059- Tulip Shoots

I saw these tulips shooting up a few days ago but finally got out there today to take a photo. I did my first shoot, uploaded and started editing- "What the chicken? Why are these photos so grainy? Ah, my camera is still set on 1600 ISO from yesterday at the BYU basketball game."

So out I go again, laying on the matted down grass to get up-close-and-personal! "What the chicken? What is on my sock??" (You're not going to believe this!) A deer hair! I'm not kidding. The coolest part is that it is tri-colored... very cool. (BTW they have very kindly trimmed back all my ivy for me this winter since the snow melted!)

ANY-way, this is the start of a very beautiful tulip. It is one of my favorites. She lives right up in the little corner between the house and porch so she is protected. Stay tuned for more photos of this beauty.


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058- Cougar B-ball

I got to experience another 1st today! We went to see the BYU Cougars play the New Mexico Lobos. I haven't been to a basketball game since I was in high school! Frankly, basketball has always been just too LOUD! So today you could find me with my trusty Mack's earplugs!

It was a fun game with never more than a 5 point spread! But in the end the Lobos topped the Cougars by 2.


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057- One More...

Beautiful Sunset!

I will never get tired of a beautiful sunset... I hope you won't either!

056- Pyracantha

You know one of the things that I like about pyracantha bushes? They are spelled just they way they sound! Seriously, I love their happy winter berries, even though these berries are orange my favorites are the red berries. (no surprise there!)


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Ages ago when Gordon and I were first married we had pyracantha bushes at our house. We also had an olive tree. Blast, those olives needed to be sprayed each year to keep them from fruiting; we didn't get them sprayed... so there was a mess on the front lawn to clean up!

Ta-da-da-da! Here they come to save the day... enter our friendly birds. They flocked in and picked up all those olive; as long as they were there they decided to eat the pyracantha berries... but those berries were old and we had a flock of drunk birds. (Where were the Livermore PD to issue some DUI's, umm, FUI's?) You should have seen them party.

I Googled drunk birds and found that this has happened before and since. Silly birds!

055- Come in from the Storm

Today is Temple Day; also a snow/rainy day. When I arrived this morning it was snowing so I grabbed my umbrella from the Beatrix' *boot*. As I trekked my way up the hill I was anxious to get inside where it was warm and dry; I was anxious to get out of the storm.

As I was editing my photo I thought about how, even on a sunny day, going to the Temple is like Coming in from the Storm. What a blessing to be able to go and worship our Savior and leave the cares of the world outside. How comforting to be able to warm our souls and rest our hearts. And when we are finished we are better able to brave the elements, once more, refreshed and rejuvenated.

054- Inside the Book

I've had a few requests to show some of the pages from my blog book. So today is your lucky day! I've enjoyed this process so much. I enjoyed doing it every day last year (ok that's not exactly the truth... some days I felt overwhelmed). I loved the reminiscing as I put the book together. I was ecstatic when I got the printed book in my hands! WOW! But I think that one of the things that I've been the most appreciative of is my wonderful year long journal. I've seen the patterns of weather, moods, hard days, good days. I've reread posts where I can't even remember what my *problem* was, just that I'd handled it. What a blessing to have this wonderful record of me!

This is one of my favorite spreads. I took a series of 11 photos with the objective of creating a panoramic photo.





I liked that I could manipulate the templates in the Blurb software. I could add lots of photos and text, or not so much.























This year I am going to work on the book as I go instead of doing all of it in a 6-week period!

053- My Design Wall

Saturday evening I cut out a couple of quilts so this morning they were waiting for me... calling my name.

I love to make scrappy quilts. I've found that my design wall is invaluable to the success of this type of quilt. I'm so lucky to have a room dedicated to my creative habits! I have a portable design wall (READ- a wonderful, soft, fuzzy queen-sized sheet tacked to the wall). I love the ability to deal out the quilt pieces like a deck of card. I get to see the *big picture*. I have a process for stacking up the rows, in pairs, so I can carry the labeled stacks to the sewing machine to chain-piece the rows together.

I've added another step to my design wall process, I take a photo of the quilt on the design wall. Then I look at it on the camera's display, it's kind of like squinting at the quilt... I can see if I have a good distribution of colors and color values.


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Ah, but what happens if I get the stack twisted, in spite of all the careful planning, stacking and labeling? (I wasn't too far into piecing when I saw that the pieces didn't seem to going together the way it looked on the wall. I had too many of the *wrong* fabrics as neighbors.) Well, this-day I put the memory card into my laptop to view the master plan. It would take some adjustments to get back on track.

As I UN-sewed, rotated and re-sewed I thought about how this applies to my life. If I am careful in *planning-my-day* (morning prayer, scripture study, controlling negative thoughts, etc) I have a pretty good chance that I will have a good day.

Ah, but what happens when someone/something *twists my stacks*? Can I take out my memory card, put it into my mental computer and re-view my Master Plan? Can I pick out the wrong stitches, make the needed adjustments and reunite my positive feelings and intentions and meet my goals?

Sounds simple doesn't it?

052- Rose Hips

This is such an interesting time of year! Anything left *on the vine* is sad, frozen and shriveled up. But I also see my black-hearted red tulip, sheltered by the house, starting to sprout up and remind me of its promised beauty.

We've had such a lovely mild winter and this year that is a very good thing; between basking and this mild weather I've had much less SAD problems. Happy thought!

051- Reflected Glory

When I was leaving the Temple on Wednesday I saw things I wanted photos of... but no Rebel! So when I went to do baptisms on Thursday I tucked my non-marsupial-pocket-camera into my very large purse (I changed purses especially to accommodate this) so I could click away.

I love this photo of reflected [Old] Glory!

050- El Niño...

Spanish for *The Niño*!

When we lived So Cal El Niño was a troublesome weather pattern... it means that whatever burned last fall slides down the mountain this winter with all the rain. It also meant we would all pile in the Van and drive all over Palmdale to see what flooded this time!

But here in Utah I find that El Niño translates to mild winter... I can like that! Two winters ago we got our first major snow in November and didn't see the poor dead grass until April! And by then it was riddled with deer-poo trails!

I am enjoying this milder winter but besides that So Utah, where they've been having drought, stands at 153% of their average snowfall.

So here today... one of our rare snow storms this month! Yes, I can definitely like this!


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049- My Book

I received my 365/2009 book in the mail today! I am so pleased with my book! The colors are good and true to life, the print quality good. Is my finished book perfect? No, but definitely a good first effort.

I used Blurb to publish my book. The functionality wasn't as good as I wanted it, you know, not like using PhotoShop but I could customize my layouts. One drawback is they don't provide a free online preview. I think Shutterfly does so I will investigate them before I decide who I will used next time. So will I be making a 2010 book... OH YEAH!

048- The Creamery

This year I've had to start looking even harder for some new things that I want to include on my blog. I've posted a photo for the last 444 day (can you even believe that??) I've got lots of flowers, somewhat less fauna and a copious amounts of miscellanea... so now I'm looking for the not so obvious things that make up my daily/weekly life.

This-day it is The BYU Creamery on Ninth. I am such a milk baby! I LOVE MILK, half & half is the pip (I drink the little cups they put on the table for coffee drinkers... don't want the coffee, just the half & half!) and thick whipping cream? I think I might faint!

ANY-way about a year ago I stopped at the Creamery to pick up some ice cream on my way home from the Temple. That's when I saw the milk- Hey! It's the same price as milk at Wal-Mart but tastes so much better. So now part of my Wednesday/Temple-day ritual is to stop at the Creamery and pick up milk... and whatever else looks yummy.


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047- My Un-Birthday Gift

This is a little unconventional for a POTD but since this is MY blog I can do what I want... and on this, my Un-Birthday (my half-birthday), I want to give thanks for the Gifts of the Spirit as described in 1 Corinthians 12 (also Doctrine & Covenants 46). I love verse 31 where we are admonished to "covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way."

Almost three years ago my sister Sue got me involved in the Family Search Indexing program. (I've always been a little research-challenged, which frustrates me, and I never felt like I was making any contribution to family history.) Indexing has just been up my alley. As I have work diligently to decipher the old handwriting I have felt that Gift of the Spirit helping me see what was written so many years ago (verse 10).

Tonight I was arbitrating this batch of Jamaican birth records from 1889. I knew that neither of the indexers had the mother's name correct, but I couldn't determine what it was. I used all the *tricks*: comparing the handwriting on other records, using the look-up helps within the program and Googling names. Then as has happened before, I looked at this 121 year old record and I knew that the name was Isidora! I know that this is a gift that is given to me from the Lord and I am grateful!

046- Grapevine Raindrop

We had another of those wonderful, grey, rain-days today! There is just something soothing about the rain. I ventured out with my camera, sheltering the lens so I didn't end up with water spots. I'm not sure I will ever get tired of the wonderful upside-down magnified image in raindrops.


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Then this evening Kevin, Suzi and Ethan joined us for dinner. It is so nice to have family close.

045- Another Lovely Sign

On my walk to choir practice this afternoon I saw this happy little crocus. Ahh, lovely sign of spring! After practice I got my camera and walked up to capture this lone happy flower. Isn't a convenient that choir practice is just up around the corner?


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044- Valentine Cook-shees

Nothing says Valentine's Day like cook-shees! (Well, maybe 2 dozen long-stemmed roses, or a box of truffles, or a candlelit dinner or a romantic getaway... sigh!) I just needed to make these tasty cook-shees today. I love any shortbread type of cook-shee and these are the pip because they have raspberry as well!

I got this Linzer cook-shee recipe a couple of years ago. They are a little time consuming, but well worth the effort... especially if you don't go and burn one batch like I did :-(


non-burned batch

043- Daffodil Shoots

Today dawned snowy but is was short lived. It made it all the way up to 49 degrees this afternoon. As I sit here in my playroom I'm watching that soft golden light fade fast as the sun sinks behind West Mountain and the temperature drops.

Just a few minutes ago I had a little walk-about looking for those signs of spring that I long for. I've been waiting for this sign featured here today! My daffodils are shooting up through the frost-heaved ground. I just love the look of the dirt all pock-marked after the snow finally melts.



Gordon told me earlier that today the only state in 50 that didn't have snow on the ground is Florida... so much for global warming!

042- A Chicken Soup Kind of Day

Come dinner time I just knew I needed to make chicken soup, not the kind from the can, but the kind with real ingredients (because we all know that can soup just has fake ingredients! LOL)

The last time I made chicken soup I hit on a great addition, you know, the secret ingredient! Just before serving I stir in about 3/4 cup alfredo sauce! Oh, my, yum! And what is a good bowl of soup without delicious bread-stuffs? This day I made cheesy biscuits that were almost as good as the ones at Red Lobster. But the best part? Leftovers!

041- Sweet Violet

A couple of days ago when I was on a search for signs of spring I found this one lone violet blooming in a very sheltered flower bed on the somewhat-south-facing side of my garage. (*I'll give you a rant about that in a minute!)

Violets seem to love my yard, they grow here like weeds AND I LIKE IT! I wish all my weeds were this pretty.


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** OK so here is my rant-

I live in Utah, right? EVERYTHING in Utah is all about the compass; you know, all North, South, East, West. We lived in the Antelope Valley for 23 years which is also set up on the compass... it is so easy to find your way around. Oh, but my street??? Nope, it is set at 45* on the compass. So when I want to say the south side of my house I always have to qualify it with the adjective! Rrrrrr!

But the upside is that I get the nice winter sunshine shining in my French doors where I like to bask. See, I can always find the upside!

040- Dried Cherries

I was out documenting the progress on our roof earlier today when I saw *that perfect light* shining on my neighbor's weeping cherry trees. Look at that beautiful blue sky in the background.

We still have cold temperatures... but I can like the sun! I've done my share of basking the last two days. Good thing too the clouds are coming back tomorrow.

039- *New Boots*

I was getting ready to type my blog post title and this popped into my mind.

Funny story...

When Spencer was just a little guy, maybe 3, he found a pair of child size cowboy boots that used to be mine. He LOVED them, but they were too big, and frankly, too worn out. We were able to find him some boots just his size. The first Sunday after getting his boots we walked into church and instead of turning into *our* row Spencer proceeded straight up to the podium, proudly stomped one of his boots down in front of Bishop Lenker and excitedly stated, "NEW BOOTS!" Bishop Lenker laughed and so did we... what a funny little guy! (wow... 20-something years ago)

So this-day my house is getting to do the Spencer-routine and proudly state, "New Boots!" (or, perhaps, new hat!)


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Why a new roof? Our wind storm two weeks ago did more damage than we could see to the roof. The insurance adjuster said that 60% of our roof needed to be replaced... so we are getting a new roof for 40 cents on the dollar. Perhaps not what I wanted to spend my money on right now, but still a blessing.

038- Mum's the Word

I've been conducting an experiment this winter- to see if regular *basking* will help with my SAD. The evidence seems to show that it is helping but when I go several bask-less days I really feel it. I love the rain, snow, clouds and weather but I realize that I wouldn't be a good candidate for Seattle! ;)

So a few minutes ago I took my camera outside on this very grey day in search of some sign of spring's approach. You know what I found? Mum's the word! Down under the dried stalks of my Chrysanthemum (yeah, try to spell that without spell-check!!) I found the new growth brought out by our warmer (ha, ha 40*) days.

So for today... this is my sign of hope, and who knows- tomorrow the sun may be shining and I can bask again.


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037- Rain Drops

I woke up this morning to a some very grey light filtering in through the blinds and curtains. When I peeked out I found that it was raining. I just love the rain! As soon as I opened the front blinds I saw my photo of the day! My Japanese Maple sits just outside and was covered with thousands of rain drops- what a beautiful sight!


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The other thing I found today is the texture I used. It is from Jerry Jones AKA Ghostbones AKA SkeletalMess. What a talented and generous guy.

My other fun today (and it is just early afternoon)- we had *clean the church* duty again. Since I've been keeping my photo journal AKA Project 365 I can tell you that we did this almost exactly a year ago.

036- Winter Pond

I've been working on my Project 365/2009 book at Blurb. I'm in the proofing process right now. Today I was reading posts from last June with photos from the Angell wedding reception that was in Eaves backyard. I was talking about their beautiful pond and realized that I've never taken photos just of the pond.

So on this very mid-winter day I present my black and white world to you.


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035- Frozen Falls

I went on a little photo explore today... very little! My plan was to park at Nunn's Park and walk the Provo River Trail and take some fun photos of the frozen falls. HA! Can you say avalanche area? The best I could do is pull into the area that is supposed to be the turn in to Bridal Veil Falls (you know the area... the one that has the signs that say NO PARKING NO STOPPING! Yeah, that one.)

Luckily I brought my whole photo bag, not just the camera and one lens. I popped on my 75-300mm and clicked away! Wow, love that lens!



These photos don't show it so much but the ice was blue!


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034- Heart-Break in 1st Grade

Miss Camille, best loved teacher in 1st grade, had a handsome visitor recently. Kevin, a talented musician, came to see his sweetie in action and to sing with the 1st graders. What no one counted on was that this little visit from Miss Camille's boyfriend would cause heartbreak in at least one little infatuated 1st grader!


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Oh, what a sad lesson to learn at such a tender age. But not all was heart-break... do I detect some twitterpated little girls? (Yes, and maybe even one big girl in this class!)



And how do I know all this? I was that proverbial fly-on-the-wall. I was there on the same day to help Miss Camille get ready for parent/teacher conference. I am so thankful that I am close enough to do this. And this time I'm also grateful for Miss Jamie's camera and my camera phone, because my big one was at home. Sad...

033- Groundhog's Day

I have funny story to share... it's a bit long, but I hope you will enjoy it. It's kind of a Groundhog's Day story. Well, inspired by the movie... love that movie! ;)

   

 Camille's first year of cheerleading she was on a competition squad made up of little girls, 3rd-5th grade. Wildflower was the only school in the Antelope Valley to have competition squads so they had to compete in Bakersfield, which was about 90 miles away. There were about 8-10 teams there with which our girls competed. (Wildflower also had an older squad 6th - 8th grades which competed there and usually won.) We had a dandy coach, lots of parental support** and excited little girls. So most Saturdays from January through April found us in Bakersfield at competitions. Our team was good, they were sharp, and they started winning! But with any competition sport there has to be winners and losers... that's just the way it works. ** Here's the proviso... not ALL of the parents understood that this was a fun sport and that if we didn't win every week it was ok! (You know it's people like these ladies who give cheerleading moms a bad name!) 

Towards the end of the season our team lost a competition by a few 100th of a point. We were disappointed, but ok. All except the above unnamed moms... they appeared at school bright and early Monday morning and demanded to see the Principal. She graciously gave them an audience and listened to their ridiculous demands: They wanted the Principal to call the organization and DEMAND that they review their video tape (which they probably didn't have, only parents are that nutty!) to prove that the other team had cheated and award 1st place to our team! I'm not making this up! I worked at the school so I was privy to all of this early morning drama. These moms fumed and fussed the whole day. In an effort to placate these moms several SANE mothers agreed to watch the video tape. When we disagreed that the other team had NOT substituted older, and therefore more talented, team members in order to cheat and win these moms argued all the more. Finally in desperation I said to the most vocal of the two, "We've seen the video and there wasn't any swapping. We just have to accept this. You need to just stop." She turned on me and hollered, "DO YOU WANT TO TAKE THIS OUTSIDE?" I was momentarily stunned but then, making my best buck-toothed-ferret-face, quipped,

"Don't drive angry, don't drive angry!" 

She stuttered and spluttered, took her VHS tape and stomped out.

032- All Mine

Do you notice anything different about my house? Look closely... you might just see it! This house has no mortgage! Even 5.5 years ago I would never have dreamed that we would get a house paid for in my life time. But here it is... a wonderful blessing poured out upon us. We are so blessed.


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