So today I met with a blog designer and I'm going to start a new blog with Wordpress. After hunting around Typepad for quite awhile we learned that it currently can't upload photos from Windows 8...Typepad says it's working on the problem, but who know how long it will take? I don't know how long it will take to get my Wordpress blog up and running either, but my guess is within the month I should be posting on Wordpress. (Trying to write a crafty/happy pictures blog without crafty/happy pictures isn't gonna work! ;)
Anyway, life has been slow since Christmas. Utah is having the coldest winter in thirty years. And the snowiest winter in twenty. For five straight weeks after Christmas we never got above freezing, and one day the thermometer dipped to -2! I have never been so cold. We had two snow/freezing rain school closing days in January and that has never happened...Utahns know how to deal with lots of snow, so I mean we've had lots of snow for the schools to shut down. We've had three feet of snow in our yard for weeks...
My favorite place to be this winter has been home, in the kitchen, drinking hot tea while something bakes in the oven and bubbles in the crock pot. I've been making fabric and wooly hearts(as usual) to sell for Valentine's Day. I've been sketching new ideas for designs and planning what the new blog will look like. I am excited to start a new blog, and I'm glad I'm excited! ( I think I burned out on blogging last year). I'm still busy taking photos and wishing I could share them with you.
Oh, and Christmas!almost forgot about that...we'll, we survived. Holy cow. My mother and father-in-law arrived on December 21. My Dad went into the hospital on December 21 suffering from chest pains (he has had two minor heart attacks, three stents implanted, and is eighty three years old). Mike came down with the flu on December 22...the sickest I've ever seen him. I was just oh, slightly streeeesssed, ya, maybe just a little bit...ya know? But everything is fine now. My Dad had three new stents implanted on the 22nd and went home on the 23rd. Mike started recovering from the influenza horrendous horrilibis, and then gave it to me on Dec 26th (by recovering, I mean he was well enough to stand and pour Nyquil, poor guy). My in laws were pretty chill about it all...and they flew back to Ohio on the 28th (I think they had a good time, and I was glad they didn't go home with an extra present of the influenza horrilibis...) So that's my Christmas story for 2012... jeeeezzz. (And I hope I never have to repeat it- like never, ever again. Whew.)
So I'll keep you posted on the new blog progress.
Tell me what's new with you?!
Hello hello... I got a new computer for Christmas. I'm still learning how to use it...dowloading photos seems to be my challenge now... as soon as I can master that, I'll be posting again ;)
Happy January,
XoKelly
So very much in the mix here these last few months; I wouldn't know where to begin to bring it all up to date right now, but I wanted to wish you a
very lovely Christmas season and a New year brimming with blessings...be back in January.
With much love,
XOKelly
I have been making quilt squares this week. I am not a quilter. But I was asked to help make squares for a charity quilt that would be auctioned or sold at the Salt Lake Festival of Trees with the money raised from it going to SLC Primary Children's Hospital. So I said yes, and then true to form I procrastinated all summer... because... I am not a quilter. (I am a fairly good procrastinator, sometimes though :) I've never had the faintest desire to quilt, but it was such a good cause... and the log cabin pattern looked pretty interesting.
So I brought my sewing machine down to the kitchen (the craft room is a mess) and got busy. Chinese water torture followed.
My quilt ladies had given me fabrics and instructions and said to call if I needed help. I started quilting Monday afternoon and called for help Monday night... Oh. My. I unpicked and resewed and remeasured and had a small meltdown somewhere in between it all. Oiye. Consultations with the head quilters followed. The light went on. I was back at it... I sewed ALL day Tuesday and by 1:00 am all the blocks but one were finished. Wednesday morning I had to escape the house and the quilt blocks. I mean HAD. TO. Thank you Layton Hills Mall for saving my life with a few cheap thrills and some selfish retail therapy.
(The photos are crummy since I took them at 1:00 am.)
But after all seven blocks were finished, I liked it. Like, I liked it a lot. Not really the fabrics, but the design, the workmanship and the precision that went into it. I have a new found respect for quilts and quilters. (Good Lord, do I. I'm also amazed that there are sane quilters in this world...)
Yesterday, I did almost nothing. I felt burned out. I read and I did the ballet/errand run after school and that was about it... I felt guilty, but I enjoyed feeling guilty :)
I'm planning on picking a big fat zinnia bouquet tonight... it's going to freeze soon.
Hey, since it's getting chilly maybe I'll make a quilt this weekend. Harharhar.
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Happy weekend to you, lovely peoples.
XOK
I always have photos that never make the "blog story". September had lots of those extra photos taken while we made the most of the last days of summer.
So here are the favorite edits for September... in random order :)
Surprise flowers from a BFF who lives thirty miles away in SLC... I don't get to see her nearly enough.
The flowers were sitting on the kitchen island when I got home one night... along with my mail... Federal Jury Duty summons.
Talk about the good and the bad.
Friday after school neighborhood water/hammock fight.
No one cried and everyone had fun. Yay for a win win.
And yay for the September fashion parade that heads out the door for school every day.
It's fun to see what she puts together everyday... how ridiculously cute is that owl backpack and that wild lunch bag! (They make me almost want to go to school again.)
(Tilly's backpack Old Navy lunch bag.)
The neighbors roses across the street, second blooming in cooler weather.
Someone's homemade garden stepping stone I spotted on a walk... love the quote.
An afternoon feeding the ducks at a park.
And a weekend afternoon at Hogle Zoo. The zoo has been renovated over the last few years and I like it so much more now... the animals seem happier too. Tibetan prayer flags on the top of the tiger hill... so pretty blowing in the breeze.
Monkey exhibit...
And my new crush I found at the zoo....
Oh man, I fell hard for this guy :)
We watched him for twenty minutes... we were totally captivated by his joyful backstroke. He would dive under the water, stand up at the step/glass right in front of us, launch himself backward, while pushing off with his huge legs (and a huge splash), and then he would gracefully float backward for about thirty feet. He repeated his diving show for us for about twenty times- doing exactly the same thing every time.
Except for our dogs, I've never felt so connected to another animal.
He loved looking at his audience...
and I swear he was smiling... look at that face!!
I want to go back one afternoon just to watch him again.
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It's gorgeous in Utah today... low '80s and deep blue skies. I hope it lasts a little while longer.
(Can you believe it's October 1st already?!)
Did you do anything outdoorsy and memorable in September?
How's your Monday going?
Mine's good... the usual... cleaning, washing, baking, making.
XOK
There's a giant colander of crookneck squash sitting on the kitchen island... I have absolutely no idea what to do with it all, except make soup, that my family won't eat (Google crookneck, again). Another colander was filled with tomatoes in addition to the aqua bowl filled with tomatoes. Today, I got the tomatoes down to one bowl again. And I'm beginning to be afraid to go into the jung garden at this point. The peppers went with kielbasa on Monday night and more went into teriyaki chicken last night. There's another half-bushel still to be picked. I am so happily amazed at how much food we grew in our backyard this summer. I made more jam last week. This time with roadside peaches and frozen raspberries. It turned out really well. September has now officially risen in the ratings of second favorite month (May is still a strong first place), because picking food from the backyard and marvelling over it all has just made September weirdly wonderful.
Okay, moving on. I worked like a crazy woman all last week...my Etsy shop is open. It's not fully stocked, but I will keep adding to it weekly. We helped Ainsley and Jeff moved from their cute little rented '40s cottage to a cute little mortgaged '40s cottage, just a few blocks from their old home in the next town up from us, which is still just five minutes away, so perfect arrangement, all in all (we all think). (Cute photos to show here someday.) I sent off licensing proposals/photos in between Etsy and kids moving, and got told politely "no thanks". I got the stomach flu the same day as my "no thanks" and spent Tuesday through today SICK. Like awful sick. A really high and low week... hard on the soul. Getting a rejection letter and the flu in the same day really stinks. I cried. I rarely cry in front of the kids. (Corbyn cleaned his bathroom; it must have been dramatic for him.) (Mike brought home yellow roses; he's a keeper.) I was so sick on Wednesday I couldn't do much but lay in bed, just thinking and really praying for guidance. I so want to go where I've been being led; it's hard for me to see God's hand in my life right now. I wonder how much more I can surrender to understand God's will in my life... I know I've been given talents to serve God with, and through so much asking and praying, I have been led along a path that I thought was just about to open into a "promised land'. A place where my talents could bring joy, creativity, and help for people. I think one of the lessons I'm being taught is that this is going to happen in God's good time, not mine. I am definately being taught patience and perserverance... I won't give up. I know I'm being awfully cryptic in all of this... someday I hope to be able to tell more about my licensing journey. I just can't do it here, since people in China seem to really enjoy knocking stuff off they see in blogland. I sorta feel like I live a bouble life in my blog, because I can't talk fully about my licensing pursuits. It must seem odd when I've been gone a week or two here and come back having nothing very creative to share. Especially when that's what my blog is mostly meant to be about... sharing creativity on the creative path... (for hell's sake.) I just need to remember that this IS the creative journey... it doesn't follow a linear line; it meanders; it turns back on itself, and sometimes the clearing in the woods is just a rest stop, I've learned, not the promised land. So I'm going to pull weeds this weekend and clean my house and get caught up on laundry...clean undies wait on nobody...and then I'll get back to figuring out where to pick up from and start over again. This journey is circular too, I've learned :)
Oh, and on a cool note... :) I'm helping plant a Mary's Garden at our church. I'll tell you about it next week!
Have a lovely weekend, my friends.
XOK
Saturday night was the big rivalry game between the University of Utah and Brigham Young University football teams. Mike and the boys were excited to watch it... as you can tell we are U of U fans :) I don't get football, I don't think I ever will, but I like making game snacks for the fam, so that works out for all of us.
The kids put on their U of U shirts and then decided that Winston needed to be a fan too, so they rummaged around their closets until they found a small U of U shirt. He wore it all afternoon, like he was happy about it. He is the funniest, most happy-go-lucky dog- he doesn't care what they do with him as long as they are playing. I honestly have never seen a more kid-friendly, and kid-LOVING dog. That feather duster tail of his wags ninety miles an hour when there's a group of kids in the house. Winnie is in his height of glory when there's a house full of neighborhood boys playing hide and seek (he finds them) or when there's a sleepover happening- he's right in the middle of the action. The sleepovers kill me. Jess and his friends sleeping, sprawled all over the family room, and Winnie is in the middle of them sleeping, with either his rear end in someone's face, or lying on his back in dead-bug position (with his tongue hanging out).
Such the model and good sport.
While the dog modeled, I made game goodies. We grilled turkey dogs, Jess made nachos, Corbyn made his secret recipe baked beans, and I made jalapeno poppers. I've never made jalapeno poppers before, but they looked interesting... and the jalapenos are rioting in the garden, so we needed some crowd control here ;)
I found an Emeril Lagasse (I like Emeril) recipe for baked poppers, instead of fried. Less work, less guilt... it's a good thing ;)
(All the canned stuff in the photo was for nachos, so don't think I left you with missing ingredients.)
I made my speedy mom version: I used whipped cream cheese because I thought it would be easier to stuff the peppers with. And I didn't make Emeril's spice mixture. I had seasoned panko bread crumbs and I liked the flavor of them, so I skipped the spices.
I also used an ice teaspoon to stuff the peppers and that helped.
I baked them for a little less time too- twenty minutes instead of thirty. The guys were starving and the poppers were done enough.
And then I forgot to take a photo when they came out of the oven ha! They were yummy and we all liked them and the University of Utah won. Happy ending. So there ya go.
Do you have any favorite game day recipes?
Tell me if you do... please share... sharing is good ;)
What are you doing today? Does it feel like fall where you live? It's been in the 70's here this week. It feels great after 95+ for the last three months. Fall, I like you. I don't love you, you're not summer.... but you are beautiful too.... and the tree leaves changing colors thing is just amazing.
XOK
I think I left off with the "great garden story" about here... needing a fence this summer after the raised beds and plants were put in. The fence was so much more work than Mike or I realized it would be. Saturday mornings in July and August became devoted to "the fence" (said with a sigh and a tired smile).
It was sooo hot this summer, by noon the heat was almost unbearable to work in, so we worked at it a little each week, and because it was just so much fun to paint hundreds of picket fence posts by hand, well, I wanted to stretch out the experience for as long as possible ha,ha :)
The St. Francis statue Mike bought me for Mother's Day found a home by the bird bath.
Mike made the nicest swinging door and the kids decided the stepping stones they made for him on Father's Day last year should go by the door. I thought so too :)
Things did not go well our garden for the first month. Too much chicken poop fertilizer is not a good thing, turns out. The plants struggled along. Raspberry and blueberry bushes bit the dust. Many cukes did not make it either. Marigolds were generally unhappy. Tomatoes folded their leaves and made pouty faces. I kept replanting. Mike felt so bad about overdoing the chicken poop fertilizer ; I told him it was all a part of the experiment and we would get it right by next year (I hoped).
In July we went on our vacation, and the garden exploded while we were gone. (I'm thinking about midnight one night there was a loud "boom"... no one ever figured out what it was, but it was "THE HENDERSON GARDEN"...!) Mike ran in from the backyard like an excited little boy, and said 'Did you see our garden?!" Apparently, the soil got itself right and zucchini were growing like, um, zucchini. Pumpkin vines were growing everywhere; and I wrapped vines around and around the beds all summer like old Victorian ladies wrapped braids around their heads before bed. Pumpkins are not meant for small raised-bed gardens. Lesson learned. Craziness.
It was so satifsying though to go out and pick what we had planted and then eat it for dinner; it was different from flower gardening; more practical, earthy, fulfilling somehow . I enjoyed this garden so much this summer; there's something so good about eating what grew by your own labor. It kinda made me want to turn the whole backyard into a suburban experiment in high-yield veggie gardening, but I won't. I'll bet we've picked six or seven bushels of produce so far: zucchini, squash, cukes, radishes, six kinds of tomatoes, and six types of peppers. We grew six spaghetti squash, and eight Cinderella pumpkins. I planted one leftover pumpkin plant at the end of the backyard; it's vines grew up into the trees and one day I found a couple small basket-ball sized pumpkin hanging from the trees, so we learned never to turn your back on those Cinderella pumpkins, they will climb all over the place :) The peppers and tomatoes are still going strong... I love that my hands smell like tomato leaves most evenings.)
I made red pepper jelly last week. It was awesome, even though my kids thought otherwise : ) I've made fresh salsa, and plan to make mint jelly... Mike said one morning in bed last week "you're really into this gardening thing, aren't you? I think you're a closet farm girl". I think so too. Who knew canning stuff was so dang cool?
From the other side with the gates open. I know some people hate vinyl fencing, I am not one of those people. I am glad there is one thing around here that doesn't need to be painted, ironed, fed, cleaned, folded,or dusted.
Sunflowers from seed :)
Parsley, rosemary, thyme, mint,
and wispy firework dill.
Leftover zinnias in with the herbs.
A lady gardener at one garden center told me that French marigolds kept the bugs away the best. She said to plant petunias along the corners and any bugs that the marigolds didn't ward off would just eat the petunias and leave the vegetables alone. She was right, we had no problems with bugs all summer. (Which makes me wonder why organic produce in the grocery store has to cost so much more...?)
One morning I went out to water the garden and realized that my sandals matched our fancy-schmancy French marigolds.
That was just a total awesome bonus moment... : )
Did you grow anything this summer? We spent evenings sitting in our veggie garden, watching the starry velvet sky deepen and the crickets grow loud, half-glass of wine in hand... it was so nice... how do people survive in big city high-rise penthouses...?
I've noticed my blog turned very "green" this summer, and I've probably bored you with garden posts... I'm in the craft room again now that the kids are settled back in school, pretty glad to have a routine and time for creative work (I was ready for that). This week I'm working on finishing a gift line proposal for a company, so I can't do any crafty show and tells for a little longer. I wish I could cause I've jut made some caauute stuff...
I'm working on loading my Etsy this week too. Why do I think I'm going to get so much more done in the summer with kids home? I always think that... and I'm always wrong. But I enjoyed my kids and the summer bushels this year : )
XOK
The morning light was so beautiful last week... I wanted to capture it all and save it in a Mason jar for a rainy day. God's wonderful creativity was everywhere I looked :)
So anyway... here's the post I almost finished (and just finally did) at the beginning of August after our July vacation... This summer has been a whirlwind. Super, super busy, but I'm back to blogging and work. And the kids are back to school today. It's been a wonderful summer for us. Hope it was for you too.
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I don't know what happens to me after a vacation. I go quiet. I think I need time to absorb everything that transpires while I've been in new territory. And this summer... my goodness, it has been the busiest I can remember since having toddlers. The combination of the two means I've been awol for a bit here, but I'm ready, almost, to dive back into a more creative time. We still have three weeks left before school starts and we are alternately cramming/savoring the waning days of summer. It's been a steamer here- 90 degree plus days all summer, but I haven't really minded since it's by far the BEST summer I've had in four or five years. I've been happy.
The drive to Steamboat Springs from our home in Utah is about six hours, seven if you count food and potty breaks. Any longer and we would have had either a mutiny or a hotel room to deal with; the kids are good, but anything past five hours breaks the "no whine" zone.
Personally, I love the drive. The wide open, windy spaces of Wyoming and Colorado seem to blow away old cobwebs in my head, and my mind finds room for new thoughts. I love that sense of expansiveness and possibility I always feel when we drive through the west.
Steamboat is filled with fun and quirky shops. It has that old 1950's Western town feel to it, complete with original soda fountain drugstores on a couple of corners. The mountains are rolling, the air is WONDERFUL, and the Yampa river meanders it's way through to picturesque perfection. I could live here, easy.
The old and the new and funky meet up along the shop streets. Lots of artsy folks live here. Lots of shop dogs too, and that makes it all the more fun when a furry greeter wanders over.
We met Bosco, the BIGGEST (and stinkiest) dog we had ever seen. He weighs in at over two hundred pounds and looks like a giant friendly wolf. He was so hot that day, poor guy.
We went to a very cool local bookstore/bakery and Sophey found a book about dogs, of course :) If you can't quite read the quote it says, "Fox-terriers are born with about four times as much original sin in them as other dogs." True story. I know.
An upscale consignment shop. We bought aqua blue flowery vases for our anniversary in this store.
Mike and I watched early morning balloon rides over our condo while the kids slept.
Breakfast for eight :)
The girls and I painted one afternoon while the boys golfed and fished.
Sophey made an ice cream bowl into a jewelry holder.
And Ainsley made a serving bowl into an ice cream dish, cause that's how we roll, us artists... who needs normal?
The Hot Springs on a hot afternoon.
The Yampa River flows through Steamboat. We watched kids wading, dogs fetching, pretty moving clouds.
And then on our last day, we went tubing. We did this four years ago on our last trip to Steamboat. I held onto Sophey's tube handle and we sailed down the two mile float trip. No problem. Not this year. I hit the first waterfall. couldn't hold onto Sophey's tube, went spinning backward half-way down the watefall, then did an absolutely magnifiecent Olympic style double-backward somersault head frist into the river. Oh boy... did I ever. Totally submerged myself and came up like a drownded river rat... with running mascara. My kids further down the river saw the whole thing and were dying laughing. Dyyiiing laughing. Mike was concerned; I yelled that I was fine and waved them all on as I got back on my tube. I knew I'd never live it down if I bailed.
Sooo..... I floated along, trying to catch up with Sophey and help her finish the trip. But the river had different plans for me again, and I was a rock and waterfall magnet/disaster just waiting to happen. Half a mile further downstream, the two rocks in the photo below had me pinned between them. I COULD NOT kick my way free, and finally went through sideways when a surge hit behind me... and...(again), I did a magnificent sideways Olympic-worthy somersault. It. Scared. The. Bejeezus. Out. Of. Me. Holly @#$%^! I went totally under (again) for maybe thirty seconds... it seemed like an eternity. I felt the rocks beating me on all sides, and saw the rocks (my eyes were open, weirdly, the whole time) above my head I had just barely missed. I seriously had a MOMENT. I saw a newspaper headline in my mind's eye with the words, "FREAK TUBING ACCIDENT KILLS MOTHER OF FOUR." while I scrambled to get my feet on the river bottom." Crazy, but true. I've never had an experience like it. I must have looked like the biggest dork ever, and there I was thinking I'm about to die tubing in this gentle little river...what a stupid way to go... bizarreness.
An older geltleman and two ladies helped me out of the river, and asked me what if I was going to get back in. I said I didn't think so (I was done caring what my kids thought of me by this point) but I wasn't sure either. They offered to walk down the path with me awhile while I decided. We came to a clearing and I saw Sophey stuck in a corner of the river, trying to work her way out.... and that did it. I thanked my rescuers and went back in. I had another moment, and through my mind flashed the verse, "perfect love casts out all fear." Crazy again, but true again. The fear completely left me and I calmly got back in the river; I caught up with Sophey and we made it almost to the end of the river trip before it started to rain... I looked up at the sky and yelled, "go ahead and rain... I can't get any wetter!" It started to P O U R. Lighting laced the sky right above us. Surreal. Ainsley was freaking out about the lightning, and we were running for cover under a bridge until each one of us climbed out of the river. We caught the tubing bus back to the rental shop and then drove back to our condo. We showered. I showed off my new ginormous bruises. And then we went to out to dinner.
We laughed about the crazy, weird day. The kids laughed about me... lots. I was trying hard to be a good sport. They wanted to go bowling after dinner. The vacation tradition is miniature golf for us, but it was still raining. I was still working at being the good sport when my right foot slipped out from under me and I went flying, fully sprawled out (non-Olympic style) onto the bowling alley floor. Three America's Funniest Home Video moments in one day. I could have been a star and won ten thousand dollars if only one of my rolling on the river/bowling alley floor dying laughing children had captured the moment. Do you know how slick bowling alley lanes are? Do they spend hours every night polishing those floors with Crisco or do they use WD40? I crawled off of the lane like Mr. Bean doing an ice skating skit. Luckily only one other family was there at the time, the mom came over and tried to make me feel better, she said that she had done the same thing once, but broke her wrist when she fell. Somehow I felt so much better and so much worse when she came over to help me feel better. Mike looked at me, trying not to laugh (he should have earned a diplomacy medal that day) and asked if I was okay. I said I was, except for one seriously bruised ego. He said are you done for the day? I said I was. He said that's probably a good idea. I agreed.
We went back to the condo and there in the gray sky was the brightest double rainbow I've ever seen. It was one of my craziest, weirdest, scariest, funniest, and dorkiest days I've ever had. Glad I lived through it.
Have you ever ridden seven miles in the car after a near fatal tubing/bowling alley incident day? Nah, I didn't think so. Every muscle hurt. It wasn't fun... but it was a highly memorable vacation. I still don't know quite what to think of that last day in Steamboat, but I will tell you I made it unforgetablle for my kids and husband. I think it might make a good funeral story for me someday, at least. Glad I was helpful, like that.