happy halloween!

Happy Halloween! Britton was sick over the weekend, throwing up multiple times Saturday night and into Sunday morning. So we didn't know how she would feel this morning. But she was up and ready to go, feeling like her old self! She quite enjoyed her surprise sitting on the couch for her - a Dora Halloween shirt! Seriously, she was really excited about it, which made buying something with glitter okay in my book (more on glitter glitter everywhere in a second).



And I made cupcakes for her class party today - little ones for the kids and regular ones for the teachers. All peanut-free, since everything that goes into her classroom has to be. Which had to be the weirdest sight of me at the grocery store, studying the bag of candy corn to see if it contained peanuts!




When Britton got home today she put on her bumble bee costume! It was so adorable, though I didn't know that the tutu part was a skirt. I guess I should have bought tights, but we only unwrapped it today, so oh well. Britton is still too young to go trick-or-treating, and I don't want her having all that candy with just being sick, so instead we went on a walk and Britton pranced around the neighborhood.




Checking out her wings....she LOVED the wings....




We also decided to go ahead and set up everything for the trick-or-treaters. We didn't want anyone ringing the doorbell in case it woke Britton up (she goes to bed at 7:00 pm), so I put spider webs across the front entryway. But that wasn't enough for the hub, who then put a sawhorse across the front porch. I added a "Do Not Enter" sign to make it look more Halloween-ish, and less social-anxiety-ish.



We also had a sign up that said not to ring the bell, just in case anyone got past our chairs blocking the walkway. I just put the message on an easel pad and bungee-corded it to the chairback, but I had a whole poem I made up. It just dawned on me that nobody was going to sit there and read a whole poem. So I will share it with you...

The goblins are grumbling
The witches are shrieking
But our little girl
Is dreaming and sleeping

So don't ring the bell!
Or you'll give her a fright
Please take some candy
And have a frightful night!



Britton had received a treat bag at school for her party, which contained - imagine this - peanut-free candy. Let's call a spade of spades here - peanut-free candy is the bottom of the barrel people. Smarties? Starburst? Give me a Reese's Cup or just go home. So we added that candy to our selection, and Britton spied it outside and helped herself.







By the way - the wings she loved? GLITTER EVERYWHERE.

UPDATE: Seems some kids went through the yard, tramped through my flowerbed, moved the sawhorse, and rang the doorbell three times! I checked the treat bowl and we were out of candy. Told all the kids it was too bad so sad, and one kid actually asked me if I was going to get more candy! Um, no. Another kid did say, "Thank you ma'am." That kid can have whatever he wants out of the pantry!

o.k.

Britton has been searching for the letter "O" every time we read her "Ten Little Ladybugs" book. I don't know why it's the letter "O" or why it's only in the Ladybug book, but she has a blast spotting and then pointing out every letter "O." But yesterday morning she surprised me when she was drawing before going to daycare. She wanted me to draw Mickey Mouse (horribly, I might add), then she drew some and said "K"! And you know what? It does look like a "K"! Check out her paper - it's the red marks, not the black swirls she was drawing earlier.



Here is the writer, in all her "K" splendor...

part two: salt lake city, utah

After visiting the canyons, we grabbed lunch at the Cotton Bottom Inn. Their garlic cheeseburgers had come highly recommended, and they did not disappoint! The hub and I like to check out neighborhoods when we visit a new place, kind of to see how "the other half lives," you know? I grabbed my camera because we are in the midst of landscaping the backyard, and these flowerbeds were calling my name. If I can find a Christmas tree with roots, it is going in my backyard!




Then we went to check out the University of Utah's campus. It was near downtown, and nestled in the mountain side, down to the valley. We stopped into the campus store and picked up a shirt for Britton, then drove around a little more.



Then we decided to check out the Mormon Temple. Even though we don't subscribe to the radical theology that is LDS (Latter-Day Saints, which everyone calls "Mormon" in Utah), we wanted to see the temple. It was stunning! It sits in the middle of downtown, surrounded by historical buildings and gardens. And we started to notice a pattern of the skyscrapers and shopping centers downtown - all owned by the Mormon Church. That kind of thing makes my brain hurt and my libertarian side come out in full force.



That is not a rainbow in the top right part of the picture, as it was cloudless and sunny when we were in Utah. I can't explain it. Maybe the Mormons can...



We stumbled upon a couple taking wedding photos outside of the temple. Then another couple. Then another couple. Then some bridesmaids. It was so odd, all these couples basically stacked in a check-out line of sorts to get married at the temple. Now, we couldn't go into the temple because it's secret and all, but nothing (not even courteous behavior norms) stopped me from getting up on a rock wall and snapping a shot of all these brides, grooms, and wedding guests milling around.



As we were walking to the other side of the gardens, some woman told us that an organ concert was about to begin. We decided to check it out since it would only last 30 minutes. This is the Mormon Tabernacle Organ, and it sounded beautiful in person.



As we were high-fiving each other that no missionaries had approached us (they can see a lost cause, you know?) we decided to check out the Church History Museum. It was interesting, but wasn't especially pertinent to us. But then we found the quilt exhibit upstairs! These quilts were fantastic, and I took a ton more pictures than I'll share here.



Made entirely of clothes labels. The creator's son was getting a bone marrow transplant and was in the hospital for five months. Over that time he collected labels from other patients and the hospital staff and put this together with his mom.




This one made me laugh! The pattern is the Texas Star. But the funny thing is - the sign said that it came from the local asylum. Seems the asylum's director found that the mind works better when the hands are busy, so the patients at the asylum made this quilt. The pieces are tiny as all get out, and the entire thing is sewn by hand. I can appreciate the therapeutic benefits of quilting, being a quilter myself. But with the work this one took, those patients must be cured!



Later that night we went to dinner at the Copper Onion, and let me leave you with this - if you get a chance to try juniper berry cheddar cheese, do it. We had an easy trip back home, and all in all loved our little vacation. Here's hoping the next one isn't five years away again!

weekend getaway: park city, utah

So, this summer the hub and I realized that with all his business travel, we had enough points to get free airfare and hotel accommodations, and we jumped at the opportunity for our first just-us trip since our honeymoon. Mind you, when we were figuring out where to go, it was blazing hot in Texas, so hot in fact that we set the record for consecutive days over 100 degrees (somewhere around 65 consecutive days, I think). So we wanted two things: COLD and had to be a luxury hotel. The hub saw that Park City, Utah has a Waldorf-Astoria, so we booked it for a three-day weekend and found some flights.

Let me tell you what - when we landed it was like being in a different world. Fun fact - did you know Utah is the Beehive State? Yeah, I didn't either, but they sure are proud of that little fact. Salt Lake City is a valley surrounded by huge mountains, mountains much steeper and taller than the mountains I knew in Virginia and West Virginia. Driving through those mountains (Park City is about 15 minutes from Salt Lake City) was vertigo-inducing. You really had no place to look but up. And both the hub and I were amazed by the sheer amount of fall color - bright golds and reds, mixed with huge silver pine trees.

We got to the hotel and checked in easily. I'm sure this place is amazing during the ski season, but it is stunning in the fall. The valet told us we picked the perfect weekend to see fall color, and he was right. It was everywhere you turned. The hotel room was posh, and had its own fireplace, and a television in the bathroom! We stepped onto the balcony and noticed that people were in the pool, which just seemed atrocious since it was barely 60 degrees. Come to find out that the pool is heated!






We unpacked, then made our way to the shuttle (which was actually a Mercedes SUV - seriously, I felt like a rock star in it), and checked out Park City, Utah. The first thing we experienced was the lack of oxygen. We were so high in altitude and neither of us were used to it. It is quaint for sure, with a Main Street lined with cute little shops. Though in glancing through the shops further, they are in fact for the snow bunnies who prefer to stay out of the snow on a ski trip. We picked up a magnet and a tee-shirt, and I got some new sunglasses, before heading back to the hotel.




This is the High West Distillery and Saloon, where we had dinner on Friday night. The food was incredible! We had a beer cheese appetizer, and the hub had an heirloom tomato and balsamic reduction salad, followed by a Niman Ranch burger; I had the Utah trout over a bed of greens.



We ended up sharing the shuttle with an older couple, who it turns out are from Salt Lake City. They asked what we were planning on seeing, and we named off a few places. Then the lady asked if we had seen the canyons. Honestly, it hadn't occurred to us. But she insisted we drive up the canyons, and wrote us out some directions.

We got up the next morning to go have breakfast (No Worries Grill - amazing food) and see the canyons - Little Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood, and Alta. I don't know what I was expecting, but what I saw wasn't it. These roads were STEEP, and the guardrails were far and few between. It was hard to absorb the overwhelming size of the mountain while being right next to it. We traveled up to 8,500 feet above sea level.




These yellow trees were everywhere. I think they are birch trees, and their color is intense, especially next to the dark evergreens.




SNOW. And more on the way.




We found this creek along the road and stopped to feel how cold the water is. It was freezing! But this was also a great spot to "give back to nature" (it's not like there are a ton of public restrooms) and for me to steal a couple of small rocks. I would have taken a ton more, because the backyard isn't going to landscape itself, but we didn't have the room or the weight accommodation in our luggage. Dang it all!






More on our adventures in Salt Lake City to follow!

i heart fall

Fall has always been my favorite season. Not just because my birthday is at the end of October, or because I love Halloween, but because of how it always was. I'd be walking along one day, and a breeze, so crisp and clean, would make me think that I needed a jacket. And for every day after that, I'd need a jacket, until the eventual start of winter wherein I needed a coat. But in fall, it's just the jacket and the crisp clean air.

Fall is changing leaf colors. I was fortunate enough to go to college (go Virginia Tech!) and law school (go WVU!) in the mountains, where the trees just put to shame any work of art hanging in some museum. And I love big piles of leaves, because when I was in high school and mowing lawns for money all summer, leaves meant that I still had a chance to swindle my neighbors out of more money by raking them up. You ever made a pile of leaves and jumped into it? The crunching sounds, the musty smell, the slight fear of insects and mold spores living on those leaves - all mean fall is here.

Fall is the first night you need a blanket on the bed. The hub would be hot if the house was set at freezing, and detests the Wal-Mart blanket I insist on putting on the bed every fall. But I love it because it means I need a blanket, and that outside it's getting cold.

In Virginia, fall meant hurricanes. And while most people hate them, and have reason to, I never have. I've spent an afternoon on Chick's Beach watching the hurricane come in, seeing the water churn and whitecap, driven back home in rains so fast and furious that my car engine stalled out. I can distinctly remember the smell of a hurricane coming in, but I have no idea how to describe it. The sky turns a color you'll never be able to pinpoint, and it feels like the storm could swallow you whole. Yes, I love a good storm.

Admittedly, fall is sweaters and long sleeves and cozy sweatshirts and jackets. All those great clothing items that hide a little more of your flaws, while still making you feel better than a tan does. Fall is spectacular.

Or, at least it was until I moved to Texas. Because in Texas, fall is about two weeks. It goes from 100 degree days to 60 degree days in the span of a couple of thunderstorms. The trees here don't lose their leaves, or if they do I haven't seen them turn red and orange first. If it's ever really fall here, I can't tell you when it starts - only when it's over.

So, my new fall love - tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches with Britton. Who loves fall as much as I do.

creativity abounds

I was grocery shopping on Friday night (I know, I know) when I went down the "office supply" aisle trying to find a mailing envelope for my sister's birthday present. On the way back up the aisle, after finding diddly squat, I glanced over at the school supplies and saw those little trays of water colors. Remember those? I loved mine so much I'd actually wait until the paint dried, then clean around the little wells to make sure it was all in order. And I never mixed colors. Actually, this is explaining so much right now....Anywho, I figured Britton would love it, and they are washable so what could it hurt?

Saturday afternoon, in that lull between naptime wake-up and dinner prep, I brought the paints out and showed her. She wanted them immediately. So I set her up with some construction paper and a ramekin of water and showed her how to dip the brush into the water, then into the paint, then on the paper. She completed three pictures this weekend!





And I tapped into my creativity too! I was browsing the latest Pottery Barn catalogue, as I absolutely love their Christmas decor, and saw this pillow.



For $39. For a pillow cover. The frugal side of me thought that was a wee bit too much for a pillow cover. And frankly, I don't care if someone wants to spend that on a pillow or a shirt or whatever. Heck, I've got Pottery Barn curtains hanging in the living room/dining room/conservatory/piano room that cost a boatload. But I know where to splurge and where to put on the brakes. So I stopped at JoAnn's Fabrics, got a pillow form and some red embroidery thread, pulled out some fabric scraps, then made this over the weekend:




Displayed right in front of the Santa lights we picked up at Lowes. I'm starting on another pillow next week!