PRESENTS AND PLATES

I have two friends named Sue. I call them, “My Sues” to my family and I love to play with them.  Mime Sue I met through blogging.  My other Sue, I have known for 16 years. We love to get together and often give each other little presents.

We got together last Wednesday and this is what they gave me.

The cutest towel and a leaf candy dish. I am so lucky.

Look at the fun way the little candy bars were done.

I made them a present as well.  I saw this on someone’s blog but can’t for the life of remember where so if it was your idea, let me know and I will gladly give you credit.

I went to the dollar store and found these plates and I cut out the witch with my Silhouette vinyl cutter. Very simple.

I didn’t have anything to wrap  things up with so I grabbed some cheese cloth and did this… Ahhhh, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” That is one of my favorite sayings.

TEASEL POD SPIDERS

Yes I have been MIA for a long time but it’s time I got back into things.

I’ve made these little guys several times over the years and I thought I would share.

First you go on a nice adventure just driving down the road and slam on the brakes when you see these guys growing on the side of the road.

Just ignore the mean old man in the big fancy pickup truck behind you who honks his horn and waves at you in that funny way with one finger sticking up. He just doesn’t understand. You can wave back the same way if you want but for some reason that just makes him meaner.

Make sure you always have leather gloves and a Leatherman in your car because these babies have sharp little spines.

Get lots of them in all sizes and just ignore the teenagers who drive by in their jeep and honk and whistle at you because they think you are sexy.

Then take them home and forget about them and let them sit in your trunk for a few weeks.

Then open your trunk to put your decoration on….

And you find that your little darlings have “pooped” all over the place…

Next cut their stems off, grab a can of black spray paint and spray away.

When they are all nice and black, cut and bend some pipe cleaners and use your glue gun to glue them on. Grab some googley eyes and glue them on and ….TA DA

You have a nice little family of spiders.

You can glue a loop of fish line on their backs so you can hang them up.

Tips…. Use your blow dryer to get rid of all the little hot and glue strings , and spray paint the globs of glue so you can’t see them.

GUESS WHAT

I went camping and nothing bad happened. Well I did get stung by a bee but that was so minor compared to what happened the last time I took my motor home out. 

We went to Perception Park which is only about 25 miles away.

It is a really pretty little place with lots of big trees which are good for shade and climbing…

And some wildlife to share our food with… (I forget to put the watermelon and S’more makings away. The raccoons totally cleaned everything out!)

And the river is right there…

Which is good for playing in…  And catching fish in…

And just being ourselves…

And looking cute….

And resting….

And adventuring…..

And just hanging out.

 

It was a really fun time.

THE JULY FROM #^&^%$@#

Just to recap everything….

1. My motor home ran over me and dragged me down the driveway under it.

2. Next day my hubby came home from Iraq and my Josh left for Peru.  (Good things)

3. Head off to a family reunion in Cedar city and lost 2 wheels while driving down the freeway.

4. Got a speeding ticket while going to get a new part for the motor home.

5. Had a great time but when loading the 4 wheeler onto the trailer at the end of it all, the ramp broke and I tipped backwards and fell off onto my butt. (Big huge bruise to match all my others)

6. Had two days to make a baptism quilt and slide show for granddaughter Aubrey. (it was a lovely day)

7. Sent my husband back to Iraq on the 14th. (It takes 3 days of travel for him to get home.)

8.  On the 21st, I headed up to Canada to say my final good byes to my Dad but he died while I was en-route so I turned around after going 250 miles and came home.

9. Made arrangements with the Red Cross for Roy to turn around and come back home for the funeral. (He had only been back to work for 4 days.)

10. Broke a tooth.

11. Honey got home Saturday (extremely tired) and we left for Canada the next morning.

12. Oldest daughter Liz called to say she couldn’t come anymore and since she was  going to bring Bekah with her it meant we had to turn around after 100 miles  and go back to get her.

13. Stopped in Glacier for the night and to pick up youngest son, Caleb who just happened to be vacationing there.

14. Viewing on Monday, July 27th. Fun to be with family we hadn’t seen forever.

15. Funeral on Tuesday.

16. Wednesday, head back home to Utah.

17. Sunday, sent hubby back to Iraq.

GAVE ONE, GOT ONE

My two Sues and I had a get together for lunch and a movie. Of course the movie was JULIE AND JULIA.

When we get together we like to give each other little gifts. This is what I made…

They’re bracelets made from old spoons. (My dear friend Mearritta gave me a whole bunch of them)

I pounded them flat with a hammer.

Used my metal alphabet punches to put their names on them. (This is not an easy task!)

Then I drilled a little hole and added a charm, bent the handle around and there you have it… A SPOON BRACELET.

Then I got the cutest things from them. Sue F. just got back from visiting her daughter and family in Indiana and she visited this little Italian place and brought me back this pretty little placemat and pencil that has Italian cities printed on it. (I love pencils.)

Then in honor of the movie,  Mimi Sue  gave us this cute dish towel and slotted spoon.  (I needed a new one badly)

See how cute it is all tied with a cute bow and a tag that says, “Bon Appetite”

Thanks gals. I really had a good time!

LIFE GOES ON

On our way to Canada for my Dad’s funeral we stopped at Glacier National Park for a night.

It rained and rained for the last hour of our trip but when we finally arrived it started to clear up a little.

 

This is the little cabin we stayed at.

 

At the bottom of the road to our cabin there was a place to rent horses and go on a ride. We didn’t have time but the kids enjoyed them anyway.

They thought it was so much fun to feed them.

This little pony was so tame.

The next morning we got up to a beautiful day and spent a few hours driving through the park. It is such a beautiful place.

We didn’t see as much wild life as we had hoped

These little guys were all over.

Hey, where did he go?

We stopped at the turn outs and acted like tourists.

We visited with the ranger for a little bit.

He even let the kids wear his hat.

I love the tour busses. I remember them from when I was a kid and always thought they were so cool.

These girls of mine are so fun.

  And BEAUTIFUL…..

It was a fun time.

 

WELL I DIDN’T QUITE MAKE IT

I headed out really early this morning to go to Canada to say good bye to my Dad and I had gone about a third of the way (250 miles) and my sister called to say that my dear daddy was gone.  Oh how I will miss him. He was a wonderful man.

BURNARD JAMES DAWE 1916 - 2009

I turned around and came back home since the funeral will not be for a week. Now I just need to get my husband back from Iraq. He just arrived back there Thursday and now he needs to turn around again.