A road trip with the girls.....

Tomorrow I'm taking off with some friends for our
annual summer road trip.
(Is is considered a road trip when you go to the same place every year?)

My friend Sheila's parents have a cabin (sort of like this one)
near Yellowstone National Park.

We'll probably see some of these.

We'll take in a musical, go on a few hikes, play games, read novels, do some hand-crafts,
drive through the park, and be quite lazy.
(No house work!)

That is... if we can get all our things packed in the car.

One year we packed our luggage on top of the car.
It was a good idea until we discovered that Sandi's suitcase must have blown off
somewhere in the vast Southern Idaho wilderness.....

Another year we had the trunk of the car so loaded that we couldn't get it closed. We had to unpack everything and take a bigger car!

This year we decided not to pack so much food.
(Karen is going to put her frozen lunch meat in her suitcase with her underwear!)
Hopefully, everything will fit.

I'll be back soon!

June's best.....

June's best offering has got to be fresh strawberries....

and ripe red raspberries!

Who can resist?

I have a really, really, small strawberry patch and a few raspberry bushes.
Usually, I only get just enough to snack on while working in the garden,
but my family has discovered my secret.
Now it is a competition.

(Thank goodness for Costco!)


Strawberry Dessert:
Bake a white cake in a large cookie sheet following cake directions.

Frosting:
1 package cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
Mix until smooth.
Add
about 2-3 cups cool whip (I never measure, I just add until it looks right)

Frost the cake with the frosting.
Cover with fresh strawberries in pie filling.
(We like Strawberry Danish Dessert)
Chill in refrigerator.
This is also very good with canned raspberry pie filling and blueberry pie filling.

It not only looks pretty, but it is DELICIOUS!

Barbie's day at the spa....

Barbie is now in her fifties! (How would it be to still look so good?)
I am a fan of the Barbie dolls and have great memories of sewing little outfits
and building houses for Barbie and Ken. I even remember giving a few hair-cuts!
(I have to admit that the first dolls were much better quality than the ones that came after.)

Yesterday, as I was cleaning out the storage room, I came across an old trunk full of Barbie dolls left from my daughters. We counted 31 dolls (4 daughters + several years= 31),
including the babies!
Most of them looked like this.
(Doll hair does NOT age well.)

I thought we could eliminate all but a few, but my daughters said "No!"
Each one was sentimental to one of them.

That's when the real work started. (So much for cleaning the storage room!)
We scrubbed and scrubbed.We washed the clothes.Katie worked on their hair (not much you can do there),
Now the dolls are ready for one more generation to enjoy!

It's still raining.....

Sixteen days!
We have had sixteen days of rain this month.
(We do live in a desert, right?)

Happy Father's Day!

The $55.00 mystery.....

Remember when I told you about our $55.00 bargain?
($70.00 off sale, $15.00 coupon, extra $30.00 promotional discount)
It isn't solid wood, but this desk is so much better than what we had before.
(I won't even show a before picture-it was that bad!)

Ken's little assistant......

Thanks for helping, Maddie!

A day of dreaming at the Parade of Homes

My sister Linda and I made our annual trek to the
Utah Valley Parade of Homes last week.
We made a whole day of it and stayed until our tired bodies couldn't bend over even one more time to put on the bothersome shoe covers, our legs had turned to spaghetti from going up and down so many flights of stairs, and our fingers were numb
from taking so many pictures.

Why do we do it?

We're not sure.
We do enjoy seeing beautiful houses, new scenery, eating lunch somewhere different, visiting, and getting fun ideas that we can copy.
It was fun having my niece Melissa join us for part of the day, too!

Here are some fun organizational ideas we saw:

Look at this craft room!

I liked this idea for wrapping paper and ribbon.
Cute personal touches....

A dreamy girls' bedroom......and interesting architecture with great views.



My favorite one was in the river bottom area of Provo
and I had left my camera in the car
(it was raining)! It was a gorgeous house.
It was fun spending the day looking at million dollar houses (and drooling at the luxury),
and I picked up some fun new ideas that I can try,
but
It was nice coming back to my own HOME!

My first summer project....or is it my second?

After I made this apron for my give-away, I had some small pieces of fabric left over.

After thinking about this little girl...

and her love of helping.... (which really means getting messy)

I decided to make these.

Do you think she will make cinnamon rolls for me?