Jaime's Journal

DOLLS 81-90

2012-02-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

Doll 81-Emma, after our granddaughter.

Doll 82-Joy, because she looks happy.

Doll 83-Lillian, after another roommate in Hawaii.

Doll 84-Cecile, just because!

Doll 85-Gabrielle, I guess I like french names.

Doll 86-Phoebe

Doll 87-Cherie

Doll 88-Catie

Doll 89-Molly

Doll 90-Kelly

NOTE: I have come to the conclusion that I am not a great photographer. I leave that to my husband who is a fantastic photographer. Unfortunately, I take these pictures for my blog. I would rather spend time making tiny accessories for these dolls than spend time worrying about tiny details in my photography. Oh, well, we all have different priorities!

DOLLS 71-80

2012-02-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

Doll 71-Nonna-She looks like an Italian grandmother.

Doll 72-Dani-after my room mate in Hawaii

Doll 73-Kyleigh-named after my granddaughter even though she doesn't look anything like her.

Doll 74-Collette-named after a very dear friend.

Doll 75-Rebecca

Doll 76-Adrienne

Doll 77-Fifi, because she reminds me of a poodle.

Doll 78-Jane, as in Tarzan and Jane

Doll 79-Sun Yung-She reminds me of a Korean supermodel.

Doll 80-Robyn-after my curly blonde haired granddaughter.

STACKS OF STUFF

2012-02-07T15:28:00.000-08:00

I am making all of these dolls, not only for a challenge for myself but also for trades at Artfest 2012. The theme this year is "Stacks of Stuff." So....

Stacks of fabric...

Plus stacks of miscellaneous yarn...

Plus stacks of bodies equals:

Stacks of dolls...

And more dolls...

And more dolls!

MORE DOLLS

2012-02-07T12:35:00.000-08:00

I just finished my 92nd doll but am behind on photographing and posting them.

Here's Ann-Doll 63

Doll 64-Chloe

Doll 65-Meadow-she's straight out of the sixties!

Doll 66-Jennifer after a foster daughter.

Doll 67-Gretchen

Doll 68-Linda-after a friend in Arizona whose husband has cancer. Please pray for her and her family.

Doll 69-Jill-after my skinny sister.

Doll 70-Junker Jane after a teacher at Artfest that I'm taking a class from. This one goes to her!

I'm going to start posting ten dolls at a times so I can get caught up to where I actually am!

DOLLS 58-62

2012-02-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

Doll 58-Aubrey

Doll 59-Moonbeam

Doll 60-Sally

Doll 61-Peyton

Doll 62-Brett

A PEEK AT MY STUDIO

2012-01-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

Just thought you might want a peek at my studio while I'm working on my dolls. I work on the floor with all my stuff spread out all around me.

DOLLS 53-57 CREATING A DOLL EVERYDAY

2012-01-27T09:46:00.000-08:00

Doll 53-Gigi

Doll 54-Joslin, after my first friend in kindergarten

Doll 55-Ynette, although I should have named her Dolly after Dolly Parton

Doll 56-Gloria after my daughter-in-law's mother

Doll 57-Madison, after the mermaid in the movie Splash

DOLLS 48-52 CREATING A DOLL EVERYDAY

2012-01-25T17:36:00.000-08:00

Doll 48-Olivia, after my favorite pig!

Doll 49-Dawn, after a girl I knew in Hawaii

Doll 50-Grace, just because she looks like one.

Doll 51-Miss Von Southern, my 3rd and 4th grade teacher

Doll 52-Bridgitt-after the Irish saint of fertility.

DOLLS 43-47

2012-01-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

Doll 43-Jesse Reno-after the artist

Doll 44-Angelica after Angelica Houston, actress

Doll 45-Lucy-after Lucille Ball

Doll 46-Pink-after the singer

Doll 47-Shannon

CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS AND FINALLY, MORE DOLLS!

2012-01-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I posted. I was busy with Christmas preparations, a trip to Disneyland and California Adventure Park with my son's family and maintaining holiday traditions. I hope my life is finally back to order and I can get back to making a doll a day!

Here's the eight dresses I made for my granddaughters.

Every year since our boys (the oldest is 34) were little we have made graham cracker gingerbread houses as part of our holiday celebration.

Our daughter and her family were able to join us for Christmas.

I was lucky enough to spend three days in Disneyland and California Adventure with my son and his family.

Our granddaughter loves Dumbo!

One of my favorite things was a live performance of Aladdin.

And now-more dolls!

This one is doll 38. Her name is Alice.

Doll 39-Adeola-after an artist I met at Artfest last year.

Doll 40-Kim

Doll 41-Jaime, after my high school self.

Doll 42-Zoe

More dolls are coming! I actually have more than 100 doll bodies made, I just need to dress them and hair and faces.

MORE DOLLS!

2011-12-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

Doll 33-Michelle after my cousin.

Doll 34-Winifred (Just because she looks like a Winifred.)

Doll 35-Marie

Doll 36-Alyssa after my niece.

Doll 37-Selena

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAYS

2011-12-04T20:16:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted any more dolls lately. I have been busy getting ready for big events: Thanksgiving; then an even bigger event-the sealing of our daughter and her husband Rigg and their little daughter in the temple; then Christmas decorations and preparations.

I made my granddaughter's dress and jacket.

Here she is wearing it at the temple.

Here's the whole family. What a wonderful day!

We had five of our ten grandchildren during the holidays. Here I am reading a story to the oldest of the five.

Here's what you call a miracle: Five children four and under looking at the camera at the same time. I'm in the middle with my parents on either side and the grand and for my parents great grandchildren flanking us.

Visiting Santa: This granddaughter is scared of Santa. She's not sure she wants to be very close to him.

Well, maybe he's not so bad. He gave me a candy cane.

Well, maybe he's okay after all. I told him I wanted a dolly for Christmas.

Her sister was not afraid at all. In fact she even told Santa that her daddy said she wasn't getting anything for Christmas this year.

We made wreaths for Christmas presents for mommy and daddy and grandma and grandpa. I wish all my grandchildren were close so we could have fun doing Christmas projects. (This was a dollar store project:$5.50 for four wreaths.)

If you're lucky, tomorrow I'll post more dolls. I just need to photograph the ones I have already made.

DOLLS 28-32 CREATING A DOLL EVERYDAY

2011-11-17T19:59:00.000-08:00

More dolls

Doll 28 Asabelle (I gave this one to my friend Kim because her birthday is on Halloween!)

Doll 29 Marilyn-I dont' know why I named her Marilyn except maybe she reminds me a little of my friend Marilyn Cooper.

Doll 30 Lauren

Doll 31 Viola after Viola Swamp from the children's book.

Doll 32 Tabitha

DOLLS 23-27 CREATING A DOLL EVERYDAY

2011-11-16T23:29:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted any dolls lately. I've been sewing a white dress for my granddaughter Peyton who will be sealed with her parents in the Rexburg Temple on November 26th. We are excited. I will post pictures later.

Here is doll 23-Her name is Bette after Bette Midler.

Doll 24-Mabel. She is named after my grandmother who for years worked in the women's department at Capwell's. I used to love to go see her there. I thought she always looked so elegant.

Doll 25-This is Rosalinda.

Doll 26-This one is named Glenn after Glenn Close.

Doll 27-Pippi after Pippi Longstocking, only now she's grown-up!

CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY, CONTINUED

2011-11-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

I took a break from making dolls to make five more wacky quilt blocks so I could finish my wacky house quilt. I intend to use it for a Christmas gift. So here are "Creating a Home Everyday" houses 101-105.

DOLLS 18-22 CREATING A DOLL EVERYDAY

2011-11-10T20:33:00.000-08:00

Here are more dolls. Tomorrow I will post more wacky house blocks that I made the past two days. I decided to make enough blocks to put them into a quilt for a Christmas gift. I now have 12 which is enough!

Doll 18-Antoinette

Doll 19-Guen

Doll 20 Shannon

Doll 21-Alexis-Named after Richard Castle's (from the T.V. show Castle) daughter, Alexis.

Doll 22-Cher

DOLLS 13-17-CREATING A DOLL A DAY

2011-11-09T21:47:00.000-08:00

Doll 13-Barbara after Barbara Bush

Doll 14-Tyler, for no reason except she looks like a Tyler to me.

Doll 15-Deanna after my sister-in-law.

Doll 16-Madeline after the one in the stories but she is all grown-up.

Doll 17-Julianne after Julianne Hough of Dancing with the Stars and the new Footloose movie.

FALL!

2011-11-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

I am so glad we decided to take pictures of our granddaughters playing in the fall leaves before the snow fell. We had a great time covering each other with leaves. Unfortunately it snowed before we got them raked up but they will still be there in the spring! (The leaves, not the girls!)

Here's Allan doing what he does best!

DOLLS 8-12 CREATING A DOLL EVERYDAY

2011-11-08T21:56:00.001-08:00

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to upload five more dolls to show you. Here they are!

Doll 8-Lady Gaga, after the singer

Doll 9-Francine, shopping in Paris.

Doll 10 Cassandra, after Cassandra Barney, artist and friend of my friend Carla Jimison.

Doll 11-Kyoung after another artist friend of mine and Carla's. (Sorry if I spelled your name wrong Kyoung.)

Doll 12-Blanche, after Blanche on "Golden Girls."

DOLLS 1-7 CREATING A DOLL EVERYDAY

2011-11-08T09:29:00.000-08:00

Hurrah! My computer is fixed and I can start posting the dolls that I have made. See previous posts to find out the details about how the idea to make dolls came about and what I'm doing with them.

My first doll. Her name is Penny just because Penny sounds like a good 1950's name.

Doll number 2-Abby after Abby on NCIS.

Doll 3-Her name is Leilani.

Doll 4-This doll is named Ros after my Aunt Ros who has red hair and is a retired school teacher.

Doll 5-Barbara B. Jones after the beauty pageant consultant/inspirational speaker.

Doll 6-Lois after Lois Lane.

Doll 7-Aquarius

DAY 100-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-11-07T16:04:00.000-08:00

My computer's fixed and here are some houses I finished up so I could make at least 100. I started out with two sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 inch card stock and cut them to make square cards and got 3 cards out of each sheet. The smallest are about 1 inch square. My grandchildren love the "baby" house cards.

I'M BACK!

2011-11-07T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hurrah! My computer is finally fixed, hopefully for the long term. Sorry I haven't posted lately. My computer has been the problem, not me.

After making more than 100 houses, I decided I needed to populate my houses. So I made it a goal to make a doll a day. I have made 60 so far so I am actually ahead. I just need to download them onto my computer and post them here on my blog. So keep watching. I hope by tomorrow I will be able to post the first five dolls. I decided to post five a a time so you don't have to look at all sixty at once. It can be a little overwhelming. I am going to give away my dolls at Artfest for my trades. I am so glad I decided to attend since this is going to be the last one! The funny thing is that when I was deciding whether or not I should go I had a feeling that Artfest 2012 would be my last opportunity. Lucky me! (Hey it you are lucky I may have time later today to post one or more of my dolls--stay tuned!)

DAYS 85-99 CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-09-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Day 94-99 A house of cards. Okay, lots of houses made from old greeting cards I've been saving. I am trying to get caught up and these are easy and fun. I now have an entire village!
Day 91-93 I made houses cut out of watercolor paintings my two year old granddaughter and I painted. She's pretty good at painting and she had a lot of fun. So did grandma!

Day 90-I spent the afternoon with three of my granddaughters and my daughter and son-in-law at our local splash park. It's free! I took this picture accidentally and decided to post it as a home for the day.

Day 87-89 I found some Amish quilt postcards that I have been saving for years and decided they would be good materials to make houses from.

Day 86-I was playing around with the word house and came up with this design. Very rough I know, but it's hard doing something everyday!

Day 85-Another house in my collection. This one is a box from stationery designed by Warren Kimble. I have a copy of this painting hanging in my hallway.

DAYS 79-84 CREATING A HOME A DAY

2011-08-23T22:35:00.001-07:00

Day 84-I got ambitious today and created wacky quilt block number 7.
Day 83 and 82-I have been frustrated the past couple of days and decided to close my eyes and see what my hand created. The first house is called "Letting Off Steam" and the second one is just "Angry House." It was amazing how my subconscous mind drew exactly what has been bothering me.

Day 81-Another scribble drawing. I love these. I close my eyes and draw what I am feeling. I was in more of a peaceful frame of mind when I drew this one.

Day 80-I was playing around with color in my journal. This is just the start. I have now changed the colors and ripped out the left part of the page. At some later date I will finish it and post it.

Day 79-A seashell house.

DAYS 70-78 CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-08-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

Day 78-A house in a hand is worth two in a bush!

Day 77-A cuckoo clock house that I have worn on my charm bracelet since 1977.
Day 76-A mini house.
Day 75-A pasta house.
Day 74-Another house from my collection. I bought this one at the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City in 1989.

Day 73-A faiytale house.Day 72-Another house card.

Day 71-Another house card.

Day 70-A monster house.

DAYS 66-69 CREATING A HOME A DAY

2011-08-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

Day 69-I didn't create this house. It's a photo of one from my collection of houses. I've been collecting houses for years. I love houses!
Day 68-Sunday drawing-This one got a little confusing with the leaves and the checkerboard on the roof.

Day 67-I love this one! It's a collage made from pages of a home decorating magazine. I put it in the journal I made at Artfest last April.

Day 66-I made another house card from our granddaughter Chalee's name. Her birthday is coming up.

DAYS 56-65 CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-08-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. After our son and his family left to go home we had two more house guests arrive for a visit and then our daughter came a few days later with her two kids. So we have a house full and I have gotten behind on creating houses but last night I stayed up late and made seven house cards to get caught up. So technically I should label my houses by numbers instead of days because I'm not actually doing them on the actual day. Oh well, for consistency I will continue to label them the same way that I have been doing.

I found my missing house for Day 37! Here's a house picture made from the letters of the name of one of my granddaughters.

Here's my creation for Day 65. It's my husband's observatory in our backyard.
Day 64-I love the shadows on this one!

Day 63-This wacky house just looks happy! I like it.

Day 62-A wacky windmill.

Day 61-A round house.

Day 60-Take a look inside this house.

Day 59-Townhouses!

This is a creature I made from plant material to inhabit the house for Day 58.

Day 58-A flower house created from vegetation growing in our yard. I can't really call it a garden because stuff just grows everywhere-not just where we plant it. It's kind of pretty though and although I would like a beautifully landscaped yard my husband likes the "natural look" and it's much more fun for the grandkids (and easier!) so for now the "natural look" is okay!

Day 57-My favorite time of the year where we live is the last two weeks of July and the month of August because all of the college kids go home and we start harvesting from our garden. Day 57's house is made from snow peas and raspberries from our garden. The tree is made from what happens when we let our carrots go to seed. Pretty seed flowers though, they remind me of Queen Anne's Lace. I might have to pick some and make an arrangement!

Day 56-Here's a house made from junk mail from an advertisement for the Museum of Women's Art.

DAYS 47-55 CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-07-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted any houses. I've been having the time of my life with my sons and grandchildren. See the previous posts for details of that experience!

Day 55-I created a small wool felted house. It's a bit wacky like my cards and quilt squares. I really want to start creating something a little different!
Day 54-This one is different. Day 52's houses all lined up in a row stationery was so boring. I went a little crazy with my house stamp and created this. I call it "Wild Houses Can't Keep Me Away." I really like getting wild and crazy. Must do it more often!

Day 53-I really didn't like the boring house stationery so made this one a little more crazy and added some lines and detail. Looks too much like my wacky houses.

Day 52-The boring houses in a row stationery.

Day 51-I drew a picture of what I imagined it would look like to look in the window of a rich person's house.Day 50-My granddaughter Jordan drew this picture of a house. She's eight. Isn't it great!

Day 49-My grandson Cameron made this encaustic collage of a haunted house. It's fun to use guest artists to help me out!

My granddaughter Breana made this encaustic collage as a gift for her mom.

This is Jordan's encaustic collage. These three are my oldest grandkids and they did a great job. I didn't even have wax all over my kitchen!

Day 48-Guest artist Breana made this card.

Day 47-Guest artist Jordan loved making house cards. Here are three that she created. Thanks for sharing, Jordan!

FAMILY TIME!

2011-07-26T15:07:00.001-07:00

Our son from Arizona visited us for a week and we had a wonderful time. He brought his wife and two kids and also our oldest granddaughter. We got together with our other son who lives close and his wife and two girls (our oldest granddaughter is his daughter). The eleven of us had a great time. Our activities included a day at our town's new water park. Here is our son and our only grandson swimming in the lazy river.
We also had a great time playing hide and seek in our backyard. We played hide and go seek, had picnics in the backyard and got out the croquet set. Here is our granddaughter in one of our yard's hiding places.We also went to Fat Cats our local entertainment center where we bowled and played miniature golf in the dark (isn't this place cool!) and had pizza and soda.

One day we went to the zoo where a favoriate activity was feeding and brushing the goats and watching the zoo personnel feed the penguins.

Here's our son and his wife at the zoo.

We actually had half of our grandchildren during the week. Here they are at the zoo.

We also did crafts (for more crafts we did check out the Creating A Home Everyday entry). We decorated flip flops and water bottles.

Thank you Jared and Veronica for using your vacation time to visit! Please come again. It was so much fun! And Jared, thanks for using your vacation time to help solve our computer problems! And thanks for bringing B. I know you were crowded! We love you!

Days 45 and 46-CREATING A HOME A DAY

2011-07-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

Day 46-I created a pop up card out of card stock and collaged magazine cut outs. It's my dream cottage in the woods.
Day 45-I drew a basic house then made an M.C. Escher type design using graph paper. This is harder than it looks. I had to start in the middle and work out. It was fun. Someday I will try it again using a different house shape.

I may not be posting for a while (is that one word or two?) because my son and daughter-in-law and three grandchildren are coming to visit from Arizona. We are going to have fun!

Day 44-CREATING A HOME A DAY

2011-07-14T13:52:00.001-07:00

Day 44-I made a one inch square piece of art called an "inchie." It's a collage of a house backed by a small piece of an old print I made then glued cut out pictures on.

Days 38-43 CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-07-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

Day 43-I was lazy and hungry today so I created a house shaped tortilla. Had to hurry and take a picture of it so I could eat it!
Day 42-Another wacky house block for my "someday I'll finish it" quilt. But with creating a home everyday for a year I should finish sometime in the next 10 1/2 months. I figure I need about 32 blocks to make a decent sized quilt. I have 6 done, 26 more to go!

Day 41-"Honey, I love the house but it is much too small!"

Day 40-Another card to add to my collection. Except they keep disappearing. I keep using them!

Day 39-I have had this house in one dimension as part of an ad for forever. I copied it on card stock, cut on the solid lines, folded on the dotted lines and this is how it turned out!

Day 38-The 5th quilt block in my wacky quilt series.

DAYS 30-36 CREATING A HOME A DAY

2011-07-06T21:59:00.001-07:00

Day 30-I was exhausted this day so I got out of bed and drew a picture of my dollhouse with my eyes closed. I didn't peek at all. This is what I got.Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I was out of town attending my niece's wedding and reception. Here is the lovely bride and her family. (What can I say, they are a bunch of goofballs!)The bride and groom's first dance as a married couple.
Day 31-I decided to use this picture for my house for day 31. It's actually not the whole house but just a part of the reception center. I think the picture turned out cool with the reflection of the mountains in the window.

Day 32-The day after my niece's wedding we were able to share in the joy of another neice's first trip to the temple with her fiance. The temple is the house for day 32.Day 33-I lost the card I made for day 33. I'll post it when I find it. This M&M house is for Day 34.

Day 35-Another house card, this one a long rectangle. Day 36-A matching envelope.

DAYS 25-29 CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-29T22:37:00.001-07:00

Day 29-I love this old olive oil can and this old book. Put them together and "Voila!"

A house!

Day 28-Just a fun drawing with gel pens on black paper.

Day 27-A fun drawing in my mini-sketch book.

Day 26-June 26th was my husband and my 40th wedding anniversary. So the home for today is The House of the Lord-the temple-the most important house of all! Here we are 40 years ago. Day 25-Here are my birds looking for a new home in the want ads in the Nester's Journal since papa bird shrunk their old home.

DAYS 23 AND 24-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

This is the month we celebrate the birthdays of three granddaughters, two children and our anniversary.
Today our daughter was visiting with her two children and we celebrated her darling daughter Robyn's birthday with a cake, gifts, bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Here is Robyn.
Day 24-Here is my house for today, drawn with sidewalk chalk and a little help from our granddaughter Emma.

Here's the budding artist. Doesn't she have the most beautiful blue eyes? Robyn has blue eyes too but they are overpowered by her Shirley Temple curls!

Day 23 House-"Honey, I shrunk the birdhouse!" I didn't make the birdhouse but I did make the birds!

DAY 20, 21 AND 22-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Day 22-I started a set of notecards using the wacky house idea. They are a lot of fun.

Day 21-We had soup and crackers for dinner. The crackers didn't make it into my mouth.Day 20-My first notecard.

Day 19-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

I did this drawing in my little journal during church. It's a good thing I got it done then because we've been on the phone most of the day with family since it's Father's Day. Thanks for calling everyone! (Two more days of creating homes and it will be 21 days. I read somewhere that if you do something for 21 days in a row it becomes a habit!)

Our peonies are finally in bloom. I brought these giant blooms in the house so we can enjoy them.

Days 16, 17 and 18 CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

Saturday, June 18th. This wacky house looks like it's in the middle of the ocean and rocking on a stormy sea which is about what I feel like today. I have a horrible headache and back pain so it was a miracle I even got this done. When I looked at it I thought, "Ha! That house looks exactly how I feel!" Friday's house--I finally finished another square of my hooked house pillow. Believe me, these are not fun, especially when one is allergic to wool! Only one more to go.

Thursday's house turned out fun! I love these wacky houses. No worries about matching anything. Unmatched makes for more wacky!

Day 15-CREATING A HOME EVERDAY

2011-06-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

Wow! It is only 1:10 in the afternoon and I already have my home for today finished and I'm posting it on my blog! All I can say is that these wacky houses are fun and easy. Hope you like it!

Day 14-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

Day 14-Today I decided I could sew up a house quilt block in a manageable time frame. I decided to look on line to see if there were any patterns. I found a picture of a quilt that was done as a block exchange. All the houses were "wacky houses." I decided I likes that idea and promptly designed and made a "wacky house" block. These are way fun because they can be as wacky as I want. I paper pieces it which didn't work everywhere so I ended up having to turn some edges under and sew it by hand. The background fabric is fabric I have had for years! It's blue sky with clouds and spider webs of all things. I will probably design lots more wacky houses and make more squares (they are eight inch squares) because I can always make them into a quilt for one of my nine granddaughters.

Day 12 and 13-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Day 13-Junk mail houses

Day 12-I realized today that I don't have to (and can't!) do big projects everyday. I took care of my grandchildren this weekend and had to do a quick project. Fortunately I have a book called The Joy of Origami which has directions for, and preprinted paper for a myriad of origami projects. I thought to myself, "I bet that origami book I have has directions for an origami house." Hooray, I was right! Easy, peasy-an origami house! (Gives me an idea to someday do another one using plain paper and draw my own inside and outside-someday when I have more time!)

Day 11-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-11T23:42:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the second house on my wool hooked pillow. I think these need to be week long projects. I can't expect to get finished in a day or even two with everything else that is going on. I forgot how long it takes to do one of these!

Here' s how the two of them look together.

Day 10-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our granddaughter Lillee's second birthday. We went to her party where she had a wonderful time with her friends. She loved all of her gifts, even her clothes!

And everyone loved the cake!

Especially Lillee!

I tried my hardest to get my hooked pillow house done but I couldn't finish it. In the wee hours of the morning on the tenth I did a rough sketch of an idea to draw a house on a paint sample card so in lieu of anything better for my making a home a day project, here's a picture of that sketch! (At least I haven't missed a day!)

Day 8 and 9-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Day 9-Well, this house on my pillow took me longer than I thought it would. I worked on it yesterday and today. Thank goodness I went to the thrift store yesterday and bought myself a house! A barn, actually. So for Day 8 I took a picture of my new house.

Part of the reason I didn't get much done on my house for the pillow design is that I worked on getting our garden planted. I planted snow peas, radishes, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, basil, and thyme. Believe it or not we have a perennial carrot garden. My husband decided to do an experiement to see if the carrots would reseed themselves. They did and for the last 2 years we have had volunteer carrots. Enough for the neighborhood. We had to dig up part of them so we would have room for our new things. We also have chives and green onions that return every year. It is practically the middle of June and just now getting warm enough so that we don't have to worry about the tomatoes freezing. And our lilacs are just blooming. Crazy weather!

Day 7-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

This is my artwork for today, the beginning of a five day post. I decided to make a wool hooked pillow, about 20 inches square. Today's home is the design for the pillow. On each of the next four days I will hook one house. (That's the plan anyway, we'll see how long it takes me to hook one house!)

Day 5 and 6-CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

Day Five-I watched my grandchildren over the weekend and Sunday night realized I hadn't done my house for the day. I actually tried to make house shaped pancakes for my granddaughters but it was a failure. So I tried to make a house shaped toast snack. Here's the result.

Day Six-Okay, 10:00 p.m. again. Out came the silverware. I'm having fun even though some of these are 5 minute jobs!

CREATING A HOME EVERYDAY

2011-06-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I went to Barnes and Noble and found a book titled A Daily Creativity Journal-Make Something Everyday and Change Your Life by Noah Scalin. I decided I needed something to do so I bought the book and decided that starting June 1 I would design and make a house everyday thus my theme: Creating a Home a Day. I've always loved making a home so thought this theme would be fitting. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to make a different home everyday but I can't sleep at night for thinking of ideas. Anyway, I started and so far am on schedule. The houses above are pieced but not quilted. I framed them for a gift for my cousin Carolyn. The four houses sewn together finish at 5 inches by 7 inches so those pieces are tiny!

House #2 is made from an empty Cheerios box. Carolyn and her sister Linda came over for Carolyn's birthday and we all got involved in my house a day project.

Mine, Carolyn's and Linda's houses

Houses Day 3-I like to draw on envelopes and then when I write to my grandkids I send my letters in my illustrated envelopes. The "flying houses" are address and return address spaces obviously.

When I went to photograph my envelopes for day 3 I realized that with the flap open an envelope looks like a house. So for day 4 an envelope house! (My photography is bad-I guess I am going to have to get better but I typed the word roof for the roof, window for the windows, etc.)

Christmas, continued.

2011-01-15T14:25:00.001-08:00

After going to John and Kim's we headed home, took and nap and then opened more presents at our house with Kim and Rigg and Peyton.
Peyton loves her blanket from Great Grandma Call.

Peyton loves to dress up with accessories from her dress-up box that her creative mom, Kim Murray made.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-15T14:17:00.001-08:00

We started our Christmas at John and Kim's. We woke up at 5:30 a.m. so we could drive to Idaho Falls to watch their kids open presents. We were delayed because we had to scrape ice off the windshield of our car. It was super cold. We had to use my blow dryer to speed things up!

Lillee loves the quilt great-grandma Call gave her.
Lillee and Mom open another blanket.

After we opened presents at John and Kim's we went to Kim's parents to watch the kids open more presents!

Before we opened presents at Kim and John's.

Jared and Veronica Get Married

2011-01-15T13:53:00.001-08:00

Our son Jared married Veronica on October 9, 2010 in Casa Grande, Arizona.

The cutest flower girl ever!

Jordan and Veronica share a moment before the wedding.

Summer's Almost Gone!

2010-09-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

Summers where we live are short and this year we had an especially short one. Here are some things I managed to do this summer:

My husband and I took two of our grandkids to the nature park to feed the ducks. The ducks weren't at all shy. When they saw us coming with food they started waddling in our direction! By the time we crossed the parking lot to the lawn the ducks and geese were ready and waiting!

I played with my grandkids. One of Chaylee's favorite things is playing with playdough. Here she is making ropes. Allan refuses to call them snakes since he is not fond of snakes. He was bit by a diamondback rattlesnake. Lillee is waiting with a book. Being read to is one of her favorite things.

I made 30 Christmas stockings for soldiers in the armed forces. My friend Louise was working on the project with the women's club and I volunteered to help her out.

I made this dress for Chaylee for her third birthday. I had enough fabric leftover to make Lillee a matching one. (It's a Pink Fig pattern.)

A New Grandbaby

2010-06-07T11:44:00.001-07:00

We have a new granddaughter, Cynthia Jean Willett, born May 27, 2010 at 7:07 p.m. to Destiny and C.J. She was 6 pounds 15 ounces and 20 inches long. Congratulations Destiny and C.J.

This makes 10 grandchildren for us, 9 girls and 1 boy.

HALLOWEEN FUN!

2009-12-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Halloween. I know it was three months ago but, hey, I've been busy! This is a picture of the worms Allan and I ate for Halloween. I didn't know worms could be so yummy. (Our neighbor brought them over. They are actually jello that has been poured into straws and then jelled. They really looked gross!)

This is a picture of our granddaughter. Every year we visit them in October and we make 'haunted houses" out of graham crackers and candy. The next picture is our other granddaughter with her house.

The sweet baby and the scary almost two year old are two of our other granddaughters dressed up for Halloween.

Two Weddings

2009-08-31T10:41:00.000-07:00

Not only did we have three grandbabies born this summer, we also had two weddings. Our son John and our daughter Destiny were both married in August. John and Kim are in the picture to the right.

I made the flower girl dresses for John and Destiny's wedding.

I recycled the flower centerpieces from John's wedding into bouquets, boutonnière's and corsages for Destiny's wedding.

All Three Granddaughters

2009-08-28T15:07:00.001-07:00

Here are all of our June grandbabies. Robyn is on the left. She was born June 25th. Peyton is in the middle. She was born June 22nd. Lillee is on the right. She was born June 10th. We sure love our little girls!

Our Second New Granddaughter

2009-08-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

I know! These granddaughter pictures are totally out of order. I had trouble downloading my pictures when I posted pictures of Robyn so I couldn't post any pictures of our second June granddaughter.
Meet Peyton! She was born June 22, 2009 to our daughter Kim Murray and her husband Rigg.

Peyton was nine pounds two ounces and twenty-three inches long. She was born with a ton of black hair (which you can't see in this picture because it's covered up with her hat). She is full of personality and looks just like Kim but she has Rigg's nose!

Here's the proud dad just minutes after Peyton was born.

Third Granddaughter is born!

2009-08-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

On June 25, 2009 our daughter Danielle had a baby girl. They named her Robyn Nicole Smith. Here she is with her cousin Lillee who was born June 10th. The second picture shows Robyn with her mother Danielle.

The first of our new granddaughters is born!

2009-06-12T17:31:00.001-07:00

Baby Lillee was born at 7:52 a.m. on Wednesday, June 10th to our son John and Kim. She weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces and is 18.5 inches long. She is a beautiful baby and looks just like her daddy. We are so glad she arrived safely.
Isn't she the most beautiful baby in the world! Now we have 5 granddaughters and 1 grandson with 2 more granddaughters on the way THIS MONTH!

2009-05-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here's Jordan's finished doll. She added the bow and flower at the waist and the rhinestones and flowers around the bottom of the dress. Notice the rhinestones on the hands.

2009-05-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

In April Allan and I drove to Arizona to see Jared and Veronica and our grandkids. I decided I wanted to make fairy dolls with Jordan and Breana. I made the bodies and they painted the faces, hands and feet and dressed them with a little help from grandma. The decorations are all their own idea. I just brought a box full of "stuff" and they chose how to design their dolls. I think they turned out fantastic. The pink haired doll is Jordan's. She's five. The blond haired doll is Breana's. She's eight. I had a lot of fun helping them. Playing with my grandkids is on the top of my list of fun things to do!

These dolls are not quite done.

Here we are working on our dolls. I never did get mine finished. I got too busy helping the girls with theirs.

2009-05-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

I guess it's time I posted more on this blog. I bet everyone thought I had died or something. I am still around.

I guess I've been busy. I had a shower for Dani then Kim. This is a picture of the blessing dress I made for Kim's soon to be born baby girl. We found bridal fabric on sale to make it from. The total cost for dress: $35.00. About half of what it cost for a store bought plain dress.

Making a Baby Quilt

2009-03-01T10:37:00.001-08:00

The Saturday after Thanksgiving I went to our local quilt store "The Quilted Heart" because they were having a 50% off sale on all their fabric. You had to buy a minimum of one yard but since I am a smart lady I bought a bag full of pieces of flannel that were a kit for a quilt. I didn't use them for the quilt in the kit but used them to make this quilt. Here is a picture of the almost finished quilt. I used crochet cotton to quilt it and made my quilting stitches big (about 1/2 inch).

Here I am ready to sew the squares together. I actually started sewing them like this but discovered they were supposed to be sewn together with each block turned 1/4 of the way around.

Here are all the squares laid out on the bed in my "studio/guest room." When I first started laying it out I was mixing colors in each square. I did not like how it looked so I began mixing fabrics that were the same color to make each square. The squares looked much nicer. For the binding of the quilt I sewed strips of each fabric I used in the quilt together. I like the look of the mixture of fabrics on the edge of the quilt. (I am not smart-I did not take a picture of the finished quilt and I gave it to my daughter at her baby shower.)

Catching Up!

2009-03-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to post more on my blog for some time but have not done it. So today I am trying to catch up and let you know what has been happening since my last post. This is a picture of the table runner we were working on in the previous post. I was teaching a class on how to use freezer paper to applique perfect hearts. I have seen some finished projects and they turned out great!

2009-02-07T18:28:00.000-08:00

Wednesday I taught a class on how to use freezer paper to do applique (a good technique for beginners). It was a lot of fun!

My Other Grandchildren

2009-02-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

I decided I needed to post pictures of my other grandchildren to my blog. This is Dani and Jesse's daughter and the bottom picture is John and Kim's daughter. They are both a year old.

It's a Girl! It's a Girl! It's a Girl!

2009-02-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

We just found out today that Dani and Jesse are having a girl July 2nd. Kim and Rigg are having a girl June 21st and John and Kim are having a girl June 18th. Three new granddaughters next summer.

I've started walking again even though it is only 29 degrees outside!

2009-02-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

On Monday, February 2nd I decided I needed to start walking even though it is freezing cold outside. In good weather I walk the nature path and decided to check it out to see if it was plowed. Hooray! The west side of the path was walkable so I bundled up in coat, gloves and scarf and started walking.
While I was walking I decided that I should have brought my camera so I could take pictures to post to my blog. Tuesday was too sunny for pictures so yesterday, camera in hand, I looked for things to take pictures of.

Here's the path. As you can see there are some snowy patches. The first year we lived here I fell quite a few times while walking in the snow. But I learned that if I take baby steps across the snow and ice and look down and watch where I'm going I can stay standing up!

Here is the footpath over the river. (The river is hidden under all the snow).

Another snowy patch. Notice the ice under the snow!

Do you see the train?

Just Messing Around

2009-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

I'm just messing around trying to figure out how to do different things on my blog. I finally figured out how to find the right picture! (And delete the old one.)

Okay, I don't get it!

2009-01-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

I guess I'm not quite understanding this template thing for my blog because I don't get how to write anything. Maybe this is working, I don't know.
I went to Disneyland with Jared, Veronica and the kids over New Year's. We had a great time. I even rode all the roller coasters multiple times and laughed and screamed everytime. (I think I should laugh and scream more often, it relieves a lot of stress.)
After Disneyland I stayed with my sister a few days. Thanks M for letting me sleep in your room. Then I visited with my mom and dad and was a total bum because I caught either a bad cold or had an allergy attack.
I'm glad January is almost over. It is the most depressing month of the year!

Am I crazy? I am starting a blog!

2009-01-30T19:26:00.000-08:00