Utah April 2012

It's an annual trip which started for me many years ago when my daughter was in college in Provo. Every April my two sisters from Idaho and I go to Springville, Utah to spend a long weekend with our other sister. We do a lot of spring cleaning, watch a lot of movies, eat really good, stay up way too late, visit with lots of extended family and just have a really good time. Meanwhile the husbands bachelor it, each home alone.

This year the two from Idaho decided it would be quicker and less expensive to drive. I flew in and arrived about 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. I was picked up at the airport by my son and daughter. Then we went to downtown SLC. We walked around the new City Creek shopping center, had lunch on main street, and visited the brand new Harmon's grocery store.

Then Natalie went back to work and Wayne and I made a trip to Thanksgiving Point to see the tulips. It was a Seattle weather kind of day, overcast and some rain, but that didn't stop us. Every year I've attempted to see the tulips and by golly this year I was going to do it.

We rented a Segway scooter so Wayne had some enjoyment while I wandered the beautiful landscaped gardens and took a gadzillion photos.

Here are a few tulip photos, for more see my Facebook page.

Wednesday we all arrived about the same time to Nancy's house. Sue and Becky got there just shortly before me but still had time to jump in and get a head start cleaning.


Emily made us homemade soup for dinner. I'm sure we watched some movies but I can't remember what movies, what nights. We stayed up till after 1:00 a.m., as we would do for the remainder of our visit.


On Thursday Aunt Margaret and cousin Ruby made the trip up from Manti to visit with us. We had a nice lunch of chicken salad sandwhiches on croissants. It was great to see them.



Standing: Aunt Margaret, Sue. Sitting: Ruby, Becky, Nancy, Emily, Trudy and Wayne.



Margaret and Becky




The hat



Friday afternoon we were visited by cousin Mara who brought her jewelry making supplies. We had a great time making earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

Natalie came down on Saturday to spend the night and to have Emily do her hair. Saturday was spent cleaning the garage, with help from Russell and Wayne. Everyone pitched in. There were truck loads taken to Scott's house, to the dumpster and to Deseret Industries. It was a very warm day and a lot of work.


Happy Birthday to Scott!




They weren't actually watching the movie yet, they were trying to figure out how to get the Spanish subtitles off the TV!



Saturday was also Scott's birthday. We had Lillie and Long join us for dinner and birthday cake. There was more movie watching and more caramel popcorn and a very, very late night.

Here are some pictures taken on Sunday morning. 

 I'll do a separate blog about spending Sunday in Deer Valley and Park City. It was a wonderful trip this year. It's alway so very nice to be able to spend time with my kids and my sisters and nieces, nephews, cousins, aunt. And the weather was beautiful. I really needed the sunshine after all our spring rain in Seattle.

Embroidery Floss Easter Eggs

Here is the site for step by step instructions. 
http://www.crafts-for-all-seasons.com/embroidery-floss-easter-eggs.html
They are a very fun project.
The weather was so nice today after work that I took my basket of eggs out in the backyard for some photography practice.

Here are the results.

Colorful

Love this picture, just lucked out with the timing of the afternoon sun.

Bonus backyard springtime picture.

These were shot with my Nikon D5000 and I'm happy to say I now shoot in manual about 95% of the time. I need to keep practicing. Hoping the rain lets up a little bit more.

Curly Ribbon

Birthday Cupcake Hanger

To make curly ribbon, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Select dowels depending on the size of curl you want. I was using about a 1/4 stick. These are sticks that I got in bags of stuffing years ago and I saved them and use them for all sorts of things. Remember all that 2 for 1.00 ribbon you have collected? Well now is your time to use some of it.

Tape one end of the ribbon to the dowel using a small piece of scotch tape. Then wrap the ribbon around the dowel and secure the other end with a small piece of tape.

Bake in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the sticks. You may smell the ribbon and tape heating up. I've never had any problems with them in the oven. After about 20 minutes removed from oven and let the sticks cool.

Gently remove the tape, sometimes you may have to cut it off. Unroll the ribbon and there you have curly ribbon. It will stay curly. It can be used for various crafts and is cute added to hair bows.