because of him.

Because it's Easter Sunday, I've decided to take a little break from yarn and let you (and me) celebrate this awesome, amazing day.  I have one more project to share, one more guest post, then features and a wrap up!

But for today, let's forget about all that.

Let's focus on this.

It's a beautiful reminder... #becauseofhim, my life has meaning.  My family is forever.  My past is in the past.  I don't have to do it - carry my burdens, drag the guilt, suffer the paints and illnesses and anguish, any of it - on my own.  Goodbye's are but fleeting moments.  All I love can last eternally.

Because of Him.

Happy Easter.




And if you don't celebrate Easter, Happy Sunday!  Have a beautiful, relaxing, inspiring Spring day!

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

Festival of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

I'm in charge of a group of people from my church who are taking part in a city-wide Interfaith Festival of Gratitude taking place tonight at a well-known theatre space in my town.  There is a pastor who organizes the entire night - he works with area religious groups to put together a free festival.  The program consists of many different types of worship - from simply explaining tenants of faith, to prayer, to sermons, to leading a group meditation in thankfulness, to chanting, to singing and playing instruments... this will be my third year in charge of my church's contribution and my fourth year taking part.  
I remember the first time I went, my mom basically had to drag me because the ward choir was in need of more voices, but this interfaith thing sounded boring and, quite frankly, was the last thing I wanted to do with my holiday.

I was so wrong.  I've never felt so filled with interest and excitement for religion in general.  I remember thinking what a wonderful country we live in that allows us to practice our religious freedoms without fear.  And how much I truly take that for granted.  It was truly eye-opening to hear from so many different groups with so many different backgrounds and experience just a tiny bit of what they believe and how they worship.  I loved feeling connected to everyone in thankfulness - for no matter how different we seemed in our doctrine and principles, we were there for one reason.

To show gratitude to power beyond ourselves.  Gratitude for our blessings, our freedoms, our lives, our families.  Gratitude for BEING.  For song and dance and happiness.  I'm especially grateful for the opportunity I have to share these feelings with everyone who attends, so I can focus on them.  My littles are joining us for the first time tonight, and I love to hear them sing.

It makes me wonder why I don't host my own "festival of gratitude" more often.  Why does it take this pastor and this specific experience on this one night for me to keep my thankfulness in the forefront?  While I'm usually good at recognizing my very blessed life, why don't I focus on celebrating it more often?

Here are some free printables I made up for last minute decor.  Do you need last minute decor, like I do?  There has to be someone out there who procrastinates almost as badly...

In other news, it is almost that time of year when I annually drop off the blogging face of the planet in an attempt to finish (i.e. START) all the homemade presents on my list.  I'm hoping that doesn't happen completely, but if it does, you'll know where I am.

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

What I Did On My Christmas Vacation... (in which there is displayed way too many photos)

As you're aware, I took a completely unannounced break from the blog during the last part of December.  I was far from sitting useless, though, as I spent my time finishing gifts, wrapping gifts, crying about this, cleaning house, packing suitcases, and just generally running around with my head cut off.

I mentioned this was the first time since we moved to Wisco almost 5 years that we've been back with the mr's family for Christmas day.  The kids were very excited to take a plane ride out the Grandma and Grandpa's, and even more excited to have a visit from Santa while we were out there.
The flight was cancelled due to a tremendous snowstorm.  We weren't able to leave until two days later, which was a bit of a downer for the kids.  We tried to make it up to them by showing them the lights around town,

(The above three pictures are of ONE house.  ONE.  It reminded me of Chevy Chase...

But my favorite by far was this one:

Not the one on the right, the one of the left.  The people in THAT house obviously know how to decorate for the holidays.)

rolling up giant snowballs,

and just generally trying to take advantage of the storm.  It in no way made up for the delay, according to the kids, but at least we had fun.

We had an enormous amount of fun and flurry of holiday-ness once we arrived in Utah.  On Christmas Eve, the family decided to act out the nativity.

We had enough people to cover the major roles, with the exception of multiple innkeepers and wisemen.  The two parts were double cast.  I thought the kids enjoyed themselves actually, and though I wasn't sure little mini quite understood the significance, I simply couldn't resist this sweet moment between "Mary," "Joseph," and "Jesus."

Afterwards, we opened a few presents.  Earlier in the trip we had made some gingerbread (graham cracker?) houses, a car, and a circus train, so we let the kids dig into those as well.

(That awesome ship was from mr to his parents.  He got it in Vietnam on one of his work trips.)

Christmas day was low key.  So low key I forgot to take pictures, apparently.  But the next day we hopped on the new Frontrunner train up to Salt Lake:

We stopped at the City Creek Mall (which was new to my little family).  The highlight there were the escalators and water fountains - I wish kids STAYED so easy to entertain...  I loved how you could see the Salt Lake LDS Temple through the courtyard of the mall...

We walked to temple square and showed the kids around.  It was their first time there and I loved their excitement when they discovered something new... the lights!  The life-sized nativity!  The Christus statue!  The temple!  The candles!  It was wonderment and beauty to them, and it was contagious - despite the slush and freshly falling snow that soaked through even our wisconsin-hardened skin...

I told bug that the Christus was my favorite statue ever.  He was enraptured with the stars, planets and clouds painted on the walls around the statue.  Mini approached and made friends.  Ever since seeing a replica of this statue in the visitor's center in Nauvoo, Illinois, I've been in awe.  It strikes a cord deep inside me when I see the expression the sculptor was able to capture in Christ's eyes... how he molded His arms in an open gesture as if about to encompass me in an embrace.

After some time inside the visitor's center, we walked around the temple to view the reflecting pool.  It was something I'd talked about to bug and he'd seen it in pictures, so he was excited to explore and really find out what it was like.

Sometimes I find myself wondering if those living in Salt Lake (or Provo, or American Fork, or tons of other cities in Utah) realize just how lucky they are.  I wonder if they take the culture and proximity to the heart of the gospel for granted - like mr and I did when we lived there.  It was just LIFE, you know?

Then I shake myself out of it and remember those in Africa who give up their livelihoods to take their family to the nearest temple - days and days worth of traveling away.  Or those in countries who aren't free to practice the religion they truly believe in.  And I realize I take things for granted out here in Wisconsin, too.  My nearest LDS temple may be almost 4 hours away, but we are blessed to have even that.

And THEN I realize how ridiculous it is to think that the "heart of the Gospel" is in any particular city at all.  I mean, isn't my "proximity to the heart of the Gospel" entirely up to me?  Of course it is.  It doesn't matter where you live.  Christ is alive everywhere.

I admit, I could have spent much longer at the reflecting pool in front of the temple.  The intimate manger scene set in the middle - where husband and wife marvel over this brand new life; this amazing soul entrusted to their care - reminded me of this talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, which is, quite possibly, my favorite talk of all time.  I know Christmas is over, but it's still worth a read.  

Unfortunately, it really was very cold and we were all incredibly wet by that point.  The kids were hungry and tired and we needed to run to catch the trax that would take us to the Frontrunner and back home.

Later, mr's friends came over (some of whom he's known since fourth grade, which is amazing to me that he still considers them his best friends.  How lucky we are!)  We decorated cookies that mr's sister made and graciously let us use.  We talked and munched and just generally enjoyed each other's company.  The manly men made cookies in homage to Sesame Street.

A rousing game of Balderdash ensued - played via "weird Orem boy rules."  It was all enough to make us wish we could pack up his family and friends in our suitcases and bring them back to Wisconsin with us.  

All too soon it was time to return home.  Delayed flights, running to catch connections, kids "dying" of hunger, fighting sleep, and driving home in snow later we reached our humble abode.

Then began a marathon painting and building frenzy with my dad to finish the kid's big presents.  We had decided not to celebrate our own Christmas until we got home, so the kids wouldn't want to pack up every single one of their toys and take them with... so that meant I had a night and a day to finish everything...

Thanks to my dad's help I was able to present them with their highly anticipated (by me) DIY gifts.  So big, I simply threw a blanket over them instead of trying to wrap them in any way:

For bug, a workbench, complete with "real tools" that he can pound on to his heart's content.  

 And for mini, a fully customized play kitchen, made trendy with stripes and mustard colored pom-poms so she can cook away.

Unfortunately, mini got sick as soon as we returned home, so the gift was met with only mild enthusiasm.  The lukewarm reception, however, has been forgiven since.  The kids are cooking everything they can get their hands on, and then washing the dishes to boot.  That is, when they aren't nailing random "nails" into random toys.
Which, of course, makes all the insanity worth it.

And that, folks, is a fraction of what I did when I was away from the old blog.  And now?  I'm officially done looking back and ready to move on.  Let's go!

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

A penny for your thoughts.

I've got one last Valentine project for you, and it's quick, easy and cute.  Well, I think it's cute, anyway.  This is something you might want to make for a smaller class or maybe nieces and nephews.  They're versatile and fun for kids and they sure don't cost much to make...  Now that I've hyped them up a ridiculous amount and you're expecting something BRILLIANT, I'll just go ahead and show you:

Before I show you how to make them, I wanted to give you the history of this idea.  There's some background that might be beneficial for some of you out there.


You may or may not know (depending on how long you've hung around this here blog) that I'm LDS and I work in the organization that's in charge of teaching the kids, ages 18 months-11 years old every Sunday and for some of them on Wednesdays, too.  (Why, yes, it IS kind of stressful, thanks for asking.) But I love it.  And recently we organized a special get together for all of the kids who are turning 8 years old this year.  Why?  Because that is the year that many kids are baptized.  (For reasons why and more information about that, you can go here).  I was in charge of speaking about baptism.  Why it's important, what it means, etc.  While in the process of planning for this talk, I happened to see this post at A Lemon Squeezy Home.  And I thought it could be nicely developed into an object lesson.  Some of you are LDS and might want to incorporate something like this into your homes or Primary Organizations.  But I'm also not naive enough to think that waiting until you are older to be baptized is uniquely LDS, so some others of you might be interested in this concept as well.  


Basically, in my talk, I compared us all to pennies.  They start out shiny and new.  Things happen to these pennies as they go throughout their lives and they become a little beat up, a little dirty and a little worse for wear.  And we are the same.  We are imperfect, we make mistakes, and we become dulled.  Fortunately, through baptism (and we believe through continued repentance, thanks to the atonement and through taking the sacrament) you can make yourself all shiny again.  For the basic tenets I was teaching, I used parts of this talk and this article - in case you are interested in learning more or want to use my sources.


To illustrate the concept, I described the pennies at the beginning of my talk and showed all the kids a shiny, brand new penny.  Then I showed them a dirty penny and explained we could make it shiny again.  I put the penny in a white cup which I had filled with vinegar and salt.  Then I continued to speak about baptism and what we believe in.  When I concluded my talk, I took the pennies out, wiped them on a paper towel and lo and behold - they were shiny and new again!  The kids literally gasped when they saw the "old turned new" pennies - which was great!


I wanted to give each of our kids a shiny penny minted the year they were born so they could carry their lucky penny around and remember what we had talked about.  So I needed something to put them in.  And that is how my Baptism Penny Pouches were born.

I realized very quickly afterward that these would make a really fun little Valentine.  So I'm going to show you how to make the Valentine version - complete with free printables to tie everything together.  So if the above story about baptism and pennies didn't pertain to you, at least the rest of this post will!


To make your own Penny Pouches, you will need:
MATERIALS
a pattern that's the exact height and width you want your pouches to be (before folded) cut out of stiff paper.  (Mine is about 1.5 inches by 3 inches)
felt in your choice of colors
simple clips

TOOLS
Scissors
Pinking Shears
Sewing Machine
Hot Glue Gun


Oh, and a penny.  To put in each pouch.  Otherwise they'd just be "pouches" which is fine, but not quite as cute.


1.  Lay your template on your felt and cut a strip that is the entire width of the felt, at the same height as the template.
2.  You will have a long rectangle.  Make sure you use your pinking shears, it looks cuter.
3.  Fold the pinking sheared edge up about a third of the way to the other edge and pin in place straight across.

Now, for the sewing.  It's easy, anyone can do it.

4.  Starting at the end, about 1/4 of an inch to a 1/2 inch from the edge.

5.  Sew a straight stitch up to where the zig zag edge is.

6.  And backstitch.

7.  Move over about 2 inches.

8.  Straight stitch to the zigzag and backstitch.

9.  Scoot over about 1/2 an inch.

10.  Straight stitch to the zigzag and backstitch.

11.  Move over about 2 inches and straight stitch and backstitch again.

 Continue sewing the whole rectangle in this fashion, so the pattern is wide, skinny, wide, skinny, etc.


Now we'll turn them into pouches!
12.  You end up with a funny looking rectangle with pockets.
13.  Use your pinking shears and trim the straight edge across the top.
14.  Use your pinking shears and cut each pouch apart - cut right in between each pouch where the two lines of straight stitches are really close together.

Do you want to make a bunch of different colors, like I did?  Super easy to do this assembly line style, which makes it go much faster - as long as you don't need matching thread for each different color felt.


Just cut your rectangles out of each color, then sew the little pockets on each different rectangle.  Snip off all the pesky threads and trim anything that isn't straight.  Trim across the top and cut all the little pouches apart with pinking shears.  Done!

And at this point, you should look like this:

From head to toe.  So that when you need to run to the store, the cashier points out not one, not two, but a plethora of felt and thread scraps clinging to inconvenient places which you apparently didn't notice.  This is an absolute must of the tutorial, by the way, or I'll just feel dumb.


So you've got some pouch shaped items, but they need to be way cuter.  So let's go.


15.  Take your glue gun and glue a mini button to the outside top of the pouch - you know the piece that overhangs the folded portion?  Glue it on there, but on the outside so when you fold that piece down, it's visible.
16.  Take a scrap of felt that matches your pouch and slide it into your clip - with the opening of the clip facing up and the felt against the back.
17.  Holding the part of the clip that opens, press the felt up against the back of the clip and spread hot glue all over.  
18.  Press this down against the back of the pouch - just under where the top piece will fold over the opening.
19.  The pouch looks like this from the side when it is laying face down.
20.  And it looks like this on the front of the pouch.

Time to make it even prettier!
21.  Cut out your embellishments - which can be anything you want, but I used felt heart shapes.  Use your hot glue to glue them to the front of the pouch.
22.  Make sure to leave some room for the flap to close so that it won't hide your cute embellishment.
23.  To make it functional, cut a tiny piece of velcro (the prickly side) and hot glue it to the underside of the flap.
24.  When you press the flap down, now it will stay!

Insert your penny and you've got some Valentine Penny Pouches!

That's nice, you say.  Cute, you say.  But what do you DO with them???


I'll show you!
Clip one to a beaded and wire necklace (and make your "thrilled" niece model it)...

Or to a simple chain and let it hang.

Clip it to a bracelet, like this bead and wire beauty.

Attach it to your keys for a cute little key chain,

Or dress up a lanyard or carabiner.

Put it on a zipper - coats or backpacks look super fun this way!

And little fingers love to play with their very own precious penny.

How do we top this off when gifting it?  How about a little card that says "Lucky in Love!" or "I'm so lucky to have you!"  Everyone knows a penny found brings good luck, after all.

Would you like a cute little tag to attach your pouches to?  Great!  Free for all, just right click to download.  To attach your clips, just use an exacto knife to cut two small parallel slits horizontally just under the words.  Then, slide your clip through the slits.

And I believe I'm over the Valentine tchotchke, how about you?  Yeah.  Love is still in the air and all that jazz, but I'm lovey dovey'd out.

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!