Chevron Quilt

The Reunion charms, cut into triangles, made into chevrons, quilt top is finished! Yeah!!! Thanks to LittleBuddy for holding it up for me to take a picture. It kind of reminds me of a Rocky Mountain quilt too - see the green grassy mountains at the bottom and the sunset streaked mountains of red and yellow at the top. I owe the idea for the pattern to the CluckCluckSew blog. I won't get to keep working on the rest of it for a while, but I like all phases of quilting so that just means more fun to look forward to.

From a Deck of Cards

I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew that I had the perfect set of cards for this project. . . ones with a beautiful mountain scene on them from Colorado. 

 It happens to be his birthday today and because he isn't home to celebrate, I wanted to think of a small but meaningful gift so he knows how much he's missed.  He packed 12 days worth of clothes in a carry-on (I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it) so I knew I had to make something small. On the side where the numbers and suits are, you cover with a piece of scrapbook paper, and then you could write or, I obviously typed, the reasons why you love someone. I used five different papers for varieties sake.

I put it in this little homemade fabric bag because I thought wrapping paper would get destroyed in his suitcase. I didn't take a photo of it, but when I gave it to him, the top of this bag was held closed with a yellow round paper clip. . . remember those?

He called tonight and said he loved it though he'd only read the first eight when he called. He said he'd read the rest later but just wanted to call. . . two more days. YEAH!

It's Autumn Time

I found another card I'd made using the same stamp, this time made even easier by only a small 3/4 inch piece of patterned paper and a polka-dotted ribbon and a little bling placed strategically. Bling is so inexpensive and makes such an impact, I can hardly keep myself from using it on cards for women.

Around our house, we know its officially Fall when football is heard throughout the house on Saturday.

Even when you' don't feel good, you can usually still tune in and out of a game with a ranked team. BigBuddy likes Boise State and BYU the best. And, of course, we have a soft spot for Air Force too, now that we have so many friends that work there. However, if they're playing BYU, we're ALL BYU - All the time, just to make that clear :-)

MyGirl and I did some Autumn Decorating this week. The temperatures are lovely, though the skies have been somewhat hazy with surrounding states still experiencing fires. What a summer this has been!

Candy is a festive and inexpensive decorating item and white candles work with every season though if I had cream ones I could have used those too.

The dining room sideboard is a good place to add a little color.

The mantle also received an infusion of oranges and reds. I may make a banner too for that area. My mom made the cutest Halloween quilt. I'll try to get a photo of that before Halloween.

A New Quilt and Stamping Techniques

Above is the quilt I've been working on. This photo was taken over a week ago and I've added three more rows since. Its been fun to work with just triangles. Every quilting experience I learn new things and try to figure out how to make things more accurate. Sometimes I'm successful and sometimes not. I've realized I'm more of a perfectionist than I thought I was and at the same time, not near as much as I wish I was. The colors and patterns are so fun to work with. I'm loving watching each new row unfold. This is all being done on my low level Singer machine, and its sufficient. Nothing fancy needed here but lots of straight line stitching at 1/4 inch.

I started trying to follow the original "Cluck, Cluck, Sew," photo I found from their blog but by the time I was finished selecting the fabrics for my top row that copying got set aside to become what I thought looked good at the time. I've used fabrics they don't use, and haven't used some they do use. These are all charm squares from the Reunion set by Sweetwater for Moda, and yet we each have selected what speaks to us. It doesn't take much creativity to make me happy, but selecting which fabrics I'm using next has been the most fun part of the project for me. I'm currently working on the second set of red chevrons. . . . stay tuned for the final result, hopefully within the next month.

I also recently came across some stamping techniques that I had posted on one of my earlier blogs. According to blogger, nobody every saw that, so I'm reposting it today if you're interested. This is only one, so click below if you're interested in seeing more. This baby wipe technique is one of my favorites for easily creating multi-colored stamp images.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6871649597767917516#editor/target=post;postID=1186418929938115573

A Tale to Tell

MyMike is traveling for the first time in a while for business. And I found these photos I forgot about from last Dec. They're not our best photos. Oh well.

He called tonight at 8:15p.m. my time. If you don't want a long story, just skip this, but this is his tale to tell.

We didn't need to get up at 5 this morning, he says.

The flight, that was supposed to leave at 8am, to Newark, had mechanical problems, but they didn't tell the passengers until 8:15 that it wasn't going to be able to fly at all. But, they had a solution, come to this gate and we'll put you on the later flight to Newark. However, MyMike was supposed to make a connecting flight and had only a 45 min. window to make that on his way to Buffalo, so he knew he needed to go back and find an altogether new flight on United, which he did.

So, he now has a new boarding pass, this time going through Chicago's O'Hare with a connecting flight to Buffalo. He walks, with his carry-on to the new gate. But, after he gets all the way there, to Gate 42, and waits to board he learns that THAT plane is also having mechanical problems and they will now be taking off at another gate at the opposite end of the airport. Mike is now thinking, What is wrong with United mechanics and furthermore - this is Denver, where they fix these things, how hard can it be to find a plane that will fly?

So, they walk all the way to the other end, and its finally time to board the plane. By this time its around noon, and he hands the agent his boarding pass and it makes a loud buzzing noise, and the agent says, "I'm sorry you're not in the system." He's thinking - Seriously??? "Well, I should be," he says. "Sir, I'm sorry you'll have to step out of line and talk to the people at the gate," the agent says.  So, the gate agent starts looking on their computer and realize not only is he not listed on this flight, but when the initial changes were made that morning, they deleted his return flights as well. He may get to Buffalo, but he's not getting back. YIKES!

So, they fix his ticket, issue a new boarding pass, give him return flights, and all of this takes a good fifteen minutes. And then they realize, there is no room on the flight, so they have to go on the plane and start removing stand-by's. (That just makes you awful, but what are you going to do? You paid for a flight and you're expected somewhere the next day.) So, after another fifteen minutes, he and the five other paying passengers have booted out five stand-by's and they are now getting on the flight. Oh, but one more problem - that carry-on? No room for that, he's told he's going to have to check that in now and it has to go under the plane. So much for booking early or selecting his seat ahead of time. Now he's sitting in one of the back rows, between two larger men than he is, (and Mike isn't small) who own the two middle arm rests, so there's not going to be a good nap on this flight to Chicago or even room to rest his arms at all, until he has the idea to put down the tray. And, Finally at 1pm they actually leave the airport.

When he lands, time moves slowly. He's on the back of the plane. It takes him fifteen minutes just to get off the plane and into the terminal where an agent hands him a new boarding pass that will get him on the 9:30 pm flight to Buffalo, but he realizes technically there are ten minutes until the flight he is supposed to be on leaves, so he now breaks into a run through O'Hare. He's not super familiar with the airport, but miraculously, makes it to the gate before the doors are closed. However, once again, he's not listed for that flight. They had already listed him on the 9:30 flight, but he shows them both boarding passes and lets them know he wants on this one, and finally they let him on. After he walks in they close the door, and just as he sits down he realizes, there is no chance his bag made it. And, that was a truth. When he landed in Buffalo they told him they'd try to get it to him by midnight. Of course, its coming on the 9:30 flight.

Finally, his co-worker picks him up at the airport. It was around 8:30 pm Buffalo time. He's had a muffin and orange juice at the airport that morning, and a cranberry juice to drink on the flight to Chicago and that's it all day. United doesn't even serve peanuts or pretzels anymore. His friends suggest the food at the pub next to their hotel, but Mike isn't listed on the rental car, and he doesn't like to eat at pubs, so he tells them, he'll just walk down the road to the nearest restaurant. An hour and a half later he gets back to his hotel. The nearest restaurant wasn't that near. Then he calls me to let me know he arrived. I suggested he just eat at the hotel restaurant the next time. Even if the food's not that good, at least its close. His room is nice. Horray for that.

I'm writing this for a reference for him. Next time he thinks things are bad, I'll remind him about this day. We all get one of those at least once in our lives. This was his. So you've had a bad day . . . . This is a tale he can tell, and others will have their horror stories, to compare, and we'll all hope not to have a repeat in the future. Just hoping he really gets some clothes before his first meeting tomorrow morning.

Paper Creations and Family Updates

September is almost half over!  Here are some photos from Labor Day. The boys had fun. Little Buddy invited his buddies to come over. They were outside most of the time. It was a beautiful day, but then they came indoors to download the latest music and checkout the newest free games. LB also passed off his seventh merit badge of the summer that day. Yahoo! Hard to believe he's getting closer each day to being as tall as his big brother.

BigBuddy and MyMike had a great time riding the dirtbikes. Over forty miles through the beautiful Colorado Rockies. . . they loved it! Especially since moving here they have found that they can start on trails that are less than an hour from home and ride all day long. BB's on some new meds which are helping with his pains. This was his first ride of the whole summer.

MyGirl had a meeting recently with the local gardening expert, taking notes and making plans for next year's garden. So happy she has found something she's so passionate about. Cowgirl is hitting the gym and is passionate about that too. And me? I'm just passionate about my family. We have challenges for sure, but they are my heart!

More paper creating than normal has gone on in September. I've made some cards, just slightly above the totally simple level.  I've also been working on LittleBuddy's scrapbook again.

The card below uses a paper from the current Christmas pages from Close To My Heart for its background. That's one thing I really like about the paper packets, how interchangeable they are for meeting my crafting needs. I love a little shine from adhesive backed bling too!

These are gift tags for Christmas. You'll have to double-click the photo to see all the glittler, but each tag has some, and on the back you can write your to's and from's. Its a set we're using at our Relief Society craft night in November. Gotta love the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge. Sure makes paper crafting easy!

I've been spending more time than normal at doctor's visits this summer, and for me that means - time to find some books to read. You've probably already heard of Debbie Macomber, but if you haven't read any of hers, I recommend the Cedar Cove series. Totally G rated and still has plot twists and romance to boot. The fact it takes place off the Puget Sound in Seattle, is just a bonus for me, having taken the Bremerton ferry more than once. I recommend these for fast, light reading when you know you'll be interrupted by a doctor or a nurse and light enough to fit in your purse in the paperback version.

Simple Things

The cows have been around more lately. Its surprising to be out back in the garden and hear "moos" moving. Just ask MyGirl. They startle her often.

I found this card on my computer. I sent it to Cowgirl a couple of weeks ago. Simple again. On Pinterest I keep seeing amazing cards. I know I can make those kind too, I just don't.  But I may make some fancier ones again. Its always fun to try new things once in a while.

LittleBuddy has had the chance this summer to make some money. I love it when my kids Beg to work so they can get paid. I want them to keep that attitude about work with them all through their lives. I've seen the older ones make that part of who they are, and its only blessed their lives. They're more responsible and more valuable to those around them because of their ability to work hard. Work, like obedience, isn't always easy, but when children see the payoffs, and they choose to make that who they are, I know they will have a good life. From their relationships to their livelihoods to their service to the Lord, work is the key to making good things happen. And when life gets tough, we often quote Pres. Hinckley, "Forget yourself and get to work." So much easier to get through hard things when we can find other good things to do.

Photo Trays

You have probably seen these photo trays before at craft stores. I got this with a coupon from Archivers, then a month later Close To My Heart started selling them. Oh well.  For BigBuddy's birthday I wanted to highlight some of his favorite things from his mission, and thought this was a good way to do it. In Portuguese Brazil is spelled "Brasil," and I knew he'd like that. He hangs it in his room on what was once a coat rack. I know he loves it. This would be a great way to commemorate any special person or birthday and was very easy to put all together. I used double sided archival tape to keep everything stuck to the inside.

On the health front, we are getting closer to figuring out what he has.  It feels like this has been the summer of doctor's appointments, but a rheumatologist gave him some medicine last week which is already helping to ease some of his symptoms, so YEAH for that! Still more to do to figure things out, but its so good to see progress. What should have been one of the highlights of his life turned into one of the greatest challenges of his life. But, this is what is, and we are nothing if not living in reality! I'm still so very grateful for our boy's faith and good heart. He is learning and growing still. I think we all are. When your expectations are cut short you go through mourning for a bit and then you pick yourselves up and figure out what to do next. Each next action brings you a step forward and eventually we will look back and say, We got through it, with the Lord's help. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, but no matter what, we will serve Him still. I think this project will be a visual reminder for my son that in spite of the trials, there was still good for him in Brazil, and there will be good ahead too.