Standiford Family

Merry Christmas!

Here’s the card, greetings, and picture:

Our highlights of 2008:
- Megan & Mattey starting piano lessons.
- Spring Break trip to Great Wolf’s Lodge.
- Our 10-day trip to Virginia & D.C.
- Picking strawberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches, apples, & pumpkins.
- Mickey getting an A+ in two classes.
- Kade starting pre-school.  (This is good for Kelly too.)
- Mat & Meg playing soccer & all the kids playing tennis.
- Mickey having knee surgery & being up the next day.
- Kelly making & selling purses.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Love,
The Standifords

I opened a bag of Dove chocolate the other day.  Besides finding some good chocolate I found some good words of wisdom.

“Do all things with love.”  That’s why my food always tastes good.

“Count your blessings not your worries.”  I’m trying, hard.

“Put your feet up and unwind.”  I’ll do that in a few days or tonight when I’m exhausted from Christmas prep.

“Bring your life to life: stop planning, start doing.”  I think I’ve already started that - kellaford.

“Happiness is the experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”  Is that possible to do?  Really every minute?

“Don’t judge others or yourself.”  Okay, I won’t judge myself when I eat another chocolate.

I love this little hat pattern.  (I altered it a little, adding ribbon and leaving off the flowers.)  I had to make it for a little cutie named Lily and maybe her cousin will get the second one.  I found a great new yarn at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago when I went for another reason.  Isn’t that when you find the good stuff?  When you’re not looking for it.  The yarn is Naturally Caron Country.  This is my first time using wool.  It’s a great blend, only 25% merino and not the least bit itchy.  It has a great hand and beautiful stitch definition.  The best part is it’s machine washable.  I doubled the yarn to use the bigger needle called for in the pattern.

I just got my order for some Naturally Caron Spa which is a bamboo blend.  I have a sweater pattern all picked out.  Now I just need to make the time, meaning I’ll need to find some movies and TV shows to watch.

Today I sold my second bag!  A coworker/employee of the first buyer had to have one.  She ordered back in October knowing she wouldn’t get it for a long time.  She wanted one for her 70 year old mother who’s a little funky.  Shopping for someone I don’t know was a little bit of a challenge but I nailed it with my first choice of fabrics, also found at Hobby Lobby.  Here’s the finished product.

Mickey really liked the way this turned out.  I don’t think I’ve ever really heard him comment so much about a bag I’ve made.  Maybe I’ll have to make him something, but what?

Now that it’s gotten to where it was going I can write/brag about it.  I made a diaper bag for a friend who had her first baby.  The style was inspired by My “Bohemian Bag” and the first bag I sold.  I loved it so much it almost didn’t make it to my friend, not that I need a bag that big.

Love this fabric!

It has two stretchy outside pockets, one on each side.

And two end pockets for bottles, burp cloths, etc.  I can’t forget the great bow that can be let out if you need more room.

Five inside pockets to keep you organized.

Last week I made a new style of bag to add to my line.  I found this one and had to make my own version.  (I think I’ll have to do the handbag size too.  It’s so cute.)  It turned out a little differently but I love it.  Christmas is getting close and that means I will soon have all my Christmas projects done so I will start taking orders on the 26th.  You can e-mail me at kellaford@gmail.com.  Mickey’s also going to set up a website for me, www.kellaford.com, of course.  There’s nothing there yet but hopefully I’ll get a few hours of his time while he’s off work.

I will post another style in a few days.  It is being shipped and I don’t want the recipient to see it here first.

Here’s the new bag.  It’s called Modern right now since I haven’t come up with anything better.  If you have a suggestion for a name let me know.  The five pockets are in the middle of the bag so everything doesn’t drop to the bottom.

How smart am I?

Tonight we went to my niece’s concert.  She’s in 8th grade and plays the clarinet.  The concert started at 7p.m. which is around the time our kids start getting ready for bed.  The 5th grade orchestra started out the night.  I’ll be very nice and just say you could tell they were beginners.  Then came the 6th graders.  A little better.  Somewhere towards the beginning we realized we should have left Kade with Papa.  Nana came with us.  He kept asking if it was over and he was just all over the place being loud.  Then it was time for the advanced orchestra to play.  They entertained us with “Let it Snow”.  I leaned over to Mickey and said I thought this was pretty good.  Then Kade loudly states, “This is terrible!”  We were all laughing to ourselves and trying not to let him see us.  I guess he’s a critic already but he should have said it earlier.  (I think he was too busy eating Nana’s chocolate to care.)  We were ready to take him home.  Unfortunately Crissy didn’t play until the end.  We waited it out.  The orchestras finished and left the stage so the concert band could fill the seats.  Kade thought they were going to leave their instruments on the chairs for anyone to play them.  He was making lots of plans as to what he wanted to try out.  He was very disappointed when the musicians took the instruments with them.  He then kept asking if he could play Crissy’s when she was done.  I tried to distract and quiet him by telling him he could play my cello tomorrow after school.  That did it.  The stubborn three-year-old kept telling me over and over that he was going to play it when we got home.  Oh it was so time for him to go to bed.  We barely made it through the concert.  We’ll have to take him with us to the girls’ concert next week but I don’t think we’ll take him to my nephew’s concert in a week and a half.

Yesterday Mattey and Kade were playing together.  They were playing dress up and pretend.  They are very imaginative kids.  Kade came upstairs and showed us what he was wearing.  Moo.

This costume is for a child around 6-9 months.  Mattey wore it for her first Halloween.  It’s also been worn by Eliza and just recently by my niece Evie.  This shows that kids don’t grow much in the middle.  They are all arms and legs.

I had to add the photo showing Mattey wearing the costume.

Okay, it’s not really the first snow but it was the first time the kids went out to play.  Yesterday we got some snow and Mickey was home so that equals playing in the snow.  What a good dad.  Here’s a few pictures of the fun.

P.S.  I was in the house staying cozy warm and knitting.  (Pictures to come in about a week along with more of my creations.)

With this unwelcome winter weather here already I have a very STRONG desire to hibernate.  Luckily for me I can “hibernate” in the basement office.  It’s “sunny” all the time and I can’t see a snowflake anywhere.  (It has almost everything I need.  (Junk) Food in the closet, drinks in the refrigerator, movies and music on the computer, and a bathroom not too far away.)  I started my “hibernation” yesterday after waking up to snow.  I did go to bed with snow on the ground but I thought, hoped, wished, it might have disappeared in the night.  No such luck.  I was in a foul mood which helped the hibernating desire.  I decided to spend all day in the office.  That was pretty much the case.  And in so doing I sewed two rag quilts!  They both have to be clipped but the long part is done.  They don’t have a loving home yet but soon will when I donate them.

Today the sun was out so Kade and I ran a few errands so I could stay in the rest of the week in case the sun doesn’t show itself again.  This afternoon I decided to work on some projects that I’d already started just so I could say they’re done.  The project I just finished is my Christmas cards!  Let me rephrase that so no one gets mad at me.  I finished the outside.  Mickey still has to take the family picture and I have to write the little blurb that goes inside.  I started the cards last month at a crop with my friends.  I didn’t want to print pictures so that’s what I decided to work on.  I also knew I would be terribly busy most of November and December.  Who isn’t?  In case anyone is curious here’s a picture of the supplies I used to make my cards.  I will post the finished product in December.  There are two variations of the card if you’re wondering.

I just want to thank my friends Becca, Vicky, and Tricia for all their support while getting the card started.  And talking/forcing me to use glitter glue.  I couldn’t have done it without you and the card wouldn’t have looked as good either.

Last month I finished the cable jacket I was knitting.  Soon I will get a picture of it.  I’ve worn it a few times.  It’s very cozy and keeps me toasty warm.  Now I have a stack of cable squares to sew together.  But I have a line of bags waiting to be sewn too.  There’s too much for me to do.  Maybe I’ll spend the entire winter in the office.

Last Monday my friend Janel had a baby girl named Lily.  I just had to make something for her.  I decided on a rag quilt.  Since I knew she was coming I started shopping for the quilt a while ago.  I found two cute print flannels and kept searching for a third print or solid to go with them.  I found a solid.  When I was cutting the blocks out I noticed the print flannels weren’t actually 44″ like most are.  They were barely 42″ which means I couldn’t get enough blocks out of what I bought.  I went back to JoAnn for more.  They only had a little of one of the prints left.  So I started looking for a fourth fabric to go with the others.  I bought one but didn’t love it.  I cut out all the blocks and started pinning it together.  I HATED it!  (It was either too pink or I didn’t like the way the fabrics worked or didn’t work together.)  I couldn’t give this to my friend’s baby!  So I went back to JoAnn, thankfully the flannel was on sale, and bought something totally different.  I loved what I bought and I LOVED the way it went together.  Here’s the end result:

I hope to get a picture of Lily laying on the blanket, someday.

Don’t think that I’m going to waste the other flannel.  The Relief Society, the woman’s organization in our church, has asked us to do some service for our community this year and report about it at a dinner.  I will make the rag quilt and donate it.  I’m also working with a few sewing group friends to make afghans to donate to Real Services.  As a family we are also going to adopt one or two elderly people and help them have a better Christmas than they would.  Should be fun.