Happy Easter Week

I love Easter week!  I can't believe it's already here- I feel like I'm still waiting around for winter to hit.  Not that I'm complaining!  

Every year I try to add one meaningful thing to our Easter tradition, mostly trying to make it easier to include Christ in the season.  It's pretty hard!  I feel like there is nothing out there when it comes to religious Easter- so I end up making my own thing. Last year that ended up with me making that crazy Easter Quilt! This year was much simpler (thank goodness!). I designed a little, printable Easter Advent Calendar.  Each day for one week you get to flip over a card and see what Christ did that day on His last week- there's even a scripture reference you can look up if you're feeling particularly productive.  I designed it with my Activity Days girls in mind so it's pretty simple, but I was actually really excited to turn the first tag on mine today!

This file is going into my digital pile of 'Things I Might Make Available for Download on an Official Site Someday' and before it officially makes the cut, I'd love some pattern testers!  It's super easy to make (my 8 year old AD girls each made one with no problem) and the file includes a color version you can just print on white paper, or a B&W version you can print on scrapbook paper.  (the one in my pic is the B&W one on colored paper)  To make your own, just click here for instructions and printable files.  All I ask is that you have any problems please let me know so I can fix them!  

Hope you all have a wonderful week and find some time to keep in mind all of the miracles that happened in the week preceding Christ's resurrection.

LDS Art Competition

Well, Friday was the big day!  We went up to Salt Lake for the awards ceremony and gallery opening of the LDS International Art Competition....  That I had a piece in!  (ok, I'm done shamelessly bragging now)

It was such a fun night- my parents came into town and a bunch of family came up for the opening.  It was amazing to see the people who won awards- their art was seriously incredible.

The opening was so packed we could hardly walk around, but I personally think that made it more fun.  The atmosphere was perfect-  all the artists who could attend-many coming from different countries- were standing by their pieces so you could go and discuss their work with them.  The museum tour guides were going around interviewing artists to find special stories and insight to add to the tours they'll give all summer.  A pianist played a grand piano in the middle of everything and there was a beautiful table of the most amazing hors devours.  It felt so official!  I'm definitely hoping this won't be a once in a lifetime experience- I'm already dreaming about the next competition.  And trying to convince everyone I know to enter in the next show- definitely worth the effort!

To see all the artwork check out https://history.lds.org/viewer/voting/event/9th-art-comp?lang=eng. (I can't figure out how to get a link directly to my quilt... can you?  If so, could you leave a comment with that link?  I'd appreciate it!) Voting for the visitor's choice award is open online and at the museum, so be sure to vote for your favorite one!

Remember how I put so much effort into my wording?  Well, they totally butchered it.  Sad.  :(  But it was still cool to see my name on my own plaque!

Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream

Well, our 6 week non-fat, low-carb, vegan diet trial is over.  Actually, it ended after just 4 weeks.  Getting progressively weaker as the weeks went on was my first sign that this diet wasn't actually making me feel better. Losing feeling in my legs during a session of physical therapy and then hardly being able to walk for the rest of the day was the last; that was the day we decided the trial was over.  Oh the things doctors think will make me feel better! (in the doctor's defense, I do have POTS which is basically just chronically weird circulation so the side effects weren't really that surprising)

It was an interesting month.  One that I definitely don't want to try again, but we picked up a few tips and recipes that we'll definitely be keeping around.  Here is our favorite-

  Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream

Serves 2

1/2 C almond milk (I'm sure good old cow milk would work well too)
1 T cocoa powder (splurging for the Ghirardelli cocoa is seriously worth it on this recipe)
4 dates, pitted
1 1/2 C dark sweet frozen cherries

Blend milk and dates in blender until there are no big date chunks.  Add cocoa and cherries, blend until smooth.  So good!  We also like it with frozen raspberries or frozen bananas.

Valentine's Day Tea

  

I'm not a huge fan of the whole couple lovey-dovey side of Valentine's Day.  It just seems mean to have a holiday that so blatantly excludes people.  Is that just me?  Anyway, I've been trying to find Valentine's Day traditions can be shared with anyone we love and care about rather than something to do just as a couple. It's actually kind of hard to think of things- and anything I see that is group oriented seems to also be kid oriented.  Not that Doug and I don't love to sit around and finger paint together...but...you know....  I'd seriously love inspiration if any of you have done fun things!

Last year we started our own Vday Box tradition, which was an idea I totally copied from my aunt. (but it's fun!  We'll definitely keep doing it each year)  This year's addition: Valentine's Day Tea.  It was so fun!  Doug's mom came down and the three of us (yep, Doug was man enough to join us.  Not that we gave much of a choice, since we had it all set up and ready right when he gets home to eat lunch during the day) had a fancy lunch together.  I'm pretty sure that a lunch that involves wearing hats is almost always going to go on my list of favorite things, I might just need to find a way to do this again before next February 14!  

Big Band Night

Doug and I went to the coolest thing last night!  I can't believe I went all through BYU without hearing about this.

Isn't Doug's mustache sweet?! Don't worry, he only kept it for the dance.  He is now officially facial hairless

Each year the Saturday before Valentine's Day BYU puts on a big band night with a 1940s theme.  Everyone dresses up to theme to enjoy dinner, live music (from BYU's Jazz band Syncopation), dancing and a show put on by some amazingly talented students.  Did you know about this?  Because if you did I'm seriously mad that you didn't tell me!

Luckily this year our friends invited us to go along with them.  I'm so glad!  I had so much fun planning what to wear.  We went down to my Grandma's house in the morning so she could set my hair in an authentic 1940s style.  It was so fun!  We went through her yearbooks and she showed me all the girls with the prettiest hair and we based the style after theirs.   When we were done my Grandma brought out a picture of my mom in high school- I never thought I looked like her until that moment!  It was almost weird how similar we looked.

The night was fantastic, I can't even tell you how much cooler it is to dance to a live band with amazing, 40s style singers.  I was so glad we'd done a little YouTube swing dancing crash course before we went.  Dancing is so much more fun when you have actual steps to do-  I was only sad that we didn't know how to dance to the waltz, cha cha and tango songs. Turns out it's been a while since my last Social Dance class back in 2003. It was probably a good thing though- I'll probably be recovering from the songs we did dance to for weeks!

Here's my hairstyle complete with Doug's Mom's awesome hat- It was so fun to wear !

In!

Remember this?

Well, I've been patiently trying to forget all about it since I submitted it to the LDS International Art Competition back in October.  Until today, when I got this!

I got in!  I've been an art museum lover all my life and I have to admit, I'm pretty stinking excited to go to a museum and see my name on the plaque next to a piece of art!  The exhibit will be online by the middle of March, I'll put up the link when it's up.

Happy Groundhog's Day

There is part of me that seriously enjoys the fact that we still celebrate a holiday that requires important men to wear top hats and throw science out the window for the opinion of a groundhog. In a weird way it's comforting to know that people will still put a lot of effort into something simply because it makes others happy. I think it might be my favorite minor holiday.  

My doctor currently has me on a practically vegan diet (insert my eye rolling here), which meant no Groundhog's Day meatloaf.  (I know, I know, it's a disgusting tradition and you're all glad you don't have to see photos of it again!) So instead we made a slightly more appealing Groundhog Salad.  I think he turned out kinda cute!