Todays Thoughts, Photos, Shop and End of Summer

What's On My Mind Today?

I must confess not a whole lot. I have been thinking about what summer was since we are now a week or so past Labor Day Weekend. The summer started in California going to Sea World and seeing family. This summer ended with a day on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park. In between there were other family times here in Jackson and a cruise to Alaska. All of it good and I will share scenes in future posts.

I have come up with what I hope will be a new format that I can stick to. The headings tell it all. First "What's On My Mind Today?" which can be about nearly anything. Next is shop news and I hope to have new listings to share here soon. Last I decided to go through my pictures and choose a photo that catches my eye and share it. Any way we will see how this goes.

Shop News

 I choose a few items from my shop today to promote on twitter. These dishcloths we something I tweeted. I just love the cheerfulness of the colors in these. Just looking at the colors made me happy as I crocheted these.

I am also looking forward to seeing if we can get a nice group growing on the EtsyBloggers team. Got an Etsy shop? Got a blog? Join us!

Photo of the Day

Somewhere in Arizona

I will admit that after nearly 5 years in the Phoenix area I never really grew to love the harsh desert landscape. What helped was that in the central part of the state not far from Payson you could see views like this.

Til next time.

Goals This Week

I have known for a long time that I am the type of person that needs deadlines. I do well with them and not so well without them. When making deadlines I need to have ones that are committed to doing something for some one else. As an example I state in my online shop on Etsy that I will ship your order in one to three business day after your payment is received. That is a commitment I cannot and do not ignore.
In trying to create guidelines for myself I thought if I laid out goals on a weekly basis I may force myself to report to you how I did on managing to meet them. So with no more procrastinating on my part considering it is Tuesday already here we go.

I have 2 major to me things to get done. The first is to get this assortment of headbands photographed and in shops. The second is to get at least half of this flannel cut and hemstitched for blankets so that I can get edges crocheted on them. The baby blankets will go to my sister in California. She owns and embroidery business in Ventura called Creative Stitches. It was her idea to offer them to her customers to have baby names and dates put on them. We have had positive responses to them so far so I need to get more done and sent off to her shop. I may put some extras in my online stores as well. It depends on how many she wants for her shop.
There are the plans. I will let you know this weekend how I did.

AZ to UT to CA to UT to AZ pt 2

Part 2 and the final part of this trip. I got to spend a day in Utah with all my kids and grandkids before heading back to Arizona on Saturday the 23rd. The grownups in the group tend to be more serious and sometimes downright grumpy when I come around with a camera. The grandkids however are not a problem. Playing with them and taking pictures is a lot of fun. The point and shoot camera I was using gave me a lot of problems with red eye and without a tripod focus was sometimes an issue. In these snapshots I am collecting memories rather than trying to be a great photographer.

In case you can't tell below are the grownups not wanting their pictures taken.
Now on to more cheerful faces and examples of the joy of visiting in Utah.
Kaleb, the youngest, born in October and doing just great!
Kaycee, the oldest, hard to believe 4th grade already. She keeps busy with school, gymnastics, basketball soccer and now piano lessons.
Posey who lately has decided that anytime anyone is going anywhere she should be going too.
Jordan who is doing fantastic his first year of school.
Hunter, also known as Buddy by his parents and sister, who loves all things about trains.Tristan with one of the sweetest smiles and attitudes of the bunch. He loves to play with anything with wheels and of course makes the appropriate engines noises when doing so.

There you have it. A fun trip with lots of food, visiting, miles in the truck and coming home to a warm place with dog and husband that I was really starting to miss.

AZ to UT to CA to UT to AZ pt. 1

From the 13th to the 23rd of February I got the chance to do some traveling.  I flew from Arizona to Utah to meet up with my daughter. She drove on this trip (and did a great job!) and I got to go along. Her children were also on the trip leaving their dad at home. The first day we went as far as Mesquite where a family member has a house that we could stay. Thank you Grandma Connie!

Continuing on the next day we got to Ventura where my mother and sister live. We managed to get together with some of my nieces and their children for a barbecue. I enjoyed seeing all the kids together.

 

Spending time with my nieces and sister was great too. Kristi is a good cook and the food for our meal was sooo good. No offense to anyone else who contributed food to the meal but Michelle's Brownie Trifle was the hit of the evening for most of us.

 

Besides getting a chance to kick back and relax as you see here Cindy and Michelle took a trip to Hollywood. They had hopes of getting to be on The Price Is Right but with the holiday on Monday the crowds were just too big. The girls did do a bit of site seeing and had a nice lunch with my mom, Kristi and me watching the kids for the day.

 

 

There is a small town close to Ventura named Fillmore. In the center of town you can find a small train museum and winery. Cindy and I took the kids there to check out the trains. Hunter is a huge Thomas the Train fan.

 

Joslyn also know as Posie enjoyed the garden of the winery and kept finding little places for her to hide.