She Inspires Me!

           I love running across a new blog showcasing someone’s amazing talents!  Melissa Crowe at checkout girl  is one of those people. I was just introduced to her and I just love her fun style of appliqué and embroidery.  Especially how she incorporates the hoop as her frames and sometimes has the appliqué extending off of it, or mimicking the roundness.
           My favorite part of her amazing skill. Her portraits.
           Someday when we have extra money… I want one.  I think it would be so cool to see my whole family sewn up like this!  I would try if I thought I could even do it!
           She’s inspired me to try some of these flowers that she explained in a tutorial on some crocheted hats I just finished up… hope to show them to you soon.  She’s also inspired me to design some of my own patterns in a style similar to this with additional embroidery. I’ve ran across some great sayings lately that I want to become a way of life, and I want to frame them in something like this.
           So cool. I love it when people show me how they do it, their creative process.  So you have to check her out and go to her etsy store little pink house and see her work. She doesn’t have a whole lot in there for sale, so check out what she’s already sold too.
           Better yet… if she inspired you at all too and now your itching to try your hand at it, go and try your hand out at her giveaway for the above kits!
           As for me… see these gorgeous colors. Don’t they just make you happy!  Man they do me, and they are wanting me to take this inspiration and go do something with it. :)

Starting off Right

           What a great day. I had a huge project due with ScrapGirls that I had to finish up today and so I had this feeling that it would be a long stressful, tiring day. I woke up at 4:30 to get going on, and ended up changing all my plans. I read a great post (specifically #6 – Neglecting Yourself) at Simple Mom. I have to say this is one of my top hands down FAVORITE blog series. Maybe it’s because I need it so badly. She’s redoing them again this week. I so needed the reminder. After reading it I sat and thought.. ok. I can spend the next 2 hours working on this assignment. Then I can go in and get started on the day. Or….. I can put first things first. So I turned off the computer, made sure I read my scriptures, hopped on the treadmill for 30 minutes and took care of myself first, planning on getting in the shower before my kids woke up so that I was ready for the day. I had morning prayer asking for help on this huge project so it wouldn’t consume my day and energies. Then I turned the computer back on and worked for about 30 – 45 minutes. I made HUGE progress. I felt good about it, thinking that I would be ok if I left the rest till tonight. So I did. I didn’t turn the computer on again. I ended up having an amazing day getting so much accomplished.
           I showered before the kids woke up, made breakfast, had family scripture study, cleaned the house, did 2 batches of laundry, 2 loads of dishes, made and canned mandarin sweet and sour sauce (more on this later), painted with the kids, cut out two shirts to sew and almost finished sewing one. I picked up Savannah from school, played at the school playground for a while, relaxed, read books, had dinner, had Family Home Evening and finished up the rest of my assignment tonight. At a decent hour even. I still have time to go in and spend some time with my husband and go to bed early! What a day! The ironic part? I always know that I’ll have days like this when I put certain things first. Myself – health, God – time for him. The best part of the day…. my wonderful husband, and his support in letting sign up for an online class at Creative Thursday. I heard about it three days ago, and it has been on my mind nonstop. Weird really. I’ve seen other classes that I’d love to take, but this one stuck. Stuck hard… to the point I emailed my husband at work to see if he’d be willing to let me use part of our super tight budget to take this class. He came home teasing me, telling me he wanted to see how persuasive I could be. I couldn’t get any words out. For some reason all I could do was start to cry. How do you explain something you feel deep inside but you don’t even understand why… an overwhelming feeling that I NEED to take this class. I really wanted him to say yes because the class sounded great. Somehow though it was more… maybe somebody bigger than myself was pushing me, with bigger plans and ideas than what I’ve been thinking of… but I knew if he said we probably couldn’t afford it I would have been devastated and I didn’t even know why. When he said you know you have the money… all I could do was cry again.
           One thing is for sure. This man thought to himself as I sat one night (when we were dating) in a car as I poured out my heart about my ambitions and dreams for my art, that he wanted to be that man to support me so I could do it. I can honestly say I never imagined or could imagine how amazing he has been in keeping that promise to me. He proved it again tonight.

A Fight For the Beaters

I don’t know if this is anything like your house, but when mom makes anything it’s a fight for who gets the beaters, and then it’s a fight for who gets the bowl. I guess this cake batter tasted really good.

7 amazing years

           Seven years ago I wondered if I would ever find the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  Suddenly out of the middle of nowhere he showed up.  From the minute I met up with him, I knew I wanted to be around him. The more I was around him the more I knew he was it. He was everything I had been waiting for.  We hung out for 3 weeks just being friends, spending every possible minute with each other.
           Finally after another guy kept asking me out he finally asked me if he could date me seriously on a Friday night.  I, of course, said yes. (I had been wondering how long I’d have to wait.) Saturday he went on a blind date with another girl because he had already made commitments.  I let him go but secretly hoped he had a miserable time. Sunday he held my hand for the first time in church. We came home, had a great dinner, talked and ended the night with him asking me if I would marry him.  It was completely unexpected. It was open and honest. We had both felt since the day we first met that this was it. This was the one…. I said yes…. and 2 1/2 months later we were married.
           Fast?  Incredibly fast.  Especially now that I look at it.  Scary? Not one part about it. Everything in the 3 weeks prior, the 2 1/2 months after and the 7 years since have been the most peaceful, amazing and incredible years of my life.  The Lord gave us peace about the whole thing. We knew it was right and so why wait.
           Every day I thank my father in heaven for this amazing man. I still can’t believe that I found someone that I am so compatible with. Someone that is so amazing, clean and good. Someone that knows, understands and loves me more than anyone else ever could.  He makes me laugh every day. He makes me smile. He makes life so worth living.  He is an incredible father and supports me so well in my role as a homemaker.
           It’s amazing to me how much the Lord loved me enough to let me go through this amazing journey with him.  Happy Anniversary Honey. Thanks for the amazing ride so far.  I love you.

Getting Dirty

           A few months ago we saw a craft in the Family Fun magazine on creating little nests. They were made out of model magic dough by crayola and then sticking sticks inside the dough to create the look of a nest.  It seemed like a fun easy project.  We gathered our sticks from outside, broke them in pieces and got to work.
           I soon found out that I had accidently gotten the wrong clay.  This clay acted and felt like actual potter’s clay but just air dried.  It took me back to my days of ceramics and throwing on the wheel. I love the feel of real earthen clay, the way it dries on your hands, sticks in your nails and is just plain messy. It’s been years since I’ve had a chance to play with the stuff and it felt so good.  We had to improvise our plans a bit but we turned out successful. There is one way to keep a two year old toddler busy for hours, who inherited his father’s OCD when it comes to getting things on him.  Let the clay dry and he’ll sit there for hours trying to peel it all off his hands.
           When they finished they were all excited to find things to fill up those nests. I loved how their creative minds worked…. going back to nature.
           Savannah even found a few other hidden treasures to stick in hers. Being in the city sometimes I wish my kids had more access to nature. The chance to get dirty, touch and feel the things God created for their enjoyment. This project ended up being one of those.  Instead of factory created fake clay, we had the chance to work with clay that was very similar if not the same thing as the clay straight from the ground. Nature’s little treasures of textures, smells and things to see.

Home Again

           Once again we’ve been out of town.  This time it was a much needed break. Beau and I left the kids with the grandparents. The two older with my parents since they were hosting a grandkid’s camp, while the two younger ones stayed with Beau’s parents.  This is one of those times where it is great having your in-laws live in the same town. We then borrowed my father-in-law’s road bike and took our own road trip.  We enjoyed 2 1/2 days together relaxing and celebrating our 7th anniversary coming up here shortly.  What a great relaxing time… I’ll post pictures when I have a chance. This week…. wow what an insane week.
           Today I’ve been making 150 baking powder biscuits and 7 gallons worth of gravy mix for Beau’s Stake Scout Camp that starts tomorrow.  We managed 3 different doctor’s appointments within an hour of each other with one car and sick kids.  Savannah tested positive for strep, so while dad is gone camping for the week I get to hang around home, in isolation with at least one sick kid…. most likely more, they just haven’t shown signs yet.  So with a thousand of places to go, school to get ready for that starts next week, projects due and everything else, it is going to be one CRAZY week. I’m going to have a positive attitude that it’s going to turn out amazing. I’m sure you’ll find out the truth sooner or later.

Muffin Tin Monday

           We found this idea quite a while ago on the Crafty Crow. Muffin Tin Monday.  Basically fit and eat your lunch out of a muffin tin. It can be anything, it could have a theme, it could be snacks or treats. It’s all up to you.   I love it.  The reason why is that you can use whatever you have on hand.  It is super fast to fix too!  My kids will usually ALWAYS eat this lunch and they love being able to feel like they have choices and can dish themselves.  I’m always amazed too that one muffin tin usually has plenty of food for all 5 of us.  It no longer just happens on Monday… it happens all the time.