How has your day been?

Bennett, trying to defend himself against his brother's accusations: "Mom, Owen said that I called him an idiot, but I didn't! I told him he was acting like an idiot."

Mom: "Bennett, that is the same thing."

Self-Made Santa

With a little sheetrock mud and a little unsupervised time even you can look like Santa.

Final Project

Along with the shopping, celebrating and the un-decorating I have been doing, I have also been busily cutting, sewing and gluing. Inside this box is my final project for my class. Well I take that back. This box is part of the final project, but the good stuff is inside. And I must say I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

We had already learned how to make clam shell boxes and this is just a variation. Not only can you have a handbound book, you can make a custom size box that matches your book. This one was a little tricky to do. I had it 90% done and my book wouldn't fit inside. I had to rip off the ends and redo them. But it was worth it.




Would you like to see inside? I will show you.





You untie the bow and the box completely unfolds. Love it!



This book is made with a blue/gray suede leather. I made the clasp by wrapping leather cord with waxed linen thread, the same thread I used to sew the book.



This is called a long-stitch, link-stitch sewing. I love spines with exposed sewing.



My first page matches my box. Or should I say my box matches my book. I am all about matching.



This is not just a plain book. I decided to make a gratitude journal. After hearing this talk from Elder Eyring, I have always wanted to do this. I have included about 5 quotes on gratitude throughout the book. This scripture is on the second page.





This is not part of my final, but another gratitude journal I put together. Same quotes on the inside. Plainer, but I love it just as much. This will probably end up as a gift at some point for someone.



I'm itching to do another one!

You do what ya gotta do

I obliged Chasey by opening the dryer door for him after he spotted a load of whites. He climbed right in to get just the right sock for sucking. He is still sucking socks, but he has become more picky. He will only suck on Old Navy ones. Either end will work, but only the white ones. He likes them because they are very portable and plentiful. We currently have a dozen of them littering our floors. Let me tell you it is not a good feeling to step on a wet and slimy sock.

Is it bad that I am already taking down Christmas decorations?

It is has been 4 days since I pulled out all the yuletide cheer and some of it has already been put back. I had a bunch of extra ornaments after we finished decorating the tree so I thought it would look nice to put them in this large wire basket that I have and put them on the coffee table. And I must say it did look nice, very nice. I put it on the table and 2 seconds later Chasey was screaming 'ball' and throwing them all over the house. Good thing they are of the non-shattering kind. So I decide to move my basket o' balls up onto my island. Now I have a big island, so I thought it would work to put them there. After 2 days of pushing the basket around I gave up, put the ornaments onto the tree and put the wire basket away. "Maybe next year" I tell myself.

I put out this little wooden Christmas tree/advent calendar that has 24 lights hanging on it. Every day you turn over a light. The tree even comes with wooden presents that sit underneath it. I cleverly put it on my end table far enough away from Chasey's hands...or so I thought. Between him pulling, tip toeing and pushing he has managed to get at most of the lights and the presents. After 4 days of fishing the lights out of his mouth and picking them up off the ground I put that one away too. "Maybe next year" I tell myself.



This Santa and sleigh set we inherited from Scott's parents. It is made entirely out of porcelain. I have never put it out because one, I have never had a decent place to put it and two, just breathing on it causes pieces to break off. This year I decided to be brave and put it out on my mantle far away from Chasey's little hands. I am just about to put it away. After seeing various object fly across the room out of the corner of my eye and watching the daily wrestling matches around here I am thinking that one little tremor or one ball even near this set will blow it to smithereens. Then I will have to explain to Scott's parents why the Santa they have kept in one piece all of these years has now lost his head and why his reindeer have no more antlers. I'm pretty sure that when we inherited these, we did not have 4 boys in the house. I'm also pretty sure that if Scott's parents really knew the extent of the chaos around here they would have never given them to us.

And yes you don't need to tell me that the reindeers are suppose to be pulling the sleigh, not pushing it. I am proud of myself that it only took me 4 days to realize what I had done.

May all your decorations stay in one piece and in one place! For me... maybe next year.

Cheerios and The Princess Bride

What do these 2 things have in common? Let me tell you. A few weeks ago, Taylor was searching for a book to read around the house. He is a voracious reader and it is a constant challenge to keep him supplied with new books. We had the Princess Bride sitting around our house and I told him to read that and after he was done we would rent the movie for him to watch.

After finishing the book we went to the library to check it out. A week later when we went to return it, we couldn't find the case anywhere. High and low, inside and out we looked. Where on earth did it disappear too? Scott and I even dug through our recycling bin wondering if maybe it got slipped in between some newspapers and thrown out. No luck. We finally decided to renew the movie for one more week with the hope that it would reveal itself soon. It did.

About 6 days later, Scott sat down to a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast and what do you think came falling out amongst the O's? The case. Scott's initial thought was "Hey! Cheerios is giving away DVD's!" Sadly that is not true, but we found the case. I'm going to blame Chasey on this one.

More books

Here are a few more of my books that I have completed for my class. Although these books are nothing to write home about as far as design, each one has taught me basic concepts that I can use as I get better and better.

This is a flat back book. I used some scrapbook paper that I had laying around for the covers. The spine is made with fabric. You wouldn't know it was actually hand made until you peek inside and see my stitching. This is the book that I accidentally cut and had to start all over. I am glad I did, because it turned out much better than the first.





One of the trickiest parts is sewing on the endband. That little yellow and white thing at the top. You sew it with silk thread and attach it to the book at the same time. You really need 4 hands to do this easily, but have to learn with what you've got. I am really happy with how they turned out.

Paper case binding with a rounded spine. This book is made with one piece of handmade paper (not by me) and is constructed entirely by folding. I love the feel of this book. My teacher called it a very "organic" book. I didn't really know what she was talking about until I finished it. The feel of handmade paper is fabulous - very artsy and yes organic.



Other than the rounded spine and constructing the cover I also learned how to do clasps and how to sew a different kind of endband that looks better with this style of book.

When Hollywood met Jackie Chan

Turnovers

About a week ago, Scott went over to his sister's house and came back with 3 boxes of apples. Being the kind of girl that likes pastry and being in the mood to make some - I did. My love of pastry goes back years and years. Back to the day when my mom taught me how to make the perfect crust and my brothers took great joy in harassing me. Would you like to see proof? Lookee what I dug out.




Please don't hate me because I am beautiful. I believe that is Jaron and Tyler behind me, holding a sign that says "Tiera's first pie." Jaron was kind enough to put a skull and cross bones at the bottom.

I have lost those glasses and the spiral permed hair thank goodness, but not the pie making skills. I don't know if I should laugh or cry about this, but I asked Owen who was in the picture and he immediately said "Mom." I guess I haven't changed that much.

And on a similar vein, did you know that I have a recipe blog? It's true. If you click the little recipe button at the top it will magically take you there. I only mention it because my mom stumbled upon it the other day and had no idea I had it. Then I found out that my sis-in-law didn't know either. I wish everyone had one. Just so you know...

The good and the bad

Taylor had his last football game today. It was the finals. They had won every game this season. What looked like a victory with 4 minutes left in the game turned into defeat very quickly. I am not known for my competitiveness and wasn't too broken up about it. Losing a game or two is not a bad thing. I saw one of the kids crying and then looking around noticed that about half of his team was crying and upset and the other half was trying desperately not to follow suit. It broke my heart. These little kids were really into this game and wanted to end their season 10-0.

Even though Taylor has been mourning this loss all afternoon there was one bright spot at the end of the game and it was quite a bright spot. I'm not sure who on his team knows this guy and how they got him to appear, but he did. Taylor was thrilled and went right over to him and lucky me I had my camera and snapped a picture. Something told me to bring it today.



Who is this? Harvey Unga. BYU's ever so popular starting running back. Taylor watches, reads, makes up plays and memorizes everything about this football team. If they had to loose their championship game, this definitely makes up for it. At least in Taylor's book.

This kid can't get any more adorable

2 rules of bookbinding

Rule number One: Always know where your glue is. Glue is like poo. If you are not careful, it can be all over the place very quickly. If you have ever changed a squirmy toddler with a poopy diaper you know what I am talking about.

Rule number Two: Think before you cut. I broke rule number two. In a very bad way.

Look closely. See that black line? That is not suppose to be there. In fact that line is actually a cut that goes down about 3 more pages. In a moment of distraction I tried to use my scalpel blade and listen to my teacher at the same time. That is not good.



All this beautiful work on my spine is now not worthy to be turned in for a grade.




And this little part, the headband. That makes me the sickest. That was extremely difficult to sew and now I gotta start all over again.

Getting ready for Spring

I have been working hard in our yard this past summer. The last project I wanted to finish before the snow flies was my garden area. I really missed not having a garden this past year and I am bound and determined to have my peas planted come March of next year. Doesn't that sound light years away? Scott made my garden boxes and I leveled the ground, put landscape fabric down and spread the rocks. My arms and legs have gotten quite the workout the past few days. I am ready!

Coptic Binding

Here are my first books. When my teacher showed us the different types of bindings we would be learning in the class I was really drawn toward this one. With the sewn spine it definitely says hand made. I really like how these books look.

Since I am a nerd and since I am taking this class for fun, unlike all of the other unlucky students in the class who have loads of other classes, I decided to do 2 coptic books. One with paper and one with fabric. One with cut edges and one torn. One with eyelets and one without. Yes I am a nerd.

This is technically my first, guinea pig book. It is made with fabric and eyelets.



On the inside of the cover I used some of my handmade paper.



This one is my favorite of the 2 and will be the one that I turn in for a grade. I really thought that I would like the red one best, but not so. This one is also made with my handmade paper. And technically it is made better and the stitching is tighter than my red one. A little practice helps a lot!



Inside



The spine



Now I must go make more so I don't forget the tricky stitching!

Bennett & The Blue Bombers

Let's not forget Bennett. He has been tearing up the field this season in flag football. A game where going the right way is optional, throwing grass at each other is funner than getting the ball, playing with and taking off your own flag is much more interesting than pulling off your opponents. As his coach would say "It is like herding cats." It makes for very amusing Saturday mornings!

A job I dislike

I love just about everything that has to do with fall. The smells, colors, sights and cooler weather are just wonderful. But there is one thing that I dread doing and I usually put it off until the last minute. It is the swapping out of summer clothes to winter clothes. I dislike it for a number of reasons.

I like to think that I am a relatively organized person. I have big tubs full of clothes that have been neatly folded and placed according to size. I have them labeled so that it is easy to locate the correct sizes and do an easy swap. Unfortunately it doesn't work this way.

First of all each brand of clothing has their own sizes. It is not uncommon to have 2 shirts labeled 5T and in actuality one of them would fit Bennett and one would fit Owen. So then I am in a quandary as to where to put the shirt. Do I put it in the 5T box even though it fits a 4 year old? When I decide that I should put it in the box that I think is the right size regardless of what the tag says then undoubtedly the next season I am wondering what idiot put all the wrong sizes in the box and I end up re-sorting them over and over.

And then what do you do with shirts that can't commit to just one size. Where do I put a shirt that is labeled 4T/5T when I have a box for 3T/4T and one for 5T/6T. I don't know. To top it off, there are always a handful of shirts that completely reject the number sizes and just have s,m,l for their size. Well who do these shirts fit and what box should they go in?

Then what do you do when you have kids that wear different sizes and these sizes have no correlation whatsoever to the tag. Taylor is tall and has to wear slim pants. He cannot fit into regular pants. Bennett wears regular size pants and Owen wear regulars but Owen usually wears a larger shirt. So if I have a shirt that is labeled 5T but I think is small for its size and Owen is age 4, but usually wears a size larger than his age, what the heck do I put him in and in which box would it be located? I have no idea.

While I am sorting without fail I will try and figure out where certain clothes have gone. How is it even possible that Owen can have 10 winter shirts that he fits into and no jeans. He has 2 older brothers. What did they wear when they were his age and where did they go? And why on earth can I only find one decent long sleeved church shirt for Bennett. I know Taylor did not go naked to church. What did he wear and where did it go? You can't tell me that we have no 12 mo. pants for Chasey. I know we have some. Where did they go?

Can you see how this is frustrating for someone who is trying to stay organized? With 4 boys and at least 8 sizes I am dealing with it gets chaotic. I have piles in every size for 2 different seasons, ones that are going back in the tubs and ones that are coming out. I usually end of having each boy try on a variety of sizes to see what fits. Then the rest of the clothes get shoved into a box, very unorganized like until the next season. Then it starts all over again. I am glad I am done until spring.

Our Day

We took a drive up American Fork canyon yesterday to look at this



and most definitely this



We ended up here



There was a whole lot of this going on



We decided to jump on the bandwagon

This kid is handsome so I snapped this



Owen just looked like he wanted his picture taken so I took this



We tried to figure out what animal was digging these all over the place



Scott took this



I don't know what photo trickery happened here, but I shot this



In between the leaf lookin' and picture takin' we did this



and this



Then Owen wanted to get behind the camera and decided to take this



And one of the kiddos requested a kissing photo. So we obliged. Isn't that a lovely view of my neck? Is is my best feature you know.



We did a little bit of this



On our way back up the trail the boys decided that Chasey needed a photo shoot. So Owen took this



And then I couldn't resist a pix with all of my handsome men so I took this



At the end out our day we enjoyed these


The end