Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas! I love the lights, the family parties, the food, the presents, but most importantly, I love what Christmas represents...the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. I also love this quote by Spencer W. Kimball...I have had this quote for several years...I think it's a condensed version of his 7-page book entitled The Wondrous Gift:

Like the wise men who opened their treasury and presented to Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we present to our loved ones things to eat and wear and enjoy. Though we make an effort to follow the pattern of gift-giving, sometimes our program becomes an exchange – gift given for gift expected.

Never did the Savior give in expectation. I know of no case in His life in which there was an exchange. He was always the giver, seldom the recipient. His gifts were of such a nature that the recipient could hardly exchange or return the value.

His gifts were rare ones: eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, and legs to the lame; cleanliness to the unclean, wholeness to the infirm, and breath to the lifeless. His gifts were opportunity to the downtrodden, freedom to the oppressed, light in the darkness, forgiveness to the repentant, hope to the despairing.

His friends gave Him shelter, food, and love. He gave them of Himself, His love, His service, His life. The wise men brought Him gold and frankincense. He gave them and their fellow mortals resurrection, salvation, and eternal life.

We should strive to give as He gave. To give of oneself is a holy gift…the most wondrous gift of all is the selfless gift given to us by our Savior. We can do nothing more to show our love for Him than to give of ourselves in a silent, quiet, loving way. This, the gift of self, is the highest gift of all.

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas...don't forget to show everyone you love how much you care about them! =)

The Iron Dilemma Continues...

Thank you to everyone that left a comment about the problem I've been having with my iron...I received a lot of really great suggestions...thanks so much!

I purchased some iron cleaner from Bed, Bath and Beyond. In case you're wondering...Wal-Mart doesn't carry iron cleaner...at least the one by my house doesn't. I used the entire bottle and really cleaned out the inside and the outside of the iron...it looked so great! While at Wal-Mart looking for cleaner, I noticed an ironing board cover on sale for super cheap, and since mine was looking pretty gross with all of the starch stuck on it, I decided to buy it...now my ironing board looked so great! I was sure my problems would be over....and they seemed to be. I decided to iron on a piece of scrap fabric...no marks, Hooray! Then I decided to iron on another scrap...no marks again, Hooray Hooray! So, thinking that all was well and my problems solved, I grabbed my triangle units to get them pressed. First triangle unit, so far so good. Second triangle unit...brown marks!!!! What! I grabbed my scraps again...no marks! What! Then I thought that maybe it was the fabric...that would be weird, so I grabbed a couple of pieces of the white fabric and green fabric that haven't been stitched yet...no marks! So, now I'm thinking it just got the last of whatever problem my iron was having out of it's system, so I start ironing my triangle units again, and what do I get...marks! Maybe this is a sign that I'm not supposed to finish this quilt, or maybe my iron is on the fritz and it just 'happens' to do it when I press the triangle units. I think I'll take a couple to my mom's house and try her iron...just to make sure it's not the fabric, but I don't know why it would be the fabric. I have also asked Santa to bring me a new iron for Christmas...that should solve the problem...if not, I may have to give up sewing and quilting all together! No, not really. =)

I also received some comments about using the all fabric bleach to remove the marks and I still need to try that. I only have bleach for whites and I keep forgetting to buy the all fabric kind when I'm at the store. I have placed a sticky note on my checkbook so that I don't forget the next time I'm out. I'll let you know how that goes.

Thanks for 'listening'! Have a super great day!

HELP!!!

Hello to all my friends out in Blogland...hope you're having a great weekend, but I have a favor to ask...can you help me? Since last spring, I've been working on my green-and-white quilt in between other projects. I'm almost done with the triangle units, but within the past week when I went to press them I ran into a problem. I like to use starch...and normally use Best Press...but in an effort to save some money just bought the cheap stuff from the grocery store. It's been working fine, but then....

The squares on the top are what they are supposed to look like and the ones on the bottom are ruined with marks on the white, but no marks on the green. Has this ever happened to you? I stopped using the starch to see if that would get rid of the problem, but no such luck, so the starch must not be the problem. I tried turning the iron down from the cotton setting to the lowest setting, but that didn't work either, so I don't think it's a heat/burn issue. I also tried pressing on the opposite side than I normally do (thinking that maybe just one side of the iron had a problem)...still just the marks on the edges of the white fabric. I really like my iron and ironing board...well, up until now...and I don't really want to replace them, but I will if I have to. I just wish I new if it was the iron or the ironing board...I guess I could try pressing them on a mini board that I have...that would probably be a good idea. I've been afraid to iron any 'real' clothes for fear that this will ruin them, so they just go into the dryer on high heat to remove wrinkles...usually works okay.

Do you have any ideas or suggestions I can try? Any help or advice you can give me would be wonderful and I would love you forever!!! Thanks so much and have a wonderful day! =)

Catch Up

Hello! Hope you had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving! I've been out of blogworld for a bit, but I'm back now and hope to be posting on a regular basis again. Sometimes life gets a little busy and keeps me from doing all the things I'd really like to be doing...I'm sure you can all relate! Anyway, here is what I've been up to:


We had a great Thanksgiving! We are lucky enough to live close to both my parents and my husband's parents, so we get to have two Thanksgivings...sometimes it makes for a long day, but we feel really blessed to have family so close.


We also saw Twilight the weekend that it came out. I LOVE the books, so I was really excited when they announced that they'd be making a movie. I wasn't too sure about the casting of Edward, but as I watched the movie, he started to grow on me and now I do see him as Edward. However, all in all, I was a little disappointed in the movie. To me, it just seemed to be different from the book...and the way that I imagined it to be in reading the book....but, that's the way it always is...books are always better than the movie. My husband and I rate the movies we see on a 1-10 scale...I gave it a 6. My husband thought that the scenery in the movie was really beautiful, as did I...I think I'd like to visit Forks one day.
Back in October, I signed up to participate in the We The People Swap III. I sent my package (forgot to take a picture before I went to the post office) to ****** the beginning of last week and look what I found in the mailbox today: Carolyn sent me these for the swap. A great table runner pattern (I've been wanting to make some runners for my table that I can switch out for the seasons) and this fun Dinosaur Uproar charm pack by Moda. I can't wait to use them! Thanks again, Carolyn!


I also received my Spare Change fabric squares during the last couple of weeks. I love scrap quilts, so I'm excited to sew these squares into a fun quilt:

I have had a little time to do some shopping, especially fabric shopping:
I bought this blue fabric for a blue and cream quilt block exchange my quilting group is doing. We'll all be doing the same block pattern, but we can choose our own fabrics...they just need to be blue and cream.


Now, I just need to finish my Christmas shopping and getting everything else ready for the holidays. This Friday, we're having our older nieces and nephews over for a sleepover...they're really excited! It should be a lot of fun....and nice for their parents too! =)

Remember These?

Remember these scraps that I received as part of JCasa :: Handmade's Spare a Square Scrap Challenge?

Well, I turned them into this fabric flower bowl using the tutorial at Poppy Lane. I originally saw this through Penny's blog at sewtakeahike...thanks for posting the link, Penny! When I saw the tutorial, I immediately knew I HAD to make one! This is the inside of the bowl:

This is the back of the bowl: It's the perfect place to store my bobbins!Thanks for the tutorial, Kali! I'll definitely be making more of these fabric flower bowls!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!! =)

VOTE!

Election day has finally arrived...today we find out who the next President of the United States will be. Have you voted yet? If you have...hooray! If you haven't...go vote.....................now! =)

Well, I'm off to vote!

Have a great day!

Halloween Spooks

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!

We really get into Halloween at our house. My husband takes the day off from work...and I try to take it off or else leave early, too. We don't decorate our yard or anything until the day of Halloween so it's a surprise for all of the trick-or-treaters. Every year we make it a little different and add a few new things.

This year, we did a graveyard theme with lots of tombstones, bones, skeletons coming out of their graves, fog, bubbling cauldrons, rats, spiders, cobwebs, ghosts, pumpkins, bats, etc. Some of the things are motion-activated - that seems to be fun for the kids. Rick and I dress up in spooky costumes too.

Here are some pictures of our house before it got dark.Here is what it looked like at night.

You had to get the candy from Rick and I think he might have scared a few kids...some of them wanted to come to me to get their candy. We also had a table with all sorts of goodies - cupcakes, rice krispies treats, donut holes, cookies - and hot cider and wassail. The adults seemed to like that, and of course the kids did too. We went through about 100 cups of cider and wassail and about 150 treats...not to mention all of the candy that we gave away! We did have some repeat guests that came back for more treats on their way home. Some people even requested pictures with Rick. It was fun!

It was a great Halloween this year and we are already planning for next year. But, we are really looking forward to the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's holidays coming up!