Finders Keepers

So I like to frequent thrift stores, especially the local Deseret Industries, which is Utah's version of a Goodwill. I have on occasion found some really neat things such as a cute dress-made-into-skirt or cute childrens' books. The other day I went with a mission: to look for fun fall decor, or things that could be turned into cute fall decor. I wasn't disappointed.

Here are my findings:

* 5 vases
* 1 candle
* 1 pumpkin candle holder
* 4 cornucopias
* 1 ball of string
* 3 books
* 1 bag of wooden Halloween items (cat, ghost, and pumpkins)
* 1 bag of plastic fruit (for cornucopias)
* 1 misc. holder (I have no idea what you call it. It's in the back on the right side.)

How much, you ask? A whopping $20! I was excited. I plan on getting some tree branches with colorful leaves or wheat stalks to put in the vases. Maybe some pumpkins and gourds to put in the one holder thingy (what is it called???). But I'm pretty excited. Oh I should mention the books will turn into pumpkins ... at midnight! Just kidding, but their destiny is to become book pumpkins as pictured here:

Source: u-createcrafts.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Isn't that neat? I have one that's a graphic novel, which I thought would have a cool effect. It's one of my first projects ever to do from an idea that I found on Pinterest. Now I just need to finish it...

Have you had success at thrift stores and what did you find?

Bloggers Girls' Night Out

This last week was full of girls' night outs with the trip to Provo to see a famous author to the General Relief Society Meeting (which I'll write about soon) but Friday night's GNO (girls' night out) was completely different. With this event, I knew one person and only barely.

I met Kaysi of Keeping it Simple (a crafty blog) one day when she asked on Facebook if anyone in the Salt Lake area would like free scrapbooking supplies. Since I'm a sucker for freebies, I was the first to answer yes. So we arranged to meet. It was pretty fun getting to know her if only for a few minutes, but she invited me to a blogger's night out at the Cheesecake Factory in Murray. I thought, Why not? But as Friday came closer, I had my misgivings. I would know no one, except for Kaysi, and would be a little out of place with all the other crafty girls there (ok yes, I'm crafty, but not like these people who sell what they make)

Well, I arrive at the designated time, get seated (not after waiting forever realizing that I don't know what or who to look for) and then, gasp! I actually enjoy myself.

I met these fabulous girls:

and ate this fabulous dessert:

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cheesecake. I died. And went to paradise. And I saved some for Jed - aren't I the best wifey?

I even won a prize (actually, we all did) and will use it for the next baby shower (rolled up burp clothes so they look like a piece of candy - way cute!).

At the end, I was so glad I went. I met some really neat ladies and one even lives pretty close to me. 

Lesson to you all: Get. Out. Of. Your. Comfort. Zone. Fun things'll happen.

Finished

Yesterday, I finished a project that I had been working on for ... oh, MONTHS and can I tell you what a sigh of relief that is?

Ok, so it didn't take me months to finish. I took many breaks in between. Long periods of thinking, "Eh, I'll get to it later." I had a deadline (October), but in my mind, it could have been 3,000 years from now. Plus, I would get  to a hard part and just give up. It took too much brain power to figure out a solution. Or I got too frustrated and before something became irreparable, I put it down and left.

Well, enough of my ramblings. Here is the finished product.

Yes, it's a nursing cover - for a friend. We are way beyond that with Adam, thank goodness.

You may think it's not that big of a deal, but trust me, it is.

All I can say now is "Hallelujah!" and "I'm never doing that again."

Evening with an author

I think I can say now that Utah may be cooler than Idaho. Just a little. And only in certain aspects. For instance, I'm a lot closer to some really good friends. And then when those friends invite me to do cool things with them, I can actually go! That's how it went this past week. Tammy, my good friend from college, invited me to listen to a New York Time's best-selling author, Cinda Williams Chima. Now I had never heard of her before, but I thought, what the hey and went. The presentation happened to be in this beautiful building:

First of all, traffic going down to Provo was horrible, but we made it and only missed the very beginning of her presentation. It was fascinating and reminded me of aspirations I had as a little girl. From a young age, I had thought about becoming an author, being inspired by an amazing teacher of mine. Well, as time went on, I saw that really wasn't my passion and moved on to other things. I still felt akin to Cinda as she described herself and her love of stories and books. Through an inspiring teacher who framed a poem she had wrote, Cinda realized she could be a successful writer.

And she was successful, but despite that, she impressed me as being very down to earth. I can't wait to read her books now. All in all, it was a great evening with friends and book lovers alike.

Not prepared

Mondays have such a bad rap - no one likes them. Well, that's for a reason! Monday is usually my laundry day, but I didn't know how bad I would need to do it. Until I went to get ready for the day and saw I needed to do a load before I could do any getting ready. So now, it's mid-afternoon and I'm still in my pj's. And we're not talking sweats and a t-shirt - it's the bottom-of-the-barrel pj's (hence the laundry). So I continue with the day while the clothes get clean when I hear the doorbell. Oh shoot. I look through the peephole thingy thinking maybe I can fool them and not answer the door, except two men dressed in uniform happened to be there. You can't ignore the police. So I do what any good citizen would do and answer the door, except I peek out, trying to hide my unkempt appearance. I'm sure I reeked of innocence.

I ask what they want and they ask for the name of someone. I of course have no clue who it is, so I answer fast, hoping to get rid of them. They asked if she left a forwarding address and I answer no. All this time I'm being curt because I'm embarrassed. Finally they leave, and I close the door thinking that I probably sounded like I was lying.

So if I call one of you for bail or something, you know you can blame it all on the laundry.

A day of remembering

Like everyone else, I'm reminded of the terrible events that changed our great nation. I loved the Music and Spoken Word put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Tom Brokaw this morning. The music, the images and the words brought so many emotions to the surface. While I didn't have any sort of connection with the attacks or have any family in the military, I was still touched.

Today Jed and I spoke in church about Patriots' Day. I focused my message on freedom. We have many freedoms: freedom from oppression, from tyranny, from hate. But the Lord's idea of freedom goes beyond that. He means "freedom to" – the freedom to act in the dignity of our own choice. Elder F. Enzio Busche spoke on that here. 

Another quote that I found that really impacted me is by an unknown author. It's "freedom is not the right to do as you please, but the liberty to do as you ought." I love that. We are free to choose what we should, bringing us more liberty. I am so grateful for my freedoms - especially my freedoms to do what I should. Recently I came to an understanding regarding our service men and women. I am so grateful to them – and for their families – who sacrifice for my behalf and others'.

I follow the blog of a friend of a friend. Her husband has been deployed to Iraq for 13 months (I believe). I've followed it throughout the whole deployment and I can't comprehend how difficult that would be. She writes how her two sons miss and need their dad. One son sleeps with a cardboard cutout of his dad. It breaks my heart to read about their struggles.

So here's to the men and women who serve our country, to those who were killed, but also to those who live and continue on making this country great. Thank you.

Poor neglected blog

I keep wondering if I should let this one go, or keep it. I want a place for my thoughts (when I feel like posting about them) that's separate from the family blog, so this is it. You may notice that I haven't posted in a while. It's because I get scared. I go through times when I bare my soul and I don't care, but lately, I've held back and don't want everyone to read my thoughts. I heard recently that the way to know what you think is to write your thoughts. I recently heard someone quote Brad Wilcox and what he wrote in an Ensign article:

I once asked a college professor what he thought about a particular issue. He said: “I don’t know. I’ve never written anything about it.” His response puzzled me at the time, but not anymore. “Thoughts are created in the act of writing. [It is a myth that] you must have something to say in order to write. Reality: You often need to write in order to have anything to say. Thought comes with writing, and writing may never come if it is postponed until we are satisfied that we have something to say. … The assertion of write first, see what you had to say later applies to all manifestations of written language, to letters … as well as to diaries and journals” (Frank Smith, “Myths of Writing,” Language Arts 58, no. 7 [1981]: 793, 795).

So apparently, I don't know what to think, since I haven't written anything, except for a little guest post over at Modern Molly Mormon which has been a nice little outlet for all my spiritual thoughts. So I promise to write more consistently here, not for you, but for me. I need to know what I think and what I know.