Decorating for Christmas

I've been putting up Christmas decorations this week.





No, I don't have a thing for purple. All these purple decorations are what we used 2 years ago for my one & only daughter's wedding reception. What a day that was! It's fun to go back and look at the pictures from that day:


It was a bitter c-o-l-d day. But her outdoor pictures are so beautiful.





Notice the gorgeous wreath in the background. My fabulous talented SIL Jenny made it. Now it hangs outside my front door at Christmas time.

We bought so many purple & silver Christmas balls! Two years later, my eye is still drawn to that color when I look at Christmas decorations in stores.



One of these years I think I will buy some white lights and decorate my tree in purple & silver too. But not this year. Here's my tree and the way it has been decorated for the past 26 years.

Over the years the only think that has changed is the growing number of ornaments. They remind me of places I've visited, and people I have known. Such a great tradition.

What Mac fans have known since 1984

Applause. . .

I started a project last week and put the finishing touches on it yesterday! I bought an advent calender kit last year after the holidays at Mormon Handicraft. It was something like 75% off, so I got it for just a few dollars. You can still find the pattern here (Michael Miller website) for free.

I've looked all year long for some little Christmas ornaments to hang on it & they were usually too expensive when I added up that I needed 24 of them. I finally found some last weekend at Joann's, and they were 50% off to boot! All of them only cost $5.00.

Here is the finished project...


Each present is a pocket that holds an ornament. Each day you take one ornament out and tie it onto the tree. When the tree is decorated, Christmas day is here!

Now it's time to work on getting the big tree out of the storage shed, into the house and decorated.

P.S. I just looked out the window & huge fluffy snowflakes are falling! Hoping that means it will warm up. It has been C-O-L-D here the past few days.

Quilter Blogs

I started reading quilterblogs.com earlier this year. The following is from their home page, and tells you what they are all about:

Welcome to Quilter Blogs.com, where you can read dozens of quilting-related blogs from dozens of quilters in one place! Quilter Blogs scans the blogs in its database many times a day and displays snippets of the quilting-related blog on the updates page. Gain inspiration from quilters all over the world.


Once in awhile, I will make a comment on a blog posting. Mary who lives in Mesa is a very talented quilting friend that I met thru quilter blog. This week Mary is having a giveaway. You can check out her giveaway by clicking here:

The New Kid in Town

Ok, it's not the first time I've blogged about In-n-Out, and most likely it won't be the last. But it is pretty exciting because now we have an In-n-Out of our very own here in O-Towne, Utah! I talked to Jenny last night and she told me how their family had been earlier in the evening and the wait wasn't that bad. Shortly after that (10:00 pm) Terrell came home and we decided to go give it a try. (Kimball was camping with a couple of friends).


The wait was probably less than 15 minutes. We were able to score two seats along the counter, with a good view of the kitchen. As I sat there enjoying my cheeseburger (animal style) & fries, I watched with envy the kid cutting the french fries!

My Friend Garmin

This cartoon reminds me the the recent drive to Washington that I took with my sister Cheryl. I had the voice setting on my Garmin set to "Australian English - Lee". I set it there months ago, because that voice uses TTS (text to speech). For an example, TTS will tell you the name of the street you need to turn on, instead of just telling you to turn in 100 feet. It makes driving in unfamiliar places just that much easier.

As we started to get closer to our destination of Port Townsend, we took state highways - like WA-18W that took us to Tacoma.


Now Lee, being from Australia, got a little confused by the WA state highways. Every time he spoke our directions, he thought he was in Australia. For example, if we needed to turn onto WA 18, Lee told us to turn onto Western Australia 18. It was pretty funny. (Guess you just had to be there)

Who knew you had do drive thru Australia to get to Port Townsend!

I've been working on finishing a few quilting things lately. Last week I finished the last two (extra) monthly quilt blocks. So I could go to the classes last Saturday and get fabric to make 7 more this month.

Yesterday I got all the sashing sewed on Kimball's black & green pinwheel quilt. I'm thinking I might put a couple more borders on it before the quilt top is finished. Just trying to decide what colors to use:

La-Cai Noodle House

This post is a plug for one of my favorite places to eat in Salt Lake City. If you've never been to La-Cai Noodle House, give it a try. You will not be disappointed! Both food & service are outstanding! Everyone in our family has their own "favorite" dish that is ordered time & time again. Mine is General Tso's Chicken. (Although last time I got Chicken lo mein)

Before you enter the dining room, there is a huge bowl of fortune cookies. We all grab a handful and munch fortune cookies while we wait for our food.

We made a trip to SLC last Saturday nite. La-Cai was where Emilie and Curtis wanted to eat, so that is where we ended up. This was my first fortune of the night:

Pretty cool, huh?

November 9, 1989 - November 9, 2009

I have a curio cabinet hanging on my kitchen wall that is filled with mementoes. There are trinkets from Germany, Switzerland, Holland,Tahiti, Peru, Greece & Alaska. There is a small bottle of white sand, from White Sands, New Mexico. A tiny container of gold flakes is what I panned at Knotts Berry Farm many, many years ago. There are several things from Nauvoo, IL. There is a wooden bobbin & a piece of bobbin lace that I bought in France. They are to remind me of my great grandmother who was a lace maker. A piece of hardened mud is from the creek that runs in front of Clifty church in Indiana. A bottle of redwood seeds is from Muir woods in California. There is a small medal that was awarded to Bradley Hill in 1991 for being a Geneva Giant "Citizen of the Year"... I could go on & on.

Gary has given me several things that reside in the curio. A black lava flow rock from Hawaii and a tiny tile from Herculaneum. (Shhhhh! it is a secret that I have these things!) There is something else that Gary brought me 20 years ago. I have been thinking about it today. Look closely, you will see it at the bottom of the cabinet - a pink, purple & yellow piece of cement.


Twenty years ago, after November of 1989, Gary and a friend he worked with were in Europe on vacation. When he left I told him I wanted him to bring me back a piece of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin wall was actually coming down while he was there. (Gary, you will have to tell us your story)


Here's the chunk of cement that he brought me: I'm sad that there is a piece of painting missing, that's what happened when it went to school for "show 'n tell".

To me, this little chunk of cement represents freedom. It is one of my favorite things inside the curio cabinet!

Trip to Port Townsend

The first part of October, I went to Port Townsend, Washington for a week. I drove up there with sister Cheryl, (19 hour drive which we did in one day!) My parents were also there, they made the trip in 2 days, and had arrived at the condo earlier in the day.

Here are a few highlights of the trip, even though it is now in the past.

Miner's in Yakima, Washington!

We stopped here at the recommendation of a good friend who grew up in nearby Richland. The food was so good, we stopped here again on our way home!

The famous Miner's burger. Tasty indeed!

Kala Point, a few miles south of Port Townsend. This is where the condo we stayed at was located. It was beautiful. Lots of pine & green.



This was our view a short walk from the condo - Port Townsend Bay


The area was thick with black berry bushes.

We went to a Farmers Market in Sequim (pronounced Squim). Found out that there are a lot of lavender farms in the area. This is one that we visited:


At Fort Worden, we learned about tsunami's:


All road trips with me include stops at every quilt shop:

Quilted Strait - Port Angeles, WA

I bought the patterns to make these two quilts at the Quilted Strait:




Heirloom Quilts & Fabrics - Poulsbo, Washington


Material Girls Quilt Shop - Silverdale, Washington


Creative Union Fabrics - Port Townsend (just over a mile from our condo)

Other fun shopping:

Next to the Quilted Strait in Port Angeles is "Bay Variety". We got such a kick out of wandering around this store. It was just like Kings Variety in Rexburg, ID (where I grew up) - 40 years ago.



Remember the old time shopping baskets?


It must be fall! Toyland is open!


Isles full of treasures & trash

I wanted to drive over to Forks, Washington, just to be able to say "been there, done that!"

The Forks Timber Museum. Before those silly vampire novels by Stephenie Meyer, this was probably the highlight of the town.


Now, "Twlight" is what keeps the town alive.


There were references to "Twlight" everywhere!

Poulsbo, Washington (also known as "Little Norway") was another fun town we visited.
Sluys' Bakery was a good stop for some treats.


Cheryl and I bought a Gurglepot at another shop in town. They really do gurgle!
(click on the link to see & hear)

This is the Port Townsend Paper Mill

Little did we know when we stopped to take pictures that it is a secure area because of it's port location. (think Homeland Security) A guard approached Cheryl and let her know he could call the sheriff on us, because we were taking pictures. She talked to him & calmed him down - he even let us keep the pictures on our camera's and didn't make us delete them.

Our last nite in Port Townsend, we went out to eat. We were looking for clam chowder. Decided to eat here at Sea J's,Cafe even though they only served clam chowder on Friday (the next day). Their fish & chips were delicious. Plus it was fun to watch & listen to the locals.


I worked on the blocks for Kimball's green & black pinwheel quilt while I was there, and accomplished quite a bit during the week:


On our way home, we stopped in Richland for gas. I looked up the LDS temple on the GPS and found that it was only about 3 miles from where we were, so we drove over to see that before leaving town. Smaller temple, sits right next to the stake center. Beautiful as they all are!

Columbia River Washington Temple - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

We took two days to drive home. It was a long two days. But well worth the memories & fun times we had!