My New Favorite Thing

This right here is my new favorite thing and it is so easy.  I really like having a candle lit throughout the day and hated throwing away the empty jars until I thought up a way to re-purpose them. My first try I boiled the mostly empty glass on the stove but it was such a pain to get the wax out of the pot afterwards that I gave that up.  Now I boil some water and then rinse the glass clean with the water by taking it all outside and pouring the boiling water into the glass, then draining the water/wax mixture into the ground.  It only takes a couple pours to have a clean container. Now I have some nice little decorations for our garage living.

Oh, Portland...

I was trying to find tickets to the Moth radio show in Portland and was sad to find that the show coming to Portland has been moved back to February.  While I was looking for Moth dates I ran across the website for Portland Center for Performing Arts.  I've been wanting to go to a play or symphony concert for a while and was looking at the different suggestions when I ran across this gem: "The Most Wonderful Season, performed by Portland Gay Men's Chorus". All I could do was laugh and be reminded of another gem.  Thank you, IT Crowd.

Stockings a la Katelyn

Katelyn posted on her blog the stockings she made for Christmas so of course I had to do it too! It was so fun, quick and easy that I'm sad I can't make millions of them all the time. Turns out there is such a thing as too many Christmas stockings.  But with the extra material I'm going to make some baby stockings for my little Sunbeams.  I love them so much!! (The stockings, all though the Sunbeams are fun too.)  Felipe and I went to Goodwill on Friday and picked out two sweaters that we liked (I wish I had seen his first-but I am loyal to the one I picked) and let me tell you, Goodwill is getting pretty high and mighty.  What I wouldn't give for a little DI right now, with their $3 sweater vests.

Felipe's is on the left and mine is on the right.
 You can't really see it, but his sweater has great buttons!

Turn the sweaters inside out and trace the pattern you want-I loosely followed the little generic stocking.
I didn't turn Felipe's inside out because we wanted to use the buttons, so I just drew the black lines bigger than I would have and cut inside of them so the lines wouldn't show.

After cutting and sewing, we have the final project! I just used some extra  material to make the loops at the top.  Mine has a bit of a Seuss-y look at the bottom but it endears it to me. Loved this quick and fun project!

Sometimes Things Are Hard

Sometimes things are hard, and that's all there is to it. Life is hard. Sometimes I tell Heavenly Father that this is harder than I though it would be when I signed up for a body. But, of course it is worth it. It is always worth it.  I was reading my scriptures yesterday in 3 Nephi 22 and decided to make a cheat sheet of inspirational scriptures because there are some good ones in that chapter.  I rounded it out with some lines from my Patriarchal blessing and will list the scriptures here:

"For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee in" (Let me point out that I feel in no way forsaken, I just loved the idea of being gathered in with great mercies).

"With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee."

"For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee" (I love that the seemingly impossible may happen, but it would be even more impossible for his kindness to depart.  Much like the scripture about the mother maybe forgetting her sucking child, but God never will forget us).

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14-this scripture has been on reply in my mind over the last few days because I have so needed the feeling of peace).

"For I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day" (Alma 36).

Spooky Spider Whoopie Pies

I absolutely adore Becky and her kids.  Love them! Before moving to Oregon I'd see them occasionally and think Becky was fun and her kids overwhelming, and then just move on to the next thing, but this time around I've had a lot of downtime and Becky has been really busy getting her little family ready for their move to California (so sad) so I feel like I've been able to get to know them a lot better. Becky asked me to watch her two youngest, Solomon and Elijah, yesterday while she went to lunch with some friends, and when she got back I was having too much fun to go home so we made Spooky Spider Whoopie Pies instead! Elijah was napping but we did get a lot of help from Solomon (albeit a lot of batter ended up on the ground and in his stomach).  I wish I had taken more pictures! But it was hard enough taking the few I did on my phone.

I like the one with the three of us but they're still admittedly not great shots. I asked Becky yesterday what her kids full names were and Solomon's is really long, with two middle names.  I commented to Solomon that he had a really long name and he paused and though about it for a minute and said "Sol-o-mon.  Yeah, that is a really long name!" I guess he hadn't really been paying attention to my conversation with his mom.  He is so cute! I'm really sad to see them go, although I am the one who inadvertently taught Elijah how to climb out of his crib...so maybe the feeling isn't too mutual. Love you guys!