Beautiful

This cake is gorgeous, so I had to share. As an added bonus, it's grapefruit flavor. Yum.

Found via tastespotting.

Long Weekend

Don't you love long weekends? I got to go shopping with Stacey on Saturday. Picked up one of these for the front room.

I also made two of these for my mother-in-law's birthday, and with raspberry, blueberry, strawberry and lemon topping choices. Delicious.

Cool things in the Pacific North West.

It's still a few days away, but my sister's having a birthday, and I was fortunate enough to go on a whirl-wind visit to see her and her beautiful little family. I made her some earrings.

I also went to Seattle, and got to visit Pike's Place Market and dodge the flying fish.


And for those of you who know me in real life, yes, I cut my hair...at Easter. I really kept meaning to post about it, but...you know...didn't. For those of you who don't know me in real life (or just haven't seen me in a really long time) Here's what it looked like when it was 9 inches longer.

Look What Popped Up in my Backyard!

I think it's a tiny little Morel mushroom. No, I didn't eat it. You can never be too safe with mushrooms. Ugly little bugger, too.

8 Is Great!

8 things I’m passionate about

1. My Rock-Star Husband - It's true. We're madly in love.
2. My fairly large family - they are the reason I am who I am. And I like who I am, so thanks guys.
3. Traveling - to anywhere I've never been before, and even to places I have been.
4. Learning - mostly about anything. Math, not my strong point, but under the right circumstances, even that can be interesting to me.
5. Art - It's what I got my degree in, so let's hope I'm passionate about it!
6. Creating - again, this one's pretty much anything. Just look at my past posts.
7. Bacon. 'Nuf said.
8. Music - I mean, I did marry a rock star.

8 Songs I can listen to over and over again and never get sick of

1. When the Levee Breaks, Led Zepplin
2. Stop this Train, John Mayer
3. Take Your Mama, Scissor Sisters
4. The Sweetest Thing, U2
5. Hide Your Love Away, The Beatles
6. Fly By Night, Rush
7. Lie In Our Graves, Dave Matthews Band
8. Every Little Thing, The Police

8 books I’ve read

1. The Book of Mormon
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Persuasion
5. The Count of Monte Cristo
6. Emma
7. Uh....
8. I'm not much of a reader. More of a wait-for-the-movie person. Please don't judge me too harshly.


8 Things I say often
(I have this bad habit of quoting movies...a lot...so most of these are movie quotes)

1. "Hey...Cutie..."
2. Don't worry 'bout it.
3. "It's pretty good, I guess."
4. "Like you didn't know"
5. I need a treat.
6. "That is because you are crazy"
7. "Big gulps, huh? Alright"
8. Babe, I'm all out of beverage...


8 Things that attract me to a friend

1. They're funny - I'm the youngest child, which makes me the funniest, so I expect my friends to be funny too.
2. They think I'm funny - Who do you think I'm cracking all these jokes for, myself? Okay, so maybe I do laugh at my own jokes, but you should too.
3. Honesty - You know where liars go, right?
4. Chatty - I'm actually not very talkative..and I'm a little bit lazy, so it's good if one of us can carry most of the conversation.
5. Common Interests - If I am going to listen to you (See #4) , I might as well find it interesting.
6. Laid Back - If you're stressed out, that'll throw off my groove. Simmer.
7. Uh...
8. I'm pretty laid back, so I only have six criteria for friendship as opposed to the general populous average of eight.


8 Random things about me

1. I have a twin brother. And no, we are not identical. And yes, I've been asked that on more than one occasion.
2. I have a secret love of junk food. Mac n' Cheese, grape soda, corn dogs, Cheetos, Slim-Jims (even my husband doesn't eat those), and Totino's Party Pizza is my frozen pizza of choice. Yes, I would actually pick it over any other frozen pizza, given the option. Gross, I know, but I just can't help myself. But....
3. I also really love health-nut food. Granola is my favorite cereal, I only drink soymilk, and my all time favorite food is fresh raspberries.
4. I'm rather flexible. I'm talking Gumby, flexible. I tend to forget that other people aren't that flexible until I do something I regard as rather un-remarkable in front of others and they let me know that, no, not everyone can fold their body in half four different ways.
5. I know the difference between single coils and humbuckers. My rockstar husband likes to talk about guitar/recording equipment...a lot (again, see #4 under "8 Things that attract me to a friend").
6. I'm horribly forgetful. If you ask me when my husband's birthday is, I have to stop and think about it. And we're not exactly newlyweds.
7. I'm the proud owner of six guitars...oh, wait...this is supposed to be about me.
8. I never had a job of any kind (other than baby-sitting) until I was a sophmore in college. But I sure had a lot of fun in high school.


8 Things I want to do before I die

1. Visit every continent (yes, I'm including Antarctica in this one).
2. Be a stay-at-home mom.
3. Own a raspberry bush.
4. Learn silver and/or gold smithing.
5. Own a Pygmy goat.
6. Take a pottery class.
7. Add a humbucker to that sweet guitar collection of mine...oh wait...
8. Finish this survey.


The 8 People I want to do the 8’s

1. This was a long one...
2. So I will make no mandates...
3. If you feel so inclined...
4. Go for it...
5. Otherwise...
6. Don't feel bad...
7. I even took an entire section out...
8. Like I said, it's long.

She's Crafty!

Come one, come all to the first ever monthy Craft Night, this Wednesday at 7:00pm in Provo. This month we are making throw pillow covers at Karla's House. Check out her blog for details and to sign up!

Image found here.

Spotting Something Tasty

Tastespotting has drawn me in way more than the Food Network ever did, and that's saying a lot. Just ask Brian. I pretty much can't process him talking to me when I'm watching food network. "I'm sorry babe, I wasn't listening. Tyler's making his ultimate homemade chocolate pudding." And on tastespotting there's a gazillion new recipes every day. Here's a tasty sounding recipe I found the other day. Goodness knows I love me some good chicken wings. And who doesn't love mango and lime. Well, Brian doesn't love mango, but he likes it. He just thinks it has a funny aftertaste. I used to think that too, but then I got over it, because it's pretty delicious anyway. I'll let you know if I try this one out.

Monet to Picasso

I'm interested in this exhibit...maybe this would be a good birthday present. You know, if any of you were trying to figure out what to get me...

Give-Away: Numero Uno

I've finished my first item for the "Pay it Forward Give-Away". The recipient is the lovely Ms. Cannon. I've known Mandy my whole life. Literally. We've spent many Christmases, summers, Thanksgivings, and every day's together. She's essentially family, so I was more than happy to make her a little something. Especially because she's leaving us for the sunnier sky's of AZ at the end of this month! Keeping her classic, simple sense of style in mind, this is what I came up with.



When I showed it to Brian he said, "That'll go good with her red hair". Have I got this guy well trained, or what? The pendant is apple turquoise, and the chain is topaz and rock crystal. Love ya, Mand! And Stacey, you're next!

Almost as Contrary as Mary

Guess what got planted in my backyard this weekend?!

It's only my favorite flower ever! We also found some awesomely-hot hot pink and orange poppies. Couldn't pass these up.

And our little home-improvement project in the back yard was mounting some flower boxes on the fence. Sorry I don't have a great picture of them because of where the sun was at the time, but you get the idea. And Brian's happy to show them off to anyone who wants to come visit us in real-life (not just blog-life). I'm pretty excited for the end of the season when they'll be full and overflowing with petunias. Last, but not least, a water fountain for ambiance (it's nice to have some white noise when you basically share a fence with 30 families!). The pineapple flourishes are for you, Mom!
We also planted a little "salsa garden" with tomatoes, all kinds of peppers, and cucumbers.