things I make: blocks & blankets

***For more homemade gifts check out Kelly's Korner where Kelly hosts a 'Show Us Your Life' every Friday!!!

I love making things.  I love imagining things, developing ideas, designing the minute details, creating the process, scouring the aisles of Hobby Lobby& Home Depot, and completing the final project.  Yes, I do love to make all things.  All things, that is, except for cooking.

I once told Emily that all of my creativity & confidence ends at the kitchen sink to which she replied, 'Mine doesn't even darken the door of the kitchen.'  Unless you can call washing dishes creative this is probably a more accurate statement.  Although I am very confident in my dish washing; I always have very clean dishes.  [This could be in direct correlation with the amount I use them in the first place. Ha!]

Squirrel.

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'Merry Christmas' for Liz

Anyways, I really do enjoy creating things; homemade gifts are my favorite.  The problem with this, though, is that I am always working on a project/gift for someone.  Or 2.  Or 9.  In fact, as soon as I hit 'PUBLISH POST' at the end of this post I will move immediately over to working on a Christmas gift for my parents.  Yes, you read that right.  Christmas.  It's the thought that counts, right?

This is the first year that I have had a significant other to give gifts to for Christmas.  Let alone a significant others family.  I racked my brain for something to get for his Mom and SIL.  When I saw a picture of the blocks that inspired my holiday blocks my mind started racing at an insane & exciting rate.  Since I had been to visit both of their houses, I was able to match the colors & styles with each of their homes & decor.  I was so pleased with how they turned out.

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'Give Thanks' for Liz

As I mentioned, I saw a picture of blocks stacked like these so I can't take credit for the basic idea.  I did, however, embellish & accessorize them a little bit, ahem, a lot!  Between Michael's & Hobby Lobby I probably spent 7 hours looking through papers & accessories.  Fortunately I was working on completing them after Christmas and all of the Christmas decorations were on sale.  All of the beads, flowers, & glitter sticks are tree picks that I spliced, pulled apart, & restrung to my liking.  This of course led to piles of glitter, wire trimmings, & flower remnants in the game room floor that due to time, my poor Dad had to clean up for me.

The 2x4 pieces were all cut up from scraps that Dad always seem to have an infinite amount of lying around.  The blocks can be turned around and re-embellished for fall decoration.  I love the colors on this one! 

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'Merry Christmas' for Sue

Sue's home is decorated in a lot of greens, browns, & ambers so I went with a more traditional design & color palette.  I loved the final product.  [Mom did too and pointed out how well it would go in her house.  ha!  Thankfully I have a lot of paper & tree picks left over as well as 10 months to complete it!!!]

You could do so much with this idea: Birthdays, Halloween, any holiday really.  The possibilities are endless!

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'Give Thanks' for Sue

I've reached the age where all of my friends are having babies.  I mean it: there are some busy storks [and doctor's] out there!

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My Grandmother taught me how to crochet many moons ago; I think I was in the 1st grade, actually.  I had just finished reading Charlotte's Web and was writing a book report.  We created a 'web' out of a cut up basic chain that I crocheted and attached it to the 'barn' Dad built out of a fence board for my visual presentation.  It's the only book report that I remember what book I did the report on, let alone what I created!

Over the years Grandmother taught me some more as I remained interested in the dying art.  Until this year I have stuck to scarves & snowflake Christmas ornaments.  All of my family & close friends can be spotted during the cold months wearing one of their many scarves just as their trees are covered with snowflakes.

But will all of the babies arriving this year I decided to tackle baby blankets.  Babies are small.  They require only a small blanket.  Small blankets should be easy & quick enough, right?!  Wrong!  They are not easy nor quick but well worth it.  I love being able to give something that can't be bought in the store.

This was my first blanket!  It took a while as I designed the pattern & implementation of said pattern but I was excited when I got to the completed product. 

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This is the same blanket but due to wonky lighting & my reliable camera phone the colors look very different.  I took this close-up to A) remember how I did it and B) show my grandmother.  She very impressed & couldn't wait to get on the phone and talk about my stitching methods!

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Baby Boy Blanket #2.  This one is for a very good friend of mine who just had her first baby.  I can't say her name because I don't think she has it in her possession yet.  I mailed it earlier this week but doubt that it has had time to reach it's final destination: Alaska.  Oops!  Well, if she happens to read this before she gets the package the surprise will be ruined by process of elimination.  I don't know too many people who live in Alaska!

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COMING SOON: A Baby GIRL Blanket for another sweet [blogger] friend :)

thanksgiving came early this year: the decorations

All pictures in this post courtesy of Emily Kiel.

I could not let this occasion pass us by without adding some personal touches.  And everything turned out exactly how I pictured!  With everyone coming for the weekend, I wanted to create some sort of interactive way to express the things that we are thankful for.  Thus became the birth of the Thankful Tree.  I have a metal/wire tree that I hang season appropriate elements from.  This made the perfect tree base for our Thankful Tree.  I attached a 'thankful' verse to the top.

1 Chronicles 16:34

'Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: his love endures forever.'

I then [individually!?!?] cut out and strung several different colors & shapes of leaves.  [Now that I am working full-time I am going to have to invest in a Cricut!!!]  Throughout the day, people walked by and added to the tree.  My 'A Job!!!' was the first to go up.  Interestingly, it seemed that many people were thankful for that as well—there are several 'Ellen's job!' leaves hanging from the limbs.  [It is safe to assume that the handwriting on these belong to Dad, Mom, & Jeff.  Ha!]

The sugar loaf mold & candles that I gave my parents a few years ago
made the perfect, 'pilgrim' appropriate centerpiece.

'Give thanks' banner

I had a lot of fun designing and creating the name cards.  I bought a bag of little pumpkins for another party a few weeks ago and the little guys have been sitting around various corners and displays of the kitchen since practically begging me to let them wear Indian Head Dresses.  So I made each of them a little head dress and, with just the right number of pumpkins, decided that the boys would all be Indians.  I Googled 'Indian Names' and came across a list of Indian names of chiefs, cities, and other related terms and hand-selected the perfect name for each guy.


And you can't have Thanksgiving without Pilgrims, can you?!  Therefor, we the females had to be Pilgrims.  [Besides, letting the guys be chiefs for a day was the least we could do ;)]  Miraculously we had 4 red apples in the fridge.  It was meant to be!  Little bonnets were fashioned out of off-white card stock and jute for the girls' name cards. 

Dad's name card read 'Papakeechee' which means 'flat belly'.  Dad has worked
to lose almost 30 pounds this year so this was most appropriate!

Ellen & Quapaw [Downstream People].  Emily was thoughtful
enough to take 'prom pictures' of each of the couples :)

happy 100th blog post!!!

Wow!  I cannot believe that I made it to this mile-marker.  I have stuck with very few things like this, not because I’m a flake but because 1) I forget to continue [which means I wasn’t too interested in the first place] or 2) I tried it out and it wasn’t for me.  That last point is the key—doing something that you love & enjoy never feels like work.  It may be stressful and it may take a lot of effort but because it is rewarding in some way you don’t mind it and probably look forward to whatever that something is that you love doing.

For me, the adventure of blogging began just like that—something that looked interesting and I wanted to give a go at it, test it out, and see if it was something that I enjoyed and wanted to invest time into.  I didn’t know what the outcome would be, how my lack of writing skills would inhibit my will to press on, or if I would have time to keep it up.  Fortunately, through this experience, I found something that I really enjoy doing—connecting with others, recording my life & experiences, and having an outlet to funnel my spastic, creative energies to.

Blogging has aided me in many ways and I plan to continue.  I think the number one reason that I blog is my forgetfulness.  Not absentminded-forgetfulness [from which I sometimes suffer from as well] but amnesia-forgetfulness—if I don’t write it down I will forget.  Through the years, I’ve tried various forms of journaling & diary upkeep.  But I never keep it up the way I should or intend to.  Pretty soon into my new, clean journal I will begin writing random thoughts & journal entries on loose scrap paper, church bulletins, and chip board.  These snippets are then placed in some pile on my desk, stuffed into the pages of the book I am reading, or crammed into the corners of my purse that only important objects know how to get to.

I hate when that last one happens—just the other day I was cleaning out my purse.  And I mean really cleaning out.  ‘Gutting out’ is probably a more appropriate term.  While gutting, I found a crochet hook that I had been looking for since last year.  Only I couldn’t find it, not really.  I could feel it but I couldn’t see it.  In a fit of frustration I turned my 2 gallon, Texas-sized purse inside-out & upside-down, gave it 3 good shakes, and expected the hook to fall out on the ground.  But it didn’t.  I checked back for the feel of it [to ensure that I wasn’t crazy] and sure enough, I could feel it.  

I couldn’t figure it out!  It was as if the ghost of my blue, G/6 hook was playing tricks on me.  I then began to examine the lining of the bag, searching for any & every hole.  After 14 minutes and 3 rounds of searching, I finally found the culprit: a hole that was no bigger than 3/16” in diameter.  I have no idea the hook got inside of the lining nor how long it had been there but I was so happy to be reunited with my hook that I sat down and made 2 baby afghans over the next 3 weeks!

Squirrel.

Back to the point at hand, I value blogging because it allows me to record all of my thoughts & journal entries in one, permanent place.  It also keeps me accountable.  This brings me to the second reason why I plan to continue blogging: it has been a great way to keep up with friends & family.  Over the course of my life, I have collected a large number of people that I love & adore and wish to continue the relationship.  Living in different cities, states, and even countries makes it slightly difficult to keep up.

Blogging has also enhanced my writing skills sets.  I used to be a TERRIBLE writer.  Capital, bold, italic, and underline font type are necessary here to emphasize how TERRIBLE I used to be.  I am nowhere near the writing abilities & genius of someone like John Grisham, Ken Follett, or Gregory Maguire but I can now form complete sentences.  [I won’t elaborate anymore on this here but plan to blog about my writing experiences in the near future.]

Lastly, I will continue blogging because somewhere, someone might need to hear something I have to say.  Whether they have shared a common experience, are going through similar circumstances, or just need to temporarily escape from their current situation(s), it is my hope & prayer that God speaks through the words & experiences that He has given me.

Now, my next goal is to get YOU a’bloggin’ as well.  I cannot fully convey to you all of the blessings & joys that have come from this experience.  By writing & recording some or all areas of your life, it easy & rewarding to look back and see how far you’ve come to this point.  It also allows others to keep up with your busy or not so busy life, allowing you to pick up the phone and dive right into conversation with a dear friend that you haven’t talked to in over a year.  Finally, we learn so much from one another—that vacation spot you’ve been wanting to check out, whether or not purple hair dye is a good idea, or how much more boring [or exciting] the lives of others are!  Lol.  So get to bloggin’!  Please?!  Oh, and don’t forget to send me a link to your brand spankin’ new blog!

Since the official start of my blogging journey in May 2010, I have done a few things:

• Gone on 3 jhigh/high school beachretreats with more than 6,000 students

• Witnessed my sweet, beautiful cousin Laura’s vows & marriage ceremony

• Read the Bible cover to cover
• Experienced extreme weather conditions

• Successfully passed Level 1 of Angry Birds
• Frolicked along the coasts, countries, and cities of Ireland & Scotland

• Found work
• Lost work
• Never prayed harder
• Badly sunburned twice

• Ran 2 miles
• Paid more than $50.00 for a tank of gas [2010 Camry]

• Celebrated the marriages of family members Tim & Faith and Allen & Kara
• Celebrated my Parents’ 30th wedding anniversary 
• Celebrated my Grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary

• Celebrated my Granddaddy’s 95^th birthday
• Sat in on & participated in Emily’s final defense 

• Lived with my Parents…for the  entire life of my blog
• Cried.  A lot.
• Found someone who cherishes & cares for me for who I am and treats me accordingly
• Danced my shoes off!

• Visited the Charles Dickens’ Era
• Gave away all of my contact solution & cases
• Said good-bye to correctivelenses…at least until I’m 40
• Fallen more in love with the color pink
• Grown closer to God!!!

To those of you who have stuck with me and encouraged me during this journey: thank you so much for your continued support and kind words!!!

up next: talent show

Still playing catch-up! I have big plans to completely catch up by the end of this week. Unfortunately I tend to fold in the face of Big Plans but I am going to do my best!

The majority of April was spent planning and preparing for our single's department-wide talent show, Singlelife's Got Talent: The Sequel.


I mainly helped on the decorations committee. Lindsay graciously became my design partner in designing and creating the foyer/entrance that we were in charge of. Lindsay is an Interior Designer as well and working together was made easier due to this fact. We both use similar methods of attack in planning and process stages of a project. I really enjoyed working with her and so thankful she agreed to help! As designers always do, we probably bit off more than we could chew (our own faults) but the finished product came out better than we had even imagined thus pleasing us both.

We had 3 primary focal points in the entry way: a marquis, 'and the winner is...' wall, and the entry into the 'theater'. The overall theme for the talent show was 'The Sequel' with Red Carpet appeal. The marquis displayed the acts and people that would be performing.


The 'and the winner is...' wall turned out very cute as well. The idea for this wall was to create a visual 'Now Showing' list like the ones often seen outside of theaters. Emily happened to be in town on the night of dress rehearsal and greatly helped us out by photographing each act as well as most of the committees.


Most people were not happy with me when I asked them to pose for a picture as I did not warn them coming into rehearsal. They all turned out really good, though, even if no one was primped or rested!

Sarah had an AMAZING performance.

Dressed as a Swiss 'Yodeler', she yodeled her way through 'The Lonely Goatherd' fromThe Sound of Music.

The Adair 'Andrew' Sisters.

They blew my socks off. Their rendition of 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy' was incredible. They also have an older brother who has been serving in the military overseas. How cool?!

The 'We've got talent, how 'bout you?!' film reel was super easy to create and uber-cute! It hung above the entrance to the 'Theater'. Somehow we made it to church and set-up without a step-ladder. Thankfully some very tall boys arrived early and graciously lent a 'tall' hand for set-up and tear-down.


As I said, I really enjoyed working with Lindsay. As the final hour drew near we both got a little snippy and bossy with those helping us with final preparations. We assured them that was called 'Delegating' Ha! We finished with about 25 minutes before curtain call and celebrated by sitting in my car while listening to the quite, eating Subway, and re-deodorant-ing. Thank you, Lindsay!!!


Lauren was the Decorating Team leader. She is one of the most organized people I know. She took on no small challenge herself: the gym was magically turned into a Dazzling Red Carpet Theater that fit the bill perfectly. She even had a Star-worthy red carpet center aisle!

Me, Lauren, Lindsay

To plan and pull off something of this magnitude requires so many sets of hands, spreadsheets, and midnight texting marathons. It's always rewarding when a huge event like this turns out with minimal hiccups.

Linsday, Me, Heather, & Becca
Looks like I'm doing all the work here. Ha!

And the master minds of the whole event: Khris and Greg. These two began planning and organizing committees way before most even know about the show. They did an amazing job. Poor Khris received an email/text/phone call from me an average 3.7 per day during the weeks leading up to the event. One night we were g-chatting at 1:00 a.m.!!!

Thank you guys...it was AWESOME!!!