Happy New Year

It's almost 2010. . .

It's a New Year here in a matter of just a few hours and I'd like to WISH all of you the most AWESOME NEW YEAR . . . EVER!!! May it bring much Joy and Happiness to you and yours!

Benjamin's ABC Picture Book

This is the post I wanted to post before we headed to Florida but I had to retake the pictures because somehow my husband lost them when he was updating my computer. No worries though because these pictures turned out better anyway.

I had lots of fun making this ABC Picture Book for my Grandson this year for Christmas. I have yet to give it to him as we were apart during the holiday but I will be giving it to him in the next few days when I see him. I know he's going to love it because he love's books and looking at pictures too.

The idea for the book came from a scrapbooking type blog I came across a few months ago now. She had taken the pictures that coordinated with each letter of the alphabet and made a scrapbook page for each letter. She used at least one picture on each page. Then she decorated the pages with paper and stickers before laminating each page. Then the holes were punched and the book was bound with either ribbon or metal rings, I can't quite remember. This was such a great idea and it really resonated with me. I hope you enjoy it and remember that you can file it away for a special birthday or next Christmas. I'm sorry I can't give credit where credit is due, but if you had the idea and you happen across this blog post feel free to let me know and I will make sure to link your post about it. It's an awesome idea!!!!

I've made a few books on my MAC and I love the results as you can see from the pictures below. You may use any of my IDEAS for each LETTER in making your own book or just customize the letter to your own children or granchildren's lives, pictures, and experiences. I LOVE taking pictures so I had a lot to choose from for most of the letters and only had one picture for some of the other letters. I was lucky to have the majority of pictures that I used already taken and only had to get a picture or two from my daughter (the mom).

Benjamin's ABC Book
(Front of Book Jacket Cover)

A is for my Auntie Kenna & Auntie Ariel.

B is for Benjamin.

C is for Christmas and Candy.

D is for Dirt and Dinosaurs.

E is for Easter Eggs.

F is for Father's and Families. They are Fantastic.

G is for Grammi & Grampin. They are really GREAT!

H is for Hats and Haircuts.

I is for Ice Cream. I love ice cream!

J is for Juice. The kind Grammi makes.

K is for Kora. My sister she is.

L is for Love. I LOVE to Play!

M is for My Mother. She's the Very Best!

N is for "Grammi" Noodles. Nummy Num Num!

O is for Outside. I love to be Outside!

P is for Pirates. Arrrr Matey!

Q is for Quilts that Grammi makes for me.

R is for Remembering that Families are Forever!

S is for Scary Spiders. I'll save you Kenna & .....

T is for Tinkering, Toys, & Trains.

U is for Uncle Mark. I love hanging out with him.

V is for a Velociraptor named Benji-Raptor.

W is for Water. Way Wet & Wild Fun!!!

X Marks the Spot on My Map.

Y is for YOU and I definitely LOVE YOU!!!

Z is for Zoo. I LOVE the ZOO!!

The END!

Back of the jacket cover.

49...

It's my birthday today and my daughter's as well.

I'm another year older and wiser too! LOL!

Birthday Wishes to All of You with December Birthdays!!

I've been so busy this holiday season and I want to apologize for not blogging much but I want you to know that I've enjoyed keeping up with all of your wonderful holiday posts. Thanks for sharing.

We're headed to Disneyworld tomorrow to celebrate our birthdays and enjoy the Christmas Season together. Everyone is packed and ready to go. It's really going to be hard to get to sleep tonight with all of the excitement.

I'm going to stay up late tonight and do a few posts before I leave tomorrow. They will pop up this week sometime so, keep an eye out for them.

Late Night Update: I was going to do a few other posts before I left but my husband upgraded the operating system on our mac to Snow Leopard and then he decided to uninstall the program. It's complicated, anyway, I don't have access to the current pictures I was going to blog about. So, that means this is my last post until I get back. Sorry about that.

Merry Christmas to all of you!!

The Best Gift Ever!

If I could give each of you a gift for Christmas this year it would be the "Spirit of Christmas." If you watch the attached video you will understand my thoughts and feelings at this special time of year.

Get some tissue before you watch it though, it's a touching message and a sweet reminder of the meaning of Christmas. I also, want to send my love and best wishes for each of you. You have inspired me, taught me, made me laugh, given me comfort, encouraged me, supported me, and I have felt your friendship through the comments you leave. Thank you for always being positive and sharing your goodness. I strongly believe that we can help each other and support each other through our kind words and our kind deeds.

I was talking with a few co-workers today and I shared a few life experiences that have helped me become a better person (I'm still becoming). We were talking about life and not being judgemental. I believe that we all have enough challenges in our lives and so instead of passing judgement on one another we should take the higher road and give each other a hall pass and ask how can we help instead of turning our heads in judgement.

This is how I see it in my head . . .

Envision yourself standing on the edge of a cliff

You look over the edge and it's so far down that you know you wouldn't live if you were to fall.

Now imagine feeling the panic that would come as you feel yourself teetering on that edge.

You SCREAM for help and are relieved when you see someone coming to your aid.

Then suddenly, the person that comes to help you actually tries to push you off the cliff instead of pulling you away.

Have any of you ever felt this way? I have and it's so sad to feel someone judge you incorrectly instead of seeing past your differences and loving you anyway.

Well, I've told myself and reminded myself that I want to be the one that pulls a person away from the edge not the person who pushes a person over the edge. This holiday season let's all try to be more mindful of what we can do to help each other along our journey in life because as we go along the path we will find ourselves and others that may be hanging in the balance.

Remember there are. . .

Those that need a word of encouragement, not judgment.

Those that need a hug, not a shove.

Those that need lifting, not dropping.

Those that need a bit of sunshine, not a sour attitude.

Those that need a kind word, not criticism.

Those that need LOVE not HATE!!

Let us all be more Christlike this Christmas Season and into the New Year. Let's see how it can change our lives and the lives of those around us. May you have a joyous Christmas and Holiday Season with your family and loved ones.







P.S. Life has had me near the edge of late (too busy) and I'm managing my stress by hardly blogging and doing very little sewing. Just keeping things in perspective and enjoying the season. I hope you all understand my pathetic blogging lately and I hope to be able to make a few other posts before next week when we head off for the holidays with our family. I'm looking forward to the time away with my husband and my kids!!!

Plates for Your Table Tip

I was doing some catching up on my google reader this morning and came across this post from Bloom's blog called Bloom and Blossom. She has many great posts and lots of wonderful tutorials. Bloom is also a Moda Bake Shop Designer and has done some of my favorite projects on Moda's Bakeshop like this and this and this!

Just so you know Bloom is a genius and this is why...


Just go to her blog and look at the great tip she came up with to make the Dresden Plates for my Moda Bakeshop project called Plates for Your Table. It's pretty awesome. Thanks Bloom for sharing this thrifty way of making the dresden plates out of Charm Packs!

Please Note: This tip only works for making the smaller dresden plate used in the table runner project as seen here below.


Run and check out her tip today. . . you will love it!!!

Gratitude & Thanksgiving

Have you been missing me?

Well, this is the sweet bunch that has been keeping me busy with family parties and activities and cooking and cleaning. My darling Auntie Claudia recently went back home to New Zealand and we miss her terribly and wished that she was with us today. I did speak with her a few days ago and she's made it back home safely.

I'm hoping to show some of the pictures we took of the things that we did while she was here. I'm just starting to recover from all of the extra things going on in my life and trying to manage the stress of the Holidays. We are going to keep the Holidays fun and low key.

We give THANKS for our bounteous blessings, our dear friends, our loving family, our Savior Jesus Christ and a Heavenly Father who loves us and wants us to return to him.

May you have the Joy and Happiness that comes through recognizing the blessings we have and in returning thanks to God through serving others. I see all of the wonderful things that you all are doing to help those around you. Keep it up.

Lots of Hugs, Kim

New & Improved Sewing Room

This past Saturday was spent cleaning and organizing my sewing room. I put in 8 whole hours. It's become such a huge mess over the past few years that I've been unable to concentrate and sew effectively. I've been looking for a solution to my organization and storage dilemma for sometime now and I finally found it one day when I was at Robert's Craft Store. The boxes are called Modular Home Storage Organizer Cubes by Store in Style. There are a few online links here and here but the prices are a bit high. I've been frequently visiting the local craft stores over the last six months buying them one at a time using my 40% off coupon. It's been great.

This is the Before Video of my sewing room. Just make sure to watch the after video too, so you won't think I live in total chaos all of the time. Remember I've been sewing for 34 years now and I have a lot of stuff and I haven't had a very good place to put it until now. I really love having easy access to all of my craft tools & supplies along with my quilting tools & all my fabric.



The transformation has been slow going but it's finally taking shape. I'm almost embarrassed to show you my mess but, you all know that I'm human and I'm sure many of us have our little piles of ongoing things to be put away. Right? Anyway, I'm just really happy to have it nearly done.

I've been working on it here and there for several months now and I had one side of the room started but there was so much to do that I was putting it off and then Halloween came and I had another mess on my hands. Fabric and patterns every where. My Aunt Claudia stayed at my brother's house this weekend so I had some time to attack the situation and get some organization back into my life.

Here's the After Video of my sewing room.



I hope you enjoyed my attempt at capturing the transformation LIVE on video. It was fun to do and I'm so glad that the majority of it is done. Now I just have to continue organizing and I have about 3 more cubes to buy to finish off the other side of the room. I also want to get some more doors for some of the boxes so everything is less exposed. You will see the door in one of the pictures below. I also need to get a few for shelf inserts.

My Cutting Table and a view of some of my storage cubes. The great thing about these cubes is that you can put them together in any order that works for you.

This view is looking at the TV and out of the room into the hallway.

This is where I sit when I'm sewing.

I plan on getting two more cubes with double drawers for the bottom row and then three doors for the top row. That will make it look really clean and organized.

This is a view of my design wall and a lot of my baskets.

Here are a few pictures I took in June when I was putting together some of the storage cubes with the enthusiastic help of my grandson, Benjamin. He was also helping me this past Saturday put together the rest of the boxes I had purchased. He was so excited about the whole thing that he stuck with it for several hours. He was such a great help with everything as you can see from the pictures.

The FLIP

This is what I bought my husband for his birthday. The FlipUltraHD Camcorder. It's the neatest little toy out there. I'm sure you're all thinking that I really bought it for me and you're probably right but really it's more of a family gift for our upcoming Disneyworld Vacation and I just used his birthday as an opportunity to buy something that we both were going to buy anyway. You understand, right? I just beat him to it and surprised him. It's always fun to surprise him with something he doesn't expect. We're going to have lots of fun taking video during our family vacation. It's really cool because it's nearly the size of my cell phone just a little taller and a little bit thicker. Here's a look at the FLIP and my CELL side my side.


My husband's company recently bought The Flip company so the employees were offered a great deal. We missed the offer but I got an even better deal on Amazon. Right now through November 18th with the purchase of the Flip Video, Amazon is offering two accessories for free. What a great DEAL. I've linked to Amazon here if you're in the market for a small, convenient and versatile camcorder.

A little something just for fun. In the next day or two I will be exposing my CREATIVE space with before and after videos. I think you'll be surprised to see the chaos before and the inspiring space after. I'm loving my space right now and I'm looking forward to getting down there to do some creating!

It's a Special Day

Another year OLDER and WISER too!

Happy 53rd Birthday. . .MARK!!!

Lots of Hugs!!!

And Lots of Kisses, too!!!

I LOVE YOU, Honey!

The Day after Halloween

I hope you all had a great halloween. I know we did. I was working on my costumes all week and even up until the very last minute. Talk about stressful. The pirate shirt was a pain. It wasn't that hard but I was talking and sewing at the same time so, I did more unpicking than I like to do. Stupid mistakes!! LOL! Anyway, it turned out well and Ben made a perfect pirate. He's been wearing his costume all day and all night for three days now. I'm pretty certain he wore it to bed last night and his mom may have a hard time getting him to change clothes for church today too!!! LOL!


Here's my DD in the great STEAMPUNK costume that she put together. She made all of the jewelry too. You're probably all asking your yourselves what's Steampunk?

Well, you can go here to her blog if you want to learn more about steampunk.

Natalie's family had a great time dressing up for Halloween this year and even Nick got in to it. Some of you may recognize his character but just in case your don't. He's Naruto Uzumaki, an ongoing Japanese Manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. Nick served an LDS mission to Japan for two years and Natalie took Japanese in High School and likes to dray anime so they both love all things from Japan.

The awesome picture was taken by her good friend Michelle.

My DD Natalie with her son Benjamin.

My Daughter's Family.

Benjamin was so excited about Halloween this year that he would hardly hold still and I was lucky to get a few good pictures. He was bouncing around everywhere and he hadn't even eaten any candy yet.

Going down a scary path. . .

That was fun.
They even gave me candy.

He was really into saying Trick or Treat this year and even said it before anyone even answered the door. Here's a sad face because no one was home at this house.

Kenna having fun at her class party.

Here's a close up of the glitter tattoo that her Auntie did for her.

Ursula from Little Mermaid.

Our Coca-Cola Delivery Man.

Here I am with my friend Shari who was giving out baby M & M's. I'm dressed as a Momma Hippie since Kenna went as a hippie. My Ariel told me that I looked more like a Hawaiian Tourist. Oh, well. That's the best I could do with the time I had.


Here are just a few other links to Halloween Posts and Costumes that I enjoyed.

• Monica from Happy Zombie
• Anna from Thimbleanna
• Nedra from Cactus Needle
• Jodi from Pleasant Home
• Little Loveables
• Bakerella