Baby Quilt

This is a quilt I just made for my own fun.  I love the colors and the modern pattern.

Bree's Graduation

 For Band Senior Night - poster of her favorite band moments ... and where she'll be going.  Love the pictures on the left of Aubrey and Brandon and the other of Aubrey and Jon.  Love that they get to share band together.

 

 My favorite picture of Aubrey and me on her graduation day!  Love her!  

The homemade lei was a surprise gift  for Aubrey for her graduation.  The necklace, itself, came from Susan Hamilton as a gift ... it was exciting to be able to give it to Aubrey. 

Easter Elder Peeps

I felt so sad not having my missionary close, so we decided to spoil the missionaries in our ward by making them missionary themed Easter baskets.  This little treat was the highlight:

I dipped them in white chocolate and then dark chocolate.  I used a tooth pick to draw on the ties with dark chocolate.  The tags are drawn on and the white is just a small white sprinkle.  Toot cute!  After giving the peeps away, I edited the labels a little bit and made it a little smaller (and a little nicer, in my opinion).
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To print the labels, right click on image and then "Save image as".  Then you can print it on card stock.  Enjoy!

Raspberry Mousse Cake

One of the ladies in book club is now gluten free.  I searched long and hard to find a recipe that I could make for her.  A friend of ours (GB) made us a similar cake when we were visiting in Vegas last month so I decided to try it for myself.  It was soooo yummy and super impressive.  I'll try making more of these.  The kicker was after working so hard on this, the lady didn't even come to book club.  UGH!  Oh well.  I learned a new skill.  Count my blessings, right?!

Raspberry Mousse Cake - yum!

Baby Shower Gift

During Christmas we went to Ogden, Utah so the family could ski and try to do Christmas a little different since Brandon wasn't home.  While the rest of the family skied, I stayed in the condo making this quilt.

I bought the jelly roll called:  Chatterbox Aprons.  I couldn't resist the sweet bright colors for a little girl.

The joy of doing a jelly roll quilt is getting to see all the options in the fabric line.  I ordered the complimentary fabric for the back.

I made the cute card and bundled up the quilt to give to my good friend JS's daughter in law.  It was a very satisfying project with enough fabric to make another quilt for my someday grand kids.  :)

Christmas Crafts

1.  Knitted Heart - Mosiah 18:21 

Hearts knitted together in unity and love is the stake theme for 2017.  When President Robert Walton spoke of that in a meeting, I was caught up in the symbolism.  I hoped to find something already made that we could buy to use as a gift for the Stake RS Leadership meeting, but there was nothing.  So, after searching pinterest for hours, doing some Russian translation, and trying a couple of ideas, I came up with this:

It's made out of clay.  We had to make at least 70 for the women in the stake and then I made another 20 or so for my own friends and family as Christmas gifts.  It really filled my desire to make an ornament this year. 














2.  Sweet Tooth

Every year we give each child an ornament to represent something that they did or learned that previous year.  Aubrey has been working at an Endodontist's office this year ... they focus on doing root canals.  The doctor has been teaching her to do x-rays and assisting during the actual procedures.  We thought Aubrey may have found her career, but it doesn't seem to be her cup of tea.  Still, she has learned a lot and made a lot of money with this job.  

 I tried to find a cute tooth ornament I could buy, but there weren't any.  I made this out of felt.  It came out so cute with the glittery holiday spirit.  She loved it and thought it was store bought.















3.  NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training)

 Our goal this year was to give gifts that cost no more than $10 and could even be hand made.  We wanted to give Jon an ornament that represented his NYLT experience this last summer, but there wasn't anything that specific.  So Brian decided to make one:

 This is a tiny replica of the staff each scouter was given at the end of their training.  The silver spoon was a prize Jon's troop got for making good food throughout the week.  Jon was super surprised.  We all loved that Brian made it himself.  Such a good memory.













4.  Holiday Holes 

 We went away to Utah for Christmas.  It seems that every year when we go on vacation we end up with some sort of leak in our house.  Luckily, we've learned to have house sitters stay and protect our home.  This year was no different.  Just 2 days before returning home a leak was detected.  We came home to this:

 Brian has already put up dry wall to fill the hole.  He'll do the taping and texturing after chatting with the plumbers.  Such a fun project to work on for 2017.

A New Leaf

I've had this blog for a long many years, but it seems it has run it's course.  I will be keeping it active, but with changes.

1.  I have decided to make it completely private.  I will be posting some of my own creations and projects, but I'm not really comfortable with my items being seen by the world.  It's just private stuff.  Maybe someday I will post it more publicly, but for now it's just for my eyes.

2.  I will only be putting up creative stuff.  My arts, crafts, and projects.  Maybe some cooking and other funsie things.  But just the creative side of me will show here.  Well, for now.  We'll see how it evolves.

One of my favorite quotes is:

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul."

~ Elder Uchdorf

Kitchen Reveal

We had a pipe leak just before our New York vacation.  It didn't do a TON of damage, but it did ruin the tile floor.  That's most of down stairs.  So we had to re-prioritize for the year and decided to move the kitchen remodel up a few (many) years.  Since we wanted to change the lay-out, we couldn't just do the floor now and then re-do it all again later.

Before:

Look at all the polka dots the knobs make.

We really didn't mind the granite that the previous owners put in.  I love having double ovens, but hated that they were white (I know, so shallow) and that they took away counter space.  The sink not being centered with the window was kinda annoying too.

The peninsula gave extra work space, but it also made it impossible for others to work in the kitchen.  If someone was doing dishes, no one else could be using the sink or counter.  It made me a lonely cook.

After:

My photography skills haven't done the colors justice.  The back splash (my very favorite part of the kitchen) is more brown and natural looking while the counter top is more green.  The entire effect is very organic and nature-inspired.  Very peaceful.

Look, no more polka dots.  I love the new handles.

The ceiling was raised a bit and that makes the cupboards seem huge.  

Still, we didn't gain much more cupboard space.

YAY!!!  I still have double ovens, but they only take up the space of a normal sized range!!!

New York - Seeing the Sites

Subway

We rented an apartment in Brooklyn which meant we had to ride the subway to Manhattan everyday.  We were all pretty excited about it ... at the beginning.

Here's a little friend we saw the first time we rode.

  This is such a classic picture.

By the end of the day the kids were either sleeping on the way home or buried in their electronics.  I guess the excitement of public transportation wears off quickly.

Intrepid -

Brian and the kids love military planes.  They were excited about seeing this floating museum ... even though we have one right at home in San Diego.

 

 

They had a lot of interactive displays on the ship.  It wasn't as cool as the Midway in San Diego, but the kids loved playing together.

Enterprise -  We paid extra for this???

Such a cute family!

This is how they really are together!

 The family was so excited to be able to see the Enterprise ... a REAL space shuttle.  It wasn't until we were reading the history of the shuttle that we realized that this was the SAME one we saw when we visited the Air and Space museum in Washington DC two years ago.  Not sure why we didn't connect that until after we stood in line to get our picture taken with it ... again.

Natural History Museum & Central Park

The museum is HUGE!!!  So many displays and so many floors to explore.  The kids hunted until they found "Dumb Dumb" from the movie Night at the Museum.

They were very disappointed that it's not really a stone statue, but rather a plaster replica.

Such Buddies!

But really, a selfie is what they all really wanted!

Aubrey has been wanting a turtle for the pond in the backyard.  How about this one Bree?

 Central Park Adventure

So after we walked all over the Natural History Museum we walked over to Central Park to rent bikes for a ride around the park.  It's about 4 miles ... I would say uphill all the way around, but the rest of the family says I may be a little dramatic about that one.  Ha!  It was nice to see the park this way, but we missed so much since we couldn't go on trails to see the inner part.  Would definitely plan this part differently next time.

As we were getting ready to go for our ride, Brian asked me for the camera to get a picture of the kids on the bikes.  We searched through all our bags and pockets, but no one had the camera.  My heart about broke.  I realized I left it somewhere in the HUGE museum.  Who knows where?  We would have to ride all the way around the park to go back to the museum which was closing in less than half an hour.  I started praying like crazy.

 Look at that smile!!!  We rode around the park and the museum was already closed.  A couple of security guards were out front just blocking the doors.  When I told them the issue, they directed me to a special entrance to the main security office.  There were a lot of snickers and doubtful "good luck with that" comments.  I went to the office and explained what had happened, to which they said it happens all the time.  That didn't give me much hope.  But then I mentioned that my camera was an ugly orange color and the main security guy flashed a huge smile.  They had found it!!!  He kept saying what a lucky lady I was.  I don't know how much luck had to do with it, but there were a lot of prayers of thanks going out!

I'm not sure where we saw this play ground, maybe by the Intrepid.  Still, I think it's the coolest thing.

New York - Ellis Island / Statue of Liberty

Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty

This was an art piece in front of the Twin Towers that was supposed to represent world peace.  The amount of damage from the attack is shocking.  It is now in the park outside the Statue of Liberty ferry.

It was a very cold day.   We had a BUNCH of tourists from Europe on the ferry with us.  There must have been a big class of high school kids from ... we were guessing Germany ... the boys were cute, but they were crazy standing on the rails and chairs in order to get pictures.

Father/Son selfie