Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Oh what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green? I like to make crafty projects. During the school year I hardly have time to do anything than my homework and attend rehearsal after rehearsal. That means when summer rolls around I try to squeeze in as much fun stuff as I can (that usually means reading tons of books and making fun artsy-fartsy crafts). So here is the first batch of summer projects. Marc went fishing one day in the afternoon/evening/late evening last week (that's what he likes to do in the summertime), so I had lots of time on my hands to craft...and watch chick flicks :). I decided to make this wreath and some button earrings (stay tuned for those). The wreath is made from a grapevine wreath (only 5 bucks!), fabric rosettes from fabric scraps, pearl beads, wire, and ribbon. I've been wanting to have a wreath on my door ever since we had to take the Christmas wreath down that my mom bought me for my birthday, but I didn't have time till now. I love how this wreath turned out! This next project I finished just last night. I found the idea on pinterest (gotta love pinterest!) and decided to try it. You can find the original tutorial here. We've been wanting to put this quote from President Monson in our house for a while now and just couldn't figure out how to do it...vinyl lettering, cross stitch maybe, framed quote. When I saw this idea I immediately wanted to try it. We first needed some old wood which, luckily for us, comes in heaps and piles at my in-laws house. So we picked out a couple of boards we liked from the burn pile, sprayed the dirt off them, and carted them back home. We attached the boards with hinges (thanks to my handy-man husband) and put picture hangers on the back. Next we had to decide what font we wanted and how big to make it. That took a while, but we finally figured it out. Then we had to flip the text to mirror image so that we could transfer it to the wood. For my own future reference I'll tell you how that's done on a Macbook Pro: Select File, Print. Select your printer. Then select Layouts (from 3rd drop down box). An option will pop up that says "Flip Horizontal." Check that box. Print! Macs are wonderful...that would've been so much harder on my old PC. We'll be putting the sign up later today (it was too late last night--we have neighbors with babies), and I can't wait to see how it looks!

He's a Survivor

A couple of weeks ago, Marc took the MCAT. He has been preparing for this test all semester long, spending lots of quality time with Harold (Harold B. Lee Library). After long days at school and studying for his regular classes, he would go back to school and study with a buddy for a few hours late into the evening every weekday. Then on Saturdays he and his buddy would study from 8am-4pm. That's a lot of studying and I am so proud of him for putting so much work and effort into it. With all the hard work he put in, I wanted to make sure the day of his test went as smoothly as possible. I asked him if he wanted anything special for that day and his response was "chocolate cake" and "a really good breakfast...like sticky buns." I woke up early to make the sticky buns (yes, from scratch). They were really tasty but...let's just say they did not look like the picture in Betty Crocker so I'm not including a picture of them. His test started at one and it was in a town about 30 min away. He and his buddy left extra early to make sure they got there before it started. That left me plenty of time to make his chocolate cake before my mom-in-law picked me up for a baby shower. Usually I don't like chocolate cake, but the recipe I used is to die for! I should put it up on the blog sometime. We started devouring it before I could get a good picture but in case you can't tell it says  "You survived the MCAT!" And yes, I did put those green streamers up just for the after-test celebration. Since his test started at one in the afternoon and its a five hour test (I know, yuck!), he wouldn't be done till 6. Travel time meant he would be home even later than that.  We had a family wedding to attend that evening, so that meant I wouldn't be at our apartment to welcome him home and give him a big squeeze. So I decided to decorate with streamers and little signs. You can't see them very well but they say things like "You survived the MCAT" and "It's OVER! You made it!" and "Hooray!" Yep, he's a survivor. Now we're waiting for the scores. Stay tuned...