Our first Kentlands Garage Sale

I love garage sales and today reminded me why. On our way downtown for a morning in the city to go to the National Book Festival put on by the Library of Congress, (take a look at our fun Saturday) we drove past a garage sale.
This is one of my favorite kind to find. The kind where kids have cleaned out their parents garage . 1. they have no real attachment to the items, 2. they don't know what their parents paid for the items and 3. they want to get rid of it all.
I got this old darling egg holder. It has no chips and will hold little treats at Easter of eggs any day of the week.
These old glasses. I got 12 large glasses and 12 small child size ones. Only one was chipped. They will match my red toile plates perfectly.This little 25 drawer box was one of my favorites of the day. All the screws and washers are in the original packaging. Jeff was thrilled but I don't think he realized I plan on using it for my treasures. $2.00These were great and I paid a little bit more than I wanted to. $8.00. There are 12 unused (still in their individually wrapped Bloomingdales bags) long ramikin like dish. It will perfect for individual servings of Apple Crisp and Carrot souffle.

I also got this awesome puppet theater and 25 puppets for $5.00. I can't find the photo that I took. I will be redoing the curtains on it so I will show a before and after photo at a later date.

2 teeth in one day.

This morning Annie Kate got up at 6:45 and came in my room to tell me her tooth was loose. I was still on my camera class hangover and said "Great" and rolled back over to sleep. Then at 7:15 am she woke me up again to show me not one but two teeth she pulled out of her mouth. She then said, "am I like Scott?"
Jeff has always told Annie Kate a story about his brother Scott who pulled 6 of his own teeth in one day (don't know the truth to this) She has always loved that story and I think wanted to be just like Uncle Scott. So funny.

I came up with the idea awhile ago to make a pillowcase with a small pocket at the end of the pillowcase for the teeth. My theory is that it is better access for the tooth fairy to get the teeth then if they are underneath the pillow. Tonight was the first night to use the new pilowcase. We shall see how the tooth fairy does.
2 teeth.

Lori C. Mitchell

I was looking at Stefanie F. blog today and noticed on her fireplace two of the cutest witches. I emailed her to find out what they were. She was nice enough to email me three places to find these incredible treasures.
They are made by an artist Lori C. Mitchell in Richmond VA. Her work is amazing to say the least. She has a website where you can buy her originals. Take a look they are incredible. But she also sells reproductions on this site. Bayberry Cove.
It just makes me love Halloween that much more. She has some incredible nursery rhymes one too.
What a treat. Thanks Stefanie for the tip.

photography

So last night I went to my first photography class. It was 3 and a half hours. I felt like the guy was speaking French. I was picking up about one in every 5 words. My head hurt with all the information. I could not soak it in fast enough.
I learned all the fun stuff my camera knows how to do, it is now just a matter of me learning how to do it.
I came home at 10:30 jumping on the bed to wake Jeff up because I was so excited. I started talking and then felt like I had forgotten everything I had learned. I was talking a million miles a minute. I had gone walking yesterday at 4:30 am so my body started shutting down as I was talking.
I must say I have a new found appreciation for every good photo that I see. I have 17 more classes to go so hopefully I can learn something in that time.

Hugs & Kisses till Halloween!

I am so excited about sharing this project with ya'll. My friend here Nicole H, is teaching a class for R.S. on a advent calendar for Christmas with hugs and kisses until Christmas day. I loved the idea but could not wait until Christmas so I decided to make a Halloween advent calendar.

I made one for each of the girls and made them a name plaque to go at the top. This is taking the paper chain idea to a whole new level. You could do these a week before their birthday, you could do one in all white the week before their baptism, a countdown until a big trip, Valentines, ... oh the possibilities are endless.

You just wrap Hershey hugs and kisses in tulle/netting. This also gave me a great reason to use all my ribbon from the outlet. I wanted to get this posted so you would have time to make it for October and it would be a great project to do with your kids in case you are sitting around this weekend watching a lot of T.V.

When you go to the store pick up. These are for one strand.

2 yards of netting. (think outside of the black and orange Halloween box, I used pink, purple and orange with lots of lime green ribbon)
lots of different widths of ribbon. It looks great with real skinny to even 1" ribbon
In the wood shaped section at the craft store I found the name plaque for $.79
Paint & modge podge
Little Halloween do dads

I painted the name plate white and then printed the girls names on the computer. I used Mr. Giggles font (my favorite)
Then I laminated the name so the modge podge would not smear the ink. It makes it look really great too.
Then I modgepoded the name on. You will have to wipe the glue off the lamination.
I cut the tulle in half lengthwise. You will use this whole length and then have to add some more on by overlapping the piece.
Lay 2-3 kisses and hugs in the tulle and then tie with ribbon. Do this 31 one times or as many days as you are counting down.
Staple gun to the name plaque. I glued a doo-dad over the staple gun coming out the other side. Then tied them here and there on the ribbons.

hang them on the wall and let the countdown begin. (do you think I love this holiday or what)
If you make these with your family email me a photo, I know some of you will come up with even better ideas.

Here is the link to this page if you want to share this idea with your friend. Here are all the photos I took of the project.
Wrap 2 or three kisses and hugs in netting then tie with ribbon.

tie me up

thanks Allison M. for motivating me to get my ribbon sidebar up for everyone. I added some links of great places to buy ribbon. Some are good deals and some are good ribbon. Give the sites a chance even though it may be hard to navigate or looks kind of cheesy. The JKM site has incredible deals. If you know of any other ribbon resources put them in the comments and I will add them to the list.
I have one ebay store, but know there might be some others out there, so let me know if you have a great resource.
Keep in mind girls, if you are putting bows on your christmas cards start thinking now about ordering, sometimes the goodones are backordered.

What a great day.

Days like this make me wonder what I did to deserve all my blessings.

My friend Laura G, from Tennessee, is in town and she was nice enough (huge lifesaver) to take the metro to my house. We spent the day at my house and went to lunch at yummy Cosi and the girls had smores brought to their table. I have to say I have not really let myself miss Tennessee too much because I knew we had no choice to move, but today I really missed it. She asked me an amazing question.. "What do you miss most about TN and what do you love most about D.C.?" It really got me thinking. What I miss most is the little things you take advantage of like knowing someone's phone number or how to get somewhere. What I love most about here is always having some fun place to go or things to see. Thanks Laura it was a great day!


A great mail package from Michelle who is back to the blogging world and is on high speed! Yea. The post mark is September 15 so it must have gone slow boat. It came with a very smashed Idaho Spud (the best candy bar of all time) which I will say tastes the same as a not smashed one. Then she made the most incredible book. It has three dividers in it one for each of my girls with their name stamped on the divider. The book is to record all the sweet sayings of my girls. It is so timely because the other night I wrote down Caroline's prayer because it was so cute. Now I just need to find what scrap piece of paper I put that on. Thanks Michelle I am amazed at the detail inside the book and even the back. I love it!

We had a little craft day with the girls making a Halloween bracelet for Annie Kate. I had checked out all these books at the library. Yikes it is hard. It turned out cute and Caroline and Sally Jane threw beads all around.

Then Jeff came home early and we went for a long walk around the lakes, fed the fish wheat bagels off the pier (those fish will eat anything) played at the park came home to red beans and rice, YUM!

Got a message on the phone from a girl (Jennifer Markoff) in the ward who made our family dinner and wanted to bring it over. Oh my how nice! She packed it up and is bringing it tomorrow, don't tell my husband but I am faking it out that I made it. hee hee

Then we got a call from our home teacher that he wanted to see if he could come by tonight. He is so incredibly amazing. (he came in a suit!) He has been in Iraq for the past year and left 2 months after he was married and came home in the middle of his tour to see his daughter born. He has been home for 2 months. He can't be a day over 24. I could have talked to him all night about his experience and was so grateful for Annie Kate being able to hear it too.
Hands down the best Home Teaching lesson in my life. He brought different things to help us to get to know him better. A Gee telling us about his family all took karate together, a painting he painted when he was in high school, a family calendar to show us photos of his family, and to top it off a plate of brownies.
The lesson was on Fathers. He did such a wonderful job. He told us that ever since he could remember his dad always told him "I have so much to learn from you" He said it always made him want to be better and knew his father respected him. When he came home from Iraq his father looked at him and said " I still have so much to learn from you" He then challenged us to find one individual special things about each of our girls and constantly remind them of that wonderful quality about themselves. ( I was just sitting on the couch crying)
He then read a quote from the lesson.

“First of all, fathers are giving a name and a heritage to their children—clean and honorable. Fathers are for long, hard work, mostly their own kind of work; … for trying to give their children things [their] fathers never had. Fathers are for talking with, for encouraging, for putting arms around; for understanding mistakes, but not condoning them; for disciplining when needed, then loving all the more; for being strong and forceful, and for being tender and gentle.”

I still remember the home teacher my family had when I was a little girl and he taught me how to find the north star and used to bring us popcorn. This young man 11 years my younger taught Jeff and I how to better parents tonight and how to go above and beyond in serving others.
The blessings I had today were many.

the word on the street.

Ok to all of you ever so crafty friends what have you heard about this new product? It is called Cuttlebug. What I can figure is that it is not coming out until November. I think you are able to use your Sizzix machine with their die cuts (oh I hope!) but I am not quite sure.
Look how darling these shapes are! I have been wondering why no one has come up with this idea yet. If ya'll are thinking about your Christmas cards you might want to check out their Christmas die cuts that you could use on them.
I would love to know what anyone has heard about this machine or the die cuts.

goodbye old friend

For the past 5 years this camera has been with me almost every day.
I looked at my smugmug account and during the time I have had this camera I have downloaded 9634 photos.
But it is time for me to say goodbye to my old friend and hello to a new friend.


I love having zoom again

Meow

I bought these boots for Caroline and now she won't take them off. She was so sad that we wouldn't let her wear them to church on Sunday. They have become a part of her.

$4.00

These were my total score last year from Target. These were Christmas dresses that I found in January for $4.00 a dress. I took off the cream bow and added the orange ribbon and the embroidered the pumpkins on the front.
We will miss two Sunday's in October so I had the girls wear them today (may be a little early, but wanted them to get a good use out of them).
Since I got my embroidery machine I look at everything differently

all dried up

my hydrangea flowers have been cut and dried and fit great in my wall basket. These all were the same color, bright pink!
The purple-ish ones I cut when they were pink and then they dried purple. The green red ones I left on the plant to dry and I love they way they turned out. They will be great at Christmas time for some arrangement.
I have been walking the neighborhood with my gardening shears to cut some of my neighbors flowers that are just going to waste dying on their bushes, but I have not had the guts to just cut them and am too lazy to knock on their door.
But I am thrilled with how many my three plants produced this year.

My new library stash.

I am a library addict. I can never check out anything less than 10 books at a time. I always look for them on the computer and reserve them online, then run in and have them get them from the hold shelf and then run out.
Here was today's pick up. Can you believe it there was only one Civil War book (my latest obsession), I usually have at least 5. It is a Civil War craft book, my two worlds collide in such a beautiful way.

What is sad is that there are still 13 books being transferred to my library for me to pick up on Tuesday, I can't wait.
Click on photo to see a larger shot.

What a week of Mail!

I don't even know how to begin in thanking everyone for such a week of great mail. I have actually had kind of a hard week (may blog about that later) and so these all seemed so timely and so appreciated. How can I not just brag about everyone who sent me something!! So instead of just showing how lucky I have been I thought I would brag about everyone that sent me something, so you can get to know them too!Amie A. sent me this very nice thank you card. Amie is so on top of people's needs. I was so impressed this past week when she sent Jenny a toy for her son who was trying to learn how to tie his shoes. the amazing thing to me about this Amie has never met Jenny. This is just one example I have seen her do for others.


Allison M. sent me this pretty in pink package with things I love. I love smellies, pineapples and yes those sick and oh so healthy pink sno-balls, that just happen to come in pink. What a wonderful surprise and I love the cast-iron pineapple.
Allison is a very generous person and is a great person to ask about children's books, she has a great collection and gave us one of our favorite ones about 6 years ago. She always seemed to know the perfect children's book for any occasion. She does not have a blog.... YET, hint hint.

Anne C. sent me this awesome card (did you make it) with a boxed set of walks around D.C. this is such a great gift! Every card has a walk, with a little bit of history and it's own map, so you won't get lost. It is kind of like Garmin in a box. Anne is a great photographer, has had some amazing jobs and is a wonderful Aunt. check out Anne's blog here.

Sharon C. (jeff's mom) sent me this most awesome gift. There will be so many more posts about this one for sure. Herb (jeff's dad) made us the same wooden "Holiday House" he had growing up. We are going to be making them for enrichment meeting in Relief Society. It is a wooden house that you ice with that sticky frosting. It has holes drilled in it to put lights in. The great thing about is that you wash it off and then get ready to use it for the next season. We will decorate ours for Halloween on the first Monday of the month. (we have a special Family Home Evening lesson that night) It was so funny because they even sent the nails and Jeff said "my dad put these in so his son would not mess it up) Since I have been typing Jeff has put it together and it looks great and we are so excited!
A little about Sharon, she can make anything! She has made all of her daughters wedding dresses, she knits, is an excellent cook and she has a finger that points around the corner. (Annie Kate has the same finger)

Jenny C. sent this fun Halloween card with stickers and good mail labels. I love Halloween so thanks for getting me even more excited.
Jenny is one of the most organized people I know. She is not wasteful and takes very good care of what she has. I remember her telling me once that she has her kids clean up their own toys and then after they go to bed she organizes them so they don't lose their parts. I always love that she let her kids put it away instead of just doing it herself. Does that even make sense? Anyway I always loved that about her because she was a good example of taking good care of what she has. You can read her blog here.


Angie G. sent me a fun pink package. little does she know that Sweet Pea is my favorite scent from bath and body. I love it! Darling pink card! Yummy pink M&M's in the ever so cute container with matching pink and black ribbon. I love it. No worries the other pink M&M's were already gone by the time yours came.
Angie has a great blog with a recent incredible post! I hope she doesn't mind that I highlight this but it was incredible and I have not stopped thinking about it all week. She has incredible determination and has made some very life changing habits in her life. I commend her and appreciate her being brave enough to share with all of us. You can read her week of posts here and I encourage you if you are not a commenter normally to leave one if you take the time to read it. Thanks Angie!
this was an great gift from the Coppitts. George is the head of Jeff's department at Walter Reed. He did a fellowship at Vanderbilt so we knew them in Tennessee. They are wonderful people. Jennifer put together a Italian welcome basket. (she used pasta instead of bread so it wouldn't go bad) I guess it's contents are traditional in welcoming someone to their new home. Bread, oil & salt. I need to find more info on this.
Jennifer does this great Thanksgiving tradition with her kids the day before Thanksgiving where she tries to live back 'in the day" as much as possible. It was so fun to hear about I will have to get the details from her.


These were from an ebay auction I won this week. I love McDonald's Halloween toys. (which I don't think they make anymore) Well my friend Janine Barker had these set from about 12 years ago. They are chicken nuggets that you dress up in Halloween costumes. Every year I think I am going to buy a set, but don't because they are too rich for my blood. Well this year I did a search and found all of these, 5 more from another year that I didn't have and 3 McDonald's Halloween videos for $3.00! total score. The girls love bringing out the Halloween toys every year.

This was the pattern I got in the mail from King Pod. I am so excited about this. It even came with a wonderful recipe for banana bread.
If you have not ventured on her site take the time to do so, it is incredible. She does a mail order every few months that is incredible, watch for them, they sell out fast.

Whew... Thanks to everyone for being so generous and kind! and I hope it doesn't drive anyone crazy that I love posting my mail.

Tips and Tricks

Two of my friends are going to Disneyland in the next few days. If you have any advice or tricks of the trade, please click on their blogs and share with them.
Jill leaving tomorrow and Mindy leaving in 10 days.

Above photo was Annie Kate in 2004 at Disneyworld at the breakfast with the princess's in the castle (we had to get tickets 90 days in advance)


Papa with the army men finding out what life will be like for his son in the military


Caroline with Cinderella, which is who she is going to be for Halloween.

It was so fun looking back on our trip today. if you want to relive the memories too click here.

charm bracelets

I love charm bracelets. I have this one that tells so many stories of my life. I had it made in Tennessee from this company Family Strands (I don't think they are in business anymore)
I went to this lady's house and spent about three hours picking out every charm and bead. Each strand represents a state we had lived in. One for Utah the bottom strand, Louisiana the top strand and Tennessee the middle strand.

the Utah strand has...
a fish bead to remember when Jeff and I used to go fishing and camping up the canyon all the time, a wedding ring charm because we were married there, a snowflake charm to remember the snow, a small little silver bead with a "Y" on in for BYU, and a few beads that look like snow, a bead with eyes on it to remember when I worked for Dr. Carver (and fainted in the operating room)
the Louisiana strand has...
a mignon faget silver bean charm, a silver thimble because that is where I learned to sew, (thanks Mindy) a small silver bead with the letter T on it for Tulane, a handblown harliquien bead, a silver baby cup because Annie Kate was born there and the rest of the glass beads are all purple and green.
the Tennessee strand has..
an orange and white bead for UT, a glass bead with all fall colors to remember the leaves changing, a bunch of pink and green beads, a small silver bead with the letter V for Vanderbilt, silver cowboy boots for all the country stars I saw there (and I love country music) and a bunch of pink and green, I swear those are the state colors, a silver charm with a purse because to remind me of Pockets & Posies (my sweat shop on my kitchen table sewing hundreds of bags), then I need to add two silver baby charms for Caroline and Sally Jane.
The bracelet is finished off with a house charm to represent some of our homes. I guess I will need to get a D.C. one too. ( I actually already bought a silver lamp charm at Mt. Vernon)

I love when I wear this to church and Annie Kate will say "mom tell me the stories..."
the concept of the company is so brilliant. You usually make them for your family with one strand for each child representing all their stories. Here is a better photo of one of their bracelets.
Do you have any great resources for charm bracelets??
I added James Avery to my catalog list and they have great charms.

Welcome

My littlest brother is now a dad. Welcome Ryan Paige Buchanan. She was born yesterday but just got her name today. My embroidery machine has been waiting hours to find out the monogram, and is it not so beautiful! I love the letters together. I told Adam that I now have to start treating him like an adult now that he is a dad. I love you little guy... I mean big guy.
Adam and Lisa, I can't wait to meet her and we are so happy for you.
If you want to see cute photos of Ryan click here.

now back to stitching....

great catalogs

I started a list of links of great free catalogs that I get in the mail. So if you want some good mail check them out... they are free.
this above photo is from Anthropologie.
If you have any other great ones let me know, I am always on the hunt for good catalogs.

teaching.

Today was my Sunday to teach the Relief Society lesson. I was so nervous, which is actually kind of rare for me. It was on Temple work. It was the Sunday where the 16 -17 year old girls (Laurels) come in.. brilliant idea.
The above photo are my printed quotes from the lesson to help people get involved. I always paste a treat at the top of the papers for a before Thank You. It was perfect because I gave them to the Laurels and it really helped them get involved in the lesson.
I also use the gigantic lesson manual, which I love because you have so much room to write notes on the side.
I learn so much from getting in front of people and teaching a lesson. It is humbling, scary, educational and yet again humbling.

of note... Jeff was in a car accident today in Toronto coming back from Niagara Falls. A car in front of his had a sheet of metal that fell off their car and hit Jeff's windshield and shattered the glass all over him and his friend. Neither of them were hurt but calls from cell phones that saw the accident said they saw someone get their head cut off so there was quite a scene of police cars and ambulances. The amazing thing is the car never even stopped, kind of like a drop and run. It put quite a bump in their day and they missed the afternoon of conferences, but he said Niagara was amazing. Whew that was close!!

After Church Snack.

there is an art to find the perfect walk in the door from church snack. When I was in NM, we had a great one.
Herdez salsa mixed with cottage cheese and scoop and eat with Fritos scoops. Sounds kind of gross but oh soo good!

If you have one I would love to know. or am I the only one starving after church and looking for something to eat before I change my clothes.

Scherenschnitte

So I checked out this book in my last library stash called Scherenschnitte.
Scherenschnitte (pronounced Sharon-sh-net, if German or Sharon-sh-net-ah if Swiss) is the German word for the art of scissors snipping or paper cutting.

I have been obsessed with the fact that I could teach myself how to do silouette cuttings. So when I saw this book I was intrigued. It is a little different and has a different art form. If you think you might be interested here is a beginner kit. here is a link for another website to learn more.click here

I just am so intrigued by this art. So you can imagine my excitement when I go to Target tonight as see their whole Halloween theme has a Scherenschnitte feel. I got this awesome metal cut circle that looks just like scherenschnitte saying Happy Halloween. You will be able to see it in my upcoming Halloween decor smugmug album. (pulled out the Halloween decor already... love it!)
I can't stop thinking about this art... yikes not one more thing.

does anyone else think siloutte stying stuff is everywhere or is it just me?

Going to George's

Today me and the girls (Jeff is in Toronto for the week) went to Mt. Vernon for the 18th Century Craft fair. It was as dreamy as the poster and the perfect mix of things I love...overcast weather, crafters who are anything but crafty, children activities and history.
I found someone to do Sally Jane's silhouette. Which I was so thrilled about because I have one of the other girls. Here is a the lady who did it. I am so in love with silhouettes these days especially ones for the holidays.

Annie Kate was in the magic show, this is now her third fair and her third time getting up on stage.. what happened to our shy daughter?

We found someone selling rocks and I could not stop thinking of my grandpa who used to have a rock shop in his backyard. I was buying half inch rocks for $.50 a piece, he was probably laughing at me. The girls loved the rocks and I enjoyed telling AK about the rock shop in my grandpas back yard.

They had a whole army of soldiers who marched, shot their guns and blew off the canon. It was so wonderful. I wish Jeff could have been here he would have loved it. Without him being there I didn't venture on the boat ride down the Potomac, they were free for the day. We will do it next year. photos of the day.

oh and I can't wait to get my new camera, my zoom has been broken on my camera for weeks and it is drivng me crazy, so they are not the best photos and kind of hard to see.

Also if you feel the need to learn more about George Washington rent the movie "The Crossing" it is wonderful! Jeff and I just watched it last week. love that netflix!