Tagged Guilt

In past days, I was tagged but didn't respond at the time, here goes now:
Some things about me that perhaps, some of you might relate to:

!. The smell of the Sweet Pea flower is a very distinct 'blast from the past' for me. I can still see them all happily growing along the back side of the garage.

@. I love the smell of lit off Firecrackers!

#. The first real sewing I took on was sewing jeans for my husband. Remember the Sea Farer jeans? He was on his last pair, and they were not being made anymore, so I took a class, slipped the pattern and made several pair for him. Sea Farers were the best jeans on any guy. I remember my *brothers wearing them. I was so happy that, as a newly married, I could make jeans for my hard working law student husband and keep him comfortable.
*I have three awesome brothers that I adore and miss (Colorado) miss (Utah) miss (Eastern Idaho). They are the funniest guys. It is such a joy to be with them 'cause we are "on the same page"!!! My kids love them too!

$. White linens for me, especially towels.

%. Last summer, I had a spot of skin cancer by my eye removed. I ended up with the best black eye a girl could wish for on her 50th birthday.

^. Right now my favorite rock and roll song is by Coldplay, Viva la Vida. (oh it's on right now, excuse me while I rock out for a sec.)

&. One of my all time favorite religious songs is a hymn entitled, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. (My husband plays it on his guitar.)

*. My feet NEVER stink.

(. My face sweats A LOT! (got that from mom)

). I was skinny when I was young.

_. I love having a baby around the house and those toddler years, my favorite ages. I love doing all the baby care stuff. Would like to have "one" all the time. (but I know I'd be tired)

+. Peanut M&Ms and red Nibs are the best combination! try it!

~. I'd love to go to Prince Edward Island/Nova Scotia and related points someday.

OK, enough about me, what's going on with you???
Take Care.
~D Spack~

Exactly a Month Later

After a month, I'm tongue tied!

I'll begin with the Favorite Things Swap that Kelly sponsored. I sent Kara Jayne my favorite treats, skin product, little cards, book, etc. I received from her a book, gum and mints, note cards, flip flops, a great cd of her favorite songs (which I like too!), lotion, etc. When she wrote to me asking my shoe size, I could not figure that out ~what the heck??? Thanks Kara!

Everywhere we went on our trip to Montana, I kept forgetting my camera, but I did get this picture on our trip. Just before West Yellowstone, there are some fresh water springs called Howard Springs. Brett is standing in the middle of it. The water is so good and so so so cold. I didn't have a cup, so I used my hand and it froze! This little spot is just 40 minutes north of the little town where I grew up. On our return trip south from Big Sky, Mt., we stopped in Ashton to eat and visit my sixth grade teacher. She is 91 years old. We had a nice trip to Montana, in spite of Brett having strep throat and there being 9 inches of snow up at Big Sky.
The pool picture is one from our family reunion in Logan, Utah. College daughter and her new hubby with 2 very cute blonde little cousins. Brett was put in a cardboard boat and raced 2 others boats at first dam there on the Logan river. He won in his boat, we have some great engineers in the family... Family reunion was ok, mostly just ok tho' because it was too too warm. Three days out in the sun just isn't fun. I wilt.

End of June at our house means Raspberries~Raspberries~Raspberries! First picking~~~





Mr. Anonymous brought me these this week~ OOO love love love the pink. Wouldn't a pink and white quilt be great, like this one that Stephanie made?

The quilt block you see is for Mary at quilt group. It was her month for the friendship block quilt. She provided us with the flowered material, I added the background fabric. It was to be a 12 inch block of our choosing, as she will make a sampler quilt. I got my block and instructions from Crazy Mom Quilts in her quilt along from last year. I love the flowered fabric, the picture doesn't do it justice. This month I am hosting quilt group in my home. I haven't decide what we will do for the meeting. Does anyone have any great idea suggestions? We can plan anything we want when hosting, from a guest speaker to a project to a service project.

Kitchen Addiction suggested this yummy cookie recipe, so I had to try it. I struggled getting enough lemon flavor in the top spread. Youngest running partner turned 45, so I treated her to these Deep Dark Chocolate lemon morsels for her birthday.

I have a summery tablecloth in the kitchen now. It was a kit I purchased at a bargain price at a quilt store in Utah when I shopped hop their hop in 2005.


The little flag should have been hung at least by July 3, but no ~~it isn't finished! There are 11 white, perfect for this project buttons in a baggie, somewhere in this house. I haven't seen them for 2 weeks now, and believe me I've looked high and low. Where would I have placed them???

I hope I run onto them eventually. Can you guess where they go on the little flimsy? Maybe I should put 13 on--when I do find them...that was a clue. This was our quilt group project in June.
I want to post a photo of the quilt I took to the family reunion to be tied. It is real pretty. I did it in all greens because I have always had a lot of green in my stash. I will show it when it is bound.

I've been enjoying all you ladies' red, white and blue quilts and recent projects. Keep up the good work and thanks for coming back to my blog after a long dry spell.

Take Care.
~D Spack~

I'm Wondering...

How does one take a great picture of a great fountain? This one is in Boise. Difficult to decifer, but the statue is of a mother with two boys and a dog trailing her. She has hold of a kite string with a kite at the end. I do like this statue/fountain, although it is hard to see the detail in my photo. Have any of you seen this particular fountain when you've been in this area?







What kind of tree/bush is this? I've been noticing these twin trees on my way to the Library for several days now. Today while driving through a nearby neighborhood I saw two large bushes that very very closely resemble these trees. The green is a very light green going up into the white and then pink on the ends of each branch. They are so sweet and unique! I really don't want to go knock on the doors of those houses. Have any of you seen this particular tree/bush?

What great sights and sounds are to be found near Bozeman, Montana? Mr. Unidentified, the Brettster and I are heading up that way in 1.5 days! We will be at Big Sky Resort. Of course I'll want to hit the quilting stores, but what other must do s are there? I'd better look for 13 year old friendly options also. Are any of you readers from Montana? I do know that I really like the town of Bozeman. No photo of Montana ..., YET!

No sewing photos, unless I could send a picture of frustration from my present project! I know one thing, I need to stick to sewing from a pattern instead of making up my own ideas. (wouldn't think pinwheels would be that hard) It just leads to frustration and time wasted! I know I should be creative, BUT it doesn't ever go good for me...

Take Care.

Where Did May Go???

Time of change~school out~summer on it's way...the months go by so quick!

Today's To Do list:

~run

~bake 3 Angel Food cakes/slice strawberries for the third graders to have strawberry shortcake "To Go" tomorrow...

~make 30 cards with picture, summer reading booklist and poem written by Amber*

~laundry

~balance checkbook (do you ladies still do that???)

~pay bills

~get chain saw sharpened

~make phone calls

~take a nap (favorite)

~try to keep 13 year old ds BUSY with good things...

~catch up on e-mails

~SEW!!!

I never seem to get to my sewing, by the time I can, it's late in the day~ I'm too tired.

I think all the wedding loose ends are taken care of and the newlyweds are arriving in Peru today for a two week stint to put in drinking water wells and pumps. Hope they get a lot done and have a good time.

As mentioned last week, Quilt Group Friendship blocks were due. The airplane is paper pieced. It's fun and can be addicting, you just have to make sure you work with a generous piece of fabric each step of the way.

*Mom's Gift

by Amber Spackman (with some help from dad)

I've been to London to visit the queen,

I'm friends with Jack Sprat, who could eat only lean,

I'm acquainted with Aesop, and all of his fables,

And I've become friends with Anne of Green Gables.

I've met Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Harrison,

And Georgie, who kissed all the girls--how embarrasin'!

I've shivered with fright next to brave Nancy Drew,

Helped the Grinch steal Christmas from each Whoville Who.

I've lived in the future, traveled backward in time,

I won the Olympics, even though I'm just nine.

I could not have found red ferns, or 'coons that were treed,

If Mom hadn't helped me to learn how to read.

~Take Care

Wedding Picnic

OK let's get some of this down on "paper". When we were making wedding plans, we talked of what to have here in Eagle. Amber has been gone from here for eight years. She did not want any of us to spend a lot of money on the wedding. We wanted Tanner to meet people here and vice versa. We talked of sponsoring a large wedding shower, but that wouldn't include the men folk. A couple of years ago, when Morgan, Amber's friend in high school, got married, she had a barbeque in the backyard. Amber really liked it, so we decided that was the thing we should do. Amber called a friend's parents to ask them if we could have it in their backyard. They kindly consented. It would be held the weekend after the wedding (after the newlyweds honeymooned in Colorado). We invited old friends, high school friends and their parents, and neighbors. Fifty all told. We had 43 people attend. (In the above photo, the Brett man had changed into basketball shirt and shoes, leaving dress pants on. Previous to that he looked so great with a green shirt, black tie and dress shoes. Oh well, what's a mom to do? I had to let it go, it wasn't life threatening and wasn't morally threatening.)

We used the linens and table decorations from the Utah reception. I picked up fresh white mums, daisies, some greenery and we cut some white lilacs that day(stolen goods!). My good friend decorated the tables for us. We used some paper lanterns and pictures from the wedding, etc. for other decorations around the patio. We collected tables and chairs from the church.

Our menu was: Pulled Pork, Rolls from the bakery, Fresh Fruit, Sun Chips and Guaco Chips, a side salad and Key Lime Pie or Angel Lime Dessert. My blonde friend took care of the meat for us, my ever so cheerful friend cut up all the fruit and arranged it on two beautiful platters, my running friend made two desserts and the gal I work with ran the kitchen. To serve the dessert, we used various random green plates. When Amber requested Key Lime Pie for dessert, this idea of serving it popped into my head, she liked it, so we went with it. We gathered plates from Good Will, D.I. and from friends and neighbors! Some of them were even green glass vintage. It was a fun little pursuit. Nancy will tell you of our Key Lime Pie dilemmas. The best recipe can be found with her. I will post the Pulled Pork recipe when I get it again, if you all are interested. It was good and easy. We had one spoonful left in the end. Everyone loved the guaco chips, the fresh fruit was sweet (it all came from Costco), the Key Lime Pies went fast. The side salad was a bit of a different way to do salad. We had it at the place settings to begin the picnic, that way people could start with salad as others were going to the serving tables. It was a fun little salad. We put a hand full of red and green 'greens' on the plate, then to the side a little bunch of craisins, cashews, small carrots, grape tomatoes and olives with a clump of clover sprouts top and center. I had some vintage tea cups with plates to put the dressings in. We just used Thousand Island and Brianna's Poppy Seed dressings. Because Brett loves Jones Soda and it is Tanner's last name, we served several flavors of Jones Soda for the drink. How easy was that! AND I found out that Tanner likes Jones Soda also. Tanner and Brett had four cans in one night! This little event was very casual and fun. It came off with lots of help from dear daughter, family and friends. Doing something for the first time is always daunting for me, but after it's over I feel like I could do it again, no sweat..Sooo, now, anyone need an outdoor wedding picnic???? Let me entertain you~~~

(speaking of sweat~96 degrees here that day~that was the only bad part~I wilt in the heat~summer not my fav.)

A friend of the happy couple gave them HATS for their wedding gift!!! Novel. Looks like Amber might go cowgirl on us!

Quilt A Long

This "place" has some good tutorials, a sampler block quilt-a-long in November and a star block quilt-a-long going now. If you are interested in doing some cute quilt blocks, take a look here. It is possible to view the blocks that other quilters are making, also. There are always many ideas and options on other's blogs, which help the creativity get going. Have fun.
http://www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/
Take Care~~~

I Made A Bag

This bag was not the easiest thing I've ever made. I like it, but seems like it would be wrong to use it for the chance of it getting dirty. Hmmmm, love/hate with bags. There are so many cute ones out there, but not all are functional and what if it needs to be washed! They never look as nice after a washing. Last week while married/no more college/no more internship girl was home, she sewed up two bags that you can view on her blog. They are cute bags...covered buttons are fun to make and use. Her bag fabrics are by Amy Butler.

Ok onto other things now. Quilt group is next week. I need to get going on the past two friendship blocks we've done. I'm behind. When completed I'll show those here, if I remember to take a pic. I'm planning to start a "quilt along". This nice person has two to choose from. Deciding what fabrics to go with is tough. I've been peeking at quilt market pictures on everyone's blogs. Would have liked to go. But then there is always something/someplace I'd like to be going to: i.e. quilt shop hops, quilt shows, quilts walks,women's programs, etc. If I did all of that, I wouldn't be able to be a wife, teachers aid, mother of the bride, mom of a thirteen year old stinker, blogger, and a 'caring for others' person.

Take Care~~