Monarch Post

spring still lifes

Spring break was lovely. Sleeping in, reading, and tea drinking in the morning in the warm living room sunshine, (while kids slowly made their way to pancakes and showers...) friends, play dates and a day at the new SportsPlex diving off trampolines into rubber brick filled pits made up our staycation break this year. Mike marked out space in the back yard for a kitchen garden- I think it's going to be a fun summer family project. Baking Easter cookies, and crocheting while watching the snow storm Good Friday morning...it felt like Christmas instead of Good Friday, so strange.  Sunday it was the sound of brass bells and ancient hallelujah choruses rising up through the church rafters on a glorious, warm and sunny Easter morning. 

A week of contrasts, but a settling too into a more peaceful place these days... like a dog who has gone round and round to make his bed and then settles in... that's me... and that's the best explanation I can muster at the moment.

But today it was back to work... laundry, cleaning, and thinking... what am I making in the craft room this week?  :)

How was your spring week?

XOK

random thursday

Yesterday, I got flowers twice.

It's a good day if you get flowers twice.

In the morning, an interior design company that Mike worked with through the year remodeling and redecorating his company building sent the most artsy bouquet to us.

How did they know I like branchy things?

 

(our bedroom dresser^)

I have branches all around the house, in front of mirrors.

In the bedroom, bathroom, entry...

 

And red branches and flowers for this house!

I'm guessing they are psychic interior designers ;)

Hydrangeas are favorites too.

And pears (?!) Cool.

In the afternoon this bouquet came from my in-laws. So pretty and kind.

We decided as a family we wanted to organize a neighboorhood food drive every so often. 

We distributed flyers that Mike and the kids made.

And Saturday we picked up food from our neighbors front porches.

The kids had a ball riding in the back of Mike's truck.

Then we put the food in the back of my car, and it filled it.

This is our haul... not bad for a first time!

It felt  sooo good to be able to do this.

The sign at our old church after I dropped off the food there.

Warm fuzzies all over me... :)

I went shopping after...

I bought groceries for eleven meals and this CD.

Had to have it.

 

And I listened to it tonight while decorating the living room tree.

Christmas music has been hard for me the last two years since my mom passed on.

Too many memories from those old songs.

But this CD is new, and Susan has the voice of an angel.

I think her voice is healing AND gorgeous.

 I stopped at Just A Bed of Roses... and talked with Brenda.

Brenda is great and so is her store, if you're ever in Davis county Utah, go see her!

I bought a tinsel wreath and hung it in the dining room.

It has fallen three times.

FYI- Duct tape will not hold a tinsel wreath to glass...

I need a Plan B.

 

I also bought a mini tinsel tree.

And decorated it with mini pinecone ornaments... from Kmart!

And a new star topper... the tree has been topperless for three years.

Corbyn made this reindeer in 1st grade at school.

Those grade-school crafts are precious to me.

Santas have been given to me for years for my birthday.

Bought our cards online this year.

 

It was fun to design them and then just click and order.

TINYPRINTS is great-- I had the cards in five days without ordering a rush.

Now I can look like one of those "organized" people who order their cards in September- ha!

I also ordered recipe cards from an Etsy seller-- HIGH TEA WITH ALICE JOYCE.

I thought this was such a clever idea.

She mails you a handwritten recipe card for $1.00

I ordered cards for homemade pop tarts (above)

and RED VELVET BROWNIES for christmas baking.

YUMMY.

Right now the only holiday goodies are the fake ones on the kitchen sideboard.

Cute though, huh?

Well, that's my excitement for the last two days...

how about you?

I am almost on track for Christmas...

hope I stay that way.

XOK

 

random monday

My kids and I are home sick with colds...

I layed around all day yesterday.

I couldn't do it again today.

So I sniffled and puttered around the house and made cookies...

I made oatmeal mini-chocolate chip cookies.

They are really good, and really simple.

Last night while we were laying around sick,

we watched 19 kids and counting.

 

Hooooly Mooooly.

 

They are having another baby... soon to be 20 kids and counting.

I am in awe... and just fascinated by how they manage.

It's not for me (or us) but it is amazing to see how they do it all.

So I went to their website today and decided to make their cookies.

Not sure why I went to their blog... voyeurism, I guess.

Anyway, their cookie recipe is great.

And I added a little vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. And mini-chocolate chips.

I think the recipe makes about seventy... be warned!

Saturday morning we woke up to snow. Our second snowfall already.

(So not ready ).

Today the back yard looks like this.

And the deck looks like this.

So much for all those fall leaves I said were still on the trees... geez.

The leaves falling always made my Mom upset...

I think she thought grass was carpet too ;)

And she would have vacuumed it if she could.

(I wonder if you could use a shop vac on the deck?)

I don't mind the leaves scattered all over,

and they aren't getting raked until they ALL fall...

 

So there... leaves...

 

 

Last week I went to Tai Pan home store looking for an apothecary jar for the wedding flowers.

I found the red frame there. LOVE IT.

It's in the dining room.  LOVE IT.

 

I left the wedding flowers to dry in their vases.

They looked so pretty even dried; I haven't had the heart to take them apart.

But I finally decided I needed to....

I saved the best blooms and arranged them in the jar.

The rest went in the trash.

Definately the most expensive trash bags I've ever taken out.

OOOOOOOiiiye.

It's sitting in the dining room at the moment.

The flower colors are great in there with the green walls.

I'm going to add more color to the room.

I started making more tea towels too on Saturday.

(Say that three times fast. )

To sell for Christmas at All Tucked In.

I like 'em.

 

****************************

And  I liked the way the garland and the ornaments turned out too for the shop.

All twelve heart ornaments sold last week.

I'm making more.

Yay!

I made the ornament loops from an old pillowcase.

I serged both edges of the fabric.

Sergers are AWEsome. Seriously.

Serging makes me weirdly happy.

It's like slicing hot pie when it slices perfectly.

**********************

I think that's it for me today.

What's up with you?!

XOK

lots of flowers and words... catching up.

 
Anybody still out there? It's the long lost blogger here again. After the last long ago post, Jesse and I caught the flu. Influenza B and two weeks of everyday feeling just like the previous pitiful day. It was awful. Poor Jess has never been so sick, and I haven't had the flu since high school. Kinda like the movie Groundhog Day-- where everything is the same eveeerry day.

Having taken it's cue from us, our computer decided a serious virus would be just the thing to catch so it could laze about the house and complain. It was in the shop for nearly two weeks getting de-bugged.... I think I finally feel caught up now. Wow. My advice is don't catch anything for two weeks-- unless it's a wave in Maui :)

So I've been flower-making here for the last while. I just finished up making piles and piles of flowers for two very charmingly designed children's room. (It was  good to at least see spring somewhere, even if only in fabric flowers on the table, because apparently, Utah doesn't know how to do a nice spring anymore. It snowed most of the days I worked on flowers.) The photo above shows a few of the hundred or so (I'm serious!) flowers I made. Kanzashi flowers are my current new love affair-- otherwise known as Asian flower folding. (If you really dig folding fabric napkins; making these babies will just send you over the moon. I weirdly happen to like folding fabric napkins: It brings back memories of my high school and college waitressing days. I'm pretty sure that even stranger than liking to fold fabric napkins is liking waitressing. Who knew? It must have been the big bucks, and the thrill of the odd five-dollar tip ;) I wonder how many fabric napkins I've folded in a lifetime.... I'll bet thousands. Wow, this is an interesting post... hey, it's what happens when you haven't written forever and you think you need to compensate. If you've got something better to do right now, I totally understand :) 

One last item: Amazon has a great book I've been using: Kanzashi in Bloom.

Moving on...

I think I made around fifty flowers for garlands for the second little girls's room.

 
Here's one of the finished garlands.

 

 

I took my flower cues from the amazing wool rug.
 

How darling is this room-- pretty chic for a three-year old. Love love love it.

 
Here's the wall just above the chair in the previous picture. (Isn't this cool?!) Noelle Wright of Noelle Wirght Interiors is the designer of the rooms, and as you can she, she is incredibly talented... And such a joy to work with... It was great. You shoulda seen the rest of the house-- Utah Homes magazine material for sure.

 
Fun stuff. I don't have photos of the nursery room yet, but I'm hoping I'll have some soon to pass along. It was quite different from this room, but reall equally fabulous.

 

 

In other crafting news...

    Last week I finished loads of pink and white Easter baskets again this year for All Tucked In. A few zillion more flowers cut, stitched, glued... if only our real garden outside looked so good.

 
Sweet though, huh?

 
And aren't these butterlies the sweetest things? I found laser-cut wood butterflies at Michaels in the spring decor aisle. Tied with ribbons and hung ornament-style from budding branches (also Michaels) made for a quick new Easter decoration this year. (I try and usually resist the ready-made from China stuff, but I just couldn't pass up the those lacey butterflies!)

 

And last but not least in the long catch up post... The kids. I love it when they slip upstairs to my studio for a couple of  hours.

 It's great to see the smiles and creations that come out of the studio.

 
Here's the shoebox diarama book report Jesse made for the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Trojans are in the red helmets... this kills me. Sculpey clay, you are awesome.

And lately when Sophey has a girlfriend over, she's giving them a sewing class. Her girlfriends think my studio is awesome :)

 
Dance class tote bag classes were what the instructor offered last time.

 
It's great to see all my ex bits and pieces of cast-off projects put to new use.

 

The kid craft projects reminded me of a new Somerset magazine coming out this summer. A friend of mine told me it's a complete magazine devoted to crafting with kids, Create With Me. Can't wait to see it.

And on that note, I'll love you and leave you. Thanks for hanging through all my show and tells ;)

Do you have special plans for Easter weekend?

XOKelly

 

 

the best of the week

 
 
 
 
I've been playing around with my new camera taking random shots around the house this week. The roses are from my Mike for Valentine's Day.

 
Favorite birds and dogs in the dining room. (I keep them apart, I know that birds and dogs don't mix well :)

 

Bookshelf photo of St Therese'

 
(my, how our kids have grown...)

 

 
In the kitchen, a rose from the sweetheart dinner on the windowsill

 
and a corner,

 
and a bowl of Pink Ladies.

 
Kid craft,

 
art,

 
and ingenuity!

 

 

 
In the studio, new fabrics 

 
and

 
new taped on ideas to inspire...

 
and even a new organized box of floss (I know, I can't believe it either!)

 

 
But the best part of the photos around the house last week were

 

of sweet Corbyn William's twentieth birthday.
 
 
Even if the cards weren't all sincere. We are; we love you so, our funny, bright, easy-going, economics-studying, African drum playing, soccer watchin', coffee shop workin', dog-lovin', uber cool cool guy.

 
XOXOXOX You're the moon and the sun XOXOXOX

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

xoxo!

 

 

merry christmas from our house!

 

 

 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

 
Merry Christmas from our house! I'm ready to plant it right here on the couch tonight and work on another Christmas present I need to finish(/start!)

We're almost ready around here, we just need some snow now... fingers are crossed. I'm planning on baking Thursday and on Christmas Eve day the Henderson gang of six will be going skiing in our great Utah mountains and snow (well only four are really going to ski, the two oldest Hendersons' are planning on sitting in the lodge with a good book, good coffee, and some yarn-- me with the yarn :)

I'm stopping here for a bit, maybe until the New Year. I'm ready to relax, hang out and play with kids and new toys for a week.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!

Take care and lots of love,

Kelly

dreaming in color

 
Last week Corbyn came to me needing a manila folder for a homework assignment. I couldn't find one, so I started rummaging around in a top shelf in the kitchen. I ran across an old folder filled with magazine clippings (remember doing that before blogland?). On the top of all the clippings were these photos printed on a postcard subscription for Cottage Living. I had completely, completely forgotten about this postcard, but when I saw it I remembered sticking it in the folder, and thinking wouldn't it be fun to live in a house with such a bright, happy kitchen?! 

That was seven years ago, back when we lived in a little house all painted in seafoam blues, cremes, salmony pinks, and decorated in cabbage rose fabrics. No bright yellow kitchen walls or red chairs in sight... I was seriously floored when I ran across these photos. 

And look at this home of ours now... Pine farm tables, red chairs, bright yellow walls, green furniture, roses, sunflowers, mismatched china, and the dog-- the DOG!! (We didn't have Winston when I filed this photo.) 

 
I guess I tucked a happy red and yellow postcard in my subconscious file back then too...

(I'd love to have the white kitchen cabinets, but those will have to wait for a couple more years.) 

(And now if I could just score an old daisy chandelier at a yard sale... ;)

Well, that's it for me today. I've got a busy week ahead finishing up projects and Halloween costumes. I might not be back for a few days. Love, Kelly

 

 

 

I totally scored at the thrift stores

 
I totally scored at my thrift store Columbus Day sale yesterday. You know you've got it bad when you make a special trip to the thrift store because it's half-price day. But when you find that little diamond of whatever in between all the junk, and it's practically free...  somehow it's just great cheap therapy. Don't ask me to explain it any better than that.... but if you're here, you may totally get it too :)

Anyway, that's one very awesome green enamelware pot up above. It'll be perfect for soup this winter. My old perfect size soup pot is twenty-five years old and falling apart, so this sweet thing will provide years of simmering enjoyment. (No one else in my family will ever appreciate my perfect-shade-of-green-enamel-ware-pot, but I will never appreciate V8(?) engines or football, so I think we are even here.)

The yellow oven-to-tableware piece still had the original stickers on it-- never used. Double score.

And the yellow trivet is just plain adorable.

As is the white stoneware serving platter.

And the metal pinecone candle holders (looking Pottery barn chic and expensive, I might add) for eight bucks-- whoohoo!

 
I also found this fabric (which is currently living as a dress) but I'm thinking it may soon become a dining room table runner for Thanksgiving. Love those colors and that crazy paisley pattern!

 
And I bought one tatted lace doily.

I tried to learn how to tat  once... for about five seconds... but then my eyes crossed over and I blacked out.

The most TEDIOUS craft ever-- in my opinion. But I admire those who've done it and have lived to tell about it. Anyone who has the patience to tat and can actually make something like this should automatically be qualified for sainthood. No other miracle-working would be deemed necessary. You tat a doily.... you join the sainthood club there sister Mary Kathleen, followed by a long round of applause, a standing ovation, and a loud Amen!

 

Moving on....

 
Found a charming cloche for the d.r. hutch at another consignment store last week.

 
Sweet.

 
And I picked up the prettiest daisy plates and bowls at another thrift store. The folk art box was an estate sale ($1) find a few weeks ago.

 
The hutch definately has more personality now...

 
And so does the old bean and bacon soup for lunch, but now I need something homemade and bubbling in that green enamelware pot. :-)

Happy Tuesday, my friends! XO!! 

 

 

 

 

feels like summer

I have a confession to make: I haven't been incredibly creative lately, but I have been having a reeeeally loooovely July :)

Plenty of chaffeuring to baseball games and friend's houses.

 
Stopping along the way to try out the new burger joints we've been wanting to try.

 
I've been keeping my camera handy, taking photos of ideas for our yard someday. This is the sort of fence we'd like to put in our front yard soon.

Love the house the fence belongs too. Isn't she a charmer?

And here's my view at our pool. It's just a couple of streets away.

 
It's reeeally hard to say no when the kids ask to go spend a couple of hours here. Pure heavenly bliss :)

 
 
You know it definately feels like the middle of summer, when this is what you find on your kitchen counter in the morning....  

 
and the clean dishes are looking summery and patriotic after the 4th of July barbeque...

 and so is the dog...

and so do the new fake hydrangeas on the mantel... 

and the crochetting basket...

 
and the things I made to sell in the children's shop... (just found that chair for the front porch for $2.50 at a yard sale!)

and the apple pie we ate for breakfast...
 

and our baseball boy in the town parade....
 

and our Girl Scout girl in the town parade...

 

Yep, it's definately feeling like the middle of summer around here....  hot, lazy, glorious, and I wish it could last for at least a few more months.

I hope you're enjoying it too-- wherever you happen to be this summer. I'm running off to Girl Scout camp way up in the tippy tops of the Wasatch mountains for a few days. ~ See you when I get back! xoKelly 
  
  

   

spring cleaning

I spent the weekend spring cleaning. This time of year I don't even mind cleaning. I dust, wash, and scrub away. I plow through cupboards, and closets. And I rearrange and reorganize too.

Here's what I came up with for my problem corner in my kitchen: It's a small counter area by the fridge; I've always kept my cookbooks there, and that works well, but the corner always seems to be a mess-- kids school papers, things that need to be filed, etc. land there and sit.

So last week when I went into my friend Brenda's shop, Just a Bed of Roses, I spotted this rusty old red dishdrainer. I thought it just might work in my kitchen corner, with the butterfly file folders I found in Carmel a couple summers ago. The folders have been sitting around, just waiting for the right spot and purpose.

And so the dishdrainer/kitchen filing system was born. The folders fit perfectly. I still need to label them, but no more corner clutter (hopefully). Nice and kitschy-cute too.

The silverware area is perfect for recipe cards, and my cell phone. I hope that cuts down on my cellphone cellphone hunting time!

While I was rearranging, I added my kid-made Mother's Day flowers and a flower drawing in a $1.00 thrift store frame.

 

I put the kids' art markers  in some English baked bean cans, I bought a few cans awhile ago at a British foods store. I love those cans. And BTW if you have a British foods store around your area, I highly recommend the Heinz baked beans. They are so much better than any of our American versions, I think anyway. When we lived in England, I adopted the English custom of eating eggs, sausage, baked beans, and sliced tomatoes for dinner. We still eat that quite often for dinner.

The counter drops off and next to it is my computer area. I pulled out my wellie boot planter, and filled it with new (matching!) pens and pencils. So much better than the jumbled mess that was there before.

I feel so organized today :-) 

Just thought I'd pass the drainer/file idea along; it's yard sale season now and you never know how many rusty old dishdrainers you might just find waiting for a new purpose in life ;) 

What did you do over the weekend? xoKelly