Gwen Has Now Published Her First Book
Gwen set out with a very specific goal this week. She wanted to make a book. It took shape on Tuesday and was completed on Wednesday. She was so proud of it!!
Here are some "behind the scenes" . . .
"I'm the step-sister and the step-mother."
"I'm Cinderella."
"The good step-sister wants to help Cinderella."
"I'm the bad step-sister."
"I'm the fairy Godmother."
The End.
Abby and I had the silliest conversation yesterday as I worked with her to get this darling picture.
Abby's brain is typically whirring at 100 mph, beginning with the moment she gets out of bed. When I try to take a picture of her, she's usually looking here and there and everywhere. So our conversation, in typical style, went something like this yesterday:
Me: Okay, Abby. Think about something that makes you happy and smile as you think about it.
Abby: 
Me: That's great! But I need you to look at me.
Me: That's great! But I need you to look at me.
Abby: I am looking at you.
Me: Okay, but I need you to KEEP looking at me. Where are my eyeballs?
**If Gwen were part of the picture, this is where she will physically point at me while I'm trying to take the photo, ha ha. So then I have to try to get another picture without her pointing. :)
Me: Okay, Abby, you're doing great. But, tell me, how many eyebrow hairs do you think I have?
Abby: (during the actual photo that I took above) Um, maybe 1,000?
Me: 1,000????? That's more like how many eyebrow hairs Papi has! And his are all like 8 inches long!!
There is always a story behind every great photo. And that was our story. The End.
As for the rest of the week . . .
Monday: I finished the rest of my secret Christmas project. I'm going to take a gamble here and post a photo because I don't think the recipient is reading my blog as of late. And he/she will hopefully not put two and two together and assume this is theirs. :)
This is the YouTube video that I used to help me create my quilt:
Here's a close-up of some of the blocks.
And later that evening, Amber snuck this picture of me while I was reading to Gwen.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/okNrDjVvTjFCHBSs9
The vein colors are more of a taupe - a mixture of grey and tan, just like our wall color and floor tiles.
And here is a 6 second video of their new little puppy, Enzo, learning how to sit. Enzo is Benson's Christmas present from Kylie. He is another Blue Heeler and he's very cute.
Amber got her COVID-19 test results back. She was NEGATIVE. AGAIN. I tell you what. Every time we get exposed to someone who has it, we both get sick with something - couldn't tell you what - but something. Then we go get tested and NOPE. It's not coronavirus. I'm glad we haven't gotten it, but the longer it takes to get it, the more my anxiety builds up about what it might do to me when I finally do get it!
My sister-in-law Pam is doing better finally, after a rough several days. Her husband, Gordon, most likely had it, too, but is also doing better now. THANK GOODNESS.
During the day on Tuesday, I also started working on another quilt for a friend's Christmas gift. This one is for my dear friend, Marie, who has given me a monthly massage for the past 7+ years. I have wanted to make her a quilt for a LONG TIME!!
Here is the "before" photo. I found this set of quilt squares already cut and stacked, ready to be made into a quilt. It was in my craft cupboard downstairs. I'm pretty sure it was one that Amber put together back when she was a teenager, but we just never sewed it together.
I was concerned about the white squares because they were quite thin and I didn't want them to tear with future usage and washings. I also decided to remove the denim squares, along with all the browns. Plus I felt like the quilt had way too much orange.
I bought a tiny bit of fabric from Joann's and then made this new arrangement.
Marie loves Batik fabrics (just like Chelsea), and her favorite colors are green and purple.
This is my EASY quilt pattern that I have used for many years. I have made close to 50 quilts now, most of which were made by using this pattern. I will include it below. I bought it originally at our favorite little store in Rigby, Idaho, called Abbott's. It is now closed permanently because the owners retired a few years ago. I have some FAVORITE memories of that darling little store!! (More on that in a minute)
Here's the scoop about Abbott's. When our kids were younger, we used to take them to Abbott's every year to do our family Christmas shopping. Benson, being the youngest, was probably about 6-8 years old in my memory bank. Maybe even a little bit older when we first started this tradition. He was old enough to wander in the store by himself. And it was a small store in a tiny town - the population was around 3,000. (Now it's more like 5,000)
The rules were:
- As we arrived at the store, we would divide up. Each person would grab a cart and already had some idea of what to get for each person.
- They could use their coat to lay over the items in the cart so nobody could see what they had put in.
- No snooping or sneaking around trying to spy on anyone else.
- We had a limit of roughly $5 per person they were shopping for - and maybe up to $10 for ONE person if they found something amazing and couldn't NOT buy it.
- When each child was done, they needed to find me and flag me down. I would then accompany them up to the register without peeking at what was in their cart. I had already let the cashier know ahead of time what we were doing and that I wasn't allowed to see what they had picked out. I would hand the cashier my debit card and then turn around backwards so I couldn't see anything. Then when everything was bagged up, I took that child out to the trunk of the car to deposit their goods.
- As each child completed their shopping and put their gifts in the car, they had to stay with me until everyone else was done.
- When we got home, everyone would disappear to wrap their gifts. If Benson needed help, I would help him to wrap any gifts that weren't for me. And Scott would help him wrap the gift he had picked out for me.
Now back to the quilt pattern . . . I use the same pattern with most quilts, but I change up the colors with each person's quilt. When I used to work for Dr. Elison, the oral surgeon, I decided to make a quilt for each of my fellow employees for their birthday over the course of one year. I asked them for 3 colors that I could work with, and then I went off to find coordinating fabrics in those 3 colors. It was a lot of fun!
Sometimes I use flannel, but most of the time I use cotton fabric. Sometimes I have added denim to a quilt - my favorite one being my patriotic quilt. Lots of denim on that one, mixed with patriotic patterns and colors. I usually add fleece to the back - much to the scorning and one-eyebrow-raised-looks that I get at the fabric counter when they inquire as to what I'm building. They don't think that fleece should be connected to cotton fabric AT ALL. I politely inform them that it might be out of the norm, but that my quilts have survived and done amazingly well over the years, including having had numerous washings. They still look at me like I'm a monster.
Also on Tuesday, Scott and I went shopping for tile for the bathroom shower. We found a beautiful marble tile that we really love!!
Later in the week we found this for the shower flooring:
The rocks are polished and flat, with a very smooth texture. I kept petting and petting the rocks in the showroom, ha ha. They feel so soothing and amazing. I think it will all feel very nice on our feet.
I looked over at one point and saw Gwen eating a cracker. I asked her if she had picked it up off the ground. She said, "Yep." Of course you did, Gwen. Ha ha
I also took the girls out back to leave some crackers on the ground for the squirrels. We found an old box of crackers that were leftover from Amber and Weston's wedding 7 years ago!! Rather than just throwing them away, we decided to leave cracker trails for the squirrels in the back yard.
Wednesday: We did some festive Christmas activities throughout the day. Amber made a beautiful advent calendar ahead of the Christmas season, with her own homemade ideas printed out and enclosed in beautiful homemade hanging envelopes. For this particular day, the activity was to dry slices of oranges to hang as a decoration. Abby helped Amber to lay out the slices on the baking sheet. They baked at 180 degrees for several hours, and Amber checked them from time to time, flipping them occasionally.
When Scott got done at the high school, we drove up to Rigby to visit with his parents. We had a wonderful discussion about all the family goings-on, and talked about future plans, along with their worries of getting older.
After we left, we decided to stop for a local bite of food for dinner. Not because my mother-in-law failed to feed us, ha ha. She offered, but we didn't want her to go to any trouble on our account. So we stopped at the Fiesta Ole to get some nachos to share. The restaurant's dining room was closed to anyone eating in, so we sat in the car and shared our plate of nachos together. How romantic! :)
It turned into a drive-thru Christmas goodie pick-up in the church parking lot. I invited Amber and the girls to come along in my car, to which they excitedly accepted. We pulled up here first, where Emily and Isabel handed us a goodie bag with my name on it. ReNae Cunningham, our young women's president, came over to greet us as well.
After visiting for a few minutes, we drove off to see some Christmas lights in the neighborhood before the girls needed to go to bed. On occasion, when the light display was especially fantastic, we would pull over to take a longer look.
Abby and Gwen loved being able to stand up and get a panoramic view through my sunroof, and would very politely take turns climbing up to take a peek.
Click here to read and feel some love from our Savior:
Thursday: I worked on the quilt for Marie and went browsing for shower tile ideas around town.
Friday: I had some errands to run - related to Christmas. We are doing the 12 Days of Christmas for a neighbor and friend. I'll share more about it next week. During my last bit of running around, I invited Amber and the girls to join me since I was headed to the mall. I thought it would be fun for the them to get out and do something.
We rented strollers for the girls that looked like mini cars. They had fun "steering" and "putting on the brakes" when needed.
Saturday: Scott and I ran some errands together, looking at shower tile, getting groceries, etc. We also chatted with Benson and Kylie for a bit.
While we visited on the phone, Benson showed me their doggies playing around by his legs.
Mocha is so HUGE!! Enzo was playing with Mocha, playfully biting at (and in) her mouth. Harley just stayed put, waiting for any sort of acknowledgement.
Benson also shared this FANTASTIC video early this morning (Sunday) of their dog, Harley, chasing after a tennis ball. She can literally do this for HOURRRRS.
As for the master bathroom . . .
Scott has finished putting all the backer board up in the shower. He took a little video, giving a silent tour of the bathroom so far.
Click here to watch:
Then he added Thin-Set in all the nooks and crannies yesterday morning. And later last night, he painted on the RedGuard, a pinkish-red hue of peanut-butter consistency, meant to further seal up cracks and crevices with a rubber-like finish.
Here is a short video of Scott demonstrating how it works:
He is really pleased with it, saying that it works very efficiently and quickly. It also allows him a warmer space to cut tile by being INSIDE, instead of out in the freezing cold garage with a wet-tile cutter that spews cold water all over the place. He got really good at making really small cuts of tile, about the size of a coaster. Abby enjoyed using all the little tile squares to make a magical path in the living room for all the Christmas toys and stuffed animals. :)
Today, Sunday, we had our weekly Zoom chat with all the kids.
Jacob stepped out for a minute here, but I am in the upper right, Abby is in the lower left, and Scott is holding Gwen, who is enthusiastically waving hello.
Scott and Benson are on the bottom row.
It's one of our favorite games to play. Scott gets a little frustrated though, saying that he's not a good speller as he's trying to type out his guesses. I just think it's fun to laugh and interact with all the kids.
This is when I had to draw meatballs.
She took things to a whole new level today, though, by making a Crepe Cake using these beautiful beet crepes. In between the layers there is a mixture of mascarpone, whipping cream and lemon zest. In all, she layered about 30 crepes for the entire cake.
She also made a lovely caramel sauce to drizzle on top of each slice. Oh-my-gosh! I wanted to lick my entire plate clean just now as I ate a slice while sitting here at my computer! It's so pretty to look at, as well as being delightfully delicious in my mouth!!
One last thing: We finished our gingerbread structures. Here they are!
The Whitworth Gingerbread Bus
The Harmon Olde English Cottage
And Jake & Hannah Harmon's Gingerbread Church
Comments
Post a Comment