These things are fun!

This is a word cloud of one of my favorite quotes by President Hinckley.

This is the original quote:

”Regardless of your circumstances, walk with faith. Rear your children in light and truth. Teach them to pray while they are young. Read to them from the scriptures even though they may not understand all that you read. Teach them to pay their tithes and offerings on the first money they ever receive. Let this practice become a habit in their lives. Teach your sons to honor womanhood. Teach your daughters to walk in virtue. Accept responsibility in the Church, and trust in the Lord to make you equal to any call you may receive. Your example will set a pattern for your children. Reach out in love to those in distress and need.” President Gordon B. Hinckley, “Stand Strong against the Wiles of the World,” Nov 1995.

To make your own word cloud, head over to www.wordle.net.

The invitations are (finally) done.

Well, they're done. These took about 3 hours to make (not including the many hours of redesign). I'm not happy with the final colors of the ink, but I'll get over it. And if someone notices that the green ink isn't the same green in the border, well, they can just kiss my booty.

My inspiration for these comes from Kim over at The TomKat Studio. Check our her blog, she has a lot of great ideas to share.

This is the mess that comes with making invitations at 10:00pm.

A mother's worst nightmare.

A fellow mommy blogger has recently been dished the worst news any parent could hear. She found out that her two-year-old son, Ezra, has Leukemia. She is a stay at home mom and her husband is working part time while he goes to school full time. They need our help. If you're able to donate, great. If not, please, keep them in your prayers.

Read Ezra's story here.

What to do with all those pesky grocery bags?

Make a grocery bag holder! I made this for a friend who needs one in her nursery. This is my first crack at one of these and I think it turned out pretty cute! I think our pantry will be getting one soon...

Mom's Birthday Present

The tote ended up being A LOT harder than predicted. I decided to go with my own idea of what I wanted and skipped using the tutorials. That was probably my first mistake.

The interfacing I used was Peltex. That was my second mistake. I don't think I will be working with Peltex again for a long time. A looooooooooong time. I used some of the same interfacing to make the pocket (also a bad use of Peltex). You can see just how stiff and thick it is.

The straps were my other big hurdle. I first tried making straps using the Peltex (third mistake), that's didn't work. Didn't work at all. Not even close. So I then tried to make a casing and tried to shove a smaller strip of the Peltex into the strap. Also didn't work. My third attempt was golden. I'm proud of this one. I used one long piece of the lining (a bottom weight fabric), folded in half and sewed long edge. Next I turned that right-side out and then topstitched the folded edge. It didn't have enough umph, so I added the stitching in the center. They turned out great and I think this will be my "strap of choice" in the future.

The second project I did was the boxy bag. Well, that turned out great, except one side which is a little wonky. If you try this tutorial, be sure to follow the pictures, as well as the instructions. The writer leaves out a lot of information that is seen in the photo. Of course, when I didn't read that information, I figured it must not matter and later learned it did (after a few go rounds with my BFF, the seam ripper).

The last project is just precious. My little love bird turned out very goofy and not really like the picture of what it was supposed to look like, but I love it. I think Mom will love it, too. My only advice for this one is to use a high quality felt for the hair and feet. My hair ended ripping off (but I kinda liked it better that way).

The links to all of these tutorials can be found a couple of posts ago.