New Quilt-Sexy, Hexy, Love by Amy Butler

I just love this pattern by Amy Butler, I am so inspired by her. I am using Anna Maria Horner fabric, she is also an amazing designer and I can't wait to get this quilt done! Here are some photos of my progress. I know it doesn't look like much, but I have all of the pieces cut out. I also wanted to take a picture of my cute sewing table that I refinished awhile ago. Don't you just love the fabric, I know you can only see a couple of them, but just wait to see the rest!





Here is a photo from Amy Butler's website, this is a free pattern you can download. She has a ton of other cute patterns.

Journal Writing

I have never been a journal writer until about 2 years ago. I really got inspired to start after I got home from Peru. I have always kept a random journal, but I have never consistently written in it. Most of the previous ones are yearly updates. I started consistently writing on August 11, 2008 and I finished my third one on September 12, 2010. In total I wrote 1,146 pages. Too me that is a great accomplishment. I am very proud of myself. At first when I started writing in them, I tried to keep them strictly spiritual, I didn't want to put a whole bunch of dating crap in there. But now that I have had a lot of great dating experiences (hahaha!) I figured that I must be going though all of these situations for a reason, so I need to record them and hopefully someone in my future will learn from them. I hope these situations have been for something! (I know that they have been, I always learn so much while I am in tribulation.) During my Jared recovery I learned so much from the book of Isaiah. I know that sounds crazy, but that is what kept me going. I often look back at what I write and my prayers are answered with the words that I wrote. I have a short term memory and my Heavenly Father has to teach me the same things over and over. These have been such a blessing to me. While I read the scriptures I record scriptures that touched me and then I just let my mind wander and I just write what I am thinking. I sometimes fill up pages from one scripture. I challenge you to start the habit if you have not, I have seen myself grow so much!

This is the next chapter of my life, I am already 60 pages into it. I am so dumb, but I think one of the reasons that I write so much is because I love the journals! And to show my OCD, I have to write in a certain type of pen! You can get these journals at Borders once you get one you will be addicted! haha! When I get close to finishing one I go to Borders a lot to try to find the best new cover. It takes me awhile to choose, it is very important! I have thought about stocking up, because if they stop making them, I don't know if I can continue!

Ruffly Pillow

I love all of the wool I got from the DI, this use to be a nice little skirt. Now it is a great pillow to go on my antique couch.

Bridal Fair Set Up

I got all of the tables from my grandpas house, and all of the frames at the DI. I started re-finishing all of this stuff one week and one day before the Bridal Faire. Talk about procrastination! I just like taking photos of the things I do, so here you go! The Bridal Faire went great, I loved my set up, I was so excited to find that great couch. I am so excited to use it for family photos!

Check out my website! Hurry and book your fall family photos, October days are going fast! Mention you saw this on my homemade blog and get $50 off a family session or wedding event!

www.jessicasphoto.com
www.jessicasphotography.blogspot.com

Canning Green Beans

I love my grandma, she is so funny! I asked her if I could use her canner and she was so worried that I would not be able to do it by myself, especially since my stove is electric. After I went and borrowed it, she called me again to see if I could do it. She didn't trust me. Hahaha! I think she really just wanted to help me out with them, which I was glad because I probably would have screwed them up! I love to learn how to cook from my grandma, even though it is a little intimidated to cook with seasoned cookers. I always feel that every little mistake will be scrutinized! I remember when I was younger and I helped her, she was very conservative in cutting the ends off of the beans. While I was taking the ends off I tried to hide my pile so she wouldn't get mad if I took too much off. If she saw me at home when I cut up green beans, she would have a heart attack! She also thought they were the best looking beans, every time she got a really good one, she would hold it up and show me. I love her!

I canned 18 jars, I was very proud of myself, until I went to visit my friend after. She told me she decided that canning was a waste of time and that if an earthquake happened all the jars would shatter anyways....So there goes my days worth of work. And she said, "If I need food I will just go buy it for 50 cents at Wal-Mart!) Oh well! it was fun to share the afternoon with my grandma!

My Favorite Banana Bread

I love banana bread! I buy extra bananas just so I can make bread!

2 cups of sifted flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (I use 3)
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup copped walnuts

Sift together flour, soda, salt and set aside. Cream butter and gradually add sugar; cream well. Add eggs and bananas; blend thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients alternately with milk to the banana mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Fold in nuts. Pour in greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Or until toothpick comes out clean.

My little tips:
Make sure to cream the butter and the sugar for awhile. I have noticed that this makes a huge difference.
If you have bananas that are ready and you don't have time to make bread, put them in the freezer and you can still use them.
Eat a slice fresh out of the oven and slather the butter on! (This is the only time I let my self use butter in excess!)

A Day for Celebration!

Today is such a great day, I just have to blog about it! I know it is so dumb, but people don't really read blogs right? So I am just writing how I feel right now and if certain people read it...I am sorry! I have not been as busy, so I have had extra time to do what I want and it has been fabulous. So today I have a ton of things that I want to get done, I probably won't get most of them done, but I am going to try!

I had institute today and it was so great, Brother Larsen knows how to really bring the spirit in. After institute I needed to run a few errands and then I planned to lock myself in my house and get everything done. Yesterday I went and picked beans at my grandpas and there were sooo many, so I decided that I would be able to can them. I was going to do it by myself, I told my grandma this and she just seemed so worried that I wouldn't be able to do it by myself. I could tell she wanted me to have her help me. I love my grandma! Although I wanted to get other things done while I was canning, it will be fun to be with my grandma, I love learning from my grandma!

Other things that I have to do, I just bought some paint to refinish some furniture for the bridal fair, I am way excited to see how they turn out. I also need to make some banana bread and work on a quilt that I started the other night. We had our first meeting for Quilt Guild on Tuesday and I am excited to get back into quilting. I know I am such a nerd, but I love being domestic! I love the satisfaction that comes after you have finished a project, I really do thrive on this!

All these things are great, but the real reason for my day of celebration is having victory! I wanted to put this at the end of the post and maybe not as many people would read it! Haha! As I was driving home from institute, I drove past the guy that I dated this last winter, so I stopped and chatted with him for a bit. Let me just give a little background...I was in love with this guy and I thought that I had found the one. He told me that it was mutual and I trusted him. He broke things off 8 months ago today (I know I am crazy, but girls keep track of things like that!), he broke my heart, he ended things without much explanation and no notice. It has not been the easiest since then, I haven't fully healed until today. During the summer I went on a lot of dates, I even kind of started to date someone, but I ruined it because I was so scared of dating because of what happened with this other guy. I have not let myself really fall for someone, because I lost my trust in men. I saw this guy a couple of weeks ago at church, he had just came back from the summer. After I went home I had a break down and I wished that I was with him still, I didn't even talk to him, but the ache came back. I was so mad! I thought I was over it. But today as I drove away from him, I had no feelings towards him, I even started to cry with joy that I no longer was being effected by him. I was so grateful! It was kind of a weird feeling, I was filled with the spirit and I can now fully let go and move on with my life. I kept crying while I drove home because I was so happy! I passed Temptation Cupcakes and decided that I needed to celebrate, so I treated myself with an apricot cupcake! It was delicious!

Life is so great! I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for all that he has given me. I am truly blessed! I am so excited to spend time and increase my talents today, I know that sounds dumb, but it truly brings me joy!

Baby Crochetted Head Bands

My cousin Nikki asked me last night if I could make a smaller headband for her baby. I haven't crocheted for awhile, so I got excited to get it all out. These are what I came up with.

Zucchini Bread

I had a lot of zucchini's and they were too big to saute, so I made some zucchini bread and froze some. I tried two recipe's and the first one failed. It tasted fine, but didn't come out of the pan too good as you can see:



Then I tried another recipe, it came out of the pan, but it was not as moist as the other one.



So if anyone has a good zucchini bread recipe, let me know. I am not putting the recipe on, because I didn't love either of them. I made these on Labor Day, and I was in a domestic mood (this is not unusual for me). I was enjoying have a great big mess while cooking because I was getting a lot accomplished. I was in a random mood, so I took a lot of photos of the process. I know I am weird!

I did about half of the zucchini with a grater, but after awhile it was killing my arm (I know that is pathetic, I need to go to the gym!) I tried some in my food processor, it wasn't that much faster, but it didn't hurt my arm. If you use the food processor, cut it into small pieces and if they are too hard it doesn't chop it up that well.

Grandpa's Garden

I love gardens, that is one thing that I don't like about my townhouse, I wish I had a garden. I keep thinking of all of the things that I will do when I get my own garden, but then I think of the five herbs that I have in my window sill and then I think of the other five that are making up a graveyard of plants in my garage. I don't know if I could ever keep an entire garden alive, but I like to think that I will be mature when I get to that point and my garden will survive. (Or if it survives it means my husband is a good gardener!) My grandpa planted most of the stuff for me, I have tried to go and help out with it, but time flies too fast. I have been freezing the corn, beans and zucchini. I made a great tomato sauce the other night, it was so good, I love fresh produce.

My skirt with a flounce!

I was so excited to make this skirt, I thought it turned out so good. I love the back part, the ruffly part is called a flounce; I love that word. I hate that I had to be in this photo, but I made it to fit me. I got this fabric at Somebody's Attic, I love getting thrift store fabric. This skirt cost less than $3 to make!