Another Craft

Name my favorite flower. Quick go. Yep. It's hot pink Gerbera daisies. Some day I might grow up. But not today. :) So I made this. A little shadow box painted "Bahama Sea" and sanded, scrapbook paper mod podged in the back and a giant daisy. It looks nice against my dark gray walls in my room. I'm working on a project for my room and when I'm done I'll take pictures of it all coming together.

Cooking

A couple of years ago I got a cookbook from my in-laws for Christmas.

The cookbook was all about meals that freeze well. I wanted to try it, but truth be told I was nervous. I'm not a fabulous cook. Don't get me wrong I can follow a recipe just fine, but it's not something I really enjoy all that much. I think part of it is that I think it is boring to stand in the kitchen and cook all by myself and 30 meals in one day.... That's a lot of standing in the kitchen.

My spring break was over Easter weekend and my sister-in-law and I had planned to spend part of the break making a headboard for my bed. (that post will be coming at a later date) She asked me about my cookbook and decided that while we were woodworking we should also cook a months worth of meals. No big deal, just 30 meals, for us each, in one day. She made up the shopping list and we set out to get all the ingredients we'd need.

Shauntel asked if she could be head chef and boss me around. Since I'd never cooked any of the meals she'd planned I agreed. She loves being bossy and had a secret desire to tell a midget what to do. Don't deny it Telly.

I had to leave before all the food was done cooking (She kicked me out so she could go to the gym so it's her own fault she had to clean up and finish by herself) so the picture we got is only about half of the food we prepared. My tiny freezer is overflowing. If we decide to do it again we may have to invest in another freezer for the garage to put all of our food in!

Decorating

I have been neglecting the blog. I want to put up more pictures of the house, but I'm not good at decorating and so I feel like the house is still unfinished. I have a room full of boxes that I haven't dealt with yet. I did however go through 3 boxes in the past 24 hours and put things away or into a designated DI box. My personal goal is to have nothing stored in a cardboard box. I don't have a set time line for accomplishing that goal however.

I have this desire to have things in my home that I made. I feel proud when people compliment something I've done. My sister-in-law is crafty and makes really nice things. I envy her abilities and love her decorating style. I mentioned to her that I wanted to try to make a Halloween wreath so she took me under her wing and was my decorating guide on my very first wreath journey. We made the whole thing from a stick wreath and some dollar store flowers, lots of spray paint and some eyeballs later we had a final product.

She found a cool wreath online that we tried to copy and I think it turned out great. The biggest problem I've had is that nobody ever comes to my door to see it! The only exception being my visiting teachers who showed up this week and appropriately reacted by telling me how crafty I am. Lets hope some trick-or-treaters have something good to say tonight as well.

Becoming an addict

I've always loved looking at peoples houses. Buying our home has given me the chance to walk through lots of peoples homes and I loved it. Since the touring portion of the process has ended I have found a new way to continue looking at peoples homes. Blogs. I love looking at Design Blogs. I may have to quit my job so I can sit and look at all the crafty things other people are doing. I don't even have time (or the real talent) to try to make the crafts myself because one blog leads to another and there are so many cool things to look at.
But despite the lack of time and talent I've been trying some of these projects and I'm excited about the outcome. I'm going to keep trying things (I've got to have something to do during the summer vacations) and I'll be sure to keep you all updated, whether you like it or not, on how those projects go. I will also be updating the house with new things that I wont be making myself because there are people who make things, that I like, for a living that are willing to sell said things at stores for people like me to buy.

Crafting

Right before I got my job I did another sewing project. My aunt made one of these for my mom and she has been the envy of every lady who has seen it since. It is a first aid kit. I'm planning on keeping mine in my car but my mom keeps hers in her purse. You just need a pot holder and a handful of ziplock bags.

You just sew the bags to the hot pad and then you sew a button on the front of the hot pad so you can link the loop around it.


Brad wants one for his car but he wants me to find a hot pad with a superhero on it... I think I may just have to sew some superhero fabric over a hot pad.


I am also an activity day leader in my ward and I think I'm going to make these with the girls.

sewing

At the end of last summer I decided I wanted to get a sewing machine. I haven't sewed since my class in middle school, but I thought it would be a good investment. We didn't get it until summer was ending and with student teaching I didn't have time to make anything. Since subbing required much less preparation and since my cousin Megan was about to have a baby I decided making a baby dress would be a good idea. Plus if I screwed up I could just buy her a different present. In the end it turned out well. I'll be honest though, I had to go to my mom for help with the hard parts (read: zipper) so I can't take all the credit. I'm pretty sure while I wasn't there she unpicked the whole thing and resewed it but she claims she didn't so here is the end result.

And now for the best part. The baby! She is so cute. The dress is still a little big and is apparently delicious.... Her mom should send me another picture where you can see her face and the cute details on the dress... hint hint megan...
So I am now working on a skirt for myself. (With a different pattern, because no the baby skirt doesn't fit me) We'll see if that turns out or if I have to take it to the pro for fixing...

Flashback Fridayish: cooking

I know it's not Friday but I haven't blogged in forever and I've definitely missed some Fridays so I'm going to show you all these photos before I forget I have them.

Growing up my mom didn't do a lot of baking. Jiffy muffins equal homemade as far as I'm concerned. Grandma Sycamore bread is almost like homemade since we know the guy who owns the company... I think his name is Jim or something like that. Anyways, once a year my mom would always make her Braided Swedish Bread. She would make dozens of loaves to give away as Christmas presents to the neighbors. I loved when she made bread because we always got to keep some loaves. I also kind of hated it because I wanted to keep ALL of the loaves. So this past Christmas I decided that I should try to make some bread in my tiny apartment kitchen and since I had no friends I could keep all the bread! I managed to make ruin the first batch by accidentally making bricks instead of something edible. I then made a couple decent (I hope) loaves that I gave as thank you's for the teachers that helped me with my student teaching. (Dang conscience making me give away the bread!) And then while making my own batch this happened:

The last photo is of the massive chunk of dough that somehow jumped out of the mixer while the flour was busy being flung all over my tiny counter space. I don't miss this tiny kitchen. But I do miss that bread.... I might have to break tradition and actually bake some bread in July.

Flashback Friday: Christmas traditions

My mom has a wonderful Christmas countdown calendar that I love. I don't have a picture of it but you probably all know the kind of calendar I'm talking about. It has a tree in the middle and every day as Christmas gets closer you get to take a little ornament off of the pocket for the day and pin it on the tree. In each pocket there was always something written on a little slip of paper to do that day. Things as simple as "go look at Christmas lights" or "attend the High School Christmas Choir concert" or maybe as big as "make Christmas bread for neighbors" which takes all day. When people talk about having Christmas traditions I sometimes have a hard time thinking of what my family does as a tradition. But really every day during the month had a small tradition of it's own. We could always use the same slips of paper because we would do the same things every year.

My favorites include the ones I listed above.
I love driving around looking at Christmas lights. With the economy the way it is I don't think people will be able to really do this as much anymore and that makes me sad. Perhaps when I have kids I will start the tradition of going to the light shows like they have in Willard Bay and Spanish Fork so they will still get to see Christmas lights.

Another thing that we would do every year is make graham cracker houses. I was lucky enough to have family close by while I went to school in Logan that have the same traditions so I could continue this fun activity even though I didn't live at home for the whole month of December. I missed the parties this month and that makes me sad :( But just knowing graham cracker houses are being made makes me feel happy.
Here is one I made with a friend 2 years ago. (really I made it, he just ate graham crackers and frosting) It is a Church with stained glass windows and a gingerbread preacher. It also has a duck pond with a cute little duck in front. (ok the friend made the duck... but that's all the help I had) Last years graham cracker house was a southern plantation but because we used those yummy piroette (sp?) cookies for posts it got eaten before we could take a picture......

I've also made 8 loaves of my moms Christmas bread this year. (I failed at the first 4 but succeeded at the next 8!) I hope to keep these traditions alive and well with my family as it forms.

If you have any great Christmas traditions you think I should add to my calendar leave a message and let me know. There is always room for more fun!