Goodbye to Spring...

It's been awhile since I've truly been inspired by what I see to want to photograph it, but over Memorial Weekend I was up at my brother Greg's home and there was something about the way the sunshine was shinning through the blossoms on the apple tree that just drew me outside with the camera. So I gathered up my two trusty companions, Jonsi and Magill, and set off on an adventure through the lens. At one time it really did turn into an adventure as I was determined to capture a honey bee, and after awhile one of them decided they had had enough, chasing me all the way back to the deck until he was satisfied that I was gone. Of course sneaky and determined soul that I am I headed right back to the tree (or rather a different tree because I didn't want to push my luck too much...) Some of the pictures turned out well I think, but mostly I enjoyed this last lushness of Spring knowing that in true Utah fashion it would be 100 degrees before I knew it...

Happy 90th Birthday!!!

Recently my Grandpa D made it to his 90th birthday. I can't even imagine having seen all the changes that he's seen in the world, or to be so active in life as he is (I already feel broken down sometimes and I haven't even seen 40 yet!) but to me that was quite an achievement. He's had a few close calls in his health, and in fact we had to cancel his original birthday party due to the fact that he was released from the hospital that day (nothing too horrible, just a flare up of a bleeding ulcer, but scary just the same). Instead we all got together two weeks later and had a giant party. It's always fun to me to have a big family event because it gives us all time to catch up with each others lives. We also invited Grandpa to share a few words about what has been important in life and how he's used these things in his life to reach these wise years. I can't remember how many of them there were, or the order that he spoke them, but there are three that stand out in my mind (good thing Uncle Mike was recording it all). The three that I remember were Family, Exercise, and Faith. Can't wait to get a copy of the tape so that I can hear his statement again because lets face it I was too busy snapping pictures and not paying attention :) Oops!

Catching up....

So the month of April was incredibly busy with trips out of town and then preparing for Grandpa's big 90th birthday bash. I ended up heading to Las Vegas for a girl trip with my mom and Leigh to celebrate my birthday. The week after that I found myself back there again to help out with my friend Nancy's kids while she and her husband were celebrating a friends birthday (apparently Vegas is the place to head for birthdays). I thought I'd post a few pictures from my birthday trip to Vegas just for fun so here you go. On the way down we stopped at the ghost town of Silver Reef so there are some shots from there too. We also got the chance to visit with my stepsister and her cute little ones...

A new quilt

Ok like I said, I have a million projects going on at all times. I started cutting out fabric for this new quilt almost a year ago and yay I'm finally finished. Here's a sneak peak of all the wonderful patterns to be included...

Craft, Craft, Craft....

So the people that know me well know that I have lots of different hobbies, and that I bounce from one to another, rarely finishing a project fully. Unfortunately this winter my hobby seemed to be watching TV every night, but with the warming and coming of Spring I have turned back to crafting and have actually finished a few things. Yesterday I was at Michael's Craft and picked up a few things to make a new spring wreath. Some people are intimidated by making wreath's but it's not too hard. I just grabbed some beaded garland, a few doodads, and some floral wire...

Throw in one stubborn cat that likes to be a part of everything I'm doing and I got this:








Another thing I recently made was a coupon holder. A couple of years ago I started getting the local newspaper and with that comes the bonus of coupons. I know some people hate the hassle but it's been worth it to me. On the average I save anywhere from $8-$15 a shopping trip...just last night I saved over $12 at the grocery store. I was storing my coupons in the following, but as you can see it was just not working anymore...

I went online and found this cute pattern. After pulling out my fabric scraps I created this darling item...

Now I did make some alterations such as making it a little narrower (2inches) so that it fit in my purse better, and, I'm not such a fan of Velcro (too noisy) so I added a snap and embellished with a cute button on the outside.



Finally, I recently did a little canning. I got this wonderful recipe from my sister in law's decorating blog for some jalapeno jelly. It may sound a little gross, but it's delicious...I promise. It accents Mexican food wonderfully, and it was a breeze to make. From start to pulling the jars out of the canner was probably less than an hour!