Halloween Fun!

We had a fun filled Halloween, how about you? Kaitlyn and McKinley came up from Levan and Kira and the kids came over from Santaquin as soon as Hatch was done with school. We decided to go to lunch at the Pizza Factory here in town. It's always fun to go somewhere to eat on Halloween and see all the fun costumes the employees come up with. Hatch thought it would be a good idea that we invite Grandpa for lunch, we don't get to do this very often so it was fun to have him there too. The kids looked so cute in their costumes. Beware it's picture overload on this post.Grandpa, Thanye the pony and Karas the Can-Can dancer.
Kira and Sheriff Hatch

Little Miss M as a Ladybug and KaitlynThanye is such a happy little guy, you just start to talk to him and he lights up.

These are some pretty cute grandkids if you ask me!

Now this was a little challenging trying to get everyone to look at the camera and smile! What a fun time for the kids, they had so many treats they didn't know where to start first.

This is the Whitehouse T.P. Pumpkin Patch, this is what I made for a few little special Trick or Treaters that came our way! They are made on a roll of toilet paper and covered with a fabric fat quarter stuffed inside the roll, then I added a couple of leaves and went outside and gathered some twigs for the stems.

This is what it said on the tag attacted to the pumpkin:This is a picture is of some of the yummy treats brought to us, we didn't even have to go trick or treating for these yummy things! Homemade Oreo cookies with orange filling from Chelsey and Cole and the kids, and Pam & Doc brought us the witch's caldrin of hot chocolate, it turns orange as you stir it. What such fun treats.

Kira has been saving formula cans, and look what she did with them. She's so clever, she used all her Stampin' Up items and decorated them and filled them with caramel popcorn. Yummy, since I didn't get mine made like I wanted to last weekend, this was a real treat for me.This is our neice Chelsey's cute little kids, Quaid and Ainsley. I look forward to these kids coming trick or treating every year. Ainsley has the cutest little voice and is just full of vim and vigor. She's all about pink, so this Princess Minnie was just up her alley.

It wouldn't be Halloween without a good old fashioned sugar cookie. I've been making sugar cookies every year since I've been married. The girl's wouldn't know what do if I didn't have a sugar cookie for them, so I got up this morning and got them done so we could go play later in the day. I don't really decorate them to fancy, just sprinkles, a few with funny faces with what's in the cupboard, chocolate chips, candy corn, M&M's, etc.

These are the softest sugar cookies I have ever tasted, I'll leave the recipe at the end of my post. I hope your Halloween was as fun and enjoyable as ours and your kids are not on to much of a sugar high.

Sugar Cookies

Cream together:

2 Cups sugar

1 Cup shortening

Add, 4 eggs

6 Cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

1 Cup sour cream

1 Tbls. vanilla

1 Cup powdered milk

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

Mix all together and refrigerate for 1 hour or

more. Roll out on floured surface and cut out

into desired shape. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

From our house to yours, we hope you have a safe and fun Halloween. Love, Shannon & Stuart

Package delivered

These are the fun items that I sent to Theresa, my partner in the Fall Favorite Things swap, I can blog about it now because she received her package on Wednesday. Take a look at what I sent. Both me and Theresa have a few of the same favorite things. This was alot of fun, I know Kira did it to, I wonder if she's gotten her package yet. Her partner is one lucky lady, Kira has gone to alot of work for her's, well I'll just say this, it's darling! I sent: A homemade tablerunner, cause I like to sew and decorate for fall.
Apple cider reed difuser, I like a home filled with the aroma's of fall.
Pumpkin Cookie Recipe and the ingredients to make them, this was the 1-2-3- easy one.
This is one of my favorite fall recipes, because it's so simple to make.
A oven mitt and hot pad, to help with the baking.
A cute little bowl for her finished cookies.
A few things I got at the boutique like the homemade caramels, the pumpkin spice soap,
lip balm, and cider mix. The 3 stacked wood block set reminding us of the bountiful
season that is upon us.
A country living magazine, because this is my favorite magazine for fall. She can curl up
with it while sipping cider and eating cookies.
I hope Theresa is enjoying her package, I really had a good time putting this one together. It was something different from the other swaps I've participated in. Thanks to Laura for putting it together.

A Mom has bragging rights!!

Check out what rolled into Spanish Fork Saturday night, he must be somebody important by the look of the truck and trailer he's pulling. Well to me he is, Jacob was in Salt Lake over the weekend to a snowmobile show and he was pulling all the gear, a four wheeler and a $25,000 snowmobile (What!). That's alot of money he's hauling around. It was good to have him home even if it was just for overnight. We got some visiting in and he stayed and enjoyed Sunday lunch with us. He loves Idaho and the work he his doing, where else could he work and get payed to play. No really he does a really good job writing for these 3 magazines.

Getting ready to leave home, it's always hard on me when the kids leave. I want them to be safe when traveling, so I tell him to call me when he gets home and most of the times he does. What a relief it is to me when I get that phone call saying he's made it into the valley he now calls home.

These are the magazines that Jacob writes for, the article Room for the Horses, was written by Jacob and was about his own obsessions with diesel trucks. This was his first article. Jacob is now an Editorial Assistant at Harris Publishing in Idaho. These magazines aren't quite like my quilting magazines but I have a little collection of my very own that I pull out to show to people just so I can brag a little. A mother can do that right? He always bring home the lastest issue before it goes out in the mail, and yes I do read them, but just his work. I can't understand them buy I give it a try!

In the Diesel Tech Magazine Jacob has his very own column and he has titled it Blowin Smoke. He writes about a small subject for every issue, I think I already know what the next one will be about. On the way home Sunday, Stuart got a text picture of Jacob's truck, he had had a tire blow out just out of Salt Lake. Now you know why this Mother worries! Anyway he got it changed and back on his way hauling all that important stuff, like the gear, the snowmobile, but the most important in the truck, Jacob. I love this boy and miss him alot.

Remembering Mom

How do I start today's post? Today is the 2nd anniversary of my Mom's death. These kind of days aren't always the happiest for me until I see all the happy reminders around me. I have plenty of memories stowed away in my memory bank and so many more material things that I have of my mom. Somedays are harder than others, but I'm getting through them knowing her and Dad are together just like they always were. I thank my mom for eveything I am today. Where would I have been now if it weren't for her and her good up bringing. Mom was home everyday after school, she never had to work outside the home. Oh how I loved coming home to homemade cookies or a pot of homemade chili on a cool fall friday afternoon with a slice of Wil's fresh bakery bread. I can still see her doing her needlework in the same spot on the couch ( maybe that's why I always have a needle in hand), I miss the smell of her Estee Lauder perfume, and her friday afternoon phone calls just after she's been to Nadine's to get her hair done. I could go on and on forever. Thanks Mom for making life so wonderful for me, I'll cherish the memories we made together forever. Love you. Here are just a few pictures of my special mom.For Christmas 2005, I got all my dad's shirts and jeans and made little wall quilts for my mom, brothers and sisters. What a Christmas to remember, who would of thought it would be the last one with mom.

Mom loved to attend the Fiesta Days Rodeo every year, the kids loved to watch as she would get so excited at the bucking bulls, you would of thought she was the one riding!

The floweres at the funeral were all so pretty. Luckily the weather held out so they lasted a little longer.


Sorry this picture is a little blurry but I just had to post it. My mom was always complimenting and joking with us that we always looked nice and had to buy nice things to wear to special occasions, well she should of known this was a special occassion, thanks for the great influence Mom, you taught us to shop well! These are my fun sisters, Jan, Tamara and Collette.

Trick or Treat!

Halloween was one of my favorite holidays when the kids were little, I would make them the costume of their choice every year. They had so many cute ones, and are still in the Halloween box here at my house. A couple a weeks ago Kira asked me to make her kids a new trick or treat bag, so of course I was happy to do it. This was my project yesterday along with sewing three aprons. Kira has the cutest bag that her Aunt Pam made for her when she was just a little girl, and still enjoys seeing that bag, it brings so many fun memories back for her. I hope these bags will have the same purpose for Hatch, Karas and Thanye. I can't wait to see them all dressed up at my front door yelling "Trick or Treat" as they hold out their new bags! I bet you this Grammie can fill em' up! These are the finished bags. Karas's is the orange one, it has witch's hats and brooms printed on it and then I lined it with a cute black and white swirly pattern and trimmed it with black pom poms. The boys I just reversed from each other, one has greeen ric-rac and the other has orange. I bound the cutout handle area with black bias tape.

Are you wondering what the bright red sack is? That is what I used for my pattern, it's just a sack that some purchased fabric came in. How easy was that? I didn't even buy a new pattern for this one it was free with a purchase! I just love those kind of deals!

What a "FABULOUS" Package

My Fall Favorite Things package arrived on Saturday and boy was it heavy. Thanks so much Theresa for such a "fabulous" package. I had such a good time going through the box, I couldn't believe all the things she put in there. She wrote the cutest note explaining the things inside and why they were her favorites. Take a glance at all the loot in my package. Theresa is a dental hygentist so she always includes some of her favotites from her office in her swaps, what a cute idea. Theresa lives in Kansas, and is surrounded by pheasants so she also included 2 feathers, she uses them in her fall decorating. What a neat thing. Theresa my husband wants to know if you have a an extra bed for him, he loves pheasant hunting!! There were autumn candles, homemade apple jelly, dried apples, lotion, lip balm and all sorts of other fun stuff.

This was a great way to get to know other people, thanks Laura for organizing a fun swap. Oh by the way Theresa your package should be arriving soon. Don't think I forgot about you and you will find that some of your favorites are mine too!

Aprons: Our project for Simply Sewing 101

I call these the everyday housewife apron, it's a new take on an old apron that was popular with housewifes back in the good old days. They used to carry their clothespins in them or other things that needed carted from room to room. Aren't they cute! Today they could be used for just about anything, cooking, crafting, sewing, etc. We are making them in our next Simply Sewing 101 class on Nov. 12th.

On this apron I lengthened the ties so they could be wrapped around in back and then tied in the front.

This is a fun retro Christmas apron, I added the green ric-rac as I sewed the bias tape on to give it the retro look. You can't ro wrong with a little ric-rac!

These are the child's size apron's that I have made, doesn't every little girl want to be just like mom. What a fun gift idea, you could give a apron and include with it a fun little baking set and a child's cookbook. The ladies seemed to be really excited about this one, we'll start out simple. Who know's maybe they will be ready to attempt a ruffly one by the new year!

Fun Photo Tag

My cute neice Chelsey tagged me with this fun photo tag, I had to go to my picture files and open up the 4th folder, pull up the 4th photo and this is what I got. This is our son-in-law John just after Hatch was born on August 7, 2002. What a special day for me, this is the day I became a Grandma and I've been loving everyday since with the birth of three more. Thanks Chelsey that was a fun one.

Now I get to tag 4 people to play along. I chose Jacob, Lindsay, Kira and Alayna. I don't have that many on my blogging list so I hope they will play along. Now go to your files and see what you get. I'll be peeking in on your blogs. The rules again are, go to your photo files and pull up the 4th folder and then the 4th photo. Have fun.

Treats for everyone!

This is a cute Halloween quilt I made about three years ago, the border is little pockets that you put treats in, and the ghosts are made from men's hankerchiefs. Hatch asked me a couple a weeks ago if I had the treat quilt up yet, and I hadn't at the time. I do now. I didn't think that this quilt was anything to special to the kids, but I'm glad that he remembered about it. I hope this quilt will be something that will become one of thier favorite Halloween traditions at my house.

Sunday night the kids came for chili and scones, and Hatch and I were sitting by each other and he leaned over to me and, like he always does when he's done eating said, "Can I be full?" meaning he's through. It was time for a TREAT! "Yup you can I said," " Then come take my picture like you wanted Grandma". So here they are getting a treat from the quilt. They couldn't stop at just one, they had two or maybe even three.

Carmel Corn my favorite!

Carmel corn has always been one of my favorite fall treats. What's yours? I'll share my recipe with you so you can enjoy it too. And here's a little secret that I do with mine, I add a pinch of nutmeg and 1 teaspoon vanilla when it comes to the last boil. So, so yummy! This is going on my agenda for this weekend.

She's all girl!

To cute! Karas was in the dress up mode last night. She found the plastic shoes, and her baby, but she kept saying something over and over that sounded like purse. So both me and Kira came to the conclusion that that is what she was saying. I had been experimenting with some bag patterns and had made this little bag so I let Karas have it, and we found some things to put in it. Every purse needs lotion, but an empty bottle wouldn't do, she knew nothing was coming out of it, gosh Grammie! She had a comb and we found her a cute key fob. She was so happy with her new loot. Now let's go shopping!!!

Add another to the pile!

Here's another quilt to add to McKinley's pile, it wasn't finished when we took that picture of her.(see older post to get the scoop) This quilt isn't very big, it just covers the car seat or it makes a great tummy quilt. The colors are browns, pinks and oranges and the pattern is just a big log cabin block. I added some pink ric-rac to the last border and after it was quilted I scalloped the two ends. You can't see it very well but the middle and outside border is the cutest fabric, I think I liked it because it reminded me of a bike I had when I was in elementary school.

McKinley all snuggled up to Grammie with her new quilt.

BFF Gold Card Award

I received a BFF Award(Blogging Friends Forever) from Sarah Castillo, Sarah was my partner in the We the People Sewing Organizing Swap. Thanks for the honor Sarah. It's been really fun getting to know other people through blogging. I've made a few new friends this way. Now it's my turn to choose. The rules are: Only 5 people for the award. 4 of them need to be dedicated followers of your blog and the 5th one has to be new and live in another state or part of the country. You have to link back to who gave you the award. Check out my award selection and their blogs.

My first award goes to Kira because if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be blogging. She was the one to help me set my site up. She is my trouble shooter when I need ?'s answered. Kira, you should be proud of me, I figured out the linking thing all by myself!


2nd would be Chelsey Ercanbrack because she always leaves the nicest compliments and comments after reading my posts. She also has a darling blog, although it's private. Sorry.

The 3rd award goes to Suzee Anderson. She's not on my blog list but she let's me snoop in on her once in awhile, she does the neatest post on Thursday called Thursday's Angel. This is such an inspirational message on someone close to her. Thanks Suzee, I just need my trouble shooter to help me get you on my list.

My 4th award goes to Kaitlyn, she doesn't have a computer but she tries to do her best to keep up to date with her posts whenever she can get to a computer. She will have alot more to blog about now that little McKinley is here. She just posted something real cute, check it out. I couldn't get Kaitlyn's to link, so go to my side bar and link there.

My 5th BFF Award and from out of state goes to Lucy or Mama Bryd in Stark City, Missouri. We have gotten to know each other a little bit through her e-mails. Lucy has organized the Sassy Apron Swap that I am in. Thanks Lucy. And just a little something extra, she has heard of Corn Wagon Quilts clear back there in Missouri. Now she just needs to come visit the shop.

Who in the heck thinks of all these fun things to do when your blogging?

Boutique Season Again!

I've been really fortunate to have some really fun jobs, and this is one of them. Before I started working at Corn Wagon Quilts I worked for Ellen Zimmerman at Heritage Woodworks in Springville. When I started there in June of 1998 I was working 3 days a week, eventually that turned into just one day a week. I've been going there every Wednesday for the past 5 years up until just this last July. Why did I quit you ask, I didn't by choice. Ellen has decided to retire, this has been her life for the past 23 years or so and she is ready for new things, but there is one thing that won't change and that is the Hobble Creek Barn Boutique that Heritage sponsors 2 times a year. We just ended another great boutique, it ran from October 2nd-11th. Many of you that have been there know how fun the atmosphere is, the vendors have great merchandise, the food is always something to look forward to and for most, it's a girl's day out. Year after year we have watched this become a family tradition for many mother's and daughters, and now many of those have added grand-daughter's and great grand-daughter's. This is me and our loyal door greeter Deb Horracks, she has been doing this job for many years, we collect a dollar donation at the door to go to the local Women & Children Crisis Center.

These girl's have been a part of my life for a such a long time, they are practically family. Meet, Karen, Kim, Ellen and Brenda.

This is part of the Heritage booth, Ellen decided to bring what was left in the store after closing it, there were so many good buys on everything. She had her large peices of furniture marked at prices you wouldn't believe.

There's always some kind of little mishap at the boutique and I guess you could say this was it! I got my finger stuck in a piece of rolled up duct tape and I couldn't get it out. No I'm not making obscene gestures at anyone! No wonder they use that stuff on everything, it really sticks.

This is the booth that does really well, it's the handbags! Everyone loves a new purse. My mom looked forward to this booth every year so she could get her new fall purse. I still can see her picking one out.

Katherine Moody, is the purse vendor and a jewelry vendor too, she does really well at the show, she also does purse parties when she's not set up at the boutique.

This is more of the Heritage gang, on the back row is Deb, Wendy, Afton and Karen, and in front there is me and Ellen. What a fun group of ladies to work with.

For years we have been saying we were going to to a picture with these tiara's, and we did it! There is a booth at the show that sells so many of these and little tutu's that go with them that it's become a joke for us that we all needed them. Here we are in all our fancy. We even got Don to be a part of this one. (Don is the reason Ellen is retiring we do believe, what a great man he is, we really like him and so does she!) I'm really going to miss this group of fun people, but I always know there will be a next time, when we do this all over again in six months for the spring show.

It's all over and now the real fun begins, clean up! Not! What a job this is. Everything is packed up and will be taken back to the store. Ellen hasn't quite decided what to do with all of it yet, she's thinking about a huge parking lot sale or just donating it all to charity. Anyway it's over and we all had a great but exhausting 10 day show. Make sure you put the spring show on your calanders now, it's always held in May the weekend before Mother's Day. See you there.