I made a cake

Today was my nephews 6 birthday. A couple of days ago I saw this really cute pumpkin cake in a magazine and the directions were all there on how to make it. So I did. Here is the results. Enjoy.

Birthday present

For those of you who may not know, my mom is probably one of the most amazing people you could ever meet. She just is. She can talk to a bunch of people at one time and you still feel as if she is just talking to you.
Anyway. For my birthday this year I decided to take the day off and spend it with her because I haven't been able to do that for a few years. Let me add that she has been bouncing off the walls wanting to tell me what she got me for my birthday but refrained to avoid ruining the surprise.

After going to St George for lunch and shopping (as an added birthday gift my dad came, I don't think he has ever done that on my birthday before) we returned home and my mom could wait no longer. A big wrapped box was quickly thrust into my arms. As anyone in my family knows, I kind of hide how I am feeling and don't show a lot of emotion when I open presents. I ripped off the wrapping and opened the box. Inside was some cute fabric talking about family and sunshine and being happy. I took it out and opened it up. This was the front.





I recognized the material immediately. When my grandma passed away, instead of throwing away all her old shirts, I though it would be kind of cool to make them into a quilt. This was in 2004 and still in 2009, I had not succeeded. My mom unknowingly to me, had taken the shirts and cut them up to make this quilt. Funny as it is, I recognize so many of these fabrics and have different memories of my grandmother wearing them. Also, it brought back the many hours I spent at my grandma's house laying quilt blocks on the floor deciding which colors would look best together to be made into future quilts tops for the grandchildren she loved so much. For those who know quilting the sunbonnet girls are not appliqued, they are sewn on and afterward my mom hand quilted everything and bound it. I received two of the best presents I could ever imagine this year with my mom and my dad spending the day with me and this quilt from my mom. I loved it.
Thanks Mom for everything!

Extreme Croquet

Just so you know, while playing a fun game of extreme croquet, I managed to get last place the first game and first place the last game. I am very talented. The first game, I was the first one through the hoop, but quickly killed myself as my ball rolled into the pole. It was a very sad day. It did end on a happy note though with me being able to win the second game because the other poison went through a hoop and I made a lucky shot and killed the last ball. It was great fun. :)

Running program

I was asked by some friends to post this running program so here is the web site because I can't get it to link. Its a really good program to get your body use to running. It doesn't start out to fast and you can take your time doing it. If you have to repeat weeks, its okay. Enjoy.

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Piano refinishing

As said on a previous post, I bought a piano. With in the week, my brother also bought a piano. He works at a cabinet shop and has the tools needed to repair wood so he began an adventure of refinishing it.





I helped him a little but this last weekend I decided to go down and spend the day helping him redo it. We stripped down the old varnish and carefully sanded the rest. My brother filled in a chip on the corner that you can't even tell was there now. We had a few mishaps during the process but did okay for the most part. I did hit my finger with a hammer while separating my bench but it didn't hurt. Really weird. Here is a picture but it looks worse in real life. This doesn't really do it justice.









We worked really hard on getting as much done of his piano as possible. The end result was quite pretty.

Guess what I did........

I did it. I bit the bullet and bought a piano. I didn't pay much for it, it needs a little work, its old 1911, but I love it and I am very excited. Within a week it should be in working condition. Woo Hoo!!!



Just thought I would share a picture of it before it began to be fixed since right now its on its back being repaired.

Memory Lane I want to go back!!!

As you can probably tell from me changing my blog every few months, I like a little variety. As I was trying to decide what to put on it this time, I was looking through some old pictures from almost exactly 3 years ago.
My sister, Uncle and I took an amazing adventure in exploring another country and doing family history in the process. Anyway. Not to get off on a long fun story, as I was looking through some photos of our trip, I came across this one. It was at the first place we stayed at while we were in Wales in the back yard of a bed and breakfast. The place was amazing. The people who own it were so nice and accommodating. The husband owned a boat and took people out onto the ocean by Greece for I think he said about half the year. I also remember him saying that he had been watching American Idol (in Wales, awesome) and there was a kid on there who had never seen the ocean. This was completely unfathomable to him having spend most of his life on or near the water. Funny the things you remember. But anyway if anyone goes to Pembroke, Wales, UK, I highly recommend it (though as sad as it sounds, I can't remember the name of it, but its a three story bed and breakfast across from a gas station if I remember right.) The back yard was really so amazing also. This picture doesn't even start to do it justice. I just wanted to share that with you all. Hope you don't mind my trip down memory lane. We will see how long I keep this one up because it makes me want to travel. :)
(By the way in case anyone was interested, here is the original picture)