Stephanie's First Talk in Sacrament Meeting

Now that Stephanie is 12 years old, she is in the Young Women's program at church. Included in that is the opportunity to get a talk in church. Yesterday was her first time to do this and this is her talk:

Stephanie’s Talk:

I was asked to give a talk about temples.

Temples are places we perform sacred ordinances in the Church. This includes Baptisms for the Dead, Confirmation, Marriage, Sealings, Personal Endowments, and Endowments for the Dead.

During General Conference, Elder Gary E. Stevenson talked about temples. He began by sharing this memory:

Quote:

“I remember a warm, sunny afternoon when spring was trying to nudge its way through a long winter in Cache Valley, Utah. My father, whose Saturdays were always filled with chores for his grandsons, stopped by our home with an offer to “go for a ride.” Always happy to ride in Grandpa’s truck, our four- and six-year-old sons scurried into the back jump seat, and I joined my father in the front. Our drive took us through the streets of downtown Logan, which wrap around the Logan Temple, prominently situated on a hill, centered beautifully in the city. As we moved further away from the city, we turned from paved, busy streets to seldom-used dirt roads, where we crossed old bridges and weaved through trees far into the country. We were far from any other traffic and all alone.

Realizing his grandsons were in a place they had not been before, my father stopped the truck. “Do you think we are lost?” he asked the wide-eyed boys as they gazed out the windshield across the valley. Followed by a moment of silent assessment came the profound reply of a young child. “Look!,” he said, pointing his finger, “Grandpa, you are never lost when you can see the temple.” Our eyes turned, focusing with his, seeing the sun glistening off the spires of the Logan Temple, far across the valley.”
…EndQuote.

It’s true – we are never lost when we can see the temple. He also told us to make our homes a house of the Lord. Everyone is already one step towards that goal and may not even know it, because we are never lost when we can see our home.

Last week, I was able to officially go inside the temple for the first time. It’s amazing how much gets done inside the temple in such a short time, especially when the Bishop is baptizing about 5 people a minute or more, and the confirmations at about double that pace. I can see why Elder Richard G. Scott suggested in another conference talk for us to remove our watches when inside the temple. That way, we won’t be concerned with how long the ordinances take.

I’m happy I was able to go to the temple. It was very peaceful, and the experience was quite spiritual. I want to go again because it is a holy place, and I am never lost when I see the temple.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Bags and Purses for Sale!

As promised...I am listing some of my bags here before listing them on Etsy.com

Just so you know...all of my bags are upcycled materials, those found in thrift stores, garage sales, left over material from dresses and such...

This pink and green one was made from a scarf and a remnant from Walmart. The base is 12" across at the bottom and it stands 9" tall. The top of the bag is 8"across and the strap is attached by D rings. It is fully lined with the lime fabric.

This is the back side of the bag. I have priced this bag at $18.

This horse purse is slightly angled in on the sides. Only the front of the purse has the horse fabric, the rest is made up entirely of denim, so it is very sturdy!

This bag and all the bags below are reversable.

All three of these horse bags are $12 each.

This shows the lining of the teal flower purse. This was made from a scarf/kerchief found at a garage sale.

As you can see, here too I have angled in the sides to make it more purse like.

This is the other side. You can have this one for $10.

This pansy bag has a purple lining and some purple fur trim at the top. It's sides are straight up and down and will make a perfect gift bag!

$8
There is also another pansy bag of the same size and lining, but we put a yellow ribbon on the front with a button...let me know if you want to see a picture of that one.

I have two of these bags, $12 each, but these pictures are for the front and back of the same one. They are just shy of being 12" tall and the base is 6" wide, both are lined with denim.

Back side of gift bag above...

These two smaller bags are actually the same...I just turned one with the striped fabric out so that you could see that they are reversable. The white fabric has tulips on it and on one of the bags we put two red buttons.

$8 each. ($14 if you buy both)

Here I have 3 bags made of the same fabric. They have also been stiffened as the pink material was quite flimsy. Two of the bags have been embellished with the yellow rickrack on the printed fabric, and the third one was embellished with purple rickrack on the pink side. They are just shy of 12" tall and have a base of 6" wide and 4" deep. They would make great gift bags or lunch bags.

$12 each.

I have 3 of these bags, the exterior is made of a quilted material and the lining is a white background with navy blue dots on it. the handle is the same as the lining. They are 6.5 inches tall, about 6" wide and 3.5 inches deep.

$8 or $20 if you want all 3. :)

This shows the lining of a bag with two handles.

8" tall, 7" wide and 4" deep.

Again I used a garage sale scarf/kerchief for this bag. There was even enough fabric for the handles.

I'm asking $12 for this bag.





If you saw other bags on the racks and I didn't mention them here, let me know if you are interested. I will also make custom bags. When I do the show in October, I plan on having school sized bags, ones big enough to carry binders and laptops.

Oh...the Mariners are currently going to the bottom of the 10th inning with a tie score of 2-2 ... sure hope we win!

Evacuation!

You know how the best of plans seem to fall apart? Well, ours for Monday had some strange twists. It was Steve's first day at his new position, Scott was staying late at school for Lego Club, I had an appointment in Seattle to do a survey at 5 pm, so Stephanie was home alone doing laundry and homework. Our friend, Cherie was bringing Scott home after he was finished and Stephanie would be in charge until one of the parents arrived home. That was the plan.

I left the house around 3:20 pm (I really dislike driving by myself in Seattle, so I gave myself lots of extra time to make sure I could find the right address and parking). Stephanie had already started the laundry. Then, when I am on 405, Stephanie calls me and tells me she is at the Stanger's house...they live in the culdesac behind our backyard. The police had come to the door and told her she had to leave. She could grab a few things but she had to leave.

Thank heaven for bluetooth technology! I told Stephanie to contact Cherie and ask her to keep Scott after she picks him up (her son is also in Lego Club). Then later, Kim Stanger calls me to let me know that one of the houses on our street "might" have an explosive device in it, hence the evacuation of all the neighboring homes.

Somewhere in all this I manage to call Steve and apprise him of what is happening. I don't have much battery power left in both my bluetooth and phone, so our conversations are short. My imagination sure is going wild! However, my appointment in Seattle is set in gold and the children are safe, so I continue on with my plans. On my drive home, I tried hearing anything on the news, but nothing, so I'm pretty sure at this point that everything turned out fine.

When I get into Monroe, I saw no police presence and was able to get home without any problems. Steve was in charge of collecting the children and that went smoothly too. I then called my neighbor and asked him what happened. He asked me if I wanted the long or short story. I opted for the short story. At the house across the street, the owner saw a suspicious package and called 911. They evacuated the neighborhood and then later found that it was not explosive. I didn't bother to ask what it actually was. I'm hoping to get the long story from Tami. Jim I could tell was tired of repeating it. :)

Anyway, it was really interesting to get the story from Stephanie. She was at the table doing her math homework when someone knocked and rang the doorbell. When she went to see who it was through the studio windows, the first thing she saw was the big gun. Then she recognized that the police was at the door. They asked if she was home alone and she said she was. Then she needed to gather a few things and leave the area. She was SMART! She took the list of phone numbers I had posted inside the cupboard by the phone, and her homework, and went to the Stanger's. Then as soon as she got there, she called me. The rest you already know.

I'm sooooooo pleased at how Stephanie reacted to this emergency! When I saw that she had her wits about her to take the phone list (and her homework), it made me feel very confident in any future issues that might arise. I hope they don't, but life doesn't work that way...

On With the Show!

Yes! It is really happening! Steve helped me get things all set up, even crumpled the tissue paper to put into the bags! Then while I was fussing with the scarves on their rack, Steve put together the bags on the table. It really looks great!

If you are interested in a custom made bag, I have started the pricing of the basic small ones at $8. Then when you add things like pockets, stiffer fabric and such, the price goes up a bit. All the horse ones are $12.

The red purse (found in a previous blog) and the other simular purses with pockets, are $15. When I get back into production of bags big enough for binders and school books, those too will be $15.

The prices of the scarves vary due to the complexity of the pattern, the cost of the yarn and the time it took to actually knit them. They sure are fun to make!

Here is another photo showing the variety of bags being sold. Oh...that pink and green purse? The one with the D rings in the handle...that one I priced at $18.

Finding the right table clothes was challenging, but I really like how it turned out!

My craft show booth is officially called "Sharon's Pansy Room".

It's a Cookie!

The other day we gave the girls the assignment to go and make a new recipe for a bar sugar cookie. So they did. I let them have free reign with my sugar crystals and as I was busy in the studio sewing, I didn't see how much sugar they used. It is quite the rainbow!