Heidi's piano bag

Heidi requested a piano tote bag for Christmas.  I managed to complete it 2 weeks after Christmas and now I'm blogging about it 4 months later---how is that for slow?

This project was great for utilizing all the fabric scraps I can't bear to throw away.   Upon opening her present, Heidi promptly named all the houses, "that's Grandma Bishop's house, that's Grandma Clayton's house, that's our house......"  Heidi's so fun to give presents to.  :-)


So, originally I planned to have the trees in amongst the houses to create a neighborhood scene but I realized that would have made a HUGE bag.  I put them on the back instead.
















I love designing the interior of a bag too.

The boys went out into the misty moisty weather yesterday to take some profile pictures for their blog they are working on.  I love how their pictures captured the beauty of southern Idaho in March.  At first glance everything seems grey and dreary, but then when looking closer, the textures of the rocks, plateaus, and lichens really come alive.  



 

Quick trip to Washington

 Joel and I traveled to northern Washington this week with the 3 younger kids.  Neither Joel or I had ever been that far north before (we were 1/4 mile from the Canadian border). It's always fun to see new places.

 We drove up to Boundary dam on the Pend-Oreille River. 

The powerhouse for the dam is all within this rock.  Crazy, huh. There are 2 tunnels big enough to drive into.
Gorgeous surroundings that I bet are even more gorgeous in the summer.

 

 While Joel took a test, the kids and I visited the local library and looked at the little museum which are all housed in what used to be the town's school.  Buildings were so much classier back then.  I love that they have antique rocking chairs all around that are meant to be used. 

They have a little theatre in that same building and Reagan thought the ticket booth looked like fun.

 Woohoo!  Torsten received his Eagle Scout award on Sunday!  :-)

 It was a great ceremony! 4 of Torsten's dedicated Young Men leaders from our 13th ward in Twin Falls came too. It was a wonderful evening.

Daydreaming

I made myself a nice hot cup of dark chocolate cocoa the other day.  I  have this super dark chocolate cocoa that I found at Costco and I love it.  It's a bit on the earthy side though, so I enjoy it even better with a bit of added sweetness.  In the chocolate I stirred 2 drops of liquid stevia, a shake of cinnamon and then put a dollop of real whipped cream on top.  Mmmmm.....I sat down to savor this warm cup of yumminess and read my email...........Whoah!  Big shock!

  It took a couple seconds to realize what the problem was. What was that ghastly flavor??  Then I finally placed the flavor and it dawned on me what had happened. My liquid stevia is the same brand and in the same type of bottle as my lavender oil.  And I keep them both in the same cupboard.  Oh yes.  I had just drank lavender oil laced hot chocolate.  It was certainly not a taste experience I'd want to repeat.  Gag. 
I do silly things like this way too often. I think it's because I'm daydreaming. Or something.  Like the time I was daydreaming  and accidentally drank bleach because I thought I thought it looked like nice cup of water.  The really dumb thing about that story is that  I was the one who had poured that cup of bleach earlier in the day. Sheesh. So I went running frantically out of the house to ask Joel, who was sitting in the back yard with our guests who were over dinner, what I should do about it.  That sounded intelligent.  "Joel!! I just drank a cup a bleach!!!  What should I do now??"  I still giggle to think about it and the ridiculous phone call I made to Poison control.

Reaganardo da Vinci and Mama Lisa

A conversation between Reagan and I while getting dinner ready:

Reagan:  Mom, will you sit in that chair?

Mom: Why??

Reagan: So I can be Leonardo da Vinci and you can be Mona Lisa!
(pointing to the chair)............ So will you sit in that chair and smile?

Just a quick hello

 It was so fun to finally get our first  snow! Hagerman never gets much compared to the rest of the Magic Valley because we are so low in elevation and close to the river.  But no snow at all by the middle of January is unusual! This year Leif was old enough to enjoy messing around in it.


The snow turned to rain the next day.  It rained and it rained.  We were then a soggy mess for awhile and we had a small lake in our backyard.

Reagan received mostly science related things for Christmas, including this chemistry set.  He loves setting up his "laboratory" and reading his experiment book looking for the next great explosion.  We've tried quite a few experiments together, but usually Reagan just goes at it on his own.  At some point, he made a solution of dish soap, baking soda, iron fillings, vinegar, food coloring, etc., etc. A few days later, I told him to pour the concoction down the sink before it spilled on something and ruined it.  Well, what do you know, but that concoction pitted the bottom of the kitchen sink and all the silverware, and plates and bowls that were in the bottom of the sink too.  They all have permanent rust colored speckles.  (When Joel installed the sink and faucet in this house I joked that I wanted to take them with us when we move.  Ahem. They can keep the sink now.)

Hailey turned 14 this month!  I. can't. believe. it. 



 The kids have been into taking "angelic" pictures of Leif.  So cute.  It almost makes me forget -----Oh my heck.  How ironic.  Just as I was typing that last sentence and I realized I hadn't heard from Leif in awhile.  He climbed to top of the bookshelf in his room to get the Vaseline jar. ( I hide it up high in a basket up but I guess he's on to that hiding place) Of course he was smearing it all over his head.   Off to give him a bath........