Next Years Festival Tree....

Will hopefully be a quite cool variation on this.

Two More To Go!

Because I am a crazy lady I decided to try a read 100 books this year. 

I started out simple

Only planning to read a book a week

For a grand total of 52.

Simple

Right?

Then I finished early in August.

And I thought the year is only about half over,

And now that I have discovered audio books,

It wouldn’t be that hard to just hit 100

Right?

Like I said crazy lady.

It has become a compulsion.

There are books piled all over my life.

In my car, night stand, desk at work, toilet tank, etc.

My poor husband is neglected.

But I’m only two away,

Cant quit now

Right?

Festival of Trees, a wee bit late

Hey I have an Idea!

Let's take about a thousand women,
Line them up outside in the freezing cold on Black Friday.
Wait until the store SHOULD be opening.
Then step outside and lecture them all on how to buy fabric.
(I'm here at 6:00 am with a bunch of crazy ladies, fabric crazy ladies, We know how it works,)
Now arm them all with free scissors.

Maybe it's because I work in a treatment center and have compulsive tendencies when it comes to scissors but it blows my mind that no one got hurt.

I’ll admit it….

(Thanks, Jen for the Blog Inspiration)


Sometimes I go days without eating a piece of fruit or a vegetable. My eating habits have a lot more in common with my 3 year old niece that I want to admit.



I dislike teachers who show movies, I think that it is lazy and uncreative. I have shown 1 movie in the past 2 years and I thought long and hard about it first then felt guilty the whole time.



I keep track of weird things and I’m really motivated by numbers or keeping score. Like counting the number of books I read in a week or the number of steps I take. Assigning numbers to things is the best way for me to get things done. Sometimes I get anxious when I don’t reach the goal I have set for myself, even when I know it is unrealistic. (Yes I’m aware that there are words for the people who do this.)



There have been times in my life when I actually compared the rent late fee and overdraft check fee and picked which one is less. I love not having to do that anymore.



I watch a lot of T.V. Every time I hear my parents complaining about how much T.V. my little brother watches I think, hum… I watch a lot more than that. And I spend all week looking forward to Sunday Night because that is when the best T.V. shows are on.



I am afraid that I do not give Todd enough credit for how great he is.



I can make cooking really complicated when it is not. Todd says it’s because I try to multi-task when I should be focusing. He is right.



I almost always do my homework on Sunday night. Class is on Monday Night. It is always stressful and I always regret it, but don’t do a lot to change it.



I wish I wore more fun and funky clothing but am scared to try it, that it won’t fit with how other people see me or that I will look silly.



I don’t know how to say no. Like telling my boss, “Sure I’ll make a Dorothy from Wizard of Oz costume for your dog” Sometimes I hear myself agreeing to do something that I do not have the time, energy, or desire to make work because I don’t want to let other people down. In my mind I hear myself ask why in the hell I’m agreeing or offering to do ______________, when I know I have already over committed myself. I keep going anyway.



It took a really long time for the sound of ambulance sirens to not bother me. For years all I could think about when I heard them was somebody’s daughter, father, spouse it getting “that” phone call right now. I hated getting “that” phone call. Now I feel guilty that it no longer crosses my mind.



Like Jen, I thought I would be further in life by now. Done with more school, have kids, own a house, all that stuff.



There is a student at my second job who thinks I hate her. I don’t but she is super annoying and I don’t want her to sign up for my class so I don’t go out of my way to be nice to her like I usually do with struggling kids.



I learn the best things from my students. I often catch myself doing something I would never let my students do and then change my behavior.



I secretly want to own a convertible, light blue, V.W. bug.

What I did this weekend

I sold some of my stuff here.

 It was the first time I did a show, it was kind of fun, I learned a lot and got a bit addicted.
I already have plans for what I want to do different next time and new things I want to add!

Labeled

Today one of my students said to me....

"You know Miss Amy, youz pretty gangster for a white bitch."

I can't decide if I'm insulted or flattered.

Talented People part III

My fiend Jen is part of talented people part three. 

She is the one who is willing to get up early on saturday morning and haul all our crap out to the farmers market.  She makes very cool purses and you can check them out here.

She has been so motivating as we try our little bussiness venture.  It has been so nice to have a partner and she is so easy going and brings her with her joy.  Working with her has been a breeze!

She is a theripist at Cottonwood and her website is apptly named...

Here are just a few of my favorites!

She even does custom orders, check her out.

How to get that amazing soup from my last post

So my little sister Emily, who is amazing because she spent like three hours pulling my hair through one of those stupid do it yourself dye kits this week and didn't complain once, read my last blog post about soup and today she made it.

Tonight I got to eat really, really, good soup just because I have two really great sisters, how lucky am I?

So now I can tell you that the soup not only looks amazing it really is amazing, and I usually hate soup.

Sometimes I 'm just amazed that we all come from the same family because I am hopeless in the kitchen and I don't know how to play the piano and both by sisters do.  How does that happen?


Emily, just so you know, you are a rock star!

Yummy, Talented People Part II

So talented people part II will feature my cute sister Hilary and her tasty food blog. Here is hoping that this inspires her to add new stuff.

Cuz I've been thinking about making this soup for an embarrassingly long time.

Surround Yourself With Talented People

I never cease to be amazed by the number of creative and talented people out there.  I happen to be lucky enough to know many.  So I’m going to give each of them a little shout out here!

 I’ll start with my friend Sheena based on the fact that I am simply amazed by the sheer amount of knowledge she has placed on her blog. 

Her blog is called Natural Bliss.  It has tons of information on natural healing, aroma therapy, foot zoning and general health knowledge.   Check it out!

August in Review

So for me any way August was a record breaking month.


I did my first craft fair, so I made a record amount of money, even if I made no money.

(I did a little bit better than that)



I read a record number of books, at eight, that's two per week.



I also posted the highest number of posts on my blog since I started.



No truly major of life altering accomplishments, but sometimes I get a kick out of the little things.

Life is made up of the little things.

That Mess Part II

So here is our little golf course.

My class did Vegas, Can you tell?

After you got to the top of the ramp your ball went down a water slide and into a pool of water filled with fish!  There was a little island floating in the middle you had to land in!

If you landed in one of the holes you rolled back to the start, how clever are my students I ask you?

This one had like 20 different routes for the ball to take.

Your Ball even had to bounce into a couple of them.

This one was so detailed, they put furniture inside the church, and the whole thing lit up!  With Stainglass windows and Music.  As usual my photo skills do not do this justice!

This foutain had water and smoke running through it!

Did I mention the stained glass?

Here was one by my cute FASD kids

This one was Alice in Wonderland

Over all I think the kids had fun, and it's kind of fun to show you some of the stuff that I actually do all day.

(No, it is not usually this fun, not even close!)

What is the Hot Mess you say?

Wh

What is that white hot mess you say?

Why that is my classroom of course.

It is innercession week.
Which means I am teaching somthing fun more than somthing pratical.

Do you remember my post about the artist golf course?
Well we took the students.
(They had a ball)

And now we are in the process of making one of your own.
Details to follow!

Hey Grandma......

And Aunt Angela of course!
I just went in and updated my blog to include posts by people who don't have blogs.
I'm hoping that this means you guys can now comment here too!
Try it out, will ya?

How to Make Killer Plum Jam

Start with relatives that have 100 year old plum trees in their backyard.
Or you can do what I did and marry into a family that has 100 year old plum trees.

After picking a ton of purple plums decide instead to hop a fence,
cross the neighbors yard,
and slide down a hill covered in poky, scratchy, evil bushes
while clinging desperately to the wild plum tree

that your husband and father-in-law call a Potawatomi Plum.
(Which really do taste amazing)

By the way, this must be done in shorts and flip flops,
Your favorite, slightly dressy ones that feel less grubby than
the cheap plastic ones you got on sale last summer.

Now, still clinging to that tree, pull off as many plumbs as you can
which you will place in a cheap plastic grocery sack.
This sack will break on you two or three times spilling your plums
irretrievably into the poky, scratchy, evil bushes your are balancing on precariously
Do not get a new methoid of carrying your plums despite this on going failure
frustration is part of the process,
as are the squished plums that are now making the ground beneath you
sticky and dangerously slippery.

When you have 4-5 half filled second hand grocery sacks
Feel free to fall the rest of the way down the hill of poky, scratchy, evil bushes on your butt
plums in hand.

When you finish your legs should look like this.....

Give half of your plums to your in-laws and head home.
Separate out the good plums from the bad and research recipes online.
Decide that the idea of pitting and peeling plums sucks,
dump the plums (3 1/2 pounds) into a pot with 1/2 cup of apple juice, a teaspoon of cinnamon and boil.

Next smash the whole hot mess through a stainer until you have yummy pulp.
Next mix in sugar at a rate of 6 cups of pulpy mess to 8 cups of sugar.
Place the surgery mash back on the stove to boil.
Re-read the recipe on the the back on the sure-jell box and use for favorite curse words to express your feelings that you should have added the sure-jell before the sugar and their is nothing you can do about it.

Throw the sure-jell in any way, what the hell.  You spent way too much time smashing crap through a strainer to throw it all in the trash, worst case scenario you can call whole mess syrup right?

Finish cooking and processing the jam as directed on the package, even though you have never "processed" jam by pouring it into a boiled jar, screwing on the lid, and flipping the whole thing over for 5 minutes.  ( it works by the way, who knew?)

Hope for the best, plan to make waffles.

Check out the stuff the next day.  Be stunned and amazed that the whole thing worked.
Hold it up to the light and admire the color, take pictures and feel like they do not do things jusitice.

Bag the plans to make waffles, you are a jam making rock star!

Craft Lake City

So the original plan for the summer craft fair booth thing, was to be in Craft Lake City
Which long story short, didn't happen.
Here is hoping for next year.

But it didn't stop me from going,
with some cool, crafty girls, I might add.

And I scored great stuff, really great stuff.
So I am sharing.

I love this sweet little neckless.

This wooden cuff is fantastic, and the picture does not do the colors justice.

This funky and fun bookmark.

And finally, this amazing soap that makes me wish my blog had a smell feature, cuz it smells amazing.

Ode to the Brothers Crumb

Oh brothers crumb, how do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.

You arise on Saturday mornings,
before the dawn turns over in it's bed,
to make me tasty bread,

And schlep it all the way down from Logan
so that I simply have to zip down to Salt Lake
to the Saturday farmers market
to enjoy the tasty country sourdough goodness.

Crunchy, crisp crust tears apart to revel your
doughy goodness.
I can eat you whole,
all by myself,
devour your tangy goodness,
with a slice of cheese,
or toasted and topped with scrambled eggs,
or perhaps I will brush you across olive oil and balsamic with a pinch of pepper.

and that is to speak nothing of your goat bar,
which truly requires a post of it's own

but oh, my brothers crumb, how I love you.
For above all you bring to my week,
pure
and
simple
JOY

We did it!

We finally did it, we got our booth up and going at the Ogden Farmers Market.

My best seller was definitely the baby shoes, I love the baby shoes.

Here are a few of my other goodies.

A Magical Age....

Setting: The kitchen, evening, Aaron is making no bake cookies, Emily is getting Maddie (age 5) and Ashlynn (age 3) ready for bed.  Amy and Todd are bumbling around making a late dinner and cleaning up.

Maddie: Dad what are you doing?

Aaron: Making cookies, if you hurry up and get ready for bed you can have one in the morning.

Maddie: Ahhh man, I want a cookie now.

Aunt Amy: You know if you don't go to bed soon the No-Bake Fairy will come and eat all the no bake cookies and then there wont be any left in the morning.  She is always watching for little girls who don't go to bed when they are suppose to and then she comes to eat their cookies.

Maddie wide eyed and jaw dropped runs down the hallway to where her mother is brushing Ashlynn's teeth. She turns to her mother demanding her vitamin.

Maddie: Hurry up mom, I have to get into bed or the No-Bake Fairy is going to come and eat all the cookies and their won't be any left.  Mom! I NEED MY VITAMIN NOW!  MOOOOOOOOOM!

Emily: Maddie, there is no such thing as a No-Bake Fairy, Aunt Amy is lying to you.  Now let me finish brushing Ashlynn's teeth.

Maddie returns to the kitchen, hands on hips and exasperation on her face.


Maddie: My mom says there is no such thing as a No-Bake Fairy, she says you are LYING!

Aunt Amy: Maddie, who is older Mommy or Aunt Amy?

Maddie: You are.

Aunt Amy: Maybe mommy is too little to remember the No-Bake Fairy.  Maybe Mommy never met her.


Maddie stands, hands still on hips and a confused expression on her face. Not knowing what to do she waits.

Aunt Amy: And maybe, just maybe, Aunt Amy, is a lair who just really really likes to tease, you never know.  Here is your vitamin, now go to bed.

What can I say?

I don't even know where to begin, but it was definitely an experience.

The Gigiel Garden is one of the most interesting touristy things to do in Salt Lake that no local has ever heard of.

Some of it is very cool.

Despite the hundreds of scriptures carved in stone through out the garden, I have no idea what many of these are about.

Like these internal organs....

Or the artist's self portrait with brick pants.

But the Joseph Smith Sphinx is without a doubt the most famous.

Either way, it is without question an interesting way to kill and hour.