General Conference Projects

This general conference I have been working on my Christmas Tree skirt. I am doing 5 scenes from the Christmas story that will be sewn together to form the skirt. I finally cut out the last two backgrounds today. So now I'm gonna put up the scenes, and tell you what I've done and what is still to be done.

First is the Angel appearing to Mary

The fabric I chose to do the walls on this one is pretty funky, but I hope it will work and give off the impression of a stone-ish type house. The room is probably bigger than is really realistic, but oh well.

I obviously still need to add the angel to this one. I need fabric for the angel robes, so those will not be done as soon as the rest of everything will be. I am considering redrawing my angels as well, because both of them (one in another scene) look a little odd. So we will see how that works out.

Second is Joseph and Mary Traveling to Bethlehem

I have somehow misplaced my donkey, so I am most likely going to have to cut out another one, but I have Mary all ready, and Joseph has all his pieces cut out, except his beard (it's the same story in the next frame as well). I had put Bethlehem on this already, but it was crooked, so I pulled it off (without damage to either piece yay!) and straightened it. It looks much better now. So this one really doesn't have much work to be done, besides Joseph's beard, even though it doesn't look very done. Oh yeah, and I guess the donkey, since I lost it.

Third is the Nativity Scene

Owing to the belief that the stable was more likely a cave-like place than a barn-type place, this scene takes place in a cave. The only players in it are Mary, baby Jesus, and Joseph. I have baby Jesus and Mary all done, just Joseph, once again. There is also a really big star to put right above the manger, outside of the cave, but I can't put it on until I figure out the size I will be cutting these all down to. I am somewhat dreading that part, as my patterns were a little lopsided, and I haven't figured out quite how I am going to get symetrical pieces with such a big circle. I will figure it out one day, and then I will do it. It's just like with Sonic's mask. I worried forever about it, eventually came up with a great idea, and it was a fairly painless process.

Fourth is the Angel appearing the the Shepherds

This is one of my favorite scenes so far, mainly because it is the most finished. All of those pieces are ironed down. The sheep are so cute. I had more of them, but it looked a little overly crowded, so I just didn't use them all. The angel will be up in the sky off to the right (where the shepherds are looking to. This is the piece that will probably determine how big the other pieces can be, as there is a lot of extra room on all the pieces but this one, though I think if I want to make it bigger, I can work something out. I messed up on the cave one, and ended up really short, but fixed that up, and I could rig up something to work here too.


Fifth is the Wise Men Coming to Jesus

Throughout the scenes, I have tried lean on the side of historically accurate, rather than what is traditional. That is why I have the wise men coming when Jesus is around two years old, and while he is in Egypt, because that is commonly believed to be the most likely time that the wise men found Jesus. As you can see, this scene is pretty much done. I just have to iron down everyone except Mary (she is already ironed down). I really like this scene as well.

I've also decided today that I am going to put corresponding scriptures to the scenes that they go with. The one about the shepherds, though, either sounds really odd "There were in that same country shepherds watching over their flocks by night", or dastardly long, and there would have to be two more verses to go with it. I am trying to figure out how I want to do the lettering. I know I do not want to applique it - I don't have the patience to trace the zillions of letters that would be by machine. My mom has an embroidery machine, so I could use that to do the lettering, and that may be what I end up going with, but I have seen one other way of lettering done, that if I can figure out how to do, would probably be my first choice. It looks pretty much like writing but is done with string. I don't really know how it is done. Actually, this isn't going to be a purely sewn piece, so I may paint the lettering as well. That is what I have decided to do with the facial features on the people.

The other thing I am considering is what color to put as the borders in between, and then what color to do the lettering on. I keep on having differing thoughts, but I probably won't decided finally until most of the pieces are done, and I take them to the fabric store and look at them all with various pieces of fabric. Actually, what I just thought of now that would be nice, would be to put them all together with a wood-type border. I've seen some really great wood-like fabrics. The only problem would be the grain on the curve. Ah well.

Oh yeah, I also have a few other promised pictures from before -

Janardan's Christmas present for me :

Actually, I think that's the only one. Oh yeah, there is one of my completed History of Creativity Project, but that is a poor quality picture, so I want to take another one, so I can get a really good one of it up on here.

I'm going to try and finish up the Josephs tonight, so that I can work on my new project idea tomorrow during conference. Making this tree skirt gave me the idea that I could make my own Christ-centered pieces to put up in my home, so I wouldn't just have the standard Mormon fair, but could have some of my own. There are two that I have ideas that I know I want to do. I want to do one of Christ calming the waters, and one just of Christ out in nature, I guess kind of a Gethsemane scene, but when it is light outside. I don't know what kind of sewing I want to do for the calming the waters one, but I know I want to do the just Christ picture as a paper piece, so I am going to try and start drawing a pattern tomorrow. I think the hardest part is going to be the face. It will probably take me a while to figure out how to make it look just right, but it will be a fun adventure, and hopefully will yield a very beautiful piece to hang in my home.

New Job

I have a new job. It is pretty fly. Ok I don't know why I used that word, but you know, sometimes you just feel like saying fly so you do, and I did, so I did. So there.

Working is great. I work 5 hrs a day, so I have structure in my day, but still enough time to cook and sew and garden as I want to, and spend time with Janardan at whatever time he is awake.

Went and saw Mystic India yesterday, an IMAX movies. I like Imaxes. They have a different kind of movie there, more documentaryish, and when you're in the mood, it is a nice change to the usual Hollywood movie. I've wanted to go to India before, but I really want to go now. It is such a beautiful country.

You're going to be happy!

Ok, so today I was finally motivated to put pictures on the computer by making this beautiful Veggie Pot Pie. I was making it, and couldn't find the easy pie crust stuff, so I made my own, and decided that if I was going to go to all that effort, I may as well lattice it too. So I did. The plan was that I was going to make this for tomorrow night's dinner, but after I took a picture of it, I just had to have a piece, and I must say - it is delicious! Some things I think are very lacking when I make a meatless version (Beef stroganoff for one), but this Veggie Pot Pie is just as good as any and better than many Chicken Pot pie's that I have eaten. Leftovers that I will eat! Yay!

Speaking of pies...
Yes it was my niece's pi birthday on January 5th. Janardan's idea, so of course we had to celebrate with pies. It was a lot of fun, and will probably get very carried away with each progressive kid in the family who turns 3.14159....

Ok, so here is a random hodgepodge of Christmas pictures. I probably should have more, like of finished products and stuff, but I don't. I will sometime have to take a picture of the finished product of my Creativity Project, and of Janardan's Christmas Gift to me. Hopefully sooner than the Wii pictures below the Christmas ones, but I make no promises.

This is a gift I wrapped for Emily. I wrapped all my presents this year with recycled paper.

The layout of the quilt I made for Janardan.

Our Christmas Tree!

Stockings: I really really like Janardans, and I wish mine looked a little more like a Pikmin, but it's cute anyway.

The Wii: A Picture Memoir

This is my dad's old tent. We rescued it from Grandma's house, and then found great use for it the night we were camping out for the Wii.

Here's the tent in the morning as we were taking it down.

At 8am we got our blue ticket that was our ticket to a Wii. We were seventh in line, and got to pick it up at 10am.

Here we are outside of Circuit City, holding our brand new Wii in our hands.

This is Janardan opening up the Wii. Yay!

Admiring the Wii, it is grand.

Playing Wii Sports at Emily the same night.

Ben boxing, and Janardan looking happy. :)

Forsake Waiting for Pictures

So I have just been too lazy to find my cord and upload pictures, so I have decided that it is not worth waiting.

Things should be pretty exciting around here, should be, but are not because I have been sick, and I am just now recovering. I am supposed to be preparing my house and my life for teaching English classes in my home. I am really excited about it, and looking forward to it, but my body has been very uncooperative. I was finally getting over my post-stress break, ready to put full steam ahead when I got sick, so I guess I'll just push preparations back a week. Again.

Being sick has given me the added advantage of watching two seasons of the Pretender in three days, maybe four, though. It is a great show. I wish there were more seasons, more intrigue, etc. Now my goal is to lend it out to everybody and get them hooked, so then there will be extended support for the third Pretender movie. (The first two don't come out on DVD for a month! What a saddness).

In other news, I think I am beginning to understand why Janardan has such an odd sleep schedule. Having nothing in particular that I need to do each day at any certain time has skewed my schedule a bit as well. It is odd. There is nothing to keep you from staying up late when you have nothing to get up for in the morning. And it's harder to motivate yourself to get things back on schedule as well. Before I got married, I felt that being sealed would help me understand him in ways that I couldn't, not being sealed. I have seen that happen time and time again. Yet there is still so much more progress to be made.

It is interesting how what you surround yourself influences your view on the world. I've been watching the Pretender, which has had a few episodes with purposeful illness-causing toward death and such things, and then there is Janardan being sick. My first thought when I was sick was that someone had done this to me, but then supposed that no one would really have a reason, so that was unlikely. My second fear is that I will never get better. I have a headache, and I've had it for a few days. What will happen if it never goes away? I suppose I need more exposure to healthy people, so that I can mentally believe in my health, and maintain the strength I need to take care of Janardan.

Being a wife is a full-time job.

Expeditions with the Wii

We have had serious expeditions with trying to get the Wii. I called tons of places last night, and almost none of them were selling last night, so we decided we would get up early this morning and try to get one. We went to K-mart, and we were the first ones there, but decided we would wait in the car until someone else got there that we needed to compete with to be in line. So shortly later another lady showed up, and so we were second in line, but it ended up they only had 1. So we did not get one, because we spent 5 minutes in the car, instead of in front of the door.

Then our journey continued as we went all about the Provo-Orem area, looking for any place that was likely to sell Wiis. Most were already spoken for, some did not even have any, and then there was one that was not supposed to be open today, Circuit City. So after we eliminated all the other options, we decided that we would go to Circuit City and camp out, so that tomorrow when it opens, we will be able to acquire our very own Wii.

So about 3 and 1/2 hours ago, we arrived at circuit city, and set up camp. We set up the tent (which we were fortunate to actually be able to set up because there was a random cart full of cinder blocks), and ate a few snacks, and then Janardan started to take a nap, holding our place in line while I came home to make us some real food. In 18 hours, the store opens, and we will be the proud owners of a Nintendo Wii. I forgot to take my camera earlier, so I will take it with me later, but there will be pictures forthcoming. Today I told Janardan that I have never seen so many tents in the front of stores before. Now I am one of them!

Update on Projects

So I got my sewing machine back from the service shop today, and figured out that I have no idea were th pedal is. I called my sister and asked her if she had it at her house, and searched every nook and cranny of my house, but it was nowhere to be found. I was really excited to make a new winter skirt with fabric that I had bought today, so I cut it out, and just started on it turning the side thingy to do my stitching. It was a long laborious process, but it yielded a nice skirt to wear to church tomorrow. (Also the shirt is purple, even though it looks black in the picture. I don't know why.

I also finally took close-up pictures of my project pieces, since getting them off of my sister's computer seems not likely to happen. I would put them in some kind of order, but I am lazy.
These will be the writing pieces, representing what each of the four civilizations used to write on.
This is the Chinese man.
This is the Mesopotamian man.
This is the Greek woman
This is the Egyptian man.
This is the wall of China
This is the Discus Thrower (Greek).
This is a terracotta chariot (Chinese)
This is a Ziggurat (Mesopotamian)
This is the Parthenon (Greek)
This is an Egyptian statue, which should be more visible once done with thread.
This is the pyramid.

I haven't hemmed my skirt yet, and will probably wait until I have a real sewing machine, but I still plan on wearing it to church tomorrow. I also have fabric to make one more skirt, but I will wait until I have a pedal to do that. Well that is all for now.

Ok, so facebook was being dumb, so I just uploaded them to TSC instead. So if you want to check them out, they are at TSC . They aren't arranged nicely into a very viewable format, so you just have to click through all the pictures to see them, and there aren't any thumbnails. Oh well, it will work for now, but hopefully I will be figuring out a way to get them into a more viewable format. That's them for now though.

PS my dress is so pretty. It looks especially good in the reception pictures.

Here are some wedding pictures:

Tossing the Bouquet

Eating and Cutting of the Cake

Already Supplied Decorations!

Our Own Additions for Decorations

Ok I am having problems uploading more pictures, so I will link to facebook, where I am putting all the pictures up, but I only have one album done, so I'll link when the second is done. This is just a teaser.

I am taking a history of Creativity Class. It is really cool. We have to do a creative project that has something to do with the things we have studied this semester, so I decided to do a wallhanging that is sort of like a meeting of the ancients, sharing their art, in the heavens. Above is the work that I have done so far. My sister barely has the internet, so I will wait til I am home to post close-ups. So til Then, bye kids.

How is it that the times that you are busiest are the times you find the time to waste your life away doing things like starting a blog? Really, I don't know. I don't have cute kids to show pictures of, I don't have cool projects to take pictures of (generally, on occasion I do). I don't want to be boring and do laundry lists as my sister complains about some people do (no mentioning names).

I'm stressed. Today is the 4th. I have to finish American Heritage by the 10th, and I am only almost halfway done with the course. Besides that I feel like I am just going from putting out one fire to another with my assignments for my other classes. I will be glad when October 10th is passed.

In other news, I love general conference. The irony being that my favorite talk was one that I didn't even go to! I think Elder Eyring's talk has changed my life, and hopefully moreso that of Janardan's. Life is good, even if it's stressful. I have a wonderful husband, a dirty home, and the love of God in my life.