If Life Hands You Lemons...make a purse

One of the Sister Missionaries in our ward was riding her bike and had gotten dehydrated. The dehydration made her dizzy and she crashed. Even though she was wearing a helmet, she still got a concussion and when they went to x-ray her she wouldn't wake up so they cut her clothes off. When you are a missionary you don't have very many clothes and so the loss of an outfit is a serious bummer. I felt bad and hated to see some of her favorite pieces go to waste so I got her to give them to me with the promise that they would become something useful. I had just enough fabric to make her a purse.

Here is the before. I think they used pruning shears to cut the clothes...the edges are so jagged.

Here is the after.  The main part of the blouse makes up the lining and the rosettes were made from the sleeves. The buttons in the rosettes came from the sleeves and the back of the shirt. I also mended her sweater which accounts for the strange seam in the front, but I think when it's on it's still wearable (both sleeves had been cut from the wrist to the neck).

I'm so glad she liked it. It was a scary experience for her and she's banned from riding her bike for the next 6 months. Lame!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hubby and I have never really been that into Valentine's Day. Those who knew me in college (who probably don't look at my blog) will tell you that I was outright against what I perceived as commercial holiday that made a bunch of people feel bad. I also really disliked hearts, like A LOT...What!? I thought they were annoyingly cute. It was a different time.

Fast forward to 2015 and hearts are okay now, but Valentine's Day still isn't a big deal to me. So, when I saw that the Sister Missionaries in my ward didn't have anyone signed up to feed them dinner on Valentine's Day I decided to sign up. That was last Sunday and by Tuesday I got to thinking that I might as well make it a party and invite some friends over.

It made for a hectic Saturday trying to get ready for my guests, but dare I say it, "Best Valentine's Day Ever!"

Lizard made the hearts and taped them up. She did such a good job!

 I wasn't able to get a picture of the food before people started eating because I finished right as they arrived. The photos aren't great, but the meal consisted of chicken salad (chicken, apples, cranberries and cashews) sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls, pita chips with hot spinach and artichoke dip, cucumbers and carrots, and strawberries and pineapple with fruit dip. For the less adventurous eaters (mainly my children) there were some plain rolls. Oh, and Cherry 7Up because it's pink.

Dessert consisted of chocolate truffles, white chocolate caramel pecan bites, Neapolitan trifle (three flavors of pound cake made from scratch - chocolate cake, ganache, vanilla cake, cream cheese frosting, strawberry cake, cream cheese frosting), and chocolate chewy cookies (my favorite chocolate cookie recipe).

My guests. Starting from the left...Janis, Sister Juneau (she's from Switzerland, speaks French, has an Italian mother and has only been speaking English for three months), Sister Watford from England, Katt, Lily (Janis' granddaughter) and Lizard.  Katt served her mission in Japan like me and is doing the peace sign because that's what everyone in Japan does when they get their picture taken.

Hubby and our other guest Tom. He is our neighbor down the street and recently moved from California. His wife passed away a little over a year ago. We've had him over a few times so he made himself at home. ;)

I didn't get a picture of myself and was wearing red for the occasion so here I am. The Chief and Little Bird managed to stay hidden from the camera.

Lizard makes a Valentine

This was Lizard's last chance to participate in Valentine Card exchanges in school and she went ALL OUT (the only help I gave her was handing her paper). It's kind of sad that she's getting so old and will be in 7th grade next year...how did that happen?!

Fire coming out of the mouth

Scales on the chest

Arms, wings, tail with spikes

She made 35 valentines total and these are a sample...if you have time I encourage you to read what she wrote. Some of them are hilarious. She's a hoot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one folds out and apparently gives a brief history of the evolution of the circle.

Roller Skating Rink of Awesomeness

Roller Skating is so cool. It was one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid (I never learned to roller blade...I'm a purist). During Christmas break my sister had the idea to take the kids to a roller rink. Great idea sis!

Hubby sat this one out and was on baby duty.

I'm totally biased, but I think he is so dang cute!

 I was proud of Little Bird for trying to skate. It was her first time and she was all over the place, but she gave it her best shot.

Here she is about to fall over.

Here she is falling over.

They let you take the stroller out onto the rink floor so The Chief got a ride from Uncle Tyler.

Cute cousins!

I'm watching you snowman.

 

Climbing Wall

My first time ever climbing walls. At girl's camp they climbed real walls and I wouldn't do it. I'm not afraid of heights, just of people dropping me. It is definitely harder than it looks, but I thought it was a lot of fun. Lizard was really good at it.

Hubby and my sister were neck and neck.

Phew! What a workout!

 Lean, mean, climbing machine.