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.