A Provo Adventure!

This last week I was bitten by Adventure and decided to go on a 3 day trip up to Provo to visit my sister. It was a blast!

I can never get enough of those snow covered mountains..

We had a waffle party to enjoy Corinne's NEW waffle maker!

Yuuuummm they were delicious!

My sister-in-law and niece accompanied us on our trip.. we stopped by The Chocolate in Orem. A cute house converted to a sweets store. Upstairs there were separate rooms with couches, wall hangings, tables and lights..a great atmosphere for a post date or relaxing with friends..

Kaylee hard at work coloring..

Madelyn lOVED the girls we stayed with. I think she gets a little bored with just me at home..

We adore them!

And Aunt Aly of course!

I felt like I was back in my college days with those awesome girls.

I'm not sure what I'm doing in this picture, but this is one of my favorite statues on campus right next to the Museum. I'd look at it every time I'd go into the building for class. It is of a small girl posed as if she were ready to dive into the little pool at her feet. Or maybe she is dancing? I'm not sure of her history.

We went through the Carl Bloch exhibit. SO SO good. Can't get enough of great art. He is one of my favorites.. maybe you recognize his work? This one is my absolute favorite:

I was able to catch up with some of my best friends and sisters which was so great for me! It was an awesome trip, Madelyn did so well in the car/sleeping in a new place and I proved to myself how adventurous I can be ha! Challenge yourself to do something out of your comfort zone this week..I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the fun you have!

Hope your Monday is starting of well....Happy MLKJ day!

Rolling around in the New Year! Ha!

I took a bunch of my fabric scrap's and cut out pentagon's and hexagon's. And, I am so loving using my Wildflower pincushion with pearlized pins. Makes me feel a tiny bit fancy and festive, when I sew.
Making a ball from my new book that Jenna and her hubby gave to me for Christmas. The book is called, Seams To Me....by Anna Maria Horner. The book is splendid and even has a pocket in the back of it with the patterns all safely tucked away for use in the future. Starting to look like a ball...I think.
Well, a little fuzzy in the photo and I do not have enough stuffing to fluff it up super tight, but, had to take a picture of it before I send it to Jenna. I am sending it to her, flat, so that she can stuff it for her little one and finish off the last patch. I like it!

And, while I sew and do many other things, I like to take time to throw out old bread crusts for the birds so they can have a little treat. You can see a blue bird, a red cardinal and the plain bird is the female cardinal.

And, here is our little deer...just waking-up. Took this picture right off of our back porch. Hope we continue to see her around for awhile. She is delightful to watch.

x0x0

January...a lovely month!

Ooh-la-la! I'll take a cup of this to go! This is the first picture/page on my new 2011 wall calendar. I do love a good calendar.

The New Year brings refreshment and a breath of fresh air into my life. I feel invigorated and rejuvenated...not by anything that I am doing specifically, but, simply by the fact that a New Year has once again rolled around. The old year is out and the New Year is in! A fresh slate with nothing on it! A new day to carry on and live life to it's fullest. I am curious as to what the New Year will bring...the adventures, the joys, the sorrows, the trials, the triumphs...such a mixed bag.



My husband bought and hauled home a new bed. He assembled the bed as I gathered fresh linens, a blanket and quilts. As I hauled myself up into the bed (ha---really, don't laugh, but, I really had to make effort to get up and onto our bed), I sat with pillows at my back, I felt very regal and somewhat like "The Princess and the Pea"...finagling for comfort in this new nice bed---failing to fight off peels of laughter caused by our new "much to tall" bed, we finally did settle down and began to talk about our life together...past, present and future. We don't set goals each New Year. I wondered about this little fact. And, then it came to me....every birthday celebrated, every wedding anniversary that comes and goes, every change of season, every World Wide General Conference for our church each October and April---these are check points in my life. I give myself a lot of chances to do, redo, try again, accomplish, reset, move forward, move backward, etc. It works for me.



So, here's to January where I will continue to enjoy lots of cups of cocoa. This cocoa was sent to us by our daughter who is serving a Spanish speaking mission for our church. The chocolate looks somewhat like a hockey puck. You drop it into milk. It slowly dissolves as the milk heats up on the stove.

And, to winter snow and new friends in our yard. This little deer has found refuge in our yard for the past week or so. Love seeing her wandering around or seeing her from my kitchen window in the early morning light, still asleep under our huge pine trees.



I love January...come what may!

Out with the old, in with the New!

The end of the old year always leaves me with a nostalgic sadness..while the new year awaits me bright and shining and malleable. In the end, I feel inside like a wobbly, shiny malleable ball of playdough, hesitant to squeeze and destroy my last creation but full of ideas of how the new one can turn out. It doesn't help that Christmas is the best time of the year because we get to be home with my family and the New Year means it's back to lonely ole Las Vegas. But now that we've been back a few days I think I've come to terms with it.

Aaron's busy season has kicked off so it's Maddy and me around the apartment most of the time. Good thing we are such good friends, she's really getting fun to play with. It's VEGGIE time around here and here is the tally:

peas O carrots 3 Rice cereal 30

Something like that. Peas are out. Carrots are in!


And catching up on our winter hibernation..


Ahh too cute.

Delish Magazine has a wonderful feature on Anna Maria Horner, one of my fabric/artist/creator favs. In fact, peruse the entire online magazine because I found some great recipes and articles that can easily fill some of the empty afternoon hours you may have lying around. Or, if your bathroom needs cleaning and the dishwasher is calling your name (I'm not liistenniiing!) it's a great distraction to soothe a guilty conscience when work is calling your name and you just don't want to do it.

On Anna Maria's site itself she has some beautiful pictures and it always fills my creative bank.

Reading the article on Delish about how she started into the business, how she organizes that creative mind with the demands of a business I was surprised when she said mentioned the amount of time she spend sketching, scheming ideas was really low compared to what most people thought, and how much of what she does is "grunt work" and "not pretty".
I guess in my mind I envisioned her life as sketching, drawing, creating, sewing to her hearts content, people clamoring her to write books, go to craft shows and that life was just breezy and fulfilled because of the beauty she was surrounded by and the extraordinary talent she has. I'm always surprised to find out that my view through the window into other people's "ideal" lives is just that. A window looking into just one of their rooms but I miss the whole rest of the house..the exhaustion from being so busy, the stress, the worrying about problems we don't even know about, the struggles they have with looking at themselves in the mirror without seeing all they need to work on. I've realized (in my old 24 years of age) how much people really are alike. Everyone has problems they are plowing through (or ignoring). Even those who seemingly "have it all"don't. They put on a brave face. They emphasize the positive. And that's what we see. And if troubles don't bug 'em now, they will. At one time or another.

It makes me grateful for the life I have. For the troubles I face. For the strength of character I get to keep building as I get through one and jump into another. For those moments when Maddy is asleep on my lap and I feel pure joy.

Yes, the end of the year always saddens me but I can't help but look forward to the wonderful moments I get to live ahead. Bring it on!

Loving the New Year!

Wake-up! It's a New Year. Time to celebrate and do important things, like....

..playing with Uncle Spencer
...and some more playing. Kitchen stuff makes some of the best toys. Canning jar rings made for a lot of fun and noise. Try it sometime. Great for teething babies!

Out and about, before the New Year, for a family lunch at our favorite Chinese Buffet restaurant. Sadly, our dear friends had hoped to drive up from Indiana for a visit and lunch, but, were not able to come. Rain check for lunch, Kareena!

Made this marvelous Butterscotch Bubble Loaf. Don't you just love the name! HA! It sounds like a celebration.

Take 24 Rhodes Dinner rolls and cut in half (thawed but still cold). Dip rolls in 1/2 box butterscotch, non -instant, pudding mix. Place rolls in a sprayed bundt pan, sprinkling in between layers of rolls with pecans or walnuts. Sprinkle remaining pudding mix on top of rolls. Then, melt 1/2 cup butter, adding in 1/2 cup brown to make a syrup. Pour over rolls. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 and 1/2 hours. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cover with foil the last 15 minutes. Immediately loosen from sides of pan with a knife and invert onto a serving plate.
So good and yummy.

Hint: from my own experience....I was busy playing with my grand daughter and let the rolls rise about 2 hours. They were tooooo huge and up and over the sides of my pan. Made tough to bake, as the rolls that were up and over the sides, dropped off and landed all over my oven---ha! There was smoke....but, after fetching the loose rolls out of the oven, all was well.

My husband is the carmel corn maker in our home. Sure enjoyed this with one of our many family movie nights over the holidays.

Finally, our New Years Eve "finger food" extravaganza. Such a wonderful tradition. Everyone makes their favorite finger food/appetizer to share.

Beautiful sunset.

Wonderful New Year beginnings.

Happy 2011. May your New Year's dreams and wishes come true. xo

p.s. Stay tuned for a terrific and colorful project. Get your fabric scrap's ready!

Happy-After-The-Holidays!

Simple Christmas beauty!

Love when my daughter brings home a large Poinsettia from work each year. It is gorgeous.

Sweet little Christmas baby. Such a little doll.

Hauling in the tree from off of our property!

HA! Loving that face.

No matter how old you are, Christmas is still full of surprise, delight, love and warmth.

Such a good time for our family...oh, with a special phone call from our daughter who is serving a mission for our church. So great!

We "still" have only had one good snowstorm this winter season. Just enough snow for tractor sledding.

Good times!

Sorry for the blurrrrrr! But, loved the chance to play tennis a few times.

Jenna held her own against the boys!

And....there had to be time for PIE! Made a graham cracker crust. Can't see it in this picture, but, the sugar sparkled in this crust. It baked up so nicely...very pretty!

Yummy first layer. 4 ounces cream cheese, 1 T sugar, 1 T milk. Mix with a wire whisk until smooth. Then, add in 1 and 1/2 cup of cool whip. Pour and spread onto crust.

Next, mix together 1 cup milk, 1 can 16 ounces canned pumpkin, 2 boxes (4 serving size) of instant vanilla pudding and pie filling, 1 t ground cinnamon, 1/2 t ground ginger, and 1/4 t ground cloves ( or I use 2 t of pumpkin spice).

Put in fridge for a good 4 hours before serving....if you can wait that long-ha! Doesn't always happen that way at our house. So delicious.

More holiday happenings and fun to come. Was such a nice 2 weeks for us all!

Happy 2011 to us all!