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?)