Howard Family, Party of 5

I've been having major computer problems today! I've tried to put these pictures up a million different times, and it's just not working! So I made a slideshow w/ them, hopefully that'll work!

Edited: it didn't work. the slideshow is off-centered and I don't know why. sorry.

They're pretty self explanitory....First is Arissa with an embroidery piece she made. I was so impressed, I figured on her first try that her stitches would be all wide and far apart but she did perfectly! She did two small pieces so I sewed them together and stuffed them & added a ribbon so she could display it. The next day she did another one...it was for her teacher Mrs. Wood & it was a fraction. That's right, it was: 3/4 or something like that. :o) How cute is that. Mrs. Wood was astonished. :O)

Next is Mariah's piece, she did a really good job too. She felt so special that I trusted her to do it...both the girls used my normal needles & other materials.

Then there's the shirt I made for Mariah. I got the template off a website, I think it was supposed to be for a picnic table centerpiece or something. But I bought a $3 plain shirt at walmart and sewed the bird to it. Mariah loved it, you'll see her wearing it in one of the next pictures...she wore it all weekend.

The fabric banner I made for the girls room. I had bought some really pretty fabric off etsy.com, and I saw the idea for this in a book. In the book it was used for a party but I thought it was cute for everyday.

The "quilt" I made. The squares are supposed to line up....obviously they don't. I'm impatient and very bad at math...and so I get results like this all the time. But once it was put all together,I thought it looked nice anyways. Especially if you haven't seen the picture of the one I was copying! I embroidered the big center square.

My new table is even prettier now! My grandma had made me some table runners last christmas, and when I was thinking of which placemats I was going to buy, I thought maybe she could do the runners for me but just smaller so that they could be placemats. So I bought some cute fabric online and she sewed these for me. We had enough fabric left for a center piece too. Not only did she make them beautifully, but when we realized that I was probably never going to actually let my family eat on them since they're so pretty, she went out and bought some clear vinyl type stuff, cut it to fit, and then VELCROWED it inconspicuously to each one. You can't even tell it's velcrowed. It's the coolest thing. So not only are my new placesettings super cute, but they're special because they were made by my Nana. :O)

And the rest of the pics are from Balboa Park. We went on Sunday when it was General Conference at church (= no church for us!). The girls loved the fountain of course....I ran out of pennies and they threw like $3 my other coins in! We went to the botanical gardens, which was very pretty. Mallory just liked the beautiful big buildings, which she said were "Belle's Castle". :O) Fun times.