Family Christmas Presents

For Christmas this year I made 14 of these puppies for all my siblings and Seth's and both our parents. Around October I started compiling all the anniversaries and birthdays of everyone and their current emails, addresses, home and cell phone numbers, etc. I then separated them by family because obviously Seth's family wouldn't want my family's birthdays and vice versa. I chose a painting for each month that went along with that season and then put three addresses pages on the back with paintings and a cover so all together everyone in our families gets all the family information compiled and put with 17 of my paintings from 2007 and 2008. I then went and bound them and sent them off to everyone. We have ours hanging inside the pantry. My favorite thing about them is that it's good for every year since it doesn't go by days of the week. You can just flip it to the next month and turn to the back where all the information is to be able to call, email, or send a card to the family member with a bday or anniversary.

Below are some pictures of what a few of the pages look like. You'll notice on the month of December there is a little Penelope's birthday on the 13th of that month. :) We put some photos of her and a few videos on our family blog here and here. She's such a sweet little baby. We feel so blessed.

Finished Result

I finished the calendars for my sister and brother's families on Thanksgiving so that I could mail them out the next day in order to get them to their houses by the 1st to start counting down December. I didn't quite finish mine that weekend. I was worried about getting the others out in time and put work into theirs first. After I got theirs out I realized I had lost a bit of steam. Also- the Saturday after Thanksgiving I spent in the hospital thinking I was having problems with my blood clot and found out I was just contracting a lot. The nurses thought I was in active labor and kept me for a bit monitoring me, but I was released in the middle of the night with a shot of Demerol in my back side. Needless to say I have still been contracting and uncomfortable and the last thing I've felt like doing was sitting on a chair for another hour to finish sewing up calendar. (Good news- my inducement date is set for the 13th instead of the 15th now... THIS SATURDAY!) Finally today I finished my calendar. My little girls have been just getting the ornaments that would have been in the pockets each day to hang on the tree without actually grabbing them from the pockets- that is until now. :)

Here's some close up pictures as well. My sister did such a great job on her pockets (#3, #5, #8, #12, #13, #15, #16, #21, and #23). She embroidered the tree as well and put our name on the bottom. After making the rest of the pockets all I had to do was sew on all the pockets above her embroidered numbers and sew up the trunk and star and sew the back of the tree to the front. I think we made a great team. I loved calling her and working out details and it was fun to work with my own little girls here. They had a great time gluing the characters on the pockets and helping me to make these trees. I loved being able to spot something at Pottery Barn and make our own version. It was more fun that way and cheaper. I'm excited to think up a cute Halloween calendar in a few months and work with Krisser again.

It's coming along...

Here's what my little work space looks like. Like my art table? Seth gave it to me for my bday this year. :) It's matchy-matchy with his on the other side of the room. So hanging up is Pottery Barn's super cute advent calendar and on the table are my pockets I've been making. My sister Kristie and I have split up the work. We figure that if you have to make one pocket than you might as well make more, right? So together we are making enough for 4 trees. One for each of us and one for each of us to give away for a Christmas present. Krisser has just finished embroidering the snowflakes and numbers on the trees with her fancy new embroidery machine and has sent them to me in the mail with her pockets today, so I should get that in a few days. I will sew on all our pockets and sew the tree front to back and add the trunk and star at the top. Hopefully this will be done to start counting down the beginning of December. I wanted to show some of the detail of a few of my pockets. The fun of making your own stuff is that you get to change it to fit you better. I've had great time making alterations and adding more details. So in each photo I have Pottery Barn's pocket on the left and mine on the right. (Mostly I'm showing this because Kristie keeps asking how they look and telling me she wants to see them- so here you go Kris)

Snowman

Rudolf

(Seth sketched the design of this one for me to make- thanks honey)

Red Skate




Pink Skate

Christmas Tree

(I changed the shape to mimic the advent tree that these pockets are all on)

I didn't do much to change the Santa except add a nose and a little snowflake (can you tell that I like snowflakes?) :)

And here is just one I made up for fun. There were a few designs that repeated and were simple and I decided that I wanted a wreath. It replaces one of the green stripey pockets (pocket #9 in the top photo). Also Kris- I added little bow ties to our penguins, but didn't take photos of them. The #19 penguin has a red bow tie and the #14 penguin has a green bow tie.

So here is my progress. I'm pretty excited and have been having a great time. It's been a good way for me to relax since the nesting phase is setting in and I want to attack every part of my house. I keep over working and then contractions set in for a few hours- ug. So this has kept me sitting for long moments and I still feel like I'm getting something done. Only 3 more weeks and our little Penelope will be here!!! Man alive have I got a lot to do- but at least this will be one thing to check off my list that I really wanted done. BTW- I've had 3 people in the last 2 days tell me that it looks like she has dropped, which might be a nice way of saying I'm looking bigger. I sure feel bigger and more uncomfortable. Thank goodness there's an end in sight!

Halloween Costumes

I just read my cousin Jill's comment about checking in often to look for Halloween costumes. Since I didn't really sew any- except my Igor one and it wasn't that amazing I just put all of our Halloween fun (including costumes) on our family blog. Sorry if it's confusing with these two different blogs. I'm trying my best to keep this one for projects and art stuff. Speaking of I'm just about to post some photos of the progress of my advent calendar...

THE Advent Calendar

I grew up looking forward to the first day of December with much anticipation- because my mom would hang up a hokey craft looking similar to this (but of course ours was better). :) Everyday leading up to Christmas my siblings and I would take turns pulling out an felt ornament from it's pocket and deciding where to put it on the tree. It was so exciting to get the day that had the ballerina or the rocking horse and you were most lucky of all if your day was the last and you got to put the star on the tree. I've been wanting to make a special Christmas advent calendar for many years now. I have a sketch book filled with ideas of what the different ornaments would look like and have had a pile of felt stashed away waiting for me to actually do it. At times it was going to be a tree like my mom's and at times I was turning it into a nativity type scene where everyday you'd put a different animal or person on until the last day you could place baby Jesus in a manger. I even have patterns of cross stitch characters that could be put with the manger scene.

I had also considered different kinds like these two. All I knew is I wanted to make it myself and I wanted it to be something magical my children could anticipate every year.

This year I got more serious about it. I decided to locate a pattern somewhere and put feelers out with friends. My sister came across this at Pottery Barn's website. Not 24 hours later I drove 40 miles to the nearest Pottery Barn Kids and bought it to use as a start for a pattern. Kristie has joined in the fun as well. We are splitting up the pockets to make and she has even ordered herself an embroidery machine (so jealous!) It costs with tax close to $75 at Pottery Barn and Krisser and I are making them for a little under $25 each and having lots of fun at the same time. I hope these get done before the first of December. We're sure trying.

Here's another photo of it. It is just too cute! Although I do love the idea of a simple one that is just hanging ornaments up I didn't know how I could refuse making this. Everyday there is a little gift in there. What I think I will have to do is put a clue in there everyday leading our kids to a different place to find a little treasure instead of stuffing it with 3 presents in each pocket. We are going to put a bit more detail into it and make pretty stitching around each pocket and more embellishments. I'll post pictures when it's complete.

Just for fun here is a cute idea for Halloween. Well you know us... if we are going to have an advent calendar for Christmas, we better have one for Halloween too. I love the Christmas one so much more, but this is a good place to start for ideas for a Halloween one.

Thriller video

Well I made our family blog unprivate again because it was just a big 'ol pain in the patootie. I found myself posting family-ish things to my projects blog here just so everyone could see and that ruins the whole purpose. So I've posted my video from our Thiller performance on our family blog and hope to keep that as family stuff from now on. Here's a link to the exact posting here

My Baby Bump and Thriller Projects

Thought I'd post a pic of the baby bump. We finally found our camera cord for uploading pictures and so here's a snap shot Seth took just before church two weeks ago. It's nice to be on the ending stretch of this pregnancy. :) Only two months and a few days left! (I'll be induced Dec. 15th)

Different news... here's a silly montage of my "Thriller Group". Some are missing from it in these photos because they missed this particular practice that I got my little girls and Seth to photograph, but you get the idea. All of the original boys have dropped out of the group except for our Michael (we have put too much pressure on him I suppose-hehe). There was a ward basketball group that started around the same time so they switched over to the dark side I guess. Oh well, it's really fun doing it as a bunch of girls too. We've had a few practices and really have it down. We perform it next Saturday and I'll see about getting someone to video record it. I keep telling them to watch Michael Jackson's video because I just can't do some of the moves as well with this big belly in the way. In fact this coming Monday (after the kids are in bed) we are meeting at one of their houses to watch the Thriller video and "13 Going on 30" while putting together our zombie costumes. I'm bringing my sewing machine, fabric glue, and gobs of Gothic fabric and trims and we'll be cutting up and dragging our costumes through the mud and adding to the clothes we've bought to be zombies. Sounds like most have picked out nasty 80's prom dresses. Mine is a big white dress that I hope to use double task as Frankenstein's Bride for Halloween night since Seth is going to be Frankie this year. It wont look like the original Frankenstein's bride, but a weird sort-of pregnant Gothic bride. I hope that by making my hair all crazy up and sprayed black with a white stripe people will get the idea.

It's nice to find some people who like to have fun in the same geeky way I do. Whenever I think about what we are doing and how excited we all are about this Thriller dance, I can't help but remember my group of friends from LA that I took a car trip to Arizona with a year and a half ago dressed up for a vampire prom. Then I always hear in my head Mr. Bennett (from Pride and Prejudice- speaking of his daughter Lydia) say something to the effect of that she will never have a problem making friends as silly as she is because she always makes such a spectacle of herself where ever she goes. I haven't lived here as long as I did in LA and since moving here I have either been working or trying to get through a rough pregnancy making me fairly anti-social. With all of that of course I have not made as good as friends with people as I did in LA, but still it's nice to have let myself out of the bag enough to make a "spectacle of myself" and have the beginnings of some "silly friends".

Well- maybe another one...

I know. I know. I said I wasn't going to post more of my Halloween book, but one more can't hurt. :) This illustration is harmless enough, but the words that go with it much grosser (if that's even a word). Maybe I will post a few more as Halloween gets closer. It's kinda fun and mysterious to not know what's going on in them- like my little secret or something. Okay so a few people have seen my rough drafts of words from this summer, but mostly my little secret. Maw-HahaHA.

tsk... tsk... That Naughty Alice

This innocent looking little girl is not quite so innocent after all. :) This is one of my paintings for my "little" Halloween project I began a month or two ago. The bottom half has some lovely little words that I took out to post on here. I thought I'd just show my painting. It doesn't give too much away. I was going to post a page/painting every day starting at the first of October as a count down for Halloween for fun, but have changed my mind. It's turning into a really lovely/morbid book and I think I might just try to submit it to some publishers. I hope writing that doesn't jinx myself. I like low pressure. Art for the sake of art. If I feel that I am on time constraints or people counting on me than I get all freaky and back away, but this project has made me so unbelievably happy that if I could get it published it would make me even more happy to feel like others would enjoy it too. I'll understand if no publishers are interested because it's more for the age of little kids, but at the same time has become too macabre to get many parents interested to buy for their children. This "Alice" painting is probably the most tame of all 27. I can't get myself to tone this book down at all. I feel that's where its charm lies. ~sigh~ I think now it will only appeal to those who like Tim Burton. So grown ups who are kids at heart, are a little twisted and like things playfully dark. If no publishers are interested by next Halloween I'll post them as a count down by then- sound good? It just wouldn't be a good idea to post my words, illustrations, and ideas if it were to actually be considered. Wish me luck. I've never tried anything like this before.

Songs from this summer

Well it's hard not to feel a little silly posting this, but I've decided to try to not feel dumb anyway. I guess the other videos of me singing or with my guitar have been messing around with my kids and it's a little weird to show these videos of me just by myself. I keep thinking things like, "huh, do I really do that with my lips when I sing?" Anyway, here's a fun song by Ingrid Michaelson called "The Way I Am," that I figured out this summer. I play it almost like a bass guitar and tap the guitar at the bottom with my hand to give it some percussion. (Ignore the vibrating of my low E string that needs to be replaced. :)

This second song is by Brandi Carlile and is called "The Story". I love how she sings softly and then gets really loud at points. I tried to do that a bit, but I guess I'm more of a folky singer than a rocker. :) I've been really into Sondre Lerche as well, but he's so amazing on the guitar I'm not brave enough to show my versions of his songs.

Ahhh- Life returing to normal.

It's been a terribly long time since I've posted anything on here because I've been absolutely boring. :) Long story short, this pregnancy turned out to be so much worse than I had anticipated even when I was as morning sick as my last post 3 months ago. After needing to be hospitalized with an enormous blood clot and severe dehydration and bed rest with I.V. I am happy to say I feel pretty normal now! For a while all I did was lay in bed and read or play the guitar. I haven't felt like painting and or sewing. Since this is my projects blog, the only project I've been working on is our little baby- which we now know is another fun girly!!! I guess I could post one of the new songs I've learned on the guitar. hmmm- yah maybe.

Well just know that I'm not dead and now that I'm feeling better there's some fun stuff to post soon. I've been working on a Halloween surprise the last 2 weeks. Come on, you know me- Halloween excitement starts in August. I wont have it finished anywhere near the point that I'd like for this Halloween, but I'll post what I've got as it gets closer to normal Halloween time and hope to have it all completed next year. It's actually a pretty big project with 26 separate paintings. I'm just glad I feel like being creative again.


Here's how you know that I'm really doing better.... on September 6th I'm going to be teaching my neighborhood how to do the Thriller dance so we can perform it in a big talent show Oct. 18th dressed up like zombies. I have to teach them in Sept because the try outs are the 12th of Sept. I just know we'll get it the talent show though. It's going to be so awesome if we get a big crowd. I've talked with about a dozen people about my idea and they are all excited so I figured why not invite everyone. I made invitations yesterday and reserved a gym to teach them in and will pass out those invites Tuesday and Wednesday to 100 neighbors or so. If I get a big enough crowd I'll host a Utah event for "Thrill the World". They are trying to break a Guinness Book of World Record for the most people dancing the same dance at one time (Thriller of course). It's scheduled for October 25th at 10am our time here, but no one has volunteered to head it up for Utah. I figure if I'm already teaching a bunch of people, I might as well host an event for here. Check out the website here. There's information for where different events are held all over the world and how to get a hold of that person hosting it. Also there's videos that very easily break down the dance for you to learn. I'm pretty excited in a very typical, me geeky way. Email me if you live nearby and want to learn the Thriller. :)

An Addition to the Family

Presenting "Princess Buttercup" the newest member of our family. (The name might not stick- we are also trying out Pepper Pots, Fire Cat, and Sarah- but the girls seem to like Princess Buttercup the most) She was born about two months ago and has 5 siblings. Yesterday we got the call from our friend that their kittens were old enough now for us to come get one and so we rushed right over. The girls picked her out and named her.
They were so excited and spent all evening playing with her. She has a very comfy bed and a blankie that Kendyl (our blankie expert) was sure she'd love and you guessed it. She spent a little bit of time in it, but when it was time for bed she would have nothing to do with it and slept on Seth's head and neck all night. :) It's just a little ironic since Seth was fairly adamant before we got her that she would sleep and have her litter box down in the basement in the storage room and here she was, two floors above the basement sleeping on him all night. hehehe (I may have enjoyed that too much)

Okay so we have more news than that. Actually bigger news!

AaaaaaHHHHHhhhhhHHHh! :) We're a little over two months along!!!! So of course I am spending a lot of time with this....

I'm actually not as sick this time as with both my girls, but still pretty sick. You know, maybe throwing up a few times a day instead of a few times an hour. (I know, too much information) So, we are thinking maybe it's a boy or else my body is older and doesn't go through the same amount of trauma. Hopefully it wont last for 7 to 8 months like my other pregnancies. Keep your fingers crossed. :) Anyway, this is why I've been MIA for a while and will probably be for a while more. I'm just doing all I can to try and let this baby grow inside me and make a meal every once in a while for the kids (and cute man) that are already here.

Baptism Dress and more...

I finished it... well almost. I still need to hem up the underneath layer and add the horse hair to the lining to make it a better finish, but I was too excited once I tried it on her that I yanked her into the bathroom, played with her hair and made her go outside so I could snap lots of pictures. (phew- what a run-on sentence!)

Here is the front and the back

And here are some pictures of detail on her dress. Embroidering all those little pearls and crystals on her sleeves to make little viney flowers took almost as long as sewing the rest of the dress, but it's one of my favorite parts- so I feel it was worth it. I actually really enjoy doing embroidery work though I understand it drives some people nuts and they think I'm nuts if I go to the work to do it. For me, it's fun. I added a tulle (tutu material) slip to push out her dress just a touch in between her lining slip and her silk underskirt (that is just below the organza black viney layer). The waist has a beautiful silver and black trim with embroidery through it of flowers and vines and we added the little pearl broach to the center.

I'm so happy with how it turned out and I'm happy for her that she has made this decision for her life. It has taken her a while to decide if she wanted to get baptized. She told us last spring that she wasn't going to get baptized if she wasn't sure that the church was true. We were proud of her for wanting to think for herself and we told her that it was her choice and we wouldn't pressure her one way or the other, but gave her advice for studying it out for herself to find her testimony. So since then she has been reading the Book of Mormon on her own every night and with us and she has been writing in her journal things she learns and praying to know if it is true. I'm happy to have a child so determined to find truth for herself. I told her I'd make her a pretty dress for her 8th birthday no matter what. :) I'm happy she has received her witness. That will be a strength to her all her life.

On a much lighter note... our littler one decided she needed a fancy dress. Would you believe the girls sewed this? I helped in places, but the two of them designed it with the scraps of other projects.

It was cute to see Makenzie cutting out the bodice in the shape of what you would draw on a stick figure for a shirt. She asked me to sew up the side and top of the arms. Then Kendyl picked out other fabric and said how she wanted it layered. She even designed a puffy silk part along the waist like a princess dress. She found some scraps from our vampire dresses and tried to sew an apron into it which is completely crooked and starts in the middle of the dress and ends near the back. One girl would push the peddle below and the other would guide the fabric and then they would switch places. I would help guide their hands and shout for the peddle pusher to start and stop. Kendyl also cut out an old bratz valentine and attached it to the front of her dress completing the disney store look. All she needed was a parasol and tiara and she was ready for a night on the town. :) Fancy!

This dress took about 20 minutes to make- which is a very nice alternative to how long Makenzie's took. :)

Hooray for Mommy-Daughter-Dates, Girly Movies, and Art!

Our family absolutely adores this movie. I think I adore it even more than my girls if that's possible. We went and saw it in the theater and couldn't wait until it came out on DVD.
This is a picture from my favorite part in the movie when she sings to him in Central Park. She is simply delightful to watch.



Here are some of the drawings my girls did after watching the movie. They loved it so much they sat right down and began drawing. Kendyl had a stash of stickers that she added to hers. She said Gissell was dressed up for a birthday party.
Makenzie drew her favorite part of the movie where Gissell had cut his curtains and made a dress. You can see the material cut out.

Anyway, we had a mommy-daughter date where we watched this movie and played with scrapbook paper. I haven't ever tried scrapbooking before, but I love all the yummy paper and so sometimes I just buy it and have a stock pile of it. My girls like to get into it with me- like when we made our little journals. Actually Kendyl didn't make a journal that night so she did with me the other day and here's a photo of that.

Here's what I did while we watched Enchanted. My Relief Society needed some binders for the role, announcements, sign up sheets, etc. I couldn't just let them be plain white binders- so I got out my paper, scissors, and glue and made these. One binder goes to Primary, another to Young Women and 3 go to Relief Society because the room is split into 3 sections of chairs and that way they all get around.

It's fun to spend time with these cute girls and create stuff. I love to see what they come up with. I wish we could just do this kind of stuff instead of chores. I'm looking forward to summer when I get them more. We have plans for a science day, cooking day, craft day/art, and swimming the other two days of the week. They have been making a "family camp" plan for me to submit to. I must add that I am cheerfully submitting. :) I want to invite others to join in the neighborhood though. I think that would be lots of fun and a good way to use up our summer.

And the winner is...

Melissa- from back in Wymount days! Sorry I didn't post yesterday. We did the drawing at Seth's parents' house last night (aka the brothel to some of you - hahaha don't ask). Anyway, we didn't get home til late and then I forgot about it until now. Sorry. Well Melissa. I'm so excited to send you the painting. Use my email link and email me your address. I'll get it to you really quick. Sorry to the rest of you guys that didn't win. I can't feel too bad because you did have really good chances. 1 in 13 (since Seth didn't need one and James (aka Brittany) wrote two comments). Thanks for all your support with my art. It really does help!

My Painting for Janelle

This isn't a post of who the winner is from my post below. I'll post that on Sunday. It is the design I was waiting to post until I had given it to my friend. This design is inspired by the dress that my friend Janelle bought to wear for after her sealing ceremony. I framed it and gave it to her tonight when we were out to dinner. Her husband (Nate), herself, and her son (Bart- Makenzie's age and buddy) took our whole family out to dinner to The Melting Pot for one of the most delicious dinners we've had. We were there over 3 hours eating and talking and having such a great time (and the kids did great- so that was wonderful- yeah for older children). If you haven't gone there and you've got some major cash to blow I highly recommend it. DELICIOUS! Thank you Nate and Janelle!
So anyway, about the design. It's the first I've ever done in photoshop and I feel like I totally cheated and loved it. Fun to try new things I guess. I have a few other designs I want to try in photoshop that could coordinate with this particular design. I sketched the flowers etc. and put marks on it of where I'd place black, scanned it, and colored it in photoshop. It took a total of 30- 40 minutes. Way quicker than my paintings that take days and days. Janelle's dress is black and white like this with tropical flowers and has fuchsia colored satin ribbon along the bottom and across the top part of the bodice. It's so cute. I can't wait to see her in it. :) I studied her dress to figure out how to make this kind of a pattern. I wanted to make it similar to her dress for her specifically, but now have other ideas in mind to make it more my own. So those will be fun to make. Also, it goes along with my tropical thinking lately, not to mention I've been really in love (secretly) with this shade of pink since about last summer.
Well there you go Janelle. :)

Happy 100th Post

I'm actually pretty proud of myself for reaching 100 posts on this blog because that means I finished 100 projects (paintings, sewing projects, decorating things, playing songs on my guitar, cross-stitches, crafts with my girls, big school event things, etc.) I use to never finish projects! I use to never feel brave enough to show my art to ANYONE- even Seth. I didn't even draw or paint hardly at all for about 8 or 9 years (shortly after meeting Seth and becoming majorly intimidated of him - no matter how much he encouraged me) ;).

So here is a compilation of the 40 paintings I've done since starting this blog. I'm excited to see what my compilation will look like at 200 posts. What will happen in my life by that point. Maybe I'll be brave enough to try and sell some of it... nah. :) But to celebrate I want to give away a copy of one of my paintings. Any one of them. You choose. Just put your name in the comments and tell which one you'd like. Go ahead, anyone put your name in- even if I don't know you and you are a lurker. It's okay with me. :) Hopefully this wont be embarrassing and I discover only a few people look at it. I guess that would be okay, because mostly I'm just happy to have 40 paintings done and see the progress I've made. Last day for putting your name in will be Sat. April 12th and I'll post on the 13th who wins.

Tropical Themed Painting

Well, here's a painting that's not for any sort of art challenge, but just because I seem to be thinking about tropical things lately :) and spring. Today my daffodils offically opened all the way and it's very exciting. This is my first garden since getting married and it is beginning to bloom. I feel so blessed and happy to see what will come up next. I spend an hour out there several times a week pulling weeds, trimming roses, clearing the ground, etc. It's so fun and reminds me of my momma. I'll post pics of my garden I'm sure as I get more progress done, but for now here are some of my daffodils.

Someone has got to stop me...

Well, I'm addicted. :) I can't stop myself from making these cute snowflakes. I wanted to make a few for my classroom door at school in January for a decoration and I just can't stop. It's so fun to wonder what each one will turn out like... I fold... cut randomly... hold my breath as I unfold it... and wallah... each one is beautiful and unique and I can't believe I could make something so pretty without trying. :) Sure, as you make a few you understand a little more what to do to get what sort of effect, but it still surprises you in the end and is so serendipitous. Here's a few...

They were hanging and dangling and taped all over my classroom and now I have taken them home to dangle here. (I have now put up Saint Patrick's Day decorations that I made and will put up some Easter stuff shortly in my classroom). In case you want to know how to make such splendid snowflakes, here's a guide. (The yellow snowflake isn't so pretty, but it's a good simple design to teach you how).

btw- you can also use coffee filters and fold them up to cut.

Here's a fun website that you can make snowflakes with online. http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/ or click here. It's quicker and just as pretty, you just don't get to keep them in the end. :)

Probably because of all these snowflakes around here the weather has decided to become chilly and stormy again, just when the snow was melting and looking close to spring. This is what I saw from my backdoor two days ago. Isn't that incredible? It was so cool to see that storm coming in on such a pretty day? I guess I better make some kites or butterflies or something to dangle from my entry way balcony to entice warmer weather. :)

Thankful Journal

Well I finally did it! I've had plans for making this since November. I was going to start at the first of the year and that came and went, so what better day to start it than today (March 2nd). The girls and I messed around with paper, glue, ribbon, markers, and cardboard last night for a few hours and made our own creations. Makenzie wanted to make a journal like me and Kendyl wanted to make a "shooting heart" and an "ornament". What fun. The way this "Thankful Journal" works is that every day for a year I will record a few words of what I was thankful for that day. Emily Falconbridge thought it up and made one of her own that you can check out here and my friend Kristen made one too that you can check out here. It's a fun simple idea and easy to keep up with. A lot easier than a painting a week I'll bet, but I'd still like to keep painting. :)

Anyway, here's how mine turned out. Here's the front and inside the cover. I just glued it all together not really knowing what I was doing, but so happy trying something new.

Here's what all of our creations look like together. Kendyl's "shooting heart" is the gold creation protruding from the top and her ornament is that paper wiggly-squiggly creation on the left. Makenzie's journal is to the very most right and I thought she was quite inventive to make a clasp to keep it shut with that cute polka-dot paper. They are resting against our "Tinkerbell lamp". It's this cool lamp that opens up and we've filled with little paper slips of "happy thought" memories. Seth and I started filling it up when we were first married so it has memories from dating all the way to our crazy kids. It's fun to look through together sometimes.

Here's our cute Makenzie writing in hers today. She wrote last night too. She was so happy as she was making it and writing in it today. She kept telling me how fun it was to be creative and that I was being like her Aunt Kristie who always makes neat cards and sends them to us. Sweet girl.

Anyway, I'm excited about this new journal. I think it's a beautiful gift to be thankful and probably one you have to work diligently for. What a great idea to end each day thinking about how the Lord has blessed you and what you are thankful for. I feel it's very important. President Eyring gave a great talk last conference called, "Oh Remember, Remember" and I feel this journal is a spin off of his counsel. I've attached a link to his talk here. Read it. It's wonderful. Go ahead and make your own journals too. It's so fun.