Silhouettes

I made these silhouettes of my niece and nephew for my sister and I'm so happy with how they turned out. The most difficult part of the process was just getting the kids to hold still for the photo. That took some real creativity! Once that was done, they were really pretty easy to make. I think they're adorable (both the kids and the silhouettes, but the kids especially)!

Fall

Fall is finally on its way! When summer's about half over, I'm ready for fall. I love it, can't get enought of it and hate to see it end. And while I may have already shared the reasons I love fall, they always bear repeating.

I love that smell that the heater in your house or car makes when you turn it on at the end of the summer...you know that smell, right? It may be strange, but to me it immediately signals coziness, a reminder that even cooler weather is on the way. Love it.

I love sweater and jacket weather. I love the colors clothes come in during the fall and I love wearing all my favorite sweaters and jackets. I'm definitely a cold weather clothing kind of gal.

I love "fall foods" including anything made with pumpkin, especially my mom's pumpkin bread. Her pumpkin bread beats any other pumpkin bread you'll ever have. And I love those comfort foods that make their appearance in the fall, chilis, soups, stews, just warm, filling foods. They're the best.

I love the way our house feels in the fall. It's beautifully decorated and it's cozy and warm. Can't beat it.

I love, love, love watching the colors change in the mountains. We're so lucky to live in such a beautiful area. Nothing's more beautiful than fall in the mountains.

There are so many more reasons to love fall, I could go on and on. When summer's heat is behind us and fall's in full swing, I'm one happy girl.

Adventures in Baking

Recently I've tried a couple of new recipes that turned out to be a lot of fun. For our Young Women's Girls Camp in June, I made this Zebra Cake.

(Picture borrowed from bakingbites.com. Recipe at http://bakingbites.com/2008/07/zebra-cake/)

It's much easier than it looks, simple really, although it is a bit time consuming. I should know, I think I ended up making this cake 9 times in the course of about 2 weeks.

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The first time I tried, I used an 8" round pan instead of the 9" round that the recipe called for. Big mistake. Luckily I'd placed a cookie sheet on the rack below the cake because the cake overflowed everywhere! It still tasted really good, but obviously the 8" pan just didn't work. Next I tried to use a white cake mix instead of the from-scratch recipe. That didn't work either--wrong consistency. We ended up making swirly cupckaes to use up all that batter. On my next attempt, things were looking promising. I used a 9" pan, the from-scratch recipe and the cake baked beautifully. I took it out of the oven and placed it on a rack to cool. When I returned maybe 30 minutes later, there was a giant crater in the middle of the cake. I hadn't baked it long enough. But finally, on my fourth try, the cake turned out just like the picture! Success!

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Girls Camp this year had a jungle theme, and our ward was the zebra ward. So of course I had to make this cake for the girls. I figured I'd need six cakes (8 slices per cake) to feed everyone, so when all was said and done, I'd baked this cake 9 times. We ended up having one cake left over, but it was worth it. The cake was really yummy and everyone loved the stripes!

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Next, for the 4th of July, I tried this Patriotic Poke Cake.

(Photo and recipe taken from http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/patriotic-poke-cake-52679.aspx)

My first "poke" cake. This cake was also a bit time consuming, but the finished project is impressive and it tasted really good. I used a white frosting instead of the cool whip to cover the cake. It turned out really well. Perfect for the patriotic holiday!

You couldn't pay me enough...

I looked out the window today at work and saw these 4 men dangling precariously from the side of the building across the street. They were perched on tiny little pieces of wood and washing windows as they lowered themselves down. I snapped a picture with my cell phone camera (hence the poor quality). You couldn't pay me enough to get me to tie myself to a rope and sit on that teensy tiny seat while being lowered down the side of a building. Made my palms sweat just watching them! Terrifying!

Goat on the Loose!

Several weeks ago I was casually looking out the window while talking to one of my bosses at work. I noticed a couple of guys running around our parking lot, chasing after what I thought was a dog. I mentioned this, so my boss got up to take a look. As he reached the window, he exclaimed, "That's not a dog, it's a goat!" And so it was, definitely a goat, little "horns" and all. These guys were chasing a goat around our parking lot. Mind you, our office is right next to I-15 in a very developed part of town...no fields, open spaces, etc. We had no idea why there'd be a goat in our parking lot, but there it was. By this time, the goat had slipped underneath a truck and the men were poised on either side of the truck, trying to coax it out. When it finally emerged, one of the guys quickly grabbed it. He then craddled it in his arms, and proceeded to sit in the shade under a tree on the edge of the lot. Huh?! Now he's just going to cuddle with his goat in our parking lot? His friend then ran into the building, (we later figured out that he was dropping off a payment,) and when he returned, the guy under the tree hopped up. They loaded the goat into the back seat of their truck and calmly drove away. Who drives around with a GOAT in the backseat? We got quite a laugh out of the spectacle. Definitely not something we expected to see that day at work!

Catching Up

A lot has happened in the past few weeks, and since it's been ages since I updated this blog, I thought I'd do a little catching up. It was a crazy few weeks, but they were filled with really great things, so I definitely can't complain!

VIVA LAS VEGAS

First, I had the opportunity to attend a national credit conference in Las Vegas for four days. I have to admit, Vegas is really not my favorite place, but I got to see the fountains at the Bellagio for the first time and I loved that part of Vegas. What an amazing show! Actually, I loved a lot at the Bellagio, the atrium was fabulous too! Maybe I'll have to stay there someday. The conference was also a good experience, tons of good information and lots of great people. We were super busy the whole time, but it was a good trip.

THE MILE HIGH CITY

I got home from Vegas on a Wednesday night. The very next day, my good friend Shannon and I flew to Denver to spend the weekend with another good friend, Carolyn. We had a wonderful time catching up, laughing and relaxing. We caught a couple of movies, shopped, got pedicures, ate really good food and just had a great time! We also toured the Unsinkable Molly Brown's home (pictured above). We've been friends basically forever, so it was really good to be together again for a few days. Nothing compares to great friends!

WELCOME HOME!Two days after I got home from Vegas, my little brother Shaun came home from his mission in California. It was so great to see him again, he's still the same old Shaun and we're delighted to have him home. He did so much good while in California and we couldn't be prouder! I found this picture on the computer and couldn't resist, I love it! Welcome home Shaun!!

London Online

Each spring, Rick Steves (the tour company we used for our trip to London last summer) holds a contest for online scrapbooks featuring their tours. Now I'm not a scrapbooker, not at all. But this was online and I figured I'd give it a whirl. So using the site scrapblog.com, Meghan & I created an online scrapbook about our trip to London and entered. It was actually really fun to put it together and I think it turned out okay if I do say so myself. So I thought I'd share:
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/vw_full.aspx?sbid=2503415

I'm just wondering...

Why your hair finally styles perfectly (after making you crazy) on the very morning of your next hair cut.

Why some people insist on driving so slowly in the carpool lane.

Why the Favorite Things song from The Sound of Music is widely considered a Christmas song.

Why you never hear about anyone going to school to be a train conductor...but there are indeed train conductors.

Why little bunny foo foo insists on scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head.

Rough Morning

Nothing like getting to work and trying to turn on your computer only to realize it's still sitting at home.

I have a laptop that I'd taken home so I could complete a project. And yesterday morning as I rushed out the door, I just plain forgot it. Sadly, all that rushing didn't do a lick of good because I had to turn around and drive home to retrieve my computer.

Half an hour later, I tried to turn on my computer again. And since it was now happily docked in its docking station, it booted right up. Amazing.

Driver's Ed

One of my responsibilities at work is to empty the post office box each morning. One morning last week, I climbed into the office vehicle and tried to head off to the post office. I sucessfully backed out of the parking spot, however when I put the car into drive, it abruptly died. Dead. Wouldn't do a thing when I tried to start it, no sound at all. I couldn't even get the key out of the ignition!

I couldn't just leave it sitting in the middle of the parking lot with concrete mixer trucks and dump trucks coming through. So I stayed with the deceased, in the snow, and called the shop. I told one of the guys what had happened and he trudged accross the parking lot to see what he could do.

When he arrived, he calmly climbed into the driver's seat and.................. shifted the car into park. Wow...did I feel dumb. It hadn't even occured to me to put the car in park, I didn't even realize it wasn't in park, I didn't even look. Ugh...

Naturally, the key came right out. He then reinserted the key and the car started up without a problem. After calmly climbing back out of the vehicle, he headed back to the shop, no doubt rolling his eyes the entire way. At least he was really nice about it...he claimed it was nice to get up and walk a bit. But I have a feeling that putting a car into park for an occasionally airheaded co-worker wasn't really high on his priority list for the day...

Miracle Brownies

Sunday night I made a batch of brownies from a new recipe I found on Kraftfoods.com. First ingredient: Miracle Whip. I just had to try them. Surprisingly, they turned out great. Really moist with rich chocolate flavor. Without a hint of Miracle Whip flavor. I didn't tell my family what was in them until after they'd eaten them...surprise!

My only question is this: When thinking of making brownies (and writing a new recipe), who looks at their jar of Miracle Whip and thinks, "Oooh, Miracle Whip would be a great addition to chocolate brownies!"

10 Dresses

This morning I spent some time packing up old dresses that I can't bear to part with. My very talented mom made them all and I just can't let them go, but I wanted to clear up some closet space, so they're now in the basement. As I sorted through them, I was amused at the styles, and appalled at how bad my memory is! I can't remember wearing some of them!

And now, a tour of 10 dresses.

My mom finished this dress for me the day before I moved to Indiana. When I put it on for the first time in Indiana, I found some money pined inside one of the pockets. I have the best mom!
Can't so much remember why, but I really wanted a Hawaiian print dress, so my mom made me this one. I loved it, it was so comfy! And the buttons are little silver fish!
I wore this dress under my robes as I graduated from BYU.
A bridesmaid dress for one of my best friend's weddings.

An ode to floral prints and wide lace collars, with shoulder pads too! I must have been shorter then.

This dress made me look pregnant--not because of anything my mom did, it was just the style. I never wore it, I thought I'd save it for when I was pregnant... Obviously I've still never worn it...

Oh...drop waist dresses...

More floral print with a wide collar, although I do remember it was very pretty at the time.

I believe I wore this dress to a Preference dance in high school...can't remember anything else about it...

I know I wore this dress to a Preference dance in high school. The dance was at the Provo Marriott and as we were having those cheesy pictures taken, my date fell through the paper backdrop...what memories! I also had my senior pictures taken in this dress.

It's amazing how styles change! I wonder what I'll think of the clothes I love now in ten years...

My new car!

Last weekend I became the proud owner of this 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. So far I love it!