Our Garden Finally Takes Shape

We knew time was getting short if we wanted to have a garden this year so, as soon as other things were out of the way, we went to Lehi and got a truck load of brick.

The three grow boxes are in process here.

They are now finished and awaiting top soil and compost.

Before we dared plant anything we knew we had to put up a fence to keep our neighbors, the deer, from coming in and destroying everything.  Garth pounded in tall posts then put up a 7 foot high fence around our garden.

We made this terraced area into a garden last year but much of it is still too shaded so we are putting our tomatoes and other things that need the sun in the grow boxes and on the south side of the terraces.

As a birthday gift to me, we spent the day filling our grow boxes and planting tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions, kale, etc.  I had planted beets, carrots, radishes, zucchini and summer squash about a month ago.  Most of it has come up nicely and is just waiting for some good, warm weather to really start growing.

Two Recliner Chairs for Trina

Once the wedding was over and things had settled down, we picked up two recliner chairs that Trina had that badly needed recovering.

Fortunately, the tops come off and they are able to be done in two parts.

This is the top in a "before" picture.

The bottom in pieces

The bottom is finished except for the leg and foot rests.

The top is finished and ready to go back on.

AND THIS IS THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

A Graduation, a Reunion & a Marriage

 Trysten Reynolds (with Kerali) and Stephanie Rosenhan (with Garth and Janice)

Since Serena and Kerali would be here for the graduations, Deren decided it was a good time to have a family reunion. 

Left to right: Kendra Halterman, Marenda Brown, Kerali Reynolds, Shanda Hickman, Deren Hansen, Trina Harding, Thayne Hansen, Serena Rosenhan.

 

 The same people with us added

 The whole group who were able to attend.

Then on top of everything else, we had the marriage of Stephanie Rosenhan and Max Outsen in the Draper Temple

Serena did most of the decorations and she called me some time before the wedding and ask about making some "Golden Garlands".  She was trying to find two sided gold paper and it was creating a problem.  I suggested we spray some cardstock gold on both sides and punch out the circles.  I ended up making around 400 feet of these for decorations

AND I helped put the cake together and finish the decorating on it at the reception.

By the way, the gold dots were made of edible gum paste and sprayed with edible gold paint.  

Some of the things I've made

For Nyah Brown's 4th birthday I made her a She-rah costume

For Talia Hickman's  7th birthday I made her a FROZEN costume

For Eve Harding's 4th birthday I helped Trina by sewing up this dress for Eve. 

Then I made her the butterfly towel.

I made this temple dress for Garth's niece's daughter-in-law to be.

This is the baby quilt I have yet to finish quilting for Kendra's newest baby - due July 1st.

For Marcus Harding's birthday I made a hoodie into this awesome "armor" jacket.

I made the quilt for Stephanie Rosenhan and Max's wedding gift -from felt scraps that I had from making Christmas pajamas. I decided to do it in rainbow colors.

AND for little Soren Brown's 1 year old birthday, I made him a Superman cape. 

Other projects I did, I didn't get pictures of - 16 ties for the wedding, Addie's Rapunzel dress, Lola's birthday banner - etc.

Children's furniture for the Browns

Sam and Marenda decided they wanted some child size furniture for their 4 children so he did some research and built 2 chairs, a couch and an Ottoman  out of wood.

Marenda wanted to help with covering them and she and I did the first step which was to put the padding on the arms and cover them. 

 When she wasn't able to come back and help me for a week or two, I decided to go ahead and finish them up.

Chip board was used to form the seat and the back and they were covered with padding and foam and then fabric.

For the sides and the back, pieces of chip board had nails pounded into them then they were covered with foam and  fabric then carefully pounded into the other wood to finish these areas off.

For the Ottoman, I covered the outside and inside with batting.  I then made a cover that would fit inside, go around the top and go down the outsides.

AND HERE IS THE FINISHED PRODUCT

WITH 4 BEAUTIFUL GRANDCHILDREN ENJOYING THEM!

Left - Nyah,  Center- Addie and Soren, and Right- Kasen.

Our bedroom closet remodeling

Being in a house with ordinary closets we found we had may too many clothes and our shoes were all over the floor.  After a lot of planning and thinking, Garth raised the one shelf up, built a shoe tower in the middle and raised the rod then put in a second rod half way down.


AND THIS IS WHAT WE GOT! It is working wonderfully for us.  

Carpet Dogs

Now why would anyone in their right mind attempt to make dogs out of carpet?

BECAUSE I was asked by my daughter & son-in-law to make them to help Preston with  his new carpet business!

This is the first dog that I tried from a pattern that I had.  He's cute, BUT they wanted one that was sitting up and larger.

 SO I had my granddaughter, Kalen, draw me a picture of a dog sitting on his hanches.  I then had the picture blown up to be 36 inches tall.

I soon discovered with the carpet that it would pull out in the sewing so I had to glue around the edges before I cut out the pieces.

I sewed up the side pieces with the haunch separate

In order to be able to sew the pieces, I had to trim the carpet fibers back on all of the seams

Sewing was a challenge but my Bernina sewing machine handled most of the sewing with a lot of arm work from me.

The dogs were finally ready to stuff and do the final sewing up on.

AND THEY WERE FINALLY FINISHED . . . 

Here they were anxiously waiting for their trip to Colorado Springs to meet their new "master" - my son-in-law.

I said goodbye to the dogs and they left.  Frankly, I wasn't sure I could pull this one off, but was so happy that I was able to do it.