my mama kitty

Kenna woke up from her sweet nap today with this crazy hair that I call a Rooster Tail.  That is what my mom called them, so that is what I call them.  It reminds me of being a kid and hearing my mom say that.

Anyway, Kelsey, my 11 year old just said to me "Mom, did you know that mother cat's have a lot of hair balls?"  Kelsey loves cats.  We have two outdoor cats that she adores and they love her too, so I wasn't surprised to hear this statement/question about cats.  I figured she had learned it at school or on one of her many youtube adventures.  So, I agreed with her. 
Then she said "Wanna know how I know?"  I asked her how.  She made me fall apart laughing when she said "I tried to lick Kenna's rooster tail down earlier today." 

how long does it take you to watch a movie?

My husband's birthday was at the first of the month.  I gave him the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice on dvd.  And a package of mini Snickers.  He was not really thrilled (SURPRISE!) If you know my husband, he was not thrilled at all, but he was a good sport.
We talked a few hours after he opened his new gifts.  I asked how his birthday at work had been and what he thought of his gifts.  He said it was a good day, but wondered why he got this dvd in particular, since his idea of a good movie is Ironman 8, or some movie with a suspenseful spying plot and amazing gadgets.

I then said, "Well, what did you give me for my birthday?" He couldn't remember.
I said, "Well, you gave me the Pirates of the Caribbean number 3 movie, and a family sized bag of peanut M&Ms."
He had a blank look on his face and said "OK?"
I told him that I hadn't even seen the second Pirates movie, could barely sit through the first one, and that I dislike peanut M&Ms.
He laughed.  Hard.

So, I asked him about 10 days ago if I could open the wrapping on his birthday gift and watch it.  He consented.  Well, I am happy to announcement that I completed it today!  YIPPEE!  It is only a 5 and a half hour movie, but it has taken me some time to get through it.  Not for lack of interest, for I have LOVED it, but for lack of time.  It was a wonderful watch!  I love the Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightly, but I HAD to watch this one.
I made an 1820's time period, Jane Austenish, day dress last winter.  I think I need to sew up a ball gown now.  Oh, the Netherfield Ball scenes were incredible!  All of it was!  So, when the Christmas presents are all made, I will dive into another Regency dress.
I also laid out the 110 log cabin quilt blocks today on the front room floor.  I think I have decided on the layout.  Thanks to all the Facebook comments and opinions, and the ones here on the blog!  I will get busy!

I am making a Log Cabin quilt, finally

Two weeks ago I cut this pile into strips for a log cabin quilt.  I have had this fabric for a few years, and have wanted to make a traditional quilt pattern using it.  My aunt Barbara made a log cabin quilt about 8 years ago that I fell in love with, Matt gave me a log cabin quilt book for my birthday a few years ago, and my neighbor Debbie and her daughter Kami made a log cabin quilt last winter.  I decided it was my turn, plus, it's another quilt to add to my civil war living history basket of tricks!

I used this fabric, plus a jelly roll, to make 110 of these log cabin blocks that are 10 inches square.  I finished the blocks over the weekend.

Now, comes the fun part.  The setting.  There are so many ways to set log cabin blocks for different looks.  I have it narrowed down to three variations that I want to make -  Streak of Lightning, Barn Raising, or Straight Furrows.

This log cabin quilt was made in the 1870s, from silk by Sophronia Ellen Turnbow Carter.  She was born in Alabama, but came to Utah as a Mormon pioneer.  I apologize for the bad photo, but I took a picture of it out of my book Quilts & Women of the Mormon Migrations.  It isn't one of the settings I am choosing from, but it is gorgeous.

This is a Streak of Lightning setting, maker unknown, 1865-1885, in probably Jackson County, Missouri.  I love this quilt.

This is a Barn Raising setting with lights in the middle, made from 1880-1910 with wools in the United States. I love this one as well, its a traditional setting for log cabin quilts.

This is another Barn Raising setting, but with the darks in the center.  The maker is unknown but probably from New Jersey.  The time frame on this one is 1910-1930 and is made of wools. 

 

This is the Straight Furrows setting.  This beauty was made in 1878 by Clarinda Bush Graham of Lyons, Iowa. Love love love!

So friends, if you feel inclined to help me with my setting decision, let me know which one you like the most.  Streak of Lightning, Barn Raising, or Straight Furrows.  Oh the decisions! Oh, and it may not be obvious to the non-quilter, but my log cabin quilts have fewer logs in them.  They were amazing ladies who made these quilts - so many logs in each block, and they were sometimes only 1/2" wide!

an AH-HA moment

We had another fall day out in the forest over the weekend.

We packed a little picnic this time around and ate lunch in the trees.

 

The goal was to get one more monster load of firewood for the season.
 

My kids were great.  

Great little wood gatherers.
 

It was a brisk but pretty day and I was thinking about what a beautiful place I live as we went about our work.

I was also thinking about how blessed we are to have the opportunity to work together as a family.

As I was watching my sweet little ones haul the wood Matt had cut into the trailer, I was a little overcome with motherly emotions for a minute.

I thought about how blessed I am to have these little people in my life.  I realized how much they mean to me, how much I love them.

I am so lucky to be given these four little souls to raise.
My live would be incomplete without them.

So I cleared the lump in my throat, blinked away the few tears in my eyes, and finished loading the trailer.

Then I made Matt kiss me for the camera, much to his chagrin!

gray ruffle fabric skirt

Okay, another ruffle fabric project.  This time I bought a 26" remnant piece of this slate gray color.  I think it was around $8 or something like that.  I made up the skirt at this length.  That is just what you do - make it then cut to length when you are finished.  This is obviously a horrible length for me - so I had a friend help me decide a good length for me.

I cut off 6 ruffles from the bottom, and then reinforced the seam that I had cut so it wouldn't come undone.  Kelsey is going to have herself a gray infinity scarf now, and she is excited!

Here is the new length, much more becoming than the longer version.  Now I know if I ever buy another remnant, that I only need about a 19 or 20 inch length to work with!

This is a horrible picture, and its upside down with bad lighting, but I had to show the elastic waistband I attached the ruffle fabric to- easy as pie!

Kenna and I wore our new ruffles to church yesterday.  It sounds silly, but I am not the most feminine dressed person, and the ruffles were a pretty big stretch for me.  And as unfeminine as it sounds, I felt like a wooly mammoth!  There was alot of movement going on when I walked, and alot of "stuff" just hanging down from me that I am not used to!  Therefore, the wooly mammoth, but it was a fun little project.

lemon shortbread

I have a deep love of chocolate, a truly deep love and appreciation.  I also love anything lemon.  Anything.  I also happen to have a hankering for shortbread, so when I saw a post on a fun blog I follow that said lemon and shortbread in the same recipe, I had to try it. 

I doubled the recipe, because it was one of those days.  So it made 4 pie pans full of the delicious offering.  My neighbors appreciated the double batch.

So my review?

Delicious!  Lovely. Praiseworthy.  A good report!

 

Kerin's recipe can be found on her blog, at

Always Fixin' Never Sittin'.  She has some much better photos than I do, but

only here will you see my mug chowing down on the delicious little bits.

I got to eat 3 pieces while trying to get a photo of me devouring a piece!

Burn Baby Burn!

Last week, Emmitt and I unloaded this load of Aspen that Matt and his brother's family cut for us down south.  I like to burn a little Quaking Aspen - it starts up easy and is sort of like newspaper - nice and fast and not very hot.  It is a good wood to start a fire with, and is also great to revive a fire.

We usually get some Pinion Pine as well from down south, or some spruce from up here in Heber by Strawberry Reservoir.  Pinion burns hot hot hot, and spruce burns nice as well.  But, Matt wanted to try some lodgepole pine this year.

Since we had the wood trailer up here from the load of Quaking Aspen, and the back of the truck is no longer usable thanks to the new Bowie Vet box, we spent Saturday getting some Lodgepole Pine up above Kamas with the trailer.

We got up early and left the house by 8, drove for almost an hour, got a nice load in the snow, and came home.  The kids and I unloaded it while Matt did some cow herd work with a local cattleman for a few hours.  We all had lunch and went up again for another load.

We had a great afternoon as well.  Kenna loved the warmer part of the day with the afternoon sunshine on her, and the kids were glad we could ditch the snow pants and coats. 

My kids are good little workers, and Matt is a great big worker.  When we got home, Matt did a little chainsaw work while we unloaded the second load for the day.  Kendal and Emmitt were expert stackers, hopefully it won't fall over very soon.  Matt still has a ton of saw work to do, and splitting of course, but its a great start for the winter.  I love a good warm fire when the wind is howling outside and the snow is coming down sideways.  Its a safe toasty feeling.  Hopefully we enjoy the Lodgepole Pine and it burns nice and warm.

ruffles and ruffles and more ruffles

For a Relief Society (women's church group) activity, we made a few ruffle fabric projects last month.  I am lucky enough to know some great people with connections, so my neighbor and I went to the super sweet woman's home that owns rufflefabric.com and picked up a bunch of fun ruffle fabric for the ladies in our Relief Society to sew into some fun skirts and dresses.  There were some really fun and beautiful skirts made at the church last week in all colors!  I can't wait for next Sunday to see everyone in their new ruffled digs!

I purchased this little piece, a 12" remnant, for just a couple of dollars.  I was going to make a simple little scarf for my fashionista 11 year old daughter, but decided to try out a little dress pattern I had seen for my 1 year old.

I took this picture last night, after just a half hour of sewing.  I just made two side seams to make a pillowcase shape, a few little armholes and a slit at the front chest, and then split the other end so I had a tube.  I hemmed the armholes and neck slit, then made a casing for a ribbon in the neck.

So this morning after Kenna's bath, I tried it on her again.  I added a thick white ribbon in the neck casing, and cut off a few inches from the bottom because it was way too long.  She kept trying to put the scrap I cut off over her head, so I wrapped it around her head.  She thought that was great.  I think I will make a real actual head piece for her out of the scrap from the bottom of the dress.

I think it turned out pretty cute for just a half hour of sewing and a few dollars for a remnant piece. I made myself a skirt out of gray ruffle fabric yesterday, so she has spent time in the sewing room with me fondling and rolling around in the soft ruffle fabric.  When I put her dress on this morning, she just kept rubbing it with her hands and smiling and dancing.  It made me smile!

Just a close up of the simple little neck casing that the ribbon goes through. 

 I purchased 2 yards of this red ruffle fabric when I was at the ruffle fabric lady's home with intentions to make my three girls matching Christmas dresses.  I wanted to make them something similar to the dress pattern I made for Kenna and this was the perfect opportunity to test it out.  I will do a few things differently, but overall it will be the same dress.  My 8 year old is so excited, and my 11 year old wants to know if she can wear a belt with hers.  Oh boy!  I was going for the 1920s flapper look for the Christmas dresses and a belt will kill that look  But we will work it all out and we will love it!

Autumn

2 weeks ago

my kids were playing in the 

sandbox in the sunshine

10 days ago we had a 
neighborhood marshmallow roast

4 days ago I took the 

canopy off

2 days ago Emmitt and I unloaded 

this trailer load of fire wood

(although Matt didn't have time on the mountain to buck up the 8 foot pieces, so I told him we unloaded trees rather than firewood!) 

4 hours ago

Kelsey and Kenna checking out 

the snowy deck

My yard a few hours ago.

Currently Emmitt is out making a snow man.

I know this snow will all melt today, but it is still sad to see that Autumn is here in full force, and winter isn't far away.