S&ST project #6

This one is really small,
but it brought me such joy to see completed
I thought I'd post it anyway.

I have had a pair of candle holders flanking my dressing table
since we moved in over two years ago.
I put sand dollars on there then, just to have something there
and I've been going back and forth
on what kind of candles to get ever since.
I finally got some yesterday and put them up.
They aren't impressive candles, but I think I like
that they are simple and lightly scented.
The room is probably over decoarated anyway
so a clean line or two is good.
I moved the sand dollar to the netting,
and put a few shells around the bottom of the candle.

Now I just need to paint over that yellow wall
from the previous owners.

Small and Simple Things #5

Flower Hairpins

I've made these before as birthday party favors,

but someone asked about them so I thought I'd throw a post up about it.

The supplies are bobby pins, decorative brads, fake flowers,

and a pair of jeweler's or needle nose pliers.

Thread the flower onto the brad.

Curl the brad ends.

Slip on bobby pin.

Now, that qualifies as simple, right? lol.

Small and Simple Things project #4

We have Relief Society Meeting coming up in May. I'm calling it "The Jewels that Journeyed to Join us." It will be all about the Asian sisters in our ward, their history, culture, journey here, and their conversion to the gospel. I want to have the bulletin board up ASAP so I painted the maps tonight.
Fun facts: Laos (where most of them lived before here) is about the size of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Connecticut put together. It is a land-locked country that shares a mountainous border with Vietnam. After the Vietnam conflict a lot of people who helped us over there were forced to flee Vietnam and live in the mountains of Laos. These people have finally been able to immigrate here.

It is an honor to know some of them.

Update: The board is up, so I'm adding pictures of the finished thing.

I strung silver strands from different locations

in Laos to here and along them are the words and "jewels."

Big thanks to Bobbi for supplying the beautiful letters,

couldn't have done it without her!

UPDATE:

This is the-one-and-only-me dressed up in the traditional "Red Haired Hmong" New Year Clothes. I thought it was a joke, but apparently this is a real sub-culture and my friends happened to have the clothes. The ladies with me are young Hmong ladies that dance together. They are in "White Hmong" clothes and were very good.

I got a new name last night and everything, "Xob Liam" (said so-la, don't ask me what happened to the letters b and m...) which means "thunder," just like Thora does. I love being called Sister Xob Liam. It was the most fun I have had in ages. Oh, and Mom, you think chicken is good in a coconut milk soup? Try shreaded bamboo. I'm going to have to go to Sister Moua's house to learn to make it, just so I can tell you how.

Small and Simple Things project #3

I finally decided what to do with the scraps left from my re-covered bag. I covered a binder with them! It took a little time to hand stitch the inside so that the whole thing was taut, but it was worth it!

Now I have a special binder for organizing book stuff!

Small and Simple Things project #2

Half of celebrating the little things is recognising the things you do that you normaly wouldn't count. I normally wouldn't count this. It's just a bit of eye candy for my Relief Society meeting tomorrow night. I'll be talking about gifts and how everyone has them. I printed up over a hundred, cut them out with fancy scissors and tied them onto ting-ting. The vase was the one my darling husband picked out for my Valentines flowers (they were incredible btw.)
I think it turned out rather well and will look nice on the table with all the silver serving dishes I'm lugging over for the event.