Grandma Colleen's Creamy Christmas Candy

How exciting! Grandma Colleen, one of our favorites, is now 84 years old.  At the age of 81 she recorded what she has been doing every Christmas for over 50 years which is making home-made, old-fashioned Christmas candy.  It has become not only a family tradition, but a community project. She has not only shared her candy with friends and neighbors but often has requests for her to make for purchase.  She just never had the money to start her own franchise or she would have been famous!

This DVD is a little on the home-made side similar to her candy. Sound quality is not professional, yet the recipes are right there on the screen. Well worth the investment! 

 It started with her daughters wanting to preserve her recipes and wanted an actual video of her making it as a keepsake for future generations.  Maybe your Grandma was a lot like Grandma Colleen. Their recipes were more a "pinch of this" and "a pinch of that" and often hard to duplicate.  This DVD captures her making her candy step-by-step.  You are able to see her, the ingredients, the pans and her methods as if she were there personally teaching you in her kitchen. We are pre-launching her DVD as we are getting so close to Christmas and her website is not yet complete for this year.  We are allowing you to leave an email and the minute it becomes available, we can send you the link.

The Thankful Tree

I wanted to share a fun tutorial with you.  This is a new idea I saw at a local craft store here in Utah and wanted to make one for my family.  I would love to hear your ideas of how you would use this with grandchildren/children in your family.  Here is the tutorial:

Step 1:  Gather supplies.  I purchased the kit from the craft store which included the wood, the hearts, the vinyl letter and the brown wired ribbon.

Step 2:  I sanded the edges with a fine sand paper and then dusted off with microfiber cloth to get remaining residue of sanded wood.  I gathered my supplies which included; spray adhesive, candy bar brown acrylic tole paint, black cherry acrylic tole paint, silver glitter spray, clear acrylic matte finish spray, brushes (hammer, nails, pencil and scissors not shown).

Step 3:  I pained the branches on both sides with the candy bar brown paint. I  painted the two hearts with the black cherry. After drying completely, I sprayed the hearts lightly with the silver glitter spray.

After all the wood pieces had dried thoroughly, I sprayed then with the matte finishing spray to both sides and allowed them to dry for several hours.

Next, I traced the shape of the tree onto the scrapbook paper I had chosen to represent the foliage of the tree. I traced on the opposite side of the paper. (This happens to be scrapbook paper which has designs on both sides.  After tracing, I cut the paper carefully with my favorite sharp scrapbooking scissors.

Step 4:  Before applying scrapbook paper to the fullness of the tree, attach the wood part of the tree to the branches with small finishing nails.  This wood kit already had the nail holes made which make it easy to see that it needed to be attached before the scrapbook paper was glued on.  By doing this, the scrapbook paper will cover up the finishing nails on the front side of the tree.

                  

Step 5: Attach the scrapbook paper to the tree using the spray adhesive.  You can either spray the wood itself, the scrapbook paper or both.  This spray adhesive sticks quickly so make sure you are very careful at positioning it to match the wood and that you lay it down carefully.  It will grab the wood and be very hard to reposition.

Step 6:  Take your viny letter and flip over to the back side (words will be backwards). Take a credit card and rub the edge of the card along the vinyl letter so that the letter will stick to the sticky side of the vinyl lettering paper.

Step 7:  Peel back the backing of the viny lettering very slowly and at an angle to avoid lettering from sticking to the back of the paper.  You want your lettering to stick together onto the front of the vinyl paper.

Step 8:  Position the vinyl lettering onto the front of the free where you feel you it would look best and still allow for room to position your "gratitude leaves".  Use the credit card to attach the viny lettering to your tree.  Rub each letter with your finger tips to make sure that the lettering is sticking to your scrapbook paper.

Step 9:  Pull the paper from the vinyl lettering again slowly and at an angle to ensure that the lettering is sticking to your tree and scrapbook paper.

Step 10:  Tie the bow at the base of the tree.

Step 11: Glue on heart at the top of the tree in a position that you feel looks best and allows for your "gratitude leaves". Trace leaves of various colors of scrapbook/construction paper for the "gratitude leaves".  I gave the a little bend and attached with double sided tape to give a 3-D effect.

Step 12: Each day your family can write on a leaf what they are thankful for. I am also attaching a picture of the wood the way the craft store made their display.  I changed mine to fit the fall colors.  I also attached the branches to the back of the tree to allow for more space to attach the leaves.  If I were to do it over, I would probably do the branches in the front like the display.  This would allow for more of a 3-D effect with the branches.

What are your ideas for utilizing this darling wood project with  your family? Please share your ideas with us!

Happy Halloween 2012

I promised to not continue to share pictures of my grandbugs over and over.  I promise to limit the pictures so I will only post a couple more of Halloween and try to keep it to the holidays!

Here is Hadli Bug! And here are Laikynn and Titan (in Titan's word a fireman and his dog).

Would love to see posts of your grandbugs?  Feel free to comment or post pictures here to our Facebook Fan Page.

We Never Run Out of Kisses or Candy

Halloween is definitely a holiday for kids. As a child I loved to dress up and as an adult I have loved dressing my children as well as seeing the neighborhood kids in their parade of costumes year after year. 

I would have to say that it is to even more fun than I can imagine to watch your grandbugs in their costumes.  Reason= watching the kids AND watching your kids watch their kids.  It's just a fun time.

I will probably dress up more when the kids are a little older.  For this year I chose this cute little t-shrt that says, "Grandma's Never Run Out of Kisses or Candy".  Pick yours up today for $5.50 at your nearest Wal-Mart. Love it!

More pictures to follow as well as what my grandbugs will be receiving this year for Halloween!

Children Know Jesus

A grandmother from Herriman, UT shared this photo with me this week.  Her grandchildren had been over for a visit.  She was going about her normal routine around the house when she noticed something different on her table.  There stood the statue of Christ which was always in the same place.  However, something had changed.  It was a Hello Kitty Boo-Boo Band-aid that had been placed on the statue.  Yes, a child had seen the nail prints in the feet of the statue of Christ and wanted to "heal his wounds" with the best way she knew how...a band-aid. A sweet little four-year-old granddaughter named Pearl. What a tender gesture!

We think children do not understand the spiriutal things but they are filled with far more charity than the majority of adults.  They know Jesus.  Somehow I believe they have a little bit of memory left and especially the younger ones. 

The other thing that does a Grandparent's heart good is to know that these young spirits, our offspring too, are being spiritually fed by their parents, family members and teachers in Church.  It warms our heart to know that our values and teachings are being taught to the next generation and so on.  It is what these beautiful children will need in such a confused world.

Cheri leaves the band-aid on the statue as a memory of Pearl and a reminder of Christ's sacrifice for each of us.

Let It Snow, Let it Snow!

I am not overly excited about the fact that it is the end of October and already it is snowing.  I love to worship the sun! However as long as I can stay inside rather than make my daily commute to Salt Lake City, UT to work, I will be fine.

As long as it is snowing, let's have some fun!  I am giving away one snowman kit on October 31, 2012.  For everyone that posts a message to this blog AND likes us on Facebook (if you haven't already) AND shares this blog link or the Facebook Fan page link for Grandma's Little Snugglebug by then...I will enter you into the drawing for this snowman kit.  Kids love it and you can use it year after year as long as you don't leave it out all winter long.  It has wooden pieces which have been painted and sprayed with polyurethane for weatherproofing. 

If you are interested in purchasing I have only 4 left.  They are $19.95 plus shipping (Total of $27.00).  They are memory makers and keepsakes to have at Grandma's house for those boring snow days. You can also make a comment below and it will be first come first serve. Leave me your contact email to arrange shipping and payment.

The kit include:  Fleece scarf (1), Black Top Hat (1), Carrot Nose (1), Buttons (3), Coal for Eyes (2), Mittens (2), and coal for the mouth (5).  The also come in various colors.

Next, bring those kids inside for some hot chocolate and marshmellows.  Lastly, snuggle up and read a few story books together.  That's my idea of a perfect snow day!

Fall Leaves with the GrandKids/Kids

I love this fun idea to get the grandkids/kids active while the leaves are still falling and before the snow flies. 

Some of my greatest memories with my mom were our walks together. Nothing really special about what we did.  Sometimes we simply walked and other times we had a rock kicking contest.  Didn't take an ounce of money but it did take some of her time and attention.  That is what kids crave most! I also believe it is the simple things in life that children will remember. 

Follow this tutorial from one of my favorite bloggers "HowDoesShe.com".  Looks like a fun memory to take a camera along with you as well as a picture of the finished product for the scrapbooks. Here is the link

http://www.howdoesshe.com/autumn-tree-door/

Grammie Notes

How many of you have those cute little notes stored in a journal or scrapbook from your grandchildren?  I can't wait until my grandbugs are old enough to leave them for me. 

My great friend and co-worker, Cheri Sharp, shared one of those notes with me yesterday at work.  I thought I would share this darling story and note today.

She was babysitting her two grandchildren.  It was later in the evening and she had them watching TV just down the hall from her with all the doors locked at her home.  She laid down and dozed off.  She heard their parents come in to get them and so she was aware that they had come to pick them up and had left.  After a bit, she got up to turn off all the lights and head to bed.  She noticed this sweet, little note on the counter.

In case you need an interpreter, it says:

Grammie,
No robrs (Robbers) took me and Pearl  Mi (My mom and dad)

Isn't that adorable?  Please write and share some of your darling notes with all of us. I think they are so precious and worth cherishing.

Legacy of Strength

I wanted to share an idea today that gives me, and hopefully my daughters, great strength.  It's an interesting story how I came upon this idea. 

I had a great friend by the name of Darin Bettridge.  We became friends shortly after I divorced and have been great friends ever since.  His mother passed away and when attending her viewing I saw this beautiful collage of pictures of his mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and so on.  The framed photos went back for 4 or 5 generations.  I loved it! I told myself that I wanted to do this as a "cherish" gift for my girls for Christmas.  (The most interesting part of the story is that my friend Darin and his wife later introduced me to Darin's brother who was also at the viewing and funeral, of course.  He is now my eternal mate!)

Last year I started the hunt of finding the photos and collecting a few stories about my mom, grandmother, and back to my fourth great-grandmother.  It wasn't easy to find some of the photos and stories.  I made a frame for myself, my mother, my sister and my daughters.  I wanted a reminder for all of us of the great legacy of strength that we had as women in our family.

Here are a few examples of the process:

STEP ONE: I first went to Michael's and found frames which had the right amount of spots in the matted frame for the number of generations I wanted.  I picked seven (7) for my frame, six (6) for my mothers and eight (8) spots for my daughters.

STEP TWO: I purchased the vinyl from a vinyl cutter. I gave them the font, length and heighth of what I wanted it to say below the photos.  This is the message I wanted all of us to remember. "Legacy of Strength-Royal Daughters of God".

STEP THREE: In the front of the book, I included a family group sheet and the names and order starting with myself and working back to my fourth great-grandmother, Mary Fielding Smith.  Yes, another reason I wanted my children to know the type of strong and spiritual grandmothers they have.  It makes me want to be just a little better every day.

STEP THREE: I then started gathering stories which I later typed up with the photo of the grandmother and put the stories in acid-free sheet protectors. Their stories are ordinary in some ways and yet extraordinary examples of faith. All of the stories became testimony builders.

 I included other stories from other relatives as well as patriarchal blessings from relatives that we have passed down.

STEP FOUR: I picked out a 1" vinyl binder from an office supply store (or Walmart) to house the stories.  I found a quote and decorated the front of the cover with scrapbooking paper, ribbon and buttons.

STEP FIVE: I then added the pictures and wrapped both the frame and the book as their "cherish" gift last year.  I hope this will be one of the treasured traditions they pass on to their daughters.

When are you too old to serve?

Never.  That would be the answer you get from most ambitious Grandmas no matter how old they are.  My mom is no exception.  I wanted to feature my mom, Colleen Taylor, in this blog post.  She is my hero.  This lady has been through more adversity than I can list here.  She has survived 4 children who weren't the easiest to raise, a car accident leaving her almost disabled when it came to walking without assistance, and most recently the loss of her sister-in-law, brother, two sons and her husband all within a two year period.

She still lives alone in her own home with help from my sister Shana.  In all the adversity, I can honestly say I have never heard her complain or ask "Why me?".  She is my example for livng a life of service. 

Not only does she not complain, but she is constantly serving her family with her sewing skills and baking.  She is creative and has created several revenue streams from her crafts and cooking through the years.

I wanted to feature her latest service which I think is commendable.  She saw an opportunity in the local newspaper in Pocatello, ID to help a church (of which we do not belong) sew sundresses for African children who are poor and/or in orphanges.  These are a sample of a few of the latest dresses.  She has now sewed over 20 dresses in a very short time.  She goes to garage sales and the Deseret Industries looking for material that will allow her to make the most dresses possible for these young girls. If you would like to do this or know someone who would, please leave your email in the comment section and I will get a copy of the pattern and information to you.

I am so proud of you mom! You are almost 84 years old and still serving.  What a great example you are to your daughters, granddaughters and all who know you.  And isn't she just the cutest, classiest grandma? 
Love ya mom!

Grandma's Wall of Fame

Doesn't every grandma in every large city and small town have a Grandma wall?  Sometimes the photos of their loved ones are professionally arranged, balanced, matching frames and equally proportioned in spacing.  Others you may find will include pictures with old frames, no frames, and just hanging with nails or tape where there is a vacant space.

These are truly walls that speak.  They speak of hours of teaching, cooking, cleaning, dressing, and hours of sacrifice.  They speak of feelings of pride, accomplishment, and maybe some heartache or personal growth.  They speak of joy, happiness and memories which will never fade with the photographs.

This is  my mother's "wall of fame" which is in the entrance to her home and despite all the other lovely furnishings, it is the space in her home where family and friends congregate every time they come.  No matter how many times they see the same pictures, they will return here.  Pictures and walls are a grandparent/parents showcase.

What a treasured spot!

My Two Granddaughters

After having three daughters and now three additional daughters from my new marriage, we know how much fun girls can be!  Papa Steve brought with him 3 grandsons (Jayden, Kyle and Jeremiah)  and my first grandbaby was a boy (Titan). See wedding picture in prior post).  I had no idea how to play with trucks, cars and dinosaurs.  Girls are easy! Ok...maybe they aren't easy but it was what we are used to.  I can't wait to see all the shopping trips and girls nights out we will have as they two beautiful granddaughters grow up.  I love how their mothers are tracking every little move they make and I want to enjoy every little moment myself.  Here are my two granddaughters.

First, Hadli who is the daughter of my first born.  She is full of energy and personality.  She is always happy and busy and just brings so much energy to a room.  She is just starting to form words and its adorable!

Then comes our youngest grandchild which is Laikynn Kay Hatch.  She is also a very happy baby and very much like her mother in the fact that she is very independent so far.  No need to rock her to sleep, just lay her down and she will put herself to sleep.  She is a cutie and loves to giggle when she sees her baby brother.  Her smile melts your heart!

Again, I love how they are documenting everything.  I tried to do the same when they were little but just as in every part of being a mother, they are so much better at it than me.  I love that! 

Back To School

Here is a fun idea as a gift to your grandchildren/children for back to school. I believe the more excited you are about being educated, the more they will enjoy school. I am a firm believer that children who see you "cherish" their artwork and papers will have a greater self image. They are so darling to personalize.  They have nine (9) dividers so you can have a couple of years of preschool, Kindergarten, and 1-6th grade.  It's a keepsake!

They can be found at on Amazon at:
 http://www.amazon.com/Lakeshore-Learning-Materials-Childrens-Portfolio/dp/B004ZAKXIU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1347505728&sr=8-4&keywords=personalized+keepsake+folder

My Introduction

Just a brief introduction of myself and the reasons I wanted to blog about my experiences in being a Nana/Grandma.  I love my grandchildren! Period!  I love children as well but the ones that call me Grandma are always going to be my favorite and can melt my heart faster than anything.  Here is a picture of a few of my grandchildren.  After recently remarrying (August 11, 2011) I have inherited three grandsons and have had two more born.  I will do a brief introduction of each of them and then I promise to limit the amount of pictures I post of my little "bugs" because I know that as cute as other grandchildren are...no one cares like you do about them.  I get it!  Most of this blog will share tutorials, ideas and content about what we can do to enhance the lives of the children around us. 

Here is a picture from my wedding of my first grandson and my three NEW grandsons:

I will post more tomorrow to introduce my two granddaughters and then let's start sharing ideas!

Grandma's Quilts

What did the quilt at your grandma's house look like? Colorful cotton fabric or crocheted yarn?  Did it look similar to this blog?  Mine sure did. The quilts that the grandmas used to stitch and probably even some make today are made with hours of time and lots of love.  It makes sense then that the homemade quilt becomes a symbol of creative talent and workmanship by the creator and a symbol of love to those who have the privilege of cuddling and snuggling in it.  The fragrance of my grandma's quilts always reminded me of two things:  1) the smell of her home and 2) the smell of fresh laundry that had been drying on the old fashioned clothesline.  It has to be a proven fact that those homemade quilts helped keep you warmer and healed anything that ailed you.  I wish more of us would learn the art and take the time to leave such a legacy for our own children.  Maybe we do with other crafts and projects which express our talents.  However, I believe that the sickest child or the most heartbroken soul can heal in "grandma's quilt".  That is why I chose this blog pattern to set the stage of what I hope will be a resource for all of us busy grandparents and parents who want to be that "warming blanket of comfort" to our children and who want to leave a strong legacy which speaks to them the way each square of a quilt speaks a story.

In line with Sunday, September 9, 2012 and Grandparent's Day, I would like to begin my quest in connecting with other grandma's through this blog. I also would like to invite all who have small children in their lives or those who would like to help foster the relationship that their children have with their grandparents.

I have been pre-planning this for months and have so many ideas to share that I hope you will chose to follow this blog and contribute with your ideas and comments. All of the ideas can be used as grandparents, parents, or any adult who wants to make a difference in the life of the children they are close to.

I haven't found anything that compares to the pure love and joy of being a grandparent! I am grateful every day for those darling "snuggle bugs" in my life.

Let's begin this journey together!