Ka-Pow

I'm in my office editing photos of my sisters family picnic yesterday when this sunset just KA-POWS me in the eye!



And if I didn't have so much to accomplish between now and tomorrow leaving for girls camp I would have taken a dozen of the changing, glowing, glimmering beauty that is a desert sunset!

Teeny Burros

Along 4th South, by the Harward Farms building, is the cutest family of burros!



I've been watching them for several weeks now and finally just stopped to take some photos with my MPC. These are miniature burros so the babies are truly teeny...



This-day they were gamboling and nipping at each other, naughty children!



The little dark one seemed to be the instigator! Look at his mischeivious little face! He wants to give his friend a *yip*!

Elio's New Family

Several years ago on one of my trips to Palmdale I made a potty stop at some random gas station along I-15 and saw the cutest little stick people window stickers. I bought one to represent Gordon, Harley and I. Sadly, I don't think I have a photo of those little people... and now they are cleaned off of Beatrix!

Change is frequently stressful for me (DON'T ask me to change wallets!) so I wanted to replace that cute family sticker on Elio. I looked online and at the Towne Center Mall and didn't find anything I liked. Since I was in Orem today I thought I'd check at the University Mall. There's a new kiosk- Emblem Art with a very NICE and TALENTED owner/operator.

We Travis designed this one!



What do you think? My favorite part is *my* spiky hair and Gordon's mustache! I put in my 2 cents worth but Travis worked all the magic! And, yes, we are on a first name basis after I spent over and hour with him working on this rockin' sticker!



Here it is- all *trimmed* out and waiting for the mounting paper. See that large ball? It is made of vinyl scraps from all of his stickers since he opened the kiosk.



Did you know there is an added benefit to having a new car. Elio likes to live way, WAY OUT! Now I get more walking in!



** True Story (sad, but true)

When Auntie P and Uncle Steve got a new car they parked it way, way out in the Von's parking lot... like this, at the outer perimeter. Ah, but in Palmdale the wind ALWAYS blows and it picked up a shopping cart and crashed it into their new car!!!

(BTW I removed two suspicious looking shopping carts before leaving Elio all alone!)

Meet Elio!

Beatrix has a new friend.

Gordon says, "Thank you for letting me buy you a new car!" (Seriously!)

And I say...

THANK YOU TO MY FAVORITE MONKEY!!!!

Elio is a 2012 Hyundai Elantra GT.

Aprons in Waiting

I mentioned recently that I will be going to Girls Camp as one of five cooks.

And you know what cooks need? 

Aprons-

Since moving to Utah and having our monthly 3rd-Sunday Grammie dinner with the family, which is usually cooked in my Sunday clothes, I've NEEDED aprons! I've made a couple and then for Mother's Day this year Rebekah sent me a darling pink-ruffly one.

But I digress...

I envisioned non-matching aprons in PARTY FABRICS to make our cooking more fun. I have a favorite pattern that I've used before (always a plus in my book) so I knew how much fabric and ric-rac I REALLY NEEDED!

This is the purple one...



I had a couple of pieces of fabric in my stash that I wanted to use but I needed more so I set off to Cotton Shop, they were having a sale!



I pulled bolts of fabric and mixed and matched until I was happy.



As I was cutting them out I knew that I wanted a little embellishment to pin on the bib! Enter the twisted fabric flower.



Then in floated a little hair clip... you never do know when you might have to get your hair pinned back in a hot kitchen!!



I've had fun sewing them this week AND getting out my glue gun (NOT the high temp one... it's E-V-I-L) and learning a new craft- twisted fabric flowers.

Sew So, for now, these 5-little-aprons are aprons in waiting hanging on the front of my sewing room door! (see lead photo)

Happy Blog-Birthday to Me!

Five years... 

Count them 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...

I can hardly believe its been five years since I started my blog. It's usually easy for me to keep track of when my blog birthday is because my sweet niece founded her blog, Rosehaven Cottage, just before I did. In fact, Cindy was my inspiration!

Keeping a journal has long been an obsession-of-sorts with me. I learned early on that I could work through many problems by writing them down. I've captured precious Heavenly inspiration that, having gone unwritten, would have been completely lost and forgotten.

My blog has been an extension of my journal... and best of all- a Photo Journal.  My memory works much like a mental photograph album... I have technicolor-surround-sound-smell-a-vision memories!

As I anticipated this day I've gone back and read some of my early posts... I love these journeys  I'm so grateful for this wonderful record that has been created for me, and yes, even my posterity.

About this bumble-bee...



He was just chillin' on the side of my shed. He was so big I could see him from my bedroom window. As I mentioned recently, I've always been fascinated by bumble bees. And this happy little fellow hung out long enough for me to get up-close-and-personal. Isn't he beautiful?

Black Petunia

Last spring I blogged about my attraction to purple. There is just something wonderful about purple.

So when I saw this *black* petunia clearanced at Home Depot on the last day of May I snapped it up!



Frankly I have to FORCE myself to buy other colors to come live in my garden. I could easily have an all purple garden.

This pretty pet resides in my flower bed the runs along the PAW-th at the back of the house. It is joined there by some lighter purple petunias, some lighter-purple-yet mums, the lilac bushes and a newly planted lavender...

SEE! I told you I have a purple addiction!

What To Do?

We've been treated to two glorious COOL rainy days! Yay! I love this tiny reprieve from the July heat.

We arrived home from church in a light drizzle. As I got out of the car I saw some-THING on the driveway. Immediately I recognized it as a snail! My first impulse was to go pick it up and chuck it into the street (don't hold that against me... I did grow up in the country).

But that cruel thought was immediately eclipsed by the thought...

"GO GRAB YOUR CAMERA AND A BATH TOWEL

 AND CAPTURE THAT IMAGE!"

I wanted Gordon to come take a photo of me taking a photo of the snail, lying on my belly in my Sunday clothes... but he was too busy attacking the pot roast. Maybe next time.

My Tiered Planter...

You know how we pin things to our  Pinterest boards thinking *someday* I will do that fun thing? Well, I DID IT!!

This week I ran across this tiered planter post on Pinterest and knew I had to make it.



I made a trip to Home Depot for terra cotta pots and saucer, a half cinder block, 2 bricks (to raise the two inside pots), paint AND some bargain clearance plants. After the hot week we've had most of the outside plants were either-

1. Wilted
2. Clearanced or
3. DEAD!

In original post by Amy she used spray paint... frankly, I've never been a fan of spray paint. I always feel like I just end up killing my precious brain-cells by inhaling it! And I also wanted some very specific colors! Home Depot's selection of spray paint colors is slim, Wal-Mart is better, but neither of them had the turquoise I wanted! So I got those dandy little 8 ounce custom-mix colors from Behr! OMSH! I think I'm in love! They were only $2.87 for 8 oz! I can't even buy acrylic craft paint for that price!

I painted the pots with two coats of base paint, even though this is paint and primer in one. Then it was time to paint the polkie-dotties! I LOVE POLKIE-DOTTIES! I used 3 paper circles to trace my random dots on the big pot but I just free-handed the dots on the two smaller pots with a 1" foam brush. I created a stencil in Photoshop for the address number area, printed it on a full sheet label (no Cricut for me) and used a Coluzze craft knife to cut it out. I used Pauline's trick of applying a thin coat of the base paint over my stencil (and let it dry) before painting with the black paint (which has to be 20 year old!) to get those nice crisp edges for the numbers! Then I rummaged in my furnace room for some wipe on clear polyurethane to seal the outside of the pots.  I used Thompson's water seal on the inside (cough, cough... it was the spray variety!  I can't like it!)

So here is my cast of characters. (You can see the gerbera pot, which had to get demoted one stair, and my old polka-dot pot. They were both happy to be getting a new friend on the front porch!)



Amy suggested using some filler to reduce the weight of the pots. I used a half cinder block- I had to clunk off the corners on the bottom with my hammer to make it fit in the bottom of the pot. I added the bent soda cans (thank you, Gordon) as filler but also found that they helped stabilize the cinder block in the center.



Another Pinterest idea was using a coffee filter in the bottom of the pot to keep the dirt from leaking through! I love it... especially as the second pot's hole is right over the big hole in the cinder block. I used two bricks placed on end in the second pot (apparently I didn't get a photo of that).



I carefully unearthed and separated all of the plants from the $5 hanging basket and remembering what Margee taught us about removing the big root ball, and planted them on the two bottom tiers. I have a $1 geranium for the top pot. The *filler* looked a little thin so I went and *borrowed* some alyssum from my island planter in the front yard.



Can I just say how happy this make me?

Come *Flea* with Me

I have two sweet friends who have taken flea marketing to a whole new level! Margee and Sarah really can make junk into a treasure. (They use the happiest colors!) I wish there was some way to link up with their instagram photos... but I can't find it.

ANY-way... on my way home from Grammie-heaven I stopped to see Sarah. Sadly all of the cool Adirondack chairs were gone... but I did find this darling lime frame that came home with me. I envision matting some of my photos in this beauty. It will look so cute in my happy office.



(Yeah, and see that cool orange door! Where could I put that?)

Grammie-Heaven

I've sung the praises of being a Grammie before, but today I was in Grammie heaven! Since our little man, Jude, is too small to go to Seven Peaks and play with the family  he needs someone to come and stay with him. Enter Grammie! We have a standing Friday morning date.



Usually I will do a few things to help Jessica while she is away... but this day? I spent the entire 4 hours holding my little man. It's what Jessica calls baby-therapy... and maybe that's true, but there just are not words to describe that *tie that binds* me to this precious little grandson!



Yes, I had a wonderful day in Grammie-heaven with my little Jude.

What Is It?

Seriously, I'd like some help here... what is doing this? It's like miniature mole hills in my PAW-th. ("A PAW-th,  a PAW-th!" Name that movie!)



The holes range in size from pencil lead size to kindergarten pencil size (does anyone else remember those fat black pencils we used in kindergarten? I can smell them right now!)



Other than the hole that is surrounded by the miniature hill all of the holes look like someone, some-THING, drilled a perfectly manicured hole in the dirt between the stones in my PAW-th.



I dumped baking soda down the first miniature mole hill, but all the THING did was make another one and bore even more holes in my PAW-th! I've considered just dumping Diazinon down these holes... but for some reason just can't bring myself to do it.

So, what do you think? Will they excavate under the foundation of my house?

Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Let me tell you a story...

Once a long, long time ago, a sweet quilter decided to make a double wedding ring quilt using the very happy colors of the 1930s. For some reason, she didn't complete that quilt top. Then another quilter came upon this unfinished top and added some of her favorite fabrics, trying to complete this top in the same colors and style (but, frankly, missed since she was probably doing this in the 1970s). Now *fast forward* (or as fast as this story gets) someone else bought this unfinished top, probably at an estate sale in the mid-west and brought/sold it to Blue Door Antiques in Livermore, CA where my sister, Sue, who frequents Blue Door, bought it. [circa 2003]

This is where I come into the story! Sue has always been very kind in sharing her finds with me. She asked me if I'd like to buy the top from her and I did! I oohhed and ahhed over it, petted it, studied it and then put it into one of my storage totes... and forgot about it.  I moved it to Utah in 2005, since then it's had many other hiding places.  Each time I find it I go through the same oohing, ahhing and petting process.  Most recently I took it out and put it on the bookcase in my sewing room with good intentions of finishing this top! WHEW!

Guess what? I finally did! Yay for little Joanie... (but that was at least a month ago and I'm just NOW getting around to blogging about it!)



Since my motto with quilts is *go large or go home* I needed to do a little changing on the quilt top to make it fit my *almost king-sized bed*. Previously this top was square and I made it a rectangle. I felt almost guilty picking out those tiny hand stitches!



I always wonder about those previous quilters:

• who were they? 
• how old were they? 
• where did the live?
• what motivated their quilting? 
• would they be happy with what I've done with their quilt?

I am very pleased with our joint effort!



And *our* quilt now lives happily ever after on my *almost king-sized bed*.

Apricot Jam

I did a post about apricot jam back in 2008 but I decided that it was time for another one.



My friend, Sheri, calls this *Sunshine in a Jar*! And she's right! I love the warm, sunny color of apricot jam. I have 12 glorious, golden pints of goodness on my counter cooling right now. And the up side to my apricot jam recipe? The foam that is skimmed off during the cooking process becomes an additional pint of apricot syrup! Yummy!

Laster-evening Gordon and I pick what remained on the tree of the apricots. Since we live in a canyon we get some healthy wind here and have LOTS of windfall fruit. I've collected 6 grocery bags full of apricots and apples this week. All told we ended up with 3- 3 gallon [BYU ice cream] buckets of apricots. I don't know how to quantify that with the only previous crop because I discovered the wonder of BYU buckets since our last in 2008.



We always share our fruit with the Orem-variety of fruit-bats (2 families now!) and the neighbors. I'm thinking that if hard times come, and we know they eventually will, some apricot jam ought to liven up our food storage fair considerably.

So for this year... I will continue to be the little Grammie-jammie-maker.

Bear Claw- A Cautionary Tale

Over the years one of my favorite things to do is go to Girls' Camp. At 18-years-old Ward Girls' Camp director was my very first calling in the church.  I've been to many a girls' camp since then but the one I'm blogging about today is probably the best! (Definitely better than the one in 1976 when I was 9-month pregnant!)



Ten years ago we were camped at Camp Nawaka in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California when we had a midnight visitor the first night of camp. Two of the Stake leaders doing bed checks encountered a *teenaged* bear, and felt like there were more *lurking*. About half an hour later there was a racket in the kitchen/mess hall. The next morning they found that Mama-Bear had broken in, opened the commercial refrigerator, pulled out several half gallon containers of milk, stomped on them, pulled down several bags of freshly baked cookies and had herself a midnight snack of milk and cookies. She even snuffled her bear-nose on the menu white board to find out if we were serving anything else she'd like. When she saw that we were having a potato BAR the next day, she ran away! She didn't want no B[e]AR! So the next day Liz wrote a note to the bear, complete with fanged, snarly-face!



That first day on our hike we passed a dead bear (not the aforementioned bear). It had been there for quite some time. It looked like a bearskin rug stretched over the bones... you know:  fur, paws and head complete with sticky-out tongue. Several people said they'd like to get the paw for the claws.

Well, you know *Little-Joanie*... I went and got that paw!



I wrapped it in several layers of garbage bags and a Ziploc bag and took it home. But the process of getting the claws off the foot was daunting!

I tried a hacksaw, then pliers...



... and even some brute strength.



I finally decided that the only way to get just the claws was to cook it. Fortunately I have a barbecue grill with a side burner. I stunk up the whole neighborhood! If my reputation hadn't been on the line, I would have ditched the whole stinking mess in the trash!

I turned those claws into necklaces and presented them to some of the *key* leaders at the Girls' Camp awards ceremony in August.



**Now we get to the cautionary-tale part...

I was asked to go to girls' camp this year as part of the kitchen crew (frankly, MY VERY FAVORITEST JOB). So Wasatch and Uinta area bears beware! I play for keeps! (Yeah, and I will be wearing my bear claw necklace all week long!)

Spider Wars

Yesterday dawned with the smell of rain in the air! Ahh... I love that smell. I was so pleased, and GRATEFUL, when it started raining just a little while later! I threw open all the windows that I'd closed at 5:30 am and let in that wonderful, damp, cool air. Have I mentioned I love the rain? Especially in the summer?

Early afternoon we needed to take Ashton to her piano lessons up in American Fork so I started closing the ground floor window to a safe/locked position. That was when I spied this...

OK... I'm not a scaredy-cat where spiders or insects are concerned so I find this kind of stuff very interesting! I had no idea this kind of thing could happen in the spider kingdom...



Wouldn't all spiders be impervious to sticky webs? Or is it kind of like germs and antibodies, you are only good with your own germs?

The funny/interesting part is...

THE LITTLE SPIDER IS WHOOPIN' ON THE BIG SPIDER. I could see her/him wrapping up that big dude.



It's the kind of thing I would have stayed and watched if I hadn't just been walking out of the house.

So?? How did it end? I have to admit that I just stopped typing this post and went outside to see if I could determine the outcome!

Yep, that big dude is all curled up and desiccated in the corner of the web AND there are random spider leg in the web... kind of like a warning to any other marauding spiders-

PRIVATE PROPERTY-

Violators will be eaten!

MY Kind of Fireworks

Lasterday evening Harley and I took a little walk-a-bout. I have several favorite route that we take... and THIS-night I chose the right one!

This is what I was rewarded with after my fairly steep climb (it's good for me!)...



Isn't this just one of the most wonderful things you can see? AND to show just how wonderful this was... it was taken with my MPC aka iPhone! You know it's an awesome sight when even a low-end camera can capture this beauty!

My favorite part is the *God's light* coming through the clouds. Truly He has created a beautiful world for us to live in.

Dragonfly

Back in April, when my lilacs were in bloom, I walked out the back door and saw this handsome fellow just chillin' on the lilacs. I stealthily crept back inside for my Rebel and came back out just as quietly to captured him in all of his beauty.



I'm sure glad I stumbled upon this photo... it is too good not to share.

Raspberry Vanilla Jam

Raspberries have always be way at the top of my list of delicious things (sorry, Kevin and Sonny!) Anyone who wants to get in my good graces would be well served to bring me anything raspberries... and if you throw in chocolate and you've got a grand-slam!



I was browsing on Pintrest lately and ran across a recipe for Raspberry Vanilla jam! WOW! That is a close second to raspberry/chocolate. So I pinned it! Now I have to tell you that I AM NOT a Pintrest freak, but I do think this is a handy way to keep track of online ideas all in one place.

So, today, after saving two pickings of raspberries I was ready to make my version of Raspberry Vanilla jam. And I offer it to you here.


Raspberry Vanilla Jam

8 cups of fresh raspberries
8 cups of sugar
1 vanilla bean

Combine raspberries and sugar in a large pot (this jam will double in size as it cooks). Slice open the vanilla bean and scrape out the caviar. Add the caviar and the bean hull to the raspberry/sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Since the raspberry seeds have a natural pectin you won't need any additional pectin.

When finished cooking* ladle into clean, hot jars. Adjust lids and turn upside-down for about 5 minutes**. Makes about 8 cups.

Enjoy.

*The Pintrest recipe said to remove the vanilla bean hulls but I didn't... I want to maximize my vanilla yummyness!

** OK now I know that there are those out there who want to process their jam in a boiling water bath. If that makes you happy go ahead and do it, but I've never had any problems in all my years of jam making.

Jude's Special Day

Today, in Doug and Jessica's home, little Jude received his name and blessing from his Daddy. It was a wonderful and moving blessing; sniffing could be heard throughout.



I'm so grateful that we are blessed with the Priesthood.



It is such a blessing to know that the Lord is intimately aware of each of his children... especially His tiny ones.

(Back row- Uncle Micah, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Stuart, Uncle Beau,

Front row- Uncle Matt, Poppa Warner, Brother Hickman; of the Bishopric, Daddy-Doug with Jude, Grampa Gordon, Poppa Dell)

Jude donned his first little-man-shirt and his ginormous tiny-baby tie.



This is a very happy Grammie...