Yearning to Create - The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. (Uchtdorf)

Family – We’re Moving

We built this big beautiful house (that’s my guy up on the roof), enjoyed living in it for over five years, and now we’re moving at the end of June – that’s in 14 days!!!

We’re downsizing and moving into a house that needs some TLC. So we will actually be living in the camper for the summer while we tackle renovations. It is going to be quite the summer . . .

Stay tuned for plenty of before/after pictures as we work on our “fixer upper”!

Rag Quilt for Kat

My Kat was turning 7 so I made her a blanket for her birthday.
There were three reasons for this:
1) I realized I had never made her a blanket,

2) she was seriously outgrowing her little Disney Princess blanket, and

3) I had all this cute fabric I had found at a garage sale last summer (it was even pre-cut!)

Isn’t it cute? It’s called Free Spirit and cost me $4.

For the backside I simply used fleece – just wanted something soft for her to snuggle up with! The pink came from scraps that my friend Shirley had given me. I was able to cut 24 squares from it. I bought the yellow from Walmart for $12 and . . . love this part – after I had cut out the 72 squares that I needed, I had exactly none left!!! Don’t you just love it when things work out perfectly!

I bought three fat quarters – needed a little more fabric, and raided my stash for a little bit more. So this whole project cost me just over $20 – how awesome is that!!!

Let me mention here that my guy strongly dislikes all this fabric – the colours and the patterns. I’d show him things and gush over how cute it was and he’d just roll his eyes and say things like “Looks like the 60’s”, or “Our house is in earth tones, why are you doing this?” He was a little better once he realized it was for Kat’s room – he thought it was going in the living room!

My squares were 6 1/4 inch and I had 96 of them. 12 rows with 8 in each row.

I arranged them all on the floor to make sure the colours and patterns were evenly spaced apart. This photo was very handy to refer back to once I started sewing – just to make sure I was putting things in the right places.

Let me mention that Kat got very good at averting her eyes whenever she would come into the room and see me working on her quilt. With her being home-schooled, she’s always here, so there was no way I could keep it a secret from her. So while she did see bits and pieces of the production (even picked her Top 10 favourite squares!) she never did see the completed quilt til her birthday.

Before the sewing began though, I had to create my little sewing oasis. I put this desk in the closet in the office. During construction I had a light and outlet installed in this non-closet closet just for this purpose. Now all I need are some shelves on the walls.

It’s sew nice to be able to have a spot where the sewing machine does not have to be put away! (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!)

That paper and pencil was the little pattern I made of how to space my pink squares evenly throughout the yellow. How would you mix 24 pink among 72 yellow? I’ll show you how I did it in a minute!

This is the easiest quilt ever – which is why I make it!

After cutting out all your fabric, just sew a top piece to a bottom piece by sewing an X through it. If you want it thicker you could put some batting between the layers (like a sandwich). But cut your batting a little smaller than these squares so the edges don’t show in the rag part – unless you want them to!

I just eyeballed my lines, going from one corner to another – and didn’t even need to worry about backstitching.

Do a continuous strip from one square to the next – no stopping or backstitching needed.

Then you’ll get a nice a long strip (thanks for holding it Jen!). I cut these apart and then sewed them again, doing the other side of the X. Then I cut them apart again and now had a nice pile of 8 squares that needed to be sewn into a strip. Be sure to keep them in the right order – I referred to my picture a few times!

I forgot to take pictures of the next part. I sewed my 8 squares together (5/8 seam allowance) into one long piece – with all the raw edges showing on the top side (totally opposite of what you usually do!). Don’t forget to backstitch for this part – you need to secure these seams!

Then sew your strips of 8 to each other (that photo came in really handy here to make sure I wasn’t sewing anything backwards!).

When it’s all sewed together, put on a good movie and start clipping all your edges – be sure not to clip any of your stitching!!! That would be bad.

This kind of quilt is great for novice sewers like me because if your squares don’t line up properly, no one can tell! It only shows on the bottom side, which is fine because – it’s the bottom!

I only had time to wash and dry it once before her birthday – it’ll get shaggier with more washing. I just used my own washer – it didn’t make too much of a mess because the fleece doesn’t really fray. I shook it outside though until my arms were going to fall off to shake off excess threads.

The outside edge is simply stitched around (5/8) and then clipped as well.

Okay – I think it’s totally adorable!!! Love all the colours.

Can you see my pattern with the pink/yellow fleece?

Here’s the back view.

I did three yellow between each pink, with staggered starts. It looks like my corners matched up pretty well for the most part – phew!!!

And what did the birthday girl think of her new quilt . . .

. . . well, she was hugging it before she even opened it up to see how it looked. She was actually very excited about it – which was nice for me because, face it, a blanket isn’t the most exciting thing for a seven year old to get on their birthday!

And as for my guy . . .

. . . he tolerated the colours and patterns to have a snuggle with Kat for a birthday picture.

There she is in bed – g’night Kat!

Isn’t it fun to make things for your family? Although, my oldest daughter will soon be Maid of Honour for one of her friends and needs to sew a dress – eek!!! That’s a little out of my league! Hope she does a good job! She’ll be calling gramma for advice.

Back to the rag quilt, the size I made fits the top of a twin size mattress – doesn’t hang much over the edges. She’s on a top bunk so we didn’t need edge hanging, but if you’re copying my sizes, you might need to add some extra rows.

Birthday Cake Traditions

I have four daughters with birthdays in March – that’s our version of “March Madness”! And to make it worse, they’re on the 6th and 7th and the 22nd and 23rd!!!

So, just to make life a little easier, and because it’s a birthday tradition, they decorate their own cakes! Well first of all, they get to chose their own dessert – might not even be a cake (because honestly, can’t you think of lots of desserts that taste better than cake?).

Jo here chose Rice Krispie squares with caramel icing (she needs gluten free foods).

Her “cake” was too gooey to get much decorating, and too hard to stick candles in. So they’re just sticking to the caramel and were flopping over. Blow quickly Jo!

Jen planned hers all out carefully and worked with much care to get her cake perfect. She chose a marble cake.

Perfect! I like how she used candle holders as flower clusters rather than as candle holders! Love the pink and yellow colour scheme!

Okay, I did this one . . .

. . . it says Happy Birthday and has two candles – one for each decade!!! (Do you think it’s too much?) She was too busy finishing up college and starting a new job to decorate her own cake. She chose the delicious Tres Leche Cake (always love making that cake – gives me a reason to open a can of Eagle Brand and lick out the can!)

Note: I can’t believe I have a 20 year old daughter. It’s really hard to fathom since I’m only 25 myself!

And finally . . .

. . . Kat requested a rainbow chip cake with purple icing. Here she is with her finished cake and toothless 7 year old grin.

Then a few hours later, she decided she needed to add a little more . . .

. . . and now we have a finished cake!!! Wow! It took more than a few minutes to pull all that out of the cake before we could eat it. All those animals and ballerinas came from my childhood. Mom used them to decorate our cakes. The tradition continues!!!

So . . . it works for everyone – they have fun decorating and I have time for other birthday preparations. And then we put the cake stuff away until the other three birthdays in the fall. My guy and I usually chose undecoratable desserts for our birthdays – like coconut cream pie or black forest in a bowl!

Jack O’Lanterns

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “I’m not real keen on Halloween.” But I do like to decorate for the seasons so pumpkins really work for me because they can be out for Thanksgiving early in October, and hang around for fall decor and Halloween. (Let me just add that I’m so glad our Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October, rather than the fourth Thursday in November because . . . I would just die having to have autumn decor up that long when there is all that beautiful Christmas stuff just waiting to be displayed!!!)

So let me take you on a tour of a few of the fake pumpkins hanging around my house.

My kids made these, some at YW’s and some at a craft class (thanks Shauna!)

It’s just a 2×6 cut out, painted, sanded, etched, stained.

I love how the etched lines POP after the stain is applied. The eyes are nails.

My Visiting Teachers dropped this cute pumpkin off on the last day of October because they hadn’t been able to visit me that month (thanks Shauna!).

He holds leaves and sits by my fireplace, or rather, by what will someday be my fireplace.

Check my fireplace out here.

This little pumpkin is just one of those thin little wooden things you buy and paint yourself – another thing one of my gals made.

Etching and distressing sure works wonders!

This one I made at Relief Society.

You can read more about this little candle holding pumpkin here.

And this here is my kind of pumpkin carving . . .

. . . I worked hard to light the candle and slip it in the open back of this metal Jack O’Lantern!

And there’s no stinky gooey mess to clean up!!!

And there you have it – all the effort I put into decorating for Halloween!!!

Now to find some new hiding places for all that candy that’s about to invade my house!

Jack O’Lantern Candle Jar

I made this cute little Jack O’Lantern candle jar at a Relief Society Meeting many years ago – back when we still did crafts at our monthly Homemaking night!

I guess the first step would be to choose your jar.

So, the very, very first step would be to get one of these little class candle holders from your stash, or from a dollar store. Then go back to the first step!!! You need to choose a jar thats top is the right size to hold your candle holder. Mine was some sort of food jar from the glass recycling bin. (Making a cute pumpkin from garbage is definitely good recycling!)

You’ll need a little votive candle for the stem. Green or brown look nice and stem-like.

In order to paint on a glass jar, you first need to paint the jar with something. I don’t remember what it’s called, but you can find it wherever you buy craft paints. It’s a medium that makes it so your paint will stick to the glass. You really need to do this step!!!

Then paint your jar in your choice of pumpkin colour. I added a few lines which are supposed to look like the ridges of a pumpkin – see those redish lines?

And the whole thing is toothbrush splattered with black and gold paint. Be sure all your paint is dry before you paint or stencil on the face. And don’t forget to add those gold dots in the eyes.

Embellish with rusted tin leaves, wire curled around your pencil, and jute.

And you’re done!!!

You know, I made this many years ago and bring it out every autumn, and I have still never lit the candle. Maybe this year?

How to Hide the Laundry Room Uglies

This is my laundry room. Have you noticed that laundry rooms have some necessary things in them that are ugly? Like the tap/drain box and the outlet. You definitely need these at an easily accessible location, but they don’t add much charm to the room!

And since we all love doing laundry so much, we want our laundry rooms to be as cute and inviting as possible to lure us in!

So here’s how I hid my laundry room “uglies”. . .

. . . a cute towel bar and towel to cover the electrical outlet. Found the towel bar on our local “Buy and Sell”. I’ve never actually had a towel hanging in the laundry room before, and I use it all the time – how did I not have one before?

To cover the taps I used a long narrow basket that used to sit on my counter and hold the keys. I spray-painted it oil rubbed bronze to match my knobs and chandelier and stuck a fake plant in it. Fits perfectly and hides the lovely red and blue taps!

So much cuter!!!

I think the vintage washer and dryer add to the charm. We got these babies just before our first daughter was born, so they’re over twenty years old now. We’ve only ever had one minor problem with the washer. Yay Kenmore!!!

I love the wall colour {Grey Evening by Behr}. And I love my light!!! See the lines it casts on the walls – feels like water, which seems appropriate for a laundry room.

This is an interior room so there is no window. When I hung the mirror window on the wall it immediately brightened and enlarged the space. See that little brown bag sitting on the mirror ledge? It’s a bag of wild flower seeds that actually came from Green Gables in PEI. When I have a yard, I’ll plant them.

I really love my little laundry room. This is my view as I walk past it many times a day (it’s right beside my bedroom – very convenient!). See those white shelves in front of the washer? They’ll be going up on the wall over the sink someday. I’ve got more plans for this room – including a quote from President Thomas S. Monson about laundry!

Stay tuned (hopefully within the year!).

Here’s the quote from Thomas S. Monson:

“Rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future…If you are still in the process of raising children be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled, will disappear all too soon, and that you will, to your surprise, miss them, profoundly.”

Cards for All Occasions

Every once in a while, I go on a little card-making spree. I mass produce about a dozen cards that I store away to use for whatever occasion arises. These ones were super easy because it was only stamping – no extra papers or layers or bling.

This Stampin’ Up flower set is called Paint Prints, and the word set is called Sincere Salutations. I’ve used these two stamp sets way more than anything else I have.

So it just required some quick stamping (because I was going to a wedding reception soon) and a punched tag that I attached with a brad fastener. I stamped a few Best Wishes cards because I seem to need more wedding cards than anything else. But the rest are blank so I can easily stamp them with whatever message I need.

And just for variety, I did two different colour combinations!

It always feels good to know that I have a little stash of cards tucked away in a drawer . . . just waiting for the next occasion!

Bottlecap Magnets

I needed some new magnets for my fridge – to hold up all those things I love to get like pictures, quotes, wedding and grad invitations, etc. So I was at The Craft Store spending the rest of my Christmas Gift Card. (I love it when my guy gives me things like this – and he likes it too! The gift card comes with him babysitting too so I can go shopping alone and find things I really want!!!) So I was looking at their cute little bottle caps, but they were pretty pricey and so I passed them by – but I really wanted them!!!

My next stop was to the thrift store when SCORE!!! I found bottle caps!!! Way more bottle caps and other do-dads my girls will enjoy for way less than they were at the other place.

So I hunkered down that evening to create my magnets in the blues, greens and brown I like.

They had a few colours in the kit that worked, but mostly I just punched out scrapbook paper. I added a few embellishments to some of them and then covered them in the glaze that came in the kit too. Mod Podge would have worked fine also. Glue magnets on the back and it’s done.

And now I have some darling new magnets that cost me pennies. And I still have ten more for some future time – like kids lockers? Words and pictures would be really cute too.

Still can’t decide which one I like the best!

Now comes the fun of arranging them . . .

. . . recognize anyone or anything?

The fridge already looks different from when I took the pictures!

I enjoy my fridge photo gallery. Soon it will be loaded with Grad Invites, and other times of the year it’s loaded with Wedding Invitations (and I keep them all in a box once the event has passed!).

What do you prefer – loaded fridge doors or the clean uncluttered look?

The Maple Leaf Forever

I love our Canadian symbol of the maple leaf. It’s magnificent!

There is a song called “The Maple Leaf Forever”, and we really don’t hear it much. Sometime in my past I must have heard it, but the only part I remember was the title line at the end of the chorus. So I did what anybody would do these days: I googled it!

You can google it too if you want more info, but this is the chorus of the original version of the song (which was never our National Anthem, but was often played as if it was):

The Maple Leaf, our emblem dear,

The Maple Leaf forever!
God save our Queen and heaven bless
The Maple Leaf forever!

And here is the chorus of the more recent version, which was actually sung by Michael Bublé at the 2010 Olympic Closing Ceremonies:

Long may it wave, and grace our own,

Blue skies and stormy weather,
Within my heart, above my home,
The Maple Leaf forever!

Anyway . . . about ten years ago I made a quilted Maple Leaf wall hanging at a little quilting class in town.

I didn’t do too badly here in my first attempt at quilting anything, but don’t look too closely!

It’s thirteen squares across and down. I love the non-traditional flag colours.

It was easily quilted to look like veins in the leaf.

I even found little maple leaf buttons for the corners.

Long may it wave, and grace our own,
Blue skies and stormy weather,
Within my heart, above my home,
The Maple Leaf forever!

Rainbow Jello

My kids (and husband!) absolutely love this jello, but it takes a bit of time (like a day, but don’t worry, the fridge does half the work!) so I usually only make it for special occasions – like Easter or ward potluck dinners.

Choose your jello colours and get two small boxes of each flavour. I went with raspberry, peach, lemon, lime and blue – what is that, wild berry? In the past I’ve used a larger box and split it . . . but this seems like an easier method so here goes:

Make your first layer of jello!

Use 1 cup of boiling water and dissolve one box of jello powder. Then add 1/2 cup cold water. Pour it into your container and then pop it into the fridge. This is when you hope your fridge is level because you want your layers to be even! My fridge is not level yet (my guy apologized later for that and says he’ll level it up for me!) so I stuck a spoon under one side of my pan to make the jello sit evenly.

With the first layer chilling in the fridge, make your second layer:

Again, dissolve your jello powder from one small box into one cup of boiling water. Then add sour cream – I just did about two/three heaping spoonfuls. The whisk works nicely to break up the sour cream. Let this start cooling on your counter until the first layer in the fridge is good and solid – about half an hour. Then carefully pour the second layer onto the first. You must be careful that the warm second layer doesn’t break up the freshly set first layer. I actually pour it slowly into a spoon and let it diffuse out – moving the spoon location.

And then you just start over. Make the third layer while the second is chilling. Note here: I used peach because it’s what I had on hand, but I think orange would be a more vibrant colour. My sour cream peach layer looked a little washed out.

So this jello takes awhile but you can go off and do other things between layers. I like to have it all done a day before it’s needed for the dinner just so those layers will not melt into each other or all over the plate once it starts getting dished out.

While I was doing this, my guy and some of our girls were outside starting to build us a deck!!!

I enjoyed watching their progress through my kitchen windows.

Just before Easter Dinner, Jo made some whipped cream and spread it over the jello – gotta have clouds with our rainbow!

The light shining through the jello cups looked so pretty.

They were a special delivery for someone else!

Here’s the 9 x 13 Rainbow Jello all finished and ready to be transported to our family Easter dinner.

Here’s the Rainbow Jello after the family Easter dinner!

One piece left for me to take a close-up picture of!

And how was the deck progress?

They got the lower level all sheeted, and completed the rest of it on Easter Monday – took three days total. Next: duradeck and railings and stairs . . .

Good job everyone!!!