The First Day of 2013

We started 2013 off with sledding. We've had snow on the ground for weeks now. When we first moved here, people told us that winters here are fairly mild. Yes, compared to North Dakota. Compared to the South, no!




I love how close the clouds come to the mountains.



The view from our sledding hill:



Can you see the road?



My little snow bunny:



The sledding hill:



Suzy following Nate up the hill:



This is some personal drama that occurred when we first arrived. Suzy is leading the charge up the hill, followed by little Nathaniel. Nathaniel's sister Lyliannah is laying face-first in a snow bank crying. The snow is up to her knees and she can't keep up with the big kids.



Nate and Suzy heading back up after their first go:



I helped Lyliannah to the top of the hill, where she stopped crying long enough to tell me her problem was that she couldn't see anything because her headband was over her eyes. I tried to cheer her up by taking her on a sled with me. She learned the hard way that I cannot steer.



This was not a run I would do, though the dads did it several times. You look both ways to make sure there are no cars coming, then you go down hill, across the road, hopefully, and up the bank and off the other side.


If you look carefully at the top of this hill (the trucks parked at the bottom give you some perspective) you will see two black dots. That is my husband and his friend Chris, and Chris's six year old son, in an inflatable boat. They went down the slope, veered off to the right about halfway down, and went into a gully. Great fun was had by all, especially by the wives waiting in a nice warm van making fun of the men.



Later we went to our friends' house for dinner. Nate brought the ice:

Symbolic Christmas Ornaments

Three years ago I wrote a post about our Christmas tree and some of what we refer to as our "special ornaments". Our special ornaments symbolize something of Christ. We have plenty of simple decorative ornaments, but pride of place goes to our special ones.
Our family tradition the night we decorate our tree is to eat cranberry oat bars and drink hot chocolate from the Polish tea set Nate's mother gave me. We read each scripture scroll as we put it on the tree, and we explain each symbolic ornament. It is such a joyful time to teach Suzy aspects of our faith.
We try to add at least one to our collection every year. If we find more than that, then yay!
We added these in 2010 and 2011. I don't remember which ornament is from which year, but it is possible that they are all from 2010. The year 2011 was a bit rough.



This is a dove with an olive branch in its beak. This reminds us of the story of Noah and God's providence of salvation and peace.


This translucent cross is to symbolize James 1:17: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."


Here is another nativity, definitely with more gold and glitter than Joseph and Mary actually experienced on the night of Christ's birth.


Here is a porcelain heart with a dove in the center to represent the Holy Spirit in believers' hearts.


This is a little song bird made from paper printed with the lyrics of "O Come All Ye Faithful" to remind us to sing praises to God.

This year has brought a bumper crop of special ornaments.



This is to tell us of the joy in Christ. And it has birds. I have a lot of birds on my tree, sort of an unintended side theme to my decor.


This ornament is extra special to me. This autumn I was in a women's bible study, and we read the verses Heb. 6:19-20 "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
I loved it so much that I searched for an anchor ornament. I found a rather cheesy glass one wrapped in mini Christmas lights. That was a no. Then in the home decor section of Hobby Lobby, I found this anchor. It was a robe hook, but the hook was easily removed. I was going to spray paint it gold to match my other ornaments, but Nate made a good case for leaving it like it is. It does have a good, ancient, well-used look to it, doesn't it?


This ornament was an serendipitous addition. I received it at our church's ladies' ornament exchange party. It was a trifecta: gold, the word hope, and a bird. Perfect.


This is a fitting one to end this post on. It was made by my pastor's wife. It is a sycamore leaf from the tree in front of the church. This is to symbolize our new home and to remind us to be thankful of all the ways and places the Lord has led us.
I hope you have a joyful celebration of Christ this Christmas! Merry Christmas!

Preparing for Christmas

Leading up to Christmas I go into a crafting frenzy. I bunker down. I post signs like this on my craft room door:



It's made all the more frantic because I don't finish the projects in order. I start one. I start another. And another. And another. Then I go back and work a bit on this one and that one, with the pace and desperation increasing as the days get closer to Christmas.
My list of projects and their level of completeness:
1. Crocheted doll afghan with matching pillows - 95%
2. Wooden doll bed with sheets and mattress- 5%. All I have accomplished with that is buying the fabric and arranging to have the bed made, which I will then paint.
3. Two dresses for Suzy - One halfway done, one not started.
4. Regency style doll dress - not started.
5. Doll food made of salt dough (tea party foods and breakfast foods) 80%. Maybe 70. Most pieces painted, only one sealed.
6. 12 Scripture scroll ornaments - 20%
7. 8 floral felt hair bows for Suzy's friends at church- finished.
8. 5 dress-up mustaches for their brothers - not started.
9. Hat and glove set - finished.
10. Decorative box to hold play food- not started.
11. Three dozen treat bags of peppermint fudge for the Christmas cookie boxes for the church shut-ins - not started.
12. Advent calendar - finished, but only for twelve days. Maybe I will add more next year.
11. Four cups of pretend soda for dolls - 75%.
13. Make an anchor ornament with Hebrews 6:19-20 on it - 50%. I bought an anchor shaped towel hook and removed the hook. Just have to put the scripture on it.

If you noticed, there are only three things finished. They are relatively small projects, but still. It's a start. Here they are, sixteen days before Christmas, all I have accomplished.

The hat and glove set, worthy of Fancy Nancy:



My Twelve Days of Christmas Advent Calendar, made entirely of odds and ends from the closet:



And the felt floral hair bows, thanks to my mother who supplied me with die-cut felt flowers:


So there it is.
This past week Suzy had a pretty terrible case of tonsillitis. She was a poor sickly baby and I didn't have much time for projects, so I'm a little behind schedule. So the next week is crazy - catching up on school, candy making, sewing, painting, and lots of coffee.
Every year at this time I regret not beginning to plan in June. And every year Nate has to calm me down and remind me of the reason we celebrate. He does a good job. Though he should probably start that in June too.
That's the reason I want to add an ornament with Hebrews 6:19-20 to my tree.
Heb. 6:19-20 "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
Before I disappear back into my pit of procrastination craft room, I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a joyful celebration of Christ our hope.

The Truth About Me...

When Nate and I joined Elm Avenue Baptist Church in August, we each gave our testimonies. Public speaking is not my thing, but at the same time, I wanted to let this new group of people know who I really am. I'm glad I did, because it turned out to be a very sweet time with my church family. Since then I've had several great spiritual conversations with ladies in the church. We've gotten to know each other as sisters in Christ - and three of them were baptized in the following months! I was hesitant to post this on my blog, though, because, well...I have this accent. And I cry a couple of times. But then I thought I might as well put it up for all ten people who read my blog. You've all heard me cry before anyway. This mp3 is the whole service. If you fast-forward to 10:30 you will avoid the announcements and most of my awkward mic checks.

Vintage Fall Dress

A few years ago I found a few old, cut up patterns for 99¢. I had to get them, regardless of sizes. They might come in handy one day, right? I especially liked this one from the sixties:








It was a child's size six, which is my daughter's size now. See, it was worth the wait. :o) I planned to cut up an old lightweight gray wool skirt of mine to make the middle style dress, trimmed with magenta velvet ribbon. I would of course modify the length to fall somewhere between the impractical maxi skirt and the indecent mini. Seriously, girls of the sixties, what did you wear under those things? It looks like you'd flash somebody with every step.
The tissue pattern pieces were very fragile, so I covered them all, including the envelope and instructions, in clear contact paper. That took an entire afternoon and a whole roll of contact paper!
When I laid out the pattern pieces on the gray wool, I discovered I didn't have enough fabric. I went to my fabric stash, ready to scrap the gray wool idea completely. Happily, I found a dress shirt of my husband's that was white with tiny gray and pink stripes. Perfect match! I went back to the drawing board (literally - I traced the figure in the middle of the envelope picture, adjusted the length, and colored it in like the two fabrics) and came up with a design of a striped bodice with a gray skirt. I added light pink velvet ribbon trim.
I love how it turned out. I could have taken the waist in a bit more to account for my daughter being a skinny minny, but I think she looks adorable in it anyway.




























She wanted to show off the rose hair bow we made:








She got a little goofy after a few pictures:








And then snuggly. Love my girl! She may have a few more dresses from this pattern coming her way!

In Which I Completely Shame My Dog....

Living in a city, I can't allow my dog to do her business wherever nature demands. Nope, I have to clean it up. I had never picked up dog poop before, having grown up in the country. Our dogs were outside creatures, and we never made much ado about their potty habits. I don't remember my parents picking it up. They likely never gave it much thought, but if they did, they probably thought if their children were careless enough to step in it, then they deserved what they got - as long as we didn't track it into the house!
Now that picking up poop is a daily exercise in the suppression of disgust, I tried to make it more pleasant. I made a cute bow-shaped doggie bag holder. Don't ask me why I thought that would make steaming dog poo less gross, it just seemed like it might help to have a little cuteness around the whole process.
The first time I put it on Bibi, she hung her head in shame. She just slunked around on her walk, seemingly embarrassed of what the other dogs might think of her.
The bow was easy enough to make. It's is a simple rectangle with an envelope closure in the back. It gets a nice puffy shape when I stuff it with plastic bags.
Hanging her head in shame:




I like her grim-faced resignation in this picture:




Nate refuses to put it on her when he's walking her. I can't imagine why.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Last month, or was it two months ago...time kind of got away from me this summer...anyway, at some point this summer our pastor went to preach at a conference in Mexico City. I wanted to bring dinner over to his wife one night while he was away. I asked my family for suggestions about a dessert. Suzy was very gung-ho for strawberry cupcakes, but I don't really like strawberry cake from a mix. I decided to make Sprinkle's Strawberry Cupcakes.
Here they are, fresh out of the oven. You can tell Suzy insisted that I double the pink food coloring:


Here are the cupcakes all dressed up to go out:


It took me most of the afternoon to make these, but it was worth it. I was also trying to make fajitas and salsa at the same time, do that probably slowed down the process.
These cupcakes were so good! I made them later in the summer with peaches, and that was REALLY good, even if they overflowed the muffin tins. I'm still making adjustments in the flour/baking soda ratio to get it just right. The altitude in Grand Junction is over 4,500 feet, so that affects most of my baking recipes. I'm pretty sure the recipe could be adjusted for other fruit. So many possibilities - raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, mango, pineapple, kiwi, banana....oh, and combos! Strawberry banana, blueberry pineapple, raspberry mango...I'm feeling a baking spree coming on. I think I'll just go to bed and wait for it to pass.