Sometimes simple things create happiness...

When Merril's finished using the bathroom, he turns on the fan to rid the area of any unwanted odors. Unfortunately, sometimes the fan is left on...ALL DAY. Urked that the fan was running all the time and never getting shut off, I purchased this:

It's a timer switch. Hee hee!! So now when he's finished, he can just select the amount of time the fan needs to run and then it shuts itself off automatically!! It's become really awesome at night when we use the bathroom before bed, let the fan run for 10 minutes, and hear it turn itself off. Ahhhh, technology is wonderful! (I apologize for the crappy camera phone picture.)

Little gems...

I'm usually better about keeping the pictures off my camera but I've been lazy this month. I was pulling pictures off and noticed a few that haven't made it to the blog. This was New Year's Day at the sand dunes. Max and Juliet wanted to ride in the back of the Scout while I was much more comfortable driving the Tahoe which has doors and a heater. Very important features for me.

They look like they're having fun any way.

While I was making the quilts, Jack took a picture of Juliet . This was about the only good one. There's 15 more of his bowl of frosted shredded wheat and super close-ups of his pants. Why that was so important at the time, I'll never know.

And lastly, Jack and Juliet were playing some sort of winter expedition game and needed warms hats and scarves. (Juliet decided a lei was close enough to a scarf.) Notice Jack's red fingernails. As I was finishing the quilts, he and Juliet decided to paint their fingers and toes by themselves. I was so close to being done that I just let them keep doing it.

Both hats and the scarf Jack is wearing were both knitted by my SIL Rachel! She does amazing things with yarn.

Twilighter's husbands unite...

I saw a funny music video on YouTube called Twilight (what have you done to my wife?)

Part of it was filmed locally so natives might recognize some of the locations. If you love the Twilight series, you probably want to skip this video. Hee hee.

Sewing sleepover...

My mother-in-law, Janet, has her grandchildren sleepover so the cousins can play together. Last weekend, Maxine went to a sleepover at Grandma Janet's house and they sewed pillow cases. (Grandma Janet used to teach sewing.) First they practiced sewing straight lines on paper.

Here's Maxine sewing her pillow case.

They actually turned out super awesome!! I had pretty low expectations but the kids did great! I'm having Maxine sew the next quilts. Thanks Grandma and Aunt Megan!

You are quilting masters...

I think it's hard for me to sew a straight line, even with guide lines to follow. But the 2 quilts are finished. I decided not to tie the quilts, but machine quilt them. I finished Juliet's first. Jack had my camera and snagged a picture of me sewing.

Here's Juliet, with a plastic hot dog on her new quilt.

This is how much thread I had left.

Jack's quilt is finished too and they're both quite happy to be sleeping with them tonight.

I'd show better close-ups of the quilts but you'd just see the meandering sewing lines. If I had to do again, I might just tie them. But it was an interesting adventure and now they're done. I think I'll leave machine quilting to the pros.

Quilts...

I'm not an avid quilter but lately, I've decided that I like the look of patchwork quilts. A friend of mine in the ward is an awesome quilter. So armed with some tips and her rotary cutter, I've started quilts for Jack and Juliet. The part I struggle with the most is translating the idea in my head to paper and figuring out how much fabric it will take. And then things like seam allowances mess me all up. So my quilts are coming together okay. (I try to keep them as simple as possible.) Juliet's has a purple bottom with blocks of purple Tinkerbell fabric and lime green on top. I was channeling my inner 5th grader because I loved dark purple and neon green then. Here are the blocks laid out.

I was having a hard time getting it to work until I realized that I hadn't purchased enough green, by almost a full yard. Once I figured that out, I was less bugged by it.

Juliet likes her quilt already. She kept trying to lay on the quilt squares while I was laying them out. (I meant to rotate this one but I'm on the laptop and there isn't any editing software on it.)

Jack's quilt is even easier. He has a big block of Mater and Lightening McQueen in the middle with red and tan on the edges and a black bottom.

Jack's top is finished and Juliet's is almost finished. I purchased the rest of the green fabric yesterday and I need to cut it out this morning and sew it together.

Then comes the topic of getting them together. I usually just tie quilts but I like the look of a machine-stitched quilt. I'm hesitant to machine stitch it with my machine because it's just an average machine, nothing special. I just don't want to mess them up with my machine after all the work of getting them ready. I almost wish there was a different way to tie the yarn so it didn't leave the strings hanging out. So if anyone has any tips or ideas, let me know!

Fixing things...

I like to fix things. It must stem from my Dad because he was always fixing things. I think it's fun to make things work that weren't working before. When I sought out a spouse, I deliberately looked for a man who was handy. Then I met Merril. He's been able to fix everything I've put in front of him. From cars to digital pianos and everything in between, he can fix it, usually.

He was working out of town for more than half of December and took his laptop with him. When he came home, his laptop screen wasn't working. The backlight came on and I could hear Windows boot up but no picture. I was bugged. So using my other computer, I googled why the laptop would do that. It said a faulty video card might be to blame but try the display connectors first. They might have become loose. So I grabbed a screwdriver and starting pulling it apart. 20 teeny, tiny screws later, I'm able to post on my blog from the laptop!!

Yeah!! The display connector had just wiggled loose! I really love it when a plan comes together!