I spy tomatoes!

After many weeks of watering my little garden, I had begun to wonder if I would ever see the fruits (or veggies) of my labors. My plants seemed to be getting big and even had several flowers. But, I just wasn't seeing any tomatoes except for one lone tomato.

So, yesterday I did some searching to see if by chance there were any other tomatoes. Finally, I began to see some little clusters of tomatoes. Hooray! If every little flower turns into a tomato eventually I will be doing a lot of canning. I will have lots to make tomato soup, YUMMY! I had hoped for peppers to grow so I could use that in my soup...but that doesn't seem to be working as well. I do have two peppers but, that isn't anything near what I will need for the soup. My squash plant is taking over the garden! It is getting really large and has had about 15 flowers on it. Maybe I will have to learn how to can squash...can you do that? I will have to look that up in my new canning recipe book.

Chaise Lounge

Last saturday, I went to Idaho to my Grandma's house to bring back some things. I brought back the chaise lounge that Grandma gave me. I put it up in my office and it will be my new reading spot!

I remember when I was a little girl and I was at grandma's house I always loved to lay on the chaise and read. She had it sitting by the large windows and the sun would come in through the windows as I would read. I have always thought it was the coolest piece of furniture! I love having it in my home and think of my wonderful grandma everytime I see it.

Thank you Budweiser!

Hmmm....I am not even sure if you spell their name. But, I do have to say thanks to them for the free groceries. Last week I was able to send in two rebates totally $20 to them. I got free steak, bottled water and hamburger buns. In Utah you don't have to buy any of their products but, you still can qualify for their rebates.

So, the bottled water is going up to our Relief Society Retreat compliments of Budweiser....I think that is the funniest! But, hey...why spend the RS budget on that if we can get it for free.

Strawberry Lemonade

Yesterday, I was in Albertsons and saw that they had strawberries on sale. I thought, it would be a great time to buy some and try out my new canning recipe book. My first thought was to make some strawberry jam...but I realized I don't eat that much jam. So, I perused through the book to see if there was some other fun thing to make.

I hit page 192 and there it was! Strawberry lemonade concentrate, YUMMY! It was super easy to make and super yummy to drink!

6 cups of strawberries, hulled

4 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice

6 cups sugar

Mix in a stainless steel saucepan and bring to 190 degrees without letting it boil. Be sure to stir often. Fill your hot bottles and boil in a water bath for 15 minutes.

It only made 4 quarts...which was too bad.

What in the world is a Zutter?

Well, it is my new favorite toy! I saw a lady use the zutter on a scrapbook video and decided that I must have one. I immediately thought of all the cool things I could make and we could even use it for an enrichment activity. That last thought helped me justify the purchase. The zutter is a binding machine.

I found out that only one store carried the machine in Utah county and so I turned to Ebay to find a cheaper cost. After being outbid several times, I am now the proud owner of a Zutter and made my first project! I love how it turned out and it was so easy to use! Well, except that I put the covers on backwards the first time. I know that doesn't surprise some of you.

This is a journal that I made. We had a RS lesson a few weeks ago on Elder Eyring's October conference address, where he spoke about writing down what the Lord has done for us each day. That is what inspired me to make this journal. I had papers already with the lines so, I cut them down to an 8"x 8" size. I used chipboard for the covers and covered them with cute paper and painted the edges brown. I printed my title on the paper prior to gluing it on. Then I bound it all together. I then unbound it becuase I had the covers on backwards and rebound it.

Concert in the Park

Heather and I went to the concert in the park this past Tuesday night. We really have not had the chance to visit much since our European Excursion back in April. It was in the Brigham Young memorial park by the Church Office Building. There were quite a few people there, most of which were the older generation that lives in the apartment buildings around there.

We listened to the National Guard West Coast Band. They were really good and it was a lot of fun. There was a phenominal Clarinet player! Wow, I could not believe the notes that she was hitting and the way she played her Clarinet. I do feel somewhat educated in this matter since I played the instrument for 5 years. I did give her a standing ovation...and I think there were only a couple others who followed suit. Perhaps the age of the people made that difficult to stand or perhaps they just are not trained in the difficulty what she did.

So, this picture didn't turn out...the temple was so pretty with the sunset behind...which you can't really see. Oh and I didn't notice the lovely phone wires when I took the picture.

The Hollyhocks were so pretty by the Lion House...it made me think of Grandma Raymond's Hollyhocks.

After the concert we walked around temple square and had dinner. We tried to eat at one of our favorite bakeries. We walked in at 9:45 and seated ourselves at the table and they pretty much ignored us for the 5 minutes that we sat there. Yes, Michelle I was going in 15 minutes before closing. So we decided to order some desserts to go. We then found ourselves at Hires and ate a very messy sandwich!

It was great to spend time with Heather and catch up on life after vacation.

Craft room makeover

My craft room has finally gotten a face lift! I never really intended for this to be one of the first rooms to finish upstairs. But, when the paint was too yellow for the Master Bedroom it ended up going in the craft room. I actually really like the yellow in there it is bright and cheery!

I purchased a couple pieces of furniture from IKEA and it is much more organized now. There are more spaces to keep all those crafty items. I definately enjoy the room more and hope to have an easier time creating my scrapbook pages etc now that everything has a home. There are still a few things that I would like to do, but it is vastly improved over the folding tables that were the focal points of the room.

I really like how the desk fits in the corner and has some vertical storage with the hutch. I also like the magnet/white board that I can put my magnetic tins on with brads, eyelets etc. I like my cubicle bookcase that allows for easy storage. I need to organize it a bit more and get it looking cute.

I am hoping that the gold chaise lounge from Grandma's house will fit nicely in here...I will have to take a picture when that arrives. I think it will work well with the paint and should fit in the corner of the room.