Project Manager Extraordinaire

Here are a few projects I've been working on lately:

-Completing a "mother/daughter" craft project that is technically for Ellie but all my idea. Yes, I saw a darling ribbon tutu at the store and said, "I can totally make that with my own bare hands." And I actually did. (I won't tell you how much I didn't save buying endless spools of ribbon, though.)

I try to stray from parental boasting, but I am not too humble to admit that Ellie has very gifted toes. Some of you have already heard/witnessed this numerous times, but every time she mounts not just onto her "tippy toes," but actually onto the knuckles of her toes during the "Ellie Ballet Show," I am indeed amazed.

When asked for a ballet pose, we were left with this:

Remember how my friend Noe got married last August and I volunteered to make a guest book quilt for her, even though I've never made a quilt before? Haha, well sucker that she is, she consented and the result will be hers forever, no matter how painfully crooked the corners may be. Actually, I think I kind of enjoy quilting. I feel like I'm way too young to be saying that.


Ellie helped me with the layout. This is obviously during the pre-stitching stage. The patchwork is, as of late last night, fully stitched and, contrary to my best estimates ("I think it will be, like, a California King, Noe," I told her), measures considerably smaller than a twin-sized quilt.


-spending Valentine's Day morning constructing a three-piece snowman with head fully intact (I was grateful that at least one of us grew up in Minnesota so knew how to roll a snowball. The cone-shaped mound I was accumulating as the base required serious re-sculpting at Kyle's expert hand.)

It was the kids' first snowman experience and I'm pretty sure they loved every chilly moment of it, almost as much as they thrilled over the second phrase of the primary song coming to fruition: "in the sun he melted, melted, melted...")


Erik is contemplating knocking the head off again. Yes, the scarf serves much more than an aesthetic role.



-catching up with friends over posh drinks and live jazz music at Provo's suavest, trendiest new and fully non-alcoholic joint (Okay, so that's not really a project per se, but a photo of cotton candy-topped Shirley Temples had to make it in.)

We counted the evening as our semi-annual date, and in honor of Kyle's new employment status, we left a 25% tip.

-pushing my domestic skills to the limit with a from-scratch sewing project (and by "scratch" I mean no pattern, no instructions...) Kjerst recruited me as her amateur assistant for an apron-construction project. Hey, I know I'm not the only one who sees those adorable aprons at the mall for $30 and thinks, "I could so make that myself for a fraction of the price." Well, that much is true, but only for an ENORMOUS multiple of the time it takes to purchase an apron, or even the time it takes to earn the money to purchase an apron. Anyway, without a pattern or instructions, we were left mostly to our own intelligence, and especially since most of it was created in the wee hours of the night, I am partial to believe it turned out quite well. Actually, I think it's stinkin' cute and plan on making one for Mish in the not-too-terribly-distant future.

-Oh yes, and my most time-consuming project as of late has been finding us a new home! Yes, we are getting out of this jungle this weekend and into the Salt Lake Valley to give Kyle a closer commute.

Upcoming projects include furnishing our new place, finishing Noe's quilt entirely, whipping up at least a grocery bag of felt food, homemade baby gifts for expectant friends and fam, emergency preparedness kits, finding a midwife and delivery venue, and blogging Disneyland. Um, but not in that order, or along any specific timeline. =)

Return of the Tiff

Woohoo! It's my turn because only the kids are around and they're (supposed to be) sleeping! Kyle and Mom successfully retrieved our goods from California and now Utah is officially our abode. Stuff has been happening right and left, but since the untimely death of our laptop and our spontaneous relocation to Utah, I haven't had the chance to really blog at all. (I read my last post about feeling like I just don't have much to say. I must've been feeling pretty pathetic that day because I actually have LOTS to say at almost all times and no shortage of topics I'd like to blog about.)

Not having the chance to blog lately has little to do with free time and more with the fact that we haven't had any internet access at our rental until Saturday and since then, my online ambitions have held lowest priority, and justifiably so (this being Bob's computer and all, with Kyle on the job prowl and Mom searching for better housing--long story...-- and running the Relief Society from afar). But now they are all gone so it is my time, and so now I bring you a choppy, incomplete report of my recent doings.

Something I did in the past day:

I finished these ridiculously cute but even more ridiculously time-consuming cards for a card exchange with Naomi's Law School Wives Club tomorrow. I originally planned to just make one for a dear relative who's expecting, and soon enough I became possessed to believe it a splendid idea to start whipping them up in mass.


Naomi was kind enough to give/lend me her paper, pen, and other such supplies so I could copy this little clothespin design I found in her idea book (haha, you didn't really think I come up with cute craft ideas on my own, didya?), but tracing, cutting out, and hand-dashing an entire wardrobe of onesies and such (I made 14 cards)... well, I don't plan to ever do that again. So those perfect strangers at the card swap tomorrow better love 'em!

Something I did in the past week:

I caught up with bosom friend Sara during her very brief visit to Utah. She and her husband and I went to the Draper LDS temple open house and then met up with Mary, Barney, and E&E at IKEA where I had a few design fantasies and raided the "as is" section.

Last week also elicited many welcome visits to our new pad, especially since Kyle, Mom, and vehicular transportation were gone for most of the week to CA. Kjerstin is my go-to girl and so I invited her to stay with us while Kyle was gone and she was happy to oblige, bearing gifts, groceries, and a large array of hair accessories.

The above picture really proves my theory about the genderlessness of (especially children's) facial features. Would Didi not make a beautiful daughter?

Something I did in the past two weeks:

Went grocery shopping for the first time since probably last July. (Living with Mom, groceries poured in faster than I could even compose my own grocery list... anyone who's witnessed our abundance of freezers will know what I mean.) And when I'd had enough of the kids' repeated attempts at leaping out of my cart, I got to hand them over to Mom and her sweet ride.

Also in the past couple of weeks, we were staying with our dear friends and surrogate parents, the Williams'. Ellie basically could not get enough of Grandma Mare.

Our stay was cozy, warm, and perfect, thanks to things such as their enormous tub ideal for bubbly adventures and...

70 cats and 33 chickens (1 live cat included). We know. We counted.


Something I did in the past month:

I mourned (and am still mourning) the premature and unexpected passing of Lappy the laptop (don't worry, we never called her that when she was still around). Even more tragic was the cause of her death: a small Chinese coin (valued at a third of a US penny) anonymously shoved into her interior reaked havoc and irreversible damage for some odd months until...(sniff sniff) ... well, you know.

Something I did in the past season:

Celebrated a monumentous Christmas holiday with all of my Goodwin-side relatives. I'm embarrassed to admit that the following is the closest thing I took during those two weeks to a family picture. And now I have "turn on the camera and take at least ONE picture every week" to add to my New Year's resolutions.

Something I did in the past year:

Reigned over Disneyland!!! (And that's the segway into my next post.)