halloween

I'm nearly week behind the Halloween posting trend, but I couldn't let this year go by without sharing photos of my own scary ghouls . . . er . . . beautiful princesses.

a recent visit . . .

. . . from two of our favorite people!

^ Us girls in our coincidentally matching red and black.

Thanks for coming Mom and Dad!

Happy Birthday Abby!

{ Abby is Seven!!!! }

One minute I can hardly believe Abby is turning 7, and the next I can't believe she is only seven—she is so grown up. Right now she is enjoying first grade, reading chapter books like a champ, making arts and crafts in every spare moment, and is looking very toothless (and about to loose the second of her two front teeth!)

We had a birthday party for both girls at Jungle Jims. I had a hard time narrowing down the photos, but you'll see they had LOTS of fun with their cousins and friends.




























Thanks for coming, everyone!

Canon in Love

Last weekend I was asked to play piano for a wedding (my sister-in-law's sister-in-law). Here are a few photos from the event:

^ Me and my dear husband. (I managed to let his birthday slip by on October 6th without acknowledging here on the blog. We celebrated at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum! Happy Belated Birthday Tom!)

^ Me and my sistahs

^ My sweet nieces

The bride asked for the traditional and beautiful Canon in D, but I wanted to change it up a bit. I ended up mixing it with "Can't Help Falling in Love" for what you could call "Canon in Love".

I made a quick little recording in Garage Band (very easy, I might add!) and thought I would share it with you. The recording isn't perfect so don't be too critical. The part I mixed up is towards the end during the brides processional.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

{ Our princess turns 4 today! }

^ Since daddy had to be gone today, we celebrated as a family last night. She gets to share a birthday party with Abby next weekend.

^ Abby made hats for the occasion. Sarah's said "birthday girl" and Abby's said "lucky sister".

^ Look at the card I got from Grandma B! Thanks Amma!

^ She opened this and said "I love this! I love this! I love it... What is it?"

^ It's her costume/dress up, and it suits her to a T.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

needle felting

A few nights ago Abby asked me if we could do a craft together. So, I grudgingly agreed (yeah right) and this weekend we hit the fabric store. Inspired by a recent article in Martha Stewart Living (September 2009 issue—you can also see examples here, here and here) I decided we should try needle felting.

This decision set me back a bit money-wise because of the expense of the fabric and the new tools we needed, but it was fun. 100% wool works best, and I chose the fabrics above. The girls chose these:

These are the tools we needed: a mat that looks like a giant flat brush, and felting needles.

We cut our felt shapes out with the Sizzix Big Shot die-cutting machine from Stampin' Up!


We then used the felting needle to attach the flower. The friction from the needles moving rapidly up and down through the fabric melds the two layers together.

Here Abby is using one needle to attach the leaves.

After you finish with the needles, it looks like this:

And the reverse side looks like this:

You can use it either way. For Sarah, I liked the look of the more defined shape. But for the rest of our projects we used the soft fuzzy side, because that was the look inspired by Martha. Here is Abby's finished pillow:

And Sarah with her pillow:

And here are the pillows I created:

The felting was fun, but the Amy Butler fabric I used to back the pillows was my favorite part!

I used my motivation to sew up a couple of pillows out of this brown and blue raw silk fabric I've had sitting around for ages.

summer's end

I can't think of a better way to cap off the summer than spending a weekend in Bear Lake with great friends.

^ Best buddies

^ Susan's reaction when she found out she would have to put up with the Clarks for 3 days.

^ Breakfast tastes better from someone else's bowl.


^ Breakfast on the go. No time to stop and eat.

^ Cute little Emma doodle.

^ Loading in the rented jet skis, and hoping the truck doesn't drown in the process.



^ Ready to go!


^ Tom thinks this photo belongs in a Yamaha brochure: "the perfect family friendly activity. Buy a Yamaha today!"




^ Posers

^ The view of the beautiful Bear Lake blue waters from the hills above.

^ Susan rocks a helmet

^ Setting up day camp on the beach

^ Pulling out when the weather went south

^ Sarah on her personal stage

^ Tom makes lunch