Jewelry Making

Have you ever watched the show Project Runway.... LOVE IT!  Have you ever seen the show Project Accessory, where they design accessories like hats, earrings, rings, shoes, handbags, necklaces, bracelets... LOVE THAT ONE TOO!

In fact, this last episode, they had a designer who was making metal earrings and a metal cuff, and it inspired me to try it myself.  Here is what I came up with.  What do you think?



Here is my new cool wrap-around ring and earrings I made.

LTdesigns is now in effect :)  Let me know if you want me to make you something as well...  I am having so much fun with this!

I love you...

 ...This much!! Another CUTE craft on Pinterest I found for Gavin to make. We traced out his hands on this beautiful green cardstock, cut them out and also folded another piece of paper to link the hands together. Super easy and adorable. Someone will love this for a Christmas present!!

"Look what I made!!"

 One of my cute friends ordered this from me and I (finally) completed it for her. She has a cute little guy in Kindergarten and wanted a vinyl board to display some of his artwork and accomplishments from school. After cutting, sanding and routing the board, I painted it and sanded a little more. I glued on those sturdy medal clips and voila!!

100%

 Will has always been the spelling bee of the family, after Scott that is! But Jackson is slowly coming into his own and scoring 100's on his last 3 spelling tests! GREAT JOB JACKSON!!

His handwriting is pretty sloppy, but some of those words are tricky! We're very proud of you Jack!

Card Holders

 Our family loves playing card games. Every time we have company over or my mom and Bill are in town we play games. It's so fun. Papa Bill enjoys playing card games, but it's hard for him to hold a bunch of cards in his hand because he only has 3 fingers. So, I saw this adorable idea on Pinterest and thought of Papa! This will help him to hold a bunch of cards while playing various games.

I found a set of two at Walgreen's for $2.99, perfect! Then I cut out some craft paper and modge podged it on to the clip. After it dried I used those letter stickers for his name. Each side has different colored paper and different colored letters.
An easy, cute gift!

The treeS are up!

 Every year I decorate the tree differently. I've done a bear tree, an Americana tree, a red theme tree, a Santa tree....This year it was a candy tree. I bought most of the ornaments at Target last year for 75% off! Screaming deal! It turned out pretty good. The tree itself is gorgeous! It is literally the most perfect tree. It smells great and is so fresh we have to water it every day with 2 huge glasses of water. The needles haven't even started to fall off, it's that fresh! LOVE IT!! After we sawed it down we cut another 3 feet off to fit into our living room.

 I allowed the boys to go through some of my non-breakable ornaments to decorate their tree with. It was cute to watch them choose their own theme for their tree.

Here is the other boys tree. Both turned out adorable!

Great job boys!

Cutting down the TREE

 We went with some family and friends from Santa Barbara to cut down our Christmas tree this year up near Park City, UT. It was such a FUN morning, very cold (12 degrees), but fun! We drove past Park City, up through Kamas and went another 20 miles up in the wilderness to find the perfect spot. We would of stopped much earlier, but we were following the Kimball family and they knew where the perfect spot was located!

 After parking, the kids played in the snow while some of the adults went hiking deeper into the forest to find the perfect tree. And we did! Scott found it and sawed it down. We all helped drag it back to the car. I wanted this one, but it was a tad too small. :)

 Here are the Boyce's cutting down their perfect tree!

 Here is everyone (over 50 people) with all our beautiful trees. They had a chain saw to trim the trees down a bit and a huge trailer to haul them back to Provo. We tied ours to the suburban. We ate donuts and drank hot chocolate and the kids still sledded and played.

The boys found a few other smaller trees they wanted for their rooms. Looks like a Charlie Brown tree, sad little thing.
It was fun and hard but worth it.

THANK YOU Kimball family for all the help!!

Fabric Galore!

I love, love, love shopping on Black Friday! I almost forgot about the flannel sale at JoAnn's! I had Tyler, Gavin and Brigham and wanted to just "run in" real quick. An hour and a half later I was finally done. So. Worth. It. Check out what I picked up for less than $1 a yard!

Different Turkey Recipe...YUMMMMM!!!!

 I always make my turkey different each year. I like to try new things and they always turn out great and look good. Can you make a bad turkey? This year I combined 2 different recipes into one! I had fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage and marjoram) and chopped them up. Added salt and pepper and melted butter. I brushed that all over the bird and under the skin. I placed bacon stripes on the top of the bird as well. We basted the bird every 3o minutes for 3.5 hours. We basted her with apple juice, and then next time would be a brown sugar and maple syrup mixture, then back to the apple juice.

The turkey came out delicious!! Very earthy with all the herbs yet savory with the bacon.
Of course we had homemade rolls with homemade jams and jelly's, Margene's homemade stuffing, twice baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy....My mouth is watering...

Skiing!!

 Last Wednesday Jackson and I went skiing at Snowbird. It was so much fun! We bought a bunch of gear last season when it was all on clearance! We bought Jackson a 5th grade ski pass for $20.00 which allows him to ski 4x at each resort in Utah! Great deal! There was a Groupon to rent all our equipment for 50% off the entire season!! Skiing and snowboarding are an expensive sport!

 Jackson did great! He kept beating me down the hill and would ride the lift alone to try and beat me again! I haven't gone skiing since 9th grade! It has been too long. I am so glad I finally went again. I LOVED it! It was so fun!

 You like my PINK goggles, and headband? Scott picked that out for me...perfect!

Will came a little later and boarded the rest of the day with us. He was very frustrated at first then got the hand of it. He's loves it now too!

Reading away...

I've never been an avid reader, but lately I can't get through a book fast enough to start another one! I love reading! I read every chance I get! I am still reading from my kindle, which I LOVE!!! (I've seen some black Friday ads and the kindles are cheap! YOU SHOULD GET ONE!! We're getting one for Will and Jackson for Christmas!)

Here is a list of books I've been reading lately...I think last I blogged about books I was in the middle of "Borrowed Light" It was cute, it was easy, it was an LDS romance novel.  ****

Breaking Dawn- The last few chapters. I intentionally didn't finished this book because I wanted to see the movie. But, as the movie fast approached I became inpatient and read the ending. WOWZA! Can't wait to watch the movie! ****

Four to Score by Janet Evanovich. Number 4 was a little racier, I loved it! I read and reread a certain part several times to Scott, Angie, Bubbles and other friends! It was so good! ****

The Last Olympian, a Percy Jackson #5 book written by Rick Riordan. I read the others as my boys read them and we watched the movie together. They're easy, mythical, and a fun read to read with your kids or as a family! ****

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Allan. Not an LDS novel, but could be. A nicely written novel about friends family and secrets. ****

The Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. Umm, honestly I didn't finished this book. It was recommend to me from a few different friends, but I just couldn't get into it. I'll try to finish it later, maybe when they movie is about to come out! :) **

Foggy with a Chance of Murder by G.G. Vandagriff, an LDS romantic mystery. It was interesting. It wasn't the norm LDS fiction, so I liked it. Even Scott reads it after me! ****

Captive Heart by Michele Paige Holmes. Another cute LDS romance novel. It was cute and easy to read, but it's really the same story with different character names. ***

The Help by Kathrine Stockett. I needed a non-LDS book about now and this was the perfect pick! I LOVED this book. A deep message with endearing characters that tug at your heart strings. Just last Saturday Scott, Bubbles, Greg, Meghan, Kristen, Nicole, Angie and went to see it. It was well done! (more on this later!) ****

Born to Run by Christopher Mcdougall. I blogged about this already, incredible! Great read for anyone, everyone. Even if you hate to run! Very informative and inspiring! ****

The Wanderer (Shadows of Brierly #1 by Anita Stansfield. This is set in the lush highlands of nineteenth-century Scotland. Filled with past regrets and new beginnings, this volume is an journey toward faith and peace—a sweeping emotional experience from start to finish. Because it was written with character from Scotland I too talked like them while I wasn't reading! My kids think I'm a little coo-coo! ****

Man, these are a lot of books!

Not My Type by Melanie Jacobson. SUPER cute! An older gal, who broke off her engagement, decides she wants to be a writer. She has no interest in dating or guys for that matter, but is hired to write a dating article! ****

The Perfect Fit by Michele Bell. This is the third book in a series, which I figure out half way through! Woops! The first half the main gal is on a dating show, like The Bachelor. The second half someone is trying to kill her. I enjoyed the first half, last part was weird. Ended too quickly. ***

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander. This isn't usually a book I'd chose, but it was intriguing! It's fascinating story of the final days of Nicholas and Alexandra as seen through the eyes of the Romanovs’ young kitchen boy, Leonka. It also tells of a strong love and bond between a family. Highly recommend! ****

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Another incredible story about a fictitious family in a real event that took place that sadly I never knew about! I just requested this movie from the library! Can't wait to see it!  ****

The book I started last night is High Five by Janet Evanovich. I was missing Stephanie and all her shenanigans!

Itty Bitty Basketball

 All the fall sports are coming to an end, part of me is relived and part of me wishes it cam continue. I signed up Brigs for a three month three sport activity at the Lion's Club. September he played T-ball, October he played soccer and November he's been playing basketball. It's funny to watch these 3 year old's "play" basketball! They have fun drills to help kids at that age!

 Throwing a balloon up in the air and catching it is one of the stations.

 Passing a ball back and forth is another station. I love this picture. Look closely how Gavin knows I'm snapping shots and he's smiling away as he keeps passing the ball back and forth. Now, look at Brigham. Nice nickel slot!

It's adorable to see how low the hoop was and the kids still hardly made it in! Brigham held his own considering he's a literally a head above the other kids!

Pine Wood Derby

 Last Thursday we raced in the Pine Wood derby! The boys did a great job on their cars! They designed them, sanded them, painted them... It was a FUN evening! Out of over 20 kids Jackson came in THIRD and Tyler came in FIFTH!

GREAT JOB BOYS!!

First Snow!

We sure had fun these past few days playing outside, building snowman, having snow ball fights and sledding!

Falling Leafs

Around our neighborhood, like yours, falling leafs are everywhere. I just love it! The cooler weather, the colors changing. I heart fall! My most favorite time of year! We don't have any large trees in our yard, so thank you neighbors for allowing us to play in yours!