shop hop all your troubles away

every year, a group of quilt shops across the wasatch front hosts a "shop hop." thirteen shops
participate each year, decorating to fit a theme. last year, i somehow completely missed it and was really bummed. so this time, we were prepared.

mom, berg and i planned to hit up a few of the shops, this year coordinating around a game theme. berg and i drove home on thursday afternoon, and as we were getting in the car to head back down lehi way for the first shop, mom said, should we just try to go to all the shops? if you go to all 13, stamping your passport at each, you are entered to win some awesome prizes. since i don't technically know how to sew, i was hoping to win the grand prize, a sewing machine. because i know that if i had a sewing machine to call my own, i would actually learn to sew :)

so we embarked on a two day journey toward shop hop domination. even though i don't actually know how to quilt, i decided to buy fabric to make a quilt anyway.

you can't tell super well from the picture, but the color palette started as navy with some accents (orange, coral, green, teal). i noticed early on that i was picking up a lot of floral prints. story of my life! (one of my friends always points out when i am wearing something floral...which turned out to be almost every day. i'm wearing floral jeans as i type this. i just really like flowers, okay?!) anyway, i love all these fabrics, but there are some that i am obsessed with.

and there was one fat quarter that berg picked up early on that i was kicking myself for not getting. luckily, i found it at quilter's haven in bountiful, our last shop hop stop.

i can never resist a good rainbow.

the first day, we went to 10 quilt shops in about 6 hours. it was amazing. we drove from salt lake to lehi all the way down to springville and back again, stopping in orem, draper, midvale, cottonwood heights, sandy, and sugarhouse. favorite shops (meaning most dedicated to theme and/or best food): quilts, quilts, quilts (where's waldo), elaine's quilt block (ticket to ride), corn wagon quilts (monopoly), and pine needles (twister, but mostly just because i really like pine needles). 

the next morning, we met up with connie, dad's aunt, who is a major quilter, and headed up to brigham city. connie was talking to us about the day before, and when we said that we had been collecting fabrics for quilts we wanted to make, she asked how much we sewed. berg and i were both like, um, never now. but we are determined to learn. we played go fish in brigham, had fun at my girlfriend's quilt shoppe in logan, ate some lunch at the historic bluebird cafe, and then headed back down the mountain. after dropping connie off, we finished back home in bountiful. 

it was a very busy two days, but it was a ton of fun. we saw a million cute things that made me want to be the cute crafty homemaker that my mom is. 

and, best thing! i got a call last week saying i had won a prize. sadly, it wasn't the sewing machine. guess i'll have to shell out for that at some point, especially if i want this awesome quilt to get made.

my prize bag: a couple quilt books, some patterns, a bundle of fabric comprised mostly of doctor/nurse prints, some other squares that are kinda cute, and some kleenex. 

plus, the shop hop got me back into embroidery. 

that little flower one in the top right is my own design :) and please pardon the wrinkliness. now i just need to finish these babies with some fabric. anybody willing to teach me how to sew/buy me a sewing machine?

delightful weekend: part two (swiss days)

i have memories of swiss days going back to when i was a little girl. they always include aunt liz and mom, which is kind of funny. i remember them talking about swiss days as if it were a sacred event.

i've gotten some blank stares as i have told people that i went to swiss days this weekend, so i'll tell you a little bit about what it is. in midway, utah, just west of heber city, there is a big celebration every labor day weekend. this started as a celebration of the harvest back in the 1940s, but now it's a pretty big deal. people come from all over to eat swiss tacos, listen to the entertainment (we were regaled by yodelers), and, most importantly, peruse the wares that various vendors sell at the fair. maybe some people go to swiss days for other legitimate reasons, like to celebrate their swiss heritage. i go to look at all the cute and sometimes weird stuff. the vendors set up tents through the midway town square, and for those two days, the town square is packed with potential buyers.

as i've gotten older, i've come to appreciate swiss days on my own. it's fun to see all the different little shops and hopefully find something cool to buy. i didn't think i was going to get to go this year, so i'm glad mom decided she would come down so we could go together.

interesting/cool things i saw at swiss days:

• one shop selling signs made of cut up license plates and another selling "humorous clocks." clearly, these are niche markets.

• three grown women dressed as witches. apparently it was for the parade?

• knockoff bubble necklaces. gotta get me one of those.

• a million kids with these foam bows and arrows. these were the big seller, presumably because of the recent coolness of archery. (katniss and the u.s. men's archery team would be proud.)

• things i could most definitely make myself and am therefore not willing to shell out 20 bucks for. if i want to mod podge a piece of decorative paper with a cute saying on it onto a wood block, i think i can handle doing that on my own.

we ate a yummy swiss taco (well, yummy once i picked off all the onions...), and i ended up buying two adorable pairs of button earrings. i can make and will be making these on my own, but the fabrics were too cute to pass up.

 aren't they awesome? i realize that the pictures are not totally compatible, but there you go.

mom bought a new collar for the dog, a tie for carter, a pair of earrings, a necklace, and patterns for some fun pincushions. a successful shopping day all in all.

when we were ready to be done wandering around the square, jayne was kind enough to let us chill at her house, which is close to the action but removed enough that we weren't annoyed at everyone. it was from jayne's porch swing that we watched the rainstorm that plagued the people who were still out examining the swiss days goods.

it was a great afternoon. i've been wearing my earrings for four days straight. i'm glad we got to go, mom!

happy first day of spring!

it is officially spring, officially the time when winter should be over and making way for warmer weather and beautiful blooms and singing birds. spring weather is peeking through today in provo, so i am hopeful that it will make more of an appearance in the days to come.

happy spring!

thought of the day

it's amazing how some unexpected surprise can turn your whole day around. my day wasn't even going badly, but it's like a million bajillion times better now.

i was going to try and make some deep and insightful connection, but sometimes that just feels pretentious, you know?

but i will say this (about my day, not necessarily about how surprises are awesome): i am so grateful for awesome students. i love teaching anyway, but it's so much more fun when the students are eager to learn and fun to be around.

hopefully i didn't just jinx myself by saying that.

and, i'm kind of digging the random summer thunderstorm happening right now.

happy wednesday. have some flowers :)

i'm seeing a pattern

so, i recently joined this fairly new site, pinterest. i'm not sure how to describe it except as a style and idea clipboard. you "pin" the pictures and ideas you like into "pinboards" for different categories. like i have one for a future wedding and one for things that depict my style right now. i guess pinterest is just a place to keep all your inspiration together and to find more cool things. i also have boards for future art projects and yummy-looking things to try sometime.
anyway. i've realized that there are some things that i'm definitely obsessed with, because every time i see them i either pin them or think, ooh, that is so great. i love it.
for example:

florals

purple

sparkles

 

     black and white

teal

grey and yellow

lanterns/umbrellas

peonies/ranunculus

damask and toile

 if only i could actually have all of this stuff instead of just looking at it longingly. like i said, people put up a bunch of recipes and craft projects on pinterest, though, so i am getting some practical use out of it. i think tonight i'm going to make a chick-fil-a chicken tenders using a recipe i pinned to my "make it" board. and, i guess even if i can't have all of these amazing things, at least i can identify what i like and what i don't. then, maybe someday.

tulips are kind of my favorite

so every year around this time i freak out and insist on going to one of the places where i can see and then photograph beautiful tulips. i used to work on temple square, so i know how gorgeous the temple square tulips are the last couple weeks of april and the beginning of may. they are only out for so long because there is no way temple square is going to display wilting tulips. luckily i went this year before they were gone.

seriously, i love them so much. i made bergen go with me while i just walked around trying to be artsy and mooning over the flowers. i want to either get married or take all the associated pictures around this time of year so i can have tulips and daffodils in them.

without further ado, here are some of the pictures i took last saturday at temple square. it's one of the little things i love about life here in utah and one of the highlights of my year. nothing quite compares to the beauty of thousands and thousands of perfect tulips surrounding my favorite temple.