April showers bring..

...a MAY wedding for Jess and Gordo!

Gordo and my son Mike have been best friends since they were about five years old. Gordo spent many hours at our house and always brought a happy laugh and friendly greeting with him. "Hi Raymonds!" he'd say as he walked through the kitchen - often stopping for a handful of Oreos from the corner snack cupboard. Hard to believe he's all grown up and getting married. I'm thrilled about his darling bride - Jessie is a wonderful girl and perfect for Gordo.

We had a shower for Jess yesterday and took these photos when Gordo showed up at the end. Janet Parker helped me and brought the cutest punch dispenser - shaped like a beehive which was perfect because Gordo's dad keeps bees. Janet made the most delicious punch - using the Hawaii's Own brand of juice concentrate - the Guava Strawberry flavor - mixed with Sprite and lots of ice. So refreshing. Gordo's mom Karen made yummy bruschetta appetizers and I made my favorite almond cookies - plus brownies from the bakery. And fresh strawberries.

The best little detail about the soon-to-be newlyweds is that Jessie's last name is Woods and Gordo's last name is Wood. So she'll be Jessie Woods Wood.

The photo below with all the girls is her mom and three sisters. And all the girls' names start with J. I'd list them but I think I forgot one! The photo with the two girls is Gordo's mom - my friend Karen and his cute (quilter) sister Abby.

choir Easter song

Welcome, happy morning
Age to age shall say
Hell today is vanquished
Heav'n is won today.
Lo, the dead is living,
God for evermore:
Him, their true creator,
All His works adore....

Welcome, happy morning,
Age to age shall say
Hell today is vanquished
Heaven is won today
Come then true and faithful,
Now fulfill Thy word
'Tis thine own third morning
Rise, O buried Lord.
Show Thy face in brightness
Bid the nations see,
Bring again our day light
Day returns with Thee.
Welcome, happy morning
Age to age shall say
Hell today is vanquished
Heav'n is won today.

I sang in the choir today and thrilled at the beauty of this Easter song.

Easter Cupcakes

These Easter cupcakes are fun to look at and I admire anyone who can bake AND decorate. I'd never take the time to attempt such cuteness, but I sure love looking. I'm amazed at the creative bakers out there! There are step-by-step photos for making the carrots - they're made from orange Starburst candies and green Twizzlers. Just click the link below.

Family Go .com

Country Living .com

Chicks and bunnies from Paris Pastry blog

OK, this is my personal favorite...because I love sheep. I have a collection of stuffed sheep and little sheep figurines. I'll never make these cupcakes, but I sure enjoy looking!

Food Network .com

Easter Cupcake Meadow by Cupcake Sisters (flickr)

Now here's something I could do - me and my color printer. Paper toppers stuck into simple cupcakes decorated with sprinkles. I even have the scalloped punch to punch them out. These cute printables are a free download on the Skip to My Lou website.

just thinking

I spent some time this afternoon cleaning my closet and trying to reduce my collection of black pants. I have black pants in every length, fabric type, and style. I really do love a good pair of black wool pants and black linen pants and black cotton capris and...

While I was working in my closet I thought of a sentence for my obituary. (I'm not planning to fly off soon - but when the time comes, there will be something interesting to say about me.) I told my daughter Suzie about my idea on the phone, and I think she'll remember this one:

"Debbie was a connoisseur of black pants having collected more than 500 pairs through the course of her life."

sad about the weather

I've been out of sorts when it comes to blogging lately. So I guess a post about the weather is better than nothing. The first photo is not a picture of pretty white blossoms btw. Just snow and more snow. Cold, wet snow. It's coming down even as I type. April 14...nice.

I'm so tired of hearing these phrases:

"Hey - this is winter in Cache Valley."
"We need the water."
"We'll be glad this summer."
"It beats being too hot."
"I remember when it snowed in May."

ADORNit at Scrapbook Expo !

Wow - it was tons of work but really fun. The huge Scrapbook Expo was in Salt Lake last weekend and ADORNit had a booth - a very busy, popular, crazy booth. I worked in the booth on Friday - my first time at a consumer show.

I had fun seeing the throngs of women shopping AND scrapbooking - I'm talking about an area the size of a football field filled with hundreds of round tables with three or four women on each table and tons of supplies - all scrapping. And laughing and eating junk food and then taking breaks from scrapbooking to go to the retail booths and buy more scrapping supplies. It was a hoot. There were contests (dance contest above) and music and, well, the whole thing just tickled me.

Our booth was PACKED every minute. The line was constantly long, and they were buying tons of stuff. One reason we were so popular is that we had a little bit of everything. Scrapbooking paper, stickers, wood projects, scrapbook kits, AND fabric, pattern books, pre-cuts, AND purses, jewelry, scarves, darling clothes. There was literally something for everyone.


Here is Carolee, ADORNit owner and Misty, the marketing manager. Misty was in charge of the Expo - look at that smile! I think that Carolee is so smart to expand her business from scrapbooking to all kinds of things women love. Of course I'm thrilled about the move to fabrics and patterns and I've spent a few paychecks on purses etc. Alison, Carolee's daugher is really good at picking out and ordering the best purses, clothes and jewelry which makes all the difference in who shops your booth and how much they buy.

This is Jenn - a cousin of Alison and the mother-daughter team of Janet and Molly. Jenn and Molly spent two solid days at the cash register. They are both smart and so quick and cool under pressure. My favorite job was bagger because I got to see what everyone bought.

We had a little corner with our new fabric stuff - that's my quilt behind me. The most popular fabric was our new Western line which is called Buckaroo - I couldn't believe how many people stopped to ooh and ahh over the Buckaroo quilts and bolts of fabric. So many of the younger girls told us how much they want to learn to sew and make some of these things. Sewing is definitely having a resurgence right now which makes ADORNit's timing perfect to design and sell fabric in addition to paper.

Here's Janet advertising the Busy Women Scrapbook kits that she puts together. She chooses the BEST selection of scrapbooking supplies with cute sample projects. Women sign up for an automatic mailing to get a kit every other month. It's a real deal at $20.00.

Check out the crowd. It was solid women inside the booth at every table and display.