Fabric Spring Flowers

I decided to make an Spring/Easter decoration that I saw on Pinterest, who would have guessed.  It is a bouquet of fabric flowers and  looks very cute. I also got a sewing machine for Christmas and have yet to break it in, so I thought this would be a good project for that. I have not put the flowers in an arrangement yet, so they are just stuck in a vase, but I like the idea (on the original site) of putting them side by side in a square pot.

1. Cut strips of fabric and fold them in half, then iron to make a seam in the middle.

2. Then you sew a loose stitch on the crease (that you made with the iron-in the middle of the strip). Then you refold the strips.

3. You make a rounded pattern on all the strips and then sew around the pattern. (I didn't take pictures of this part)

4. After the edges are all sewn you pull the first stitch (that is now at the bottom) and it bunches the flowers.

5. Then you hot glue the flowers in a circle to sticks and WALLA.

 For more detailed instructions look at the blog on pinterest, she is great at explaining!

Bulbs to...FLOWERS!

Last fall I planted some bulbs and have been excited for them to come up. Colorado is a great, but confusing place, because it has the possibility of snowing until June but it can also be 80 degrees and sunny in March. We have had a couple of beautiful sunny days which have allowed Ben and I to watch our bulbs grow. They have grown from small sprouts to full beautiful flowers in just a week and there are more blooming every day.  I am so excited and it is getting me even more excited for the summer, when I can plant my pots and our garden (which we have already started planning, in detail).  Here  are some pictures of the progression of our flower growth.  

Honey Do's- Shed Roof

Now that it has gotten warmer I have started lists of "To Do's" for our yard 'beautification." One of the first things to get done was to re-due the roof on our shed. The shed is falling to pieces; we have our luggage, camping gear and totes with holiday stuff in there and have resorted to covering it all in a tarp so it doesn't get wet. Last weekend Ben and our neighbor, Nate, got up on the shed and re-roofed it.  It looked like a lot of work but Ben said it 'wasn't too bad.'  I am so glad that he did this and he is glad that he got at least one thing checked off of my list. 

(I don't have a picture of the finished project because they took the ladder and I am not tall enough- but it looks great!)

Yes this IS the roof. Where are the shingles you may ask? My thoughts exactly.

Date Nights

Some of our friends with kids have been aching to get out of the house and have some good ole' friend fun.  So Ben and I have been reaping the benefits and have had some pretty fun weekends. Two weekends ago we went, with the Thevenin's, to a comedy/improve show in Westminster. It is called the Madcap Theater and is a family friendly environment (aka nothing rude, crude or impolite).  It was like the tv show, "Who's Line is it Anyway."  They would ask the audience questions (name a tool used at work, name a type of film, name a love film, ect) and they would do skits using these ideas. None of these things were scripted and it was so funny to watch these actors improve.  

Some of my favorite things that they did were: They had a 'spelling bee' when the audience would give a made up word and they would have to spell it and use it in a sentence BUT what made it funny is that there were two people in the 'spelling bee' and each of them could only say one letter or word, so they had no idea how they would spell it or what the definition would be.  It was really funny.  There was also one when they had to do a skit about an object they knew nothing about (so they didn't know how to use it in the skit) and then they had to repeat the same skit in three different movie genre's, the ones they had to do were horror, telenovela (spanish soap opera) and a mafia genre (I don't remember what it was called).  The funniest one was the telenovela because they were trying to speak in spanish accents while throwing Spanish words into the mix but they started running out of words so they were like, guacamole, chip, salsa- it was hilarious. 

Last weekend we went to Dave and Buster's with the Thevenin's and the Larsen's. Dave and Buster's is like a glorified adult Chuck-E-Cheese. There is food, pool, arcade games and TV's playing around the clock sports. It was fun playing games with each other, our favorites were the basketball game and the ski ball.  We also rented a pool table and got to play a couple games. The guys were really into measuring and hitting, which was obviously a benefit because they were all amazing but I was just not patient enough for that (which was obvious because I was by far the worst).  It was a fun night and so great to spend time with friends. (We even got enough tickets to get a laughy taffy- oh yeah). 

Ben looks focused and I look a little insane- but I must note that I beat him.

Ski Joring in Leadville

The first weekend of March (March 3) is a weekend of crazy history and celebrations in Colorado. Last year we went to the Frozen Dead GuyDays in Nederland, a celebration of an illegal aliens quest for cryogenics gone wrong. This year we decided to do something less morbid and went to Leadville for ski joring. 

' Ski Joring is a competition where a horse and rider pull a skier at a fast pace through a course that has gates, jumps and rings. The skier is timed through the course, and penalties are assessed by missing gates or jumps, and by missing or dropping any of the rings.'

The Leadville Ski Joring  event has been going on in Leadville since 1949, and is one of the premier events of its kind in the country. We were all eager and excited to see what all the fuss was about.

We left early in the morning to head up to Leadville (which I thought was only about an hour and a half away and ended up being three hours away).  We drove with Mom and Dad and our neighbors, Kristin and Nate, came along. It was snowy all the way up, making the traffic slow, and starting the fear of the weather in Leadville. Leadville was nice and sunny (nice being relative because it was still only about 13 degrees).  Mat and Andi had gotten us a perfect location along the ski joring route where we could see both jumps and two of the ring sets. 

I thought it was going to be a fun and interesting event but it was WAY cooler than I expected. Who would have known that watching a man getting ripped across snow covered terrain by a speeding horse would be so enjoyable? It was fun to cheer for the skiers and even to cheer for the horses and riders (who we saw on multiple runs, not just one like with the skiers).  We started hoping for a crash because, honestly who doesn't like a good crash (Funnies Home Video's has proven this point) but then there was a HUGE crash right in front of us. A man got yanked to hard and fell right on his back, you could hear the entire crowd moan as he hit, it looked like he got the wind knocked out of him and i am sure he was more hurt than he let on.  After that I was sad that I had wished for the crash.  There were other mishaps  but most of them involved the horses  like rogue horses who buck and won't run, horses who run the wrong direction and riders that fall off. There was one man who, while wiping the horse to go faster, wiped his hand was bleeding pretty bad.  Although these things were cool, it was so great watching someone complete the run, land the jumps, get the rings and ride behind a beautiful speeding horse. 

Afterwards we went to Mat and Andi's house for some delicious chili and games. As always it is so much fun to be at their house and play with them.  Overall it was a great day. I would definitely go back and I am now a fan of this obscure and strange sport.

Here you can see the both the rider/horse and the skier.

The skier starts moving faster than the horse so when going off jumps there is slack in the line. The skiers must tighten and release the slack while going to minimize the wip lash effect.

The horses really were amazingly beautiful while running full out.

 For more/better video's check out Dad's blog. He had his flip so there are a lot more (even the one of the crash).

Boulder Stake Conference

Saturday night and Sunday were stake conference and it was great. Ben and I sang in the Sunday morning session, so were assured soft seats and a good view. After the Sunday session we had some friends over for a big breakfast (during lunch time). It was fun to have people over and to eat good breakfast food. 

Here are some of my thoughts/notes from both sessions of Stake Conference:

-The Savior knew us before, he knows us not and he knows what we can/will become. That made me realize that all our trials and life experiences are given by someone who knows what is to come, that gives me  comfort and faith that things will turn out right. 

-Submit to the Lord and be like him, first you must learn the doctrine and THEN you can follow him.  This was interesting because in my mind to submit means to surrender (which can be positive but always makes me think of something negative) but other synonyms are to offer, put forward and propose. These words to me are more kind and gentle ways for us to give our will to Heavenly Father. I liked the idea of learning the doctrine before you can truly act. Often I think that I need to be more Christ-like but without reading the scriptures and listening to the counsel of the prophet, apostles and other church leaders I do not know how to center my life around Christ-like principles. 

- When Adam left the garden he began doing sacrifice. An angel came to him and asked why he was doing what he was doing and he said, "I known not but the Lord, God, commanded me." This idea says that sometimes obedience to a commandment comes before the knowledge/explanation. 

-The story of Shadrack, Mishak and Abendigo were told. They had announced that they would not eat and drink what the King gave them and they would be blessed for it. Then they announced "..But if not" they would still have faith. This is an interesting idea that even if the blessing does not immediately (or ever) follow the faith/obedience that we should still press forward. 

-To paraphrase Pre. Hinckley, "Pray as if it depends entirely on the Lord and act as if it depends entirely on you." 

- Shepherds lead, herders push- we are all shepherds in one way or another (parents, church leaders, missionaries, ect)

- A Patriarchal Blessing is a personal book of Eternal possibilities. 

-  Christ lived, died and rose for us! 'I have not seen or heard (nothing in our entire lifetime) anything as wonderful as the knowledge of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. 

-Mosiah 26:17 "..they are mine." This was powerful because the Lord is claiming us. Even when we mess up and feel inadequate the Lord still says, "..they are mine."

- Zion is a kingdom, not an individual; even if you have made necessary covenants you must then aide/teach 'the people'.

-We do not need to be perfect, that perfection comes from Him, we must just try. '... Ye shall obtain.." (I Believe in Christ- Hymn 134)

- Ponder, Plead, Persist (and then Thank!)

-When the test arrives the time for preparation is past. 

-Study the ordinances of the temple, they are the primary example of living the gospel to the fullest. Temple ordinances do not represent the progression to eternal life but they ARE the progression (assent) to eternal life. We should preach (think about) the temple inside and outside the temple.

-The church could not survive 24 hours without the power of revelation. 

-Take inventory of your life (in a new For the Strength ofYouth)

- People who climb Mt Everest must prepare and train for the journey. What do I need to do to prepared and train for the ascent to Mount Zion?