These Hands

These hands held me when I was just a newborn baby and played with me in my playpen. These hands built our house and dressers and little rocking chairs and my built-in room. These hands baptized and confirmed me. These hands gave wonderful hugs and strong handshakes. These hands operated the controls of airplanes both small and very large. These hands took care of the finances at home, at the bank, and at the Church. These hands took such good care of our yard and grew an amazing vegetable garden. These hands belong to my dear father who I love so much. Thinking about my Dad today.

Zentangle

My new discovery and obsession! We made some of these stamped and doodled cards in my last ATC class and one of the ladies told me it looked like Zentangle, which I had never heard of. So I came home from class and looked it up on the internet. Wow! It's a whole new art form that is really fun!

Zentangle is the art of creating beautiful images with repetitive patterns and it is very relaxing while increasing focus and creativity. There are a whole group of people "out there" who are trained teachers and they do workshops showing how to make all kinds of beautiful patterns. And I just thought it was doodling! Little did I know what a great art form this is! There are several books on the subject, a couple of which I bought, and they are incredible! These ATC cards below are the samples I did for the class. The card at the top is called a tile- 3 1/2" square, which they make in their classes. Lots of fun!

Latest Creations

These are some of the lastest cards and ATC's I have made for Stamp Club and the class I teach.

New Kitchen!

Out with the old kitchen, and in with the new! After 31 years in our house, it was time to get a new and improved kitchen. The cabinets were falling apart. If you opened a drawer too far, you'd better watch out because it might fall on your toes! And the icky old kitchen carpeting (not a smart thing to put in a kitchen!) just had to go.

On Saturday, April 19th, Danny, Steven, Jacob, and Greg all showed up to help us with the demolition. Even little Mason and Gavin were helping to haul stuff out to the truck. Other than Jacob almost being electricuted, it all went well! We were just going to let our contractor, Dave Ridd who's my second cousin, do the demolition, but our boys wanted to come and do it. We were very grateful for that because it saved us a lot of money.

Goodbye to the old cabinets!

Our new kitchen only took two weeks to finish, which is really good. We were told it usually takes three or four weeks. Dave and his workers did a really great job. We ate a lot of frozen, microwavable food (yuck!) in our little make-shift kitchen downstairs and went out to dinner several times. We're very glad that it is finished.

We really love our new kitchen!

Christmas Quilts

I did it!
I finished five pieced quilts for my kids and their spouses for Christmas that I had started at the beginning of the year! They are the first pieced quilts that I had ever made and it was very fun! I can't believe all the hours and hours I put into those things, but I sure am hooked on making them now!
For next Christmas, I want to make I Spy quilts for each of my six grandchildren. That sounds like such a fun project and I've already started collecting different, fun fabrics for them.
So many fun things to do and so little time!

Amy and Greg

Danny and Courtney

Steven and Katheryn

Jacob and Mary

Julie and Adam

I sewed lables on the back of each of them.

Halloween Cuties

All of our grandkids except Sammy came over on Saturday night in their great costumes. Every year Mason and Gavin ring the doorbell and I come to the door and try to give them candy, but they don't have their bags. I ask them about that and they say "grandma" and then I know it's them. They get me every year! ( It doesn't help that they are always wearing masks!)
I sure love all my grandkids!
Mason and Gavin, the Grim Reaper and scarey creature with lighted eyes!

Logan the Jedi knight.

Cason the bear.

And sweet little Emma, our ballerina!

My Dad and Me, Part 2

I feel very lucky that I was the firstborn of my family. I got to have my mom and dad all to myself for the first 17 months of my life! Then sisters kept coming every 17 months for several years. These are all the photos that I have of my Dad and me when I was young.

These photos were all printed from slides which my sister Becky was so nice to have made onto discs for us.

Don't I have a good-looking Dad?!

What a nice Dad to play with me in my crib!

This was at the Great Salt Lake.

I know I look like a little ghost! And this is my sister Laurie, who was lucky enough to be born with some color in her skin!

"Helping" my Dad shine his shoes. That kitchen table, which we had for many years, brings back lots of memories.

I sure love my Dad. He was just the greatest!