Halloween 2009

Seriously pathetic. But I am going back a ways. The kids had two costumes, one for school and a different one for trunk-o-treating. It was fun to dress up as always. My costume was for the gym. I can't believe I went out in public like this, but hey, I had fun.

Porter wanted to be an army guy. Simple.

James as an Old Navy mouse on clearance.

Eliza as the wicked witch from Pottery Barn on clearance.

Eliza as Dorothy. I made it a couple of years ago, and it still fits. James as a very retro clown. My mom made this costume 40 years ago. All of my kids have worn it.

Porter also wanted to be a ghost, using a sheet. Again, simple.

Happy Halloween in May!

Powder Keg 2010

I am so behind in blogging, it is pathetic. I thought of just skipping everything since I last blogged anything of importance, but decided I might as well just back-blog a bit.



In March Tom and a couple of his brothers and friends participated in the Wasatch Powder Keg, a grueling backcountry ski race. The racers climb 3500 feet over 4 climbs and 6.6 miles, on skis.

The boys all rocked it as always and we had tons of fun cheering them in and playing in the snow.

Hurricane Trails River Run

Click here to join the adventure on Facebook.

Click here for more info at the city website.

Final layout on Baby Girl Dansie Quilt

Ok, I thought I had decided I liked the random layout, then I decided, maybe I should try more of a pattern. So I relaid the quilt out and now I need advice.

First is the original organized random layout:



Second is a patterned layout:


Which one works better?

I need to make a decision and get this quilt top done so it'll be completed by the time the babe arrives in June.

Quilt in Black and White

A tip from a friend- look at quilt in black and white to see if the darks and lights work - especially because they are what cause the illusion of the tumbling block in this pattern.

She was right. There is too much dark on the right side. I need to redistribute some of the dark and lighter hexagons either more deliberately random or in a more deliberate pattern.

Jenny, you are a genius. Thanks.

Quilt for Baby Girl Dansie

Here is a possible layout (without borders, yet) for my newest quilt for the newest Dansie. There are a few things that had to be included in the quilt and I had blocks leftover from a previous quilt.

First, all the red tumbling blocks come from the quilt I made for baby Benji. I accidentally made double the blocks I needed, so I had enough for whole new quilt. However, the blue tumbling blocks weren't girly enough for me so I chose not to use them.



Second, I needed to include the yellow fabric with the small red and blue flowers because it has been in all of my kids' quilts. But I don't totally love it. Luckily for me, my awesome quilter friend let me raid her stash for some cuter yellows to tie it together better and some fun bright reds because I didn't want to go buy more fabric.

Third, I also had to include some Laura Ashley fabric that my mom bought 30+ years ago in England because it is cool and is in all the kids' quilts. The bright red with small red flowers that are hexagons and the reverse that are the top on some of the tumbling blocks are the Laura Ashley.

Eliza's baby quilt also uses the bright reds with just a tad of yellow. So since they are sharing a room, I thought they would go well together.

I didn't want to make new tumbling blocks, hence the solid hexagons instead. Obviously, there will be a full white border and another fun print border and maybe even some rick-rack as suggested by aforementioned quilter extraordinaire.

Does it work? and what improvements could be done?

Spring

Eliza entered her elementary school's version of "Reflections" with a photo collage titled "Spring." The theme was "New Beginnings." She took all the photos by herself and only needed a little hint from me to use the blossoming trees as her subject. It probably didn't hurt that she was using a pretty nice camera, but I think she did a superb job at picking what blossoms to shoot and how to shoot them.

And so did the judges because she won first place for kindergarten (there were 2 other competitors even.

Great Job Eliza! Mama is proud!

PS: Ignore her dirty lip. She blew a big bubble the night before at a concert and got home to late for a bath. I told her to wash her face before school, but forgot to check it.