Things are Looking Up?

I had an interesting moment the other day while driving in DC. I was searching for a parking place and ended up going around a particular block twice in order to find the entrance to a small parking lot on top of a building. After running my errand, I looked up and saw the WAMU sign. Now the WAMU sign is only important because I love this local NPR radio station. My car radio is always tuned to it, I generally fall asleep to it (not in the car) and always wake up to it. In fact, the girls lovingly(?) refer to it as "get smart radio". If you never listen to NPR - take a minute today to program your local station into your radio!

The reason I posted it? The sign totally caught me by surprise. As I drove away I realized that I had had a number of opportunities to see the sign while trying to find a parking place, while getting in and out of the car, etc., etc. - if only I had looked up. How often does that happen? What else have I missed? I think I'm going to start looking up!

SPT

Hmm, a treasured item - but smaller than a deck of cards?! Too many things were too big (Craig, the girls, etc.) so I chose my wedding ring which I guess in a way encompasses and symbolizes both Craig and the girls. You can see that my hand has aged (along with the rest of me) in the almost-24 years that we have been married. I would be sad if something happened to my ring - but its value is more than the monetary value of gold and diamonds. What it represents is what I truly treasure.

Earth Day - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Missed out, not only on getting a picture of the huge trash bin parked in our neighborhood for the Earth Day clean-up, but in participating this year. Fortunately it is an annual event and we'll plan to be there next year with our gloves on! We became recycling devotees when we lived in San Jose, CA - where recycling has been elevated to an art form.

In San Jose, you receive a small garbage can (the amount you are charged for weekly garbage pick-up is based on the size of your can). The standard cans are small - did I mention they are not very big?! Conscientious recycling is a must if you are going to be able to get all of your garbage into the tiny can. However, recycling was easy - because most of the sorting was not done at your house but at a recycling facility - so you didn't spend a lot of time standing in front of the bins wondering which bin to put the tin cans into. Extra garbage could only be disposed of by purchasing an official garbage sticker (some of the proceeds went to fund library programs) which you put onto a large garbage bag - without the sticker it wouldn't get picked up. I loved recycling there for two reasons:

1) The people who chose not to recycle had to pay more.
2) It was easy (curbside, not a lot of sorting, etc.).

I love that recycling is just part of my girl's lives - it drives me crazy to visit family in other parts of the country and see them throwing into the garbage can things that we would recycle. Now that recycling is part of our lives - we need to add something else to our daily routines that is a "greener" option.

Saturday Choices

Sometimes Saturdays are made of choices

- for example,
do I do yardwork
or stay inside and clean the house
haha, just kidding.

Actually more important choices must often be made - for example, do we attend the Smithsonian Craft Show (one of our yearly favorites) and its unbelievable display of artistry and craftsmanship or should we indulge ourselves with a drive through rural Montgomery County and take in the Countryside Artisans tour? The two "shows" are very different and yet both celebrate artists, artistry and the beauty that occurs when creative minds create!

We decided to enjoy the Countryside Artisans tour - my favorite stop was Art of Fire. I can't get their picture to post - check out their website - their gallery is amazing.

We also visited the Blacksmith Shop where we purchased a great dinner bell to hang from the back porch at Zion's, and a really neat ribbed basket that uses an Amish single-tree pony yoke as a handle.
Another stop was Plum Stuff - great tables using handmade tiles, found objects, etc. Our last stop before heading home was Stone Wall Farms - great painted furniture and household objects.

We finished our day with delicious sushi - add to all of this an opportunity to help a friend with her move this morning and the best weather all year - what could better.

Jumping on the SPT bandwagon!

This is the first time I've participated in any of the SPT challenges - but I can't resist spending money so...

With my $100 I would buy:



Are those not the cutest lambs you have ever seen! Image source here.

Unfortunately real sheep and lambs are not in my immediate future. I always laugh when people ask if I have sheep - our neighborhood association rules don't even allow you to hang wash out to dry and if you have a garden it has to be screened from view (I'm not sure what it is about towels and vegetables that some people find so offensive). If drying laundry and vegetables are taboo can you imagine what they would do with a request to have sheep? Instead, I will use my virtual money to buy virtual sheep. And in the mean time I'll dream about the upcoming Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

Speaking of tax refunds - hopefully after today we will get the best refund ever - the return of Craig. I feel like we haven't really seen him for weeks. The sad thing is his "real" tax work isn't even 4/15 related...

Easter

Our Easter Sunday began with my favorite kind of church service - lots of music, narration and a great speaker. Following church we enjoyed an egg-cellent Easter afternoon. We were able to share the day with friends down from PA and with a new friend and ward member (a young au pair in our neighborhood). Don't worry Alicia, she hasn't taken your place. Although she did say that if she took your place she would help around the house - alot! :)

Kudos to Emily for making the place cards - without her none of us would ever know where to sit. She was also the instigator of several Peep duels in the microwave (see pictures above). We rounded out the day with good food and conversation. We are, however, still debating about the use of frozen shredded potatoes in the funeral potatoes rather than my usual home-cooked and grated spuds. This intense discussion/debate will be elaborated on and discussed at length in another post. There was also great Penn State ice cream (the dry ice it was packed in provided plenty of entertainment on its own), not to mention sushi overload (Saturday), and a cheese sampling (you really need to see Craig and Rhett discussing aged Provolone)! Hmm, I'm noticing a food theme again. At the end of the day we hated to say good-bye to company and to the next to last day of spring break. Tuesday am is going to be tough on all of us.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

After it snowed late Friday night and early Saturday morning I quickly took down my "Let it Snow" snowman as well as a painted "Winter Wonderland" sign - thinking perhaps I was the cause of this late snow! Of course, it melted quickly, but it was still very strange to wake up to. The cold weather and snow also meant that a proposed sunrise trip to see the cherry blossoms with friends was canceled that same morning. Maybe I need to invest in some "spring" related signage!

Movie Afternoon

After hearing the girls quote "I've got a big head and little arms" over and over ever since the previews came out - we knew our spring break had to include this movie. We gave it two thumbs up (that's six thumbs altogether)! Very entertaining!

Fun Frederick Finds

The girls and I enjoyed a quick trip to Frederick. We found lots of great stuff but only came home with the candle holder (Mexican sugar mold) and the Providence sign for Craig. I'm planning to take Craig next time - his antiquing stamina is just a little longer than the girls!

Spring

I'm not actually a Spring person (Autumn is my favorite time of year - all that dying and decay and what not!) but I do enjoy seeing everything in bloom and greening up. Our ornamental pear is in bloom and although the other tree isn't in bloom I took the picture because I love the little bird's nest. Hopefully we will have birds again this summer.

"Counties" Catch-Up

Emily recently had two opportunities to participate in County related activities.

* County Science Fair with her experiment "The Effect of Acid on Chalk". Her experiment was an attempt to look at the effect of acid rain on statues. She had an interesting afternoon explaining her experiment to various scientist judges. She received several certificates and a t-shirt for her efforts! I guess you could say that she has literally "been there and has the t-shirt". We were proud of her and the fact that she did it all by herself. She has already started to propose ideas for next year...

* County Music Festival. Emily and her partner received a Superior rating for their flute duet and were invited to participate in the State festival which will be held sometime in May (we think)!

Our Own Little Piece of Zion

As I traveled through Zion's National Park on the way to our home I marveled again at how beautiful the canyon is. I feel so fortunate that it will always be a part of our lives. I also had to laugh (again) as I drove through Rockville, Utah and thought about how different two Rockville's can be. Here are a few updated pictures. Paint and tile were the next two things to be finished - so things are really moving along at this point. When I looked back through the pictures on my camera I realized that most of them are of the view - looking out the back. I have a feeling we are going to be living on the deck. Some of the workers were telling me about the deer, rabbits and wild turkeys that they have been seeing every morning. Can't wait to invite everyone over!

There's Nothing Like a Wedding...

Thanks to lds.org for the first picture - I'm afraid the wedding pics I took are kind of lame - what can I say, I just didn't get any good shots (I'm hoping Alicia has better ones) - it was also freezing cold I might add. In spite of the wind, Tracey looked radiant and Eliot was handsome as ever. The wedding itself was beautiful and we (A and I) had a great time reuniting with friends - especially Texas friends who were there. I almost typed "reuniting with friends and family" - so many of our friends who were there feel like family! The wedding luncheon was yummy and I have now officially met all of Mont's siblings (too bad there wasn't time for more stories)! We are only too happy to have been part of El's and Tracey's engagement/proposal and were delighted to be able to share part of their day with them.

Other people's weddings have always been a wonderful reminder to me of my own sweet husband, marriage and family (and the almost 24 years we have spent together) - I'm so glad that families can be together forever!

Catching Up - In No Particular Order

While visiting with family and celebrating my brother's B'day I learned about a new craft - how did I not know about this already. Vanessa had made a Valentine's Day pillow for my mom and had used a punch needle design in the center of it. She (Vanessa) showed me how to do it (punch needle) and gave me some pointers. We had planned to meet at a great quilting shop (The Corn Wagon) on my way back to Las Vegas to buy supplies, etc. but unfortunately it didn't work out to go together. I ended up going to the shop by myself and it was FANTASTIC. Lucky for Craig I only had a half hour before they closed and lucky for me the airport screeners didn't confiscate my brand new punch needle (they almost did). My first project involves - a sheep - what else?! The pattern above is the one I am doing - check out Pine Mountain Designs Tomorrow the catching up continues....a wedding and Zion's House.

I've been a little flakey...

Yikes, it has been a month since I posted last - no I wasn't bedridden, no I wasn't involved in the witness relocation program and no I wasn't without Internet service. Let's just say I was a little busy, out of town for a while, and well a little flaky (get it, like pie)!

Needless to say, I've got some pictures to download and some posts to put together and will get caught up asap. At the moment we are off to a YW activity - an Iron Chef cook off and the secret ingredient is chocolate. E has had so much fun making little place cards for all of things that the Beehives are preparing. They are making about 6 different kinds of S'mores. I'll try to remember to take the camera...

With the exception of Kirchener stitching the toes together, these socks made from the Tongue River Farm yarn that Craig gave me for Christmas are finished. The socks are for Craig and should 1) last forever 2) be the warmest socks he has ever worn. The yarn is fabulous - from Icelandic sheep. I had so many comments from people when I worked on them in public. Several people asked if they were sleeves for a sweater. In retrospect, considering the time involved maybe turning them into a sweater would have been a good idea!

My current project is quite different - it is a purse that will be felted when finished. I've gone from a fairly detailed pattern on small needles (the socks) to a very slubby nubby yarn on fairly large needles. This yarn is from Dancing Leaf Farm (a great MD sheep farm in the foothills of Sugarloaf Mountain). I've also gone from working off and on for a couple of weeks to finish the socks to being able to complete a purse in a little more than an afternoon.

New Skirt

Emily has been looking forward to attending the temple with her Young Women's group ever since she turned 12. She had read in the New Era that you should wear your best to the temple and she wanted to make something modest that could be "her best", and asked if we could make a skirt together. How could I say no to that? We ran to JoAnn's on Saturday, picked out a pattern and fabric and spent today working on it together. In spite of the fact that I purchased the wrong pattern - CH instead of CS - and I didn't realize it until after I had started to cut out the pattern pieces - we think it turned out pretty cute. Thank goodness it was a skirt and not too difficult to enlarge. Emily helped as much as she could - the ruffles were a little more than she wanted to tackle. She is planning on wearing it with a white blouse. It is missing some ribbon trim on the ruffles - can you believe I can't find white thread ANYWHERE in this house??? I tried it with the blue thread that we were using for the rest of the skirt and it just didn't work.

Perler Beads

Do you remember fusible Perler Beads?? Emily received a small kit a few months ago and then "discovered" some that I thought had been tossed during our last decluttering... needless to say the past couple of cold and icy days have provided plenty of time to "perl"? While running errands on Saturday we picked up what I'm now referring to as a "bucket-o-fun" (6,000 beads). The projects above are destined for Alicia and her roommates. I'm partial to the "I Heart U" and the monkey myself. If you want to keep a tween or younger one happy the "bucket-o-fun" ought to do it! Emily is currently taking orders if you see anything you would like!

You've got to check out this picture of De-Hwa Liu that was made with 15,000 beads (not by Emily) - amazing. For some reason I can't get it to post. Kind of reminds me of the pictures made out of Jelly Bellys - smile if you remember the CA Jelly Belly tour!