Ninety Dollars?

I've been traveling.
Got my 2 kids moved in to their college dorm/house arrangements. Actually, I never help Steph move anywhere. She seems to just be able to handle the whole mess on her own.
In addition to that, I visited a couple days with the in-laws, and then travelled to Colorado from Utah in MM's new, yet old truck to visit with my own parentals as well as two of my sibs.
All in all a good trip.  I'll cover other parts of it later.
So after buying fabric at a couple of different stores along the way, shopping for some clothes, and getting a bag of hand-me-down/over's from Steph to the Katz, I was ready for the airport. BTW I left a substantial camera on my mom and dad's kitchen counter, more on that another time as well.

I arrived, already having paid 23$ for a check on bag. Whenever I travel with The Hubby we just carry everything on, but I had been to too many stores and been gone too long for that kind on nonsense, so I was all set to give the skycap my big bag.
The guy at the airport weighed my bag before placing it on the conveyor and it weighed .... 54 lbs.

"If you want to take out 4 lbs worth of stuff and carry it on, I'll check you in after the next guy, otherwise it'll be $90," said the guy behind the desk.

"Seriously?"

Seriously, I opened the bag up and grabbed out a bag of clothes that was already organized for the daughter and carried them on along with my purse, knitting bag, makeup/toiletries bag, and my sanity.

This is all my stuff that was stuffed into the bag and on my arms.  I guess the bright side of it is that I forgot my camera at Mom and Dad's.

New School, New Life

Moving the last of of our 5 children out of the house last week was a job that is not for the faint of heart.
Especially if you saw the shape of his bedroom after he left it in shambles. Our middle child was heard to say, "You wouldn't have let me leave, if my room had looked like that. You would have made me walk two states to college after insisting it was cleaned up first."
Oh, the joys of being the youngest of five. "I guess Mom will do it," is the prevailing attitude of his mind.

Well, the dorm must've felt in the depths of its mortar and brick stairwells that there was trouble coming, because the housing office at the "U" placed my baby in the hotel guest house along with other homeless freshmen. He should just be there through the week, and as other kids don't show up, or move into different apartments, etc, the housing administrators will move these kids out of the hotel and into the real dorms.

In the meantime, there will be maid service, queensized beds, and a great TV to use at his disposal.  He is just a couple blocks (maybe 1 Utah block) away from the HC or Heritage Center where he will eat his meals for now and the rest of the school year.
Kinda the best of both worlds.
He has way fewer items to care for now that he is out of the house, and can't even unpack most of the ones he did bring to college. Maybe this transision will teach him to appreciate living with drawers and closets, etc.
Perhaps he'll be able to keep it a little tidier and so his roomate doesn't make him walk two states back to home.

Study hard, sweet MM and know that we will miss you terribly in our home.

Record Time

Our newest granddaughter was blessed on Sunday. It was a lovely NorCal day as usual, and we had a nearly full family in town for the weekend, so even though her Mommy was originally thinking they would accomplish the task in perhaps October, this seemed like the best time to do it.
GET SEWING GRAMVI !!!
I did take pictures of the dress in progress, but alas my upload to the computer from the camera was a tragic loss today and so it is a good thing The Hubby is so reliable with his trusty camera. (is that an example of a run on sentence???)

I spent a lot of time on the shaped lace all over the front and scalloped hem of the under slip. There were 3 rows of insertion lace in scallops on the outer robe type dress as well. The whole thing was done in a very lightweight cotton batiste with french val lace all around. This delicate type of lace is easy to shape in various curves or geometrics because you can gather one edge of it by pulling a top thread and drawing it into your chosen shape.  I think that is why it is used for all the old fashioned looking heirloom clothing.  

I did some hand work, as in the above picture, on the very front of the dress. Even placed a "C" for Cossette in the center diamond. The rest was all done by machine.
I will retake some pictures of the dress so I can document the back of it better after I get back from a trip next week.
In the meantime....isn't she sweet!

August Activity du Jour

We have such crazy winters in these here parts, that The Hubby decided to give MM a great August chore of putting up the Christmas lights.  Yep, that is what you just heard. (or read, that is)

Back in December of last year, we put a new roof on our house. That called for new gutters of course, cause you always have to add more hidden costs to a project, and so our old Christmas lights needed some new support. However, The Hubby can't just stop there. He has to go out and get new lights and energy efficient blah blah blah, and nice straight fasteners in which to put them up with, etc.
He enlisted MM for this.  They plotted and planned, looked things up on the internet, which is where they shop too, from my fine example, and purchased the items for installation.

Here are the little doo hickeys that the lights will fit into for perfect alignment on the house.  This, after he modified each latch separately by heating it on the flame of my cooktop and then stretching it out to fit our bulbs.
Overkill?

And here he is working on Christmas lights with his shirt off.
I remember helping my Dad in December with sweaters, coats, hats, mittens, gloves, frozen nose and the works to put up our Christmas lights.
This is a much nicer way to plan ahead and get the main work done.
Thanks Hun and Michael.

Do Sit Under the Apple Tree

Last year when my DD talked me into buying a little kiddie swing for our walnut tree in the back yard I thought we would use it once in a while.
Then we cut down the walnut tree.
It had been getting sick over the past 5 years, and being in the middle of 2 enormous ash trees, it was getting no real sunlight.  So we had it chopped down and ground up the stump while we were at it.
Now where to put the kiddie swing? How 'bout in the outdoor ice chest for the winter?
When I found it in the spring, we settled on a couple of limbs in one of our two apple trees. It fit perfectly, and has been used nearly every time the grandchildren come over to our house.
Luke had his first turn the other day.

I think he liked it.

Can't believe he is 6 months old.

It's a FIESTA

It seems as though I have fond memories erupting in my head the past few weeks of my Grandma and Pa Kelly.

This 50th anniversary picture is how I vividly remember them

Lydia Victoria (Beck), for whom I was named, and Samuel Adams Kelly had an old house in Provo with one bathroom and two bedrooms. When staying at their house, Camille and I would usually sleep in the fold out sofa in the living room which was off the big old porch in the front of the house. I wonder if they ever sat on that old porch.
I just remember them sitting in their 2 metal tulip chairs off the side of the house stairs near the little two tire driveway leading into the packed one car garage.

Something like this.

 

....Or this.  I don't remember the colors, but maybe one was green and one yellow???

I have some little replicas of these old vintage chairs on my bookcase during the summer.

But, I digress. This entry isn't about porches or tulip chairs, or even cute sayings like, "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get," that my Grandma had hanging in her kitchen.

(Oh, that reminds me of another didi that I mentioned to Michael the other day. Grandma also had a picture of a chicken and egg with the question "Which came first?" as the caption.  Another time? You say? Get to the point?)

Oh yeah, my grandma's kitchen. We used to eat on very colorful dishes that had been purchased for her by my father. He was her sweet 19 ish year old son serving his country across the world in Germany in WWII.  The year was probably 1945? He went into the army the summer of '44, so it could've been that year too. Apparently he sent $$ to a girl friend and asked her to get his mom the dishes for Christmas. My usually non-jealous mom, I recall, never really liked those dishes much, but I always thought they were great colors and shapes.
I always thought the drink pitchers were so interesting in their form, and the gravy boat was really cool too. They were in turquoise, and pink, dark blue, ... I can't recall all the colors.  Very Art Deco and a new idea of non-matching dinnerware in the 30's and 40's.

Aren't these pitchers the best?

Well, I bought some reminiscent  Fiesta Ware in various colors this summer. They are still the same sizes and shapes. More colors than before, but apparently the company always has at least 6 colors in production, and you can usually find newly retired colors for the same price or even less.

I got 12 matching cobalt blue plates to match my kitchen, but I also purchased several colors of some of the pieces and so it's fun now when serving just a couple of people, to decide what the meal will present like on a certain color of plate. The Hubby is also into choosing the plate to coordinate with the food.

What think ye of this purple cauliflower in the persimmon footed bowl? The brown bowl just wouldn't do.  (Remember my CSA? Yes this week we had purple cauliflower. It was beautiful)

I read somewhere that at least 2 of the colors at any given time are from the original set of colors, released in 1936 by an American pottery company Homer Laughlin. Some pieces that were in production for short time periods are in high demand today.

I wonder if any of my cousins have those old dishes my father bought for his sweet mother in storage or use somewhere???  I'm gonna have to find that one out.

Newborn Pix

Sweet little baby. 



The Hubby took some fun 


shots of her for his 


DD. Good job hun.