Soft Soled Shoes

I love the soft soled shoes Garrison wore as a baby. But now that he's 100% mobile we have gone to all "real" shoes. He insists on wearing shoes all the time. So I decided to make him some soft soled shoes for in the house. These are leather bottoms, then the soles have a thick layer of wool felt. The outsides are a cotton fabric, and the toe cap is lined with soft Organic Bamboo Velour. They are really nice and Garrison loves them. He keeps pointing out to us that he has tractors on his feet. I hope to have time to make a few more of these, they were pretty quick to sew up.

A day of Thanksgiving.

What a great holiday! A wonderful day to enjoy food and family and enjoy the things we've been given in life. Today I reflected mainly on the joy of the living things in my life and what they have brought me. Justen is the best husband that could have been made for me; kind, patient, and hard working. Garrison sure took his sweet time joining our family but boy does he attack life with vigor! And at the end of the day I sure am thankful he goes to bed early and gives me a little time to enjoy the hobbies I have. Tia made a menace of herself begging in the kitchen, but she brought me the realization of how grateful I am for my animals, and the place we are in life that we can have them. Now, there are days when it's hard to find something good to say about Tia the psycho dog, but when Justen is teaching night classes or at late activities it sure is nice having a doberman around the house, and she does kind of grow on you (like fungus). Even though the only people she's ever scared are the ladies from church who stop by to check on me (and boy does she have fun with them!). Abby is one of those amazing border collies that you just can't help but love. She's not Elle and I still miss her some days, but Abby is still a good dog. I am so thankful that she was old enough to be a real help with the sheep by the time Garrison was born so I didn't have to go out and help when I was to sick to. She makes our lives so much easier by doing all the hard running and heavy lifting of caring for such dumb critters. Now about the dumb critters, I sure am attached to them. Itty Bitty is starting to look old, and it sure makes me sad. I am ever so grateful for the enjoyment they provide us, and the freezer full of meat. Which brings me to Nacho, I'm so glad that I don't have to worry about dogs getting in with our sheep any more, it is a releif to know that he will stomp them to death if they go near HIS sheep. And finally the cats, I'm a little miffed at them because I found a mouse in my house the other day, but all in all they do their job, when compared with how many mice we had when we first moved in. So for all the living things in my life I am thankful.
As I was cooking dinner today, and loving everything about my kitchen, I reflected on the years it took us to get here. Our first kitchen in logan left something to be desired but we got by. Then of course you had to love our bothwell house with cupboards that swelled shut. Our St. George house will always be unforgettable, built in well, 1860, 1900, 1920s, 1950, and 1970 as each consective addition was put on, and none of them by professionals or even people who owned a level or measuring tape, but boy what a learning experience that house was. Our 9 month stint in the RV was of course unique but at least the cupboards didn't swell shut- and it sure is easy to keep a 36' X 8' space clean. Our brief stay at Nanny's house was probably the best kitchen to that point but it wasn't ours. The best part about that kitchen is it was always well stocked with yummy food! But now I have a kitchen to LOVE. But as I thought about how much I enjoyed our home here, I realized that even with all the interesting places we've lived we've enjoyed each place we've been in. We've always had a place to live, food to eat, and blessed with all the things we need, and many of the things we want. We have a lot to be greatful for we've been very blessed in everything we do. I thought I'd give you all a pic of thankgsiving dinner and share a few of the recipes I used (mother- this part is for you so you have the spinich pinwheel recipe I used)


Now for a couple of the recipes I made today:
For the turkey, I used this blog. It turned out FANTASTIC! So moist and juicy. I think next year I want to try an orange glazed one thought, that sounds yummy.
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_roast_turkey/

I made the spinich pinwheels using this recipe:
http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/pampered-chef-recipes/cheese-spinach-pinwheels.htm

They were fantastic, I did make a few changes though. I used reduced fat crossant dough and cream cheese. And I sauted bacon and onions (chopped) drained, and sprinkled that on in place of the ham.

I did Loraines blueberry Jello recipe, but used frozen mixed berries instead of canned blueberries, I will be doing that from now on. It was good.

I used my super secret recipe for the stuffing. I'll share the secret with you though: stovetop turkey flavor. Anyway, those are the basics. Hope everyone had a wonderful day.

Some fun pics and an update.

Last weekend was Justen's school's Harvest Ball. Since Justen and the FFA were in charge he put a ton of work into it. They did a carnival this year too with cotton candy, games and they were suppose to have a climbing wall. But at the last min. the National Guard (who was bringing the wall) called and told us the hydraulics were broken and they couldn't come. But the Seargent we had been working with felt really bad and brought a bunch of gear and tons of free stuff and did some fun activities with the kids. He also headed up one of the clean up crews, boy did those kids ever step it up for him!! We thoughrougly enjoyed having him there. Anyway, since Justen also had some parents cancel on him he asked if I could go. So Grandma to the rescue. Grandma Raine came and spent the night at our house with Garrison. Did he ever have fun! He woke up the next two mornings and the first word out of his mouth was GRAMMA as he ran down the hall looking for her. The second morning he was really dissapointed that he couldn't find her. I think he's used to having Oma Jackson here for two weeks at a time and getting to see her every morning, so he was quite confused that Grandma was only here for one. But they had lots of fun, and we got a few cute pics of some of Garrison's favorite things, Hiding in his cupboard, and his balck hat. It was a fun weekend. We also got to take Grandma Raine sewing machine shopping for my new machine. I was really leaning towards the Pfaff when we left (Grandma never quit leaning towards the Pfaff :) but in the end I did end up getting the viking. It does so many things automatically and that's good for me since I don't really know how to do them the hard way. Although last night as I was sewing I found that I liked having the old pfaff and the new viking side by side because I kept switching between them based on what I was doing. Without further ado, here is our cute boy...







And for fun, here are a couple of pics of Justen getting ready for his job interview today. He's got a good job, and he really thinks he'll probably end up staying there, but an opportunity came up he just couldn't pass up. He debated for over a week on whether or not he should even apply but in the end he decided he would kick himself if he didn't at least try for it. But either way he's happy whether he gets it or not, so that is a pretty good spot to be in.

Party Crashers

So last night we crashed another ward's church Halloween party. We had decided that for Halloween we were going to go to the Punkinaze up on 1900 West. I had checked their website and it said they were open at 3 on Saturdays. So we went up, but they were closed. I decided I must have read it wrong so we went shopping and decided to come back on our way home. So we got there about 6 pm, and it was pretty empty but there were definitely people there so we went in. We stood at the ticket booth a long time and nobody came. Well someone who was already inside told us to come on in it was reserved for a church party but then would be open to the public and we could pay on our way out. So we did. We went through the corn maze and had a fun time. We came back out went back to the ticket booth and still nobody was there. After a few minutes a lady came up and told us they were closed, last week was their last weekend open. We explained to her that we had already gone through the maze and needed to pay for it. She laughed told us she was keeping the slide and fire pit going for a few more minutes before their church party ended and that we should come in enjoy the slide and help ourselves to their donuts and cider. She owned the maze and explained no one ever comes on Halloween because they are all out trick or treating. She wouldn't take our money but said we should just come have fun with them. So here are some pictures from it, we had a blast. As soon as Garrison got to the bottom of the slide he would jump back up and RUN, not walk RUN back to the stairs to start climbing to the top again. The picture of the side of Garrison's head is him RUNNING as fast as he could go (and faster than my camera could catch him) to go back down the slide again. Afterwords we decided to come home and trick or treat, but after three houses we had enough and came home and Garrison went to bed. And our sad but true way of giving out candy, we put a sign on the door that said, sorry we missed you, please help yourself to a treat, with a bowl of candy on top of our milk can. We left it up even when we were home so we didn't have to answer the door. Amazingly when Justen went and took it down at 10 pm the bowl was still half full. Of course according to the neighbors they only had two trick or treaters all night and one of them was Garrison, so I'm guessing where we are so far out everyone went into town to get their loot.

My sewing adventures for October.

I can't believe October is already over. Wow, that went fast. Well I only got half of what I planned sewed this month, but I still got a lot done. Sad thing is every time I finish a project I find 5 more I want to do. This month in our sewing group we focused on Halloween and the cold. Sadly I didn't have time to get any new dipes done for daycare, so despite what our group is sewing in November that's what I HAVE to get done. Part of the reason for not getting as much done this month is I've been having machine issues. The machine I've been using was skipping stitches and sewing funky so we took it in to be serviced. And I just wasn't motivated enough to use my little brother machine because it's pretty worthless, and I REALLY wasn't motivated enough to break out my old pfaff (it is all old gunmetal insides and sews with a knee pedal instead of a foot pedal). They cleaned and timed it and fixed a broken pin and said it was all good to go. Well I got it home and it sewed fine, until I tried to do a diaper. The minute I put 4 layers of microfiber in there it went back to its old self. So last night we went to Joannes to get fabric. While I was in the cut line Justen wandered over to the viking dealer inside. By the time I was done getting my felt cut, he came over to let me know he'd picked out my new machine. It was shiny and I was drooling. So the lady demoed it for me, but any one who knows me knows I can't spend money without a good long "thinking about it" period. So I asked the lady if it would sew through 4 layers of microfiber and she told me it would no problem but since microfiber is one of the hardest things to sew I would probably need a sharp denim needle. So as I was wandering the store contemplating it dawned on me, the Pfaff I'd been sewing on had a Jersey ball point needle in it from sewing the waterproof fabrics. ALL THIS TROUBLE OVER A STUPID NEEDLE! So I called Loraine and she talked me through all the needles and what I needed. I may still end up with the very shiny Viking someday, but not today. So without further ado, here's what I've been up to.

We started our month with mittens. From now on I will be buying these at the store. Sewing them was not worth it.


Then I added some doublers and trimmed up some prefolds to get a better fit and more absorbancy. It turns out I still don't like prefolds as diapers no matter how much I keep wanting to.


Then I made Garrison a trick or treat bag.



Next we did carseat strap covers, so those pesky straps don't bother Garrison's neck.


Then we did Fleece diaper covers. I did two styles, one serged with side snaps, and one sewn with front velcro. They turned out pretty good.


Then came the scary project. Zippered pouches!!! Yikes, zippers scare me. Especially because I don't have a zipper foot. Actually, I may have one but I have no clue what it looks like or how to do it. So after going through five or six online tutorials on how to put in zippers I finally tried it. Not to bad for my first try. I did a wet bag. They are water proof pouches that you can use for swim wear or wet or dirty clothes, but in our case we use lots of them for dirty diapers. We send Garrison's clean diapers to daycare in one and then they send the dirties home in one everyday, and we keep them all over they are so handy. This is the first one I've made by myself.


And finally of course, Garrison's Halloween costume. It has a few major problems, like because I was using a scrap I had to cut it out the wrong direction to fit all the pieces so the stretch went the wrong way. It was also my first time working with ribbing so that is a little special. But all in all it's not to bad.


So there's my projects for the month. I've also been spinning some new yarn this month. While the sewing machine was being serviced, I decided to get back to my wheel. I have 8 oz. of Blue Faced Lester worsted weight yarn almost done. But then the sewing machine came back so it's been sitting on the bobbin again. Mabey that's what I'll work on this afternoon.....