Swan Lake, Chinese Style

Watch this all of the way through if you can. It's rather long, but OH MY HEAVENS!!!! It is amazing!!!

my favorite things

I love making things. I would rather make anything than buy it, just to learn how to do it. Here are my favorite things that I've been making as of late.






These two bags, Bird Crowned with Glory, and the Cupcake bag, I made for a church auction. I have made hundreds of bags over the past few years, but I must say that these are two of my favorites










At a church function around Christmas time, a fabulous woman in my ward was wearing this super-girly apron, and I fell in love with it. She let me bring it home, where I made a pattern, and whipped up a ton of them. You can see the originals at funktionhome.com, they're spectacular.













The first time I saw these hair flowers on a child, I laughed my head off. Now, I don't think they could be cuter, and they are so easy to make. We pretty much have one in every color for every occasion. My good friend has a thriving business selling these in Denver, and they go like hot-cakes. I can't get enough of them.





Last, but not least, I have a fetish with yummy drinks. So, here is the recipe for my personal favorite summer time slush.
in a blender, combine:
2 cups of ice
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of hot chocolate mix ( the kind you mix with hot water)
1T Pero (or some other version of Mormon "coffee")
blend it all up until it's thick and slushy.

MMMMMmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

mid-life crisis

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about the fact that we were both probably not going to have any more children. She mentioned something about being in a mid-life crisis. I never thought that would happen to me, but as she said those words, I realized, that's exactly what's happening to me. I am in this weird phase of my life. I never wanted to be here, I don't want to be here now, yet I am. My kids keep getting older, and fight as I will, they are all going to be in school darn soon! I have spent some amount of time worrying about this since my oldest was born, and now, it's come much sooner than I would have had it. I am so excited about new prospects, but I'm terrified of the unknown. I have loved having tiny kids around me so very much, that I don't believe I can be happy without it. I always thought that I would have a whole bunch of kids, and that by the time the youngest were in school, I would be ready to move on and do my own thing. But when that didn't happen, I am now entering into this all too quickly. I do love that I'm getting tossed out of my comfort zone, because I know I will grow so much. I feel like I felt when I got on a plane to Paraguay to serve a mission for my church. I've never been so afraid, however, that certainly was, by far and large the coolest thing I've ever done in my life (next to marriage and kids of course.) So, this next phase of life too, will be huge, and wonderful I guess, if I can get my emotions together enough to handle it.

silhouettes

We went to this cave sort of thing, and when the girls were going out of it, I caught these great silhouettes. These were two of the best.

Easter in Moab

I had so much fun taking pictures this weekend. The light was amazing and the color bouncing off of the red rocks and red sand did such fun things to skin tones. The part that I loved the most, was the sheer enormity of the cliffs and rocks, and my tiny pink things at the bottom. We are so small in this big world, and sometimes, I catch myself feeling bigger than I am. It was nice to be humbled by nature, and remember my place in it.

Ice Cream with Satan

We had the best Sunday School lesson last week. We are reading the hard Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi. Our teacher took us to 2Nephi 24:16 (Also found in Isaiah 14) where it talks about what it's going to be like for Satan when he is once and for all cast down, never to be able to tempt us again. I love the imagery that Isaiah uses, that everyone will be looking at him "narrowly" and thinking -- is that all you are? You little pathetic little thing, you caused all that havoc on earth, and now here you are as "a carcass trodden under feet." So last night, as we were putting the girls to bed, we were talking about it, and saying that we really have the power to choose the direction our lives take. I told them that Satan will lie to them and tell them that some things will make them happy, or be fun. My tiniest jumped in with this big bold voice and said "Yeah, like Satan will say 'come to my house and have ice-cream!' so we'll go, and . . . . . . no ice-cream! He lied!!" We totally laughed so hard. I hope they always remember that with Satan, no ice-cream party there.

life list

I've decided to keep a list of things that I hope to accomplish in my life. I know my list will change regularly, but I stand more of a chance of actually accomplishing something, if it's written down, and acknowledged from time to time. I'm full blown stealing this from a really great blog I happened across tonight. I love creative people, I want to be a creative person. So far, I'm really good at copying ideas, and I can do it well. Someday, I want someone to copy one of my original ideas. So here goes, before I die, I would love to:

-travel to Manchu Picchu
-own a really great apartment in Europe
-really know the Bible
-publish a book ( I don't know about what though)
-learn another language
-serve another mission for my church
-understand the stock market
-have a piece in the April Salon
-earn enough money to surprise my boy with something really cool (that he doesn't buy with his bonus before I can actually give him the one that I bought)
-totally understand how to use a computer