Everybody needs a good laugh

Well, everyone needs a good laugh once in a while -a good side splitting, tear crying, wear you out laugh. Thanks to our friends Ashley and Quinn at our ward talent show last night I had my good laugh. Even better they posted a recording of it on their blog (Josh was the camera man and it's a good thing I wasn't, I was a blurry mess with tears from laughing so hard) so all can enjoy and I can visit whenever I'm in need of a good laugh.

Ashley and Quinn YOU ARE AMAZING! Thanks for sharing your talents!

IKEA is my friend

I love IKEA! The store is AMAZING! They have anything you could possibly need for your home at reasonable prices and fairly good quality. There is a store in Draper, Utah that I visit whenever I get a chance. The store is massive and the layout is unique to any other store I have been in. The top floor is the showroom where they have intricately set up various rooms with all the items tagged as to where you can find them and what they cost. Downstairs is where you can find all the items from lights to furniture to curtains and vases. Unfortuantely there isn't a store here in Colorado, yet, and I don't have a big enough car to drag all the items I want home with me. Someday... (I'm sure Josh is rolling his eyes).

Anyway, I made my trek through Ikea with my list while I was in Utah and came home with some new items for my apartment that I am excited about.


My creative spurt that resulted in curtains for the boys room made me want curtains of my own in the master bedroom. I found some really cute simple ones at ikea for $15 a pair. I was going cheap and easy so I simply used upholstry tacks to pin the curtains up (an technique used in the Nesting Place's window mistreatments). What do you think?










Our apartment also has the lovely oddity of not having any over head lights in either of the bedrooms. There is one plug that is wired to a light switch and we have been using an up light in the boys room to provide light at night. The poor light has been through the wringer and no longer was standing on it's own (I actually had it tied to the foot of Elijah's bed to make it stand). I did a little surfing on Ikea's website and found some overhead lights that you plug into the wall and hang from the ceiling. Perfect! I managed to get one home in my suitcase and Josh's dad spent a couple hours poking holes in the ceiling looking for a stud to hang it from. Thank you Allan! I am very happy with the result!

I also got a set of black sheer curtains that I thought might work with my floral ones in my room but decided against using them together. I have temporarlly put them on either side of my vertical blinds in the living room. I'm still deciding if I like them. What do you think? The one down side is that the door opens on the right, which is already a tight squeeze with the couch position, I'm not sure how the curtain will complicate it.

One more plug for Ikea... I love their cheese grater. I hate the metal box graters but Ikea has a tub one, that they are currently selling in red and black, that makes grating cheese a breeze and it even seconds as a storage container for excess.

When planning a trip to Ikea, especially when it envolves long distance driving, plan ahead by browsing online. You can even check stock in specific stores around the world. This makes it easy to measure items or areas and compare them online.

Stake Family History Conference

I had the great opprotunity to participate in my stake's family history conference the Saturday before Easter. The conference consisted of classes as well as an open house of display tables in the cultral hall. They asked me to do a manned display on connecting through blogging. The idea really excited me and I really enjoyed getting ready for and presenting my display. I did a lot of my plotting while I was still in Utah. I really enjoyed bouncing ideas off my mother. I would even email her pictures and files of my ideas after I got home. She was a great help to me.

There were two focuses for my display... General Blogging and Family History Blogging. For some people blogs are a totally unknown thing and I introduced the benifits of blogging and how it can help you connect with family as well as build your personal history. But for those that might already blog I had information on using blogs to help with your family history research as well as sharing what information you have with family.

Overall, I was very pleased with how the day went. I had a lot of interest and think there were a few people who learned something new and left with a desire to start something of their own. If you are interested in information I have my handouts and blog link lists availible to email out.

Pulling together my display spurred me to finally copy and frame some pictures to go on my iron tree. I love the way it turned out and I even had people asking me where I got my cool tree (from my mother of course who was kind enough to pick it up for me from Rod Works in Utah. It was part of their Christmas decor and they had extras on clearance after Christmas.)

Another thing preparing for the conference spurred me to do was start my own family history blog (you may have noticed the new button on my sidebar). It is still a work in progress. Mostly all that is on there now has been pulled from this blog. I have big plans for it though. I'm hoping to use it as my research log (when I actually take/have the time to do family history). By putting my research log on a blog I can share what I am doing, what I have found, where I have found it, family stories, family photos, internet sourse links, etc... with my family and also with people who might be searching the same lines. The blog format also allows me to have multiple authors posting and allows for people to comment on my research --great for collaboration! So, that's the plan. I'm excited!

My book is HERE!

I have in my hot little hands by blog posts for 2008 printed as a book!


I am very pleased with the way it turned out. I created and ordered it through Blurb.com. It is an 8x10 landscape book with 180 pages. It cost me $57 to print and ship.









A few comments about the whole editing process. IT TOOK FOREVER! The program was really slow; I think because my file was rather large with alot of pictures (300+) and a lot of text. I did like the blurb program because it "slurped" up my blog posts and roughly put them into a book format. I spent a lot of time squishing it all down to 180 pages which required me to change page layouts, edit text, cut out pictures, and put multiple posts on the same page. There were also some pictures that didn't upload with a high enough resolution that I needed to upload the originals. There are quite a few program quirks but after awhile you know what to expect and it moves rather quickly. The actual uploading and ordering was very easy and I was even able to find a coupon code that ended up covering my 2nd day shipping.


Overall, I am pleased with the final product. But next year, when I'm not under a time crunch, I might look around a bit at other programs.

A Long SLOW Process

Yesterday I started the long, slow process of transforming last years blog posts into a printable book format. I've talked about making a hard copy of my blog for awhile now. Ultimately it was my being asked to participate in the Stake Family History Conference and to focus on blogging that initiated actually doing it. I downloaded a program through Blurb.com that is very similar to a program I used through mypublisher.com to make a photobook for Christmas. The big difference is that Blurb will download all of your posts, text AND pictures, into the program and allow you to manipulate them into a blog format. You can pick and choose the page layouts and which blog entries you want to inlcude or not. It will also flag what pictures are not a high enough resolution so you can upload them directly for better quality. The program is a little choppy when it comes to response time (maybe it is just my computer) but once you get used to the little quirks and express a little frustration you can progress rather easily.

It is still going to take me a few more days to get it all cleaned up. I'm a lazy writer when it comes to blogging. Especially when I started out, I wouldn't even capitalize my "i"s, so I need to go through and reread everything and made slight changes. I'm also probably going to have to cut out more posts just to keep the cost of the book down.

I'm really excited to get it all finished and actually hold it in my hands. I really enjoy blogging; it had become a great medium for me to journal about my life and my boys. It is a great way to preserve a personal history!

14 Days of Valentines

I was thinking the other day and figured out that Josh was my first true Valentine. It is also true that that first Valentine's day(s) he won me over big with the 14 Days of Valentine's, a tradition he carried over from his mom and that still continues between Josh and I. Much like the 12 days of Christmas, the 14 day's of Valentines is a daily expression of the holiday for the 14 days of February leading up to Valentine's Day. For two weeks you have the opprotunity to express your love everyday in extra ordinary ways. I highly recommend it!

This year Josh's mother has jumped on the blog bandwagon (with a little help from her daughters and myself) and has created a Valentine's Day blog where she shares the many creative ideas she has come up with throughout the years of celebrating the 14 Days of Valentines.

Check out her blog and the plethura of ideas she has then try out the tradition yourself! It doesn't have to be fancy or cost a lot of money, just a little time and creativity.

Go grab a button and spread the love!

My Own Custom Template: Made By ME!

So my project for the last few days has been to create and figure out how to do my own template. There are some great resources out there that have taught me how to manipulate, add to and change the html in a blog. You may have been checking in on my blog the last couple of days and seen something random for a minute or two... that was me testing the results. Anyway, if you are reading this you are seeing the final result --for now. I may play around with it a bit more. Do you like it? Is it readable? Improvements?

If you desire to have your own custom template it's not that difficult. You will need a photo editing program like Photoshop, digital scrapbooking papers and elements, and a photobucket.com account.

I have an old version of Photoshop Elements that did the job well. The Cutest Blog on the Block says you can also use less pricy programs like "Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft PowerPoint, or a very cool program you can download for free online from a site called Paint.net"

As for digital scrapbooking paper and elements there are many availible for download for FREE, which is what I did. There are also kits that you can buy for a minimal charge. Check out these sites for details. I personally got my paper from the Shabby Princess.

www.shabbyprincess.com
www.designerdigitals.com
www.digitaldesignessentials.com
www.digitalscrapbookplace.com
www.scrapgirls.com
www.scrapbookflair.com
www.sweetshoppedesigns.com
www.twopeasinabucket.com
www.littledreamerdesigns.com

After you have downloaded your papers and embelishments (and unzipped them) you are ready to use them in your photo editing program. Shabby Princess has great video tutorials on how to do this and Cutest Blog on the Block has some step by step suggestions. Cutest Blog on the Block also has suggestions as to page size and resolution.

Once you have your image the way you want your background to look save it as a .jpg or .gif. You are now ready to upload it to photobucket. You need a photobucket account so that you can utilize them to get the html code for your image that you will need to add into your blogger template html.

The exact place to put the html is explained in the steps on Cutest Blog on the Block. You must have your blogger template in "minima" for it to work.

Are you totally confussed yet?

I have also come across helpful information at the following sites as to how to manipulate the html code to change your blog format in addition to The Cutest Blog on the Block:
www.delightfuldots.com shows you how to change the colors and remove the header border. She also has some really cute premade templates for free.
http://sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com/ is very helpful with code changes

When I did my own template I wanted to change the column width of the text and sidebars as well as center my header to better fit my new background. I had to play around with the html in order to do this and found out that in order to shift things I need to change "wrapper" width. Originally the "outer-wrapper" was 660px. I changed it to 850px which made my posts and side bar more spaced out. I also changed the "main-wrapper" width to 550px. To shift the header more to the middle I changed the "header-wrapper" width to 780px. Don't be afraid to play around with the html. Use the preview to see the results of your changes without saving them but be sure to save the changes you like so you don't loose them.

One more thing I learned in all this experimenting. There is a way to have your text colors match your background that you made. In photoshop there is an eyedrop tool. If you go to choose a color but roll over your image the eyedrop tool shows up and you can pull a color off of your image. (Not sure how this option works in other programs) In that same color choice box a number will come up specific to that color. The number is called the color's "hex code". Copy and paste that number into a little box labeled "edit color hex code" in blogger where you can adjust the fonts and colors.

I'm also working on a post on how to create and share your own button but the html is proving hard to blog with. Hopefully I'll figure it out eventually.

Anyway, if you've gotten this far on this post you are probably as nuts as I am. I hope I haven't scared you off but intrigued your interest. If you have any questions I would love to help!

Have a happy day

New Year, New Look

It is hard to believe that I have been doing this blog thing for a YEAR now! I've learned a lot about blogging in that year. I've journaled and linked and uploaded pictures and videos and now I have quite a collection of posts in my archive. I've hesitated to change my boring, standard blog template for fear of loosing all my link lists and side bar information. It wasn't until today that I realized that if I used one of the templates that is simply an html gadget that I wouldn't loose anything. DUH! Anyway, I'm toying with a new look but I'm tempted to utilize my new found (very basic) digital scrapbooking skills to come up with something original... we'll see.

Also, with the close of year I am wanting to some how make a hard copy of my old posts. I like the idea of putting it together into an actually book. Has anyone looked into or tried any of the websites out there that allow you to do this?

MIA... playing catch up

It has been a long while since I have really posted to this blog. A lot of my time has been sucked up with the Christ Centered Christmas blog. If you haven't checked it out recently, I will say you are missing out. My mom and I are adding new stuff regularly and thanks to sugardoodle and my new button the word is getting out there. I'm very excited about it! There are also new recipes up on Everyday Recipes including a really yummy recipe for Strawberry Cream Puffs.

Thanksgiving was wonderful other than we were unable to go to Utah and see our families. My dear friend Christina was able to come out, kid free, and we had a grand girls weekend. Thanks Josh for watching the boys! We basically ate and shopped the entire weekend and had a lot of fun. Thanksgiving dinner was made by my amazing husband. Everything turned out so delicious and we timed it pretty well. We had some friends over from our ward and they brought the most wonderful recipe for sweet potatoes with a coconut topping (I'm still working on getting the recipe, I'm not usually a fan of sweet potatoes but these were SO good). We just lounged around the afternoon, looking at Black Friday ads and plotting the next morning. Sam was so tired he fell asleep in the middle of the living room floor amidst all the bussle with his bum in the air. I was worried he would have a hard time going down. We had transfered him to a toddler bed the weekend before and he takes advantage of the new found freedom of being able to leave his room when he is supposed to be sleeping. The poor kid was so tuckered out like the rest of us after such a large Turkey dinner, that my problem was solved.

A couple nights ago the boys decided to sleep together in Elijah's bed. Melt my heart CUTE! Most of the time they just play together and make a mess in their room when they are supposed to be sleeping (Sam did it until 9:30 last night) but there are those rare nights when they are just cute and go to sleep so well.

One of the random things I picked up at Walmart on Black Friday was a Eureka lightweight vacuum cleaner. It was $9 bagless, lightweight, telescoping handle, lime green vacuum so I grabbed it. I love it! Mind you it is not a Dyson (which I also drool over) but it is so light and agile that I can whip it out and get most of the mess off my floor in nothing flat. Another big plus is that my boys love it. Unfortunatly I have yet to have them push it around while it is on, but they are practicing by running it along the floor. The telescopic handle makes it the perfect size for them. Sam is really good at moving the chairs around to get under the table. I'm trying to catch a video of them doing it. I'll post it when I do.

Elijah has been making more labels. The other day he asked me how to spell butterfly. I then found that he had done some other labels by himself and that Sam had gotten in on the action and done one too. I think it's great practice to get Elijah to learn how to control and contain his letters while writing.

We had a really cold day last week. Temps in the teens with powder snow on the ground (and all over my car). We trudged out in it because Elijah need to go to school. When I got home to put Sam down for his nap and took his hat off I had to grab the camera and get a shot of his crazy hair. He was less than pleased with me, but what else are mom's for.

New Blog: Christ Centered Christmas

I, partnered with my mother, have added another blog to my author list. This one is focused on Christ Centered Christmas traditions. My mother and I have been brainstorming, plotting, writing, and editing and now I think we are to the point where we can open this project up to the general public. Keep in mind it is a work in progress but I hope that you might find the information helpful in some way or another. If you have anything to add or come across something on the internet worth sharing, please let me know!

As my mother has been pumping out these posts it has gotten me really excited for the Christmas season. Josh is very adamant that it can't start til after Thanksgiving though. That gives me three weeks (the fourth week we will be in Utah) to implement these amazing traditions. I'm going to need all the time until then to plan them.

Here's to a well planned Christ Centered Christmas!

Intimidated by Food Storage

Another project I have been researching but haven't yet dove into yet is Food Storage. My mother has been on a food storage rampage and I have let her know that I want a detailed report of what she has been doing. Hopefully it will be posted in a week or so. Until then I have been doing some research on various blogs and websites.

The LDS Church's stance on food storage has been adjusted in the past few years. Their recommendations can be found on the Provident Living Website. The focus has changed to families having a three month supply of food within the home, bare minimum.

Personally this is less intimidating than having a full year of food storage, especially in the limited amount of space in my apartment. But still, three months is a lot of food and it takes a lot planning.

How have you approached this HUGE challenge?
What meals do you have included in your three month plan?
How are you organizing and rotating your supply?

There are a few blogs that I have found to be helpful as I ponder these questions.

I have found Blog Totally Ready to have a lot of helpful information. The host has posted, since January 08, every week a break down of "Seven Steps" to take each week to gather your 72 hour and three month supply as well as make various other preparations around your home. Some of these steps are so simple, especially when broken down. She really opens up you eyes to things that would be helpful in being prepared for an emergency. A lot of information and advice to be had on her site.

Another blog that my mother pointed out to me is Everyday Food Storage. This gal focuses on how to make using your food storage a part of everyday life. She has many recipes and demonstrations.

Food Storage Made Easy is a website that has taken steps to break down the food storage process and make it more manageable while educating you on the hows and whys. They have a spread sheet available for download to help you plan and calculate your three month supply.

Lastly, the website Simply Living Smart seems to have a plethora of information (much of which I haven't digested yet). They also break the process down and help you understand what you need to do and why.

Now are you like me and feel like a deer in the headlights?

I'm really feeling the need and the pressure to get this all started (and done).
Any suggestions, feelings, experiences, words of encouragement, etc would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, also I'm in the market for a WHEAT GRINDER. What kind do you use? Do you love it; any problems; how often do you use it; etc?

I promise... I'm still alive!

This morning I got a call from my sister-in-law checking to see if I was still alive and well. My mother and sister have also commented on my absence from the blog world. I'm sorry! Thank you to all my faithful readers (aka family and friends) that have been checking in on me just to be disappointed to find nothing new.

So the question is what have I been up to in my absence?

Well, I posted earlier (I guess its been a few weeks) about how fall brings on the project bug. I have been busy doing a plethora of projects (just about everything except cleaning my house, which is in shambles). Unfortunately none of them are completed YET! I will give you a sneak peak into what I have been working on though.

There are the makings of a scarecrow. I have been searching for a few weeks now for a flannel shirt at a garage sale and have still come up empty handed. We'll give it one more week and then I will have to head to the thrift store.

I finally picked up my Babbett afghan again. It was my project rampage of last fall but it never got all pieced together. I am about a third of the way through putting all the squares together...finally! I'm really excited with the way it is turning out.

I had a cell phone scare a couple weeks ago when my battery completely died. I was afraid I had lost all the phone numbers in it. That would be a sad day! So I put together our own personal phone book. It includes our ward list, my cell phone numbers, our address and our own personal numbers too, as well as our doctors. Handy for those emergencies when my brain might not be working.

I've started my holiday planning. The last couple of years I have used a cheap composition book and glued paper on the front and put tab dividers down the side. This year I have been very loosely following the suggestions from a blog called One Hundred Days to Christmas. I have included in my binder a calendar for the rest of the year, project lists, shopping lists, menus, gift lists for ideas and what I have and how much I've spent, etc. This is working not only for Christmas but Halloween and Thanksgiving too in addition to the three family birthdays that also fall in that window.

I have started my Christmas shopping. I have some things I've found at garage sales and the consignment store in town and I am filling in the rest by shopping on the Internet. There are deals to be had! I am so addicted to searching around for the best price and reading the reviews and figuring out if I can get free shipping or not. Elijah is pretty much done but I am stumped on what to get Sam (especially from Santa). What do you get a two year old that isn't crazy about any one thing and has all his brother's toys to play with?? Any suggestions? Anyway, one of the things I have lined up for them are the crayon rolls that Skip to My Lou does a great tutorial for (she is doing a bunch of links to homemade Christmas gift ideas. A great blog to look at!). I found the fabric for mine at Walmart and got it all for under $2.00 (with enough to make two and about enough to make at least one more). I picked up the crayons when they were super cheap at the beginning of the school year.

I've also still been working on the Ami Animals, though they have been back burner-ed as of late. I have an elephant in the works with plans for more!

There is one more thing I've got my hands in currently, but I can't share it here, too many ears! Lets just say I'm enjoying the whole homemade Christmas thing. There are a lot of amazing ideas out there. I'll post some links to my favorite toy stores and blogs with ideas soon.

So there you have it!

What projects are you working on? Have you even started thinking about Christmas? I'd love to hear!

Shout Out: Just Another Hang Up

There is a sister in my ward that makes the most amazing totes. She sells them on her blog and also does regular give-aways. Head over to her blog and check out her latest give-away as well as all her other amazing bags. I love her color choices for the Retro Fall Flowers Tote. You have until midnight Sunday night to enter.

Time saver (or Not)

I had heard a lot about GoogleReader through fellow bloggers (I admit I'm sometimes a blog stalker) and a Family History Conference I went to last year. A couple weeks ago I decided to try it out. I am here to tell you it is amazing! It had gotten to where I was checking 20 or so blogs regularly to see if they had posted anything new and was frequently disappointed when they hadn't. But with GoogleReader I subscribe to whatever blogs/websites I want to keep tabs on and Google notifies me whenever there are new posts. I know instantly if someone has posted something! Now some might say this is a great time saver, saving me from physically searching each blog myself. And though it does save me from doing that, I find that I am spending more time reading even more blogs now. Oh the irony.

So, just so you know-
I 'm keeping up and I enjoy reading your blogs!

Craft Ideas

The past few days I've been reading other blogs more than I have been posting to my own. I've come across some good craft ideas for the kids and some projects for me too.


I came across this blog, the children's nest, where a mother of four posts projects that she does with her children. I love the post for the children's apron made out of kitchen towels. I can just imagine the possbilities. I'm going to go hunting at the dollar store for towls now to make a couple of these for my boys. She also has an idea from Martha Stewart about recycling old wool sweaters and making them into animals etc. Very cute! Also a cute idea for an applique on a onesie.


Another blog, glittergoods, had a tutorial on how to make "pink princess party flags". Granted I don't have a need for pink princess party flags (yet! someday I'm hoping for a girl), but you could use any kind of fabric you have to create your own fun reusable birthday flag decorations.


She also has a turtorial on how to make your own little books out of paper and cardstock, in minutes! I did this one and was surprised at how easy it really was. The possibilites for this are amazing. I know Elijah will love to fill the pages with his letters and pictures, maybe even write his own story someday.

Finally, there is the crafty crow. This woman has done a compilation of different projects she finds and has pictures and links to them (one of which will lead you to glittergoods). Talk about loads of ideas! Craft projects, outing ideas, games, art books, etc... for all ages! I particularly liked the idea for the atribute game. I'm going to start gathering stuff to put together my own. Plus it is a great place to branch out to other blogs and see what other creative people are up to. I have a feeling this will be a blog I go to often in search of ideas.

Anyway, I've got plenty to keep my busy and I'm still looking for a simple/cute pattern for my throw pillows I bought. If you come across one, send it my way!

I would love to hear what projects you are involved in or fun ones you find while surfing around.

Poems: Consecration and Bread From Heaven

My friend Laura has posted her Deseret Recognition award winning poems Consecration and Bread From Heaven on her blog. These poems are very thoughtful and I found that they resonated strongly with me.

Check It Out: MeckMom.com

I rediscovered an amazing blog this morning, meckmom.com. This woman has some pretty ingenious ideas for just about anything you may encounter as a mom running a household. Job charts, home organization, scripture stickers, kid-friendly solutions, etc.

Check it out!

New Recipe Blog

Introducing:
Everyday Recipes, Recipes for Real Life

I have started another blog! I'm addicted, can you tell? My sister blog is for recipes and I need your help! I would like people I know to be co-authors with me and submit recipes. I'm assuming if you are reading this blog you know me (and if you didn't know me i guess you pretty much do now through reading my blog). If you would like to be an author on Everyday Recipes, leave a comment with your email address to this post and I will send you an invitation. If you have a blogger account it's a breeze to get added. If you don't have an account yet it is super easy to start one. Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm excited to be able to post my recipes and share them with you and even more excited to see the ones that others submit!

*Keep in mind that my new blog is very much under construction and an experiment. I need your help to get it going! let me know if you see any additions or changes that I should make.

the purl bee

I came across this blog through a chain of blogs somewhere, can't remember now, but it is one that i go to to drool over the craft projects they have posted. This is where I first found the picture of the babbette blanket i am making. This blog just makes me want to run to the fabric store and buy tons of fabric and notions. There really are some talented people out there. They also have a great links page to many other talented bloggers. let me know if you find any you like.

Check it out!