Camera-Captured Summertime Activities

Camera-Captured Summertime Activities
Sometimes we wonder where our time has gone, especially this summer. It is a good thing that we can record events with our camera so that we can answer that for ourselves. Here are some events I captured with family and friends--fun times and times for memories.1. My sweet aunt, Gladys (89), and I had a beautiful drive north to my sister, Kaye's, home. We helped her celebrate her birthday by taking her to lunch at a lovely restaurant up one of the canyons near her home. (I won't tell how old she is, only that she looks 25!).
This is the birthday girl complete with a darling apron and birthday crown. She is in her livingroom that is filled with all things memorable and fun including the family portrait mantle with it's inscription "Be Warm Inside and Out", two loveseats that she recovered from our mom's home, tea cup collections, hand stitched pillows, decoupaged Girl's Time (on the easel) and other fun and quirky things. Everything has a story. It is always a treat to go there to see what she has done lately. She is a very talented and fun sister.
Barbara and I took a little trip to an old Inn where my husband and I spent our honeymoon many years ago and enjoyed the gardens there. We took the plunge and sat in the natural mineral springs that are on the property. Something that neither one of us had done before. Doesn't she look amazing! She is an inspiration to me of perseverance and patience having stuck with her diet since last November!
I pressed her into service to redecorate the guest room while she was staying in it. So it went from French Country to Cottage Beachy in the course of one week. Of course, we found time to make some crafts before she went home too. She is making a Danger cosmetic bag out of danger tape and duct tape.
The craft room found cute Maddy making a banner for her bedroom back home too.
It is so nice to have spent time with those you love. I hope your summer is filled with the people you enjoy being with too.

Aprons and Cookies

I have some great friends who cook! I decided to make aprons for some of them this Christmas. I delivered their aprons to them yesterday in our 3 hour window between a snowstorm and dusk when black ice forms on the roads. Here are four of them in their new attire ready to show the world their newest cuisine. I am hoping they will share their deliciousness with me soon.

Since we had a major blizzard today, Ella and I decided to make Spritz cookies.

The first batch came out perfect. (except that about half of the sprinkles ended up on the floor!)

The second batch--our pink princess flowers all melted together because as it turned out, I was trying to mix the second batch, timing the first, and trying to keep all the pink sanding sugar on the cupboard and not join the sprinkles on the rug and floor, at which time I lost track of the flour amounts I had added and was 1 cup short. And so, the beautiful pink flowers all melted into one large mass on the cookie sheet. Does this ever happen to you? (The whole thing went into the garbage when it cooled.)

My last attempt- I was vacuuming up all the teeny, tiny, multicolored sprinkles and the pink sanding sugar and by so doing, didn't hear the timer go off (or didn't set it at all, I don't know) and so that batch of lovely, lemon stars that Ella called 4th July (meaning fireworks) burned! At that point I gave up on the cookies, put what I had in a jar, and called it a day!