Babies Quilt

Next week my #8 grandchild, Lizzie's little Elle, will be one year old. I wanted to do something fun and special. I had this idea in my head that I had never seen, so there was no pattern. I couldn't find the kind of dolls I wanted so I remembered these cute fabric paper doll fabric with outfits. So this is what I came up with. I cut them out , sewed some muslin on the back and stuffed them so they would be soft. I felt like a little girl dressing the dolls before I put them together. I ironed the clothes on with stitch witchery type stuff, then sewed them together with muslin on the back. It was great fun. I was so excited when it was done. Steve absolutely loved them, he kept saying how cute they were! I was originally going to make pockets for them, then I thought it would be cuter making the pockets look like blankets. Well, I'm tired. Love you all!

So much to share!

I am so far behind, at times like this I just want to forget the past and move on from today, BUT that would be foolish. I use my blog to share and to document. Soooooo that means I need to catch up. For fun before I go back and catch up, Steve and I went out to eat the other night for Chinese, Steve's favorite. These were our fortunes, I had to share.
Christmas was wonderful. It was definitely different, but I still enjoyed it very much. I can never think of a time in my life when there hasn't been lots of people around at Christmas and always children. I think there might have been one Christmas when we lived in Wyoming that we stayed there by ourselves, but we had Rebecca and I think Jake, so children around. This year, because of our Reunion just one month before, our kids were either at their in-laws or just staying home. Steve didn't want to travel so we were home on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning all by ourselves. I was worried that I would be sad, but I wasn't , it was very pleasant. It was very quiet. I would love to say it was laid back, but we were expecting Rebecca, Steve, Amy and Mike that night for Christmas Dinner. Since Rebecca and Steve wouldn't get a Christmas Dinner unless I did one, I waited for them to come to have it. So that meant cooking all day. I was reminded of why I do Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. By the time Christmas comes I am tired out! I just want to stay in my jammies and do nothing. But I was happy to have Rebecca and Steve so I just bucked up and did it.

It was so nice to get to know Steve better. We met him at the reunion, but it was pretty busy and chaotic there. Here it was quiet and low key. It was really nice. We are excited for them to be married. He will be a great addition to our family. They and Amy stayed until Tuesday and then left to go to their homes. Mike went home on Sunday. Then that very night Megan and Greg came with Greg's little brother Chris and his wife. It was nice and pleasant and fun to see the changes Scarlet has made. She is so happy and easy going and LOVES to smile. Megan got some great pics with Steve it is hard to choose so there will be several.Aren't those great! Megan got a few of me just before they left.Then they left and Jake's Family came the next night. It was like a revolving door. Ruby and Miles stayed with us New Years Eve and Jake, Lyndsey and their friends stayed at one of our beach houses. The next night they came and stayed with us. While Ruby and Miles were with us we did some fun things of course. We made cupcakes-Surprise! Ha! Ha! We made the dinosaurs. It was cool to use my new pearls and big sugar sprinkles, it made them look more like dinosaurs. Plus, I figured out an easier and better way to put the sugar on, it was less messy and faster!After that we sewed. It is great having One of my grand kids close enough to teach them to sew. Ruby is actually using the sewing machine and serger all by herself. Miles sat on my lap but I made the mistake of letting the sleeve of his shirt that he was wearing get in the blade of the serger. He saw the cut in his sleeve, it was less than a quarter of an inch, but he got scared and didn't want to sew anymore. I was sad, I hope he will try again. Aren't they cute in their matching clothes!
Then of course we had to make pancakes. Danielle gave me this cool thing from Williams Sonoma, it is for pancake batterfor some reason I never noticed it. It is so wonderful!!! I have all these cool pancake molds, but I had just about given up on them because it is so hard to pour the batter around and into all the little crevices. This makes it a breeze, plus you can draw designs.It was a great time. We always have so much fun. They left and then I thought I was going to breath, but it seemed like then I had to catch up on life and get the Christmas all put away. That of course took longer than I thought it would. I still have my lights up, but I turned them off. The weather has been horrendous so one of these days I'll get them put away. I have hung up a few more pics around the house. I have a few more to go. I hope to get the car back in the garage this week. I got it in there for about a week and then Steve started another remodeling project. But thankfully they are all done! So we can put the car in and enjoy the house until it's time to sell. Hope you are all well! Love you all!

Hobbies

I know I should be blogging Christmas first, but this couldn't wait! Wednesday I went to sleep feeling very overwhelmed and uptight, crying myself to sleep kind of thing. I woke up not feeling much different, even after reading my scriptures. Keep in mind I have been reading and pondering my scriptures on a regular basis. I couldn't understand why I was such a mess. Thursday was Weight Watchers which usually cheers me up, but I was stressed about that also. I did my meeting and it was fine. Then for the first time in about a month or more, I went to my greenhouse, plugged in my music, and started cleaning up beds and weeds coming up through the bricks on the floor. It took me about 2 hours. I was exhausted, but invigorated! I was happy to the point of almost giggling. Life seemed doable for the first time in a long time. I didn't feel overwhelmed or the tiniest bit sad. I felt like I had so much emotional and mental energy. It was great! I woke up this morning feeling the same way. The moral of the story? BALANCE!!! I have been running around working myself to the bone. I got sicker than I had been in a long time. No matter how hard I tried, life was not fun. It is important to do things you enjoy, if you don't you will burn out. How can you be a good servant to the Lord, your family or anyone if you are burned out?

Now for the exciting crazy part those veggies you see up there are from my greenhouse! They are the last of the summer crop. I have other things growing still, but they are more cool crop things. The peppers taste soooo sweet and delicious. The tomatoes are okay. When we live back down there, I might just see if I can lengthen out the season by protecting them more. Well, love you all!!!!