Remember this toadstool quilt that I crafted up a few months ago? Raya was the perfect girl for it! I was finishing up the ragging on a little blankie for Marshall and she gave me this sad look and said, "Why does Marshall get so many blankets?" She's been really great at sharing attention with him, hard when you've been the queen bee for your whole life. So I treated her with some cozy quilt loving.
I don't get to see my Dad's little kids that often and since it will be a year and a half until I can visit again I made them each a quilt to snuggle with if they miss me. Elisabeth immediately ripped her comforter off and carefully straightened out her new bedspread.
I also made her pillowcase for Christmas. I designed this quilt and made it from Bliss by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. The squares are flannel and the sashing, border, and back are quilting cotton. It was really very simple but I love how intricate it looks! I did free motion flowers on the biggest squares and a zig zag around the border.
Lars is undoubtedly THE cutest little boy on the face of the planet. His blankie is a rag quilt. All of the flannel for both projects were scraps that I saved when I was making receiving blanket kits at Porter's, so his was entirely free :)
I don't put batting in my rag quilts. Do you?
Here we are snuggling up for a good-bye hug. Elisabeth exclaimed right before this "I HATE taking pictures!" Of course.
I have finally joined the obsession of rainbow cake! The other night I was babysitting my little sisters and they suggested that we play Wii. I honestly love throwing imaginary frisbees at computer animated dogs but I didn't feel like doing that on our special night together. I raided the front hallway and found one white cake mix and we set off on our food coloring adventure!
These are our finished cupcakes which we dubbed "playdough cake" because of how vivid the colors turned out! We used gel coloring by Wilton and lets just say I wanted to make sure that there was plenty of color...
The cupcake shaped oven mitts were a project that we did together a few weeks ago. Very cute and easy. You can get the pattern from the designer here.
This is our batter after we added the coloring. I opted for pyrex measuring cups rather than bowls because the pour spout made it easier for little fingers to pour the colors into the cups. One point for genius?
There was no rhyme or reason to the order of colors poured and by the end we were mixing the batters together to make purple and orange. What smart little sisters I have that only wanted to use primary colors so they could play with their food. The heart shaped cups are silicone and peel away easily to show of the layers of color.
And here we have it! A multi layered colorific confection!
Christmas evening and we have the Gables over to visit. Jason walks into the room and asks my grandpa, "Do you smoke meat?" He looks up and says, "No, only pot." Jason laughs and asks again, "but do you smoke any meat?" Grandma tunes in and adds, "I only smoke weed!"
Grandma recieved a lovely assortment of hedgehogs and displayed them all over Grandpa!
Our family does a lot of funny little gag gifts and the slippers were just a placeholder for a pair of mission shoes that my grandparents will get for me. Some of the others were completely hilarious an ridiculous though. Don't worry. I'll share them soon!
I've been contemplating how to share this information in the blogosphere and it seemed to me that this letter I wrote to my brother would be the best way. This has been one of the most spiritual and poignant moments of my life. It is taking me in a direction that I had never planned for myself. It has been a few weeks and everything is coming together so well! I'll be updating more about the process as I go but for now, here is the story of how I realized that I was on the road to serving as a full time Sister Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:
James James James. I have a story to tell.
So it has been my plan since graduation to stay in Rexburg for a while and save money to start Cosmetology school in January. I changed my start date to October because I didn't want to put it off longer than I needed to, but that didn't work either. I'll be going home for Christmas in 5 weeks and school would start as soon as I got back and I felt totally unmotivated to get ready.
On Tuesday this week I just thought to myself, Elle, why are you doing this? Why do you even want to spend so much time on doing hair and crap and have to go into debt for it when you already have a perfectly good education? I was thinking about moving to Provo. I was thinking about going home and living there and going to the hair school in Eureka. But none of it was right.
One of my co-workers suggested that I call my home teacher and have him give me a blessing. I texted him right away and we made plans for him to come over as soon as I was off work. Jonnie and Brian showed up right when I got home and I just started sobbing as I explained how lost I was feeling and wanting to know what the Lord wants from me. They were understanding and it was a relief to have a few people to talk to. Jonnie gave me a blessing and in it I was told that I am on the right path and that Heavenly Father will continue to bless me as I am diligent in following the commandments. I was also given a blessing of peace and comfort. They left and shortly after I headed upstairs to read my scriptures.
D&C 60: 2 and 13. That was my answer. Immediately. You need to read that section as soon as you can because it is my motivating force for the next year and a half. That's right. As soon as I opened my scriptures and started reading that verse (I had a note I took at a meeting that I wrote the verses on and just turned to it) I had the strongest most overwhelming feeling that was "Here it is Elle. This is what you must do as soon as possible or you will lose everything you are working for."
I am meeting with my Bishop tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon to start mission papers!!!
The first time that I considered a mission it was just a good idea. It was a step in the right direction. I felt that it was necessary for me to begin preparing myself and I think that preparation made me ready to accept the revelation when I was explicitly told to go. I still tear up every time I have explained this story to someone close to me.
I am pretty sure that I won't be leaving until you get back because of the time to get papers done and everything, and yes. You get the car back. Lucky you! Ha ha! I'm so proud of you for setting such a good example to me of being a dutiful servant to the Lord. I've seen you grow up through the letters you've sent and I can't believe I'm going to have that experience for myself!
Here is my all in good fun but totally serious list of things I am thankful for in alphabetical form. The rule of the game is to go in order and list the first thing that comes to mind that you are grateful for. There were other things I thought of but I play by the rules and this is what emerged:
A-Airplanes B-Bishop and Sister Wilcox C-Cheddar Cheese D-Deseret Industries E-Erika Kern F-Friends and Family G-God H-Houses I-Ice scrapers J-Joseph Smith K-Kristin L-Love M-Moccasins N-Neville Longbottom O-Olives, black P-Photos Q-Quadriceps R-Rain storms S-Silly Youtube videos T-Tattoos of the fake variety U-Underwear! V-Vaccines W-Watermelons X-Xerox machines Y-Yummy Thanksgiving dinners! Z-Zachary Levi
Now I don't want anyone thinking that I'm being all flippant and making fun of the Holiday or not really showing gratitude. I honestly believe that it is important to think of the obscure little things that really are blessings in our lives. I was getting out of the shower earlier and looking at how my hair color is fading again and I thought, "What a great gift that God gave us color." Because honestly it isn't a necessity, but how much better is a world full of color compared to one in shades of gray? There are so many small things in my life to be grateful for. I find it easy to appreciate the big important ones like my fantastic family and awesome friends, but I don't say how much I love tupperware that often. And I really like leftovers a lot. So I should lay it out and be straightforward. I love tupperware.
Bishop and Sister Wilcox are on here because I'm going to have dinner at their house tonight. I'm in charge of my absolute favorite part, the sweet potatoes so I better finish getting ready and go put those suckers in the oven!
I had a thought pop into my head the other day, "Those who say they don't have time to read spend too much time on the internet." And so I took a break. Not to read, although I did pick up a few books at the library today, but to get some work done. I've got a super top secret project that I've been working on and it will be unveiled soon! I've just needed some time behind the sewing machine and its really turned out great.
Here are the photos that I missed out on since I took my mini-hiatus:
12. a photo of you
This is me and my mini-man Rex last Thanksgiving. We were holding hands and he was my holiday date ;) I sure LOVE that kid. Oh, and this was a vegetarian Thanksgiving! I actually had some chicken for myself, but I didn't really eat that much of it. I felt like I was cheating.
13. a photo of your best friend
I love both of these girls, but Kristin is the one on the left and she has been my best friend since like, well, forever. Our moms got together this week for a little party and I thought how weird that must be that their twinner daughters aren't around and all of the kids are growing right up! Miss Julie is the one on the right and she's pretty great too :)
14. a photo of one of your favorite family members
This is me and my Uncle Paul right after we saw Wicked in San Francisco. I was visiting him for a few days and we had no plans. As we drove past the Orpheum theater I just shouted "Stop! Pull over and lets see what time it's playing!" So we got ourselves very last minute nosebleed seats to the musical! Uncle Paul and I are the under-appreciated single roaming starving artist types of the family so we connect really well and always have a good time when we come back home for visits.
This was right after Sophi was baptized, so...August of 08
We haven't all been together for such a long time because of James being on his mission and Chelsea being married. As soon as that boy gets back I demand a photo session because I have a very limited number of family pictures that I allow to be public!
One time they were so so bad. At least I feel terrible in them. We're all wearing red and black (meaning my jazz choir uniform and my sister in her band dress) and I had been at a friends house the night before. I insisted on showering when I got home and I never blow dried my hair in those days. So there I am, awkward smile, bushy eyebrows, red tuxedo shirt and black tie. Obviously not happy. Oh well. It's only on the the living room wall for everyone to see. No big deal.
My little sisters are the greatest spastic bundles of joy around. They remind me how fun childhood was and to live a little and have more imagination. They are fun people to hang out with and so easy to laugh and play with. I know that its really hard on them to have their 3 older siblings gone and I can't wait to visit in December!
My sister got married this summer! I'm so happy for Chelsea and her husband Jeremiah and also seeing my family together makes me so happy (do you like the ribbon of my dress that keeps it on the hanger showing? So classy). Oh wait, we're minus one because James is still on his mission, so if you doctored these photos together that would be nice.
I'm so proud of my little bro! James is serving in the Florida Orlando Mission, Spanish speaking. He has been out since April of 2009. These pictures came in his weekly e-mail. They are of a family that was recently baptized. The work is good and his only complaint is humidity!
I'm going to share a deep dark secret of mine. Promise you won't laugh, or tell my Grandma.
I suck at boiling eggs. I think that this Easter was the first time I'd ever tried to do so many! When I want to eat something with hardboiled eggs in it I just wait until I go home and have mommy dearest do it for me! Embarrassing, I know. But hard boiled or soft boiled, nothing holds me back from dying a bunch for the Holiday of Spring! Colorful eggs remind us all of the true reason behind the holiday, the Easter Bunny's birthday of course.
Erika and I hosted a party for all those of us who didn't have family to run away to for the weekend. Here are some of the happy faces of relived childhood! Preston insisted on wearing an apron to protect his clothes from the dye, and I don't know...I think this discredited his manhood a little in the process.
Little Mike always gives me lovin' and my Grandma-ly JC Penny dress just makes us look like Man and Woman of the house.
And this is what I am most proud of!!! This Greek Easter Bread is traditional in my family and it is the worst thing to me to not have our traditional foods. This is my second year making it and it turned out much better than the previous attempt. The exact recipe is a strict family secret and my Grandma (how many times can I use the word grandma in this post) made me swear that I would share it with no one outside of the family when she gave it to me. Since I'd prefer to not be ostracized from my kin, I'll just give you links to a few recipes that are similar. Enjoy!
As I was sitting in the break room at my minimum wage commercial "bullseye" store today I overheard some guys from the electronics section joking about the company's blogging policy. I remember back in the days when I worked at Borders there was a policy and I just never really cared about it. Do I now? thinking....no. I really don't. So here's the juicy cashier drama: nothing happens. But I did talk to a super cute boy today, with a snake bite piercing. Mmmmmm!
I used to make lists with my roommates of goals in life. Ileana would always say "My goal in life is to....see an opera...date John...clean the toilet." You know, pretty much everything :) I came up with a list of serious goals I have for myself, and we'll get there in a minute, but back to Mr. Snake Piercing. Another roommate, Lindsey, and I added "kiss a boy with a lip piercing and tattoos" to our lists. If I don't find one soon I might resort to something drastic, like stalking John Vesely of Secondhand Serenade. Here's his latest song, but the video is kind of annoying, why would he have a half naked girl in it when obviously all of his fans are girls. We're just here to see/hear you John! Enjoy it anyway :)
In other news:
For the past few nights I've had very obscure vivid dreams. The sort of dreams that blend in with what's been going on during the day. The subconsious kind. Freud would probably be proud of me for paying attention to them and trying to figure out what they mean. Not that I completely agree with Freudian thinking. While we're on the subject, of Freud that is, I'll share a little family story. As I know it my Great Grandmother was having tea one day at a little shop and Mr. F comes up to her and asked if he could share her table. They had tea together and he told her that she had beautiful eyes. How's that for a compliment?
As I was sewing a felt dinosaur for the collection today I turned on the first season of The OC. I got the whole season from the library and I've been debating if I should start watching it. If I start I'll have to finish. One disc down and 5 to go.
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