Before and After, #1

November update

This picture has nothing to do with anything; just a shot from when Aaron & Noah & Juno went camping a couple of weeks ago (and got snowed on ~ yes it does snow in Arizona; this was only a couple hours from our house.)

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was lovely. Not a huge group this year (15) but we had a great time of course. And my grandma makes the best gravy.

We have been busy with a lot of projects around here; pictures forthcoming. A few "home improvement" items that have been on the back burner for years, a few spring-cleaning type projects that were long overdue, and today we got a new BBQ, which I'm SO excited to use for dinner tomorrow! It cost only $30 more than the one we bought 8 1/2 years ago (which is now broken) but it is such a huge upgrade. Bigger, more bells & whistles, and even an external side burner which I didn't have on my old BBQ.

And, I've been doing lots of Christmas shopping; to the point that I am nearly finished. I caved to the pressure! But it does feel mighty nice to be nearly done.

Annual "Thankful" FHE

step 1
step 2
step 3
and voila!


Thanks to a fun Sharing Time at church on Sunday the kids were each given a tree and 22 leaves. Which means the person in charge of sharing time (me) cut out 22 leaves for each of 45 kids. And 22 x 45 = 990. (So I hope every family in our ward did what we did last night for FHE so that all that cutting wasn't for nothing.)


But it was fun for us and it's always interesting to see what the kids come up with. Two of our girls included "diamonds" and I'm not sure why. Thinking of their future wedding rings already? I hope not! Noah kept thinking of various high-sugar-content foods until we steered him in a different direction.



Oh, and please just ignore the close-up of the dirty fingernails and the terribly beat up coffee table.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

FYI

I just wanted to let you know that Modbe is going out of business; closing their doors forever at the end of the year. So they're getting rid of everything... it's all on clearance and while there isn't a lot of selection left, you might be able to find something! I have told you before about their swimsuits; I have 3 of them -- one of which I just ordered a few weeks ago (and it came and it fits and I love it!) -- they are good quality and good cuts.

I'll put up a "real post" one of these days... In the meantime, what percentage of your Christmas shopping is done? Because the other adult females in my family seem to be nearly finished with theirs, barely into the November 20's here. I've started mine but am in no huge hurry. And the rest of them are really giving me PRESSURE about it!

Do you see that?

That beautiful foggy mist is the steam escaping from my canner during my very last batch of applesauce. Oh that is a welcome sight. That means I am officially DONE with canning for 2009. Between the usual spring strawberries, the summer raspberries and blackberries, the late summer pears and peaches, and the fall apples, I have had my fill of canning for the year (although my mom did about twice as much as me this year; wow!) and I can't say that I'll miss it.

Until strawberry season, that is, when I will be back to making a year's worth of jam like crazy. But I'll be ready for it by then.

What's the deal with that one garish white ring on that quart of applesauce? Good heavens, I'm going to have to go replace it with a brass one. Honestly.

For Leigh & Gin

This is what the three of us did with our time while sitting in church, BYU freshman year. I don't recall why some of them rhyme, some of them don't, and some of them feature apparently left-handed writing? I do remember one of my 1" ripped paper creations for Ginny being "Gin is saccharin," accompanied by an illustration of a bowl of cereal with a Sweet n' Low packet being sprinkled on top, which resulted in a serious (but whispered) discussion over what exact type of artificial sweetener is used in Sweet n' Low. I'm pretty sure none of us really knew what we were talking about but we concluded that saccharin was probably not meant for breakfast cereal.

Those were such good times, ladies.

If you want to make a really great tri-fold,

Start by using bright colors and sweeping promises.

The reader cannot help but open it to see what's inside! "Free" is always an attention-grabber. The presence of a "trained specialist" doesn't hurt either.

Be sure to include a lot of really good quality artwork, employing every single marker in the Crayola Brights 8-pack. Terms like, "And much, much more!" spur the reader's curiosity, and telling them not to wait any longer creates a sense of urgency.

Finally, don't forget the vital information on the back; this part doesn't need to be flashy because by the time the reader gets there, they're hooked!

(summer 1991)

(I "taught" my two sisters one class, wherein they were only allowed to sew straight lines onto typing paper. I'm glad they didn't sue me for false advertising.)

It's that time again

You know, that time of year where us Arizonans gloat while the rest of you freeze. I do love it here (even when it's hot). Nothing's better than a full forecast of sunshine!

Another good idea

Last night for Family Home Evening we talked about some counsel given over the weekend at Stake Conference (a big, semi-annual local church meeting) by a visiting General Authority (Elder Sitati), which was about the importance of daily prayer. He said that morning prayer should be part of our routine, and gave the analogy, "You wouldn't leave the house without putting on your shoes or combing your hair, would you? Then why would you leave the house without first praying?"

I had recently heard from a friend the rhyming reminder, "Prayer before hair." Since Noah doesn't do a thing to his hair in the morning we decided that saying didn't apply across the board for our family, so Aaron came up with "Prayers before stairs." I made this nifty sign which, as you can see, is hanging at the top of the stairs (suspended from the ceiling) at about eye level for Zoe and Lucy... everyone will notice it when they start to go down the stairs and the idea is that everyone will be reminded to say their morning prayers before heading down for breakfast, etc.

So far, so good... it worked for all of us this morning! We won't leave it there forever but my hope is to get everyone around here in the habit of daily prayers.

Project Overload

Noah's Social Studies / Science project

{For anyone who's interested, here are the project details: Noah's assignment was to create something showing 10 specific land forms. We did eleven: ocean, island, mesa, desert, swamp, valley, lake, river, tributary, canyon, mountain range. The main material we used was that green crumbly floral foam, the kind that absorbs water and is stuck into the bottoms of pots or vases. It was pretty cheap; $3.99 for six blocks (of which we used five). Very easy to carve, lightweight, easy to glue and paint. Extremely messy... we kept the vacuum near by while carving. Aaron made the mountains, Noah made the mesa; it was a group effort. Noah did most of the painting. I had the brilliant idea (which worked really well!) to make hard candy (melted sugar) to pour for the ocean and the lake. I experimented and found that the green floral foam does NOT melt when 295 degree sugar is poured onto it! The color of the water is more green and less blue than I wanted but oh well. The base of the whole thing is half a piece of foam core, with painted balsa wood dowels for the frame. The pine trees are 1" pieces of green pipe cleaner, trimmed into skinny triangles: all the kids helped make the trees. The cactuses were made by me with salt dough, and painted. Noah typed & made all the labels himself, including one more larger "bill board" looking sign with his name & class which was added after this picture was taken. Yes, I'm giving you too many details... but ever since Tuesday, this Noah project has been front & center in my mind and kitchen, so you're getting the whole thing!}

So first it was the pumpkins. Then the other pumpkins. Then the Halloween costumes. Then on Tuesday I spent the whole day making a fake wedding cake for a fake wedding reception, except that it was a real wedding cake which is every bit as much work as a fake one. Confused? I was doing a favor for a friend who was hosting a super fun, super-involved Young Women's activity where her whole backyard was decorated like a wedding reception. I made three rounds; 10", 8", and 6", the largest being chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, and the smaller two being white/lemon cake with raspberry mousse filling (and I invented the recipe for the raspberry mousse). Each round was split into four layers of cake (and three layers of luscious filling). I'm not including a picture because they were lime green, very very lime green, which is what they wanted but I just don't like to look at the picture of them. Unfortunately it was a warm night and my chocolate mousse filling wished it was cold and tried to make a break for it (oozing out of the bottom tier of the 3-tiered cake) so apparently they ate it sooner than planned! Then as soon as that project was finished, Noah's big school project took center stage (and my entire kitchen table for two straight days). Now that is finished, but another project yet looms... applesauce! I have had 3 1/2 boxes of apples (four delicious varieties) sitting on my counter, ignored for eight days now, waiting for their turn to become the next project.

I will start making applesauce tomorrow, just as soon as I fold the seven loads of laundry that I washed today.

If you happen to ask me to help you with a project in the near future and I say "no," don't be offended. I bet I would really love to do it, I just need a tiny break from projects right now... I have enjoyed every one of these projects the past couple of weeks, but I would've enjoyed them more if they hadn't all come at me at the same time!

Sale on Swimsuits!

Go to Modbeclothing.com, pick out one of their swimsuits (on clearance), (or any other clothing you want), then type in FALL40 in the coupon box when you check out... that gives you an additional 40% your order, ON TOP of the clearance prices! I just ordered myself a new swimsuit for next summer, and paid a grand total of $30 which includes tax & shipping. Yay!

According to what I read, this FALL40 coupon code is only good til tomorrow, 11/3!

Halloween: the main event!

Our trick-or-treating crew!

And now for the costume breakdown:

Noah: Mummy

5 or 6 yards of cheap muslin, cut into mostly 2" strips, tacky-glued onto an old long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. Easy to do but it did take quite a while. Oh yeah and $2 Halloween makeup from Walmart too. The inspiration for this costume came from here, and if you click over you will see that my strength lies in copying, not originality!

Molly: Hermione

Oxford shirt is one of Noah's old ones. Gray sweater was purchased on Tuesday at Walmart. Tie and scarf were sewn by me, in Griffindor colors of course. I actually started to knit a scarf (it turns out I sort of remember how to knit which I haven't done since I was about 12) and I got about 14" done but realized it would take way too long... so I went the fabric w/ yarn tassles route. The cloak is made of heavy felt; I just sort of draped it around Molly and pinned and cut and stitched (and used the other kids for models when Molly wasn't nearby, pinning and cutting and stitching some more) until it looked cloak-ish. It turned out okay. The wand was a dowel that I whittled and sanded and stained.


Zoe: Black Cat

Easiest costume ever! Tights & leotard were purchased at Walmart. I used about 1/4 yard of black fur to make the tail, wrist & ankle cuffs, and ears. I used wire in the tail and ears (although the ears need some fix-up before this costume is used again). I sewed about a 2" square of the black cloak felt into the back of Zoe's leotard to make a secure place to pin the tail.


Lucy: Super Girl!

I had big plans for Lucy, some of which involved sewing a big red "L" onto a yellow leotard and blinging it out with sequins, but it didn't happen. So we found this whole ensemble ready to go at Target.


Oh yeah, and at our church party Aaron & I dressed like this (at least almost just like that). I had to snap this pic of him talking to his buddy on Wednesday since they're both rockin' the full-sleeve tats.


For Halloween night, Aaron & I donned orange t-shirts and called it good. We had a fun night; an early dinner, costume assembly, pictures, a visit to a spooky yard display in a friend's neighborhood, some trick-or-treating, and when it was time to come home we watched a movie with freshly-made caramel corn. The kids didn't like the movie (and neither did we) so they ate a little more candy and then went to bed at a reasonable hour.

All in all I would have to declare this Halloween a success!