Christmas Garland

As some of you may know my parents were here for a few days after Thanksgiving. They arrived on Saturday and left on Wednesday. We had fun and the kids loved that Grandma and Grandpa were having a "sleep over". While they were here we tried to cram a whole lot of things into one weekend. My Mom and I set up all the Christmas decorations that I had, which isn't many. She came up with some really good ideas. I called her a Decorating Genius! She helped me put up some garland. I've always wanted to put some up but it never turned out very well and so it never stayed up. But she had no problems. We also went to Michaels and got some supplies for a garland for around the door. (Again I've always wanted but nails are hard to get into stucco, and once its in it falls out.) But we managed to get some in there and it looks great. Here it is.


We Found some garland that was on sale at 50% and we bought 2 so it was only ten dollars for that and then we got 2 berry garlands which were on sale also at 50% so they were 10 dollars for 2. Then we weaved them together with wire and added this great bow and Wallah! I wish I would have payed attention to what she was doing when she made the bow. Cause it was like 2 seconds and it was done. Must have come from all those floral arrangements she made when I was younger.

Thanks for helping me out Mom! I love it and I get a lot of compliments about it.

Dream Room!

While we were in Arizona we got to see Bro P.K. He was a member of the Bishopric of Big J's singles ward when he was baptized, and helped pay for most of Big J's mission. It was fun to see them and after having visited them I totally know exactly what my dream craft/sewing room would look like. You should have seen it.... one wall had a built in case with fabric neatly stacked and color coordinated, while on the next wall was a rack with just about every thread color imaginable! All color coordinated as well. A serger, a sewing machine, wall to wall tables, and a supply closet probably stocked with everything one could ever need to craft anything! I wish I had had a camera. I'm sure that my mouth was on the floor in shock! I would probably never come out of a room like that. I told Big J that's what I wanted and they all laughed.... I was totally serious..... Just imagine how many crafts one could do with a room like that! AMAZING!

Thanksgiving Update.

So our trip to AZ was so fun! It didn't feel like we were on vacation there. Its hard to explain. But we felt totally at home. I realized how much I missed driving on the freeways. Crazy I know but when there aren't at a stand still they are so fast and convenient. And in Phoenix they set up the city so nice that its hard to get lost.

Mossy and Mossy Wife were fun to hang out with. After the invasion of ticks they had the first night it was cool. (I wasn't too worried about them) Mossy Wife and I had a lot of fun crafting and decorating their house and Christmas Tree. I had made her 2 things to hang on her wall, which I will blog about next, and then we used this idea and made her some Christmas ones. It was fun.

Turkey day was fun too. We spent all day getting things ready and then we went to put the turkey in. You would have thought that 4 days in the fridge defrosting that everything would be Okay. But no. Turkey was still frozen! So what do you do 4 hrs to the biggest meal of the year? You send your hubbies out to the store to look for a defrosted turkey! We were lucky that they did end up finding some but all they had were GIANT ones! So they came back with a 21 lb. turkey. And can I just say that while cleaning it, all I could think was that the turkey looked a lot like the one that Joey got stuck on his head in a Friends episode! HE HE HE! Anyway, so we had our turkey and the only bad part now was that my bro had planned for us to have dinner at the same time as the rest of the family that were in Portland. We had everything set up with the web cams. The only problem was our turkey would be late. To make a long story short, We let the Oregon people eat and waited for our turkey. Only it was taking so long that we decided just to eat and have no turkey. So even though our turkey wasnt done it was still yummy. And we did get to eat it for left overs. Mossy wife and Mossy now had cooked 2 turkeys and had TONS of left overs! I'm glad it wasnt at my house. I don't need all that turkey laying around.

We had a good time and hated leaving. We hope to go back soon. Thanks Mossy and Mossy wife for letting us crash at your place. I learned at least one thing while there. I learned that you should ALWAYS check your turkey the night before just in case you need to put it in the sink to thaw!

Vacation!!!

I am so excited to be going on Vacation. Not only do we get to go to Arizona and see family but we only have to drive for 7-8 hours instead of 22! I am so excited to go and hopefully I will be able to help my "New Sister" with some ideas for her house. I made them something for it already and I hope that they like it. Can't say what it is now cause then they will see so I will blog about it after I give it to them.

We haven't been to AZ for 6 years so it will be fun. Big J is already wanting to go and see all out old fiends from there. I'm more low key and probably wouldn't just call them up. If we crossed paths then cool but I'm not one to call someone up out of the blue and get together. I'm not sure why. Maybe I just don't like the awkwardness of it. And its probably only awkward in my head. I'm sure that with some it wouldn't be. Thats why I'm always kinda bummed when I think about moving. I wish that all of our friends could move with us. Even when friends move, I always think that it would be cool if we could all move with them. I know. I'm crazy. But oh well.

Made by Mom

As most of you know my mother is a Great Artist! She is one who has talent with a lot of different mediums. I received only a smidgen of her many talents. I remember as a child we were surrounded by silk flowers and plants because she used to make and sell flower arrangements. I think that even back then she would make fake plants and trees for offices. I remember going to the dentist and thinking I was a little cool cause "My mom was the one that made that tree" I even think that she would trade them for Dentist appointments and things, but I'm not certain.

Another talent of hers was sewing. She would often be sewing when I was little, making dresses and even swimsuits. I remember one time she made a wedding dress for someone. The bride was always coming over to try the dress on and I always thought that it was cool that she was good enough to have someone want her to make their wedding dress.

She is also a very very good cook. We always had friends hanging around until dinner cause it was always something yummy. My Best Friend even now when I am home for Vacation will call after work and I will invite her to dinner and she always accepts.

Among others she is talented in Drawing and Painting. She Illustrated a children's book and she is very good at Watercolor. Lately she has been dabbling into other things like oils and acrylic. She sells her paintings in Sassafras, a little boutique in Montana and in various art fairs. She has recently started to sell them online and one day she will have a fabulous web site. But for now she is selling them on her new Etsy site. She has originals and prints of some of her paintings on there. They very in size and price. She also sells greeting cards made from her paintings. So go check it out!

I am grateful to have grown up in a home with a mother who was crafty. So that now I can craft and create things for my children and friends. Sometimes its cheaper and sometimes its not but, its always fun! So for all of the crafting and sewing and art that I create it is all because of her.

The Classics!

It would be so cool to live in this time! Although I would have to live in the movies. One of my favorite types of movies are 1940's - 1950's Black and white Dance/Musicals. I always loved the romance and the dresses the women got to wear. Things were so innocent in the movies back then. No violence just plain romance(and dancing and singing of course!)

You Belong in 1959

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Formula Crafts

So as I said earlier, I am obsessed with crafting lately. There are too many to do! And most of them need to be done by Christmas. I have been saving all my Baby food jars and had some formula cans that I kept. Why I keep them all I don't know, I just figured it was a waste to throw them away when there is probably a craft I could use them for. Big J thinks that I am crazy I'm sure. If you open our cupboards you will see mostly baby food jars. Which is not good cause I have absolutely no room for them! Anyway.... I decided that today I would figure out what I would do with them. After searching on the Internet and finding a few ideas I came up with these....
These are made from the Formula cans, wrapping paper, and a little bit of ribbon and scrapbook paper. I made them to match my Turquoise/Brown/Gold/Light Green bathroom. It's amazing that the wrapping paper that I bought for another project, that I will post after Thanksgiving, matched my bathroom perfectly.


Before, I had all of these ribbons and bows in an old diaper wipe container. Not nearly as cute! I am going to make one more so that I have 3 up on the cabinet. Oh and if anyone has any other ideas on how to use these let me know.