What happened after Thanksgiving?

After Thanksgiving it seemed like time was a blurr. Shortly after Thanksgiving I got the stomach flu for a few days, where nothing seemed like it would settle on my stomach. During that time we were able to put

up our Christmas tree and each day I would decorate alittle more in the house.

Reindeer and pinecone decoration on

my kitchen counter. I bought the reindeer

at Home Goods and the pinecone at Walmart.

Christmas Village displayed on top of my

kitchen cabinet. I don't have any place to

put a Christmas Village so this is the next

best thing, which I really like. It makes it

feel warm and cozy. Scott put them on a

timer for me, then I don't have to get a chair

each night to plug/unplug them in.

Christmas ornaments on my tree

I decided on the outdoor theme (which I have had in previous yrs) this year. It just seemed appropriate since we spent alot of our summer time enjoying our place in Idaho, which we talk alot about still to this day.

The Christmas tree was filled with fishing ornaments, log bird houses,

pinecones and ornaments from our snowmobiling trips to Yellowstone.

I put up my little stuffed black bear hugging a pine tree.

After the week of the stomach flu, the next week I got the flu. Where you get the hot/cold chills, muscle aches etc. That lasted quite a few days also. I had been sick that I hadn't even been christmas shopping and the days till Christmas was approaching fast. I figured I'd just hit it hard one day and get it done, which that is exactly what I did 5 or 6 days later. I couldn't believe I got everyone done except my daughter ...which I finished the next day.

THEN.....

The third week I got the sore throat, croup cough head cold. I couldn't believe it!!! For 3 weeks I had been sick with various cold symptoms. I usually get sick once maybe twice during the whole winter seasons.

I still have been sick this week.

You know when your a mom/wife life goes on even if you are sick.

It is just a fact of life.

Then add the fact that it is Christmas, you certainly can't take a break. You need to clean the house, prepare Christmas (eve) dinner in our case, wrap presents, deliver Christmas presents to family and friends. I just kept plugging along..thinking to myself..when it's all over with you can sleep for days if need be.

Scott helped me clean house and prepare the dinner. Kimberly also helped the night before helping me cut vegetables for the stuffing and potato salad which helped a bunch.

Christmas dinner turned out so good. Everything tasted amazing. We had a small turkey with stuffing, a honey glazed ham which was to die for, frog eyed and potato salad, which was one of the best I had made. We sat at my new dining room table that we had just refinished. We put in the leaf and was able to sit 6 people just right, which I could've never done at my old table.

It was a picture perfect Christmas dinner.

So considering the month of December I was sick for most of it. I still thoroughly enjoyed Christmas. I have so much to be blessed for. A healthy family, a warm cozy home to enjoy the holidays, food on the table,

and most of all "The love and blessing from our heavenly father"

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas also.

Thanksgiving project

So I've been wanting a new dining room table and chairs

for quite sometime but other needs or pleasures have come

before purchasing table and chairs.

Then one day while reading Paula Deen's magazine, I

came across a table and chairs of hers that I fell madly

in love with. She had them out on her porch, which looked

amazing with a buffet, chair and table, all in white. So I

thought I would like to copy that picture perfect porch and

make over our back porch which needs some TLC. We

haven't sat out there for a few years. We do alot of barbequing

during the summer and I thought if we loved the porch we'd

sit out and enjoy the evenings more.

Then unexpectedly one day I stopped in at the Restore to

drop off some items we no longer wanted. Restore is a store

open to the public that takes/sells household items to help

build Habit of Humanity homes. There I found 4 off-white

chairs similar to the Paula Deen chairs I had seen in the

magazine. I purchased them for $60.00. They sat on my

back porch waiting for my TLC for a few months, due

to Labor Day vacation, canning peach jam, other commentments

that kept coming up. Also I had the problem of .....if I paint them

and then come across a table, would I have to paint the table to

match them or repaint the chairs to match the table.

This whole time I had this table and chairs picture in my head

for the back porch. Then it hit me like a light bulb moment,

why don't I fix them for our dining room in our house. It only

made more sense to have a nice table and chairs for the house

before the back porch. . . . duhhh!!

You see our dining room table was purchased in 1978

before me and Scott got married. It was always a nice

table so why replace it...right???

The chairs that we purchased with the table, we replaced

in 1982, with the ones we still used till this day. We paid a

pretty penny for them because they were on wheels and tilted

back for comfort at the mere price of $500.00 a piece back then.

Which seems outragious now but we were both working and making

pretty good wages, plus it was just the 2 of us then.

Scott went out of town with my son-in-law Jon to go elk hunting.

Scott doesn't like to hunt but he went to help Jon in case he got one.

So my plan was to get a few projects done while he was gone, one

of them was to paint the chairs and get them done. The other one

was to place my daughters dresser in her old room on KSL to get

rid of it and clean out her room. It had become my bottomless pit,

it had started to look like I needed to join hoarders anomyous...lol.

Within 20 minutes of placing the ad, I had sold it. I couldn't believe

it, I sold it for $60.00.

Then the next day while brousing our local classified ads KSL

(like Craig's List) I found the table I'd been looking for.

The table had 4 legs, not a pedestal with legs to catch our

feet on. It had chunky big legs not thin legs, I wanted some

thing that stood out and have some character to them. They

only wanted $50.00 for it.. I just knew with that price it would

go fast if it hadn't already been sold. I called a few times with

no answer, I finally left a message stating that I had been looking

for a table just like what they had for sale. It was later that day

when the gentlemen called me back stating if I wanted it I could

have it. I was so over joyed and thanked him several times for it.

So I pictured having this table and chairs done by the time Scott

got home from hunting. That gave me a week to do it all, that

should be no problem right????

I started with the table legs. I sprayed painted them outside

which the weather was pretty good still considering it was the

first week in November.

LEGS

The before and after picture

Landon helping me put the legs on the table. (3 weeks
later) I'll explain later in the story.



Finished leg on the table





Don't you think the chunky legs make


the table?


TABLE

Finished look of the table

Finished side look of table

So during the week Scott was gone, I watched Landon

while Kimberly was at work. Then Friday night I took

off and went to dinner and a movie Footloose. See the

previous story on my fantastic night. So it was just hard

trying to stay focused on getting it done.

The table was to heavy to lift so I knew I'd have to wait

for Scott to come home and help me lift it. So when he

got home we took it outside to spray paint it. When I

started to paint it ...it started to bubble, crack and peel.

UUHHHHH!! So we dragged it in the basement to let

it dry to strip it the next day.

So the next day after Scott got home from work we dragged

it outside and started wire brushing it off because it had

ridges so a sander wouldn't work. We'll we finally got it off

and decided that maybe it was dirty and the paint wouldn't

adhere to it. So I started spray painting it again. The one

half painted great...then the other half started cracking and

peeling AGAIN!!!.. so in the basement it went again to dry

again!

So the next day we tried some spray paint stripper, which

seemed to get most all of it off again. I had went down earlier

that day to Home Depot and got the paint matched. I was

going to paint it on with a brush and a foam roller. I put it

in Kimberly's room on a table, where it was nice and warm

(we think the cold air is what made the reaction to the spray

paint).

It turned out beautifully!!!!



So then I started on the top.

Previously before spray painting the bottom part of the table,

we had sanded all the polyuthane off.

I applied a wood conditioner. It helps the stain look more

evenly not blotchy. I used Minwax, I used it a few years

ago when we done my daughters desk. It done a great job

so I knew it really works.

I just applied it with a lint free cloth.

First coat of minwax PolyShades.

It has the stain and polyurethane together.

I used BOMBAY MAHOGANY GLOSS.

I applied 2 coats of the stain till I got the color

I desired. I applied it and then I went back and

rubbed off the excess till I got a smooth feel

(which is more difficult with the poly in it),

I used fine steel wool to buff out any imperfections,

then I applied another coat again, then rubbing

it evenly smooth again.

I applied it wth a new lint free cloth.

I then applied 3 coats of

HELMSMAN SPAR URETHANE CLEAR GLOSS

using another clean lint free cloth. I also rubbed it

on and then rubbed off excess till even and smooth.

I also let it dry 24 hrs between coats. Then I used

fine steel wool to buff down and smooth out any

imperfections. I didn't buff the final coat.



CHAIRS

Before picture of what the chairs looked like

Chair with the seat removed

Cushion after taking the staples out of it.

Sanded down any grooves or dents.

Kylie, my dog enjoying the nice day watching

mom work hard on the chairs.

The foam on the chairs were really worn out, so I

went to JoAnn's and bought High Density foam.

Traced out outline of the old cushion onto

the new foam using a medium sharpie. I

also number the cushions with the boards to

keep them straight also.

In the process of putting on the material on the

new foam I noticed the green color underneath

showing through because of the light colored material.

So I went to Walmart and bought some Pellon to put

between the material and cushion. It worked great,

the green color didn't show through plus it added some

padding to make it a softer cushion.

I layed down my outside material on the table facing

down, then I put down the cut out pellon (previously

I put down the pellon, then the cushion, then the board,

then cut enough to bring up to the board to staple to

the bottom of the board..so the green wouldn't show

through the sides) then the green cushion, then the

board.

Then I stapled the material and pellon to the board.

Trimming any excess off. I used a Dewalt hand stapler,

with 1/4 inch staples 6 mm thick.

I cut slits in the pellon and cut out excess pellon to give

it a smoother look in the corners.

Then we screwed the cushion to the chair.

The finished look of the chairs.

Like my other project in the background....need to

finish painting the baseboard in the front room.

So the table and chairs ended up costing me $158.00

Chairs 60.00

Table 50.00

Material 30.00

Paint & Stain 65.00

Batting 13.00

Total $218.00

Subtract money from dresser I sold 60.00 =

$158.00

So I had picture getting the table and chairs done

before Scott got home. Which was unreasonable,

I didn't realize how much work it would take to

get it done. This was my first attempt at making

over furniture. I then made it a goal of getting it

done by Thanksgiving. Which it probably would've

been done by....except...

• painting and stripping the table twice




• unstapling the material to one chair to add pellon so it wouldn't show the green cushion through




• finding the staples that would staple and not have to hammer them in

I want to thank my husband for the patience and tolerance of putting up with the house a mess with chairs, foam, material, tools etc for days. Hours of helping me sand and stripping the table. Putting up with all the frustrating moments that came up. Mostly putting up with my wild ideas that make work for him, which he put aside his own projects to help me with.

In the end we had a wonderful Thanksgiving on our new dining room table. I

am blessed to have a wonderful husband, family and friends that make my life special.

Red Lobster and Footloose

So you know the saying "Why the cat is away the mice will play"
we'll I done some playing tonight.

Scott went elk hunting with my son-in-law Jon. They were met up with Scott's friend Terry who has a cabin up at Flaming Gorge. We'll to tell you the truth Scott has never been a hunter, he would rather save a animal then shoot it, he thinks their to beautiful.
So you might say he has been converted to the reglion of hunting by the fact he would do anything for Jon. He doesn't have a hunting license but he did get a fishing license in the
hope that Jon might get his elk early and then they can go play and do some big fishing on
the Gorge. He is going to be the cook and extra man to help bring out the elk if the luck
shall prevail.

So me, Kimberly and Shauna decided we would have a girls night out to enjoy ourselves
also. Shauna ended up going to St. George to spend time with her cousin Whitney who
recently turned 21. So we dropped Landon off to grandma Lynn's for some fun time, then
went to Red Lobster to enjoy their Endless Shrimp. I love shrimp but living in Utah, we
don't get to eat it as much as I'd like (the seafood in California is to DIE for). So we tried
the Shrimp Alfredo and Breaded Shrimp first....YUMM, wish I could explain how good it
was. Then we tried the Shrimp Scampi and Spiced Shrimp next, the Scampi was also good
but didn't care to much for the spiced shrimp. That was my first time eating at Red
Lobster but I can certainly say it won't be the last. I could eat there once a week if the
budget allowed but I will be thinking of that dinner for awhile.

Then we hurried over to the Gateway to the Cinema to watch "Footloose". I haven't been
to a movie for awhile, I am one to just wait till it comes out on video for the most part.
Unless its Harry Potter or the Twilight series. So I went with excitement of enjoying a good movie. I love Juilianne Hough, she can sing, dance and act. She is a very talented young
lady. I heard that the movie had good reviews and that it put the old one to shame, which
was hard for me to believe. I can truly say that I totally agree with who ever said it, it was
so good that I found myself wanting to watch more of it when it ended. The story was good,
the actors/actresses were so much better but the dancing....all I can say is "extremely out
of this world" . At times certain parts would remind me of the old movie, I did however like how they kept it close to the same production then remaking a whole different story line.

I left leaving the movie feeling like I wanted to be 30 yrs younger, go out line dancing
(which I haven't done in 32 yrs) and kick up my heels. You could go in to watch the movie
in the worst mood, come out in a happy go lucky mood kicking up your heels.
I give this movie 5 stars *****!!!

I plan to do a few more things while the cat is away, one is a big project that I have in the
works since Labor Day and hopefully have it done before the cat returns.....lol

Witchfest 2011

So I love holidays.

I love to decorate my home with the holidays in mind.

Every month has a decor theme.

January - snowmen

February - Valentines

March - St. Patricks Day

April - Easter

May - Spring

June - Spring

July - 4th of July

August - watermelon

September - sunflowers/fall

October - Halloween

November - Thanksgiving

December - Christmas

So my shed in our backyard is packed with

bins with the holidays decor. I've been trying

to go through it and get rid of the old decorations

that I won't ever use to make room for the new ones

that seem to have multipled lately.

So this year I have been looking forward to Halloween.

Last year me, Kimberly, Shauna, my sisters Vicki,

Susan and her daughter Whitney, all went to Gardner's Village

in Salt Lake City. They decorate the village all out in witches.

They even have a witch royality. You can have breakfast with

the witches or have a wagon ride with them. All throughout the

village they have life size witches in various areas....one is even

on the potty in an outhouse:)

Two nights during October they have a "ladies night out" at Witchfest

celebration for

ladies 18 yrs and older all dress up as witches.

They all converse in the village to see the parade, dance and just

right out have FUN!!!

So back to the subject...I had so much fun last year that I couldn't

wait to go again this year.

Kimberly and Shauna decided to have a gathering of witches at

Kimberly's cottage before heading into Witchfest.

The witches table with all their potions and

books of spells.

Kimberly made this witches candle holder.

She spray painted an old lamp, took the wiring

out and put candles in it. She then added black

beads for alittle decor.

Shauna made these witches broom favors

filled with witches favorite snacks.

She got the idea off of pin interest.

So when all the witches got done eating their

hearts delight, we put our hats on and gathered

our brooms and flew in the full moon night sky

to the witches convention held over the mountain.

When arriving there were already several thousands

witches already celebrating the streets singing and

dancing.

The witches gathering for a picture before

taking flight.

Stephanie Lancaster, Kimberly ?,

Kimberly, me, Shauna, Breanna Utley

Susan, Vicki Utley, Claudia Griffin

Lisa Harding, Miranda Utley, Sherilyn Idle

Missing witches that couldn't make it were

Whitney Green and Alisha Harding. They were at

the College of Witchcraft in St. George.

Jennifer Harding met all the other witches at

the witchfest.

After a night of singing and dancing,

Shauna and Kimberly stop to take a

moment to let their dancing boots cool off.

We all had such a great time together

Dressing up as witches like little kids

We are moms, daughters, sisters, aunts,

and friends who can gather together

Sing, Laugh and Dance

My Fetish

So I have a fetish...yes I do.

Some women have a fetish with shoes,

some people have a fetish for books,

I have a fetish for plates for our dining room

table. I probably have 7 different sets I decorate

with. I have a lighthouse set, light blue set,

blue/white set, white with a touch of brown in

them (fall), white with rings around the outer

edge, black set (halloween), and a red snowflake set

(christmas).

I store them in clear bins under my bed, along with the

placemats and napkins/rings.

I don't have them set on a formal table on display. I place

them on our everyday table....and yes if your wondering if

we eat at our table...

Everyday

I move them everytime we eat dinner and on the weekends

for breakfast/lunch and then for dinner.

Scott use to complain about moving them everynight but I must

be stubborn because he just moves them now without a word.

I am sometimes hard to get along with.

Christmas display I have on the kitchen counter

in the corner. The Merry Christmas sign was from

Walmart for $2.97, the glass vase was from Ross for

$5.97 I think. The candle from Walmart in their christmas

items for $2.50. I took garland cut it and made a circle,

gathered pinecones from the pine tree's in the park and

hot glued them to the garland. The white baby breath came

from the dollar store. The candy was sprinkled around the

candle with smaller pine cones.

The pumpkin was purchased from Walmart,

along with the smaller pumkins. The flowers

were from the dollar tree store and the Welcome

sign was bought from the Family Dollar store.

Everything you see here I got from the Dollar

Tree store. Each setting was $6.00 x 4 =

$24.00 Total.

Christmas setting.




Have things ever come in phases for you. This

spring it happened for me.

I went to our local

Real Deals store and seen a yellow watering can

with a bird on it that I just fell in love with. Also

was a couple of yellow birds right beside it... so of course

they all had to come home with me also.

I figured I'd put them in the kitchen for a touch of spring.

Then a month or so later I was in Salt Lake at the Tai

Pan store and came across this ceramic bird house

with a bird on it that matched the watering can.

Then they had a plack and planters that matched

the watering can exactly. Same decor on all of them.

(don't have a picture of the planters or plack)

The flower and candle/candlestick I already had.





Table set with the watering can. The flowers,
plates and bowls came from the dollar store.
The napkins I came across at Target. I later
went back to Tai Pan and bought the birds nests
with the eggs to spruce up the setting. I did spurge
on them but I really liked them. I was worried
that it would make the table look like Easter but
I didn't think it did.
Of course I put some different sea shells to add
alittle beachy feel.

Have you noticed the theme along these pictures...
seashells and pinecones.
I just love them!!!

A closer look at the watering can which started the

whole theme for this summer.

I loved this setting so much I had it out all summer

long. Usually every month I change the setting to

something different.

A closer look at the table setting. I liked the

napkin flat so you could see the design. When

I folded it, the design got lost.

I am working on table setting for Halloween,

when I get it finished I'll post a picture of my

new creation.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Fall Cleaning

Most people get the urge to do some spring cleaning

around the house in the spring.

For some reason I always have

the urge to clean in the fall.

So last week I started gathering stuff up to have a

garage sale since I've put it off all summer long.

The weather has been so nice and warm even the

last week of September.

I must not have been the only one in the mood

to clean because the last 2 weeks in our local newspaper

there was 2 columns of people having yard sales.

As I gathered stuff up, going through stuff and carrying

it out to the garage, I came to the conclusion I didn't even

want to deal with it anymore ....as sweat was dripping off my

forehead and my hair soppin wet!!

So I just loaded it all up in the back of the truck and the back

seat of the truck. We took it down to our local Deseret Industries.

I have a few boxes to take to the nursing home. They take little

knick knacks and items to give away when they play bingo.

I still have more to go through but its a start.

I need to sign up for hoarders anomyous!

Landon and Peach Jam

So a week ago, my dad dropped off a box of peaches

that he had picked off of a neighbors tree.

I had been wanting to make some peach jam for the

last couple of years but never got around to it. So the

opportunity arised for me to be able to put some up.

Kimberly came up to help out and of course I had my

buddy who was all eager to help out also.

We put up the camp chef out on the deck to put the canner

on. The pot is bigger than the burners on my ceramic stove top

and it gave us more room on the stove to cook the peach jam.

The camp chef cooks alot hotter than the regular stove, so I didn't

want to burn the peach jam mixture.

We just followed the directions that came inside the pectin

box.

We just used 4 Cups peaches (processed by food processor)

5 1/2 Cups sugar

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

l box of pectin

Landon cooking on the camp chef

Landon helping put up peach jam



Landon picking up a lid with the jar picker up

tool (lol...can't think whats its called, brain cramp...)






Landon holding the lid with the sissor tool.

I tried to hold it like he did on the edge of the lid

and I couldn't do it, so how does a 2 1/2 yr old do it?






YUMMY !!! PEACH JAM



10 pints and 30 half pints



It always makes you feel good to make something

and see the reward that you can enjoy all year long.

Landon at the State Fair

So on Thursday me and Kimberly took Landon to the

Utah State Fair. The day was really nice, not windy,

not hot...just right..with lots of sunshine., couldn't have

asked for a better day.

So we started off by taking him to see all the animals.

First was the sheep, they were bathing and clipping them.

I started taking pictures of him watching them, of course he

wanted to take some of them himself. He is going through the

Mr. Independent stage right now, its been going on for a few

weeks but now its pretty well everything. Kimberly had an old

camera that he uses now (he has a play one that takes pictures

but its not cool like ours I guess).

We went on to see the cows, goats, then we seen the ponies.

He really liked them but wasn't sure of them until Kimberly took

him out of the stroller and put him on "Joe" He wasn't sure of it

but then seemed to started to like riding him which was a great

surprise considering he didn't like the Merry Go Round at the

company party earlier this summer.

Everytime I went to take the picture he would start
playing peek a boo, so I'm lucky to get this fuzzy picture..
smile...lol





We were almost finished with the fair when we seen
these seals that we're hanging out on the deck soaking
up the sun. They had a performance an hour earlier
(which we didn't know about). Landon loved watching
them swim around in the big pool beside the stage for
them to cool off.



It has been several years since I've been to the State Fair.
It seems we are always out of town that weekend or have
something going.

I really enjoyed observing the arts and
crafts. Quilts that look amazing that they would've taken
years to make or wood carvings that make your jaw drop.
There was a full canoe made of wood that I would never put
it in water that it was so gorgeous and beautiful.
I loved gazing at all the pictures that you could look at for
hours and never be without awh.... or make Kimberly
become teary with emotion when gazing upon a picture of
Santa Claus with a reindeer picking through a window.
(which she ended up purchasing).

I so enjoyed the "Old State Fair" thank heavens some old
traditions are still available for the young children to grow up
enjoying as we did when we were young.

Labor Day

It is so hard to believe that the summer is almost

over. They whole family was able to spend the

last summer holiday at our place in Island Park.

Kimberly, Landon and Jon came up to take their trailer

home for the winter. Shauna was also able to join us also.

It just seems like we just took our

trailers up for the summer....which I guess in a way it was.

There was lots of that cold wet white stuff in piles on our

lot June 14th, so we ending up

taking the trailer up the end of June and spending the week

up there through the 4th of July.....with all those Idaho state

birds also aka...Idaho BIG misquito's!! They were especially

bad this year due to all the rain and snow they got up there this

winter and spring.

So we all took an atv ride down to Mesa Falls Saturday morning,

the trail Scott discovered a few weeks ago.

We were excited to show them

the trail with the beautiful scenery along the way.

So we pulled up along side the road to take a

water break for a bit. While talking and snacking on

Pistachio's, we noticed alot of horse flies and yellow jackets

flying around. It was a bit before we all decided to leave

when we noticed the wasp nest up in the tree. It was a big

one. The unusual thing was the horse flies were all flying

around and going in it also. It was like they were sharing the

nest. I know that paper wasp nests are for hornets but there

were none around, so they must have abandoned it at one time

and the yellow jackets moved in and sharing it with the horse flies.

Big paper wasp nest in the tree

The tree with the wasp nest in it.
It was also neat to see that the quakie tree
growing along side the pine tree, they interwine
all the way up to the top. It is one of those
unique things you find that mother nature has
provided us to enjoy.



Shauna and Kylie on the Mesa Falls trail.





Shauna and Landon at Mesa Falls









Jon, Landon and Kimberly at Warm Springs.


Another generation enjoying Island Park!!








Kylie cooling off in the water at Warm Springs

Landon playing in the water fountain....

posing like

"I wasn't doing anything"...

Other vacationers enjoying fishing off of

Buffalo bridge.

(In the background you can see Scott

letting Kylie cool off in the water)

A Bald Eagle nesting

I totally enjoying spending time with my family

but it is especially special when we're all at our place together,

we have made special with all the memories from the

past, present and all the new ones in the future.

We hope our children and grandchildren will keep building

this legacy of experiences and memories for future generations

to come.

Listening to the birds singing in the morning,





while having breakfast under the green pines,





while the squirrels climb the trees to gather their





winter harvest in the golden daylight,





wildflowers so colorful like an artist palet,





the sandhill cranes squaking as they fly over head,





while the mother moose with her calf walking down the





trail out front heading towards the slow moving crystal





clear river with the trophy fish swimming away from





the bald eagle in the bluest blue skies.

















These are a few things we take in while enjoying





God's country that we are blessed to have the





opportunity to enjoy.