a jumper and skirt #3

I finished a couple of sewing projects yesterday.  Both of them had needed a little reshaping after I finished them the first time.  I made a little kahki jumper with a white flower design for Baby Girl and a red corduroy skirt for me.  On the jumper I used the same technique I did on my own skirt last summer, zig-zag over crochet cotting.  I think it is a great effect.  I like the little box pleat in front.  I think I need a skirt with a box pleat in front this summer.  For my red skirt I used the same pattern that I used for two other skirts.  This time it was a little to flared for the stiffer corduroy so I had the whittle the sides away to make it almost straight, but still comfy.

Leaves and logs

Here's the latest.  It is pretty simple, but I like it.  You can see it here in repeat.  The Spoonflower contest theme this week is "nature".  The winner of this week's contest gets their fabric on a Boba Baby Carrier and $500.  Because of the great prize there are a LOT of entries.  So if you have a minute go here and vote for your favorites (including mine).

My runner up was the dandelion seeds, but I could only submit one.  Let me know what you think.

Our Advocate with the Father

From our RS lesson last week.

Jesus is our Advocate with the Father.  The word advocate comes from Latin roots meaning a “voice for” or “one who pleads for another.” Other related terms are used in scripture, such as mediator.  From the Book of Mormon we learn that this responsibility to mediate, or make intercession, was foreseen before His birth: Jesus “shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved” (2 Ne. 2:9).


This mission was clearly evident in the compassionate intercessory prayer of Jesus. In your mind, picture Him kneeling in fervent supplication. Listen to the beautiful language of His prayer. Sense His feeling for His weighty responsibility as mediator:

“I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

“Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

“For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

“I pray for them” (John 17:6–9).

He is also known as the Mediator of the new testament, or new covenant. Comprehending Him as our Advocate, Intercessor, and Mediator with the Father gives us assurance of His unequaled understanding, justice, and mercy.

From Jesus Christ: Our Master and More  Elder Russel M. Nelson, Ensign April 2000

Happy Valentines Day

I love seeing what comes home from preschool for the holiday crafts.  There are the cookie cutter paint hearts and glitter...

And then there are the Valentine Aliens.

For my holiday celebration I made a peppermint sponge cake, or a candy cane cake as Buddy Boy calls it.  This is a family classic from my Grandmother.  They raised chickens and always had an abundance of eggs.  This cake certainly helps make a dent in the egg supply.  I like the pink swirls.  This one didn't swirl all that well, but you get the idea.  You can make a frosting glaze to drizzle over the cake and top with crushed candy canes.  This is tasty, but I didn't get that far today.  Maybe next Christmas when candy canes are in the stores again.

Peppermint Sponge cake

7 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot water
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon peppermint extract (This makes a very minty cake, use less for for a more subtle mint flavor.)

1.  Separate eggs.  You should have 1 overflowing cup of whites.
2.  Beat egg whites with cream of tarter and salt
3.  Beat yolks with sugar, water, flour, and extract
4.  Carefully fold whites and yolk mixture together, being careful not to deflate whites to much
5.  Put batter in an ungreased 10 inch tube pan, not non-stick.
6.  Sprinkl the top of cake batter with red food coloring and slice through batter from center to outer edge all around the cake to swirl the coloring in.
7.  Bake at 350 for approximately 45 minutes or until done.  A bamboo skewer inserted in the cake should come out clean.

This is also delicious with lemon extract instead of the peppermint.

Grandma and Grandpa came

or G'ma and Pa Pa as Baby Girl says. 

We had a great visit with my parents.  They left their frozen home to visit us in our wet and drizzly home.  Well, you can't have sun every day.  We still had fun with dinners with Grammie and GrandDad and the Santa Cruz cousins and watching the surfers in Santa Cruz.  We wanted to watch butterflies, but we only saw two.  For some reason Baby Girl felt compelled to push the grass.  I don't know why.  She just kept saying, "pushing grass."  OK.

We spent a morning at the Children's Discovery Museum.  The kids had a great time, but I remembered why I don't go without other adults.  It is loud and full of kids on school field trips.  Around lunch time it was a little better, but I've had my fill for awhile. 

We went to the Rose Garden one afternoon and blew dandelions.  It is a beautiful place even in the winter.

Mom brought her projects which included sorting sewing patterns and trims.  She brought them so that she could share.  I kept a few of the patterns for kid clothes and some of the trims as well.  How can you say no to metallic gold ric rac and hot pink ball fringe?  The trims will find their way on to sewing and craft projects at some point in the future.  Some of the trims (and patterns for that matter) came from my grandmother's stash.  I don't have plans to make any of these dresses, but they are fun to look at.  I can imagine my Grandmother wearing the dress on the left and Mom remembers wearing the little shoulder cape from the center pattern in first grade or so.

It was great to just spend time together and also to listen to Buddy boy and Grandpa slaying dragons in the yard.  Did you know that if you stick the dragons in the belly button their legs fall off?

Top ten!

My butterfly border print placed #10 out of 106 bug design entries in the Spoonflower design contest with 309 votes.  I am pretty happy about this.  You can see the results and the top 10 winners here.  I learn a lot by looking at the entries, especially the winners.  I really like this week's winning entry, lovely lacewings.  My favorites were #1, 3, 8, and 10 of course.  Thanks to everyone who voted for my design.

Wordful Wednesday: Love Songs

When we were engaged and first married we spent a lot of time apart for different reasons, mostly related to our jobs and later his schooling.  We joked about our time zone issues.  Then one summer we didn't have time zone issues.  We were in the same time zone but different hemispheres.  That didn't help much.  So this unlikely song became our theme song for awhile.  (Translator - Everywhere That I'm Not)  Fortunately those days are long gone, but the song still brings back a lot of memories.



More Wordful Wednesday love songs here.

Butterflies on Spoonflower

This week's Spoonflower contest is all about the bugs.  Here is my entry

It is a fairly simple border print.  I like it.  I went through many different color combinations, but settled on this one.  I also liked this one

I think the yellow and grey make a nice subdued spring color combination.
Here is the link for voting.  The themes for the next couple of weeks are Love and Steam Punk.  I think I'll sit these out.  Except that yesterday Buddy boy asked me if I had ever seen a train with wings.  Hmmm....

Alison

Princess castle stickers

I'm not quite sure why I did this.  Maybe it is because this weekend we went to two birthday parties.  The first was all about the princesses and for the second one the boy loves knights.  So I drew up these little guys.  Each person or building block will fit on a 1 x 2 5/8 inch mailing label.  So you can cut and paste them digitally into a mailing label template and make stickers or just print and cut and paste the old fashioned way.  I think using the stickers to make your own castle sounds fun.  I've got the dragon and a tower, what else do I need? 

Feel free to download and use the pictures.  Just let me know if you do and give me credit if anyone should ask.

Dirt is good

Dirt IS good. I just wish it didn't come with extra laundry attatched.