Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
May you experience the hope, peace and joy that only comes from knowing our great Savior.
Have a blessed holiday.
But God,
being rich in mercy,
because of the great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved -
and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the coming ages he might show
the immeasurable riches of his grace
in kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7
*Our family picture was taken by Dan's talented brother, Michael. Visit his website at zempelphotography.com

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Handmade Christmas, Part 2B

Mom shows off her quilted wall hanging . . .
No wait! Don't look too closely, or you'll see the mistakes! And don't let my great aunt quilter extraordinaire see them, either!
Oh well, she seems pleased with the Santa I made her. Hopefully she won't look for mistakes on him, either. (Somehow I forgot to get a picture of that project.)
Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Handmade Christmas, Part 2

This past July, I decided to make a quilted wall-hanging for my mom's Christmas present. The pattern is called "Tuscan Village" and I thought it would complement my mom's decor quite well. It all started with a bunch of thin strips of fabric . . .
cut and pieced to form a nice little, log cabin square . . .and then stitched together to form a row. Many, many rows later, this is what you get:This was my first ambitious project, since my other two quilts were pretty basic. I got to try my hand at free-motion quilting, mitering corners, and stitching "in the ditch" which I hate. There are plenty of mistakes, but I won't point them out to you! Overall, this was a fun project and I am very happy with the results. And this was going to be the only handmade present I would make this year. Yeah right, then I had to go crazy . . .I finished it last week by sewing on a patch so that all posterity can learn from my quilting errors, while blaming me by name.This football was inspired by my friend Sarah, who has one for her little guy. Thanks goes to Debbie, for letting me use her machine to embroider it. Truth be told, I stood by and chatted while she did all the work!

These are wristlet wallets/purses that I made for my two teen aged nieces and my lovely great aunt, who is a seamstress and quilter extraordinaire. Inside are two pockets, to hold money or your cell-phone. I love these so much that after Christmas I must make one for myself!
And since the best part of making gifts is the moment you give them away, stay tuned for the pictures of our Christmas celebration from this past weekend!


Friday, December 19, 2008

Snow Day

Usually I relish snow days. Even though my kids aren't in school and it doesn't really change my schedule at all, I still feel that child-like excitement whenever we get a big snow.

However, this storm really messed with my schedule. We were supposed to be leaving tonight for my parent's house, but since they got a nasty ice-storm and are currently without electricity, we are stuck at home.

So Elijah played outside, Alli stayed in to color, and I shoveled a walkway on our deck for the dog. Poor thing, the snow is so deep she doesn't dare to walk off into the yard, fearing being buried alive. So she does her duty on the deck snow. I won't even go into the lovely icicles I found while shoveling. But moving on . . .

I decided to set out a bowl on the deck to collect snow to make snow ice cream. (Mind you, out of the reach of the dog.) I just found this recipe and decided a snow day was the perfect day to try it:

Snow Ice Cream
8 cups fresh, clean snow
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

mix and eat - quickly. It's rich, so a little goes a long way, but the kids loved it!

Now to decide whether or not I should unpack the bags . . .

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A New Kind of Superhero

Last night the kids were playing with Dan when I heard Elijah say that he wanted to be a superhero and his name would be . . .


wait for it . . .


"super-visor"


Yep, supervisor. The hero you call when you need a pesky question answered. Rest easy citizens, he's here to save the day.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Handmade Christmas

I've been busy crafting all sorts of Christmas presents this year, and I thought you might like to see some of them. Since we have yet to celebrate Christmas with either of our families, I have to be careful of what I show you. However, since I am fairly certain that my kids don't read this blog, I will showcase the projects I completed for them.These pajama pants were relatively easy, and I find that I am becoming more comfortable with garment construction, although it is still not my calling in life. My plan was to make a pair for all of us (to take advantage of matching pj's before the kids get too old to object!) but at $10 a yard, this snowflake flannel was too expensive for adult-sized pants. Maybe next year I'll catch it on sale.
This doll quilt will go with a cradle for Alli's dolls. I used the leftover fabric from her quilt, which is back in my posession, but won't be finished until after I am done with all the Christmas projects! This small quilt took no time at all and I love that it will match hers!



Even though I had plans for multiple other handmade gifts for the kids, I over-extended myself on projects, so my ideas will have to wait for other holidays. But these were fun!



More to come in the following weeks . . .

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Painting Pottery

A few weeks ago the kids and I accompanied Dan on an overnight business trip and we visited a pottery painting store as a diversion while Dan was in meetings. I wasn't sure how much the kids would enjoy it, but my budding artists had a blast! We each chose a project and enjoyed the time we had to be creative.Alli chose a heart pendant to paint, and we all had the choice of 6 different paint colors to use. She opted for pink . . . that's all, just pink. So I suggested a little yellow, and this is what she ended up with.
Elijah chose a gift to give his dad, a mug with golf clubs on it. Dan doesn't golf, but the "I love my Dad" painted on the side made it special. Elijah really enjoyed painting it and was even more excited to show it to his daddy.
I chose to paint a plate, since I've always wanted a special celebration plate. It's rough - I'm no artist, but I'm happy with it and excited to use it! What a fun way to spend a couple of hours! I'm thinking this might be a fun project to do again.









Monday, December 01, 2008

Some Christmas songs are difficult to understand . . .

Elijah (singing) - Ho! Ho! the missing toe . . .

Me - No, it's mistletoe.

Elijah - Oh. (commence singing) Ho! Ho! the muscle toe . . .