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.