gifts He's given me: a sweet husband who loves me, 3 wonderful children and son in law, good health for me and mine, food in our cupboards and pantries, a home which shelters us from the storms of weather and the world around us, modern conveniences, the knowledge of the truth of his Gospel and my testimony of it, friends and family, and so many more blessings.

I'm most grateful of all for the gift of His son, Jesus Christ, and for His atoning sacrifice for me. I'm thankful to have an opportunity to think on Him and what he has done for me.

"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

Answers

Tad and I drove to SLC last week for an appointment with a specialist. We didn't get all of our questions answered, but after getting some of them answered, the other questions became irrelevant. We found out that Tad's illness isn't what we thought it was, and the outlook is much more positive. That doesn't mean that he's not still a very sick man, but he can, and will, get well. We've got a scheduled surgery date and a recovery window, so fear and trepidation have been replaced by hope and optimism.

We also celebrated 23 years of marriage over the weekend, and even though it was a busy week and weekend, we carved out some together time. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse, and saw a movie together. It's been a fun ride, and I'm looking forward to an eternity more with my sweetheart.

Fun

After a rough start this morning, today has ended up being a pretty good day. I've spent some time with my son, run a couple of errands, ironed my quilt tops in preparation for finishing them tomorrow, and made a couple of bow ties. I know that sounds funny, but true. There is a gentleman named Virgil in our ward, who is of the grandfatherly sort. He often wears bow ties to church. He put the word out last week that yesterday was to be "Bow Tie Sunday". If you have a bow tie, wear it. If you can find, borrow, steal, rent or otherwise acquire a bow tie, wear it. Scott wanted to join the fun, but didn't have a bow tie, so I told him to borrow one from Ben, one of our friends in the ward. He talked to Ben at the ward dinner Saturday night, and asked if he had one to borrow. Ben showed up to church yesterday with a bow tie he'd sewn for Scott, to keep. Well, this started to snowball, and probably half the young men in the ward wore a bow tie to church yesterday, and several of the men had one, too. Once we got home from church yesterday, Scott started thinking about how fun it would be to have more than one bow tie. I looked through my meager fabric scrap stash, and found some Christmas print fabric. Scott decided he wanted a Christmas bow tie, just to be seasonal. He picked another fabric scrap and put it into the "to do" pile. After that, he thought that maybe one or two "silky" ties might be nice. We put that onto our "errands to run" list today, and went to JoAnn to buy a little fabric.
Today, after running errands, I took the bow tie Ben had made, traced a pattern and cut out the Christmas print fabric. Come to find out, those silly things are ridiculously easy, and quick. I can make one in about 5 minutes. It takes longer to tie them than to sew them. After Ben showed us how to tie Scott's at church, we came home to practice. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. I talked to Tad this afternoon, and he thought it might be fun to have a Christmas bow tie, too. Done!

This lavender tie is the one Ben sewed for Scott.


This gingerbread man print is Scott's Christmas tie.


This jingle bell print is Tad's Christmas Tie.


This is the pattern I drafted from Ben's original.


I have gotten a couple other projects done, too. I made a soft fabric book for Evie that matches the fabric I used for her nursery. She'll like it. Tiny little girls like this kind of thing for Christmas, especially when they are going to turn 9 months old next week. I can't wait to kiss that tiny girl. The girls are coming home for Christmas. I can't wait.

My Eyes Used to Be Blue, Now They're Checked

(It's really hard to take your own picture.)

These are my new glasses. *Sigh* I now have old eyes. They've started to balk when I need to read or look at things really close up. Mid- and long-range has still been fine. I've been putting off the visit to the eye doctor, because I knew what he was going to tell me. He told me on my last visit, I just delayed the inevitable. This time, though, I knew I was going to have to order the progressive lenses.

I got them in the week before Thanksgiving. I knew there would be adjustments, and I was prepared for that. I WASN'T prepared for being afraid to drive, being afraid of big places (like church and  Walmart, for examples), and for not being able to read the clocks on my walls, or street signs. That didn't feel right. I muddled through for a week, but the week after Thanksgiving, I took them back and asked them to make the upper part to my previous Rx. The finished product came back yesterday. It's still going to be an adjustment, I have to take it on faith that my feet are down there somewhere, but I do think they're better. I can see leaves on trees again, read street signs before I drive past, and I can read the clocks on my walls. I can also read my magazines and scriptures. Yay!

I haven't driven in them yet, so if you see me coming, get off the sidewalks!

Busy Day

This will be a super short blog posting, because I have lots to do today. My VT are coming at 9:30, I'll be talking on the phone with Jessie at 10:00, making rolls for my VT sisters about 11:00 ish, running Scott out to the job fair about 12:00 ish, finishing rolls after that, and then going VT at 2:00. Once Hailey gets home from school, we're going to run out and do a tiny bit of Christmas shopping, then come home, have dinner and get ready to watch Criminal Minds. Busy days are good days. I love a good, positive energy flow. I just hope I have a chance to eat somewhere in there. :)

Redesign

Yes, this is still my blog. I needed a change. The previous color scheme was based on the decor of my scrapbook room, but Blogger doesn't have my patterned paper in it's design schemes, and without them, I've always thought my blog looked like a Minnie Mouse wannabe. I love Minnie Mouse. I just don't want to look like her. So, we'll try this for a while, and if I decide I can't stand it, well, Blogger has other templates I can try. *Roll eyes here, and I'll try to roll them back at you*

Christmas Devotional

Tonight was the annual 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional, and the salve to my soul. I've been blessed in the last several days to have felt more at peace. Attending church today was a blessing, in every way. We still don't have answers, but we have appointments scheduled for next week with specialists who will hopefully give us a complete diagnosis, and then treatment options. The hardest part of Tad's illness so far has been the lack of answers and information. It comes down to the fear of the unknown. Knowledge is power. I have to keep reminding myself to have more faith than fear. Sometimes faith wins by a whisker, but it still wins. We have been very blessed throughout this whole situation, and we know that a loving Father knows and sees all, and we just need to have faith in Him to get us through this trial. He knows how things will end, and we have been blessed to know that they will end well. Attending tonight's Christmas Devotional was just another reminder of our Father's love for us. The talks were inspiring and uplifting, and provided a much-needed infusion of the Christmas Spirit. Tomorrow we will put up our Christmas Tree, and it will be lovely, as usual. Thank goodness for family and traditions.

Not Having a Good Time

My sweetie is sick. Very Sick. We just found out last week, and it's thrown us for a huge loop. It's kinda taken the shine off things for a while. It takes the joy out of things like blogging, pinning, crafting, planning for the holidays, shopping, reading, cooking, anything but holding him and kissing him. Just thinking about how sick he is is like a kick to the stomach every time. I'm having serious thoughts about closing down the blog, but will leave it hanging for a little while longer. If I actually have the mental and emotional strength to do anything in the way of Crafty Genius, I'll post, but if not, then the postings may be few and far between for a while.

Pray for us.

Bright & Cheerful

I received these potholders

a couple of years ago for Christmas from a really nice person who has never seen the inside of my kitchen. I've used them every day since she gave them to me, but I've never liked them. It was sweet of her to think of me, but I decided that I needed a change. I bought a skein of this yarn

by Red Heart, in the Bikini colorway, which matches my kitchen decor pretty closely. I spend a couple of evenings in front of the TV (watching Criminal Minds), crocheting these.

I don't care if I'm only using them to pull hot dishes out of the microwave, I like them so much better. My eyes gave a huge sigh of relief, even they are screaming bright.

Here is the autumn wreath I mentioned in yesterday's post, all finished.



I wrapped the yarn around the foam tube while I watched Criminal Minds, then cut the yarn flowers during the rest of Criminal Minds and CSI. I hot-glued the flowers together this morning and then assembled the wreath. Probably 2-3 hours, total, most of it in front of the TV. Thank goodness for Criminal Minds, or I might not get as much crafting done. :)

PS-The flower centers are colored brads hot-glued into the flowers. Buttons were, for the most part, too large for the flowers.

Disclaimer

It's not my fault.

I haven't blogged much lately, and it's not my fault. Blame it on my sister. Yeah, that's it. My sister. The one who sent me this facebook post, "Annette, get on Pinterest. Lou and I are very curious to see what you would pin". Well, I did get on Pinterest. I haven't done anything else, since. No dishes, very little cooking, no cleaning. I'm weak. I have no self-control. I've known that about myself for a long time. That's why I have so many collections. I see something (or things) that I want, I have to have them. I can't stop until I do. It's the same with pin boards. I have several. I want to keep adding to them, so I scour the internet and Pinterest boards, finding things that I want to make. (In self defense, I have actually made some of the things I've seen on pin boards.) Today's project posting is a pin project that I found last week. Here's the link to the tutorial. http://violetpaperwings.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-yarn-wreath.html

I've seen these felt flowers on lots of internet projects, but this is the best tutorial I've found on how to actually make them.

I made this wreath using plumbing foam from Home Depot ($.97 for a 6' length), which I cut in half. One half of the length makes a 12"-ish wreath. I hot glued the ends together, holding them until the glue cooled COMPLETELY. You can't even see the join, once the glue has cooled.



I wrapped the wreath form with this yarn: "Hometown USA" by Lion Brand Yarns. I tried regular yarn, but it wasn't chunky enough for my taste. I wanted chunky yarn, so it would fill in faster, and give a little more bulk to the wreath itself.

Then I cut various sized felt circles from red and cranberry colored felt squares. Probably 3", 4" and 5 or 6" circles. I cut a spiral in each felt circle, then wrapped the spiral, starting on the outer edge. Really, it's best to follow the tutorial in the link above.

When I finished wrapping felt flowers, I cut some leaves from sage felt, hot-glued them on the wreath form, hot-glued the flowers over the leaves, and then hot glued bead picks into the flower centers.

I think the wreath needs a big red bow, but I don't have the correct ribbon in my stash, so I'll get either a ribbon or a bow and then tie it onto the wreath.

The whole wreath cost less than $5.00, and I have plans to make one using autumn colored felt squares with buttons for the flower centers.

Notebook

I'm posting today because if I don't write something in a hurry, my sister, Jen, is going to revoke my rights to the title of this blog. :)

Last year for Christmas, Santa brought me this little binding machine. It's a Zutter and I had big plans for this little thing. I really like it, but I realized that I can only use so many blank books.
















Um, yes. All blank.
















I finally thought of a real use for a hand-made book. I made this the other day.





















I cut the covers from the cardboard out of the back of a picture frame, covered the front with paper that I love (Splendor by BoBunny) and cut cream cardstock to the size of 5"x8" index cards. I've bound both the cream cardstock and the index cards inside the book. That way I can use it both horizontally and vertically.
















I'm going to put this with my scriptures, and when I come across a scripture reference that really speaks to me, I'm going to copy it out and also the thoughts and inspirations I get from it. I'm also going to copy favorite quotes that inspire me. If I had any, ANY talents whatsoever in the sketching/doodling department, I'd do that, too, but I don't. I don't want to make this an art book, anyway. It's really going to just be a book of inspirations. I wrote this first page during church this morning. Also, during Sunday School, I found a lot more I want to use. I really loved the lesson and the plethora of inspirations in it.

HOME

I know I've mentioned on several occasions the little "Cut It Out" shop in town. I've purchased several word sets there, always, until now, for a special holiday or season. This last time I wanted to get something a little more permanent, so I ordered these. Sorry I don't have work-in-progress pictures, but the process is always the same-stain, pick out paper, trace, cut & trim, and embellish. In the past I've used big, cutesy buttons and trims, because seasonal items are meant to be that way. Since this is going to be on permanent display, though, I wanted nicer embellishments. I scoured the craft stores and departments and this is what I came up with for this set of HOME.

Paper is Samantha Walker for Creative Imaginations, which I purchased a couple of years ago, and the embellies are BoBunny, BGM Mercantile, Ribbon Trends, Silk Vision, Sierra Pacific, Cousin and various other things I found in my craft room.

Update

Greetings, October! Yes, I know we're halfway through the month, but that's ok. I was off the grid last week. I had carpets cleaned last week, carpets in the living room, little family room (soon to be Scott's room again), my scrapbook room and the hallway. That meant taking everything off the floor and putting it somewhere else--everything but the piano, sofa and love seat. EVERYTHING else went, out of 4 rooms. So my scrapbook room/office/playroom was also dismantled, and my computer was on the shelf, waiting for carpets to dry. After spending 4 days with the dining room full of stuff from the other parts of the house, and eating standing up at the bar, I realized that the SB room was not the biggest or most important priority. So I've spent this morning putting things back together. The living room is done, Scott's room is completely empty (we even took the computer out of there, because it is my firm belief that computers do not need to be in anyone's bedroom), and my SB room is 98% back together.

We are shuffling a bit, because after talking with Scott last week, we invited him to move back home, and he's thinking seriously that moving back would be the best thing. It'll enable him to find a job here, (hopefully) and start saving some money. Consequently, we'll be putting a bed and a dresser in there, which means we've moved the entertainment center back downstairs, into the cold family room. We're thinking this will all be a temporary situation, until Scott goes on his mission next year. Then we can reclaim his room and make it our little family room/computer room again.

The following pictures are in response to the blog entry I wrote, http://craftygenius.blogspot.com/2011/06/getting-busy.html about the ways I wanted to clean and reorganize my scrapbook room.

This is my cleaned-up sewing area, which wasn't ever really bad, unless I was in the middle of a sewing project.

This is a close-up of the cute hutch above my sewing table, showing off part of my monogram collection.

My computer table and the overhead shelves, which I love. I love that I can store supplies, as well as display pictures and more of my monogram collection.

The computer desk and overhead shelves switched places with this the wall of cube storage, which I also love. This, as well as the buckets and jars in the next photo, stores all of my scrapbook paper, embellishments, tools and everything which I need to papercraft in any way. The shelf above also holds more precious photos, and more monograms.

The buckets and jars hold my ribbons, silk flowers and large buttons.

This is my much nicer and better organized craft storage closet. (See the cute, polka-dot apron peeking out from behind the door?) In the pre-organized post, these drawers showed the mess of everything inside them, and I lamented the visual clutter. I printed the drawer contents onto sheets of yellow cardstock and stuck them into the fronts of these drawers,

these little bin drawers, 



and these drawer stackers. Now I know what's inside the drawers without having to SEE what's inside.

 

This is my scrapbook work table. It faces the wall of cube storage, with everything in easy reach. The windows have an eastern exposure, so I get the morning sun, which brightens my day.

another shot of the scrapbook work table, and the boxes holding photos, cards and card blanks.

Here's a close-up of the labeled drawer stacks in the craft closet. This is so much nicer! 

This is the cute monogram my cute sister Tamara made for my birthday, and the sign I made to display it. This hangs on the door to the scrapbook room, which is always open (unless I'm wrapping Christmas or birthday presents). I know I already blogged this, but now it is in context.

Because Scott is going to need his room and his closet, I put the family computer in my SB room, where the white bookshelf was, right next to the door. Taking the white bookshelf away necessitated transfering a few things to my overhead shelves. Most of the other things went right back to their assigned spots.

This is a close-up of my magnet board, which hangs next to the door, above the family computer desk. More pictures of people I love, more monograms. In the picture of the computer, I haven't put the things back onto the magnet board.

This has been lots of work, but also lots of fun. This room makes me so happy, I spend hours in it every day, blogging, paying bills, playing games, crafting, scrapbooking, listening to music, planning menus & shopping lists. It's my little world, and I love it. I love that it's clean and organized.

Happy Birthday and other Random stuff

I wanted to post  yesterday, in commemoration of my son's and my sister's birthday, but I've been having a love/hate relationship with our internet the last week, and yesterday was definitely hate. I won't get into details, but suffice it to say that our internet seems to be possessed of body snatchers, and isn't as wonderfully consistent as it should be.

So, Happy Birthday yesterday to my wonderful son, Scott,

and my dear sister, Jennifer. Scott is 19 years old, and living (sometimes) happily away from home. Jen is ageless. and beautiful. Happy Birthday, I love you both! (The day Scott was born, I called Jen and told her that her birthday gift that year was a nephew. She was thrilled--they love sharing a birthday, and usually check in with each other to exchange birthday greetings.)

Tad returned to work EARLY Tuesday morning. Actually, returned isn't really the correct term. He has been in training for the last three months, and yesterday he arrived at the real jobsite for the first time. There will be a day or two of inprocessing and orientation, commentary drives and shop work, while he waits to find out which crew he'll be assigned to, and how the rotation works. This is, finally, real life.

We had a delightful time while Tad was home for the last week. We bought a new set of living room furniture, which I blogged a couple of days back, a new set of tires for the truck, set up the new computer, picked up an order of fresh peaches which took a week to ripen, ate dinner out a couple of times, replaced the starter in the truck, shopped for cold weather clothing for Tad, canned and froze the aforementioned  peaches, (12 pints of canned peaches, 14 bags of frozen peaches and 8 jars of freezer jam)

and hung out at a couple of craft stores in town. He was in town long enough to attend church twice, and we had 2 real date nights. It's the longest he's been home since he started training, so we got to spend lots of time together. It was hard to let  him go yesterday (Early wake times notwithstanding). Now that he's at the real job with the real shift rotation, we can start planning home times and away times.

As is typical when he returns to work, I spent yesterday catching up on little chores around the house, and did a little crafting. I sewed 2 aprons yesterday,

(autumn/Thanksgiving and Halloween--The red dotted one is one I made a couple of weeks ago, I think I mentioned it, but didn't have a picture--it's my crafty apron) and organized my seasonal decor, since this month is the time I start pulling things out to decorate. There is still more to do, but I have nothing but time.

My sister, Tamara, made this cute, little decorated "A" for my birthday last month, and I knew I wanted to display it, so I made this little scrapbook door sign.