Jasna In Utah

My mom recently told me that a Jane Austen Society group is being formed in Utah. Since I have a few readers in Utah I thought I’d pass along the Facebook link to the Utah chapter.

Jane Austen Society of North America: Utah Region

and here is an e-mail contact:

austenfans411(at)gmail(dot)com

-Lynnae

Senior Prom

I had to adjust the length on my daughter Arianne’s prom dress. It was a bubble type skirt, which added some complications, but at the same time the finished seam would not be showing, so that was great!

 

I spent an hour curling her hair, and she put on the jewelry we had picked out together.

Then she indulged me with a photo session until her date arrived…..…….

  And then we had another round of photos.

Before long they set off to their Senior Prom at the Space Needle.

This was taken in the park after dinner. While she was there a little girl thought she was a princess and wanted a picture with her.

This was a picture Arianne took at the top of the Space Needle.

Throughout this whole experience I was very thankful to the Lord that she was healed of her illness from March, which turned out to be viral meningitis. I’m so thankful that she is healthy and able to enjoy prom and graduation. I’ve been having a pretty sentimental day today.

This morning I dreamt I opened a door and saw my little girls bedroom just as they would have left it any morning 16 years ago when my older girls were two and four. Seeing the sheets and dolls and jammies was so realistic that I woke up and cried a little. It was only yesterday they were that small. Some days I just wish I could bring it back.

 

-Lynnae

Sneaky Peeky

Just a little sneak peek today at something I’ve been playing around with in my studio. Remember, the Where Bloggers Create blog party is June 19. It is really inspiring me to get my studio ready for the big show (and it’s going to be BIG!!!!). But here is one little snippet for you until then!

Dinner Bell, Dinner Bell Ring!

This post started as a comment to my sister’s blog, Better Than We Deserve, but not wanting to take up a ton of space I turned my reply into a post of my own.

I believe it is my nurturing duty as a mom to make dinner for my family. But I don’t really LOVE cooking. I don’t see recipes and get excited (unless they include massive amounts of chocolate).

  A few years ago at a church activity we made these nifty dinner calendars. you just think of 50 meals you regularly prepare (four of mine said EAT OUT). We printed them in squares and laminated it.  Then you could plan out your whole month, and the extra squares stuck on the back with velcro.

The scripture above the calendar squares says “Love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things…….

Getting sick of that idea and having more recipes I thought I’d add into the circulation, a year and a half ago I planned out a years worth of meals from all the cookbooks I wanted to try and all the regular favorites. So I go to that every week, sometimes shuffling things around or changing things for convenience. I'm still pretty flexible but I like not having to think about it much.

   Jon likes to cook but he is conveniently not home at that time.....LOL-he's still at work until 6:30 or 7, selfish man.....
But maybe when he's retired I'll make him do it. I would rather be on clean up.
  Everyone on shows who enjoy cooking also drink wine, so maybe that's my problem- I don’t drink. Sometimes I will try to 'make it fun' by having a diet coke, which isn't really that fun. On Cinco de Mayo I tried to make it fun by eating chips and salsa while cooking the food. Then I was stuffed by dinner. But it was fun.

Who does the meal planning and prep in your house? Do you love it or hate it? Do you have a method to your madness?

Mother’s Day 2010

Today I’m thinking about my Mother and Grandmothers and what their legacy and heredity has given me. To mention a few…..

My maternal grandmother’s mother, Ingeborg, was Swedish. She was a great seamstress. During the depression she would sew lovely dresses for others, then out of the leftover fabric make beautiful dresses for her daughter. She was talented but also suffered with anxieties and worries that her husband would try to soothe. 

 

 Great-grandma pedaling her sewing machine outside while she watches her little one play

Her daughter Linnea is my Grandma, and I’ve told you a lot about her. My home is adorned with things she has made, especially at Christmas time. And yet she said to me recently that she didn’t see herself as creative. I said ‘but what about all the lovely things you’ve made for everyone over the years?’  “Well, sure if you count using a pattern.” It has me chuckling, and yet as I have spoken to her about her life I see many feelings of inadequacy and just generally her being hard on herself. So much of her personality and behavior as a youth was similar to mine….being shy, not wanting to try things or meet new people…..and yet she is hard on herself, where I have learned to laugh and say ‘Yep, that’s me, that’s just how I was.’ I’m a lot more forgiving of myself now. Where did I learn that?

My mother is insightful, religious and incredibly creative. She loves children. She raised twelve of her own and when the youngest entered first grade Mom went back to school for her teaching degree. She is currently a 1st grade teacher, but she brings an extra dose of art and music, often at her own time and expense.

It was common for our house to be in a turmoil with a creative  project, and as children there was an endless supply of art materials, fabric scraps, books and costumes, and we could be up to something crazy, messy, and creative and there never was much more than a raised eyebrow. Creative expression was valued highly in our home.

While all the women in my family bring a strong spiritual heritage, including visions and dreams that would come to pass, my paternal grandmother’s mother had an exceptional trial in this way. She was forewarned of the death of her husband and sons in a series of tragedies. The household that once earned money through singing and a family band that would play at dances several times a week, and could brag of a winning baseball team comprised of the brothers, became contracted within a few short years.

Her daughter Mabel was my grandmother on my dad’s side. After the passing of her brothers she would sing church hymns at the piano with her sister. As a grandmother she loved to tell stories to her grandchildren, from recounting the family history to fantastic tales of Chocolate Town. She also showed her love through food. As a young adult I was visiting, and she asked what I would like for breakfast. I told her not to worry, I just would have a little cereal. In the morning I woke to oatmeal, bacon, pancakes, juice  and fruit. “Grandma, I said I just wanted cereal.” I tried to say nicely. “Oh, yes, there’s cereal over there too.” You couldn’t argue with the dear woman. Rationalizing that it was only a few days I smiled and ate the food. Grandma always spoke to us about the gospel, the Savior, and going to the temple. She wanted all of her descendants to have the gospel in their lives.

Thank you lovely ladies for making me who I am today. It is an honor being your daughter and granddaughter.

-Lynnae

On Into May

The arrival of May for me has been like waking up from a fog. Here is a brief sampling of what I’ve been up to.

I bought fabric for a Jane Austen dress for the AGM in Portland. My Mom is going too and it is going to be FUN! One fun fact about this cloth….I had the same fabric in an empire waist long dress I had when I was a kid. My mom made all the girls matching dresses for Christmas one year. I wonder if any of those dresses are still kicking around? They would be great for a little niece to wear to my next Austen party!

My second Daughter is overcoming her health problems. As I write she’s taking an AP History test (You go girl!) And a month ago I was wondering how she would even make it to graduation. I am so grateful to the Lord for her recovery. Here is a sneak peak at her prom dress.

 

My oldest Daughter brought her boyfriend up to our place to visit Washington and meet us over spring break. We liked him, I hope he liked us, and I think we had a lot of fun and ate a lot of sushi.

I am exercising again. To say my foot is better is not accurate really, but I couldn’t take it any longer. Besides, gaining back weight I fought so hard to lose is not going to help the foot either. But that’s another story.

I’m trying to get ready for the ‘Where Bloggers Create’ party I mentioned in the last post. Since writing that I acquired the summer issue of ‘Where Women Create’. <SIGH> It’s so beautiful. I have already been through the ‘first perusal’, and the ‘reading-every-word-cover-to-cover’, now I will go through and dog-ear the pages that I really REALLY love….

As for my studio space, There’s a few things I need to finish up, but with the blog party being days after daughter’s graduation, I have to be realistic about what I can get done. I am committed to participating though, ready or not!