On a spiritual note

I wasn't sure about posting this here, but then I remembered this is my blog and I can do what I want here. Anyway, I was having a low day this morning. I think it was the sugar low from the chocolate cake with fudge frosting I ate last night. I was feeling depressed and angry. I decided to go visit my friend Holly. She has had my diaper bag since she babysat for us on Tuesday and I have had some stuff to give her as well. I decided to take along the Ensign (I am her visiting teacher) even though I hadn't really read it yet. I haven't read one in months actually. I kind of skimmed and found a bold passage that stuck out to me and later read through it with her. It was a good reminder to me and lifted my low spirits as did the 2 hour talk we had while I was there. The section was this: "Some are lost because they are weary." Lately I have been feeling weary. It gets better some days, but overall I have not been feeling joy in all that I have to accomplish. The reminder I got from this talk was to let the Lord carry some of that burden. It was a message that reminded me that I have accomplished great things when I have involved the Lord in my life. I have not been doing that as much as I ought to lately and I have been feeling the strain that results from carrying my burdens by myself. Why do I forget so quickly when I have had so many experiences that have taught me to trust in His help? You can find the whole talk here if you are interested.

Things are sprouting

I'm fortunate to have a helper with my gardening this year. He loves to do whatever I will let him. The beans are by far the fastest growing seeds I planted. The cucumbers came in at second place. So far the bunny who visits our back yard hasn't done any serious damage to the vegetable plants.

Our backyard surprise

I'm always excited when new flowers pop out in our yard that we didn't know about when we bought the house. These are climbing the back of our house and they are so bright and colorful.

So what if I don't have a little girl

I wanted to make a little girl's dress so this one will be for Raelee if it fits her and her parents approve. She can wear it with a shirt underneath and it will totally be modest. The dress was based on a dress Raelee outgrew and her mother loaned to me to use as a pattern. I'm hoping to try it on Lincoln to see if it really is a size 2T like I had planned. I messed up the first time and had to cut the skirt and top a little, so it may turn out to be too short. We'll have to see.

Ebay

Last week I went to some garage sales with my friend Erin. We found some little lead animals and bought the whole box of them for only 50 cents. After looking them up on Ebay, we decided they might be better sold rather than stuck up someone's nose so I listed them. The final price was $193.50 plus shipping! It was crazy! We are so excited about our little Ebay sale.

Lincoln's little car bag

I am mostly happy with this little bag. I wanted to have the drawstrings to pull the bag tight, but I forgot to leave the seams open to pass the drawstrings through so it's a little rough right now. Maybe the next one will be better.

The Garden

Last weekend I started another project: a vegetable garden in the back yard. Here are some pictures of what I've done so far. The first picture is of our box spring mattress frame. Link and I ripped out all the fabric from the top and the bottom. Then we moved the frame to the perfect garden spot in our yard. (By the way, I didn't try to dress Lincoln up like one of those cute calendar babies, he did this to himself after trying on the pajamas I made him. He loves his hats and also note the rain boots he really did put on all by himself!) Yesterday and today I filled the frame with soil, peat moss, and compost. Then I planted all the plants and seeds. I'll try to update you on the progress, good or bad. That picture with the white blocks in it actually has words if you click on it. I put in the names of the plants so you can see what I planted. Oh, and the plants are actually pretty evenly spaced it just looks funny because of where I was standing to take the picture.

Pajama Bottoms

These are for my boy. It is hard coming up with fun sewing projects with a boy in mind. Most of the fabric I have is quite girly and most of the cool patterns I see are for girls. I had this fabric in my stash and one day realized I didn't have to make a blanket with it. Lincoln is testing them out as we speak.

More green and blue

This is my first solo skirt. When I was in college I had a wonderful roommate (Liz) who helped me make a couple of skirts, but this is the first I have done on my own. It turned out way better than I thought it was going to and I like it a lot. I think I will go ahead and find some material to line the inside with to make it a little less transparent. I love the blue flowers and I'm glad I finally got brave enough to cut this material. One of these days I will figure out how to post pictures from the places that inspire these creations. For now you will have to be satisfied with the pictures I take.

Here is a closeup of the fabric.
It isn't quite as cream colored as it looks,
but it isn't bright white either.

My first quilt

I finally finished the quilt I've been working on. Ok, so it didn't take that long. I started with lots of strips that were already cut and I just had to select the colors and sew them together. After creating several strips I then sewed the strips together. I cut out some blocks and put them around the border. It went very smoothly except for the parts I messed up on and had to redo. Somehow the picture of the back didn't get uploaded, but the fabric I used is a greenish with clouds and you can see it in the blocks at the bottom of the quilt. It's the fifth from the left.

The quilt:

Close-up #1:

Close-up #2:

Pulled pork

A recipe from a blog I just found written by a former ward member. She makes some really yummy sounding food. You can find the recipe here. We had it with leftover "Kate's Pasta Salad" and Ghiradelli's Triple Chocolate brownies for dessert. Of course for the BBQ sauce I had to make my special sauce with mustard and brown sugar and it was super delicious.

More Shirts

The shirt collection is getting bigger. I made a new type and a repeat of the other shirt in a new fabric. The new shirt is kind of a v-neck wrap in a green with white trim, but it proved to be very difficult and I will not make another one. After being happy with the pink and white shirt I went crazy and cut out pieces to make about 6 more. This light greenish one is one of those I finally got to. I needed something fairly easy to do and since it was cut out it only took me 2 days to finish.

Home Projects

A few weeks ago Lincoln and I went to Flower Mound to visit his friend Luke and my friend Nicole. While we were there, Nicole mentioned some projects she was doing around the house and I was very impressed by how "manly" they were. It made me realize that some of the jobs I had been leaving for Chris to get done were actually things I could do myself. It was an epiphany. So this week I learned how to use a power drill and did a few very easy projects.


I hung a picture:

I put up a towel rack:

I put in a shower caddy:

Last of all, I hung a curtain rod:

Yay Commenters!

I'm glad some of my friends and family have found the blog already. Thank you for your comments and love. I think I will start writing more regularly, but who knows. Make sure you all get add me to your google reader so you will know when I update. If you don't know what that is ask me and I will have my husband send you a lengthy email explaining it. It is awesome! Trust me you need it. I will have important recipe posts and you will want to see the cool sewing projects I'm working on. Oh, and you will find out when I get to do exciting things such as: go to the grocery store (all by myself!) and listen to Radiohead on the way there and back. (thanks Chris for letting me use the MP3 player and for watching Lincoln all night!) Today I am itching for a haircut. It might just overtake me to the point that I will go ahead and hack at it myself. I looked at Albertsons for some hair accessories, but all they had was the same old stuff. My hair is too thick to be held up by those wimpy little clips. The Albertsons in Frisco is so very lonely. I feel bad every time I go there because it is so empty. I even felt guilty using a coupon because I wanted them to make some money. Fortunately, it is very conducive to my "mommy alone time".

A new blog for me!

I decided to move to blogger because my husband, bless his heart, is a little on the busy side right now and I needed something easier to use. I'm sure I will still need lots of his help. Today I had big plans for getting lots done around the house, but instead went for something I could do sitting still for 2 hours straight. Please leave comments once in a while so I know this isn't just my private journal. Ok, so I'm not very good at that myself. I keep up with a lot of you without letting you know. Sorry. I'll try to do better at that too.