Christmas Wreaths, Baby Showers, Video-making, and Meg's Owl!

My cousin and I have a tradition of making a wreath for Festival of Trees. My wonderful sister in law Angie and niece Meg joined us this year and this is what we have so far. We are doing two this year because we had a lot of supplies.

This one will have a garland, some gifts, and some caroling minions with it too:) More pics to come. And go the the Festival of Festival of Trees if you can! It is so fun!

We are going to make some for ourselves next year:) Come join us! (Just shop 90% after Christmas and these wreaths come out to be about $10 each)

I got to help carry out my cousin's "Skype" baby shower. Here is what my Aunt Chrissy (whom I love dearly) and my 2nd Mom (also much beloved) came up with:) 

 Silver, pink, and white color scheme

 My 2nd Mom's AMAZING taco soup recipe

 Babies breath centerpieces with balloons up top

My cousins Alycia and Kyle Skyped the whole time (they are in Arizona and this is their first baby) and it was so much fun! We opened the presents in front of the camera:)

 Baby quotes all around

Pineapple sherbet with raspberries

With my Box Troll winnings I promised my Heavenly Father 

I would do good and help build up His kingdom. 

So...I began with buying a special computer that makes it possible for me to make something to contribute to the work....Family History videos.  My Man and I made one for the BYU Former Student Officer Society to Honor our Alumni Anne Snow-The Student Body Secretary from 1948. I was deeply touched by her example and influence and can't wait to begin my Grandparent's and Great-Grandparents life stories! (you can see the video here:) Anne Snow

I am also excited to make other videos for fun...here is my first(and rough) stop-motion video. 

I made it to apologize to My Man for my grumpiness on Saturday afternoon. (He LOVES the song the video is done too...so that made it more sentimental...as sentimental as a potato can be...haha...My Man is quick to forgive, which is such a blessing)

And Madsen and I made this one today while he is having a sleepover. He was so proud.

My niece made this entire thing all by herself!!!!!! Isn't she great!!!

Have a great week!

General Conference Creation

I mentioned in my last post how I am trying to "create" something to go with every talk from last General Conference to help me remember the words of our living prophets.

It is really helping me a lot (I consider my self very Dory-ish...aka...short memory)

Elder Nelson's talk was inspiring and how I love our Living Prophet! I know he is a prophet of God. I know that the Lord directs all he teaches. Here was my favorite parts of the talk which I created into a poster to help me remember. And here is his talk Elder Nelson Oct. 2014

Christopher's creations, toddler/mom tears, more Box Trolls, General Conference and another Birthday Halloween:)

This was quite a week around here. 

• My birthday was on Friday(Halloween) and My Man made it incredible. I got 2, yes TWO birthday dates. One on Wednesday, one on Thursday. The first was a lovely dinner to Olive Garden, the second was a marvelous replica of a date I cancelled on him 5 years ago that we never got to have. He created an entire picnic, took me to a park, and had invented the most fun game using clay, paper plates, watercolors, and poetry to remind us of what we love so much about each other. We watched the sunset as we ate chocolate pie in a park on possibly the last "warm-enough-to-picnic" day of the year.

It was heavenly. Pictures couldn't do it justice. 

• My Man made me this for my birthday from scratch! It isn't quite done but I am ever so impressed :)

• He made me this birthday cake too!! (it is a tradition that we always make each other a fun cake:)

• Sabrina and I created lots, and lots, and lots of tears this week....and let me emphasize the "I" in that sentence. Having two toddlers can be very overwhelming. However, despite the struggles this week, my sweet daughter helped me take some real good inventory of who I am and who I want to become as a mother and a disciple. My newest (and most complex) creative project is going to be finding out exactly what the Lord needs me to do to help my child who is bright, determined and talented.  I am excited to rely on Him more, and see what He has in store for us to create to help her.

• Sabrina and I took some much needed time for just the two of us and painted this together while listening to a conference talk (to help me unwind a bit:). She did all the leaves:)

• MamaT commented on our Box Troll post just a little bit back about making her own family of Box Trolls for Halloween. She and I corresponded a bit and look what she came up with!!!! Doesn't her family look amazing! Each of their characters match up with one from the show! Their family always coordinates their costumes. They.are.awesome.

• Almost my whole family came to our house for my birthday. It was wonderfully wonderful. My dad even wore a Halloween costume!!!!I love them...very, very, very much. 

General Conference Painting

• I am a very visual hands/on learner so I decided I am going to "create" something to help me remember each apostle's talk from this last General Conference. Here is my first creation. Elder Scott spoke of 4 Habits that I really want to work to develop well. Take a few minutes to listen to his wonderful talk here: Elder Scott's Talk on 4 Habits
  
  

• Some other fun things we made this week:

Bone Breadsticks

Name skeletons 

(all the ribs are our names, paper folded in half and cut out on the fold:) Got the idea from my Sister-in-law Tara :)

Our Stay Puft, KUTV, Horse Corral, Baby Shower, Choir, and lots and lots of laundry...time for bed!

We are all pretty tired around here! My favorite part of our day so far was watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, going on a short bike ride with my bike trailer hooked up, and roasting marshmallows out back:)

Here are some of last week's creationistic happenings and some thoughts.

• Finished Halloween costumes... Eli's was inspired by a picture my amazing Sister in Law Lindsay sent me. He got to show it to his cousins at our super fun family Halloween party. Our own Stay Puft Marshmallow man. His cousins hugged and hugged his squishiness.

 

 He loves it because he can do a belly flop on the ground in it...he is ALL boy:)

 It was really fun to make...oh, except for the part when I broke the zipper, sewed on a new one...backwards...broke it...fixed it...re-sewed it...and made the whole costume just a little too snug(My Man and I have to work together to get it on him...good thing it only has to last until the end of the week:) Don't mind the black eye he got falling over the vacuum right before we left for the party :(

 Our princess:)

My Man and I opted to be pirates this year:) Argh...picture coming later this week:)

• My mother in law and I (and My Man of course) took on the task of making a horse corral, some horses--super easy DIY!!, and a bunch of other howdy-doodies for a shin-dig she had for a Church dinner. Here is what we ended up with. Isn't she so creative?! We kinda REALLY love making things together. I'll do a post someday on all of the things we have made (our poor blessed husbands.)

 Our Corral...92 feet of cardboard fence and an 11 foot sign. (all cardboard, paint and tape....I love cardboard!!)

My mother-in-law's incredible flower arranging talents

These ride-on horses were so easy and were only $2.50 (each) to make. 

Just send me a notey if you want more info.

My wonderful 2nd parents:)

 Cowgirl/Cowboy IBC Rootbeer

• KUTV :We had the opportunity, thanks to all of our wonderful friends and family, to be on Channel 2 News for the Box Troll contest. Here are my thoughts. It was a neat, new, and very welcoming experience...however...I was reminded quite strongly that my favorite thing to be doing and investing in is being a mom and wife. As we got ready to go, both kids were crying the entire morning, especially Sabrina, who did not want to go. My Man was off work that day and we could have used some good quality play outside-read a book-snuggle on the couch-just play pretend-family time due to the craziness of the last few weeks...but instead the craziness continued and we spent most of the day away from our baby, trying to keep Sabrina from having a fit in the KUTV studio. She was a trooper, and all the people there were so kind, but I don't need to do that again any time soon.

• Our cousins are having a baby girl and live far away so we are doing a Skype shower and are going to mail them the gifts. Here is the invitation I made. We are so excited for them!! ( I took out the address just in case you were thinking of coming...haha)
  

• Let it be know that in the process of creation craziness around here a great  monster has also been created. The laundry pile monster...I think this is our biggest monster yet. It is a wonderful tornado of clean, dirty, too big, too small, and other misc. clothing items...slightly overwhelming, good thing My Man isn't afraid of helping out!

 And the kids are happy...at least in the picture. I kinda want to cry when I look at it.

• My Man in I are leading our Church choir for the Christmas program (haha...we are learning a LOT with this one.) We are singing a song by my dear friend Becca's mom Shawna Edwards. It. is. BEAUTIFUL. Take a second to listen to it. It inspires me every time I hear it to look at my heart and my life and re-focus it on my Redeemer.

• Well, we made a nice little fire and roasted marshmallows for our family night tonight, and we just created a much cleaner house (minus the laundry which we hid in large black bags in the storage room for tomorrow:) Happy Monday...time for bed.

Halloween Fun

So one of my favorite things about creating is being able to do it with someone. I have a passion for teaching about how fun making things can be!

My neice is an incredibly talented girl and somehow became the victim of one of my crazy projects. The two of us have so much fun together. She and I entered a local Scarecrow contest and stayed up late making these together.

It was way fun. She learned to sew and I learned that her talents know no bounds! Isn't she darling?

So if you want to vote for her minions just email the number "6" to syrwarrens@qwestoffice.net :)


Since Sabrina opted out of being a Boxtroll for Halloween...she is a princess instead.

My sister and I have always wanted to make an 1800's dress....so I did a little test run yesterday for Sabrina:)

Total cost $2.50 (hand me down dress meets roll of fabric from DI). Guess we will have to make some for us! Anyone want to join us?

Happy Tuesday:)

Lessons from a Boxtroll Contest

My little family is humbled and overjoyed at the outpouring of love and help we received in our simple "Boxtroll" competition. We learned many powerful and personal lessons about the selfless sacrifice of others and the overwhelming feeling that comes from a supporting team. THANK YOU.

We cherish you. We were reminded with each message and each "like" and each vote that we have a greater work to do in loving and serving individuals. With that said, I have to share about one individual in this competition who has touched my life FOREVER.

Her name is Jamila Hull. And she made this:


Isn't her painting amazing! And I love her dog Pittie Ninny.

But most of all.

I love her.

Following a very sleep-deprived week for both of us...and after a final vote tally count...I did what any facebooker would do...I looked her up!

And here is what I found. (please read if you want to cry and be inspired forever)

In her words, and I quote:

"1,563 people took the time out of their day to vote for me in a contest I entered called “Think Inside the Box” hosted by Amazon.com and inspired by the Laika film “The Boxtrolls”. Voting ended this morning at 1am, and I came in second place with ONE-THOUSAND-FIVE-HUNDRED-SIXTY-THREE votes. Let me say that again: 1 , 5 6 3 PEOPLE VOTED. FOR. ME. I can’t believe how quickly this community came together to help me get votes! And I use the word ‘community’ loosely here, because people voted for me from EVERYWHERE! Thank you immensely for inviting people to check out my entry and to love on my precious pittie, Ninny.

You are the most beautiful, positive, diverse, supportive, and caring group of people. Of those 1,563 people there are some, dear friends, that rallied for me with everything you had! I know this because it would be midnight and I would see the numbers jump up 50 votes, and I knew that I hadn’t done it. It was really exciting to watch how quickly votes would jump as you all shared my link with your friends and family. It’s humbling to see how connected we all are, be that as it may in this digital age through Facebook. Thank you for help shaking votes out of your friends, families, and respective cities. And to all of you here in our Las Cruces, thank you for showing me what hometown love really means.

To my poets, woodworkers, photographers, geologists, engineers, politicians, school teachers, physical trainers, nurse practitioners, medical professionals, physicists, writers, painters, graphic-designers, comedians, novelists, revolutionaries, activists, djs, farmers, lawyers, art history professors, journalists, law enforcement officers, bakers, chefs, internet-whizzes, conservators, translators, sculptors, waitresses, tattoo artists, yogis, pilots, airline hostesses, actors, chemists, crafters, social-workers, helicopter-riding-gas-pipeline-inspectors, radio hosts, guitar-makers, singers, breast-cancer survivors, students, organizers, complete and total strangers, movers, shakers, fellow dog-lovers, and all of you good people: THANK YOU.

The biggest victory one could hope for is learning what wonderful friends and family they have in this world.

A big thank you to Amazon.com for allowing me to participate in this fun contest. And a HUGE congratulations to Elise M. Peterson of South Weber, Utah who took 1st place! Check out how she sculpted, painted and put together incredibly cute costumes for her little girl and husband, here: http://creatingmakesushappy.blogspot.com/2014/10/box-troll-costume-contest.html?m=1

And lastly, can we just make the #LasCrucesLovehashtag a thing for when we’re trying to help out someone from our community? That’d be rad. "

Isn't she amazing! You should all go and "like" her Jellywell Art page right now!

After reading this touching post on her wall...I noticed a new message in my own inbox...from Jamila.

"CONGRATULATIONS ELISE!

I was also in the running for The Boxtrolls “Think Inside the Box” Contest. I just wanted to congratulate you on taking first and doing such an incredible job this week! I kept checking in on your progress over the last few days and kept trying to be mad that you were beating me, but I couldn’t because of how lovely your support system was, how great your costumes were, and how much I think you deserve this! I genuinely hope the prize money can help your family and little ones out! You’re a really talented artist and had a really great entry. I had a fun week (sleepless, but fun) trying to catch up to y’all! Man you guys know how to rock a vote! Again, CONGRATS!

All the best from New Mexico,

Jamila Hull

(ps. the painted eyes on “Daddy’s little Boxtroll” were SO CUTE! Awesome job!)"

And that is why I love her.

Don't you?

Feel free to comment on the blog on what lessons we can learn from her. I have about a thousand.

Box Troll Costume Contest

My first post on this blog! Welcome!

So.....once upon a time I decided to enter the:  Amazon.com "Think Inside The Box" Contest

Then I was selected as a finalist...and some people were teasing me that my Box Trolls looked like they could be dummies, not real people costumes.

So alas I have created this post and this blog to show how I love to create. And what exactly I do, so that in the small chance that you too would like to make a Box Troll Costume or any other crazy thing in the future...

You can use all of my ideas:)

So here's how it went.

I took some head-sizish boxes.

I then looked at a picture of some Box Trolls such as this from http://boxtrolls.com/ :)  It is a cute show, you should go see it...the Box Trolls are by far the best part! They are adorable!



Then I shaped the boxes with some scissors and tape and other pieces of cardboard to shape the features. Then I covered them in paper mache like this. We had to try with a box :)

 Then I painted them with acrylics:)

 

Until they were juuuust right

 Then I bought some great light blue stretchy shirts from Deseret Industries, and sewed my little Binna and Chris outfits and four-fingered gloves. These were then painted with acrylics too for texture, and the gloves were stuffed with batting.










The shoes I made with cardboard and covered with fabric and painted. The foot bandages are fabric strips painted for texture. I will spare you a picture of Chris in just his stretchy shirt (I am the only one to enjoy those photos) :) But here is my cutie...performer.

With her mask

Then I got my boxes soaking wet outside and let them dry out to make them look older. Then made the paper labels for the boxes on good 'ol Microsoft Word and printed them and glued them and dirtied them up. (logos removed for Copyrights) Like so....

Then we went to the park for a photo shoot and I made my husband Chris use his super muscle strength to take her picture on his bicep...and head. They were such good sports (I may have been sneaking M&M's into Binna's mouth between shots to keep her happy). And yes, they can see great through the mouths:)

And those are our Box Trolls:)

Creating is fun!

Please go vote for us this week!!!!



VOTE HERE