8/31/10

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!)

8/30/10

8/26/10

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!

8/23/10

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?

8/22/10

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!

8/21/10

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.

8/20/10

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

8/19/10

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.

8/6/10

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.

8/5/10

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.

8/4/10

On to plan B

So after
my cool friend Jen
and I
got into the Park Silly Art Market
we realized that it cost $170

This is not for the season but by the day.

Now we are pretty cool gals,
but we are new to this,
and as newbies we might not be $170
cool.

So we moved on to plan B.

Plan B involves the Ogden Historic Farmers Market
Which has a very cool and funky vibe,
and is much more laid back,
which is much more our style!

So here we go,
The plan is we'll be there Saturday,
in all our crafty glory!

I am
TERRIFIED!
and
very,
very,
very,
excited!

8/2/10

Purses by Jen

These fabulous purses are made my by very cool friend Jen, and she is even cool enough to try selling her stuff at the farmers markets this week.

8/1/10

Get Your Golf On

So last week Todd and I went to the Art 337artist designed miniature golf exhibit.
The best part about this activity, it's free!
Check out the info here

There are 18 holes, each one designed by a different artist.
They had all kinds of different holes.
This one played Donkey Cong when you got the ball in the hole!