Happy 4th of July

I had a great Fourth of July this year. We kicked it off with a trip up to spend time with Greg and Leigh at there house. We headed up Thursday afternoon and then spent Friday up there and came back on the fourth to make it back in time for Grandma's b-bque. Friday John and Greg headed out bright and early to fish the day away and Mom and Leigh and I settled down for a leisurely day. We went to the local greasy spoon and had a very fattening breakfast. After some shopping and picking up dinner we headed out to the garden for some weeding. OK, I said we spent a leisurely day but that was a bit of a lie. With all the rain we've had this year some of those weeds were as high as our waist, throw in the mosquitoes and the hot sun it was anything but leisurely, but it was nice for me to get outside and do a little yard work as I never get the opportunity. I'll admit we pooped out long before my mom and headed inside, but we gave it a try. We had picked up some fireworks so that night, after dinner, we returned to the fun of childhood and setting off your own fireworks. Here are some of our pictures.

So every year we end the day with a barbeque at Grandma's house. This year the numbers were a bit sparse but it was nice because it gave me a better opportunity to visit. It was fun to hang out and I also got to teach my 89 year old Grandpa how to upload pictures off of his digital camera. Way to go Grandpa....

Just a little bragging

So I haven't had much to post about lately, but I did think that I'd do a little bragging on my sister in law's behalf. As I've mentioned, we're obsessed with Suppose, the fabric store in Preston, ID. Well the last time we went up there Leigh brought this quilt that she's been working on for awhile, it's a charming VW Bus quilt and she's personalized each square with various memories of things in her life. The women that run the store were so excited and took multiple pictures of it. I just got a text from Leigh saying that they have posted it on their blog. So take a look http://supposecreatedelight.com/wordpress/?p=157 and hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do.

Rain, rain go away. Come again some other day...

Or how about not coming for at least a month. Who would think that it could be so wet in Utah, but there has been some serious rain around this place lately. I actually like rain so I haven't been too bugged, and I have to admit I don't think I've ever seen it so green here before. I never thought I'd still have pansies blooming in the middle of June but they are still beautiful. Today we had some serious rainfall, and luckily it cleared just before I had to walk to my car at the end of another work day, but just before sunset another squall came in and we were blessed with this beautiful full rainbow...and if you look just to the right you can see a second one beginning to form...

Quilting...

So like I said earlier, my sister in law introduced me to this cool fabric store and, well, I got a little too excited buying fabrics. Ironically, a week later she went back and bought the same quilt pattern that I had. We have both started working on the quilt and this past weekend we decided to have a little quilting party. I went up to her house and we worked on our quilts together. The part I hate most about quilting is cutting out all the pieces. I got this much done:

Believe me that is barely getting going...I have to have 42 of each of those red squares, and a total of 168 of the rectangle squares. Yikes! Sad to say that that is all I got done in two days. I did finally piece and sew my first block tonight however (even though there is much more cutting to do one needs a reward along the way):

I have to give Leigh some glory as she is far surpassing my efforts, not only is she all cut out but she has completed this many blocks:

Hopefully it won't take me 5 years to complete this quilt like it did the first one I've made :-)

Another birthday?

So I've decided that my life is ruled by birthdays. It appears that that is the only time that I get out and do something. We just celebrated my Grandmother's 84th birthday with a trip out to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point a week ago, and ironically as I write this I have just barely returned from a trip up to Clarkston to celebrate both mine and my sister in law Leigh's birthday with a girls craft weekend. The weather this weekend, once again, kept us inside but that's ok because Leigh introduced us to this charming little fabric store up in Preston Idaho. I now have a lovely collection of fat quarters of some of the cutest fabric that I've ever seen. Along with that I found two quilts that I think will be so fun to make.

For Grandma's birthday we went to the gardens like I mentioned. I'm so impressed that she still has the energy to walk a 15 acre garden with only one break as she enters her mid 80's. Way to go Grandma! It was a beautiful day because it was actually warm! Granted the rain was getting ready to move in and rain for yet another weekend but is made for some really pretty pictures. Here's just a few shots from the day...