What our last week and a half has been like

We came home on the 18th after a long day of running errands to find a giant puddle of water on the floor in our bedroom. We did our best to suck it up with a wet vac and then got fans blowing to dry out the carpet. Long story short, we have moved out of our bedroom into a small room in our house because it seems like the repairs are going to take awhile. We're battling with insurance so they will cover roof repairs. We will be very glad when all of this is over and a memory.

Seattle 2010

This post is a little late, but I'm trying to use my time off this week to get caught up on a few things, i.e blogging. About a month and a half ago, I went to Seattle to have a 'sisters weekend' with John's 5 sisters and mother. John's lovely sister Christine and her awesome husband Jon hosted us. They have two Vizsla dogs, which are John's dream dog. They are beautiful. See:



We went to Pikes' Place Market, which was so interesting.


I especially enjoyed the humor of some of the vendors. (I agree completely)


These are two of my adorable nieces and John's sister who is next oldest. I loved getting to know my 3 nieces in Seattle better. They are hilarious little girls.


John's sister Corrin always goes to Beecher's cheese and stands in line to bring home a giant wheel of cheese that she shreds and uses for a whole year to make delicious things like enchiladas. While we were waiting, we watched them make cheese, which isn't something that I ever really wanted to see. I LOVE cheese, and not so much any more.


I had such a fun time and it was great to get to know John's sisters and mom better.

BYU Christmas Card Competition

John is awesome. So awesome that he won one of two honorable mention spots in the BYU Christmas card competition for the College of Fine Arts. There were a lot of other entries and I'm very proud of John for the 3 cards he decided to enter in the competition. For those of you who want to go see it, it is on display in the main lobby of the HFAC at BYU until January some time.

Sad, Sad Day for All in Provo

For those of you who don't yet know, the Provo Tabernacle burned early this morning. I almost start crying every time I think of it. I had stake conference almost every single year there while at BYU (twice a year) and in our ward in south Provo. Click HERE to read the Salt Lake Tribune's article. It is truly a sad, sad day.

Fabric is My Bag Blog

Hello everyone. I decided that rather than continue to take over our blog with stuff for my creations that I would start a blog to post new things, tutorials, etc. We are right in the middle of finals (we being John) and will hopefully post something more interesting here in a week or so.

Check out my new blog fabricismybag.blogspot.com. It is still a work-in-progress, but it's something....

Our "Bloch" Party

The BYU Museum of Art is hosting a fabulous exhibit on display until sometime next year slammed full of beautiful and inspiring art by Carl Bloch. We went for the first time tonight and it was amazing. I warned John that I would probably cry uncontrollably for at least part of it. His art is so touching to me, especially because he is Danish and my dad served his mission in Denmark.

They have a short intro movie to help introduce you to Carl Bloch and then you walk into the main gallery right to his rendition of "Doubting Thomas". I could NOT stop crying. It was such a huge, grand piece. My emotion might have been partly that I have always considered myself somewhat of a doubting Thomas, especially since that was my maiden name. It was a very touching moment to see that piece and think of how merciful our Savior really is.

It was amazing to me to think that just a few short months ago, and for the entire rest of their lives, 8 of these gorgeous altarpieces were in churches in Denmark and Sweden. It makes me wonder what, if anything was put in their place. Do the people miss them? Do they realize how amazing they are? It was truly an inspirational exhibit and next time we will pay the $3 a piece and rent the iPad to have the full experience.

Christmas Music

Every year growing up (that I can remember and that I was at home to remember), my parents and sisters and I would always set up allll of the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. My mom has quite the collection of nativities that are mostly packed in their own box for each piece that go in a specific place in the house. We also have a ton of ornaments. My mom had the great idea to start getting an ornament from our vacations to help us remember them as we decorated the tree each year. My absolute favorite one is a sumo angel complete with sumo wrestler "garb" (aka a thong) and wings. He is probably going to be the most fought-after item with my sisters after my parents die. My dad would always get the assignment of setting up the tree, which at one point in time was an artificial 12-foot tree. My mom bought a pre-lit tree a few years ago to help alleviate some of the holiday stress with stringing the tree with lights. Some of my favorite holiday memories envolve a certain parent grumbling and growling about the lights and getting poked with the tree. I can't blame them. My sisters and I would usually chuckle a little as it went on and then go set up some nativities far, far away in the house.

Anyway, the point of the story is to say that the first, and I mean the absolute first, Christmas music my mom would always put on was Barry Mannilow's Christmas CD. I don't love Barry Mannilow, nor his Christmas CD, but it doesn't seem like Christmas without it. Last year I bought Ella Fitzgerald's "Ella Wishes You a Swingin' Christmas" and I LOVE, love, love it. She has such a fabulous voice reminiscent of times past. What's on your Chrismas music list? We always listen to Handel's Messiah along with a few choice Weezer Christmas songs that are surprisingly fabulous. I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the Holiday season and that we can all remember the true reason of the season being Christ and His glorious birth thus saving us all.