I did a bad thing

I did a bad thing today.  I went and bought material to make my daughter's prom dress more modest (not the bad thing) and then I went over to the stitchery aisle...  And I bought some fabric and a punch needle to make a punch needle project.  I really want to try it since I saw my daughter do one!  But I didn't spend the money to get a kit, so that's good, right?  I'm going to design my own.  Maybe a quilt square pattern.

I'm reading an Anne Rice book, Interview with a Vampire.  It is more of a horror story than I thought it would be, but interesting. Someone at church asked me what I was reading and I told her.  Then she told me she was reading an Oprah book club book, and I felt, well, less enlightened. I'll have to work on that, I guess.  Not that there's anything wrong with Oprah or her book club books, just that I sometimes want to read just for the escapism, not to think.

Photo Cookbook

So I have been thinking (for years, actually) that I would type up all my recipes and put them in a binder instead of having them in all the cookbooks and in my card file.  And then I had the brilliant idea of making it a photo cookbook, where I have pictures of the food.  'Cause it's nicer to be able to look at the food when you're choosing what to make. I can't say I'm absolutely committed to the idea, but here are my first photos!

Chicken stir fry

Fried rice

April is almost gone!

So the weather has been so nasty this month that the peas are still not coming up.  Maybe soon? I hope so. I also haven't planted anything else for the same reason! But the city water has been turned on, now, so that's one excuse gone.

While I was at my mom's I went to that nursery/store and got some more dishtowels.  They are huge!  And nice, and cheaper than the ones I ordered online.  If anyone wants me to get them some, let me know.  Also got a few patterns for stamping on them.  I couldn't decide between all the cute veggie ones. My mom is no help.  She said, "Get them all and it will only be $5."  So I did.

Books! Books! Books! My daughter and I went to the library book sale at the Salt Lake Library and ooooh, it was fun!  They had waaaay too many books.  So we relieved them of 29 of them. Hard backs were $1, books on tape $1 and paperbacks $.50!! I need to take a bag next time. The aisles were not big enough for the cart.

No scrapbooking to report. I did get the training I ordered from Scrapper's Guide for the new Photoshop Elements (which I don't have yet).  So hopefully will get doing some things on that soon.

Genealogy has been a little more fruitful. I was able to get some old letters from my mom's correspondence that have group sheets, so I need to compare those with what I have. Unfortunately, they are from 1970, so the person she was writing is gone now. But I have a cousin name who also got these letters, so hopefully can write to him and see what documents he has.  I also got a response from my postcard mailing on George Brown. A lady sent me a group sheet for his mother's family. Have to compare this, too. It's so fun to get responses! I went to my genealogy class yesterday and got one more generation of names for about three lines off the Pedigree Resource File. Not sure if I want more names to check on, but I'm sure it's good!

Conference Stitchery

It's snowing again today!  Aargh!  Well, conference was great this weekend, and I did get some stitchery done.

Did these dishtowels during conference.  I need to stamp another one today.  Only four more to go to have a week's worth!

This is the stitchery I have been needing to frame since 2005, when I went on trek with our ward.  We did the stitchery in the evenings after walking.  I finally framed it!

I finished reading Stolen Lives, which was really a very thought-provoking book.  You can look at a review (not by me)  on Desperate for a Good Read.  Now I'm reading a Daniel Silva book. He writes pretty much like Robert Ludlum, spy novels.

I went to genealogy class last night and learning more about getting information from the Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File.  I will be downloading some things from there for my class in two weeks. I really like how the program (we are using Legacy) will do the typing for you for these searches. You go to the person in your file you want to search on, then do the search from there and it puts in all the information in the blanks in FamilySearch and then you just enjoy the results!  I did find some more names I didn't have on Pedigree Resource File.  I'm planning to send out some postcards to people who are listed as submitters on the names William Brown and Hannah Clark to see if I can get any source information from them.

Update on Everything!

Well, it's not that I haven't been doing anything...  It's that I've been doing too many things!

We had a big snowstorm that dumped about two inches on the ground and then blew all over the place in drifts a foot high.  It actually took a few days to melt, too!  So I haven't done any gardening at all.  But I have bought seeds for lettuce, spinach, carrots and watermelon.

We had a project day with my sisters-in-law and daughters and I worked on my new dishtowels.  I got the ones I had ordered, and they are really nice weave and big!  Here's the website I ordered from: Soy Works Candle Company.  They didn't ship very fast, and I think when I emailed to find out where my order was, they realized they hadn't sent it and shipped it that same day with three extra dishtowels in it for me (I ordered 7 and got 10).  When I emailed regarding the extras (there was no note or anything) they said they had shipped to the wrong address and when they figured it out, they reshipped to me.  But the towels are great!

Oh, but I just talked to my mom and she said that she found some good ones that are a little cheaper in Logan, so I may have to get them from her.

This is the one I stamped about four years ago and just finally finished.  It is on the yucky cheesecloth-type dishtowels.

This is the one I started at the sister-in-law project day and I just finished it.  I started a new one today.

I did two scrapbook pages this week and that emptied out my folders on my desktop, so now I get to set up some more folders for my next pages.

(credits:  Quickpage by Lynnie Smith, alpha is WinterDawn by K Aicken of Scrapper's Guide)

(credits:  background paper and striped paper are DS Free Lisa Boys will be Boys kit, blue frames are by Michelle Schfeveland of DSP in her Holiday Sparkle Elements, alpha is by Gina Cabrera - alpha essentials)

I've also  been working on emergency preparedness quite a bit.  We have made sure our money is all FDIC insured and tried to reduce costs on some bills including internet, phone, extra subscriptions, etc.  We have put some cash in our 72-hour kits.  We are in the process of videotaping our house for insurance purposes.  Purchased a ladder for evacuating an upstairs bedroom, checked to see what our generator to our house actually powers.  We're looking into having  a gas fireplace converted to wood.  We are also looking into buying a half a beef for food storage.  We have an excel spreadsheet with our food storage stuff on it that we need to update.  And above all, we are trying to USE our food storage and rotate it properly!  If you want the spreadsheet, email me.

I started going to a genealogy class on Sunday evenings.  The idea is to eventually get to some names that need their temple work done.  So far it's been kind of boring, but I have high hopes for it!  I had a friend over the other day and showed her all my computer hobbies, web stuff, genealogy, scrapbooking.  It was fun.  She's just getting into it and is taking this genealogy class, too.

And lastly, I'm reading the book Stolen Lives, which so far is really great!  Check out the description on Desperate for a Good Read.