your opinion please...

Would you hang one of these prints in your home or give it as a gift to someone who might? Which one is your favorite? Do you like the colors? Are they too sassy? Am I trying too hard? Are they just plain dumb? Please, oh, please, my Etsy shop (to be opened some time this century) depends on your feeback.

The sizes I have above are 8 x 10 and 8 x 8. I've been thinking about putting these on dish towells or greeting cards...would that be of interest to any one, do you think?

Merry Christmas to C & C!

Our washer and dryer were supposed to arrive tomorrow. But, I got a call from LG yesterday letting me know that the model we ordered from Home Depot is no longer available. Don't worry, though--they just upgraded us to an AMAZING model with more capacity and steam drying and sanitizing wash settings and lots of other things that I'm sure I'll have to find a reason to use...we'll get the set on the 23rd. How cool is that?! Thanks to this upgrade and a lovely contribution from some very generous elves, we are doing our wash in serious style! Maybe I'll enjoy doing it now...but I'm not gonna hold my breath.


p.s. I will post some photos of the new house soon!

from my heart, with my hands

This past weekend we celebrated Sarah Grace's birthday.

I knew she wanted a ball...and I knew any old ball wouldn't do--it needed to be special. So I crocheted one, knowing that it's easier to give something from your heart that you build with your hands. But I couldn't stop with the ball...so I went to my mom for help, and soon I had this doll sewn up. Isn't she sweet?

Growing up, my birthdays and Christmas mornings were filled with handmade gifts...mostly clothes. Some for me, some for my dolls...some outfits even came in my size AND a mini size so I could match with my doll. My mom secretly slaved away for months, I'm sure. She made a comment to me about how I must have had really nice friends who didn't make fun of me for having homemade clothes instead of the ones from the catalog. The truth is, I must have had a really nice mom to put in all that time and effort for her little girl.

a quilt for baby Sadie & a Chinese proverb

A bird

doesn't sing

because

it has

an answer

it sings

because

it has

a song

People I Love (the first of a series)

Jenny is one of my lifelong favorite friends. I tell you about her now, because this week she made me laugh out loud. And I have to share it with you. I just have to. So, read this if you want to laugh out loud, too. And then, if you're interested, you can read about why I love Jenny below...

Jenny and I did silly things growing up--like we made up a recipe to put in our ward cookbook. We named it "Me Oh My What a Perfect Pie." I truly hope no one EVER tried it because it was far from perfect.

One time we noticed one of our neighbors didn't have house numbers--so we decided to use our artistic abilities, cardboard, and markers, and made one for them. We hung it up one day and the next day it was gone...I guess they didn't appreciate our art as much as we thought they would.

One Spring when we were in college, we took a spur-of-the moment trip to Boston where we went shopping, followed the Freedom Trail, ate expensive cheese and bread, and even went sailing with an MIT grad. Unfortunately I dropped my digital camera in the Charles River so I have no photos to show you (well, actually it was my brother's camera...the lucky duck got a brand new one on me). We ended the trip at an inn and restaurant owned by her aunt and uncle in North Hero Island, Vermont. If Heaven isn't just like Bear Lake, then it HAS to be just like this place.

We took the hardest class of our college careers together in our last semester at Utah State (go Aggies). Communications Law had a pretty tuff reputation, but Jenny and I decided we weren't gonna let that stop us. We had a weekly study date where we edited each other's papers, quizzed each other before tests, and laughed a ton. We both ended up acing the course.

Jenny's mom calls her a domestic diva. And I totally agree. For proof, just look around her blog for a while and you'll see organizing tips, sewing projects, and get this--she is eating a salad every day this year.

She introduced me to cucumber sandwiches, gummy strawberry candy, Vermont, pumpkin soup, tap lessons, organic sugar at Costco, Etsy, earrings like these, and many many many more wonderful, uplifting things.