Thoughts of a Grasshopper

Stockings are one of my favorite things at Christmas.  I personally have not had a stocking in 30 years but how I loved them as a kid.  When you were waiting to open presents there was your stocking to look through with an orange in the toe of the stocking, nuts, candy, chapstick, little toys and games like a yo-yo, top, or those plastic squares that have the numbers 1-15 that you try to put in order.  A few years ago I put together a stocking for my mother as her Christmas gift.  It was fun to come up with things to include and to do the shopping for it.  I know she enjoyed it as much as I did.

This block is 99.5% done.  There is a ribbon bow to tie and attach to the top of the ornament but it needs to be quilted before I can add the bow.  Quick block to do that makes you feel like you are making progress at a rapid rate.

 I usually decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  With Thanksgiving being early this year, I've decided to wait a few extra days.  I'm hoping to finish a Christmas wall hanging by then.  I'm planning to have the 9 blocks appliqued by Thanksgiving and that weekend I will add the borders and quilt it.  My Christmas cards may end up going out a little later since I'm only half done making them.  Yikes! The wall hanging has a lot of nice blocks.  I started with my favorite of all the blocks.  I love this candy cane.  It makes me want to break out my Christmas books and read one we've enjoyed for years, "The Legend of the Candy Cane" by Laurie Walburg.  The book is beautifully illustrated and tells the symbolism of the candy cane and Jesus Christ.

Less is more. haha I liked the card before I spritzed it with glitter spray.  I couldn't find my spritzer for another card because I forgot I moved it to another sprayer. The spritzer it came in clogged so I transferred it.  Well naturally when I came across it I had to spritz.  I wish I took a picture of this card before I did that. I like the tree die and how you can pop branches to give it dimension.  I saw this card on the Stampin' Up! site .  They used the Rooted in Nature stamp set for the background trees.  I don't have that set so I used the improvised with a retired set, Happy Scenes. Stamps:  Winter Woods, Happy Scenes CS: Mossy Meadow, Shimmery White, Cherry Cobbler, Festive Farmhouse DP Ink: Mossy Meadow, VersaMark, Blueberry Bushel Die: In the Woods Framelits Misc.: Gold Embossing Powder, Aqua Painter, Burlap ribbon, Pearls

Those that know me know I love glitter.  When I saw this card, I knew I wanted to make it.  My goal is to make 4-6 cards several times a week so that I have enough Christmas cards by the time I'm ready to mail them.  I'm up to 47 cards made so far.  Yay!! JanB of the UK posted a video on how to make this card.  She used an oval for shape layered on a green scallop oval for the sentiment.  It was late and I wanted to go to bed.  I opted for a punch and sponged on green. I like her way, but I'm fine with what I did too. The background trees are stamped in Sahara Sand.  I stamped once on the paper and then stamped again, higher and to the left a smidge and repeated to get the line of trees.  I stamped off for the bottom trees, which the picture doesn't really pick up. The green trees were stamped with Garden Green ink.  The top picture shows the marking with a white pen on the tree.  My gelly pen dried up.  I used the cha...

I totally CASEd this from one of the Artisan team members.  There are a lot of details which make it a nice card.  I also like cards that use the designer paper since I tend to get it but rarely use it.  I had to re-stamp my deer for the die because I huff some air onto my acrylic block before putting on a stamp to help it stick a little better.  Well, I huffed too much and stamp slid around the first time or two of inking up and stamping.  The image wasn't lining up with the die well at all.  They lined up better the next time. Stamp Set:  Dashing Deer CS:  Cherry Cobbler (8-1/2" x 5-1/2"), VV (4" x 5-1/4"), Mossy Meadow (3-1/4" x 4"), Festive Farmhouse DP (3-1/2" x 4-1/4"), Wood Textures DP (3/4" x 7/8") Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Cherry Cobbler Dies:  Detailed Deer thinlit, Stitched Shapes framelit EF:  Tin Tile Dynamic Misc.:  Pearls, Linen Thread, Frost White shimmer paint, dauber On the very vanilla, you will want t...

It has been a busy month with a lot of company and travel.  When I got back from a trip last week I was updating my bullet journal and trying to get my bearings on what is coming up that needs my attention.  As the week went on, I discovered I overlooked some things that needed preparation, but it is under control and I'm back in the groove of things. One of the things I was on top of is that I will be sending out our Christmas cards in 5 weeks.  I did get the Timeless Tidings project kit and knocked out the 20 cards that came with that.  It is nice to feel you have a jump start like that and know that you are 1/5th of the way done making Christmas cards. Last night I opened a bottle of shimmer paint.  I haven't used it before then and I'm thinking I probably could have used it a better way but it is nice to explore options with it.  I simply poured it onto a hard plastic mat I have (the stamp-a-ma-jig placement mat backside) and spread it around a li...

I started this quilt April 5th and finished it July 31st.  I started with cutting the fabric and on April 7th I had the circle done, minus the very center that just needed two circles cut for it.  It sat for 11 weeks before I had time to work on it more.  I spent most of the day into the wee hours of the morning cutting the fabric for the backing and sewing the strips together.  It was crazy to think that these simple strips took 12+ hours of pressing, cutting, sewing pressing, sewing, pressing . . . It sat a few more weeks before braved attaching the circle to the background.  That part seemed a little intimidating to me.  One part of me wishes I attached it so the lines pointed to the corners and another part of me is glad it is the way it is and slightly offset. A little more sitting and waiting before I got it layered, quilted and bound.  I stitched in the ditch so that I would detract from the circle.  This is 48" x 48".  I l...

So, it's no surprise that this is the only picture from the baby shower, right?  Yep.  Once again, I didn't give a thought to the camera, but hey, you can see a couple of hot air balloon paper lanterns and balloons so that counts.  This isn't even everyone that came, just who was left when the thought came to take a picture. We went with a hot air balloon theme for the baby shower.  I ordered some paper lanterns from Amazon.  I made a hot air balloon centerpiece with a small basket, round paper lantern, dowels and ribbon.  I never did find a bear small enough to fit in the basket of the centerpiece.  I ended up filling it with clear marbles. When guests arrived we had a scale to weigh their purse.  The heaviest ended up winning a prize.  We also played an emoji baby phrases game that I bought off of Etsy.  I was originally going to do the children's books game but that seemed too easy with the emojis.  Another game was everyo...

I'm happy to say this is my last Bench Pillow (wall hanging) to make . . . at least for now.  There are 3 I haven't done: 1. A penguin with two snowmen for January.  Where I live in New Mexico we don't get much snow, if any.  If it does snow, it is gone by noon.  I miss snow! 2. An umbrella with rain boots for April.  I like it but our rain season starts mid-June and ends in September.  However, someday we will move and I may see rain in the spring. 3.  A Happy Birthday one.  This one I intend to do, I just don't know when.  I feel I have to wait another year because some of the kids had their birthday this year.  I guess it can wait and I can focus on other projects. Let me just say for this watermelon wall hanging, I adore the fabric ric rac I made for the larger watermelon.  This has nothing to do with my skills, it was all in the directions, but to loosely stitch and then pull and have that happen.  So cool!

I went to workshop in Elephant Butte area.  I learned a lot and met new (to me) people from all over the state.  There was a skit on Women Suffrage, a presentation on the Elephant Butte dam, information on the Santa Fe trail work and preparations for the 200th anniversary, information for meetings, etc.  The above picture is of those that did a skit on "protocol".  It had to do with what we wear with our pins, how to wear them, etc.  The woman on the far right was a hoot.  I don't know if she put balloons in her leggings or what but bum was sticking out so far as she paraded around the room getting a lot of laughs!  While entertaining, I learned from that skit as well.

Pioneer Day was held in the east mountains.  They planned on 300 people attending.  I would say they got that as people came and left although most were there early on because the food was planned at the beginning. There were games for the kids and a ball game for anyone that wanted to play.

I spent my day helping the 8-11 year old girls in our Stake make toys for the animal shelter.  All of the material came from clothes that were outgrown, tops and pajamas and some leftover fleece from other projects. The above toy was the hardest for me.  While the one on the right shows a line of the colors mine ended up mixed and I didn't get that solid line.  Some girls succeeded and achieved the sample and most ended up like mine.  A great, sturdy toy for dogs. As you can see in the picture below, they were much longer than the sample.  They would make a great tug of war type of toy for dogs. The middle toy was for cats.  It was made from shirts and the material was about 1/2" x 10".  The girls chose 8 pieces of material for each toy.  These were simply tied once to knot and they had a bell attached. The toy on the far right (sorry the picture is so blurry) was another dog toy.  It was made of 3 strands of fleece like material....

I had the activity Day Girls over for a day camp at my house.  I'm not good with taking pictures of these activities.  I started off the day by having the girls choose 7 colors of embroider floss.  Some chose 2 colors and had multiple strands with their favorite being 4 strands and the alternate color 3 strands.  I cut the floss into 18" strands.  There was excess but it allowed for a mistake to be made in the beginning and to tie it off an inch or two in.  My thought was if we they were waiting for someone to be done before we moved on, they could work on it.  If we were doing a lesson, they could work on it and I wouldn't mind because they could listen and have their hands busy. (The last paragraph has more instructions.) We had a lesson on the sacrament and the symbolism of the ingredients.  The girls made bread for sacrament meeting.  We had a lesson on the Holy Ghost and recognizing the Spirit.  We decorated cakes.  We pla...

I experienced my first Bell Ringers breakfast this year.  Another chapter hosts this event annually.   It was a lovely breakfast with good company. The CAR members sold raffle tickets and had many prizes for the winners. The State Regent shared her project of having books donated to foster care facilities throughout the state.  Why the project is personal to her, the impact it will have state-wide, and the overall importance with some saddening statistics. At the end of the breakfast everyone sang Yankee Doodle and then the bells rang.  Everyone had a bell.  There were various sizes, including cow bells.

This is the wall hanging I did for the summer.  I like it because it has a flag for Independence Day and a slice of watermelon that just screams summer to me.  Watermelon is something at family reunions, after spending time outside playing, a light treat on hot day. Sunflowers are just nice, happy flowers.

Have you ever had the Chantilly cake from Whole Foods?  It is so good!  It is also spendy.  For the smaller cake you spend $30 and the larger cake is $46.  I went in search for a cake recipe online and I found one.  The rub is, I have no clue where I found the recipe because I copied it and didn't make note of the site.  If I go to my Pinterest, I have several pinned . . . because I was on a hunt. I will say that I'm not sure if the cake itself is true to the Chantilly cake.  I had a copycat cake recently that was light but it was from a mix.  This cake is from scratch.  I need to make another and either buy a piece of cake for $3.49 from Whole Foods to compare it or go to my friend who is a connoisseur of Chantilly cake and get her feedback.  Honestly, the latter would be more fun! Cake 15 oz. flour 1.5 oz. cornstarch 1/8 oz.  (~3/4t) salt 1/2 oz.  (~1T) baking powder 11 oz. sugar 8 oz. butter 7 oz. egg whites, ab...

For Memorial Day my husband and I went to a program at the Veterans Memorial.  Since I planned to be there, he volunteered to carry one of the state flags for the base.  He had his part, too. A beautiful wreath our chapter donated for the service.  All of the state flags standing under the American flag at the rehearsal.   The military carrying in the state flags.  Fly over.  Mayor Tim Keller speaking.  Canon fire.  Bagpipes.  I love the bagpipes!

I came home today to find a snake next to my door.  To get to my door you have to go through an wrought iron door.  This door is another story but I want to stick to the snake.  As I was headed to the door I noticed the snake to the right in the corner.  I may have let out a scream.  I yelled for my son.  He came opened the door and the dog ran out.  Mind you, at this time I didn't know what type of snake this was, just that it was BIG.  The snake was still there and it started to move forward a little.  I yelled to my son about the snake being there and to shut the door.  I didn't want it in the house.  The dog ran out to greet me.  Mind you, our dog is small.  As in she weighs all of 9-1/2 lbs.  The cat is bigger than this dog.  All I could think is this snake would be scared and bite her or eat her. My son is finding my reaction hysterically funny and telling me to get in the house.  I went in and set...

This week for Activity Day girls, we painted rocks.  These are some samples I did to give ideas.  The idea was that they would go and leave them in plain site when they are at the park, library, shopping, etc. to brighten someone's day.  We had a fun night of being creative with paints and enjoying talking and laughing with each other.  After they were done painting they played a game. Fortunately here in New Mexico it is very easy to come across rocks that you can paint.  However, I chose to go to a place that sells gravel and bought cobble there.  I went with a small bucket that is a little bigger than a paint can and paid a couple of dollars for them.  I was able to pick the rocks out myself so I could get smooth, shaped, etc.  I rinsed them off and let them dry.  I put a base coat of white or black on some so they could get right to painting if they wanted to.  Some were left with no background color and they could paint a design...

  We had several graduation parties to go to this weekend.  I made these cards using everyone's school colors.  The graduation stamp set I used is not from Stampin' Up! but the die cut numbers are as well as the card stock, twine, and embossing powder. It is hard to see the images on the black background that I embossed but this picture shows it well enough. My son's girlfriend graduated from college!  Yay!!

The YW had an auction to raise money for girls camp.  They did quite well raising more than they needed.  We were very surprised when a cake the girls did sold for $150.  It was the last thing auctioned off and several times during the auction my daughter commented she wanted it to be auctioned because she was curious what it would go for.  She decided it was saved for last because they expected it to go for good money. I made a small throw for the auction.  The pattern rated it as a throw, I consider it a quilt best for a toddler or preschooler.  It measured 41x49.  I was very grateful that it was small because I cut the fabric on Monday and was turning it in for the auction 4 days later. I used leftover strips from the front on the back to add some color. The girls also made a batch of homemade brownies to auction off.  The other cake that was made stuck to the bundt pan on top and it wasn't pretty but we sure enjoyed eating it.