This title is intentionally vague...because it is one of my mom's Christmas gifts

So Mom, you have every opportunity to not blow your Christmas surprise right now.

When life gives you lemons...throw them at people you don’t like.

It’s good for your stress level and tenderizes the lemons for juicing.

Container Gardening Tip

I mentioned in a previous post about how plants like dry bottoms. Can't say I blame them. I recommended perching your plants atop bricks to give their tooshies some breathing room. But, when you live on the second floor and it's a hike from your car, well, that idea just kind of sucks.

Adventures in Once A Month Cookery

While looking into easy make-ahead meals for my grandpa, the concept of "Once A Month Cooking" was suggested to me. Anyone who's ever had to cook for just one on a regular basis knows what a pain it is - produce goes bad before you can get to it, you get tired of something you mass produced, and it becomes a chore to always be running to the grocery store. I hear Europe calling me a sissy for that last comment, but you guys get mandated naptime, so it's clear that you have the energy to cook every day. Anyway, this Once A Month Cooking (OAMC) thing seemed worthy of further investigation for my use.

There’s something in the water – Part 3

So comes the last installment of the baby shower madness.

There’s something in the water – Part 2

Last weekend baby shower number two hit. My initial plan for my baby shower gifts was to make the same basic gift for each mom-to-be, but with tweaks to make them unique. But, after talking to Jeanne (gift 2) after Kim’s (gift 1) shower, I found that while any baby gear is appreciated, I needed to be a bit more adventurous in my gift choices. I like to keep them guessing.

There's something in the water...part 1

Several of my favorite people took it upon themselves to supply the needed children for the 2015-2016 kindergarten year. Congrats to all of them, and September and October are going to be full of squeals and the joy that surrounds a new life coming into the world (and me moonlighting as a nursery designer at Jeanne's house).

With that comes showers :) And, being the idiot I am I took it upon myself to come up with all kinds of good stuff for gifts. This first post is about Kim's gift. Part 2 and 3 will come as those showers hit. But, I will give thematic hints for the next two - ladybugs and bath time. I'll let you roll that around in your mind.

Handy Dandy Crochet Roll

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve taken up crochet this year. I don’t profess to be good at it in any way, but I have come up with some cool little things I plan to give as gifts ;) With crochet comes some…supplies…and those supplies have to be managed efficiency to keep yourself together (not to mention the stuff is easy to lose). I was using the little zipper case that came with the hooks that I stole borrowed from my mom, but it only had provisions for half of the hooks and nothing for my scissors, needles, or stitch markers. Plus, yarn had to be toted along separately. With as often as I take crochet along with me for anticipated waits it was becoming a problem.

It's Lonely in Here...

I know this is a wee little blog with only a few ideas, and I'm hoping to get more up in the near future (three baby showers are encouraging things...), but it would sure be fun to share my antics with a wider audience! So, if you come across some nonsense of mine that you think any of your friends would like, please feel free to share it! I have no problem with people copying my projects - I wouldn't put them up here if I did. Plus, I love to see how people put their own spin on things. Also, if you aren't a Facebook fan yet - here's a linky for you.

There's some perks with this membership too - I may just start giving stuff away as prizes... ;)

A Lesson in Record Keeping (and showing some teeth)

I’m usually pretty good about keeping track of my important papers. I can tell you where my mortgage papers are; they’re in a heap in the closet. My bank statements are online because if they send me paper ones they end up in my pile of important things “to sort” (even though I know it’ll never get done). And so on and so forth. But I at least know which pile everything is in.

Garbage Burritos

Some people have heard me talk about them. Two people have had them. I find them quite yummy.

Hopelessly Dirty...

So this container veggie garden is really fun. My brood of plants seems to multiply every weekend. But it is SO rewarding, and I started working with seeds today. There's a hair less satisfaction by seeing pots full of soil instead of healthy transplants, but seeds are dirt (ha!) cheap and you get tons for a dollar or two. I couldn't help but ponder as I put all these little seeds in what an incredible world our Heavenly Father has created for us. I mean, these dinky little insignificant seeds that I can barely see know exactly what to do once they meet dirt and water. I don't believe it's coincidence.

Quilt Binding Tips

This came up when working on my Dresden Plate project and I thought I’d pass it along. These two techniques make things a lot easier.

SIY Dresden Plate Table Settings

It’s finished!



This is the project I mentioned last week. I had to be somewhat stingy with the details in describing it because it was actually a gift for a friend’s bridal shower. Given the mobility of pictures and information on the intertoobs, I didn’t want to ruin the surprise for her. This shower came with a gift “assignment”. We were all given a time period and time of day to base our gift on. I was given the Middle Ages or 6pm, and I had no clue what I’d do with the Middle Ages other than a chastity belt, so 6pm it was. At 6pm I’m hungry. I want to eat, so there you go. Another food-themed project (maybe I should actually post a recipe so you don’t all think I’m just a pig).

Fuit Salad...

Yummy yummy (just for you, Paula).

Enjoy the new look and feel of the blog! I had a lot of fun putting it together. Still a few little boogers to wipe up, but I'll take care of those as I find time :)

I've been bitten...

...by the gardening bug. I never thought that as a lowly second-floor dweller that I could ever do anything of horticultural merit on my small patio. I had also failed in pretty much every other attempt to keep something green alive. There was the Epic Veggie Slaughter of 2007 when I killed three vegetable transplants in a weekend. Yes, I did. But, the very lovely wife of my ward's former Bishop (hi Sister McKinley!) did something very nice for me two years ago. She got me a little purple orchid for my birthday and I made a pact with myself to keep it alive.

In the Beginning

I really should have started this blog about three years ago because this will soon become the dumping ground for my assorted house/sewing/DIY/stupid stuff. Why three years ago? Because I started remodeling my house three years ago and boy did I have some bloggable moments. But I learned a lot. Maybe I'll do flashbacks every once in a while if I can find enough photos to support my musings. Like, seriously, I did some stupid stuff whilst under the spell of power tools (still do, now that I think of it...).

So, I've actually been thinking about authoring a blog for a while now to chronicle my adventures in arts and crafts and keeping my house in one piece. Perhaps it's been the twang of creativity that has been stifled by an overbooked schedule and the death of the concept of a "weekend". The only thing I've used a brush for in recent memory was to smear some rubber cement around on a project at work. I'm gonna take back my creativity, yo.