I have been listening to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park for the past week or so, while I have been sewing and catching up on a few friendship blocks I need to make.  I must say that I have enjoyed it very much and words like 'indeed', 'vexed', 'perhaps', 'displeasure', 'hasten', 'regard', and 'agreeable' have been running through my mind.  Definitely not the kind of refined language I am used to!

 But on to the blocks.  I have a few completed, but still lack a few more before next week.  I despise being behind!

 Sally wants a snowman, any size, blue background, no Christmas colors.  Mine is sure a plump and ugly fellow, but hopefully he will work for her quilt.

 Timpi wants a flower; any flower, just happy colors with a white background, any size.

 Jamie wants a 12 1/2" block with 5 4" circles from the ADORN ME Moda collection. 

My, my, this sounds like a Christmas list!  I started a new civil war quilting project last night by cutting out fabric and started the sewing today.  Although I already have 5 or so UNFINISHED civil war era quilt projects, I had to start another one!  I need another book to listen to and pass the time!

Another Birthday - Dang it!

I have the privilege of sharing a birthday with the amazing and incredible Robert E. Lee on January 19th.  It was a wonderful day.  I attended my grandma's only brother's funeral about an hour away.  My grandma's family has a wonderful heritage.  Her mother's family are Sorensens and came from Denmark when the LDS missionaries converted thousands of Danish folks to the gospel in the mid 1800s.  Her father's family are Dutch folks from Holland, Ackermans, and also came to the US after being converted in the late 1800s.  My grandma was the oldest sibling and passed away in 2007.  Her brother, my great uncle Boyd, just passed away last week.  The funeral was a wonderful compilation of stories about Boyd by his children and grandchildren.  I truly enjoyed hearing the stories they had to tell of Boyd as one of the last cowboys in a place where the city grew up all around him.  Some of them made me laugh, and a few of them made me cry.  It was a good time, plus I was able to see my parents at the funeral also.  Emmitt loved being with his grandpa and grandma for most of the day. 

When Emmitt and I got home from the funeral, the girls were walking home from school and this box was left on my front porch.  It says :
Instructions:  Close and lock door.  Hide behind large piece of furniture.  Quietly open box.  Savor and enjoy!

I opened the box and inside this smaller red box was carefully packaged among ice packs, styrofoam, and other soft and cushy shipping material.

My dear sweet mother sent me a dozen monster sized chocolate covered strawberries!  They were wonderful!  What a thoughtful and delicious treat!  I did share a few of them, and I must say I sure did enjoy!

Matt and I went to dinner and after dinner we came home and had some cake Matt brought home from work with the kids.  I really like that there is only ONE candle on the cake!  With this picture posted, I suppose I must confess that we are getting an addition to our family in June.  There is no more hiding it - it can no longer be hidden!  We are excited about this new little wonder and can't wait until we can meet him or her.

I was in need of a few good family pictures.  I needed a good picture to put on Christmas cards, and I needed to replace a few picture frames from our last family picture when Emmitt was just a few months old.  So I called my sister Tori. 

Photography is a hobby of hers that she enjoys, plus she is really good at it.  Her family came up to Heber on a Sunday afternoon around 4:00.  Since it gets dark at 5:00, we hustled.  We get out of church at 4:00, so as soon as we got home, we changed clothes and jumped in the car and drove to the north fields.
 

It was freezing, but I told the kids to smile and for Tori to start snapping.  It was over in about 8 minutes.  Tori said it was the fastest photo shoot in history!  I think she captured us well.  She did a great job!  Now the pictures will go down in Crane history!  I love this crew of mine!
 

another long winters evening

 Kelsey wanted to count the money in her piggy bank, and if Kelsey does it, then Kendal wants to do it too.  Then of course, Emmitt wants to help.  Kelsey actually counted the money, but Emmitt and Kendal were just happy with sorting the money into like piles.  Let me tell you, these winter nights get long around here with it getting dark at 5:30, so entertainment comes in any form!  But I noticed yesterday that the days are getting noticeably longer!  Yippee!

I started this quilt in 2006 when I joined the Utah Quilt Guild's statewide round robin exchange.  I have some fun blocks in this quilt from about 12 other ladies from around the state of Utah.  I have spent the last few years off and on making more blocks.  Well, last week I finished making the last few and put them together.  With these blocks, the quilt measures 72" by 84". 

I added one small dark blue border the other day, so now I am just waiting to find that perfect red and blue print to add a larger second border.  It will end up at 88" by 100".  I started this quilt with intentions of it going on my bed.  I think that is where it will end up!  

I am such a fickle woman, because now that the veggie, perennial, and shrub catalogs are showing up in the mail, I want to think about yard work!  It doesn't help that we still have NO snow, when the yard is usually buried by a foot of it in January!  It makes planning projects so much easier when I can see what I need to see!  Actually, I think I may take the shovel out today and see how frozen the ground is, and play in the dirt for a bit if I can!

sweet little wool coat

I adore this picture.  I wish I knew where I stole it from, but I can't remember.  It had to be from Amy or Sarah Jane.  I just saw the picture and loved the coat, so I saved it to my pictures.  I want to make one of these little civil war wool coats so badly.  I just think it is darling.  We don't have that many opportunities to wear cold weather civil war clothing here in Utah, because we plan most of our events for summertime.  I guess there is always early mornings and later nights, but my little ones don't stay with me overnight that often.  Either way, I don't think I can suppress the sewing bug -  I MUST MAKE ONE!  I want to kiss those sweet little cheeks too!

I couldn't find Emmitt the other day.  I was busy in the kitchen and I realized I hadn't heard from him in awhile.  He had made a HUGE mess in his room by dumping out every single nicely sorted bin of toys he had.  He wanted to watch a Dora movie and I told him he needed to go clean up the trucks first.  He didn't like that response.  So when I was busy, he got the little DVD player, put in the Dora movie he wanted to watch, climbed into my messy closet, curled up in a blanket, and closed the closet doors to watch his movie.

When I called for him, I heard a very faint "What mom" come from my bedroom.  I thought he was under my bed hiding.  Then I heard Dora and Boots the monkey yell for MAP and found him in my closet.  He is such a little stinker, I love that boy of mine.

By the way, the closet is horrible, I know.  I blame the nasty half you see on my dear sweet lover Matt.  My side is not so pretty, but his is just sad sad sad.

painting

Here are a few of the 'before' shots.

Yes, my stockings were still up!

Emmitt and I painted while the girls were at school.  He really was great.

So, take your pick, if you like lighter paint, look at these first pictures taken in the early afternoon.  If you like darker paint, look at the latter pictures, taken on a snowy day in the morning.  Same paint though!

 This is only phase 1 of the project.  I still have to paint the walls DOWN the stairs, but my parents made me promise not to do that by myself.  My mom says someone needs to hold the ladder. I think I agree.  So, phase 2 will be coming soon!

This is what we did today - more pictures to come!

The girls are back to school

The girls went back to school on Tuesday the 3rd after a wonderful Christmas Break.  They were excited to go back and see friends and teachers.  Emmitt sure loved having them home though.  It is back to boring mom now!  Matt had some vet work to do on Tuesday, but he had plenty of down time at home.  Emmitt kept asking him to play chess.  Matt really didn't want to, but finally he said "Sure buddy, you set it up and then come and get me" thinking he just got out of playing chess.

A few minutes later, Emmitt came and got him and led him to the chess board he had set up.  Matt and I were both amazed.  All the pawns were in the correct place, and Matt only had to move 6 or so pieces to make it perfect.  I guess he has been watching when the girls play!  Matt of course made him play by the rules, and they had a great time.  Whenever the girls play, he uses his truck and horse trailer to haul away the pieces that are killed.  See how he backed up his trailer to the chess board?  That boy cracks me up!

We celebrated back to school day with a hot dog and marshmallow roast that evening.  It is so crazy, because usually our fire pit, lawn, and garden are covered with at least 8 inches of snow in January.  This weather is starting to make me nervous!  We invited some friends over also, Jen and her family, and also Amanda and her family.  It was a fantastic and chilly time.  This is the only picture I got, since it got dark so quickly.  The kids had a great time jumping on the tramp, running around, and just playing, while the adults huddled around the fire and chatted.  It was a good way to celebrate back to school day and no snow covering the fire pit!

Christmas Break Days 10 and 11

 Day 10 of the girls' Christmas Break was New Years Day.  It was also Sunday so we went to church.  It was a good day, just everyone home for the day and eating the yummy food for the special welcome of 2012.
Day 11 was Monday, the last day of their break.  We made it!!  Kelsey has been wanting to go to work with Matt for a year or so, so she took the chance on Monday.  She had a good day and loved watching Matt do surgeries all morning, but by the afternoon she was a bit bored. I told her to take a book, but I am pretty sure she played on Matt's computer all afternoon!  Either way, both of them enjoyed the time together.

 That meant that Emmitt and Kendal were here with me, and of course making blanket huts, playing farm, and getting along really well.  That meant I got to sew!  I am a bit behind in the friendship blocks I need to make for quilt guild, so I got busy.  Beth wants a 10 inch red star with white background.  Here is what I did:


First I drew a star on a 10 inch square of freezer paper.  I then cut out the star into 9 pieces.  I found nice fat quarters of red and white fabrics in my stash, and ironed them.  I then placed the two fat quarters together, one one top of the other, and arranged the 9 star pieces of freezer paper on top.  The great thing about freezer paper is that it sticks when ironed, so I ironed my freezer paper pattern onto the fat quarters, making sure to leave at least a 1/2 inch in between the pieces.
 

Then I cut out the pieces leaving 1/4 inch seam allowance on all the inside edges.  You can leave a 1/4 inch on all sides of the pieces, but I wanted to have more red as a borderish look.
I removed the red pieces of the actual 4 star pieces, so it left the last layer of white as the star.

Then I moved the white outside pieces to match up with the red star.  Now I have two blocks that are exact opposites of each other that need to be sewn.  The best way to sew them together is to do it in sections of 3; the top 3, the bottom left corner 3, and then the remaining 3.

 Here are the two blocks I ended up with.  This one is for Beth, she wanted a red star and a white background.

This is the second, extra block.  I am not sure what I will do with it, but oh well!

 The other friendship block I needed to make was for Leah.  She wanted a 12 1/2 inch snowman block.  This is what I came up with.  I used a pattern from a magazine I had kept from a few years ago, then just added what I wanted to make her look a bit whimsical.  I still have a few more friendship blocks I need to catch up on, but at least I have a few to deliver to quilt guild this week!

 

Christmas Break Day 10, New Years Eve

Today is New Years Eve, and as boring as it sounds, we are not planning on going anywhere or doing anything crazy.  We are having some fun chips and dips tonight, and some delicious munchies with the kids, and that is about it.  I plan on being in bed by 10, no kidding!  One funny story:  the kids were arguing earlier today so I put in the movie Mary Poppins for them.  All was well, and blissfully quiet as they watched the movie and sat together nicely on the couch without pestering each other.  After about a half hour, Emmitt came upstairs to where I was cutting fabric in the kitchen and said "Mom, Mary Poppins is giving me a headache!"  So he stayed upstairs, had some chocolate milk, and helped me.  It was so cute of him and it made me giggle because she gives me a headache too!
 

Christmas Break Days 8 and 9

Thursday, what a day it was.

I was able to deliver the civil war cot quilt I made for Amanda's dad.  He was so sweet and grateful.  He loved it and was so appreciative.  That makes me happy and it makes me feel like the time and energy spent making the quilt was well worth it.  I went over to Amanda's house for a fun night with her and her dad, and also Caleb.  Caleb learned some Brenn Hill songs on his guitar for Amanda's dad and he sang them for us all.  It was a fun fun night just chatting with great people.

I also got the Christmas tree out (YIPPEE) and bought myself a new camera.  We will see how this one holds up.  The 3 previous Nikon Coolpix didn't seem to like my rough back-pocket-behavior!  

Kendal spent part of the day doing an optional homework assignment by reading books online.  She passed off a reading level and had a great time reading.  She is so excited to go back to school and have her teacher see how much to accomplished on the online reading program.  She and Kelsey went over to a friend's house that have 2 daughters the same age as my daughters.  They had a blast.

Today is not that exciting.  The kids are and I cleaning up more Christmas remnants.  It is warm outside, so they are headed out for a bit.  

Christmas Break Day 7

On Wednesday Kelsey cleaned out her room and I cleaned out the sewing room and we swapped a computer desk for a large book case.  I love the new book case in my sewing room, and she loves having a homework desk in her room now.  In my cleaning, I came across this old round robin quilt top from 2007.  I made the center apple tree and 3 other ladies from my quilt guild added the 3 additional borders.  I put on the dark brown border and took it to the machine quilter to finish.  I made this the year my Grandma Lela passed away, and it is called Grandma's Apple Tree since she had a few apple trees and there are sweet memories in my mind of playing in her apple trees and eating apples with my siblings and cousins.  I can't wait until it is finished!

 I also finished up the civil war cot quilt I am giving to my friend Amanda's dad, Larry Bowman tomorrow night.  Here is what the label says:

Made for Captain L.R. Bowman, Surgeon for 2nd Regiment Ky. Infantry.  Thank you for your kind and generous service to our brave Southern boys.  I am forever grateful, Mrs. R. Crane   October 1863

It turned out pretty nice and fun.  I hope it keeps him warm on those cold reenactment nights!  I love sewing with reproduction fabrics and with older, simple quilt block patterns that the ladies would have used in the 1860s.

Christmas Break Day 6

Since my camera is still angry at me and has no intention of forgiving me, I have no pictures to post for Tuesday the 27th, although plenty happened at our house today.
Kelsey and Matt went to Salina at 7:00 am to work cows, check on the baby calves, and get more firewood.  They didn't get home until late and Kelsey had a fantastic day.  That means Emmitt, Kendal, and I spent the day at home.  Those two get along really well, and they spent the morning playing with the farm toys that Santa was good enough to leave us.  I did laundry, lots of it, cleaned our very messy house, and cooked.  Christmastime seems to make this house a mess.  I really wanted to take down the Christmas tree, but I knew it would break Matt's heart, so I left it and worked on a particular civil war cot quilt for a very particular man.  I am so excited to give it to him in a few days! 

Christmas Break Day 5

 The day after Christmas, my sister Tori and her family came up to Heber City to ride the Heber Valley Railroad with us.  I had won a few train tickets, and I was able to purchase 6 more discount tickets for our fun after Christmas adventure.  We rode the 3:00 Train and Tube train.  We rode on the train around Deer Creek Reservoir, and then returned to Soldier Hollow to go tubing.  The normal tickets for this train run $38 for adults and $28 for children.  With my free and discount tickets, the math turns out to about $5.30 per ticket.  That is right!  AMAZING RACHEL!  I love KTMP radio - they are the folks that hooked me up!

 Anyway, the boys, Emmitt and Brogan LOVED the train experience.  They loved it when it had to blow its whistle while crossing all the roads to get out of town.  Brogans eyes showed pure joy!  The girls enjoyed it too.

 Matt had the day off of work and was excited for our day excursion and he enjoyed it very much.  We sat by the wood or coal stove in our train car, so Tori and I heated up really quick for some reason!  We actually opened our windows for a bit!

 Kendal loved the experience and would only sit with Tori and Jared.  She is on a baby-craze lately and she and Brogan made plenty of noise on our end of the train!

 Little Brig was put straight to sleep whenever the train was moving.  He woke up when the train stopped to turn around, but I admit, that motion and the heat made me want to fall asleep too!

 My sweet Emmitt.  He loved every minute of the day.  He loved being with Brogan, riding the train, seeing the baby, tubing, and just being with everyone else on a fun day together.

 When we stopped and got off the train at the Soldier Hollow depot, a bus took us up the hill to the tubing spot.  Matt and Jared started off the troops while Tori and I got dressed and snuggled Brig in the Lodge.  It got dark pretty quickly, so Tori's picture taking was pretty limited.

 I was surprised we didn't get colder than what we did.  Taylor and Kelsey stuck together the entire time and once I came out of the lodge, Kendal and I hooked up for a good time.  She really enjoyed it and was quite the maniac tubing girl.  She got to go down 5 times while the older girls only went down 3 times.  Emmitt and Matt stuck together and I saw them come down once.  Emmitt had his little gloved hand covering his smiling face.  It was the cutest thing I had seen all month!  Jared and Brogan went down a few times and Jared took turns with Tori so she could tube also.  At 6:00 the bus picked us up and took us back to the train depot in Heber City.

It was a super fun day with my sister and her family.  The cousins really enjoy playing with each other and I so very much enjoy Jared and Tori's company.  We finished off the night with dinner at The Dairy Keen together -  the best burgers and shakes in town.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Well, my camera is mad at me for getting sawdust in the lens on Christmas Eve while we were getting firewood, so I have no pictures of Christmas Day at our house.  Can you believe that?  What crumby luck!  But we still had a wonderful day.  I told Kelsey that she and her brother and sister could not come upstairs until 7:00 am.  Matt and I woke up around 6:00 and we heard footsteps and excited voices coming up the stairs at exactly 7:00!  Santa did stop at our house and left us with some wonderful presents.  By 9:00 all the presents had been opened and everyone was ready for breakfast.
We went to church at 1:00 and it was a good meeting.  Emmitt was a little wound up, but it was still a nice way to spend Christmas.  We made phone calls to grandpas and grandmas and shared all the excitement.  It was a wonderful day, but we were all ready for bedtime when it rolled around.