Monarch Post

I'll take it in green, please.

I have gardening fever... I am unable to not stop at any garden centers. I work for hours in the morning unconcerned about dirty dishes or laundry or me taking a shower until afternoon. I am spending inordinate amounts of time planting, watering, and walking back out oh, every couple of hours just to see "how things are doing"... ummm... I think it grew a little since I was out here, uh, two hours ago???

Gosh, I  really love it. We've lived here seven years and have spent most of that time working on the inside of the house, getting it the way we want it (it still isn't either, but it's closer). So for me, the outside just never really felt like "ours". The previous owners planted some basic shrubs and thankfully, the big honey locust tree in our backyard, but most of the yard is just grass. Can't think how many times I've pulled open the blinds in our bedroom, looked down below at all that grass on the side of the house and thought what a perfect spot for a kitchen garden... and now we have one : )

This weekend we'll be making a short, white picket fence to enclose the garden. This will be good. Very good. I am tired of yelling at dogs who think vegetable beds are meant for their use. I am also tired of pulling bark off of Winston's furry fanny.

So farI've planted: nine varieties of tomatoes, four of sweet peppers, three  cukes, zucchini, crookneck, basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, dill, oregano, mint. Two blueberry bushes, two raspberry bushes, and three hanging strawberry planters. And seeds... jalapeno, green beans, carrots, and radishes. I still have watermelons and cantaloupe and more flowers to plant. I am slightly nervous about it all, wondering if any of those seeds will really even sprout. Our last home had a mini- mini tomato and zucchini patch, so this one feels like a farm in Kansas... The suburb girl, is getting in touch with her inner-farm girl :)

I find myself thinking of my grandmothers' and my Mom's gardens when I plant. They feel closer to me when I'm out digging in the dirt, and I feel connected to my long line of gardening great-mothers (and mother Earth too). I can still hear my Mom's voice... plant it deep enough and make a well around it, so the water stays in better... I tell Sophey the same words now. (And I'll bet my grandmother said those same words to my mother).

Hope you have a lovely Memorial Day weekend, my friends.

 

 

got the dirt on it.

I have been lost in a jungle of wild monkeys and gardens lately... but in a good way. This is one of about nine sets of little girl's aprons with matching sock monkey/ clothes I've been working on. I think it's time for a little haute couture for the monkey world... I mean really, how many naked sock monkeys are there running around the world? It's just not right ;)  (And then there were all those apron and dress scraps... I couldn't waste those. So I sewed baby balls, headbands, flower barrettes, etc. to match.)

Her name is Poppy (not very creative, I know, but who else could she be?) The poppy fabric came from an estate sale last summer. It looks like it's from the '60s and it reminds me of all the Marimekko fabrics and wallpapers I loved in the '80s. The fabric had been made into curtains. I bought yards of the poppy fabric and a big box of other fabrics for four dollars... love finding stuff like that!

The goal is an Etsy shop again by the beginning of summer. Well stocked and adorable is the plan. I'm also working on stocking a booth for the farmer's market this summer, and the shop I sell too, and I'm working on not feeling overwhemed by all my grand ideas :)

Last week I went hunting for a few display pieces for the farmer's market. I bought everything at my friend Brenda's shop, Just A Bed of Roses. If you're local and you're looking for lovely antiques, she is your "go to" girl. 

I found an old metal bread box, wooden hangers, doily, a pretty rose candy dish, and a gold and cream damask tablecloth.

Isn't it gorgeous? I love it. I also found fabric at a fabric store that matches this perfectly- a small golden gingham print for the display table that reminds me of warm toast and honey... don't ask me why...

The next day I found more yellow gingham at the thrift store- old curtains again. A whopping two dolla. I love the brown and cream cross-stitching pattern along the bottom.  Not sure what I'll make out of it yet though... then I went to Hobby Lobby and found this children's vintage reproduction fabric.  

I said, "monkey dresses!"

And the last best thrift store find lately... this jello mold, now hanging in the kitchen. I have been on a rolllll...

That includes sod rolling around here too. Two Saturdays ago Mike rented a sod cutter for the day, and as a family we dug up 7,500 lbs. (!) of sod from our yard and hauled it to the dumps... We needed canes and walkers on Sunday. Oh. My. Gosh. Muscles none of us knew we had hurt for days, but it's looking great. Mike and Jesse built the raised beds, installed weed cover underneath, and hauled load after load of dirt and bark to fill it all in. The sprinkling system is still being rerouted and a drip system is almost ready to go.

Tomorrow, I'm buying the veggies to plant. Tomatoes, squash, broccoli, carrots, melons, herbs, peppers, and whatever else looks intruiging. I layed in bed thinking of vegetables this morning at 5:30 am, wondering if I could make my own salsa with only our homegrown veggies this fall.

(Suburban produce fever? )

The seating spot will include a movable fire pit for now. That area needs to be clear to drive into when we build the waterfall and new deck next year. After that happens, another raised bed will probably go where the seating and firepit are now. Around the edges of the garden will be a white picket fence; it's scheduled to go up next weekend. I'm planting the front outside edges of the fence in cosmos, snapdragons, and whatever else I fall in love with at the garden center. The rounded corner edge will have a birdbath, an ornamental tree, more flowers and a beautiful St. Francis statue Mike gave me for Mother's Day yesterday.

We are all so excited about this project... and I'll keep you posted through the summer.

Aren't you so excited for vegetable slideshows ha,ha!

I think they are called Western Tanengers. They are here everyday, suddenly, along with a big blue-jay. "Need" a new birdbath for sure.

We are having the most gorgeous spring in Utah this year, and I am so glad after the great, wet, soggy, miserable, flooded April, May, and June of last year. We could not have put a garden in last year, there wasn't a dry day until mid-June. I definately think it's making it all the sweeter this year... and I am on the hunt for an awesome homemade salsa recipe.

XOK

 

 

 

leaves and pumpkins

Sunday afternoon Sophey asked if she could take my old point and shoot camera to the ravine behind our house and take some photos.

I've blogged about the ravine before; it's the prettiest bit of green space around our town, (I think, anyway).

(No one but our neighboorhood knows it even exists). (Sshhhh... don't tell!)

It feels a little bit enchanted.

If there really are fairies I think they'd live here...

I love the photos she took.

Pretty great compositions for a ten year old, huh?

And how about the "artsy" shadow photos.

They're a little creepy somehow, now that I'm looking at them closer.

Perfect for Halloween.

(And perfect for getting me to my next photo).

Saturday night we went to a church Halloween pumpkin carving/decorating party.

I brought the mini pumpkins and craft decorations for the kids.

They made the funniest pumpkins.

One big hodge-podge of craft supplies and the kids stayed busy for at least an hour.

Eighteen cute ittle pumpkin people went home after the party.

 
Not the best photos, it was kind of dark in the church.

I found snazzy striped pipe cleaners at the craft store.

I highly recommend snazzy striped pipe cleaners for pumpkin smiles :)

So cute!

Our pumpkins found a home on the kitchen windowsill.

Our big carved pumpkins won "Happiest" and "Most Creepy" for the contest.

Sort of like the kids who carved them...

Halloween night Sophey went trick or treating as a butterfly and Jesse went as "The Unexpected".

Boys are weird....

And Corbyn went as a redneck with a mighty fine Billy Rae Cyrus mullet.

Definately the scariest thing I saw on Halloween.

His pants were so tight I had to tie his shoes for him.

And tape on his mustache.

Too funny.

 

So, what did you do for Halloween?

XOK

P.S. still working away on the crafting... will have something to show for myself pretty soon!

fall-ness

Hi guys. I'm back again. I've been working away in my studio, getting past my creative hurdles, and every day I think-- I need to post those how-tos! And ahem, haven't got there... but I will one of these first days.

Never made it to the SLC farmer's market this summer either with the upended summer that it was. I realized there were only a couple of more weekends left to hit the market. So Mike, Sophey, and I headed out for a day in Salt Lake.

The dogs are one of my favorite things about the farmer's market.

We went to the new Whole Foods store and did some shopping after the market.

And then we went to a favorite little consignment shop, Emiliejayne's.

But I dawdled behind and took house porch photos,

because I like to take house porch photos in the fall.

(Don't ask me why).

Emiliejayne's is loaded to the top with stuff, but it's all organized by colors.

And somehow, that just seems to keep it from feeling claustrophobic.

And it appeals to the organized part of me (which is usually a small part, but hey...)

Why didn't I buy that lamp or those glasses? They are awesome.

Cute idea for a wreath. I think an embroidery hoop would work for it.

Had to show you the crazy blue lady!

My husband is a trooper... When he posted on Facebook what he was doing for the day, Ainsley said he had lost his "man-card".

He just laughed.

But he did get to pick dinner at a local microbrewery. So he had his fun too.

We all had fun.

It's good to go and explore the city sometimes; it gets the ideas rolling again.

In other news around here... I've been sewing. A butterfly skirt/costume for Sophey.

TIP:

If you are going as a butterfly for Halloween, please make sure your wings can shake it, baby.

It's working... oh ya.

And I'm working...

 

I've got a studio full of projects in the works for sale soon--

cute things for kids and their mammas...

tea towels (that's a sneak peak above), totes, aprons, toys, pincushions, pillows, hair doodads,

AND... a zoo ful of half-naked sock monkeys who may begin rioting if they are not properly dressed soon.

That would be bad.

Gotta go work ;) 

Hope you are enjoying the day, and thanks so much for stopping by.

XOK

the wedding march

 
 
 
It's almost here! The cutest sweetest couple. And the prettiest wedding invitations I've ever seen! (Can you tell I'm partial to the couple here ;)

 
And the wedding... oh, it's going to be gorgeous!

 
The girlfriends shower seems like ages ago already; it's the post I've been trying to sit down and compose for forever now... on a dead run here for the last month putting together the shower and wedding details. I've decided on posting craft projects made for the wedding after the wedding... no more time left for anything else! Doing good to get this up today.

Company is in town and now it's down to the last little details, wedding rehearsal dinner, and the Big Day.

 
 
Our shower gift. If you are ever in the market for a wonderful all-purpose tote, Papaya! online is the store to order from. I've had a Papaya! tote bag for a few years now, and it's been used at the beach, the pool, as an airplane carry on, and as a craft bag. I think it's just the thing for a honeymoon trip to Hawaii. (Ainsley's girlfriends teased her about her crocheting projects winding up at the bottom of the bag, but hey, that's how the Henderson girls roll :)

 

 
I made Hawaiian barbecue sauce over shredded chicken for the main course. And of course, if it's a Hawaii beach theme party, paper umbrellas are very necessary ;)

 

 

 
When it was dusk, we lit Tiki torches around the yard. It was a sweltering summer night (we have so few of them here, they always come as a surprise) and the flowers on the cake melted before I could snap a photo.

 
But it still ate good...

 I fussed around forever to make this double fudge espresso cake for my coffee-loving girl. Two fallen cakes later, I bought a double fudge mix, added extra chocolate chips, a little cinnamon, and two teaspoons of instant espresso.

It worked.

So much for my Cake Boss fantasies...

 
We played a few games after dinner. I won the who knew the bride-to-be best game. Good thing, since I'm her mom. Kinda felt like cheating when I won the prize for first place.

This was my favorite shower idea though. Ainsley's friend, Alicia, the game maven, came up with this one too. Ribbon to wrap the stems of the bridal bouquet (with another layer of wide ribbon over the top of the printed ribbon to cover the writing) with all sorts of advice for staying happily married. Everyone wrote a few bits of advice.

My fav: laugh with each other and not at each other!

(Still can't quite believe my little girl is getting married!)

Be back mid-week next week, after the wedding is over and I've had a day or two to recover.

Wishing you a wonderful week.

XoKelly

(Crossing our fingers and praying for good weather for this outdoor wedding!)

 

 

 

 

neglected, but better now

 
 
Very neglected. This poor old blog and that poor old flower garden... Life did not go quite as I had planned this summer. Shortly after my last post, our basement was flooded by one of the many torrential downpours Utah experienced all spring, and right into the beginning of summer. We were fortunate though, so many farmers lost their crops, and lots of homes were hit much worse than ours by the flooding.

 

And just when the crews of flood workers dwindled down, a routine Dr. visit turned into news that I would have surgery on July 1st... (I'm fine now) and there went July... it took about 
a month to get fully back on my feet. So such an exciting summer (not)- no great vacation photos here today! Now it's already back-to-school shopping time this week and it's definately wedding planning time... all the little details for Ainsley's big day Sept. 17 are on my mind and needing to be made soon.

 

I've wondered through my blue summer if I should even keep blogging... I feel as though I've come full circle blogging and now it needs to be something new, but what I'm not sure yet, maybe it just needs to evolve, or sit on the back burner a little while longer and cook itself into a new thing... we'll see...

 

 Just now feeling like I have some creative energy back in my blood and I'm sure it will one day come pouring back out again. At least I understand now why I hardly had any creative energy this year- I've had multiple health problems, sheesh! And I know for me, health problem do not mix with having abundant creative energy!!

 

 

But the gardens did eventually get weeded, and they are doing their best to put on a bright, ruffly fashion show after struggling all through the rains this spring.

 

 

 

 

(I'm thinking those containers would make a great kid's craft caddy... see, an actual creative idea. Apparently, I do still have a pulse!)

The upside of garden neglecting is finding half-price flowers at the end of July to fill in the bare spots.

 

 

 

 

And as perennial as the flowers around our house, baseball season happened in between all those stormy nights, rainouts, and cancelled games. Jesse's team, (the soggy but happy) the New York Yankees even managed to finish up with a second-place trophy for the town teams in his age bracket. 

 

I realized walking away from the field after his last game, that that really was the last game on our little "Mayberry" baseball field.

Next year, he plays on the older boys field across town.

I got teary-eyed. 

 

 

We've probably spent thousands of hours at this ballpark, watching our boys grow from tiny boy T-ball players (drawing in the sand at second base) to athletic little men.

 

Chewing our nails at slides and strikes, cheering them on, and consoling them when over the bad and lost games...

 

I will miss this ballfield and all those cricket-chirping, starry summer nights, and even the spring game nights; the ones where parents stand around freezing, wrapped up burrito-style in blankets while tag team complaining and cheering each other and the kids on...

 

 

 

Our kids are grown and growing up.

 

Who do they think they are anyway... whaaaaa!!

 

 

This summer two house martins built a nest under the eaves of our front porch. I watched the  four babies grow up in a blink. And one day I watched as they all stretched out their wings and made their first test flights away from the nest.

 

 

I so get how those parents must have felt- (since I like to think all animals think like me :)

 

I stood there hearing the momma bird say,  

"Now don't fly too fast.

Watch where you are going!

Don't be out too late,.

Just because all the other birds are doing it, doesn't mean you need to follow them."

 

And then I heard the Dad say,

"It seemed like they just hatched yesterday,

and now look at them.

I wish they were still little, at home in the nest with us."

****

WHHAAAA!!

 

 
And then they really learn to fly, and go soaring and stretching their wings in directions (with their old baseball buddies) you would never ever expect.

 

At the other end of the "Mayberry" ballfield was a concert for our town's festival days and Corbyn and his folksy band, The Mountain Hymns, were invited to play for the afternoon.

 

He is an awesome African drum drummer.

Who knew?

I was hoping for a baseball scholarship one day, but maybe he can still put us in a really nice retirement home with his rock star earnings.

Not a music lesson ever in this boys' life- go figure!

 
Picnics and your own personal rock band are preeetty cool together.

 

 

 
And so is a new craft book from Amazon when the August heat and boredom start to make us all go a little crazy is super awesome too.

 
 

 

 

This is the CUTEST sewing book for children I've ever seen. Great photos and instructions too.

 
Sophia finished three projects this week with almost no help from me.

 
A button jar.

 
A pencil case for the new school year, made from an old chenille sweater.

 
And a sewing box made from an old round cookie tin.

 

Already stocked... of course!

 

I highly recommend this book, Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy, for anyone who has ever had a bored daughter or granddaughter, (or an unbored child for that matter!)- it has been a life saver this past week, and there are lots of projects to go still. 

 

 

I still have the cutest wedding invitations to show you of Ainsley and her fiance' Jeff, but my computer is running so slow at the moment, I think I'll wait and do a separate blog post for them soon- pinkie promise!

 

 

Anyway, life is finding it's way back to some sense of order and I've started making a few things myself. Mostly for the house right now, knowing company is coming (for the wedding) always does wonders for me in the "hurry and spruce up the house department"!

Mike too, he just painted the garage-- floors and all. Seriously?! We need to schedule more company soon. We could have the whole yard finished landscaping in no time at all- :)

Hope you're squeezing all the last goodness from these beautiful summer days.

Love,

Kelly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter, happy Spring!

 
Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful.    
 
It is God's handwriting- a wayside sacrament.

 
Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

 

september time

I'm still here, adjusting, sort of. Last week felt like one huge up-in-the-air readjustment phase. School for two half days, one sick day for a child already. And Mike, well he was away in Costa Rica on a business trip and got seriously sick with a really bad case of food poisoning. That was a week ago last Wednesday. What a helpless feeling to be so far away and unable to do anything but pray for him. His company has a private jet to retrieve sick employees who are doing business in foreign countries, but luckily things didn't get quite that bad. He made it home very late last Friday night. I think he coulda kissed the asphalt at the airport. I was so glad to have him home, safe and recovering.

Pulling weeds would have been good therapy last week, now that I think about it. (I see one in the photo). This week, better, much better. I feel settled in again. Glad for school routines, a well husband at home, and this time of year.

The black-eyed susans in the back yard are wowing me right now... Why do I always forget how nice it is in September?

I forget about the shadows too, and how the light changes. Almost imperceptibly, but then one day you see it, and you know summer is starting to wane. But it's really okay-- I've had my fill of summer this year. (That's a first, btw).

 
I'm missing the neighborhood ballgames in the backyard everyday though. Maybe there'll be a few more when the kids get used to school schedules.

 
Winston misses them too. Last week he walked into the kitchen and dropped a baseball on the floor and looked up at me. I told the kids what he did, so they took him out to play catch. He came in after a couple of throws and sat and stared out the front door. (We have a glass storm door.) I knew what he wanted... another neighborhood ballgame in our backyard. He likes loves to watch the kids play ball while he sits on the hillside by the trees. Perfect stadium seating. Not crowded either.

 
He sits there looking like my china terrier on the kitchen window sill-- only with his tongue hanging out and his eyes glued to a flying baseball. (Smiling too, I'm pretty sure.)

 
So this week I got back to sewing. Sometimes it's just the biggest hurdle for me to get back to making something. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I get stuck after a long break. Monkeys seemed like the safest place to get going again, so that's what I did... in the kitchen, with a cup of tea and the tv for a few days. It felt like a total luxury, since I haven't watched a thing on tv all summer. (Hannah Montana does not count).

I am so smitten with the Dena Designs fabric in the photo. I don't think fabric for sock monkey clothes can get any more perfect than a red rose cheetah stripe!

 
 
I'm also pretty smitten with my favorite summer yard sale find right now too ($2.50! Unbelievable). Admiring it all week over on the couch while I've stitched. (I've wanted one like this with the black edging for a really long time.) It's perfect for the evenings now. 

 
Looks like my naked sock monkeys on the kitchen counter could use that blanket. Well, it's time to sew clothes next.

In the meantime until I get back to better blogging and projects I've got the best cupcake frosting recipe for you. I made two dozen last Sunday and they were gone in two days. The cupcake is a mix; I just wanted to deal with the fosting recipe.

So anyway, here it is:

OREO COOKIE FROSTING

1 16 oz box powdered sugar

1 8 oz container Cool Whip

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

15 Oreo cookies, crushed

With a mixer, mix together the cream cheese, vanilla and Cool Whip. Gradually add in the powdered sugar. Stir in crushed cookies by hand. (If I had really thought about how simple this was, I probably could have handled some homemade cupcakes. Duh. Oh well.) This stuff is like clouds... clouds filled with Oreos and a choir of singing cherub angels. 

You'd like it :)

Happy Labor Day weekend!! xoKelly  

 

growing seasons

 
The zinnias along our front porch outdid themselves this summer. With only a few August days in the 100's, they've really just reached their lovely peak.

I think giant zinnias are about the happiest flowers on planet earth.

Love 'em. They make me smile every time I stop to admire them.

 
Kinda like these two along the front porch on Monday too.

All ready to start a new school year. Excited, happy, nervous, a little wistful and sad too. That was me-- I'm guessing the kids probably felt about the same.

We have a bus for the first time in our neigbohood now. So they rode the bus to school on Monday morning. It was Sophey's first time riding to school on a bus. (Jess took the bus in kindergarten). There is something about putting my child on a bus, even if she's not a kindergarten, that makes me go all misty/blinky. Oh, rough mom morning.

I thought back to all four of my kids' first school days. Ainsley and Jesse were like... see ya... No big deal at all. Corbyn was literally pried off me (one tentacle at a time, like a giant octopus) by the other preschool carpool moms his first week. I can still remember his face, smashed up against the window (squid-like, again) in the back of the minivan driving away... oh, those were a rough few days too-- for the both of us. And then there was Sophey... so eager to start early preschool, she even hurried up the potty-training schedule on her own. But when it was time to go off to kindergarten, it was alligator tears. Big school equalled big tears every morning. She said she just missed me too much; it was too lonely to be gone that long every day. 

Finally, one morning in desperation, I had a frantic light bulb moment. (Why don't I have more non-desperate light bulb moments?) I grabbed a piece of cheapo craft felt, a glue gun, my pinking scissors and cut out two hearts. I glue-gunned them together (no time for glue to be drying), and then I held it to my heart. I explained to her that I had just put lots of love into the heart, and that whenever she felt sad or lonely she could hold her felt heart and my love would be right there with her. It worked. She kept it in her pocket at school, and it got us through the first few weeks of kindergarten.

I don't know what became of that heart... but it had served it's purpose beautifully!

 So thinking about all the moms going through the same thing right now, I made a few more "pocket hearts". This time with a little more style. But the idea is still really the thing here; you wouldn't want to spend too much time or effort on this one. It's definitely "the thought that counts" sort of a craft project idea. I'm blabbering now...

Anyway,

I used:

Leftover canvas, fabric, and denim scraps and a red Sharpie marker. I doodled a few designs, cut out the hearts (added lace to the fancy one!) and stitched two hearts together with my sewing machine. I left about a 1/2" opening on one side, so that a little stuffing and/or a note could be tucked into it also. I think it took me about 45 minutes to make all of them. (The plain denim one I made thinking of little boys, who might want to be more discreet with all that yucky love stuff ;)

As I think more about it now, wouldn't they be sweet for any age, tucked into a travellers' suitcase or in a book for a friend? 

So there's the project for you today. ( I know, a project-- don't faint on me here;)

... Along with some fancy kid butterfly coloring, and a couple of pitchers filled with those front porch zinnias...

I couldn't resist picking them anymore.

 
Happy kitchen hearts today, for sure.

Aren't they gorgeous? Just like you! Love, Kelly
 

summerizing our weekends

 
Last Sunday we celebrated Ainsley's and Mike's birthdays. Pies and a barbeque. (If you guessed the 'over the hill candle' was in Mike's pie, you would be correct :) It was such a lovely day, in every way... Mike got a hammock for the backyard. Ainsley got impatiens for her front yard, and a promise to help plant them from me. Should I make a promise to assemble the hammock before Mike gets home on Friday... hmmm. He might like it to actually swing, nah.

 
We spent Saturday at Lagoon (our local amusement park) for Mike's company day.  

And last week finally saw some flower planting get done. I had a great helper.

 

How nice a few daisies actually came up on their own this year... 

 
Too bad the new basketball standard didn't go up by itself last week-- that was a big project for my guys.

All four of my guys... wore right out ;)

 
But good old Winston is never too tired to help oversee the sandwich making after the big basketball hoop install. (Naps are so highly overrated.)

 
Lots of cruising the neighborhood on the weekends now too.  
And Monday and Tuesday found me hot-footing the sewing machine.

I made new children's picanic baskets.

 
(Hey, BooBoo...)

And another of my new favorite things to sew-- this one is Eloise.

We've traded in our Mary Jane's over here for flip flops...

 
hope you have too :)  xoxoKelly

 

P.S. Eloise and the picnic basket are in my Etsy shop now.

P.P.S. If you're a local in the intermountain west states, and like to watch Studio 5 on KSL TV's Channel 5, some of my handmades will be spotlighted on the things we love segment. The show airs at 11:00 am. Thanks, Stephanie for the spotlight!