Stake Women's Conference

Today we had a Stake Women's Conference.  I had never been to a women's conference before but was excited to go.  The theme for this conference was "Live Up to Your Privileges".  It was based on a quote from Joseph Smith "If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates." 

We had six class options.  They were:

"Live Up to Your Privileges: Look to the Temple"
"Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Exercise:  True & False, Always & Never, What's a Gal to Believe?"
"Dare to Eat Your Food Storage"
"Courageous Parenting in the Digital Age"
"Receiving, Recognizing And Responding to Revelation"
"Making a Good Marriage Better"

We could chose to go to three of them.  It was hard to chose because they were all wonderful topics.  I chose to go to "Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Exercise..", "Dare to Eat Your Food Storage" and "Making a Good Marriage Better".  They were very good.

I thought I would share just a couple things from each class.  From the Nutrition class I really liked how they quoted President Ezra Taft Benson who said "There is no question that the health of the body affects the Spirit..." (Ensign 1988).  That alone made me feel better when I take time to go on my jogs alone.  Jogging for me is a destresser.  I unwind and am always in a better mood when I get back.  It is "me" time.  It is nice to know that it also affects the health of my spirit. 

The challenge that we were given was not to eat while standing or driving.  We need to sit and eat.  When we are standing it is usually in front of the fridge or the cupboards.  For exercising we need motivation and something that we like to do.

I went to the food storage workshop because I have been working on my food storage and need all the help I can get.  I have started couponing and have started building up my food storage but I think I needed a little direction.  We were told about www.tipjunkie.com, www.funwithfoodstorage.net and www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net.

She talked about making a menu plan for a month and then writing out all the groceries that would be needed for the month and multiply that by 3 and those are the groceries that you would need for 3 months worth of food storage.  You could even make other meal plans so you have more varieties throughout the year.

She also commented that we should put things in our food storage that we would eat and that we should be rotating our food storage so we should be eating them now.  We never know when we will need to live off of our food storage so we should be willing to eat it.

The last one that I went to was "Making a Good Marriage Better".  This one was really interesting because she really pull things out of the scriptures and showed us how wives in olden times were taught to be better wives even if their husband's weren't that great.  She put it better than that.  I have a wonderful husband but there are still things that I can be doing that will make our marriage better.  The example in the scripture had to do with a bad husband who wasn't living up to his potential.

It was so nice to spend time with the other sisters learning new things and getting motivated in all areas of life.  I just wanted to share it with you all.  I hope that you all have a wonderful Saturday evening.

A little maintanence can go a long ways!

Today while I was working on my table runner my machine started asking for a little attention and it got me thinking.  I don't clean my machine as often as I should but I do have it serviced every year in May.  I remember having a conversation with a friend who had inherited a machine and we were troubleshooting trying to figure out why it wasn't working.  I asked how long it had been since it had been cleaned and she didn't even realize that she should clean it.

I tried taking pictures of my very dirty machine but the pictures kept coming out blurry.  While I was taking my sewing classes we cleaned our machines every Friday.  I have a Janome and I don't need to oil it every week but I do need to keep an eye on it.  Different machines have different needs.  So if you haven't oiled yours in a while you may want to take a look.

I once heard that we should clean our machines after every big project, if not during, and after a few small projects.  Honestly, I haven't cleaned it all year. 

I took off the cover plate and there was a lot of lint and fuzz built up.  So I went and grabbed a few q-tips and my can of air.  I cleaned as much of the fuzz as I could with the q-tips and then sprayed with my air and re thread my machine and it worked like a charm.

So for all of you with sewing machines you might want to take a look and see if they are asking for some attention.  My machine takes care of me by relieving stress so I will do what I can to take care of it.

100th Post - Upcoming projects

Well first off I never imagined that I would have my own blog let a long have 100 posts on it.  I plan to have many more but want to acknowledge that I do have 100. 

Next I thought I would share with you some upcoming projects.  I have one sunflower table runner with one step left before it is ready to sale and another one almost ready to be sandwiched and free motion stitched.  I am trying different patterns and am having lots of fun with this. 

I have two more projects coming up.  We went to Joann's fabric a little while ago.  I bought fabric to make cute little hats for children as well as material for some 4th of July table runners.  Have a look see:

 This is the hat that I will be making.  This one is my daughters and she loves it.

This is the back of it.  I am not that great at tying bows so please forgive me.  I did buy some cute material for hats that boys will like and I will be making the band in the middle available to be tied into a bow or buttoned in place.  Here is the material that I bought for the hats.

The material on the left I bought enough to make a couple hats as well as dresses for my girls.  I'll let you know how it goes.

This is the material that I bought for some July table runners.  As we were driving home I had so many ideas for these runners for the front and the back.  I am hoping that these will be cute and reversible.

I also have another project that I will share once it is done.  It is for someone that might see this post so I don't want to ruin the surprise.

I had so much fun shopping for this material.  My days are starting to get some semblance of a routine again so I should be able to make more time to sew.  So keep checking back and I'll let you know how it goes.

OOPs

Well I was cleaning up my blog and accidentally deleted my background.  I don't even remember where I got it.  So if my blog looks a little off that would be why.  I am going to start looking around and come up with a new background for my blog.  It might take a few days so bare with me as I redo things.

My life with rats and more: Wobble Over Wednesday! Week 31!! :)

My life with rats and more: Wobble Over Wednesday! Week 31!! :)

There is a really fun blog hop going on today. Please come check it out and make new friends. The more the merrier. It is really easy to do a blog hop. You just follow other blogs that you are intested in and other people follow you. You can make lots of friends and find blogs you never knew existed. Tell your friends.

Wednesday Recipe - Strawberry Shortcake

My husband and I really like to use the Bisquick pancake batter.  We use it for waffles, pancakes and biscuits.  Recently we tried one of the other recipes on the box and really like it. It is the Strawberry Shortcake recipe on the box.  If you haven't seen it or tried here you should.

Strawberry Shortcakes (Bisquick)

4 C sliced fresh strawberries

1/2 C sugar

2 1/3 C Original Bisquick mix

2/3 C milk

3 Tbsp Sugar

3 Tbsp butter (melted)

Cool whip or whipping cream

1st slice the strawberries and then mix with 1/2 C sugar and set a side.

Mix the Bisquick, milk, 3 Tbsp sugar and the butter until soft.

Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 425 degrees.  Split and fill with strawberries and cool whip.

Ok well those are the directions on the box.  It says it makes 6.  I always half the recipe and still get 6.  They are just a little smaller.  They are rather sweet but they are really really good.  You can have them for breakfast or you can make them for a dessert.  There are several recipes on the Bisquick box.  We haven't tried them all yet. 

Have you tried other Bisquick recipes that you like?  Do you use it for other things?  Please share your ideas with us.

Easter Weekend

I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Ours was really good.  We didn't do anything really specific but it was nice.  My husband didn't have to work on Friday so we spent the day together just getting some errands run.  Friday night my husband watched our girls so I could go spend time with my laurels working on their Personal Progress.  It was so much fun.  We didn't even realize that we were under a tornado watch.

Yana had her 4 month check up on Friday as well.  She is now 23 3/4 inches tall and 16 pounds.  She is growing so fast.  She is healthy and doing well.

Saturday we dyed eggs with Sarah.

 Yana hung out in her bouncer in the garage with us.  She was so good.

Sarah kept putting stickers on the eggs and then taking them back off and sticking them inside her plastic egg.  She is so silly.  We then started getting things ready for a lunch we were invited to on Sunday.  We were all ready when we started getting lots of rain.

Sunday we went to church but the barbecue had been canceled.  It rained so much.  We even got marble sized hail out of it.

This morning while waving to my husband I realized that I can't run around the pond today.  The docks are under water and so is half the path.  We are under flash flood warnings but things are going good.  Josh went to work this morning and we are hanging out in the house.

I almost forgot to mention that Yana has started eating rice cereal.  She does really well actually.

Friday I also stopped off at Joann's Fabric and bought lots of fabric for July table runners as well as cute summer hats for children.  I'm very excited.

Wednesday's recipe - Pumpkin Cookies...a day late

Sorry I'm late.  I meant to share this recipe with you yesterday but not a whole lot went as planned yesterday.  Here is a yummy pumpkin cookie recipe.

Pumpkin Cookie

1 C Oil

3 C sugar

2 Egg - beaten

3 Tsp Vanilla

5 C Flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ginger

1 3/4 tsp salt

1 29 oz can pumpkin

2 C semisweet chocolate chips

1 C chopped walnuts (opt)

Mix it all together and place on cookie sheets.  Cook 10 -12 minutes at 350. 



Some of you might think I'm crazy for just saying to mix it all and cookie.  I have found with most of my recipes that they turn out the same if you mix all together or do it in certain order.  You could mix all the liquid ingredients in one spot and sift all the powder ingredients into another bowl and then slowly add the powder to the wet ingredients but you don't have to in my opinion and it turns out really good.  You can also frost these cookies.  I like them plain but my husband likes to frost them.

I hope that you enjoy them.

Wednesday Recipe

I normally try to post my recipes in the morning but today I will be posting it a little later.  I'm still deciding what to share.  Have a good morning and be sure to check back for today's recipe.

My first time with the Red Box

Well yesterday as I was looking at the website http://www.freebies2deals.com/ I noticed that it said that you could get a free movie from the blue boxes if you use their code.  However, I don't know where any blue boxes are.  I know I've seen them I just don't remember were.  I see the red boxes all over the place.

I had this idea to use the blue box to rent "Tangled" since we have not yet seen it.  I also so I think on the same website that Target has "Tangled" on sale and you can use an additional coupon to save even more.  I have heard so many good things about the movie but don't want to just buy it if I haven't seen it.

So, yesterday morning we went to Walgreen's because I wanted to buy the Sunday paper.  While there I picked up a few other things we needed but I didn't want to have to go to Walmart for.  I was looking through Walgreen's paper and saw that if I bought 2 dozen eggs than I would get 2 free movies from red box.  I needed eggs so it looked like a good idea.

Later that evening when we went out for dinner we stopped and used the red box.  Here is what I learned.
          1 - Just because the movie is on the list doesn't mean it is in the red box you are using.  There were two red boxes and one had the movie "Tangled" and the other didn't.
          2 - The code isn't very long.  I was trying to put both codes in at the same time.
          3 - You still have to use your credit card in case you don't return the movie in time.
          4 - You can only watch so many movies in one night so be careful how many you rent.

Overall it was a good experience.  We use netflix but didn't want to wait until it came out on netflix.  I think we will use the red and blue boxes in the future as well.  We haven't watched "Tangled" yet.  My daughter and I will watch it today and let you know what our thoughts are and if we are going to buy it. 

Sunflower table runners!

You are all probably thinking that the sunflower table runners don't exist by now.  I have been talking about them for a couple months now with not much proof.  Well, yesterday turned out to be a wonderful day for sewing.  Both of my girls took naps at the same time so I got a good 2 hours of sewing done and it was AWESOME.  I missed it.  I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started sewing.

I thought I would share my progress with you:

 Here are the colors that I chose for these table runners.  These are 5x5 squares.

 Here is the pattern that I decided to go with for the first one.  The green triangles will actually fill the gap as you can see below.

I am thinking about also using the green for the binding and either yellow or the burnt orange for the backing.

As you can see they will not be rectangle but have points on both ends.  I will do my free motion stitching on them as well.  This is just one pattern I am doing.  I am thinking about a couple other patterns and I'll keep you posted.  I am having lots of fun. I already have an order for July table runners and am excited to start them once I finish all the sunflower table runners.

I will be going down to Joann's fabric store probably early next week to get material for July.  My daughter will be 4 months old this week and we are slowly starting to get her on more a schedule.  That will help me to get more sewing done.  I have so many things I would like to sew like children's hats, children's bath or swim robes, cute dresses and outfits as well as many more table runners and eventually some lap quilts.

This has been so fun for me and I'm looking forward to sharing my projects with you in the future.  I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday.

Grape Themed Table runner

This is a Grape Themed Table runner.  It has green, red and purple grapes.  The center of the table runner is grey and a deep purple.  The two ends are the grape themed material.  They each are separated by great. 

It is 42 1/2" by 12".
Each panel is 13" long.

It is made out of cotton material and is free motion stitched.  The back is grey and the binding is green.  The binding is stitched on with a leave pattern stitch.

The batting is Soft and Crafty and is low loft.

It is machine washable and ironable.

It was made in a pet and smoke free home.

I love table runners and making them.  I originally found this material looking for a grape themed material that would go well with my sister in laws kitchen.  She decorated her kitchen in grapes and wine and placed her table runner on her table and I don't think she takes it off except to wash it.

I finally finished it.  I think it is cute.  I tried a new theory with this table runner.  I wasn't following a pattern.  I was testing my creativity and with each table runner I hope to get more and more creative and adventurous.  This would make a great gift for those who have grape themed kitchens or just like grapes.  My kitchen is apples and I'm tempted to make myself one.

What do you think of this table runner?  What othe themes do you have in your kitchens?

Take 5 minutes for yourself

This week has been good.  I haven't spent as much time in the sewing room as I wanted but I did sew.  I have one table runner a binding away from being ready to post.  I fixed another dress for prom as well.

I started running again last Saturday.  I ran Monday and Tuesday and Wednesdays are my rest day.  Yesterday we had a tornado warning and lots and lots of rain so I didn't run.  This morning I did a 12 minute workout by Robert Ferguson and a 25 minute Kettle bell workout.  I am feeling really good.  I've had breakfast and a snack and 5 glasses of water already.

Today I well make time to put the binding on my table runner.  I will make time to play with Sarah one on one.  I will make time to make a healthy dinner.  It is rainy outside so we wont be going to the park but I will get Sarah some exercise by running around our house and having fun.  I will clean my house. 

I told my husband this morning that I needed to find time to sew and he told me that if I'm looking for time to sew I will struggle to find it.  He told me that if I really want to sew I need to make time.  I will make 5 minutes for myself.

Tonight is the ladies retreat in my ward and I'm looking forward to it.  Josh will take care of the girls and I will go have fun with the ladies in the ward.

I challenge you all to make 5 minutes of peace and quiet for yourselves today as I will make 5 minutes of time for myself as well.

Wednesday recipe - Oreo Cookies

I originally posted this recipe last month but made some today and wanted to include pictures and the egg correction.

In 2002 my room mate and I found this recipe for Oreo Cookies and we made them once.  Only because they were too good and addicting.  We thought that they were better than the real Oreo cookies you buy in the store.  I was looking through my recipes and thought I would share it with you.

Oreo Cookies

1 Box Chocolate Cake Mix

2 Egg

1/2 C Oil

Beat together.  Drop onto greased cookie sheet, marble size.

Bake at 350 for 18 minutes.

Filling:

1 (8oz) cream cheese

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 C butter (softened)

3 C powdered sugar

Cream the cream cheese and butter together.

Add powdered sugar and the vanilla.

Put the frosting on 1 cookie top and layer another cookie on top forming the Oreo.

You can also just ice the cookie and have many single cookies.  You can also freeze or refrigerate and serve cold.



They were so yummy.  They were a lot of fun to make and very tasty.  If your watching your weight you may want to be careful as they can be addicting.  It has been years since I've made them but I think I'll make them anyways.  Have a good week.

Jogging

I love to jog or I guess more the feeling I have after I have gone for a good jog.  I had a really good jog tonight and remembered why I enjoy it so much.  I got back into jogging about a month ago and then things got hectic, there were snow storms, weddings, and laziness.  I lost 6 pounds a month ago and have just been hanging out in limbo.  I decided that I had to get back into jogging.

Why do I jog?  Why do I jog to lose weight?  I do because it works for me.  My daughter Sarah is 3 now.  I gained like 50 pounds during that pregnancy and about 30 pounds between my wedding and when I got pregnant.  After I had Sarah it took a couple months but I finally got fed up with being so heavy.  I was sick of myself really.  At that point I found Sparkpeople.com and followed their steps and started doing exercises.  I walked a lot, did a lot of wall push ups, sit ups, crunches, leg lifts and lots of other exercises.  I had started running at the end of my mission and really enjoyed it so I started jogging little by little and every week I tried to lose 2 pounds.

I had slow weeks and hard months but in the end I got back down to 170 and loved it.  It works for me and I enjoy it.  I ran a 10K and loved it and would like to run another race.  I would like to run a half marathon but need to get in shape first.

I still have 30 pounds to lose and finally got sick of seeing all my close folded on the top shelf of my closet.  Saturday I started running again and today I ran again.  My goal is to run 3-4 times a week and get over my afternoon eating temptations.  I will get down to my goal weight and I will use jogging again to do so.

If you don't jog and want to jog just start slowly, that is what I'm doing again.  I struggle with the fact that it takes time but I am so excited for the day when I get back to where I was before.
Remember to stretch after a run and drink lots of water.

Good luck.  It will come.

Sewing Goals for this week

Last week I added sleeves to two prom dresses and this week I need to fix a different prom dress so it is ready for two more proms.   I haven't added anything to my store in a long time.  My goal for this week is to finish the two table runners that I started a few weeks ago and add at least one grocery sack holder.

So to clarify for myself I will be adding one grocery sac holder and finishing two table runners this week.  I think that should also mean that I post the two table runners.

Is their anything that you would want me to blog about or post on my store?  I'm thinking about making a tutorial of the grocery sac holder.  Is that something anyone would be interested in?

I have so many things I would like to get sewn and added to my store.  I am thinking about making each week of the month a different item to work on or maybe two weeks because I would like to have more table runners on there and it will take more than one week to do that.

Here is a list of some of the things I would like to have on my store:

Table runners

Pullover bibs

Aprons

Cute robes for toddlers

Lap quilts

Grocery Sac holders

Place mats

Children's hats and clothing



At one point I had a whole list of things I wanted to make and sell.  Those are just a few.  If you have a preference for what I make after I get some table runners made please let me know.

Stressful day starting out but ending much better....

Today is prom day for my laurels.  I have been adding sleeves to two of the dress being used tonight.  My girls are awesome.  They know who they are and what they want and I admire that.  They are beautiful and will look beautiful in the dresses that the chose.

I had never added sleeves to a sleeveless dress before so it was definitely interesting.  I learned a lot and they were very patient.  I finished them this afternoon and they picked them up. 

My husband had to work today but stayed to watch the girls so I could get a head start on the dresses.  They were great while he was here but it was like a switch...after he left they just wanted so much attention.  They finally went down for naps and I am getting some quiet time for myself.

This is also the last week - last day of the semester for me.  So I sat down and read the chapter, read the PowerPoint presentation, wrote the journal entry, took the weekly quiz and final exam and finished strong with the self assessment quiz.  I am finally done and I have a 93%.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn but I am done.  I need a break.  I am tired of constantly having it hanging over my head each week when I'm trying to do things with my girls.

I love to learn and will continue to learn.  Joann's Fabric stores offers classes and I think I'll take the cake decorating classes at some point in the future.  I will continue to sew and do alterations and learn that way. 

I encourage everyone to learn at least one new thing a month whether its something big or small.  It keeps us going.  I feel so left out of the world when I stop learning thing. 

I hope that everyone had a good week, a great Saturday and a wonderful Sunday tomorrow.

Idaho

Last Friday we flew to Idaho to see a wedding of my husband's cousin.  It was a beautiful wedding.  The next day we drove to Southeastern Idaho and spent time with family that lived there.  I wanted to share a few pictures from our vacation.

 Here it is April already and look at that snow.  We loved every minute of it.

 I thought that this truck did a wonderful job helping me show you just how deep the snow was on the sides of the road.

 Sarah is such a good little traveler.  She didn't want to leave either of her Grandpa's houses.

 The building in the background is the bank.  The post office is to the left.  Isn't it awesome.

 It is just so beautiful.

I've always wanted to take a picture out the window of the airplane and never have so here you go.  I actually had my husband do it for me since I had to sit in row C with Yana. 

The flights were good.  The first one made me sick because of all the turbulence but we made it safely home.  It was a great vacation and we are looking forward to going back in July for my sister in law's graduation, family reunions and just to spend time with family.  It is good to be home but we sure to miss our family.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Enjoy the pictures.

Wednesday's Oreo cookie recipe altered.

It has been so long since I made those Oreo Cookies and I was just going from the recipe card.  My mother in law made them today and said that it actually needs two eggs instead of one.  So I am going back to the recipe to fix it.  If you haven't already looked at it, it should now be correct.

I hope you all enjoy.

Wednesday Recipe - Dark Fudge

I like fudge but I don't always like taking the time to make it.  Our favorite recipe takes quite a bit of time and my husband's muscles because there is so much to stir by the end.  Here is a recipe that was shared with me that is really yummy and really easy to make if we are in a hurry.

Dark Fudge

3 C Chocolate chips

1 Dash of salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Can Sweetened condensed milk

2 C walnut

1 C mini marshmallows

Melt Chocolate chips, condensed milk and salt over low heat.

Remove from heat and add nuts and vanilla.

Spread over wax-paper-lined 9x13 pan - Quickly

Cover and chill overnight.

You can use different kinds of chocolate chips with this recipe if you want to change things up.  You could do all semi sweet or half semi sweet with half milk chocolate or you could even do 1 pkg (2 C) peanut butter chips.  I haven't made this in a while but if I remember correctly you don't have to wait til morning to eat them.  They will set up better by morning but you can eat some sooner if you don't mind the fact that they aren't completely set up.

It is really yummy and fun to change things up.  Have fun playing with this recipe.

Tomorrow I'll share some pictures of our fun filled weekend in Idaho.

Loving Idaho...

Friday morning bright and shiny early (again) we headed to the airport with two sleepy girls and even more sleepy parents.  We boarded the planes and flew to Denver, Colorado and then on to Boise, Idaho.  We got our rental car and drove out to to see our family.

It was so nice to be there and spend time with family.  At 4 o'clock was the wedding of one of our cousin's.  It was a beautiful wedding and we are very excited for them.  They had a beautiful reception.  We visited and helped clean up after it was done.

After the reception we (my husband's family and us) went back to the hotel and visited for a few hours before crashing for some much needed sleep.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast together there in Boise and then said our good bye's once again.  We then drove over to see my family in the Idaho falls area.  It was nice.  My family all got together at my dad's which made it so much easier on us.  We were able to spend hours with everyone verses half an hour at each house trying to visit everyone.  I miss seeing my family but this is just how life works sometimes.

We visited with all our family and opened presents for Sarah's birthday.  Today we are in Island Park.  We are now spending time with Great Grandpa and Camille.  It is very snowy up here.  It is beautiful.  I'll include pictures when we get home.

I hope that everyone is having a good weekend.  We are thoroughly enjoying ours.  We will be returing home to Oklahoma on Tuesday.