Halloween at our house

looks like this
Waiting in excited anticipation for a knock at the door.

They have been standing in front of the door for almost an hour. Too bad you aren't here to see what occurs when trick or treaters come. Think Justin Bieber fans and you've got a pretty clear picture.

Reasons we ourselves are not knocking doors tonight:

• Jakson isn't really into the whole Halloween thing. We've kind of struggled through enough parties and Halloweeny festivities. Last night at our trunk or treat, he ran away screaming from someone dressed as Snow White. Not sure why.
• Trunk or treat alleviated any need we might have had for candy.
• It's cold and raining. And cold.
  

The kids did have plenty of chances to wear their costumes this week though. Storey dressed as Pooh Bear (and was mistaken for a boy more times than I can count)

and Jakson insisted on wearing his store bought Buzz Lightyear costume that was only meant as a dress-up. I wasn't happy about the decision, but couldn't seem to convince him otherwise. Oh well.

I did make him a set of Buzz Lightyear wings-so I got a little handmade touch in there....

Last Minute

Just in case your Halloween decor needs a final (and free!!), finishing touch.
Click on the links below to get the larger, printable size of each one.

from Craftily Ever After

Available in lots of colors (like the black and white from my house at top) from Crafts & Sutch.

Adventures in Canning

I have never canned anything before in my life. But I was feeling really domestic this year and wanted to try it out. Thank goodness for blog tutorials like this one and this one. People on the internet are so talented. How did our parents do anything without blog tutorials?

I got everything I needed for canning here from CSN. It was perfect one stop shopping (plus quick shipping) and I ended up needing everything that came with it (I was a little doubtful at first). Zak and I spent Saturday afternoon canning. It wasn't nearly as difficult or time consuming as we had expected-meaning we will be doing it again!!

Canned Salsa Recipe-adapted from here
*"chopped" can be replaced with "pulsed in food processor"

40-50 ripe tomatoes, washed and cored, chopped
3 green bell peppers, chopped
3 red bell peppers, chopped
12 jalapeño peppers, seeded, chopped (for a spicy salsa, keep the ribs and seeds in)
5 small onions, chopped
5-6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbs salt
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup bottled lime juice
1 12 oz can tomato paste
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
2 T sugar
1 bushel chopped fresh cilantro
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
Directions

1. Read all of the instructions on this website to prepare and sterilize your canning jars and lids.
   
2. Combine ingredients in a large stock pot (we bought ours at the grocery store).
3. Bring salsa to a boil, then simmer, stirring constantly to avoid scorching at the bottom, until the salsa reaches desired thickness. The original directions I read said 1 1/2 to 2 hours, but we only simmered for about an hour. I think this depends on how chunky your is salsa to begin with.
4. Using a soup ladle and funnel, add warm salsa to sterilized (warm) jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space between top of salsa and top of the mouth of the jar.
5. Add lid and screw band to jar, twisting until band is finger tight.
   
6. Place jars into canner, ensuring that water covers the jars by at least one inch. Boil for 35-40 minutes. The water must boil the ENTIRE time. Don't start the timer until it comes to a boil.
7. Remove jars from canner and allow to cool for 24 hours. Check to make sure the lids have sealed (they should be concave).
8. If sealed correctly, the salsa can be stored on a shelf for one year.
   

My tips:

1. Please, for the love, learn from my mistake and wear gloves when you cut the jalepenos.
   
2. If you happen to not wear gloves-sour cream will be your best friend. Lather it on. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't. Too bad, just use your imagination.
3. Use the grill if you have a glass top stove. Apparently because of the ridges in the bottom of most canners, the food doesn't seal correctly because the water isn't evenly warm when using a flat glass top. So instead, we used the grill. Just make sure you have enough propane before you start. We ended up making an emergency run for propane.
   
4. A food processor makes life so much easier. We like slightly chunkier salsa, so cut the vegetables in half and pulsed them a couple of times.

Next year, I am definitely going to can peaches.

**I settled on the Columbian Home Graniteware Canner Set after doing a lot of research into different canning systems/methods. It was perfect for my needs and held up great. I plan on getting a lot more use out of it! Although CSN Stores provided me with the canner set to review, all portions of this review are 100% my opinion.

QUILT ALONG FINAL WEEK: FINALLY!

I've been so busy with Halloween costumes, trying to meet deadlines for scholarships we are applying for to pay for Jak's therapy, and just the everyday mom stuff, that this quilt-along has been put on the back burner.

But let's get it finished up so that we can start worrying about Christmas presents. Oh man, that's right around the corner.

Last (final!) step-Binding the quilt:

There are a couple of different ways to bind a quilt. One of the ways is to go out and buy a couple packages of pre-made solid colored quilt binding from the store (Walmart sells it, Joann's, Hobby Lobby) and machine sew it on to the quilt to cover up the edges. This works great and will definitely save some time. My friend Melissa, who has been following along, used this method and her quilts turned out so cute.

Image from here.

Another way is to make your own binding. I'm a make-it-yourself kind of gal because I like the binding in a coordinating fabric (or the same fabric) to the backing. And, rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm going to link to a tutorial from someone who knows a lot more about quilt binding than I do. In fact, it's how I learned. Her method takes a little hand sewing (perfect for catching up on Project Runway, or The Real Housewives-don't lie, you love it) but the end result is worth every hand stitch.

Heather Bailey Quilt Binding

Once you've finished binding, your quilt is completely done!! Stand back, admire your work, and know that you've created a memory quilt that will be cherished for a very long time.Now, go sell all the other outgrown clothes on Ebay.

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the steps in the quilt along and I'd LOVE to see your finished quilts-send me pictures!!

I hate to complain....

but today has been a day of suck.

Not so much this morning. It started out well. The kids let me sleep in a little and when Jak woke up, he came and snuggled with me. Then we watched Dinosaur Train and a little Electric Company (I've got a pocket full of H's that I'm not afraid to use), ate breakfast, and did some laundry.

That's when I came up with the brilliant plan to go to the store. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that the devil planted the idea in my mind. Or the devil's minions. The whole experience was pretty much like I imagine hell would be.

After parking, Jakson unbuckled himself and I worked on getting Storey out. As I pulled her out of the car, I noticed Jakson was missing. Looking towards the store, I spotted him in the middle of the road.

This is probably the most annoying-slash-dangerous aspects of autism-he just doesn't.get.it. Danger is not a part of this child's vocabulary.

I was yelling at him to come back when I see IT. IT being the car backing up right into my son.

I screamed and yelled, the car stopping mere inches from his small body, A million emotions raced through me---anger, fear, relief. I rushed over, grabbed him, and started my "parking lots are dangerous" lecture. But since he never looks at my eyes, I can't tell if he's paying attention to me or off in la-la land thinking about his Buzz Lightyear costume. There are no words to express how frustrating that is. I'm pretty sure the lecture did not sink in since he ran out into the road ahead of me as we left the store.

There are so many times when I am just at a loss as to how to parent him. I feel like I am failing miserably.

On the way home, Storey starting screaming about something or another (she's drama) and continued to wail and throw herself around in the parking lot of our complex as I unloaded the groceries. Finally, I scooped her up and put her in time out until she calmed down.

When I came back downstairs I called to Jakson. And called. And called. He was nowhere. A search of the house ensued (that took about 1 minute, one perk of small living quarters) with no success. Getting very worried, I opened the front door only to discover that he had let himself out of the house and was playing in the parking lot. Needless to say, I was not happy. Not at all. This time I skipped the lecture, stuck him in his room, and gave myself a few minutes of "Mommy time out."

Seriously, I think this child might give me a heart attack by 31.

Next stop? Oprah.

Man, I love this kid.
When I used to run camps we would talk about how the most beautiful children have autism.
In my totally unbiased opinion, I would have to agree.

One of Jak's big social issues is personal space.

As in, he doesn't have any.

Many people associate autism with pulling away from touch, but, in Jakson's case, it is quite the opposite. He is extremely cuddly and loves to give hugs. We are very lucky that way. But there comes a time when it becomes inappropriate and makes people uncomfortable. Like when he spends the entire Sharing Time (kid's class at church-lasts about an hour) rubbing the kid's head next to him. That has GOT to be annoying.

Because it's starting to make him seem like a weirdo, we're working on learning appropriate personal space/touching with his therapist. He's not going to learn correct behavior without a lot of modeling, so when Zak or I want a hug from someone , we have to ask, "Can I have a hug?" and then wait for an answer before moving in (I think a few guys I went on dates with could have used this morsel of advice). And when Jakson is giving a hug, we are supposed to count, 1-2-3, otherwise the hugs last for 20 seconds or more.

Basically we don't want his peers to think he's a freak.

Not a whole lot of change in the behavior so far, he continues to throw kids off with his ridiculously long hugging if we aren't careful, but I'm sure it will eventually come. If not, I guess he could always have a future career as the next "Free Hugs" guy.
I mean, he totally got to go on Oprah.

Sprinkle Overload

Last night we celebrated Uncle Tyler's birthday with hamburgers and a very sprinkled cake. Jakson said it was a rainbow cake and Storey named it the "Happy Cake." As they were sprinkling, they kept dipping the tops of the containers into the frosting. Sticky mess.

One year older and wiser too (or so the song goes...)

Blurb Book Deal

I have been wanting to make a Blurb book (the program that creates a book out of your blog-such a cool substitute for a scrapbook!) for a long time, but I just can't justify the price. Until now.

Jasmere is one of those group buying websites (like Groupon), only as more people buy throughout the day, the price continues to go down. And no matter when you purchase, your card won't be charged until the end of the day when the lowest price has been determined.

Today's deal is on the aforementioned Blurb books-and I decided to share because I'm sure there are others who would love hard copies of their blog. All you need to do is go here and sign up. Then order your voucher, just like on Groupon. At the end of the day, check back to see the price that you will be paying-right now it is $25, but I'm sure it will be less.

P.S.-If you want to grab a code for $5 off your order, sign up and take this survey. A code for $5 off will be sent to your email. It may take awhile (up to 24 hours) but it does come!!

I'm so rumbly in my tummy

Storey is so excited about this year's Halloween costume.
She has been wearing the fleece hat I finished yesterday non-stop, despite the 80 degree weather.
I'm glad at least one person appreciates the things I make.
Every time I sew something for Jakson and ask him to try it on, he throws a fit.

Completely random: While watching TV just now, my sweet husband turned to me and said, "Stupid, ignorant people bring me so much joy sometimes."

It's the little things....

Hello. My name is...

It's a little rough, but he wrote his name all by himself!!

This is really huge because many kids with autism struggle with fine motor skills. Jakson has been having trouble writing his letters for awhile-it has been very frustrating for him and he's used the term "can't" a lot. We're hoping that this little breakthrough is the beginning of a new- found confidence.

Small Space

We moved into this little house about 2 months ago. Despite the neighbors with smelly cooking habits and the fact that I can sit on the toilet and do the laundry at the same time (talk about multi-tasking!), we quite like it. Especially since the owner decided to replace the awful vinyl flooring in the kitchen last weekend. The new floor hides all the dirt. I shall never mop again. We've had to get creative with space because we lost about 5 rooms in the move, but I like a challenge. And IKEA.

One mediumish living room plus Expedit equals two rooms. You know I had to have somewhere to put all of that fabric.

In case you're wondering:

Temple print and Count Your Blessing print from Persimmon & Pink

Big Photos above the couch, tutorial here.

Get Excited and Make Things print (free) from here.

More to come-gotta clean up first.

This week

Storey wore pink. A lot of pink. Pink shirt. Pink skirt. Pink leggings. Pink shoes. Note to self: In the future, refrain from stating opinions to Storey such as, "I am not a fan of pink." She is defiant.

We took the kids to the good old BYU bowling alley. First time bowlers.
It reminded me of college days and a roommate that used to spray the shoes.
Jakson was hilarious. He would roll the ball, turn, and flap away.Storey attempted to run and tackle the pins herself several times.
All that pink has gone to her head.

I finished a phototastic quilt top for my Grandma's birthday.More details to come.

Lest you mistakenly leave with the impression that our week was calm and uneventful....our "new" car overheated, went to the mechanic, and is going to cost us a whole bunch of money to get fixed.

Then we got a flat tire on the car that wasn't in the shop.
And Zak had to walk home from work.

The fun never stops.

Just shoot me.

Last year at the end of our family shoot, I asked Kelly, our photographer, if she was ever going to teach a photography class. The answer was no. When asked why, she replied that the only way to become a good photographer is practice, practice, practice. Oh, and read your camera manual. Memorize it.

When I got a nice camera for Christmas, I took Kelly's advice to heart. I started taking pictures every day. I read the manual, practiced the settings, posted daily photos (on a private blog), and made a lot of mistakes. Then Jakson got his diagnosis in April and everything else fell by the wayside. I went back to automatic settings and stopped posting daily photos.

I finally picked my camera up to experiment again a couple of months ago. I remembered how much I like taking pictures-I love documenting the crazy things my kids do and appreciate a camera that is fast enough to capture them. Then our good friends came into town and I arranged to take their family photos. For fun. And that led to other friends asking for photos, referring their family members, and so on.
I've been so proud of myself for getting comfortable with my camera's manual settings and I love taking pictures of families, but I've realized that I will never profess to be a "professional" photographer. I don't have the expensive equipment or the technical Photoshop skills required to charge an arm and a leg for photos. I just love to take pictures.
That said, I can't keep taking photos for free, so I've decided to start charging (just a little bit). My style is really candid. I love REAL family photos. Families playing. I think they are the most beautiful and show the most personality. If you would like to see some of the families that I have photographed, you can go here.
Because my life goal is actually to be a professional mom, I'll only be taking one photo shoot per week. So if you're interested, especially in getting photos taken for Christmas cards, let me know early. I'll try to make the whole experience as painless as possible. Let your husband know.

QUILT ALONG WEEK FOUR: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

I've kind of dropped the ball on this whole quilt along thing. I have good excuses, least of which is that I've spent the entire last week sick. But I'm feeling better now and ready to finish up this quilt! Especially since Storey keeps dragging the finished top outside to play with it. I want it completed and safely in her bed.

As a recap, this is what you need for this week:

• 1 1/4 yard of cotton fabric for the back of your quilt
• 1 1/2 yards of quilt batting (I like Warm & Natural 100% cotton, but this is a decision left to you)
  
• yarn for tying (if you are going to tie your quilt-you can also machine quilt it)
  
• spray adhesive for quilting (can find this in the sewing area of Joann's or even Wal-mart)
• white thread

Because I have to start everything with a disclaimer, here it is: I am not a professional quilter. My way to putting a quilt together should definitely not be taken as gospel truth. There are quite a few ways of doing this and this just happens to be the way that works for me. So if you like to tie quilts, by all means, do it. If you want to use large safety pins instead of the spray adhesive, pin away. Do whatever is most comfortable for you.

Instructions:

1. If you are using spray adhesive, then you'll want to take your quilt outside. Otherwise putting this quilt together will cause you to have other, unwanted, side effects. Like hallucinations. Okay, probably not, but safety first, people. Take your batting and backing fabric with you.
2. Spread an old sheet or towel over a flat surface, like your driveway. Grass doesn't count.
   
3. Lay your quilt top, face down, on the sheet. Make sure it is completely flat, no wrinkles.
   
4. Spray liberally with the spray adhesive.
5. Spread your quilt batting on top. The easiest way to do this is to roll up the batting and unroll it, smoothing as you go on to the quilt top.
6. Flip your quilt over to be sure that the quilt top didn't wrinkle while you were working. Adjust as necessary.
7. Flip it back, so the batting is facing up.
   
8. Spray the batting liberally with the spray adhesive.
9. Roll up your backing fabric and unroll it, smoothing as you go, on top of the batting. Make sure that the right side of your backing fabric is facing up!!
10. Again, flip over your quilt and make sure that the quilt top has no wrinkles in it. Adjust as necessary.
    

Now you can decide whether you want to tie your quilt or machine quilt it. You do need to choose one or the other before binding your quilt (we'll discuss binding next week) to ensure that the batting doesn't bunch up at one end or get lumpy.

If you want to tie your quilt, this is a really good tutorial. I always use embroidery floss when I tie quilts. For this quilt, you should probably tie at the corner of each 4.5" by 4.5" square. No need to tie in the middle of each square (except for that big middle square, if you did that).

I'm going to machine quilt this one. It's a rather easy pattern, so even if you have never machine quilted before, the baby clothes quilt is a great place to start. You are going to be doing what is referred to in the sewing club as "stitch in the ditch." Basically, you stitch where the seams are. Because I want to make sure that the batting doesn't move around, I also stitch through the middle of the filler squares. See the (extremely rough) picture below. Hopefully it does not confuse you even more. Make sure that when you machine quilt it together, you start with the middle square and not on the biggest square on the outside. You may want to pin around the outside edges because the backing fabric sometimes has a tendency to bunch around the edges.

I usually quilt one square, take it off the machine and flip it over to make sure there aren't any serious issues, then continue with the next square, etc. Keep a seam ripper handy.

More professional quilters will recommend a different type of foot for your machine, called a walking foot. I, on the other hand, have never never invested in one. I do all my quilting with the regular foot that is always on my machine. I'm sure if I was doing stippling (all those curvy sewn lines everywhere) or something fancy I would need one, but if I want quilting like that, I pay someone else to do it.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this step. Machine quilting sounds daunting at first, but this simple pattern is really very easy and a great way to practice your skillz.

Happy Sewing!! Only one more week to a completed quilt!!