Our (Idaho) summer in pictures 2011

So much to do, so little time to record it all...

So here's just a little slice of our summer in Idaho.

Stocky sailing around the pond with grandpa:

Sweet little Ava:

Camping at Alturas Lake and Redfish Lake:

Fourth of July in Hailey:

Kelsey family reunion: 

My sweet mother:

Little critter on grandma's hill:

Breakfast with the cousins at our house:

Getting ready to raft the Salmon River:

Senecca and her honey, Danny:

(Yep, he's a cutie pie)

Out to dinner at Zou 75:

(Still sporting the eternal pink cast, sigh...)

Shopping with the girls in Boise for our birthday getaway:

(Yes, Christa, you're hot...love the look)

Fun-Tana!

The lamp is cute, but you're cuter.

Just sayin'.

Can you say Cheese.......cake Factory?

So much more  fun was indulged in, but alas, the camera could not accompany me everywhere.

More later...

Summer...are you out there???

We (well, Stockton & I, anyway) have been joyfully anticipating our summer in Idaho...

...lazy days in the pond, hours of bouncing on the trampoline, frog-hunting, fort-building, picnics, camping, barbeques...you get the picture.

But Mother Nature decided to play a little trick on us.

A little bit of bait and switch, if you will.

We came home expecting this:

What we got was this:

Okay, okay, it wasn't quite this bad, but pretty darn close.

That whole global warming thing?

A lie.

Whoever believes in that nonsense has clearly never been to Idaho in the "summer".

But, alas, we're adapting.

Our Maui-thinned blood is thickening and we are hoping to replace our fleece and Uggs with more typical summer attire before we have to leave.

Speaking of adapting, we're also adopting.

Pets, that is.

These are our latest:

Meet Bambi and his sister.

After having the tree farm to themselves all winter, they're not quite sure what to make of us.
After engaging in a staring contest with us for a few minutes, they decided we weren't much of a threat and edged a bit closer onto the lawn.

The doe even had the nerve to chomp on my flowering crabapple trees. She was shooed away only to return about 15 minutes later for another snack.
 I'm not a fan of hers anymore.

Same evening, looking south over the tree farm.
Loved the sky.
And check out this rainbow that showed up a few minutes later.

And this is what I am hoping to find at the end of the rainbow...

Soon.
...

Summer?
I know you're out there...
please come to Idaho.

Just another little care package...

Senecca has moved off campus into a house, so I thought she might enjoy a few

things to set up her kitchen.

I just love the great new glasses that have patterns and textures shaped right into the glass.

This dish towel has an embroidered octopus on it.

I wish I had taken a picture of it unfolded.

 It is really cute. 

But you'll just have to take my word for it.

 

A particularly great issue of Food Network Magazine.

Of course I previewed it for appropriate content like any self-respecting mother would.

And what's a care package from mom without a little taste of home?

Oh yeah, baby, Idaho spuds all the way...

Favorite surf shots of the week...

All shots taken at Honolua Bay, Maui

Safety equipment not optional...

I've been meaning to post a blog entry about why I have been absent so long.
I mean, I know you're still admiring my amazing quilt top from my last post, but really...3 weeks?
Even I know it's not that cute.

So, here's my excuse:

(Viewer discretion advised.)

(I'm sorry if these made you gag.
They made me gag.
I would show you the roadrash on my fanny but then I think you would never read my blog again.)

So there you have it.
I broke my wrist...with a side of roadrash.
Which I think is a pretty darn good excuse for not blogging.
Ever tried to type with a broken wrist?
Not easy.

In case you're wondering, here's how it happened:
A couple Fridays ago I went out to try a new sport my family has taken up.
It's called carve boarding.
(And no, that's not me on the board, it's my uber-talented friend, Jenn, who also happens to be coordinated).
Unlike me.
So off us girls went (Jenn, Roxy, and I) to a paved road that is gated and has grass on both sides.
The perfect place to learn...or so I thought.
The road also has large stone light posts every 20 yards or so and if you get going to fast, which I did, and your board gets speed wobbles, which mine did, it quickly turns into a giant asphalt slalom hill.

I don't slalom.

But Jenn does.
And here's Ozzi below.
Again...coordinated.
(Unlike me.)

(In my defense, can you see how much the board rotates on its axles?
Take a closer look if you need to...)

The sport of carve boarding requires a few basic pieces of equipment:
 The board
Shoes
 (unless you're Alec, who does everything barefoot)
A hill
and if you're me,
Wristguards.
(A helmet might not be a bad idea either).

So for now, I have been banned from all carve boards and hills with lightposts, and I am the proud owner of one hot pink permanent (at least for 10 weeks) wristguard...er, cast.

I think the pink suits me.

Psssssst! I have a crush...

I've been wanting to make a quilt for a loooooong time.

Like about a year and a half.

A picnic blanket quilt actually, and I finally got around to working on it the other day.

I faked busy for the afternoon, pulled out my sewing supplies, and started in on it.

I must admit something first.

I sort of have this thing where I fall instantly, passionately, and head-over-heals in love with a fabric.

This love affair will consume me for a period of time, say, six months or a year, and then...

Poof!

One day, just as quickly as I fell in love with it, I fall out of love with it. 

And that's it.

I'm done.

I have no use for it anymore.

Wouldn't use it on a project if someone paid me in chocolate to do it.

Does anyone else have this problem?

 I figured I'd better get on it before my crush with Heather Bailey's Hello Roses in Olive grew as cold as yesterday's hot cocoa.

(Lest anyone reading this blog should think I am professing to be a real live quilter, all you have to do to is take a look at the intricate top of my quilt to see that I am a faker.)

But can I share my secret for completing a quilt top in an afternoon?

BIG BLOCKS.

BIG, FAT BLOCKS.

BIG, FAT, WONKY BLOCKS.

...sandwiched between two LARGE strips of the object of my affection.

And since I'm in the sharing mood, may I share my secret to quilting happiness?

Quilting outside.

Yes.

It's the latest thing.

I highly recommend it.

You should try it.

Just thought I'd share...

...a little something I made at Chicks in the Sticks when I was home in Idaho in January with my "chicks".  

A sweet little collage made out of a vintage postcard with the Hawaii Mormon temple on it.

Simple and easy.

I made it from the inside of a book-cover that I simply tore off an old book. 

I decoupaged a page from the book and a copy of the vintage postcard on the front.

Then I glued bias tape along the torn edge and punched holes for a ribbon hanger on either side.

The flowers are made from a kind of fabric called silk essence.

 I curled the edges of several circles of fabric by melting them over an open flame, then stacked them and sewed a couple of seed beads to the center to keep it all together.

Put a little hot glue on that baby and voila!

You're an artist.

Oh yes, and what exactly is Chicks in the Sticks, you ask?

Welllllllll...

Let's just say, it's an event that causes so much laughter that the attendees go through a box of Depends in a weekend.

Each. 

(More details coming soon.)