Another T-shirt Quilt

I've just finished another t-shirt quilt.  This was was even more sentimental for me than the school one I made last year.  I had a lot of old t-shirts from Hawaii that were pretty beat up, but I didn't want to get rid of them.  Last summer I bought some fabric in Hawaii to go along with a Hawaiian themed quilt.

The hardest one to cut up was this one that my dad had given me when I was a little girl.  He told me it was a special one since it was my birth year.  He told me a long time ago that I should never wear it, but that I should keep it nice.  I've heeded his advice until now.  I guess I still never wore it . . . 

but I did cut it a little!  I couldn't have worn it if I wanted to.  It was a small and was REALLY small.  

I had several others that were hard for me to cut.  The old Maui Pineapple Company ones were killers for me to cut up.  The royal blue, red, and light yellow pineapple symbols were from shirts that belonged to my dad in the 70s.  The purple one is one I had for many years.  I figured that this was the best way to preserve them!  I cut the front (smaller) pocket symbols off and will use them somehow.  I also cut off the old "Crazy Shirts" tags.  I think I'm a little crazy!

Here's my first column.

I finished the top and prepped the bottom, bought the batting then borrowed this quilt stand from Sis. Blonquist.  PS - anyone wanting to get me a gift, could build me a quilt stand that stores this nicely! :)

You set up the bases,

add the stand,

space them out,

and then start setting your quilt up on it!

Here it is all ready to be tied.

I loved the fabric that I bought!  This one and the fabric in between the t-shirts on the front.

Here's the finished product.  It was hard to fit it all in one picture.

Closer with the back so you can see the fabric.  I LOVE this quilt!

Shanna's Reception

Last night my cousin Shanna had her wedding reception here in TX.

She got married in Idaho about a month ago, but they came down here for another celebration.  Jen made this great cake for them.

They had an ice cream bar which was delicious!

Here's the . . . .happy couple.

These are all the "Calls" that were present.

Shanna's dress was really pretty.

They asked me to take a few pictures with my nice camera.  The lighting wasn't that great in there.  I tried to get some shots of some of the "details" as my cousin Wendy calls them.

I loved the details on this side of her dress.

Their centerpieces were fun.

Ryan was very kind and didn't shove cake in Shanna's face like he did at their reception in Idaho.

Maylene was being silly in this one and "sucking in."

Here's Jen about to butcher . . .  I mean serve the cake.

They asked Alaina to put forks on the plates and she just started stabbing them into the cake.  It cracked me up.  Less chance of your fork falling onto the ground in transit, though!

Cute mother and daughter shot!

Viking Cooking School

We had another "Chappell Group" party on Friday night.  Brad suggested this idea and it was fantastic.  At Hubbel and Hudson in The Woodlands, they having something called the Viking Cooking School.  You choose the menu and then a couple of chefs prep everything and teach you how to make your own dinner.  It was so fun!

They divided us into 3 groups.  We could each bring a date, but since I'm not dating anyone and didn't want to worry too much about making someone feel comfortable in a room full of people he didn't know, I invited my good friend Katherine who already knows many of the Chappells and I know she loves to cook!  Anyway, Katherine and I were in a group with Jake and Michelle.  They were tons of fun to cook with.

Here's a cute one of Brad and his wife Elizabeth.

Our first course was a chopped salad and some black bean soup - both delicious.  My favorite comment of the night came when we were "plating" our salads.  They had prepped most of the ingredients and had hard boiled eggs already crumbled/chopped, but they were divided so you had yolks and whites in their own bowls.  Brent's wife Elizabeth said something to the effect that she was glad they'd separated it, because if they were mixed it would "really upset her."  She's hilarious!  I had a good laugh for several minutes.  We did make our own vinaigrette for the salad and we made the soup.  It was so good!

Neal and his wife joined us.  They're a lot of fun!

Here's Linda showing her salting skills!

I had to get a group shot of some of the action.

I love this shot of Rob and Jan!

Linda (middle) brought her daughter Savvy and of course Katherine was my guest.  

Here's Brent and his wife Elizabeth.

Sister Chappell (aka Jan when I'm at work stuff) is one of my favorite people!

This was our main course.  Those steaks were HUGE - like a pound each!  I have leftovers for sure!  The asparagus turned out really good too.

Our last course was these little Godiva chocolate cakes that were so good!  Fun times with some great people.  Jake got some whole group shots of us eating that I'm going to have to get and put on here!

Jimmer and the Rockets

A few weeks ago Jen and I went to another Rockets Game and again with complimentary tickets from a friend whose husband works for the Rockets.

I was getting a kick out of the Rockets' mascot.  For a little while he was walking around holding up this sign. If you can't see it, it says, "The people behind me can't see."  It was extra funny because he'd stand there for a minute or more.  

I was glad the game was Rockets vs. Kings because then I get to see Jimmer!  Too bad that this game, my view of him was pretty much like the picture shows.  He didn't play a whole lot that game.

Relatives!!!

I'm lucky enough to be related to at least two different people/families in my ward!

This first one is a bit of a funny story.  It started many years ago at institute in Kingwood.  I was just sitting in the second row paying attention to the lesson when a guy sitting in front of me that I hadn't seen before put his  arm behind the chair next to him and I noticed his hands.  I knew then and there we were related.

His hands looked A LOT like my dad's.  I've posted about his hands before - we call them Turley fingers.  If you type "Turley Fingers" in the search bar at the top of my blog, it will take you to a couple of other posts I did that will explain a little more.  Anyway, Ken (the guy at institute) is now in my ward and is married to a lovely young lady and they just had their second son.  The first one has normal fingers, but this cute little guy wears his ancestry on his hands!  CUTE!

I had to get both their hands in this picture today.  We looked on familysearch.org and it turns out that I'm related to Ken through Bushmans AND Turleys!  Small world.  His middle name is even Turley.

Last Sunday I noticed that the Rascon family was sitting in our ward.  I knew they lived in The Woodlands, but it turns out that they just bought a new home in our ward and will be moving in in June!  I'm excited for a couple of reasons - First - I've met them before and have already made the connection with Sister Rascon that we're related.  Her grandmother is a Bushman!  I went up to her and we re-visited the connection and are already fast friends!  The second reason I'm excited is that he's pretty famous around here.  He's an anchor on  channel 13.  Click HERE for his info!

What I've been up to lately

I'm not sure, but this could possibly be my longest blogging drought.  Not sure what's causing it, but I need to get back in the swing of things!

We had our Super Saturday activity for Relief Society in February.  One of the crafts was these giant wreaths that Kelly found and made.  She also made garland out of the same stuff.  She taught us how to do it at Super Saturday.  Mine is in the forefront - the green one.  This is how it looks "un-decorated."

Meanwhile, Dani taught lots of ladies to make this cute Muslin wreath.  It was a big hit.

Here's my Christmas wreath all decorated up and ready for December!  

Stacee, Kenna, and Shelly did a washer necklace demo.  They turned out so cute!

A few weeks ago I headed down to the House of Blues with Katherine and her friend Erin.  We went to a Brandi Carlile concert and it was AMAZING!  That girl can sing!!!!

Here's one of her music videos.  I really like the song.  You may have to click to watch it on youtube.

Also since I last posted is a little fiasco at work with water leaking from the ceiling onto my work station!  The first time we caught it pretty quickly after it happened, but second time, it was over a weekend and it destroyed my work phone.

This was how things looked for a day while the maintenance guys came to check it out.  The garbage can doubled as a bucket.

I've been out to dinner with friends a few times, but didn't really take pictures.  I did get some pictures of the dessert portion of one of those dinners.  We went into Houston to a place called the Chocolate Bar.  I got this chocolate cheesecake that was incredible!

They had HUGE cakes and tons of other baked stuff, along with hot chocolate, ice cream, and bunches of candy-type items on the other side of the store.

I thought it was a pretty clever name for the place and I'm a big fan of the place itself.  I already know that it better be a place I visit sparingly!!!!

With all the rain we've gotten this winter, the yard has already been begging to get groomed.  I took care of it about a week ago - the same week that Jen bought stuff  to get the garden going.  I was just finishing up yard work so I helped her do a little bit of planting.  In this bed, we have tomatoes, onions, green peppers, green beans, strawberries, and blackberries.

I'm pretty proud of myself also for mounting these two hose caddies on the wall.  With a little instruction from my dad and some help finding a masonry bit at Lowe's I was able to put my drill to good use and get us ready for easy watering.  The only trouble was that our old hose was screwed on so tight that I couldn't get it off.  I used vice grips, and had my bishop give it a go, but no luck.  I ended up cutting it off with a hack saw so I could put on this splitter instead so we could have both hoses attached.

I moved my plumeria plants outside.  The other one is just across the porch.  We also planted some mint and some sage in the blue pots here.

I can tell it's been awhile because I'm putting 2 Relief Society activities on here and we only have them once a month.  For March it was the Relief Society Birthday Party and we had a progressive dinner with fajitas from Taco Cabana like we did last year.  It went really well.  All of our hostesses were incredible, but I only shot pictures at Sister Lewis' house.  She decorated up her little dance studio and it turned out really cute!

Here are some of the ladies getting their plates loaded up with fajita fixins!  We had a pretty good turn out and lots of fun and good food!

Last thing for this post is that I've found lots of cool hairstyles on Pinterest and I tried one of them on my hair yesterday.  This is an extreme close-up since I took it myself.

This is a little bit better.  It's just three braids put in buns, but it turned out pretty cute.  Hopefully I can try it sometime this week for work!