Crafty

So...today we did crafts while Matt took Kate to the airport.

(Boo for airports, Yay for crafts!)

I've had these metal stamp letters for years, but never really used them until today.

I picked up aluminum blanks last year and the girls and I each chose a phrase we wanted to use and made bracelets.

.

Jane chose a Harry Potter quote, Emma chose a Firefly quote.

Romy picked a quote from Pinterest- kind of one of those "sad teenage girl" quotes, but she's 13 and tragic quotes speak to the soul of 13 year old girls.  :)

I made one for Kate that had a line from one of the songs she will sing in her play this fall. 

We stamped the letters, bent the metal into a cuff and then colored all over the letters with a black permanent marker and let it sit until it was dry.

Once dry, we took a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol and wiped it down. Most of the ink was removed, leaving the letters to look black and a little aged.

This was a super fun activity, especially for teenage girls and it was inexpensive, too. The stamps were a little spendy, but you can use them over and over again. I think I paid 40 bucks for my set, and I'm wanting a second set with a different font. Once you have the metal stamps, you can use them on leather as well as metal. There are pendants and charms you can personalize that look very pretty and are what the cool kids are selling on Etsy these days. :)

Even though the rain kept us from the shore this weekend,  it was nice to just spend our Sunday afternoon creating something new with my daughters.

Domesticity

I am a lover of crafts. 

I just feel calmer and happier when I am in the middle of a project that allows me to be creative and includes a skill that I want to master.  It gives my soul a break from thinking about the things I cannot change and it helps me to feel centered and competent.

 I craft because it is much more effective than therapy ever was, even though it's not actually cheaper. 

Once I find my groove in a project, I tend to be a little obsessed. 

I might possibly be a little obsessed with sewing right now...........

The painter's tape on my fingers to help where I have poked and pinched my fingertips raw may be seen as a cry for help. 

My sweet husband knows it means he chose well when he was Santahusband.

He also knows it's sign that I'm doing better and allowing myself to do the things that make me feel okay.

Yesterday, I decided to teach myself applique. 

There are so many cute things you can make with applique and you can take personalization to a whole new level. 

I started small with a freebie download that looked very simple.

Adorable.

My first attempt was bad.

 The applique shifted, just a hair too far and it was all off, then I wasn't paying attention and realized that I had sewn the tabs of the bib to back of it all and had to cut it off of the hoop.

Oops. 

I thought it was making terrible noises. 

I also.....

FINISHED ANOTHER QUILT.

Just a baby quilt, but I am really happy at how much better the binding is and the patches line up better than my first one. I still have a lot to learn, which means my readers are going to have to endure many more sewing posts. 

Both of these will be mailed to SLC for my sister, Sunnie, who is having a baby in a few months with her husband, Chad. They are a blendy family, too and this will be their first baby together. 

Because I am a Domestic Goddess, I also baked 4 loaves of homemade whole wheat bread yesterday.

Okay, I'm more of a tired schlub who didn't want to go to the store and buy bread, but the ends justify the means, Yo.

I used a new recipe, using vital wheat gluten. I've heard my friends sing the praises of that stuff, but had never used it. I have had struggles getting bread to rise since we moved to New Jersey, so I picked some up, hoping it would help.

It cut the raising time in half and the bread was very light and airy for being whole wheat.

Add me to the vital wheat gluten club.

It was great stuff.

I'm posting the recipe for my friends who asked. 

When I make this again, I'm going to make a couple of changes because my bread was a little more crusty on the outside than I like it. 

The inside had a texture that was similar to white bread though, I think this is one kids will love. 

Bosch Foolproof Whole Wheat Bread

*Makes 6 loaves ( I didn't see that part, and made four. I just NOW realized this. DUH. That explains why it seemed a little overcooked on the outside in order to achieve the perfect inside. Disregard my bread being too crusty, I'm a moron.)

That being said, it was too much for my large 6 qt Kitchenaid to really manage, so if you don't have a house full of bottomless pit young men who will eat 2 loaves within an hour of coming home from school-- I'd cut this in half. It's a huge recipe. 

Whole wheat bread freezes really well, though and you know your visiting teaching families would love you if you brought them some. 

6 cups warm water
2 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons salt
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
12-15 cups whole wheat flour

Mix 8-9 cups fresh wheat flour and 2 ½ tablespoons yeast together in the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a large bowl by hand). Add 6 cups warm water and mix to paste consistency. Cover and let sponge 10-15 minutes. Add salt, honey, oil, and gluten. Mix by hand or if using an electric mixer, turn to speed 1 or 2 as motor bears down and add additional flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl (be careful not to add too much flour). Let the mixer knead the dough for five minutes. (If using hands, knead for 10 minutes.) Use oil or cooking spray on your hands to form six equal loaves. Take dough immediately from bowl and fill lightly greased (or nonstick) loaf pans ½ to 2/3 full. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap to keep moist. Let the bread rise until doubled, approximately 1 ½ inches above the top of the pan. Place the bread carefully in a cold oven. Turn the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 38 minutes. Let cool completely before placing in bags to put in the freezer.

Because Laughter is Better than Cake

Today is weigh in day for Weight Watchers, I'm down 11 pounds. 

My fat pants are back to being 'fat pants.' 

Good times.

I've finished a couple more bonnets.

That first one was a beast, but I've made some adjustments to the original pattern and I finished one in just over an hour this evening. 

I found that I can get 5 complete bonnets out of one flat twin sheet. Walmart has them for 5 bucks each, so that makes the cost about a dollar. With each bonnet taking less than 2 hours, it's a pretty good service project for me. 

Here I am, sporting one of my bedsheet bonnets.

Good Lord, why was I wearing dark lipstick? I look like a pioneer prostitute.

---

Rugby season is almost over.

I can't say I am sad about that.

It's been a ton of driving and an emotional roller coaster for us all, especially Zane. 

I love the kid, love the sport, but I'm sick of driving to Linden three times a week.  It's not so bad now that it's light outside so I'm not driving in the dark, but it's still just become a massive pain in the rear.

While driving to practice yesterday though, I saw something that I had not seen since we moved here.

(No, not a car wash. I have stopped parking under the big poop perch tree though.)

I saw it and said out loud "is that...nah..it couldn't be..."

As I got closer, I realized it totally was.....

Two missionaries, riding their bikes down the road.

I honked and we all waved, and they waved back.

I'm going to guess that isn't something that happens very often here to the Elders, even though in Utah it happens about every 10 minutes when they are out. It certainly isn't something we have encountered here yet.

It reminded me again that the world really is just our home, filled with people who really are in our families, we just haven't met them yet.

I am not so lost in this crazy place with so many people, I'm the same old me and my same old life that I choose exists wherever I go.

It was a little thing, but for me, things that remind me of  'home' also remind me that this is also home.

I leave you with more things I swiped from the Internets to bring a smile to your face today......

Creative Process, Cliff's Notes Version

Yesterday was a crummy day.

It was physically exhausting, emotionally taxing and by 6pm I had given up, changed into a nightgown and ordered pizza. 

I wrote a long blog post about it. 

When I was done, I realized that writing it all out was for me, so there it will stay. 

Writing it helped me to identify what parts I could help fix and what parts were just random garbage that was actually no use to anyone, not even myself. Digging deeper into the trash heap wasn't going to be good for anyone. We examine what is broken so that we may fix it, not so that we may roll around in it and carry it everywhere and wear it like soggy memory armor.

 I didn't learn that until I was almost 40.

I think when I was younger and had dreams of growing up and moving to the big city and being a journalist, I believed that every word was art, if written with that intent. As I've grown older I have learned that editing is as important as the creating.  There is a lot of ground between the creative process and  finished work.

I spent all morning in the process and when I was finished, all I has was a rough  day and a great deal of that was just bad luck and things I can change pretty easily. 

Nothing life altering, but lousy, all the same.

Ugh.

My brain still runneth over.

I have not yet emerged from the bad day cocoon I spun yesterday.

Bleah.

Before it all went to crap I was feeling crafty. 

I saw these on Pinterest (the Devil) and I've been trying to find a craft I can send my besties in Utah that wouldn't break the budget. 

This seemed like a good enough idea:

(image from Pinterest, could not find the original link )

I went to the Christmas Tree Store and picked up some white mugs for $2 each.

I printed and cut out a template of New Jersey and of Utah and looked up quotes on friendship.

After I was finished, I baked the mugs at 350 for an hour- Pinterest said a half hour, but I lost track of time.

I do not think they are dishwasher safe, but they will survive a decent hand washing. 

(this one is for Sher, my  poor, misguided Utes- loving friend)

You could easily fit 20 New Jerseys in one Utah.

My heart really is in both places now. 

Both feel like home.

If reminding myself of that doesn't pull me out of my cruddy mood, then I'm going to need to pull out the big guns and take the last, hidden box of Samoas out of the freezer.

Is it spring yet? Is it spring yet? Is it spring yet?

Have I mentioned that I am SICK OF WINTER?

Only 100 times?

Well, I am.

It SNOWED on Saturday and Sunday. 

What kind of witchcraft is that?

Come on Spring...you are so close!

Those evil squirrels totally missed more bulbs than I thought they did. 

We have the promise of about half the tulips I planted, but way more than I thought survived.

It's going to be so pretty.

We found out that we have at least a dozen giant rocks in the back yard when that tree blew over. Now we just need to get them in the front and side yard where I can get my curb appeal on. I never quite figured that out in Utah, but we have an itty bitty front yard here and I'm not so intimidated by it.

I don't remember what we planted here, but it grew in a big cluster. 

Maybe Romy or the squirrels put a bunch of bulbs there.

Any guesses, Blog Readers?

Remember these unfinished chairs I picked up that the thrift store last week?

Well, yesterday I was running errands and the crazy DIY voice in my brain kept nagging me to go back and see what was new at the thrift store. The cool thing about a big thrift store is that the inventory changes every day. Oh sure, there will be some stuff that is there forever, but there is always something new, too. 

There was the cutest bench and I came thisclose to buying it. It was only 25 dollars, and I even have a place for it. I didn't buy it. 

I didn't buy it because it would need to be sanded primed and painted and it would look great, but it would be a real project and I am trying to finish what I start these days and I have this vision for a casual fun dining room arrangement so we can play games with our friends.

As I walked away from the bench, simultaneously trying to talk myself into and out of buying it, 

 I saw two more clean and unfinished wood chairs.

They are a different design, but I had no intention of having the chair match in the first place, I just wanted cohesive. These are the perfect chairs to go with the other two. At 8 dollars each, they were coming home with me and I left the cute bench.

 Now I have four chairs, just waiting for me to love them:

And love them, I am.

The sun came out this morning and as soon as the kids were dropped at school, I threw on my paint shirt and got to work:

I may have also painted the grass blue.

Oops.

That's right folks, Chris Olson is breaking up with tan and black as her signature color scheme. 

Okay, they will go in a  room that is primarily tan and black, but I'm working on it.

 I went so crazy with color in the first real house I owned and realized that there is a big difference between a pop of color and a house that looks like a circus threw up in it. I learned my lesson while painting over my neon orange and green Nickelodeon inspired kid's bathroom when I put the house on the market.

Eight coats of Kilz, folks.

Rainbow chairs are a safer choice.

The total cost for them is less than 50 bucks including the paint. I have some weathering to do on them and then a coat of clear gloss, but with the sun peeking out of the clouds and the tulips peeking out of the Earth, I am excited to have some color peeking out of my dark and boring dining room.

I am already in love with them.

Tomorrow is 25% off day at the thrift store.

 I am sure it will be gone, but I might just pop in and see if the bench is still there....

Sew There

Holy Cow, it's cold outside.

I know, it's cold everywhere, New Jersey isn't even close to as cold as other places right now. Utah is colder than it ever was the entire time I lived there. The pipes in our old house froze and the poor Philpott family has had a nightmare to deal with there. 

John Philpott goes in for a major treatment today to help prepare his body for his upcoming stem cell transplant.  

Our prayers continue to ask for healing for our "time neighbors." (That's a nerdy phrase I hear that describes the people who lived in your house before and after you did.)

Their blog is located here if you want to send them your love and keep updated on John's battle with cancer: 

www.philpottsfight.blogspot.com/

I know that it's hard when your house has things go kaput on you, and that house...... we loved that house, but Oy, it was in terrible shape when we bought it. We put so much time and money and love into it, but we couldn't even come close to fixing everything or doing everything right. They have the house with the crooked tile counters, we had the house with the chipped bright orange Formica. They have a house with the baseboards missing from most of the walls. We had the house with blood red carpets with black specks in it. They have the angst poetry that Parker wrote in Sharpie bleeding through the paint, we had lavender walls, and a living room that was used for cooking and had oil splatters all up the wall. They have a yard that looks like it barely survived a nuclear war. We had....well, we had the same yard. Actually, I think we made the yard worse. yeah, we ruined that back yard, sorry John and Noelle.

We live in an old house, too. 

There is a brand new addition on it, that was one of the selling points, but the guy who built it didn't insulate it any better than the 80 year old parts of the house. It's either freezing or a billion degrees- it's like the house has menopause.

The cold seeps into my bones and it's hurting to move right now. 

There is no amount of medication that will make my joints feel awesome right now and allow me to live my life without feeling like a crack head. 

I'm dealing with it by informing the family that they can do their own laundry and dinner is usually a loaded baked potato. 

I'm spending my afternoons bundled up and indulging in my latest craft obsession, embroidery.

Matt got me a big supply of flour sack towels for Christmas and I am really having fun spending a couple of hours on a towel and then giving it away as a cute, personal gift.

I love this little lady I made with a copy of the woman in "The Art of Homemaking" book. That right foot is wonky, I re-did it three times and for some reason, my brain would not allow her to have feet that matched, so I gave up. 

I participated in a little challenge on facebook where the first five people to sign up and extend the challenge to others would get a handmade item from me- sometime in the next year. Last time I made birdhouses that held pictures. This year, I'm doing dish towels. I finished my first one last night, for Melina Moore, my old Visiting Teaching companion in Utah. She's a photographer, so I sketched out this little camera and I think it turned out really cute.

I have really been struggling with lettering, I want to do nice clean cursive and I'm lousy at it. My normal handwriting is awful and I haven't been too good at copying cleaner stuff. I'm not going to the trouble of getting out the iron to do a proper transfer, it's much easier to just spend hours on something and then get annoyed with how imperfect it looks when you're finished.

;)

 I finally tried a technique I saw online where you trace the word on tissue paper and then stitch right through the paper.

Success!

Madeline Y. is going to get the first CTR pillowcase of the year that doesn't look like a moron stitched out the name. 

I think I'm doing the split stitch backwards, but I don't know why it matters that you have the needle come up through the bottom as opposed to the top. It does the same thing, doesn't it? Aunt Lynnae? Kaylynn? 

Can you tell me why that stitch is supposed to come up and split from the bottom where it's harder to position it instead of just split from the top side? 

Hey There Cupcake

It's finished, my latest dish cloth.....

 

 

I'm doing a blanket stitch border around the edge to finish it, but that will only take an hour or so and then I can give it to Cyndi.

 I think it's as cute as can be.

 

I've been trying to think of something special we can give the Primary kids when they get baptized from the Presidency and I realized we had a big supply of white pillowcases leftover from another activity and I am thinking of embroidering one for each of the kids who will be turning 8 this year. We'll see if my crafting ADHD hits before that. :)

 

Doh!

We did manage to change out of our pajamas this week, I swear.

We have kept the craft room open and in use off an on all week, I think we'll just keep everything out all summer. It's been fun to be stickering and glittering. Yesterday, the kids found play dough in the craft supplies and they pulled out the bag of vintage cookie cutters I have and spent two hours playing with play dough.

These are teenagers we're talking about, teenagers who also have access to four big game systems and Nintendo DS games as well as i pods, the internet, Netflix and Cable TV.

They chose play dough.

Very cute.

The girls made memory boxes to keep momentos and ticket stubs fromthe things they see and do while they are here.

I finished three more layouts.

Just simple layouts, getting my feet wet again.

I am in love with this photography themed paper line from Die Cuts With a View. They use to be our biggest competitors when I worked at Deluxe Designs. I guess they won the day because they are still making cute stuff and Deluxe has been gone for years.

 I still think we had nicer people in our company. ;)

I remember one of the reasons I stopped scrapbooking though and it's because I feel like my layouts all look the same. I have a handful of techniques I always seem to use, a handful of design elements that always appear no matter how much I try to change it up. The layouts look just fine, but to me, they all look like different versions of the same five designs and I need to find some inspiration to change it up and leave my comfort zone there. I think I'm going to register for an online class and see if they can't help me stop using my 'formula.'

If I'm going to get back into the craft, I want to feel like I'm making pages that I'm not just happy with, but that I feel show a higher level of technique and creativity. I need to change things up.

Matt is taking the girls into the city today, I'm staying home with Grey.

 He hates the city and we have to choose the times we drag him out carefully. They are going to go and check out the Brooklyn Museum and see if it's a place that we could take him to in the future and not have him shut down.

I also need a little bit of a break from all of the noise to just catch up on some house cleaning and make sure Zane's room is void of any evidence that we totally let people sleep in there while he was gone.