OH what to do with the summer time... CRAFT!!!!

Howdy howdy !!! So I've finished up my Spring semester and i'm looking forward to some summer crafts projects! So if you have any options post them on here PLEASE!  I am mostly looking for stuff I can do at my desk at work. So scrabooking ideas, Small craftly projects :) I do however have two at home sewing gems I've found in my searches. These are two projects that I will probably have done by the end of the week The first is an upcycling Knock of Anthropologie dress and the second a homemade ruffled shower curtain.
Morning Glory Dress

Ruffle Shower Curtain

Well I'll get on these and post the results if you want the tutorials just let me know !!! and once again PLEASE give me something to do with my work days !!!

KALOOOD!!!

Kay so I know I haven't checked in a while and I'm sure you missed me. This  end of semester has been CRAZZZY !!!  Anyway I just wanted to share a new thing I've discovered : Kalood. I attended a business plan competition at BYU and these guys won !!! Their business is a bit like groupon only cooler cause you get texts and its personalized to you kinda like netflix or pandora. Check em out!!
Here:
http://beta.kalood.com/?r=4HQ

I'm Trying to Be like Jesus

       This past Saturday I got to see my baby sister Mallory get baptized. I loved how a couple weeks before she and my mom were having a conversation that went something like this: Mom: " You know you're not a member of the church until you're baptized right?" Mallory: "Well then I'm not going!" hahaha She was so excited to get baptized though and She looked beautiful in her Baptism dress. I loved being able to be a part of it even though speaking at any church function terrifies me. 

Look at this cute baloon girl made by the amazing Christine Western

	http://twistedchickenballoons.com

http://twistedchickenballoons.com

So for my little sisters baptism I decided that I wanted to do something special so I made these cute Baptism Towels for my little sister and our two little cousins her age.

It took a lot of time but it was actually really simple and it was totally worth it to see thier faces when they got them. It Seriously made me realize how much I need a sewing machine so until I can get a nice one of my own I'm going to take my mom's old one and try to fix it up. Back to the towels, I gave them to each of the Girls with this poem:

Let them eat cake !

      I'm just in the mood to brag about one of the best things about living in Orem. The Chocolate. Their marquie sums it up perfectly: " Break your resolution here." This cute and quaint dessert cafe has some of the most amazing cakes, cookies and brownies, But what I am most crave is something I call their stawberry short puffs. Unfortunately I'm not the only one who craves these and when I finally get to go there they are usually out.

    If you get the chance to go I would suggest their signature cake The Husband or The Kitty Katrina ( oddly enough a vanilla on vanilla cake that is divine). On top of having the best desserts, They have a fantastic atmosphere. You walk in and it seems like an old home turned into a quirky,retro cafe. So, Really guys ! Go to the chocolate :) its fan-freaking-tastic!

http://thechocolatedc.com/menu.php

Love has the ability to make everything it touches sacred

        This past week has been really hard on me and some really important relationships in my life. The only thing that has  pulled  me through it all is that i had to teach the lesson in Relief Society. Choosing the topic was the hardest part. What did I feel the need to teach? I wanted to go with the February theme of Love, So immediately I thought well I could teach on Eternal marriage. However whats more cliche in happy valley than a lesson on marriage. haha. I then started going through and reading talks just by the topic of love and it easily made up my mind on what to talk about. What better to illustrate the love this time of year then by teaching of pure love. Charity.

The idea for this lesson came mainly from One of President Monson's Addresses to the Women of the church. In his talk Charity Never faileth he speaks of two different kinds of charity. There is that of action and service and then there is charity in your attitude and state of mind.

      His talk hit home to me in how I live my life and how I should treat others. I loved this quote in his talk: " I consider charity—or “the pure love of Christ”—to be the opposite of criticism and judging." He also quotes Mother Teresa when she says:  " If you judge others how do you have time to love them?" Answer is you don't. Its amazing how when I watch my thoughts I see those tiny things creep in, and it stresses to me that if I want the Lords mercy for my shortcomings and mistakes I am asked individually to be patient and forgiving to those who may disappoint me or to those who have made mistakes.
   
     The three aspects that I want to stress are 1) A person filled with the love of God is anxious to bless others. 2) We have a special obligation to love and care for those in need. 3) Charity is long suffering, merciful and kind. President Henery B Eyring has said concerning charity:

"The great legacy those who went before you in the Relief Society [has been] passed on to you.

The part of the foundation they laid for you which seems to me most important and persistent is that charity is at the heart of the society and is to come into the heart, to be part of the very nature, of every member. Charity meant to them far more than a feeling of benevolence. Charity is born of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and is an effect of His Atonement working in the hearts of the members."

This quote seriously gave me chills when I read it. To think that the only way to receive our Lords atonement and become more like him is to give his other children, our brothers and sisters here on earth the same opportunity. How simple and divine is our fathers plan for us.That he sent down his only begotten as an example to us so that we might learn to carry each other as he has carried us. Charity is the backbone of Christ's Message to us, it forces us to enlarge our souls and hearts and in the end makes us become more like our savior.

So I guess those were basically my thoughts and  what I learned from preparing the lesson this week. I am grateful that I finally found a good meaning and application for this month of love. That I might be able to gain that pure form of Love, Charity, the highest, noblest, and strongest kind of love to posses.

England and Scotland and France ..OH MY !!!

Well its official !!! I will be traveling to Europe this summer with UVU Theater. We will be going from July 18 to August 12. We will be spending four weeks experiencing the best in theater in London's West End.We will be involved in two theater festivals: Festival d’Avignon and Edinburgh’s International Festival.

    We will be visiting such historical places like Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Royal National Theatre, and Stratford-upon-Avon. I will be spending 16 nights in London, 4 in Avignon, 1 in Stratford, and 4 in Edinburgh. I cannot express how excited I am to take part in this once in a life time opportunity. I was hoping to have gone last year and I did not due to the price of the program. I wasn't going to go this year either but then my best friend Zack convinced me that this may be the only chance I get for a trip like this, so I decided it was time I took out a student loan ( woot ...sorta) 
   I am in the process of applying for a passport and hopefully they don't find out I'm an international spy or anything hahaha. Getting your passport picture is, believe it or not, worse than getting any yearbook or drivers licence photo done. Now if you know me at all you know I have a hard time NOT smiling, so as soon as the photographer told me I couldn't smile guess what happened. The turnout was a picture of me with some weird smirk and a half raised eye brow. 

   In other news, Oklahoma's closing performance, yesterday, was very rewarding and emotional. I have learned so much about researching a play and the world around it.  With that I enjoyed being a part of an ensemble where I was able to create and mold a character.  Every night I was discovering something new about who I was, and what I wanted, and amazingly enough by the last night of the performance I was finally learning my characters secret that I had been acting on the entire time.

Here is a quick profile I had made:

Name: (Elizabeth) Eliza Martha Butler
Age: 17
Place of Birth: Green, Kentucky
Fathers Occupation: Farmer
Family: Youngest of three Caroline Butler and Christian Thomas Butler (died at age 15
Reason for Leaving:
     Ran away with Older sister ,Caroline Butler, and Caroline's Fiance ,David John Palmer, to Mississippi after parents died of Cholera and the children were placed in care of their Uncle.  After getting to Mississippi David left two girls on their own. They soon joined a wagon train coming from Alabama on their way out west. Her older sister Caroline Butler came down with small pox and died just outside of Claremore, Oklahoma. Here Eliza started a new life and became a part of the Oklahoma Territory Community.
Secret: She was in love with Judd; who, unfortunately, had no eye for her.
Nothing  too interesting really, but I will certainly be doing this or some form of it in any future role.

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

      Throughout the process of working on Oklahoma! our director, Dave Tinney,  has made it a point to make this show real. To have each character in the show be a living, breathing person who is relatable and that our audience can connect with. Yesterday we had a High School and Jr. High School matinee. Before the show at company meeting Dave told us to do the show for the kids. That we should know that this may be some of these kids first exposure to theater, and that we are here to help out any Judds, Ados, and Lauries out there in the audience. Before our second performance that night Dave told us what he observed during that mornings performance:

       When the kids had caome in Dave noticed one boy sitting by himself, away from the rest of the kids. Throughout the show he was very involved in the story , yet he was still not a part of the students. At intermission he ate his lunch alone. At the end of the show, when Judd had died, he was crying and then  during bows he was the first to give us a  standing ovation. Then after the show, after what they had seen in our show, a couple of kids went to the boy and befriended him and started talking to him.

       Its amazing the effect theater can have on people. The power of showing life as it is and how it has been. I'm grateful that I have the chance to be a part of this amazing and powerful art form.