Sunday Scripture

For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.
-Doctrine & Covenants 76:5

Read the Bills

Trying Math Mountains

My Mom, a kindergarten teacher, swears by Math Mountains. She's been telling me all about the good things they do, and I've been listening. So I made some felt parts this afternoon & we tried it out. If you look closely, there is a 6 on top of our green mountain. I may re-do the numbers because they're hard to see. But Monkey liked it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did with it. One of these days I'm going to stop underestimating him! Now I need to talk to Mom some more about fun things to do with this fun new game. (Up there at the top is Mary and Baby Jesus, who were observing the process because it was important to Monkey that they be there. How sweet!)

Don't Bug Me

Browsing Tutorials

Make your own cake - and cupcake - stands with thrifted vases and plates.

Turn a cute but too small skirt into an adorable apron.

A cute knitted hat that I like better in these colors.

This one's not a tutorial, it's an invitation for folks to make an apron for the sew-along she does every so often. It looks like fun. I may have to try it out.

Bags: Complete

I am making another with larger squares; these are cut at 2 inches. The new bag's squares will be 3 inches, and done in blues & purples with a tan bottom. Got the fabric picked out and cut and I'm all ready to go, but I decided that if I do the sewing when I'm this tired I'll make dumb mistakes that I'll just have to unpick later. So I'm blogging about it instead. Good thing I have a spell checker. I'm really tired tonight.

Oh. I used Pink Penguin's Fabric Basket tutorial. It's a nice one. And it makes pretty bags. Plus, she links to a truly wonderful box corner tutorial.

Wisdom of God; Foolishness of Man

More from Les Miserables:

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There are men who dig for gold; [Monseigneur Bienvenu] dug for compassion. Poverty was his goldmine; and the universality of suffering a reason for the universality of charity. 'Love one another.' To him everything was contained in those words, his whole doctrine, and he asked no more. The senator to whom we have referred, the gentleman who thought himself a philosopher, once said to him, 'You see what the world is like, every man at war with every other, and victory to the strongest. Your "love one another" is pure folly.' - 'Well, if it is folly,' said Monseigneur without disputing the matter, 'then the soul must enclose itself within it like the pearl in the oyster.' Which is what he did.

Les Miserables, Book One: An Upright Man (Page 69)

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Success

I've been reading Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, and I loved this bit about success:

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It may be remarked in passing that success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblances to merit. To the crowd, success wears almost the features of true mastery, and the greatest dupe of this counterfeit is History. Juvenal and Tacitus alone mistrust it. In these days of almost official philosophy has come to dwell in the house of Success, wear its livery, receive callers in its ante-chamber. Success in principle and for its own sake. Prosperity presupposes ability. Win a lottery-prize and you are a clever man. Winners are adulated. To be born with a caul is everything; luck is what matters. Be fortunate and you will be thought great. With a handful of exceptions which constitute the glory of a century, the popular esteem is singularly short-sighted. Gilt is as good as gold. No harm in being a chance arrival provided you arrive. The populace is an aged Narcissus which worships itself and applauds the commonplace. The tremendous qualities of a Moses, an Aeschylus, a Dante, a Michelangelo or a Napoleon are readily ascribed by the multitudes to any man, in any sphere, who has got what he set out t get - the notary who becomes a deputy, the hack playwright who produces a mock-Corneille, the eunuch who acquires a harem, the journeyman-general who by accident wins the decisive battle of an epoch. The profiteer who supplies the army of the Sambre-et-Meuse with boot-soles of cardboard and earns himself an income of four hundred thousand a year; the huckster who espouses usery and brings her to bed of seven or eight millions; the preacher who becomes a bishop by loudly braying; the bailiff of a great estate who so enriches himself that on retirement he is made Minister of Finance - all this is what men call genius, just as they call a painted face beauty and a richly attired majesty. They confound the brilliance of the firmament with the star-shaped footprints of the duck in the mud.

Les Miserables, Book One: An Upright Man (Page 64)

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