Scarfs on the List

Two of the granddaughters wanted a scarf for Christmas and so I made a couple of them. Lex wanted a "Sparkle Scarf" and I was unsure of what that meant, so I just bought some yarn that had glittery edging  and was a bright color.

I think she likes it and her mom sent this cute picture of her wearing it to school the next day, so I'd say she got her Sparkle Scarf. It is bright pink and basically looks red unless you put it up against a real red and then you can see that it could be pink.

She looks cute in it.

Elles is the other granddaughter that had a scarf on her list, and she apparently borrows her mothers each time she enters her closet, so her mom told me a grownup scarf was requested.
I always have some yarn that I can use for a small project, and so I pulled this neutral/ yet semi-colorful yarn out and made a cable knit scarf for her.

 It's a 24 stitch double cable that I found online and I just surrounded it with a garter stitch that is 5 stitches wide on both ends so that the edges didn't roll.  I  didn't make it very long - it's about 24 inches long by 8 inches wide,  so it will be able to not drag or get caught when she is playing. (She is just 4 years old anyway (almost))

The scarf is then folded over with ends overlapping asymmetrically and then sewn closed with a shank type button for decoration.

 She loves it and it looks really cute on her.

Photo Organization

I have been very remiss in keeping my blog updated the past several months, mostly because of my own photo issues. In explanation of this there are several items that have contributed. I'm just going to list them out here, and maybe it will straighten them out in my mind so that I'll be able to attack them in an organized manner.
     1.  A minor problem I have is that I don't take pictures as much as I used to since many of my children have nice cameras now.  We used to be the go to for pictures and now during family get togethers there are usually several people taking pictures so I tend to not want to ask for more poses.
If I'm going to not take pictures, I need to ask for more copies from the kids and people that are taking those pictures, or enlist the effort of the Hubby who is the best eye in my house anyway.

     2.  My new laptop computer isn't where I store the pictures, so as I work on blogs, Facebook, etc., I often don't have access to my pictures, so I put off doing things until I want to sit at my desk to work with the pictures.
   To solve this problem, I need to share access with both computers, and perhaps place them all on an offsite location so that no matter where I am or what computer I'm on, I'll have access to the pictures.

     3.  I am often in too much of a hurry at the end of a project to take pictures, 'cause I need to get the project in the mail, or package for wrapping and subsequent unwrapping. This has always been the case as I tend to work under the gun and this procrastination leads to last minute completion of projects. Personality flaw alert.  I think that is why I don't do food blogging. There are too many stops in a project, and I generally don't have time to stop, because I didn't plan the extra time into my schedule. I tend to think I can get more done in an hour than is humanly possible, so the next hour and hence the next thing to be done is always upon me.
How do I fix this? Maybe don't try to take on so many projects. What an idea.

I think I can try to consult with or hire someone to help me with a couple of these issues. If anyone reading this has any ideas for me about what works for them, let me know.

I will try to do a few catch up posts anyway and they'll probably be short, sweet ones. Thanks for listening.

65 Years Together

A few weeks ago the Hubby and I went to Utah for a celebration of my parents anniversary.

 The weekend started in Mantua, Utah with a snowstorm that dumped 8 inches on our sisters/mothers home in about 3 hours. That's a lot of snow.

Dad, Mom, Vicki, John @ Marriott City Creek

 We headed down to SLC where we met my parents and siblings for a nice evening of dinner and Symphony.

Brad, Vicki, Camille

 The TRAX in SLC is an easy transport for us to Little America restaurant

The Happy Couple @ 65 years married

Cousin Janice, Joyce, Sam, Tom, Tracey, John, Vicki, Brad, Camille

@ the Utah Symphony - Sam, Kelly, Tom, Tracey, Brad

Janice, Vicki

SLC Temple & Capital bldg.  from our Marriott hotel room

Parents, children & spouses ready to attend temple session Saturday morning

Joyce and Sam going into temple where they were married 65 years ago. 

They told some stories of that day long ago where they rode from Provo with Joyce's mother and borrowed Sam's sisters car for the evening. After the marriage they went to lunch with many family members and then they drove a bridesmaid back to her home in Ogden, and went out to their favorite activity of the time - dancing, before staying at Hotel Utah? for the night.

Christine and Steve @ after party in Provo at Carabas

 table #1

 table #2

 table #3

back table

Still crazy after all these years.

Gingerbread Houses

What memories I have of past gingerbread houses. I'll get to those stories later, but for now I'll show the latest two creations.

These two little munchkins helped me on Monday afternoon to decorate the two simple houses that I made that morning. As soon as Luke the two year old understood we weren't just chowing down on all that candy, it went fairly smoothly. He didn't like the gumdrops anyway, so after he tried two they became less of a temptation. I just put the Royal Icing "glue" where they wanted with my trusty pastry bag piper, and the kids placed all the candy where they wished. I did tell them that one of the two of them had to use the Necco candy wafers for a roof, cause I'd purchased them a long time ago and wanted them out of my cupboards. Lena created a "red and white pattern" with the mint M&M's. She was very excited to place red then white then red then white. Made me wish I had her around more often when I'm trying to do random placements of things. Impossible.

Pretty good smiles on those cute faces I'd say. 

My picture taking habits are suffering right now because of my computer/photo saving/sharing issues, so thanks for taking this cute picture (post assembly) Kara.

Big J" for Turkey Day

The Hubby and I flew to sunny Colorado for the Thanksgiving weekend. Through Phoenix this time around, we enjoyed the canyon land geography between Phoenix and Grand Junction. It is truly amazing how deeply crevassed and many monolithed the western country is even from 33,000 feet up in the wild blue. I kept speculating where we were in relation to geographical points of interest that I am familiar with, and I was usually wrong. Next time I should grab my nephew Christopher who personally flies those routes often enough that he knows what and where everything is located.

My parents took us for a lovely drive in my childhood "backyard,"over "the Monument" (Colorado National Monument) which is located a few miles southwest of the city. We felt like we were in a car commercial with the scenery around us.

 One of thousands of precarious rocks

 The "Coke Ovens"

GPK's in their Lexus SUV

We were pleasantly surprised when Jonathan decided to join us for a couple days and we enjoyed being able to spend some time with him as well as my little sis Camille, her husband Brad, my mom Joyce and my dad Sam. Mom is seeing less and less and her arthritis is giving her some miserable pain

Grandma Joycie and Jonathan G.

Smallest Thanksgiving gathering ever

Still a few dishes for Brad to do.

Another trip to the Monument for a hike was also part of the trip for John, Jonathan, & Brad.

Hiking Father and Son

Very cool formations.

The other thing that we did a lot in GJ was go to movies. Saw a couple of good ones.

A great relaxing week with some wonderful people.

Thanks all!

So Many Trees

We were gone for Thanksgiving and so held the mail for 5 mail days.
Yesterday the mail lady brought us all our kept mail and we had 4 letters and …  ALL THESE CATALOGS.

You think someone wants us to buy something?

Crazy.

Now A "Twins" Shower

We have a cute new mother-to-be in our ward or church congregation that is having a couple of boys. She and her husband just moved into our area and don't know many people. They have no family around and are just getting started with jobs and a life together. 

We decided to welcome them with a baby shower and we had it at our home. I cooked the same things that I had for the bridal shower held just 4 days before and I also decorated similarly.
I started by redoing this paper cone wreath and added different blues and banner so that the colors look like baby boy colors.

I've been spying these diaper cakes online the last couple of years, and now I decided to make one up for the new mom and her nursery.

With a cute jungle theme and using monkeys and elephants, I was able to find a fun ribbon that is striped with the same colors as the apparent new nursery.
We had great food and the turnout of women in the Los Gatos Ward was fabulous.