Weddings.....

If I had my wish, I would plan weddings full time. I love weddings and parties. I enjoy the decorating and planning of any big parties.

My favorite party was my parents 40th anniversary party. We combined the party with my aunt and uncle since my mom and aunt shared a wedding dress. We did their wedding colors which were light blue and lavender.

A few years back, my friend asked me for help with her wedding. We had big plans. She then changed her mind and ended up heading to Vegas to elope. I was still able to make her bouquet and jewelry as well as her husband's boutonniere.

 

 

A flower for her hair. She later pinned it to her dress sash.

Last but not least, the jewelry

The can shown above contained a mini wedding emergency kit. I included a sewing kit, safety pins, mints and other necessities since they were in Vegas and not with family.

Another wedding I helped with was frog themed. This was a sweet special needs couple in my ward from church. Their budget was limited so I donated a wedding cake. My parents, husband and I did most of the decorations. 

Their cake turned out pretty cute if you ask me.

October is finally here!

I'm so excited for the new month and Halloween. Almost every year, I am asked by friends and family to make Halloween costumes, cakes or decorations.

I made a few wreaths from fabric pieces. I found some cute decorations to make the wreath that much better.

 

Another favorite is making cakes. I've only done two pumpkin cakes but I love both.

 These cakes were done for a photo shoot for a catalog company I worked for. I'll be doing another post which features those cakes.

Last but not least, we have the costumes. I've crocheted and sewed these items.

 

This year is no different. I have been tasked with creating a family costume themed around Cinderella. The dad will be Prince Charming. The mom will be the Fairy Godmother. The oldest daughter will be Cinderella. The younger daughter will be a mouse. We went to the thrift store last week and purchased a few items for me to transform into these costumes. This is what I have to start with:

Raingutter Regatta - review

We had our Raingutter Regatta last month. Our cubs decorated their boats at the den meetings. I decided to not have a ranked competition similar to the Pinewood Derby. The boys enjoyed being able to choose their running partner as well as which set of gutters they were going to use. We had the inflatable gutter from the Boy Scout office as well as vinyl gutters.

I decided to make a participation award for each boy. I found a saying to go with Extra gum and put my own twist on it. I then purchased a sail boat puzzle at the local dollar store as the grand prize. Since the races were not ranked, I did a drawing of all of the boys who were there. It was one of our new boys who won the puzzle.

In an earlier post, I showed two options for the pool noodle boats. We tried to do the round side down and they just fell over. Some of the leaders made a catamaran type boat with the pool noodle which seemed to work better. Next year, we'll use the wooden boats again and just have the boys personalize their sails. I didn't feel like the noodle boats worked that great. This would be wonderful for a birthday party though ;)

We opted out of using straws to help with powering the boat. My cousin had done the regatta a few weeks prior. He said that the boys used the straws to push the sails instead of them being breath powered.

General Conference is coming

LDS General Conference is my two favorite weekends of the year. I am so grateful to have a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to provide a living prophet. The six sessions of General Conference provide such wonderful insight and guidance.

I have two favorite sessions. General Conference starts with the Women's session for all women/girls from 8 years old and up. The talks given are geared towards women and personalized for our needs. I also love the Saturday afternoon session. It's always fun to hear the statistics of our church, new callings, and announcements of new temples.

My family has a few traditions for General Conference. I love my mom's cinnamon rolls. She makes them for the Sunday morning session. We all gather together for the Music and the Spoken Word and eat breakfast. My brother in law always sends us a picture of my nephews in a tent. They make blanket tents for the kids to watch Conference from.

I love the many ideas online for making the most of the General Conference weekend. One of my favorites is packets which contain pages to take notes.



I have been browsing ideas for gifts to take to the sisters that I visit teach. I like the kits but there are other options I'm considering as well.

I love being a step mom

Rich and I have been married for just about 6 years. We tried to get pregnant but with no success. Our plans to have a baby together were stopped in its tracks due to a serious medical scare. I have fully recovered from my surgery. I no longer have the ability to get pregnant. My sweet husband had the wisdom to remind me to be grateful for the children we do have. We have his sons once or twice a year for visitation. I truly do love them as my own. I really don't understand why people treat step children differently. All children are a gift. 

My boys are growing up too fast. Look at how they've changed over the years. (I'm sorry but the pictures are out of order)