Wolverine + Lumberjacks

Our boy wanted to be Wolverine so badly this year! I like to make his costume, but I was not going to attempt Wolverine with the blade hands and the muscles that he was requesting.

He really liked getting into character in these pictures...

This is what I got when I asked him to smile... silly kid.

I have not dressed up for Halloween since I got married, I'm pretty sure. But Trent's family likes to do a Halloween party every year and this is the first year that we've been able to go! So we dressed up. I wanted to push the easy button on this one because I just wasn't feeling it... so we went as lumberjacks. We already had hats, flannel shirts, a plastic toy ax. It was easy. But the night before we had this great idea to make yarn beards for our costumes. OH BOY!!! I have to say that making and wearing a yarn beard is one of the funnest things I've ever done! I'm being totally serious. I could not stop laughing thinking about wearing my beard.

Beard kisses... a little strange, yet so funny!

I loved watching people look at us and our ridiculous beards. I may have stared at a few drivers along the road until they looked at me so that I could see them laugh at my dumb beard. It was so much fun! Now I'm trying to figure out where else I can wear my beard...

Anyone want a beard? I'm going to make our boy one just in case we need all of us to have beards sometime. That could happen right?

Halloween fail...

I pretty much failed at decorating for Halloween this year. I had good intentions, but I've been so busy canning and harvesting the food we grew around here that I really did not put much effort into decorating.

The only new decoration I was able to make was my awesome wreath for the front door. I did this in mid September with my friend on a girls day and I love it!

We sprayed the branch wreath black and added some black birds (with red eyes) and a pretty bow. I looked around on Pinterest for a wreath that I wanted to make but didn't find any that I loved, so we came up with this! Take that Pinterest (just kidding... I really do love you).

I pulled out the bat garland that I made about 4 years ago...

Trent's aunt brought over some pumpkins that she grew in her garden this year.

And... that's it! I feel bad. I wish that I would have tried a little harder. Maybe in March or April I can work on some Halloween crafts since Fall seems to be super busy for me.

My little dude tried to help out. He colored several pictures that he hung around with magnets on anything metal. Here is one that I though was super cute.

Maybe next year I will be better...

29 by 29...

At the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to do 29 things by the time I turned 29. The time has come and gone and here is my list of what I got done! I tried to blog about most of the things as I did them. I completed 15 of the 29 (some of them are halfway done). So... not wonderful, but not bad! Better than not getting anything done all year. I discovered that it's hard to know at the beginning of the year what your year is going to be like. When I made this list I was living in my in laws basement, no knowing where I would be living or what I would be doing for sure. Some of my priorities changed during the year. Such as.... I don't have "plant a garden and learn to can" on this list but that has taken up a majority of my time this past summer/fall. Either way, I feel very accomplished for doing some of these things. Some of them have been in the works for a long time or were on my bucket list and are now done. So I'm happy with it!

1- Go on a hike to Lake Mary
2- Make a hexagon quilt - bought the stuff for it... but haven't started sewing
3- Make a quiet book for my boy
4- Run in a race (5K or half marathon... either way!)
5- Grow my own basil and make homemade pesto from it
6- Make an apron for myself (I've honestly never done this) - nope
7- Lose 30 lbs or get pregnant (cause if I get preggo I probably wont be losing the weight this year) - I'm checking this off... because I did get pregnant, just didn't work out. I only lost 5 measly pounds though.
8- Do all of the temple work for 5 ancestors (I'll explain this better when I do it) - halfway there
9- Find a great lipstick shade I really love Cover Girls outlast lipstain. That's my go to everyday.
10- Add 5 new items to my Etsy shop - sadly no...
11- Participate in a craft fair - nope
12- Finish the quilt for our bed - Halleluja!
13- Organize and re-label all of our files - halfway there
14- Build a toy barn for my boy
15- Go on a date to The Little Acorn, where I first met my husband - We did it but we went through the drive through... does that still count? Sure!

16- Do a 30 day sugar fast - HA! No...
17- Organize all of my recipes into a binder - nope
18- Take my boy to see the Buffalo's
19- Take a yoga class - As fate would have it my bff invited me to go to a class with her a few weeks ago and I did! It was wonderful and I hope to go again soon.
20- Write more consistently in my personal journal - funny story here. I hid my journal in a super sneeky place so that nobody would find it and read it (we had a few babysitters come over and I just didn't want to chance it) but then I couldn't remember where I hid it and couldn't find it until last week. So no...
21- Get some house plants, and not kill them - I have one plant and it's not dead yet... so I'm counting it!

22- Pay off all my medical bills - sigh... no. We did pay off our car though.
23- Learn how to use different saws and get more into woodworking
24- Organize a "command center" for my home
25- Go to Yellowstone for our 10th year of marriage (this is where we honeymooned) - nope, maybe this year!
26- Finish the stupid Santa cross stitch that I've been working on for the past 8 years!!! - and frame it for Christmas - NO!!! DARN!
27- Exercise at least 4 days per week - Yes... until I hurt my knee. So for half the year I did.
28- Organize my pantry better - I don't have pantry so no
29- Do my hair in different ways other than straight down at least once a week - Well, I decided a few months ago that I was sick and tired of washing my hair everyday and waiting for it to dry. So I started washing it every other day... and it's going pretty well. On the days that I don't wash it it's usually in a ponytail, messy bun, braid, or I curl it. So I'm counting this as a yes.

Goodbye garden...

I've spent the last few weeks ripping out what was left of the garden. The only things that are left are the tomatoe plants and the swiss chard. I decided to leave them because the deer have been coming down and eating them up so I figure why not? Might as well let them go for it.

Half eaten swiss chard...

 

 

We picked what was left of the green tomatoes before it froze. They've already ripened though, so I made some raw salsa this week with our last tomatoes.

 



I loved growing a garden this year. It has been one of the most rewarding things I have done. We're already making plans of what we want to do next year. More tomatoes and peppers so I can make salsa for canning, lots more squash. We're hoping to grow enough pumpkin to can some puree next year to keep us stocked for the winter.

Also, more flowers. The only flowers I did this summer were my sunflowers. Next summer I want flowers that come and go all season long! I'm thinking some orange poppies, black eyed susan's, daisies... I can hardly wait!

Tiny...

Do baby feet really come this tiny? I made some Mary Jane booties for my sister in law Kim who is going to have her first little one in a few months. I have never done booties before. It was nice to make something other than hats and leg warmers. They turned out so cute... and tiny! I hope that they fit her for a while.

The pattern made up really fast and were so fun to make. I see more booties being made in my future.

Five...

Well, birthday season is officially over in our house. This little dude just turned five last week {he posed himself for that picture btw...}. Gosh, I don't know how times flies so fast! He is such a sweet little boy. Very active and adventurous as always.

He wanted to have a "yes day" where we did whatever he wanted to all day long. So we played mini golf, ate lunch at McDonald's, got him a treat at the gas station... and he didn't want to go to bed all night. So we stayed up until 11:30 PM watching Ninja Turtles till he conked out on the couch ;).

We had grandparents over for homemade pizza (cheese for the birthday boy) and cake. He wanted a Wolverine cake and so I made it happen. I don't think I will ever make a fondant cake again, but I'm happy that he liked it. Even though the hand coming out of the center just looks like a big blue blob (because it was...), I'm glad he was happy!

So happy to be his mom. Love you little boy!

Twenty nine...

I'm glad that my husband married me. Even though my birthday is during the muzzle loader deer hunt every single year. It's his favorite hunt you know, always has been. Thankfully we've avoided this predicament for the past 7 years that we've lived out of Utah. This year though... it was back.

I honestly don't care if he hunts on my birthday anymore. We can always celebrate later right? I would rather him go and have a good time with his friends then worry about hunting on my birthday. Well, I guess there was this situation a while ago... on my 21st birthday... where I was left by myself at a cabin for the whole entire day without any phone service or sight of another human being until late into the evening. Yep, I really did spend my 21st birthday all by my lonesome, and was a little sad about that. I'm over it... really I am! But my husband has taken a personal vow to never have that happen again, and to no longer hunt on my birthday.

My boy and I decided to drive out to where he was hunting this year and camp over on Friday night. Such a good decision! I didn't want to spend the whole week with a bunch of smelly hunters {no offense}, but one night was not bad at all.

This was my view when I woke up Saturday morning...

And I just knew it was going to be a beautiful day.

 

Twenty nine this year... my golden birthday. I don't know why but I've been looking forward to 29 for a long time. Still in my twenties, but hopefully a little wiser than I was in my early twenties.

 

The boy needed to use the potty, which was a few miles away. We normally would not drive to the potty while out camping in the woods but I felt like going on an early morning drive to see this beautiful place we were in.

 

Best decision of the day.

 

You see, mother nature had a {few} wonderful birthday presents for me on this drive. I left camp, turned a few corners, and found myself in the most beautiful golden aspen forest. 

For miles, and miles, and MILES all you could see were golden aspen trees! I drove slowly along the dirt road trying to soak in as much of the sun reflecting off these golden beauties as I could... it was magical to me.

It was one of the most amazing drives of my life. I know that it's the time of year for leaves to change, and I was up in the mountains, but it almost felt like someone had painted all the trees gold the night before just for me on my golden birthday. I shed a few tears at the beauty I was beholding and considered it a gift.

The next gift that was on my drive... sheep. Lots of sheep. I love seeing wildlife outside and Utah has a lot of it. But seeing hundreds of sheep brings me back to my college days when I went to Snow College. There were many mornings I would be walking to school and the roads in Ephraim would be covered in sheep. This city girl {who wishes she was a country girl} loved it when the farmers would do that.

So we slowed down even more and watched the sheep.

I took the most awesome movie of the hundreds of sheep surrounding our car... but I can't for the life of me get it to load. So sorry, that you have to miss out on that one ;). It was pretty amazing to see all these sheep out there.

Even with all my tree gazing and sheep watching going on, we still made it to the loo in time. I love that my birthday started out with something so simple yet special. It's the small and simple things that sometimes bring us the most joy. When we got back to camp we packed everything up and headed home. My cute husband was true to his word and did not hunt on my birthday. He made me feel very special. Mother nature made me feel special. My wonderful friends and family members made me feel special. It was a great day. I'm lucky to be so loved and have such great people in my life.

Command center...

 I'm not a very big fan of the stacks of paper that seem to accumulate in my house. I would even say I downright hate them. I love the idea of a command center in my home that has all my important things right there where I can see them and find them. Here us phase 1 of my command center.

I walk by this little wall so many times a day. The main things that this one houses is my calendar and my to do list. I print my calendar off of word every month. It's simple, I can scribble all over it. It helps keep the three of us more organized. I found this awesome to do list from Wit & Whistle which I love! It was very simple to put together and I'm a sucker for mustard colored anything.

 I bought this magnetic board from Roberts a while ago and really love it! I painted the border black when I bought it and hated it. So recently I sanded off the black paint, stained it a dark wood color, and painted on the chevron print. I love it now! It makes me super happy. I used this template for the chevron which was really helpful. Just a word of warning if you try this, don't be a cheapskate like me. Buy the frog tape!!! Don't even waste your time with blue painters tape because it is $2 cheaper. You will regret it! Also, don't use cheap craft paint. I started with that and it looked awful. I ended up going with the sample can at Home Depot that is paint and primer in one. Much much better. I had to re-sand and stain the bottom of the frame because I was too cheap to do it the right way the first time. Trust me on this one...

The other little wall in my kitchen is going to be phase 2. I was going to put up a frame with chicken wire in it to hold my bills, coupons, etc on this wall. Well... the chicken wire is in a mangled heap in the backyard right now with a beat up frame. It did not go well. So I'm scratching that idea and going to find something like this for the wall. The moral of the story is, sometimes crafting ideas go bad in a bad way. For me I would say it happens about 25% of the time. No worries... take a deep breath and figure something else out. But for now the wall will remain naked and my bills and coupons will remain in a stack of papers on the counter.

 

How do you manage stacks of paper in your house from taking over and swallowing you alive? Please, do tell...

Quiet book...

Here is another one of those projects that I've been working on for years..... Something you should know about me, I'm really great at starting projects but not so great at finishing them. I usually have about 10 projects in various stages of being done sitting around at all times. It's frustrating. I don't know why I do this to myself! So please don't think that I'm actually super productive and getting all these things done at record speed. I am not. At all. I just gave myself a self imposed deadline so things are magically getting done around here. And I'm about to pull my hair out. Anyway... here is the quiet book.

Now the truth as to why this has taken me so long is that I didn't just make one quiet book... I made two. One for my boy and one for my niece.

You see, my sweet little niece is the big sister to triplet babies. So I felt like it was my responsibility as the "aunt with only one kid" to make her a quiet book too. I'm glad that I did! The joy I felt as I sat and watched her play with it and smile at each page yesterday was worth all the time it took to put this little book together.

I wanted this book to be one that could be added too. For the covers I used duck cloth and used a freezer paper stencil to put the first letter of their names on it. The sides have rings so that pages can be taken out and added whenever it's desired.

All the pages are 10 x 12 thick muslin that are sewn together with the edges fraying. I like the rustic look.

The first page is one that I came up with myself. It's the lets go to bed page.

Little mini quilts with little mini people dressed in jammies, ready to go to bed. I took pictures of the kids and then printed them out onto iron on paper and ironed them onto some muslin. They both have a favorite book and a special blanket that I made little replica's of for this page.

Here is little "a's" page.

Blankets snap on and the pillows are removable with Velcro.

Next page are farm animals with removable heads. FYI this one can be a little bit rowdy in church {oops}.

Again I printed the pictures on iron on transfer paper and ironed them onto the fabric. There is Velcro on the back of the animals. {If anyone would like me to e-mail them my word document for the pictures let me know! All the pictures are from Getty Images}.

Hanging clothes on the line. Little tiny clothes pins and a vinyl laundry basket at the bottom.

Counting the beads.

Weave your own pie crust.

Check out the apples! I was really happy with how those turned out.

Fishing page. This was my most difficult page by far! And the reason why they sat in a drawer for so long...

My husband said that I couldn't put a fishing pole by fish in a bowl because you don't fish for fish out of a bowl. But I had already made the bowl and didn't want to change it so I went with it anyway. The eyes on the fish are stick on magnets and I was planning on just having something metal on the end of the pole to pick up the fish. However, the eye magnets are super weak and I could not get them to attract to anything metal!

I ended up getting a super strong magnet with a hole in it to put on the pole so that they could get the poor fish out of the water. Sounds like a simple solution but it took me about 9 months to come up with it... sheesh.

Build a pizza. Here is the crust with the top not sewn down and a snap holding everything else inside.

Inside we have sauce, pepperoni, pineapple, olives, mushrooms, anchovies (why not), peppers, and cheese (everything is cut out of felt here).

This page is a messy one with lots of little pieces but it is one of the favorites to play with I've noticed... some messes are worth it aren't they?

There is all the I've gotten done. I have great intentions of adding more pages to the book someday, but that is on hold while I find my sanity from this one.

Unfortunately we've also discovered that our IPOD touch is a great quiet book for church, and doesn't take any time to make. But they are not as cute now are they...