A Few Gifts Given and Recieved

I thought I'd show some of the handmade things I made and gave as gifts. Well, I'll only be showing two things, because I thought I had taken pictures of other stuff I made, but apparently I was mistaken.

These are re-usable shopping bags I made using this wonderful free pattern here http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/show/261. (If you are into sewing you have to check out this site. It's fabulous.)

I also made matching travel sized tissue covers using this tutorial here. But, alas, apparently did not take pictures...except in my deluded imagination. They're kinda boring to look at anyway, but were simple to make and therefore a nice addition to the shopping bags.

In a previous post I showed a pic of a dreidel plushie I made. I made up a half dozen of those and sent them off to Brooklyn, N.Y. Where apparently they were well received. I got a cute picture in return of some adorable children with some wooden dreidels beside them...and one of my soft plushie ones as well.

Some other things I sewed were also all of the "practice runs" of everything I made as well. Which I am keeping for my own use. Including a couple things I practiced, but never made anymore beyond the just one. I had hoped to get a lot more sewing done and make even more things for people. But a flare up of my chronic fatigue syndrome slowed me down. But I am so grateful that before that flare up my health and energy was far better than it had been in ages. So I really did get a lot more done than I probably would ever have done. And it was nice to feel great for a couple weeks in a row.

Something else I wish I had taken a photo of and gave as a gift (but did not make) was an antique Kodak Brownie camera from 1916. It was not in working condition, as the aperture was broken, but it looks really cool. Great for home decor that will look great with the receiver's vintage suitcase collection I think.


Here are the gifts I received. There's some sewing stuff, including a pattern for a laptop cover from sewswanky.com which is a cool little shop here in Cedar City. With my new rotary cutters and mat I'll be able to whip out more bags like I showed above in faster time.

The little markers are a stocking stuffer (even though we didn't have stockings this year) from Santa (aka, *me*...for the last couple years I've been doing little stocking stuffers that are not candy for our family...but this year it consisted solely of these cute markers).

And on the far left is a gift from my dad. You have to understand that my dad doesn't give gifts usually. My mom picks out gifts and says they're from both her and dad. But this year my dad bought me a gift. They're these aerosol spray cans that can be used with any paint. You just pour the paint in the jar and start spray painting. My dad knows I have a lot of little craft things I've been planning on painting. So this is a pretty nifty and thoughtful gift. And I can't wait to try it out. And it's extra nice that my dad thought of me when he saw these and decided to give them to me.

And now a close up the last thing. I am now venturing into joining the rest of modern society by having my first mp3 player. And best of all...it's Pink! Sweet.

I plan on using it a lot while I am doing my crafts and sewing...and ironing that the sewing requires. It was while I was ironing that I decided I really needed an mp3 player.

I also can now buy music with "IMVU credits" that I've earned from virtual products I've made for the 3D chat world of IMVU. So I don't have to pull out a credit card if I want to buy music online for my mp3. I've bought four songs from there already.

But I'll probably also may be listening to a lot of audio books on there as well. And maybe venture into the world of podcasts too. Who knows.

How to Scare a Guy Away

I had a guy from one of these social networking sites send me a message and ask me if I was "naughty or nice this year?" I got the impression he hoped I would say I was being naughty.

Here was my reply...

I've become a more, I suppose you could say, philosophical person. So...
I was a person who pondered my thoughts and actions. Where my thoughts and actions caused me to feel bad (also known as "being naughty") I noticed that I was not living in truth. And I could find a way to stop such thoughts and such actions. And doing that was very nice, for me and others. So even when I was being "naughty" I used it as a springboard to make it into something nice. And I looked into what are the lessons to be learned from everything, even the bad things I've done, to see the "blessing" in everything. So everything bad becomes good.

Hmm...the guy hasn't written me back. What a surprise. With a response like that he probably went and ran far away from his computer to get far from me, even if he was hoping for me to respond that I was nice.

So I guess Santa made a check mark against me on the "was naughty" list, not so much for what I said (because it is true, I have been trying to do just that), but because I got a sort of mischievously devious kick out of doing it. :)

Temple Wall

One of my favorite stores in town that had wonderful home decor has closed.
But I just got an email from the owners saying that they've opened up a new online store focusing on LDS artwork and accessories. And I thought I'd share it since a great many of my friends and family are LDS. :) Most of the artwork is fabulous photography of LDS temples, but they have some other things as well. And they will be adding more.
I'm hoping they'll be adding this one photograph they had in the store of the door knob to the Salt Lake Temple. Somehow the way the picture looked combined with the ways they had it framed just was really beautiful.

Here's the link to their website http://www.templewall.com

And here's a sneak peak of some of what they have.

Hanukkah Cuteness

When I was a little girl, one holiday season I ended up being given a dreidel. A dreidel is a four sided top that is often played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
How a little Mormon girl who was surrounded entirely by Mormon's, and no one of any other religions, ends up with a dreidel as a gift I don't know. But it was a neat toy that I really liked.

It was also one of my first introductions to Hebrew and Judaism (unless you count stories read from the Old Testament in primary/Sunday school). As an adult, about eight years ago I think, I started to have a growing interest in Jewish traditions and art.

So anyway, this year as I've been picking up the art of sewing I decided while looking a lots of holiday patterns and instructions for making all sorts of soft toys, I decided a soft toy driedel would be really cute.

So off I went to search the internet for info on how to do that. To my surprise there wasn't any. But to my even bigger surprise I decided to make my own pattern, and succeeded quite nicely!

Isn't it cute? Okay, it doesn't spin very well. But it's a stuffed soft toy, it's meant to be cute...not useful.

One of my newest friends, Asher, is Jewish, so I plan on making some more of these up for his kids for Hanukkah...and maybe some for him and his wife too. Hey, grown ups can have soft plushie toys too! (Since Asher will probably read this we'll see what he thinks about that...lol.) I know I'm keeping one for myself. :)

I've also posted instructions on how to make these on a crafting website here http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/hanukkah_dreidel_plushie so others can make them too.

Oh, and just in case anyone reading this is looking for more Hanukkah crafts, Ms. Martha Stewart has a few here. (I really liked the wooden driedels covered in glitter to be used for holiday decor.)

A Day Of Gratitude

I got an email yesterday which had a link to this article
http://www.sedona.com/whatyouhavetobethankfulfor.aspx about a Dr. Robert Emmons who has been studying gratitude and has found that practicing gratitude on a regular and deliberate basis can improve your health, physical fitness, optimism, help you cope with illness, deal with stress and anxiety better, and have better success at achieving your goals, etc.

No wonder I always felt like my life was running smoother when I regularly wrote in my gratitude journal (I'm still meaning to get back into the habit of doing that again).

(Emmons has also written a book called Thanks, which a preview of it can be read here...in fact, I've read just enough that I think I might want to buy it.)


So thankfulness and gratitude aren't just for the day where we bring out the big turkey and all the other yummy stuff. But of course for today I am more aware of taking the time to consider what I am thankful for...

Today I am grateful that for my little sister being able to come down here for Thanksgiving.

I am grateful for a roof over my head. Something that I can take for granted so easily sometimes.

I am grateful for shedding layers of fear, shame, worry, etc. like a reptile or insect might shed its outer skin as it grows.

I am grateful for selling over 200 virtual tea products I created for a virtual world in just two days time. (I know, I'm a nerd.) That's definitely a record. And I am so grateful for the group of women I worked with to make these virtual items we sold in a special promotional event together. To be part of a team that was so supportive and to share in our creative efforts, increase our skills because we had each others input and knowledge shared amongst us, and more.

I am so very grateful that I am overcoming my fear of sewing and of making monumental mistakes when I sew. (I've made three things now...and made monumental mistakes on all three items, but could laugh, smile, or just be at peace about it. Okay, there were times I just got frustrated too, like when I made the same mistake twice, but I didn't blow my head off or turn on the waterworks.)

I am eternally grateful that I opened up my heart to an old high school friend and told her how much she made a Huge positive impact on my life...that she was the catalyst for some of the first real changes I started making in my life. And to see how my telling her so helped her out as well.

I am grateful that I had the energy to make the bathroom all sparkly and shiny, go shopping, and that, even though I was tired, I was able to make my now traditional for Thanksgiving day dessert of panna cotta (an Italian gelatin dessert made with gelatin, heavy cream and vanilla...shown on the left with a raspberry-cranberry sauce), mashed potatoes (that's hard work when you're doing it by hand), and stuffing, and misc. stuff.

I am so grateful that I finally realized how I was badly deficient in magnesium and that now that I've been taking it more reguarly my health is much better.

I am grateful that dealing with negative thoughts also has freed up a lot of energy that had been being channeled towards being tense, stressed, anxious, etc. and so now instead I am less tired than I used to be.

And really...I am thankful for....turkey. How can I not be?


P.S. I wanted to show off our funny little tropical decor twist to our Thanksgiving. We had two kinds of cranberry sauce, rasberry-cranberry and also orange-cranberry, but we didn't want to mix the two kinds up. So we quickly pulled out some little paper parasols and used them to differentiate the two kinds of sauces. :)

Today's Self-Discovery

Being able to admit I am wrong means I am teachable. I am open.

Instead of being rigid and inflexible and uptight, I instead become open, peaceful...and I gain greater understanding than I would have when before I strongly defended my position and therefore was closed off to a better way of seeing, knowing, and being.

Watermill at Onden

"If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water...

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

~Bruce Lee

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa

Ukyio-e (pictures of the floating world) by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)

Altered Vision

Cool vintage eyeglasses I found while out thrifting.

"To see a thing uncoloured by one's own personal preferences and desires is to see it in its own pristine simplicity." ~Bruce Lee


How do you view the world? Are your "glasses" rose-colored? Green? Brownish-gray? Perhaps a cheerful yellow, like sunshine? Do they make you see sharper or more fuzzy? Can you really be sure that that the glasses you view the world through make things more clear? Do you wear different glasses on different days? Sometimes seeing the world "this" way...and on another day seeing them like "that" instead.

But more importantly than all that...Maybe someday do you think you could discover that you don't need those glasses at all...and you can take them off and really see the world more clearly? Without artifice to tell you what it really is?