Before and After

I do this every time we move.  I get tired of packing/unpacking boxes and go into this creative decorating frenzy!  When we bought our home in Oregon I stacked all our unpacked boxes in the middle of the room and started painting the dining room.  Hubby wasn't thrilled, but I just had to do SOMETHING other than figuring out where all our junk would go.

Well, we've moved again (just around the corner from our last place) and I'm tired of boxes... so it was time to get creative!

First off we have this nasty bench.  I bought it at a yard sale about a year ago for $1 and it's just been sitting around my house looking sad.  The yellow/gold faux velvet stuff was stiff, dirty and just all around gross!

 There was a small tear in the fabric and the foam was coming out of it...

I'm working on recreating our master bedroom.  I'm using browns, tans, aquas and oranges.  So, when I saw this orange fabric at JoAnn's, I knew I had to have it for the bench!

Love, love, love the way it turned out!  The aqua and orange together are just playful and fun.  Can't wait to use this in our room!

Then we had the mirror I got from Good Will this week.  Loved the shape and style of the frame... not so excited about the, um, floral print... so, yeah.  Had to get rid of that... (p.s. I had already started the project when I remembered I hadn't taken pics yet... so this is just the frame.)

 I'm pretty sure those are flowers... or maybe they are really sad sea creatures.  I haven't decided which...

I scratched up the back of the mirror and then placed an aqua and white fabric behind it.  Painted the frame white and glazed it a bit.  Baby Girl is not a fan of the glaze... she said, "It just looks dirty".  But what does she know?  I like how it looks :)

It was harder than I thought to get a good picture of the mirror... hopefully you can see the fabric okay... looks a lot better in real life.

So there you have it.  Now I'm working on the quilt for our room and then I have a few other projects in mind.  And eventually... one day... I just might finish unpacking!

I Know

I'm not the most intelligent person on the planet.  Heck, I can't help my 12 year old with his math homework any more!  But there are a few things that I do know.

I know that my Redeemer lives.  Jesus Christ came to this earth to set an example for us to follow.  He suffered and died to atone for the sins of the world and he rose again that we too may overcome death.

I also know that this life is difficult.  Trials and troubles come our way no matter who we are.  But we can have hope that things will be better because of Jesus Christ.

In the Book of Mormon there is a scripture that I love.  It's found in Moroni 7:41 - And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.


We can find joy and peace even in the darkest times because we can have hope for life eternal.  This life won't last forever.  Time will pass.  Our trials will end and we will be better for it all.  

My prayer for you is that you can find hope and peace through the Savior, Jesus Christ.  I know that He lives.  I know that He loves us.


Have a very happy Easter!

A Laugh

A friend of mine bought a wooden sign today and the quote on it made me laugh... so, I thought I'd share.

I understand that scissors can beat paper.  And I get how rock can beat scissors, but there's no way paper can beat rock.  Paper is supposed to magically wrap around rock leaving it immobile?  Why can't paper do this to scissors?  Screw scissors, why can't paper do this to people?  Why aren't sheets of college ruled notebook paper constantly suffocating students as they attempt to take notes in class?  I'll tell you why.  Because paper can't beat anybody.  A rock would tear it up in two seconds.  When I play rock, paper, scissors, I always choose rock.  Then when somebody claims to have beaten me with their paper I can punch them in the face with my already clenched fist and say, oh sorry.  I thought paper would protect you.

I'm not sure if the fact that I found this so amusing means I have a really great sense of humor or a really twisted one...

Dig, Dig, Dig

We were listening to a Disney CD this morning and the "Dig, Dig, Dig/Heigh-Ho" song from Snow White  came on. It's a song I've always loved, but as I was listening to it today I had an odd little epiphany towards the end of this verse:

We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn till night
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig up everything in sight
We dig up diamonds by the score
A thousand rubies, sometimes more
But we don't know what we dig 'em for
We dig dig dig a-dig dig

And just for the record... I cannot read through those lyrics. I MUST sing them. Every. Single. Time.  Okay... moving on!

The line "But we don't know what we dig 'em for" just kind of hit me today.  I mean...isn't that how life seems to work?  I know it is for me.  I dig through trials and troubles. I dig through the craziness of everyday life. I try to do my best and work hard and and sometimes... well, sometimes I just kinda sit back and think "What in the heck am I digging for???"

Now, I know that I'm rewarded with blessings throughout my day. Not necessarily HUGE things each day. But little things. A phone call from a friend. The giggles of a child. A hug from my husband.  A beautiful sunset. The good bits of every day that make life so much better. And yet, for me, I seem to miss the value of these diamonds and rubies.  In my case, I think I don't recognize the gems like I should.

Maybe it's because the digging process can be difficult, monotonous, frustrating and extremely time consuming. And by the time I get to the good stuff I'm tired and covered in dirt. And sometimes those blessings don't look quite like I had thought. I was hoping for a sapphire when I plucked out that ruby. Or maybe the blessing is something that really doesn't look like a gem at all. It's rough around the edges, dull and has absolutely no appeal (in my life, these ones are often disguised as a U-Haul van.... I think I won't understand the beauty of these gems till later in life or maybe not till the life after this...).

 I guess what I'm trying to say (and not doing a very good job of it) is that this life is a lot of work, but it's worth it. I may not understand what all of my diamonds and rubies are for right now... but someday I will. The only question left is this: which dwarf am I going to be like as I dig, dig, dig from early morn till night?

Now I'll leave you with a few gems from this month...
Little Bug at horseback riding lessons.  Look at that grin!!

Red with his new hair cut... I told him to give me a "Hurrah" cheer.  This as good as it gets when you're 12...

Baby Girl finishing homework...

A finished project for a friend...

It's the little things...

Christmas Quilts

2 out of 3 kids needed a new quilt for their bed this year.  I had already started a quilt for Red just a little over a year ago... and yeah.  Never finished it till this fall.  I pulled all the pieces out, reminded myself of the pattern and got to work.  It didn't take too long to get it all pieced.  Then I took it to a little place here in town to have it quilted.  My hand sewing is pretty much terrible, so I was more than happy to pawn the job off on someone else.  They did a fantastic job and this is the final product...

I did hand sew part of the binding... it took about forever to get it done.  But I did it :)  And I really love the way it turned out.  I didn't get a great photo of him opening it, but he really loved it!

 I knew I wanted to do a rag quilt for Baby Girl, but wasn't sure how exactly I wanted to put it together.  I sketched out several things, searched Google and Etsy for ideas and finally came up with this...

I was pretty much THRILLED with the way it turned out!  It's bright and fun - just like Baby Girl.  She was pretty excited about it too...

I just finished a baby quilt (that I'll blog about later) and then I have another baby quilt to put together and then a quilt for Little Bug and THEN one for me :)  I'm really looking forward to the me quilt.  I've bought the fabric, picked the pattern and I'll hopefully get to work on it.... in a month or two :)

Creative Juices

Lately I have felt like I was in a creative slump.  Just couldn't get the wheels in my head to spin the way I wanted them to.
Awhile back Busy Bee Lauren wrote a blog post about a new book she had received for Christmas (I think). It sounded like the perfect way to get my thought process moving.  So, I got a copy for myself.

I forgot to get a picture of it before I started... just imagine the cover without the doodles on it.  Okay??  Okay.
So, the instructions are pretty simple...

(Can you spot the "hidden Mickey's" throughout my book??)  And so I began.  We took Red to the Cracker Barrel for his birthday and so, I "documented" my dinner...

Hubby thinks it's totally gross... but it makes me laugh every time I look at it.  Here are a few other pages I've done...
I don't drink coffee... so this is my hot cocoa page.

 This was something my 3rd grade teacher would have us do if we were bored... draw a bunch of swirls, pick 5-6 colors and try to make it so that no colors are touching (except at corners).

 Fruit stickers...

 Stamps (some of these are from Christmas cards from last year...)

 I didn't do such a great job connecting the dots with my eyes closed...

 Still need to figure out what I want to decorate the other hand with :)

This is my FAVORITE page so far... which makes me sad since one of the instructions in another part of the book says I have to give away my favorite page...

 My nonstop line got a tad damaged (and it's not finished quite yet...)

I have to admit... I've struggled with some of these items.  You're not supposed to wipe your food in a book, rip the pages, burn the edges, or doodle everywhere... and so far, I've done the easier items.  At some point I have to tie a string around it and take it for a walk... which sounds kind of embarrassing.  I also have to take it to a public place and ask people to write/draw in it.  I thought about just letting my kids do that part, but that seems the cowardly way out.
But the best part?  It's helped me cut loose a little bit... and I've been feeling more creative...

I'll post pictures when it's complete.
So, here's a question for you...
how do you get your creative juices flowing?

That Face

I really don't have much to say today... I was just messing around with some photos and loved the way this one turned out :)

This was taken in Idaho over Thanksgiving break.  She was SO excited to play in the snow!

Help...again!

I have a decision to make... and I really don't want to do it.  So, you get to do it for me!   Aren't you excited?  I knew you would be.

This is a life changing decision.  Please don't take this lightly... ready??

With the stem....

Or without?

Okay... so maybe it's not life changing.  But I can't decide and I'd love your thoughts (just like the last time I made a baby quilt).  Ignore the ruffle and extra bits of fabric laying around and let me know... with or without??  

A Figment

I used to believe in mythical creatures... such as elves, dragons, unicorns, fairies, and children who made me look like a competent parent.

Red attended a meeting with his dad today for all the 11 year old boys at our church.  Our Bishop asked each boy to share something that they had learned from their mothers.  Now, I've had almost 12 years with this kid.  I've tried to teach him to be obedient, respectful, kind and happy.  I've taught him to pray, read his scriptures and to try to be the best he can.  Apparently I need a refresher course on how to teach these things because what he actually learned is to be to be silly, sarcastic and to go for the laugh instead of giving a real answer.

His response when asked what he had learned from his mother :  "She taught me not to kill people".  Which, in the grand scheme of things, is good.  Really good.  I'd rather my children weren't running around being serial killers.

But, now that we've got the "no murdering" thing down... I think it's time to move on to other things that will eventually turn him into a well-rounded individual.  Perhaps we'll start with "there's a time and a place for everything..."

Oh, hey... Hi

So, um, as you can see, I haven't written in awhile.  So, let's do a quick catch up post and move on, shall we?  Excellent!  Here we go...

July - Spent some time in Idaho with family and then came home to pack like maniacs!  We moved to Arizona on one of the hottest days of the year.  Oh yeah... some like it hot... or, um, something like that.  So anyway, we had such great help from friends getting out of our old house and a ton of people showed up to help us get into the new place.  We're settling in slowly (a.k.a. I'm still not done unpacking).  But the kids are adjusting fairly well.  We've had a few small bumps in the road, and I'm sure there will be more, but for now, we're good.

August - the kids went back to school and I was so scatter brained that I didn't get pictures.  Lame, lame, lame!!!  Hubby's birthday was in August, but, again, trying to unpack and finish things up in California and it ended up not being a big celebration... MEGA LAME!!  Sigh... I'll do better next year!

September - wait?  What?  Did we even HAVE a September this year?  Oh yes.  I had a kidney stone in September.  Spent most of the month feeling awful.  Let's forget September this year.  Moving on!

October - Busy.  Really, really busy.  First off we had Hubby's parents come visit.  It was so great to have them here.  We didn't do much... just relaxed and enjoyed their company!  I think everyone had a good time.
We had two birthday's in October. Baby Girl had a fairy birthday party that was a blast!

I decked the house out in lights and yards and yards of tulle.  Made skirts and got wings for all the girls instead of goodie bags.  It was a lot of fun.
Then we had an "October Birthday Beach Bash" with friends from California.  Between the two families we have 4 October b-days.  It was so fun to see our friends for the day!

Little Bug's birthday was more low key.  He doesn't like lots of people around. So we kept his day simple.

I gave him a book called "Wild About Books" and all present opening stopped.  He had to read it a couple of times before we could resume the rest of our evening.  He still packs it around the house reading his favorite parts over and over...

Alan surprised me with a vacation away from kids!  He plotted and planned with my parents... they came down and watched kids and we took off for a few days.  It was really, really nice!  The first evening was spent in Carlsbad, CA right on the beach.

The next two days were spent at Disneyland!  I love, love, love that place!  And I know it's a great place to take your kids, but can I tell you how awesome it was to go without kids?  No begging for over priced toys or treats.  No whining or crying because exhaustion had settled in.  No skipping rides or shops because the kids don't want to go or because we don't want to take them.  We were able to do anything and everything we wanted.  There were things that I know the kids would have loved, but they can go next time... maybe...

(BTW - World of Color is absolutely AMAZING!!)

Last day of the trip was in San Diego.  We went to the temple and then headed for home.  It was a fantastic trip!  (thanks again for watching kids Mom and Dad!!!) 

Halloween was awesome!  I had asked Baby Girl what she wanted to be for Halloween back in September and she said "Alice from Alice in Wonderland".  And I said, "Oh, that will be fun!  We'll get you a blue dress and some black shoes and..." she interrupted and said, "No mom.  Not that Alice.  The Alice from the new movie.  In armor with a Vorpal sword to kill the Jabberwocky."  Ah... yeah.  Her costume turned out pretty good though... here's what it looks like in the movie and what we ended up with (yeah, that's the best pic I got of her alone...)

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.  I got up Saturday morning and decided to be the White Queen... so I made a costume that day.

 Then we had "Return of the Jedi" (he was a Jedi last year too)

 Our rather reluctant farmer...

 And the crazy weird guy...

November - not much so far.  And I'm glad!  We'll have a few things later in the month, but for now, it's been peaceful... well, as peaceful as we ever get.

I don't know if anyone will even see this post or care.  But I'm going to try and get back to the blog once a week.  Yeah.  Try.  I'm not making any promises... but, it feels good to write again.  We'll see how this goes!