Front Page

It's not every day you see your husband on the cover of a magazine, but that's what happened this month.  OU Medicine featured an article on Joel's Survivorship Clinic at OU Children's Hospital.

 If you know Joel you know it's absolutely no surprise that he became a Pediatrician.  He prefers kids to adults any day of the week.  My kids have no idea just how lucky they are to have him as their father. 

Gift Deadlines

There's nothing quite like a deadline to get the creative juices flowing.  In my case, Christmas was looming ever closer, and I still had one more quilt to make.  It also needed to be mailed, so that made it even more pressing.

 It's been a while since I whipped out a quilt in under 24 hours, but it happened this past week.  I started the quilt top after the kiddos went to bed, and got the blocks pieced before bed.  I got the kiddos off to school and then pieced the quilt top together.  Luckily, Little Guy was happy to read books next to me while I sewed. 

I layered and quilted it while he took his nap, and then we watched a couple of episodes of The Voice while I hand-stitched the binding.  Wahoo!

This quilt is actually for my nephew who will be making his debut in February.  My sister is having her second child.  It got delivered on Saturday, so it made it there with a couple of days to spare before Christmas.  Phew!

Christmas Stories

For our last Sunday together with the Young Women this year, all of the leaders shared a Christmas story or poem.  I shared "The Legend of the Candy Cane." 

 At the end, each girl was given a personalized journal to use in class.  It has this upcoming year's theme on each of them: If ye love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15)

Cookie Exchange

I think I'm up to 9 years of doing a holiday cookie exchange, but I've kind of lost track.  It's always fun to get together to eat cookies and then leave with more cookies.  This year I decided to do two cookies that are classics but with a twist. 

1- Pumpkin Snickerdoodles:

 2- Butterscotch Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies:

 I never get pictures during the party, but this year I got one! 

Minkiness

It's not really a word, but if it were I think "minkiness" would describe something that's ultra warm and soft and fuzzy.  I love Minky fabric, but it's harder to sew with and always makes me a it nervous, but this time around it was just making blankets, so it wasn't too bad.

I had a friend who asked someone to make 2 crib-sized minky blankets for her.  It was a paid job, but after a full year the lady still hadn't made them, so my friend asked if I wouldn't mind making them for her.  Their family LOVES anything OU, so I'm pretty sure the grandbabies are going to love them as well. 

Beehive Love

I have one of the best callings at church.  I get to work with the youth.  I'm over the 12 and 13 girls and I have the best girls!  They're wonderful.  We've had a girl turn 12 each month for the last three months in a row, so right before they turn 12 we "kidnap" them for our class activity. 

We also make a big deal of pulling them out of Primary.  I may have had a bit too much fun with glitter glue when making that crown, but it was worth the look on her face as all of the Young Women and their leaders entered the Primary room to get Evie.

Ari turns 12 at the end of the month, but we kidnapped her tonight and made spray drip art.

Even Sister Wade tried her hand at some art.

These girls are seriously adorable!

 Last week we had our White Elephant Christmas party.  We served the girls dinner while we planned next year's activities and lesson topics.  For the White Elephant gift that had to make something or re-gift something that was already in their home.  They weren't allowed to go buy anything.  Some of the gifts were really creative.

Catching Up

We've had a bit of a crazy week, so I'm playing catch up in just about every area of my life.  For posterity's sake, I'm throwing a bunch of phone pictures on here, so I can remember simple moments that mean something to me.

I love these two, beautiful women.  Bernadette (on the right) has become one of my favorite people.  She's amazing!  She is such a strong woman of faith and I was so sad when she and her family moved to Houston a couple of weeks ago.  This was at her farewell party.  Mercedes, who happens to be 99 years young, showed up matching Bernadette.  It was picture perfect!  Mercedes composes music by ear and still performs at church.  She also happens to have a very winning personality.

Little Guy saw snow for the first time this season and wanted to know what it felt like.  He was happy about about 2 minutes and then when he realized it was rather cold on his fingers he became decidedly less enamored with the white stuff.

 He makes me laugh with his precocious personality.  He likes to dress himself.  It doesn't matter if it's sunny and dry outside, his rain boots and random costumes come in handy.

Little Guy does not like to play by himself.  He's usually somehow connected to me the entire time his siblings are gone at school.  If I need to be at the computer then he's in my lap.  If I'm talking to someone he's hanging on my leg.  If I even think about trying to look at my phone he places himself between the book and the phone.  He likes to "read" beside me when I'm reading.  When I need to work on a sewing project he creates his own reading corner next to me.

The last picture is from when my parents were visiting.  My dad wanted to go to the doughnut shop that everyone raves about in Guthrie.  We came back from Missy's Donuts and Dad made his feelings very clear about his purchases:

Directional Stitches

I barely got my do.Good Stitches quilt block done in time for November.  We were asked to make a scrappy arrow in either dark greens or blues.  This is my arrow:

In the Nick of Time

The general craziness that has been November for us put me majorly behind on finishing my niece's quilt.  I needed to have it done in time for my mom to take it home with her on the plane, so I wouldn't have to pay shipping. 

 I wanted to tie the quilt, but I don't have a frame, so I needed to go to my friend's house to do it.  Sadly, when it's the week of Thanksgiving there's not exactly a great time to do that, so I ended up just using my walking foot and did a line through the borders. 

 The back flannel is the colors of Mel's room.

I finished the binding late the night before my mom and dad left.  Phew! 

The Shirts that Keep on Giving

My sister asked if I would make a t-shirt quilt for her daughter.  Mel has a ton of t-shirts from her elementary years, and she thought it would be a nice birthday gift.  Even though I've made tons of quilts I've never actually made a t-shirt quilt before.  I messed up the beginning steps that cost me a lot of extra time and work.  I know better now to reinforce the t-shirts before they're cut out. 

It might have been a headache at the beginning, but the quilt top turned out pretty cute.  I like it with the borders around them.  I think I'm going to try and tie quilt this one.  Mel's birthday is rapidly approaching, so we'll see if I actually get it done in time. 

YW in Excellence

This year we decided to do Young Women in Excellence as a special sacrament meeting at church, and then the girls displayed their projects in the overflow for everyone come see afterward.  The idea being to give everyone a chance to see what the girls have been working on instead of just their family. 

It was our first time trying it as a sacrament meeting, so we weren't sure how it would turn out, but it ended up coming together really well.  The girls did an amazing job.  We even had one girl with laryngitis who got a concussion at her soccer game the day before who still came and did her part.  These girls are rock stars!

The young women projects are 10 hours of work based off of one of the eight Young Women values.  I was really impressed with their projects. 

 We're missing a few girls in the picture...

 Afterward, we put together a luncheon for the girls. 

 I just adore all these beautiful people!!

Taking Sides

Friday Night Lights is a real thing and college football is a HUGE deal in Oklahoma.  People spar all the time between OU and OSU here.  Since I'm not a native Okie my loyalties are completely for OU, because they're the source of my husband's paycheck. 

Anyway, I have a friend from way back in my BYU undergrad days who just recently moved into the neighborhood right next to us.  It's been so fun!  They just recently moved here from Boston, and her husband's work is having a huge office party where they are supposed to wear their team shirt (OU or OSU).  Since he doesn't really want to take sides he asked if I had the ability to sew two shirts together.  I had never done anything like that before, so I looked it up on Youtube (what did we do before the internet?), and it turns out it's fairly simple.  You cut down the middle and sew opposite sides of the two shirts together in the front and back.

  I think his work is going to love it!

Re-Reading a Favorite

The last category in the Classics Challenge is Re-Read a Classic Favorite and tell why you love it so much.  I went straight to my bookshelf and pulled out my copy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.   Yes, I'm one of those people.  I LOVE Jane Austen.  I consider her to blame for my love of all things Regency era. 

 There are a handful of books that just about everybody can quote the opening lines.  This is one of those books.  "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

I don't know how to describe why I love it so much except for just how much I enjoy reading it.  Last night it was getting late and my husband wanted to turn off the lights.  I whined that I only had 20 more pages to go to which he replied, "You already know how it ends!"  It didn't matter - it was SO good I didn't want to put it down. 

I feel like the characters are timeless and come to life right off the page.  Austen is seriously so witty.  I laugh out loud every single time I read this book.  Elizabeth's father, in particular, has a couple of great one-liners.  There you have it.  Now you know why I chose this book for Category #12.

An Unexpected Arrival

I was hoping to finish this quilt before fall break, but that's OK.  I still got it done and out in the mail yesterday.  I loved this pecking order pattern, so I may use it again. 

This is for my sweet friend who has traveled the road of infertility for a long time.  She had an unexpected pregnancy right after getting married and then could never get pregnant after that.  They adopted a baby boy and after ten years of infertility they recently adopted a baby girl.  While they were in the final processes of adopting the baby, my friend found out she was pregnant!  Her babies are only going to be 8 months apart!  Talk about exciting and terrifying all at once!  Life definitely has a way of taking us on unexpected journeys.

Lorca

I'm a bit behind schedule with my Classics reading, but I finally finished my book for September.  I read La Casa de Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca.  It is #4- A Classic in Translation.  It's Lorca's final play that was published posthumously.  He wrote it two months before he was killed in the Spanish civil war.  I chose to read it in its original Spanish language.  I like this category, because it helps me keep up on my Spanish.  Lorca uses a lot of poetic words, so I had my Spanish dictionary handy.

  It's not quite the right thing to say I "enjoyed" the book, because it's a tragedy, and it deals with a lot of female angst and suppression.  It's centered around the home of Bernarda, a controlling and bitter woman.  She has 5 single daughters at home with her.  Three of them are all obsessed with the same man.  The interesting thing about this play is that there are no men in the cast.  All we know about this guy is from what the females have to say about him.  The father has also just died, so Bernarda has instituted an 8 year period of mourning on the house.
I'm glad I read it, and I appreciate it for its literary genius, but I can't say it's one of my favorites. 

Pecking Order

I loved these blocks so much when making them for do.Good Stitches that I decided to make a whole quilt.  This design comes from Missouri Quilt Company, and it's a great scrap buster. 

 I'm majorly behind on all my sewing projects, but I'm trying to play catch up.