Rose Jar #2

Last year I made a Rose Jar from some beautiful flowers from Trent, based on Angela's idea found here and here.  Well, I had the opportunity to make another one, thanks to some random Friday flowers from my husband I found in my car after a long day this tax season.  Sadly, I don't have a picture of them alive and gorgeous, but it was a sweet bouquet of small, pale pink roses along with some kind of tiny bright purple flowers, in a glass vase with some pink tulle tied around it.   He was headed out of town for a youth retreat that weekend and I was headed home to Fredericksburg, so I tucked them in my cupholder for the drive and admired them in the hall bathroom of my parents' house, then carefully toted them back home.   Meanwhile I stole a small mason jar from my mom since I was already planning to make another rose jar out of this sweet gift from Trent.

I chose a small jar this time because my first rose jar is lookin' a lil empty now that the flowers have settled in.  I know it wasn't quite full to begin with since our dog ate some of my roses, but they have settled down even more:

I thought of transferring them to a smaller jar, or adding these roses to the top of my first one, but opted to leave them alone.

Anyway, back to Rose Jar #2.  I saved the pink tulle from the original vase and dried the flowers in my craft room...

Do you like my cowboy boot fan chain pull?  Thanks.  It came with the house.  

TA-DA! 

I love my husband and the random flowers he gives me.  :-)

Our Youth Love Each Other

It's probably pretty evident from this blog and our facebooks that Trent and I love our youth.  Duuuh.  But you know what is really, really cool?  Our youth love each other.

We always have supper before youth group on Wednesdays, which we usually eat in the Fireside Room right outside the church kitchen.  The normal furniture set up in this room is a big round table, a coffee table surrounded by two sofas and two arm chairs, and a little card table.  It's probably smaller than a card table actually.  This past Wednesday, I walked out of the kitchen with my Santa Fe Stew and saw that four people had already claimed the little table so I went over to the big table.  Then I looked over a bit later and realized that a few more had pulled up chairs to the little table.  This thing barely has enough room for four people, much less six!  Especially when Michael pulls up one of the ginormo arm chairs.  Pretty sure BB was eating from his lap.  At the time, I thought it was just cute and funny that they were all crammed around this small table, so I snapped a quick pic.

But later I got to thinking about how this shows how much they like each other.   And I also thought about how cool it is that this little table doesn't see the same people sitting at it each week.  It's not like these six are a pack that nobody can crack and that is their table.  Nah, we have a different configuration of groups each week during supper, at the little table, the big table, the sofas, the coffee table.  Of course the youth have those in the group that they know better, are closer to, etc, but overall, other than a few spats that occasionally and inevitably rise and fall among teenagers, everyone really, really likes each other.

How many groups of 15-25 teenagers are able to say that?  Hopefully a lot, because it sure is a lot of fun this way.

Second Annual Baby Quilt For Youth Auction

Last year I sewed a baby quilt for the youth auction fundraiser.  Well, I've decided to make it a tradition.  Or if not a tradition, I at least did it this year again too.

For last year's blanket and the baby blanket I made for our nephew Asher, I used quilt kits which contain the right amount of already matched fabrics for you to then cut out and piece together, including the backing. Well, I went to Joann's with the same plan this year, but those kits were nowhere to be found. I was informed that they no longer carried them. Whop whop. So, I opted for another method of cheating, which saved me even more cutting than those packages would: a package of already matched and cut out squares. 

 

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!  So much fun and so easy.  Just have to spread them out, arrange them, and get to sewing!  The disadvantage is that the squares don't come with a backing, so I purchased some yellow flannel to use for that.  I also wanted some kind of border around the squares to close them in and also to make the whole thing a bit bigger, so I used the flannel for that as well.

Here is the top, minus the border: 

I was AMAZED at how well all my corners matched up.  There are only two that are less than desirable and all the others are either perfect or very close.  Another plus to having someone else cut out your squares: you know they are all actually the same size!

There ended my cheating ability and I was faced with actually cutting and measuring the border.  Dun dun dun.   

See you think I'm a real seamstress but really I only know how to make rectangles and squares and I prefer if someone else does all the measuring and cutting for me...   I intend to someday invest in a rotary cutter and mat and maybe then I will be better at that part.   But, never fear, my measuring and cutting of the border went just fine and the top turned out cuuuute.

I had fun working with these fabrics that are super cute and springy but weren't the typical girly pink and purple or boyish bugs and dinosaurs or something.

I had enough yellow flannel left to more than cover the back, but not so much that I needed to strategically measure and cut it in order to salvage the remainder.  So I just laid the quilt top on the flannel with one edge lined up, pinned, sewed, and chopped off the excess!  Then I turned it right side out through the hole I left and ta-da!

Like last year, I ended up doing the hand stitching part in the youth room. I kind of like doing that, since this blanket ultimately benefits the youth.  I said a little prayer for whoever buys it at the auction and whatever little child will be kept warm and comfy with it.

 

 And there you have it! 

Want a sneak peek of what my next sewing project will be?  It's another baby blanket, but this one is very, very special.  I don't think I have mentioned it here yet, but Trent and I have a niece on the way!  Trent's sister, K'Lee, and our bro-in-law, James, are expecting the birth of their daughter in August.  Asher Boy will have a little sister!

Her baby blanket is gonna be purty.  Stay tuned...  :-)

Do Yo Chain Hang Low?

As I was typing the title to this post, I was humming a melody.  Trent, oblivious to what I was typing, began to sing the words, but, much to my amusement, he did not sing the traditional "Do your ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro?" No, he started singing the more current pop version that hijacked the same melody:

Do yo chain hang low

Do it wobble to the flo'

Do it shine in the light

Is it platinum is it gold?

He did not actually know all those words, only "Do yo chain hang low...Is it platinum is it gold?"  Nevertheless, we be gangsta up in hee-uh!

Anyway.  We are dorks.  I know.  Moving on.

So I made a paper chain to count down to the end of tax season.  It started at the beginning of February and went through the April 17 tax deadline, was color coded for months, weekdays, weekends and the deadlines themselves.  Abby helped me make it when she visited in January.  I updated once before on the progress of it getting shorter as I tore off a link each day, but I thought I'd finish it off.

Here's how it started out:

Here's how it looked in my previous update, a few days before the March 15th deadline:

Once I actually got into the April part of it, I realized that I was getting way behind on tearing off links and even noticing where I was on the chain because the chain was at home and I was at the office.  All. The. Time.  I figured it would be a more fun and meaningful reminder of the upcoming deadline day (and ensuing day off!) if I moved it to my cube at the office.  So I did:

At this point in the chain, my cube neighbor, Keith, commented that one of his Baylor accounting classmates also made a paper countdown chain this tax season, "but hers started like the first of February."  Um, he must think I'm a paper chain amateur or something.  I quickly informed him that mine did originally start at the beginning of February, had been color coded for multiple variables, etc.  He gave me his "Never a dull moment in your life" look, which happens quite often, then went back to his cube.  Don't be underestimatin' my mad paper chain skillz!

In conclusion, we made it to the deadline:

I let that little lonely link stay pinned there for a couple days as a reminder of "Yo yo yo, we did it!" then got over it and tossed him too, just like all the others.

Mission accomplished.  Here ends me trying to be gangsta.  Whew...

I'm Not Pinterested

You may have thought that by now I would have jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon, since I'm a somewhat crafty creature.  Well, you would be mistaken.

 

My disclaimer before I continue: I am sufficiently informed about Pinterest since both Steph and Abby have each given me a tour via their log-ins. I think Pinterest is a pretty cool idea.  I know there are people out there who love it and actually create stuff based on ideas from it.   I'm sure there are people who are hopelessly addicted and people who use it occasionally for new ideas or to kill some time browsing.  Wherever you fall on the spectrum, I do not judge you at all.  If you love Pinterest, awesome.  

But...

Reasons I am not on Pinterest and don't intend to be any time soon, if ever:

1. I am already too addicted to my phone because of Facebook and blogs I follow, I do not need another reason to have my face glued to its screen.  Despite my lack of interest in it at the moment, I fear that if I did get into it, I might end up like this...

2. If I pinned fashion items on Pinterest, I for sure don't have time or money or style or body type to recreate such outfits.

3. If I pinned crafty items, I would be newly overwhelmed with my already existing sense of "I don't have time for crafting, whaaaaaa!" and just feel sad about all the beautiful things I could pin but couldn't actually make.

4. If I pinned home decorating ideas...um, have you seen our house?  It's a hodge podge of homemade or hand-me-down furniture and decor mixed with old paint, older wallpaper, a little mess, a lot of "character" and we. love. it. that. way. 

5. It simply overwhelms me.  It is endless, full to the brim.  I wouldn't know where to begin and I might not know where to stop, therefore I don't want to jump in at all.

6. Overall, I don't want to add thoughts of "I should make that craft", "I should wear that outfit", "I should paint our walls that color", "I should do my hair that cool way" when in reality my current level of craftiness is fine, my wardrobe isn't spectacular but it's fine, our walls are fine and my hair does absolutely nothing but be straight and that's FINE.   Just recently, one of my youth girls posted this picture on Facebook along with the status "Me trying to have cute nails like the girls on Pinterest..."

There's enough opportunity for comparison in this world. I don't really want more...

So, in conclusion, to answer the question:

Nope.  I'm not.