Updates

It's been a while since I've been here, which leaves me feeling horribly guilty :) I thought I'd update you all...

I spent every Friday in May at Hogle Zoo, in Salt Lake City, Utah, taking a Utah Master Naturalist class. It was a really wonderful experience! I was able to learn more about aquatic systems/wetlands in Utah, and visit some fun places. We went on field trips to the G. K. Gilbert Geologic View Park at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon (it's a very tiny park, but the info signs are fantastic!), a short hike up Little Cottonwood Canyon, Farmington Bay, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, USU Botanical Garden at Kaysville Ponds, and around Hogle Zoo itself, of course. My absolute favorite field trip was our last class, where we did a Boreal Toad survey at Strawberry Reservoir. Sadly, I forgot my camera, and have yet to see pics from anyone else's camera LOL We were able to find approximately 50 Boreal Toads, as well as several Chorus Frogs (we also heard some Northern Leopard Frogs, but didn't actually catch any). I would LOVE to participate in the survey again next spring! I am also hoping that I will be able to take the mountain module for UMN next spring as well. If any of you have a chance to take a Master Naturalist class (they are taught in most states), I highly recommend it. No experience is necessary :)

June was supposed to be very busy, but it ended up being busy in a different way than I expected. We always do our cub scout day camp in June, and that went as planned, with only a little bit of rain. It was still a lot of fun! Our theme this year was space camp, and they had an inflatable planetarium in the main cabin, which was awesome! The next week of June was supposed to be the annual Quilt Shop Hop with my mom and sister, but sadly Boy Scout camp and 11-year old camp were the same weekend. I decided it was more important to me to have dh go to camp, first a night with S at Camp Hunt at Bear Lake, then a day with E at Hull Valley, than it was for me to spend way too much money buying more fabric LOL I did get to spend one afternoon visiting Village Dry Goods in Brigham City and Red Rooster in Logan with my mom, sister, Peggy and Amy. We had lunch at Maddox first; that chicken salad was HUGE! While in Brigham we paid a little side visit to the thrift store there, where I got a couple of goodies to add to the towering pile of things I need to do something with LOL
July started off with a bang with a camping trip to Preston Valley, up Logan Canyon. We had a fantastic camping site, with flush toilets right across the street, yet totally screened by a layer of trees. It was a large site with plenty of room for our tent, a tent for S and A, and Valori's tent (we even had room for MORE tents, if anyone else had decided to stay). We were there from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, plenty of time for some serious nature observing. Joe was very patient with my constant taking off :) Nature list (since I can't just post bird lists anymore LOL): pink alumroot, lance-leaved stonecrop, Rocky Mountain maple, river birch, box elder, western meadowrue, yellow columbine, red osier dogwood, alfalfa, yellow sweet clover, wild roses, star-flowered false solomon's seal, sagebrush, tarragon, tiger swallowtail, cabbage white butterfly, several different unknown caterpillars, caddisfly larva, American beaver, song sparrow, yellow warblers (lots of them, feeding their babies), lazuli bunting, American robin, yellow-rumped warbler, black-throated gray warbler (a life bird for me!), barn swallow, violet-green swallow, black-chinned hummingbird (the camp hosts, right next to us, had several feeders that were always covered in hummers), MacGillivray's warbler, American dipper, chipping sparrow, red-tailed hawk, black-headed grosbeak female, red-naped sapsucker, pine siskin, dusky flycatcher, western wood-peewee, hermit thrush, racer snake (you should have heard the piercing screams from Az when she discovered this snake in the restroom! LOL), and some little fish in a pool of water that connected to the river (I think they are immature trout, since I can't find any pics of minnows that look like them). I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's quite the list isn't it? It was a really fun trip, and most of those things were found right around our campsite! Friday night we came down from the canyon and watched the fireworks from Valori's yard. Can't miss the 4th of July fireworks, even if you're camping!

Last night we took a short drive up Green Canyon. The boys and I hiked up a rock slide, where we found some horn corral fossils and a BIG yellow crab spider (I grabbed a stalk of tarragon to take a pic, and almost grabbed the spider instead!). Valori came with us, and had to be back to do a massage (how lucky am I to have a sister-in-law who is a massage therapist? LOL), so Joe left me at the rock slide and took Valori back to the mouth of the canyon. I walked half-way down, taking wildflower pics along the way, to the "boy scout cave", where I caught up with my family. Nature list: tarragon, rabbitbrush, sagebrush, Rocky Mountain maple, juniper, spider milkweed (this is a really cool looking milkweed), Virgin's Bower clematis, aster spp., red clover, yellow sweet clover, alfalfa, common mullein, thistle, sego lily (Utah's state flower), wild roses, some yellow flowers that I haven't identified yet, spotted towhee, chipping sparrow, broad-tailed hummers, and assorted dragonflies. The canyon was pretty dry, and a lot of things were done blooming, so this trip wasn't as great as last months, but still a nice evening in the canyon.

I am hoping to post a BUNCH of pictures later today or tomorrow, so be on the lookout!

Tag You're It "Time"

The theme this week on the Tag You're It blog is Time for Tea. Well, being LDS (i.e. a "Mormon"), I don't do tea LOL So I'm just using the "time" part of the theme for my tag. I chose to do an accordion tag, with a letter spelling out "time" on each section. Each of the postage stamps is from a paper by Rusty Pickle. For the first one I embossed the ring on the "always" circle tag, added some buttons, and a big "T" stamped behind it. The next section has a clock face stamped on the background, a watch hand, and glitter on the flowers of the postage stamp. Next I added a watch crystal on the pocket watch on the postage stamp. On the final section I added a vintage button from my grandma. Unfortunately I managed to break the center of the button, so I disguised it with a rhinestone (because there should always be sparkle on every project :) ). The alphabet stamps are the collage set by SU!, one of my favorite alphas. This was a fun project, and I think I'll put it on my computer desk to remind me to not spend so much TIME on the computer LOL

Crossbills

A birding friend called Saturday morning to let me know that there were White-winged Crossbills at the Smithfield Cemetery. As WW Crossbills are usually only found HIGH in the mountains around here, dh and I decided we'd better run out to Smithfield to see if we could find them. After chasing a small flock of birds from conifer to conifer around the cemetary, the male above kindly perched at the very top of a very tall tree long enough for us to get a good look at him. I wish you could see him better in the picture, as he is SUCH a pretty shade of red, and they have such interesting bills.

This is one of three Red-tailed Hawks that were soaring over the cemetery. We also saw Pine Siskins, American Robins and 3 Mule Deer at the cemetery. It was a beautiful day to be outside, and after the cold I've been laid up with all week, it was WONDERFUL to get out again!

Sketch tag

This week's challenge on the Tag You're It blog was a sketch. These are the colors in my family room, and this is actually the third tag I've made in these colors. I was joking with dh that I will end up with a wall of tags LOL It's just so easy for me to create in these colors; they really speak to me. And of course I love anything with a quote on it! Surprisingly, there isn't any bling on this tag, just mini deco fasteners and prima flowers. I need some nice mossy green glitter LOL

Fruit Salad

Last year for my birthday I bought a really FUN sewing book. Now, I WANT to sew, but I am seriously afraid of my sewing machine. Or anything that requires electricity and has an "on" switch, to tell the truth LOL (including this computer). But last weekend my desire to sew overcame my uneasiness, so I pulled out the really FUN book, Sew Pretty Homestyle, and made a couple of the projects in it.


First I made the pears. I know pears do not come in yellow polkadots or blue floral (my kids think I must have flunked kindergarten), but the fabrics match my kitchen, so that's the colors I made them :) They weren't actually that difficult, thank heavens. Now all my kids want me to make them their very own pears. What would a boy do with a stuffed pear? LOL



Next, flushed with the pear success, I turned to the strawberries. Being smaller, they were a little trickier. It didn't help that I kept forgetting that I needed to sew the RIGHT side of the fabric together LOL Then I decided that instead of stitching the seeds, I wanted to do beads. Every project needs a little sparkle, right? When I got the leaves I decided to take the easy way out. They were supposed to be sewn from fabric, but just sewing those single pear leaves was enough to convince me that I should use wool instead. I made them in pastels to go in my bedroom (once again, convincing the kids that I flunked kindergarten, because everyone KNOWS that strawberries are RED), specifically to go in this pink depression glass bowl. I think I may have made a couple too many; they're scrunched in there pretty tight. But that's where they're staying, at least until I change my mind.


You know, I still have a pattern for apples that I could try :)

Tag You're It in Purple

This is my purple tag for the Tag You're It blog. The challenge this week was to create a purple tag. My wedding colors (13 years ago!!) were lavender and white, so this will go nicely on a wedding scrapbook layout. Yes, I really am that far behind in my scrapbooking LOL. I had to add glitter to the wings, and a rhinestone in the center of the flower, because it's just no fun without the bling :)

time to relax

Our Christmas Tree

The holidays are finally over, I have taught at Cub Scout Basic Training, and done the Round Table Blue and Gold presentation. Now, hopefully, it's time to relax!

Christmas was wonderful (probably would have been better if I hadn't woken up with the stomach flu Christmas morning LOL). The kids got WAY too many presents, as usual. I got some really fantastic presents, my favorite being a NEW scout shirt! I even got all my patches sewn on before basic training, although I'll have to fix the two I sewed in the wrong spot LOL. I also got the Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle book, which is filled with beautiful projects. My mom got me two larger quilting rulers, so I might even be able to get some of them made! Dh gave me a $25 Borders gift card, which I promptly used to buy North American Wildlife: an Illustrated Guide to 2,000 Plants and Animals, and Sharing Nature with Children. Both of these books will help me pursue my dream of becoming a naturalist.

Which brings me to some news: Utah has a Master Naturalist program! I was so excited to find out about this program. I've had a dream to become a naturalist for several years now, but was unsure how to go about it. I still don't have a lot of information, but I'm on the list to be notified when this year's class schedule is released. I am beyond thrilled about this! I love the natural world (even if I do dislike being dirty or windblown LOL), and I love sharing it with others even more! This program will give me the ability to improve my skills and earn certification. It is literally a dream come true for me.

I have some fun projects that I'm about to start, so come back for pictures later this week!