Savoring the Signatures!

My favorite blog, Our Best Bites, just released their second cookbook this week: Savoring the Seasons with Our Best Bites. I have been anxiously waiting for it, and I rushed out to buy it the first day! I got a copy for me, plus a few extras to give as gifts to some of my friends and family who have upcoming birthdays.

Sara and Kate, the masterminds of Our Best Bites, came to Salt Lake for a book signing yesterday. Elizabeth and I took a field trip to the Orson Gygi store just to see them and get our books signed! Luckily, I timed everything just right . . . we got there about 15 minutes before the signing was supposed to start. But Sara and Kate were finishing up a special event with some bloggers, and they were already signing books. Elizabeth and I got in line and only had to wait about 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, they had food samples from their new cook book that we munched on while waiting.

yummy muffins

Kate (wearing black) and Sara (with the pen)

After saying goodbye to Kate and Sara, we wandered the store and found some fun kitchen things! By 11:30 the line was practically out the door -- I'm guessing it was at least an hour long! I'm so glad that I didn't have to entertain Elizabeth in line for that long!

Just Dance!

Elizabeth had her first day of dance class today! She and her best friend Izzy are enrolled in BYU's Creative Dance program. Elizabeth has been SO excited to start dance class!

The parents got to stay and watch, so I was able to take some pictures. She got out there and had a great time! She is so cute!

Hey batter batter!

Baseball season is in full-swing! Nathan has two games, plus one to two practices each week. It keeps us busy, but it is fun and he loves it!

So far he's done fairly well with batting. He has a good enough eye that he can usually either hit the ball or get walked.

at bat; he's number 2 this season

waiting at 1st base

coming up on 3rd base

Read Like an Egyptian

Last night Nathan and I attended an event with Rick Riordan. He is the author of many, many books: Percy Jackson series, Kane Chronicles, Heroes of Olympus, and some of the 39 Clues. We are so fortunate to have an amazing public library that put on a fun event!

I've never read his books, but apparently the Kane Chronicles is Egyptian-themed, so the library staff dressed up accordingly. They even put on a mini show in costume before Rick Riordan came out.

Mr. Riordan was very entertaining! Even though I haven't read the books, I loved listening to his stories of how he started writing children's books, why his books are mythology-based, and even what some of his book covers look like in other countries and languages!

I also enjoyed getting to have some special one-on-one time with Nathan! I am grateful that he loves to read, and that we had a great evening together!

Nathan the Magnificent

Friday was the annual Variety Show at Provost, and once again Nathan performed a magic trick! Even though he doesn't practice magic much, he is always so excited to do a trick in front of his peers each year at the show.

This year his trick involved cutting a rope into three separate pieces. He tied the pieces together, then an audience member came forward and blew on the rope. Then it was one whole piece again!

Elizabeth does not like to sit still. So even though the entire show was very entertaining, she wandered over and found Mrs. McDaniel, the librarian. Here she is playing with her reading glasses -- silly girl!

Hawaiian Bags

Remember the sneak peek of fabric flowers a few posts back? You'll get to see them now in their completed state, but first let me explain . . .

Back in the summer of 2004, we went with all of Ryan's family to Hawaii. His mom, Cheryl, got each of the girls a jelly bag -- Amy had green, Cassi had orange, Kaley had blue, and I had pink. I thought it was so fun to have coordinating bags!

I thought I had a picture where we were all posing with the bags, but this is all I could find. My bag and Cassi's bag blend in with our shirts, so look closely :)

Fast forward to a few months ago. I was in JoAnn's for a fantastic sale. There were so many beautiful fabrics, and I really wanted to get some on a good sale, but I didn't have a project in mind. As I kept drooling over the fabric, I remembered that I'd seen a purse pattern on V and Co.'s blog that I thought would be fun to try. We are going with Ryan's family to Hawaii again this summer, and so I remembered the jelly bags and thought it would be fun to make a fabric bag for each of the girls for our trip this year!

I had a lot of fun picking out the fabrics. I tried to find some fun florals that could be Hawaii-inspired without having to have a full-on Hawaiian print on them. And I tried to channel each of my sisters- and grandmother- and mother-in-law to pick colors that I thought they would love.

Elizabeth wanted to be a part of the photo shoot!

I made my bag first to test out the tutorial and make sure that if I messed things up it would be on mine! Then I mass produced the other 6 bags all at the same time. It was so fun for me to try projects other than quilting. I love that the overall project gets completed faster than a big quilt, and I'm also learning new sewing skills!

I love the big flowers on the front!

All of the girls opened their bags this weekend, so now I can post pictures of them:

Cheryl

Kaley

Stephanie

Cassi

Amy

Grandma-ma

Jennifer

Sneak Peek

Here's a glimpse at my current sewing project . . .


Aren't these flowers fun? I can't wait to finish the whole project!

Cooking and Clutches

I have spent a lot of my time these last couple of months on planning the Provost Elementary Spring Festival Fundraiser that is coming up the end of April. Things are coming along nicely, and it is fun to be able to collect items for the basket auction. There are some very generous businesses out there!

Despite being busy with the Festival, I've been able to find some time to work on developing my hobbies. I somehow didn't get the cooking gene that my dad and brother have, but lately I've felt like I've developed some kitchen skills. I've been cooking a lot more with fresh ingredients and making a lot more things (like sauces, rubs, and salad dressings) from scratch. There are still nights where I have no idea what to make for dinner. But this last week or so, my house has smelled SOOO good in the evenings! I haven't remembered to take pictures of all my new creations, but here are some of them (all courtesy of Our Best Bites):

homemade bread sticks . . . the boys had fun helping with this!

Chicken Tortilla Soup . . . my camera doesn't do it justice; oh yeah, the tortilla strips are homemade, too!

White Chicken Chili

I was also able to recently finish the clutches I've been working on for my sisters- and mother-in-law. (When we got together in February, I didn't have them all ready.) Definitely not perfect, but they sure were fun to create!





It's fun to branch my quilting hobby out into more of a general sewing hobby. And now I've been inspired to create my own valance for our loft. I'm in the middle of it now and should hopefully have a picture soon of the finished product! I'm hoping to be able to create drapes for both our main floor family room and the basement family room in a few months when I get to decorate them! So many ideas and projects . . . so little time!

Our Best Bites

For about the last year or so, I've been following a food blog, Our Best Bites. It has totally improved my cooking skills! I love that the two authors, Sara and Kate, explain things in lots of detail for those of us who are not experts in the kitchen! And their recipes are easy to follow and taste amazing!

Our Best Bites recently came out with a cookbook. When Kate and Sara announced that they would be coming to Utah, and more specifically to the mall near my house, to do a book signing, I knew I needed to rush out and get the book! So last week I got my copy! (Sorry Ryan, I know you probably wanted that idea for an upcoming gift-giving occasion, but I just couldn't wait!) A lot of the recipes are from the blog, but there are new ones in the book, too. I've spent the week looking through the book, and deciding what to try next.

Last Sunday I made the Spicy Honey Chicken and the Sweet & Savory Coconut Rice -- delicious! And then on Tuesday afternoon I whipped up the Sour Cream Pound Cake and made the Strawberry-Lime Shortcakes with Coconut Cream. Yes, it tasted as amazing as it sounds! And now I can say I've toasted coconut -- I learn a new skill all the time from these ladies! Unfortunately, I got wiped out by some bug the rest of the week and was not able to try more -- yet.


The book signing was Thursday night, and of course I was feeling my worst all day Thursday. I couldn't miss meeting Kate and Sara, though, so I took lots of cold medicine and said many prayers. Amazingly, the only time I didn't need to be near a tissue (or the entire box of them) was during the time I was gone to the book signing -- what a blessing!

Me trying not to look sick~ Kate on left, Sara on right

And fair warning to my neighbors . . . I will most likely be bringing this to ALL of our neighborhood barbecues this summer!

It's Done!

One tradition that I have is to make a quilt for each of my babies. For each of the boys, I had theirs done before they were born. Well, for Elizabeth I had 2 quilts made for her before she was born. I knew I would keep one and give the other away, I just couldn't decide at the beginning which would be for her. After I finished those 2, they sat on a chair in the nursery for a good month as I tried to decide which I liked best for Elizabeth, and which one I would give to my good friend who was having a girl a few months later.
Then we got exciting news -- another good friend across the street was adopting a baby! The baby was born 12 weeks early (her name happens to be Elizabeth, too!) and the ward quickly threw together a shower for the happy new mom. I really wanted to make her a quilt, but with my own new baby and the short notice, I did not really have time to make a new one. So I ended up giving them the second of the 2 quilts I made for Elizabeth.
Before the neighbor's shower, I had sketched up a pattern and was actually contemplating making it in a week (baby quilts are SO much faster than bigger ones, and I do thrive on deadlines). But as I looked at the patterns, I realized the one that was already done was more of their fun, outgoing style, while my new sketch was more of our family's traditional style.
I started the quilt that really is for Elizabeth this time on Conference weekend.. I got a ton done then, and have slowly worked on it. I finished it this Sunday -- just in time to use it to cover her carseat from the snow we got on Monday :)
I wasn't able to get a great picture of it -- I couldn't get the lighting right. But this should give you a decent idea of it.Now we are doing a quilting club in our ward (which I am heading up at least for this first project). I am excited to share my hobby with others and help them make fun quilts, too!