Creating again.

I spent a couple of weeks in early April preparing for my upcoming visits to my children and grandchildren and wanted to share what I made.

This initial pillow



was made to see if sewing this would work. The original pillow pattern came from here and it was so darling I could hardly wait to make it. She hot glued the petals on, but I felt sorry for my granddaughter who would want to squish it and scrunch it and otherwise love on it, so I figured out that if I formed a box pleat in the center of the petal and then sewed it on, it would look good. And it did! For the center, I took the little circles and folded them in half. I took a stitch in the center from one side of the fold to the other and then stitched it to the center and coming back and stitching it another time or two. I sewed them very close together and that took the most time (about 2 hours for each flower).

After ascertaining that this would work, I made this



for a friend we would be visiting in Houston. I like it every bit as much.

I made the following felt food for my granddaughter. I found them on several different blogs. The bacon was here. The eggs I found were here. The pancakes and the donuts came from another set of blogs that I can't find right now. I did what I do when I make real donuts... cut the inside hole too big.






I thoroughly enjoyed making these. I like working with felt and with fleece (no hems needed.)

Musings on Church callings

When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was in its pioneer days, leadership callings could last for years and years. My grandfather was Ward Sunday School President and I got the impression that it spanned many years. Bishops could be in place for 25 years or more.

Things changed. When I was a young mother, leadership callings in the church lasted for a year or a year and a half, (though Bishops were there longer.) I also was often released from any callings right after my children were born and had a respite for a few months. This was not unusual.

The pendulum has swung back. I see many people staying in their callings for many, many years. I was Relief Society President for 5 years, our primary president has been in her calling for about 7, the Young Women's President about 4 and if you have a lesser known calling you can be there for 10 years or more. I have been ward choir pianist for approximately 10 years and I suspect I'll be there longer as it depends on a talent that is scarce in our ward. I am a ward organist for the same reason and expect to be there for a long time, though this is not new, I've known lots of career organists in many wards.

Also, a pregnant mom and new mom are expected to continue in their position unless she or her baby have health issues.

No reason for this post, but I just was thinking about how things change.

My kitchen

Just recently we found a craftsman who "stains" cabinets and we decided to have it done to ours. My husband hates the look of painted cabinets and this was our compromise. We had priced refacing and when we heard a $12,000 quote, we decided that wasn't the way to go.

I was thoroughly intending to take a before picture, but our craftsman came while I was out shopping(?) and took all the cabinet faces with him so he could do them at home. I searched back through my pictures and this is the best I could find of a before shot. My cabinets are a pretty good quality of oak, but I was tired of the finish and especially tired of the very nasty looking baseboards and spots on the cabinet where the finish was worn away.



Before our craftsman's arrival Wednesday, I cleaned out every cupboard. The craftsman and his helper came early that day and masked off the entire kitchen... walls, lights, ceiling, refrigerator, floor and then starting spraying a stain over our existing finish. It took the entire day of coat after coat of stain and top coats of polyurethane(?) and then it was done. I was to leave it alone for 24 hours and then I could put everything back.

Here is the finished product...







I love it!

The unexpected thing that happened was not the finishing of the cabinets. It happened afterward. We got a call late Thursday (just about 24 hours later) from our DIL. There was an emergency in her family. I had just one day to get my house put back together, my laundry done, my bags packed, my visiting teaching done, and my substitutes arranged for my church callings before I flew out for an indefinite amount of time to help my son's family. With the help of my sister, willing people, and some aid from God, I was able to get it all done and arrived at the airport at 5 am on Saturday for my next adventure.

One last Valentine's post

I am almost afraid to post this because the pictures make the finished project look much worse than it actually does. It turned out beautifully. It is based on this.

I didn't have the Krinkle Tulle, so I cut 1 1/2" strips of pink tulle that were doubled. I gathered the tulle with a running stitch down the middle. I just stuck the fold of a new strip into the old strip to join them. The pearls were cheap and 10mm. I used the stretchable elastic and then made the bracelet. Here's the oh so terrible pictures of bracelets that are actually quite cute. (Please ignore the ugly hand model... I can say that because I'm the one modeling them.)

Mine...


My granddaughter's...

Jeanine and crafts.

Because I have posted 2 (now 3) blogs today, I want to let you know that the next one down is Valentine crafts and Jeanine's latest test results is beneath the Valentine's craft.

Valentine's Day

I am done with my Valentine's Day crafting extravaganza and this proves it. My guest bed is never clean until I finish my current crafts.

I have already posted the first pillow I made with this tutorial. But the following are the other pillows that I made from that tutorial...





I decided to try my hand at another pillow. I didn't find a blog doing this, but I'm sure there are some out there. The material I used to make the heart was a fabric I am unfamiliar with. It is something like a double sided suede and I bought it at Goodwill. It is actually too heavy for this application, though it would have been fine if I had filled the entire pillow with the ruffled "suede".



Another view...


I saw these felt cookies and had to make some for my granddaughter. It was fairly simple to make without any instructions.



It was so fun and I would have made more, but I was my shipping date was approaching too fast.

I saw a post for a Valentine frame for Dads which I cannot now find. It involved chalkboard paint and in the original it had conversation hearts close to the picture around the frame. I wanted to do the same thing for Girl's Activity Day, but ran out of time. I had the foam fun hearts and decided to make the frames to give to the girls for Valentine's Day.



My last Valentine's creation was a combination of a few blogs. I took a dollar frame and painted it black. I then put some scrapbook paper that I had obtained on clearance and tried the glitter half hearts on it. It needed more. So I copied the words from one of my husband's and my favorite songs onto paper and then changed the size and font of some of the words. I cut it out and voila! and very nice looking wall hanging. BTW, I bought the glitter hearts at the dollar store and used a serrated knife to cut them in half.



Unfortunately, I cannot be craftless for long. My bed is already loading up with the supplies for the Girl's Camp fundraiser.

Jeanine's news

This is a good report. Jeanine had a PET/CT scan. It shows that a majority of the cancer in the right lobe of her liver has died. There are some remaining scattered bits of cancer in that area, but the treatment seems to be working well. The cancer in her lymph nodes is decreasing in size and the cancer has not spread to any other areas.

Above and beyond this, Jeanine is also in general good health. As she and I have discussed, she is basically able to do everything she needs or wants to do and finds that doing what she needs to do to live with this cancer is workable.

I just wanted to let you know that all is going well right now.