Tying on the Apron Strings

I was working on a quilt all day on Saturday. As much as I love making quilts, they just take forever to be completed! I was in desperate need to create a small project that could be finished quickly. I remembered an apron tutorial I found online here.

After one trip to the fabric store, two Disney movies, three seams picked out, four improvisations, five pin pricks, six separate fabrics and seven hours of working, I finally had my girlie-girl apron! It really was fun to make and turned out fantastic!

Check out all the colors in this apron!

I just LOVE all the ruffles! I feel so feminine and like a little girl when I wear this apron. I don't think I will wear this when baking, but I could probably wear this every day! It's one of those pieces that makes me happy by just wearing it!

Since I am on the subject of aprons, I want to share another apron I made a few months ago for a friend's birthday. This next apron was super easy to make. The hardest part was threading the ribbon through the holes.

This is me modeling the apron before mailing it to my friend.

This is the picture my friend sent to me with a big "I love this!" Check out those pretty details!

I love, love, love sewing and turning an idea into a beautiful piece of artwork!

My Apple Dumpling Gang

We had a family reunion last month where, for the first time in a while, all of my immediate family was together.

My parents with my brothers and myself

My parents with my oldest brother and his family

My parents with my second brother and his family

Since all nine of my nieces and nephews were together, I couldn't pass up the chance to take a picture with them. 

I love these kids!

Summer Craziness

That is my excuse for not updating my blog in the last month. I had a few crazy weeks full of everything from weddings to family visits to a complete computer overhaul... Oh and a few trips here and there. So, you can see that I was probably busier than the bumblebees around our lavender plant! As busy as I was, it was a grand summer filled with a lot of memories and fun. I haven't loaded all of my pictures onto my computer yet, so hopefully I'll have some good ones up in the next few days. We'll see how this weekend goes since this weekend is packed as well. Speaking of packed, (Honestly, there was no planned transition there.) I'm moving about six miles up the freeway next week. I am hoping this weekend will let me get some packing done between visiting with out of town friends, a jewelry show and a wedding reception. Wish me luck!

To tide you over, here are a few pictures from my trip to Seaside, OR.

Lessons in Baking

If you have paid attention to my blog at all, you know that I love L-O-V-E love baking! This summer has been no exception in my baking, although I've had to pick and choose when I bake due to the heat of summer. Here are a few things I have learned in my experiments and pictures of why I learned these lessons.

1) Be sure to check the oven before preheating.

So much for the left over corn bread!

2) Always measure butter correctly.

I'll just say that these "cookies" were not presentable for the party that night. I ended up making another batch with the correct amount of butter.

3) There are baking times for a reason!

These are my experimental peanut butter & chocolate brownies that I took out of the oven too early, causing the middle to be gooey, gooey, gooey.

4) Chocolate Sauce makes desserts look pretty.

Now, doesn't that look pretty? It certainly was before I ate it! Yum!

While I was visiting with my grandpa tonight, I learned that his mother loved to bake. I'm beginning to think baking is in my blood! Or it could have something to do with the name she and I share. Perhaps her love of baking was passed to me when I received her name! Regardless of where my love of baking came from, I am determined to embrace and develop my relationship with baking!

Star Light, Star Bright

Here are just a few pictures from the Starlight Parade!

Our ticket into the VIP seating

Our reserved seating!

Aren't these neat hats? Pixie was very reluctant to put this on. She only did to humor me.

Noodle cradling all our glowing flowers.

Picture of a Picture-taker (Pixie); a family classic!

The VW shirts were my favorite costume!

Blue one!

The Alaska Airlines float which my sister-in-law was aboard

My sister-in-law greeting people

A set of glowing Drum Majors

A parade is complete when there are at least four stormtroopers around.

The wonderful signal to the end of the parade: the clean-up crew!

Like I said, these are just a few pictures from that parade! We had a lot of fun. My nieces and I are determined to be in the Costume 5K Run next year that starts off the parade. They keep thinking of costumes for us to wear!

Stay tuned for more pictures from the wonderful month of June!

Citizen of Busytown

I seem to be averaging one post a month this year. I'll have to change that soon.

This month has been a whirlwind of weekend activities! All my weekends have had some kind of event. The first Saturday, I attended the Starlight Parade with my nieces and nephew. What an amazing time we had! Because of their mom, we had the opportunity to sit in reserved seating for the parade. The Starlight Parade is perhaps my all-time favorite parade because all the floats have lights. Even the bands had glow sticks on their uniforms and even on some instruments! We took a lot of pictures- practically every float except of the ones we missed as we ran down the street to keep listening to a band- and shared a lot of laughter!

The second Saturday was the Grand Floral Parade, and I was privileged (once again thanks to my sister-in-law) to sit in the Colosseum for the parade. Here's a fact I bet you didn't know. The Portland Grand Floral Parade is one of the only parades in the world to go through a building! It was a wonderful parade and a beautiful day. This year the Rose Festival was lucky to have such great weather for both big parades!

Last Friday was the bridal shower I threw for a good friend of mine. The shower was quite a success I am happy to report! The food was worth the lack of sleep for making it! However, I must say that my favorite part of the food display was the amazing center piece. The shower's theme was Kitchen and Recipes. For the center piece, I purchased a small colander and a bunch of chrysanthemums. We placed a bowl of water underneath the overturned colander and poked the flowers through the holes! I was so delighted that it turned out so beautifully. As the shower was wrapping up, the bride remarked to me that it was everything she had wanted for her shower! Success!!

This last Saturday held a wonderful event. I treated my niece, Bookworm, to a Portland Mormon Choir & Orchestra concert where the guest artist was none other than Jenny Oaks Baker! It was probably one of the best concerts I have ever attended! The music was so beautiful and inspiring that I can hardly wait to resume band in the Fall. I could feel the Spirit very strongly as Ms. Baker poured her testimony of Jesus Christ into her music. What struck me the most about her playing was how much she moved her body while playing. She conveyed emotions and dynamics with her movements. It was quite a sight and a great experience. Bookworm and I shared some great experiences that I will expound upon more when I post the pictures from that night.

This weekend holds the Regional Youth Dance Festival that two of my nieces are participating in. I've been hearing about this event for a while and am very excited to see the fruits of the youth's hard work. This week also holds the restart of my business. Hopefully, I can see the fruit of my labor as I get this business rolling.

That's all for now.

Small Accomplishments

This week brought the beginning to a grand (and grueling) adventure. I started training for my first 5K run. Crazy, I know. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to do this. Oh yeah... I wanted to be healthier and more fit. I am using a training schedule my sister-in-law suggested to me that trains a non-runner (me) to run a 5K in about nine weeks. I downloaded a podcast to my iPod that guides me as I run. 


First, I must say that the Northwest has greeted my return with open, wet arms. It rained 26 of the 30 days in April, which for those of you not in the Northwest is a new rain record. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love the rain more than practically everyone. Yet, I am not quite ready to go running in the rain. I suppose that would cut the need for a shower afterwards! I had to find a break in the weather this week to fit in my run.


Today was my second run for the week, and I feel a small sense of accomplishment. I finished the workout- start to finish without stopping! I can't tell you how grand that makes me feel. It gives me a sense that I will be ready on time for the 5K if I keep going!!! That's the key. Two days ago on my first run, I could only do five of the eight 60-second runs. Then today, I did all eight!! I really had to push myself on the last one, but I did it! This is teaching me that I can do anything as long as I remember to push myself to the end. That's the key- pushing through the hard parts to reach the end.


Paka


*Pictures of my journey West still to come!*