Shrunken Heads???

Don't you think this display is pretty cool!! I thought so! I love decorating for any holiday, especially for fall/winter Holiday's. Makes the season more seasonal. Ha. 

Anyways, I happened to fall on this picture one day and thought, okay I'm SO doing this!!!! Then I forgot all about it. And then once again, a year or two later, while trying to find fun, easy, cheap ways to decorate your house for Halloween this picture popped up.. wouldn't you say it's fate? Just kidding.

Well I ended up having all the stuff to make them so why not do it?

But I wanted to share how to do them, just in case you think this is just as cool as I do... that or I'm just lame like that. 

So moving forward these are the ingredients/ supplies you'll need:

Salt.

Lemons or Lemon juice

Apples 

Water

A knife

A bowl

A potato peeler

(optional) Cloves

  Fill the bowl with luke-warm water. Add about 2 tablespoons of salt And 2 tablespoons of Lemon juice, or squeeze two lemon wedges into the water. Stir and set aside.

Now peel your apples, leave the stem on.

Now carve a face out, in your apple. Make the features more pronounced, cause we will be drying the apples so everything will shrink. Oh and it doesn't have to be perfect either.

See, my happy, soon to be, shrunken head family. Make them different play with it have fun, be creative... There were some pretty awesome looking shrunken head apples and it was because they carved them a lot better than me, but I'm no sculptor, so this is going to have to work. But if you are great at sculpting have at it. :)

Here's the boring part... soaking it in your nice Salty, lemon bath you mixed at the beginning. For best results and to ensure you wont rot your apples, YUCK! Soak them for 24 hours.

Fast forward 24 hours...

Take the apples out of their bath and pat dry them with a towel. At this time if you want you can put some cloves in the eye sockets, it makes them look more sunken in and dark. Whatever you want to do to make it your own.

Now tie some string around the stem... It's shrinking time! Find a nice room away from any open/bright light and hang them to dry.

It takes any where from 2-3 weeks to dry them, just keep checking on them and watch them shrink away! You can also use a dehydrator or oven, but I always seem to ruin stuff using those sorts of appliances. So I'll take the long way. 

My apples aren't done yet they still look like the one's in the picture... perhaps cause I just took that picture today! ha! So when they are done I will post a picture.

Happy Halloween

Hiking!!!

Our family LOVES hiking. Aliesha kept asking us when we can go hiking again. So yesterday (Sunday) We decided to take a hike up big cottonwood canyon. It was SO beautiful!!!!! THe girls had so much fun! McKenzie didn't want us to hold her, she loved just walking around, jumping over rocks, smelling flowers, throwing rocks, etc. And Aliesha just loves being out doors and loves the Mountains. She'll ask almost every day if we can go in the mountains. As we were hiking Aliesha said, "This is the best day!" That always makes a mother feel great!
Anywho... I took pictures and wanted to share with you all. Sometimes I wish I was better at taking pictures! These pictures don't do the scenery justice!

We really love going to the mountains and looking at all the beautiful scenery! I am so glad that my girls sove it as much as I do. Lets hope there will be more hiking trips before the snow comes.

 

Finished project...

Awhile ago, I posted that I was making a quilt. A tossed nine patch quilt. It was a easy pattern. And thanks to my Aunt Kari, and Aunt Becky I finished it. Kari helped me cut all the squares and how to sew them together. and taught me that nothing is going to be perfect (Amish law!!!!! Haha) I went home all happy and full of knowledge, but I let it get to my head and messed up with the seams. Instead of sewing 1/4th of an inch I sewed like an inch... thus creating different size blocks. I soon became frustrated with myself. I just wanted to do it fast and have it turn out good like the "pros" I was frustrated with my ability to sew straight and fast. But I still hung in there and finished the face of the quilt. I soon stopped, being, once again, discouraged with the seams not matching up! I labeled them packed them away and put it in my closet. Well just this last weekend my mother in-law was making a trip out to Roosevelt to visit her dad and Becky. Becky called me and asked if I wouldn't mind her taking a look at it to see if she could help me. I jumped on that offer quick! She, being the pro that she is, fixed it and then quilted it with her AWESOMELY HUGE quilting machine, binded the edges for me and left about 2 feet of the binding undone so I could learn how to do it... I quickly came home and started to finish up the binding. Any who, that's my little adventure with starting a new hobby. I seriously couldn't have done it with out Kari and Becky! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO much! I really appreciate it! And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how it turned out!!!!  Here see for your self! I'm quite proud of it...

See don't you think it turned out great!!!!! I love it! I'm really proud of myself, though I cannot take all the credit, I'm sure that if I didn't have Kari or Becky I'd have a mess of a quilt! I will be making more quilts and thanks to this one I learned a lot, like to be patient, and not to forget about the Amish Law.  And that I need to slow down the sewing and pay attention to where my seam is...ETC.  Well anyways Just had to post and brag about my new talent! :)

Grandma Lloyd! Till we meet again.

Today we lost a very sweet, caring, loving, beautiful woman. Greg's Grandma passed early this morning. Though I didn't know her for very long, she made an impact in my life. When we'd go down to Roosevelt she was alway quick to complement me, to tell me that I was a good mother. She'd say your girls are so precious and beautiful, and you too are so beautiful. You are a good mother, you play with them and you punish them. :) She loved to joke around. She'd be in the hospital getting tests done and she'd still joke around with the doctors. One time she had to be numb from the waist down for a test, so they gave her an epidural. When she heard the doctor say that she turned to him and said: On no I better not be pregnant. haha.
Another time we went down she once again complemented my girls and myself as well. She was always so excited to have company in her house. My girls saw where she would put her gram crackers
and they'd go in the cupboard and steal  gram crackers. Grandma would laugh it off and say: It's okay I always sneak more then what I should have! :)
Grandma was a big BYU fan! She loved watching the games on T.V. Before the basketball game even started, she heard the announcers say "Jimmer" and boy did she move! That was the fastest I've seen her move to the T.V!  As she was swiftly walking to the T.V she says "Jimmers on!!" We kindly told her that they were just talking about him, to her disappointment. But later that night we were all huddled around the T.V. watching the basketball game, really intense game. She was all into it, the announcers cut into the game and just kept talking, and talking. To grandma's frustration she yells, Oh shut up and get back to the game!  SO funny. But after she yelled she felt bad and said. Oh maybe I shouldn't have said that.
Grandma, we will miss you greatly. I know you are on the other side healthy and happy. I'm so blessed to have had you in my life for the short time you were. You are loved by so many! Miss you Grandma Lloyd, and Till we meet again.