What if our Grandmothers had Blogs...

(All the treasures you see in these pictures are things that I've inherited from my Grandmothers - mostly Mom's mom in these pictures. I'll explain them toward the end.)

Did you ever stop to wonder what it would be like if our grandmothers and great grandmothers and so on had blogs? What a treasure that would be. I was thinking as I sat crocheting last night that our fore-mothers had a different sense of duty. They didn't sit idle. Their hands were always busy even if they were sitting down. We have become such a lazy society with our televisions and computers and technology in general. Great-grandma didn't have that luxury. It was important to always keep the hands busy. Can you imagine how many projects they would have filled their blogs with?

My own grandparents kept journals of sorts. My mom's mother recorded in a ledger different projects she had done - detailed accounts of how much of each vegetable she had canned each day, and sewing projects complete with a list of expenses. I even saw on one of the pages the accounting of how much fabric she had purchased (along with the cost) for my mother's wedding. If I recall correctly, the material for mom's dress and her bridesmaids and all the trim came to a whopping $35. Sadly that journal has disappeared. When Grandma sold her home and moved into a retirement home, she got rid of a lot of stuff. I guess this must have been one of the things to go.

My grandfather on my dad's side used to record each day's weather on his calendar - temperature, precipitation, and so on. He was a farmer, and I'm sure this habit was very helpful to him. We lived near both sets of grandparents until I was 13. After that, they would write detailed letters, telling what they had been up to. We received detailed accounts of canning, farming, charity work and so on. I wish I would have had the foresight to keep these treasures, but as a young teen, things like that didn't seem so important. More than anything I wish I had more things in their own handwriting. I have some, but not much.

Now, we're "busy" but not necessarily productive. I've been so "busy" lately that I haven't gotten much of anything done. Crazy, isn't it? But that's how it is. I would love to go back to productivity instead.

Sometimes, I think that my blog is just for fun, and just for my own personal amusement. But last night, I thought about what a treasure it would be to have a print version of one of my grandmothers' blogs. And so I am inspired. Today we blog. Tomorrow we will be grandparents and great-grandparents. We leave a treasure... even if it seems insignificant now. So I am inspired to continue. And I will continue the tradition of buying a print version of my blog each year... for posterity :)

This is one of the treasure boxes I received from my Mom's mom. Can you tell what decade she last did embroidery in?

This is a view of the inside of her sewing kit. She did a lot of charity sewing at her church. I imagine this was the little kit she took with her. Lots of old thimbles ;)

I was fortunate enough to inherit both of my grandmothers' sewing machines. This was my mother's mother's machine.

And this was dad's mom's machine. They both work wonderfully well, and I do get them out and play with them once in awhile. My daughter will get one of these when she is ready for it. (I inherited a lot of embroidered works from Dad's mom, but I did a post on that last summer. I hadn't posted about Mom's mom yet, so the rest of the things on this page are from her.)

When the sewing stuff was brought to me, there was an extra special treasure tucked inside. This is my maternal Grandmother's wedding veil. What an honor to be the one to get this. I wish I had room to display it properly, but I'm also afraid of sun damage. Maybe when our bigger house gets set up I'll be able to find a place where we can enjoy this, and not just keep it in a box.

Finally Back to Crafting :)

FINALLY. Ugh. It's been way too long since I did anything creative. I'm making up for it in full speed now.

Last night I got started on crocheting the blue and brown blanket for the new baby. (Just in time too. Did you notice the ticker on the sidebar? We're down to 99 days and counting!)

Anyway, I had this pattern in mind and searched for it forever before finding it online. I know I have it in a pattern book, but I haven't unpacked those from when we moved in 2007, and I wasn't sure which box they were in. I've been meaning to go through all the boxes and record what is in everything so I can find it, but it hasn't happened yet. It's discouraging to try to find a place for everything when there just isn't room for everything to have a place. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to having the big house get here so we can actually unpack everything for good. (By the way, I talked to our mover on the phone Monday and he said he was going to try to be on the road by Thursday... as in tomorrow. We'll see...) Anyway, I finally found the pattern here.

I haven't crocheted anything for a long time (other than the pink afghan I started which is just double crochet stitches. I wasn't sure I'd be able to figure out the pattern. But it turns out that this one is super easy, and it works up pretty fast. I got this far just last evening, within a couple hours, which also included time to figure out the pattern. I was a little rusty. I think it's going to be a really pretty blanket :) Now I'm feeling like I ought to go back and do something a little more interesting with the pink one. But, one crochet project at a time. Now sewing projects, that's another matter. You're going to see a bunch of those started in the next few days. I got some new fabric in the mail yesterday, and more coming soon. I'll show you those later.

Monday night I sat down to try to figure out what to do with my challenge fabric for the contest at our quilt shop. We only get one fat quarter of the challenge fabric to work with, and that in itself is a challenge, regardless of the fabric. I wanted to make a baby sundress with this summery fabric, but clearly a fat quarter is not enough to make much of a dress with. So, I figured that I could add other fabric to it and extend it a bit.

So I did a little figuring... okay, a LOT of figuring, followed by a lot of second-guessing and re-figuring, and then finally bit the bullet and cut everything into strips. All these colored strips in the picture above are from one single piece of fabric. I only had 1/2 yard of this, so that added to the challenge of figuring out how to get all my pieces cut out and still have enough fabric for everything.

When I got it all cut, I laid it out together ... and hated it. I'm hoping it will be cuter with a little bit of gathering between the strips, but either way, it is what it is, and I'm not spending another penny on this project. I'm hoping to get this sewn together sometime this week. We'll see. As usual the schedule is full, and I'm a little bit obsessed with the blue and brown blanket right now. Not to mention, I really need to work on our taxes sometime soon :(

Remember the other day when I said I was a fabric miser? I wasn't kidding. This is literally all I have left in scraps after cutting everything out for the dress. I don't even have an extra scrap of the challenge fabric. Yeah! I call this success :)

I had to squeeze in a few pictures of the 2 year old, who was as photogenic as always yesterday. Whenever we read a book, he will climb into my lap, lay back, and immediately fold his hands behind his head like this. He lays in bed like that too. It's too cute!

He's also a little obsessed with hats... can you tell? Sometimes the horse even gets to wear one.

He loves his brother's ski helmet. It didn't take him long to take off the goggles, though.

New Camera, Round II

Well, let's hope this is the final round with camera trials. It looks promising so far. For one thing, the color is much better. This close up of the 7 year old is from about 10 feet away, zoomed in close.

I couldn't wait to try this camera, so I only charged the battery for about 15 minutes, then put it in the camera and started snapping away, without a clue about any of the settings. The first few were blurry, until I figured out I needed to push a button to let the flash pop up. The picture above was one of those.

Here's one with the flash open. We were in the middle of homeschool, so I just snapped the pictures of what was close by. I knew I wanted to see how well pictures of people turned out because this was such a problem with the last camera. So far, especially considering I haven't played with it all that much, I'm pretty happy.

My poor hubby is home sick today, so he got to be in the photo shoot too.

This weekend was a busy one. We had the seven year old's final ski team day. They always do a fun day for their last meeting. The kids (and coaches) wear costumes, and they race through goofy obstacle courses. They are awarded candy (or have it thrown at them). It's pretty fun. We started the day with a sourdough pancake feast at Bugga and Papa's. Then I let my husband, the 18 year old and seven year old go skiing, while I kept the 2 year old home, so no photos of that event.

I had planned on getting a lot of crafting in over the weekend, but I haven't been sleeping well lately (or breathing well either) so I took a nap with the 2 year old instead. I always have these symptoms with my pregnancies, so I guess I've hit that lucky point where the problems begin. That or maybe the high ozone levels we've been experiencing, thanks to the gas field, could be a contributor. I thought I might pass out in church yesterday while standing and singing. I think I'm going to have to choose to do one or the other ... stand, or sing, but not both at the same time.

Sunday afternoon my husband and I took a trip to Walmart ... 100 miles away, and did a little shopping. We re-affirmed the idea that we hate going to Walmart and we hate the town it is in, and it made me think I would probably be better off just to order from Walmart.com for the things I can't get at Kmart in the town I usually shop in (which is 77 miles from our house, in the opposite direction). I'm sure after paying for fuel - at $3.29/gallon (it's $3.51 here in town), I could pay for quite a bit of shipping. And, the bonus is that there would be less impulse buying :) We do a lot of online shopping here. In fact I'm currently expecting about 12 packages - WOW, I just went back and counted. Make that 17! packages (if you count the camera that came today). In fairness though, some are for the 18 year old, and one is for the 20 year old who is overseas and can't receive a UPS delivered package.) Crazy, huh? I get great deals online, and with the baby coming, I've got quite a few projects lined up, and supplies coming for those, as well as homeschool supplies and of course books ;) I always have books coming. Go figure.

So anyway, to add to my growing list of baby projects, I picked up some blue and brown yarn at Walmart to start an afghan for our next boy. Isn't it pretty? I'm thinking it will be a striped blanket - switching color on each row. I have a total of eight skeins (four of each color), so hopefully that will be enough. I will have a lot of fabric and craft stuff to show you in the next few days, so I better get working on my to do list (which seems to be growing daily.)

Decisions, Decisions

I'm getting there. I didn't get much sewing done ... okay, none, actually ... but I did manage to make copies of my pattern pieces and cut them out. Then I pulled out some of my western fabrics to see what will work nicely for the little baby boots. I'm thinking bandana fabric with denim would be a good combination. The part of the project that's holding me up is that the fabric needs to be quilted first. Not a problem to do the actual quilting, but I'm the biggest fabric miser in the world, and don't want to waste any fabric. So I'm reluctant to quilt too much of it. I've decided to draw out all the pattern pieces onto a sheet of paper (some of them are used multiple times) and then just quilt a piece slightly bigger than that. Maybe I'll get a chance to do that during nap-time today. But then, before I get too carried away, I really ought to work on the contest project that has to be done by the 10th... and our taxes... but that's no fun.

The other decision I made was to send the camera back. It just isn't taking crystal clear pictures with accurate color. If you spend $250 on a camera, you ought to be able to expect better pictures. But these pictures weren't even as good as the ones my little $99 camera I had before took. I went through the manual and tried all the different settings and couldn't notice much of a difference in the picture quality, so, back it goes. I've already ordered a different one, so we'll see how that one does. It doesn't have quite as much zoom - only 18x, which is still way more than I've had before, and it was a little cheaper. If that one doesn't work, I'll have to decide whether to go up a step, or back down to a basic, little point and shoot. We shall see...

In a Crafty Mood

I guess all the fabric and pattern buying I've been doing is getting my creative juices running. I've been wanting to make time to get some crafting in. But given my hectic schedule, it hasn't happened yet this week.

I was thinking I would start back in on the crocheting I keep by my bedroom rocking chair.

But someone was in the chair. He loves to "rockabye" - especially with me, and especially right before bed. He usually brings me a book (or seven) and tells me to "read it!". Once we get all snuggled in, he'll say "rockabye!" and we'll rock and read our stories. It's a sweet bedtime routine.

Tonight, though, he was being ornery, and wouldn't share the chair. He was enjoying making the rocker go as fast as he could.

Anyway, after all the rocking and reading, I was finally able to get my crocheting out. This is a project I started around New Year's, when we were in Utah. I was in the mood to make something pink, and figured with my sister and I both expecting, chances are one or the other of us would be having a girl. Well, I sure hope she has a girl ;) I guess if she doesn't, I'll put it in my "someday" box. I've been reading a blog by Karen Andreola (author of several books on homeschooling with the Charlotte Mason method). She keeps a hope chest style box which she calls the someday box, in which she places hand made items for a grandchild she will eventually have. (She has some already, but no girls yet). I thought that was a pretty neat idea. I'm sure with five children, I will have grandchildren "someday." No rush though ;) Anyway, I think this will end up being a pink and white striped afghan, maybe with a lacy border. We'll see. And we'll see in a couple weeks (hopefully) whether I need to get this done by August :)

Master Gardener, Class Complete... sort of

Last night was my final Master Gardener class. We had a class on soil - where we brought our own soil samples and learned what type of soil we have. Surprise, surprise, I have "sandy clay" in the back yard (at the new place) and "silty clay" in the front. What does that mean? It means when we walk in the mud, it will glop onto our shoes. Big surprise. It also means the soil will hold water well, so we won't have to water as often, and when we do water, it will need to be done very slowly. It also means we need to add organic matter - which is the advice regardless of what type of soil you have.

We also did our "graduation" party - we had pizza and played a version of Jeopardy, and our table (me and one other person) finished 4th out of about 12 tables. Everyone got a prize, but we were allowed to choose them in the order in which we placed. I snagged a package of Asparagus roots. I really hope that works out. We grew asparagus when I was a kid in Nebraska, and there is no comparison between store bought and home grown asparagus. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the store-bought stuff. But home grown? Now that's another story. At the end we were allowed to pick out a couple of seed packets. I gathered up the instructor's "favorite" lettuce blend, and a packet of "tendersweet carrots." I really don't expect to do much gardening this year, with the baby due July 1, but I think I can handle a few little things. And think how good a tasty home-grown salad with real carrots will taste.

Anyway, we're not quite done with class. There is a pruning class in April, and then if we want the Master Gardener certification, we have to put in 40 hours of volunteer time. I hadn't intended to go that far. If you get the certification, you are "qualified" to consult with people who are having problems in their garden, or with their landscape plants. I don't feel qualified to do that. I've learned a lot, but I'm a beginner to all this and don't have many answers. I took the class to learn how to grow things in my own yard, not tell everyone else how to do it ;)

Caroline Classic Ski Race, and Adding to the Fabric Stash

Last week I couldn't sleep and was up super early. What a treat! The sunrise was gorgeous! I love this first picture with the icicles.

The icicle picture was actually taken a little later than this next one. In a matter of a couple minutes, the sky changed from rust orange to blues and pinks.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early for the next ski race. I enjoy these, but I'm also very thankful there are only two races. These events take a lot of time and energy.

We were again #13. This is before the race. See how his bib is all blue with white letters? That meant he would be starting from the lower start, as opposed to #160 next to him, who would run the whole course. This race is held on the big hill. It takes the high school skiers about a minute and a half to race the whole course. So the younger skiers start toward the middle of the hill. As it was, it took him just over a minute to complete his run.

His stance looks a little funny here, be he was flying, and one the edge of being out of control.
Can you see the spray of snow coming off his ski?

When I asked him why he wasn't tucking down like he did last time, he said he felt like he was going too fast, and was trying to slow himself down a bit. At the last gate, there was a rut and one ski kicked out, but he was able to save it and make a good finish. Last race, I heard one of the coaches tell the kids, "Today, we want to go really fast ... somewhat in control, but mostly just go fast." That particular coach is a hoot.

The kids were supposed to get two runs down the hill, but when it was 1:30 and they were just finishing up the first run for everyone, they decided there wouldn't be enough daylight to finish, so everyone had to be satisfied with only one run. I was a bit frustrated by that. I had sat out on the hillside all day with my 2 year old, thinking we would get to see the second run. Had I known they were only doing one run, I would have waited in the warm lodge. Thankfully it wasn't terribly cold.

See all these people? These are all athletes and parents - and not all of them. They had a record turn out for the race, with a total of 190 skiers. We had kids from all over the place - Jackson Hole, Idaho, etc. The bigger ski teams who practice on larger hills are crazy fast. And they have all the brand new, top of the line equipment. We even saw parents re-waxing their kids skis to fit the snow conditions. This is some pretty intense competition. I'm really glad we didn't sign up for the race team. Home team suits us much better. We were also surprised by how rude some of the parents were. Guess we shouldn't be, but good grief. This is a kids event! Let them enjoy it.

At any rate, we ended up with a fourth place finish. Not too bad, considering all the competition. He was really upset not to place higher though. He was aiming for second place. Actually, among the local skiers, he was second. He beat two of the kids that beat him last race. When we got the full list of results, he felt much better. Of all the boys who started on the lower start, he was fourth fastest overall - which meant he beat several boys who are in the next age group. But overall, I would have to say it's never a bad thing to have to learn to deal with disappointment. It builds character.

His little group was the J7 boys again. The kid that won his division is not on this section of the score sheet. Would you believe the kid who won (who was from Jackson, by the way) made his run in 39 seconds!? Crazy.

Okay, on to fabric ;) I really wasn't intending to buy much fabric yet, but there is a contest at our local quilt shop... 'nuff said, right?

Anyway, I had to use a particular challenge fabric for this contest - the hideous flip-flop material in the center. Okay, so it's not as bad as I anticipated, but it sure is a challenge to find anything that remotely goes with it. For the contest, they give us a fat quarter of this material, and it has to be used and distinguishable in the final product. I had to try to find something that would go with it, so I bought a quarter yard of the zigzag material (which I now think does not go with it very well) and a quarter yard of the red, which I'm leaning toward using. The other piece of material goes from a beautiful dark purple to a bright orange, blending as it goes. Parts of it go really well with the challenge material, and parts of it don't. We'll have to see how it all works out. I'm not telling what I'm making yet. We'll just have to see how it turns out. I picked up a fat quarter for my daughter to use too. She will make an accent piece (or two) for what I'm making. The contest entries have to be in by April 10th, and we get $5 for participating, and $25 if we win. It seemed crazy not to enter ;)

Of course I can't walk into a fabric shop and just buy what I intended to buy... I spotted this pretty pale blue and brown fabric and thought it would be perfect for a carseat cover - as in, cover up the baby so all the people at the store will stop touching him.

It's overall very much my style, and I loved it even more when I saw the little bunnies.

I thought I was doing pretty good, getting out of the store having spent less than $20, when on my way out, I passed this adorable pattern for baby cowboy boots. They even had a little pair made up from the pattern. I was hooked. I had to go back and buy the pattern. Ugh. I'm such a sucker. Oh well, this pattern is super cute ;)

Later in the week, when I went to Jackson for my doctor's appointment I stopped in the quilt store there too. I found this cute flannel dinosaur material there. I'm not usually interested in dinosaurs, but I thought this was pretty cute.

I was surprised I didn't buy any more than just that, but I guess I wasn't in a fabric buying mood. I did find a brown and turquoise fabric I would have loved to use for a diaper bag, but after searching the entire store and not finding anything - literally anything - to go with it, I put it back on the shelf. All the coordinating fabrics in that line were girly, and I just couldn't match the odd shades of brown and turquoise with anything else in the store.

After going through a sewing slump, I think I may just be getting in the mood to create again. I've been having a hard time getting interested in sewing, with my sewing "room" in the garage, and not being able to use my propane heater because of the pregnancy. It's finally starting to warm up some, and I've finally given in and brought one machine inside. I really don't have room for it in the house, and around the daycare, but I'm making an exception for a couple months. I can't wait to have a whole room inside the house just for sewing. It will be such a treat!

Speaking of the house, the latest word was that it would be here the 18th, but he is supposed to give us 5 days definite warning so we can remove ice from the foundation we poured, and considering today is the 14th, I'm guessing we're delayed again. Like I've said before, I'll believe it's coming when I see the house pulling into town. Too bad people can't live up to their word.

He Made the Paper

I've been meaning to post this for a few days. Both local papers ran pictures from the ski race, and our skier made it into one of them. He's in the bottom center picture below:

Here's a closer view of that picture.

The Six Year Old is Finally Seven!

The first part of our day was spent on the lake - at the final day of the ice fishing derby. Normally we would have been in church, but we thought it was a worthwhile investment of our time to help his father and mother be able to get out and fish. This is a once-a-year thing, and given his dad's health situation, they wouldn't have been able to go without our help. We were glad to do it :) The birthday boy wanted to go to church, so we arranged for the kids to be picked up by a sweet lady in our church. They came home to the birthday boy's requested birthday meal - boxed mac & cheese - then went to work decorating his cake. When everyone came over later, we were treated to the 18 year old's homemade crock pot beef stew, cake and ice cream.

At the fishing derby, we won a $50 gift certificate to Half Moon Lake Lodge - where some of the best steak on earth is served - YUM. It was kind of funny, really. They announced what the door prize was, and I commented to my husband, saying, "We'll take that one." Then they drew his name! We were thrilled. We didn't catch any fish or win any fishing awards, so this was a nice bonus. My father in law also won a door prize - a survival kit to carry in his snowmachine.

When we got home, Papa and Bugga came over and we had the big seventh birthday party.

It was a big hit. In case you can't tell, this was a couple of packages of Snaps from Papa - a horribly yucky candy (in my opinion) which happens to be the birthday boy (and Papa's) favorite candy coated black licorice.

There were lots of presents to unwrap, and I'm quite pleased with the deals I got on all of them. The ones from us were all after Christmas sale bargains, or super deals with coupons or mark-down items. He ended up with a wide variety of items and was excited to have so many to open. Papa and Bugga spoiled him, giving him a new western shirt, along with the candy and bird nest. And he received a couple of cards with money, which always is a hit. We know there are two more packages on the way too, so he'll get to continue his celebrating into the week.

This monkey hat was one of the biggest hits.

Everyone had to try it on. And no, I won't be posting pictures of the rest of us in the hats!)

Here was one of the coolest, most unique gifts, which we will enjoy using in our homeschool lessons. Bugga gave him a bird nest, complete with one broken shell of a robin egg, and one in-tact egg. We're handling it very carefully! There is a pretty interesting story behind this gift. The mama bird built her nest on the track of Papa's snowmachine, which at the time was covered with a tarp, and parked in the big shed on the land where our house is going. We knew the nest was there, but left it alone. When they brought the machines into town, the nest was still there, and Bugga discovered the eggs when she moved the nest in preparation for the ice fishing derby. We were all excited to have it, and will probably use it in our decor, along with studying it in homeschool. This will be a very cool addition to our nature notebooks. We've been having a hard time coming up with examples of nature to draw - you can only draw so much snow - for our notebooks. His 20 year old brother called on Skype from where he is deployed and told him he will be getting a keychain from him when he returns home. The keychain has a scorpion in it. He is looking forward to getting that so he can see who all he can scare with it... BOYS! Last year the same brother bought him four acrylic bracelets with bugs, spiders, and bees in them - and they were actually very cool bugs if I do say so myself :)

The cake was a Candyland themed cake. The birthday boy and his 18 year old sister did all the decorating. I knew they wouldn't have enough room to get all the candy in place if we had made a regular 9x13 cake, so I baked a sheet cake from a recipe book my Grandmother gave me - one of those old church collaboration cookbooks, filled with everyone's best recipes. I had never tried this recipe, so I was a little worried that it wouldn't turn out. It was incredibly good! (The cake was moist and very flavorful. Next time I will need a little more flour to accommodate our higher elevation, but I will definitely make this again.) We did decide though that it might not have been the best choice for this application, though, because it was so shallow that some of the candies wouldn't stand up in it - like the lollipops that kept tipping over.

Here's the cake with the inspiration game board behind it. I left the decorating up to the kids while we finished up our fishing, and I think they did a great job. The scenes and candies are actually very accurate to the game board.

I'd say the birthday party was a success!