Fave Things - LDS Love

This week's faves are from Etsy! Each one is from an LDS seller/artist. I cannot believe how totally cute this little collection is! Link to actual page with links!

I'm completely enamored with the family tree from The Staker Store.

My great Grandma Jordan had a family tree on her wall when I was little. It was huge! At least in my childhood memory it took up nearly a whole wall. It had cut out ovals to put photos in, and places to write names. It was all filled out, and had extra photos glued on top rather than in the little ovals. I always looked for my own picture or my cousins or siblings even, but I think we were too far down the line. Let's face it, it was a Mormon pioneer family... there were 30 some grand kids I'm sure!

But this tree is so simple, and non sequential, and beautiful! I think anyone with photoshop or illustrator could make their own!

Scrapbook Page!! Blessing Brad!

I swear that frilly edge scallop paper punch makes everything more cheerful!
This may be my last "baby Bradley" page I have to scrapbook! And since it is about an event not him, I could choose a more girly background page. Brian, my hubby, gives me a hard time if the stamps or background is too girly or in girly colors for the Bradley pages. But this is about our family, so I think it fits!

Materials Used:
12x12 patterned paper
Scallop Punch
Chip Board Letters
Vellum
Brass Brads
more paper and pen and ribbon for the tag.

Happy scraping!

"Art" Show

 My husband is getting his MFA in pottery. Since he is at school all the time, he often gets to go to his colleague's art shows. I get to go every once in a while, which is nice because it gives me a chance to step outside of my every day norm.

It is often discussed in my house "what is art" because it is often discussed at school in my husband's critiques. He likes to get my opinion and I enjoy hearing his. But I don't think you can pin point a definition down to what "Art" is. Someone who might not be trained at all can slap something together, or paint a picture, or make some kind of sculpture and call it "Art". While someone who is trained and knows what they are doing would disagree with that person. I always feel like the debate of "what is art" is never ending. I think you just have to chalk to up to what your opinion is of things you do and don't like.

For instance:

This is a Jackson Pollock piece. I saw this piece or one similar to it in a Art museum in Buffalo, NY. My husband asked me what I thought of this painting when we came to it. (He likes taking me to Art shows and openings because I have an "unbiased" opinion, a "normal" person's view that isn't in the academic debating art world.) I had no idea who Jackson Pollock was, and I honestly thought the painting was kind of cool. Don't you think it would be fun to shut yourself in a room with a big canvas (or just blank walls!) and go to town flinging paint everywhere? YEAH! That would be cool! So since I like this piece, I guess I would call it "Art". But my husband disagrees intensely. He thinks Pollock doesn't have any talent and shouldn't be considered "Art." Interesting eh?

Anyway- Back to the current art show I went to this weekend. There were three graduating grad students whose work was in this show. I didn't get pictures of everything because I already felt like I was breaking rules taking pictures.

The difference between Art museums and student Art shows, is that the student shows all the work they have from that year or semester. They have an idea/concept/theme that they are showcasing through their "Art."

 I think the concept got lost here. This is the same person's work. Yes, you are looking at a ton of butterflies and yes, those are octopus legs coming out of a frame. What is the connection you ask? Your guess is as good as mine... Is it "Art"? Well...

 Here is another piece from the same person. This actually took up the whole wall and was HUGE. See the tiny butterflies around it still? I thought just the sheer size of this was interesting. There was a lot to look at. But I still don't get the connection of butterflies to sea stuff, and then there were also a couple of crows in there. ???

Another grad student made charcole drawings of very strong burly men, putting on drag makeup. Only the makeup was in color, and it was BRIGHT colors. As far as the skill goes, this person could draw very well. It wasn't exactly my preference as far as "Art" goes, but it was fun to look at. He also had a giant male drag mannequin. WHOA.

Sometimes you see some really interesting things at Art Shows.

If I stood next to this dude, I would come up to his lower shoulders. He/she (ha!) was tall! And those boots were very large and very sparkley. It would be very entertaining to see someone in real life wearing them.

And the last student had paintings that I enjoyed. You can kind of see a couple in the photo bellow. They are the sort of pictures that are neat to look at far away, but when you get closer you can't really see what it is supposed to be. Lots of emotion, it was cool.

Our little family enjoyed our Friday night full of Octopus legs, butterflies and drag queens. 

Its fun to be cultured!

What do you think "Art" is?

Food Storage:Heidi Style!

With all of these natural disasters happening around the world, the economy not being super great, gas prices going up, and for the sake of just wanting to save money in the long run... food storage is a great option to consider!

Food Storage is a good way to help you prepare for the unknowns that seem to come up at unexpected times. Or, food storage is great because it helps you stock up on your everyday foods, and you always have what you need on hand! I love food storage for these very reasons.

TIP: When things are on sale, get a couple extra to help stock up! Then one day when you need it, you are ahead of the game and can just replace your "extra". You will always have what you need!

I love when I am ready to cook something, and I can think of my family's staple meals, and I almost always have what I need on hand because I have a good food storage supply in my stairway. (I don't have a pantry, I store all my canned goods on the shelfs by my basement stairs.) So I will grab everything I need for spaghetti (we have a BIG spaghetti supply), and then I don't need to go to the store. Then next time when I go to the store, or when there is a big sale, I replace what I used.

We eat a TON of spaghetti!

Apple Sauce and pasta!

Frozen meat 

Frozen corn and breast milk for the baby!

My food storage stock is more of the short term everyday kind of items. Its been great for my family and comes in handy a lot, especially with saving money and having yummy meals. But long term food storage is very important too, which I'm not very good at yet. I am slowly working on my stock. I have canned (as in I canned/bottled them myself) peaches, apple sauce, pickles and peppers, but when "the world ends" or whatever happens, I don't have any of the essentials yet.

Peaches, Pickles, Peppers, TUNA, BEANS, and all the many other canned things.

Here are some good things to think about:

DRINKING WATER

Store drinking water for circumstances in which the water supply may be polluted or disrupted.

If water comes directly from a good, pretreated source, then no additional purification is needed; otherwise, pretreat water before use. Store water in sturdy, leak-proof, breakage-resistant containers. Consider using plastic bottles commonly used for juices and soft drinks. Keep water containers away from heat sources and direct sunlight.

THREE MONTH SUPPLY

Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.

FINANCIAL RESERVE

Establish a financial reserve by saving a little money each week and gradually increasing it to a reasonable amount.

LONG TERM SUPPLY

For longer-term needs, and where permitted, gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive, such as wheat, white rice, and beans.
These items can last 30 years or more when properly packaged and stored in a cool, dry place. A portion of these items may be rotated in your three-month supply.

Food	New "Life Sustaining" Shelf-Life Estimates (In Years)
Wheat	30+
White rice	30+
Corn	30+
Sugar	30+
Pinto beans	30
Rolled oats	30
Pasta	30
Potato flakes	30
Apple slices	30
Non-fat powdered milk	20
Dehydrated carrots	20

Pretty cool huh? I better get started on my long term supply and water supply, because you never know what's going to happen!

Canning peaches. Its SO worth it, imagine all the yummy peach cobbler you can make!

Sometimes Home Ownership IS like the Movies... when toilets explode

Do you remember the secene in various commedies where someone says, "hey there's a leak here..." and within the next five minutes all the characters are soaked and running around yelling.
Turns out, when your sewer pipe gets blocked, pretty much the exact same thing happens in real life.

So here's the play by play.

Scene: Bradley, the 1.5 year old boy baby, just woke up and he and Mommy are coming down to the basement to visit Daddy as he is finishing building Bradley's new wood toy box. (I am totally not making this up.)

Steph - "Hey hun there is a leak over here, and it's wet!"
Brian removes ceiling pannel and unveils... nothing but dry pipes.
Hmm.
Brian - "Go up stairs and flush the toilets."
Stephanie goes upstairs and proceeds to double flush the main level bathroom, and the guest bathroom upstairs.
Brian - "Hmm, noththing. Go flush it again."
Stephanie gets half way up the stairs - "Hey Brian, the toilet is gurgling!"
Silence as they both watch another leak on another ceiling pannel form.
Suddenly the ceiling pannel turns dark with wettness and starts bowing with the weight of the water from above.
Steph - "Oh MY GOSH!"
Lots of loud water sounds.
Steph - Oh my gosh oh my gosh what do we do!!"

Now we enter action movie mode.

Brian wildly starts yelling out instructions while stephanie continues yelling oh my gosh and executes said instructions.
Buckets are gotten to catch the water, and the water to the toilet is turned off. Brian runs up stairs and begins plunging the now quiet toilet and Stephanie is downstaris finding more buckets to catch the water now dripping from five or six places from their drop ceiling. A whirring sound in the background... All is quiet while Brian gives more instructions and stephanie goes to find more supplies. Everyone things the worst is over.

The whirring stops, the washing machine begins to empty its water and go into the spin cycle. A fountain of water erupts from the toilet.
Up until this point I had also been on the phone with my dad comicly talking about things as they were happening as we also discussed our upcoming trip. I asked, "Um what do you do when water comes out after you've turned of all the water?" I don't remember his response because Brian started yelling, "Call a plumber call a plumber!!!" over and over.

Brian quickly abandones the showering toiled and runs downstairs to try and save the downstairs carpets from damage.

I can clearly remember feeling fairly abandoned at this point. I walked into the kitchen and stood and thought, what do I do what do I do? (You think and say everything twice in an emergency, just like in action movies.) For some reason I could not fathom calling a plumber while water was rushing around. So I grabbed my nicely rolled yoga mat and shoved it in the door way of the bathroom and reinforced it with three rolls of paper towels. Fairly genius I thought. The water level in the bathroom peaked at three inches. Luckily the toiled stopped shooting water everywhere, and I was able to sop up all the water and begin semi cleaning.

And where is Bradley in all this? Running around up and down the stairs. Eventually when people stopped yelling he came to see if things were okay. What a good boy.

We stayed in a hotel that night.