March! So What Happened To January?

I know that I posted in February... but what happened to January? Do you really want to know? I've been a bit pre-occupied with a certain grand daughter..... the newest little member of our family I got to go visit in January when she was only 3 weeks old... And then again about 3 weeks ago I went with my DH, 2 of our DD's and our only other DGD.

new little Kate;

Oldest DGD Grace.... with little Kate

Grampa is infatuated with Kate... I think she sorta likes him too, I mean if you can be sooo comfortable that you fall asleep in their arms.... it's a given!
DD holding her "neice"... mommy to Grace. I think she sorta likes Kate too.... well, I mean really what's not to like!

We had this picture taken when Kate was Blessed at Church a few weeks back. Part of the family... our youngest DD in the back and yep that's me in front next to our son Ben and his wifie.....
But in the mean time, you know b/4 all these going's on.... I made this for the above picture/event.

And of course, you need a slip to go underneath it all!

Here is the little princess. Oh, when I took this picture (sorry it's turned wrong) someone called Kate a princess and then later DGD (the older version...lol) went out to her mom and said, (imagine this with a pouty little voice and lip) "Mommy, I want to be a princess!" Too Cute!

O.K. and just so you know I wasn't just messing around not doing anything in between sewing and all, on Valentines Day I asked the 3 grandkids who live here in the state to come play and make Sugar Cookies with me! Look at all the fun we had!!!

We made all sorts of cookies.... I just forgot to take pic's of the frosted ones! And of course, the eating!!!!


This is Wyatt; he wasn't really into making cookies... so he went to play with the dog and everything else... but the rest of us enjoyed all the fun!

The weather keeps calling out "Spring, Spring".... but then low and behold.... we get more snow!

Earlier this week we got around 5-6 inches (during the middle of the night) of the pretty wet white stuff..... (I love listening to it snow!) and before the end of the day.... yep it was all pretty much melted! Gooo figure! Well, the resevours are getting filled and that is a good thing... we will need this water later in the year...

In the mean time there is more sewing going on! Pictures later!

Don't forget to clean out all the little dusty, fuzzy stuff that is going on inside your machine...

The Anniverary Post! Mine, Not The Blog's!

Such a busy time.... anniversaries, (my in-laws 40Th, and our 35Th!) birthdays.... (my daughters 30Th, and also my SIL's 50Th).






Hard to believe this little cutie is going to be 30 years old! She is wearing a dress that I wore when I was her age (about 3 at the time this was taken). Guess I need to dig up a photo of me in the dress too.... hmmmm we shall see what I can find! If I can figure out the scanning again... we shall see indeed!


A couple of the missionaries from our Church stopped by last evening to drop off a hand me down suit one of the Elders received. I need to alter it for him... he is somewhat quiet and a bit shy and well... the suit is too long in the torso and in the pant legs also... if I had gotten a good measurement on him I could have probably take in the seat too... hopefully it won't be too baggy on him. One tries not to embarrass the young men too much! He is all of 19 and all.... and what with my DH and another Elder there well.... I couldn't do too much without embarrassing him.
My friend Karma and I had a day of sewing last week. We had some quilt block that her daughter Diane had made up... long ago of a white background baseball print with some blue and also using some red borders and then we made up some blocks that had a red plaid and also blue plaid centers with the same blue or red borders. Then we used red and blue for sashing around the blocks and proceeded to make a crib size quilt.... too funny actually... I cut and pressing the borders/sashings and blocks while she sewed them all together! It's easier for me to see to cut then it is for her! We got to talking sooo much, that in the end as I was handing her rows to sew together, somehow she had flipped two sections and put them opposite and then added the sashing and final borders before we noticed! The entire quilt top was complete before we noticed that the pattern we had decided on was a bit of a mess! Of course no one but us will notice... it just, well.... it looks as if it should be flowers from Dr. Seuss's garden! It really does still look cute, just we don't really feel like taking it all apart! Sad... I know... but someone will still get a good use out of it when we put on the back and batting! All out of flannel... it will be really soft!

We went into SLC today to play and visited the SLC version of this! Yes.... I was a badddd girl!
Dear Hubby and I shared a mint truffle.... and these are the size of a 50 cent piece! Plus I split another one with him after dinner (his half is going into his lunch tomorrow...) he had a large piece of English Toffee...(and yes he did offer to share a bite with me... but I did declined.... I was waiting for my caramel to warm up, it was a little hard because it was cold outside) but I must say that when it did warm up DH shared a few bites of my caramels soooo I didn't technically eat all of the caramels! Now I didn't have to admit that we did this... ahem.... guess now that I read it.... I feel like a pig.... although, I must say that in my defense.... we didn't eat them all at once! We did eat dinner in between some of this! Ohhhh well, guess I need to get back to work with my exercise routine! Oh, and eating better too! It was our anniversary so we celebrated here and there!
Oh, I forgot to tell you.... this place is called
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory..... as you can see.... there are wonders here... hey, it's chocolate! What's not to like?
















This week this pattern goes on Sale;
http://www.simplicity.com/p-4994-babies-vintage-layette.aspx at our local Hancock's Fabric's Warehouse......
It is the dress I will be making for our new little granddaughter's blessing dress. I need to see what fabric I will be using.... I may have something I want to use in my fabric stash.... I will post a picture if I find something in there..... then again, if I open the doors.... you may never hear from me again! LoL...
I also have to sew up some little white bags for a meeting we are having for the little kids that will be 8 years old this year. It's called Great To Be 8! There will be all sorts of things inside to help them understand the importance of being baptised. And somewhere in there get the Elder's suit altered... guess I will be a bit busy.
So, I'm going to be up to my ears, elbows and maybe at least teeth in the sewing room! Will let you know what I'm up too soon!
More soon.... make sure you put that pedal to the metal.... if you want to get anywhere with your sewing!

Happy New Year!

Shall we try this again? Well, it is still the new year.... I'm just a bit late in sharing the news!
Sorry I've been soooo neglectful! Just life gets in the way sometimes! You know how it is, sometimes I would rather read blogs than write this one! I've been busy sewing, reading, getting excited that our new grand baby was on the way! Oh, she was born the last day of December! So, yes.... she is here! And what a cutie... her daddy and mommy are very happy, and I believe content that she is here. I think they are wondering how on earth did they ever fill the hours without her! And I get to go visit in a couple more days! Am I phyed or what????? Another little grand daughter..... what's not to like? Now we have evened it up so far, 2 boys and 2 girls!
Towards the end of February some time we get to go visit again! And this time, a couple other members of the family get to go also! Possibly a couple daughters and our other granddaughter get to go also. Our little DGD is sooo excited to go, I think that she wants to go now! She keeps asking when she gets to go on the plane and go see baby Kate and Uncle Ben and Aunt Jentica (yep that's how she says my DIL's name... cute hmmm!) Right now I'm doing the really important stuff, laundry, ironing etc.... so DH is all set while I'm gone! When I have a bit more time I will show and tell some pic's of some of my projects that I got done for Christmas. Such a wonderful time of year. And we had beautiful snow.... that is melting as I type! We need more, all of a sudden it's warmer than January should be.... we don't need an early snow melt... that would cause flooding possibly! Not a good thing! My heart goes out to the people of Australia and all that is going on there. Know that you are in our prayers daily!
Oh, and for the people/families that were effected by the shooting in Arizona. Your also in our prayers... our hearts go out to all those who had their lives changed by this sad, sick man.
Bad things do happen to good people, yes... I think that how we handle these trials can be an example to others. Hopefully the outpouring of love will help others in their distress.
Until next time! Don't forget to keep your shears sharp!

First; here is the out of print pattern.....

This is a little girls dress that I set aside and now I'm close to finishing. Plaids are so rich and fun to play with. Of course, when I bought this fabric (years ago) I'm sure my manager asked me what I was going to make with it! (my old boss at the fabric store) And I probably just said, "I don't know yet! It will just go into the fabric stash until I find the "right item it needs to be!" Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm sure I didn't tell her that.... (she would have looked at me funny! As you are now!) But I'm sure I told her I didn't know yet! A while back I believe I showed you the plaid and maybe even the pattern..... (researching!) Alright... I didn't show you the plaid, or the pattern.... I just wrote about them a little is all. Back in May! Ahem, well.... some of us just can't win! But I will try to rectify that right now!

The picture of the oop pattern was just my starting point. First; I changed the neck made it a bit larger.... more open.... so that the little girl can wear a blouse or long sleeve t-shirt with it and it won't be too clingy. Also; I wasn't into the old fashion sleeves.... (see oop pattern above!) Just too much fru-fru for me! I wanted it to be a bit more simple, and mostly have the main focus on the plaid and the person wearing it! Notice the cute print lining the bodice? Well, the pattern doesn't call for it to be lined, just faced but during a trip to the fabric store a while back, I happened upon this.... It called out to me! And it was just the right piece to go inside of this cute plaid! I still need to hem, add buttons and button holes. And honestly... one day when I find someone to wear this then maybe I will get a picture of it on someone. But until then, it will hang in the closet..... waiting! One more thing, on the pocket front edges I put just a tad bit of light yellow ric rac. Just to give it a touch of whimsy!

It's been fun. I'm not too sure yet about what buttons to use. Maybe I will go with just a clear round type.

Now that you know that I've not just been messing around... I guess that's all for right now! I suppose it better be! It's almost November.... Actually today is the oldest grandson's b-day!

Happy Birthday Little Guy! We love you!

It's Starting To Feel Like Fall

So yes, life gets busy. What can I say! I forget to write things down and well b/4 you know it... a month has past! Almost two!

We took care of the grands again... it was fun... they are growing up so fast though.

Here they are out in the garden playing in the dirt!

Our oldest grandson (he is almost 5) wants to be a Transformer for Halloween. His mom is working quite hard to make him a cool costume. A week or so ago, he looked at the costume (which is being made out of cardboard) and said, "Mom, are we going to spray paint it? Cause I don't want the kids to look at it and say he's wearing a box!" "I don't want to be embarrassed!" Our daughter did the "mom thing" and told her DH that no matter how much time she puts into this, that when all is said and done, if he looks at it and he thinks their son will be embarrassed.... she will scrap the entire thing! Now is that love or what? I'm thinking yes! Indeed yes! I will have to take pictures of the grands to let you see how things turned out!

I've been busy working on a pile of fabric's that I've pulled from my stash.... I'm about half way thru them... I'm cutting out 10 1/2x 10 1/2 inch squares; 4x4 squares, and triangles... oh, and also strips that are 2 1/2 inches wide and all sorts of lengths. There are a lot of floral's, some lights and some dark prints, also a variety of dark's too. I haven't come up with the type of quilt that I will for sure make with these... actually, I'm thinking it may end up as more than one quilt.

This picture; is of the second half.... that I haven't cut up yet!

About a month or so ago... I bought this dress on clearance... which makes it more fun and cheaper to play around with.... I did get it at a better price.... than shown here!

http://www.coldwatercreek.com/product-detail/52081/58263/cotton-tiered-dress.aspx?colorid=013&refLink=outlet-dresses.aspx&Skn=outlet at Cold Water Creek....

It's an all white dress, if you go to this site you will see it... anyway I don't really wear sleeveless dresses, but I do like to play with things I buy. Not only do I see in my mind what I can do with fabric, but I also see things on people, in catalogs, store etc.... and think.... hmmmm, what can I do to improve or modify them so I would like to wear them?

So, this is the added eyelet to add to the length. I still need to do the sleeves.

Alright now for one, it was a bit too short for me..... (which because I had forgotten to read the customer comments... I could have figured that out b/4 hand... but I didn't! )I'm not crazy about my calves.... so I like a dress a bit longer. Also the sleeveless thing.... not quite my thing. So, because the dress has a variety of materials that it's made from I'm going to add sleeves that I have made from a couple of materials. For the base of the sleeves I will be using a knit white spandex, and then over the top of that I will be using a doily..... I know your laughing now.... but you just wait! Hopefully when it's done, you won't be! The dress has a cotton layered bottom and the top is made out of various knits. Since there wasn't enough of the doily to make the entire sleeve, that is why I'm using the spandex knit to build a base. Hopefully when it's done you won't even notice the base and your eye will go to the embroidered cotton doily. If it turns out like I plan.... I will be happy. And let's be honest.... I'm doing this for me right? So, who if anyone needs to be happy? You got it! Oh, and your probably wondering..... why is she working on a dress she won't wear now until Spring? Because that's just how I am! I just don't always get to things when I need too!

What with canning and fruit drying and recovering from hurting my back.... (I have no idea what I did....) but it's taken me several days to feel like a human again.... I've been walking around like I'm 90 years old. But stubborn as I am.... I will persevere!

Oh.... I did take time to brush out the dog.... there was an entire other dog in the bag that I put that old hair into! She looks much cuter now.... and I suspect that she is much happier too.... no more itchy hair to try to get off when she is outside!

I will be doing another post, so this is all for now!

Talk About Fast Service

O.K. for those of you in the U.S. we all know that yesterday was a holiday. Labor Day weekend is the last full on weekend of Summer! And well, as weekends go it was a good one, shopping, dinner with some of the family and well.... more shopping! What's not to like? I have to tell you about the service we got.... talk about fast... I'm almost speechless! And if you know me, it takes an awful lot to hush me up! So DH has been after me since about Wednesday last week to please order him a pair of new tennis shoes (sports shoes... hey, they are white/navy and have a tread for traction.... that's why I call them tennis shoes.... not that he plays tennis... just how I am!). So teasingly every time he would see me, (even if I came back into the room after being gone for a few minutes.....) he would ask me.... did you order my shoes yet? And so on and so forth..... So, yesterday being a Holiday as I said, I placed an order.... the operator told me well since this is a holiday they will ship tomorrow, and be there no later than Wednesday! Yeah! Next time DH sets eyes on me..... (you know the question..... insert here!) I could say, Yes! This a.m. I get an e-mail saying that the shoes shipped out at 1:30 a.m. this morning. I thought, nice... DH will be happy to know that they are on the way! I told him b/4 he left for work this a.m. (yes, I checked my e-mail early this a.m.) Anyway.... that being said, I told DH and he was quite happy leaving for work! At 10:15 a.m. the door bell rings, I figure it's my company, albeit a bit early...... Nope! It's the UPS truck! He has just delivered a box! And yes! It's the shoes that I ordered from Zappo's! I couldn't believe it! I mean it hadn't even been 24 hours and they were here already! Just what we ordered, talk about fast! WOW!!!!!! I must say, I'm very impressed by the speed of their service! I didn't have to pay shipping! Just so you know..... I'm getting nothing besides the satisfaction of knowing that their shipping/service department is totally awsome! Just thought I would past that little tidbit along!
More later.....
Edit: Bye the way honey...... I ordered your shoes!!!! Oh, and then.... when we found out that the size we ordered were wayyyy to big!!!! I reordered a smaller size! Done! They will probably be here tomorrow night! LoL....
Edit: Here we go again! This time the shoes were shipped even faster! They were shipped at around 3:00 a.m. Kentucky time and got here b/4 10:00 a.m. Utah time! And on top of that instead of charging our credit card again; and then giving us a refund when the other shoes were returned.... no.... the gal says to me..... "I will just transfer your $$$ over to the other pair of shoes, so we don't have to charge your card again!" Really? Wow.... I can't tell you how very impressed I am. Plus like I said above..... no shipping charges either way! O.K. this type of service, just doesn't happen. I mean, they are seriously making an effort! It's working for me!
Goooooo Zappo!!

Summer Is Over......

Although I no longer have kids in school, public, private or even collage for that matter... I am always touched by the fact that the neighborhood streets and yards are so much quieter when the kids go back to school. Summer for the most part (at least for the kids) is over and now it's back to the matter of learning and taking in knowledge. I hate to be the one to break it to them, but that is one thing that never ends! Learning or the work of learning to me is always there. There is still so much for me to learn... I didn't go to collage, but it seems I learn something new all the time... so just going to the college of life is important to me! I get a bit nostalgic about things this time of the year... thinking on how quickly our family grew and learned so many important things of life. And now, our grand kids are moving quickly down these paths also. Sometimes it's hard to see this happen, others.... well I get excited to see and to share with our grand kids some of the very things that excited me when I was their ages.

Alright... I know it's been quite a while since I took the time to post anything so I will try to do a better job the rest of the year. I ended up going on the Pioneer Trek.... to help with the cooking. I didn't actually do any trekking... but it was a wonderful experience anyway. Cooking, packing lunches for around 200 people a meal was well.... busy, exhilarating, hot, hard at times, silly, tiring, and at times we had to be just down right inventive! But well worth the hard work and the company was wonderful! I sooo do appreciate my dear husband and missed him very much. I was glad that I DID NOT SEE ANY OF THE RATTLE SNAKES THAT SOME PEOPLE SAW..... apparently a couple were seen but they just waited for them to slither away off the path and onto other travels..... YUCK!!!!! And there was one that managed to go into the girls bathroom..... (because someone didn't close the door..... like the signs said!!!!) but it was taken care of and is now viewing us from.... let us say.... more Heavenly Aspects.... ahem, get yourself into the bathroom and that's what you get I suppose! I came back with a bit of a different aspect on the wearing of pioneer clothing.... Those women were Wonder Women..... wearing dresses all the time, hot, cold.... with the breezes whipping in and out and well.... I do have a whole new light on how I feel about all those women.

I put together a quilt top/and the quilt it's self for another one of our Primary to hand tye. The only thing was..... 2 yep that's right..... only two girls showed up to help tye it! They were here early (which worked out fine) and had to leave after an hour to go to their soccor games. They were a big help though by helping me to get the quilt put onto the quilt frames. Sorry no pictures of that action.... but I do have a couple of the quilt.

Front: just a 9 patch

Back: a cute flannel that I had... and a little pink to finish it off. Nice to be able to grab something out of the fabric stash!

And last but not least: The Helper Dog!

She seemed to think that I couldn't do what I was doing without her help! She is right of course. After taking several shots this one seemed to say, don't you think that your done now! She is our sweet girl!

Our grandson..... the youngest, turned 2 a couple of weeks back and we had some family fun right here.

He is a pro already....

He is a "pro" already... he was hitting the ball and setting it back on the "T" all by himself.... (which is nice for mom because we know who would really be doing it if he couldn't do it for himself!).

Our granddaughter and her "Papa", were having a little of fun!

I've also been working on more of my "string quilt blocks" not sure how many I have now... but it's getting up there! Also I have been doing some alterations for moi!!! Wonder of wonders! I know, I don't think to sew for myself sometimes.... it's just that there is always something else to be done! My friend Karma if you will remember let me "shop" in her daughter's closet (Karma's daughter passed away 2 years ago and a while after she was gone I was invited to look at and try on and take home any clothing that I wanted. Her daughter had wonderful taste and since having died of cancer her weight went down rather quickly and she had all sorts of sized clothing. Some brand new, some not... but most all were in such good shape that her family felt that it would be nice to share. After all was said and done, I went home (feeling rather guilty really) with several large boxes of clothes. And come to find 14 people had shopped at "Diane's Closet" as we called her place and each went home with a huge amount of clothing. Diane was a wonderfully warm and caring and sharing person in life and in death. Her family misses her very much. I want to thank her family for being so generous to me and to all those that these clothes helped along the way! I have another story to tell concerning some of the clothes or at least one coat that came from "Diane's Closet" please see below*) and I brought home a number of dresses that I needed to take "in" and take "up" for that matter. Some of these dresses had never been worn before. They are so pretty and Summerish..... I should have finished them lonnnnnng ago... but, such is life! I have one more to do.... and I will have a complete new summer wardrobe! Some of them can be worn other times of the year (I'm not one who "has" to wear certain dresses during certain seasons.... some of them need to be worn... just Spring/Summer/very early Fall but I will decide as the seasons come.)

I do need to work on some up coming Christmas presents too..... we all realize that Christmas is coming......only 4 months away! Dear Hubby and I found one sweet present for the grand kids, and it will be an "early" Christmas present they will receive around Thanks Giving. I can't show a picture of it right now because our oldest DD just can't stand it when she doesn't know "the secret"..... so this is mostly just to tease her!!! LoL.... Bet I get a call as soon as she reads this!

Well, I hope all of you lovely people are sewing, crafting, and enjoying this beautiful day and the season to come. There won't be too many Summer days left I think... live each day to the fullest!

Our Heavenly Father Loves you all... Don't forget that!

Oh, and when your done sewing; don't forget to turn off the lights! Until the next post!

* I mentioned a coat that I received from Karma's daughters closet; telling about this closet of clothes made this story come to mind. I don't think that I've shared it... if I have and I know that I have to some, please just skip it and have a great day! If not.... please read on; A coat that I had seen in "Diane's Closet" went to one of Karma's sisters... it was a lovely green wool coat, a long dress coat to be exact! I had tried it on and it fit like a glove and then my hands went automatically into the pockets (I guess I'm just a pocket person at times). Inside the pocket were a pair of somewhat longer knit green gloves to match the coat!

After trying it on Karma mentioned that she thought that it might fit her sister and she really ought to have her try it on! Can't say that I wasn't disappointed, one I love green and although I really didn't need this coat (because I have a nice navy blue one) I would not have minded owning this one! Karma took the coat to her sister saying if it didn't fit her she would bring it back to me. I didn't really give it much thought after that. A few months later ( we were "shopping" in Diane's closet some time in March I think or April) Karma and I were working on a project together and she mentioned that the green wool coat didn't fit her sister and she pulled it out of the closet and gave it to me! Such a pretty coat and all I was very pleased. Fast forward to last December..... I had a meeting at Church and it was a very cold day and one of the ladies of our group and I were waiting outside the office of our Bishop for the meeting to start (in the hallway) and I had on a sweater over my dress and the green coat! The lady..... named Peggy (named has been changed to keep from embarrassing her) was sitting and shivering! She didn't have a coat on! I asked where her coat was and she said that she had left it at home, because she didn't like to wear her parka like coat with dresses! I asked her if she wanted the one I was wearing? She just looked at me, I think maybe she thought I meant just to get her warmed up! I told her the situation of how and where I got the coat and that I had another dress coat at home and I was more than comfortable to give it to her! I think she was pretty surprised.... maybe even shocked really. She didn't really know what to say I think. So she basically said no.... that's o.k. I will be fine. Later after our meeting, I confronted her again, (when no one was around and I had taken the coat off during our meeting) this time I asked her to please take the coat, that really I had another at home and to please use it with my pleasure. I had put my scarf into a bag I was carrying and gave that to her later too. (it was a scarf that I had also gotten with the coat!) She was sooo excited! She told me that green was her favorite color! I told her see..... it was meant to be! And then I told her that there were gloves in the pockets to match! She was all smiles as was Karma when I relayed the story to her.... with the name of the actual person. So, that's the story. I wasn't really supposed to have that coat after all. I was just to hold it for a little while. Love...... pass it on!