It Was A Best Day Ever Day

August 31, 2010


It Was A Best Day Ever Day

Today was Grandma Billie Day.
We went to the bank and Walgreens then to the grocery store.
We also checked a few department stores for electric blankets but they won't be on the shelves until October.
After the groceries were put away Grandma took Chris and I to lunch.
Grandma always takes us to lunch after chores.
It was quiet without Oliver and Freya and they both missed spending the day with Grandma.


I had an impromptu sewing project today.
Oliver needed a book cover for his Utah Studies book.

How fortunate that I have been wanting to make this book cover from Zakka Sewing.

(The patch was purchased at the recent Craft Lake City Fair.)

(I missed the deadline to participate).

Of course I can't make just one so I walked over to my best mate Anna's and measured her school books. (I have a few more to make.)
Everyday I am grateful for good friends.

Anna is a good friend.

Tomorrow I will be working on this dress for Freya.

Cheers to a new month!

My Super Goals

August 30, 2010

My Super Goals

The 2010 - 2011 school year is in full swing.
I have been dreading/anticipating this year for a long while.
Oliver and Freya are at school all day and I have seven hours of blank space time.
(Yes I clean and do laundry and such but without your children needing you every time you start a task , you finish much faster).

So that I don't twiddle my time away I have set some goals this year.

1. Oliver's bedroom moved downstairs.
2. Freya gets her own room.
3. Kitchen, hall, staircase, living room, and Freya's room painted.
4. Walk Freya to and from school everyday. ( I am 4 for 6 in the am and 6 for 6 in the pm).
5. Blog Monday - Friday
6. Finish all X-Mas gifts by November 15.
7. Finish sewing Freya's school clothes by October 15.
8. Organize neighborhood garden.
9. Learn to knit.
10. Start my Etsy store.

This is Freya on her first day of school.
Oh yeah, she is in the first grade this year.

P.S. The cast came off today.



Freya and Papa.
I love the Willy Wonka glasses.

Oliver started Jr. high. The seventh grade.

I am very, very proud that he has all honors classes.

Chris and Oliver get up at 7 am, eat breakfast and get ready for work and school.

As they go out the door they wake Freya and I.

I didn't get a photo of Oliver last week because Freya and I were asleep when he left.

Success to Oliver and Freya this school year!

On the thrifting front I found this cross stitched linen table cloth for three dollars last week.

I really want to marry it.

(As in 'If you love it so much why don't you marry it?' )

This is the lady figurine my Grandma Billie received from her mother.

My grandma kept it in the hall closet until she gave it to me three years ago.

I didn't know its history or significance.

I am very happy to keep it in sight but out of harms way in our home.

One day I will give it to Freya and I hope she will tell her children about her Great Grandma Billie and her lady figurine.

Cheers to a new week friends.

P.S. My blog is a year old!!!!

Winners!!!

August 27, 2010

Winners!!!

Congratulations EVERYONE!
Everyone who entered my Halloween banner giveaway wins!

There are two sizes of banners: tiny or fat and tiny.

Please e-mail me your address and which size you would like.

First replies, first choice.

oliver_freya@yahoo.com!

Have a great weekend!

A Gratitude Halloween Banner Giveaway

August 24, 2010



A Gratitude Halloween Banner Giveaway

I am terribly behind on my blog.
I am going to catch up a bit before I get to my awesome giveaway.
If you don't want to read about my week just skip to the end.

Last weekend we drove to Filmore Utah for a geocache day.
We chose Filmore for a bunch or reason.
First, my Grandma Billie's mother's family was born, raised and died there.
Second, Filmore was Utah's first state capital because it is almost the center of Utah.
Third, Chris went to high school with a friend who has a farm in Filmore and she invited us to visit.




























On our way to Fillmore we stopped in Levan to find a few geocaches and visit Chris' paternal great and great-great grandparents graves.
We decided since we were visiting graves in Fillmore we may as well visit graves in Levan.
You know, kill two birds with one stone.

Oliver signing the geocache log.

We learn so much about the settlers of a city by visiting their cemeteries.

View outside the car.

View inside the car.

Filmore cemetery.

My grandma Billie's grandma and grandpa. (My great - great grandparents).

Oliver and Freya standing near the resting place of their great-great-great-

great grandparents.

My grandma puts flowers on her mothers grave.

When my grandma was six her mother became very ill.

My grandma writes in her autobiography that "The one memory that has haunted me all my life was when my mother became ill and went to the hospital. After many test the doctor told Dad and I that we could never bring her home again".

My great grandmother was committed to an insane asylum in 1933.

We now believe that she was bipolar which was exacerbated by postpartum depression.

For twenty three years my Grandma Billie assumed her mother was dead.

Her father remarried and had more children.

In 1956 her aunt Elaine (mother's sister-in-law) called and said that her mother was better and was being placed in a rest home.

My grandma writes "I was numb and couldn't believe it. It had been twenty-three long years since I last saw her."

"Everything was hard for her at first. She was like Rip Van Winkle and had been asleep all these years. Elaine was going to stay with her this Christmas. We thought it was best if I didn't see her yet, for she still though of me as being six years old. I asked Vern (my grandpa, RIP) if we could buy her something really nice for Christmas, so we went to town and bought her a beautiful green coat. We took it to Elaine so Mother could have it for Christmas. She had a gift for me too that Elaine had helped her buy, a beautiful statue of a lady, my most prized possession."

I now own that beautiful lady statue and it is my prized possession.

"I wrote Mother for a year to help her understand I had grown up, married and had two children. It was so hard that first time I went to see her. I didn't know what she would think. She welcomed me with open arms and took me to all the ladies and introduced me as her daughter."

My grandma Billie's young life was full of heartache yet she remained optimistic and full of love.

Love of life and love of family.

After the cemeteries, lunch and a visit to the state capital building we visited a working farm for the first time!

At Swallow Farm they raise and breed dairy cows.

The Swallows grown corn for feed. Lots and lots of corn.

It was almost feeding time so the cows excitedly ran to the fence.

Grandma Billie and the kids thought it was hilarious.

One of the Swallows sons raises pigs.

Two of the pigs are named Bacon and Porkchop.

These two little piggies played in the mud.

The Swallow farm.

I would like to go back soon and spend the weekend.

It would be an awesome experience for us to learn how much work is involved with raising dairy cows.

I would like to know what each piece of farm equipment is used for and what it does.

While driving the streets of Filmore we came upon the best yard sale ever.

I found these vintage, almost brand new, super soft pillowcases.

In my opinion you can never own too many pillowcases.

(Unless you have more than a drawer full. When my pillowcase drawer gets too full I pawn them off on my sister).

Three more pillowcases.

A small, square table cloth. (A drawer full is plenty).
A lady doily.

A mushroom curtain, circa 1970.

It is humbling to me to see how mended this pillowcase is.

Someone loved this case and wanted to keep it in good repair.

(All linens cost four dollars).

Most excitingly I found these three purses.

(Total price - six dollars)

Inside flap of purse.

I explained to Oliver and Freya that this is how we remembered peoples phone numbers in the old days before cell phones and speed dial.

Monday the postman brought me something great in the mail.

My lovely friend Wendy was organizing her linen drawers and thought I could put them to good use.
Both sets of pillowcase are on my bed.

Chris carries the handkerchief in his pocket.

I made a head scarf for Freya and plan to make one for myself out of the doilies.

The note Wendy sent made my day and is from The Black Apples Emily Martin.


Saturday I received another beautiful pair of pillowcase from Becca of listeningandlaundry.blogspot.com.

Becca sent the cases as a thank you gift for a giveaway she won.

The generosity of people I have only met through blogland astounds and delights me.

My faith in womankind is renewed.

As a thank you to all the wonderful women I have met this past year I am giving away four Halloween banners.

Two tiny flag banners and two tiny and fat flag banners.

Tiny banner.

Tiny banner.

Fat and tiny banner.

Fat and tiny banner.
(Oh Mary, I need to wash that window)!

If you would like to win one of the four banners please leave a comment along with your e-mail.

Friday I will draw four winners.

Halloween Banners

August 18, 2010

I am very obsessed with making Halloween bunting.
For two days I haven't made any thing but small bunting.
Excluding cut time I can sew them up in 8 minutes.

I really love immersing myself in projects.

My goal is to make 20 of them.

Family Is a Beautiful Word

August 16, 2010

Family Is A Beautiful Word

My sister Katie called me Wednesday afternoon to say she was in town and asked if she could come by and look through my fabric.
"Oh, gee yes" was my answer and I began to pull out bits and bobs to make wrist cuffs.
Katie has recently become interested in sewing and I am over the moon happy to teach her.

I love playing crafternoon with Katie.

She has an amazing eye, (she is a brilliant stylist), and her ideas for new combinations and arrangements are inspiring.

Katie's cuff design with blue velvet, vintage gem, doily flower and buttons.

The photo above is the first wrist cuff I made and was the inspiration for Katie to create.

Did I mention that I am over Juniper that Katie wants me to teach her how to sew?

In two weeks Katie has designed and sewn four beautiful cuffs.

I hope to have photos soon.

Katie had been at our home ( Teah and Kai , too) about an hour when my brother Nicholas asked if he and his girls could come by.

Nic is a carpenter.

Nic loves working with his hands and he loves wood.

Wood loves Nic back.

Chris and I are commissioning Nic to build us a wall of book shelves in our living room.

Nic came over to measure for the book wall and afterward he and Oliver hung out while the cousins played.

Impromptu family gatherings are the best surprise gifts in life.

Every day I am grateful my family lives so close.

Chris, Katie and Kai + Laney and Tessa.

Katie and Nicholas

On Friday more family fun was to be had.

There is an aquarium in Sandy, Utah that is very near my grandma's house.

It's a cool aquarium for our land locked, desert state.

Grandma Billie has been wanting to visit for a few years now so Friday she took my dad, Oliver, Freya and myself to the aquarium.

It was a fantastic afternoon!

My dad and grandma.

Freya and the frog.
She rode it like a horse.

A boat on the Great Salt Lake.

Pink and green.

Pink and green.

The beauty of nature.

Beauty from the hands.

I bought this doily several years ago because it reminds me of the sea.
I found its counterpart Friday.

After searching for it I decided I want to see this doily every day so I pinned it to a lampshade in my room.

I hope you had a week filled with love.

Cheers to a new week!