~ 'Tis a Very Scenic Idaho! ~

We took a beautiful drive on Father's Day through part of Idaho. I forget what a beautiful state our family lives in. Our son David is on a two year LDS Church mission, so he was unable to be with us for Father's Day, but John and I LOVED sharing the day with our beautiful daughter Sarah. Here she is standing in front of a water fall. The day was rainy and much cooler than seasonal norms, but since that is my preferable kind of day, no bad feelings here!!! The total trip was about 160 miles, mostly dirt roads, and VERY REMOTE. So the following photos have a 'discretion advised' warning for viewing. CAUTION: BEAUTIFUL SCENERY AHEAD!!!!

Central Idaho Mountains......

Indian Paintbrush Wildflowers..........

mountain springs........

See the snow?

One of Idaho's many famous rivers......

We had a great time, and most of the trip was passed in silence as we all took in the awe inspiring visitas. We were in reverence over the mountain passes looking out at the heights of mountains and at the depths of valleys. The day was relaxing, yet still our souls were stirred. The 'roads' were quite questionable at times....


but all in all it was time well spent. Critters were scarce that day, I think it was all the rain and they were hiding.

In closing, I came upon this BEAUTIFUL pile of rocks and I wanted to tell my Cousin Aud that I ordered them delivered to your house a week from tomorrow........

A beautiful week to you all ~

Shanda

~McCall, Idaho, Cooler Days, and Random Thoughts~

Sorry I have been gone for so terribly long - my husband is a school teacher and he is home for the summer now. Talk about getting nothing accomplished!!!!! 'Can you help me do this..... I need you to do xyz for me today.....' Ugh! You girls get the hint. It messes up my routine. But he is getting some things done for me also, so I guess that is a good thing. The blog will just suffer for a few short months in the summer time. Sorry.

Monday was my Retreat day with Lisa Bongean up in McCall and I had a BEAUTIFUL time. But would you believe a left my camera at my in-laws house , so no pictures. I did find this photo of McCall on the web, so just pretend you are with me, in McCall, sitting at a table with all your sewing implements nearby, with this view out the conference room window. It was a very nice day!!!! We learned Lisa's methods for working with wool, and I came home with something like this......
This one is not mine - remember I am minus a camera right now, but these beautiful wool table mats were what we made. Mine is about 70% done. Fall is right around the corner.............. Woo Hoo!!!!

It has been so nice and cool here. I have been busy in the quilt studio quilting for customers. I do have a quilt of my own that needs to get quilted, as I am going to enter it in a quilt show. I will take photos when I get my camera back and post for you. I canned 14 pints of carrots the other night. I wanted to get those done while it was cool, and I see my hens are starting to get to my blackberries. Lay off those delights, girls!!!!

Not a real long post today. I have photos on my camera that will make a nice post next time though. I will stop blundering and get back to my quilt studio. Does this post make any sense to anyone?? Blah, blah, blah, blah blahblah!

Thinking of you all in blogland and wish we could have some time together -

Shanda

~'Tis a Way Overdue Blog Post!~

'Fruits of several days labor - clean carpets at last!!!!'

Wow, finally!!!! Carpets have been cleaned, Memorial Day Weekend has come and gone, and so much to update on!!! Lots of photos this post - sorry for those of you who use Internet Explorer. I am on a Mac, but hear there has been lots of trouble out in blogland!! Let's get started....

First off, Memorial Day Weekend was a very thrilling one! My husband was able to race in a once in a lifetime event with his dad's car. I am not a big race fan, but THIS day was exciting for him AND me!!

The baby calf is doing great! He is growing so fast, kinda like a little kid!

I have a few make overs for you. Remember the plastic gold frames from several months ago?

They became sillhouette frames. I have two upstairs with Martha and Thomas Jefferson beside my reading chair in my bedroom:
And two are downstairs on the piano, Jane Austen and a young George Washington:


I found this green clock at the TS and it had teeth marks in it. All it needed was some new batteries!!! I had allready started to paint it red when I forgot to take a 'before' photo. Here it is semi-before....

and then 'After', on a shelf in our Den....

And then I found this GREAT solid oak box, not sure what it was ever used for, but we turned it into a 'hide the remotes' box. This is one of my favorites!!!! Before......

and then 'After', on a table in the family room with a 'madeover' lamp from several years ago....

The next few photos are of some TS finds that I didn't even really have to make over. A cute candle holder for .75. The green candles are gonna get rolled in cinnamon....


and some cute mini wooden pears that were YELLING my name in the store for .50 for the whole lot of them! TS finds are the best!

And last, but not least, I have a few 'Now You See It, Now You Don'ts......

The computer in the family room....

And the next minute it is gone.....

And the thermostat on the wall....

is now gone!


And remember some curtains I have been working on? I finally got the ones for the den done...


No wonder I have been so 'out of it!' Whew!!!! I am going to be slowing down, though, I do have many other things I need to get to that aren't so time consuming, like a bit of reading and gardening.

I leave you with a photo of a quilt my husband and I did just get hung up on the dining room wall. I found this beauty in Utah at a junk shop, and it has over 6,000 pieces in it and is called a Pineapple Quilt!! Can you imagine - 6,000 pieces? But what makes it so endearing to me is that it was all done on a treadle sewing machine. The back reveals feeds sacks from local Utah feed and grain mills and long stings of thread that were not trimmed like we trim threads now. It is very special to me, and since in my lifetime I doubt I will ever make a quilt with this many pieces in it, it was worth way more than the $80 I paid for it 5 years ago.

It was not a 'square' quilt, but then, back in the late 1890's, who knew what a square quilt was. I love it hanging here. Gives lots of color to our wall.

I hope you find joy in your day. Today is my Cousin Tammy's Birthday!!!! Happy Birthday, Miss Tammy!!!! June 1st...... Wow.... Don't mean to scare you all but Christmas is right around the next bend. Are you making your gift lists????

Blessings on your Day!!!

Shanda