Thanksgiving...and more snow!

Thanksgiving day we had plenty of snow!  It looks so pretty!  And yes, our Christmas lights were up before Thanksgiving!  Bryan (Zander's dad) puts them up for us and he was available one day so he put them up!  Nate and Amanda went to St. George for the Dibb Thanksgiving and our grandkids were with their other parents on Thanksgiving so we borrowed the Farnsworths.  Their mom and dad were invited too. No pictures of them though...hm. Joel was also with us.  No picture of him either.  Anyway, the picture of the boys is blurry and then Kai wouldn't cooperate when I tried to take another one.  Jackson was happy to oblige but I didn't catch him with ALL of the olives on his fingers.  I am too slow! Oh well. Makayela isn't really smiling either.  Just not the day for good pictures!  But the food was yummy and we had a fun afternoon/evening.  We started a puzzle and we watched Finding Dory.  Relaxing and fun day!  I love the kids' Thankful poster and the fall trees they painted.  We are thankful for many things!  

My Birthday, First Snow...

Another birthday?  Seems like I just had one!  Well, Google reminded me that it was my birthday.  that was a little creepy.  I had a very nice day. The boys gave me their gift of coupons before they went with their dad for the evening.  Then Dave, Amanda, Joel and I went to Red Robin for dinner.  Nate had a late night at school but he got home in time for presents.  The snow boots I wanted arrived from Ashley.  Dave bought me the book I wanted.  Nate and Amanda gave me a nice set of red Pioneer Woman dishes (very pretty!) and the last present was the best!  It was a pack of onesies!  I am going to be a grandma again in July.  YAY!  That gift won as the best, hands down!  It was a great day!  The next day Dave and I took a day trip to Wayne County.  We had lunch with the Aunties and Curtis.  Auntie Lew had just had a surgery behind her ears and was feeling better, but couldn't move her head.  It looked really  miserable.  But we had a fun visit.  I gave them each an apron I had made.  It's their Christmas present early!  As we were leaving town for the day we saw the old hotel that has been abandoned and we thought how fun it would be to own that and fix it up.  It would be a good money make in the summers!  A couple of days after our trip we got our first snow.  YAY for that!  And on a particularly gorgeous day we saw the giant flag waving in the Macey's parking lot.  It looked so pretty!  I was born on Veteran's day and I am proud of being an army brat!  Happy Birthday to me!

An Artist's house, finale...

When you first walk up to the door of Lynde Mott's house, the steps up to the porch have painting and words on them (no picture of the porch, sorry!) and the floor of the porch was painted too.  She had a cute fountain and benches and it was really cute.  The front door had glass panels so you could see right in.  Guess what you saw...the Salt Lake Temple!  HUGE.  It is a taller-than-me painting and the archway behind it is is all painted like the painting blends into the wall. It is gorgeous.  To the right is the Nauvoo room and to the left is the "Library."  That was a cozy and pretty room with a large painting.  I could sit and read in there very easily!  There was some painting on the walls, floral on one wall and I think there was a large painting of another lady on the opposite wall.  I didn't get pictures of everything...but a lot!  Her husband is a music teacher so the family room is filled with music things.  She said she talked him into "masculine" flowers for that room.  Going up the stairs there was a pretty tree and as you turned to go up to the next level there was a beautiful painting with a shelf under it with old bobbins and stuff and an old saw above it.  I think this was one of my favorite spots!  It looked like sisters in Nauvoo quilting. There was a large loft room with a huge painting!  A great place to hang out. The laundry room had large flowers and was chalkboard like above them.  A bathroom with a cool etched and painted door was all ocean themed.  There was a Moby Dick mural and the picture above the toilet had little rows of houses painted on each side of it like they were going into the picture.  The garage was all painted too.  Giant flowers.  Amazing. The kitchen was painted in Angels and there was some tile work in there too.  She had also made a giant sphere around her kitchen table light with stained glass on it.  That was a bit much for me, but amazing anyway.  The whole house was just amazing and it was fun to see it all.  As we were leaving we noticed the trailer parked out front that was all painted too...what a talent!

 This turned out dark, the background is light blue and the tree kind of white...

An Artist's house continued...

Lynde has 3 boys.  19 year old twins and a 14 year old. I tried to imagine them living in this house.  And what it will feel like when they bring a girlfriend home to meet the parents.  Not overwhelming at all, ha ha.  One son is on a mission in Guatemala and the other one is about to leave on his mission to Peru. She said she painted the boys' rooms to match their personalities.  One son really loved bugs and that room is obvious.  The master bedroom was very busy looking.  I couldn't see a closet, just a wardrobe and a dresser, both painted of course.  The floors are painted too.  The master bath has a huge painting of "The Kiss" which is her version of the famous Glimpt painting (which I had to look up when I got home). She had it in mind and was looking for the perfect couple to pose for it.  When a couple moved into her ward she knew they were the ones!  As soon as she met them she invited them to pose for her.  Funny story!  The last pictures on this post are of her studio.  I did love the display of old quilts.  All the doors on the different rooms were different.  Old doors, doors with window panes, doors with etchings, just all different.  I kind of liked that aspect. Especially since they were older doors.  That spoke to me somehow. The one on her studio has a window in it and she has bird hooks on it with paint palette chips.  There was some big floral motif on parts of the studio and there was a painting she was working on of children on a beach.  Someone had hired her to paint their children.  Beautiful work! 

An Artist's House...

For Relief Society we went to tour artist Lynde Mott's home.  It was incredible!  Our Relief Society president used to be in her ward.  We started out in her Nauvoo room where she spoke to us for a little bit about her art.  Then she described some of the other rooms and how and why they were painted the way they were.  After that we were just let loose to roam through her house and look at it all.  There was so much to see.  I will have to do a few posts to get all the pictures in.  The Nauvoo room was a large living room area with a mural of Nauvoo all around the entire room.  There were temple sunstones above each window and a stained glass valance of a sun.  Lynde not only paints but she did the stained glass as well.  She bought furniture representing that time period. One "couch" was from the east coast representing where the saints came from and the other one facing it was from the west as would have been what they had out here.  So East and West are represented.  The wooden floor was painted like a quilt - I think this was my favorite part! And there was a quilt on frames suspended from the ceiling.  The saints would work on quilts and then hoist them to the ceiling when they weren't working on them.  This one of course has the pattern facing down so we can see it and the corner flipped back where the quilter signed her name in 1850.  Beautiful!  There was a little alcove with a seating area on it and that is where the Nauvoo temple is painted. Joseph and Emma are on their horses facing each other on each side of the fireplace.  She had some Christmas decor on the mantel and above the doorway which distracted from the mural a bit but was very pretty. Also above the door but is hard to see, it says Nauvoo - City of Joseph. I can't imagine painting all of that, especially all those waves on the Mississippi river!  Lots of waves!  It was a beautiful room.  

Projects, projects!

I have been busy working on some sewing projects for Christmas.  I love making these "Flirty" Aprons and since I have made them for most everyone I know, I decided to make them for my Aunties.  I'm pretty sure they use aprons.  Also making some things for my niece and nephews.  Makayela's birthday is on the 10th so I made her some clothes for her American Doll and a mermaid tail blanket for Christmas (with a matching one for her doll too). I don't seem to have a picture of the doll mermaid tail. I made hooded towels for the boys.  The appliques didn't turn out very well, but I have never been good at that.  It has been fun.  I enjoy making gifts! My favorite is the little oven mitt for the doll.