I love s’mores.  Love them.  And I’ve been craving them for weeks, only the near constant rain has ruined all of our plans for building fires outside and going camping.  And after Monday’s rain I just couldn’t take it anymore.  So I had ovenroasted s’mores.  Which is pretty much exactly as it sounds.  Pile a bunch of mini marshmallows (or big ones if you didn’t just use them all up making Rice Krispy Treats) on top of a graham cracker and then pop them under a hot broiler until they get warm and toasty.  Top with a chunk of chocolate and the other side of the cracker and eat standing over the oven…. while the next one cooks.  Tada! Oven Roasted S’mores, no campfire necessary.  (You can also use a microwave to make your marshmallows soft, but they won’t get toasty in there…. which is the whole point, in my opinion.) I just used a parchment lined cookie sheet, and held it right under the heat coils at the top of the oven for a minute.  Wear an oven mit.  It gets hot in there.

After several, a few of them, we snuggled up in your living room tent for a western movie. “Camping” has never been so posh. We watched All The Pretty Horses last night, which is heartbreakingly beautiful, and sad.

So sad in fact that I made a few more s’mores.  And then today for lunch I had a few more.  I can easily see this being a yearlong staple at my house. And I think we’ll be setting up our tent quite a few more times to play in.  This morning Creamie wanted to eat her breakfast in there, and when I suggested maybe she should eat her Cheerios sitting at the table, she said “I not eat breakfast today.  Close a zipper at tent please!”  Ha!

Also, I love my Instagram app!  (username pinksuedeshoe if you want to find me.)

It was adorable watching Creamie sit by her daddy, watching basketball, and chowing down from her very own little bowl.

I gave Scott these two matching popcorn buckets for his birthday something like five years ago.  The plan was that the little one was for me, but I’ve since realized I’d much rather eat Oreo’s.

But I still think that popcorn is gross.  It’s only good for stringing into garlands to put on the Christmas tree.  But eating it?  Ewww.  As soon as Creamie was in bed I pulled out the Oreo’s.  Because I’m not at a point in my life that I get excited about sharing them with anyone.

I’ve been working on some new art journal pages, and hopefully I’ll get some posted this week.  I also started watching Mad Men.  Strictly to look at the pretty vintage dresses.  I have a notepad next to the laptop so I can draw the things I like.  So many pretty pretty dresses.

I’ll post some pictures of the amazing things I saw, and some of the great things I brought home (and didn’t bring home) over the next few days.  But today all I am going to do is kiss those sweet little cheeks, and the scruffy big ones.  Be back soon.

Only, it turns out that cutting squares out of clothing is a much more time consuming process than just cutting out squares.  I was picking off pockets, and trying to make the most of the little fabric I had (LT’s not a big clothes guy…).  And it seems that I cut out 4.5 inch squares for days.  And then after the squares were cut I took the advice of a much wiser quilter than me, my cousin Liz.  She suggested I  put some lightweight interfacing on the back of those thin cotton shirts.  And I’m glad I did.  Not only did it make the squares a million times easier to sew together, I think they will hold up a lot better.  Of course, that meant after the interfacing was ironed on I had to cut them out again.  Sigh.   Finally, after cutting out squares for forty days and forty nights (perhaps a slight exaggeration) I realized I’d never finish the whole quilt in time, and it was time to move on to Plan B.

Plan B: Just finish the top.  After I had laid out my quilt and started sewing squares together I realized just how big this thing was going to be.  And since I am going to quilt it myself I decided that there was no way I was going to be able to get it quilted in our small house without Scott finding out about it.  Did I mention that this quilt is huge…. like 90″ square huge?  No?  Oh. Well it’s big, and I’m a little nervous about fitting it under my machine.  Plan B was going great.  I did what anyone trying to keep a secret does.  I banished Scott to our bedroom with his laptop and his snacks and threatened death if he so much as thought about taking off his noise canceling headphones.  I needed to sew in the living room so I could see the whole thing layed out while I worked on it.  I told him that if he needed something he should text me from the other side of the wall.  Such a great age we live in, right?  Plan B was going along nicely, and then life intervened again.  Creamie had a few less than awesome (read non existent) naps in a row and then I got called away on an emergency midnight thrifting adventure.

Plan C: Give my dear husband who I love more than anything else in this life a big box of squares and a partially finished quilt for the big 3-0 birthday, with a promise that it will be done soon.  And look, only a month later the top is finally finished. Scott loves what this quilt is going to be, and I love that we’ll have a little part of his dad with us always.

I’m adding this to Sew+Tell at Amy’s.  I also need to thank a few of my quilty/sewing friends for some serious input in the laying out of this quilt.  Scott is usually a great sounding board to bounce ideas off of, but that wasn’t going to work so well in birthday stealth mode.  I think it was TraceyJay who inspired me to go with diagonal stripes and I love the way that they turned out.  I’m going to spend the morning catching up on some projects while Creamie plays with grandma, and then I’m going to spend some quality time with a needle and thread and see if I can knock out two more Christmas presents. Have a happy weekend!

We went fishing at Navajo Lake, and it was every bit as beautiful as it looks.  The water is crystal clear and you can see straight to the bottom.  It was a warm afternoon and I sat on a blanket on the rocky beach looking at the leaves and watching my two favorite people do what they love most.  Fishing for Scott and throwing rocks for Creamie.  If I ever have a chance to live one day over again, this will rank high up on my list of options.  After Creamie had stepped in the water a few times and her shoes, socks and pants were soaked we got back in the car for a short drive to Cedar Breaks National Monument.

Often overlooked, Cedar Breaks sits in the tops of the mountains with the rim well over 10,000 feet above sea level.  Wind and water has carved out a gorgeous amphitheater 2,500 feet deep that is full of amazing red rock formations. The whole mountain top was crusted with beautiful snow but a bitterly cold wind kept our visit short.

I could look at these rocks for the rest of my life and never stop loving them.  I’m jealous of the snowman, because he does get to look out across this beauty for the rest of his (albeit short) life.

Creamie couldn’t appreciate it much.  It was getting to be late afternoon and she hadn’t had lunch.  She was going on day three with no nap.  And due to her earlier adventures at the lake she is wearing her mittens on her feet instead of her shoes.  Which unfortunately meant that she had cold hands and feet.   Good grief, where are that poor child’s parents.

We were sad to come home and face the real world of phone calls and piles of emails and work and laundry.  It was the perfect weekend.  Thanks M+G for letting us crash at your Cabbage.  We can’t wait to go back.  (Also, SNOW!  I got to touch it and taste it and smell it.  I can’t wait for winter to creep down the mountains and settle in at my house.)  Happy Monday!

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I love you more than words can say.

Except for that rain I wish I would have been able to go with him.  Only, if Creamie and I were coming we would have been happy to leave all the 15 year old boys at home.  He took this picture on a hike on Thursday, and it makes me want to live far away from everything and everyone.

I’m so glad he is home.  And I’m also happy that our camera is home.  It’s felt really weird to not take any pictures since he left on Tuesday.  (I had to plan out this week’s posts in advance and make sure my pics were all done before he left. Only most of my best plans end up changing at the last minute.  But that’s the reason I couldn’t post any pictures of what I made while he was gone.) By the time he got home yesterday and I helped him get things cleaned up and put away it was too dark to work on photographing my projects, but I’ll take some pics during naptime and post them tomorrow.  And that pie I made?  I’ll be making another of those tomorrow too. (Actually,  I might pie every week for the rest of the year.  I like it.)  With some luck, and some serious restraint on my part I’ll be able to get a picture of it before we eat it up.  Happy Sunday.

I miss you, and I can’t wait for you to come home this afternoon.  I am sure that you’ve had a great time with the boys, camping and fishing and sleeping in a tent in the torrential rain we’ve been having.  I hope you got some great pictures, and I’m sure you’ll have some interesting stories.

[ photo by Lyndi Bone ]

But you’ve been gone since Tuesday.  And I miss you and I’m ready for our family to sleep under the same roof again.  And I bet after this week’s crazy rain storms you are ready to sleep under any roof.  And it just so happens I’ve been saving you a place.

Oh.  And I should warn you…. the house is a mess.