Monarch Post

San Diego

It was a wonderful time away... San Diego is a pretty special place in my book.

I'm so sorry it has taken me this long to get back here. I came home, hit the ground running, but somehow I felt like I got terribly behind... and I'm just now (almost) caught up with everything that's been waiting for me and that I needed to get done when I got home.  All the laundry, restocking the fridge, emails... running and shopping for the next child's birthday, two days down with migraines, and a re-do on my hair weave that all in all took eight hours because somehow my hair decided to turn a shade of Madonna-strawberry-blonde that I was so not after. I would have cried about the hair if I'd been eighteen... Post vacation frazzled. Does this happen to you too (apart from the Madonna strawberry blonde hair thing) when you get home from a vacation? I have felt discombobulated since coming home. Paradise is wonderful, but it's tough to come back to snow and winter after sunshine and flowers... and it's snowing like crazy in Utah lately (long sigh here). 

Anyway, I won't bore you with the rest of the details of my funky last two weeks, but I will tell you that San Diego is a great place to eat seafood and also mango anything: like mango, avocado and ahi tuna appetizers (yum), mango ice tea (yum), mango salads (yum), mango mojitos (oh yes indeedee, yum) and mango sorbet (yumx2)... I know this because I ate/drank them all : ) 

And if you've already had a lime mojito before your husband orders you a mango mojito at  dinner (because he finds you charming when slightly tipsy), you might find yourself making a mango sorbet mango mojito float with your mango sorbet dessert and your leftover mango mojito...  and then you're husband might get a little embarrassed and then you can say, "what, you ordered me the drink!" It's possible, just sayin'.

Apart from the episodes of "mango mania" we also went to La Jolla, found the nicest little grocery store, bought yummy food, packed a tote with the food (in the trunk of  the car) and had a picnic for two on the beach. ( This was a rare non-mango event). 

It was so so beautiful on the beach. Perfect temps. Perfect breeze. Excellent company : ) 

I would have had more photos of beach walks, but I decided to just use my iphone on this trip and not knowing what I'm doing with it yet, managed to take lots of videos when I thought I was taking photos. One video episode was five minutes of walking along the beach filming a fanny shot of Mike. I had a giggle attack on the hotel bed that night when I saw what I had filmed.  

So last iphone photo of the trip for you. I took it on the sly, all sneaky like...

After lunch on Coronado Island and just before leaving to go home, we shopped for souveneirs and then stopped and listened to a jazz band that was playing. While we were listening along came this husband and wife, strolling hand in hand, dressed identically down to their shoes and up to their hair... they had even dyed their hair the same shade of fire-engine red. ( I could just imagine her saying, hey honey, I've got half of a bottle of dye left over still...) I thought they were pretty eccentric and began to think a few things that weren't all that nice. Mike laughed and said they were probably from Ohio (since  married couples dressing like identical twins is popular in the Midwest for some strange reason and we do see married look-alikes when we go back to Mike's hometown in Ohio. I know, weird huh?)  But then these two elderly, identical love birds started to dance... and they danced that sweet, slow, fragile dance that old bodies that can't move very well anymore seem to always dance. Gingerly they touched each others fingers in the air and twirled each other underneath their arms... stopping to clap for the band at the end of every dance... it was the sweetest thing ever to see. 

 I looked at Mike, and told him I just took back every crumby thing I had just been thinking. He nodded his head and agreed.

And I thought it was the perfect ending to a very romantic and mango-filled trip : )

 

******

(P.S. back sooner next time- pinky promise! XOK)

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Sun*day on a Friday

 
I'm backtracking for a post today... last weekend we threw a wedding shower for Ainsley and her girlfriends at our home. It was a craaazy busy week and I want to do a post on it, but the cool craft/wedding idea went home with the-bride-to-be without a photo; I'll have to retrive it and photograph it before another post.

But before the kids went back to school, I helped organize a fieldtrip with our church kids to Salt Lake City. We went on a hunt to find God in places other than our own church.

 
 

It was a gorgeous sun-dappled August day and Salt Lake city was wearing its finest dark aqua-blue sky for us.

 
The Cathedral of the Madeline is a stunning old grand dame with wonderful bones; she's painted so beautifully too. Feels like I've stepped back into time and Europe when I walk through her doors. It smells really old, spicey and just polished... with Lemon Pledge.

 
Loved the baptismal font.

 

 
 
Sunlight streaming through stained glass takes my breath away.

 

 
The kids were so attentive and well-behaved.

 

 
After the tour at the Cathedral of the Madeline, we went to a sister church, St. Paul's Episcopal in SLC. The kids were given snacks prepared by St. Paul's.  After the snacks we toured this lovely old church and the grounds too.

 

 
Each child was given a disposable camera with the instructions to take pictures of where you find God today. Lots of photos of flowers and other children were taken... the kids always get it.

 
 

 

 
Oh, those doors with all the kids charging out... such joy to watch.

 

 

 
After our tour at St. Paul's, we went to The Salt Lake Peace Gardens. Various ethnic communities in the Salt Lake valley have each planted their own gardens, all of the gardens then make up the entire Peace Gardens.

 
 

 

 
We had a sack lunch picnic at the Peace Gardens (we packed sack lunches the night before for all the kids). After lunch, the kids climbed trees (more fun apparently, than the swing sets) and played freeze tag to burn off energy... the parents watched and wondered how the kids had so much energy in ninety degree weather. I said "youth is wasted on the young". We all agreed.

We made one last stop at a funky place called Gilgal Gardens. Lots of stone and scripture creations there, but this on the side of a trash can made everyone laugh

After the Peace Gardens and Gilgal Gardens, we headed back to our church for music, communion bread-making, scrapbook-making, pizza, annnnd a sleepover.

We were gluttons for punishment :)

 

 
 

 
 
The cameras were rounded up and taken in for one hour development. Scrapbook supplies were spread out and the kids snipped, glued, and colored away.

 
 

The kids were fascinated with the film negatives-- they had never seen photo negatives and wanted to know what they were for?! (Ya, really).

They asked if the negatives could go on their srapbook pages.

I told them they could do whatever they wanted to-- it's art!

And the adults felt old.

 
 

 
We finished the day with a short, lovely outdoor communion service. 

The kids each held a small lit (!) candle; there was only one slightly singed head of hair-- whew.

In the morning we were served breakfast by members of the parish; the kids rolled up their sleeping bags and got their rides home.

And the adults tried to unroll various muscles after spending the night on the floor...

I went home and slept on the couch for four hours.

 

It really was a beautiful day... all in all.

 

 

 

little surprises

One of the (many) wonderful things I received at The Creative Connection event last month was this charming tote bag from French General. The bags were draped across our dinner chairs one evening, and they were filled with goodies. I had to laugh because at what other women's seminar would you find a swag bag filled with glue sticks, acrylic paints, and Mod Podge? And at what other women's seminar would that assortment of goodies elicit ooohs and aaahhs from the recipients?!

There was so much stuff to go through that I really just got to sorting it all out last week. And I have to show you my very favorite thing...

When I first pulled this gift out I assumed it was a sweetly packaged but ordinary little dish towel. But au contraire!

 
It was also (drumroll, please) an apron! Genius. Just genius. With a little hook to hang it by on the end. And red to boot.... French General... I am all yours.

I went to their site to check out the rest of their goods; they have such a beautiful assortment of things for the home. But no luck finding any more of the dishtowel/aprons to buy. I'm wondering if they were made especially for TCC? I was thinking of what a great gift this would make for Christmas.  

And then I thought how sweet a little redwork embroidery would look in the corner of the apron...

I lightly penciled in a heart, stitched it, and then had fun doodling in a variety of other stitches. I don't know what it is exactly, but I like it :)

 
I did see very similiar red-striped dishtowels in JoAnn's a couple of weeks ago. I think they came in a three-pack for 12.99(?) The ribbon is about 12" of grosgrain stitched onto both sides. Cinchy project.

 

 I just noticed this advertisemt for daisy egg makers from Williams-Sonoma this morning. ($15.00 for a set of four.)

OH. MY. GOSH!

Must buy, must buy, must buy.   

Happy Wednesday, XO. 

the creative connection event

    (... and a great pair of walking shoes instead of high heels, and a fatter checkbook... but ya, we had the love :) 

It was wonderful! I am so glad I went to the creative connection event. Sorry it has taken me so long to get back here. Extra busy here these past few days. And it always takes me a day or two just to get my feet back on the ground after a trip-- especially a trip like this... there was so much to learn, do and see.  And meeting blog friends for the first time was such a highlight. (Meleen, I love your New York accent, and I could listen to you say "Kwaaffee" all day long.)

My only regret was not taking more photos. I forgot and left my camera in my room one day, and I just didn't seem to be in picture taking mode most of the time. I was in "running to class late" mode most of the time. It was a pretty packed schedule, but in between I took a few photos of the handmade market.


 

I met Jana from brown-eyed girl photography at the TCC.  And if you actually want to see  great professional photography of the event, stop by her blog. She documents it all very well. 

I took only one crafting class, there were so many business classes I wanted to take instead. But the class I did take was wonderful-- making heritage toys with Jenn Murphy and her lovely mom, Pat.

 
I am now the proud new mom of a mohair bunny with fully jointed arms... and a big attitude (we decided :) 

What a whirlwind of a few days.... whew. I've got new wind in my sails-- it was so inspiring to meet so many passionately creative women. Kudos to Jo and Nancy and their army of volunteers!!

*And Kudos to my husband for coming with me (because he knows how much I hate to travel alone) and braving all that estrogen exposure! :)

  

I'm almost over it... and these are the last of the photos (I promise)

I'm almost over it... really... I am. I started looking at the last day of the beach and the photos. I love these shots of the kids-- the water and the suits and all the playing, they just made for the best compostions, I thought.

This is our last week before school starts. I can't believe it. I'm sorta blue today. I've enjoyed this summer so very much. I needed this summer. Like I haven't needed a summer since I was about nine years old myself. But Saturday we went back to school shopping and I was pretty okay with it. I'm getting a teensy bit excited to have a schedule again. We are turning into lazy blobs around here. I'm sure my studio is growing cobwebs by now. After this week, I'll get back to work and (hold your breath here) make something.  No more "how I spent my summer vacation photos" from here on out.

But until then... ahem, it was such a gorgeous day on our last day at Nags Head. Mike and I went out early to the beach. It was so peaceful and uncrowded. Crisp and windy and quiet. And then at about ten a.m., pods and pods of dolphins forty feet from the shore wove their way past us.  (I'll bet we saw over two hundred in an hour.) So magical. And what a great send off :)

The kids started joining us right after the dolphins had swam by.

When Jesse and Sophey noticed their big siblings and parents were all wearing their sunglasses, they ran back to the beach house and got theirs so they could lay out and be cool too. Oh, I wish they didn't have to grow up for a few more years.

At the end of our vacations Mike and I start with the begging and pleading for a family photo. But we had pretty good cooperation this year.

One, two.

  One, two, three.

One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three, four, five, and six!

A lady walked over while we were taking all the photos and asked if she could take our photo so that we could all be in one picture together. Yay! BTW, I think this photo should also win me a 'brave woman blog award' with that straight-outa-bed-went-to-the-beach-hairdo. Holy crap.

Anyhoo, I'm going to spend one last week enjoying summer and getting my kids ready to start school, and then I'll be back to better blogging and some fun projects to share with you.

Really, I will. Pinky promise on that. xoKelly

 
   

island days

One day on our vacation the boys and Mike wanted to go golfing. And so of course, the girls and I went shopping and lunching :) We left Nags Head and ventured to the end of Bodie Island, and explored a town called Duck. Gorgeous place, although we thought the locals seemed a little snobby, but that never stops us from having fun.  
The photo above is an old window pane at the restaurant where we had lunch. Such a pretty collage of sea glass and sea shells.

 

 And the light fixtures next to the sea glass window were made from old plastic pop bottles spray painted and nailed to the trim. (I just love things like this, but you knew that already, didn't you ;)

Shopping and squirrel watching in a very woodsy area.

 
Had to stop and make our wishes...

Shops back the edge of the ocean everywhere here.

 
At one of those shops was this giant monarch butterfly photo-taking spot. (I know?!) Sophey took a turn, and then well...

 
 
I just had to too... Immediately after this photo was taken while we were still standing there, a monarch (I know?!) butterfly flew right in front of us and fluttered around the flowers for a couple of minutes. I couldn't get a shot of it; it didn't land anywhere long enough, but I will never forget the moment. It was an amazing synchronicity-filled experience to me.

We stopped and listened to an outdoor concert after shopping, and ate treats from a bakery we had found. Some guy had a bubble machine going and bubbles were floating everywhere at this evening concert. (Shoulda got a photo.) The sunset that evening at the pier was pretty amazing too. 

Another very lovely evening... we celebrated our wedding anniversay at an old seafood restaurant called Owens. Such a beautiful old place. My hub can really pick the joints.

And one last day we strolled around the other end of the isand. Actually, it's a small island of it's own, connected by a bridge, called Roanoke Island. This is the island where a group of the very first pilgrim settlers in America mysteriously vanished about five-hundred years ago.

(I know how to pick some joints too :)

This was a sailing school for children, those tiny little boats each had children sailors.  

 
 
 
 
Memories for keeping always. xoxoKelly  

  

  

don't be crabby... you're at the beach

 
The sign inside the entry of our beach house expressed my sentiments exactly.  The most relaxing, fun, and perfectly wonderful family vacation I think I've ever had. And the beach house was to die for darling too.

Oh, and this sign in our bedroom expressed the rest of my sentiments exactly too... 

I hardly know where to start from-- I took so many photos. But I guess I'll start at the beach house. We found it online last February. We hoped it would be as nice as the photos looked. (It's hard to know what you're really getting online). It was even better than the photos.

 

 
 

 
Entry

Stairs to the kitchen and living room.

 

Darling kitchen...

    with a table big enough for all of us to play cards on every night. We had the best time. Our kids are very funny people. Apparently I am a pretty funny person too-- with a bottle of wine from Kmart and a gin rummy game waaay too late at night...

Our living room was very cheery and big enough for all our lazy crew in the mornings. 
.   And the ocean. I am in LOVE with the ocean. Love. Love. Love it.

 
   
If you have the ocean and a giant wooden seahorse at the back of your house, what else do you really need in life? 

 
Fifteen minutes with the waves around my ankles and I felt my DNA unwind.

I love watching our kids play at the beach.

 
And I love sitting back and taking a million photos of them playing, can you tell?

This isn't the one we made by the way... but it was next to us and so fabulous.

    Back soon with part two of "how I spent my summer vacation" :)

(I hope this isn't like home movies for you, but I couldn't stop taking photos. It was the best week. North Carolina and the Outer Banks rock!)

~Kelly

Fair Trade Friday winner- Lisa!

I'm back (but you knew that since I'm here, huh? ). I think this was my very favorite family vacation ever. Perfect in a million ways.... I just downloaded all the photos and got a little "homesick" for N. Carolina and Nags Head.

But anyway,  I am late getting back here to announce the latest "Fair Trade Friday giveaway" winner. And since I'm late getting back to the blog world, I thought I'd apologize with an extra gift.

This is one of my all time favorite books, my copy of Gifts from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It's her story of her love affair with the sea and the beach, she compares her stages of life as an American wife and mother with the shells she has combed from the beach. It's a wonderful book, and just as timely for today as it was when it was written in 1955.

I dressed it up with a sea colored ribbon, a shell I found at Nags Head beach, an old vintage pearl earring, and a few filmy flowers-- they remind me of the jellyfish we were all so fascinated by on this trip.

Lisa @ the bunnylog blog is the winner for this month. Lisa, I'll get your earrings ordered and I'll slip my book in the mail for you!

I'm still getting my land legs back here, you know how it is when you get home from a vacation... Frankly, I would trade my land legs for a mermaid's tail for another week at the beach, but no such luck ;)

I'll post again soon this time-- I've missed you guys! xoKelly

Camp Cloud Rim

 
Well, here is that tippy top of the Wasatch mountains I mentioned in that long ago last post... Camp Cloud Rim. It's one of the two official Girl Scout camps in Utah. The elevation here is 9,200 ft. And believe me, I know this. I reeeallly, reeeally, wheeezz, know this. It's a hike from the lodge here down to the lake, and then back up to our cabins. Lots of walking and hiking, followed by more walking and hiking. When I got to wherever I needed to be, I felt like I needed an oxygen machine for a minute. Walking was kinda like being on the stair stepper machine at the gym-- when it's set on "Climb Mt. Everest". Jeeeez, Louise. 

I kept thinking if I did this everyday what great shape I would be in. Or else I'd be dead. (I don't know if there would be anything in between those two options for me). After a couple of the climbs, I started to wonder what would happen if someone (like myself) had a heart attack at camp Cloud Rim. I decided they could probably airlift you out in a Life Flight helicopter. And then I decided the perfect landing spot for a life saving rescue mission was on the grassy area over by the flagpole. This is one of the problems with having an over active imagination, but after playing out my dramatic rescue scenario in my mind, I got over it :) 

Anyway, the girls had a great time. One of our little Brownies is an adorable girl named Megan. Megan is painfully shy and timid. I wondered if she would make it through the whole camp. But Paulynn, my other leader, and myself couldn't get over the transformation of  Megan while we were here. She really came out of her shell, totally not shy, and she tried and did everything-- from kayaking to rock climbing. So it was really rewarding to see the girls learning new things and overcoming fears. Except for killing spiders in their cabins, we still need to work on that one.

I sometimes wish I was more of a granola girl. I'm not a girly girl either, mind you. I guess I'm just somewhere in the middle, just like my life. But at least I do kill spiders okay. I really doubt I'll ever make it to granola girl scout leader, because I almost cried when I came home and saw my bed. And it wasn't like I was gone forever either. But no sleep is no sleep, and I came home pooped, and stayed pooped for the next couple of days... 

Anyway, here is gorgeous, Girl Scout filled Utah:

The lodge.

 Made by a local artist with scenes of the camp on each panel.

The view from the lodge.

 
 



 


And at the other side of the lake, our cabins.

We took our troop banner I made, and hung it by our cabins. 

  
 

Roasting smores the last night.
 
And learning to rock climb the last day. The lodge fireplace is also made for rock climbing lessons.  Very clever, I thought.

That would be my girl... she even rock climbs wearing pink :) A few of the girls climbed all the way up and rang the bell at the top.

The last morning at Cloud Rim some of our girls participated in the "Polar Bear Plunge". Which means jumping into an icey cold lake at 7:00 am. Everyone who did it got a badge and hot chocolate for breakfast. I asked Sophey if she was going to do it, and she said, "I'm just not that crazy, and we can have hot chocolate at home, and it will be better hot chocolate than at camp." And I agreed. Besides, someone needed to take the photos, right?

They all survived, no hypothermia or anything. And right at the moment, that water doesn't look so bad- it's been cracking 100F here lately.

So that's my grand camping adventure. But I'm heading off again, this time to N. Carolina and the beach. We've rented a beach house, the whole family is going, and we are all so excited. We've been planning this trip since February. Thank you Mike, and all your frequent flier miles-- we're flying for free!

Hope your having a really lovely summmer.... xoKelly

****

P.S. I'll post a "Fair Trade Friday" giveaway this Friday, and I'll pick a winner by Monday, August 2nd at 2:00 MST. Then I should be back to better blogging. It's just been so nice to have a good summer-- last summer I felt like I just survived, losing my Mom in the middle of the summer and all, there was so little joy for me. I will get back to more creative things, but I've decided this July is meant for enjoying my family- and vacationing.

   

  

sweethearts

Back from Palm Springs. We had the best time. It was a little chilly for the pool, so we spent our time eating, looking, shopping, eating... Did I mention eating already? We went to such a great restaurant Saturday for lunch, we headed right back over again for dinner. Then we went to Barnes and Noble for the rest of the evening. We had to get married; nerds need each other.

This is a shot from the Palm Springs Art Museum. Couldn't take any photos inside, but it was a wonderful place. Totally inspiring.

I think I want these in my backyard, right next to my imaginary pool:)

But cast in concrete or not, I've got all the love in the world... romantic getaway weekend planned by my sweet, sweet husband. I am the luckiest girl.

And a really lucky Mom too...

 
 
Corbyn babysit Jesse and Sophey Friday until Ainsley could get there. Before I left, I told Corbyn (the tormentor of siblings) to be nice to his brother and sister for the weekend. Apparently he got the message; he took the kids out for the evening to a brand new indoor amusement park. He said he thought that was a good present for me. Apart from that fainting spell, I thought so too;) And my girls baked up a homemade birthday cake. It was sitting on the table when I walked in the door. Ainsley said, "The frosting is from scratch Mom, and you know that means it was made with love!" I sure do. Thanks guys.

Creating a storm of homemade Christmas gifts for my kids today. Five projects down, several more to go... gotta keep spreadin' that sweet homemade LOVE! (I'll have to share the gift projects after the holidays.)

Take care! xoxoKelly