August in Bloom!

I was out wandering in the yard this morning and thought I’d share a few pictures

of all the pretty things in bloom!

View of my back corner full of Sunflowers and Moon Flowers

Oh the pretty Sunflowers!

And the Moon Flowers… They bloom at night and last through early morning.

Very poisonous, don’t eat them..

These are the tops of my Garlic in bloom!

Can never remember the name of these… pretty eh?

Miniature rose bush

Snapdragons! or as Douglas would say, “Dragon Snaps!” Always a favorite…

My cool pole bean patch this year…and Dude’s chair being eaten by Moon Flowers…

Cosmos I threw into a pot this year.. they’ve been blooming all summer!

Front yard climbing rose… under more control since it fell of the house and I

chopped it down to the ground last year…

Another fave.. Black Eyed Susans!

Not sure on this one either… maybe a Hosta of some kind?

Purple Butterfly bush!

And my new-this-year White Butterfly Bush!

So there you go.. a visual tour of my bloomin’ yard right now! Ain’t summer awesome?

Heber Valley Camp!

We went “camping” up at Heber Valley Camp this past weekend with a bunch of family, and extended family. We “camped” in cabins, had the use of not one, but two refrigerators, two showers (with hot water), and three bathrooms with flushing toilets. Really tuff camping!

We had fun swinging from the trees….

They only hauled us up 30 feet or so, then dropped us! (actually we dropped ourselves, but it sounds more dramatic saying THEY dropped us!)

the little kids didn’t drop the full 30 feet… only 7 or 8 feet…

I’m not sure if anyone enjoyed it…

Dude flew through the air with the greatest of ease…

After the first horrified reaction to dropping from 30 feet of course…

I didn’t scream at all. Not once. Scouts honor. (fyi.. I was never a scout )

Me.. exiting stage left…

We looked as some pretty wildflowers..

Went canoeing and paddle boating…

Overall, a terrible time was had by all! When can we go back?

Vintage Sheet Pillow and Cute Ozie

I decided to use up some of my Vintage Sheet scraps and make a cute 'garden' pillow from them!

I cut out various 'blooms' from the sheets, wonder-undered them onto some scrap backing from the quilt I made and then embroidered them with my sewing machine... (I also lined the backing with some medium weight Pellon for stability)

I made a cute scrappy back and ruffles out of some of the larger left over pieces...

As I sewed, I got a visit from Ozie. After a bit, I realized I hadn't seen come out from in between the two single pane windows where he'd been playing. Turns out he got tired and hunkered down for a nappie-poo. In between 2 windows. About 3 inches of space here folks...

Of course the picture taking woke him up...

He's not going to fit in there for long, so he might as well enjoy it while he can! Good place to hide from well-meaning, but annoying, 2 year olds!

(And yes.. my windows need some major cleaning.. it's on my list I swear! Just such a PAIN to clean in between the single panes.. really! Too bad I can't soak Ozie in Windex and have him clean the lower portion for me! Ha ha ha...)

New Kitty and My First Table Runner!

My older sister adopted a stray female cat this spring that turned up in her yard. Turned out the cat (still a kitten herself!) was pregnant!

She asked me if I wanted a kitten when they came. I told her if she had a yellow tabby male, I'd take him. Well OF COURSE she had a yellow tabby male!

So let me introduce you to Ozzie, or Ausie, or Ahzie... can't decide on the spelling yet, but you get the idea.


My sister & her kids named him Oscar, but that wasn't quite right for me. I thought maybe Oswald...then Osi came out of that.


Anyway, here he is, in all his cuteness, chowing down on my first ever table runner! (He wasn't all that interested in posing for photo's)


The table runner is made from fabric I picked up at Joann's.

And BTW ladies, Joann's now has mini Jellyrolls (20 strips.. this one had 10 different prints), and charm square sized packages! The jellyroll was $12.99 and the yardage was $7.99. HOWEVER, Joann's also will now take more than 1 coupon per transaction, as long as they are DIFFERENT coupons. So I used 1 Robert's 50% for the jellyroll, and 2 different Joann's 40% coupons for the 2 quarter yard coordinating cuts I got for the backing. Total came to $9.50! With tax! I have a feeling I'll be shopping there more often!

The pattern is modified from the April in Paris Quilt from Fresh Fabric Treats. I changed the squares down to 6" from 10", and used some hand-me-down fabric for the foundation pieces. I also used leftover batting to quilt it with.

I LOVE cute projects that cost less than $10!

Gateway Fountain!

We met my older sister and her kids downtown today to play in and around Gateway Mall.

She rode Front Runner down from Ogden area and the Trax over to the mall. We parked in a 2 hour parking zone down by Pioneer park (between 2 and 5 blocks away from Gateway.. depending on where you are in the huge outdoor mall).

Our first item of business was to let the kids play in the splash fountain. They had TONS O’ fun! About 2 hours worth actually! By the time they were wrapping it up, I had to hoof it 6 blocks down the road to move my car!  (Yes, I got my exercise in today..)

After the fountain, we fed the kids the lunch we had packed in, then headed over to the new Planetarium. We played with their free exhibits for about an hour, then jumped on Trax to head over to Temple Square.

My sister and I were planning on picking up some lunch for ourselves somewhere along the way… we seriously never crossed the path of any food! We ended up munching on kiddie food (animal crackers, gummy bears, party mix), and pushing on!

By the time we’d gone through part of temple square and seen the reflecting pool, it had been over 2 hours since I’d moved my car. Since I didn’t want to risk a ticket (and I was getting shaky and irritable from lack of food), I decided to call it a day.

We left my sister and her kids at temple square to continue touring things, and headed back to the Trax station. By the time we made it back to the car it had been 3 hours since I moved it. Luckily no ticket!

I piled the kids in, Drew fell asleep before we hit the freeway, and this starving momma aimed straight for Chick Fil-A! I feel much better now….

Overall a very fun day! Oh yeah.. my camera battery died on me right after I took the fountain pics (only the second time in over a year!) so I didn’t get any other pics.. my sister did & I’ll post some of those when I get them from her!

Rocky Mountain Raceway!

We took the kids to the raceway last night (Got a freebie pass for 2 adults in the mail & kids under 5 get in free, so it cost us $5 for Douglas to get in! My idea of a family night!)

Douglas and Drew got to try out some kids race cars… Both kept trying to find out how to turn them on! (Lucky for us they’re push start, or the kids would have driven off into the sunset -or parked cars, whichever came first..)

And they’re off! The kids happily sucking down some sugar while the cars race by…

Oops! First crash of the night! Yellow car and Orange car bonked into each other.. then Orange car bonked into the wall..damaging it enough to need a tow off the track.

Drew is very concerned about Orange car. There he goes hooked up to said tow truck!

Now on to the midget cars! They don’t look too small on the left, but check out the guys standing around the car getting a tow on the right! (little blob of blue and pink) Teenie! I think they just picked it up and set it on the tow bed! Ha ha ha...

Ahhh… now the funny cars (like my technical jargon?).. another wipeout, with a quick recovery.

About 2 hours into the racing, and Drew is getting bored. Imagine that? A 2 year old getting bored? Even with loud racing cars zooming around in front of him? Sheesh!

He’s decided to be goofy for a bit….

Love this picture on the left… one of those ‘candid’ moments that you sometimes catch. And then our monkey decided to prove his heritage by swinging on the stair rails for awhile…

Needles to say, once we had to start chasing Drew up and down the stairs, we packed it in and called it a night. Altogether we lasted about 3 hours. Dudley and I commented on how ‘preppy’ and overdressed we felt…. us with no tattoo's, tank tops, wife beaters, short shorts, cigarettes, or crooked teeth. It was definitely redneck-ville. But we had us some fun!