Family Crafting

I saw a project online and knew I wanted to make it! If you haven't tapped in to Burton Avenue's blog yet, you've been missing out!
I looked at Lowe's for suitable wood. Nothing. After girl's lunch out on Tuesday, Cheryl and I swung by The Wood Connection and bingo! Found my wood. The problem was the individual sticks were too long (but that meant I only had to buy half as many!). I enlisted a helper!

Measuring 

Cutting

Fixing the point (I liked it more pointy than how it came)

And while you're at it...I have all these blocks that need to be cut! 

Burton Ave used the stencil approach to make their street signs. 

So I tried it their way. Here's the black paint smeared over the stencil. 

Fail. It leaked under the tape. 

So, since I originally cut out the words using red vinyl, I had to go back to square one and re-cut in black vinyl so I could just slap the vinyl on the wood rather than painting in the negative space.

The original directions nailed their boards into place. I wanted to be able to remove my signs from the post that was holding them so I could store it more easily. I decided magnets was the way to go. I glued (E6000) the magnets to the sign and to the post.  When the glue was set, I sprayed it with a coat of sealer. When I picked it all up, I realized magnets might not have been the best idea after all. One bump and all the boards came crashing down. I might have to remove the magnets and apply velcro instead (velcro was my original idea anyway). We shall see how well it holds up. 

OBB's Kickoff

Last month I was able to sneak away from my missionary assignment long enough to go to Our Best Bites kickoff extraordinaire. They had samples of lots of the recipes in their new book.

Here are the busy bees in the kitchen keeping the samples stocked while Kate and Sara sign books. 

It took about 20 minutes of waiting in line for my turn. 

Do you guys know Shelley Smith from The House of Smiths? 

She was so sweet to chat with me while I waited in line. She wasn't in line herself, she was just keeping me company while I waited. She's very effervescent! 

At last it was my turn. Kate wrote a sweet note in my book. 

And here is Kate's little guy, Will. I think he was underwhelmed by the whole ordeal. 

This is who I had with me the last time I went to Gygi's. I wish they were with me this time too!

A Busy Weekend

I got to see my granddaughter, Nora, this weekend. She came to Utah with her mom (and others) for her great grandpa's funeral. Here she is with all the desserts we cranked out so they wouldn't have to resort to cookies from Costco.

Her momento from her great grandpa was this hat. I think she is absolutely adorable in it!

It was a long weekend of lots of driving for Nora and her extended Anderson family, but it sure was fun for me to see them.

Huntington Library

While I was in California we visited the Huntington Library. Here's Mia checking out a fountain.

I was given permission to show this photo of the kids. 

But we need to look again because someone is missing! 

And here he is! 

We saw some pretty flowers. 

And a rainbow! 

And more pretty flowers. 

And a butterfly...

which really made me miss this girl! 

Memorization Cards

If you read this blog last week you know it was my sister's birthday. I made her a humongous chocolate cake and printed some cards to make it easier for her to memorize The Living Christ. We both have that as a goal- to memorize it word-perfect, before the end of the year.

I thought I would show you the cards I found and printed so if you'd like to memorize it too, you may wish to do what I did. 

This is the first card, or the "cover sheet" and this is where you can download the cards for yourself.  

Each card comes with a picture and a small phrase or sentence of TLC. 

After you start getting some of that memorized you can switch to the group cards like the card shown below. 

And when you feel comfortable with that, you can skip to the key word cards and see if you can fill in the gaps. 

They also have cards with "fill in the blank" spots to see if you're really getting it (those cards are not shown here).
So far, I have the first four cards memorized (you can see the first four cards on the picture that says "As we commemorate..." and ends with "will yet live upon the earth," with a ton more cards to go before I complete this goal.
I had to switch the format from pdf to jpg, and thanks to my daughter, Laura, and her marvelous step by very patient step, I now know how to do that! Let me know if you'd like the jpg versions of these cards and I'll figure out a way to get them to you so you can memorize TLC with my sister and me!