Makenzie's Baptism Dress

Okay Kristen, here is the fabric that I called you about while I was in the fabric store today. For everyone else... you are looking at the fabric that will become Makenzie's baptism dress(not what she will be baptized in of course, but the dress she'll wear after in celebration of such a great event in her life). The underneath fabric is a shantung and the skirt part will have this organza black finished lace fabric over it. The bodice and sleeves will be the shantung with regular white sheerish organza over it. I haven't quite decided all the embellishments yet and trim, but the beads are for the embroidery work I'm going to do on the bodice.

Here's a closer look at her dress. Sorry if it's still hard to read. You can look up the pattern online. It's McCall's 4286. It's the dress to the left. I love the one to the right, but it's a bit fancy- more a wedding reception- flower girl dress I think. Anyway, I love the flowy airiness of this dress and it's sweet empire waist and slightly poofed sleeves. It feels Jane Austin-ish to me.

When I finish the dress I'll have her pose in it and post it to here. Of course I can't even get to this dress until I finish a series of books I'm reading (which should only take a few more days) and get my house back in order from our lovely vacation to LA. I should probably switch the order of those things to get done, but I most likely wont. :) Her baptism is still 2 months away so I'm not too stressed. "Still 2 months away"!!! Can you believe my little baby is so big? Already 8. Before you know it I'll be sewing her wedding dress. Oh dear, now I have to stop typing. For some reason my computer screen is all blurry. Waaahhhaaa haaa.

Week 49: Time Flies

Emily's Challenge for week 49 was "Time Flies" and boy does it ever. Time has flown from when my girls were babies and I would sing to them at night. (Okay so we still do that, but they aren't babies anymore.) :) Time has flown from when Seth and I got married 8 1/2 years ago. Time has flown from when we were dating and in college.

I remember taking a trip in college and visiting my friend Katie's house and listening to her dad (David Golden) play the guitar for hours while we sung along. This is the way she grew up and I knew that was the way I wanted to raise my kids too. So I decided to learn the guitar. I practiced a few chords and the next trip we took he taught us a very special song he wrote the music and set to that old dutch lullaby/poem "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" by Eugene Field. (My absolute favorite) It's so beautiful and magical and I knew I wanted to learn his version the best I could. I learned it from him when I barely knew anything on the guitar so please don't judge the song by how I play and sing. If only you could hear him. He's an amazing musician and such an incredible person as well. I was so blessed to spend time in their wonderful, loving home. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing the song here. Any credit should be given to him, except for much more because he'd play it much better for you than me. :)

I play this song for my girls all the time. They know the words even though in the video Kendyl is more interested in showing her gum to the camera than singing every word, but she's such a cutie, what can you do? We're mostly just messing around in the video, but you get the idea. It's nice to me though because it's just how it sounds in our home instead of being professional. Might remind some of you of another video Kendyl and I made singing together almost two years ago...

I made plans 10 years ago to make a painting for this poem and made sketches etc., but didn't feel confident enough to complete anything. It was so special to me I was worried about making a painting that couldn't show how much I love this poem. Well, with this challenge I wanted to try and I think it's safe to say I spent the most time on this painting than I have on any of them in this challenge. I'm happy with how it turned out so all the time put into it was worth it. I'm so thankful I can express myself with art and music. It makes me happy and it's wonderful that I don't have to be the best artist or musician to find joy in it.

Something so interesting about planning out my painting was looking through my notes and my sketches. Back in college I had known I wanted Wynken to be the oldest with long brown hair that would have a caring personality sitting back amazed at all she was seeing and be holding a baby. I knew I wanted Blynken to be more of a curious nature with shorter blondish hair and holding a lantern that she had stuffed a star into that was lighting their way. Blynken had the personality of touching everything around her to experience it all whereas Wynken was happiest seeing it all play before her. The baby Nod I knew I wanted to be a little boy in green in his big sister's arms and feeling safe and close to her. I spent hours thinking about this in college and felt like I really knew these little characters. I have pages and pages of notes and sketches, so much that I had to put them all in a folder. Now as I looked over these 10 years later I realize that Wynken looks and is so much like Makenzie, Blynken is Kendyl, and Makenzie is holding a baby Nod...... no we aren't pregnant. :) Did I get you? :) I'm just pretending we are for the painting. hehehe But maybe we have a little Nod waiting. :) That's what our joke is anyway. (btw- the blue polka-dot fabric around it was Makenzie's idea and a nice touch too- thanks kiddo) :)

So here we are... a blink later, when actually it's been 10 years, with a painting finally done and two kids that sing along with us at night. Time sure flies....

New Sunday Dresses!

A few weeks ago while going through some fabric I found a little plastic bag of this cute embroidered corduroy material that I had already cut out to make simple little jumpers for my girls. I had cut the material and the lining and never sewed them together. I remember doing this a year ago last December when we were still in LA and thinking I would whip those out before Christmas. I guess I stuffed it away and never got it out again. Thankfully I cut the pieces too large and so now it fit the girls perfectly this year. :) Anyway, I set up my little machine downstairs and watched "Stardust" with Kendyl one day last week and sewed the pieces together during the movie. I'm so use to things taking weeks and weeks because I don't get inspired to sew unless it's something extravagant and complicated, that it was so fun sitting down and creating something new just during the time of a movie. I may have to do more simple little projects like this. I had fun looking at them during church and thinking to myself that I made those cute dresses for them. It's nice to see my handiwork more than just once a year at Halloween. :)

Merry Christmas Seth

Well I finished it and here it is. I killed two birds with one stone so to speak. I knew I wanted to paint a sweet nativity for Emily's challenge for week 29:Define perfection. Also I wanted to make Seth a painting for Christmas. We have a favorite Christmas book with the most lovely illustrations. I study it all season long trying to figure out the illustrator's techniques and then we put it back in a box not to be able to enjoy for 11 more months. In the book is a wonderful two page painting that we love and I decided that I would make a little miniature version of it to be able to practice some of the illustrators techniques but also so that Seth wouldn't have to wait till the end of November to enjoy the serene nativity scene again. I only wish I was as good as Jason Cockcroft. :) I found this really cool frame. It's intricately wood carved design reminds you of something a carpenter would make eh? I was so happy to see Seth love it so much. It is now displayed in his art studio on one of the shelves for the computer desk area beside a pirate head and under Jack Skellington. Very nice. :) Isn't Seth's annual beard just lobery? He grows this every year around this time. It began in college when he'd go home for winter break and the roommates would see who could grow the best beard by the time they got back. 10 years later he is still doing it, only now he's competing with my leg hairs. hahaha. Makenzie has decided that he grows it this time of year because he wants to be like Santa. She may be right.

Week 32: Quiet

Week 32's art journal challenge was "quiet". There's nothing like the morning after it has snowed through the night. It is the most beautiful quiet I can think of, well except the wonderful quiet that you have when babies are sleeping. Oh blessed moments! Although my girls are older and don't take naps, I can still remember the relief of when they were younger and were down for a nap. ahhhhhhHHHhhhh. I set up this snowman the way I did and used the colors and border and style for the same feel as my other two Christmas paintings I have made this year. Just for fun here they are all together. The Santa one is actually the same size as my other two, but to have it be the same height I enlarged it. All my paintings are on small little 4x6 inch water color post cards.

I'm about to get some quiet around here in just a minute. I'm stalling putting my little chiquitas to bed so I can post this, but after I get them down I'm starting a new little painting that's a surprise for my hubby for Christmas. I couldn't find a perfect gift for him for some reason. I found a few nice things that I got for him, but I also wanted something perfect and I refused to spend more money unless it was something great. Why spend money just to spend it because you feel like you are "suppose" to have a certain number of presents? I hope my painting turns out the way I want it to and that he will love it. I'm sure he'd love what his sister gave her hubby for Christmas more, but this is a little more economical and definitely from my heart.

Merry Christmas!

A Sweet Little Note...

"Mrs. Hippen,

You can still be funny because all the kids in our class will laugh. Because it's funny and kids like when stuff's funny. Everyone like you. All the kids like each other."



Is that not the cutest note? It was a Christmas present from one of my preschool students. I have it out in the open and have read it at least a dozen times since she gave it to me on Monday. It's true that I'm a complete lunatic with the kids and love to make them laugh. Her note basically meant to me that she has fun in class, that she feels loved and safe and has a class full of friends.

Week 31: No Regrets

Emily's week 31 challenge way back in August was titled "No Regrets" and I knew then what I wanted to make and began sketching it out, but got frustrated with it and erased it and didn't go back to it until yesterday morning. No regrets.... well, first of all I have no regrets about putting a halt on my career for beginning my family. I find a lot of joy and fulfilment in teaching, but even more in teaching as a mom. I have loved being home with my little kiddos and wouldn't have given it up for anything.

This year since my youngest is preschool age I have begun teaching at a very wonderful preschool (just not the same class that my little one is in) for a few hours 3 times a week. It was quite the adjustment having a strict schedule again and planning etc., but the rewards followed as well. So the other thing I have no regrets about is starting teaching again. Oh sometimes I gripe or it's hard to work things out if my kids are sick, but for the most part it's been so wonderful. Of my 12 students only one could sound out 3 letter words the first week of school, now 4 1/2 months later 11 of my 12 students are reading! More lovely than that, they follow direction, adore me (which is wonderful), and share with me the most delightful stories about their lives and their families which I'm sure would make their parents cringe some days.

I see so much potential in those sweet little stinkers. My biggest goal is that they will feel loved and feel what I see in them so that even if they have failures it wont sting. I hope they will believe deep down that if they keep trying, whatever it is that they are trying, than they will have success and I hope beyond hope that they will feel they can do anything and not be afraid to try. We outlawed the words, "I can't" at the beginning of the year. We had a funeral and everything for that nasty phrase. I have taught them to replace it with the words, "I'll try." When they remember to say, "I'll try" when they feel frustrated they almost start giggling because they know I will jump around the room cheering for them for trying. I expect a great deal of these little 4 and 5 year olds and they are accomplishing great things. What a blessing it has been to teach in a classroom again and see how much they've grown.

Yup, no regrets! (I just wish teachers were valued more monetarily) :)

Week 44: Home

Emily's challenge was "home" for week 44 and I have to say I was quite charmed by her sweet little bird picture she used and wanted to put a bird on mine too. So here it is....

I've been having so much fun day dreaming about what we'll do with this place. It's a slow process, but I'm glad that we have an art studio now. That is so fun for me. Since I was a kid I wanted my own room for art and now I have one and I get to share it with an amazing artist who inspires (and sometimes intimidates) me. Last week I left my mark in there and it makes me happy. Here's some pics of the mark I left. :)

I decided to hang all my little paintings from this year in the corner where the drafting table is. I had a bit of ribbon and some small little clothes pins, but had so many paintings I had to use old hair clips of the girls that are too small for their thicker big girl hair. I must admit it makes me quite happy to look at these paintings and remember what has happened this last year in the most unigue journal I've ever kept (and believe me, I've filled a lot of journals- around 20).

Curly or Frizzy?

So.... I woke up this morning to my hair looking like this and I can't figure out if it's just frizzy or if it really looks curly. I went straight to bed after a bath and put a towel over my pillow and wrapped it up so it would dry. I guess I usually fall asleep way after my hair has dried, but anyway, this is what happened. I was very surprised to see curls. My hair has always been straight except when I tried a few unsightly perms back in the day. Maybe I'm just excited and hopeful they are curls when really it's just frizzy. That's why I need your help to tell me if I should leave the house looking like this. :) Thanks.

P.S. Sorry the pic is super geeky.

Week 46 and 47

woo woo. I'm naked! :0) My first nudie painting. hehe Week 46's theme to do an art challenge around was "Rejuvination" and Week 47's theme is "Happy Place". This is exactly how I give back to myself and fill up my little "mommy store" so I can have energy and patience to keep going. It is my happy place as well so I thought I'd combine the two since I was behind and they go hand in hand for me. (Other happy places are the beach, the temple, cozy by a fireplace with a good book... so if I have time after I'm all caught up more on these challenges than I'll do one of those, but for now this'll work.) Wanted to try a different sort of face shape and style, but feel I look a little Latina. It's fun, but just doesn't look too much like me. That's okay though, it's good to try new stuff.

I LOVE bubble baths! I could take them everyday. It is how I cope and move on. I grab a good book, sometimes light candles, fill it up with salts, bubbles, oil, whatever yummy smelling stuff I've got and soak and soak and soak. Sometimes I set up a small tv/vcr in there and watch movies. It's ridiculous how much I love baths. When we lived in our ity bity house in LA the bathroom was so small it couldn't fit a tub. I had no bath for 2 years and I thought I would go crazy some days. It's so fun to have a jetted tub in my new home. I get quite a lot of use out of it, as do my girls. :)

Week 28 and 39

Well I combined these into one post even though the weeks between were spread so far apart. I'm playing catch-up. I feel like I go in cycles of creativity. I've just got bit again by the painting bug when before that it was the decorating bug and before that the sewing bug. Okay so anyway, about the art challenges, that is what this post is suppose to be about anyway right?

Week 28 was "Goal of the Week". So I'm totally cheating, but I figure it's okay to if I admit it. The truth is that I really just wanted to paint a little Christmas tree and use glitter and get into my hubby's gold leafing. :) So I pretended that my goal of the week was to get my Christmas tree up. (It's embarrassing to admit, but we put our tree up two weeks before Thanksgiving- gasp! I know, poor Thanksgiving. ) So I guess my goal of the week was to pretend to need to put the Christmas tree up. There, that sounds legit.

Week 39: "Someone Spesh" Well since it's Christmasy time and I'm pretty sure that's why the painting bug bit me I painted a picture of Santa Claus. I'd certainly say he's special, wouldn't you? Since I had so much fun with Seth's gold leafing I used it again (on the star and bells on his hat and scarf). Don't you just like his beard? :) It makes me happy to look at it. I love those little swirls. Seth had the great idea to have the shape of the beard mimic his hat but go the opposite direction. I had made a slightly different shape to a beard and I'm so glad I changed it. I'm married to such a smarty pants. :)

Well I'm off to probably catch up some more while I'm in the mood. This is sure fun. Actually no, I just looked at the clock and realized I'm an idiot and I'm going to bed. Tomorrow (oops, I mean today, but when the sun comes up) I'll paint more I'm sure since I don't have to work, but first I better tidy up the house so I don't feel icky all day. It must be late because I'm writing down my thoughts. Ok, goodnight before I write something even more dumb. Like that.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Emily's challenge for week 30 was "Not Anymore". With my children being 4 and 7, I don't have any babies anymore. I cannot turn back the clock and have my growing big girls be so little again. It makes me realize how much I need to cherish my time with them at this age because that is slipping quickly just like the time of when they were babies. It seems to be slipping even faster. That's why I have so much fun keeping our family blog and my own family journals so I can record and remember the wonderful and stinkery things they do.
I've always LOVED LOVED LOVED grandfather clocks. When I was a little girl my dad and I would look up grandfather clocks in catalogs and day dream about making our own in his garage. I was sure we were going to, just as I am sure I will get to it eventually. :) For many years I've imagined making a little painting of the "Hickory Dickory Dock" nursery rhyme using a grandfather clock. I'm glad I've finally done it. It makes me want to paint some of the other nursery rhymes I've loved like, "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". I guess keep your eyes out for those. They may be coming (depending on how long I continue to be baby hungry) :). Don't be surprised if my next paintings are Christmasy though.

Last Installment of Thankfulness (for now)

V- Vacations- glorious vacations! Vacuums- although I love them more in the hands of my husband. Vampires- only the good kind like Edward and his "family" or else my family in our Halloween costumes. I'm thankful for VanDyke's too. :)
W- Wishing Wells, Wishing Stars, Wish Bones, Wishing on candles, Wishing on eye lashes, etc. I'm also thankful for the Weekend! I love playing and catching up on Saturdays and I love resting and going to church and eating Sunday dinner with Seth's family on Sundays!
X- Okay so it's going to sound obvious and dumb because it's the only X word in our language- well practically :) but I'm thankful for X-rays because we are going to the dentist this morning and so our girls will be getting x-rays of all their lovely Halloween candy cavities. I guess you would think I wouldn't be grateful for that, but you'd be wrong. I don't blame the X rays. I blame that darn capitalism-candy combo that I love so much.
Y- My YARD! Hooray, there are such things as yards in other places. It's amazing to realize after living in LA, but we have a yard. And not just one! It's true... we have 2! And you can run around in them and plant flowers and mow them.
Z- zzzzZZZZZzzzzz- I'm thankful when I can get some of those!

This has been fun for me. In all seriousness though, I feel so blessed and too often over look all the things to be thankful for. I have begun to realize that the past few months I have been spending too much time thinking of things that I want instead of things that I'm thankful for. It's interesting because we have been blessed to be able to buy a house. We have been saving and hoping for that for our entire marriage. We have lived in places smaller than my family/kitchen combined and been utterly happy with a bed that comes out of a wall into the middle of a family room or a bedroom so tiny and narrow we had to buy bunk beds to fit two kids in there. Now that we have a bigger space most of my thoughts have been how much I "need" to fill it with wonderful furniture, more toys, decorations, etc. My thoughts have turned from grateful to selfish. Isn't that interesting... that the more I've had the easier it has been for me to want more instead of realizing how blessed I've been? Well I'm glad I caught myself, so I can change things around. The blessings that I've always had no matter what I've had around me are still the same and that could make anyone happy if they would realize it and think upon it. We live in a beautiful world created by loving creator. We have a Father in Heaven who created us in His image and loves us and hears our prayers and answers them. We have His Son, who loves us, came to earth to show us the way, and gave his life for us. We have the Holy Ghost, our free agency, our talents, trials to humble us and help us, repentance, and an ultimate potential in each of us. We have scriptures, our families, the temple, the gospel, a prophet, beautiful sunsets, oceans, mountains, trees, pretty leaves and flowers, snow, and beautiful people who inspire beautiful things and reflect the goodness from whom they were created. These are all things we have no matter where we live or how we live. Maybe these are too tender of feelings for this type of forum and I have to admit that it's easier to be silly than sincere, but I feel I want to share my feelings of gratitude to any who would want to read it. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Life.

Thankful List part 4

Q- My Queeny Tiaras. I love my little collection of tiaras that I wear around the house while I clean or cook or just because. I know it's super nerdy, but what can I say, I like sparkly things.
R- Rainbows and radio active spiders that bite and then the comic books and movies about that guy the spider bit.
S- Seth of course and my scriptures.
T- Temple Blessings- I stole that one from Heidi. Too good not to use. Although I'm very thankful for tax returns as well.
U- Ok so the only u word that's coming into my head is unleavened bread and I'm not exactly thankful enough for that to use so I don't know... Oh wait- The United States! Yes, I'm super thankful to live in the United States with all my wonderful freedoms that have been fought and preserved. Gracious- how in the world could I have forgotten that?

Well only V,W,X,Y,Z and I'll be ready for Thanksgiving dinner!

My Classroom Thanksgiving Decorations

I thought I'd post pictures of some of the things I made for my class for Thanksgiving since we went ahead and moved straight onto Christmas in my house. (sheepish giggle)

I have a section of wall that I change each month for the season or holiday that month and so here's a picture of the little veggies and leaves I drew and cut out and glued to create a little border which I am pleased to say only took about 20 minutes to make. I was surprised by that. :)

The turkey is something I created while the kids were doing seat work one day after reading my friend Kristen's idea of making a Thankful Turkey. I went around asking the kids their favorite color and what they were thankful for. I saved room on the other side of the turkey for the other teacher who teaches in my classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My favorite thankfuls are "dinosaurs" and "turkey". I thought those were so cute. Of course being thankful for moms and dads are wonderful, I would want my kids to say that, but I loved the kids that were thankful for more random things. I put it on the front of my classroom door so when parents wait for class to get out they could read what their kids said.