Lovely Tulips

In the past, I have shown you my visits to the Tulip Festival in Woodland Washington and the amazing Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, but today I went to a new Tulip Festival just blocks from my new home at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah.

I don't know if you can see clearly, but this and the next picture shows how they planted ground hugging flowers in with the tulips in colors that complement the tulips.

I was really charmed by it.

Is this not enchanting?

The grounds were very large with winding paths, charming foot bridges and large expanses of lawns, trees and brightly colored tulips at every turn.

I don't know what the name of these cute as a button flowers are but I'm sure my friend Nicole at http://www.mygardendiaries.com/ will know!

I love the purple pansies with the orange tulips!

Since I went alone with just my camera as company, I had to ask a nice stranger to take my pic!

Standing as sentinel over this beautiful garden is "my" majestic Mt. Timpanogos. I consider it my mountain because it watched over me during my college years at BYU. After 50 years, I don't look much like I did in college but my mountain looks reassuringly the same. Thank you for joining me on this sunny day in the Rocky Mountains. I'm so glad you came! Love, Derrith

Really RED Quilt

I am nearly finished with my Red Rose quilt. In an attempt to be thrifty, I decided to use only fabric in my stash for this quilt. Ive had the background rose fabric for a long time.

I thought I would gather all the similar, happy feeling fabrics I had to make co-ordinating blocks. Well, the result is...ah...really RED! I fear it is a bit over powering.

I will forge ahead to finish it as soon as I can figure out a border for it.

Making these individual blocks was fun, using lots of different fabric to mix and match.

I'm hoping that a machine quilter can do her magic and I will like it better when it's finished.  Thank you for visiting me today. Visitors make me happy. Love, Derrith

New Sewing Room Reveal

I finally have my sewing room put together enough to show my friends. The walls in this room were already this dark teal color when we moved in, so I decided to go with it. This room is smaller than the room I used in our house in Vancouver, but I was able to fit in everything I need.

One might think that staring at a window well while sewing isn't terribly desirable, but when I sit at my machine, I can look up and see the sky and a lot of light comes in through that window.

This is the wall opposite to the window wall. It just holds bins with paper and crafting supplies and a lot of other things I probably should get rid of, but when I do, then I need it the next week, so it stays.

In two words: My stash.

I had a couple canvases so I tried painting pictures using the motif from the curtains I made for the room. They aren't great, but for someone who has the "Matching Disease" like me, they work.

Thank you for accompanying me on our little tour. I will admit, it is more pleasant to work in this room now that it is organized and clean. I was lucky that the closet in this room had a lot of built-ins so I have utilized that as well. It is a sunny day here in Utah and I hope in your neck of the woods too. If not, then I hope there is sunshine in your soul. Love, Derrith

Wedding Bells

This weekend, Maddy and Jacob got married in a lovely ceremony and our family put on a reception for them in a hotel in Provo. Gary and I were so happy to be able to be there and be part of the celebration.

I took pictures before the food was out and the guests arrived just to show you the flowers and the great pictures my daughter took that were displayed on the walls.

My daughter Heidi (the bride's aunt) and I arranged the flowers. We are both novices but they turned out quite pretty.

We had divine salads, chicken salad sandwiches, gourmet cup cakes, cinnamon rolls and a hot cocoa bar.

Maddy's colors were peachy-pink, gold and cream.

She wanted a romantic rustic look, which I feel we achieved.

Each centerpiece was a little bit different.

Heidi had this lovely runner made up for the room where the wedding took place.  It was such a special night with lots of friends and family celebrating together. Thank you for letting a grandma share pictures of her grand daughter's wedding! Love, Derrith

A Shower for Maddy

We had a shower for my granddaughter, Madison on Saturday. She is marrying her sweetheart, Jacob next Saturday. Maddy's Mom, my daughter Holly and her friend made the "Love"sign. I took these pics before the shower started so there were only a few gifts on view.

Holly is a professional photographer, so there we several wonderful photos of the happy couple displayed.

Daughter Heidi (our designated hostess for all parties) had lots of these beautiful balloons in Maddy's wedding colors: gold, cream and pink.

I wish this had photographed better. It was a large canvas banner with a sepia tone pic of Maddy and Jake. It was really impactful.

This was my favorite thing at the shower. When Maddy was about 6, she had a wedding themed birthday party where are the invitees dressed up like brides. Maddy is on the left in this picture and her little sister Heidi (now 18) is next to her.

Cute touch thanks to Heidi.

What is a shower without yummy food? We had delicious orange rolls, cheesy breakfast casserole and fresh fruit (the shower was at 10:00 am) In a few days, I will share pictures from the wedding.  Thank you for indulging a Grandma who is so happy to be able to spend lots of time with her Utah grandchildren since moving to the Salt Lake area in November. I hope your day is happy. Love, Derrith

Sewing again...

I have finally been able to get back to some sewing. I made these dishtowels for my granddaughter's wedding shower...

and I made these curtains for my kitchen windows. I am also working on curtains for my sewing room (to be revealed later) and I am getting one block a day done on a quilt I am hoping to finish soon. If you are on the east coast, I hope your snow goes away soon. Here in the Rockies, we really haven't had a winter till yesterday when we got some snow. I know my friends in the Northwest have also had a spring like winter. This is not helping my son who has taken over our heating business there. Well, see you again soon. Love, Derrith

A Valentine to Heidi

Happy Valentine's Day! I wanted to share with you these pictures of how my daughter Heidi decorated her house for the holiday. It was so pretty!

She made this banner in an afternoon with materials she had on hand. So cute!

So simple but so effective.

She made these roses out of tissue paper...beautiful!

She had these fun little vignettes all over her house.

Click on this pic to see the detail on this. I loved it.

I made these two boxes a few years ago and she saved them. Since they were meant to look a bit shabby, the age hasn't hurt them.

Look at this little cake! This was a Valentine gift from Heidi to Gary and I . Is that the cutest cake you've ever seen?  I hope your day was sweet as well. See you again soon. Love, Derrith