Family Night Up the Canyon

I couldn’t go to bed tonight without posting about our evening activity. On Sunday, Sterling asked me to keep Wednesday night open for him. He wouldn’t tell me what was up, but I cleared my calendar for tonight.

Yesterday, the secret slipped out—he’d planned a family home evening up in the canyon with the Browns, the Hoops, Grandma Pat, and his famous goulash (a fancy name for whatever we have in the fridge mixed up in a Dutch Oven!).  I looked forward to it all day, working hard to get everything done so I could enjoy the time up the canyon and not be worrying about things still needing to be done.

I was not disappointed! All I can say is it’s an absolute sin that we don’t go up the canyon more often—it’s a 15-minute drive to escape from the world! It was beautiful tonight, perfect weather, ideal company, and Sterling’s goulash (hamburger, bacon, ground beef, carrots, potatoes, squash, onions, and green chilies) was the yummiest ever! He fixed the entire meal, but the girls decided that next time they would help out with dessert and a salad.

While dinner cooked, the little boys hiked (if you can call it that—their little legs didn’t go too far or too fast) and we sat around and chatted.

After dinner, we had an uplifting spiritual discussion, and then for an activity we watched a group of rappellers work their way down a nearby mountain. The boys were fascinated—they’d never seen anyone do that before.

I came home rejuvenated and determined to head back up the canyon again very soon. Don’t worry—I won’t bore you with the details every time we go, but I’m certainly thankful we live so close to such natural beauty. 

Small Town, Big Celebration

If there’s one holiday that people seem to go home for, it’s the Fourth of July! And Kanab is no exception. People flock into town to celebrate the birth of our country.


The Kanab celebration begins with a parade (well, there are other early-morning activities, but we’re lucky to make it to the parade on time).

Stampin’ Up! has had a simple float in the parade ever since I can remember, with employees and their children riding on the float and throwing out Stampin’ Up! taffy to the crowd.

 

The main feature of the float is usually a larger-than-life patriotic card created with a current set. I love this year’s card—it’s one of my favorites, and we heard a lot of positive comments about it.


The parade seemed hotter this year.  I was sweating bullets by the end, and I was grateful when my stepfather Paul said that from now on, his job would be to get up early in the morning and stake out a spot in the shade!


After the parade we headed over to the city park for the rest of the day. The festivities there are probably similar to ones held around the country: vendors with all kinds of food, drinks, and arts & crafts for sale; games for kids; local entertainment; and lots of visiting.


 

The park is usually packed most of the day, but by 8 in the evening, you can’t hardly go anywhere without stepping on someone’s blanket. The Dutch Oven BBQ starts at 6, and everyone just sits around, eating, visiting, and enjoying the entertainment.

This year the mayor began the evening by honoring Sterling’s Dad, U.S. Gardner, for his long-time service to the community. The ceremony included unveiling a six-foot, red sandstone monument featuring a plaque with Uke’s picture and a nice tribute mentioning all his community service. I would have taken a picture, but the plaque had Grandpa Great's name spelled wrong, so I'm going to wait until they correct that and then post a photo. 

After this touching honor, the rest of the evening progressed with the entertainment; this year's program was titled "Kanab’s Got Talent," and we watched singers, dancers, and musicians as we waited for the main event—the fireworks!

They kick off at dark and are the perfect ending to a wonderful home-town celebration! I love the Fourth of July in Kanab; I can’t imagine ever missing it!

Prepping, Painting, Stenciling--and Reunioning

I got home late tonight after celebrating the Fourth in Kanab. I’m exhausted, but I thought I’d quickly write about Thursday and Friday, then catch you up on the Fourth tomorrow.

On Wednesday we headed down here to do a little decorating at our manufacturing facility. In our lobby, we have a couple of vignettes that Mom Pat and I work most years. We updated one of them quite quickly, but the second one took a little more time and effort because we had to start from scratch.

On Thursday, we spent most of our time prepping the wall and then painting, and then yesterday we started the main job, which was stenciling. I LOVE stenciling (I think I’ve mentioned that before), and I am excited about featuring that technique this year in our Kanab facility

In between the stenciling, I attended my (gasp!) 30-year-reunion! I can’t believe it’s been that long—I certainly don’t feel that old! We had a lunchtime picnic in the park with families, and then in the evening, the grown-ups got together for dinner with their partners. I’ll talk more about that early next week; I thought it would be fun to share a high school photo, and I don’t have one down here, so I guess that’s something you can look forward to. . .

Anyway, after dinner, I headed back to the stenciling, which Mom Pat and I finally finished! It feels good to have it done. . Jon took lots of pictures, and we’ll have several of them on display at convention.

Q & A

Time for another Q & A session—these are questions that you asked in May. Hope it’s fun reading!

I’d love to see photos of your stamp studio.

My stamp studio was actually one of several creative places featured in the premier issue of Where Women Create, a magazine that hit newsstands in Fall 2008. The issue itself is sold out, but you can see a sneak peek of the article here. (insert link:http://www.stampington.com/html/woman_create_winter_09.html#peekinside)

How did you assemble your memory boards?

I’ve tried several things and found that foam core works best. (We tried cardboard, but it wasn’t very stable.) I cut the foam core to the size I want, put a layer of batting on top, and then the fabric. I use duct tape to adhere the fabric securely in place on the back of the board (it doesn’t look very pretty, but it sticks nicely), and then I hand stitch the buttons in place on the front where the ribbons intersect.

Where did you get the crystals that you used on your jewelry?

Those were just crystals I had from an old antique chandelier. I pick crystals up when I’m antiquing—they’re usually only 50 cents or $1. You can find glass ones, plastic ones, all kinds of varieties. They come in handy all the time!

What size frame did you use for the Friend artwork in the Shelli Signature Collection blog?

It was an 8 x 10 frame.

You always look so great! How do you stay in such great shape?

I don’t know that I’m in such great shape (but thanks!). I do exercise whenever I can. I love yoga, and when I can’t do that, I fast walk (jogging is too hard on my back and knees) on a treadmill or around the neighborhood.

I also watch what I eat. I love to eat, and I can’t imagine giving up sweets and treats—life is too short! So I concentrate on portion size, keeping everything small. It’s all about quantity!

I also almost always put on make-up and do my hair, even if I’m just going to be hanging out around the house or outside gardening. My mother and grandmother taught me that when I was growing up—to always look my best, even when I wasn’t going anywhere special. I stick pretty close to the philosophy.

Do you have a pattern for the doily that is under the vase in the photo that you showed on the “Country BBQ” blog?

Unfortunately no. I didn’t make that.  I have more doilies than I can count; again, I pick those up when I’m antiquing. Most of them are tea-stained and worn, which I love!

What photo software do you use?

I’ve answered this before; click here to read that response.

Do you have a digital scrapbooking update?

All I can say is that those who are coming to convention will find out more about this very fun, exciting product!

I have a demonstrator, but she doesn’t hold any events. Is it offensive to find another demonstrator?

In a perfect world, all our demonstrators would be holding all kinds of workshops and events. (smile) We encourage our demonstrators to hold regular events, but they are in charge of their own businesses. That flexibility is one of the significant advantages Stampin’ Up! offers its demonstrators, but it also means that demonstrators offer a wide range of events.

I would hope that you’d contact your demonstrator first and express your interest in attending any events she holds. Let her know you’re looking for her help. If she chooses not to schedule an event, of course you need to find support where you can, and I’m sure she’ll understand that. I certainly do.

There were several IT questions, including the following:

When I pull up your website, the text runs over the header. Can you fix that?

We occasionally hear this comment, and every time we do, we have several people call up the site, and it pulls up fine. The problem seems to be related to the browser, and we can’t control that. I’m so sorry. You may want to see if there is an updated version of the browser you are using, and that might correct the problem.

When your blog shows up in reader, it is titled “Blog,” not “SoShelli.” Could you fix that?

Our IT gurus have changed it. It should now show up as "SoShelli blog."

Would you consider changing your blog from summary feed to full feed so that I can see the pictures in Google Reader?

We researched this before starting the blog and found that it’s more common to have the summary feed. Of course, there are those who like the full feed better; it's one of those subjective things. After discussing this with our IT gurus, we decided to keep it as it is for now. But thank you for your suggestion!

A Superb Saturday

Yesterday was one of the most relaxing days I’ve enjoyed in a long while. I got up early to do some church service and then picked up Shalae for yoga. It’s not often that we get to go anywhere alone, so the 30-minute drive (one way) was perfect for visiting with no little (meaning children) interruptions.

  Then Jason, Sage, and Kona met us at Jon and Shalae’s for a picnic lunch in their backyard while we watched the kids play. We wanted to get together for Jason’s belated birthday, and it was a lovely day for an outdoor activity.
 
In between small projects in the afternoon, I took great pleasure in a long and relaxing massage and then read a magazine in the bathtub. I wonder if there’s any way I could order two Saturdays a week—one to complete multiple non-work projects I have on my to-do list and one to spend just like yesterday. It was a superb Saturday!