This Christmas

Mend a quarrel.

Seek out a forgotten friend.

Dismiss suspicion, and replace it with trust.

Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer.

Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed.

Keep a promise. Find the time. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen.

Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand. Flout envy. Examine your demands

on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate. Be kind; be gentle. Laugh a little.

Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence. Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency.

Express your gratitude. Go to church. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child.

Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again.

Speak it still once again.

A friend sent this to me in their Christmas card. I think it's a good reminder of what our Savior taught and what Christmas should be about.

Bells

My grandma sent us this book entitled "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", it's new out this year. I imagine you can find it at Deseret Book if you have one nearby. I liked this book.

It tells the back story of how the song came to be. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a famous poet in the mid 1800's. He had five children with his beloved wife Fanny. Sadly, one day she was injured severely in a kitchen fire, and died the next day. Henry was so badly injured from trying to save her that he was unable to attend her funeral. This loss was devastating to the family. Not long after, his son joined the Union army and was badly injured while fighting in the Civil War. These events inspired the poem (published in 1866) that was later put to music (by someone else) around 1871. There are two verses of the poem omitted from the song, they directly mention the Civil War.

Included with the book is a dvd with an excerpt from a performance by the Tabernacle choir, it features actor Edward K. Herrmann doing a telling of this story with the choir singing the song. It's absolutely beautiful. I had a hard time not crying while watching it, it was very touching. Longfellow believed in the Savior and his Atonement.

The little white church in Sparty rings it's bells on the hour, they chime Christmas music. In honor of this carol and story, I want to drive down to Sparty (5 min from our house) and hear the bells on Christmas day.

Very Merry

So as of today I'm all done with the semester! I'm very excited to start break and have some breathing time to enjoy Christmas time. It's been a good semester, but there's always some crazy business going on.

So after teaching an RS lesson about being prepared and recently teaching a YW lesson about time management, you'd think I'd be all set, right? {snort}

I got a late start on this final painting- my teacher explained the project options to us and then only gave us basically a day to come up with a fab idea and gather all your materials. That's a tall order when you want to do something good, not cliche. It took awhile to gather everything and glue the still life together. So I found myself finishing my painting at 2 am this morning. Other painting students stayed even later!

And even though yesterday started off with no snow, by the time I left school there was three to four inches on the ground. I didn't have boots or a heavy coat with me because it'd been so nice out earlier when I'd left for the day.

Oh, and I had to be at school at 8 am this morning for my other final. And and keep in mind I live nearly an hour away from school.

The best solution was to get a hotel room in Edinboro, by the time I got McD's and got checked in it was 2:40 am. So there I was- no pj's, no toothbrush, no change of clothes, no makeup or hairbrush. I'd taken my other clothes out that had been in the car. I made do, got up at 6ish, showered and picked up a couple things (like a toothbrush) at Wal-Mart. There are few things grosser than having to put back on socks that you've already worn!

And I'm having to walk around campus in my tennies when I should have had boots. Blech.

So that's a lesson to me to 1) manage my time better so I don't have to do projects at 2 am and 2) to be more prepared in all this snow.


Anyhow, on to my painting. It took a long time to do because I wanted it to be good. Things went well in critique today and I got an A! I was also asked to bring it back for display at school next semester.

Am I painting bubbles? Nope, Christmas ornaments!

Normally you would work your entire painting from general to specific, but since I had so many colors and a large canvas (18x24) that was pretty impossible. It became kinda like paint by numbers! You had to look at each ball and separate the reflections into shapes.

A good start:

A little more progress...

and then it was done! It's even more colorful in real life. My teacher liked how they gleamed like vintage ornaments, that was the look I was going for. I really like how the colors popped against the dark. The trick in painting is not to use black but a very very dark color, like blue. If you use a true black then it becomes rather dead looking.

So act surprised....this will likely be used for next year's Christmas cards!

Season's Greetings

I wanted to share my holiday greetings with everyone, Merry Christmas!

I decided to go a different route this year with my card- normally I like to handstamp and create my own cards but there was no time for that this year, what with school and all the party planning and stuff. So I designed my own postcard using the freebies that come with Photoshop Elements (you can re-color them to your liking). I found a place online that prints postcards for fairly cheap (I probably spent less than I would have if I had crafted cards) and voila! Instant Christmas card.

So I still did a crafted card this year, it was just digital instead of analog, that's all. The postcard also served another purpose- I've had a good year and done and grown a lot (and I'm pretty happy) but on paper I don't seem all that different from last year. Still a bum college student, still in PA, still in YW, still no man nor kids, etc. Writing a short greeting on the back of a postcard was much better. And postcard postage is much cheaper! Not to mention I'm starting to have an aversion to sending out a mass mailing of little white envelopes to people...too wedding-y.

Anyhow, I'm in a merry mood, it's a wonderful season. I'm so thankful for everyone in my life. I wish the best to you and yours this season, and hope you all have a wonderful new year! Here's to a wonderful 2010 for us all.

Nativity

On the first Sunday of December, our little Corry branch had our own Nativity open house for two hours before the broadcast. Our stake back home did this on a large level, and it was something that I'd enjoyed going to the last few years before we moved. So we took this idea to our leaders and did it on a smaller scale in our little building. The Corry branch had never done this before and everyone was excited. Mom put an ad in the local paper- it was open to the public. We put a sign out front of our building too. It was a lot of work to find all our sets and to set up/take down the event, but people from the branch really enjoyed themselves and we even got a visitor from the community. Our visitor turned out to be friends with one of our members, that was nice.

In all we had 55 Nativity sets from the members of our branch, including all the little ones. It was fun to see all the ones that everyone owned. It was also fun to dig out all of ours, we don't always have room to display them all in our home at Christmas.

My porcelain one I brought home from Utah (one of my faves):

Thought this simple little wooden one was cute:

This set is from Africa and it's owner didn't know why Mary was larger and not to scale. I was all "I know! I know!" because I learned in art history that often size denotes importance in African art and that is why Mary is larger. This set is carved from soapstone and I really liked its style.

This set was pretty, too:

It was a challenge to find this one of mine, but a lot of people liked it:

We had the nearest missionaries come as well (Corry has not had its own missionaries for a year now, please appreciate yours if you have them!) and one even played the violin for us, it was beautiful. Mom was pretty much in charge of this event and relied on me to help her (while I was helping with the two other parties!) so I was busy. People really liked it and I wouldn't be surprised if we did this again in the future.

One of our members works at the local paper, he is having a story and photos about it printed in the community page of the local paper. An event like this is a great way to try to involve the community.

We watched the broadcast from Salt Lake that evening too, it was so nice to hear the speakers and the choir. Last year church was canceled on that day due to snow so we missed the broadcast too. I've come to really enjoy the broadcast in recent years.

I feel very merry this season, I love it. I love singing Christmas carols. The other day I was in Sparty and the little white church's bells were ringing Christmas carols on the hour. It was so beautiful that I just wanted to cry. I feel so blessed.

Ame's Shower

I've been doing a ton of party/event planning lately, as you can see- last Saturday I threw a bridal shower for my friend Ame (pronounced Ah-May, there should be an accent over the E). You may remember her from the Preception party. Anyhow, she is staying around longer than the others did so I had the opportunity to throw her a shower. I've been to many but never thrown one before, so it was something new. I have fun doing things like this, and Ame made it easy- she loves butterflies as much as I do so I used stamps and punches that I already had. I have fun being crafty, and it's always fun to make things with someone that you enjoy in mind.

Ame has been a good friend to me since I moved here; she was one of the first YSA that I met out here and we had an instant bond since she is from the Bay area like my parents. We've had some fun adventures since, so it was a pleasure to do something for her.

I was responsible for invites and decor, Ame's mom did the food and helped out with the games. I used my little vintage bride doll on the top of a cupcake tower, each cupcake had flower and butterfly paper punches for decoration. Mom and I collect pretties like cake plates. I was pleased with how things looked and how the day went. Everything was lavender and yellow which are Ame's wedding colors when she marries in California in January.

Cupcake tower:

I hemmed a long strip of lavender fabric for a table runner and I made a paper punch garland for the food table, all you have to do is string random punched paper onto a long length of crochet thread. I knotted the thread about every six inches so that the punches didn't clog up in one spot.

The tables had paper punches too, and everyone got a little candle. I stamped the yellow cards for people to write advice/wishes for Ame, those will go into a book when I have some time.

We had the shower in the overflow room in the Meadville building because my home was too small and far away and we didn't really know where to have it. I wish the curtain looked better, but the room was fine. Here's the room:

After munching and mingling, we got started playing games. For the first game, I had Ame's mom enlarge a bunch of photos of Ame at various ages. People had to guess how old Ame was in each photo. Since she's only 21, it's hard to tell how old she is since she looks about the same after age 15! It was cute to see the photos of Ame, and the person who got the most right won a prize.

After that game, yup, we did the toilet paper bride thing. You have to, it's the law. We had 4 teams of three and Ame would choose the winner (despite being wrapped up herself). It was hysterical, easpecially watching a team of three elderly ladies! They actually had the best craftmanship. Everyone was a good sport. Ame's mom Shirley and I wrapped up Ame, that was funny.

Ame had an 80's/Pocahontas vibe going on:

What good sports: Ame's Mom-in-law, My sis Laura, a friend, and Ame:

Then it was time for presents! I didn't want to do too many games because I have been at showers that took forever. It's no fun when people have to leave before they get to see their gift being open.

My mom and I like to be a little creative when it comes to shower gifts. One thing we've done in the past is to divide the gift into four: Something Old, New, Borrowed, Blue. I decided to do that for Ame. Each gift was in a white box with lavender ribbon, lableled on a white butterfly punch. Something old was a vintage tea towel in her wedding colors along with a butterfly plate that is the same discontinued pattern that I collect.

Something New was personalized kitchen goodies.I made a hotpad and embellished towels and an apron for Ame. I've never done a hotpad before, it was a bit wonky but not bad for the first try. I tihnk I'll use a different binding technique next time- the bias tape i bought was so stiff and hard to work with. I'd never used Insul-Brite (a batting made for things like hot pads) before. Embellishing kitchen towels with a strip of fabric is super fast and easy, I imagine I'll do some more. It's fun to create a personalized gift by matching the fabric design to the person.

Made a ruffle and used binding tape to embellish a pre-made apron:

Something Borrowed was a butterfly pin from my collection that I knew Ame would like but that I wouldn't mind if it flew away. When it came to Something Blue, I just had to embarrass Ame- she gets mortified easily. I decided to fake her out by making her open a Victoria's Secret bag (what were people thinking of me when I was walking around with it at the mall? haha) that contained.........Victoria's Secret brand lotion.

But then I got her with the box that the bag was attatched to, muh ha ha ha ha!

Not bad for $3 at Marshalls, eh?

Ame got a lot of other sweet gifts from the other ladies and her mom. Laura helped out as the gift scribe and I had her put the gift ribbons on a plate as a "bouquet". Found the cheesy butterfly tiara at Wal-mart for a BUCK...and it lights up too!

It was a little nervewracking because I was not totally in control of everything- I never had the opportunity to see the room before we set up, etc. But I think it went well- people seemed to be having a good time. Most important, Ame had a good time cause I got lots of thank you hugs.

Several have commented that I should do weddings- and yes I've thought about that. Doing stuff like this is fun for me- it's a good mix of my planning/crafty skills and I have fun being creative. Not to mention, it runs in the family-my grandmother used to do weddings. Maybe one day I will. I think part of me might feel too J-Lo in The Wedding Planner....always the wedding planner, never the bride. School, YSA and YW also keep me quite busy now, though. For now I am content to do things like this, though I would like to sell my wedding wares, etc on Etsy. I have cake toppers floating around in my head (instead of sugarplums).

And no, that's not the last of the event planning that I've been doing lately....stay tuned!

Big Kid

Did you have these blocks at school when you were a kid? I loved playing with these geometric blocks when I was in kindergarten, it was so fun to make patterns and designs. I always was fascinated with how all those shapes fit together and all the things you could do with them. These days we've been using them in math class while doing stuff with fractions and while my teacher blah blah blahs, I like to horse around at my table and make patterns. And since I have a camera on my person 95% of the time, I can share these patterns with you.

With and without the orange blocks:

I liked this "flower":

Funky:

I liked the "wheat" coming off the corners:

Some of these would make interesting quilt patterns (especially the "wheat" one), though they'd be impossible to sew! Nowadays these blocks are made out of plastic instead of wood like the ones I had in kindergarten. One of these days I'll totally get a set for myself, just gotta find an educational catalog for kids. It's fun to play around and see what you can make- totally a creativity booster!

I'm totally a big kid, playing with blocks...

Whirlwind

Last week was been an absolute whirlwind, let me explain. A bunch of my friends are getting married shortly, some to each other. My good friend Rene is marrying a guy named Mike (he's a good guy, I approve) in Utah just before Christmas. Adding to the complexity is that Rene’s older brother Dennis (also my friend) is marrying my good friend Ame about a week later in California. I met my friends through our YSA activities out here, though they are in Idaho at school most of the time. I’ve known them all (except Mike) for over two years. So yes, that’s right- Dennis and Rene’s parents have not one, but TWO weddings out west over the holidays. How I feel for them!

So Dennis & Ame and Rene & Mike came home last week for Thanksgiving, it was so nice to see them. I only went to school on Monday of last week, I skipped math class on Tuesday to go to the Palmyra temple with Rene for her to receive her endowments. Which would you pick? Ha! It was a really great day, but it was quite long. I got to their house at noon, we munched and left at one in the afternoon. I rode up with Rene and Mike and Rene’s uncle. It takes a good three hours to drive to Palmyra. We walked around the temple grounds and took some photos. Later we got something to eat and killed time at the little church bookstore in Palmyra. Rene’s session wasn’t until 7:30 that evening so that her parents could get there after they got out of work.

It was really nice to be in the temple with Rene and her family and other people that I know. It made me think back to when I went through for the first time and how my life has been blessed since. After the session, we had fun eating at Denny’s all together and probably didn’t leave there til nearly 1 am! And there was still the drive back home. We were blessed that we didn’t hit deer several times on the way home, we came very close. Finally I got back to my car and slowly drove home to avoid hitting deer, I made it home at 3:30 am! It was a very, very long day but it was so nice.

The funniest part of Tuesday was that Rene realized that she didn’t have a white bra with her until we were in Palmyra! And there isn’t a Walmart or anything like that close by-it’s a small town. She had some luck at a nearby dollar store, so that was our running joke for the evening. That was almost as good as my Mom’s friend who was hemming her wedding gown while in the car to the temple!

Me and Rene:

Wednesday was spent sleeping in and working on different projects. I am throwing Ame a bridal shower in the near future (I would throw one for Rene but she had to go back and Ame is staying home longer) so I made invitations and I also worked on some of my assignments for the party held for the couples on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Since both couples will be living out West after they are married and will not be back here for some time, a “pre-reception” or “preception” was planned. I offered my services when I found out about that a few weeks ago, coordinating things between four of us ladies has been a little crazy!

Thanksgiving was a nice day with the family, it almost always is just the four of us since we never seem to live by other relatives. Like usual, you spend far more time cooking and cleaning up than actually eating the meal, but it was nice. I made my own pumpkin flower arrangement to decorate our table; Mom and Laura made one as well. Dad did a really good job with the turkey, he likes to experiment with seasonings. It was nice to spend a fairly relaxing day with my family and to remember our many blessings.

My flowers:

Yummy dinner (Mom took the pic):

Friday revolved around the party, Laura and I went over in the morning to help set up (it was held at our little branch building because it was “neutral” territory located between the two families). Most buildings have a gym, but not our little building- the chapel and RS room open up into one large room. It’s a little funny eating and having merriment in the chapel (we have branch dinners in there regularly), but there’s not a whole lot that we can do. As far as church rooms go, it’s pretty nice and neutral (no burnt orange carpet or cinderblock walls like back home!) so it makes for a nice party space. I’ve seen receptions in rented hotel ballrooms where the room was uglier than our little building. Our chairs are pretty ugly though, but oh well.

Our little building cleans up well:

The "Cinderella" theme decor: Silver branches, gold pumpkins and little clear slippers on the tables:

My jobs were :

1) To cover the RS chalkboard and put the lettering for the party on the fabric (I printed the letters large, then cut them out and traced them onto nice paper which I then cut out again). I bought fabric and sewed the cover. Unfortunately I had a “Doh!” moment because I bought 40” fabric when I should have bought 60” wide fabric so I had to scramble and add the border at the bottom. I meant to do that, right?

The Couples: Mike & Rene, Dennis and Ame

2) To find and decorate two baskets that would hold cards that people brought to the party. One for each couple- each basket was to be decorated in their wedding colors. You would not believe how hard it is to find complimenting baskets that would be shaped pretty for cards. Mom and I scrambled for two weeks- even places like Joanns and Michaels had a pitiful offering. I wound up using one that Mom already owned, and one that she found someplace, they complimented each other well enough in shape and size and coloring.

I bought fake flowers and taped them together and wired them to each basket, adding big bows. As a final touch I created a scroll with each couple’s names and attached it to their basket and added a faux butterfly or two. I hate most fake flowers (and I hated them even as a child) but I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. In a perfect world (or for my own shindig) I would have created blooms out of paper or fabric instead of storebought ones, but there was no time for that.

Rene's colors are red and aqua:

Ame's colors are lavender and yellow:

3) To bring lights for the fake plants that had been gleaned from other buildings. The lights were from my extensive collection (people used to borrow my rose lights back home for weddings). Laura did a good job of putting them on the bushes.

We came back before the party started and helped with a few last minute things. We also loaned cake servers, a punch bowl and baskets for baked goods to the cause. The only real glitch that night was that Dennis and Rene’s parents were late getting to the building (and they were doing most of the food) due to car trouble but it was fine. It was nice to spend the evening with my friends and I had a nice time talking and laughing with everyone. Laura and I stayed to help clean up, and made it home about 10:30 that night. Dennis, Rene and Mike went back to Idaho this weekend, I'm glad Ame is staying longer. All the couples are so incredibly happy that it's hard not to have that happiness rub off on you. Most of my friends from out here have moved permanently or are away most of the time at school, so I can get a bit lonesome. I love it when friends come home to visit.

Me with Dennis and Ame:

Cutting the cake:

Playing a silly game with shoes ("Voting" with your or your finace's shoe as to who is more likely to do/not do something- pretty funny!)

So now you can see why it’s been a crazy week, it’s been nice to relax a bit (and sleep off the turkey) this weekend. There are not many people getting married out here (this party makes two open houses that we’ve attended since moving here over two years ago) so it was nice to be needed. Mom and I collect pretty things that people have used for weddings in the past, we joke about becoming a rental house!

This week also marked 6 years of being home from my mission (I came home two days before Thanksgiving way back when), thankfully I was not depressed about the anniversary unlike last year. 2009 has been a pretty good year, lots of blessings, so I can’t complain too much. Hope everyone had a good holiday and a good week.

Now onto getting back in the grind at school and getting ready for Christmas! I’m excited about the latter.

Gobble Gobble

While I'm showing YW activities, I thought I'd show what we did earlier in the month. We had a combined evening with the RS where we ate together (stews cooked in pumpkins and pumpkin cupcakes) and then Mom and I showed everyone how to create a flower arrangement in a little pumpkin. We picked up that trick back home and it's fun to do...and makes a great decoration for your Thanksgiving table!

My mom and Sis Johnson with the girls:

Laureen and her arrangement:

Tasha did these arrangements:

One thing that's great about the girls is that they're not afraid to dive right in and try something new, adults often don't have that quality. They had fun learning how to do this.

Here's How:

1) Find a little pumpkin, cut off the top and hollow it out.

2) soak some floral foam in water, cut a chunk to stick in the pumpkin.

3) Arrange your greenery, try to hide where the pumkin meets the foam.

4) Add your flowers, fill in with filler.

Voila! You have a masterpiece! Keep your foam moist and it'll last a while.

Happy Birthday to all....

...and to all a great night! I think the birthday party idea was hatched back in September or so, the girls were saying that they hadn't gotten to celebrate their birthdays at YW (I send a card but I don't make a night of it or else we'd never get anything done!) so we decided to celebrate everyone's birthday last Wednesday- no one had a birthday this month so it was "neutral". We started with a mini lesson about Heavenly Father and the plan of happiness and how to deal with adversity, then moved on to our game. I ran 6 lengths of yarn all through the YW room, each led to a reward. Some were easier then others. Definitely some adversity! It was quite the tripping hazzard!


"Spiderwebbing" a room is a family tradition of ours, every now and then we'll make someone follow a tangled string to their present. Each girl found two sets of knit gloves (not bad for a buck!) at the end of their string since I had heard some of them say that they needed gloves for winter. They had fun and learned some patience and cooperation while untangling themselves! One girl didn't show, so I wound up playing too.

Laureen, Breanne and Jen:

Then we moved on to decorating cakes. It was a lot of prep and a lot of cleanup, but the girls and I had fun! They learned how to do a crumbcoat, how to frost the cake and then they had fun playing with the different colors and frosting tips.

Kelsey, Laureen, Jen and Breanne (Katie not pictured):

Laureen did flowers:

Katie drew an anime character, she was pretty good with piping frosting!


I was too busy to decorate a cake at the party, so I decorated the leftover cake later that night. I was stuck with a rectangle cake, so what else could I do but an homage to my Kodak!


I think I can apply for my Wreckerator license now, lol.

The girls are as sweet as their cakes, I really enjoy this calling and I'm growing along with them.

One man's trash...

...is totally another's treasure! I have so much fun antiquing, flea marketing, garage saleing, etc. It's always a treat to wander Goodwill, too. I like to see the potential in something that others can't. I have fun revamping things plus it's much "greener" (and cheaper!) to buy things that have already been made rather then to cause new things to be manufactured, not to mention you are keeping stuff out of landfills! If I had my own place I think it would be Salvation Army Style all the way! Here's the latest finds:

I love to collect vintage dishes (and they're aqua! Double score!):

Aren't these vintage bride dolls the sweetest? I love love love them! I will use the one on the right to decorate with at the upcoming bridal shower I am throwing my friend (she is a brunette). They were only $2 each and I estimate they are from the 40's or 50's at the latest:

I also found this wooden house, it looks like it was made to hold a chotchke or two, but I like it on it's own as a sculptural element. It now sits by the phone.




Another steal was this random of random quilt top...a random quilt for a random girl, eh, Angela? Ha ha. It's actually rather difficult for us humans to create a random thing, our brains want to organize things so badly- I was rather impressed at their randomness. I guesstimate that this quilt top was made in the 60's or 70's as it has some very funky fabrics! Some even have butterflies, it was a sign.

The fabrics aren't actually pieced together, but zigzagged onto a backing.

Sometimes a steal really is someone's trash, like the other week when my parents found this antique sewing machine sitting outside an Amish house. They asked about it and sure enough it was out for the trash. And it's in great condition too- the paint still looks great, no rust. We have a Singer treadle machine that my mom bought when I was little (she sewed us a lot of costumes on that machine! Way to go Mom!) so we have an appreciation for them. I'm curious as to what happened to the cabinet this would have been a part of.

I was surprised that this was out on the curb, it'd be worth a pretty penny in an antique shop, especially since it is in such nice condition.

The silver detail is quite Art Deco, this machine is probably from the 1920's or 30's. It's newer than our treadle machine. Us Chaneys like to rescue cool stuff, lol. And you wonder why we have too much stuff....

Thought I'd show what can be done with a thrift store find- I bought this gold plastic frame a few weeks ago and finally revamped it last weekend.

Before:

I spraypainted it black- when you remove color from an object it becomes all about its form. I LOVED the design that was left on the cardboard! So ghostly! Next time I'll have to remember to put a good piece of paper down to preserve the design.

I let it dry and hung it in my room, no other place for it now!

Can you tell I like butterflies from my pic? Ha ha. I really like "Mod Victorian" items so I liked how the frame turned out. I think it would look great with some Haunted Mansion wallpaper!





Stay tuned, folks for more craftiness!