Things I Like to Take Pictures of ~ Leaves

I adore plants. I find them fascinating and stunning. Of course I love flowers as much as the next person, but there is so much beauty in the rest of the plant that often goes unnoticed. That's why I love taking pictures of leaves!

Mixbook

After my trip to Zion's Camp, I put the pictures together to make a book for my grandparents. Zion's Camp is a beautiful place where I have so many memories. Sadly, my grandparents are going to have to leave it in a couple of months, after about 30 years of being the caretakers of this small piece of heaven on earth. I made this book so that they can bring Zion's Camp with them wherever they go and always remember it's beauty.

My New Room

I'm so excited to have a new room and a new place to start working on my hobbies. My source of inspiration for most of them in the next little while will be my lovely room, which my wonderful sister was kind enough to paint for me last week while I was away.

Didn't it turn out magnificently? She used my favorite colors—pink and orange–plus a little green to match the kiddos' room across the hall. She even hung up some of my pictures, I just love it!

In my new room I'll be able to practice refurbishing, interior design, sewing, cleaning, organizing, quilting (you may notice that the colors also match my quilt, which I have not worked on since you last saw it, I need to get to work!). I'll keep you posted on my progress.

I'm back!

Back to blogging. Back to a routine. Back to sanity. Back to reality. Back to hobbies. Back to kiddos. Back to RENO!!

Today my big sis picked up me and the last of my stuff and I'm now officially living in Reno. I am so excited to be her nanny/housekeeper/chef/anything-and-everything-she-needs. It's a perfect situation all around—I get to play house, which I love, and she gets to focus on studying like crazy to get a Master's in math (I know, genius, right?). Starting today I'll have plenty of things to do and to post about, so get ready, here I come!

Hiatus

For some reason, Summer Break has never been like a vacation for me. My summers are always way busier than the school year. Sure there's not homework and sports and all that, but at least school is a routine and when you're done you get to just sit at home and relax. Summer for me is always fun, but there's not a moment of rest. With visiting family in UT, AZ, OR, NV, them visiting us, camps, trips—I'm just never home. I don't know how people have a summer job or take summer classes, I'm not in one place for long enough, never more than a week at a time. I get home, unpack, do laundry, and pack it all up again for the next trip. I've been pretty proud of myself for keeping this blog going for two whole weeks now, but now that's it's July Summer is really kicking into high gear. So just to let anyone who may happen to read this (aka Annalee) know, I can't promise any posts, at least not any good ones till Septemberish. I'll still try to write now and then, but hopefully in the Fall I'll really get going. Have a splendid Summer everyone!

Pink Toes, Red Dirt

As you may gather from my blog, I have many different hobbies and interests. There are many different sides to my personality, and sometimes they can be inconsistent. In most ways, I am a very traditional, feminine, girly-girl type. But at the same time, I can be pretty adventurous. I like animals, even creepy crawlies (I prefer reptiles to mammals any day), and I even love the great outdoors (when it's not too hot). When I do go on adventures though, it often clashes with my girly-girl clothes—you can often find me climbing a tree or splashing though a river in a pink dress. Yesterday I headed up to Zion's Camp, a campground that my grandparents have been the caretakers of for most of my life, to take some pictures because they'll soon be leaving it. And because it's gorgeous. I put on my sparkly flip flops, filled my purse with water and a walkie-talkie, and clipped on an Off fan (works pretty well by the way), and headed off into the forest. No matter how many times I climb through blackberry bushes in shorts, a t-shirt, and open-toed shoes, I can never seem to remember that it's not such a great idea. It was a fun day out in the peaceful beauty of nature, and I even found a couple of very cooperative butterflies.

Diego

After I made the Dora cake for my niece, my nephew of course wanted a cake for his birthday. His special order was "Diego rescuing a bug that's in trouble." I didn't quite go all out, but this time I focused on the title character. He's a little short and stumpy, but I was pretty happy with how he turned out, especially since he's only my third shot at fondant work. I especially love how the hair turned out. And the kids loved him, that's what matters!