CHRISTMAS LIST

Copying the girls at Eighteen25, I turned our summer to do list into a Christmas to do list.

WOOD and VINYL

 

While I was in SLC I went to the Wood Connection and picked up a couple of crafts to get me through the Fall that is nonexistent here in Louisiana (and I really wouldn't care about that, except I love Fall most of all - the smell in the air, the sweater weather, the football games where you stomp your feet because it's too cold to take off your gloves, etc.).  These are just 2x6 blocks in different heights with vinyl letters of differing heights splatted down.  I painted the wood white, put down the letters, stained it hickory, then sprayed it with a finishing spray. I also painted my boring bulletin board sparkly turquoise a week or so ago and now I LOVE it.  Makes me happy every day.

This took second place for easiest because it had two vinyls which required some lining up.  It is HUMONGOUS - 12"x24".  My friend Julie is in charge of Relief Society education in my old ward in Spokane.  They do fun stuff ( here we don't - although I am not complaining - I have plenty of unfinished projects to finish. Plus, complainers get put in charge and I say "no, thank you" to that!). Anyway, Julie had a left over and hooked me up.  I love it, too.

Doing stuff like this makes me feel better about not doing other stuff, like laundry and dishes.

SEWING

I've been working on this:

Sorry, not my story to tell, but I do get to sew it and it's been fun. I'll let you know when you can take a looksy!

And in relation to the above, I made this. I wish I could remember where I first saw it, but it's been a few years. I was going to make one for Joseph but didn't - since we were moving and all. Now it's for Emme DeGraff who is getting baptized on Sunday.

Here's the full length shot.

There's more things I've been sewing, I'll post about the others soon.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE SUMMERTIME WHEN ALL THE WORLD IS GREEN ...

Whenever I talk to my friend CiCi she asks me, "What are you looking forward to?" I've found making lists of things I am looking forward to can help me get through a rough patch (and honestly, the last 10 months have KICKED MY BUTTOCKS).

I saw this over at Eighteen25 earlier in the month and knew this crafty was a better way to display my summer plans, instead of a page in my planner ... haha!

("Planner" makes it sound like I PLAN stuff!)

I finally finished mine up. I didn't follow her craft exactly. For one thing, I DON'T HAVE A COSTCO (thanks for asking) to get fabulous prints but I had clearance paper from the WalMarche that matched the list topper so I just cut strips and glued them on. I wrote on the paper, not the glass.

And I'm planning on updating this in the "Fall" which comes around in January, with winter things to do, too.

So, that's a few of our summer plans (and yes, I even put on the stuff we've already done, as soon as I find my dry erase markers, I'll mark them off.

Because I do like to check things off. Me and Franklin Planners used to be REAL TIGHT.

Oh, and by way of warning, go to Eighteen25 at your own risk. They have TONS of cute stuff!

BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TO DO

Every year I try to make Valentine's Day t-shirts for my kids to wear. Here's what I just made tonight, at 11 p.m. . I had to miss E.R. to do them and so I am a little growly. And tired. Enough whine, on with the show:

Matthew's is the same as last year, but I made a new one. Really, do you think a WHITE shirt would last a year in this house? I should take a picture of last year's. It's bad. This is him with his preschool loot and Valentine's bag that he made.

(Disclaimer - the rest of the pictures are pretty bad because it is night and it is bad lighting and the flash makes everything just look white. The shirts are all bright white.)

I adore Rachel's. I've had the song "Hopelessly Devoted To You" by Olivia Newton John (Grease) in my head all day because of it. Maybe you will now, too. You are welcome.

And Miss Sari's. It has the double meaning because we sometimes call her "B" for Rebekah, her middle name, which she told me the other day that she hates. Try not having a middle name, then we can talk hating it. Plus Rebekah is a GREAT middle name. It goes PERFECTLY with the name Sari. She was 11 days late being born, believe me, Larry and I discussed IN GREAT DETAIL what her name should be. It's perfect. The end.

Daniel's. Because this is what 5th grade boys SHOULD think about love.

For the first time in 5 years, Ben participated! He selected this burning heart and it runs across the back of a vintage fit T-shirt shoulders, so it is nice and tight.

And now the piece de resistance! Folks, seriously, this picture does not do it justice. How cute is this white tiger cub growling with it's little toofers just growing in? Too cute. It is perfect for Joseph, the 1st grader, who also has his big teeth just growing in. Ben was instrumental in the design of Joseph's shirt and I think he did a really good job. Daniel just sat on the floor and laughed at Ben saying, "hugs and kisses" over and over again in his funny voice. I wish that I could upload a sound clip of that here. You would laugh too.

I made another shirt for Matthew, in a fit of insanity, because I felt bad that his shirt said the same thing as last year. Unfortunately, we were running low on ink in the printer at this point (and no new cartridges in sight) so the colors look pink instead of orange and red. Looks like he gets last year's model after all.

Why are the pictures just the shirts and not the kids? They are in bed. Where I should be. Where Larry is, after I told him to quit picking at me like a crow picks at roadkill with hot topics like, what are we doing with the tax return and when are we getting tickets and what if we have to change our Spring Break plans.

Sorry, Sweetie.

But really, I was at my limit. Still. He is a good man and I feel bad.

Anyway, I wanted to post this tonight because tomorrow I have a choir concert to post about AND Montana hair to write about too. Oh, and some stuff from the 80's and you know, my brain just gets too full and it has to go somewhere.

FRIENDLY VANDALISM

IF we were to be vandals, we would do this to our Ute-fan friend's yard:

And we would expect this in return:

And we would have gotten this:

IF you were to do this, these are the supplies you need:

Note - it is nice to use Professional Marking Paint, designed just for grass! How very thoughtful of someone to think of that.

Be sure to discard your empties and used in a public garbage can.

Again, all hypothetical.

SOCK ANIMAL TO THE RESCUE

Rachel had to make a mole for Chemistry class. (I have no idea why. She also had to name it and do a spoof on "mole" in the name. Again, I have no idea how this relates to Chemistry.)

Meet Cherry Chocolate Chip Molt (malt - get it?). Poor thing was separated from her family when they were all eaten by coyotes up at Walter's Farm. We are a little worried that in her fragile (fraj-ee-lay - name the movie?) state she might be taken advantage of by some hemole. We will miss her, as Rachel just found out that her teachers keep these for-ever.

SOCK AND GLOVE

Hello friends ...

I made these sock and glove animals this week while watching the debates. We have a zebra, a bear (or meerkat), piggie, and dog. I like the dog best, someday she will have a scarf and then I will update her.

CRAFTY IS AS CRAFTY DOES

I am desperately trying to finish up some promised crafties before we leave to Utard (or Yucktah - as I call it in the summer because it is sooo hot.)

Here is an apron for Rayleen. She has never had one! Poor girl. I loved the cheery red and white polka dots and I hope she does too. (Larry said it looks like Minnie Mouse. I hope that Rayleen doesn't think so.)

When Rachel models an apron, it looks a lot better! This is for Teilani.

I love this little fairy peeking out of her mushroom:

Here is her full body shot. The mushroom is also a purse. I am making a tree with a squirrel and then a tower with Rapunzel, too. The possibilities are endless. This was supposed to go to Jean but she is leaving on Monday and I haven't mailed it yet, so we will see...

I am so addicted to making these. I just LOVE these burpies and they are headed for a knocked up chick in Reno who could use a little cheering up and cooling off, I can only help in one of those areas. I love the owl fabric. It looks very Japanese to me!

Now if I can just get to the Post Office to mail all this (and more!) I will be in good shape!

SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY CELEBRATION

This year I wrapped miniature candy bars in these wrappers I got for free from Lettering Delights. It was super fast and easy. I am going to do it more often!

Answer to Prom

Rachel answered Clay’s prom invitation. It turned out to be a huge pain. We were planning to make little jello cupcakes and put in little cut-out laminated words saying yes through some cute poem we made up. But it didn’t work. The jello wouldn't set up hard enough (I guess I don't know how to make jello.) It took ALL NIGHT on Monday! Finally sometime after 11:00 p.m. I went to Albertsons and bought the jello pre-made and we stuck the laminate words in. Oh, and I ran out of laminate, because we had to rewrite the poem because they don't make blue jello in the pre-packaged kind so I had to peel the excess off the roll and stick it together myself. Rachel and Ben drove over to Clayton's house before 6 a.m. and dropped it off on his front porch so he would see it on the way to his car. I hear that he liked it.

MY VERY CREATIVE SISTER

My sister, Teilani made this mask for her son Logan to ask a girl in his school to their masquerade Prom.

Logan scrambled the letters in his name. It took this cute girl two days to figure out the name.

WHAT I MADE FOR MY PARENTS FOR CHRISTMAS

What do you get your parents for Christmas? They are running out of wall space in their house. I can get my mom another frog thingy and my dad another book gift card, a hat, or a tie.
Yawn.

I got this idea from my Family Fun magazine, but I had to adjust it to work for our large family (they had like one uncle and one kid - never going to work for us) and for my interest level, so basically, other than the name and that it is a board game it is not at all the same. I am pretty proud of it. It was a lot of work, but my parents report that they LOVE it. You can look it up on line, or read below ...

How you play: The object is to go around the board and answer the questions properly. When you answer a question right, you get a treasure (which represent real treasures). When you have collected all eight treasures in your treasure box, you can then head for home. Most of the squares are draw a card, but there are also "Go to your room and lose a turn" and "Swipe another person's treasure".

This is basically how I made it, in case you are wondering (and I know you are).

First, I made a template in Power Point for the cards. I used Postcard paper from Kodak and then I put two cards on each postcard. I made one slide with the background that is used for all the cards and it is light blue and says "Memory ? Lane" in dark red with a dark green border. Be sure that you have them all centered for each card. Print trial runs until you are sure. When I was making the cards, I sent all the paper through the printer and did the back of all the cards first, then I printed the fronts.


Using the border of the back of the card as a template, I then made as many slides as I needed to, to make all the cards I needed. I have three sections - Name The Baby (dark red ink - baby pictures from newest to my parent's parents. I made them all black and white to make it harder - and it really did!), Family Trivia (dark blue ink - "What misdemeanor crime did Uncle Jon frequently commit his freshman year at BYU?" or "What was the airspeed velocity of Aunt Teilani when Grandpa booted her in the heiny out the trailer door?" or "Give a plausible theory for what you think happened the Grandma's polyester blue plaid pants." These are family legends and mysteries that always seem to come up and some that maybe everyone doesn't know - like how old Uncle Jason was when he drove for the first time.) and Do You Know Your Neighbor (dark green ink - "What is a favorite fiction book read by the person on your right?" or left, just a bunch of questions that don't have a right or wrong answer and will change depending on who is playing and where they are sitting.)

Making the cards was absolutely my favorite part! It took FOREVER but I tried to be sure every single one was centered and had the correct fonts and colors so you know what kind of card you have by the color. It took a while to get all the pictures perfect, too. But I think it was worth it. You don't draw your own card, your neighbor does and reads it to you. On Name That Baby cards, the person holding the card covers the name while you look at it. Also, the questions aren't necessarily about the picture, it might say, "Tell a story about this person" or "Who are these people and why do they matter to us?"

When all the cards were printed, BEFORE I cut them, I sent them all through my Xyron to laminate them and THEN I cut them along the perforations and then in the middle again (use a paper cutter for sure!).

Next, I made the Treasure Chests. I used Altoid tins and they were perfect. First, I ran the paper through my Xyron on sticky stuff and then I adhesed it to the tins. I covered it with clear contact paper and then I used colored duct tape to wrap around the sides. (I Xyroned everything sticky that I could.) The objects on the Treasure Chests coordinate with the game piece you use. I bought things that I could buy two of and I hot glued one to the top of the box, and one to a small wooden spool to make a game piece.

These are the "treasures". Yes, they are the little wooden thingies painted by 6 year olds in Indonesia that cost 25 cents each at Michaels. Each treasure represents a real treasure in our lives - an angel for spirituality, a cabin for home, a carrot for health, a dinosaur for creativity, a heart for love, a sailboat for prosperity, a sunglasses for fun, and a watermelon for happiness.

For the actual game, I took a Candy Land game that I bought new and covered the box with paper ran through the Xyron, put the title on and covered it all with contact paper, sealed with colored duct tape. I did the top and bottom boxes and I recommend peeling off as much of the original paper as you can.

Now, the game board. AUCK!!! It just kills me because it isn't perfect. I wasn't thinking, and Family Fun said to use 2 x 4 inch labels. So, that is the size of the template that I made. Once I got into it, I realized that my labels had rounded corners and they found straight edge ones. Plan B. I just printed them all out on cardstock and ran them through the sticky Xyron. I wish that I would have measured the sides and figured out what size square would have fit perfectly. But, it is okay. I guess. I try not to look at it too long. I made 21 squares that say "pick a card". The four corners say "Swipe your neighbors treasure". Two that say, "Sent to your room, miss a turn" and three that say, "Take a treasure from the pile". There is, of course, a discard pile, and a playing pile spaces. I printed a picture I found on line of a homey home and made that home. (No pictures of my parent's current house, it seems.)

I covered the board with scrapbook paper I sent through the sticky Xyron. Then I put on the squares and ... yep, you guess it, covered it all with clear contact paper, and then sealed the edges with colored duct tape.

Word on the street is that this game was a big success on Christmas Day. My parents loved it! I just love it when I am lucky enough to give a gift that is perfect!

If you get crazy and want to do this here are some tips, start early asking for pictures, I only had one sibling send me pictures of them and their kids and spouses as babies (one opted out all together) and so I had to scan from my photo albums. I don't know if it would have made a difference to start earlier. Also, when I asked for funny stories, only one sibling responded AGAIN (seeing a pattern here) so, I was kind of left to what I knew about. Again, I don't know if time would have made a difference. Start jotting down funny anecdotes as you go. And I did get a CD of pictures from my dad, which helped a lot.