Once There Was A Snowman

Week #3 is posted here at We Seek After These Things.
Is that confusing? Maybe I should just keep it all on this blog.

Winter is winding down, but taking it's own sweet time to do so in Cache Valley!
A sad thought. We didn't build a single snowman this year!
That is not acceptable.
A couple of weeks ago I had to get outside and enjoy the day. I drove around our town, parked the car and then strolled around some neighborhoods. I captured a few snowman that you might enjoy. They are delightful! And, its not too late to build our own. We still have plenty of the white stuff in our yard!
(Liam...let me know which one you liked the best!)

Viva Las Vegas

* I'll be posting Project 2010 on the other blog *

See Week #2 here.

We had such a great visit with Mark's brother, Jason.
He is the most gracious host you will ever meet!
We enjoyed a wonderful night at "LOVE"
(The Cirque du Soleil Beatles's Show)
It was wonderful!!!!
My cute mom-in-law & I had pampering manicures and we all enjoyed
a delicious buffet at Treasure Island. Mark had his first Hot Yoga class

We so loved the sun and warm weather.

Lots of walks around Jason's beautiful neighborhood. And the food . . .
Hopefully that lovely holiday can take us through the
rest of our Cache Valley winter.

We met one of Jason's Friends, Darlene. She is a very energetic, positive, gifted person who has
embraced the world of raw like no one we had ever met. She has a very informative web site where she shares a lot of information she has gleaned over the years and some pretty fabulous recipes. Check out her amazing Raw Pizza recipe here. It is definitely worth the effort. We plan on having a little raw party at our house one of these next few weeks. We really enjoy learning about new things and meeting new friends. We also feel moderation is important in our lives. We could ALL use more fresh foods in our diets and who ever gets enough fresh fruit or veggies in their daily intake??

The crust was a dehydrated crust and then topped with
fresh tomato sauce or fresh pesto.
Then you got to load it up with all kinds of fresh veggies
or fruit, mushrooms AND
some cheese made from nuts! Who knew?
Sooo yummy. You really should try it!
And the salad dressing - please try her recipes for those.
They will be on her site.
(In the above photo: Darlene the chef and friends of Jason, John & Beth)

Bragging Rights :)

A young master, don't you agree?

An original by Camber.

I love everything about it.

I love everything about her.

Project 2010 - Week 1

I am tired ~ too much cheering during the Super Bowl, I guess. :) This should have been posted on the other blog but I will keep it here for the time being. This week was good. I was able to complete a few things and I will show pictures ... not because they are the most amazing things you will ever see, but because I hope to motivate someone and keep myself honest with this challenge. So ... the first little project was an adorable little dress I made for Miss Molly. I used a pattern I had purchased a bit back {Grandma Lola's Dress by the very talented Chitter Chatter Designs} Lindsey posted a pic on her blog so you can go have a peek there and see how adorable Miss Molly is! It was sooo much fun to make and it takes less than a fat quarter! I do have a few of those around here!

The second item I did was transforming an old skirt - at least 8+ years old. I always loved the fabric and color but never the cut of the skirt. Seriously. I am 5' 2 3/4" on a good day. What was I thinking?? It was the fabric and the color - I loved it! So I chopped it off at the bottom and cut 4 - 2 1/2" strips from that piece. Next I stitched those strips together and ruffled that long piece. I opened up the side seam a little and set in the ruffle for about 4" and then slightly curved the edge and as I brought the ruffle out of the side seam and just sewed it around the bottom of the skirt. I curved the back at the corner and brought it up to the seam - tapering it in a bit. That was it! Now I have a skirt out of fabric I love to look at AND wear!! It just makes sense, right? And as a little bonus I found these adorable little open-toed, sling back sandals at Payless. $19.99. Cheap & Cute!! They are going fast if you want a pair!

Saturday we went through closets and hauled out at least 5 huge bags to the DI! Gotta love that feeling! Just for fun I poked my nose in one of Emily's and pulled this top out. There was a yellow stain on the front and it didn't fit her any more. I LOVED the fabric and wanted to see if I could figure out how to make a pleated headband. It was pretty easy as you can see in the photos and I think it turned out pretty sweet. And I still have the back of the shirt to work into something...

The piece I used for the pleated top of the headband was 10.5" x 12.5". There are abou 6 folded pleats. After you serge or turn under and hem the two long edges, you fold it like a fan - just like you did in first grade. Press the edges, pin and then using the hem edge of the shirt, I inserted the pleated edge into the small opening. Each tie measured about 9 inches. I knoted the ends. If you wanted to use elastic you could insert in into the salvaged hem piece and pull it through with a safety pin - extend both edges of the elastic out the ends of the casing and carefully join the pleated portion to either end.

I don't think I will get very high marks for this tutorial.

I asked Em if she would model for me because I thought I was too old to wear headbands and I have pretty short hair. She assured me that no one is too old to wear headbands. Well as you can see in the crazy photos below - headbands make you fell quite young and spunky! I found out why the girls are always in the den for hours laughing hysterically with their friends. It's "photo booth" on our mac. Holy cow people. I was laughing my head off and I was all by myself. I found some pretty funny pictures in the archive so since I was posting some silly ones of me, I wanted some company! If you are every bored or need a good laugh, come on over and we'll have a little photo shoot!

Last Sunday I decided to pull out a box of photos and memorabilia from a trip Mark & I had taken to Pennsylvania way back in 1999. It was long past time to get these memories into a book. It really didn't take much more than an hour or so and I checked something off my long list of things to do! Great Sunday night activity and I have plenty more projects along these sames lines to keep me out of trouble during the upcoming year.

That was Week 1 of Project 2010
How did the rest of you do?

Happy Groundhog Day to You!

A sweet little package arrived yesterday at our house. I won a blog give-away last week and the Lemon Fudge arrived in very tasty condition! A very big thank you to Tuffet for the sweet gift. You can check out her blog here and get the delicious recipe. (Just scroll down below the muffins) The blueberry muffins look wonderful, too! She has a terrific blog.

So it's ground hog day and apparently he saw his shadow. We hear he has only been right 39% of the time over the past 100 + years. We'll have to see what happens. I thought I would mention a new little goal I set for myself ~ I posted it here at my "sister" blog. It really isn't all that little, but it is certainly inspiring me to be much better at how I organize and look at my day. I think I will be following up with weekly updates at the other blog. Hopefully that will keep me on track. Hope you all have a good, productive day with lots of sunshine and smiles!